What should we put on the site?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : CWS suggestions : One Thread

Post your suggestions to the CWS website by entering a reply to this message.

-- Simon Johnson (virtual3@mos.com.np), March 08, 2000

Answers

Hi Simon,

Nice work for 5 in the morning :-)

A few suggestions, all meant in a very positive way:

You may like to think about using a 2-frame frameset to hold the greenspun pages instead of simply linking directly to them, ie in the top frame to show the CWS header and a mini-navigation bar, and in the big bottom frame to show the greenspun page(s). This will keep the URL shown in the browser address box as a CWS URL and will keep all of the pages looking like they are all on the site.

-------- Instead of the voting system why not have a 'feedback' link on every page which would let people email comments directly to yourself. The 'voting' construction tends to work best when the question is very concrete and you can respond directly to the options shown - for a general "is the site OK?" question I can't see what you would do with the answers.

You could perhaps use a voting box to ask something like

"I contribute to charities like the ChildWelfareScheme: never o | occaisionally o | often o" And, "Would you like to help the ChildWelfareScheme? : yes o | no o"

something like this may show if it is sensible to offer some sort of sign-up contribution scheme and/or an online collaboration area (eg a private forum) for helping people organise local 'events' for the benefit of the CWS.

I also find the splash screen with the voting option gives a very 'this site is under construction' impression. If you want to keep this voting option then I think it would be better placed discretely at the foot of the home page.

------- You seem to have combined two ideas now in the forum: - news from the CWS activities - a visitors 'guestbook'/discussion forum

Perhaps it would be better to keep these two things apart? I would also be wary of making a forum for 'the public' to have discussions amongst themselves but seemingly 'sponsored' by the CWS. Although it is not very likely to happen, these sorts of opportunities can be taken advantage of, or misused, so that someone would have to monitor messages appearing on the forum and be prepared to remove them if needed. Again, its not very likely but there are reports of child-help sites being preyed on by a certain section of the public which nobody wants to see associated with the CWS.

I would tend to opt for the construction that you had before, with a 'private' news desk for submitting stories. If you add a 'feedback' message option then you could always collect any interesting messages in a 'Your feedback' (or somesuch) page. Thsi would give you total control over what appears on the site.

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Last but not least, I can only apologise for not being more active in helping out with the site so far. Instead of the work load easing off (as I was planning for) its only increasing 8^} and I'm no stranger to 5 in the morning myself.

Anyway, keep up the good work and I'll try and chip-in when I get a breather,

cheers,

John

-- John Storey (johns@deltapoint.nl), March 08, 2000.


how about a photo of you Simon?‰

-- Gazzer (barnett@mos.com.np), March 08, 2000.

Frightening

We don't want to scare users away!

-- Simon (virtual3@mos.com.np), March 08, 2000.

What about spelling your name correctly on the contacts page? :)

-- Philip (grrr70@hotmail.com), June 25, 2000.

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