The Handbook is offline

[Kevin Pacey]

I shan't be sending a photo, David and I consider the [tone] of your admonitions to do so to border on bullying.

Unless the CFC has passed a motion to require governors to submit photos, David is at the least being rather unreasonably (if not obsessively) demanding.

On the main theme of this thread, if David won't, or can't, put deservedly prominent (major/main) links to 'Members Ratings', 'Tournament Crosstables', and (possibly) 'CFC Handbook' on the CFC's website, I suggest the CFC find someone else to finish what has been otherwise an acceptable job. Otherwise some/many CFC members' first reaction when visiting the CFC website could be alarmed confusion, if not the angry annonance expressed by one chesstalk poster. There is no second chance to make a good first impression.

[Christopher Mallon]

Unless the CFC has passed a motion to require governors to submit photos, David is at the least being rather unreasonably (if not obsessively) demanding.
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It's the same thing as two years ago with the olympiad fundraising.

The changes in general to the site have good intent but surely a couple more links wouldn't mess the sidebar up too much. However my first reaction to seeing the updated site was along the lines of "whose 5-year-old kid did the new "banner"" - it's extremely unprofessional looking.

Apparently, the old banner was "offensive" because there was a guy on it but no girl. I never paid that much attention to it, but the new one seriously looks like a kid did it. Great for attracting sponsors.

And no David, I won't be putting the new "banner" (which is massive too by the way) on the forums - I find it more offensive than the lack of female presence on the old one.

[Garland Best]

When I bring the page up on my browser, the banner comes out a complete mess. the grayscale image in the left is just a bunch of blocks. I can barely tell it's a person. This definitely need fixing.


The lack of direct links on the home page (at least after one selects the language) is also a problem. For comparison, take a look at several other websites.
http://www.fide.com/
http://fqechecs.qc.ca/index.php
http://www.uschess.org/

Every one of them has a direct link or menu to clubs (or member organizations in the case of FIDE), tournaments and ratings on their home page. We should do the same.

[Kerry Liles]

When I bring the page up on my browser, the banner comes out a complete mess. the grayscale image in the left is just a bunch of blocks. I can barely tell it's a person. This definitely need fixing.


The lack of direct links on the home page (at least after one selects the language) is also a problem. For comparison, take a look at several other websites.
http://www.fide.com/
http://fqechecs.qc.ca/index.php
http://www.uschess.org/

Every one of them has a direct link or menu to clubs (or member organizations in the case of FIDE), tournaments and ratings on their home page. We should do the same.

What browser and version? The banner is just a .jpg file - from here:

http://www.chess.ca/images/banner_cfc_fce.jpg

Maybe your browser is mangling the image? The image seems to be made with some sort of chessboard watermark superimposed... maybe those are getting mangled for you?

Anyway, I noticed the gentleman in the middle picture seems to have his eyes closed, but at least the game hasn't started yet...

[Tony Ficzere]

My guess is that the banner was scanned in and that is why it has that weave effect. I use to get the same thing if I tried to scan something in from an old EP.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

My guess is that the banner was scanned in and that is why it has that weave effect. I use to get the same thing if I tried to scan something in from an old EP.

A badly scanned picture from a newspaper would look differently.

[Kerry Liles]

My guess is that the banner was scanned in and that is why it has that weave effect. I use to get the same thing if I tried to scan something in from an old EP.

Yes, perhaps. Scanners are remarkably good at picking up everything - wanted or otherwise. Items that are printed on both sides are particularly hard to scan without picking up 'shine through' from the other side - especially if the paper is of low quality or is just thin or not sufficiently opaque.

I have sometimes grabbed a black sheet of kid's construction paper to use as backing for newspaper articles etc. where that is a serious problem... with varying degrees of success.

[Garland Best]

The chessboard watermark is mangling the image. It's an aliasing effect, and depends on how much the jpeg is magnified.

I opened it up in a separate window, using microsoft photo editor. At 50% and 100% magnification, you can barely see the watermark. At 32% the watermark dominates the image. Results will vary with your monitor.

[Garland Best]

BTW, the actual JPEG is over 2600 pixels wide. That's roughly twice the resolution needed for a banner, IMO.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Results will vary with your monitor.

While I am not a fan of a phone-browsing, a younger generation might be. How does the CFC website looks on various phones?