WEBSITE SET-UP ADVICE

Some time ago I operated a Masonic Website Award program. It proved quite popular and enabled me to visit many Masonic sites of varying standard. So I thought I'd offer some advice on what makes a good Masonic site. The thoughts are my own and are for guidance only as the site is YOURS and if it pleases you that's ok!

Bear in mind the idea of the site is to KEEP viewers interested, NOT make them go back to Search Engines for other sources and possibly attract further interest in the Lodge. Yours is one of many hundred Masonic sites and surfers are getting more choosey and less patient.

For convenience I have split the topics and there is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) feel to this page. Clicking on what particularly interests you will get you straight to that section.


BASIC REQUIREMENTS
LAYOUT
STATIC GRAPHICS
ANNIMATED GRAPHICS
FONTS
PAGE PROTECTION
USE OF MUSIC OR SOUNDS
PUBLICISING THE SITE

BASIC REQUIREMENTS
Firstly decide what your reason is for producing the site! Sounds obvious but it makes a difference. If you wish to use the site purely for the Lodge members then don't expect big amounts of visitors. This type of site is fairly straig#ht forward and requires little to keep it operating also the amount of "bells and whistles" can be reduced. Alternatively if you wish to expand and interest outsiders with perhaps the idea of enticing new members et then more would be required. Remember inside a Lodge there is a limit to the number of Internet users!

The things that would be expected on a Masonic site are:
1 Nice opening page --- do not overdo the graphics but include a visitor counter and Main Menu with a link to an email address or email form.
2 Current Officers listing --- everyone likes to see their name on the Internet and it shows a degree of openness.
3 Lodge history --- Keep it simple and include some pictures if possible. Most outsiders like to see a historical side.
4 Calendar of upcoming events --- again simple but don't give too much away.
5 Guestbook is nice to have and many people will sign it. Nice ego booster and gives the Secretary something to comment on at Lodge meetings.
6 Membership items like joining criteria and Lodge activities are a good idea. There is a lot of interest in Masonry and the inevitable questions always arise "how do I join" and "what do you do"?

One thing to try to avoid is references to non Masonic items. Reactions to news items are ok but must be limited. Remember that a lot of viewers are not from your own country and may not have interests in "local" problems and conditions. Keep it to a minimum.

After the above depending on your membership and interests cover Masonic education or advice on speeches and humour.


VERY IMPORTANT if your site has a visitor that takes the time to reply or send you follow up communication have the decency to at least respond. All too often I have emailed a webmaster and waited for a reply in vane IT IS VERY FRUSTRATING!!!

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LAYOUT

 Spend time sorting out what you wish to show and devise a simple menu system that allows access to all pages from all pages. Give the viewer the choice.

The first thing to decide on is background and fonts to be used. Keep backgrounds light but appropriate there are many available already on the Interset so look around and make some choices. If asked no-one should object to you usin g their designs etc. FONTS --- keep them to the basic do not use non-standard font families that require the user to make a download this often results in viewers leaving!

First and most important rule is do not put everything onto one page! It will be easier to edit information if it is seperated and the viewer will appreciate being able to select what interests them.

Your opening page is probably the most important as this will be the viewers decider as to whether they stay or go. Keep it simple and short. Some nice and relevant pictures, a visitor counter if desired and simple welcoming message. You can also put your Webrings on this page but I prefer to have webrings go to a separate page.

Frames are not regarded as "in" at the moment. They are difficult to do properly and search engines are sometimes confused when they don't get the info they expect so the site gets by passed. Stick to a table type layout and make use of SSI (Server Side Includes) for menus etc. There are plenty of tutorials on SSI etc available.

Be wary of including too many animated graphics on the opening page. I once visited a site with an opening page that included a 800*600 2B1 ASK1 graphic that was animated! I immediately left as it was quite honestly frightening.

I deal with animated graphics later.

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GRAPHICS

 This is probably where a lot of webmasters get it wrong!

Graphics are there to enhance your information not replace it.

Remember that not everyone has Broadband installed and a lot of graphics slows down the download time and can be boring if not expensive. So ensure all graphics are optimised for use on the net. Your graphics should also include an alt="" tag that is properly filled out. This helps those who surf without graphics enabled or use screen reading sortware like that for the Visually Impaired. It is fast becoming law that the disabled be catered for and this is a good start.

Another thing that causes irritation is COMET CURSORS these are the cursors that have trailling messages or graphics. They look good but the novelty soon wears off!

Here's a great link to a page with access to a huge collection of graphics

Masonic Leadership Center MLC

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ANIMATED GRAPHICS

love them or hate them! They have a use by drawing attention to particular area of your page or providing nice decoration. There are some beautiful animated Masonic graphics especially the Square and Compasses type which enhance the appearance of the page. However there are some very glaring animations that should be avoided at all costs.

Remember flashing graphics will naturally draw the attention to it and thus cause a distraction possibly resulting in the viewer leaving without getting the information they wanted in the first place.

Again the trend is away from these graphics unless really appropriate like indicating new page links etc.
USE WITH CARE!

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MUSIC

Similar to graphics love or loathe it!

ALWAYS put a music control panel at the top of each page. This will allow the visitor to decide whether or not they wish to share YOUR taste in music or the volume of the same.

The addage "there is a volume control on everyone's computer" doesn't wash. Under no circumstances should you expect the viewer to change their computer settings --- any adjustmens must be available from the webpage.

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PROTECTION

The issue of website protection is very involved. Webmasters spend long hours creating their pages and naturally do not want their information or graphics copied by others. You may even be concerned about Lodge photographs getting into the wrong hands!

There are many routines around to disable the right click functions on your mouse. This will only stop the "casual" copier who has little experience on the Internet. Apart from that you will considerably annoy other visitors. There are many other features available with the right mouse button and you will disable ALL of these. However left handed people have the mouse buttons reversed and those using a MAC only have one button anyway.

Also remember that when someone visits a webpage the entire contents are stored in the visitors computer cache facility so effectively everyone has all your stuff anyway.

The other aspect of web protection is personal information. I do not recommend placing contact home addresses and phone numbers on sites this puts the information open to all sorts of abuse. I would also suggest that any site that has contact details does so through a form type email redirect. This keeps your email address away from the "harvesters" used by those that SPAM! Password protection works to a limited extent. There is always the risk that a search engfine will pick up that page and provide a direct link.

Before you place photos or personal details of members always ask their permission and allow others their privacy if that is what they want.

However quite honestly there is only one foolproof method of protecting your stuff ---
DON'T PUT IT ON THE NET!!!

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PUBLICITY

Even the biggest Lodges will only have a reasonably small number with ready access to the Internet so what happens when your own members have all visited the site and signed the guestbook --- hopefully!

Firstly visit as many other Lodge sites as you can and sign their guestbooks. You should at least get a return visit and perhaps more. Local Lodges with sites may be happy to exchange links with you. This is good as search engines like to find links to relevant sites it helps ranking a little too. If your Grand Lodge has a site try to get a link from it.

Webrings are a nice idea and require little work however a lot of them are operated on a local basis.

Apply for site awards this works two fold --- firstly if you win one it is a nice boost to your ego and secondly it gives you another link from the winners page.

Search engines are an entity of their own and can require more thought than I can provide here. However if your site is on the net it should eventually get picked up by one of the robots and added to the directories. Alternatively you can apply to the engines from their sites. There are also a number of free search engine submission sites that will do some of the work for you.

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ADVANCED

So the pages are up and being visited and indeed even used by those it was intended for WHAT NEXT---

There are a couple of exercises that will greatly help you and your viewers.

VALIDATION this will be a major headache for those using DTP programs and will virtually mean learning how to use a HTML orientated program like Frontpage or Dreamweaver. get your html code to validate with w3c. This will be a step in ensuring that all browsers (there are a lot more than Internet Explorer and Netscape/AOL) will read your pages as you wish them to be presented. I suggest validating to w3c 4.01 Transitional first then attempting the extra mile to Strict.

Next the thorny issue of ACCESSIBILITY this makes your pages ok for the Visually Impaired. They tend to surf with specialised programs that read the screen and do not reflect the graphic content. Some others will surf with graphics etc turned off and the text size turned up. The most commnon tool for this is called BOBBY. Its checker is not the easiest to follow but it is Internationally recognised and will check for both UK and USA issues.

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This page was last updated on Thursday June 8, 2006

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