Gallery Overhaul suggestions!!

[Jadeduo]

*delurks*

Hi Everyone!!

Long time no see, I have finally moved into my new house with beautiful new kitchen and 4x9 Island that I can organize and layout my cels and get all the new/old stuff scanned... It would be great to get everything up for everyone to see, some stuff I have been sitting on since 2008... So before the official update spree/overhaul starts I wanted to get opinions on what I should do about the current gallery and set up... If anyone had any opinions I would love to hear them!! I also have some specific questions as well, if you don't want to bother just let me know what you think!

1. Should I separate the galleries by character as well as by season or just leave them as they are?
2. Cel count interested or don't care?
3. How are the blurbs that have been completed should I change the format or leave as is?
4. Series introductions, some I have finished, some I have not... Do you like or dislike them?

Thanks in advance to any that reply!!! The gallery is closed but you can get there directly through this link:
jadeduo.rubberslug.com

Jadeduo

[sensei]

* I have finally moved into my new house with beautiful new kitchen and 4x9 Island that I can organize and layout my cels and get all the new/old stuff scanned...

Congratulations on your new house and useful new kitchen. I've always rated a house largely on the usefulness of its kitchen, and I hope it's the site of many delicious meals as well as more gallery eye-candy!

1. Should I separate the galleries by character as well as by season or just leave them as they are?
2. Cel count interested or don't care?
3. How are the blurbs that have been completed should I change the format or leave as is?
4. Series introductions, some I have finished, some I have not... Do you like or dislike them?

I've visited your gallery many times, and like it pretty much as is, but I appreciate your desire to upgrade it. For my yen:
1. Organizing by season/episode makes sense to me. If you mention the character in the title or the description, the RS search function (or alternatively "In My Dreams" + Rubberslug = [character name]) will turn up cels by character easily enough.
2. Not interested. But it might be useful information for you. Maybe move to "About"? I like to leave the home page focused on giving first-time visitors some options to start exploring the gallery.
3. I like the format of the blurbs. Yes, yes, spoilers, but truthfully people who are into collecting Sailor Moon or CCS will know the series well enough to appreciate your putting the images in context. I find them especially useful for the series that I don't know as well.
4. I like series introductions, and think the ones you have are a good fit: long enough to let browsers know what you find special about the series or season.

Also, I think the larger-than-usual thumbnails are nice, though they do tempt me to look through the gallery page and not settle in to clicking on them to see the larger image and description. Still, it gives your gallery a "grand hall" feeling rather than the claustrophobic look that galleries (like mine) sometimes give by using the default thumbs.

Thanks for asking! And keep us updated as your gallery gets filled out!

PS, concerning Sakura - Episode 40, feel free to make use of any of the info I have up on my page with your cel's sequence-buddy!

[Jadeduo]

Thanks Sensei!

I really appreciate your feedback, your responses are always thoughtful and sweet, and I too visit your gallery often you have a unique perspective as both curator and collector that I think we all need to work on more! Most of us, including me start off as collectors and tend to hoard our finds. I really believe that if our collections are not shown to be enjoyed they will eventually be just lost forever...

As for your feedback I have been thinking about scrapping the cel count for a while now your feedback just cements the decision. I'm glad you enjoy the series intros, and cel blurbs so I will endeavor to finish the ones I have not done yet, and go back over the ones I did when I first started collecting to make sure all the cels are on the same page as it were.

I have been waffling about breaking the series down into character instead of by season, however after getting your feedback I think I will continue to go by season and if I get multiples from one episode, say more than 5 or 6 I will break out the episode like I did CCS, 65, 66, and 67.

I didn't even think about the thumbnail size , I personally just like them bigger. For me it's like when you go into a museum and want to get the overall of the collection why some pieces/artists are hung together and some not. That is also why I do 24 to a page because it gives me an overall idea of where I am with each season and where I could go next... I like that you also do the 24 to a page, and I think ultimately the size of the thumbnail doesn't matter too much if you like the piece or want to see more you will click on it! i.e. Can you tell I click a lot around your gallery!? ^_^

I actually use a freeware thumbnail creator that resizes all the images so that you don't lose any quality when shrinking if anyone is interested when I get home I will post the link.

Thanks again Sensei!

Please if anyone else wants to weigh in please do!

Jadeduo

[teggacat]

Yay! for new house and Yay! for new kitchen!!
I love your enthusiasm and happy you're back collecting and de-lurked!
So I was looking through your gallery, a couple things:
I am not a collector of CCS so I am also not much familiar with series/characters, so that said,
I did find it helpful the way you divided by seasons, got a bit more confused by episode#s but again,
I dont know the show really, so they must be Important Episodes. The movies were rather self
explanatory [duh X|at me ]
I really like the larger thumbnails, does not in any way keep me from further investigating said piece,
and also love any kind of babble/chatter about a piece, whether its scene related, or just why the purchase was needed,
and also, the cel count thing is kind of just a personal choice, I dont use it as it seems to clutter-y for me, but then
again its a nice quick way to know where a gallery is really focused.
Anyhow, Great Job!!

[Jadeduo]

Hi Teggacat!

Thanks for the happy wishes! New kitchens should always garner a yay! ^_^ LOL I wouldn't say that I wasn't collecting, I bought a few things here and there, would go on a binge, take break, it was a vicious cycle... However I was mostly not paying attention to what was going on in the community, I would lurk around here or there but was not really around.... However it is great to be back, and I will girl scouts honor try to get back into the swing of things...

Thanks for the insight on my CCS collection, I forget that sometimes not everyone is familiar!!! I thought of the episodes getting pulled out could be confusing... I will endeavor to pull the episodes by season and group them together with the season they are in so maybe go...

CCS - Season 1

CCS - Season 2
CCS - Season 2 - Episode 40

CCS - Season 3
CCS - Season 3 - Episode 65...


And so on so forth, do you think that might help??

Thanks for the feedback on the thumbnails... Helpful tip: http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/ You can download this small open source program all it does is resize pictures for thumbnails, however it does it in such a way that you lose no clarity on the piece, and it will resize to whatever size you ultimately go with. I have been told by my sister when she tried to help out with my gallery one time that I have weird size thumbnails...

I guess I just need to keep working on my blurbs, I'm glad for all the positive feedback. And it looks like the cel count will be getting ixnayed, starting tonight... Just as soon as I get my list together for what I want to get accomplished tonight!

Thanks again for the feedback! I really appreciate it!
Jadeduo