Editing an existing site

Workign on a site built by someone else.

[Iwrite]

I belong to a church. Nobody but me knows anything about the net much - and so the web stuff falls to inexperienced lil old ME. Sigh, I even found myself given the job of designing a web site for something just because if I have a web site I must know what I am doing! This being announced publicly at a public meeting without anyone asking if I had the technical knowledge! If you use the internet you are thought to be Superperson by everyone who doesn't because it is 'so difficult to use.............'

Trouble is, someone in the past designed a web page for the church, and the only thing I have is the CD rom with the web pages on. This helps me not a lot because they seem to have locked it, and to do anything at all I have to lift all the html from the CD, and really, to my mind, the whole thing looks very amateur. I really dislike the format a lot. It also doesn't have enough buttons or pages. Is it going to take me forever to sort, and should I therefore just say 'let's go back to the drawing board and start again." Or should I just work on somehow increasing the pages and content? IS this a long haul?

CAN you really work on another person's design, or is it a bit like knitting and you see the change in tension? To be honest, I think it looks BORING.

I would rather they scrapped the whole thing, and use the company I use for my website because then the Pastor would be able to go in and change content (LOL he better keep me as editor though as sometimes his English is strange!) for himself. However, in the church world hurting someone's feelings gets to be very important not to do, and clearly a lot of work was put in. The balance to that is my time which is also at a premium.

For some reason I can't get the point accross that content might need to change. I suspect the thinking is that they don't want to make more work for me than they have to; but of course, if they want it as a one time thing, at some point they are going to realise they need to change it!

Thanks
Iwrite

[victor]

You have my sympathies.

Trying to fix a bad site is never easy or fun. And, as I expect you are a volunteer, you want at least some fun while you graft away.

I suggest as a first step you throw it back to the other members / those who have approached you.

Get them to look at a pile of other church sites, and describe a few they really like and a few they think are complete kack.

That'll help concretize any discussion about how your site should procede. And it'll symbolize some buy-in to the project from them. Without any buy-in you should walk away as fast as humanly possible. That applies double to volunteer projects.

Also, it buys you a breathing space while they do it....And if they never get back to you, you need do nothing because you are waiting for them to take the first step.

[kevinpate]

by analogy, your task is a simple spin off of concepts of the hate the sin, not the sinner and baptism concept, i.e., no loss of love for the prior webperson, and the original site was an appreciated blessing for the church in its time, but now it's time for a new birth, a new look, a new walk.

You're more than happy to start out this new walk for them, and build it as a site where minister and flock can walk together (within reason of course, you don't want 50 people adding content willy nilly.)

Best

[oneguy]

However, in the church world hurting someone's feelings gets to be very important not to do, and clearly a lot of work was put in.

I don't have the advice that you are seeking, but I have seen such things become political problems that never get resolved.

This can happen with design, content, or content organization, or all of it. So, I hope you really want to do this. You might constantly find yourself in undesireable situations, situations where someone will wind up unhappy or dissatisfied.

[Iwrite]

Thanks. I think the problem will sort. I have talked to the guys who host my website - and I can alter their layouts to fit the original design, but will be able to use their features to make things rather better. The benefit of course, being I can hide a page of my own while I work on changing the design. Of course, I will be able to go a shade darker or lighter.....etc.....My plan is to make the site inside my own, and then show it as a ready made thing.........LOL just as long as someone doesn't inherit this website someone made out of what someone made!

Iwrite

[mack]

If it was me I would suggest to the members of the church that they all chip in with their idea of a good site design. I am not suggesting they all build a webpage. What I woudl suggest is anyone who is interested might want to do a drawing of a page layout.

What you have a your designs all in, have a vote. The winning design gets picked and you and the person who drew the design get together for a few hours to build a template.

You on the compter and the designer as an observer. You may need to make changed to the layout for it to work properly as a page, but explain things as you go along and in the end you will have an accepted design.

You can then begin moving the content over to the new layout and launch the new church website. By keeping it very democratic no one should feel upset, and the site will reflec th eview of the membership.

Mack.