NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eosin the Red" data-source="post: 1456961" data-attributes="member: 168">WebstuffWebsite stuff. Now you would think that after running 2-3 websites I would know something about design? Wrong. I use FrontPage for all my needs and that might be a little skimpy for a full-fledged company. I did what I always do when I have questions, I went to a pro.<a href="http://www.raflar.com/fantasyrpg/fantasy.html" target="_blank">Raflar.com</a>Raflar did the work on the Middle Earth site that was put together here at Enworld and until he offered it looked like I would be doing the design so I sort of look on him as my savior. I spoke with him for 2 reasons - 1 keeping money within the "industry" seems like a good thing to me and 2. because I really like his work. What did I learn? I really need to go into webdesign if I want to make a good living. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Alright, hiring a webdesigner won't work. That means that I will need to do it myself. Fortunately, I have some skills, I have front page and I already know a lot of the "stuff" that you need to know. I have my own message boards which are the home of the Wheel of Time d20 community since WotC kicked them out <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Actually, most folks understand that the contract expired. I looked around for fantasy templates. Don't try this at work - you can get some pretty interesting results. I finally found something that I liked at Lipstick Monkey. It has imbedded pop ups, automated feedback, style sheets, and some good navigation.Now all I have to do is modify it to suit my needs and publish it. I had a nice picture hanging out that my brother had drawn for me. I scanned that bad boy in and will use it as the company "mascot." That took something like 4 hours when you include stiching it.Like Badaxe games, I desired my own DNS. Unfortunately, Pencilpushers.com is taken by an accounting firm. I did a search with my web host and came up with Pencilpushers.net. What is the difference between net, com, org, & us?_____________________________________________<a href="http://www.weeno.com/art/0799/128.html" target="_blank">http://www.weeno.com/art/0799/128.html</a>The dotcom.The last three letters of the URL. It is known as the top level domain (TLD). Top level domains consist of the generic .COM, .EDU, NET, ORG, GOV, MIL, and INT .COM stand for "commercial", meaning the website serves a commercial purpose, and is used to make money. While it is the most common domain, it is also the most abused, since many .com websites aren't made for profit..EDU is intended for educational institutions. Universities, colleges, schools, etc,.NET WAS intended to hold only the computers of network providers, but has become another over-used domain..ORG was supposed to be the "big" TLD, as it would have held anything that wasn't commercial, educational, or otherwise. However, it is one of the least used TLD's today..GOV This domain was originally intended for any kind of government office or agency. However, it was decided to register only agencies of the US Federal government in this domain. .MIL is the all but extinct domain representing the US Military..INT This domain is for organizations established by international treaties, or international databases. It is also very rarely seen.______________________________________________________I elected to grab the .net and go from there.Anyway - now I have the name and the web template and a mascot, I should be all set! Wrong. Websites (in this instance) are just like the FLGS. You should buy stuff from them and be allowed to hang out and read a few pages of any interesting looking book. The site should also make you want to come back more often.I suppose from here we should go buy a book on web design but being a bear of very little wit, I just plugged on through. These are the things that I found to be important.1. I want a newsletter that allows you to offer a little something each month.1.5 I also need regular features, like the news at Enworld that bring folks back to the site.2. I have a forum so that issue is already solved.3. If it can't be cool like Bad Axe then it should be clean. Not all of us can be the coolest looking site on the web. I would rather look clean and plain than noisy and garish in an attempt to be stylish.4. Easy navigation.5. Style Sheets!!! The Wheel of Time taught me that little lesson. It plain looks goofy when your text is 2 different fonts, colors, or sizes.That about sums it up for my web stuff. I did do some surfing today, but in the end, I don't want to be a critic and the sites that I did look at were all steller so .... we can just skip that part.Next....It slices, it dices, it is the mighty green katana of doom!!!</blockquote>

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