MLP Website--I Need Pics!

[hyenacub]

EDIT June 2017:  So I guess it did not take as much time as I thought it would.  This is the new URL:  https://cubs-corner.000webhostapp.com/cubscolts.html

So the first version of this was a mess--so I am rewriting it so that hopefully it is NOT a mess..    I have an MLP site--the part I am asking for help on is here:  https://cubs-corner.000webhostapp.com/portal.html

What I need is now on  part of my site to make it easier for me to update:  https://cubs-corner.000webhostapp.com/whatineed.html  C: C:

And as always, any ideas, suggestions, etc.  are welcome!

[Icicle]

Oh this is awesome! I have a few ponies I can take pictures of for ya, I just.. need to clear out a space and take some pictures. But I can totally get you a butt shot of Posey and Baby Sparkle Gusty, just doing a quick glance at the site. I'll have to comb through, but. I'll shoot you a PM when I have all my ducks ponies in a row!

[hyenacub]

Thaat'd be awesome!  I also need pics of accessories and playets, too.  I have the Lullabye Nursery and Show Stable, but theyre not complete.

If you could photo them against a wood background, like a bookshelf, that'd be awesome.  But otherwise, a white background is good.  C:

[Icicle]

Mmkay~. I'll do my best on the backdrop, I have super limited stuff to work with right now (my husband just lost his job and our car just died..). Buuuuut, if I move my risers I might be able to have a spot :3

[hyenacub]

Don't knock yourself out!  C:  I'm sorry to hear about the husband's job, though.  And the car.  We've ha enough POScars to know how that is.  >P  But whatever you're willing to do i great!

[SpaceButtPonies]

Curious are you looking for all gens or mainly G1? I have a couple G1s I can snap for you

[hyenacub]

Hello Pika!  It will eventually be all gens, but I am starting with G1...which will definitely take time to finish!  Which ones do you have?

[Icicle]

Don't knock yourself out!  C:  I'm sorry to hear about the husband's job, though.  And the car.  We've ha enough POScars to know how that is.  >P  But whatever you're willing to do i great!

I realized moving my Lego Star Wars Advent calendar gave me a nice little spot to take pictures! I will at least have some full body shots soon-ish, dunno about symbols because my camera didn't wanna focus, so I might have to do those later with my phone. From what I saw, glancing through the site I have Locket, Posey, Baby Sparkle Gusty, Night Glider, Starshine and Creamsicle. So when I can edit them down I'll shoot you a PM :3

[Leave a Whisper]

I can try and take some for you once my phone is fixed. what generations do ya need? I have 1,3 and 4.

[Shy Violet]

That's great you're making an ID site and I like how you have it organized by different categories. One feedback I can give is to add on each page a button on the bottom to take you to the next page so you don't have to go back to the home page. So if I wanted to look through all the ponies by year I can flip through them all without that extra step of the home page.

[Icicle]

Don't knock yourself out!  C:  I'm sorry to hear about the husband's job, though.  And the car.  We've ha enough POScars to know how that is.  >P  But whatever you're willing to do i great!

I realized moving my Lego Star Wars Advent calendar gave me a nice little spot to take pictures! I will at least have some full body shots soon-ish, dunno about symbols because my camera didn't wanna focus, so I might have to do those later with my phone. From what I saw, glancing through the site I have Locket, Posey, Baby Sparkle Gusty, Night Glider, Starshine and Creamsicle. So when I can edit them down I'll shoot you a PM :3

Oh and I didn't see a full size of Flower Dream, I don't know if it's one you need but I do have her as well!

[hyenacub]

http://cubskids.comule.com/surprise.html  This is how the individual pages will look.  Symbol pics need to be at least 100 pixels on the short side.

Icicle, that'd be great!  night Glider...one of my faves.  If you can make sure they're at least 500 pixels long on the long side?  I do need all of those.  Including Flower Dream.  : D

Whisper--if your phone can take good quality pics, that'd be awesome.  I need them at least 500 on the long side.  G1 for now.  Eventually I will expand, but for now I am focusing on G1.

Shy Violet--good idea!  I think I'll do that.

[SpaceButtPonies]

Hello Pika!  It will eventually be all gens, but I am starting with G1...which will definitely take time to finish!  Which ones do you have?

I have flocked sundance, bubbles, magic hat, and Tabby.

[Taffeta]

This might come across as a bit of a cold splash, and please don't take it that way. But as someone with a pony ID site, I really hope you know the level of work involved and what you are letting yourself in for.

DV was a legendary website. But it also was so popular because it had been here so long. It was a go-to site for people over around two decades, and that's amazing. There isn't any other website that will ever match or replace it. That's not to say it was complete, or that it didn't have errors. It did. But people let that go because of the fact it was DV and it was nostalgic.

I would suggest that right from the very start, before you begin building the site seriously, you figure out your aims and what you want to cover with it. What information do you really want to provide? I would definitely look more to the Wiki than to DV in terms of what you are trying to do - but that brings its own problems. For example, if you are only repeating the information already on the Wiki, then people are going to just go visit the Wiki. So you have to figure out what it is you want YOUR site to tell the community. That can be difficult .

I don't think it's bad to have more ID sites. But I do think it's hard to compete with the Wiki in terms of information these days. Unless you have something niche for your site to do or be, it's going to be difficult to establish a new ID site. So I would really suggest think about that.

 I would personally not digitally edit colour shades on accessories. The reason is that different monitors already show shades differently. Even if you have the pony MOC in front of you, and take a photo of it, the chances of everyone seeing the pony ribbon in that image in the same shade is negligible. If you are editing it based on a photo that someone else took then there's a lot of room for error. And pony ribbons also fade. It's really a minefield, and I suspect it will cause you considerably more grief. Just as a case in point, I have Surprise MOC, and I didn't recognise the ribbon shade from that page. I don't know if that is my screen or whether it's the colour itself. But I think that's a problem and one you'd do better to avoid if you can.

If you don't own the ponies going on your site, you need to be really on top of the detail to ensure there aren't any errors. If you've never seen a pony in real life, you run the risks of the above happening with colour, especially on symbol shades and such like.

Finally, all I'll say is that if you're using other people's images, be really diligent on the detail and on the crediting of those images. And especially make sure you ask ebay sellers if you want to use their images. Most are ok with it, but some really don't like it.

This sounds really harsh but it isn't meant to be. On the contrary, it's the words of experience I especially think that if you are going to really throw yourself into this (and be prepared that it will take a lot of time and drive you nuts xD) you need to find something that will define your site as special and unique. See if you can think of a way to deliver the pony information that is different and new from any other existing ID site, because that's how you'll get people to use and rely on your website. If it's already on the Wiki, people are going to just use the Wiki, and no site is ever going to replace DV's nostalgia. Also, you have to be prepared that an ID site has to update and correct itself. Its one of those "never finished" articles - a website is for life, not just for the moment of inspiration. It's a responsibility to the community when you stick your neck out and say you're going to do pony ID. It means people believe what you say. I dunno if you remember all the crazy back when DV got mixed messages and muddled a lot of Euro info in the late 1990s. We're still trying to get some of those myths out of the community. That's how much responsibility it is to be as right as you can, and ready to correct if you're wrong.

So yeah. To me that should be your focus. Your layout looks open and clear and nice to operate but I think you need to find the thing that really defines your site as special.

With the US pony line, that may be harder than you think. It's actually easier to do this when you're not stifled by the Dream Valley determined "year" system.

Regarding what was said about site navigation - a forward/back button is a little annoying if you don't want to go through all the ponies to get to the end. Maybe think about how you can navigate on each page and back to the main page or on to a specific pony without going through the whole lot?

I still have some twitches on my website with this when I find a random link that for some reason goes somewhere it shouldn't, so I suggest doing that from the very start. I have had to replace navigation frames numerous times because they needed additional information, and I'm still not really happy with it. If you're beginning from scratch, definitely have a fixed template where this isn't going to give you extra stress. It's not necessarily the case that you need complicated scripting to navigate on a website, but I think you do need to address that aspect from individual pony pages - and how this is going to work in the bigger picture.

(I do like your pony type photo examples though. I think that is a good idea)

One personal twitch  - the term 'cutie mark' should never be used in connection with G1. Ever.

[Broken Irishwoman]

No useful advice here, but I really like how you put the accessories on the page.