Anyone want to see my new website?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Well you can't. It's only 70% done...:D

It does look magnificent though.

Watch this space. ;)

[rob1963]

:Laugh:

[Corabar Entertainment]

Stop wasting my bloody time Mr Thomas :mad: :p :p :p :p :p :p

[Charlie Brown]

Ohhh I'm excited!

You spent a lot more time thinking/planning it than I did.

I'm inpatient and have to do things straight away.

......This thread has annoyed me. :sj:

[JDB Entertainment]

GRRRRR! Was really looking forward to seeing it.

Any chance of a sneak preview?? :P

[Mark Wild]

no thanks :D

[Marc J]

Go on, I'll be Gentle :)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Go on, I'll be Gentle :)

It's not me designing it. ;)

[Marc J]

It's not me designing it. ;)

I didn't think it was ;)

[DJWilson]

A little birdie sent me a preview ;)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

A little birdie sent me a preview ;)

Really? Strange, cos I haven't sent anyone anything yet. :confused:

[Jiggles]

I manages to get a sneak preview... Looks like this. :sj:






8288

[OllieJames]

I manages to get a sneak preview... Looks like this. :sj:
8288

That looks really good, Darren! Nice choice of colours :)























:D

[Steve the DJ]

It does look magnificent though.

Can't have any pictures of you on it then... :p

[Starlight]

I manages to get a sneak preview... Looks like this. :sj:






8288
It looks great :sj:

Standing by for your new website, who's building it?

Neil.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

It looks great :sj:

Standing by for your new website, who's building it?

Neil.

VV Web solutions. ;)

[Starlight]

VV Web solutions. ;)
Nice 1. I like the look of Mr Vibe's work!

Give him a medal!

:)

Neil.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Give him a medal!



He is brave taking me on as a client, but then if he can work with me, then he can work with anyone. ;)

[Charlie Brown]

He is brave taking me on as a client, but then if he can work with me, then he can work with anyone. ;)

Darren, your not an ogre. :confused:

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Darren, your not an ogre. :confused:

Maybe not, but am I possibly the most fussy pedant you'll ever likely to meet if you are working for me...:D

[Shaun]

Maybe not, but am I possibly the most fussy pedant you'll ever likely to meet if you are working for me...:D

Having designed for you I'd agree with that. :d

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Having designed for you I'd agree with that. :d

:D
:o

[Starlight]

He is brave taking me on as a client, but then if he can work with me, then he can work with anyone. ;)
:lol: Rock on VV :DJ: :lol:

:muppet: :muppet: :muppet: :muppet:

Neil.

[Steve the DJ]

Maybe not, but am I possibly the most fussy pedant you'll ever likely to meet if you are working for me...:D

Having worked for you I'd agree with that... :d

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I really opened the door on this one didn't I...

[Charlie Brown]

I really opened the door on this one didn't I...

Errrrrr - yes? :D :D

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Not long now....

[Cj_The_Dj]

Not long now....


Com' on. Stop winding us up! lol I'm like a kid waiting for christmas

[womble]

I'm looking forward to seeing more of Mr VV's work. I really like Charlie's site, including the wallpaper!

[rob1963]

I'm looking forward to seeing more of Mr VV's work. I really like Charlie's site, including the wallpaper!

+1

[DeckstarDeluxe]

hurry up!...............

Can start on mine then ;)

[Marc J]

It's coming soon, I can feel it in my water :D

Either that, or your host is down :eek:

[STEVE HANLEY]

You're the reason why mine's taking as long:bang: :D :D :D :D :D

[Larry B Entertainment]

Darren you little tease :D

[Spirits High]

Much fresher.


Is that one of Marc J's productions ;) ;)

Trying to sound clever....is it CMS based?

[Marc J]

Much fresher.

Is that one of Marc J's productions ;) ;)


Not guilty M'lud....it's a VV Web production (read the whole thread :D ;) )

Still down for me...must be a DNS propagation issue :(



Trying to sound clever....is it CMS based?
I should hope you know what a CMS is! You use one! ;)

[rob1963]

Much fresher.

:agree:

Excellent work, Martin!

[Spirits High]

Not guilty M'lud....it's a VV Web production (read the whole thread :D ;) )


I read the beginning and have just checked back, Oh yes so it is :D :D




I should hope you know what a CMS is! You use one! ;)


See what happens when I try and be clever :D

[Shaun]

Very nice indeed, Daz. :)


Edit: The only thing I would change is make it more obvious that the images are 'clickable' on the main page. For example, the images that say "wedding entertainment", Corporate Entertainment" etc. At first glance I thought they were just images that stated what you do. It wasn't blatantly obvious that if you clicked on them it would bring up a new page. I wonder how many potential clients will miss out on reading vital information by thinking the same thing?

Perhaps have the images with a little text saying "click here to view"? I know there are small links at the foot of the page, but I overlooked them initially.

[DJWilson]

Stupid DNS taking it's time... :(

[Shaun]

Stupid DNS taking it's time... :(

I'm not technically savvy enough, but if it was a DNS delay wouldn't we all have trouble viewing it? I can view it fine.

[Booche]

Excellent work as always Martin, Well done :)

Cheers Dave :)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Very nice indeed, Daz. :)


Edit: The only thing I would change is make it more obvious that the images are 'clickable' on the main page. For example, the images that say "wedding entertainment", Corporate Entertainment" etc. At first glance I thought they were just images that stated what you do. It wasn't blatantly obvious that if you clicked on them it would bring up a new page. I wonder how many potential clients will miss out on reading vital information by thinking the same thing?

Perhaps have the images with a little text saying "click here to view"? I know there are small links at the foot of the page, but I overlooked them initially.

Could be an idea. :)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

So, for those that can see, this is nearly the finished article. There are a few bits to add etc, but not too many.

I have to say that I gave Martin the ideas, shapes, colours and general design and he has been brilliant and the most patient man alive for the past month or so, as I kept getting ideas for things and wanting to add and change things!

[Jiggles]

Hopefully this issue with it not loading is a temporary thing. =/

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Hopefully this issue with it not loading is a temporary thing. =/

It will be.

Something about people's servers updating and it might take a day or so.

[SC Events]

No problems my end...Looks great Mr T!! :)

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Looking good at my end too. :)

[DJWilson]

Looks good but there seems to be a endless amount of pages!

[Shaun]

I've noticed a slight "slicing" of text on one of the pages. See below.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Thanks Shaun - what browser are you using?

Martin is watching this thread but will not comment, but any little things like this will be very useful.

[Shaun]

Thanks Shaun - what browser are you using?

Martin is watching this thread but will not comment, but any little things like this will be very useful.

IE8. :)





--------------------



Also not too sure I'd display the full contact and email information publicly of a client. Client confidentiality and all that. If it were me I'd remove the email address to deter spammers (as I've done on the bottom image).



.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Martin has removed the others - I'm sure that's a small oversight.

Keep 'em coming!

[Marc J]

I'm not technically savvy enough, but if it was a DNS delay wouldn't we all have trouble viewing it? I can view it fine.


Hopefully this issue with it not loading is a temporary thing. =/


It will be.

Something about people's servers updating and it might take a day or so.

It's called DNS Propagation and is an issue whenever a site changes servers (click here for more info (http://webhosting.devshed.com/c/a/Web-Hosting-Articles/What-is-DNS-propagation-and-why-does-it-take-so-long/)). When nameservers are changed it can take up to 72 hours for this change to fully propagate through the internet, and depending on how often your ISP updates their DNS cache you might see it before or after someone else. Until then you see the old site (or if it has been removed, nothing).

The issue is sometimes your local DNS cache (perhaps if you previosuly visited the site) and you can flush your windows DNS cache by opening a command prompt and typing: -

ipconfig /flushdns

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

It's called DNS Propagation and is an issue whenever a site changes servers (click here for more info (http://webhosting.devshed.com/c/a/Web-Hosting-Articles/What-is-DNS-propagation-and-why-does-it-take-so-long/)). When nameservers are changed it can take up to 72 hours for this change to fully propagate through the internet, and depending on how often your ISP updates their DNS cache you might see it before or after someone else. Until then you see the old site (or if it has been removed, nothing).

The issue is sometimes your local DNS cache (perhaps if you previosuly visited the site) and you can flush your windows DNS cache by opening a command prompt and typing: -

ipconfig /flushdns

Yep, that's what I meant.

:bag:

[Shaun]

It's called DNS Propagation

Yep, just what I thought, above my understanding. :d Speaking of propagation, if you have questions about plant propagation I'm your man (I was once a gardener a very very long time ago) - DNS propagation, I'll leave that to you. :d


--------------------------


Daz. I've had a in-depth look around the new site and can't see any more issues. Looks great. :)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Thanks Shaun. :beerchug:

[DJMaxG]

Is Martin hosting it?

It looks fancy :p

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Apologies if this has already been noted down. I haven't read the whole thread as it looked like it was getting a bit technical.

Firstly, I like the site...loads of information there and the customer should be able to find out exactly what they need to (apart from the price obviously) before they call you.

I noticed a couple of things - Firstly, when you click on 'Staff Biographies'...a new page opens up with information etc...Where it says ENTERTAINMENT PROFESSIONALS in the Purple text area, it looks like there is text missing towards the bottom of the area.
Also, at the bottom of the page where it says "Why not take a look through our staff biographies?" - When you click the 'Staff Biographies' hyperlink it just takes you back to the same page.

I like the index at the top that expands when you click each link. Overall the whole site looks very good.

[wensleydale]

Looks good.
I'm guessing the Staff Bios page is not working because its not completely finished.

Only other small point is that the Pincents Manor link doesnt seem to work and that some links open a new tab and others dont- when you are going to an external site I always prefer to open a new tab as theres less chance of people "forgetting" about your site-Royal Berkshire Hotel is an example.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Looks good.
I'm guessing the Staff Bios page is not working because its not completely finished.

Yes, still waiting for DJs to send me information, so that could be a while yet. It links back to another page rather than just going no-where.


Only other small point is that the Pincents Manor link doesnt seem to work and that some links open a new tab and others dont- when you are going to an external site I always prefer to open a new tab as theres less chance of people "forgetting" about your site-Royal Berkshire Hotel is an example.

The reason for that is becuase I am waiting on information from the venues. The Royal Berks and St Annes have both send stuff so therefore have their own page on my site. |The others just link to the venue's own websites, but that will change once the info comes in.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

For Martin*

Pincents Manor should be .co.uk not .com

Ta!

[Marc J]

Overall a very nice site :approve:

I don't think anybody has mentioned it yet but in IE on the Staff Bios page the text breaks out of the container at the bottom (paragraph starting "For the last three years..."). This looks to be partly caused by the text size generally being bigger on all pages in IE than in other browsers (also the cause for a lot of text overrunning elsewhere), might be an easy fix with something like Eric Myer's CSS Reset (http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2007/05/01/reset-reloaded/) or might be just a few lines need tweaking.

Love the dot matrix CAPTCHA on the contact form, although I guess time will tell how effective it is! The only drawback with it is that the form can't be submitted with javascript disabled, which is not something I would personally do.

The site generally validates well but the contact form page has a lot of easily fixed errors which would be worth fixing.....and there a few very minor issues on the gallery page which again are easy fixed.

Something going on with memory usage in IE on the video gallery, I don't exactly have a slow PC and after viewing any more than one slows to a crawl, sometimes video isn't showing at all. Might be the lightbox script you're using has a memory leak in IE - I'd definitely try another and test in IE. Not your fault, I know, but still an issue.

On sample music I'd store the user's preference for results per page in a cookie (or at least session variable). If you select 10 per page but then move to another decade, it goes back to the default 30.

I'm personally not a fan of Highslide for text items like the FAQ, since you're using JQuery I'd have used some sort of accordion or even just a simple show / hide toggle.

I'd pick either jQuery or MooTools and use just one. Of course you can use both, but imho is a bit bloated. There's nothing I can see that can't be done with just one (for example http://www.jeremymartin.name/projects.php?project=kwicks for jQuery instead of the MooTools imagemenu). I'd also use Google hosted version of the jQuery and / or MooTools code, that way there's a chance that the visitor has it cached.

I know it's just a temporary page but the 9 main images on http://www.solitaireentertainments.co.uk/client.php seem to be much larger (file size) versions of the same images on http://www.solitaireentertainments.co.uk/disco.php - as a result the page was noticably slower to load.

These are all essentially minor issues, though....it's a really nice site, a 1000% improvement on your last one :eek: ;)

It lacks a finishing touch like a favicon, though...so here's one for you :)

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Usin IE8

On http://www.solitaireentertainments.co.uk/gallery.php?gal=3

...php?ga1=1 is showing ok

2 through to 4 is as shown.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Thanks for all the help guys - Martin is picking up all the comments and fixing as necessary, which is just as well, 'cos I have no idea what Marc J is on about!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

[Marc J]

Nicely done on the htaccess redirects for the old (Google indexed) URLs :approve: Most people forget about things like that!

I'd still add a custom 404 though, instead of just the index.

[Penfold42]

Usin IE8

On http://www.solitaireentertainments.co.uk/gallery.php?gal=3

...php?ga1=1 is showing ok

2 through to 4 is as shown.

I noticed this yesterday but then opened it up in another screen and it cleared. :confused:

The site is very nice....apart from Lee's boat race on the front....:D

[DJMaxG]

have you thought about connecting the mics together?

I know this a bit rough, just a thought

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I noticed this yesterday but then opened it up in another screen and it cleared. :confused:

The site is very nice....apart from Lee's boat race on the front....:D

Yeah, was trying to find another 'quiz' picture to go there, but can't seem to find one at the mo...;)

Any small problems that people are noticing are being fixed as we go by Martin, who I have to say is doing them almost immediately. :thumbsup:


have you thought about connecting the mics together?


No. :sj:

[Mark Wild]

Site looks the business Daz, props to VV.

[rob1963]

On the Staff Bios page, under the "Looking forward" heading, the lines of text which are the full width of the site continue through the purple border on the right & disappear off the page (IE7).

[DeckstarDeluxe]

have you thought about connecting the mics together?

I know this a bit rough, just a thought

Max,


Just so you know, microphones dont work like that. Maybe instead you could of put plastic cups on both ends and made that cable some string instead?


:D

[DJMaxG]

Deckstar,
It doesn't take an einstein to work out that :bang:

It was for graphics reasons, obviously

I just thought it may improve it slightly

:p

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Deckstar,
It doesn't take an einstein to work out that :bang:

It was for graphics reasons, obviously

I just thought it may improve it slightly

:p

You thought wrong. ;)

[Tom]

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but as soon as I saw the website, I instantly thought of Vectis Vibe. I checked the source code to see if I was correct and I was. :o

Websites do look familiar, well to me. Sorry. :o


But on a positive note, website does look very good. Plenty of information which is not too in your face.

Everything is broken down, which for me, makes things easier to look at and read. :)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but as soon as I saw the website, I instantly thought of Vectis Vibe. I checked the source code to see if I was correct and I was. :o

Websites do look familiar, well to me. Sorry. :o


Apart from Charlie's website, what else is the same then?

[DJMaxG]

It's probably Vectis's standard template ;)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

It's probably Vectis's standard template ;)

I can't begin to tell you what an idiotic comment that is.