Community News Etc Site

The website to be designed is a community site with news, information, feedback,ratings (of articles) & commentary functions. Commentary, ratings and feedback functions are based on registered users and login. Anyone can read the pages, navigate the site, but feedback & forwarding off articles requires login (registered user). We prefer PHP/Cold Fusion/Flash but can discuss based on bid recommendations. Current hosting site environment is Windows based, but we can have this site hosted as Linux if good case made. DB is MySQL. While the basic layout is straightforward, the more detailed part of the project is the automated ranking, voting, recommending, forwarding function plus database auto-creation for each article that maintains the voter logs. The basic layout is as follows: 1) All Pages Layout - CSS: - Site Banner Top ~ 150 pix 2/3 width left to right with top right (1/3rd) anchor "search" entry frame (searches for local site only). - Top and Left Column button menu - Buttons left navigate to submenus index pages - Buttons on top home/login/sign-up/email alerts/help - 2 center column layout with vid / images window at top of right center column. much like [login to view URL] with embedded controls. Page can have either static image or vid in this space. - Far Right most column is for ads. % width left to right: 15:30:30:25 2) Main Index Page (Home Page): - Same layout as CSS, 2 columns with #1 ranked main article center left beside vid / image location and 2 articles below in 2 columns. Article title and first 25 words as clickable link - All 6 (2 columns of 3) Subdirectory main pages shown with 2 most popular (updating automatically) articles names as clickable links (like [login to view URL] without all the extra video / audio news links) - Bottom Right Center Column has Top 5 Emailed and Top 5 Voted articles - Top 5 Suggested Articles 3) Subdirectory “Section” Main Page (repeated 6 times) - Same layout as CSS, 2 columns with 1 (top ranked) main article center left beside vid / image location and next 2 ranked articles below in 2 columns. All other Articles title as clickable link below in left Centre column. - Bottom Right Center Column has Top 5 Emailed and Top 5 Voted articles - Suggest an article - Top 3 Recent Suggested Articles in this Section 4) Article Page: Has a clock showing days/hours/min/sec since this article was posted. Same as CSS, with vid / image window positioned as normal. This page will contain text and the vid / image window with the following icons at the top of the text section: - rate this article - email to a friend - comments posted below article ([login to view URL] “have your say" style) - recommend comments (counter for persons recommending an article) - vote for this article - suggest an article topic ** Have Your Say / Comments / Recommend Comments -> like [login to view URL] Underneath the Vid Window: - most popular articles list (top 5) all active links - most pop in 3 tabs (most emailed, most read, most votes) like [login to view URL] 5) Registration Process: Fields Reqd: Name / City / State-Prov / Zip-PC / Age / Email Upon Form Completion: Visual Verification Capthca process before account creation. Upon Successful Captcha Verification: Auto email to new user with completion link to activiate a/c. No account creation without returned email clicklink. (default code in case launch from email is suppressed). 6) Article Vote Process: Simple click button, with visual verification Capthca. DB records user vote with user ID. ** User ID is kept because we randomly give out T Shirts for voters each week. DB Closes when article is removed. 7) “Suggested Articles” These suggestions are emailed automatically to email address for review by webmaster before posting. 8) Sign Up For Email Alerts: Sign up page for reg users to email alerts for new article postings. They can make it site wide or restrict to one of the Sections. When new article is posted, email alert blast to all signed-up users is automatic and is restricted to section of interest if that fits profile of reg user. 9) Recommended Articles Just click, visual verification Capthca step required. 10) Help: Left Center Column: Top 5 Questions Right Column Questions as Links 11) All Pages Footer: All pages have standard same page links for: - About: Terms: Privacy Policy: Advertise: About Us: Contact Us: