Links Page?

Already there, just not in one spot.

The links are distributed throughout the guide in the appropriate places. So if you click on the butterfly image in the clickable guide, for example, you'll see more tabs show up below the main menu. One of those is links. The first ones will be those relevant to butterflies, then they get more general.

Very specific links to other photos and information about particular species are best placed on the guide page for that particular thing. You'll usually find quite few there.

As for links to personal websites, that's specified on each contributor's page. So click on their name and if they provide a link to their personal website it'll show up there. Try it with mine.

With so many links, it would be difficult to organize them on any single page that might get pointed to by the main menu.

… Troy Bartlett, 29 March, 2005 - 9:39pm

Clarification

I don't want to put words in Eric's mouth, but I believe what he is asking for doesn't exist yet - for instance, I placed a link to a useful website under the internet references for the darkling beetles. I didn't add this under the link tab and I don't see it there. Additionally, people often use links to websites in their comments - these only show up under the comments for that particular image. Additionally, many people use hypertext to disguise the actual URL - bug could go to any website.
I suspect that its too much to pick up all these links.

… Phillip Harpootlian, 30 March, 2005 - 11:43am

Yes.

Yes, Phil is thinking the way I am :-) I do wish this whole site was a bit easier to use. Maybe that begins with the home page where the text looks like a daunting task to read, so visitors (including myself) don't bother. Having the links under each taxonomic order seems fine. If folks want to find a photographer, however, I think it would be helpful to have all our contributors' websites listed in one place. The other day I had to try and recall which guy it was who had a website I wanted to investigate more thoroughly. I had to go 20+ pages into "recent" to find his name again!

… Eric R. Eaton, 30 March, 2005 - 12:49pm

As always

I'm open to suggestions on how to better organize things. Some things are easier than others.

Any idea on how to improve the home page? Tony D suggested adding some graphics, but I just don't know what to put there.

I could create a page to show all the contributors that have listed a homepage. That's easy enough. I think some people might have that buried in their biography (like me), which makes it more difficult to determine.

… Troy Bartlett, 30 March, 2005 - 12:58pm

Idea

The only improvements I could suggest and they're purely cosmetic -
1. Add a faint colorful watermark image under the text - could be anything; butterfly etc.
2. Add a large colorful "Enter Guide" link at the top of the text.
3. Delete the small "clickable guide" box from page one. Replace the smallish unlabeled guide box with a whole page [page 2] of labeled, representative picture links - a Butterfly with label "Butterflies" beneath, a beetles image labeled "Beetles", and so on.
Trivial stuff, but might be more eye-catching, especially to the first time user.

… Phillip Harpootlian, 31 March, 2005 - 11:44am

labels

I really like the clickable guide without the words....it's just visually appealing to me that way.

… Lynette Elliott, 31 March, 2005 - 7:45pm

labeled icons

About the Clickable Guide: I agree that having labels under the icons would be helpful. Currently, it's a mild form of Mystery Meat Navigation - mild because the icon shapes give you a clue - but still MMN because you can't be sure what each icon represents until you rest the mouse over it and the title or alt tag pops up. An alphabetized list of labels and their associated icon(s) would occupy more space but probably improve usability.

… Robin McLeod, 31 March, 2005 - 7:20pm