"PHASE II" of PontiacRegistry.com Operational

[Larry]

We want to thank everyone for their patience as we uploaded the all new "Phase II" of PontiacRegistry.com.

We hope you like the all new, much "more Pontiac" graphic look and the new, better organized navigation system.

Please check it over and let us know if there is anything that we might have missed or anything not operating properly.... after all, there are only about 100,000+ things happening at one time here, so something could have slipped by.

Please let us know how you like it, and give a great big thanks to Robert, our new Web Technician, who fried his eyeballs reading mountains of codes to make all this happen and look and work so well.

And last, but certainly not least-- tell all your Pontiac loving friends about PontiacRegistry.com. We have much more coming for everyone to enjoy and benefit from. We need your support to make all these good things happen.

[super]

The new format definitely has a greater visual impact. Glad to see you have things up and running again.

Thanks,
Super

[87_FieroGT]

Sorry, not feelin' it. I liked the "old" format better, not that it couldn't have used a few tweaks.

I appreciate the effort to improve things though.

[Larry]

Basically things were never built by the original web designers with the visual impact I asked for. It had nothing to "grab" you when first visiting. The navigation system with just a listing on the side had gotten out of hand also and had tons of duplication.

Most everything is still the same, but one might have to find a new button or two. Appreciate the input.

[Larry]

That sounds like a "Do you enjoy beating your wife question?"

Of course I want input. It doesn't matter if it matches my expectations or not. I am here for the long haul because I enjoy doing this and hope that the Pontiac hobbists enjoy it too. Is it an uphill climb, of course, all new things are.

I've never banned anyone, and have no intention of that; however, if someone gets nasty (about anyhting, or to any one), we don't need to subject others to that.

If anyone wishes to tell me what I should or shouldn't do, that's fine. But let's follow that up with an offer to help too.

Thanks,
Larry

[Larry]

We always had to scroll down to view more posts, but now we have just narrowed it a bit for lots of needs, and some posts go to a few more lines, and then require scrolling a bit sooner than perhaps before. The use of two scrolling bars is common. Remember that whenever you go to a page, you can simply move the page up to block the headers and then scroll up and down with the other bar. But you can even forget about using bars completely by using the "roller wheel" on the mouse and zip around everywhere-- even though that can get confusing at times if you zip up and down too much. When posting a reply in a forum there has always been a scroll bar built into the forum for reviewing previous posts. That is just for quick reference to the post you are replying to, not to go back reading everything posted. For that it has always been more convenient to just go back to the original forum posts.

If anyone is having to scroll back and forth (left to right) then their monitor settings need to be changed. The only time there is ever a need for left to right is if someone posts an image that is too large and it "forces" the width. When I see that, I resize the image and it fixes everything.

Any time you change something it is like a divorice/remarriage. There are always pluses and minuses with the new, and there is always something you remember about the old one that you still like.

[87_FieroGT]

I also didn't want to hurt any feelings, but since PontiacPurest has opened the door some more to constructive criticism I'd like to chime in with my 2 cents.

I personally hate framed pages, which is what the site essentially is now. They are very annoying to me for reasons already pointed out.

Second, the navagation bar is lost in between the rapidly rotating animated GIF ad space and the target frame of the site content. It's very small where everything else is comparitively large.

Third, the site now just looks too old school. It looks more like something from the 90's instead of a cutting edge website. I'm not looking for fancy Flash generated splash pages, but an intuitively layed out page that could use a flash navagation bar and more eye friendly rotating flash ads and a larger format as previously stated say optimized for 1024x768 screen resolution.

With all that said, I still appreciate all the hard work that goes into the articles found here and all the information that can be found.

Thanks Larry. I hope I didn't exceed my 2 cents.

[super]

Keep up the good work Larry. New things take time to adjust to. I always like to think on a positive note and realize the hardwork and dedication you have brought to us. Your experience is valuable and I know you are trying to send Pontiac Registry to the next level. If it were not for you, we would not even have this oppurtunity.

I wish we had more contribution by members. I believe some people lose track of things and use sources for the wrong reasons. Hopefully in time more members will contribute. I enjoy the broad spectrum of Pontiac enthusiast this club attracts. We do get a lot of interesting material presented to us, we just need more.

We all try to experiment with things in life to make improvements. Heck, look at members Pontiacs. The new look of Pontiac Registry is more appealing. Thanks again for all your hard work Larry.

[cjsFiero85]

Larry, I think that it looks great. One item that I looked for but didn't see (which as my wife can tell you, doesn't mean that it isn't here) is a listing of upcoming car shows. Here in the Midwest, most of our cars are dormant, but I know the planning for a car show happens a year or more in advance and therefore it would be nice to see a list of upcoming shows for the year by state so I can plan accordingly. It does me no good to learn about a show a week (or less) before the show date.

[Larry]

I wish we could do everything the way everyone would like to see it. There have been certain comprimises we have had to make along the way... kind of like those larger cc heads you really didn't want, but with today's gas, you had to.

So is this site construction. I have been very honest when I explained that I never liked what the original web guys did. It was way too grade school looking and I hear lots of complaints that there was no "flash". This new look added car pictures and such that at a moments glance tells a visitor that it is a car site. But it is just another kick at the cat, and we will keep working to make it better.

The framed page is something we kicked around so we could keep other info on the page at the same time. I personally love it with the narrower page and have gotten very used to it already. Actually the only time it is even much different than before is when posting a response if you want to scroll down to check something. Perhaps we will lengthen the page a bit in the future to open up the forum area a bit more. That is no problem.

I have seen web sites where the pages scroll on forever, and we don't want that either. The need to take into account monitor sizes is important too. If we go too large, then laptop people will be scroling left to right until they go crazy. This size arrangement is what is considered the standard (and current) in the industry today. Bear with us as we look for the magic combination.

The new navigation system allowed us to loose a lot of duplication that was confusing as well as open up more space. I have had to get used to it also. As for the rotating/flashing ad images, we are planning to slow them way down. We realize they are too fast. That should make the navigation buttoms more clear too.

Now about the car shows. I am just beginning to see good listings of shows appearing and wil start adding them as I see good ones. Remember that this area is open to all members to post shows in. And, they don't have to be just Pontiac ones. Any fun events are welcome.

This is a tough job but I enjoy it. We have a number of things under development that we are hoping to instigate soon. Also, the web format is not as flexible as some would think. There are all sorts of parimeters that you have to work within, and all sorts of considerations depending on the viewer. We will keep working to try to get the best of all worlds.

And, for heavens sake, don't feel bad about hurting my feelings... one or two rum and Cokes and I'm fine again! Now if I begin needing to use "Sunset Rum", the rum of our home in St. Vincent, we're all in trouble... 84.5%, 169 proof! Good for putting you right to sleep, and cleaning paint brushes!