http://www.bodieslikeours.org/mambo

Consider it the beta release of BodiesV3.0

Please don't link to this url as it will change when I move it to full production.

It's not quite yet ready for a full release but I am hoping the forum regulars can give it a test drive for me. There are some outstanding issues that are listed below.

What's new is the site will become a completely database driven site and dynamic. The images and top content box changes with each visit. Events, recent news, updates, etc are all now dynamically generated on the front page.

You can set the site or a particular page to your favorites automagically or even make it you home page. You can render any page as a printer friendly one, as a pdf or into an email. You can even recommend this site to anyone you think may like it using a simple form that only requires an email address to be entered.. There is really good search function built in as well that doesn't rely upon google or serve ads.

What I'm hoping for is feedback on useability and intuitiveness...does the structure make sense? Recently a friend who I asked for guidance periodically referred me to a book on web usability by Steve Krug called, "Don't Make Me Think", and it has been helpful in the structure. Let me know if I "got it" (and please don't be hesitant to say no and offer suggestions)

Another issue I am looking at is load times---does the site load quickly, particularly on dialup? The first time may be a tiny bit slow, and subsequent visits should be faster due to caches.

Very importantly, I'm hoping your visits and clicks there will help our web-hosting service evaluate the platform (not to mention my custom coding and modifications) as we move towards a full release. We have great hosting but it's on a shared community server so if usage leads to a process meltdown, it causes problems for our neighbors and thus for Bodies if we are not a good neighbor. As it turns out, we the first to implement this particular CMS platform in a production basis with our host and there are some pretty big unknowns that forces some items into cautionary mode. If pages don't load or give errors, I really need to know before I move it into full production. If problems do arise, please let me know.

Outstanding items include a full links list---I only have a few in there currently. That list is being compiled (thanks Peter!) and will get added shortly.

The research section is not there yet as I need to recompile everything into sections and catagories and do some writing for each item.

The logo currently there is a place holder until I decide on some color and background issues. Then again, the header logo is the same that has served us well for a couple years so it may stay as it. The site just comes across as pretty bland at the moment for me. Let me know what you think.

There is a link to these forums from the top menu that I am still having some rendering issues with. It's fully functional but the page gets trimmed. This is a relatively minor problem that should be taken care of this week (sorry Dana, it cuts off the smilies) The right menu link is fine as it is a full url link.

I am sure that there are some internal content links that either go nowhere, lead back to the main site currently in production use and probably some grammer and spelling errors as some of the site was compiled on the fly while I was at work or during hours when I should have been sleeping. Let me know what and where they are when you find them.

I hope you like it...

Betsy

__________________
Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell

Hi Betsy,

The load time is fine. On my second visit to the new site, on a slow 56K dial-up modem, the load time for the main page was approximately 5 seconds. This is much faster than the current site originally loaded. (Bodies Version 2 ?).

I am glad that you are looking forward to the future when increased traffic will become more of an issue, and hosting platform independence will be important. Thanks for all of your great work dedicated to hosting this site.

Peter

When the browser-window is resized, the layout of the tables and the text in the cells gets distorted. I tried both Mozilla 1.7 and Konqueror.
The same thing happens, if the screen-fonts are too big.

The menu on the right side of the screen tries to follow when the page is scrolled. This doesn't work properly on slow systems and the text sometimes dissapears for 3-5 seconds.

May I suggest using a background color (light grey or pastels) for the menues and the top of the page to make it look a bit different from the actual information.

Sofie
the merciless beta-tester

That's a known issue and only happens on the front page. I've got work to do on the tables still it seems.



I'm not sure I am following you on this. The right menu is fixed so it's hard for me to envision what is occurring.



Colors and shading are still to be done once a banner is complete.

Thanks ...keep it coming.

Betsy

__________________
Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell

It only seems to happen with KHTML (Konqueror, Safari), so it's probably not the coding that's wrong.

Sof

Ok...some changes to the css have been made that seems to fix some of the text overflow. I've also added some color to the menu areas as you can tell. Almost there!

Sofie...I'm glad you are not mono-browser!

Betsy

__________________
Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell

Good site ,
I was able to navagate pretty easy.

Az1

I'm headed towards putting the new site live and in production. Right now, I'm putting together a time line as there are some very specific steps that will need to be taken to get it done right. A huge step is moving the old static site into an archive directory. This is necessary and desired for a couple of reasons---for historical purposes and also in case the new platform causes undesired effects in a shared server enviroment which would necessitate returning to it.

The reason I am sharing this is it will also affect this forum. During the process or a bit before it is totally done, the address of this forum will change. If you have the current forum address itself (www.bodieslikeours.org/forums) bookmarked, it will cause a page not found error. The new address will be forum.bodieslikeours.org or something along that line. I'll stick a redirect into the server to point you to the right place so it may not be obvious when it happens. Expect this to happen sometime later today or late tonight depending on how the rest of the process goes.

The reasons for all the changes and behind the scenes work has to do with apache rules, particularly mod_rewrite rules. I'm pretty good at working with that stuff, but I don't consider myself an expert. By changing some physical addresses, it gives me a work around and ensures I don't crash the plane before it even gets off the tarmac. Compound the steps with the fact that I'm doing it in a live production enviroment and it becomes comparable to working on an electrical socket without turning the main power off.

Please be patient over the next few days and if you see a not found error or permission denied page during this time, dont fret...I already know about it and am working at putting it all back together again.

Betsy

__________________
Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell

I have distributed some 50 of the blue BLO brochures (for IAD) that Peter provided to me. However these have the now "old" BLO URL.......will the people who try to access BLO be "dead-ended" or re-directed? Also provided ( appx 50 ) were ISNA copies of "Information for Parents"....is it assumed the new URL will be updated (redirected?) from their webpage as well as Emi's website and others?

BTW, very good work on your part, Betsy....thank you ....I like the new format, easy to navigate and peruse.

Dana

PS: Do we still get to have lots of smilies?