Might as well

[FrankV]

I might as well get my shot in here.

Please review my site and tell me what you think. collincountystation .com

Yes, the code is not pretty and all that. The site will probably not render well below 800X600. Yes, it uses frames. Yeah, I'm a bit unorthodox in my methods.

Oh yeah. The site is constantly being worked on due to the nature of the thing .... plus, I'm always thinking up stuff to change.

[travelswcharlie]

Hi Neighbor,

(I'm in Richardson)

I love your "Pictures" feature.

Questions... how did you DO that... where did you get the photos and how did you get permission to use them?

And a comment... the photos change too fast, even on my slow dialup.

I'm not qualified to comment on the build of your site, but AM qualified to say... "Interesting idea!".

[always24-7.co.uk]

Preacher: I think the consensus is to try not to use frames anymore but i'm no expert and it works so good luck to you . I liked the photo's and actually used one of your links to the grand canyon railway looks like a great trip.

CJ: I'm not sure how Preacher did the photo rotation on his from page if that is what your on about but I know the javascript I wrote for Neil (pagez) the other day will do that exact thing. If you want it, i've demo'ed it here http://www.always24-7.co.uk/test/scriptsdemo.php and you can download it from here http://www.always24-7.co.uk/mgf/foru...forum.php?f=32

It was written for rotating advertising but it can be used for rotating almost any html including image links. Hope it helps.

All the best.
Michael.

[Sharron]

Preacher, you are a brave person! I've still not offered my site up for a blatant critic.

I've visited your site the other day.............maybe was yesterday. I wondered about the pink and train association! lol

Yep frames aren't the best and I have to wonder why you use them. I think I remember one frame is the top and the second is the bottom half.

I'll have to go back and take a longer look. I've a old friend (male) who is a train fanatic. He is also a Texan, he used to build scale ridable trains. He may still do so, I've not heard from him in a while. Hank is his name. A character.

[JustPo]

The frames keep your home page URL in the browser's address bar all the time, and keep the same page title displayed at the top of the browser window all the time. After going to another page of your site, in order to continue navigating through the site and get to other links, it's necessary to click the "home" link you've included in the content of SOME of the pages within the frame.... otherwise one must click the "back" button on the browser to return to "home" where the other links are. It would be good to get rid of the frames altogether, and include all the important links to other parts of the site on all pages of your site.

I looked at your site the other day, too. On the "churches" page, I'd include only the headings for denominations that actually have churches in a particular town, and eliminate all the empty headings and categories.
(Just something I found interesting when looking at your church directory, is how different the numbers of churches of various denominations might be in other regions of the country. Even if I had no clue where Collin County was, I'd have realized in an instant, for example, that those weren't listings of churches for towns in Wisconsin or Minnesota!)

The images that rotate on your Pictures page (and also on your main page) could be resized smaller (both visually and kb size). I checked about 6 of the images. Each of those jpg's is 1024 pixels wide. They're displayed on your pictures page much smaller than that, though, and MUCH smaller than that on your main page.
.

[FrankV]

Hi! Good to have neighbors.

Almost all the photos are mine. I took them on visits to the towns and on vacations. Then I scanned or transfered the photos, edited them down with a program or two that I have. Makes the copyright thing a whole lot easier. There might be a couple that are not mine, but I linked back to the business that they came from. If they complain, I'll remove the pics and the links. They lose the free advertising, not me.

For editing the photos, freeware is my best friend. http://www.xnview.com/

I'll try to slow the speed down some. I assume that you refer to the photo page with the large photos? I didn't want it to get boring, but I understand the dial-up part. Thankfully, I have DSL now.

...........
Yes, frames are not popular. I tried other methods (iframes, tables and such), but none seemed to work right. I don't like the side to side scrolling (bottom scroll bar) on pages and frames was the only way I can get that sorted out. I'm far from a pro at HTML.

The photo rotation and all other rotations are javascripts that I nicked here and there. Some were edited (hacked?) by me to add or do stuff that I wanted but couldn't find anywhere else. I try to have the javascripts in separate files that I simply reference on the pages. Keeps the size of the pages down and makes them cleaner. No miles of javascript in the head section. <laugh>

I'm glad one of the links was useful. It has been slow getting the site rated in Google and gaining visitors. I hope to actually make a dollar off the site one day. Until then, it is a learning experience. I've started learning style sheets and other stuff that I probably would never have messed with.

.............
Yes, the pictures could be smaller. I went with 1024 so that they could be used as a Windows background if anyone wanted. I suppose that I should size them down more.

Thanks to all for the reviews.

Frank

Ps: I'd like to nick the scripts by Michael and see if they will replace some of the scripts I have that I'm not real happy with. I assume they are free to use as desired (freeware)?

PSS: I have changed the background color. It didn't loo pink on my monitor, but what the heck. It is now a "html safe" off white or antique type color.

the site looks good.
but i dont understand the real benefit of using frames on your site.
i think you know that search engines cant index content in frames.
that means your site is not search engine friendly.

consider to use a good layout
place all ads in left or right column.

[always24-7.co.uk]

Preacher (everyone else who has or wants the scripts): The scripts are free to use. I ask that you keep the comments in place within the scripts (these can only be seen in your source code). This is the only requirement. It would be nice if you were able to put a link on your site for others to be able to get the script. I would also like to know if you do use the script and where because I may in the future do a list of sites using the script to show how they are being used. However I would like to point out that these last 2 points are not requirements.

All the best.
Michael.

[FrankV]

Thanks again for the reviews.

Search for Collin County Texas show a placement of 45 in Google, 21 in Yahoo and 16 in MSN. Not bad for a frame site. I think the main problem with indexing is two fold. Many people do not use the "noframes" option to put content in the index page. And, the search engines can not make a "cache" of the index page. Personally, I don't care about the cache. And I have included keywords and content in my index page for the robots to find and use. They seem to find and use the information.

On the navigation thing: I have made a big change in that area thanks to you all mentioning the need to use the back button. Each "Depot" now has the menu from the main page. I like it! Thanks, All!!

This is why we ask for others to look our sites over.

[StevenofNine]

Heya Preacher, greetings from Plano!

You show up ranked highly in searches from nearby Collin County. I'm searching for you through Texas A&M servers, and you don't show up on the first 5 pages with those search terms on google. This is not unusual, however, for google to site-specify searches.

There's a real Web 1.0 feel to the site. I do highly recommend dropping the frames (there is nothing you can do in frames that good coding can't also do.) At this point, even a simplistic WYSIWYG editor (Netscape Composer is decent for beginners) will serve better.

For a starter site, excellent. Keep promoting us across the world!