Feedback Needed - What Do You Think of Our Cat Pages?

The Cat Pages section is where members can create pages for/about their cats. What you're seeing there is its third re-incarnation, and it's not how it was intended to look. I really want to revamp the entire section, so that people can create prettier cat pages.

I need some feedback on this question please -

There is currently a template there, so when you click Add a Cat Page, the editor contains some text that tells you where to put the information. Do you find a template helpful at all? Or would you prefer to just work with the Editor (the same one used here to create posts) and just design your own page using that?

I'm sure many of you are not familiar with that section of the site. It hasn't been promoted enough over the past couple of years, and I hope to change that. It's time to bring the Kitties back to the front, not just in Gallery Albums, but in full pages, with their personal story. 

Thanks in advance for your feedback! 

I just did a brief page for Nilah.  I didn't fill in all the bits. If keeping the template, Arrival story really should come before or be a part of Biography, I feel. I was trying to come up with an alternative for 'biography', like 'life story', but then people may feel they have to write a book!

There is the option to play with the template... remove headings, use colours etc.  But I'm still not wild about it.

The bottom line is that it works if you like to have the headings as 'hints'.. , but it could be more aesthetic.   But I'm really fussy...

How you met could replace arrival story, it sounds more inviting and personal. You could add in a place for personality as we all love to speak about how individual they are!

As far as layout, I'm no good with those things but any personalization is a good thing. I didn't even know about the cat pages, now that I do though it is something I will use.

I just did one -- you're right, I didn't know they existed!  I didn't finish it, because I'm not quite sure how I want to describe some of the things.  Also, since I've only had her about a month and a half, the "biography" section is kind of the same as the "arrival story".  The template was kind of nice, but maybe a better option would be to have it not as a template, but something before the actual text box that said something like:

"This is a page to describe your cat.  Categories could include:  Name, Sex, Arrival Story, Biography, etc."  That way, people who need/want guidance (like me!) would have it, but there would also be the flexibility of renaming the categories.  I think it might even be fun to redo mine and write it in first person as though I'm my cat.

Having the "instructions," as it were, separate from the text box would allow a lot more creativity and freedom, which would make the pages much more personal and individual.  That might also make them more popular to read, since people wouldn't know how the new person was going to do it.
 

I didn't know about that page either.  I'm heading to bed, but now that I know about it, I'll make pages for my kids.
 

Just a tip: You can add links to your cat pages to your signature. Instructions on how to do it are here. Links can be included in signatures once you've reached Adult Cat status (100 posts and 10 days of membership).

Thank you for the feedback everyone! I think what I'll do is try to get the prompts and guidelines up above the editor text box, before people edit the page. Then let members have a free hand on the page itself. I think things like links to tutorials about how to use the editor, as well as maybe links to a few really sample pages might help?

I hope to introduce some of these changes this week, maybe even today (after we return from our day trip to Yellowstone!), so stay tuned

Voila!

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-pages-guide-faq

You can now get creative and create your cat page as you would like it to be. I hope you find the guide helpful, and would like to take the opportunity to thank Mani for helping me with this! Thank you!