Homepage changes

Can we talk about homepage content?



The system knows some things about the user. It knows if you're in any games (and the systems), how long you've been a member, where you've posted.

The right-hand side (latest game posts) only makes sense if you have games. If you don't it could be used for public game posts and the latest advertised games with tavern links.

The "your games" is too small. I don't play anything like as many as you guys, but even I need more than 3.

Anyway... most of those lists need more than 3 items.

I think the top could be split into two equal sections. Site announcements and community announcements. Community announcements would be populated by admins in a community announcements forum (like announcements) - it could promote things like Qralloq's videos or new guides or .... whatever... I'm sure the admins always have something to talk about.

Dunno - what do you think we should have on there to make the homepage a useful dashboard?

I definitelsy like the "Latest Public Games Posts" idea (surprising, I know). If that was on the front page, I would probably use the time when I just F5 to read public games instead.

Your games being expanded: Yes, 100%! I love that feature, except, it features way too few games (plus, maybe add a link to the My Games page, just like the forums have an "All latest X posts" link".

Site announcements and community announcements: What's the difference between those?
Also, who would be able to edit those? No shade on Keleth but I think those would need to be updated very regularly so maybe if the mods had access to that, it would help to always keep it fresh and relevant.

Yes - community announcements is really "admin announcements" because you're the community leaders and I know you'll keep it fresh.

What is the purpose of the Your Games block? There is a Games dropdown right above it that shows us four games!

We can may move the Latest Games block to next to the Announcement, it is sorta the an 'announcement' of new games.

I approve of the Latest Public Game Post addition.

Those three lists can be longer and scroll off the page. We can revisit that if it becomes a problem with mobile repositioning.

Man, looks like y'all are changing things in real time?

Food for thought:

That's some tasty food. My thought approves

It's very close to what we have already, really.

Suggestion for @Adam -- with the live / real-time changes to the home page going on right now, could we put something in the announcement area that says users can expect to see things shifting around a little? New colors, icons, layout, etc.?

I have no idea what you mean by live changes. I can’t do that even if I wanted to.

You’ve suggested that keleth and admin announcements be merged. Whilst I like the idea of the admins having an area I think we need both. We shouldn’t steal the gaffer’s space!

Can the admins create a subforum under general that only they can create threads in (ie the way that announcements works - people can reply, but not create threads and the contents of the top box will be on the homepage)?

Not sure what to call it. That’s up to the admins. Community News?

Basically I’d need a forum id, so it needs creating first.

RE Live Changes -- no? I thought I saw the layout move yesterday while we were talking about things. My bad, ignore me!

On the owner / admin announcements, yes, yes I am suggesting that. I think it's important to keep the contents of that banner topical and dynamic. Don't want to so much steal the gaffer's space as ask the gaffer if he'll share it. He would also have an override or what have you.

Here's some experimenting I've been doing:



And for new users:

And so that little pane that says "Games Looking for Players" -- that's where I'd love to see the game get top billing, not a post within the game. Click the link, it takes you to the game which has a front page describing the game, maybe a picture, a link to the game properties, the GM, the players / cast, the game forum, maybe a way to PM the GM directly.

How much of this homepage change will be affected by the flex change?

Notes:
Not mad about the colours on the icons.

The announcements are minimizable and it remembers that for the device, but they automatically reopen if the content changes.

Public posts shown for new user. For users with games I'm thinking of putting a few public posts under latest games.

Under those three columns will be a list of all your games.

I'm trying to stick to the core design DNA of the site (and I think that shows) whilst moving things around a bit and making some lists bigger.

We might need to see it with real data.

I think we'll be fine.

Now that's what I'm talking about! Me likey.

Cheers. So down the bottom, I'm thinking of adding the games list in columns:



...basically taking the data from here:

Just skimmed this and looked at pretty pictures.

I don't like the colors. The all-orange one looks nice

Agreed. I don't like the colors.

They are too busy and don't fit with the aesthetic of the rest of the site.

I know it was mentioned somewhere else as well, but could we cut the month letters down to first three? There are weird users with 10+ letters in their names. And maybe show each game's system as well? I know @adam won't need that of course 😜, but it could be nice. Not a hard necessity.