New Website?

W

Whiton

Joined
Jun 25, 2017
Messages
15
So... I... made a new website for HI. Well, I started one. I'm not sure if anybody is interested in such a thing so I wanted to see if a new website was something that was wanted. I'm sure there's some sentimental value to a lot on the current website and I recommend that most of that site stay. The information sections do not need anything done in my opinion and they have some great info and stories. This website would merely replace the homepage and store of the current website. I don't know a whole lot about this community so don't take this the wrong way. I'm just a college kid in engineering with a mild case of HIKV. I just saw a potential need and tried to fill it. The website is more like a preview for now to give you the idea of what it'd be like. If this is wanted, I'll keep working on it. Including taking more pictures of people with the kukris. For example, a search and rescue guy holding a light with one hand and a kukri with another or a backpacker with one on their backpack. You know, real product photography. And of course adding all the products, a regular shopping cart with shipping calculations and a PayPal checkout, then turning it over once complete. And of course input from here. I'm not trying to hijack anything or anything like that. I just love HI and want it to thrive. Maybe it's too much of a change. If it's not wanted, then I'll delete the site and move on. It's just way too much work to go on without the approval of those who matter, namely Mrs. Martino.

Everything on the site should work with the exception of actually checking out which has been disabled so that no one tries to actually send me money for a product I can't deliver.

Let me know what you think and feel free to email me: eriksonwce@outlook.com

https://eriksonwce.wixsite.com/himalayanimports
 
I think it's a very nice job.

Write to auntie, let her know your thoughts, and I'm sure she'll be receptive to your input.

Obviously, you've put in some effort, and she'll definitely appreciate that. The old site is very sentimental, but if the main points are kept, I don't think it's a bad idea to update the site.
 
Great work and efforts let me think about it
Thank you for the help and your time
 
Nice work! You may want to label it as a non-working prototype and link to the current active site so potential customers don't find it and get frustrated.
 
Howard Wallace said:
Nice work! You may want to label it as a non-working prototype and link to the current active site so potential customers don't find it and get frustrated.
Click to expand...
It's not listed on search engines or anything, it's only available through a direct link to it right now, but I'll do that anyway just in case.
 
Whiton, can you email Yangdu and give her your email address. I want to chat but your not set up for email or PM's yet.

Thanks.
 
Apparently your emails aren't getting through to Yangdu. She's been checking and doesn't see it.
 
She said that one got through and she responded. She didn't sent it to me so I assume she handled it.
 
I agree with others that Whiton created a beautiful site. My concern would be the enormous amount of work that would fall on Yangdu's shoulders to keep the information up to date, as compared with the simple method that she uses now to post new blades as they become available. The existing HI website is mostly a valuable archive, very large and complex, and for that reason just about impossible to keep up to date. Even the online store only shows a subset of HI models, sizes and prices, does not indicate which kami made a given blade, and there is no guarantee that any knife listed in the store is actually available at a given time or in the size specified.

I also noticed that the new website says at the top "This website was created with the WiX.com web site builder" and has a link to that company. I may be overly cautious, but it's been my experience that website builder software often uses nonstandard features to make sure that the customer has to keep coming back to them for updates or fixes (in other words, routine maintenance for any complex web site). That can become a problem even if the initial website build is free or inexpensive. And if they go out of business or raise their prices, you're out of luck. HI and many other users of Photobucket found out a few months ago how painful that can be.

This is in no way a criticism of Whiton, and I can only speak for myself, but it might explain some of the reasons why his proposal ultimately was turned down.
 
davidf99 said:
I agree with others that Whiton created a beautiful site. My concern would be the enormous amount of work that would fall on Yangdu's shoulders to keep the information up to date, as compared with the simple method that she uses now to post new blades as they become available. The existing HI website is mostly a valuable archive, very large and complex, and for that reason just about impossible to keep up to date. Even the online store only shows a subset of HI models, sizes and prices, does not indicate which kami made a given blade, and there is no guarantee that any knife listed in the store is actually available at a given time or in the size specified.

I also noticed that the new website says at the top "This website was created with the WiX.com web site builder" and has a link to that company. I may be overly cautious, but it's been my experience that website builder software often uses nonstandard features to make sure that the customer has to keep coming back to them for updates or fixes (in other words, routine maintenance for any complex web site). That can become a problem even if the initial website build is free or inexpensive. And if they go out of business or raise their prices, you're out of luck. HI and many other users of Photobucket found out a few months ago how painful that can be.

This is in no way a criticism of Whiton, and I can only speak for myself, but it might explain some of the reasons why his proposal ultimately was turned down.
Click to expand...

No, I completely agree. My hope was mostly to create a new storefront to help newcomers to HI. It personally took me a while to figure out how everything worked and how one went about finding and ordering blades that weren't on the yahoo storefront. I wanted to keep the current site as it has so much incredible information but use something more modern and nicer for actually ordering the more popular blades.

Also agree completely with the Wix criticism. I didn't really like it, especially since it can be slow and clunky, but I decided to go with that instead of Adobe Muse and Dreamweaver like I used for my site since whoever had control of the site could easily adjust and update the site without needing to know much about site design or coding. Additionally, once the site was online, it can always be flashed to Adobe Muse so that if Wix or whoever were to go under, the site stays up and can still be edited and updated by using the Muse copy.

Anyway, like I said, I just thought something that helped bring newcomers in would be nice, but change is hard and I can't fault anybody for that.
 
The old website was created by Uncle Bill and has a tremendous amount of sentimental value to Yangdu also.
I know the intent was to keep as much of it unchanged as possible but she was basically afraid and not being familiar with some of the stuff I don't really blame her.

Your effort was very much appreciated, make no mistake there.
 
Bawanna said:
The old website was created by Uncle Bill and has a tremendous amount of sentimental value to Yangdu also.
I know the intent was to keep as much of it unchanged as possible but she was basically afraid and not being familiar with some of the stuff I don't really blame her.

Your effort was very much appreciated, make no mistake there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured that was the case. I knew it was a long shot to begin with. Thought I'd see what she thought anyway, though.
 
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