i have been pulling my hair out of late trying to improve the look and accessabillity on my site.
just as i felt it was all coming together i fiddled with something i knew nothing about and created a real mess of code all over it

after 4 days i finally manage to repair it and the hidious code is now gone, then as if the big man upstairs was having a laugh at my expense, i lost several forum topics while changing the layout of my forum page.

i am still working on building back up all the posts but it will take a while , but the good news is i have still recieved three new members this week.

anyway enough of my babbling,
if you could give us the once over and see how you think im doing, or if you have any advice on how i could futher improve anything, id be very greatful.
thankyou xxx

PARANORMAL INSIGHTS

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hugs wendy xxx
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Wendy,

The very first thing I would do is install WAMP on your own computer. It is very easy, basically a one click install. It will put everything you need on your own computer to run your php set up. It will allow you to view your site and operate it just as it is on line. That way you will only upload to your host AFTER you know everything is working just like you want it. You won't have the kind of problems you have been having after that.

Even then, I would copy my folders occasionally as I worked on them to have some working backups. After making any major improvements just copy all your site folders (any that have been changed) to a backup location of some kind. I keep mine on an external hard drive.

You do have an impressive site.

__________________
Good Success!
James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

thankyou for your kindness and the great advice james xxx

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hugs wendy xxx
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i had a review done by another site just recently and it was firm but fair and one of the things mentioned was my scrolling welcome message on my portal,they said they thought it cheapened the look of the site.
i wasnt offended by this but i wonderd if you guys might take a look and let me know what you think.
im in need of some alternative ideas for that and what i might use in place of the portal picture in the centre as i think it looks a little too much but id like to fill that space some how.
any ideas and opinions are welcome.
thankyou xxx

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Yes your site would look better without the scrolling banner. I agree for several reasons. But you really don't need to replace it with anything.

I would put the "Welcome" where the "About" is now and save the word "about" for a separate page that identifies who you are%#8212;that word is pretty much reserved for that use and people look for it.

The words you have in the box now called "about" really cover what you have on the rolling banner. Doing this will really leave as much as I would want above the pictures. That moves them up where they are "above the fold" as they say and is the real focus of the page. Try it and I think you will like the way it looks.

__________________
Good Success!
James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

thanks for your reply james,
just so i understand properly what your saying as its not quite sinking in , are you suggesting that i get rid of the scroller in the welcome and add a different message, then remove the about section and put it on the forums page ?
if this is the case should i add a link to the about us section where i have the forum links ?
sorry to be a pain hun, i just want to make sure i understand what your suggesting as my heads all over the place right now xxx

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Sorry I must not have been clear. I will try again. What I am suggesting is easier to do than what you are describing.

First, I would just take out the scrolling banner including the top bar that now says "Welcome." Don't replace it with anything. Everything below it will simply move up.

What you now have in the "about us" is fine and can serve as your welcome. Simply replace the words "about us" with the word "Welcome."

__________________
Good Success!
James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

so simple lol, thanks for your patience james xxx

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i appologise if im posting this in the wrong place,
if you look on my main page/ portal you will see i have a section near the bottom called advertising that shows which different sites im advertised on , some require that the exchange is put on the main page before they will except you.
however i find this looks unsightly , at least on my page, is there anyway i can get around this or tidy it up a bit ?

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I really think your site is terrific. I hope mine gets to your level one day. Definitely looks very professional. I think the video wall is incredible. I'm definitely going to keep checking it out every once in a while. It's pretty interesting.

I really think your site is terrific. I hope mine gets to your level one day. Definitely looks very professional. I think the video wall is incredible. I'm definitely going to keep checking it out every once in a while. It's pretty interesting.

thankyou for your kindness topway and welcome aboard hun xxx

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Wendy,

Since I don't understand the coding that is setting this up (even though I looked at it) it is hard to say exactly, but there are a few issues at least. Perhaps one of the more technical members can give some better help.

One, there is something missing in the code that causes the printing of things like the php?do... stuff. This is very likely do to a missing start or end tag. Just one of these can throw off a lot of others.

I did note that all of these ads seem to be placed in one data entry of a table which I would guess may not work too well. I don't use tables like this but I would use a separate td (table data input) if I did.

Also, I found an indication that some code may not be working properly because an & was used in the code as such, not using the html code form [&].

How you can align these ads depends a lot on the layout style being used but aside from placement, just adding some padding as I would do with css will separate them from each other and help a lot.

Frankly, the easiest way to fix this may well be to just cut out that part and decide on a way to organize the ads first. Then replace them into your structure.

__________________
Good Success!
James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

thankyou for your help james hun xxx

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hugs wendy xxx
PARANORMAL INSIGHTS

if anyone has the time would you please check out my forum and let me know what you think plz.
what id like to know is if you think i have too many forums and if i should try merging a few more? i did actually do this a while bk but i worry that once the members look inside that they may be put off by the vast amount of subjects within that forum, i have been made aware on other forums that this can be quite off putting to people.

also , how do you deal with non viewed topics ?
i know a lot of forums tend to stick them in a forum of their own as old topics, but in my case i feel i cant do that as they are some of the main topics on my site such as ufology and conspiracey.
i understand that everyone has their own preferences and so far my members are showing almost no interest in these topics at all, but i feel i must leave them on in the hopes that some day i will recieve members who will appreciate and use them.
i do go to unanswerd posts from time to time and post in them myself to try to bring them to life, but if folks arnt interested in those topics there isnt much i can do about it.
can you suggest anything, what would you do in these circumstances ?
thanks in advance guys xxx

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hugs wendy xxx
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