Hi all,

Little bit of an enforcement here. Nef and I have been working on a fan site over the last little bit. Unfortunately work is a demanding mistress, with this and other things our time is getting owned. So I am going to ask you, the loyal hardcore for a little help at filling out the content.

Paul has graciously allowed us our own section of this here board but given the craziness up and coming that’s not all happened yet. So for we will make do here.

Some background. The site will be www.highabovethecrowd.com . There were many options sadly most where not available but this one grew on us. Right now all there is a a holding page there. To get a little feel of functionality go here http://www.highabovethecrowd.com/music.html if you click on the cds you can see a track and lyric list.

Anyway so here are the things we need help on.

Band history – Very detailed. When we get a section we can start a thred and work on it together.
Member History – A little bit about each of em. Maybe a lot. Little tidbits like the signing behind lawnmowers and stuff are what we are looking for.
Structure of BLA – We have some big thoughts for this while we are formalizing and you like your input.

While there is surely other things we will need input on those are the main areas we need help. Well questions? Comments?

James

P.S. We are very open to ideas and suggestions, but please do not be offended if we do not make your revisions in the final copy. There are certain visual, stylistic and design goals within this site that we already have, and final decisions will be made based on that. This does not mean the idea are bad may not fit within the “vision”. That said we do really want the help.

Visually special, nice use of frames.

One criticism RE the music page layout though:

-> Scroll bar to view all lyrics for one album <-

Should be able to click on one song and only view that one perhaps? Tedious to scroll to the bottom.

We discussed this. In the end we chose the scroll, has a fluid feel we liked. However we have discussed making clicking on the song moving to the part of the scroll it applies two. Given the structure of the site so far it is a bit of a tricky task (or so I am told cuz I am not the web monkey). So it has been put on the back burner for now in favor of some more fundimentals. Likley it will be something we will come back to when the site it up. =)

Great idea James, i knew something like this was coming eventually. Anyway, for the bio thing, we can use the wikipedia article. The problem about the members though, is we know a little about paul (includin his DOB which i won't say) and almost nothing about andy. So maybe they can help out there. And about the structure, you can have my 2cents worth if it's mostly HTML and not too flash(y). Keep your fingers crossed people
--T

Tarun, when we say structure of the BLA bit we mean the format the 'club' will take rather than the construction of the site itself. So far we've not thought to much on the matter since we've been too busy with building the site and thinking up the content, but at some point soon we're gonna start putting the BLA section together and we would appreciate some input from the people who are gonna be the ones using it!

No worries Tarun. I watched an instructional video.
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail51.html

I am currently working hard on some great animated gifs, got one of Paul dancing.... and flashing stuff! Oh man it will strobe like no bodies business. Its going to be awesome.

But the Andy information hole is a fine example as to why collaboration is important. The bones of the site are already up. Nef has done a great job. We only showed you music because that is the most "finalized" though even that is tweak happy from time to time. The trouble is we need more info, well thats not true we have tones, but we need to bum some time off folks to help us compile it while we work on other things.

Like Nef says the "structure" is only about the BLA. We are looking to formalize the group make it all offica n stuff. Which means answering deep questions like "what is it to be in the BLA" what are our goals and such, thats the structure.

hey guys, I'm psyched about this thing. I have been wanting to activate the black lab army for awhile and things (like bumrush) keep getting in the way. but it will happen, especially in conjunction with highabovethecrowd.com.

it will be great working with other people -- I think Andy and I both will welcome active fans saying "hey, we need some bio material on Andy." then we can drink some beer make up some stuff and send it to you guys to edit (just kidding).

also want to get the banner thing going on more, especially as we have more specific events happening that we want to get the word out on.

ok, thanks to James & Nef & everyone.

p

flashy intro? check.
lots of animated gifs? check.
whatever for a subject? check.
(although imho, the lab is a damn good subject)


im all in favor of the da cheet.
man i've been hangin around high school kids too long!

Black Lab Army limited edition fan laminates coming very soon.

w00t!!!

wait-- i have no idea what it means, but it sounds really exciting!!


is this like a sticker i can put on my car? b/c i was just thinking yesterday that while my car has a million stickers on it, the one sticker it's missing is a BL sticker... it's like my car is incomplete or something. le sad...

I second that! Stickers in all shapes and sizes...with the all important web address on it, so that others may join in our happy lil obsession!!!

Stickers rock... and James & Nef, the site rocks too. Man... it's been a while since I've rooted around these old parts, but this made me grin soo much!!

Layout is spot on, love the little fella in the logo heehee... man, getting the Army together is like the dream guys woop woop!

Free hugs to the both of you

Much love to everyone

I agree! Stickers for everyone! I'd love to help with the army anyway I can!

I just got thinking... is it time for a mass BLArmy upsurge. You know, posters, flyers stickers and shit just everywhere we possibly can, bombard radio stations all that stuff... but in an organised way? What say y'all? I'd quite like to knock up a few designns and stuff lol

Stoka, I completely agree. What better time than now? TWO hot new albums, exciting and relevant 'older' CDs available...and a tie-in to one of the big summer blockbusters.

Now is the perfect time! So...I am assuming that we will use the board for communication and ideas...who got some?