You Guys Reading the Daily Bulletin??

[DesertLefty]

Paul,

As with all the rest of this site, the quality of the Daily Bulletin is very good. Most of us regulars read it first every day - but maybe not for the reason you think! Except for the forums, it's now the only thing that changes every day. So, if you need your daily "fix", it's the only place to go.

I now find the layout of the front page to be very cluttered and visually confusing. This is probably the reason why many people haven't figured out that the Bulletin is even there.

I hate it that the Bulletin is inside it's own tiny "window" and that I have to scroll it separately from the rest of the page. Tastes may vary, but it sure doesn't warm my heart. I put up with it only because the content is so good.

For my 2 cents worth, you should consolidate the Bulletin and the Blog. The Blog is now growing stale because it doesn't get updated even once a week. Why not just put the bulletin items into the blog? Update the blog daily, then archive it weekly or bi-weekly.

This would clean up the layout AND make the blog a daily must-read. Hmmm, isn't that what blogs are supposed to be? A fast-moving, but slightly informal, vehicle for somebody who's got something,worthwhile) to say. Yup! That's you.

Thanks for all your efforts,

Lefty

 

[Forum Boss]

Except for the forums, it's now the only thing that changes every day. So, if you need your daily "fix", it's the only place to go.

Lefty, I wish I could put up a major article every few days, but as pretty much a one-man operation that's just not feasible. It usually takes 20-30 manhours to do a major story start to finish. But I'm trying to figure out ways we can direct folks to more regularly updated content--smaller stuff like gear reviews and maybe a "Range/club spotlight".

I now find the layout of the front page to be very cluttered and visually confusing. This is probably the reason why many people haven't figured out that the Bulletin is even there.

I hear you, but it is right at the top of the page, AND in the left nav bar, AND below the buttons.

Given your suggestion however, I worked through most of the night and tried to simplify the home page and make the most visited features easier to navigate. The tough thing is that the coding for the Donation and search buttons displays different on the various browsers,I-Explorer is the big problem), so that placement is not as elegant as I'd like. Not much I can do without completely re-doing the whole site in php. That might take a full year.

I brought in a designer to do a home page redesign. Unfortunately he left me in a lurch. I do think the page design could be much better, but there are things that just have to go there--the Gun of the Week links, the Targets icon, the search button, the link to sponsors.

I hate it that the Bulletin is inside it's own tiny "window" and that I have to scroll it separately from the rest of the page.

Lefty--click the button at the top of the home page!

The Bulletin resides in an iframe window on the home page, but that's only to get people to see it on the home page. From the Forum if you click the red button on the top of this page you'll see that there is a regular Bulletin page, all by itself. That is the page that is linked from the left margin throughout the site. It looks like this:

Most people seem to think that's a pretty clean layout. The latest forum threads even appear at the top in a scrolling menu.

For my 2 cents worth, you should consolidate the Bulletin and the Blog. The Blog is now growing stale because it doesn't get updated even once a week. Why not just put the bulletin items into the blog?

I've considered consolidating the BLOG and Bulletin. The deal with the BLOG format is that it has to be created in raw html and that requires much more time and formatting. It also is very time-consuming to have to manually archive each BLOG. With 15-20 hours per week going into the Bulletin by itself, time is the issue. I also probably spend 2 full hours a day answering reader/vendor email. So that's another 14 hours a week.

I do think your idea for simplifying the home page makes sense. The problem is some people don't use the left navigation at all, while some people want photo icons for all the major features. Other people want a more prominent search feature. Some people have suggested pull-down menus while many folks hate those because they usually require java script.

 

[Forum Boss]

Paul
I can't read it.Half of each page is missing or covered with other text.If I use the computor at work it shows up good but not on my set-up at home.
I also get the exact same problem with the IBS website and Wideners website.
Probaly a format incompatibility thing.
Lynn

Lynn, can you tell me what browser you are using? I haven't seen what you've described. Sometimes there is an issue if people over-ride the default type size to make it much bigger or smaller. If you are using I-Explorer, on your tool bar at the top, go to Page > Text Size > and select "Medium". This is very important because the Bulletin uses a columnar format.

If your browser has been set for "Biggest type" the Bulletin can look like this with lines that are cut off on the right:

Selecting "smallest type" can also throw things off.

 

[Will]

EiC, Yessir I read it. Thanks to your Daily Bulletin I found,& contacted for more data) a shooter who had reported good results on a powder,Bulk) I had just bought. It might even work in 6mm but this was for .308. Doing a great job, keep it up & I'll keep reading !

 

[TonyA]

I didn't say anything originally 'cause I knew it would be a good bit of work but, the Home page is too narrow. Do away with the borders and let it go full screen. Then you'll have room to spread things out a bit. If you could move things away from the borders of the bulletin it would stand out more and be more noticeable. And, try to keep the size in the bulletin so there is no side scroll bar across the bottom.

Categorize some of the items on the navigation bar to shorten it and eliminate the redundant categories that run across the screen. Some items have as many as 5 links.

It's all good stuff, but could use a little re-organizing and a little less redundancy. I don't mean to sound critical, I don't, just trying to give you some ideas.

Tony

 

[Forum Boss]

I didn't say anything originally 'cause I knew it would be a good bit of work but, the Home page is too narrow.

Do away with the borders and let it go full screen. Then you'll have room to spread things out a bit. If you could move things away from the borders of the bulletin it would stand out more and be more noticeable. And, try to keep the size in the bulletin so there is no side scroll bar across the bottom.

Tony--good suggestions. Unfortunately the site is built on templates and the width is fixed. This is a major upgrade we're hoping to implement,if I can ever get the designer to finish the job).

Categorize some of the items on the navigation bar to shorten it and eliminate the redundant categories that run across the screen. Some items have as many as 5 links.

The redundancy may seem dumb to some people, but I'm constantly asked "how do I get to old articles" or "how do I find the gear reviews". When I point them to 3 and sometimes 4 navigation items on the home page,often in Bold, red letters) they seemingly can not believe it.

We've explored pull-down or cascading menus, but this will require java and some people don't have java-enabled browsers.

We've also found if we take ANYthing out of the left nav bar, readership of that item drops dramatically and instantly.

But all your ideas are good ones. I have to decide how to implement things in a cost-effective manner.

 

[LRCampos]

I check the Daily Bulletin every day! It is one of the most nice features of the 6mmBR site.

Please, keep it running!

 

[rudedog]

Yes i check the daily bulletin every day. Keep up the good work. Rudy

 

[savet06]

I check it everyday, sometimes twice if I work overnights. It's definitely one of the best features on any website that I have seen.
Mike

 

[savet06]

I check it everyday, sometimes twice if I work overnights. It's definitely one of the best features on any website that I have seen.
Mike

 

[TonyA]

Mr Moderator, you must have been on overtime yesterday. :thumb:

Tony

 

[Forum Boss]

Tony,

In the interest of simplification, I've removed the individual text links to the Cartridge Guides. They're still in the left nav and there's a big button. I'm a little nervous about that because our Cartridge Guides have come up right at the top on Google--a key factor in the viability of this site. If our rankings go down because of this navigation change, I'll put the individual links,e.g. 22BR | 30BR | 6XC | etc.) will go back in.