IC site

[Trylon]

Hoikas, if you can PM me the DNS server's IPs I'll point guildofwriters.info to your server.

Since no one commented on the domain, I'll assume we're going with guildofwriters.info for now for the IC site

[Tsar Hoikas]

Hoikas, if you can PM me the DNS server's IPs I'll point guildofwriters.info to your server.

Since no one commented on the domain, I'll assume we're going with guildofwriters.info for now for the IC site

I actually had the template setup to use subdirectories because the vast majority of assets are shared to create a unified look, but it'll be easy enough to just point a domain at the subdir and create a symlink

[Trylon]

Might we get this thread back on topic?

Hoikas, what framework did you have in mind for the IC site?

Oh, btw, I agree with previous posters about the .info domains, but I couldn't think of a better idea either.

[Aloys]

Should we have a Newspage or Not?
I like the idea of having a news page where to get all Ages/Tools news. (I had been hitching to do such a site myself before) I'm not too sure the IC site is the best place to have that though: currently we have much more OOC updates than IC (if only regarding tools). But the goal of this IC site is precisely to foster IC works.
Maintaining two newspages (IC+OOC) would be more work obviously; but it's not like we have three news-worthy storeis each day either.
It's a bit of work though; to be useful it needs to be updated. Obviously if we have a decent CMS it would help a lot. (although hand-written HTML is always an option)

[Tsar Hoikas]

The discussion about forum software has been split off

[Tsar Hoikas]

Sorry about the slight delay between the moderation and this post... I needed sleep :\

Hoikas, what framework did you have in mind for the IC site?

I didn't really have a solid idea for any kind of real framework, but I was striving to unify the site designs. I wanted something small and clean that scales very well. THe current site does none of these--it is huge, ugly and a fixed width--let's not mention the page load time. Just for a preview's sake, you can look at the original design here. I do have a live test site, but it contains inappropriate language, so I won't link to that here (I tend to make bad jokes on my test sites). The test site drops you off at a splash page with a selection of the IC site or the OOC site (the /ic or /ooc directories of the domain). When we decide on a domain name for the IC site, we can remove the sub-directories and splash page and simply have .com be OOC and whatever-we-decide be the IC site. If you gyus have any criticisms of that template, now is the time to make them! I have a bit of a long weekend and am going to begin writing some code and such.

Should we have a Newspage or Not?
I like the idea of having a news page where to get all Ages/Tools news. (I had been hitching to do such a site myself before) I'm not too sure the IC site is the best place to have that though: currently we have much more OOC updates than IC (if only regarding tools). But the goal of this IC site is precisely to foster IC works.
Maintaining two newspages (IC+OOC) would be more work obviously; but it's not like we have three news-worthy storeis each day either.
It's a bit of work though; to be useful it needs to be updated. Obviously if we have a decent CMS it would help a lot. (although hand-written HTML is always an option)

I would like to have such a thing on both sites, but I'm unsure where the news should come from. Should we syndicate it from the forum (if so, using what method?) or update it ourselves? You raised this point already though.

I would like to mention that I am no fan of CMSes. They usually screw everything up. Time to roll our own solutions...

[diafero]

This is most a reply to your sticky in the 3ds Max forum, but it fits to the "site overhaul" topic here:

This post is an attempt to make a somewhat more unified location for information regarding the 3ds Max plugin. It's a post because not everyone seems to know about the wiki, and the MOUL moderators seem to enjoy linking to the forum rather than anywhere else on the site.

So, what about a more prominent link from the forums to the wiki, so that people find it more easily even if they are redirected to the forums? I imagine something like the link to libHSPlasma's bugtracker, but on the main forum level, above the news section: "GoW wiki - please go here for general information and frequently asked questions". Or similar. Moving all the information from the wiki to the forums is not a good idea IMHO (though some more "wiki entry stickies" are great for newcomers). The main wiki page could also need some re-organization.
I'm currently using the prosilver style, which leaves me with no wiki link at all, but that's a different issue.

[Tsar Hoikas]

This is most a reply to your sticky in the 3ds Max forum, but it fits to the "site overhaul" topic here:

This post is an attempt to make a somewhat more unified location for information regarding the 3ds Max plugin. It's a post because not everyone seems to know about the wiki, and the MOUL moderators seem to enjoy linking to the forum rather than anywhere else on the site.

So, what about a more prominent link from the forums to the wiki, so that people find it more easily even if they are redirected to the forums? I imagine something like the link to libHSPlasma's bugtracker, but on the main forum level, above the news section: "GoW wiki - please go here for general information and frequently asked questions". Or similar. Moving all the information from the wiki to the forums is not a good idea IMHO (though some more "wiki entry stickies" are great for newcomers). The main wiki page could also need some re-organization.
I'm currently using the prosilver style, which leaves me with no wiki link at all, but that's a different issue.

I agree with everything stated. I'm workin' on it. I'll have that prominent wiki link up in a few minutes.

[Aloys]

To make some progress I am currently working on writing a first proposal of the actual text contents of the site. But before going any further:

Do most people here agree with the basic site structure outlined in the first post of this thread?

We can't really make big progress if this basic structure isn't agreed on. Unless someone has objections on other parts of the site I think there are two big remaining points that should be cleared up:

Documentation : We need to be able to give directions new comers wondering about Age creation, but if we want the site to stay IC we can’t have a direct link to our OOC Wiki (or any other OOC page). Should we have an ‘Warning: OOC’ splash page? Should we have something else? (Or am I just making a big problem out of nothing?)

IC blogs : Those are becoming more and more important, and this is a good thing. Should we have links to IC blogs? A link to UruBlogs.com?
If this is possible for us, should we provide an IC blog hosting service ourselves? Should we host more than blogs? Like websites? This is something that has been discussed several times in the past with some enthusiasts posts, but no real decision (positive or negative) was ever taken.

Also, as I am touring our current site I notice the 'Guild Council' page, which brings up a number of memories as well as some questions.. But I guess we can open that can of worms another day.

I would like to have such a thing on both sites, but I'm unsure where the news should come from. Should we syndicate it from the forum (if so, using what method?) or update it ourselves? You raised this point already though.
I would like to mention that I am no fan of CMSes. They usually screw everything up. Time to roll our own solutions...

The more I look at it the more I see we won't have that much content and we probably won't need something too involved to publish this content. Good tools are a good thing, but if more time is spend creating those tools than using them it may not be the best idea either.

[BAD]

My thinking is just go with the structure you posted. If existing parts prove useless we can remove them, and if new sections are needed we can add them.