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Designing a SR website

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burntheartist

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« Reply #15 on: <09-10-10/0057:44> »
I think the Escapist magazine's website has one of the better looks with art and how the content is laid out. Very modern, a lot of info, good balance with text and graphics.

As for content I dunno what'd need to be on a good fan site that isn't really out there on the SR4 site already.

Maybe offer to host some people's house rules. Do a weekly comment column. Host art for people. Do some bits on music and movies. A bit of theory on the setting. Maybe even boldly seek to build up some fan created settings and options.

Sounds cool tho'. Web / Graphic designer by trade here so any help needed on the front end of things give a shout.

John Schmidt

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« Reply #16 on: <09-14-10/0950:45> »
Thanks for the offer, I really do appreciate it.

Work on the website got completely derailed by RL work. Hope to get back to it ASAP though.

I am still mulling over the look of the site in my mind. That is one of those things that I really want to get right. There have been so many slick looking sites with the black/blue techno theme that I am really pretty certain that is something that I want to steer clear of. Right now, I am thinking grunge, urban decay, the barrens, that sort of theme.

Content...I have some odds and ends. Been thinking about rewriting a sourcebook on Salt Lake City, getting it up to speed with SR4. There is the UDI catalog, the license rules, and I started putting together a list of everyday stuff in excel (cost, weight, etc) it mushroomed to something like 300 items the last time I looked at it. So, that isn't a huge concern.
It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.

raben-aas

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« Reply #17 on: <09-14-10/1115:15> »
Do yourself a favor and look for what makes YOUR job to post content easy, first!

A lot of people devote a whole lot of time in developing the best looking SR site there is, and either got stuck in the process ("the new website will start soon, I promise (posted on: Oct 14th, 1876)") or discover that it is a pain in the a$$ to post a simple article.

The more work it requires to post something, the less frequent your posts will be. And a beautiful SR site wothout content is useless.

For me, WordPress works best. Sure, it's a blog system, and sure, the design is pretty generic if you don't go for paid access – but WordPress offers you a wider variety of styles, a lot of possibilities to post articles (even by e-mail or mobile) and also offers several tools to spread your content to RSS feeds, twitter, facebook etc.

AAS
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John Schmidt

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« Reply #18 on: <09-14-10/1132:28> »
I was planning on putting most of the content into PDF's. So I can't imagine that it was going to be a considerable problem to post it. Am I missing something?

Edit: The real problem is that I just got a deluged by RL work and I just watched all of my free time evaporate. Nothing like having your day start at 4 am and end at 10 pm.  ;D
« Last Edit: <09-14-10/1135:44> by John Schmidt »
It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.

PeterSmith

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« Reply #19 on: <09-15-10/1008:46> »
I was planning on putting most of the content into PDF's.

As in hosting the PDFs with nice looking link pages, or displaying the content stored within PDFs?
Power corrupts.
Absolute power is kinda neat.

"Peter Smith has the deadest of deadpans and a very sly smile, making talking to him a fun game of keeping up and slinging the next subtle zinger." - Jason M. Hardy, 3 August 2015

John Schmidt

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« Reply #20 on: <09-15-10/1023:06> »
Yes, hosting the PDF's hopefully with nice looking link pages.

Again, I am new to all of this. It does strike me that setting up the link pages with the material formatted in PDF's is far simpler than putting in all the HTML code. Am I wrong in this?
It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.

PeterSmith

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« Reply #21 on: <09-16-10/0952:47> »
Yes, hosting the PDF's hopefully with nice looking link pages.

Good.

Again, I am new to all of this. It does strike me that setting up the link pages with the material formatted in PDF's is far simpler than putting in all the HTML code. Am I wrong in this?

Well, it'll be easier but I don't think it'll be better. If you're hosting PDFs rather than putting the info contained therein up in HTML you may end up using more bandwidth (this assumes people don't save the info locally).
Power corrupts.
Absolute power is kinda neat.

"Peter Smith has the deadest of deadpans and a very sly smile, making talking to him a fun game of keeping up and slinging the next subtle zinger." - Jason M. Hardy, 3 August 2015

John Schmidt

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« Reply #22 on: <09-17-10/0642:12> »
I am not really sure that bandwidth is a concern. It would be hard to believe that my site would generate that much interest. Still, it is something worth considering.

PDFs seem like a better option since it alleviates the copy and paste work on the part of the user. That is skewed by my personal preferences, no doubt.
It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.

PeterSmith

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« Reply #23 on: <09-17-10/1157:42> »
I am not really sure that bandwidth is a concern. It would be hard to believe that my site would generate that much interest. Still, it is something worth considering.

Keeping bandwidth in mind is something that all good developers should do, both on their end as well as the user's end.

PDFs seem like a better option since it alleviates the copy and paste work on the part of the user. That is skewed by my personal preferences, no doubt.

Depending on how you want people to use your resource it's a good option. For me I prefer to have some of the data on the page itself, mainly the things I would think people would need to do fast lookups on a regular basis.
Power corrupts.
Absolute power is kinda neat.

"Peter Smith has the deadest of deadpans and a very sly smile, making talking to him a fun game of keeping up and slinging the next subtle zinger." - Jason M. Hardy, 3 August 2015

Krypter

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« Reply #24 on: <09-24-10/2253:20> »
Content is king. I've seen too many slick websites with almost nothing to read on them. You want both a cool look and some interesting articles, at least a dozen, or it will be a website people will visit once, say "Cool!" and never visit again. Plus regularly updated content, even if it's as simple as a blog post.

Keep the borders and menu medium-small, don't crowd the browser with gadgets and doodads hanging off everything. Slick can be subtle, with minimal graphic elements. Use Flash but is small amounts, not as the basis for the whole site, especially if Flash has to load more than 300kB of data. Think of how you want to structure the data in your website; there should be a simple taxonomy that any user can immediately see and interact with without having to go through complicated dropdows, scrolling menus or other nonsense. If navigation is difficult people won't bother searching for articles. Art should be in its own section, not displayed on every page; a lot of people don't care for it at all.

Do a prototype of the UI first in something like Fireworks and post a screenshot, and people can give you feedback before you invest weeks in doing the whole thing.
"Degrade first the arts if you'd mankind degrade,
Hire idiots to paint with cold light and hot shade."
-WB

John Schmidt

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« Reply #25 on: <09-27-10/1922:06> »
Good suggestions.  ;D
It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.