You forgot the link! It's http://www.mypetersfield.co.uk btw

I think there's huge potential for a site dedicated to the town - it's something that's never been done before, or at least never done well - the last attempt, "Petersfield Online" suffered from a very pompous webmaster who tended to drive people away with his very conservative agenda (the whole site was basically a plea for nothing to ever be built anywhere in Petersfield ever again, and most specifically never in his back yard). It didn't cater for much else apart from that - even the "letters page" consisted of a selection of hand-picked emails that happened to support his NIMBY views.

MyPetersfield seems like a refreshing change from that - yes you do have your own agenda too (supporting local and independent businesses) but it's laudable and much more community based than P-O. The general layout of the site so far is okay - it's navigable and there's plenty of interesting, well-written content, with appropriate illustrations. The wash and brush up has improved it a little cosmetically but I'm going to be critical - if I'm honest I don't like the grey backdrop, I think it's all a bit too dark and the use of "Comic Sans" dates it a little - in webpage design terms it looks a little late nineties, not necessarily a bad thing except it may lead people to think the site isn't up to date, which is (a) not true, and (b) bad news for a listings site.

It also doesn't look quite right in Firefox still - the bullets you're using sit behind the text rather than to the left of it - which is a bit distracting. I know Firefox is still a minority browser, but it's use is increasing, and it's a good browser to test in since it's standards compliant (unlike IE).

I know you're not going for the social networking angle, and the thought of setting up a CMS like this one may be a bit forbidding if you haven't done it before, but if I'm honest I really do see that as the way to go. Apart from making it a lot easier to have a consistent look across the site, with consistent navigation, and making it MUCH easier to add new content yourself, it also opens up the site to user input - and that's priceless really. On the one hand you can get up to date opinions, news and reviews on countless places in Petersfield that you'd never get around to yourself, and on the other all your visitors get a stake in the site and a good reason to keep coming back, with more continual changes and their own content to keep an eye on... It doesn't have to be a free for all either - if you were using a system like Drupal at this site, you could set everything to go into moderation queue - articles, comments, the lot - and approve everything yourself. Just my two pence

Delete! Delete!

this is excellent stuff and just what I needed. For a start, there I was thinking that Comic Sans clearly positioned me a wild and crazee guy but I guess I have to rethink that one.

re the social networking angle, I really meant that that wasn't going to be the driver for the site, but you're dead right that it's essential to keep things fresh, to keep people coming back, to get a range of views and most of all to get other people writing my content for me. I'm going to have a look at Drupal - would I be able to overlay something like that over my site or would everything have to be redesigned around it? The idea of starting all over again with a rebuild makes me want to go take my nap. You don't run seminars I suppose?

Firefox: damned if I know what it is with those bullets, but everything else looks better than a few weeks ago. If anyone knows how to get FrontPage bullets to display in Firefox, shout out.

Not being petty, but it's silver you know, not grey.

Please keep the comments and input coming...

Get rid of the margin-left: -24px;

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Separate style from content. It's not difficult learn, and it makes debugging and updating designs easier.

Well, maybe Comic Sans is just a personal pet hate I can't speak for anyone else, it just rubs me up the wrong way a little!

If you were to go down the Drupal route, yes it would really mean redesigning from the ground up, but it's not as gruelling as it might seem. Once Drupal itself is up and running (again, easier than it seems) it's a blank canvas - it comes with a few different "themes" you can apply to it, but to really make the site look individual - and more "myPetersfield" like - you'd want to edit one of those themes to design it your own way. To do that does require a little basic knowledge of HTML and CSS - if you have that then the Drupal theme files will make a lot more sense to you, and you'll be able to play with one of the existing themes to tweak it your own way.

As far as the content goes, that's where it gets easier - it's pretty easy to set up Drupal to have the sort of structure you want, and then you can pretty much copy and paste your existing texts into new Drupal articles within that structure.

I don't run seminars I'm afraid, but I'd be more than happy to help you out with this - it's something I always intended to do myself but I already spend far too much time running this place, I'd be pleased to let you do all the work and just chip in where needed! If you did want to try it, it's probably best to install Drupal into a test subdirectory of your site first, and then play with it in safety without having to disturb your existing content. You could build it up gradually that way, and then if and when the time came that it was ready to replace the rest of the site, it's just a matter of moving the files across.

Delete! Delete!

I tried it and by God, it worked...

.... and I'll see if I can make sense of it. I'm assuming Drupal don't come for free ? I hate software you have to spend real money on, though admittedly the support is often better.

Meantimes, I've taken some of your 'what not to publish' tips on board, got rid of the rib-tickling Comic Sans and brightened up the front page with a simple pot of Brilliant White. I have to admit it's looking better...

many thanks again...

You're about to get a pleasant surprise - Drupal's 100% free! It's open source and there's no charge

Delete! Delete!

You are not alone
p.s.

it has been excised from the front page and will shortly disappear from the rest of the site. Let us speak of it no more.

one of my biggest font-hates (besides the one already mentioned above!) is PAPYRUS!

ugh!

not that it isnt a nice font, because really it is! but criminy, EVERYONE and their BROTHER and their UNCLE and (well... you get it) uses it!

another close to the top of the list is Revue. it's everywhere!

i don't care no i wouldn't dare to fix the twist in you (Sick Puppies : All The Same)

Well I like Comic Sans, so there. I'm also a fan of Lucida Handwriting.