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Post by melissa on Feb 2, 2013 1:04:51 GMT
Hello! Hope you've all had a good day. Just thought I'd start a 'website' thread to get the ball rolling. I've been looking into how plausible it would be for us to make our own website (as opposed to paying someone to make one for us). I’ve been searching for website providers that are free, easy to use, don't have adverts, and are aesthetically pleasing to look at. There are the obvious one such as WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr, all of which could work if we customised the design a little. However, after trying out a couple of their templates, I’m not sure they’re completely suited to our journal. We are kind of operating like a mini-business, and the blog-style website possibly doesn’t work for that. One website that looks like it could potentially be quite good is ‘Weebly’. (http://www.weebly.com/) It’s free – unless you want to add more advanced elements to it – the templates look good, it gets good reviews and, once you get used to it, it seems relatively easy to use. (I had a play around with it, and managed to make this in about 30 mins: fictionaljournal.weebly.com/index.html - this was just an experiment, but it seems relatively easy to use.) I need to look into it a bit more, I only just found it tonight, but it could be an option. Anyway... I’ll keep looking, but just to let you know that I've started looking! If anyone knows of any other websites which look good, let me know. G'night  - - - oh, p.s. *(I'm not sure who will be in charge of actually running website-making later on, but just thought I’d get the ball rolling as I’d said on Monday I’d start looking into it). |
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Post by melissa on Feb 2, 2013 1:07:39 GMT
Also... I know it's early days, but it would be useful to think about what we actually want to have on the website. This will inform what kind of website we make, and would help us clarify what we're looking for if we do decide to ask a designer to get involved.
So, some things I think we need to think about what pages we want (e.g. a home page, and ‘about us’ page, possibly a blog and/or extracts of writing) and also whether we want to sell the journal online (and how would we actually go about doing this).
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kat
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Post by kat on Feb 2, 2013 12:00:26 GMT
Melissa - Edan and I have been talking about this as we could probably take on this task having just finished building a website ourselves (if Edan decides he wants to do it of course!).
I've been thinking about all this stuff as well, in terms of what should go on it and so on, so will probably spend some time looking at the various templates. Maement used Wordpress which looks professional, we used Omeka for our site, and I'll take a look at the one you mentioned.
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tony
New Member
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Post by tony on Feb 2, 2013 16:35:00 GMT
I can't believe you made that in 30 mins Melissa, it looks so legit, bravo! For content, I like Chris' idea of using the website as a free portal or hook, containing a few of the stories or maybe just extracts and snippets from them, and information on how to buy the full journal.
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Post by melissa on Feb 2, 2013 17:51:58 GMT
Yeah, that's cool. I heard you mentioning that Edan might want to do it. Just thought I'd start looking into it. Had said to Dean that I'd look into website pricing on Monday, although don't think it's in the minutes.
I had a look at Wordpress and didn't really like it all that much. It's definitely designed for blogs rather than businesses, and I think the nicer templates cost money. But that was just from having a short look at it. I'm sure we could adapt it for what we want to do .
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Post by David Rush on Feb 2, 2013 21:48:38 GMT
I think that looks really cool, Melissa!
And if you could do something that looks that slick in half an hour, think what we could do with it in all the time we have!
I'm not sure website wise which is the best template to use, etc, but I'm sure we'll get there.
We'll need to set up a Facebook/Twitter account too, as soon as we know the name (I'd quite like to take charge of the Twitter feed, but if someone else wants to, that's fine, I just love Twitter, haha)!
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Post by melissa on Feb 2, 2013 23:15:04 GMT
Thanks! I'm quite pleased with it I'd be happy to still have some input in the website as a design team person. I think this Weebly site supports PayPal as well which is something we'll need to consider of we're wanting to sell the journal online. And yep, should get those sites set up too |
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Post by kerryann on Feb 3, 2013 13:31:34 GMT
Wow Melissa that's really cool Would we want to make a blog as well? Maybe on the website - that may be quite a good idea. I know author's generally have their own blogs but because this is a collective effort maybe we could have someone in charge of the blog? We could all decide what goes into it but one person could be in charge of putting it in? Just a suggestion But yeah, if that's something people would like I wouldn't mind being in charge of the blog. I'm only on the editorial staff so I don't have anything to do yet |
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Post by melissa on Feb 3, 2013 14:29:14 GMT
Yeah, a blog would be a good idea. The good thing about this Weebly website (I'm not getting a commission for 'selling' this site, by the way, haha. It just looks quite well suited to our journal) ...but the good thing about the Weebly site is you can add a blog into the website as well as having other pages that are more commercial/business orientated.
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Post by jennacouston on Feb 3, 2013 16:53:27 GMT
would we still want to set up a tumblr account? because i was thinking of setting one up for us, since i already have my own: jc-arsenic-on-the-rocks.tumblr.com/. i'm also pretty handy with HTML codes (to an extent lol) to customise/design the layout. if you have a wee look at my tumblr, i tweaked the codes to move my entries to the right hand side, so that i could add in the Sarah Michelle Gellar image of the left, and then changed the colours of the font, text boxes etc. to match. I also did the "Arsenic On The Rocks" logo myself on photoshop. (as you will probably notice, my last "entry" was last april lmao - but i still use it every day, and i will most definitely be more active on our literary journal one ) |
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kat
Junior Member
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Post by kat on Feb 3, 2013 17:20:08 GMT
Kerryann, Melissa - as far I'm aware, my role as 'Communications Officer' was going to include setting up the social media. Also, as far as I'm aware the role of the people in the design team is to design the physical journal itself - if Edan and I take this website on, I want this to be our responsibility. Obviously, we will ask for feedback and input from the whole group along the way, but, if everyone starts treading on other peoples toes by trying to take on lots of areas at once I can see problems arising. as a side note: the website from last year's journal - http://maement.co.uk; and Valve - www.valvejournal.co.uk |
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Post by kerryann on Feb 3, 2013 21:15:26 GMT
Kat, yeah, I wasn't sure if we were having a blog though, I hadn't heard anyone bring it up so I thought I'd ask. Saying i'd take it on was only if it was free and no one wanted to do it. On Thursday we talked about a twitter account and a Facebook. We also said because editors don't have anything to do right now we should find other duties if possible. We said we wanted to be mindful that people didn't have hundreds to do so it isn't too stressful. But that's cool, if it's to be within that structure. I'd only put it out there as a suggestion.
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kat
Junior Member
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Post by kat on Feb 3, 2013 21:41:57 GMT
Shouldn't the other duties be broken up among the group mainly be fundraising though?
Because for me, I'm not going to have a future role as editor (with nothing to do at the moment). This communications and social role will generally be what I do - I did say at an early meeting that I'd do the Facebook etc, so will need to make sure that's recorded on the minutes from now on - because obviously it's difficult to pick up on everything that's discussed in two hours!
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Post by David Rush on Feb 3, 2013 22:07:23 GMT
We can go over all this on Thursday and decide who is allocated which roles within teams (still have a couple of people who aren't even definitely in any one team either, and that'll need to be rectified ASAP)! P.S. Jenna, if you find you have a random new Tumblr follower, it's me.  |
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Post by melissa on Feb 3, 2013 23:14:18 GMT
Hello. I've asked David if we can add role-clarification to the agenda on Thursday. Think this should help to iron out some of the misunderstandings.
It might be good to have an action plan at the end of each meeting too so everyone is clear about what they're doing. It's all a learning process and I'm sure we'll sort everything out on Thursday.
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