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.

I agree. The colours didn't work.

So, in increasing levels of messing about, which do you prefer?

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No icons

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Plain icons

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Icons in circles

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Icons in bubbles

I could go with 'No Icons'. I worry that they need to be 'exacting' to portray the information you want them to, and if someone interprets them differently they make the site less informational.

Icons add to the clutter, all the emojies (am I using that right?) at the start of threads, and now even games, is irritating me a little and I worry they will only get worse/more used/abused. But such is the way of the web. They are also very machine dependant as we can see in some of the screen shots where the same ones are displaying differently. It may be too late to do anything about that, the cat is out of the bag (which is bad since the internet runs on cats).

If we go with Icons, I think the 'Circles' or 'Bubbles' looks best, they are inverted colors otherwise and that looks a bit strange.

The Bubble might look a bit better than the Circles. But I don't want them to take up more space, space is precious.

Bubbles for everyone. That's my vote until I get old and grumpy, no offense.😅

Hey! I resemble that remark!

I like the Plain Icons the most, by far 😄 Or no icons

I do agree with vague about the site looking busy and I think the bubbles and circles are far worse in that regard. Plus, they're just ugly 😅

I think I'm partial to plain icons, although I don't mind any of them, if I'm honest. I've always had trouble deciding between somewhat small differences between designs. I'm a real joy to decorate a house with :P

Honestly I prefer the Bubble Icons, and not just because I seem to like to make things difficult. But I don't feel strongly so second vote is for regular icons.

I do like the big mess of stuff on the front page. Bringing those things might draw more eyes to the front and pave the way for a communication center (even if that is just "Games you're invited too").

1 - Plain Icons
2 - Bubbles
3 - None
4 - Circles

This is where I am at the moment (from discord chat)

New users:



But for new users:
* A direct link to the tavern under your games (kinda by accident - because it's in that section in the forums)
* A big "Join a game!" (like now, but hopefully the other changes will start to reduce the stale games).
* Links to public games, so people can get an idea of how PbP works.
* A section for admins to... umm.... admin with helpful things
* Slightly longer lists (5 items instead of 3) make it slightly more clear that stuff is going on.

The top right might become tips and separated out by whether users have games. Me? I’d start with Qralloq’s videos.

Established users. More game content.



Mobile users.

I see the reason for switching the position of "Public Games" but I'd still think it'd be better for that not to happen. But it's not a big deal and probably not a problem at all in practice. So it's fine.

The site looks great! I prefer this to the current front page. Not as sure about the mobile version but it's probably better than the current one as well.

Also, who allowed you to sneak into my Flesh and Steel game, adam 😱?

Lol. I try to have some realistic test data so I copy some bits from the site. We won’t really know much until it sees real games and forums. Code never survives first contact with the data.

It's finished anyway, but you're welcome in my next one 😉

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APPROVED

You're a hell of a dude @adam.

Everything looks great to me, especially the collapse / expand buttons on mobile.

Looks good from here as well. Excellent work.