Still haven't been able to find a decent job in my area since I lost mine from the pandemic, and the stalling on the second stimulus check means that I may not have a place to live soon.
Are there any tech-minded comrades who could give me tips to make my website better? It's my only source of income now. I used to have several more popular pages on Etsy, etc. but I was mass-reported by a right wing facebook group because I selling shirts that said "Blue Lives Murder" to raise money for protestor bail funds during the height of the protests in June/July. They got like half of my listing removed for "promoting violence" even though they weren't, and even temporarily suspended until they actually investigated what was mass-reported, and now I seem to have gotten basically unlisted by their search engine because I barely get 1/10th of the views I did before. I'm pretty shitty at even basic HTML, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'm glad you like it! Thank you so much! I was on the old subreddit too, but a lot of my social media stuff had to get purged because I was doxxed by a right-wing group lmao.
We have /c/tactics here for OSPEC and protest stuff, it has a decent amount of info on securing your online personas and privacy. I took a look at your site, and the first thing I noticed is that you're using a gmail address - something which I would very much not recommend. You're dealing with the addresses and personal info of leftists, which is something chuds would absolutely love to get their hands on.
I would recommend transferring to a secure email service, enabling two-factor authentication if you haven't already, and NOT keeping a log of the personal info of people's orders from your store. If you were to be hacked at some point, any records you may be keeping of names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers of people who order would be extremely valuable data to right wing groups.
I specifically made the email just answering questions about products. It doesn't contain literally any information beyond the occasional email of someone asking about a specific product. All emails related to actual numbers and orders goes to a different email. I went out of my way to make sure the only thing documented long-term about sales is the bear minimum required for tax purposes. Any emails/addresses/phone numbers/etc are only used for as long as order is active, and is deleted automatically.
The site looks great for what you're attempting to accomplish, and the designs on your products are pretty dope too.
The only criticism I have is, I personally dislike when websites have the collapsible Mobile Menu when viewing on desktop. I'd suggest having a traditional full-width site menu, and have it switch to the Mobile Menu when viewing on smaller screens.
Edit: If you do decide to follow my advice and you're not sure how to do responsive design, I found this tutorial video that seems pretty straight-forward. It can be done with CSS.
I get it, and I agree. A lot of my limitation come from working with the pre-made modifiers available with the interface I'm using because it doesn't need to be coded in. I'll definitely look into that.
I know what you mean. When I’m using a theme or site builder on Wordpress that’s different from what I’m used to, I get super frustrated when I know something is possible but either I can’t figure it out, or the builder itself lacks the ability to change it.
Look for your Menu or Navigation settings, or look for anything that says RWD or Responsive Design if you can’t fix it in your Menu settings. Most themes and site builders are responsive, so if you can toggle your menu links to go across the header, it might automatically switch to a Mobile Menu when you make your screen smaller if you’re on a desktop. Good luck!
Edit: And if all else fails, try to do it in CSS! Let me know if you decide to do this and need help.
I like your designs. One thing is that you may wanna think about doing a more traditional product filter. Most sites are filtered by shirts, stickers, mugs, whatever. Yours, I see tendency, etc. It's not a bad thing, but when I make websites, I try to follow industry patterns when feasible.
That's a good idea. The issue is, the interface I'm using is a real pain in the ass when it comes to having more than one menu, or menus that expand into other menus. I will definitely try and rework it like that though.
^ This is good advice. I checked out the product filter and it's very cluttered . It looks like every filter only brings up one or two products that fit the label. I'd suggest breaking your labels down into 10 or less categories. All of your anti-cop designs could go into an ACAB category. All of your LGBTQ+ designs could go into a LGBTQ+. All of your communism/socialism designs could go into a Communism category, etc. That would make the buying process a lot easier on potential customers.
Still haven't been able to find a decent job in my area since I lost mine from the pandemic, and the stalling on the second stimulus check means that I may not have a place to live soon.
Are there any tech-minded comrades who could give me tips to make my website better? It's my only source of income now. I used to have several more popular pages on Etsy, etc. but I was mass-reported by a right wing facebook group because I selling shirts that said "Blue Lives Murder" to raise money for protestor bail funds during the height of the protests in June/July. They got like half of my listing removed for "promoting violence" even though they weren't, and even temporarily suspended until they actually investigated what was mass-reported, and now I seem to have gotten basically unlisted by their search engine because I barely get 1/10th of the views I did before. I'm pretty shitty at even basic HTML, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
The website looks good to me, but I can't do graphic design for shit so other opinions are probably a good idea lol.
The stuff on your store is awesome by the way, I ordered a shirt a while ago and am super happy with it. It's good to see you on chapo!
I'm glad you like it! Thank you so much! I was on the old subreddit too, but a lot of my social media stuff had to get purged because I was doxxed by a right-wing group lmao.
Oh shit that sucks, I'm sorry to hear that.
We have /c/tactics here for OSPEC and protest stuff, it has a decent amount of info on securing your online personas and privacy. I took a look at your site, and the first thing I noticed is that you're using a gmail address - something which I would very much not recommend. You're dealing with the addresses and personal info of leftists, which is something chuds would absolutely love to get their hands on.
I would recommend transferring to a secure email service, enabling two-factor authentication if you haven't already, and NOT keeping a log of the personal info of people's orders from your store. If you were to be hacked at some point, any records you may be keeping of names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers of people who order would be extremely valuable data to right wing groups.
I specifically made the email just answering questions about products. It doesn't contain literally any information beyond the occasional email of someone asking about a specific product. All emails related to actual numbers and orders goes to a different email. I went out of my way to make sure the only thing documented long-term about sales is the bear minimum required for tax purposes. Any emails/addresses/phone numbers/etc are only used for as long as order is active, and is deleted automatically.
nice, that's great practice! Glad to hear you're already taking user privacy seriously!
The site looks great for what you're attempting to accomplish, and the designs on your products are pretty dope too.
The only criticism I have is, I personally dislike when websites have the collapsible Mobile Menu when viewing on desktop. I'd suggest having a traditional full-width site menu, and have it switch to the Mobile Menu when viewing on smaller screens.
Edit: If you do decide to follow my advice and you're not sure how to do responsive design, I found this tutorial video that seems pretty straight-forward. It can be done with CSS.
I get it, and I agree. A lot of my limitation come from working with the pre-made modifiers available with the interface I'm using because it doesn't need to be coded in. I'll definitely look into that.
I know what you mean. When I’m using a theme or site builder on Wordpress that’s different from what I’m used to, I get super frustrated when I know something is possible but either I can’t figure it out, or the builder itself lacks the ability to change it.
Look for your Menu or Navigation settings, or look for anything that says RWD or Responsive Design if you can’t fix it in your Menu settings. Most themes and site builders are responsive, so if you can toggle your menu links to go across the header, it might automatically switch to a Mobile Menu when you make your screen smaller if you’re on a desktop. Good luck!
Edit: And if all else fails, try to do it in CSS! Let me know if you decide to do this and need help.
I like your designs. One thing is that you may wanna think about doing a more traditional product filter. Most sites are filtered by shirts, stickers, mugs, whatever. Yours, I see tendency, etc. It's not a bad thing, but when I make websites, I try to follow industry patterns when feasible.
That's a good idea. The issue is, the interface I'm using is a real pain in the ass when it comes to having more than one menu, or menus that expand into other menus. I will definitely try and rework it like that though.
If you ever need any help, I can try to take a look. I'm not God's gift to web development or anything, but I do it a lot.
^ This is good advice. I checked out the product filter and it's very cluttered . It looks like every filter only brings up one or two products that fit the label. I'd suggest breaking your labels down into 10 or less categories. All of your anti-cop designs could go into an ACAB category. All of your LGBTQ+ designs could go into a LGBTQ+. All of your communism/socialism designs could go into a Communism category, etc. That would make the buying process a lot easier on potential customers.