Some new websites I've put together

[Martin Blank]

I've been working a lot with WordPress recently, and am finding it to be a pretty nice platform for creating websites. I've done three of them recently that you may be interested in looking at:

The Martin Sayles Radio Show -- http://www.martinsayles.com/
Occupy Saginaw -- http://www.occupysaginaw.com/
The Occupied Saginaw News -- http://osnews.occupysaginaw.com/

I have others to do, and will post them when the basics are completed. In the meantime, thoughts on the design of these sites are welcome.

[workersadvocate]

I've been working a lot with WordPress recently, and am finding it to be a pretty nice platform for creating websites. I've done three of them recently that you may be interested in looking at:

The Martin Sayles Radio Show -- http://www.martinsayles.com/
Occupy Saginaw -- http://www.occupysaginaw.com/
The Occupied Saginaw News -- http://osnews.occupysaginaw.com/

I have others to do, and will post them when the basics are completed. In the meantime, thoughts on the design of these sites are welcome.

Very nice! Looking forward to the new Martin Sayles show on Jan 21st, and to hearing more about the re-established independent Occupy Saginaw!

[TheGodlessUtopian]

What is this Martin Sayles show?

[workersadvocate]

It's coming this weekend! Tune in.

[Martin Blank]

So, I got myself one of those WYSIWYG template makers. Pretty nice one, too. Made my first Joomla template from scratch for the new website for WPA. Thoughts?

Working People's Advocate -- http://wpa.workers-party.com/

[Bostana]

Now we can start the occupy movement here in Michigan!

[Q]

So, I got myself one of those WYSIWYG template makers. Pretty nice one, too. Made my first Joomla template from scratch for the new website for WPA. Thoughts?

Working People's Advocate -- http://wpa.workers-party.com/

Looks simple yet pretty amazing. What software do you use for it?

[PC LOAD LETTER]

So, I got myself one of those WYSIWYG template makers. Pretty nice one, too. Made my first Joomla template from scratch for the new website for WPA. Thoughts?

Working People's Advocate -- http://wpa.workers-party.com/
Looks pretty good, dude. I like it.

Also, after 12 years designing web sites (not so much anymore) I've never seen a WYSIWYG editor put out code anywhere near as clean as that. It only had a couple of markup mistakes, and they were all irrelevant or trivial. My only real complaint is that it uses table tags, which are obsolete, although it's only really related to standards-compliant code and not appearance.

[Martin Blank]

Looks simple yet pretty amazing. What software do you use for it?

It's a program called Artisteer. You can design the site templates, then either export them for one of the more popular content management systems, like Joomla, Wordpress and Drupal, or make it a template for a Blogger page, or just make it an HTML template. You can also do ASP templates and such. It's actually a pretty cool little program. I have the 3.0.0.695x, or something like that. It's not the newest version, but it works really well and the templates are compatible with the new version of Joomla (which I've come to despise).

[Martin Blank]

Also, after 12 years designing web sites (not so much anymore) I've never seen a WYSIWYG editor put out code anywhere near as clean as that. It only had a couple of markup mistakes, and they were all irrelevant or trivial. My only real complaint is that it uses table tags, which are obsolete, although it's only really related to standards-compliant code and not appearance.

Those mistakes may have been from me trying to modify the code after uploading the template. I had to tweak it a little to make it work exactly the way I wanted it.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

Those mistakes may have been from me trying to modify the code after uploading the template. I had to tweak it a little to make it work exactly the way I wanted it.
I think I see it:


<span id="ty2udate96"><div style="margin:0px auto;width:auto;text-align:right;">The reason that's invalid is because span is an inline element used for stylistic changes, like the semi-deprecated <b> </b> pair, whereas div is a block element and is used for layout purposes (replaced tables). But it's not that big of a deal. It's actually kind of a weird concept. And even though it's technically invalid, most browsers are lenient enough with standards to be able to display it the way you intend.

Just for reference, the valid version would be reversing them:


<div style="margin:0px auto;width:auto;text-align:right;"><span id="ty2udate96">And then close them in the order of </span> </div>

[Martin Blank]

The reason that's invalid is because span is an inline element used for stylistic changes, like the semi-deprecated <b> </b> pair, whereas div is a block element and is used for layout purposes (replaced tables). But it's not that big of a deal. It's actually kind of a weird concept. And even though it's technically invalid, most browsers are lenient enough with standards to be able to display it the way you intend.

Actually, I can't say I'm responsible for that. That bad code is from the people who put out the module that displays the day and date on the page. It's a legacy module (made for Joomla 1.5), so that might explain the issue.

[Blanquist]

How much does it cost to make a website? When you register a domain, does that mean you own it? Can you then sell it?

[Q]

How much does it cost to make a website? When you register a domain, does that mean you own it? Can you then sell it?

You register a domain at a registrar like, for example, HostGator (http://www.hostgator.com/). They'll typically give you ways to administrate the domain, but the domain can expire if you don't pay the annual fee. You can resell a domain, although often not directly.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

You register a domain at a registrar like, for example, HostGator (http://www.hostgator.com/). They'll typically give you ways to administrate the domain, but the domain can expire if you don't pay the annual fee. You can resell a domain, although often not directly.
http://www.namecheap.com is a pretty bad-ass registrar, too. They have a built-in domain market if you want to sell a domain. I've personally been using them for the last 5 or 6 years. They do web hosting, too, like Hostgator, but I've always gone to other companies for hosting, so I don't know how it is.

Blanqist: once you register a domain name, you need to find a host. HostGator does both registrations and hosting, and their prices are okay. But, when you see a company offering "unlimited" space and bandwidth/transfer, please do not take that literally. Read their Terms of Use or Acceptable Use Policy, and you'll see a clause stating accounts using excessive resources will be terminated. Depending on the host, that could be 10GB of transfer in a month or 100GB. I'm not saying don't use them if you want to, but don't go buck-wild and offer huge video downloads directly from your site or anything like that if you're on an "unlimited" plan. Also, if you see someone offering "Unlimited Domains", it's okay, it just means you can associate as many domain names as you want with that account (but not that you don't have to pay to register them).

But, whatever registrar anyone chooses, make sure it's:

A) Not godaddy (terrible customer service in my experience, but that was from years ago before they started doing TV advertising and got huge)
B) Not Yahoo ($10/year the first time, then a whopping $35/yr afterwards. way too much, it's like the mafia)
C) No place that's more than around $10/year for a .com/.net/.org, period. The other domains can vary, like .tv and .co.uk.

If you find a host or a registrar and you're not sure if they're okay, then go to http://www.webhostingtalk.com - it's a massive board of (sometimes quite rude) people who post about registrars and web hosts.

[Martin Blank]

But, whatever registrar anyone chooses, make sure it's:

A) Not godaddy (terrible customer service in my experience, but that was from years ago before they started doing TV advertising and got huge)

Actually, I use GoDaddy. I've only had one problem with their customer service (when someone did a serious hack of the Workers Party website and they couldn't help fix the problem because I was using a "third party" content manager). Other than that one incident, though, I've never had a problem with them. Their hosting plans are really good and they give out freebies when you get domains or other services (hosting, e-mail, etc.) through them.

Personally, I like the fact that I get 150 GB disk space and unlimited bandwidth (1 TB free-and-clear) with our hosting plan for $7 a month.

[Q]

It's a program called Artisteer. You can design the site templates, then either export them for one of the more popular content management systems, like Joomla, Wordpress and Drupal, or make it a template for a Blogger page, or just make it an HTML template. You can also do ASP templates and such. It's actually a pretty cool little program. I have the 3.0.0.695x, or something like that. It's not the newest version, but it works really well and the templates are compatible with the new version of Joomla (which I've come to despise).

Sounds interesting and the website looks promising. Too bad there is no Linux binary and it doesn't run in Wine. Also, the $130 price tag is a little steep, for something that just has 1 year of updates and no upgrade plan.

Edit: Oh, there is an upgrade plan, which costs 50% of the original price per year of extra updates. And a Linux version is currently "being researched".

[PC LOAD LETTER]

Sounds interesting and the website looks promising. Too bad there is no Linux binary and it doesn't run in Wine. Also, the $130 price tag is a little steep, for something that just has 1 year of updates and no upgrade plan.

Edit: Oh, there is an upgrade plan, which costs 50% of the original price per year of extra updates. And a Linux version is currently "being researched".
Just learn how to code XHTML 1.0/Strict and CSS. It's not difficult at all, seriously. And it's free to do. Just use vim or leafpad or whatever. I actually used to prefer gPHPedit because I did XHTML/CSS/PHP and it has syntax highlighting with like no bloat (well so does vim), but it's whatever.

[Q]

Just learn how to code XHTML 1.0/Strict and CSS. It's not difficult at all, seriously. And it's free to do. Just use vim or leafpad or whatever. I actually used to prefer gPHPedit because I did XHTML/CSS/PHP and it has syntax highlighting with like no bloat (well so does vim), but it's whatever.

My prime interest is in making templates for Joomla as that is the CMS I use. I'm sure this can be done manually too, but this is not straightforward.