Updated Middle School Music Site - Versatility II
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amsmusic.org
Hi - I posted this site before and got some wonderful feedback from the Rocket Theme community. I tried to incorporate what I read - and upgraded the site. Of course - immediately after the upgrade to Joomla 1.0.11 they released an upgrade - happens every time. :
Anyway - I wondered if you could take a look and give some feedback. I am not a professional - just a band mom who wants to help out. I tried to use more photos and graphics this time. Unfortunately the flash rotator I used for the photos on the home page was locking up on IE7 - so I'll have to give another a try. I darkened the colors. And I changed the forum to SMF instead of phpbb - since that is what most RT members seem to use. I also added some "safe" photos.
This site is primarily geared for band students in middle school - grades 7 & 8. It also includes elementary students who are in grades 5 & 6. And the High School Students (grades 9 - 12) who are in marching band also are now included since the HS band teacher wasn't interested in using a site I made for her previously. The middle school teacher (who is a real go-getter) is also the assistant marching band director. So I tried to make it appealing to a wide array of ages.
As far as fonts - I can't exactly control that. The teacher likes to use comic sans for emphasis. I periodically go in and fix stuff - but I want her to feel like the site is hers - so I hate to mess around with that stuff too much. So sometimes the fonts aren't uniform - as was mentioned previously.
Also I have spent a lot of time trying to prevent all those bad bots that seem to enjoy trying to hack or spam the site. I am using contact forms that are not joomla - from www.dagondesign.com/. ; The contact info is "content" now instead and the form is wrapped. So far no spam. I use the smf registration with captcha and the smf-joomla bridge from smf. I see bots trying to access the standard joomla features - but for now it is holding. Did some .htaccess stuff - and just have been blocking IP's. Just hope to keep the site safe for kids. Any further info on safety for kids is welcome too. I hope to add links on safety on the internet in time.
Thanks in advance for any further helpful feedback.
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- SuperHatz
- Newbie
- Posts: 13
- Thanks: 0
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Good job. You are more than just a band member mom trying to help out.
What is the deal with traffic? Seams that more would show their appreciation
of your hard spent time. I look at the hit numbers on photos and there are a
few zeros and ones. Maybe there is more going on "inside" than appears on the
outside. Try to eliminate the hit counts and dates in places. This will help the
site to not age or give the impression of not having traffic.
We need more parents in the world like you. Keep up the good work and do not
be shy about getting the word out and drumming up traffic from your school.
Sincerely,
Wes
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Franck - thanks so much for your kind words. You were the first one to respond the last time I posted the site. I am still working on the idea of video and audio files with the teacher. We were the only ones following the guidelines from the local school dept. about not posting kids' pictures - only to find that people had put up video and photos on other sites without anyone's permission. So now we are moving forward. So your previous advice is still the direction I am heading in. Thanks again!
Thanks also Wes! No - just a band mom who is trying to make a difference the only way I can. The traffic is part of several problems. All middle school kids in Maine are given laptops to use for the year. The school department kept just blocking all sites not part of their servers. Unfortunately - they were unable to think creatively on how to block kids from accessing porn and gaming sites - while whitelisting others. I inadvertently made a comment to someone about whether there was anyone knowledgeable in the tech staff who could do this - comment made to the secretary of the tech staff - and somehow the site was whitelisted the next day. But after months of this nonsense - I didn't care if I was personally blacklisted. The school puts no effort into their own sites - they look like garbage and are useless. So here I was trying to do something useful -and they kept throwing up obstacles because they couldn't seem to figure out how to do something simple. If the kids could not access the site from the laptops - they were not likely to try if from home computers if they have them.
Then I did an update and that threw some things off. One was a flash rotator that caused it not to load in IE. I didn't realize it since it loaded from the cache for me - I guess. But I will work on the other issues to try to make it look less like there is no traffic. I didn't realize how that looked -so thanks!
One thing I am going to do is make business card sized magnets. She has two concerts coming up and the HS band party in the next week and half. She can give them out - they will have the url on it. And I am going to make some signup sheets in excel so she can sign the kids and parents up - and I can register them. People don't seem to be very tech-savvy around here.
Here's the card - with a fake email substituted. The real one looks better
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- Franck
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 1049
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Franck - thanks so much for your kind words. You were the first one to respond the last time I posted the site. I am still working on the idea of video and audio files with the teacher. We were the only ones following the guidelines from the local school dept. about not posting kids' pictures - only to find that people had put up video and photos on other sites without anyone's permission. So now we are moving forward. So your previous advice is still the direction I am heading in. Thanks again!
Fantastic Feathered Wonders! When you'll be ready tell us here in the forum!
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- Stew Thompson
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 573
- Thanks: 0
- School Teacher
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great job!
I am a teacher that tries to keep up with our school site (see below) and wish I had help like you to keep it running.
also, i like the magnet idea-I might steal it
- www.bentonhighschool.com/
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- Mike VanKirk
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 15294
- Thanks: 3
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Excellent job Ellen! The color scheme is perfect.
I really can't give any advice...it just looks great!
Mike
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