website

[AlethiaSi]

does anyone have advice about starting up a website for your chapter and a good host to go with? We have an alumni page but not a website just for actives and i really want to get started b/c we've been talking about it for way too long and not doing anything about it- let me know! thanks!!

[rainbowbrightCS]

The only advise that I can give is no matter what you do, keep it updated. There is nothing worse then seen the sister list from fall 2002 or a calendar from spring 2003.

Put lots of pictures with every one names.


Also put a section for history and symbols. Like your flower and mascot. That stuff is really interesting.

[kappaloo]

Originally posted by rainbowbrightCS
The only advise that I can give is no matter what you do, keep it updated. There is nothing worse then seen the sister list from fall 2002 or a calendar from spring 2003.

Put lots of pictures with every one names.


Also put a section for history and symbols. Like your flower and mascot. That stuff is really interesting.

I totally agree - with the note that you should check to ensure that your HQ doesn't have any policies against picture/names appearing on the website. Also - it's always nice to ask at a meeting that if anyone mind their picture being on the website to just e-mail/tell you and you'll take it off. I found a lot of people were cool with me using their pictures once I "gave them an out" (odd, but true)

[AOII*Azra-elle]

Ah, my specialty! My house took precautions. I had everyone fill out a form that stated they didn't mind if the chapter of AOII used their name and picture on the website. They had to sign it so that I could put up pictures. Don't know about your Nationals/International rules, but with ours no alcoholic references on the site.

Going through the university is good, but sometimes they are hard to get ahold of or you have to know stuff like Dreamweaver *I hate Dreamweaver*. I could never get anything out of our university's site people, so I went with angelfire. It's free, and pretty easy to work with.

If you have any questions let me know. Since we are on break, our new officers haven't started yet. I passed on the stuff for webmaster to my lid'l, but she hasn't change our site if you wanted to take a look:

www.angelfire.com/co4/aoiieg/main.html

[mmcat]

hi susan...for what it's worth, i couldn't get the website to load this am.
cheers
marianne

[sairose]

You're talking to the right person!

I personally hate Geocities. But that's just me.

I have had excellent experience with Tripod. I've hosted my personal website there for about 7 years and never had a problem with it. I would really recommend them.

Here's some quickie website tips:

--KEEP IT UPDATED.
--if you put pictures on it (which I hope you will), don't put too many on one page. It will take far too long to load. Either put them on several pages, or use thumbnails.
--try to have an extensive history section. Founding, early days, etc etc...this is always interesting to read.
--have the main page organized and simple. A good setup is a frame on the left side that has all the links for the site.
--make sure to include a guestbook for your visitors

I'm an HTML/website buff, so please PM me if you need any help. Also let us know when the site is up so we can all check it out!

Hope this helps!

[AlethiaSi]

i tried the lycos site- but it wouldn't let me sign up for the sitename?? i tried help- doing it about a million different ways- i'm sick of looking at it blah- so i think i'll take a crack at it tomorrow- i'm talking to the rest of my girls about setting a site up and i'm defiantely passing on everyone's advice thanks so much!

[DGMarie]

I use geocities and I like it a lot. I do my own pages using FrontPage and upload them to the site. The pop ups are minimal and you can click them to go away. If you use photos, keep the file size small so you won't exceed you bandwidth allocations.

[WhiteDaisy128]

I do the web page for my chapter (www.ncsudeltagamma.org) and use a hosting company. I do this because of pop up ads that are annoying and also because of bandwidth limitations. We are lucky to host ours for free because a graduate of NCSU was starting a hosting company and let's NCSU groups host for free (or for very minimal charges) - I think being a sorority helped! (not to mention the chocolate chip cookies!).

My best advice is to keep things uniform. I use the same basic template for EVERY page, that way you don't have to search real hard to navigate the site.

I LOVE dreamweaver. It may seem intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite powerful and easy to use.

Best of luck.

For HTML help check out http://www.webmonkey.com. They have very easy tutorials.

My last suggestion is to find something you like out there on a web page and copy it. I know that sounds weird, but that's the best way to learn how to do things. Find an attractive web page (that is NOT copyrighted and click on "view" on your top menu bar, then click "view source" - copy that sucker and paste it into dream weaver or whatever editor you are using and put in your own graphics, etc. It really is a great way to learn.

[AOII*Azra-elle]

Sorry about the site not loading. I think it is under construction right now, but if you need any advice let me know. I'm willing to help ya out.

[AlethiaSi]

thanks everyone so much for the help and advice (keep it coming! ) i figured out tripod- the brit version was crap (sorry!) so i signed up again and everything has worked great... now i have to acutally put it all in blah! lol here's the beginning- i just used one of their templates till i could get the hang of it and i plan on doing major construction this week (its time for this girl to go to bed) here's the site Nu Sigma Chi thanks so much again

[AlethiaSi]

HERE's the site- its still in the works and my girls are going to tweak it and add more pics- thanks! nu sigma chi

[rainbowbrightCS]

Wow it looks great. Good job.


Christia