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1/1998: This was a prototype design for the first Youngstown Fire Department Web Site I made. This layout never was put up on the internet, it was modified into the image below (2/1998). 

Webmaster's commentary: This page was part of my first ever web site called SimYoungstown. It was housed on Geocities. As you can see from the larger image, there were links across the top for other pages of this site. There were some cool images on the first prototype page as well. Check out the cool pike pole, the YFD patch and door decal and the city seal. The light bar was actually animated so that it flashed. I wish I could say the background was cool but I am still trying to figure out what possessed me to choose that! Maybe it was lack of sleep :) At the bottom of the page, there are the links to the first sites contents. There were some wav sound files, a brief history of the department, a little info from the 1996 annual report, some old photos of the department, list of mayors and chiefs and current station and apparatus info.  Lastly, the font used for this page is Arial. It has remained the font of choice for my website. This is because it is on of the core fonts installed on both Windows and Mac. The visitor does not have to worry about downloading a font and installing it to view the page as it was intended.      

2/1998: This is technically the first Youngstown Fire Web Site I did. It went live on February 1998.  

Webmaster's commentary: Again, this page was part of my first ever web site called SimYoungstown. It was housed on Geocities. The top links on the page were still there. The page banner reads Youngstown Fire Department @ SimYoungstown. The pike pole has been replaced by a standard site wide horizontal rule. A generic disclaimer is on the site (and still there today although worded slightly different). I liked the three images in a row so they stayed in this design. The links thinned out quite a bit, I don't remember why. All that were on this site were the mayors and chief's list and the current stations and apparatus list. At the bottom, the flashing light bar. A neat little pull box you clicked to send me an email. The wallpaper also changed to something much much nicer and not so 60's-ish :)

9/1998: Seven months after the initial release of the Youngstown Fire Department Web Site, the page experienced one of many site redesigns.

Webmaster's commentary: Seven months, new design! This page was housed on my Youngstown State University web account while I was going to college. This design was the first to use the three column approach I still use today. The first column contained the links to the information on the site. The second column contained the recent updates to the site and the third contained basic information about the site such as my email, counter, optimal screen size to view the site, etc. Background wallpaper was abandoned and a plain white background replaced it. The logo in the top right was an animated graphic that flipped end over end and changed between the YFD door logo of the past (the letters FYD which they have since returned to) and the present door logo at the time which was the red Maltese cross logo. Notice also that under the banner appeared Youngstown, Ohio, USA. When I first started the site, I knew that people from around the world could stumble upon this site. I made sure to add the USA to the page in case there were any doubts :)

11/1998: Just two short months after a major redesign, we have another redesign.

Webmaster's commentary: What's going on? Two months after a major site redesign and we're having another one? Yep. The basic site design is still there actually, the first and second column has been combined together to allow for some neat clickable menu item images. New fire chief, John O'Neill's photo has been added to the redesign. The first of two banners is now present at the top of the site. The Youngstown, Ohio, USA has been incorporated into the banner. The image for the banner was a photo I took of the top of the Firefighters Memorial across from the downtown fire station. Let me just mention real quick that this site was still being housed on my YSU server. The animated logo is still in the top right and the background is still white. Notice that there is more color use on this design than on the previous one. In fact, this is when the dark blue/ light blue color scheme I use today got its start. This design had 14 pages of information, many of which names have stayed the same like scanning YFD and the motorized apparatus roster. Arial font still the font of choice. There was a cool little graphic I designed for people to use on their site if they wanted to link back to my page. Finally, the recent changes have been moved and only the last two remain on the main page.

3/1999: Four months later...

Webmaster's commentary: Table borders are cool! Right! Gee, things have changed. Yes the table border remained visible on this design modification. It is nice though from a design point of view because now you can see how the cells were set up and how everything pieced together to form the whole. The image on the top right is the Maltese cross side of the animated logo. The weather was added to the right hand column. A guestbook and link to ytown.com are now present. The site use to have a easy to remember address to over.to/yfd. On the right again, the site at the time had two graphics for use on other web sites to link back. Nothing else to spectacular to mention except that this page was centered in your browser window at all times. Ok, moving on...

5/1999: Two months later... Redesign!

Webmaster's commentary: Look another redesign! Looking more familiar now! Back to the three column design. Still the links are on the left, the main content is in the center and the odds and ends are on the right. This redesign has many more icons on the left and they are broken in to sections, Menu, Links, Merchandise and Resources. The today in Youngstown Fire Department History was added during this revision. The code was written by me with two smaller prewritten scripts worked in. This Today in YFD History is still one of my favorite things of all time on the YFD site. Another of my favorite items began with this redesign also, the image in the top left next to the banner that changes each time you reload the page was added. A third script was added at this time which counts down the number of days left until Station No.7's birthday. Personally, I love sites that change. Even if it isn't the content, changing photos and info, to me, seem to keep the page new looking. You can also see the birth of the light blue section bars. They are still around today just in a slightly different form. With this redesign, news pertaining to the Youngstown Fire Department was constantly added much like today. My wife mentioned to me that she was sorry to see the animated logo disappear. Who knows, things come and go and you never know ;)     

1/2000: Just another screen shot of this design...

Webmaster's commentary: Nothing too new here. There really weren't a lot of changes  design wise in this screen capture. Some items were moved from the middle to the left hand column. This site had another quick URL at this time. It was welcome.to/yfd. Oh, I almost forgot, the Youngstown Fire Department Message Board was added around this time. How can I forget that? 

10/2000: Fidget, fidget, fidget... All I have done lately is fidget :)

Webmaster's commentary: Sorry but this is just a screen capture of the top 1/3 of the page. I spent the past 10 months just fidgeting and moving things around. I tried experimenting with a upward scrolling news banner on the site but it didn't last long. There were too many problems with it and it seemed to take forever to load. I also experimented with vertical labels on the news stories but I dropped them over time as well. My wife really liked the dragon too. If you look closely at the larger screen shot, he is actually holding Youngstown's new Sutphen Ladder (L22). Look real close! He might come back sometime too. Who knows?   

8/2001: A sleeker design

Webmaster's commentary: In January of 2001, I purchased the registered domain name of youngstownfire.com. This gave rise to the second new site banner. New additions to the present site include the YFD newsletter, site wide search capabilities, weather radar, and the firefighter shift calendar. On June 25, 2001, youngstownfire.com LIVE! went online giving visitors a chance to listen to a live scanner feed of the Youngstown Fire Department. A poll was also available for a while to allow visitors to chose which manufacturer or apparatus they would most like to see Youngstown purchase. A section for YFD multimedia is was added to the site to feature sound clips and multimedia. A flash intro was also added to the web site in recent updates. What will tomorrow bring? Who knows. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!   

1/2002: Banner changed...

Webmaster's commentary: In this version, I made some changes not just to the site layout but to the graphics as well. The youngstownfire.com banner has been changed dramatically. I played around with a nice three photo top in this revision. They signify the present and the past. The animated Youngstown city skyline was added shortly afterwards.   

9/2003: Change, change, change...

Webmaster's commentary: This revision was done in time for Fire Prevention Week 2003. The youngstownfire.com patch is incorporated in the top header now. Also all the news stories have small icons next to them. The online store also opened with this revision. youngstownfire.com had 3 types of T-shirts, patches, hats and other merchandise.