Proposed New Website

What would you like to see in the new website?

It needs a new layout. I loved the old layout before the change too brown.

http://www.lp.org/ - I love the utility of the Libertarian national website. its media enabled, lots of functionality. I do not like the overall whiteness of it all. It doens't hold your attention.

http://www.gop.com/ - I HATE the RNC national website. A) it doesnt view well with all browers, b) it looks bloggy, c) it looks unprofessonal D) their content is all angry rhetoric. It is a terrible, terrible website, someone should be fired over it. They have tried to make it OVER functional and it fell flat on their face....the GAGOP is the same way...

http://www.dnc.org/ - I love the DNC national website, and the DNC has done a great job on a lot of their state websites too. They have plenty of functionality but they don't over complicate the website. Most pages don't need a lot of management, its clean, its simple...


http://www.democraticpartyofgeorgia.org/ - One of the best mixes of Libertarian utlity with DNC simplicity...BUT a terrible domain name...who was thinking that was a good idea?


I do feel like the new national website was a step in the right direction, but I dont think its the end goal. I really would love to see something on the national level that resembles the last link there. Naturally I am writing this hear because I would like people not just to tell us feelings, but do a little research to help the website team out. They are never going to be able to satisfy everyone and its easy to throw stones when you know you won't have to work on cleaning up the mess, but I follow the philosophy leaders run into the fire not away from it. At some point they(I say they but I mean us, we are all in this together) are going to have to make a change and we need to support the team once the decision is made for the final design. Yeah us! Whigs do it better:)

I am proposing to use drupal as the core technology for the new website. The White House uses this system to power their website. The Drupal core is highly customizable. Please refer anyone with the following skill set:

1. Drupal template building
2. Flash
3. CSS

To join the team.

atrinidad wrote:

I am proposing to use drupal as the core technology for the new website. The White House uses this system to power their website. The Drupal core is highly customizable. Please refer anyone with the following skill set:

1. Drupal template building
2. Flash
3. CSS

To join the team.

I use Drupal for Virginia's Whig site: http://vawhigs.org. There is some learning curve and you get to know some of the add-ons. My News page is a blog and the blog user, Virginia Whig, just clicks a link to add a blog entry. Easy. I had an interactive map but it went haywire on an upgrade, and the framework is a work in progress, so I deleted it. I have Instant-Runoff Voting. My users are classified as 'Virginians' and can vote, when their address is in Virginia. I don't use CCK or Views which are powerful add-ons. Wait, I do use Views for the Voting link.

Template: I especially selected a low-key template to not distract from the content. I would recommend this.

Let me know if I can help some.

Rob

I getting some users having issues send their applications to become members.

I am currently working a fix to this. The main problem has been with AOL users and those with very restrictive security. In the next release, I will have to test the system they are using, if they are identified as AOL users or those with restrictive security, they will be presented with paper registration form.

The biggest problem I face, is the "It doesn't work" comment. Because it does not tell me what where the problem occurs. When I test the system, it works, so I can recreate the problem to find out there the error is occurring. I have not problem fixing the site, but I need more information.

What should the new site look like? Lets be more specific that telling me to look at the other party's websites.

What should be in the header? Are we happy with Whiggie the Owl and Abe Lincoln? Does that really say Whigs? Or should be have photos of all former Whig Presidents and have it rotate with every visit. Should it also include a photo or photos of our military, which ties us into the re-birth?

What should the background be? What color?

I'd like to have a comments by end of the month. I will setup the drupal site at the end of the month.

I intend on launching the Western Regional Site in the next 60 days.