turntothebside.com – V2.0
So here we are…THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW WEBSITE AND WHAT IS COMING UP!!!
00:00:00:00, Wednesday 8th December 2009
On the newly designed B-SIDE EMPIRE website, after a very much hyped up couple of months I hope that the site design is to your satisfaction! Considering that I am not a web-designer nor have ever learned to be one, it’s not THAT bad right?! Haha. Anyway, things will probably change around more times than you can blink…
Again, we’d like to apologize for the delay in bringing you the new website. We originally started hunting for professional web designers to do it for us, until we realized that they might as well empty both of our bank balances. OH DEAR.
…which brings us here, midway in the final week before term ends and right in the middle of the ‘two weeks of hell’ as I like to call them – the final two weeks before university closes for Christmas and also the wonderful time of the year where we have about a million deadlines to meet.
But the site is out in the open, so now I can concentrate on defining the really easy question of ‘What is Art?’ Great.
Our old website will be sorely missed though… Here’s a little screenshot reminder of it in all its glory:
Now you’ve also just had a sneak peak of my web browser and all my tabs haha. Out with the old… in with the new… right?
We’re hoping that the new website will be a lot more user-friendly and now we’ll be able to house significantly more content (hint hint)! I’ll just run you through a few of the new features:
1. TAG CLOUDS/SEARCH BAR
The nifty little tag cloud located on the side bar at the right of this page will help you locate popular keywords. The bigger the text, the larger the amount of content associated with the keyword.
If that’s too difficult to rake through, then no fret… just type it into the search bar on the top navigation bar! You can search for universities, student names, art categories, and types of art-work (e.g. short story, poetry etc.)
2. RELATED POSTS
At the bottom of every post under the ’sociable’ bar are five ‘related posts’, so if you like what you’re reading you can easily navigate to works by the same artist, works by students at the same university or even works that are tagged the same!
3. SOCIABLE BAR
The ’sociable bar’ is located at the bottom of every post and allows you to share the content on any of those many social networking sites. We’ve got most of the main ones up there… twitter, stumpleupon, digg, etc. but if you can’t find a social networking site that you use on there, then drop us an email or leave a comment and we’ll get it up there!
4. SHOP!
Yep, you read it right… we’ve got our own online shop! Payments are done via paypal so it’s simple, easy and safe. If you’re an artist and interested in selling your art, merch, or anything else arty online then send us an email to shop@turntothebside.com
5. FORUM
Discuss your interests, bitch about the website, give us suggestions, find other students to start projects with… We’re hoping the forum will become a useful hub for artist students to keep in touch or art appreciators to give some input! At the moment we’re still tweaking with this feature, so if you want to get a new discussion group going then send us an email and we’ll get it up there immediately. You’ll also notice that there is a forum group with a password – if you’re already showcased on the website then you’ll be given a password to access this in the near future. If you’re not on the website, I guess you’ll have to get showcased in order to see what lies behind that password! I’m just kidding, there’s really nothing on there yet.
6. SOCIETIES
We have a new societies page set up especially for all those art societies at University who can use this page as a way to showcase their members, as well as themselves! Whether it is an exhibition you’re running, a new competition you’re setting up… get it up there! We also like to collaborate so if you want to get in touch, then please do!
7. PROJECTS/COMPETITIONS
Another new way to fuel the artistic talents of the uni students out there… It’s just like it sounds so I won’t get into explaining how it all works! If you’re a company/person/brand who wants to donate to us a lovely little prize or host a competition, send us an email.
8. HEADLINE
The headline bar is basically telling you to CLICK ON THIS BECAUSE IT IS AMAZING/IMPORTANT/SUPER COOL/BLOODY BRILLIANT.
9. FEATURED
The featured posts are just as important… They showcase all the newly updated artists and the really really good ones that we really really want you to see.
10. ADVERTISE
Self-explanatory right? Hover over ‘About’ on the navigation bar and go down to ‘Advertise’ for more information.
11. B-SIDE EMPIRE TV
Eee, this is an exciting one… All the films, interviews, features, mini-documentaries, clips, parties, everything goes up on here… it’s our very own tv channel. If you’re interested in getting involved or what to be interviewed/featured etc. then send us an email for that too.
12. RECENT POSTS/MOST COMMENTED/MOST VIEWED
All the way down at the bottom are three new boxes that help you to access the most popular articles and the ones that have been read/commented on/watched/viewed the most. Easy easy…
13. BACKGROUND/BANNERS
Basically, we’re giving students the opportunity to design our background and header… whether it’s graphic design, fine art, sculpture, photography, illustration… you may be wondering why I’m including fine art and sculpture, but if you’ve got an amazing photo of your works, we can stick it up in the header! To download our logo and for more information about this hover over ‘Advertise’ under ‘About’ on the nav bar.
So… that’s the new website. BUT WHAT IS COMING UP….?
Over the next few weeks you’ll be noticing the following changes…
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LOG-IN INTERFACE
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CATEGORY PAGE RE-VAMP
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UPDATES AND EVEN MORE NEW CONTENT (so check back)
And that is all from me for now. I hope I haven’t bored you to death with this huge post. If you have any questions or notice any bugs on the website then please let us know!
I’d also like to say a hugeeeee thank you to James Deane for helping me out with all the website bugs and generally, just putting up with my incessant “I can’t do it… help me please”. So thanks James!
Love,
Jenn
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Wow! Well done to you both! This is a fantastic version two of B-Side and I really hope it becomes huge and massively successful. Creative students need this kind of focused support and you’ll be providing them with a platform to help them raise their profiles, the benefits of which are obvious!
I certainly hope Creative Boom offered a little help and inspiration and am here if you need me to promote anything further with the website. It’d be lovely to do a relaunch story on our national e-zine. Just give me a shout at the usual email address.
Katy
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