UOTM Version 6.0 - Wish List

Last edited by James LeMosy on November 23, 2007 • 6:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Hi all,

I am currently percolating the idea of doing a redesign of both the UOTM Web Site and the Message Board, to better integrate them into one, cohesive, all-inclusive site. I'm pretty certain about doing this, in fact.

Before I do, however, I want to get everybody's input. What would you like to see? What would you like to change? What would you not want to change? I want to make this version of the site the best it's ever been, and to do that, I need your help. Reply to this thread with your suggestions and comments about anything to do with the site--content, design, usability...anything!

At this point, I can't make any promises about when this new site will be ready. I want to get as much input from all of you as I can before I start working on this. I've already gotten a few ideas from some of you, and I have ideas of my own, of course...but let me hear what you all think!

EDIT: Removed reference to a possible release date...not ready to make any guesses yet. :)
Wow... and you still have not gotten around to completing all the section of the 'new' main website yet. Oh well, you can't keep a good man tied down I guess.

so what do you mean when you say you want to integrate the website and board as one? do you want to nest the PHPBB withing the website or something?

I think it is a good idea... but always remember that you don't want to give people more clicks to click to get to essentially the same thing... that's my general rule of tumb when making something better.

I loved the music player... I thought that was a great idea... but having the SFX play at the same time was a not so good idea. I think you should keep the colour scheme, it's been a favourite for a long time now... maybe add a chatroom... but something that's not too hard to get to, like somethign integrated into the forum structure so if you are online and happen to see omeone else you can just pop in.

I will have a think about this.

-Cub. =o)
Cubase wrote:Wow... and you still have not gotten around to completing all the section of the 'new' main website yet.
That's all part of the plan, Cub. ;) Part of this redesign will be making things much, much easier for me (and hopefully everyone) to add things and update. The big focus in my mind is enhancing the fact that the entire site, not just the message board, can and should be a Community-centric endeavor.
Cubase wrote:so what do you mean when you say you want to integrate the website and board as one? do you want to nest the PHPBB withing the website or something?

I think it is a good idea... but always remember that you don't want to give people more clicks to click to get to essentially the same thing... that's my general rule of tumb when making something better.
I want to make the Message Board an actual part of the website, sharing a uniform design and layout, rather than the sort of separate entity it is now. I will keep it as easily accessable as it is right now, though.
Cubase wrote:maybe add a chatroom... but something that's not too hard to get to, like somethign integrated into the forum structure so if you are online and happen to see omeone else you can just pop in.
Chatrooms as a separate entity I think often doesn't work but having it as part of the forum structure like you say is a good idea and when its done like that I've seen the chatrooms more often used. The type of 'chats' I see integrated with websites/forums are usually tag-based stuff like shoutbox I've seen it done on a few forums but this is just one:
http://baltosource.timduru.org/board/index.php

As you can see at the middle top under the banner/navigation buttons (its small but maybe you can make it more apparent) there's a black Shoutbox link, it shows the last message that was posted (upon every manual refresh of the page). Clicking the link takes you to another page with a box for chats (that auto-refreshes), it uses the same account as the forum and the forum uses phpbb so I guess this is something that could be compatible with the forums here since you use the same script.
(Ruri_Ayanami from the old Tex Murphy ezboard).
"I don't believe in intuition, don't know why... just a feeling." - Tex Murphy
Please don't change the white text on black background - it's very comfortable on the eyes imho. Besides that I have no specific wishes.

-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
Fred Buer wrote:Please don't change the white text on black background - it's very comfortable on the eyes imho. Besides that I have no specific wishes.

-Fred
I'll second that. I loved the music thing, so I wouldn't bring that down either.

I like the idea of a chatroom, and all ... I think it would be cool to corner a few of you in the chatroom, and barrage you with some MTM kindness. I don't know how all the technology works, but I prefer the Java type real time stuff, ala AOL, but if that isn't possible, or not desirable or applicable to the people here, then I'd take any kind of chat room.

Oh, and please ... I would like a "lower Cub and JimTOG's post count by one" button. Give us all a fighting chance! Honestly, that would be cool even as a novelty button. You could deceptively have an ad pop up when you click the button. *evil laugh*
I'm not fat ... I'm festively plump.
TOG appreciates ALL you have done and are willing to do. All I ask is: if I need help trying to figure out what is going on, then please help me! Old people are kind of dangerous when let loose on the unsuspecting. Thought you might like to know that.
"If you look to me for illumination, you better have a flashlight!"
Will the new design use Flash or PHP? or both? Cause the existing flash site takes time to load content up sometimes. Though it scores an A++ for content quality.. I was impressed when I first saw the flash site a few years back, pitty I was on 56k back than so it took AGES to load. But my compliments to the Designer cause it looks great.
With regard to laoding times, is the content externally loaded in or is all the pictures/text/movies etc. embedded into the Flash file? If it was streamed in and externally loaded that would help with loading issues as it would work the same as a PHP page that externally loads/streams stuff from a database and that would also allow the visual animated style to remain.
(Ruri_Ayanami from the old Tex Murphy ezboard).
"I don't believe in intuition, don't know why... just a feeling." - Tex Murphy
I love this board, so anything extra will be gravy.
Sai wrote:With regard to laoding times, is the content externally loaded in or is all the pictures/text/movies etc. embedded into the Flash file? If it was streamed in and externally loaded that would help with loading issues as it would work the same as a PHP page that externally loads/streams stuff from a database and that would also allow the visual animated style to remain.
Okay, this paragraph should be labeled with a "Must be a techno-wizard to understand" caution sticker. It may be the champagne talking ... but ... hoo boy ... God do I feel stupid.
I'm not fat ... I'm festively plump.
Don't change manythings, it's very good like that!
I like it the way it is, but then I liked the old board and loved the change. And I loved the tex is born clip you did. And, well, I guess you've done alright so far, so go with your gut instinct.
Um...I agree with everyone so far that a favorite addition would be an integrated chat room.

I guess it'd be cool if it were at one stop shop for all things Tex too. Like a place where we could link interviews, articles, memorabila, the old Ask Aaron section. Pictures of the guys, Matt's music, Plan 10, (if there's not copyright infringement issues). There's tons off stuff sequestered on our hard drives (Cub's especially I imagine), it'd be nice to have it centrally located...instead of digging through page after page of threads trying to find it.

I'm not a web master, so I don't know the feasiblity of any of it. But that'd be my $.02.

But I've not a complaint about the old setup. :D
It'd be pretty easy to write a PHP/SQL system where user-supplied data could be stored. James if you need help with this let me know, although I'm sure you have things well in hand.