December 03, 2007

New Everything Lucy Site Design

You'll notice not only on the Everything Lucy Blog, but also the main "Everything Lucy" website that it has a new look and feel!

This is the promised change almost two-years in the making! It will also more then likely be the very last redesign the site goes through.

For those not aware, youns.com and this blog is owned and run by only one individual and this includes several blogs! This adventure began as a much needed rehaul of the existing site along with the several subwebs that it contained. It had become very dated, not only in look but also in feel and to remain a viable website, it had to be redesigned. As I am a web designer by profession as well as an artist, I was the one to take on the responsibility instead of farming it out. Incidently, I was also the one who programmed the site as well. Now, I don't pretend to be a programmer nor am I, and that can be seen by those who view "under the hood" of the web site and this is one of the main reasons that it took 2 years to get done. I do not have the money to farm the coding of the site out so I had to take the code that I orginially had and "retrofit" it to the new design. This took alot of investing time and trial and error to get it to fit into the new design. So, I don't profess to be a programmer and this is why it has taken so long to get up and running AND this is the main reason that I will not try to do this again!

All the content that existed before in the old site is still retained, although I have added some new content to various sections, it should still be very familiar to those who have frequented the site before. The main "youns.com" site has always existed as a placeholder for three additional subwebs that had always been separate in content and therefore could have always been their own site all by themselves. Therefore, I created 4 distinct and different designs only with a small common design element between them all and I created separate URLs for each of the sites so it will be easier to remember and will stand on it's own. The main site (http://www.youns.com) which is a "kick-off" to the 3 subwebs which include "Everything Lucy", "Online Pet Memorials" and "Ancestry".

Everything Lucy (http://everythinglucy.youns.com) - This subweb is a site that is all about Lucille Ball as is this blog. This was and hopefully still is one of the best resources and knowledge-base on one of my favorite comedians. It is exclusively devoted to Lucille Ball and her career and life. One of the first and formost web sites that featured Lucille Ball on the internet and now it has it's own exclusive Everything Lucy Blog which is updated very frequently with all the news on the internet about our favorite red-head.

Online Pet Memorials (http://petmemorials.youns.com) - This subweb is dedicated to my departed pet, Q-Bert, who passed away 8 1/2 years ago now. It is a free pet memorial site that anyone in the world can post a memorial to their departed pet, whether it be dog, cat or even frog! The Photo Album feature has been updated and should be a joy for all those present and future. Hopefully this site will be a blessing for everyone as a resource to help them through their grief and as a living testament and memorial to the love of their departed pet.

Ritchey and Diehl Ancestry and Geneology (http://ancestry.youns.com) - This subweb is devoted to my ancestry which I've been collecting data on for a number of years and have created a CD-rom of all the published material that has previously existed in different publications. Now I have included it all in one place and available on one CD-rom for all those interested in and related to the Ritchey and Diehl families that I originate from.

I'll be sending out an email blast to those who have requested to be on the various mailing lists for the interested sections of the web to inform them of the new design shortly.

For those who are regular readers to the Everything Lucy Blog, you'll notice that many of the images "disappeared". This is because the location of those original images have changed and I am still trying to find a way to update those older archived Blog entries to update this image location. If anyone knows how, please let me know!

Anyway, while the new design is still fresh there may be quirks that I have not caught. So if you run into anything, please let me know from the contact us page on the main Youns.com site.

Enjoy and let me know what you think! They'll be more changes on the way!

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