A
Anonymous
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Re: FAO: Davidt
1. With most people using broadband these days, it really doesn't slow down the site. It affects the bandwidth the site uses slightly and whether it has further cost to you, only you would know. It doesn't push the main content down, as I used the space that is already there, with the 'MAIN'/'Home'" title, which is pretty redundant anyway. So it doesn't get in the way of getting to the latest info. If the images are good, they help you know what the content would be about, before even reading the summaries of the articles.
2. You can choose whichever image size you want, but if you care about the visuals and what 'looks good', it sometimes means odd image sizes. I presume there are scripts out there that minimize the image to the desired size, or crop it, like for example on Facebook's main Timeline page, where there's a background image that expands when you go over it. As you want the stories to go up as fast as possible, it is best to rely upon an automatic script.
For stories that do not have pictures, or would only have pictures later on, you would use general images according to their category - i.e. Smiths related, shows, interviews, etc.
3. As for the module at the right of the page. Yes of course it would have a caption and a link to the relevant story. You can pick any theme you fancy.
I suggested random stories/pictures from the last month, because all you would have to do is put the pictures in one folder. I don't think cropping is less of an issue with the right pane module.
I acknowledge that commercial sites have staff, but I am sure there are automatic scripts out there that can resize and/or crop images on the fly, perhaps the outcome would not always be ideal being automatic and all, but it would mean less time and effort. I'm sure bigger sites use automatic tools as well - ready made templates or macros in Photoshop to crop the images to their site's needs. As it's important for you to get the story up, it would slow things down if you would have to rely on another person and wait for him or her to do their thing. It doesn't mean a lot of work, because there aren't too many stories in a week, like the NY Times has to deal with and some of the stories are would use generic images and would be already prepeard.
So I think it boils down to finding the right script for the site, or for cropping images to a predetermined size offline and on the fly - I can look around. If you want people to give their opinion on this look beforehand, that's fine by me.
I'll let others chime in with feedback to see if there is a strong interest but from my perspective:
1. Adding images slows down the web page in general - it's pretty optimized with small images but adding 3 large images would probably double the page load time with the size of the images and 3 additional image requests. It also pushes the main content down. As I mentioned before, it gets in the way of the main goal of getting the latest information. While at first glance it may be visually more appealing, I prefer to minimize the use of graphics.
2. The code changes for the images above the top 2 articles would not be trivial. The images are also an odd size - relying on automatically cropping images within the article would likely not be effective, I would have to custom crop and upload an image for each one which would probably double / triple the time it takes to publish an article.
3. Adding a module in the right column with an image would not be that hard with the current software. Each image would likely need to also be custom cropped to fit in that location so that is a bit of additional publishing work. I did choose to feature images before at the top of the page early in the site's history, around 1997-1998 and the extra time it took to choosing / sizing images frequently became a bit too much. Keep in mind this is not a site like CNN or the NY Times where there are a staff of several editors / programmers focused on content full-time. Seems like there should be some text indicating why that image is there. Does it link to something? Maybe it's the image you chose and I am not the 'frink' type but I wouldn't have thought to feature this image. Perhaps you want to volunteer to be the photo editor?
1. With most people using broadband these days, it really doesn't slow down the site. It affects the bandwidth the site uses slightly and whether it has further cost to you, only you would know. It doesn't push the main content down, as I used the space that is already there, with the 'MAIN'/'Home'" title, which is pretty redundant anyway. So it doesn't get in the way of getting to the latest info. If the images are good, they help you know what the content would be about, before even reading the summaries of the articles.
2. You can choose whichever image size you want, but if you care about the visuals and what 'looks good', it sometimes means odd image sizes. I presume there are scripts out there that minimize the image to the desired size, or crop it, like for example on Facebook's main Timeline page, where there's a background image that expands when you go over it. As you want the stories to go up as fast as possible, it is best to rely upon an automatic script.
For stories that do not have pictures, or would only have pictures later on, you would use general images according to their category - i.e. Smiths related, shows, interviews, etc.
3. As for the module at the right of the page. Yes of course it would have a caption and a link to the relevant story. You can pick any theme you fancy.
I suggested random stories/pictures from the last month, because all you would have to do is put the pictures in one folder. I don't think cropping is less of an issue with the right pane module.
I acknowledge that commercial sites have staff, but I am sure there are automatic scripts out there that can resize and/or crop images on the fly, perhaps the outcome would not always be ideal being automatic and all, but it would mean less time and effort. I'm sure bigger sites use automatic tools as well - ready made templates or macros in Photoshop to crop the images to their site's needs. As it's important for you to get the story up, it would slow things down if you would have to rely on another person and wait for him or her to do their thing. It doesn't mean a lot of work, because there aren't too many stories in a week, like the NY Times has to deal with and some of the stories are would use generic images and would be already prepeard.
So I think it boils down to finding the right script for the site, or for cropping images to a predetermined size offline and on the fly - I can look around. If you want people to give their opinion on this look beforehand, that's fine by me.