response 26 of 64:

Jun 16 08:01 UTC 1998

the concept of lots-0-links first is notonly good, it is commendable!
  
even when i have access to netscape, i dearly *hate* to have to 'page'
around through 4-5-6-7-8 pages of junk to find what *I* actually
came to read/see.
  
i think that is the specific reason that magazines use an index!
and it's up front ... not scattered about.
  
i tried to view the ajax varient, but in lynx ..... oops?
  
keeping the lynx compatibility, i believe, is essential - adn there
is a growing movement to harrass sites that are NOT compatible.
  
i've seen the chaff flying elsewhere.
  

response 28 of 64:

Jun 18 18:36 UTC 1998

Agreed about lynx compatibility, TS. We want the page to be usable by 
anyone, and we have never bought into many of the current trends on the 
web (animated gifs, java-induced glitz, ignoring text-only browsers).

response 30 of 64:

Jun 18 22:47 UTC 1998

ajax's mockup is just a picture with no links.

response 32 of 64:

Jun 21 02:06 UTC 1998

Maybe the "Get a Free Account"  "Read the Conferences" and "Telnet" in"
links in the horizontal gold bar should be done as a horizontal row of custom
drawn button icons, each with the command embossed on, instead of a just plan
text links.

response 34 of 64:

Jun 23 17:13 UTC 1998

I definitely like newhome2 better...

response 36 of 64:

Jul 4 20:20 UTC 1998

Since I am one of the webmasters, since I was foolish enough to 
volunteer, since I finally got some time thanks to the holiday,
and since I can seemingly type endlessly without wrist pain,  
I have finally spent a bunch of time working with Jan's newhome2 as a 
starting point. I installed it on Grex at 
http://www.cyberspace.org/new.html - have a look.

I didn't like the colors much, so you can see that I modified them. I 
wrote up pages for many of the missing links he had listed on there, and 
changed a few of the links around as needed. Not all of the second-level 
pages are complete, for instance, I could really use some help writing 
up more info about party in http://www.cyberspace.org/party.html

The FAQ section is not done yet. All I have now is the WWW server FAQ.

The second-level pages that are new all have the same basic format to 
them. I like that idea, and I like keeping the logo on each one, since 
the browser will already have downloaded it. However, they need some 
kind of navigation bar at the bottom, and it should be carried through 
to all of the pages. At this point I haven't changed the Grex Shop page 
or any other existing page that this points to, but I'd like to make 
them all look alike some day.

Probably each page also needs a "last modified" in the trailer, and 
perhaps a copyright notice.

I'll be doing more on this, but I am very interested in hearing feedback 
on what I have done so far. This should remain essentially a 
collaborative effort.

I put together a contact page and put a pointer in the main link 
section. I think I like Jan's idea that these big links should be 
buttons, and I can try that at some point, but I haven't had a chance 
yet.

response 38 of 64:

Jul 6 15:53 UTC 1998

good work srw!
just remember to add user queue in the
Current Uptime and Queue Length link.
If possible with a link from the different users to their grex home
pages
luca_

response 40 of 64:

Jul 6 17:10 UTC 1998

Yeah, deploy "http://www.cyberspace.org/new.html" and see what happens...

response 42 of 64:

Jul 7 16:19 UTC 1998

"Also cool" is perhaps a little weak, I'll try to find an alternate 
wording for that title.

Luca, I'm not sure what you mean by "user queue". The page we 
have currently reports the length of the queue, but we don't know who is 
on the queue until they log in.

I am thinking of putting in a CGI link that will report the output of 
the w command (Who is logged in). I am not sure if it should be separate 
from the uptime/queue page, or just appended to the output produced on 
that page. We routinely get over 80 users now in busy periods, so 
probably it should be separate.

I think we will be installing this new welcome page very soon. We are 
also planning on releasing a replacement FAQ. Our current one is 
ancient, and has lost a lot of relevance. We get a huge number of 
frequently asked questions on the staff mailing lists, and it will be 
nice to feature them here. Watch for this too, in the next few days. 
More soon...

response 44 of 64:

Jul 8 07:58 UTC 1998

srw wrote
>I am thinking of putting in a CGI link that will report the output of 
>the w command (Who is logged in).

that's exactly what I've got in mind, a sort of web-finger where the
login are href to user's .plan or public_html.

luca_

response 48 of 64:

Jul 12 04:49 UTC 1998

That is a weird thought, Vlerie. I can't imagine anyone getting the 
impression that it is a Christion cross from the web page. It is off-
center, multicolored, and doesn't look the slightest bit Christian to 
me.

Since the launch, I have made a few minor tweaks, and continue to do so. 
I still plan to build some kind of navigation tool to go across the 
bottom of the subsidiary pages, as we had in the previous site. I plan 
on propagating the grex logo on all subsidiary pages. I also plan on 
converting the FAQ to plain text and replacing our obsolete text-based 
faq which you get from the faq command. Also planned...buttons for the 
four big links on the front page.  I'm not sure when I'll get to any of 
this stuff.

Keep posting comments and suggestions. We need your advice.