Fall Cleaning

[Whitney]

Today I'm trying to work a bit on some minor site maintenance.  Some of you may notice that I finally removed the click to chat links which are no longer working.  I also removed the amazon links from the front page because it looked cluttered.  

I'm going to also be working on updating our 'advertising" banner...right now it looks a bit unprofessional.  

Here's the new basic links banner:

It's better than what we had before but I'm still working on a better layout.

Would anyone be interested in banners to place on your own sites (blogs, myspace etc) to help promote the forum?  If so, let me know what size...or make your own and share it for others to use.

If anyone would like to add to the knowledge base just submit your article and I'll approve it.  I am considering the possibility that this site could be more than a forum...maybe also serving as a resource for those who want to understand more about how an atheist can be happy.  Would that be a good idea and what would be the best way to organize it?  Maybe the forum itself does a good enough job of accomplishing this?

Please give me any suggestions for improvement you may have.  I will do my best to include them and let you know if it something that might have to wait till a later date.  Suggestions could be about the setup, content, organization, activism...anything.

Edit:  here's another banner:

[MommaSquid]

I like the new banner and will put it on my blog if you make a small one.  

I have a 143 x 45 banner on there already, so please make one the same size for HAF.  I like symmetry.  

I'm not crazy about the circle logo.

[Whitney]

I like the new banner and will put it on my blog if you make a small one.  

I have a 143 x 45 banner on there already, so please make one the same size for HAF.  I like symmetry.  

how is this?



OR

I'm not crazy about the circle logo.

I'm still trying to think of something better...right now it reminds me of the letters ranches use for branding

[McQ]

How about girls jumping on trampolines? Or is that overdone?  :wink:

I like the banner. Mayhaps I will post it on my MySpace.

I'll give your thoughts some consideration.

[Whitney]

Oh, I thought I should explain the reason behind the logo design:

Since I used the IPU logo before and they allow the free use of that logo, I too the IPU logo and place HA over it.  Then I massaged it a bit to smooth out where they didn't meet up correctly.

[rlrose328]

I like the fancier logo and will put it on my website... we can put it on atheismquotes.com too, if you don't mind.  

Is there a links page somewhere on HAF?  Perhaps a forum topic for business sharing?  I know believers all tout their beliefs so customers can be loyal... why can't we?  Anyone who has maybe more than 100 posts can post a logo and link to their business?  Make a maximum size and no more than a certain number of words, so it doesn't get out of hand and look like a mini-mall?

I, for one, like the circle logo.  I'm not an IPU fan really... but I like the way the HA looks in the circle.  I didn't see the IPU in there until you said it was there.  But I like it.

[Whitney]

We have a links page:

http://www.happyatheistforum.com/links.php

You get to it by going to the home/portal page and clicking on links in the right side list.  But, considering that hardly anyone knows it is there...I need to add a link to it in a more prominent place.

Anyone can add their links to the links page and it accepts logos.  Try to keep the description as short as possible b/c i can't figure out how to get word-wrap to turn on....I've had to cut down quite a few of the descriptions to make it look half-way decent.

I also have some space on the front page for logos with links...two of them I just added to fill space the others (IPU and best of net atheism) need to stay because they are trades.  We could also have a "post a link to your business" thread for those that want to advertise....and the from time to time I could grab all new banners/links from there and place them on a special page.

I'd love to have the forum's banner/logo somewhere your sites.  As I said, plenty of room left on the portal here, let me know if you have a specific graphic or banner I can use for your sites.

ps...you can also add your sites to your sig if you want (i know a lot of people are sometimes not sure if that is allowed or not)

[tigerlily46514]

Well, speaking of promoting the forum.....i spent about an hour or two, (okay, i was waiting for something, ok?) on myspace, (Yes, i am 50, but both my dtrs have pages there, it is easier to get them a MSG there sometimes) and i ended up "searching" on myspace for atheists, and sent out about 300 Lil notes to atheists, inviting them to check out TheHappyAtheist as a very neat weblog I'd found.....

I did this a week or two ago.....   Have we had any influx of new atheists??????

[Whitney]

thanks tiger, it does seem that the members have been increasing a bit more than normal.  I'm laetusatheos on myspace....but don't tend to visit very often.

[tigerlily46514]

whew!  i wasn't certain how you'd feel about my doing that, whew!  I only wrote to people who labelled themselves atheists, and i didn't claim it was mine, just one i'd found and enjoyed.  

cuz i know how it is to out there with no where to go to find like minds.  And this weblog is so nice!

Yeah, i don't go to Myspace often, just to find my dtrs!  But oh boy, do i have a 'friend list"...ha ha!  I have like 300 famous fake friends there, ha ha, i send out invites to 'famous people' while i am waiting for my dtrs to IM me back, mostly to amuse my dtrs....it got a little out of control.  I think i am jean, so i'd be hard to find i guess....no, i just checked, you can probably find me at tigerlily46514 after all!  it is quite a friend list, funny enuff to look at.

[Steve Reason]

I'd be glad to put a banner on my myspace page. I like the white one okay, but it's a little too wide. Could you maybe make one about the size of Kerri's Atheism Quotes banner?

Of course I'm not enjoying life nearly as much as the folks in that banner. Although if my feeling of freedom from religion could be expressed, it might look something like that.