The Sledgehammer!

[Caroling]

WOW Bruce-thanks for being so responsive and listening-I love the simplicity of the events page-everything I asked for.

A big thank you,

Carol

[ronzuckerman]

P.s Please stop the navigation items going bold on hover! There are more subtle things that could be done, like a slight colour change, or toggling an underline. The problem with increasing the weight is that it messes up the rest of the layout, and pushes the other items along a bit.

I agree. That's a bit distracting. It should just be a matter of removing the "font-weight: bold;" line from the CSS from the ".nav_item A:hover" and ".footer_item A:hover" CSS styles in 'styles/ed_main.css".

[bruce]

Yes, these are exactly the kinds of things I'm looking for.

Site navigation...is going to happen as I have time. It's always been the plan.

Avatars...maybe. Have yet to research it.

Barnaby, I want subtle motion as a hover effect with top level navigation. It's useful for the visually impaired. I'm purposely getting away from as much "menu'd" navigation as possible. As long at it can fit on a top-level navigation, don't hide it from the user.

Thanks all!

Bruce

[WaterPig Master]

Barnaby, I want subtle motion as a hover effect with top level navigation. It's useful for the visually impaired. I'm purposely getting away from as much "menu'd" navigation as possible. As long at it can fit on a top-level navigation, don't hide it from the user.

Anyone who's visually impaired enough to need the entire navigational row to move along when they hover over something will more than likely a) be confused by the layout change and b) be using a screen reader anyway, in which case the most useful thing to do would be to semantically mark up the navigation and include aria role attributes. Convensions dictate that we denote links with underlines — I tend to toggle them on hover as visual feedback.

Agreed that dropdownlessness is good. My only concern is that there are now rather a lot of menu items, and they're a little mixed up — the newsletter goes to an external website, for example, and classifieds links to part of the forums (a good thing, but still a little mixed up!).

Cheers,
Barnaby

[ronzuckerman]

Bruce,

I like the latest changes. Removing the "bold on hover" from the menus looks a lot better; however, the "Contact Us" at the bottom still goes bold on hover. I also like that you tied the menus into the discussion forum. That makes the site more cohesive. Great job!!

Ron

[strumelia]

I also like that you tied the menus into the discussion forum. That makes the site more cohesive.
Ron

I too like the links being right on the forum. The forum is really the heart of ED. It makes me wonder if there really is any compelling reason to have a separate 'home' page anymore? Is there a reason why the Discussion Forum home page couldn't be EverythingDulcimer's 'home page' ? Maybe just make the links a bit more prominent on top, or include a text box of general info and a welcome along the top? I know I'm not alone in my habit of just bookmarking and going straight to the discussion forum when I visit ED (which is at least a couple times a day for years now). I'm sure there must already be many folks who don't bother going through the home page in order to click to the discussions. Now that the integrated 'facebook-like' things like groups, blogs, and videos are gone, as well as the tight integration with DPN magazine and DulcimerSchool, maybe there is less need now for an 'ED Home' page that is separate from the Forum ? It's just a thought though. Overall, I think the site is way cleaner looking, easier and more logical to navigate, more streamlined, I love all the things you have done so far. All the most important parts of ED are here and easier than ever to find and use! (hmm, wish there was a 'thumbs up' smiley available that I could insert here.)

[WaterPig Master]

Agreed with strumelia — the consistent navigation is a great change.

And yes, the need for a dedicated home page seems to be lessening. However, I think there needs to be something there to set the context of the site, and explain things to new visitors.

How about having a little bit of text, as well as a photo of both styles of dulcimer (similar to the one that hung around for a while when DPN took over) at the top of the listing of the forums. It'd then be easy to add a 'hide this notice' option stored as a cookie so returning visitors could opt to hide it.

Cheers,
Barnaby

[Heidi]

I'm liking it. Navigation is much better. Thanks for putting the nav-bar on the forum page.

I'd also like to see the same header on every page, if possible. It would feel more like one site.

I think the site needs a home page. It's the logical place to say something like: Hi, welcome to everythingdulcimer.com the leading site for all things dulcimer. The heart of this site is its community, so be sure to visit the Discussion area…. Etc.

I think the interface for Clubs, Teachers and Events works great. Love it. Suggestion: That builders and performers had a fully visible list, like Events but alphabetical. (Location seems less relevant for these.)

Just my two-cents. You know where to find me if you need something, Bruce. I'm happy to help.

[bruce]

Thanks all. Great comments. I'm slowing getting to things on my list, but I'm just SLAMMED in my day job stuff these days.

I'm keeping a homepage as the jumping-off point to the other portions of the site. I think of the site as having two parts, the discussion/community part and the informational part (clubs, tab, etc.) My plan for the homepage is to lead new visitors in directions that suit their needs with information and pictures. We want the curious to find an interesting world of dulcimers. It's not even close to accomplishing that at this point, but we'll get there!

Bruce

[Nancy Mathis]

<a href="http://pinterest.com/nancymathis/"><img src="http://passets-cdn.pinterest.com/images/pinterest-button.png" width="78" height="26" alt="Follow Me on Pinterest" /></a>

Have you heard about Pinterest? I looked up "Dulcimer" on this site (which has any and everything on it) and it only had a couple of pictures of Mtn. Dulcimers. This site may be a good way of letting people into the good news of Everything Dulcimer and Dulcimer playing in general.

[WaterPig Master]

Hey Nancy,

I've pinned a few photos of my instruments on Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/barnabyw/instruments-i-ve-made/). I've had a few responses, but not much. There are certainly some dulcimer people on there, but not an awful lot.

Cheers,
Barnaby

[Lois Hornbostel]

Your plan sounds smart and completely reasonable to me, with the right focus on "everything dulcimer"! You do a beautiful job, Bruce. THANKS!

Fondly,
Lois Hornbostel