JTF.ORG Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Lubab on April 29, 2007, 02:05:35 AM

Title: Website Makeover
Post by: Lubab on April 29, 2007, 02:05:35 AM
I've always though the website looks very underground. If I were to try to set up a coktail party I'd be embarrased to send a wealthy person to it. Such great content and yet such poor sales. It's a cryin' shame. The Hebrew site is slightly better.


JTF.org needs a navigation system on the left with categories for: New Articles, Archived Articles, Audio, Video, Read the Koran, JTF Forum etc. They need to use a more maintream model of website.

It needs to be revamped and organized. Anyone agree?

Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: dawntreader on April 29, 2007, 07:13:44 AM
Yes!

Lubab is right. A thousand times over! The website needs to be much more polished.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Israel on April 29, 2007, 07:26:15 AM
Yea, the site sucks.

Chaim always says the webmaster is great, he is great at putting the content up on time, but for design, its horrible. A simple website like what Shelly's JDL uses or Bnai Elim, or even Bnai Elim NY is simple, easy to build and maintain. You can find free HTML templates online.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Hail Columbia on April 29, 2007, 08:46:18 AM
I suggest that the new design of the English website should be based on the Hebrew one.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: cjd on April 29, 2007, 09:04:07 AM
I don't think that the site is all that bad. And I have to say the web master must be very good because the site works well without many of the glitches that other sites have. The  JTF.org site has quite a bit of information packed into it each week and it most likely put together by one or two people. I think Chaim sticks with this tried and true format because its low budget, the web master is reliable  and the money spent on a more elaborate  site could be better spent on his programs in Israel.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Shlomo on April 29, 2007, 11:13:15 AM
The main site has a tremendous amount of content and it can be difficult to manage and display. So what are some of your ideas? Please post some links or give some examples. If you could make any way you wanted, how would you do it?

I agree that the webmaster is absolutely brilliant and amazing!
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Israel on April 29, 2007, 03:06:01 PM
Here is the html for the sidebar on jdl.org. A side bar like that is a great advancement.

<td width="117" valign="top" bgcolor="black">
                  <center>
                     
<div align="left">
   <font color="white">
   <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="black">
      <tbody><tr>
         <td>
            <center>
               <a href="http://www.jdl.org/"><img width="75" height="72" border="0" align="top" src="http://www.jdl.org/images/logos/smallcircularstar2.gif"/></a><br/>
               <br/>
               <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
                  <tbody><tr>
                     <td>
                        <div align="left">
                           <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Action</b></font></div>
                     </td>
                  </tr>
               </tbody></table>
               <table width="109" height="17" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
                  <tbody><tr>
                     <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/action/action/"><font color="white"><b>Action</b></font></a></td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                     <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/action/armchair/"><font color="white"><b>Armchair Activist</b></font></a></td>
                  </tr>
               </tbody></table>
            </center>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Enemies</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <font size="1" face="Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica" color="#ffcc33"><b>
            <table width="109" height="18" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/enemies/nazi/"><font color="white"><b>Nazi Alert</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/enemies/quiet_holocaust/"><font color="white"><b>Quiet Holocaust</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </b></font></p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Dear JDL</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <font size="1" face="Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica" color="#ffcc33"><b>
            <table width="109" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/dear_jdl/"><font color="white"><b>Dear JDL</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </b></font></p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Information</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <font size="1" face="Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica" color="#ffcc33"><b>
            </b><table width="109" height="46" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/information/contact.shtml"><font color="white"><b>Contact</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/information/faq.shtml"><font color="white"><b>FAQ</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/information/five_principles.shtml"><font color="white"><b>Five Principles</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/index.shtml#Anchor-47857"><font color="white"><b>Search</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
<b>            </b></font></p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Israel</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <font size="1" face="Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica" color="#ffcc33"><b>
            <table width="109" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/israel/"><font color="white"><b>Today & Always</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </b></font></p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Membership</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <table width="109" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/information/membership.shtml"><font color="white"><b>Join/Contribute</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Miscellaneous</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <table width="109" height="43" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/geeklog/"><font color="white"><b>Blog</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/misc/image/"><font color="white"><b>Image Awards</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/misc/heroes/"><font color="white"><b>True Jewish Heroes</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/misc/up_close/"><font color="white"><b>Up Close & Personal</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>News</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <table width="109" height="18" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/news/"><font color="white"><b>News</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/news/news_archives/"><font color="white"><b>News Archive</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
         </p></td>
      </tr>
   </tbody></table>
   </font></div>

                  </center>               </td>
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Lubab on April 29, 2007, 08:12:08 PM
Here is the html for the sidebar on jdl.org. A side bar like that is a great advancement.

<td width="117" valign="top" bgcolor="black">
                  <center>
                     
<div align="left">
   <font color="white">
   <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="black">
      <tbody><tr>
         <td>
            <center>
               <a href="http://www.jdl.org/"><img width="75" height="72" border="0" align="top" src="http://www.jdl.org/images/logos/smallcircularstar2.gif"/></a><br/>
               <br/>
               <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
                  <tbody><tr>
                     <td>
                        <div align="left">
                           <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Action</b></font></div>
                     </td>
                  </tr>
               </tbody></table>
               <table width="109" height="17" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
                  <tbody><tr>
                     <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/action/action/"><font color="white"><b>Action</b></font></a></td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                     <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/action/armchair/"><font color="white"><b>Armchair Activist</b></font></a></td>
                  </tr>
               </tbody></table>
            </center>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Enemies</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <font size="1" face="Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica" color="#ffcc33"><b>
            <table width="109" height="18" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/enemies/nazi/"><font color="white"><b>Nazi Alert</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/enemies/quiet_holocaust/"><font color="white"><b>Quiet Holocaust</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </b></font></p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Dear JDL</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <font size="1" face="Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica" color="#ffcc33"><b>
            <table width="109" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/dear_jdl/"><font color="white"><b>Dear JDL</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </b></font></p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Information</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <font size="1" face="Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica" color="#ffcc33"><b>
            </b><table width="109" height="46" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/information/contact.shtml"><font color="white"><b>Contact</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/information/faq.shtml"><font color="white"><b>FAQ</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/information/five_principles.shtml"><font color="white"><b>Five Principles</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/index.shtml#Anchor-47857"><font color="white"><b>Search</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
<b>            </b></font></p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Israel</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <font size="1" face="Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica" color="#ffcc33"><b>
            <table width="109" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/israel/"><font color="white"><b>Today & Always</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </b></font></p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Membership</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <table width="109" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/information/membership.shtml"><font color="white"><b>Join/Contribute</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>Miscellaneous</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <table width="109" height="43" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/geeklog/"><font color="white"><b>Blog</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/misc/image/"><font color="white"><b>Image Awards</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/misc/heroes/"><font color="white"><b>True Jewish Heroes</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/misc/up_close/"><font color="white"><b>Up Close & Personal</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            </p>
            <p>
            <table width="110" height="4" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#3366ff">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td>
                     <div align="left">
                        <font size="2" face="Verdana,Geneva,Helvetica" color="white"><b>News</b></font></div>
                  </td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
            <table width="109" height="18" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" border="0">
               <tbody><tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/news/"><font color="white"><b>News</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                  <td><a class="navilink" href="http://www.jdl.org/news/news_archives/"><font color="white"><b>News Archive</b></font></a></td>
               </tr>
            </tbody></table>
         </p></td>
      </tr>
   </tbody></table>
   </font></div>

                  </center>               </td>



JDL.ORG is an excrement site. When the current Bnei Elim people set up JDL.ORG.IL, I thought it was better than Rubin's excrement site. But all of them are evil so we shouldn't look to them as examples.



Yaakov with all due respect this is ridiculous. Even the most evil people can have good sales and righteous people should use professinalism their advantage.  Their model is classic and I'm sure guys can find a hundred other good sites with good navigations systems so people can easily find out who we are and what we do. The seven point plan for America should be on the homepage, I think that's powerful.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Shlomo on April 30, 2007, 12:50:41 AM
I am a web programmer by trade... I want to help out so badly.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: ftf on April 30, 2007, 01:49:29 PM
I'm not a very good web programmer, but I could cobble something together if no one else wants to, forget all this complex stuff, just use frames, one frame for a side bar, one for a top bar, and one for the current page.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Lubab on April 30, 2007, 02:05:07 PM
I am a web programmer by trade... I want to help out so badly.

Great!
So come up with a proposal for how the new site would look. Get it ready..maybe we have a look at it and criticize and comment. Once something is agreed upon we'll pitch it to Chaim or Jimmy. Once we already have something concrete in mind they'll be much more apt to accept it.

Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Maccabi on May 01, 2007, 02:33:59 PM
I put together a sample webpage.

Let me know what you think.

http://jtfthinktank.com/sample1.php

I think some of the thumbnail pictures distract from the main article but there may be other ways.

There is some random text on the page an none of the stuff is linked yet.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: ftf on May 01, 2007, 02:55:28 PM
Looks great, though it could do with a few tidy ups, such as giving the page a title.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Maccabi on May 01, 2007, 05:18:58 PM
I could fix all this stuff later...just wanted to see if the general idea was in the ballpark.

Do you think the small pictures on the sides are too distracting from the main article?

I was thinking there would be an activism page with links to all the videos and detailed instructions on how to rate and favorite them etc...

I thought it would be cool to embed the videos as well, but Allen would have to allow embed on them.

Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Israel on May 03, 2007, 02:58:44 AM
It looks so much better.

I think that you should finish creating the website. Looks great!
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Nic Brookes on May 03, 2007, 02:35:42 PM
VERY nice
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Shlomo on May 03, 2007, 07:35:07 PM
I put together a sample webpage.

Let me know what you think.

http://jtfthinktank.com/sample1.php

I think some of the thumbnail pictures distract from the main article but there may be other ways.

There is some random text on the page an none of the stuff is linked yet.

It looks great!
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Kantanka on May 11, 2007, 01:09:55 PM
As a website, it is effective in getting people the information they want. Nothing is perfect, so improvements can be made. Let us approach this systematically by
a) Creating a catalog of suggestions about improvements to the website
b) Determining with the help of the webmaster what will be most beneficial
c) People who can contribute skill, time and effort can implement to implement the suggestions will then bid (not for money but for God's blessings) to do parts of the work.

Let us start with the first item: People should start posting suggestions of what can be done. Someone already started by putting up a sample. If you can contribute samples, do so. If you are not a designer but have a suggestions, please post it. Sometimes it helps for others to see what you mean when you provide an example, so Google to see if you can find websites illustrating your suggestions.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Hail Columbia on June 08, 2007, 05:12:37 PM
When will the JTF.org site be upgraded?
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Shlomo on June 08, 2007, 06:58:26 PM
I've actually been talking to Chaim about it. I'm not really sure. I'm going to try to talk to him about this again and see what he thinks.

I know he was very upbeat about it when I told him.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Kahane-Was-Right BT on September 02, 2010, 05:51:33 PM
As a website, it is effective in getting people the information they want. Nothing is perfect, so improvements can be made. Let us approach this systematically by
a) Creating a catalog of suggestions about improvements to the website
b) Determining with the help of the webmaster what will be most beneficial
c) People who can contribute skill, time and effort can implement to implement the suggestions will then bid (not for money but for G-d's blessings) to do parts of the work.

Let us start with the first item: People should start posting suggestions of what can be done. Someone already started by putting up a sample. If you can contribute samples, do so. If you are not a designer but have a suggestions, please post it. Sometimes it helps for others to see what you mean when you provide an example, so Google to see if you can find websites illustrating your suggestions.

Good suggestions.  Welcome to the forum.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Kahane-Was-Right BT on September 02, 2010, 05:55:36 PM
Wow, this was from years ago!   The webpage was already given a makeover by Shlomo a long time ago, yet I do think the idea is good to have a place for suggestions and ideas as kantanka suggested.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: angryChineseKahanist on September 03, 2010, 07:49:55 AM
Should only take two hours to put up a skeleton.
The content is simple copy and paste. We're
talking about plain text with a bold here and
italics there and perhaps a picture or two.

Now I do disagree that the site sucks.
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: Kahane-Was-Right BT on September 03, 2010, 12:32:20 PM
Should only take two hours to put up a skeleton.
The content is simple copy and paste. We're
talking about plain text with a bold here and
italics there and perhaps a picture or two.

Now I do disagree that the site sucks.


aCK - this thread is from years ago before Shlomo updated it.   I thought kantanka was new based on something else he posted, so I looked in his profile "shows other posts of this user" and I read this and said hey that's a good idea.... Then I realized it was part of a thread from several years ago where people were complaining about how the old site used to look.   
Title: Re: Website Makeover
Post by: angryChineseKahanist on September 03, 2010, 12:52:32 PM
Ahh! It was a trick!