Redesigning my site

[dogscoff]

Hey ho.

I've just contacted my ISP about getting my broadband upgraded to a 2meg adsl line. For reasons I'd prefer not to go into (let's just say that BT suck) this will mean a week's wait, a further week completely off line, and then I should be up and running. Despite this, I should be able to keep up with the forums and pbw using my work connection.

I see this as a perfect opportunity to give my site the redesign it desperately needs. It's a big job, but it wants doing. I'm posting here to (a) warn everyone that my site will be offline for a short time and (b) ask for feedback on how to improve it.

Here are some of the changes I plan to make:

STUFF TO BE CHANGED:
####################
- Change the internal structure of my webspace to make it less cluttered, and to divide the se4/ non se4 stuff more clearly.
- More CSS to make it easier to maintain.
- rewrite the fiction pages, cutting out a lot of the javascript to make them more browser-friendly. (I won't lose the quote-o-matic or auto-chapters though)
- Update links etc to reflect the modern se4 community, as opposed to the one that was here 2 years ago.
- Fix all those little typoes/ broken links that you ppl have informed me of over the years, but I haven't actioned yet (all sitting in my mailbox, waiting.)
- All images to be hosted locally, so there won't be any more missing pics in the neostandard page, for instance.

STUFF TO BE REMOVED:
####################
- The nasty nackgrounds: Will probably be black text on a white background from now on, with well-ordered lists and carefully placed graphics.
- Merchandise page. I doubt anyone ever looks at it.
- The extensive axample graphics all over the place. you don't need to see every single image from the neoexpansion pack or the KanesS- I'll just put a few of them up there.
- The songs. Probably move these over to the malfadorica.
- Banners & buttons page. No-one appears to have used it.
- The Vandron..? Not that I don't like the set, but that one hosted set on its own seems a little lost. Also the author doesn't seem to be around any more, and I'm sure the set can be downloaded elsewhere. I'll probably upload it to PBW.
- The "misc graphics" page. Some will be incorporated into the gallery (see below) and the rest can all be found in the imagemod or other ppls' shipsets, which I will link to.
- the designnames page. I'll just link to Fyron's uber-list of designnames instead.
- SE4 code page. Again, I dont think this gets too much use, so I'll probably drop it onto the malfadorica.

STUFF TO BE ADDED:
##################
- An art gallery/ portfolio, featuring some of the pics I've created over the years (some already featured on the site, some as-yet unseen) including the full 512x512 versions of the various race and troop portraits I've done for other ppl.
- possibly some kind of simple-as-I-can-make-it javascript+css jiggery-pokery to generate site-wide navigation links easily.
- An email address that I actually use.
-redirects so that links to the old URLS won't get broken.
- I'll also be releasing version 1.40 of the neo-expansion pack. Oh yes.

Anyway, here is your chance to change my website. If there's something you think I could improve, please say so now. Be brutal. If you'd like me to link to your site, mention your shipset or mod, or change a typo that's been bugging you or suggest something else, now is the time.

http://www.dogscoff.co.uk