Feedback on StrategyCore

[FullAuto]

Certainly shortened it a little, eh? I think the forums are fine as they are, but if we moved to this new layout, it's not going to bother me.

[Accounting Troll]

Interesting. When it is finished, anybody who preferred the layout before the merger merely needs to update his bookmark to the page listing the forums for a particular series, and it will almost look as if the sites were never merged.

[Pete]

Aye. And if I were to get REALLY bored, I could even put a different colour sceme/set of images for each group of forums.

 

It might help to change the logo at the top of the page to the series logo at the very least

[Stun Grenade]

Pete, looking good and I would love to help make it look cool or what have you.

 

Its pretty funny/wierd only having one forum inside a heading!!

[Pete]

Hehe, well the little logos will change and I'll make it look less silly, but if you're approving of this proposed layout, then I must be getting it right? Is it less confusing now?

 

Any more comments/suggestions from anyone?

 

Be warned though guys, whilst I'm against advertising in general, I AM toying with the idea of putting a few little plugs for other site features at the top of the forum index (will be theoretically invisible when you're viewing a section's forums). This would be in an effort to:

 

a) Remind people that there's a whole site out there (most people come here from googling and land right on the forums)

b) Plug the newsletter that only 53 people seem to have signed up for, as they're the only ones who've had a mooch around the rest of the site recently

c) Plug any other projects we're covering on the site and not in the forums

d) Plug the file database

e) Plug the shop area a bit on the run up to Aftermath's release

 

I'm thinking about two blocks liek on the main https://www.strategycore.co.uk at the top above the news that will display randomly from the above 5 themes when the forum index page has loaded.

 

Any thoughts on this would also be appreciated

[Kernel]

I prefer the site as it is now rather than on several different sites.

It certinatly makes the forum easier, no more having to visit both the ufoaftermath.com forum AND the x-com.co.uk forum to post stuff/read new things so I don't miss so much.

 

The forum is similar to another site I visit (www.subsim.com) with several games on one forum.

[Stun Grenade]

Pete, if you say, buy back the www.x-com.co.uk domain then I'm sure you will attract some more people. Just get Google Ad's to have some revenue. But seriously, how about trying my idea...?

 

On the home page it will have fourms at the top as a link, then a drop down bar will pop up saying which game. etc... The SC forum bit will appear on all game forums and so forth. The x-com.co.uk website could even redirect to the X-COM forum section on SC. Meh.. I hope that made sense!

[Pete]

I've still got the domains, and they do point through to the new site at the moment. I see your point on the top link being a drop-down though - not a bad idea at all.

 

I don't want to have to have different installs of the board though if I can possibly avoid it, even if cost wasn't an issue. It's just a nightmare to operate with three different admin panels and having to switch sites all the time.

 

This is why I suggested the new layout at the link above, which can have different sections skinned (and have different sections on the site skinned to match) so that we've almost got three separate sites on the one site.

 

I can quite easily change it (assuming that's not how it's already set up) so that x-com.co.uk points to strategycore's X-COM pages, ufoaftermath.co.uk to point to the Aftermath pages etc if that'll help.

 

It was always my plan to eventually get round to skinning different colour schemes/top-of-page graphics for each game series as well to more clearly separate them, but I've just not gotten around to it yet.

 

So... sorry to keep throwing the same question back at you guys, but does the new forum layout at the link above begin to improve things? It's the quickest and easiest fix I could think of, but I need your input on it's effectiveness at cutting down on the confusion that seems to have put so many people off.

 

I am jotting down all these other ideas though for future reference, honest. I'm just strapped for time in which to make large adjustments to the site at the moment Also, since nobody's dissed my idea of advertising other sections of this site on the forums here, I'll probably start putting that in motion too after we send the next newsletter out.

 

(Anyone who wants to sign up for newsletters BTW can fill out the small and well-hidden form on the right-hand column at https://www.strategycore.co.uk).

[Stefan100]

6: Anything else you'd like to comment on? Feel free to do so, as any feedback is valuable. And criticism is welcomed.

 

1: Do you like the new StrategyCore concept, or did you prefer the separate sites we used to have? Why?

Can't really answer on this one, as i didn't even know about X-com and strategycore until some months ago. This is by the way the second forum i have ever been an member to!

 

2: Do you think the new forums are too big, or is it okay? Why?

I think they are too big right now, but the suggestions on new forums made by Pete seems good.

 

3: If you post less than before, or not at all, what is the reason?

Two reasons.

1: I havent't found any interesting topics to discuss yet, but I am about to search for them now. Honestly, i haven't been searching at all except looking at the "news board" for something interesting (which is news about Ufo:AS). But even when i found interesting topics i didnt post very much.

 

2: I didn't post very much because i didn't think this site was any interesting at all. But i have changed attitude now. This site is actually very interesting. And i am about to post more from now.

 

4: What could we do to improve StrategyCore? How?

1: Change the forums as Pete have suggested.

 

2: Change the infobars to the left at the start site, so it gets easier to find more information about the games and the gameseries. For example: Add something for those who havent heard anything about X-com. Like an "What is X-com?" link in the X-com infobar.

 

3: Make old newsletters avaliable. Maybe under the "sign up for newsletters" link (or what it is called) under an "Previous newsletters" menu.

 

4: Maybe finish that "staff" link (or remove it) above. Have you forgot it or are you still working on it?

 

5: Are you redirected to this site when you use x-com.co.uk and ufoaftermath.co.uk? If no, what browser do you use (including version number)

Have never used those links so i don't know.

 

6: Anything else you'd like to comment on? Feel free to do so, as any feedback is valuable. And criticism is welcomed.

Thanks to the admins who spend both time and money to get this site working! (Correct me if i am wrong, but as far as i understand so did Pete pay a lot of money to be able to make this site.)

read: I'd have to buy a separate license for each separate installation

[Pete]

Cheers for the feedback Stefan.

 

Yes, we really could do with some intro's on the games. It's jsut assumption as a webmaster that people will know everything about what your site's about the minute they arrive. Covering many games, that's not the case

 

Previous newsletters - I'd planned to do this but haven't quite got around to it yet. Will try and sort that tonight time-permitting.

 

Ah, theStaff link - partially collected info to go on it, and then forgot about it Will try and uipload what info we've put together tonight

 

As for the costs - yeah, Olav (Slaughter) and I are covering the costs. They're not cheap, but when searching for hosting you've got to go for quality. My last three hosts have been fairly useless, so I've finally found one that's reliable now and gives excellent support despite being a little more expensive. Hopefully when I've got the Shop section skinned and a little more integrated, we can generate some revenue from that finally.

 

 

Come on everyone, more suggestions - every post in this topic means that when folks click the "View new posts" link when they log in, this'll stick out and they may eventually check it out

[Pete]

I've been a busy bunny (for a change - no seriously, I've been incredibly inactive and lazy around here the past few months ).

 

Check out some site updates outline here: https://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index...?showtopic=4119

 

We'll hopefully get around to adding an introduction to the X-COM games and the UFO series in the next week or two, as well as (hopefully) another new gaming section within a month or so. More news on that to follow

[Stun Grenade]

Its good to hear from your alot Pete...

 

I would love to host the forums. May I? I'm upgrading my net in 2-3weeks so it would work?

 

When you said 'I can quite easily change it (assuming that's not how it's already set up) so that x-com.co.uk points to strategycore's X-COM pages, ufoaftermath.co.uk to point to the Aftermath pages etc if that'll help.'

I think that could work fine

[Pete]

It's quite alright, though thanks for the offer We've got plenty of space and bandwidth for the forums and they get daily backups on the server we're on currently.

 

I'll have a go at sorting the domains right away though!

 

EDIT: Domains sorted. I kept forgetting to empty my browser's cache, so I couldn't understand why they still all pointed to the wrong places!

 

https://www.x-com.co.uk now points to https://www.strategycore.co.uk/xcom,

https://www.ufoaftermath.co.uk now points to https://www.strategycore.co.uk/ufo and

https://www.s2hq.com now points to https://www.strategycore.co.uk/ss

 

I also learned some new stuff which I won;t be forgetting in a hurry, so my hour wasn't totally wasted banging my head against a brick wall

[Kernel]

I see your point on the top link being a drop-down though - not a bad idea at all.

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Oh GOD NO! Not a popup drop down menu!!! Those things are horrible!

[NKF]

About my only complaint so far is that I find myself scrolling horizontally a lot.

 

edit: And now having perused the forums, I must say that the black background is a lot harder on the eyes than the previous lighter background was. Could a lighter background theme set be made for those of us with bad eyes? Or perhaps tone the text brightness down slightly. It's mainly the bright whites that give me trouble. They almost appear to glow against the almost-black grey background. If you look at the forum header and footer, the whites there aren't as striking as the whites in the actual forum area.

 

- NKF

[Stun Grenade]

Nice work Pete!

 

I totally agree with NKF. I hate reading Zombie's long posts now becuase my eyes just get too sore! Probably the fact that it is a black background, that I can see reflections which kills me! Maybe have a lighter theme and/or a darker theme?

[Pete]

Hehe Kernel, I said "not a bad idea" but that's not the same as me actually doing it - at least not yet.

 

There's a lot of re-organisation that needs to be done with the main site menus and the forum layout here, so there's a fairly good chance that another solution will be found. Drop-downs are good when they work, but so many don't work on all browsers and take extra time to load.

 

NKF - some good points. Do you have to scroll across much on the forums as well as the main site? I know I fixed the width of the site to 1024x768, but forget what I did with the forums, sorry!

 

I'll look at tweaking the forum stylesheets, first my altering the font to match the main site (as that's a bit easier to read - could've sworn I'd already done it, oh well!) and if it's still a pain, let me know and I'll tweak the colours a bit as well.

 

Does anyone find the text on the main site hard to read, or is that a little easier with most of the other menus and things not being so dark?

[Stun Grenade]

The way we had it with x-com.co.uk was fine. Also, there was less scrolling on that forum too.

 

Editing to Say: Pete, you tweaked the fonts or something? Something looks a bit different...

[Pete]

The fonts have been tweaked a little, yes. Hopefully they're a little more legible now? Even I was starting to squint this morning, so I thought I'd best do something quick

 

EDIT: I've just changed the images at the top of the page slightly so that the whole page should fill the screen and resize if you make the window smaller.

 

This will eliminate and horizontal scrolling you may have found on the forums, and I'll sort out the main site to work the same shortly

[Stun Grenade]

Excellent work

 

Just one critisim, any chance of making post text 1 font size larger?

[Pete]

I can go one better as per a previous (NKF's?) suggestion and add another skin with larger font size, which you will be able to choose in your My Controls area, so members can choose between the two.

 

I'll add it to my list

[Pete]

Okay, BRACE YOURSELVES!!!

 

Check this page out now: https://www.strategycore.co.uk/forumtest/

 

Note - press Control+F5 once loaded to empty your browser's cache or it may not look as intended.

 

Thoughts?

[Hellb0und]

Looking good

[Slaughter]

Not sure I like the pictures added at the right side of the logo. Looks good, but it's too strong compared to the rest of the forum. Besides that, nice

[Stefan100]

I think it is very nice, good work!