An IF Hype Website

General Off-Topic Discussion
21

Yeah, I’ve been working on the layout today, and I might have a fake home page online later tonight. I doubt I’ll have the news-posting script or the “most active forum topics” script done by then, but I’m trying. :slight_smile:

I’m designing to make the most use of 1024x768 resolution. I’m torn though, because I should probably target 800x600. In the past, I’ve written sites that auto-resize (the main contents area fills up the rest of the space, while the sidebar(s) are fixed). I’m not doing that with this site, due to the way I’ve done the title header, but… I don’t know. I guess I’ll get this done and see how it looks first.

22

Here’s the beginnings of my IntFiction site template:

intfiction.org/test/

I want to put some kind of little graphic in the upper right-hand corner. I also need to figure out what all is going to go on the left-hand side bar. I need to write a simple CMS for allowing reporters to post news, auto-archive, etc. I’ll need to write a script to grab the most recent forum topics too.

For the “features”, I might come up with some kind of icon, or maybe we’ll do a custom picture for each feature (kind of like at adventuregamers.com). I have separated features from the news/hype section, since features will take some time and planning where news posts come and go more frequently.

The “…More” link for news posts would either go to an IntFiction.org page will the full story, or if the news is just a reference to something elsewhere, a link to that other site.

Have I missed anything obvious? How’s the layout? Totally hate it? (if so, please be prepared to show me an alternative :slight_smile:).

23

hey, nice job Merk.

I agree that it’s good to give the whole page a small border to accomodate smaller browser windows or whatever. You’ll notice that the Adventure Gamers site (not to use them for every example, but anyway) maintains a narrow border around the page. On the other hand even my small screen ancient laptop has a good enough resolution to see the whole site. I don’t know if you’re concerned about mobile devices or what not; I don’t know a lot about designing for accessibility standards.

You could move the site menu bar to the left hand sidebar. Include a different icon to mark each type of feature as you said. If the feature has an obvious related graphic or art to go along with it, you could replace the icon with that. A search box definitely.

On the top banner I would reduce the title banner to just a logo and smaller site title, and then use the rest of the space for an ad banner or some other cycled content. But hey, easy for me to say :slight_smile: .

I had a few other ideas for content. Could you pull the WHO list from IFMud? Also in the left hand bar you could have a featured site of the day/week with a small graphic. And occasionally a featured thread from r.a.if, the ADRIFT forums, and so on.

24

I can use the area to the right of the logo to put a graphic – even stretching from the cones over to the reddish area at the right. I hadn’t really intended to start out with any kind of advertising banner, though. Maybe a little later, if it’s something that links to other IF sites.

The border around the page is basically the rest of the document beyond the “table” that contains the site contents. On really high resolutions, you’ll see a bigger empty area to both sides.

On the left, I’ll probably put the site search, links to other IF sites (BrassLantern, the IFWiki, the review sites (there are at least two of them), the archive, the newsgroups, etc). There should probably be some links to pages for “what is IF” and “how to play IF” and that type of thing, even though I’m not really targeting this to newcomers. I think the site will be more useful to people already familiar with IF, kind of as an outlet for news and announcements.

Aside from features like interviews and previews, the rest of it will probably be things that are available elsewhere already – news and announcements are just as likely be be posted to the newsgroups or the forum, or linked to the originating sites. For day-to-day news, I think a website like this isn’t even needed.

I think some kind of statistics for the IFMud and/or the IF Archive could go on the right-hand side, under the active forum topics list (I can show fewer forum topics, so as not to bury other things too far down). This will take some reasearch, though. I would need to ask the MUD gurus if (a) it’s okay to show a “who’s on” list, and (b) it’s even possible to do that. When I log in, there are usually a couple dozen others logged in, but everybody’s usually idle or maybe talking on channels I’m not subscribed to. I don’t know how relevant a “who’s on” list would be.

A “who’s on” for the forum might be good. The forum itself shows that at the bottom of the main page, so I can steal the query from there.

As for the IF Archive, I’ll have to see if I can find that statistics file, grab it, and parse it. I’m not sure what kind of statistics would be the most interesting and/or useful. The “top downloads” might be interesting, if it could be tracked for the current day, or week, or month. It might prove to be the same ones over and over.

There is a lot the page could do, once the basic version is up. Maybe it could randomly pick a “game of the day” with a link to the archive. I know there are some areas lacking right now. The white space under the “features” section (to the right of the news list) might contain a chart or statistics for something. I kind of like the AdventureGamer’s “Hype-o-Meter” but I don’t know how that would really apply to IF. There would be room after 4 or 5 feature headings to do something there, though, if there is always a longer news list to the left.

25

Looks nice.

So… when do we start adding content? 8O

26

Heh!

Well, I’m going to try to work on the basic back-end tonight. It would be functional once that’s done. What I want, though, is to not write my own account and login system. I want to piggyback off what the forum already does. That way, I could create a private “reporters” board here (for discussing upcoming features, etc) and allow anybody who is granted access to this private board the ability to use the news-posting script off the main page.

I figure the “active topics list” will be easy. I’ll just have to make sure it’s only including the public forums.

My work schedule is crazy right now. I’m doing overtime and Saturdays, leaving me without a lot of time to work on the site. Actually, I find myself with little time to do much of anything. To put it in perspective, I’ve played a whopping 9 IFComp games. Merk’s reviews might not see the light of day this year.

I hope I can get something functional over the next two to four nights, so if you’re going to volunteer as a reporter, you could always start getting news stuff ready now. :slight_smile:

I have one interview lined up. I just need to figure out what kinds of questions to ask!

As for news, that takes a lot less planning. We’ll just post about links to interesting IF news elsewhere (as we come across it), and post about whatever readers send in too.

27

Yeah, I have to second the others. Looks great :smiley:

If I may add to the “game of the day” concept, I wonder if it’s possible to pull off game information from something like IFWiki to introduce the game. Something like a precis should do very well, then a “Read More…” link could be set up to point to the game info on IFWiki.org.

Then again, there isn’t a lot of game content on there yet. I should add some first :wink:

28

It might be easier to get the info from BAF’s guide, but I’d have to figure out how.

I can get download statistics for the archive easy enough. It seems to be uploaded monthly. The trick would be having it automatically figure out what’s a game and what’s some other kind of file.

29

I was actually volunteering as a reviewer and maybe part time reporter… what would reporting mean exactly? Just grabbing a few articles of interest in an IF fashion from around the internet and posting them on the site? Or something more in depth?

30

Good question!

The answer is, I haven’t thought that far ahead. :slight_smile: Initially, I figured everybody who volunteers would be a reporter. There wouldn’t be an obligation – basically, you’d be given the ability to post stuff (be it a news item, or a feature article, a review, or whatever). If you post nothing, then no harm done.

It probably should be organized fairly early on, though. We probably need some guidelines on what to post and not post, although anybody abusing it could be removed easily enough.

What might work is to find a few people who want to do different things. People to do reviews, people to write features, people to line up and handle interviews, and people to just keep an eye out on the IF world at large (and post news and links to news elsewhere).

31

Update: I worked on the database and the posting script (a little) tonight. Not as much progress as I would have liked.

32

Well, it’s a wonder to me you’re moving at even this rate. I get home and after this and that wonder where all the time went.

Anyway I’m up for volunteering as the roving web scout, collecting links to news and new content in the IF and IF-related community. That is, until you write a bot to spider across all the sites and collate the information automatically :wink:. Also I wouldn’t mind doing some interviews. I don’t feel like I have the best grasp of IF to write a full-fledged article yet, give me a few months.

33

Cool. Thanks.

I probably won’t get anything done tonight. After work, I’ll be going to the inlaw’s house for halloween festivities.

I’m kind of torn on this project, though. On the one hand, I think it’s going to be cool once it’s up and going. On the other, I’m lazy. :mrgreen: I feel like I should be playing and reviewing more IFComp entries, at least for the next couple of weeks. But if I stop for that long, I’ll probably lose my motivation for this project afterwards.

What’s most interesting to me right now is probably the idea of writing features. That’s something I (we all?) could do, and submit to Brass Lantern, without really needing this site. The current events page on the IFWiki already covers a good deal of IF news: ifwiki.org/index.php/Current_events

I’m just thinking out loud, though. I’m not giving up. Getting it all working won’t be hard – just a little time-consuming. I hope that it thrives and lasts a long time.

34

Oh no! Down with the negativity and the old “kind of torn on the project”. At least save the negativity until after the site officially goes live. 8O

I think the site could well work: have a daily (or weekly if there isn’t enough content to justify daily) updates section; a reviews of current releases section; an archive of older reviews; interviews; features; articles… be a bit like a version of SPAG that updates itself regularly and not just every few months.

Sections I’d like to see (whether practical or not):

  • Hints for current games that I’ll never finish otherwise because a) I’m really bad at figuring them out and b) I’m eager to play but never bother e-mailing the author about.

  • Previews. Got a game you’re working on and want to tell everyone about it? Add it to the previews section. There could even be a section where people say what they think of the idea. Heck, it might even encourage people to finish a game if they know enough people out there want to play it.

  • Technical corner. How to do this, that and the other in this language, that language and the other language.

  • In-detail reviews of games. Getting down into the real nitty-gritty of games, spoilers included and tearing apart every aspect of the games. SPAG sometimes features spoiler specifics (I think that’s the phrase) for games where a reviewer going into great detail about certain games. I’d like to see something similar.

35

In addition to what David suggested, perhaps a “collaboration invitation” corner? Or should this be relegated to the forums/newsgroups instead?

(Given that this happens rarely, that might be a better idea… :wink: )

36

I think the news page will probably serve as a good gateway to the forum, especially with the recent topics list on the right-hand side. I don’t want to start a new topic as an option for every single news post, though. Maybe as part of the “post something” page for reporters, I could have a dropdown where you pick the most applicable of the current boards, and that gets added as a link to the bottom of the story (“click here to discuss this in the Reviews forum” for instance).

Should we have detailed catagories and sub-categories?. So far, what I’ve come up with will be a system of “groups” and “types” like this:

News - General
News - New Games
(etc)

Feature - IF Theory
Feature - IF Programming
(etc)

Interview - All

Really, I haven’t even made the subtypes yet – just the general groups, which are “News” and “Hype” (and we may not actually need a “Hype” group, since IF news kind of is hype), “Reviews”, “Interviews”, “Previews”, and “Features”. If somebody wants to post a series of article and have them archived together (and separate from others in the same group), it would require a new type. For instance “Interviews - Merk’s Interview Series”. Although maybe we need subtypes too, for something like “Reviews - IFComp Reviews - 2006”.

Do we even need that level of detail in the groups/types? The bad thing about not doing it is it would make it harder to present articles on very similar topics together. For instance, parts of an ongoing series of articles would be mixed together with other articles on the archive page, if there is no way to link them together.

I was trying to keep it simple to start, but I’m already starting to see ways to complicate it. Heh. For instance, I probably need to have the news/feature posting page allow multiple pages for an article, for ones that are longer or would make sense spread across multiple pages. And I probably need a way to upload pictures (screenshots or whatever), for some articles. I probably need something tag-based so that reporters don’t have to be HTML experts to post an article that formats right and looks good.

37

I’m going to work some more on the posting script tonight (FYI to anybody following this project).

38

A little more progress tonight. I have part of the news posting form done, and I have a basic working version of the “active forum topics list” done. Now, when you view the test page, the forum links on the right-hand side should be accurate and working. When you reload the page, you can even see that the “time” since the last post for each topic actually changes (most noticable for very recent ones, where it’s still displaying the seconds).

intfiction.org/test/

I think that’s about all for tonight. It’s going to take a few more days than I originally thought to get all the back-end stuff done, but so far so good.

39

Nothing last night, and I’m at work today. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to do more tonight and tomorrow. It shouldn’t take too long to get the news posting script done, but I think I need to work out some formatting tags (similar or identical to UBB code, maybe) and allow uploads of icons and screenshots.

I’m also trying to play and review a few more IFComp games, in which I’m still negligently behind.

40

Looking forward to it, Merk.

I have about ten games left to play in the comp, but I don’t know if I’ll get to them now that NaNoWriMo is on.

Writing 2,000 words a day is a lot harder than I thought it would be.