Team 237's NEW SPIFFY WEBSITE!!

[Elgin Clock]

Team 237 has a brand spankin new website with an easier to remember name now.

The adress is www.TEAM237.com

Make a note of it!!!!


We also have a php bulletin board forums on our spiffy new site, so if you are interested, sign up.

That is located at http://www.team237.com/forum/

If you do sign up though, please include you team number in your user name!!

Thanks!!

edit:
By the way all costructive critisism is welcome!!

Any problems or questions about our new site can be directed to myself and I will pass the suggestion(s) or comment(s) along to the rest of the webteam.

[HFWang]

Two splashes pages?!

One is more than enough already. lol. The first splash page where you pick broadband/dialup the image is huge. BTW: why do you have to make a distinction at all? I have yet to see a page with text/pictures as content that really needed people to pick. In fact, I have yet to see ANY page where a pressing need to have people specify their connection speed arose, period. Write clean HTML, and keep images sane (IE: don't save everything as a maximum quality jpg, or have billions of colors in a small gif that doesn't need it, etc) and there shouldn't be a problem at all.

BTW: there is very strong contrast between your banner up top and the black background. Really have either a light or a dark background, its annoying to be undecided. Oh, and while I'm at it, the banner is huge, it pushes alot of the content "below the fold" so to speak for no apparent reason. (IE: the banner isn't all that useful). Alot of wasted space at the very top of the page, which is semi-annoying.

[sanddrag]

Eevn though I'm not a big fan of intros, I did watch yours all the way through. Nice job with CoffeeCup Firestarter I must say. I've tinkered with that program before and I know it's not easy to get what you want out of it.

[Jnadke]

Holy copyright violation.

Other than that, the site itself is pretty functional.

You should have a button on the flash to turn the music off. I absolutely, positively will not visit a site for more than 10 seconds if it forces me to listen to music. Whether I like the music or not, it doesn't matter.

[KenWittlief]

I let the splash screens play out - nice animation effects.

I noticed the music ends abruptly when the 2nd splash screen ends - kinda odd - maybe you could at least end it on a bar?

overall, a great site.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally posted by Jnadke
Holy copyright violation.

If you are talking about the hoobastank song... don't fret!!

The web team actually contacted them last year and requested permission to use it and were graciously allowed by Hoobastank!!

Thanks Hoobastank!!!

As for the music in the page itself, I don't like having that there either, and am not sure about the legality of that one so i will look into it!! It may be or might have to be removed!! Or like Jdnake sugested, there may be an intergrated off button added if we do/can keep it!!

As for the colors of the page, the original page found HERE was decided on and worked for a while, but i do agree, a high contrast with black and white isn't that easy on the eyes!!

Speaking of colors; does anyone know the link from that color pallatone* that Brandon posted a while ago for "nice" colors to use together on a webpage??

thank you all for your input, i will share this link with the webteam and we will probably be continually changing things and tweaking stuff to get it perfect!!

edit: fixed link to original page for reference.

[Jnadke]

Oh... ok. I was fearing that the RIAA was going to hop on you like a bunch of flying monkeys and steal your magic slippers....

Like Ken said... I don't like how the music suddenly stops on the introduction... you should at least have it fade out or end at the end of a verse...

As for the music, I didn't realize that your main page was in HTML format until I recently right-clicked it... I thought it was Flash. In which case it might make the ability to turn the music off harder (you'll have to use Javascript). Either that or use the embed tag to play the music rather than bgsound, that way you can set it to show the start/stop/volume slider...
It's more of a control thing. You should always let the user be in control of what they want to do, and what they want to hear. I hate feeling forced to do something...

[robot180]

That was one of the best intros I have ever seen.

[Madison]

Originally posted by Jnadke
Oh... ok. I was fearing that the RIAA was going to hop on you like a bunch of flying monkeys and steal your magic slippers....

That is, quite possibly, the funniest thing I've ever read on CD.

[Stefan]

Originally posted by M. Krass
That is, quite possibly, the funniest thing I've ever read on CD.

I second that.......

[K.Shaw]

well the music on the site ends abruptly cuz legally u can use 30 seconds of a song w/o asking and the beverly hills cop theme last exactly 30 secs also i can do all sorts of things to the music since i have a mixing program called acoustica. as for javascript i have no clue how to use it lol umm i am going to try to make a flash site dont know how good that will be tho keep up the criticism ppl!


-Shaw 1

-Sie-H2O-Bots Web Master (one of many)

[HFWang]

I'm not sure if that 30 seconds thing is really true though.

If it was, people who make commercials would never have to pay for the songs they use.

Checked the Stanford Copyright & Fair Use site, and got this:

Fair use. The composers of the song, "When Sunny Gets Blue," claimed that their song was infringed by "When Sonny Sniffs Glue, " a 29second parody that altered the original lyric line and borrowed six bars of the song. A court determined this parody was excused as a fair use. Important factors: Only 29 seconds of music were borrowed (not the complete song ). (Fisher v. Dees, 794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986).) (Note: As a general rule, parodying more than a few lines of a song lyric is unlikely to be excused as a fair use. Performers such as Weird Al Yankovic, who earn a living by humorously modifying hit songs, seek permission of the songwriters before recording their parodies.)

Emphasis mine.

Its a tossup though. Personally, I'd get my own music for that, because it also isn't an orginal work on the part of your team. Why does that matter? Well, FIRST is about creativity isn't it? I'd personally prefer that my team's website showcased OUR work, and not others.

[K.Shaw]

maybe if i wrote music that would work but i don't so....we use what we have and if I'm not mistaken the whole idea of making a website to being with is creativity no? so i would appreciate some constructive criticism

[KyleGilbert45]

I think the site is cool... i like the music... two cool songs...looks to be organized well....

i got bored and timed the Hoobastank song at the intro and i got 35 seconds of sound....

[K.Shaw]

if you read up further on the post i got permission from them to use the song but thanx for checkin it out o and thanx for timing it for me great work! lol