nickmgray

For those of you who do not know, I've been a freelance web diesnger for a few years now. I've done quite a few websites for hard cold cash, but over the years I've taken on some different project that I am personally interested in.

I'm looking on setting up a dedicated website for Scikotics MN. I am looking to use a CMS (content management system) for the site that would allow easy setup and a complete web interface for updates (this will allow for multiple members to make online changes to the site all through a web browser).

A few ideas that I have for the site include our own dedicated forum, member bio pages where we could have a nice setup and complete member and car profiles and not be limited to the few images that we are on here.

But most of all it would be a place for us to call home.

What do you think of this idea? Any suggestions or other things you think should be included on the site?

takuel

Nick, is this something you wanna do along side the current Scikotics website?

chanman

Yes, someone else wants to do one! I can help you program, just tell me what you want! if you set up the CMS, just PM me the info.

As for scikotics, I personally think the site is a bandwidth hog.

nickmgray

it would be nice if we did it in conjunction with the main Scikotics site but something like that would probably take a bit too long and it would force me to play by someone elses rules a bit.

To give everyone an idea of what the site can look like, visit www.minnescraper.com . It's a local urban development site for the metro area. The front end of the site was something that I designed with Joomla, the CMS system that I would use for the MN Scikotics site. It allows for easy implementation of tempaltes to change the look of the site and different modules to create polls, guest books, flickr albums, google maps, new updates and a whole lot more.

I'd rather have a MN Skikotics site up and running first and then have the main site catch up to our standards. This way we can be the leaders in this.

Flecs

this is definently a an awesome idea but it goes aginst one of the VERY few rules scikotics has... scikotics is HIGHLY aginst drama and even more... cliques (sp?) lol

there are a couple chapters that went off and made thier own sites when the site went down for a couple weeks and we have lost chapters bc of them breaking away

so yeah in conclusion its best if we just stick to our own lil part of the scikotics forum... but i am about to send you a PM asking you a couple questions regarding sites and stuff ok nick!

Flecs

well now that i think about it... how about this idea?


what if what we make is basicly a homepage for us. with things like you mentioned. member bios, chapter photo gallery a callendar for upcoming meets

and then we can also have to forum links. one that goes to our section at the scikotics forum and one that goes out to the whole forum

this will allow us to have a place to post all of our own chapter specific info (and a chapter specific URL that we can put on our own chapter specific cards) BUT... still keep us connected with the scikotics site

chanman

maybe we can talk to the head honcho of scikotics to see if we can be the test bed of the new site. Then we can expand it to the whole nation if people like it.

The problem I have with the current scikotics site is that every page has its own theme. And also each page is not really connected with one another.

Flecs

what im proposing with my idea kinda skips the current scikotics homepage and just utilizes the forums as our main way of comunication (like it mostly is now) and we will pretty much have our own home page with a URL like ww.mnscikotics.com or sumton liek that

nickmgray

I have nothign again the Scikotics group, but i do think that their entire site needs a facelist or a complete redesign. The reason I'm on this site all the time is because it looks good and I look things that look and work good.

Personally I don't think that creating our own site and forum would make us break away any from Scikotics at all. If anythign we would be breakign away more from Scionlife.com since we all post a lot more here than we do on the scikotics website.

On our site we could deffinitely have links to the main Scikotics site and we would make it known that we are simply on the their chapters (with a much better website) and we could also link to this site and any other that we like.

I think it's all about creating our own "Scikotics" ideantity. We talk about Scikotics all the time but personally I feel more like a Scionlifer since this is the site that we use most. I'll work on a preliminary layout for the site when I'm at work tomorrow (I love workign at boring jobs). Anyone have a link to the Scikotics logo that has a clean background. I can't seem to access their site again.

Flecs

give me your email mang!

CHPRBOX8

sounds good but like josh said no cliques or how ever it is spelled. but i dont think with only 16 people on it just would not be enough trafic but that is just me

Flecs

i have a good feelig about this summer... i thikn were gunna get WAY bigger!

CHPRBOX8

i sure hope so.... next weekend i will have my sisterinlaw up and going so we will be 17 strong

Flecs

awesome!

nickmgray

ok so I've installed the CMS on my server and uploaded a mock tempalte of what the site can look like. All the links in the site are standard with a fresh install of Joomla (the CMS).

Let me know what you think.

www.nicknrachel.com/scion

Flecs

that look really good! i will help you out with the graphics like the banner and stuff... i REALLY like the background. heres what we could do for the links on th eleft side

Home
Event Calendar
Members
Photo Gallery
Forums (links to the scikotics forums)

nickmgray

I've made a few more changes. Instead of a calendar, I have added an event manager which will allow us to psot events with different locations and as soon as the date passes they will drop off the list. I've added the McDonalds Meet and another mock-up meet to give you an idea of how it works. Click on the links. This component was created for bands and their gigs, but with a bit of editing i can make the changes needed to make it work for us.

Also, I've added a Poll to the main page.

www.nicknrachel.com/scion

babybear23

I LOVE IT!!!!!! can't wait till it's up and running!

XB_BOY_2005

I agree, we need to talk to Jon to see if this is allowed, but otherwise, i think that would be an awesome idea, especially profiles and such, it would be a great way for local peeps to check us out, and make the club more personal.

Flecs

well thats your job jp! lol