Just gorgeous. What a pleasure to drop in for a visit once or twice a day. Thank you.

dwross,
Thank you for the kind words!

I fully expect and hope that others will be more critical so we can make this thing better still. My wife for instance does not like the seemingly arbitrary upper and lower case of the menu buttons.

I have created some Hybrid products on cafe press. They are accessible via the product button. I thought that the apron and thong would be particularly popular. I’ll be adding and adjusting designs once I’ve taken care of some other issues.

I have added some links to the links pages (thanks in large part to Art) and the members are free to add there own. I won't tell you how, I'd rather you tried it yourself and let me know if a help section is needed.

I will be changing the buttons some and hopefully populating the side bar yet today.

Tom,
This is the design the members get to throw darts at. We'll wind up living with this look and arrangemnt untill we have a viable alternative or direction. My hope is that the look and function will be liked and require only some tweaking, but I will bend to the desires of the membership.

jdc
playing at being a member (frank smith) so that I can find bugs.

John, some of my darts would go at the white background. I like the font work you're doing, but I find the white background too bright for proper reading. I think it applies especially to the "pm" "reply with quote" etc buttons at the bottom of each messages. Because the letters are flush with the cartridges they are in (correct term? I'm thinking about the Egyptian box around sets of hieroglyphs), it's hard to distinguish the letters from the background, insofar as they are of the same color. I would perhaps suggest to make the cartridge bigger, as I notice that the "Post Reply" button has a similar effect on me, even though the background is more grey.

Hope that helps!

John, some of my darts would go at the white background. I like the font work you're doing, but I find the white background too bright for proper reading. I think it applies especially to the "pm" "reply with quote" etc buttons at the bottom of each messages. Because the letters are flush with the cartridges they are in (correct term? I'm thinking about the Egyptian box around sets of hieroglyphs), it's hard to distinguish the letters from the background, insofar as they are of the same color. I would perhaps suggest to make the cartridge bigger, as I notice that the "Post Reply" button has a similar effect on me, even though the background is more grey.

Hope that helps!

I agree with this. It is very distracting. Just a little more padding around the text, or a different color to set it off from the background would help a lot.
Tom

got it. I will cycle back around to the buttons and either change the size of the capsule, the colour of the font or both. Is the white post area aok?

Thanks guys

John, I find the white background a little bright, maybe pull it back a tad?

Also the post reply, pm and reply with quote are hard to read. OK if you know from experience where they are, might be hard for someone new.

got it. I will cycle back around to the buttons and either change the size of the capsule, the colour of the font or both. Is the white post area aok?

Thanks guys

Doesn't bother me, but then I usually like a lot of white on a web page.
Tom

"... Doesn't bother me, but then I usually like a lot of white on a web page..."
Same here.

My current consideration is to make the buttons more legible, but keep the white background. When the buttons are fixed I'll reevaluate the white background. This assumes that the feedback doesn't change between now and when I make the changes. I suspect it will be a week to 10 days before I can cycle back to the buttons.

Currently I'm wrestling with the side bar.

"... My current consideration is to make the buttons more legible, but keep the white background..."That works great for me.

And... take your time. You're doing an awesome job and you can't begin to understand how much we (I) appreciate all your work! You are Da MAN!

John,

I haven't been on the site for a few days, and now 265 new posts, so great job on increasing usage... The new design works well; I like how the layout separates the forum from APUG, perhaps generating a distinct impression on visitors as pertains to the purpose and philosophy of the forum.

Tom.

Tom,
The hope is to keep the site free. If it comes to the point where we are not covering our costs we will probably charge a subscription fee. Currently our overhead is low, as we grow the hope is that sponsorship/ad money will grow accordingly. Our over all plan will not be very intrusive. At least that is what we think and we're sure the members will let us know. We need to get this version of the site ready for growth (article section, classifieds, resource pages such as industry, artist, and service directories), looking professional (although I think it is pretty close) and all the rough edges smoothed.

jd,
A discussion on APUG got me to wondering about the financial basis for the hybridphoto site, whether people are expected to subscribe to APUG to post to hybridphoto, or whether there will eventually be a separate subscription fee for hybridphoto, or what. I was reassured by the above statement, that the hope is to keep this site free. Does it still seem as if that will be feasible?

I don't remember whether I've said how much I appreciate all the work you did reorganizing the site to accommodate the different constituencies here; if not, I'm saying it now. It's great, and I like the categories you used for different galleries; I find it inspiring and hope eventually to post some things in a couple of the more unusually-named galleries.
Katharine

Thank you for your thoughts Katharine.

Sean made a sizable initial investment in the setup of this site and there are monthly fees for hosting and the software license. I had promised Sean that I would build out the site and seek sponsorships and advertising dollars. To date I have done only some of the build out and much of it needs to be redone. I installed google ads, but these don't even cover 10% of the monthly costs.

Of late I have been too busy to fulfill my end of the bargain and I won't have the time to do more until July. I may have to implement a subscription program, but it will be volunteer only and probably not be based upon the model followed on APUG. Apug needs subscribers to cover the heavy usage of the Gallery and the greater hosting requirements. Apugers who subscribe get greater access with a subscription. If hybrid goes with subscriptions it will not change access, but be used to cover initial and recurring costs.

As for the Galleries. I plan on producing a series to fit each gallery and I would love to see something similar done by the membership as a Hybrid event or challenge.

JD, a belated thanks for all the fabulous work you've done bringing about and maintaining this site. Truly an indispensable resource, I'd be happy to subscribe.

JD, a belated thanks for all the fabulous work you've done bringing about and maintaining this site. Truly an indispensable resource, I'd be happy to subscribe.

thanks Collin, but we won't go begging just yet. Of course we do have all tese fine ads scatter throughout the site...

Of late I have been too busy to fulfill my end of the bargain.John, In leiu of the current discussion on APUG I realized I have neglected to say what a great job you are doing here. Also... knowing my way around vB to a degree, if there is ever need for any volunteer support, count me in.

Bill

Thanks Bill!

It is PHP we need the help with which is more similar to VB than JAVA and JavaScript in which I have some knowledge. As for the APUG threads. I'll only say that this site seems to be chugging along very nicely. There is much work to be done and I need to get to it or Sean my fire my butt.

John, I will second what Bill has said. You are doing a great job in providing a much needed site. I, for one, do appreciate your efforts. Thank you!!!!!

and "people' say we don't have any activity over here. :)

John, I will second what Bill has said. You are doing a great job in providing a much needed site. I, for one, do appreciate your efforts. Thank you!!!!!

Me too. I think the site rocks!