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2006 Site Redesign

Discussion in the Administrative forum
2006 Site Redesign
The site has been down for a few hours this evening as I've been upgrading MySQL, Tomcat, and installing the new look and feel that I'd worked on over the new year holiday. That's why I'd been fairly silent the past couple of weeks.

I tested everything on my computer at home with FireFox, but I'm sure that it hasn't been enough. Please let me if anything doesn't render correctly.

Besides the new look and feel (which is now a blend of SourceForge and XWiki), what else was done?

The main thing is 日本語を入力することができるようになりました (you can now enter Japanese). Korean and Chinese should also be possible as everything is processed and stored in UTF-8 format. (Naturally, if your OS doesn't support international characters, they won't show up.) Please don't get carried away with entering posts in Japanese. English is still the primary language for the site (although I have plans on creating a Japanese subsystem in the near future).

This is the first phase to integrating the Encyclopedia and chat with the rest of the site. You can't see it, but I'm also making data entry easier for myself as well.

I'm sure it'll take a while to get used to the new look, but you'll grow used to it soon enough. It's really just functionality that you can't see that's been changed the most.
Comments
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: Guest: John Brooks | Posted: Jan 7, 2006 12:59 AM ]

Great new design, Michael. The new design is fresh and very organized giving the website a very organized look.

"This is the first phase to integrating the Encyclopedia and chat with the rest of the site. You can't see it, but I'm also making data entry easier for myself as well."

Do you mean that you plan on intergrating the Encylopedia database with the Players database for one large player database? Also do you plan on re-intergrating the chat room function, as it was very fun over the summer this season? It gave a sense of community at the website, discussing the during the game and answering questions.
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: himself | Posted: Jan 7, 2006 1:01 AM | FSH Fan ]

I'm already liking the new design (not that the old one was bad at all). Good work to everyone involved.
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: mijow | Posted: Jan 7, 2006 10:35 PM | HT Fan ]

Sorry to be the fly in the ointment, but I'm not quite sure I like the color scheme. The subject headings (such as "comment" above in pinkish red) need to contrast better with the red/brown background. And the font size of the posts appears to be a little too large for my liking. I know that there's probably some tinkering still to be done to the site, but I kind of preferred the previous design, which had a more integrated feel to it.

But I know how much work is involved in a project such as this, so don't take my comments the wrong way. It's still an excellent site.
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Jan 8, 2006 12:15 PM | YBS Fan ]

This is actually more the kind of feedback I was looking for.

I didn't like the pink on maroon, either. It's one of those things that got carried over from the older style sheets.

I do plan on making more color schemes available. This just happens to be my favorite. Font size tuning also needs to be done, you're right. Now that data and presentation (HTML and CSS) have been better separated than before, this should be a lot easier.

If anyone with artistic (asthetic) talent wants to contribute a new color scheme, I'd recommend using FireFox with the Web Developer plugin to edit the CSS on the fly and post your changes. As you can tell, I'm better with processing than with graphic design.

Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: Guest: Michael Eng | Posted: Jan 15, 2006 5:32 AM ]

I like the new design, it looks more professional than the xWiki/2005 version. Hopefully with the encyclopedia better integrated, it will be used more.

The search function on the site does not work with Kanji, Katakana, Chinese, or Korean characters nor characters with diacritic marks (日本 -> 日本, Montréal -> Montréal).

Also, the top header of pages is not visible for me, in this case 2006 Site Redesign, due to it being white text on a white background.

Michael Eng
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Jan 15, 2006 2:47 PM | YBS Fan ]

- The search function on the site does not work with Kanji, Katakana, Chinese, or Korean characters ...

This should be fixed now. I tested with 石井 and got two player profile pages.

- Also, the top header of pages is not visible for me, in this case 2006 Site Redesign, due to it being white text on a white background.

I need a little more information for this one. Is it the "Related Links" followed by links to Japan Baseball Daily, Borisov's Pro Yakyu, etc. that are not visible at the very top? If the background image isn't loaded, that should still be a black background. Or is it when printing that this is a problem? (I do need to create a proper printer stylesheet.)

Thanks for reporting these problems. I really do appriciate it.
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: Guest: John Brooks | Posted: Jan 15, 2006 4:28 PM ]

The "Related Links" followed by Japan Baseball Daily, Borisov's Pro Yakyu, etc. are visible for me. Though I haven't been able to see any topic headings such as the ones below "Home, Forums, Administrative" without highlighting over the topic title. For me, the topic title in this case here is hidden in with the white background, which is "2006 Site Redesign" is blank above the "6 replies, Most Recent reply: 1 hour ago by Westbaystars".

I can see the topic title if I highlight over it, but I can't see it without highlighting over it.
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Jan 15, 2006 5:17 PM | YBS Fan ]

- Though I haven't been able to see any topic headings [...] without highlighting over the topic title.

Ah, I was wondering why there was such a gap there! That's what was missing.

These styles should now be cleared up. Thanks.
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: Guest | Posted: Jan 16, 2006 6:20 PM ]

In the spirit of constructive feedback:

There is a big white gap between the last line at the top "Post New Topic    Back to Forum List" and the list of postings that begins with "7 pages in this forum [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ]."

The side bar with the fan chart, forums and Borisov's info appears with nothing (the before mentioned gap) to the right of it. Seems kinda strange.

Of course, otherwise love this site, man!
Re: 2006 Site Redesign
[ Author: holygoat | Posted: Mar 30, 2006 3:08 PM | HT Fan ]

The link to Borisov's Pro Yakyu website on the Top page links to the 2004 archive. Other than that, the site looks great.
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This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.

It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.

Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder

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