Aloha!!\r\rFirst time here. I just relaunched my new flash enhanced site and just wanted to announce it. I’m very new to this stuff and are currently hosting with “angelfire.com” so please do not mind the pop-ups. I know they are a little distracting.\r\rHere’s the URL: www.808i.com\r\rMahalo from sunny Hawaii - Marc
Hey Kirupa, this may not be worthy enough for the SOTW but there’s nothin like trying huh?\r\rwww.808i.com\r\rAloha - Marc
www10.brinkster.com/flash808/808i/html\r\rI guess this place is not like “flashkit.com” huh? Is this like for the “elite” flash designers? It seems as if no one response to sites that’s not worthy of SOTW. Oh well. \r\rAloha!!
That’s not true - SOTW just isn’t a regular stop for us. Anyway, I was going to say something about your site, but it was down at the time. It’s a nice site and it could go toe-to-toe with other SOTW nominees. I would definitely recommend getting a better server (free servers suck). The design is pretty fresh but the text within the textbox is pretty hard to read - I recommend using a sans-serif font. As a personal site, it would rock… as a business/company site… eh - it’s a bit unprofessional.
Wow I got a response!! I know I was thinking of making this my personal site. I’m very new at this you think you can give some pointers on how to create a more proffesional site for business purposes? If you do I’ll be glad to give you a link back to your site. I checked out your site also…very cute.\r\rAloha - Marc
First of all - your site well decorated without being too garish - that’s a definite plus and a trap that many flashers fall into. The navigation is also easily recognizable and the site usable - a huge plus and again, a common flash pitfall which you clearly avoided.\r\rNow, keep in mind that professional business site which you will use to attract clients and customers are completely different from personal sites. While you are free to reign in any way you please on a home page, you really have to put your best foot forwards and cater to a population. My intention is not to knock you down but give you my personal opinion regarding professional sites. Feel free to do what you wish with my words - some people gave me the same tips when I was entering the business and I couldn’t have been more grateful. With that, here are my pointers:\r\rYou should try to size it down, it doesn’t fit in a 800x600 resolution. Contrary to popular belief, a sizable portion of the web surfers still use this resolution. If you look at W3’s statistics, you’ll see that about 37% use a resolution of 1024x768 or more. These are the web savvy and these people are the ones who probably know how to make their own site and won’t be needing your services. So in essence, you’ll be catering to the 50% or more population that use a smaller screen resolution. Size that sucker down!\r\rText - the font within the textbox is pretty hard to read. The letters are squished together and the serif style font makes it even worst. I would get rid of the Asian characters - it really makes no sense and makes me feel like I’m looking at an Asian Avenue page. It also alienates possible clients that have no idea what it says or means. The header bars - you have an alternating orange/white thing going on. I like this, it’s very stylish. However, I don’t recommend breaking up a word by having half of it orange, and the other half white or vice versa. It’s confusing which is contrary to the function of headlines, which are supposed to give the reader an idea about the text below. Definitely keep the style though, but alternate colors between words and not random letters. <font color=“Blue”>PREVIEW</font><font color=“Red”>WINDOW</font> = yes. <font color=“Blue”>PREVIEW</font><font color=“Red”>INDOW</font> = no.\r\rInformation: Spell things correctly and avoid slang terms. While this might be cool in the streets and amongst friends, it is not professional. Pull out everything you learned in English class (please tell me you weren’t sleeping in English class) and put it to good use. Most people associate slang with youth and youth with inexperience. People are reluctant to pay good money to an inexperienced designer.\r\rFlash-wise: I do think it’s a nice piece of Flash work. The mid-section tweens are quick and painless but interesting and the look and feel of the site is consistent throughout - this is very important. The textboxes scroll a little too fast though - it’s really minor but I would be one happy camper if you but a scrollbar along with the arrows. The contact form - it’s good that it’s there, it makes contacting all the more easier - but NOT if it doesn’t work. It gives me the impression of false and empty promises. Remove it until you can put a functional one. It also reduces the risk of a possible client deciding not to read the little warning that the form does not work, fill it out, and you never receiving the email. Just leave an email link and all the other textual information. I also highly recommend getting a paid server ASAP. If you must use a free server, I would go with Tripod. They served me well for many years before I finally got my own space.\r\rThat is all - good luck.
Best advice since starting in this biz. I’ll be working on updates very soon and switching (for now) to Tripod.\r\rAloha “Pixelsensei”!!!\r\r- Marc
Thats good advice RenniGirl. And your site is great, much better than I could do. Design is where I get screwed up.\r\rBut I would stick with Brinkster. In my experience Brinkster is the best host, however they dont’ allow PHP, but they do allow VB JAVASCRIPT and ASP. I have tried all the major free hosts and Brinkster was the best so far.\r\rAnd Like RenniGirl said, we don’t usually check this forum. Most of my time is spent in the Flash 5, Flash MX, Flash Actionscript and the Random Forums.
I guess I’m going to stick with Brinkster for a while then huh? Oh yeah, pixelsensei I made some of those changes you suggested. thanks again. I also gave you a link for the info you gave. \r\raloha guys!!!\r\rMr. Jubba…I’m going to try ASP for my form mail also. thanks.
HAHA! He called me “Mr”!! Drop the formalities! You’re sites are all great. I checked most of your stuff out and your design is crazy. I like it a lot. I have a lot of trouble with design. I like Flash for the scripting. My philosophy is that it doesn’t have to look pretty as long as it does something really cool. \r\rLike I said, I have tried all of the free hosts, and in my opinion (keywords: in my opinion) Brinkster is the best. I do wish they provided PHP support, but no such luck, maybe some day…Some people have different experiences with different hosts, but so far Brinkster has treated me well enough for me to recommend it. I’m still working on my ASP database manipulation, but no luck with that yet. Brinkster also provides a “code bank” that gives you some really neat tricks with VB JS and ASP some XML too. Ok, enough ranting on my part. \r\rGood luck and let me know if you make any updates to the site.
Thanks for the compliments man. Sorry about that “Mr.” thing. So what’s up with “Jubba?” What’s the meaning behind that? Forgive me for prying but just want to get to know some peeps in this place…Aloha.
Jubba is a nickname of mine that my friends at home gave me. The story behind it is::\r\rMy friend Matt’s nickname is “W-B” pronounced like the letters. Its short for “White-boy.” A nickname he picked up while working at McDonalds. When I transfered to that same McDonalds i started calling him “Dubba” because “W-B” is too many syllables. And since my name is Jeff, and starts with a J, he started calling me Jubba. And it kind of stuck. Then when I tried to register for an ezBoard account, I attempted to sign up for Jubba but it was already taken, so I got mad and signed up for IamNotJubba. You may call me Jubba…everyone else does…
can i know how u do those blur images in the flash??? hehe thanks.\r\rand how do u load other swf files without reloading the whole page??? i mean when u click this it will come out loading… n how do they know if its jus only that area???
can i know how u do those blur images in the flash??? hehe thanks.\r\rand how do u load other swf files without reloading the whole page??? i mean when u click this it will come out loading… n how do they know if its jus only that area??? \r\r…\r\rThe blur images is easy. all you have to do is have two images. One blurred and one normal. You can blur it in photoshop or any other photo enhancment program then import it into flash. Add the blurred image on a top layer of the cleared one then tween the blurred image from 100 to 0 alpha.\r\rTo load the seperate swf movies all you have to do is use the “loadmovie” action. You can add it to a frame or a button. It’s pretty easy.\r\rHope this helps.\r\rAloha - Marc\r\rwww.808i.com
Bah! The link doesn’t seem to work; I’ll try again in a few hours. I can’t wait to see the new version of your site. The old version rocked, but a few other sites barely beat you to it 
\r\rCheers!\rKirupa
Man…I’m sorry for the link. I’m actually working out my style direction…here’s a few URL’s to two totally different styles:\r\rwww.angelfire.com/ego/des…intro.html\r\r[url=“http://www10.brinkster.com/flash808/gtar1.html”]www10.brinkster.com/flash808/gtar1.html\r\rI really like this site by the way. You are a genius and I have much respect for your work.\r\rCheers!! - Marc
I cannot seem to access your site
I did get to see the other links you posted last.\r\rCool stuff. \r\rBut you really should get your own domain, if you don’t already have one. \r\rOther than that I can say this: I see you are borrowing a lot of elements and style from other designs out there and make it your own…but it doesn’t feel like a copy, because you make it your own…so it has your style, which I like. I see some Juxtinteractive in there and some other designers as well. The band site is very busy, and therefore not as easy to navigate (but if its not a studio site therefore not as pressing to make it a corporate nav)…other then that I definitely feel that you have a lot of talent and a lot of ideas (which is a good thing to have 
). Anyways I look forward to watching you develope as a designer and looking forward to more of your designs.\r\rGood Job. Keep up the enegery.
Hey 808i,\rYou are this week’s SOTW The new version is really cool; I saw the first version but the site went down after that. Anway, congrats! The graphics/logos can be found here:\r\rwww.kirupa.com/about/linkus.htm\rwww.kirupa.com/gallery/awards.asp\r\rCongratulations,\rKirupa
THANKS KIRUPA!!! LIKE WE SAY HERE IN HAWAII…MAHALO!!!\r\r-Marc