Old news can be found here.
By Miller
#35524
I have been working on some web pages that would help flesh out DriverMadness.net and increase what, in the real-estate business, is known as "curb appeal".

It is okay, boss, if you are not interested in this proposal. It has still been fun creating the web pages.

Here are pictures of my idea for the home page. It is designed very simply, so it will work easily. And after being reminded by SLAYERMAGGOT, in his "Post Your Desktop" topic, of how important it can be to make content at DriverMadness.net accessible to the greatest number of visitors, it also seems to make sense for that reason as well.

Here are the hyperlinks to the images I mentioned.

home 01

home 02

home 03

home full view

If your screen resolution is set at 1024x768 or less, and those image web pages initially load the pictures so they fit entirely within your screen, you should be able to take a closer look by clicking directly on the images themselves, as with most any other image web page online.

Permission options for viewing these files have been set to "public" so anyone should be able to view the pictures. If the image web pages do not load for you, try pasting the following URL into your web browser's address bar and then navigate to the page where thumbnails are displayed for a photo album of these idea images.

http://cid-349ae3102ac639ef.photos.live ... ge%20Ideas

Oh, that just automatically makes an abbreviated hyperlink. Well, you can still right click on it and select "copy shortcut" if simply clicking on any of these hyperlinks fails.

If anyone else wishes to post ideas for DriverMadness.net web pages in this topic, that is okay with me.

[EDIT: 08-13-10]

Here are the other pages. One only took like fifteen minutes because thee is nothing on it really, but we could have a good time with a chat page here, I think.

gallery 01
gallery 01

gallery 02
gallery 02

gallery 03
gallery 03

gallery 04
gallery 04

gallery full page view
gallery full page view

gallery header logo 01
gallery header logo 01

gallery header logo 02
gallery header logo 02

gallery header logo 03
gallery header logo 03

gallery header logo 04
gallery header logo 04

gallery header logo 05
gallery header logo 05

Spill Box
spill box
Here is a description of the features: http://www.shoutmix.com/main/features.php
Last edited by Miller on Sat Aug 14, 2010 1:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
By max.thunder
#35525
Miller, that's an AWESOME idea, it can be the best Driver website!
Also it would be good to post some downloads of Driver series (i can help with some of them, like scores, albums,guides,etc)

EDIT: I will update the albums the next month!!
User avatar
By bb_42001
#35527
I like your idea, and you are quite welcome to make it if you like, i can give you the DM logo. also Someone792 or what ever his name is, is actually working on a proper "downloads" site called driver mods.

bb42001

10

Noodles
 
User avatar
By RacingFreak
#35529
It`s really great idea! Me likey :P

In some way, if it`s needed, I can make a probe webpages of it, and help with building off the site. Also I can do the site skin and graphic items.

Edit: I`ve made an a Driver Madness webpage at Ucoz here. I`ll be happy if it helps. :)
By Miller
#35532
bb_42001 wrote:i can give you the DM logo.
Okay, boss. Thank you for the reply. My preferences here are set to allow administrators to email information to me. I will reply with a private message to confirm having received the file(s).

I left "Downloads" hyperlinks out of the horizontal navigation menus at the top of these pages to be consistent with your current practice of revealing that part of your website to those who are registered and logged in to the DriverMadness.net forum.

:?: QUESTION:
Is someone972's DRIVER download website going to be what loads when a member clicks on the "Downloads" hyperlink you have in the horizontal navigation menu in your forum? Or is someone972's DRIVER download website a completely independent operation that will need to added to the list of "external resource" hyperlinks going down the side of this proposed homepage thing?

:?: QUESTION:
Dr. Doom, if you see this, what is up with DRIVER TOOLS (DRIVER DATABASE)? Is that going to be another website that needs to be included in the list of hyperlinks or will it be permanently closed? Is that what the boss was talking about -- that you are working on with someone972?

TheOldGamer wrote: Edit: I`ve made an a Driver Madness webpage at Ucoz here. I`ll be happy if it helps. :)
Thank you, man. If only more of DriverMadness.net's more highly visible members would try to post things of value to this website instead of posting things that make us look bad, that would be nice.

I do not really see anything there having to do with DriverMadness.net, except a hyperlink leading back to the DRIVER: RENEGADE section of bb_42001's forum.
User avatar
By Fireboyd78
#35533
Miller wrote: :?: QUESTION:
Dr. Doom, if you see this, what is up with DRIVER TOOLS (DRIVER DATABASE)? Is that going to be another website that needs to be included in the list of hyperlinks or will it be permanently closed? Is that what the boss was talking about -- that you are working on with someone972?
Nah, I can't stand the burden of running a Driver website. Driver Tools was lost along with Host2X, and Driver Database just isn't going to happen. However, I have offered to help Someone972 run DriverMods (http://drivermods.drivermadness.net).

I don't know, but he wants his brother to do some kind of gallery or something...
User avatar
By RacingFreak
#35546
Well, a Gallery with a lot information about Driver series, might be cool and easy to do for me. I`ll start writing it today as a webpage and setup it as "Driver Gallery"(is the name O.K?).

PS
In some way Ucoz sucks, because it`s harder to modify the code to make a new categories and so, I`ll host a html in another hosting.
User avatar
By T.K.
#35549
hmm, i believe you are all so silly.
By Miller
#35551
bb_42001 wrote:i believe in making a download gallery, sort of like a picture gallery but for downloads.
One of the pages I already made, in addition to the one shown above, is basically this, if I understand the boss to be saying this is what he would not mind having for a gallery page at DriverMadness.net. I am not sure, maybe bb_42001 was merely saying he believes that is what is going to be in someone972's gallery that Dr. Doom mentioned.

This page shows rows of images that were downloaded from each of your custom car topics. These are presented as thumbnails, which link to full-size images of those custom cars made by your modders. The full-size images will not load until the thumbnails are clicked (in the interest of whatever that is in the interest of - lol). Along with a very brief description of each custom car, crediting the modder(s) associated with that mod, is a hyperlink to the forum topic dealing with that particular custom car.

Below the thumbnail gallery of custom cars is a hyperlink to a slide show of these same full-size images, which Will not load with the gallery page, but only after the reader has chosen to view the slide show (also in the interest of whatever that is in the interest of).

That is what I made already. I am still tidying up these pages and adding the proper hyperlinks to the pages' source code or whatever it is called. The pages function on my desktop PC, and interact properly with the boss's forum and other pages linked to, but have only been tested in IE8 so far. It will be done pretty soon.

To clarify: Things I have not done any work on are pages dealing with the individual DRIVER games, the sort of pages that tell about the gameplay, system requirements, story, characters, etc. I personally do not feel interested in creating that sort of content, especially since there is already so much of it elsewhere that is very nicely done that we can simply link to. But it is easy to see why you guys want to make DriverMadness.net a complete package again. If you guys are really interested in creating DriverMadness.net web pages for bb_42001 to take into consideration as well, there is a nice opening for you to show your work, too, I guess (depending on what the boss has to say about it).

This is only a submission for consideration on my part. If you guys look closely, or even not very much so, really, you will notice that the boss wrote nothing to me except that he likes the web page I showed in this topic. And then he offered me a logo to make it more official looking. There is no confirmation of anything in that, just a nice guy being polite to one of his guests. -- helping me have some fun.

Anyway, maybe that helps clarify things a bit with regard to what I am working on, and might help to avoid unnecessary overlap. I only began doing this because it seemed like an open area for involvement that has been left untouched for a very long time at DriverMadness.net. As I started off saying, it will be okay with me if the pages I have made are not even used.

I also hope no one gets angry because I took these liberties with images available on the DriverMadness.net website, which is all they are still being used for.

Thank you for the replies, by the way.
User avatar
By bb_42001
#35557
I was talking about Someone 972, he want to make driver mods a image gallery but for downloads, how it will have a thumbnail of the program or download, a description and a download link.

bb42001

10

Noodles
 
By Miller
#35596
All the hyperlinks are done on my web pages, so the web pages are finished, I guess. Now everything I look at has "Click for larger image" superimposed on it. I went to sign in, and rather than typing my user name, I started typing "Click for larger image" instead. LOL

I do not know if these pages would actually work for you guys. Design-wise, they are okay, and would help lead visitors to DriverMadness.net to where they may become quickly informed about things or immediately involved in our activities such as modding discussions, Driver Stories, poll topics, or chat. Not only those who are unfamiliar with DriverMadness.net, but perhaps even the Internet, could easily find their way to the meat and potatoes of DriverMadness.net this way, I would think.

There are probably a lot of reasons -- reasons I would not know about, or how to fix, either -- that these pages might not be of any use. I hope we can have some pages like this sometime, though.

For me, personally the DriverMadness.net website already looks fine and works well enough. Just ideas, though, to make using DriverMadness.net easier and prettier for visitors or whatever.

I do not like that JPEG, man. It seems that it is engineered so that every time you save a JPEG image file, it is compressed again. It looks like -- and please tell me I am wrong -- but it looks like you cannot copy a JPEG image and paste it somewhere else without the copy being degraded in quality.

One of these pages only took a few minutes to create, but we might be able to have a good time with a chat page here, I think. This looks like it works for simple chat interface, so people can say hi to each other in real time without all having the same stuff installed or being logged in to MSN or that sort of thing. I ordered a few months of the premium version in case the boss wants to see if it would suit DriverMadness.net. Here is a description of the features: http://www.shoutmix.com/main/features.php

Here are the other pages. I will mail them to bb_42001 tomorrow. It is late, and my hand and eyes hurt. I feel sorry for people who point and click for a living, man.

These screenshots are a little blurry, but you can get the idea and read the text, I guess. Dig that license plate, man. LOL

gallery 01
gallery 01

gallery 02
gallery 02

gallery 03
gallery 03

gallery 04
gallery 04

gallery full page view
gallery full page view

gallery header logo 01
gallery header logo 01

gallery header logo 02
gallery header logo 02

gallery header logo 03
gallery header logo 03

gallery header logo 04
gallery header logo 04

gallery header logo 05
gallery header logo 05

Spill Box
spill box
Last edited by Miller on Sat Aug 14, 2010 1:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By max.thunder
#35601
GREAT JOB!
User avatar
By Fireboyd78
#35629
Miller, my only concern about having an HTML page is the fact that every time you want to add something new, you have to MANUALLY edit the page every time, where as opposed to PHP, you can just submit a form and depending on how well you set it up, it would add the page automatically for you and maybe even show a time stamp. Just sayin.
By Miller
#35665
Oh, really? Is that how all that works, then? Cool, man. I like .php.

I was wondering why there are web page of both types at some websites, such as Driver-Welten.de (or whatever JAY is calling it these days. I guess he went back to the original name or something. Love the in-your-face ads all over the place, man. Great DRIVER website, though. Cool dude, too, right? Knows how to build a better mousetrap.) Thank you, Dr. Doom, for depositing that information right in my lap so I would not have to go try to actually learn something new on my own. LOL

I guess it is a lucky thing that DriverMadness.net is not one of those places where they feel it is necessary to make a new announcement every time some game developer hiccups. MARTIN EDMONDSON EXPERIENCES MUSCLE SPASM IN THE DIAPHRAM – VOTE ON THIS!

At this one website, I was reading a post in the message board, where the administrator, who also acts as webmaster, was apologizing for not providing more frequent updates to his ‘front page’. He added that from then on, he would make a new update every day. I was like, ‘What is this guy going to do, start reporting the color of the stuff he flushes down the toilet?’ Next time I visited, he was apologizing for not keeping his pledge.

Hopefully we at DriverMadness.net are not so insecure. It is probably good to keep things like this in a realistic perspective.

I like the idea of trying to encourage participation, without worrying about those Internet junkies whose appetites probably cannot be sated anyway, or those who overindulge in disappointment fetishes. It would be nice if our focus could be largely on making things happen here instead of feeling dependent on external sources of gratification. I do not expect anyone else to arbitrarily share my sentiments, but to me this community itself is where the news is, and the real updates of interest happen every day in the forum every time one of the DMC is good enough to post a message. Naturally, the more that pertains to the DRIVER series of video games, the better it is.

I will see if I can figure out how to make one of those .php things instead then. If not, then I guess we can update the ‘History of DriverMadness.net’ topic: And this is what our website looked like for about a week. (lol) By that I mean someone else can probably come up with something satisfactory to replace this with. It is not like there is a constant need for front-page updates around here, but whatever the boss wants is what he should get.
User avatar
By Fireboyd78
#35701
If you're the kind of person that has trouble learning a new language, just stick to HTML frames. I've downloaded templates before that let you edit a simple text file and whatever is on there is what displays on the homepage.
By Miller
#35705
Thank you for the reply Dr. Doom. And, by the way, thank you for not saying my web pages look like an eight-year-old made them, especially since they do.

I guess what I actually need to do about this is nothing at all unless the boss tells me to, like a good boy—instead of making assumptions I have no business making.

Do you guys think it would be a good idea to display featured screenshots on the front page of DriverMadness.net like other websites do? It seems like that would be one more way to encourage participation around here, promoting a further sense of inclusion. It seems like a lot of people think having a screenshot of theirs displayed in a place of prominence is a big deal.

And then we can all read where Postal Dude informs people their pictures look like crap. LOL
By Miller
#36044
Here is sort of a public update thing for the ones who were interested in the topic.

Those web pages I made the first time were created after reading some old topic here in which madness advised a member of the DMC that MS Word could be used to create web pages. I guess that was a nice way to become familiar with how a web page is designed, but it turned out to be impractical where the boss’s server specifications are concerned.

As you are now aware, I did not know any coding language at all in the first place. (I hardly know English well enough.) That part about sticking with static web pages for now might be a good idea for more reasons than one. I will tell what I mean.

An important difference is said to be that web crawlers—to different degrees, depending on which search engines they belong to—have more trouble with dynamic web pages than with static ones. One problem I read about had to do with pages that include calendars and other stuff like the Driver Madness Portal used to have that was continuously updated automatically in real time. This sort of content apparently sends some web crawlers into endless loops, which means they are not reporting updates to those pages to search engines in a timely manner. I guess this may mean that to some extent that stuff is nice eye candy for people who are already familiar with your website’s location, but it does less for those who may have yet to make such a discovery.

In this type of scenario, people searching the web using terms associated with current events may not be likely to get your website in their search results even if the story they are looking for is on the front page of your website. That is because search engine data for your front page may be several months old doing things that way. I did not pull that out of my crack, I read it at websites that teach webmasters about these things.

I suppose there is not a big problem if the pages are ones that have been up for a long time, since the information available via search engines will still lead to the same website, even if the search results data being provided is not current. Regardless of whatever else is true, I find it difficult to ignore the Google Webmaster Guidelines that suggest an advantage in using static web pages instead of dynamic ones.

It took less than a week for me to learn how to make the new home page using some thing called notepad while referring to online tutorials. It should become increasingly easy to make other web pages. I am surely overlooking some important things—which is unfortunate—but starting to get the hang of it. Some essential things I did not know about before were meta elements, fonts being displayed according to what is installed on the user’s computer rather than according to how a page looked on its author’s computer, differences between various character set codes such as ANSI and Unicode, etc.

I stopped doing this for several days to work on the DRIVER 2 Video Workshop, which seems to me to be entirely related to this mission. When I found out last week that it would be easy for me to upload decent looking videos to YouTube.com, as well as videos up to fifteen minutes long, it seemed like a good idea to use that to try to do what this website mission is about, attracting visitors and encouraging participation.

There is a handful of demonstration videos at my new YouTube.com channel showing examples of techniques used in making cheesy DRIVER 2 replay videos. The first response from a viewer was a thumbs down (lol), but that is okay because it means people are looking at the stuff. Each person who does view one of those demo videos will also see the promotional segment at the end of the video advertising DriverMadness.net.

I could not very well ask people at YouTube.com to come look at the DRIVER 2 Video Workshop if it did not look more impressive and more informative than it was. Hopefully anyone who posts to that topic will bear in mind the importance of that topic’s appearance in helping to represent this website’s public image (not to sound big-headed about it, but to be realistic).

I put up several racing videos that look pretty good and also the fifteen-minute Las Vegas Jump Run. I had that particular video up for a while when I first made it. 15,000 people looked at it. That is not a lot of viewers in a world where many videos get a million views each day or whatever, but it was 15,000 people who saw the promotional ad in the video for DriverMadness.net. The first mission videos of the Driver 2 Video Story were only up for three weeks before I bailed out and deleted my account at YouTube.com. During those three weeks, the D2VS got 5,000 views, which means that the commercial for DriverMadness.net was seen another 5,000 times. By the way, I am grateful to those DMC members who have also placed DriverMadness.net promos at the end of their DRIVER videos online, so thank you.

Anyway, I am back on learning to make the new web pages. I will try to do it as fast as I can, all things considered. I only just downloaded the most recommended free FTP program I could find. I have to learn how to use that and see what the deal is with moving files to and from a website. I will attempt to make this a priority, and I hope I do not inadvertently do anything that will compromise the security of the database.

Here is a hyperlink to the Google Webmaster Guide for those who may feel interested in reading it.
http://www.google.com/support/webmaster ... swer=35769
User avatar
By RacingFreak
#36046
Why you don`t try Visual Basic`s Internet Environment Development? It`s one of the best visual html page editors and makers.

Also it`s nice information (that you posted), but I think you will need a good web hosting service. Are you using any at the moment? I`m currently using as far maybe 50 free hosting services, but the old hit.bg (a bulgarian one) seems to be most reliable with a zero amount of ads, 10mb space and unlimited bandwidth. `Nuff said.
By Miller
#36146
TheOldGamer wrote:Why you don`t try Visual Basic`s Internet Environment Development? It`s one of the best visual html page editors and makers.
Thank you for the reply, Old Gamer. I have not been able to find that thing for some reason. When I enter a search query of "visual+basic" "internet+environment+development" I do not get any useful results. Will you please post a hyperlink to the product, man? Thank you.


As far as the hosting service thing is concerned, perhaps you have already forgotten about the following exchange of messages, in which it appears you participated:
TheOldGamer wrote:Maybe bb seriously needs money :mrgreen:
bb_42001 wrote:no, the donation miller made will keep DM running for years to come...

I am working in partnership with the Driver Madness Network management, not independently. We are using paid hosting, and I trust the boss to handle the funds properly. I am not particularly familiar with the details, but I am sure the boss has chosen wisely in this regard.
By Miller
#36187
bb_42001 wrote:indeed, its $15 dollars a year for hosting and almost $9 dollars for the domain name
Only fifteen bucks per year, boss? Where is this at? I am planning to make a website, too later on. And that sound like a good deal. Where do you get $9 dollar annual domain registration or whatever, man?
User avatar
By bb_42001
#36189
domain registration is from GoDaddy.com , but as for the $15 it was though racks unlimited but they got taken over by someone, cant remember the name, anyway i organised to keep the package i have now when its time to renew, as far as i know, they dont provide the same packages.

sorry this is who i go through now: https://michtinelabs.com/

bb42001

10

Noodles
 
By Miller
#36268
Thank you for the information and the hyperlink, boss. Wow, boss, you do have a dirt-cheap deal even compared to what the same people charge now. Still, even their mostest plan thing is not much. Stuff I have been looking at is like $10 or $15 a month to get unlimited everything including streaming video in multiple formats.

I cannot really tell what the deal is on that at this place, though, man. Can we download streaming video in formats such as .mov, .mp4, or .wmv? This DRIVER 2 Video Story thing has four parts, three of which fit within the 15-minute time limit at YouTube.com, but the fourth is looking like it will be about 25 minutes long. In addition to the driving it has some segments with acting or whatever (strong emphasis on "or whatever" more like or something). I was planning to upload a trailer of Mission #4 to YouTube.com and offer the full-length video here, be that by hosting it here or merely showing it here but hosted elsewhere.

Can we use as much bandwidth as demand necessitates or is that limited? It seems like there are some restrictions placed upon what is being referred to as traffic. Hey, man, I only just yesterday finally saw where it says click here (or something) to upload files to the download database. I was too embarrassed to ask how to do what it seemed like everyone else already knew. LOL Anyway, I clicked on that hyperlink in the DRIVER category at the downloads section and a message said something like "overall traffic surpassed" or reached or something.

I was wondering because it seems like it would be a good idea to replenish the stock of official download content, such as demos, patches, and trailers, etc. even for the oldest of DRIVER games. Such files are much larger than 5MB, if that is my limit to upload. (Do not know, boss, just seems like I read where you informed someone previously that the upload size limit is 5MB or something.)
User avatar
By bb_42001
#36277
actually, i dont know whats going on with the downloads database i think for the most part it does not work anymore, but even if it was a 5mb limit that i put on i can no longer access the DM control panel.. as i said it doesn't really work anymore, it died when racks unlimited moved their stuff to the other guys.

Also because my plan is slightly different to what they have their, Racks gave me a 50gb bandwidth which DM only ever used about 2 or 3gb in bandwidth a month. so if you work out a way to make your own video player or something simular, i am quite happy to host videos.

well i hope that sort of helps you.

bb42001

10

Noodles
 
Crazy Copper Frenzy

https://youtu.be/xAE3QsULyB4

https://youtu.be/AxdGf3F0yIg

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