Well, I went ahead and invested another 60 dollars to upgrade to the newest theme that Mark and I purchased a couple years ago and it’s allowed me to avoid doing a lot of the actual hard coding. I’m mostly working within WordPress, but the majority of the design stuff (and what is giving me a bit of stress) is the CSS. It isn’t difficult, but the strain on my eyes. Got a lot motivation from the station news!!
Chris here…
If you ever think I can help with any of the CSS stuff, just LMK - I’ve never worked on the CSS for a WordPress site before but can code CSS for a regular website up to W3C standard! 
Take care…
I will be definitely taking you up on that offer, Chris!
Just another quick update…I think I’ve finalized the main sections of the site. I wanted to let you guys know so I can get suggestions and feedback
The key sections of the site are essentially what we currently have now except for a few changes:
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We will have a HOME button to link back to the homepage. On the current design, we have the logo linking back to the homepage, but not in every section of the site. The HOME button as well as the logo should make it easy for visitors to go back to the entry page
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The CARTOON button will be renamed ANIMATED SERIES. Not a big deal, but I feel like animated series gives off a more professional feel; not that either wording is incorrect, but I kind of think it sounds cooler.
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TOYS remains the same.
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COMICS remains the same.
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MERCHANDISE will be remained to COLLECTIBLES. I think renaming it to collectibles allows us to be more flexible in what goes into this section of the site, whether it be licensed products from the 1980s, or the current products such as the statues. Of course, the statues will become our headline sub-sections with Mark’s great relationship with Hard Hero.
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THUNDERCAST gets a permanent button on the main nav bar. I think after the great recording Nick, Chris, and I had, the podcast deserves its own section. We could even add Nick’s interviews into this section as well!
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I added a MOVIE section. I know that the movie has been shelved, but I still have a ton of content that I haven’t shared with everyone due to not being able to create a place on the site without spending time to redo some of the site. At this point, it makes sense to hold it for the relaunch. Hopefully, a new movie will come out and we’ll get to use this section more in the future.
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COMMUNITY remains the same; have some great ideas for this section!
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ABOUT remains the same.
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Added CONTACTS. I don’t know whether or not a web form is the best idea, but may be we can vote on this during the meeting and go from there. In any event, I think we should make some kind of changes to the email addresses…which I will post in the respected thread.
I have space for one more section and I was thinking of adding the forums. What do you guys think?
More soon!
Chris here…
Hey Manny, I think all of the above are good changes - when writing about the cartoon I often refer to it as “the ThunderCats animated series” because, like you, I think it sounds more serious and professional. Unfortunately there’s still a bit of a stigma attached to the word “cartoon” (people think of Tom & Jerry and suchlike), which is why the show was called “Batman: The Animated Series” not “Batman: The Cartoon Series”, LOL! 
Agree about the change from Merchandise to Collectibles, it gives a wider scope - great idea!
If there’s a spare link on the navigation bar I think you’re right, probably add a direct link to the forums.
Looking forward to seeing it all!
Take care…
Another quick update, I’m updating the relaunch front page so that it is identical to the news we’re putting up on the current front page. This way, we don’t have to go back and redo the archives later on.
I’ve PM’ed most of the team about scheduling meetings in regards to their sections so we can discuss further how everything is going to work. Going to PM Nick soon as well regarding the podcast section.
I password-protected the relaunch pages so that no one outside of the team can access it, but here’s the username and password so you guys can view it:
http://www.thundercatslair.org/relaunch
username: redesign
password: catslair
I would like to keep the relaunch details to the team only, including the link.
Whatever you see in the relaunch area is strictly all test pages. I too am also trying to get a hang of what I can and cannot do in WordPress.
I’ve updated the team status thread with the current team and information.
Looking forward to meeting with everyone soon
that login and user name doesn’t seem to work
Chris here…
Yeah, doesn’t work for me either - am I doing something wrong?? 
Take care…
Sorry! The username is redesign, not relaunch. Must have been sleepy when I was typing that post up!
Chris here…
LOL, no problems, Manny - I know the feeling!
Looks to me like you’ve done some more work on this - I think it’s looking great, the biggest thing that’s missing (obviously) is the new header, otherwise, double thumbs up from me!
I got your PM, BTW, just waiting to hear back from somebody about something and then I should be able to confirm - keep your eyes open for a PM from me!
Take care…
Just got done meeting with Mark regarding the Animation Art section. I gave him access to the WordPress control panel and it seems to have gone well.
Not sure if all our meetings will go through the control panel like I did with Mark since I’d rather do that once with everyone and not have to go through it three or four times.
But anyhow, looking forward to meeting with everyone in the next couple of weeks and moving forward with the new site.
Hey Manny, yeah just wanted to re-iterate that this was a great overview you gave me of the wordpress functionality and I must say I think this is going to be a much easier way of developing web content. I’m very pumped about this and while I think it’ll take us all a bit of time to get used to it, I feel like I’ll be able to get my pages ready and together very quickly.
I think the rest of you guys will really dig this, Manny has done a lot of work to set up the shell of the site and it’d be great if everyone could make sure they do the heavy lifting in getting their content up on the new site. Lots of work for sure but once we’re all used to it we can help each other out.
My sections aren’t that big so I’d be happy to help on things like the episode guide and encyclopedia.
Cheers,
Grizz
Chris here…
Great to hear that this went well - completely understand, Manny, about you wanting to save having to show each and every member of the team individually how this will work, no problems at all.
I’m really glad to know that this is motoring, and Manny, I’m looking forward to speaking further with you in detail about the Cartoon & Comics areas on Tuesday!
Also just to add that I’ve made a start on collating all the material you need that I have, and hope to get some more done as my spare time allows over the following few days!
Take care…
Hey Manny,
Could we start adding a few details around tips and default syles / fonts and formats etc.?
What I’m getting at, is that I’ll be moving some of my content over from the current site over to the new pretty much “as is” and then making adjustments as I go to make it fit the new look of the site. A couple things occur as I start doing this:
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The formatting / font gets brought over and I am not sure what the default on the site is… or how I can paste it over to the new format in the default format instead
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Sometimes images I see in the design sheet don’t show up in the (example is here)
http://www.thundercatslair.org/relaunch/?page_id=52 (note that the ‘About Collecting’ graphic doesn’t show up)
EDIT I fixed this in the html code and its cool now -
Could we agree to a default set of formats and fonts so they’re consistent throughout the site and so as we each individually work on our pages that we don’t go hogwild and create a totally different look each time.
By the way I am loving the functionality, it is very intuitive and fast and I cannot wait for us to switch over, I think we’ll keep the site so much fresher with content this way.
Grizz
Chris here…
Hey Mark, I like the way that page is shaping up, although at the moment it looks a little bit out-of-kilter with the graphics down the right hand side going down far lower than the text, and also with the introductory text and the text to describe each section set at different sizes.
On the whole though, I think the upgrade is shaping up very well!
I 100% agree that the site needs a consistent font and font size (both in terms of the main text and in terms of headers -
,
, etc.) throughout the site to create a consistent look.
I think MannyF wants to switch the text on this site over to Arial, which I think is a very sensible choice. I’m very sad to see the current font that the site uses, Trebuchet, being left behind as I think in the past it’s really helped give this site an identity, but in the modern Internet I think it’s not practical to use that font because so many people are viewing websites now on mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad, which don’t support as wide a range of fonts - for this reason, mainstream fonts like Arial or Times New Roman are the best bets IMO.
Keep up the great work, Manny & Mark, and I’m looking forward to chatting to Manny about the Cartoon & Comic Sections on Tuesday evening (UK time)! 
Take care…
Quick update as I have to go to work:
(Literally) finished my meeting with Chris on the Cartoon and Comic sections. I think we both have the same ideas for the site and it’s going to be fun getting everything together!
Looking forward to meeting with Chris again and to meeting with Manny and Neil this coming Sunday!
Chris here…
Hey Manny, thanks so much for all the time today - I hope I didn’t make you late for work with all my talking, LOL! 
I think you guys are going to like what Manny’s coming up with - this redesign is basically streamlining this whole website to make it better, easier to navigate, and visually more appealing, as well as more interactive, quicker to update and packing a ton of new features. It’s inspiring to see, and I think as the get nearer and nearer the time of the relaunch, we’re going to be seeing some magical stuff!
Manny and I have got to meet up again as we ran out of time and still have a few bits and pieces to discuss (including how I can help him with getting content for the Cartoon and Comics areas integrated into the new design via Photoshop work and also Wordpress itself), but what we’ve done today has been very productive!
Take care…
Yeah that’s something that we might need to deal with. I’ve been retyping everything which allows me to find any spelling and grammatical errors (and italicizing ThunderCats when required) in the process. I wasn’t copying and pasting anything to the new design, which might be a problem with the more wordier (is that a word?) pages.
- Could we agree to a default set of formats and fonts so they’re consistent throughout the site and so as we each individually work on our pages that we don’t go hogwild and create a totally different look each time.
The font is already set within the CSS coding, but we are able to use different text size when needed. As long as you don’t copy and paste, then the font should stay to the default (which I believe is Arial).
On a separate note, going to reschedule the meeting with Neil and Manny R. We had a time mix-up (3 different time zones will do that).
Hopefully we can find a good time for all of us.
Chris here…
One way round the font formatting for copy-and-pasting might be to highlight and copy-and-paste the text first into some sort of text editor software such as WordPad or MS Word, and then highlight it a second time, change the font from Trebuchet to Arial, and then change the font size to whatever it should be. Yeah, it’s a PITA, but if the WordPress interface doesn’t automatically reformat the text that’s input into it into the default font set by the CSS, it might be a way round it!
Also Manny, thanks for those .psd files - I’ll get creating some graphics ASAP!
Take care…
Chris here…
An update for all you guys - MannyF has designed a new visual interface for each of the main sections of the relaunched site (Cartoon, Comic, Toys, etc.) which looks totally amazing!
I offered to help Manny out by taking on doing the graphics for the Cartoon and Comic Sections and have made a start - check out http://www.thundercatslair.org/team/chris/Comic%20Section/Splash_page_graphics/ - you’ll see up there are both the .jpgs and the .psd files that the .jpgs originate from!
I can’t decide which of these two images I prefer for the DC/Wildstorm one - which do you guys like best?
Massive kudos to MannyF for creating such a lovely visual interface - the new site is going to blow the current one away!
Take care…
What’s the password to view these files? Is there a way we can harmonize our passwords for the different sections because I have tried:
redesign
catslair
relaunch
catslair
Neither work for me.