Web site update - suggestions and input?

[Jabbs]

I have installed a couple of Joomla sites (in the last couple of years) and I agree that it wasn't the easiest to setup and get running.  Might have changed now though.

I've installed loads of Wordpress sites (I say 'loads', by 'loads' I mean maybe a dozen?) and yes there are plenty of plugins which effectively turn it into a full fledged CMS.  I'm not sure about 'the others' but Wordpress posts are immediately picked up by Google (if you want them to be) which is a nice feature.

[OldBloke]

My perception is that we, the membership, tend not to visit the community homepage let alone use any of the links there but I'm basing that entirely on my own experience. I simply find all I need in the forum section and assume all regulars do also. So, in my mind, the homepage is where our guests first drop in to meet us and, IMHO, are currently greeted by an unnecessarily busy page. So based on my (possibly flawed) perception I would like to see the dMw homepage become a simple, uncluttered, easy to navigate eye-catching 'shop window' display that informs and entices passers-by to learn more about us and the way we play. I like the idea of having a more user-friendly portal for the community but does it need to be the homepage?

Something that I'm dead against having on our homepage is those realtime server monitor thingies. Because of our demographic our servers are only busy for a small period of the day. Showing a list of empty servers to a casual visitor is not good PR.

My 2p

[DogMeat]

......

[Snokio]

I agree that the first place I always go to is the forum, however, on other gaming sites / forums, I do like the idea of seeing server activity, as I may see one or more on L4d for example and I might think 'I will join' where i didn't really have the intention in the first place to join (maybe make this so only registered members can see this?), however, I appreciate there are pro's and cons to this, just my thoughts.
 
I also like the idea of an instant chat facility, I know we have IRC, but having it all under one roof keeps it more of a community, maybe a quick bit of banter in the morning before the day starts etc etc. It will also help keep the 'drivel' away from the forums (not that we suffer from it).  
 
I would like to see news and updates, such as:
forum / site updates
up and coming releases
New patches / expansions
dMw news
Other gaming news
 
This could be just a brief bulletin message rather than a thread / forum post.

[Zootoxin]

My perception is that we, the membership, tend not to visit the community homepage let alone use any of the links there but I'm basing that entirely on my own experience. I simply find all I need in the forum section and assume all regulars do also. So, in my mind, the homepage is where our guests first drop in to meet us and, IMHO, are currently greeted by an unnecessarily busy page. So based on my (possibly flawed) perception I would like to see the dMw homepage become a simple, uncluttered, easy to navigate eye-catching 'shop window' display that informs and entices passers-by to learn more about us and the way we play. I like the idea of having a more user-friendly portal for the community but does it need to be the homepage?

Something that I'm dead against having on our homepage is those realtime server monitor thingies. Because of our demographic our servers are only busy for a small period of the day. Showing a list of empty servers to a casual visitor is not good PR.

My 2p

This is what I was talking about when I said it should probably be a WOW site.

That makes new comers think this place is really cool

[Thulsa Doom]

Not a huge fan of homepages that are cluttered and full of flash etc, simplistic is better IMO, or present the user with a default nice homepage that they can then customise with widgets etc.

[Lameduck]

This is what I was talking about when I said it should probably be a WOW site.

That makes new comers think this place is really cool

I dont like WOW or Flash. Its one of those things that makes me click the back button. I like a comfy cardi with labels telling me whats going on, but mainly pointing to the forum.
God forbid that I am ever associated with cool.
As a child of the 50's I dislike this new fangled nomclementure. :angry:
Iz rite

[OldBloke]

Absolutely yes.  Homepage first to check on $STUFF, then off to the forums.

But this could be the member's homepage/portal. It could be separate from the visitor's homepage.

That's 4p now

[DogMeat]

......

[Blunt]

my way in is a toolbar bookmark for todays posts.
I don't think I ever see our homepage except by accident.
usually I only ever visit any homepage once, after that I have the forum bookmarked.
I'm not a great fan of bells and whistles, as long as the forum pages load fast and the colours are not too bright or dark, I'm usually happy.

I do agree with Snokio, when I do go to a clan's HP, I do want to see what they play and who's playing...Only this week I have been trying to fnd some BoD servers, but their site is impossible to navigate:sideways:

[smilodon]

Giving this a little bump in case there are any other thoughts or ideas.

The update to VBulletin 4 is looking very promising. We've already decided to go with the upgrade to the forums. However this new software offers many new features that could in turn solve the problems and issues we have with the web site.

It may well be possible to build the whole site around Vb4. This would make things very simple as contributors, authors etc to the new web site could use their existing forum logins to access the new features. Everything would remain within the same interface rather than have a separate web site and forum. This would simplify things and make running and contributing to the combined forum/webs site a much simpler option. It would probably allow for any of the suggestions already made to be incorporated into the web site a well.

Nothing decided yet so any additional ideas are most welcome. Cheers

[delanvital]

I like the idea of a light front page. I would also like it to be dynamic because a frontpage is often static, made ages ago, and does not really show the life we have to offer. Thus... perhaps something like:

who
5-10 lines about us, linking to a more detailed text (like we have now)

what
some real time server info on what we have (what we play and that we have lots of real time action going), links to the specific game forums.

when
extracts from calendar showing upcoming (thus also shows  we are  alive and kicing) and  explains that we play specific games, specific days, links to the calendar.

why
why dMw is addictive, perhaps a lan pic, smoothly designed to fit a sleek frontpage, some beer, some awards, some hardcore gaming and links to the gallery.

etc something like that.

then some basic contact details which are clear. Who to contact wrt matches, general inquiries etc. and how to proceed should they fancy a game.

[Snokio]

hows the progress going?

[TeaLeaf]

Smilodon is heading up the web team and he concluded that the things that we needed to do were best handled by vB4, the upgrade to our current forum software.  This was released recently as final beta and went Gold last week.  We're bringing up a test site to then build and test things ready for the upgrade process.  Of course the content then needs to be plugged in and that is where Smilodon will no doubt have a lot of fun and asking for help in various areas.  Things will start happening once we have a test site for his team to play with; I know he has a number of 'offers' of help, we've just been waiting for the vB4 release as it is a significant change compared to vB3.

[smilodon]

...... which is basically the post I was supposed to make before Xmas. However due to err something or other I was unable to post anything. Err forgetfulness...... that's it

It's not exactly clear what functionality will be available in the new version, how well it will work or whether there will even be a need for it in dMw. There have been lots of fine ideas posted in this thread but I'm uncertain if they are just suggestions or if community members really want the features for their own use i.e. they will create the content the feature offers?

 So the basic plan is to get a handle on what VB4 offers, decide if we need more functionality that it can provide and then begin to build a feature list. I'm 'fairly' confident VB4 will offer the features that we need but am not confident I know exactly what community members actually want. What is certain IMHO is that we need to separate the permanent static content from the forum posts. Forum stickies are not really the place for community rules, game rules etc etc. This change plus a new sexy look might be enough for our needs.

However if we do add more features and functions to the site it's not enough to just add new content features if there's no one keen to create the actual content itself. For example we could give community members blogging facilities. Great, but will anyone actually commit to write interesting content? If not then there's no point activating that feature.

I'm thinking we might implement VB4, with a new look and feel and then offer the additional features to the community. If there are people who want to use a specific feature we can add it. If not them we can leave it deactivated or not install the relevant add on.