Why we rebuilt the SLF Website
In case your interested, we decided to rebuild our site for a number of reasons. Initially when we dreamed up the SLF, our web skills left a lot to be desired and we were in a hurry to get the site up, so opted for a html table layout system. This is not an ideal way to build a website, as we were always having to man-handle the site to get things to appear the way we thought they should look. This also made it hard for us to constantly update our site, which caused us lots of frustration all round. Tables in web design are for data, and not huge amounts of text and images. The other downside to a table layout, is that it requires a significant amount more of code, which increases the file size, and therfore it takes our pages longer to download, which we just didn't find accpetable. We truly wanted to make the Shroom Liberation Front's website to be a quality place that represented best practice, quality design.
Another annoying aspect of the old site, is that it wasn't dynamic. The pages appeared at the same size and took up the same size of the screen no matter how big or small your monitor was. This we felt, wasn't an efficient useage of space, so we wanted our new site to be a semi-fluid affair stretching to fill your screen real estate. The benefit - we can squeeze even more of our fact pact info into a smaller space. So whether you're on a laptop or 21 inch monitor your viewing experience with us should be improved.
How our old website looked
Well it wasn't bad for a first try, and wasn't without it's merits - after all it served us admirablely for the last year and half, and has put the SLF message out to thousands of people. We've been contacted by a lot of people offerring help and support and wanting to know more ways to get involved. However it was a mare to update, and we couldn't separate our content from the presentation.
What you couldn't see
Here are those dreaded table cells proliferating our code. Our new sleek and shiny code is approximately 60% more efficient, which brings a noticeable reduction in the file size, and consequently a faster user experience as your pages download quicker.
The old site was an accessibility nightmare. Sure most of our able bodied readers would have have had no trouble clicking our links and navigating around the site, but what about those who wanted to learn about shrooms, who couldn't see our data - many users these days have screen readers that read out the text to them - I pity them each time being read out, yet anohter meaningless table cell tag. Also in order for such people to get to the relevant navigation button, they would be forced to run sequantially through every table cell we had a lin in - aaggh the pain. Our new site features skip to navigataion and content buttons in order for people less fortunate then ourselves to discover about our site, and have a more pleasing user experience.
We mentioned before - the old site was hard to update. Our new design takes full advantage of CSS and XHTML to allow us to make big design changes across the entire site, just by changing our CSS code, and therefore makes it a breeze to add and style new content, re-organise structure and layout. This will give us more free time to focus on what we do best, saving shrooms and assisting shroomers. This is all good.
Our site is built to the highest CSS standards and is fully XHTML compliant. It's also designed to work consistently across all the major web browsers, going back as far as Internet Explorer 5.5. However, whilst we do cater for the older browsers, we reccomend viewing the site in IE 7 and above, as our preferred browser. However, if you do notice any issues on any of the browsers you may be viewing the site on please feel free to let us know.
And one last thing we haven't mentioned yet. There is one other reason we decided to rebuild the SLF. We wanted, a website that did justice for shrooms. - " Hey, that's catchy Aztec - I like that - "Doing Justic for Shrooms"". And that is exactly what the SLF actually stands for. When we dreamed up the SLF this was probably our principle founding mark. We somehow wanted to build a site that captured everything that shrooms meant to us. From our Logo, down to the visual presentation of the site. It has actually been a massive responsibility, and a fantastic creative journey. Now finally looking back, nearly finished, it is actually like looking back on some mad, crazy dream - how to make the SLF a reality, and refusing compromise to achieve it. We want the SLF to be a beacon of Creative liscence to fairly present a view, that the current ban on magic mushrooms, is unfair, unreasonable and unjustified. We wanted the SLF to capture our fascination for shrooms and the amazing qualities they induce, and more importantly capture YOUR attention. We didn't want this site to be just a place you fleet through and spend a few minutes, but linger, dwell, start a party, and stay a few hours. Heck we almost designed this site as an entertaiment centre for shroomers. It's built for just you kind of guys in mind. Our gift to you. We have only succeeded, if we've truly done justice for shrooms - you be the judge.Thanks for reading.
Update your browser
We designed our website to be as accessible as possible and have ensured it is backwards compatible to IE 5.5. However, to see us at our absolute best please update your browser to the latest version (by clicking the links or click the icon image for your preferred browser). IE 7 (or 8) Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari. Click the relevant link to transport you to your chosen browser's download page.
Break on Through - the Doors
Surf our site with some cool background music. Click Play to get the party started.
Battlefield Bad Company
Possibly the most intense, skillful and challenging game on the Xbox360 /PS3. We love it, because it's a game completely without rules, other then the ones you make yourself. Usually anything goes. For out and out fun, and action this game just can't be beaten. Prepare to get owned by it.