LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Major Upgrade: Wider pages, Videos, Larger Pictures

3K views 27 replies 16 participants last post by  scottb 
#1 ·
Major Upgrade: Wider pages, Videos, Larger Pictures

I've managed to finish some important upgrades today. Here they are in a list:

  • wider pages - majority of the site visitors are already using 1024×768 or higher resolution so it is a good time to introduce wider pages. Content area now supports embedded images up to 640px wide - that's the exact same width that photo sharing sites like Photobucket are recommending for the web use in their resizing options. As a result 640px wide pictures hosted on these sites are no longer cut out on the right side - example.
  • dedicated ads panel - the increase in width allowed me to introduce the dedicated ads panel on the right side. It is designed for the common vertical banners and skyscrapers allowing us to find more advertisers. My goal was to add more ad zones that are not cluttering the content area yet are clearly visible and valuable to potential advertisers. Thanks to this panel I was able to remove the ads that were appearing right above the page title and replace them with the cute "highlights" strip that provides nice graphical shortcuts to the important LumberJocks site sections - currently woodworking store, apparel store and summer awards.
  • larger project and workshop pictures - I've increased the size of the project and workshop pictures to 900×700 (before it was 750×500 max). So new pictures you upload will be larger and crisper after enlarging.
  • videos - I'm planning to implement more robust videos' handling in the future but thanks to Scott's discussion we now have brilliant temporary solution. I've added new link to the top menu bar titled Videos. Once clicked it will show you the list of all blog entries that contain tag 'video'. So don't forget to tag your blog entries containing videos properly (I've added handy link above the tags field on the blog entry form that will add this tag automatically for you).
  • enhanced comments - each comment now displays richer author info on the left.

This was busy weekend so I hope you will enjoy these upgrades ;)
 
See less See more
#2 ·
S-W-W-W-E-E-E-T
oh yah…

it looks awesome and the advertising is easy to find but it doesn't detract from the discussions. The advertisers will love it as will we, I'm sure!!

Well done, again, Martin… well done!!

Your brain must be ready for a holiday.
 
#5 ·
Thanks again for your efforts Martin - This sureley has to be one of the best if not the best woodworking site on the internet - it certainly is the most friendly, without a doubt
 
#10 ·
Hard with a 1280×1024 screen resolution in Firefoxx. I don't see the same problem in IE. Any comments from the Mac guys/gals. I think this is probably just my problem. Old eyes/small font. LOL…I may have to upgrade to a 16:9 instead of 4:3 monitor. To fit the entire page into something that doesn't have to side scroll, the font is pretty tiny. shrug It is what it is. Thanks for the work Martin. This engine is working is proving to be great!
 
#12 ·
Nope.. projects are not displayed on the Videos page. Right now it's tough to combine projects and blog entries together on one listing (I mean in the code). It can be done through the additional navigation or something similar.

I'm thinking about the Videos section as our own extension to the blogging. Blogging + video = vlogging.. so the videos page just lists all of the vlog entries here (and the number is growing almost each day).

Projects are different type of beast from the blog entries so I personally would not mix them together on the Videos page.. but any opinions are welcome ;)
 
#13 ·
Martin, it would mean changing the way each of us thinks and then setting up your site to accomodate that. Impossible. Some add video to blog, some to comments, some to posts, some to projects, with a few in shop tours. Your current implementation is pretty blood good as it tosses all the videos together, no matter where the user decided to put them. The only compliance issue is the video tag. Bravo!
 
#15 ·
just getting this straight-- the videos connected to the link at the top are only for "Vlogging" and not to project videos or forum videos or anywhere else someone might place a video.

So if we want our video connected to the video link we have to set up a blog or add to a blog (making sure the blog is TAGGED video).

My brain hurts lol
 
#16 ·
Wow, I take one day off from Lumberjocks, and the site changes! A nice improvement Martin. Keep up the good work.

I see we are almost to that 1000 mark of Lumberjocks. We will probably be celebrating by mid week.

Congratulations and thanks Martin.
 
#20 ·
Martin -

I really like the new look. Your continued refinement to this site is amazing. The new video tab is a great addition. I will be very interesting to watch this feature blossom. LJ is going to become woodworking video central!

Amazing what happens when you are offline working for a couple of days!
 
#21 ·
Hi Martin;
--thanks for all your work and effort ,in making this place so great!

Now I've got to finish a project to try the new photo upload with larger and crisper enhancement. Out cutting some small logs this morning and I was saving some to build an outside bench, I'll have to see about free hand slabbing some this evening and getting something in the works….

Thank you.
GODSPEED,
Frank
 
#22 ·
Some great improvements, & I think before the day is over you'll have"1000" members.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top