I am looking into the possibility of transferring this blog to WordPress (currently I am using QuickBlogCast from GoDaddy, don’t ask me why). QuickBlogCast has many limitation – it was a good start, but I think now we have to move on to something better. I am also looking for a better hosting site. To make those decisions easier, I will need your help and feedback – after all, I am making those changes for you, the reader.
Here are some questions – you can reply in the comments section or email me directly:
- Any suggestions on a new NikonRumors logo/banner (if you are a graphic designer with an idea, I can give you a plug).
- Any suggestions for a WordPress template.
- Any suggestions for a hosting site.
- General feedback, comments, suggestions, anything is appreciated.
Related posts:
54 Comments
This would be difficult to fix. I will have to get an editor… it’s not a secret that English is not my native language…
Hey, If your looking for a new web design let me know and I’ll see what I can do? I’m currently building a portfolio and I have no problem doing it for nix.
I would like to see the price matrix daily/weekly update always up. Maybe it could be automated. Display near top.
i would prefer better spelling/grammar and more mature dialogue
- I like the black background, is MUCH easy and healthy for the eyes, and for those who have vision-related problems, (something that almost nobody consider).
Maybe a bit lighter gray font color would be better (Not white, just lighter gray)
- I see many adds, but don’t bother me much since are at the side of the articles. (but bother a little to find the links)
- Daily/weekly Prices on Cameras and Lenses at a selection of Good and Reliable stores would be useful (at the side of the main page)
- Links for New Tech Reviews on DSLRs and Lenses (Nikkors and 3rd party’s for Nikon DSLRs) would be useful too, if Admin likes to do so.
- I don’t find the site Very easy to navigate (long list of sponsors at top of the column may confuse), but very difficult either.
Honestly I barely don’t use the link’s column at the left… but it’s useful to find something.
Maybe a section called “Recent Events” telling confirmed announcements/releases/etc. would be useful (if not yet implemented)
PS: many times the site tells me the security code I wrote is incorrect, but I did type it correct, so I have to re type the new one (don’t know why this happens)
I don’t like the black background. I find it hard to read.
You got it – there is limited real estate on the main page – I will add a whole page dedicated on this topic.
Sure – I saw some of your logos – very nice. I think I would like to keep the black background with yellow letters (Nikon’s colors). I cannot use Nikon’s logo. Those are pretty much my only requirements.
I too have been working on my portfolio site.
I may be doing contract work soon. However, if I end up not getting the contract, I can also lend a hand as well.
Cheers,
NRG
Text does need to be a little lighter, not enough contrast as is. In terms of hosts, I’ve had a pretty good experience with Lunarpages on the Wordpress blogs I host.
I too have good experiences with Lunarpages and would recommend them as a host.
I’m not saying I have the gig, so to speak but I’m OK with collaborations. After all two minds are better then one
I’ll be free to work on stuff after 27th of October. That’s the last day of Uni, so until then I’m very busy but after, I’m free. That’s of course you are in a hurry??
I’ve had a good experience with Steadfast.net and would recommend them as a host.
Hi,
I’m doing some hosting business and I would be very happy to offer a free hosting for you
Feel free to contact me at info @ hostinpeace.com
Vincèn
I love you domain name. Genius!:D
Thanks
For hosting depend on budged you have. I’m using hostmonster because is quite cheap and good platform, for better hosting is media temple.net ( sony,techcrunch,and toyota, hosted there).
Info for “Top 10 most recommended hosts”
b2evolution.net/web-hosting/top-quality-best-webhosting.php
please no more rumors based on weak sources or rumors from dpreview / nikonians.org / other forums. make it more of newsletter with the latest updates from nikon like new softwares, firmware updates, new lenses, new cameras, new flashes, new accessories ((for the camera, lens, or flash)) rather than rumors because its not worth it and it will drive everyone crazy and paranoid about new equipment coming up
I think you should keep the news on this site as the name implys IMO there are too many news about F.x: D90 shipping, availability or other stuff that are irrelevant or better covered on other sites.
I very much like the rumor news true, false or obviously fake. keep them comming.
Design:
the left row of ads and menus are way over crowded. Too much stuff there I dont need, If you need to keep ads to keep the site alive, its ok with me. But clean the site from some of all this noise.
I would like to see the ads moved to the right side och the page and not intermingled with the navigation and info related to the site. Ads on a seperate column on thr right side is common practise no many bigger sites and makes it less irritating to view the page.
So for me its the left hand column which is poorly constructed. Its realy wiered having ads inbetween search fields and categories.
I like all kind of rumors as long as the quality of the source is mentioned.
Yes, I agree with “Rumle”, information regarding shipping has a very low value as information to me…
Hi, im had some bad experiences with lycos. i had to pay some “services” i never buyed and i wasn’t able to get my money back.
now my host is in hostgator, the give a lot of things like space, services etc for little money but transfer rate is slow, i noticed that when i tryed to upload big files (could also be because i’m in spain and the server is in usa)
my domanis are in namesecure, i really like them they work good and fast, no problems, presonal support within a few hours per mail,
talking about the content of the site, i like that you don’t try to be THE one nikon site for every thing since if you try to make every nikon info (forum rumors, notices, database, sell info etc) ech point would not be so extensive and precise the only thing that i think woudl be cool is a wiki with precise information about products, like older lenses, cameras, etc for example yesterday i tried the D90 but in the store anybody coul tell me if this one has Bracketing.
hope this ideas help
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I’m a photographer and IT professional and web designer. Here is my advice. Go with 1and1.com
They are the best and cheapest hands down. I just built my new wordpress blog and host it with them here: blog.chaselliott.com
Need other help? Email me.
Chas
I say Wordpress and Media Temple hosting, on their grid service. Google them. =]
I am very familiar with them and they are my #1 choice, but I may have to go with dv (dedicated server).
Thanks – I need something in the US.
yes, this will be a whole separate section – it will not be on the main blog and it will be much more detailed.
quality (bandwith, performance, support, etc) are much more important than price in my case. I had days with huge traffic (when I got the exclusive D90 pics for example) and the host should be able to handle that. MediaTemple seems to offer the best quality (and yes they are expensive).
Thanks!
I will not comment – just remember: this is a rumor site and this will be the main topic of this blog. Everything else is secondary and may or may not happen.
First I want to thank you for what you do for us, your readers. You work very hard and put up with a lot of whining.
As per the comment from “Anon” about mature dialogue, that is up to us, the readers, NOT the Blog Admin, to act like adults.
Thank you for being patient with us and all the complaints as it seems some folks are never happy, we should be grateful for what you do.
Someone mentioned not to put up rumors, this is a rumor site. Please keep this in mind.
For the editing, I am American but not everyone is. I am thankful that the Admin publishes this in English. I have traveled to other countries and not everyone is as accepting of English only as others. We should be thankful he is doing this for us.
I prefer proper English and grammar as well but sadly the proper languages, not just English, is in severe decline. This is not the fault of the Admin.
Let us please work with the Blog Admin and not against him as I see so often in this blog. I come here for information and I see people ripping into the Admin all the time for things that are not his fault and out of his control. Why don’t we help him, help us?
Thanks again
I use Bluehosting.com
http://www.bluehost.com/
For less than 100 bucks a year you get to setup as many domains as you want, have tons of disk space, all linux servers, unlimited email and a lot of bandwidth.
I’m running flashoffroad.com and 2 other domains without problems. I have a phpbb forum on flashoffroad also.
The only downside is if your site uses a lot of cpu time on the server it will be throttled back. Bluehost is good for low to medium traffic sites. Their customer service is great. I’d call them with your hit counts and stats and ask them if your site would be a good fit.
I use Dreamhost“>http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?375726“>Dreamhost and they are awesome. Lots of great one-click installs, inclusding WordPress – which I use. They’re fairly inexpensive too.
Also the monthly newsletters are hilarious.
Also, the voting buttons don’t seem to work for me. I’m using FireFox 3.0.3
then find rumors with a really really really good source like leaks from nikon, not fantasy stuff like MX that never exists
I agree, the Admin goes to great lengths to keep all of us informed. Its quite nice to come to this site quickly to see if anything new has happened.
I would like to see the advertising separated from the left hand column and put on the right hand side. I don’t even look at the left column, its just too confusing.
I could do with less info on prices/availability on the main page…maybe another page dedicated to that? And maybe a separate page dedicated to reviews/previews of actual products? And maybe a forum too? And if it could all be accessed easily through the left column…oooohh that would send shivers down my spine!
Thats all a dream of course, if you keep giving this to us for free, I’ll take whatever you give, because you’re doing a fantastic job Admin.
Yeah, I suppose you get that little more control, and higher bandwidth, space ect which you’ll need.
I think this initiative is very good and show that how much you care about your reader.
While I enjoyed visiting this site (few times a week), I find it hard to read because of the black background.
Of course white on white is very stylish but not on an article. Unlike print, reading white on black background is not the best choice, it’s much easier to read dark text on light background (if you take a look most of the news publishing you will get the better idea. If your article is more then 1 paragraph or after spending more then 5 minutes on this ‘negative’ screen, the eyes gets very tired)
Do take this into consideration, else giving the user an option of choosing the theme, wordpress allowed you to do so.
And, thank you for your effort and all of us benefit from it.
A white background would be nice. Also like the idea of a pricing page.
I think a forum would also be a great addition
Hi,
If you need to go with a dedicated server, or maybe will be able to make do with a virtual dedicated server I highly recommend WiredTree. I’ve been with them a year now and they provide excellent support and uptime. They have phone and email support 24/7/365. I’ve found that email support is fine for virtually any problem, because they reply within 1-5 minutes usually. Their servers/VPSs are fully managed so you don’t have to worry much about server admin. If you do decide to go with them you can probably get a discount and some extra memory or something like that by getting a coupon code from the webhostingtalk forums. They have sections there for hosting companies to offer good deals to their members. It’s a free forum, so… I got $5 off and 128MB extra RAM per month through webhostingtalk.
Otherwise, WordPress is definitely the way to go! Looking forward to seeing the new site when things fall into place
I hite it when people complan about speling and gramer on the internet. Please go theach a class or somthing.
LOL!!!!!
Thank you – I promise I will improve the grammar – trust me this is not because of lack of education… just education in the wrong language
Are you asking me if I’m in a hurry? Or the admin? As for me, I’m laid back
No rush here…
For design stuff (like logos as an example), you seem pretty strong in that department. I can probably help out with small icons and what not (again, depending on what happens over the next few days with a looming contract).
Thanks for the offer!
This is exactly what I am planing to do. Thanks!
throttling down the traffic is not acceptable. I think I will go Media Temple. Thanks a lot for the advise.
The voting button is working again now. I think this was out of my control – it was polldaddy not responding
prices/availability will be on a separate page, I will probably add a forum, wiki and a review page. It will just take a while…
I think I will stay with the black background – the majority voted for black, sorry. Thanks for the feedback.
Well, i was asking the admin but it’s good to see your opinion.
I can roughly knock up some roughs on the weekend.
BTW is there an email I can send to at Nikon rumors, admin or someone??
As long as my email alerts stay quick and easy to read I say any improvement is good- as far as a logo, maybe an image of 2 SLR cameras, one with a mouth whispering into another camera with a big ear attached- hokey but, apropos.
I’m pretty happy with Hostmonster/Bluehost. I’ve had zero downtime and they aren’t infested with weird purchase options that GoDaddy is. I’m not a fan of GoDaddy because I get lots of hits from zombied GoDaddy servers, and lots of illegitimate sites are hosted there.
I’ve used them to buy some cheap squats. Wouldn’t touch em for anything else.
Just my 2¢.
I have been using iPower for about 8 years now. I search and search for cheaper, better, faster alternatives every time I go to renew, and I simply can’t find anyone that gives you more options, space, email and backup for the same price point. I seriously suggest you check them out. They can be found at http://www.ipower.net.
In addition to being an incredible host, they have self-monitored WordPress hosted blogs. I love it. I can upgrade mine whenever I want no questions asked. In addition, there is tons of software out there that will hook into a blog site like WP.
You must put more information on a single page before we need to click the link other pages. Put 3 or 4 pages as it is very easy to scroll but it is a page to click on the other links because you sometimes want to check again what was before!