Another Year, Another Revamp

[john]

Well as you may or may not have noticed, the site parent site (Caudata.org) has undergone another revamp. I like it. How about you good people?

 

[claire]

just had a peek John

very nice!

fits the cc theme well

 

[i.]

Very nice. I like the new graphics.

 

[kaysie]

i opened it, and thought i'd opened the wrong page. but it is very nice!

 

[john]

Positive reactions so far - that's good. May I encourage those who have donated about €25/$30/~£18 to start their own personal pages - just get in touch with me.

Anyone who has written an info sheet or donated significant numbers of photos to Caudate Culture, you may also be eligible - just get in touch with me

.

 

[alan]

Just a suggestion, but I don't know how easy it is to fix. The Freefind Search function returns the document titles. Try searching for "orientalis" and the output is not very helpful. More informative page titles possible?
HNY!

 

[jennifer]

Alan, I assume you are using the Freefind search on the home page for Caudata Culture? I tried searching with "orientalis" and I got back 8 pages as the results. Most of them seem directly relevant.

The first two results I get are both titled "Caudata Culture - Species Care". Are these the "titles" you feel could be more informative? I'm not exactly sure where these titles are coming from, if they are generated by Freefind, or if they are buried in our own HTML code somewhere.

If you can further clarify what you mean, this may be something we can improve. Thanks for your input!

 

[coen]

Well, I do like the noticable improvement, but as a graphic designer I also have some criticism.

For instance, on the top links, the "about us" link breaks into a second rule here on my screen. I don't know if that's the case in other resolutions, but testing a website on different resolutions is always something to keep in mind. I'm on 1280x1024 btw.

I'd also like to see the links on top being featured in a different block on the left, to increase the ease of navigation on the site.

And when going to, for instance, the Axolotl part of the site, the rest of the navigation is gone and you have to press back on your browser to return to the main site's links.

Well that's just my 2 cents, I haven't navigated the whole entire site so I don't know if that covers about anything but it's certainly something to think about in my opinion.

Greets, Coen

 

[john]

Thanks for the feedback Coen!

The "about us" wrapping should be fixed now. This isn't necessarily a function of resolution. It is the way your computer chooses fonts. I'm running in 1680x1050 right now and my other computer uses 1280x1024 - on both computers it appears fine to me but I know for others it may not. Anyway, it should be remedied now - please let me know if it isn't.

A site index on the left hand side was one of my original ideas but with the current layout of the site it's hard/inappropriate to fit it in after the other boxes. If other people find the menu at the top to be a problem, please let me know - I will change it if it's a problem for many.

The axolotl site does have a link to Caudata.org on it. Several I believe. It's just a different site and has a different layout - it isn't "integrated" into Caudata.org and I don't intend to integrate it. After all, it is a separate site. I think you're judging everything from the point of Caudata Culture which shares a lot of similarities with Caudata.org. Having said that, I might stick the top menu of Caudata.org on all of the Axolotl pages for convenience. I can only do that though because it's my site - anyone with a site on Caudata.org (such as Heather and Jen's Caudata Culture) may not like such a menu.

Thanks for your comments, please keep them coming.

 

[john]

Right, I've included a bookmark to the menu at the top of the page in the left hand column. I hope this is a good compromise.

 

[alan]

Jenn,
When I search www.caudata.org/cc using the FreeFind search box for "orientalis", the output I get is:

Caudata Culture - Info and Care of Newts & Salamanders
Caudata Culture - Frequently Asked Questions
Caudata Culture - Frequently Asked Questions
Caudata Culture - Frequently Asked Questions
Caudata Culture - Frequently Asked Questions
Caudata Culture - Frequently Asked Questions
Caudata Culture - Frequently Asked Questions
Caudata Culture - Frequently Asked Questions


Caudata Culture - Get in Contact
Caudata Culture - Info and Care of Newts & Salamanders
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles


Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Species Care and Information
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Species Care and Information
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Species Care and Information
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Species Care and Information
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Species Care and Information
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Species Care and Information
Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Species Care and Information

 

[john]

Hi Alan, it doesn't look like that to me or, I believe, to most people. What browser are you using?

 

[jennifer]

Alan, I am at a loss to explain why you get a list like that! Does anyone else get such uniformative results from Freefind? Here is what I get when I search for "orientalis":

1. Caudata Culture - Species Care
About Us Cynops orientalis Chinese Fire Belly Newt Synonyms ... individuals of C. orientalis periodically lighten in color and ... the tail. C. orientalis possesses a blunt, rounded tail
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_orientalis.shtml

2. Caudata Culture - Species Care
Chinese firebellied newt, Cynops orientalis. To add to the confusion, C. orientalis is often labeled and sold as ... back of C. orientalis. Natural Range and Habitat: Japan
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_pyrrhogaster.shtml

3. Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
mine kept several specimens of triturus alpestris and cynops orientalis with three Bombina orientalis...well...the toads ate ALL THE NEWTS in a few days!http://www.kingsnake.com/forum
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml

4. Caudata Culture - Frequently Asked Questions
available newt species, Cynops orientalis , is very sensitive to warm temperatures. Here are ... the Chinese firebelly (Cynops orientalis). This is unfortunate because these newts are
http://www.caudata.org/cc/faq/FAQcar.shtml

5. Caudata Culture - Species Care
Caudata.org's Forums | Caudata.org | Other Caudata.org Sites | Donations | Caudata.org Chat | About Us Salamandra Fire and Alpine Salamanders Orange and Yellow variants of the Banded
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Salamandra/Salamandra_sp.shtml

6. Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
to sex. Sexing common NEWT species: Chinese Firebelly newts (Cynops orientalis). If you aren t sure which kind of firebelly newt you have, read the article What Kind of Fire Belly
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/sexing.shtml

7. Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Species Care and Information
Newt Cynops ensicauda Japanese Sword-tail Newt Cynops orientalis Chinese Fire Belly Newt Cynops orphicus Cynops pyrrhogaster Japanese Fire Belly Newt Cynops shataukokensis
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Salamandridae.shtml

8. Caudata Culture - Newt and Salamander Articles
shed some light on the subject. Chinese Fire Belly Newt (Cynops orientalis ) This species is the most common newt sold in the pet industry. If you have a fire belly newt, this is
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/firebelly.shtml

 

[alan]

Aha. I use Macintoshes. FreeFind is broken with Safari, but works OK with IE, Netscape.
CC homepage code is a bit screwed with Mac IE (looks OK with Safari, Netscape:

 

[john]

Hmm that is bizarre. Does the Caudata.org page look like that too? (I have a good reason for asking) Thanks for the feedback Alan.

 

[alan]

It's better because the boxes are narrower and don't overlap leftColumn so much, but in priciple, yes.

 

[john]

Well I believe I can tweak that. Leave it with me.

 

[alan]

Happy to test pages on Mac for you JC.

 

[jennifer]

Alan - the output you got from the search is exactly what I see when I hit the "Site Map" button. If you are sure you didn't hit "Site Map" by mistake, then I assume this is the output you get if Freefind cannot display correctly, or has some other glitch with your system.

In any case, we are thinking about instituting a better search feature at some point.

 

[duncan]

Hi Jennifer,
Like Alan, I use a Mac and get the same opening page at Caudata Culture as he does (but don't have the same problem with the Caudata.org start page). Don't know if this can be fixed but thought you might like to know.
Duncan