The New Look of the FCARC Website

As some members know, the FCARC webmasters (Chris, KB1NEK, and Al, N1AW) have been talking about making some changes to the website. In February we put up a beta test version, and a number of people responded to our request for comments. If you are reading this now you have found the new pages, either the test version or the converted website in the new format.

We changed the look of the website for several reasons:

• First, we have noted that most websites try to have new and changeable information on the home page. People will return to a site if they expect they might find something new. We expect club members to turn to the website for new information, such as meeting programs or plans for public service events. We want viewers coming to the site for the first time to see current news first. We hope information about current events will encourage a new ham or a ham new to our area to join us. For these reasons the page that used to be the "News" page is now the home page, the first page you'll encounter at the new http://www.fcarc.org. If you have bookmarked the old news.htm page, don't be concerned. We have posted a "redirect" page, so clicking on a bookmark to the old News page will automatically redirect you to the new home page.
  
  
• Second, we have changed the order of the index at the left hand side of each page. After the Home page we have put "About" (which is an amplified version of the old Home page with Hyrum's history of the club), "Contact us", and "Repeaters". These seem to us to be the most important pages for someone new to the area or new to ham radio, a potential new member. After that the order of links reflects an idea of the order of importance for active members, with "Activities" (the club calendar) first. Following this is a new "Emergency Radio Work" page. The order is easy for us to change; if you want to suggest moving something up or down in the list please contact the webmasters.
  
  
• Third, although the design that has been in use for the last several years was attractive, the graphics at the top of each page had the effect of reducing the amount of content that is visible when a page is first loaded. We have simplified this part of each page so more content will be visible.
  
  
• Finally, we often keep older news items on line if it seems they will remain of interest for a while, but this resulted in the News page becoming too long. A long page takes longer to load, and we think people are unlikely to scroll all the way down a long page, anyway. So we are going to keep the news items on the Home page current and will more aggressively remove older items. But rather than have all older items disappear permanently we will move those that seem to be of continuing interest to a new "News Archives" page.
  
  

Comments and suggestions are welcomed. Mail to webmaster@fcarc.org will reach both Al and Chris.