Terrouge E-zine Archives
Select a different issue | Select a different title
Editorial: What Makes a Club Good?
By: Kenny
Last week, I asked the Redwall Online Community what makes a site good, and frankly, I’m a little disappointed that I only got three responses. I was hoping for more, but oh well… here is what you guys had to say:
Dear editor, One of the main things I look for in a club is frequent updates. If a club is not updated at least once a week, members become unhappy and annoyed. The other things I look for are monthly contests, art pages, and poetry pages. And last, but most importantly, originality. No one wants to do the same things over and over. -Shorestar
"...about what makes a Redwall club good. Although it may not be important, the one thing that upgrades a club for me is if it tells when it was last updated. I hate going through all the pages and trying to find if there is something I missed." Thanks for hearing me out! -Greenfeather
The thing that makes a club good is LOTS of updates. If you update it a lot, people don’t get bored with it between updates. -Slashtooth Triplewhoop
Thanks a lot Shorestar, Greenfeather, and Slashtooth Triplewhoop! I believe that all three of those are valid aspects of what goes into creating a ‘good’ sites, and they go along very closely with my own view on the subject. While looking through the many not-so-great Redwall sites, I formulated a list of what the most important things to take into consideration when building your site are – and they’re really pretty simple to implement on your site, too. Enjoy!
Innovate – don’t just imitate
Without original content, you'll get nowhere. You can afford to circulate some of the ideas that are popular in the Redwall community, but you have to do something or add something to your site to make it unique and original.
Simple Navigation
If I can't find the content that I want on your site easily, I'm going to go somewhere else. Provide, if nothing else, a 'join' and 'e-mail' link on every page. You never know when someone is going to feel the urge to sign up or e-mail you. Use consistent design, a simple navigational system, and, above all, make it simple.
Graphics - Use sparingly and wisely
Graphics can either turn on or turn off a visitor. A well made graphics set can bring oohs and ahs from a visitor, but poorly designed graphics makes you think, "Geez! What an amateur!" Of course, well designed graphics that are huge (in file size) can produce the same effect. Also, make sure that your graphics match the style of your page.
Speeling, and, Grammer - Make sure it's correct
(Yes, I did put those mistakes up there intentionally.) There's nothing that I hate more when I'm surfing than coming to a page where, the, grammar, is; off, and the speeling, could some work be using. How hard is it to spell check and grammar check your work? Not very, as there are all sorts of spellcheckers that you could be using. A couple misspelled words isn't going to kill you, but if you have more than about 5 to 10 (at the most), then you should definitely get it run it through a spellchecker.
That’s all for this month folks! Don’t forget to check out the rest of our
articles, which include an interview with Snowfur, leader of the Redwall Encyclopedia,
info on the Redwall Awards ’99, and much, much more! Agree/Disagree with this
month’s editorial? Go ahead and