The rest of the website
December 26, 2007
I've already "explained" the blog (not that there is much to explain, really), but while the rest of the site remains pretty bare, I'm going to take this time to explain a few other things. And perhaps it's paranoia, but there might be a few "bugs" people see that I should also say a few things about.
First, a quick run-down of the empty links above.
"About Us" is really quite self-explanatory, I think. Basic information will be provided—what the store is, where it is, when it's open, etc.—but also a little bit of a back-story and hopefully some pictures.
"Who We Are" well be along the same lines but kind of on a personal level. Everyone you might see behind the counter on a given day is an approachable person, but we don't all know everything about everything. We each have our specific interests—just like you—and any insight into our personalities and who we are might be helpful to customers. We'll also throw in any links to related stuff we might find valuable.
"Picks and Reviews" will be an extension of this in a way. There you will (hopefully) find helpful information on albums you might be interested in in the forms of "Best of..." lists, reviews, personal favorites, etc. There will also be a submission form or some way to contact us with personal reviews. After we look them over we'll let you know what we think and publish them if we like what we see. You'll be credited with the review.
"Local" will be a section for local events and news as well as some exploration into local business—why you should buy local, local businesses to support... that kind of thing. Major events will be covered (as we can keep up with them) as well as smaller ones that we feel are worth showing up at.
I also hope to be getting the mailing list up and running in a more steady way pretty soon. The mailing list will provide members with information on upcoming releases, upcoming events, sales, etc. It might not be terribly in depth, but mailings will probably coincide with a site update that is, so it might be a reminder just to visit the site to see what's going on.
I think that covers the plans for things that are in the works, so now I'd like to talk about just a few "website issues."
It basically comes down to one thing in a few different areas: how the website looks. I've done my best to make this site cross-compatible, but if I said things were perfect I'd be a damned liar.
The thing I tried to keep in mind the most, since it is the most important, is to make sure that the site looks the best for the majority of users. This was slightly difficult because most people use Internet Explorer, which just happens to have design flaws that can make websites render funny. Even so, making sure things looked good with the most popular browser—IE—at the most used screen resolution—1024x768—was a main focus. In that, I think I've succeeded.
However, at lower resolutions the website might start to look less than ideal. Personally I don't know anyone who uses 800x600 anymore—and most people haven't in years thanks to larger computer monitors, most of them being LCD—but if you do the site should still look acceptable. The stationary boxes at the side made things difficult. Everything should still be fully functional, though.
The other area some people might find some goofy things with is the color switcher at the bottom right corner. This was kind of an out-there idea that I decided to implement on a whim for two reasons: choosing a color wasn't 100% easy (although most people seemed to prefer blue, which is why it is used as the default), and it was incredibly simple to add.
To work the way it is intended to requires that you have Javascript enabled in your browser and that you also allow cookies. No Javascript will result in no color switching (unless you use a browser that supports switching styles through some other menu, like Firefox) and no cookies will make it so that every time you switch between pages things will switch back to blue due to your setting not being remembered. Things going as planned will mean that your color preference will be remembered essentially forever, meaning you can close your browser window, come back, and be greeted in orange or blue or green or whatever.
There does seem to be one bug when it comes to the blog page, however. But even further, I can't seem to get any consistency with it. Sometimes when you leave the home page and load up the page for the blog, the blog will load in the default blue. Other times things seem to work fine. I believe this issue is because of the way I've set up the directories on the server. The blog has been given its own folder due to the potential for a lot of information piling up, and I think it's because of this that the cookie doesn't know exactly what to do (or another is created). I'm unsure of how to fix this, and I'm also unsure of who will experience this and at what frequency.
If these things or anything else are causing anyone problems, please contact me either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail (with the address on the contact page).
Anyways, I guess that about wraps things up.
-Tonyview other blogs...
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