friendly main page-proposal

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Lackadaisical
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by Lackadaisical »

The whole reason the forums and wiki are getting skinned is to give it all a more unified look, so I think using a similar design for the homepage is pretty much a neccesity. However, I believe the design is very flexible and it wouldn't be hard to adapt it to whatever you're new plan needs.

So, what is the design you and Zurd have come up with? I'm pretty sure we could work together on this and use whatever structure you're aiming for and translate it into the template there already is.

Also, personally I'm in favor of a simple CMS.
Last edited by Lackadaisical on Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by epsy »

I don't like full-blown CMSs but I usually use wordpress which is quite flexible and can do most stuff I don't want to do myself (URL rewriting, templating, DB connections, etc), while not being too intrusive. For example I've used it on the TST website, where news aren't the big thing. Only took me a few lines in a plugin(!=hack that will need work every update) to set proper URLs for the specific parts(namely registration and challenge boards). Wordpress is quite simple, well documented, non-intrusive and rather easy to maintain. Add to that cool stuff we could do (you may write a simple plugin so a news post may bring a specific banner for example) and the easy to use text editor. I wouldn't see a reason not to use it.
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by Concord »

I agree with epsy. If we are to update the main page, we ought to invest some time in wordpress. Its going to save time in the future, whenever we want to post updates, it will allow for multiple authors and maintainers, its skinnable, like the wiki and forums.
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by ZURD101 »

Destiny and I would be willing to update and maintain it for you guys, all we would need is root access via ftp or ssh.
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by destiny »

OK seriously no offense at all, buy ya'll sound like Manta. In fact he said a bunch of stuff that I didn't understand when I showed him the layout I had in mind. He talks over my head about a lot of stuff related to tron, and that's what I feel like right now. ;) I'm just a simple, ordinary person just like the majority of the crowd of people who are likely to encounter your webpage and/or try out the game and want to play it, thus growing the community. I appreciate the fact that you guys are all literally geniuses, but the average person doesn't understand what you guys are talking about.

Forutunaly, Zurd knows exactly what you guys are talking about and that is why I pulled him into my insanity of taking on this project.

What I'm trying to do, is take this incredible game, designed, updated and maintained by computer programming geniuses and get it into a format which ordinary people can understand and use. I think that is what appa was trying to do earlier in his post, which I read after I made my proposal. He doesn't have the time and he got frustrated with you guys for the same reason that I felt a bit lost after reading your posts. However I'm used to working with a genius (Manta) on stuff so I think I can do this ;)

I really want you guys to be happy with the end product, but it will have to be understandable to the average person, so I hope you guys will just trust me on certain things. I'm an expert at dealing with the market crowd we are trying to pitch tron to. Let's keep the goal in mind and not get lost in the minute details. Zurd and I will keep your concerns in mind as we venture out on this. My roll will be somewhat more of a public relations consultant, leaving you guys to more of the technical details. But I am willing to take this all the way down the road when the rubber meets the pavement. I may not know how to do all the things that need to be done, but that's why we will need to work together on some stuff.

Lack, I think its a good idea for the wiki, forums and main webpage to all look streamlined. I think I was able to see what your final idea was on design, but so that I'm 100% sure, can you post a link to it, so that I can see it for sure. I really loved the darker look for the wiki (and I got the impression luci actually liked that one you did even tho he doesn't like dark themes) I think doing the forum in the lighter look and the wiki in the darker, but matching look will be a nice complimentary look. That way the user knows that its a different item subconsiously.

We don't want them all to have the exact same look, they are different products, and while they will match, they need to have their own flair. The webpage needs to have more of a "wow" factor than the other two, so keep that in mind when you finally see zurd and my prototype. Also you need to set it so that everyone see's this theme initially on the forum. I didn't know this theme was here until I read it in the post and looked for it specifically. Most people aren't going to change the theme on the forum, even if they do know how to use a forum.

How would you guys feel about a contest for the banner? This would be a great way to involve the whole community to give them a sense of involvement in the project. We could give them the size parameters and color scheme and let them give us an awesome design. We can then vote on the banners so that the one the majority of the entire community likes will be what we put up.
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Lackadaisical
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by Lackadaisical »

The reason the skins for the forum and wiki are not yet at the default is because they're still not done yet, and afaik the plan was to make them all the default at the same time (including the main page overhaul). I've been busy with school the last month or so, so work on it has been kinda slow. I should have more time now so I'll definitely work on it upcoming weeks. I attached a screenshot of both the wiki and forums as they are available right now.

In my opinion it would be best to at least keep the colorscheme and the header consistent over all armagetron sites. I think it's very doable to up the wow-factor(which is imho only necessary for the front page, I think the rest of the main site should just focus on the content instead of trying to wow people), staying inside these limitations. Wait, I can probably whip something up right now to show you what I mean.

How far are you with the prototype? Could you show it even though it isn't ready yet? I think the sooner we can share ideas about something concrete the better.
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compguygene
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by compguygene »

I have been talking with Zurd and Destiny as well about this project. I am going to give zurd root access to a vps that i have that is unusable for tron, but fine for a low traffic website, etc. Zurd can therefore easily put up a prototype that everyone can surf to and check out.
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Lackadaisical
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by Lackadaisical »

Ok, so I put some stuff together, to show how a potential frontpage could look, trying to give it some more "wow"-factor than the standard page like the ones on the wiki I attached before, but still adhering more or less to the same template.

Click here for the frontpage
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by compguygene »

Looks pretty kewl...i passed the info immediately to zurd and destiny who simultaneously are talking in teamspeak about the details!
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by Tank Program »

I like the wow factor, but it's a bit too big for my browser window. (I keep it somewhere around 1024x600 I'm guessing.)

Have you guys (destiny, zurd) seen this thread where we came up with the new theme? I'd like to keep all three sites with the same theme, but how the content is arranged on the main site can can be changed.

I think using wordpress would be acceptable. I've got some experience writing plugins for it and I should be able to easily write a plugin to get a page with the server browser.
ZURD101 wrote:Destiny and I would be willing to update and maintain it for you guys, all we would need is root access via ftp or ssh.
It doesn't work like that. I can't just go handing out unrestricted access like that. A login based system (like wordpress, the forums, the wiki, etc.) would be best.
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by destiny »

It looks like you guys have already made up your mind about what you want for the website. I didn't realize lack was already pretty much doing this. I don't think you guys understand what I meant about making the webpage easier to use by new people. We had a lot of ideas in mind to make tron more accessible to new people, and what they are used to in a gaming webpage today. I don't sense that you guys are really open to change. This new theme is better but, still looks dated, like something you would have seen in windows 3.1 days. The site still isn't easy to navigate for new people. And I just dont' feel like anything we would do would be accepted by you guys. So I guess we can make it and just post it as a wild west webpage and direct the new people there.
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Lackadaisical
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by Lackadaisical »

Well it's just a mockup to show what is possible. I'm not saying this is how it should be or anything like that, and as I've asked before: why don't you show what your idea of a good website is? Apparently you have some very different ideas on how it should look than I have, and I'm honestly curious about them. But you can't expect me to be on exactly the same wavelength as you before you've shown me anything concrete.

edit: Wait, am I sounding defensive here? I was genuinely looking forward to what you wanted to do, all I was saying is that there has been some work done already.
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by destiny »

Zurd and I were working on it, but then we were told that we had to have it in the same theme and banner as what you have for the wiki and the forum. I can't do it if I have to strictly follow a theme already in place that I just don't connect with. I'm really not feeling the gold. It doesn't match the gold in the cycle at the top and the gold, orangish red and blue gives it a 70's look.

We had more in mind a look like Tr2n with the glowing blue and reflections in the buttons, stuff like that as far as the look.

We even played around with trying to put a different top banner (where the dark grey is now) that pulls the three colors in using a marbled stone look, and that way the forum and wiki look would still flow with what we were trying to do, but we got the impression that all of our ideas in general were unwanted.

On the content we were going to have it grouped a lot differently. So that even tho we would be directing people to the wiki, the items a new person would need would be available in one location instead of having to go to 3 locations and search.

Should we still try, or is the change more than anyone is willing to allow? As far as the updating, I could have the pages updated using just ftp access, or is that too much access? I don't need access to root.
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by epsy »

destiny wrote:we got the impression that all of our ideas in general were unwanted
As far as I recall, we still haven't heard about your ideas..
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Re: friendly main page-proposal

Post by compguygene »

Well stated epsy! I have setup, on a server i will eventually use for my own webpage everything that destiny and zurd need to build a live prototype.

I just got done talking to destiny again...and she and zurd will flesh out their ideas into a live website. I have purchased a domain for TheServerPharm, and i will let them use it for now. This will allow anybody interested in the project to view, and possibly play with it, without going live to the world.

The benefit for me is that later, zurd and destiny will build a website for me!
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