Check out the this Gal Civ 2 Fansite

[Zoid]

Well, at least he tries. I guess he´ll learn soon enough, he updated the site pretty fast. A few more tweaks and it´ll look passable...

[Zoid]

Seriously, Weblaster. I appreciate the effort and I know how hard it can be making you first website. Take the criticism for what it is, as friendly pointers. No one expects you to make a GalCiv2.com site right off the bat. Keep at it and I´m sure you´ll do just fine

[Weblaster]

Correction: This is my fifth website. However, most of those websites were hosted by freewebs and they kind of looked simmlar to what I had now.

My last major site was Simcity Region which got over 10,000 hits.

[DrSpike]

Welcome back.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Weblaster
Correction: This is my fifth website. However, most of those websites were hosted by freewebs and they kind of looked simmlar to what I had now.

My last major site was Simcity Region which got over 10,000 hits.

Well, then. Don´t mind what us old farts say.

[snoopy369]

If I can make a suggestion, take a run by a CSS tutorial, something like Webmonkey or similar, and take a look at other pages you like, and hit "view page source".

You don't need Photoshop to make a good page. Take a look at this page - the 1998 version of one of this site's predecessors - a nice clean page, and ultimately it worked out nicely
The power of HTML and CSS is pretty amazing these days; with a few hours' learning, you can make an incredibly professional looking page, with consistent fonts, colors, background colors, etc. ...
I'd try and find a less annoying hosting service than freewebs. If you learn CSS more effectively, you don't need freewebs' building tools, just a place that'll take your pages without charging, which are more numerous and less annoying.

[Rasbelin]

Originally posted by Weblaster
Everything looks unwelmcoming when at age 14 when i have no source of income except for a $5 dollar allowance. Do you really expect me to make photoshop quality, no way.

Money and skill are two very different things.

You adults are so criticial. That's probraly why Battlefield 2 communitys are more friendly

Oh noes. Honestly speaking BF2 communities aren't more friendly than this one. Actually they can be pretty hostile even. Poly is one of the more welcoming game communities. However welcoming doesn't equal with not being critical and only patting your back like your mommy.

[Weblaster]

Can you guys give me examples of less annoying web hosting sites?

[Axxaer]

Originally posted by Weblaster
Everything looks unwelmcoming when at age 14 when i have no source of income except for a $5 dollar allowance. Do you really expect me to make photoshop quality, no way.

You adults are so criticial. That's probraly why Battlefield 2 communitys are more friendly

What you lack is persistence. I'm only 17 at the moment and I've been playing around with dreamweaver, flash, photoshop and illustrator on and off for a few years now and I get no more money than you. If you just sit down, google a few tutorials to get the basics and then spend some experimenting, it will not take long before you can produce things that look semi-proffesional.

I got flamed pretty bad when I posted this on an actual design site (too amateur), but just to show you what you could easily do after a year or two of practice (made from scratch):



Please don't tell me how bad it looks...

Oh, and also, while I'm here, it is a bit childish to not accept constructive criticism (I wish I had more people giving help like these kind people and not just telling me how much of a n00b I am at photoshop), and also you shouldn't assume that everyone who critiques your work are adults, because I know at least half a dozen teenagers all capable of doing magical things with web pages.

So hang in there and keep trying, just remember that you'll never get anywhere by giving up at the first sign of difficulty!

[Axxaer]

Originally posted by Weblaster
Can you guys give me examples of less annoying web hosting sites?

Just try googling something like "free web hosting no ads" because you definitely want something free and everyone hates sites with forced ads.

[Weblaster]

Guys can you explain to me why Freewebs is bad? I have been using them for two years.

[Axxaer]

Freewebs isn't all that bad, it's just that if you make your own page instead of using a template it will be much better as it will be unique and you can design it to fit your own needs.

[Imran Siddiqui]

He asks for feedback and then gets pissy when there may be some of the negative variety .

Speaking of feedback... the background picture kind of makes things hard to read. I'd go for more of a black background.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
He asks for feedback and then gets pissy when there may be some of the negative variety .

Speaking of feedback... the background picture kind of makes things hard to read. I'd go for more of a black background.

This isn't OT, Imran.

[Adagio]

You should defently start learning css and html, it doesn't take long to learn the basic, maybe a few weeks the most, and then you can make a site much better looking than the template you use now

Also the background should stay in the background, as it is now the background picture seems like the most important part of the site, which it isn't (take a look at the background images on most other sites, and compare to yours)

Website counters should be avoided too, as they only show the visitor that nobody visits your site (making them less interested in coming back)

And make sure to show the visitor on the index page what the point of the site is (is it tips or tricks that's most important, or maybe the community, maybe mods or whatever?)... why should they visit your site compared to the other sites about the game?