Forum Redesign Thread v2.0

[nikvoodoo]

So after a little mishap from this morning....uh...the original Forum redesign thread is no more.

I start this thread to replace it since the other one has joined the aether and is never coming back (unless someone can pull some magic out of the vbulletin hat). My apologies for the inconvenience to you all, and I hope everyone remembers the ideas they suggested about apartments and what not. Here's Kc's original post lifted from the article:

The Tower

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED! POST HERE! OUR FIRST MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE NEXT MONDAY 5:15 PST/8:15 EST on Skype.


Here are some preliminary designs for what I'd like to do to the forum over the next few months. It's called "The Tower".
The Tower would treat the forum as it would be part of the story. Each floor of the tower would be a different rank, so to speak. 1st Floor- Admins, 2nd Floor Moderators, etc...
Blogs would become "Journals" And would correspond with graphics from the series. Your profile page would become an "Apartment". The Chatbox, would be the "Lobby". You get the idea.

I have put together a few of these layout ideas and will post them below. This won't be an easy task to say the least, BUT when done it will be amazing!

Much of the Artwork will be custom made to fit what we want, and these are just mockups, so bear with us for now.

EDIT* KC: This thread might be good to look at for Forum upgrades: http://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/

[Magrat]

Posted this here, assuming it is about the same thing.

"I like the idea and how it fits into the whole ethos of We're Alive. Can't wait to see how it evolves!

Thoughts (Contain SPOILERS of a sort!): I really enjoy the ranking system attached to the posts (although it can encourage people to just post flippantly in an effort to spam up their count) and would love to see some expansion of the rankings applied to other sections of "The Tower". Changing/adding elements that reward people with different titles/duties for being eloquent, or interestingly vocal in the chat log, or 'repping' a post with merit, or having x amount of comments attached to their 'journals'. Make the titles something like achievements, that people can aspire to without it becoming a spam race.

Also a thought, not sure if possible, but letting people select and display what episodes they've listened to/are up to? Would allow them to 'live' on certain floors that are no longer available to others who have listened ahead, also could be used to curtail their access to certain spoiler-filled sections of the site? ie, once past the point where the lower floors have burnt, they are moved rooms to the higher floors? Once they've listened to Chapter 18 they can access the Chapter 18 discussion section and no higher. Again, not sure if such specific restrictions can be applied, nor if they're even wanted, but it would make for a neat bit of immersion.

Would also like to see phrases such as 'on a supply run' or 'stuck in the elevator' or 'trapped at The Arena' used somewhere, again only if the restriction thing works, otherwise people will know about the arena before they're meant to. Specific Chat Rooms would be another cool idea. They could be called 'raiding parties' or something to that effect. Anywho, those were a few ideas, god knows how you'd implement them. Love the new look/feel of the thing and like the idea of having rooms in the tower. Will post other thoughts if and when I have them, unless I'm told to be quiet before then.

Also, would love to be attached to the skype chat, if I'm awake then (evil evil Australian time)!

Cheers, Magrat."

[Kc]

I know Revolver will most likely post the other stages, but
STAGE 1:
Compact the "Home Page" IE This page: http://zombiepodcast.com/forum/content.php
Into the Forum Home Page.

Things to Keep:
1 News Bulletin Article.
Twitter Feed

Maybe Keep:
Current Poll
Schedule

Where would this content go? In the side bar. "Top News" would get removed. What to do with the other categories remains to be seen.

WHAT are your thoughts on this? What to keep, or get rid of?

[Creem_Filling]

I would say get rid of the current poll and most recent posts. They are sometimes spoiler worthy and I would hate for all j0bes work with the cb to be redundant. I like the schedule, but I would not miss it if it weren't on the front page, so my vote is for it to go if we're looking to really compact things. I think that the top news, twitter feed, and youtube channel to stay. And maybe add forum statics on there? I think it would be neat to see those when you first get on.

I also had an idea for the cb. J0bes been working crazy hard on making it un-spoilerish and I think he's done a great job. But what if we just add a filter. Kinda like the one on zombie pandemic. You can click a button that will determine whether the gatekeepers messages show up or not. That way if you wanna see what he is saying on the forum page it's nbd, but if you're new you don't have to see spoilers.

[nikvoodoo]

I agree with eliminating the polls from the front page.

I would also say eliminate the youtube panel, but instead add a panel of links to Twitter, facebook, youtube page, and possibly blogtalk radio/justin tv links. I agree the schedule should be there too, but perhaps redesigned to fit more into the style of the page and put that more centrally located since it's an important part of why people are on the site.

I personally like having two articles, but if it went down to just one I'd be ok with that, too. I was talking to Revolver about this the other day about featuring more (soon to be) journal posts as we head into next season. So promoting kick ass journals to articles so they get more facetime on the site, and if that happens often enough I'd hate to keep pushing an important news article off the only spot on the front page.

[Kc]

I would say get rid of the current poll and most recent posts. They are sometimes spoiler worthy and I would hate for all j0bes work with the cb to be redundant. I like the schedule, but I would not miss it if it weren't on the front page, so my vote is for it to go if we're looking to really compact things. I think that the top news, twitter feed, and youtube channel to stay. And maybe add forum statics on there? I think it would be neat to see those when you first get on.

I also had an idea for the cb. J0bes been working crazy hard on making it un-spoilerish and I think he's done a great job. But what if we just add a filter. Kinda like the one on zombie pandemic. You can click a button that will determine whether the gatekeepers messages show up or not. That way if you wanna see what he is saying on the forum page it's nbd, but if you're new you don't have to see spoilers.

Yup, the filter is in the works...

[Kc]

I agree with eliminating the polls from the front page.

I would also say eliminate the youtube panel, but instead add a panel of links to Twitter, facebook, youtube page, and possibly blogtalk radio/justin tv links. I agree the schedule should be there too, but perhaps redesigned to fit more into the style of the page and put that more centrally located since it's an important part of why people are on the site.

I personally like having two articles, but if it went down to just one I'd be ok with that, too. I was talking to Revolver about this the other day about featuring more (soon to be) journal posts as we head into next season. So promoting kick ass journals to articles so they get more facetime on the site, and if that happens often enough I'd hate to keep pushing an important news article off the only spot on the front page.

We can easily add the facebook, twitter, youtube, blah blah, icons in a small bar. The 2 new items would be great to have!

[Ra1th]

We can easily add the facebook, twitter, youtube, blah blah, icons in a small bar. The 2 new items would be great to have!

I'm not a huge fan of the side bars, it makes everything so cluttered, is it possible to just create another page for social media? You could have one page dedicated to facebook/twitter/youtube?

[nikvoodoo]

Check what kc and I just worked out for the social media connection below the small chat box. Its pretty small and unobtrusive

[Ra1th]

Check what kc and I just worked out for the social media connection below the small chat box. Its pretty small and unobtrusive

ohhh ok, I was expecting a transplant of the twitter sidebar that was on the front page. I still think that it might be a good idea to give social media it's own tab and just have a larger, drawn out version of facebook and twitter so that the forum could be better integrated into both of those outlets.