Hey everyone,
Looking for some feedback on the new website that I just launched, after being active in the Boycott BP FaceBook group for several weeks.
http://spillwire.com
The Basic Info
SpillWire uses CMSMS and many modules to create an "action center" for the gulf oil spill crisis. Hopefully over the next month or so people will begin to use the forum and calendar to promote their protests/flash mobs and the news module to help raise awareness.
Some of the feautures include:
- A quick, community driven "link drop" (comments)
- A community-driven calendar (cgcalendar)
- A complete, community-driven news service (news, calguy's RSS syndication)
- FEU/Self-registration (of course)
- A forum (forum made simple)
The Call to Action
If you enjoy the setup of this website and support its goal, please share this with your social network to help it grow!
Thanks in advance for all of your support and criticism!
Warmest regards,
Patrick Bowen (pkbowen)
SpillWire.com - Gulf Oil Spill News and Action Center
Re: SpillWire.com - Gulf Oil Spill News and Action Center
No encouragement or constructive criticism? 
Re: SpillWire.com - Gulf Oil Spill News and Action Center
nice design...
would recommend removing the "1.8.1" credit in your footer. Nice of you to give credit to CMSMS, but posting a version number is just inviting attacks. Granted, CMSMS has one of the best security track records for open source CMS software, and the dev team takes security very seriously and is quick to respond to potential issues, but I can't think of a reason to post the version number publicly.
Also, much of the site seems VERY generic. For example, on the /info page, the only items that tie the page to the oil spill are the one occurrence of the words "oil spill" below the fold, and the images (also mostly below the fold). Other than that, I could paste the rest of the site onto almost anyone else's information aggregator site and it would fit. I would suggest working on the body content so that it more frequently and explicitly references the spill and the goals of the site related to the spill.
why is the "contact and suggestions" link (in the header) in black font, while the other links are in white?
before I would register/participate in the site, I would want to read some kind of an "about" page. Who is sponsoring this site? Who are the "we" and "I" that are mentioned in the site? What are the motives? Is there political affiliation? etc...
would recommend removing the "1.8.1" credit in your footer. Nice of you to give credit to CMSMS, but posting a version number is just inviting attacks. Granted, CMSMS has one of the best security track records for open source CMS software, and the dev team takes security very seriously and is quick to respond to potential issues, but I can't think of a reason to post the version number publicly.
Also, much of the site seems VERY generic. For example, on the /info page, the only items that tie the page to the oil spill are the one occurrence of the words "oil spill" below the fold, and the images (also mostly below the fold). Other than that, I could paste the rest of the site onto almost anyone else's information aggregator site and it would fit. I would suggest working on the body content so that it more frequently and explicitly references the spill and the goals of the site related to the spill.
why is the "contact and suggestions" link (in the header) in black font, while the other links are in white?
before I would register/participate in the site, I would want to read some kind of an "about" page. Who is sponsoring this site? Who are the "we" and "I" that are mentioned in the site? What are the motives? Is there political affiliation? etc...
Re: SpillWire.com - Gulf Oil Spill News and Action Center
@jmcgin51
Thank you for your input...you make some very good points! I don't have time right this second, but I will certainly implement at least some of your suggestions today/tomorrow.
(Karma for you!)
Thank you for your input...you make some very good points! I don't have time right this second, but I will certainly implement at least some of your suggestions today/tomorrow.
(Karma for you!)
