Drones Are Fun an informational resource for everybody interested in UAVs, especially for personal use.

Hi everybody,

Gary McCray here, past wiki editor for DIYDrones, announcing my own Informational Web Site: http://www.dronesarefun.com/

I am very much strong advocate of our APM and Pixhawk flight controllers, but I wanted to produce a resource that was also able to address interests of DIYDrones community that extended to all areas of personal and civil drone use.

The existing DIYDrones Wiki proved inappropriate for my goal, due to a desire to keep it strongly focused on implementation and use of the APM/Pixhawk.

This site will extend further into other topics than those in charge of the DIYDrones wiki/manual want it to embrace.

I think this is actually an understandable situation as the APM and Pixhawk flight controllers are complex and require a considerable effort to be explained appropriately and thoroughly.

I also thought that this extended information required a permanent and non-temporary resource with proper subject indexing and linking unlike the Blogs and Forums which were the only other DIYDrones available resources.

In no way is this site in competition with or disrespectful of DIYDrones, 3DR or any of it's members and in fact is only seeking to provide a useful supplement to the DIYDrones community.

http://www.dronesarefun.com/ is written entirely in HTML and CSS with a tiny bit of Javascript.

If Javascript is turned off, the floating Pull Down Menu at the top of the page won't work, nor will the cart, but since I am not selling anything, that is of no consequence.

Every page link in the top drop down menu is also accessible from every page from the Table Of Contents tab.

Every page is also accessible from the home Drones Are Fun page as a link below the associated illustration.

Below is the Page Linking Table of contents, one of the Drop Down Menu Selections can also be seen.

This is just my first pass at this site and I plan on adding a great deal more to it.

I would very much appreciate it if any of you who feel so inclined might look it over and let me know what you think, what you might like to see added and any errors you might notice.

I am also hoping to add a more conventional companion wiki with full public interaction.

I know the format of my site is very different from what you are used to seeing, but it is as completely uncluttered as I could make it so that it makes the information available as clearly as possible.

There is no advertising or other irrelevant clutter and it is best viewed at a fixed width.

Page to page navigation and indexing is as simple as I could make it.

The Page Index at the top of the page even allows you to jump to specific topics within each page.

It has been tested and works well in Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer (Top menu bar doesn't float in Explorer).

And it even works quite well in Chrome on an IPAD and on Android Tablets, but is not really ideal for the phone format.

I hope this is of benefit to the DIYDrones community as well as to new people interested in exploring this fascinating endeavor.

Best Regards To You All,

Gary McCray

Hi All,

I truly know that my web site style is a contentious "feature".

But I did design it so that it was as streamlined and out of the way of the information as I could, it is designed simply as an information reference and I wanted there to be nothing that got in your way.

And except for the floating top drop down menu bar there is nothing else that takes up space on the page as you scroll through it.

If it isn't the information your looking for it's a link to the information your looking for.

And with a bit of help from the people who use it if you can't find the information you think should be there let me know at the contact us section and I will do my best to get it in there.

I thought about doing a Wordpress wiki, but in the end I decided that a two part system would work better, a core "document" style site with the best organization of raw information I could manage and a separate but associated true Wiki site with public access and the more familiar look and feel.

This is just the first act, the second is yet to come.

It is my intention at this time to also put together a Wordpress based open Wiki that will be cross linked with the regular dronesarefun site.

I just had to start somewhere.

@Marty, I definitely appreciate your suggestions and am also planning on improving the base site as well.

My knowledge of HTML is very limited and suggestions are very much appreciated, however, I never have been one to simply go along with the norm, and am not likely to do that with this site either.

I have definitely noticed that serious web developers have a negative reaction to it, but I also think there is some room for outside the box forms of expression.

The WP wiki site will be a lot more normal.

Thank You all for your support, please let me know what I can change, add or fix that would be of the most benefit.

Best Regards,

Gary

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Comments

John Stuart May 30, 2014 at 2:24pm

Great idea, thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge
Gary McCray May 30, 2014 at 9:27am

Hi All,

I truly know that my web site style is a contentious "feature".

But I did design it so that it was as streamlined and out of the way of the information as I could, it is designed simply as an information reference and I wanted there to be nothing that got in your way.

And except for the floating top drop down menu bar there is nothing else that takes up space on the page as you scroll through it.

If it isn't the information your looking for it's a link to the information your looking for.

And with a bit of help from the people who use it if you can't find the information you think should be there let me know at the contact us section and I will do my best to get it in there.

I thought about doing a Wordpress wiki, but in the end I decided that a two part system would work better, a core "document" style site with the best organization of raw information I could manage and a separate but associated true Wiki site with public access and the more familiar look and feel.

This is just the first act, the second is yet to come.

It is my intention at this time to also put together a Wordpress based open Wiki that will be cross linked with the regular dronesarefun site.

I just had to start somewhere.

@Marty, I definitely appreciate your suggestions and am also planning on improving the base site as well.

My knowledge of HTML is very limited and suggestions are very much appreciated, however, I never have been one to simply go along with the norm, and am not likely to do that with this site either.

I have definitely noticed that serious web developers have a negative reaction to it, but I also think there is some room for outside the box forms of expression.

The WP wiki site will be a lot more normal.

Thank You all for your support, please let me know what I can change, add or fix that would be of the most benefit.

Best Regards,

Gary
Jethro Hazelhurst May 30, 2014 at 1:30am

Fantastic Gary! I will be referring myself and others to your site.
Mike Schwier May 29, 2014 at 10:32pm

Lots of great information! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

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