MGSA Website

Nitrogen

This is a quick update on the current state of the MGSA wordpress site. I've been working on it off and on for the past few months and I think we have quite a good base to work off of. However my free time is severely restricted as of late so I cant commit to any deadlines at the moment.

• We've got dedicated sections for News, Events, Knowledge Items (kinda like a wiki)
  
• Each section is split into categories - eg. under Events you have Meetups, Workshops, Game Jams, etc.
  
• Events are specially treated with start and end dates and a location which will be shown via google maps.
  
• We've got completely customisable sidebars - you can pull in any combination of events, news items, knowledge etc and customise most of it's appearance.
  
• We have basic page display happening, but there's still lots of polish that needs to be done.
  

Front End:







Back End:

francoisvn

That looks great. Do you need help with anything?

dammit

That looks superb <3 I want to heart it many times over. And, what @francoisvn said. How can we help?

Karuji

Thirding that looking great and offering of the help :)

Nitrogen

Thanks guys/gals,

Well, if anyone knows Wordpress / PHP / CSS and wants to help out with the dev, give me a shout and we can chat. You'll need to set up a XAMPP type server / vagrant box on which to host the thing but I can run you through the process.

dammit

Is there any way to build in a "mute" function into the forums? So, selected users can mute other users that they just don't want to see the posts of any more? I'm sure this function exists on the NAG forums...

Karuji

@dammit, I know we actually had that functionality a while back, but I'm guessing we lost it in the big update? cc @Fengol

francoisvn

My only concern with that would be a scenario where there is miscommunication because you don't see some comments and you are effectively communicating in an alternative reality so things get very confusing. An ideal implementation would be where those muted posted are maybe just collapsed, so you know they are there, and if you want you can expand them.

Elyaradine

Yeah, that's how the previous one worked I think, and it just about halved my blood pressure...

dammit

I don't really mind how it works, but I would like the functionality. I mean, there's also the potential to have this information fed back to mods. Having a huge number of forum members muting you should be some sort of indication of who people actually want/don't want to be listening to.

Karuji

Just got the following error while trying to heart a post

{"Code":0,"Exception":"Object has no owner.","Class":"Exception"}

Fengol

Which post were you trying to heart?

Karuji

One which no longer exists by the looks of it.

KleinM

Hey, I don't know where to post this or to whom. When I tried to log on to this forum using my email address it says that my email address is not on the system. I then clicked on 'forgot' and it still said my email address is not on the system. I then used my username and it logged me in. In other words, the Log In message should actually not say "Username/Email address" but just "Username", because you can only log in using your username.

Nitrogen

@KleinM

It is working correctly, I can log in with my either my email address or username. You've probably signed up with a different email address, double check it in your profile settings.

KleinM

@Nitrogen, you were right. Blonde moment. I used a different email, haha

EvanGreenwood

Haven't mentioned this yet, but the images of the new site look awesome!

I'm not sure how big a request this is, but I'd like my posts to show a nickname instead of my username... It's been years since I set up this account and I'd rather be known as something else (but I don't want to lose my history).

Nitrogen

EvanGreenwood said:

Haven't mentioned this yet, but the images of the new site look awesome!

I'm not sure how big a request this is, but I'd like my posts to show a nickname instead of my username... It's been years since I set up this account and I'd rather be known as something else (but I don't want to lose my history).

Looks like you managed to change your username successfully?

Karuji

*casts res*

Ok so lets get this design finalised so we can have a front page.

*Summons @Tuism*

Tuism

*poof*

Nitrogen

Okay before you get too trigger happy with design changes, I'd suggest we keep it as basic and simple as possible for now (think minimum viable product) and then after it's all live and up we can focus on how things look.

So for now look at *content* and features that we absolutely need on the frontpage and associated pages.

Tuism

Lol that's exactly what I said to @Karuji :) He said to map everything out at once because you don't have a lot of time for updates.

I agree with you :)

Can we get a live preview site for us to look at while we tweak?

Karuji

Assumption leads to fuck ups >_>

Also I have some source (which might be outdated) which I can setup for live tweaking.

Nitrogen

Okay, test site has been set up at

http://mgsatest.nitrogenlab.com/

Karuji

So I'm guessing the events page hasn't really been setup yet?



I really like that it has a side bar that is like the forums. But each event was like the forum topic in that it was a separate visual entity is would be good. Also the sumary description (like on the GGJ event) is super cool, and rather useful!

One thing that I'm not too fond of is the comment system: if we're also posting these as forum threads (which I'm guessing we will) then it makes more sense? (and yes I am totally stealing that idea from desktopdungeons.net)

It also says Archives:Events. I'm assuming this page would be the upcoming with a link to the archive lower down?

On the main page



With regards to the Recent Discussions: any chance we can limit that via category? We'll already be posting events on the page so I don't think it would be needed to have a double link to that, and I think if we focus on the sections where people produce things it would be cool. (We really need more eyes on people's prototypes/art/music/tutorials)

With the recent knowledge items: is there any way to go to all knowledge items? (Maybe a link in its heading?)

But yeah: seems good. Now just my eternal worry of trying to keep a "news" feed up to date :rolls_eyes:

Tuism

The idea that I'm throwing around with @Nitrogen at the moment (in PM, sorry) is to make these items links to forum threads, so that once a thread is created, admins can go in and mark them "events" or "prototypes" or "news" or whatever, and that would update the front page automatically. This system would be separate from categories.

This way we don't have the additional burden of creating additional content for the front page, and keeps content updating to minimal effort. I don't think it's fair to lump updating the front page with fresh content anyone's job (I bet that's what will happen) if it's going to be actually creating content, and lots of it.

With this kind of system, anyone can create content, the admins just have to approve them and promote them to the right space on the front page.

Now, of course, all this is on the predicate that a system like that is relatively easy to implement, a thing that I have no idea of.

Nitrogen

So Karuji and I arent fans of Tuisms idea and would rather that when someone creates content on the Homepage, it automatically gets a forum post created for it.

@Karuji, I agree, I would not use the wordpress comment system at all, and would rather get the forums to act as the comments for each item.

The news, I also agree with, I dont think it should be another Rock Paper Shotgun, but rather a place for announcements and other interesting things happening. (medium frequency of updates)

The knowledge items do have a "view all" page: http://mgsatest.nitrogenlab.com/knowledge/ It's not fleshed out but you can browse the categories on the right, and it would obviously need to be better laid out than it is now. Yes it says "Archive" at the moment, but the basic functionality is there.

Edit: Yes of course, we'll need to add a View All under the Knowledge Items, the Upcoming Events and possibly the Latest Forum Posts to keep things symmetrical.

Karuji

Ok cool :)

So seems like we have the basic principles of the functionality that we want mostly down then, and it's just polishing that and getting the visual aesthetic in line with that of the forums?

Tuism

Well if these are true then of course I won't pursue the idea:
1. It's hard to build.
2. A thread can't be marked as news or events or whatever for the front page without using the existing categories system.
3. We have people who will willingly update everything for ever and ever :P

Nitrogen

Karuji said:

Ok cool :)

So seems like we have the basic principles of the functionality that we want mostly down then, and it's just polishing that and getting the visual aesthetic in line with that of the forums?

Well hang on a moment there. If we're going to attempt a "homepage post into forum post" autoposting functionality, that will require some work first.

@Tuism add to that 4. Forums dont make good CMSs :P

Karuji

Nitrogen said:

Well hang on a moment there. If we're going to attempt a "homepage post into forum post" autoposting functionality, that will require some work first.

I was kinda hoping there was just a WP plugin that handles that :<

And I think 4 == 1 in this case of language?

@Tuism 3. I doubt there would be a singular person who does it for all eternity. It'll most likely be a group of people who assume the duty with a rotating membership. But having been around MGSA for a while I think it'll be more likely that someone just does it until they find someone who "volunteers" to do it.

Nitrogen

Karuji said:

I was kinda hoping there was just a WP plugin that handles that :<

Not that I'm aware of, so that means investigating and custom building a solution.

Karuji

@Nitrogen herp knew there was something that did that for phpBB3 :/

But the Googling I just did seems like there is only really on plugin, by Vanilla themselves, that doesn't do nearly what we'd like it to do.

Edit What is the functionality difference between the current WP/Vanilla system and what do we needs? By my estimate it's just the generating a thread from a WP post that seems to be needed?

farsicon

I'm don't know all the history and effort that went into the site so far or if this had been considered yet, so I'll just throw the idea in and feel free to ignore if it's not valid.

What about splitting the site slightly in such a way that the root becomes a proper website using all the ideas that you had so far (not too worried about the tech) and then just create a ./forums/ path with some kind of forum software installed like vbulliten (or whatever). If there is costs involved, I'm sure the community would gladly pitch in. The main site can the be focused on MGSA as a business and then have the relevant links to the forums or anything else of interest.

Tuism

Karuji said:

@Nitrogen herp knew there was something that did that for phpBB3 :/

But the Googling I just did seems like there is only really on plugin, by Vanilla themselves, that doesn't do nearly what we'd like it to do.

Edit What is the functionality difference between the current WP/Vanilla system and what do we needs? By my estimate it's just the generating a thread from a WP post that seems to be needed?

Isn't what we need a way of clicking from the WP post on the front page that would connect up to a thread instead of an expanded post?

Tuism

farsicon said:

I'm don't know all the history and effort that went into the site so far or if this had been considered yet, so I'll just throw the idea in and feel free to ignore if it's not valid.

What about splitting the site slightly in such a way that the root becomes a proper website using all the ideas that you had so far (not too worried about the tech) and then just create a ./forums/ path with some kind of forum software installed like vbulliten (or whatever). If there is costs involved, I'm sure the community would gladly pitch in. The main site can the be focused on MGSA as a business and then have the relevant links to the forums or anything else of interest.

As far as I understand, we're going to have this design as front page, and the forum would be /forum or /discussion (I think we should pick one of the two and stick with it both in URL naming or the actual text on the page).

What exactly is needed on the front page for "business of MGSA"? Right now I thought some way of contacting the association is one thing, other than that I'm not really sure. Anyone have any solid ideas?

Karuji

@farsicon the root of why we are doing this is to create a landing page when people visit makegamessa.com which present some summary and FAQ about making games in SA instead of dumping people into a forum where finding generalized information information is much more difficult.

This is the thread of how we are going to make that system useful. And also make it as good looking as our forums currently are!

Moving the forums from Vanilla to vBulletin or phpBB3 just isn't viable. We have years of posts and data that can't simply be moved over, a great theme that would need to be redone, and years of information that has been indexed on search engines giving us really good page rankings! All of that makes sticking with the current forum much more efficient.

@Tuism yeah that's what we need, but there doesn't seem to be anything that has that functionality. Also generating a forum post based on a WP post is the other thing I think we need.

when we had the static front page a couple forum versions ago we just used MGSA.com/discussions which I think should probably stay because of search engine indexing. Though I'm not a SEO specialist so YMMV.

Tuism

Well one thing I was thinking of is we'll probably need some kind of page with "Forum rules" or some such... "Discussion rules" just sound pretty silly :/ I'm of course open to better options. "Discussion guidelines" doesn't sound better either...

Karuji

Agreed that it's a forum, and we should call it a forum when we talk about it.

Just because some software decided that discussion is is preferred url instead of forum doesn't mean we have to use that term any place other than the url.

farsicon

@karuji.. I see the problem... it just seems awkward to be stuck with the current toolset when there are options much better suited for the forums part. painful indeed.

francoisvn

if it's possible to preserve urls to old forum threads and/or posts, that would be top notch

Tuism

francoisvn said:

if it's possible to preserve urls to old forum threads and/or posts, that would be top notch

Yeah that's what I was thinking of, I guess we don't have to call it a forum. "Posting guidelines" is also fine, I guess.

Nitrogen

francoisvn said:

if it's possible to preserve urls to old forum threads and/or posts, that would be top notch

Yes. We're thinking of doing a 301 redirect from the old url structure to the new one

Zaphire

It would be awesome if anyone can write articles for the front page that just gets approved by an admin. Articles would have to be educational and not a self promotion imo unless for instance one of our local devs want to share their experience or statistics. Just a suggestion.

Nitrogen

@Zaphire it's a good idea, but its more something we'll look at once the base system is up and running. That sort of functionality isn't available out the box.

Tuism

Well, wouldn't people write articles and arrange to give them to admins who'll just copy paste them and post? Isn't that the whole idea behind writing in WP posts as opposed to writing in forum posts?

But I do agree, that's a secondary longer term objective to get to.

Tuism

Whipped this up, hopefully it covers everything that we need to get started. I haven't tidied things up in this design so some spacing are inconsistent and off, but I'd rather see that in code and than pixel push right now in photoshop.

All the copy can and probably should change, what I have there are mostly to get an idea across functionally.

Zaphire

@Tuism definitely like the "Game Prototypes" and "Events" sections which will boost views for those categories and get more outside people excited and involved! Keep it up!

EDIT: Also realised a really nice "Welcome" panel you made which is awesome for newcomers!

francoisvn

I'm a tad (almost negligibly) thinking there might be a better name than "Game Prototypes". Maybe just "Games" or "Game Projects"? (I'm just thinking you don't wanna necessarily impose the term "prototype" on something, even though it might be true 99% of the time).

I also noticed there are "only" 6 slots for games. I take that as a challenge to have the section come up "all Francois" at some point ;)

dislekcia

francoisvn said:

I'm a tad (almost negligibly) thinking there might be a better name than "Game Prototypes". Maybe just "Games" or "Game Projects"? (I'm just thinking you don't wanna necessarily impose the term "prototype" on something, even though it might be true 99% of the time)

Playable Stuff!

Also, how will things be placed in that list? If it's activity based, you're going to have to be vigilant against bumping behavior if the front page proves to be the major way people find game threads.

Tuism

Yeah, I thought about the activity based thing about games. Also, I wanted to have screenshots, but again, that's administrative burden, or setting up a media feed from the MGSA twitter handle or a MGSA instagram, which would still require administrative burden, so I left it.

Having admin curatorship would suck and a lot of people would certainly complain about it. Having most recent bumping behaviour would suck too.

How about a combination of most recent and hearts? But that would require some kind of algorithm, and broforce would dominate that for ever, which is not what we want or need :P

Any ideas? Admins cracking down on purely bumping behaviour? But that's always quite tricky. And more admin burden.

----------------------------

BTW I don't think we need as much space for news. I think games and events should hold prime real estate, along with the welcome content. I know it dominates the centre right now but I think it could easily be a lot smaller, I was following the template. What do you guys think?