New SPF HC/SC Ladder Website. Questions?

[PapaBearNZ]

New SPF HC/SC Ladder Website. Questions?

Ok. I've been studying the code for the old website for the last few days now and I'm pretty sure that what would be best is a complete rewrite.

The original site is very good, but it's all written with Frontpage and utilises frontpage extensions. I don't have frontpage nor does my ISP offer frontpage extensions so I will need to do a complete rebuild to host it on my ISP.

What I wanted to know is will people be very upset if the design and layout of the site changes?
- If so please offer comments as to what you like about the current site and why.
- If not, please offer some ideas that you might like to see in a new site.

Also - my graphic design skills are not award winning. If there is anyone out there in the SPF that would like to contribute some graphics for the replacement site I would be most appreciative - otherwise I'm just going to leech the existing graphics off the site as it stands.

Replacement Site Comments:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Database replaced with MySQL back end instead of text files. Users have all current functionality available.
* Site code rewritten with Dynamic code and CSS.
* User login added allowing dynamic menu options.
* Users can add their own new characters. This will be on a trust basis initially but may be moderated if required.
* Suggestions and comments page added for contact with site maintainer.

Possible additions to site:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Avatars allowed for chars.
* Ability to add Giveaway lists for registered users with mailto: links if required (links will be held in the database and custom email form used within site to avoid bot's trawling user email addresses).
* "Their Deeds of Valour Shall Be Remembered" Memorial page to fallen comrades.



If anyone has any extra comments, etc please either post here, pm me or email me

[email protected]

PapaBear

(ps Moderators: do you want to sticky this thread while the new site is being developed or link it to the faq?)

 

[corax1]

sounds pretty good. i got abit confused :scratch: being as much of a nub at pc's as mil is at PvP(kidding).. hmm where did i put voltans ears?

I dont think tar's are really required for characters although it could be helpful if you know people by their tars more then their forum name.
:thumbsup: anyway im off to hide from mil

 

[AlterEgo]

Thanks for taking on this project PapaBear :thumbsup:

I like your idea of members adding their own characters. We can trust each other on this! I hope you would keep character ladders, as well as an overall ladder available.

I'm not sure about stickying this thread, but how about if I drop a note into each ladder thread for comments. If you don't get much response, I'll work with you to get this done - via this thread, PM or email [email protected].

 

[PapaBearNZ]

Cheers AE! I'll keep your email on file for future reference. I hope to have a sample replacement site up soon for comment. I've been working on the code for the site today.

Additional:
I'll definitely be keeping the full HC and SC ladders as well as the breakdown ladders by classes. I'm also going to keep a separate page for the fallen HC characters.

Question: Is the Septivarate still going? Do members still want me to keep these characters defined seperately?

PapaBear

 

[tenaka]

Yes the Spet is always going. I'm sure there are probably people who started and have dropped off from it but there are new ones every now and then too. I just keep getting sidetracked by tournaments so I haven't gotten far lately. Personally I like the extra field noting sept chars.

 

[DurfBarian]

I have nothing to add except to say that FrontPage should be killed with an axe.

Are you writing from scratch, or going with some kind of CMS and tweaking it yourself? Would something like Geeklog be a good way to go?

 

[DX-Crawler]

I like the ideas. The thing with an Avatar to your character seems nice. And nice with a place for the fallen friends who have died trying to kill the three.

Keep up your good work

DX

 

[salvo]

I can help nothing but, Thankyou for handling the ladder website Papabearz, very appreciated

 

[Borlag]

The FrontPage extensions used are pretty much only for the mouseover effects which is very easy to change. The graphics used for the buttons are simply from one of the pre-made themes in FP, as I'm no graphics wiz either, infact I'd be willing to bet there's no one who'd do a worse job than me in graphics.

* Database replaced with MySQL back end instead of text files. Users have all current functionality available.

This is what we talked about already and while it doesnt' really add any functionality directly, it'll help you understand better how the system works, this basically means that it's all good

* Site code rewritten with Dynamic code and CSS.
* User login added allowing dynamic menu options.
* Users can add their own new characters. This will be on a trust basis initially but may be moderated if required.
* Suggestions and comments page added for contact with site maintainer.

All good to me

Possible additions to site:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Avatars allowed for chars.
* Ability to add Giveaway lists for registered users with mailto: links if required (links will be held in the database and custom email form used within site to avoid bot's trawling user email addresses).
* "Their Deeds of Valour Shall Be Remembered" Memorial page to fallen comrades.

I think the avatar and giveaway parts might be maybe too much for the site, avatars possibly slowing it down and the giveaway taking away from the SP forums. Thus I feel it'd be best to keep all those here, even though it'd be for ladder only there, and that way easier to find.

When the ladder site was originally brought up, there was the news section which had the news items for every deceased character, it didn't really take that long for it to be clogged with all the new characters in that list, so I chose not to continue updating it with every death. Partly due to my own laziness, that also meant not posting about new guardians either which is a shame. Perhaps with the new site, it'd be good to add a page for the guardians where we'd have all stats and equipment listed, along with the story if any. Those could of course be taken straight from the forums (while still leaving any and all conversation and congratulating to the forums, thus not "stealing" users from the forums, just having them archived there).

 

[farting bob]

I think 'tars would be good, and also adding your own characters, but maybe have some sort of thing so when a character is added, it starts with a * by there name, until a admin accepts the character. So you'd be able tosee the new characters. If this is checked regularly then it should be obvious if someone adds a high lvl character, as they wil lbe the only high lvl one with a *, thus under suspicion.
Oh, and no giveawy, because we already have a thread for those, and it'll jut complicate things.
Maybe a small members profile, with just forum name, real name, location, other characters and other stuff that the user my edit themselves. It wont takeup much space / bandwidth, as long as you dont have large images for each member as well.

 

[Quicksilver1]

I'd go for a new site, if you feel its best :thumbsup:

I'd like to take part in the HC Ladder again, but I'd prefer to be able to make my own updates rather than posting in the thread all the time. And since the current system doesn't accept user-updates due to an error thats crept up somewhere, I've not bothered with it.

 

[AlterEgo]

I agree with others that giveaways should remain here. If a ladder player wants to restrict a giveaway to ladder players, they can do that already.

 

[crazy_bear]

It all sounds great to me, so I don't really have anything to add for new input to the site, but I'd like to say thanks again to PapaBearNZ for taking this on!

Thanks! :clap:

 

[Borlag]

And the FTP for the existing site works again, Elly contacted me with the new login information. As for the update problem, it still exists however now it might be possible that we get it fixed too...

Anyway, since PapaBear has already propably started to work on the new site, it'd be a shame to throw that work away, especially seeing that the site I put up isn't graphically that appealing, just something I did in a very short time (like most remember).

Anyway, now that the login works again, I'll contact PapaBear with the info, so that he can use that space again, along with the up-to-date information to the point of the last working character update.

 

[PapaBearNZ]

OK - so it seems the consensus is for no giveaway site. Cool... I'll drop the work on that section then. A profile is not a huge thing to add. Some of that information will be already included as part of the user login anyway so adding a small section to store extra user-provided information is no biggie. Something along the lines of a "bio" option or similar.

@Borlag: Good to hear the FTP is working again. Once I get the new userid and passwd from you I'll have a look. Do you know if the host has MySQl or PostgreSQL or similar available? If so - great! If not I can easily rework my new code to deal with text files or perhaps XML files.

I've modified the look and feel a little. I've kept the banner and the buttons but implemented a new menu on the LHS and have used DIV's to try to simplify the layout somewhat. I'm glad the FTP is back up because there are some relative url's in the code you gave me that point to files I don't have access to.

I'm still happy to host the site - but also just as happy to return the site to its rightful location

I will bow to the better judgement of the forum on this account

PapaBear

 

[PapaBearNZ]

When the ladder site was originally brought up, there was the news section which had the news items for every deceased character, it didn't really take that long for it to be clogged with all the new characters in that list, so I chose not to continue updating it with every death. Partly due to my own laziness, that also meant not posting about new guardians either which is a shame. Perhaps with the new site, it'd be good to add a page for the guardians where we'd have all stats and equipment listed, along with the story if any. Those could of course be taken straight from the forums (while still leaving any and all conversation and congratulating to the forums, thus not "stealing" users from the forums, just having them archived there).

Ahh - I was wondering what the story was with the News section. No problem there. Changing that section to be a Guardians Honour-board would be easy. I could build a feature into the site which would email the maintainer whenever a user updated their character to Guardian status. This would prompt the maintainer to check the forum for the announcement and link or c/p the information.

As far as the Memorium page is concerned - my source for that idea was from the purediablo.com HC Graveyard (which hasn't been updated I think since Jesus played fullback for the Israelites!). I was thinking because the ladder is relatively limited in usage at this stage I could trial hosting a similar thing with the option of a "death scene" screen capture or somesuch.

I'm just brainstorming some ideas here.

PapaBear

 

[Randall]

Replacement Site Comments:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Database replaced with MySQL back end instead of text files. Users have all current functionality available.
* User login added allowing dynamic menu options.
* Users can add their own new characters. This will be on a trust basis initially but may be moderated if required.

Nice to see somebody is taking over the site.

I helped Borlag with the oriniginal php scripts for the ladders. My php skills are very limited, but if you have any question about the "old" php stuff, just ask. I actually implemented the adding own users, but at that time it was not wished for.

I do very little with the ladder nowadays, but the things you propose all look like good progress to me.

Randall

 

[PapaBearNZ]

Nice to see somebody is taking over the site.

I helped Borlag with the oriniginal php scripts for the ladders. My php skills are very limited, but if you have any question about the "old" php stuff, just ask. I actually implemented the adding own users, but at that time it was not wished for.

I do very little with the ladder nowadays, but the things you propose all look like good progress to me.

Randall

Thanx Randall. I appreciate the help. I'll definitely get in touch with you for some guidelines to interpreting the existing stuff.

PapaBear