Free Allegiance Forums

Spunkmeyer wrote:QUOTE (Spunkmeyer @ Aug 5 2012, 11:19 AM) I somewhat disagree. I agree with your bullet points that follow, however the new design also has its issues. The "sci-fi" header font is seriously unreadable. It also manages to be even more text-heavy than the current page: when I get to the current page I instantly get a good quick overview of what the game is. With the new page, I have to click on the overview button and run into a wall-of-text. Finally the color scheme of the new page, while may be more space-oriented, is a lot more common and doesn't stand out as much as the current one.

(I've already voiced most of this to SpaceJunk when he first produced the design, but from his "$#@! off" response back then I figure he is not interested in producing variations.)

All that IMHO of course, and is not why the new design was not implemented/considered. That's probably more to do with TE not having time for anything. But I just don't see it as much of a design improvement over the current one, SEO issues aside.

I don't see much of a problem with the overview since it is on a separate page. Ideally a good slideshow is what would give the quick overview of what the game is. I do prefer the new color scheme personally, partially because the forums are blue. It is just such a huge change going between the current page and the forums. If the forums matched the current page it would not be as big of a deal.

The big advantages though of that page are:
Multiple pages - It would be good to have more information accessible from the home page and it will help us greatly with SEO.News/blogs - I like how news is implemented, again assuming Google sees it. I do not really care for blogs on the front page. However, Google does prefer fresh content so it helps SEO. We should try to avoid a static homepage and listing blogs (assuming we have some active ones...) helps it stay fresh.Slideshow - Debatable, but I generally prefer slideshows on a homepage over a video. Video is best on a separate page like it is with the new design.

The one I uploaded to http://alleg.franontanaya.com was just a scratch barely thrown together. There was no point in putting work in it because we never had a formal committee with the knowledge and capability to approve or reject a design, nor an executive side to just mandate it.

I'm transferring ownership of the @freeallegiance.org domain to a Google Apps account.

It wouldn't be hard to also transfer the homepage/graphics to Google Sites within that account. This could allow any ZL to update the content on those pages and view analytics for it.
Some of those pages can be news pages, marketing pages, and other stuff. Any user with an apps account (ZLs and perhaps other productive volunteers) can update the content.

--TE

Tigereye wrote:QUOTE (Tigereye @ Aug 8 2012, 12:47 AM) I'm transferring ownership of the @freeallegiance.org domain to a Google Apps account.

It wouldn't be hard to also transfer the homepage/graphics to Google Sites within that account. This could allow any ZL to update the content on those pages and view analytics for it.
Some of those pages can be news pages, marketing pages, and other stuff. Any user with an apps account (ZLs and perhaps other productive volunteers) can update the content.

--TE

Google sites is mostly for a small business/group intranet or for people who don't have any clue how to make a webpage.

Just install Wordpress, very easy and takes less than 10 minutes. It also takes very little time to convert a design into a Wordpress theme, but that requires some knowledge of Wordpress themes. You can easily create individual user accounts with different permissions.

I am not familiar enough with other CMS platforms, but I doubt they take much more effort to install. I specialized in Wordpress as it has become the most popular CMS, is very easy to use, has tons of great plugins available, and is powerful enough to handle just about anything.

Forgive me for posting out of Off-Topic, but i was just wondering if there was any real traction on a Steam re-release? I know there are potential issues with Microsoft, but nothing a little legal assistance (pro-bono of course) couldnt handle. A Steam release is a lot easier to do than you think, and (assuming free) would flood 20-30k new people in the first week of release easy (also assuming steam advertisement).

I was a part of a very small group of people playing the beta for Wanderlust: Rebirth, this PC fantasy RPG game, months before it was released on Steam. I got to see just how incredible the Steam Bump is to a tiny gaming community first hand. They only had to host a master server list for multiplayer though, and each server was hosted privately and maxed out a 4, but we can definitely revamp private server hosting software to make it easy to host a 8x8 or 7x7 game on a private connection.

I think we have already applied to and got denied by Steam.

I'll volunteer to help market allegiance. What should I do?

Also, what is the facebook page? I found one and it only has 2 likes. Is that it?

Spunkmeyer wrote:QUOTE (Spunkmeyer @ Aug 12 2012, 03:55 PM) I think we have already applied to and got denied by Steam.

We have? I've never heard of this. I don't think so

I'm bad with people

LA_Cajun wrote:QUOTE (LA_Cajun @ Aug 12 2012, 05:00 PM) I'll volunteer to help market allegiance. What should I do?

Also, what is the facebook page? I found one and it only has 2 likes. Is that it?

Sounds right.