Thursday, July 16th 2015 - 05:18PM :

Last Update

Transferred OM to another server and fixed a few 'out of date code' issues.

This will likely be the last update made to the site now that I'm concentrating on my new portfolio at BenKrefta.com

For those that want help with their artwork, have their questions answered or for latest news and updates, check out the Blog on BenKrefta.com or visit my social media accounts - that's where I'll be adding new stuff

Tuesday, June 18th 2013 - 07:09PM :

New Server

There had been a few months of interruptions with parts of the site not loading or working as they should. I've now moved OM to a new server and should have the site back up and running at 100% shortly

Sunday, September 30th 2012 - 06:32PM :

A few small fixes

A few small-ish behind the scenes updates:

* Added Alt text to all (well, most) of the image titles / graphics on the site.
* Added a Paypal Buy button to the for sale page
* Increased the font size for the Blog and Updates title headers.
* A few text content adjustments

Friday, October 21st 2011 - 02:29AM :

OM is fixed and bug free...

At long last, I finally got several PHP and Javascript bugs fixed. Very Happy about that! It basically means the site now works like it should. These include:

* The forms are fixed so that Firefox, and Chome users etc can comment on art, blog posts or leave a comment in the guest book.
* The blog was buggy and didn't show pages properly, now it's fine.
* If pages within the site were loaded without Frames, they automatically acquired a frame-set to make them navigable- It's a cool idea I came up with, but it never worked 100% and now it does
* A few other errors were taken care of making it easier to update the site.

- I have had a few people say the site doesn't load on their computers and I don't know why this is. Perhaps because their browsers can't handle Flash? Javascript? Fames? I've never been able to not get it to load. It even loads fine on my phone, so I don't know what the problem is? Perhaps I'll never know?

Sunday, October 2nd 2011 - 11:40PM :

Lots of Mini Changes

Om has undergone several small changes over the last 4 or 5 weeks. These include:

* Rewriting all the written content for pretty much every page on the site. I don't know quite how much that is- perhaps 50,000 words worth? I've left the tutorials as they are however.

* Added two new projects- Websites and Branding

* Added a new art category: Photography

* Uploaded 17 Photography works

* Renamed Original Art to Character art & Illustration

* New Art Q&A: - How can I make good comic storyboards?

* Added new category images to: Info, Art, Work, Interactive, Tutorials & Links

* Lots of behind the scenes code restructuring.

* New Artist Links: Feng Zhu Design, Julie Dillon Art, Lim Haksu, Loish, Zdzislaw Beksinski

* Rollover image states on all hyperlinked/anchored images

I thought about making the Blog into a Wordpress version, but still undecided. I am still aware the guestbook and art comment forms do not work in Firefox and there is an error for the blog page count, but will hope to get that resolved sooner rather than leave it for a further 5 years!

Friday, April 29th 2011 - 06:22PM :

Site updates at long last!

After having hardly touched Organic Metal's structure for years, I apprehensively decided to start updating a few bits and pieces which have needed adding, editing or fixing for ages! I love updating the site, but time constrains usually leave OM pretty low on my priority list these days.

The internet and browsers have changed a lot over the last 5 years since the latest site redesign went online and I'm all too aware of how a lot of it's functionality doesn't, well, function! I'm sure I'm in the same boat as any other designer who hadn't kept up with the fast moving pace of the web over the last 5-10 years. Although for me, it's not so much that I hadn't kept up- I still design new websites and am aware of new web standards. But simply not maintained OM on a regular basis.

* The site's listing on Google for certain key words has fallen from page #1 to page #1000!
* The Guest book isn't cross-browser compatible.
* Half of the outgoing links are broken due to site owners giving up on domain renewals.
* The art comments and blog are still 'broken' - something I've been meaning to get sorted ever since the site design went on line.
* I reckon 20%+ of the written content is out of date. I've matured somewhat over the years and look back at certain things I had written thinking "I don't think like that any more!"

The above as well as others are things I'd like to get sorted in the near future. Right now, I've:

*Got rid of the old Montly Video Game Characters site / section. About time since I stopped running the character art contest six and a half years ago! Originally I thought it'd be a cool thing to have stapled onto my site, while pulling in a few extra hits each month, but I'd be better off following the latest trend of making my Blog the main earner of web site visitors. The Blog link now resides where the MVGC one once did on the top navigation.

*Replaced the no longer functioning (and slightly pointless) 'Add to bookmarks' icon at the top left with an email icon. It's quite subtle so I wonder if people will even know to click it if they can't find any of the other email links dotted around the site, but it's ok for now.

* Edited out portions of redundant html code. The site still uses a lot of in-line CSS styles and even old-skool HTML style tags in places, but can't be bothered to edit them all out into an external CSS file just so the code looks tidier. Actual site visitors will be none the wiser. If I ever do a total revamp of the site, I'll be sure to do it properly to satisfy myself as well as W3C standards and coding nerds!

* Began editing some of the written content. I may not get around to going through it all. It's no-doubt tens of thousands of words long. The Q&A page in the info section alone is nearly 5000 words in length.

Thursday, August 7th 2008 - 02:58AM :

Bits and Pieces

* Updated about a dozen spelling errors in the Q & A, as well as generally updating the answers to be more relevant.

* Taken away the eXTReMe Tracker on the home page- see today's Blog Entry for more info.

* Fixed several small bugs with other pages.

I've still got over a dozen 'do to' site amendments on my list, but they'll have to wait a while longer. But I'm slowly getting OM into a 'finished state'.

Tuesday, October 10th 2006 - 11:51PM :

OM Server Change

Organic Metal's previous web hosts had been having too many problems and OM needed to switch to a reliable host. My boss at Optimum Fitness kindly offered to share their web space. Now OM has switched to the new host and all is good

However Organic Metal is still a little 'buggy', so certain pages may be off limits or some images may not be linked correctly. These are all issues which will hopefully be corrected over the next few weeks.

The forums will be offline until further notice.

Friday, June 16th 2006 - 02:06PM :

Home page banners

Took out the text links and replaced them with graphical navigation banners on the home page- loads a bit slower, but looks way better.

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