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bigwater
06-06-2010, 04:56 AM
Time has come again to move forward with the direction of the board. I've upgraded the site to the latest vBulletin forum software and made some changes in the structure of the site to make it easier to navigate. I've also added a shout box on the main page that seems to be pretty popular already.

If you see any problems or issues that concern you, please address them in the Help Desk and they will be handled as soon as possible.

There are a couple of things that need the assistance of the community as a whole.

First, I'd like to thank Dell for his banner that we've been using for the last year. With the upgrade to the software it is time for a fresh face on the board though. The new software is much more flexible on how we integrate the banner, but it needs to have a single color solid background to incorporate smoothly. I'd like to see something with a neutral color background that will incorporate pleasantly with all of the various color schemes that are available now. Perhaps a light grey background... use your best judgement. I'm accepting submissions for a new banner. Post your ideas here and we'll get a poll started.

Next, I have several things that I'd like to add to the site. vBpicGallery has finally been upgraded to the latest software, and if you folks want it, I'd like to add a gallery to our site so that you can post your works in your own private art gallery outside of the forums. I'd also like to give you the ability to set up your own blogs, and I'd like to set up a portal as the main page where relevant articles from the forum can be posted as news and links to important areas of the site can be easily accessed.

These additions to the site take funding though. I've added a link for donations and a donation tracking bar to the main page (http://www.airbrushtech.info/AIRBRUSH/forum/index.php) so that people can donate to the site to add these functions. I realize that not everybody is willing or able to donate, and there is certainly no obligation to do so. But you can help out without actually donating if you'll click on the google ad links on the site. All of the links to the google ads should be related to the topic of the thread they appear in, and every time you click on a link it puts about 1/2 penny in the coffers to keep this site going. Once we wrangle up about $400 through donations or click throughs, we can add the gallery and blogs, and then from there we can add whatever you guys want as long as there is the money to do it.

I don't want to turn this site into an advertising freak show. I could probably hit sponsors up and put gaudy ads all over the place that would do nothing but distract and annoy you, and the site would be self funding with that... but I feel that you guys will support this site if you want it to be supported, and we'll go with member support for now.

Your thoughts and input will be greatly appreciated.

maxxpaane
06-06-2010, 05:35 PM
Just playing around with the idea Ron. Not quite sure when the site was est. MP

maxxpaane
06-06-2010, 05:39 PM
Not sure why it came out so fuzzy.

bigwater
06-06-2010, 08:41 PM
Yeah, it is pretty fuzzy. What program are you developing it in? If possible, try saving it as a .png file and let's see if that clears it up some. It needs to be .png anyway.

BTW, 2006 was the year airbrushtech.info was started.

maxxpaane
06-06-2010, 09:00 PM
Let's see if this works. MP

bigwater
06-06-2010, 09:33 PM
Looks good max. I'll throw it up for now and see how it looks with the rest of the site. Hopefully we can get some more submissions just to have choices. Maybe even rotate the banner from time to time.

Now I just gotta remember what it is I need to do to set the header to the same color as the background on the png for all of the skins ;)

AndyW
06-06-2010, 10:25 PM
lol Just gettin started

32093


Hmmmm strange had made this 950 x 200 pixels....

bigwater
06-06-2010, 11:50 PM
Nice Andy, but for some reason it won't load in the light box so I can't directly download it and throw it up. I'd like to throw up all ideas for a day or so to see what peeps impressions are.

Now for my ideas. What I'd really like to see is a Retro/Deco type of a logo. I threw together a few quick png's using different retro/deco fonts, all with the same fade just for expedience of time. Hopefully this will get the juices flowing in the board and get more people interested in submitting ideas.

Here we go... there's a bunch of them, and all of them suck, but it gives you a general idea of what I've got in mind.

AndyW
06-07-2010, 12:28 AM
I noticed in the light box as well but thought it was my browser, I'll save it as a .png tonight and edit it, an try again hmmm just had a thought?

Ron went in and edited the post I deleted the attachment then did a drag and drop from the upload manager, it is working fine in the light box now.

bigwater
06-07-2010, 12:44 AM
Still not working in the lightbox for me Andy. I'm sure I can find it on the server and move it to the right location... but the key factor here is we need a solid background with no border in order to make a seamless header. I've thrown up one of my examples so you can see what I mean. Eventually I'll tell the style var to fill in everything up top with the same color as the background of whatever png we decide on, and it'll make the header appear to be one flowing header.

I know this probably doesn't make much sense right now, but it's late and I've been dinking around with this stuff all day, so I'm just going to punt for now.

AndyW
06-07-2010, 12:49 AM
No probs, had made the background flat, light box is fine for me lol.......... when I applied the bevel etc it hasn't left enough of the first layer, was done in 5 layers still, know the route to head now.

Gioart
06-07-2010, 01:24 AM
Here one I just made.
Let me know if you like it.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2197/cooltext460948002.png (http://img69.imageshack.us/i/cooltext460948002.png/)

Here's where I made it for free, it makes the logo in png. or whatever format you want.
Theirs many different styles to choose from.
http://cooltext.com/

Gio

bigwater
06-07-2010, 01:31 AM
Thanks Gio. I'm starting to droop. It's 2:30 in the morning here and I've been working on this site all weekend. I'll need the art in .png format. If you can get it to me in that format I'll throw it up tomorrow and we'll see how it looks. I'm still learning the new style var way of handling things and it's making me wonky, so I'm gonna take a break for the rest of the evening.

maxxpaane
06-07-2010, 09:13 AM
Here's another. MP

bigwater
06-07-2010, 09:49 AM
Thanks for the submission max, but again, it needs to be in .png format.

Gioart
06-07-2010, 03:28 PM
Thanks for the submission max, but again, it needs to be in .png format.

Mines in png format now, try it out Ron :)

Gio

maxxpaane
06-07-2010, 03:35 PM
My file says it's a portable network graphics file, dang computers.

sharonsstudio
06-07-2010, 06:53 PM
Ron I really like the New look...
as for the banner I won't even attempt it..
I'm going to look around..
see ya.

Hey what does the red envelopes mean in the threads..
I know the arrow means I've read and posted..

AndyW
06-07-2010, 09:10 PM
Hi folks, post up your banner ideas here

http://www.airbrushtech.info/AIRBRUSH/forum/showthread.php?16474-It-s-Banner-Time&p=185775#post185775

JimmyG
06-08-2010, 12:02 PM
Hey what does the red envelopes mean in the threads..
I know the arrow means I've read and posted..
Hi Sharon....the red envelope means it is a Hot Topic with many replies....
if the envelope is open with pages sticking up then you have Unread posts within that thread...if the envelope is closed the you have Read all the posts in that thread....

sharonsstudio
06-11-2010, 09:12 PM
Thanks jimmy..

Flykilla
06-15-2010, 05:41 AM
Guys,

Been away a few weeks and we have a new site... Great work guys and thanks..

bigwater
06-15-2010, 06:24 AM
Thanks for the donation Flykilla. I noticed you set it up as an automatically renewing subscription. That's very generous of you. This will help move the board forward with the additional software we've got planned.