[Gloucs] [ot] sourceforge website

[bjh]

*** reply

----- Original Message -----
From: "Guy Edwards" <guy_j_edwards@hotpop.com>
To: "MAILING LIST" <gloucs@mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 10:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Gloucs] [ot] sourceforge website


> You're in for a (good natured) scrap here Barrie :-) feel free to argue
> a point, this isn't a flame.
>
> On Sun, 2003-01-05 at 21:20, bjh wrote:
> > The simple Solution I use for that is to not use graphics for title
purposes
> > or any other heading or word that you require all browsers and computers
to
> > be able to see...
>
> The alt tags are specifically there to display alternative text for the
> image and show up using the text based browsers. If you use any
> text-based browser - links, lynxs or w3m - they are there, and the menus
> still are navigable. They will also be read in voice browsers.

*** Your problem here is that the search engine robots will in all
probability ignore this and not pick up the graphic.
I have tested this numerous times over the years and bearing in mind the
length of time it takes most of the large search engines to rank a page it
is not worth taking the risk - because if it doesn,t work it could be months
before your revised page can be re-submitted and ranked!

**************************

>
> > If you stick to building in "Tables" and use colour backdrops you can
get
> > good effects
>
> The problem there being that you are using tables for layout purposes
> and not to represent tabliture data, which is against the W3C's
> accessibility recommendations. Your layout should really be defined with
> your CSS.
>
> The reason behind it being that the more tables you have, the more
> confusing it becomes for someone navigating with a non visual browser
> (eg if they're blind).
>
> > - oh, and you must stick to using Arial, Times New Roman or
> > Courier, the three texts that all computers can read...
>
> I don't agree here either :-) you can specify whatever fonts you want
> but the last one you specify should be a generic family so that the
> browser can specify one of the correct type e.g.
>
> * {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}

*** The older browsers are only reliable with the three fonts I mentioned
above - later browsers will give a much greater range of fonts...
*******************************
>
> here it ends with sans-serif. Other options (someone's run off with my
> books so this might not be 100%) are serif and fantasy.
>
> Incidentally, are you sure "Times New Roman" is an every computer font?
> OpenOffice substitutes it for "bookman" if I recall correctly.

*** Times New Roman is one of the three main original fonts for the purpose
we are talking about - perhaps OpenOffice aren't too worried about the older
browsers...
*******************************
>
> > The other advantage is the search engine Robots can then read the text
> > heading as well, thereby boosting site ranking on some of the main
search
> > engines (as I am sure you are aware, the search engine Robots will not
pick
> > up content of any graphics at all)...
>
> I kind of agree. The heading in any Google search is the <title> of the
> page with the text that follows beneath being the first text it stumbles
> across on the page. If I were really awkward I could argue that the tile
> appearing again will make the summary less effective at conveying the
> site in the limited space of a google search result and that the search
> engine ranking will be better benefited by having good content.

*** My email to you covers Google in greater detail - other site links to
your own particular site are also crucial with the Google ranking mechanism
and reports about this are only now slowly filtering out into the market
place - the Google Founders originated this method of ranking...
*****************************************
>
> > You can boost the "Table" heading by playing with the Border widths,
that
> > is, 1, 2, 3, etc., to give different framing effects to boost the visual
> > appearance and you do not have any Loading delay because the browser is
> > reading text and not a graphic...
>
> Yep I agree with that. (using css to do the border though)
>
> eg
> #heading  {border-bottom:1px solid #000;}
>
> > If you want to see some examples please let me know.
>
> I like new sites, I get new ideas. I find it can be difficult to make
> sites different if you do a few. I made three in one week once.. they're
> abandoned projects now but you can see just by looking they use almost
> identical code
>
> http://mailist.sourceforge.net
> http://phpbddb.sourceforge.net
> http://aal.sourceforge.net
>
> > If you could also let me know what sort of "free graphics" you are
looking
> > for I will see what I can come up with......
>
> Royalty free (is there such a thing as GPL for photos?) archives, public
> domain similar to the nasa site. Mainly for doing website graphics with.

*** http://www.freefoto.com/
http://creative.gettyimages.com/photodisc/
http://www.freeimages.co.uk/
http://www.istockphoto.com/
http://www.freestockphotos.com/

and many more...
******************************>
> Guy
>
> Best wishes... Barrie
>
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