In my Large Scale tenure, I have found that the webpage has provided me with as much fun as the construction.
Here is my take on Layout website standards, I’m going to cite examples and ask that you not be offended that I not include everyone:
Lots of photos- We should all invest in even an inexpensive digital camera for quick updates. Pictures do say thousands of words. I get a thrill of visiting your webpages and seeing your progress. In these poor and early days of my layout, I get a warm feeling living vicariously through your websites. Specially, the Aussie and British ones (lets not forget Canada). Marty C’s major contributions to my lexicon of knowledge via his website continues to be my standard for domestic (US) Large scale.
Duality of Purpose- Every webpage should focus on two main purposes 1) Construction and Operation. The Construction focuses on the betterment of the hobby. The passing of knowledge and methods to new and old alike. Phil does and outstanding job at this. I’ve seen a few British pages that do an excellent job of this. Operation includes the fictional backstory (outlandish if need be or based on a prototype line). This includes an authentic fell. You have to believe that it is real and portray that feeling to the web-sters who visit.
Balance- I try to balance my webpage between these points.
Backstory- If it takes a year to solidify your backstory, or if you get new equipment and have to modify the story…so be it. I like to think that the layout exists in the “aeternal now.” You can participate in Orwellianism and rewrite history at the drop of a hat. The backstory is like a “living document.” Unless you have completed your railroad, this may have to happen.
Regular updates- Your website might have fans. I know that I make regular trips to some of your websites and am at the edge of my seat en re updates
Style- This is the most personal of these indicators.
Captain, I agree that a web site is a lot of fun. My biggest problem is keeping it up to date. I have recently added a page devoted to Clubs I belong to. Still need to work on my history and 2004 updates.
Richard http://www.mygardenrr.com
It’s just another fun aspect of the hobby. Sometimes I’m in the mood to update the web page, sometimes I’m in the mood to build something, sometimes I’m in the mood to make people, sometimes I’m in the mood to watch trains go round-and-round, and sometimes I’m in the mood to watch tv or something[:D]
In my Large Scale tenure, I have found that the webpage has provided me with as much fun as the construction.
Here is my take on Layout website standards, I’m going to cite examples and ask that you not be offended that I not include everyone:
Lots of photos- We should all invest in even an inexpensive digital camera for quick updates. Pictures do say thousands of words. I get a thrill of visiting your webpages and seeing your progress. In these poor and early days of my layout, I get a warm feeling living vicariously through your websites. Specially, the Aussie and British ones (lets not forget Canada). Marty C’s major contributions to my lexicon of knowledge via his website continues to be my standard for domestic (US) Large scale.
Duality of Purpose- Every webpage should focus on two main purposes 1) Construction and Operation. The Construction focuses on the betterment of the hobby. The passing of knowledge and methods to new and old alike. Phil does and outstanding job at this. I’ve seen a few British pages that do an excellent job of this. Operation includes the fictional backstory (outlandish if need be or based on a prototype line). This includes an authentic fell. You have to believe that it is real and portray that feeling to the web-sters who visit.
Balance- I try to balance my webpage between these points.
Backstory- If it takes a year to solidify your backstory, or if you get new equipment and have to modify the story…so be it. I like to think that the layout exists in the “aeternal now.” You can participate in Orwellianism and rewrite history at the drop of a hat. The backstory is like a “living document.” Unless you have completed your railroad, this may have to happen.
Regular updates- Your website might have fans. I know that I make regular trips to some of your websites and am at the edge of my seat en re updates
Please remember those poor people on dial-up! Keep your picture pages reasonable in size, I have (on dialup) been known to stop loading a page because it was taking too long.
Hi Capt Carrales
I am on dial up and i say lots of photos, plans ect ect
and all the information on the railway you can get…
WHAT I HATE!!!
Is all those [censored] flashing backgrounds animations and other what I concider unnesasary hey I can do this show off bits that realy chew up the
download time and inform the viewer of nothing of value on the railroad
I also find most of the adverts contemptable for the same reasons.
They often double or trebble the download time and are trying to flog me something from another land that I don’t want and am not likely to want.
Shame we cannot insist that only MRR products and services in our chosen scale are advertised on our web sites at least they might be usefull.
Sorry to rant but all singing all dancing web sites do nothing for me as I am interested in the trains not the flash bits
regards John
I would say the small pics are the best. I should amend my original opinion, pics should be plentiful, albiet reasonable. Use thumbnails with links to bigger images, that should allow dial-up people to pick and choose which photos to wait for.
Even 600 x 400pixel pictures can be brought down to 40-50K without losing the essentials.
And restricting pages to a max number of pictures works really well. In short there is no reason why the dial-up crew has to twiddle their thumbs, as long as the web designer knows what she/he is doing.
BTW it needs to be a really interesting web site for me to stay if the first thing I see is some %^&$#*@ advertising, I’m talking about private websites!
Oh yes, I even have a specialty forum on my hobby website. No ads, not even for our own business!
Updates? We’re supposed to update? With all the spyware on my computer telling everyone what I’m doing, how come it can’t update my web site for me??? Surely it must know!
(Kevin’s Mac here - No, and stop calling me Shirley.)
I think the biggest stumbling block for many who build web sites is the coding for it. There are a number of “wysiwyg” programs that help out, but you still need to build graphics, size photos (and resize them for thumbnails) etc to use on the web site. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not difficult, but there is definitley a learning curve. In all honestly, it’s unlike scratchbuilding or kitbashing a model. Once you get your feet wet, and learn how to turn the saw on, it all will come with practice.
But I still offer no estimate on when I’ll update my pages next… I’ve only got two locos to add, 5 pieces of rolling stock, and the new railroad expansion plans to describe… Nothing major…
Finding time to up date my site has been the hardest thing for me to do in the last few months.
There are things that I demonstrated at York, PA East Coast show last April that have to be added to the site, but everything has come up to get in the way.
But “one of these days.” !!!
You all have inspired me to resurrect an old donain name/URL (not sure the proper term) I own. It will be a while before it is ready for the public to see.
As far as the photos go couldn’t you have a thumbnail photo that when clicked on would go to the original in Webshots or Shutterfly? So you would not have to use up any of your alloted storage space?
Capt Carrales can you tell me more about the so-called free servers?
Lastly what software would you reccomend for creating your web pages?
Surely. I use one called tripod.com. One just signs up and one is alotted an amount of webspace, later, one can pay for more. The only draw back are the adverts that are the result of your deal. Most times the ads are based on related materials from a scan of the words in your pages. For example, on my tripod page for my locomotives the advertizing reflects locomotive and railroad sponsors, on my page that describes the municipalities it often has links to city gov stuff.
The only caveat is that if you become ovely creative in naming sections of your layout (i.e. and heaven forbid… “The Hoochie Mama Canyon,” your ads may not display any desired place of good repute.
Most have “page editor templates” that will help you or you can use HTML code.
Many Internet Service Providers provide free web pages with service. They’re usually ad-free, but can be horrible quality and also the URL changes as (if) you switch ISPs.
http://www.trainweb.org provides 15meg of free space to any train-related site & only has a trainweb banner across the top of the page, totally non-intrusive.
Capt, if you want a “back-story” of my Toenail Ridge Shortline prepare for a long read, the Saga of the Ridge is now up to 33 chapters & prints out to over 250 pages! http://www.trainweb.org/toenailridge/book.html