: Posted by Captain Ed Brough (AIDir (Support)) in Site Design
: : Posted by Terry Calvin in Site Design
: : : Posted by Captain Ed Brough (AIDir (Support)) in Site Design
: : : : Posted by Rear Admiral Jack Dipper (Internet Director) in Site Design
: : : : : Posted by Terry Calvin in Site Design
: : : : <SNIP>
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: : : : : : Ed (and anyone else),
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: : : : : : I am more than happy for you to design a new logo/theme or come up with a new slogan. That said, I'm not going to get down into the process of "so, what does everyone think?" - it takes far too long, and with a membership of 200, we're not going to get anywhere soon.
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: : : : : : Most likely, any changes that will be made will be post D6. I have asked the coder to focus purely on the critical upgrade path for D6, rather than get sidetracked into doing other things (yes, even if we did come up with a new set of CSS rules, it'll be the coder that uploads them).
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: : : : : : Jack
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: : : : Terry, I'm going to break down your questions into single lines to answer them (or at least try to).
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: : : : : Without stepping on toes or crossing territorial boundaries, which I readily admit I am unclear on in the actual way this club operates. I have several questions and I think having the definition of the work process is critical. Does the coder/iDept not implement the ideas into working tools?
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: : : : Are you asking whether the Coder/IDept is responsible for implementation of ideas that members come up with? Well, it's not actually that simple. If it was a case of the Coder just implementing every suggestion that comes his way, there wouldn't be any need for me to co-ordinate discussions. Instead, it's the IDept's job to vet suggestions and then prioritise whether they are essential (high priority), desirable or highly desirable (low priority).
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: : : : : Does the idea/concept not come out of the marketing department where the best creative talent should be housed to channel the projects?
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: : : : No. Not everything that the IDept does is marketting related. If the MAC determines that a change should be made to the sites code to improve our external 'image', then they can request it through the normal channels.
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: : : : :And does the membership not know best what they want? And therefore shouldn't they be included in the brainstorming phase of the concept process? By hearing the membership the leaders are better able to serve in their various capacities.
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: : : : Honestly, design by committee is not a good idea. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes down to it, so we have lots of different people going "actually, I would like this on it".
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: : : : : Since we are approaching our 20th anniversary this is an ideal time to make a change. In my opinion a concept/slogan/design contest would be perfect to draw out the talent we have in this club who may be unsure or timid about stepping forward. We should be utilizing the talents we have in our membership. This way everyone wins.
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: : : : : Terry
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: : : : We did try a contest for the logo/banner before, and we ended up with the current one. There was only 3 entries, and the one which we currently was miles ahead of the other two (it was designed by someone who had some idea of design and a better program than MS Paint). Additionally, once the design had won, that was it. There were no further iterations to improve it.
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: : : : I don't want to sound to Mr Negative, but running a contest is not something I think is a good idea, nor is it one of my priorities for this term (which, incidentally, are moving us to D6, clearing the current project/issue queue, and reducing the number of applications outside of WeBBspace).
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: : : : Jack
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: : : I must agree with Jack. Design by committee is bad. Though generally its good to have a lot of input there's always the "Too many cooks makes a Frankenstein", argument. I'm willing to concede also that this is not a priority for the IDept, especially with D6 on the horizon. That being said I do think its work looking at this now, mostly because this discussion will likely turn up criticism and uncertainties in the club that should be addressed. Whether the current logo is the best option, whether the Design needs changing or would be better after change. These points should be considered. I also don't think a "slogan" contest is unacceptable; anyone can enter that. The 20th Anniversary is a nice point to note but we're limited by time constraints, as Jack mentioned. There are only so many hours in a day and most of the work on STF is voluntary, which brings its own set of problems in many ways.
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: : : Ed Brough
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: : Thank you Jack and Ed for replying to my questions. I certainly understand the constraints both in time and resources for bringing projects into being. And for the additional delicate balance that volunteer staffing requires. I too agree that design by commitee (meaning large number of people) is not good. However, the synergy that develops when small groups work together on a common goal can be astounding and often surpasses the collective whole. I can see the wisdom in making these separate pieces and putting the slogan idea into the marketing concepts for the 20th anniversary.
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: : Terry
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: An update on this thread. I've been playing about and I've roughly finished the design now, with one or two minor tweaks. I have yet to work with the logo at all so that is still under development however the theme is now D6 compliant which means its read for the handover.
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: http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/8448/drupal.png
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: Here's a link of what I have so far. There's still some of it that needs work but its coming together quite nicely.
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: Ed Brough
: 2AIDir

hey Guys,

another update on this topic. I've been playing around with how some of the internal pages view. I've got this so far...

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3237/drupallocalhost.png
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/5039/drupalvalk.png

this is also using new elements I've been playing with for the banner area. Let me know what you guys think of this.

Ed Brough
2AIDir