GoW home page

[Justintime9]

That would be a good way to do it It'll make the ages seem more than just a name, making it much more exciting perhaps it should be like the DRC site, there'll be a list of ages with their status, the ages that're finished and available for download will be clickable, and will take you to a page with a description, and screenshot, and a link to where it can be downloaded. The same will go for non released ages, but it won't have a place do download

[Jojon]

What could be put to make it interesting?

First page? Even though the community is small and (I fear) unlikely to grow significantly, if at all, I'd say:

A to-the-point, yet comfortably read and non-technical presentation: What and who are we? What do we do, why and how?
How does product look? How can one visit ages oneself?
Our hopes and ideas for the future?
How do one join the creative community?

Text as brief as possible, adhering to aforemented requirements, divided into clearly set apart sections with headers and a picture inset or two. Links to more detailed instructions and resource pages (such as complete age listing and tutorials) included with relevant text sections (bulleted after body) and in the latter case, also in a main navigation bar for users-rather-than-visitors.

Possibly frames at page footer:
Separate dated history lists for tool-, age- and resource updates - each entry a link to its readme/database/forum entry.

Other news in the news forum - not displayed right away.


I like open spaces on a page: anything other than an explosion of barely related information cluttering up every square millimetre the screen, with a spaghetti labyrinth of ambigous links, like one see from time to time, when somebody fetches his first copy of Joomla and cuts'n'pastes templates with every feature he can found crammed in. :7

[Justintime9]

Ah, I see, so you think we shouldn't have links at the top to an age list?
if we have an introduction for newbies, should we assume that they know what URU is? Or as if they've never heard of it in their life, and we want them to find it appealing?

[Paradox]

Who is going to update the Age statuses and make sure that everything has download links? Who is going to deal with updating the Age list for new releases?

Whoever does the updating needs direct access to the server, which currently consists of 3 people. Whoever does the updating needs to be familiar with phpBB, PHP, HTML, and CSS. Whoever does the updating needs a lot of time to devote to keeping the page as current as possible. At this point, nobody has that time to dedicate to a page that nobody visits.

Of course, it is a valid request. World Peace is also a valid request... and yet a pointless one simultaneously.

[Chacal]

Clearly static html is out of the question. A few pages back, I had suggested a custom template and a dedicated forum, pretty much like what the current template does for the news.

[Justintime9]

Woa, slow down... first of all, who says no one will see it, or use it? I personally would visit it daily to see if any new ages have come out, or are being worked on.
Secondly, It wouldn't have to be a single individual updating it... Perhaps the writers of the age could update the status, and every person would just add a new age to the list. Like so: they click the "New Age" button at the bottom, they upload a screenshot, choose from a dropdown menu of age statuses, Write a description of the age, put in a link to a download of the age if it's done, or part of it is, and click the "Post" button. This new age will be added to the list of ages, which will look something like this:

Code: Select all

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Age       |        Status        |        Writer   |      Maintainer Approved?  | 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yinfara            phase 2                  Team                         No                 

Campbravo         Released              Andylegate                   Yes               

TunnelDemo      Phase 4                 Nadnerb                     No             

Sonavio             Phase 4              Boblishman                   No               
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note, the word "Team" will have a link to a page with a list of all people working on it (even if it's just two)

Whenever someone wants to update the status, or add a download, there is an "Update" option by their age (similar to the "Edit" Button by your posts on forums) and all they have to do is update it when they wish.

[Paradox]

The issue then becomes one of permissions. Who has permissions up "add" their Age to the list? Who has permissions to update an Age? How do we stop spam, and how do we prevent someone from updating someone else's Age?

[greendragoon]

I kind of figured that we could use something similar to the wiki. Where everyone can update and anyone who posts an age is required to keep their age up-to-date. At the moment, we're not having a problem with spam on the wiki as far as we know. But that my opinion. Others may feel that having that much freedom would be a bad idea.

[Justintime9]

Well, to eliminate spam, it'd be similar to the forums, can you edit anyone else's post unless you're a mod? No, only your own. The same goes for the posting ages. Also, in order to post an age, you'd have to have made at least three posts on the forum, and have an account.
And yes, I was thinking it'd be similar to the wiki.

[Nadnerb]

So you're basically saying you'd like a copy of the ULM front page on the front page of the guild of writers? That would handle both permissions and updating, as both are automatic, but is it something we want to do?