Hi all,

Although I am a frequent reader of Plane Talking I haven't been posting very frequently, which is regrettable but explainable because I do a lot of modelling work and commentary elsewhere on the web. I hope that many will recognize my name from the pages of IPMS Stockholm ( http://www.ipmsstockholm.org ),

I'm here to announce a new site and ask for your opinion. Having developed the IPMS Stockholm site for over 10 years, I have been eating, sleeping and breathing scale modelling, which has also been extremely rewarding. However, I have for some time been contemplating starting something different, devoted more directly to aviation history and aircraft rather than models. This summer the initiative has taken shape: I'm going to build a professional-quality monograph site devoted to the Supermarine Spitfire.

http://spitfiresite.com/

I hope that you would like to visit it and share your suggestions. All kind of helpful feedback would be of great value to me - how do you like the idea, what contents would you like to see etc. And if you could, just maybe, think of supporting the site with your models or writing, that would be just great!

With all the aviation resources on the web, should you bother about yet another new site? It's a kind of personal decision, but here are my suggestions:
- This is a serious initiative. I have a long experience in editing and growing web sites and certainly do not intend to cease the updates on this one anytime soon.
- Is there a really, really good site out there addressing the needs of RAF history/Spitfire buffs? If not, maybe this one will be something for you, provided that you like what you see.
- Martin is a modeller and IPMS:er, so he can't be all that bad. Let's give his project a helping hand!

Best regards to all,
/Martin

At first glance it looks very nice... clean design, legible, etc. This is a great idea, and I'm glad to see it!

Lynn

Hi Martin,

Since you decided to create this new site based on my favourite aircraft, I will enjoy stopping by daily to see whats new. So, I like what I see.

Great start to a great site!

Thanks for sharing
Brad

Nicely done. The spitfire is my all time favourite plane. I think it is the most beautiful aircraft ever built, and your homepage does it justice.

If the pages didn't have dozens of validation errors, they would work better in the various kinds of browsers that people use...

David

Hi David,

Thanks for the info. What kind of HTML validation tool have you used, and have you experienced any problems in your browser? The site has been checked primarily for current versions of IE, Firefox and Opera, but I'd like to look into your findings.

Regards,
/Martin

Martin: I've not experienced any obvious problems, but then I'm using a popular browser in normal display mode.
These kind of problems tend to hit people who are not "ordinary" - say, blind people using a speaking browser, or people on mobile devices, or people who need to enlarge text because they have poor vision etc.
Also, future browsers may not work well with the site; you're depending on the "sloppiness" of the current ones.
The W3C have a free validator tool here: http://validator.w3.org/

David

Thanks David, I will look into it.

/Martin

You've declared the doctype to be XHTML Strict, but the site is actually written in HTML, not XHTML.

The most common validation errors that result from this are due to the lack of self-closing tags where they are required, eg
<br> instead of <br />.

Nice fluid layout. Some typos (eg 'I you have built a Spitfire model...')

I like the use of the specific roundel colours.

Reads OK with CSS disabled. But what is the javascript for? There seems to be no difference with it turned off.

Tony P

Nice fluid layout. Some typos (eg 'I you have built a Spitfire model...')
I like the use of the specific roundel colours.
Reads OK with CSS disabled. But what is the javascript for? There seems to be no difference with it turned off.

I'm also pleased with the way the layout and colors turned out. The CSS should work nicely for non-CSS enabled browsers and printing. I have not yet developed a version for portable devices - but it is fully possible.

Javascript is for the menus, location bars and things like that. The SHOULD be a visible difference if you turn it off.

Some typos always seem to evade me, which I find frustrating .

Best regards,
/Martin

Sorry about that Martin. Yes, of course, with javascript off the navigation disappears (I was using the developer's plugin with Firefox and mustn't have reloaded the page).

I think you should reconsider whether javascript is needed there at all. It doesn't seem to do anything that can't be done in simple HTML. You can even do nice rollovers in CSS. The problem with requiring javascript is that it makes the text in the navigation bar unavailable to search engines and screen readers. Probably not a big problem, but not good practice (good practice would be for some functionality to remain with javascript off). There's also the occasional person who has javascript blocked for security reasons.

The print style is a very good idea, but I wouldn't put much effort into a style for portable devices. Actually, I think the design would probably be quite OK as is on an iPhone.

I've tested the site with 12 different Mac browsers, and it looks almost identical with each (including MS Internet Explorer!) -- good work.

Tony P

Martin,

Although I'm far from a Spit buff, this site is a great concept and will be an invaluable resource.
I suspect the input and feedback will be nothing short of overwhelming. As Lynn said, long overdue!

Cheers,

Matt

Any year where you can shake hands with Dean Deleo, Dave Chappelle, AND walk around an Avro Lancaster is a pretty good year!

I liked it very much!! Keep up the good work!

Brandon

This looks very good indeed and I look forward to seeing it flourish.

Well done!

Cool and a great idea long overdue (and add some Hurri stuff while your at it )

i will comment when i can get it to open!

sagindragin
JMSmith
airwarfareforum.com and Wings of Peace

Thanks for creating the Spit web site,one of if not the finest fighter ever made.


Regards

Mark

.....exciting for us who love to glue-up the Spitfire.

Thanks for your hard work on this.
Bails

PS One thought might be as you continue to develop the site......offer us the opportunity to "sign-up" to receive an e-mail when you do updates which you feel are worthy of advising us.
Food-for-thought.
bim

One thought might be as you continue to develop the site......offer us the opportunity to "sign-up" to receive an e-mail when you do updates which you feel are worthy of advising us. Food-for-thought.

Thanks for the input, Bob. As a matter of fact the subsription function is already available, albeit not though email but as RSS feed. Provided that you have a fairly modern browser, you should be able to subscribe to the feed so that you are automatically notified about the updates either through your browser or email software.

Click on the "RSS Feed link" at the top of the main page of the site or use the direct link below:

http://spitfiresite.com/blog/rss.xml

I'd rather try to avoid a mailing lists as it can easily be considered as spam by some users. RSS, although relatively new, does not have this disadvantage.

....I get a bunch of computer "glibbly gook" which is far beyond my comprehension with these machines.

No big deal, I'll put you in "favorites", and hit your site often.

Thanks again.

Bails

I'm very glad to see that many of you seem to see a need for such a site (you would think that the Spitfire has been well covered on the web, but honestly, I think that there is a gap there).

Still, I'd also love to hear suggestions for what kind of content to prioritize: history? variants? drawings? profiles? etc.

/Martin

just a personal prefernce, mind you....

k

The Seafires will be covered, I certainly have no intention of leaving the Seafire out. Time permitting, also the Spiteful and maybe the S-series racers...

/M.

Thanks, so much.

Regards,

joe.

Nice looking, will you be looking for sponsors in the future ?
M
M
...just curious.

Mike,

the answer as of today is maybe. Right now I'm focusing fully on building up the site's contents and making it visible to potential readers (such as folks on this forum), and it is the process which is bound to take many months.

If succesful, I will consider the sponsorship issue. If you have any experience in the field, I'd be glad to hear your advice, either here or by email.

/Martin