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Message Board > Site bugs/ideas > What next

November 10, 2005, 04:17
Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac
703 posts

The things I'm working on at the moment are the resource galleries - like the game galleries but for graphics and sounds.

But after those are done, what do we feel is important to get in place next?

There's galleries for utilites and code snippets and so on, there's the worklogs, the groups thing...

Oh and we were thinking about some kind of knowledge base would be a good idea. Now whether this would just be the article list, with lots of articles that link to each other, or whether this is some kind of huge FAQ section with user-submitted, categorised questions and answers, or whether this it will be some kind of streamlined wiki system, we're not sure. But quality content is what will draw people here, right?

Oh there's also the links page, the front page (where all the latest stuff is shown), the mailing list module for spamming ex-div'ers, I thought RSS feeds would be nice, user of the month, and probably lots of other stuff I've forgotten about.
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November 10, 2005, 13:56
Rincewind
programmer
1545 posts

Quote:
But after those are done, what do we feel is important to get in place next?

Hm, I'd really like a nice article system to be next! That's because I still have lots of good tutorials here from the old PC-Creation site, and I can add those as soon there's a good system (and a way to fill out the author if it's not you).

Quote:
Oh there's also the links page, the front page (where all the latest stuff is n), the mailing list module for spamming ex-div'ers, I thought RSS feeds would be nice, user of the month, and probably lots of other stuff I've forgotten about.


Meh, please no user of the month !. I think it's a bit too cheesy. Though game and article of the month are fine! Or a newest member thing.
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Personal website: http://www.loijson.com
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November 10, 2005, 15:08
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

Nice article system?

Can I please ask what is wrong with what we have, what you would like changing/adding etc.
I can't make it "nice" if you don't tell me what constitutes "nice".
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laffo
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November 10, 2005, 15:49
Rincewind
programmer
1545 posts

Sorry Ferret, I didn't try to imply the current article module is not nice. But perhaps more of a system could be implented in it.

I am not too sure about 'tutorials' and 'articles' going together under the name 'articles'. Ofcourse now it's the way gamedev has done it, but gamedev's system isn't perfect at all. A real article is like what Pilot wrote (describe something and maybe even give your opinion). A tutorial teaches you a specific skill.

Maybe we could have 3 categories. Tutorials, articles and walkthroughs? Ofcourse it would become a bit messy to have all this in the menu, so maybe we can have a little index page like the one you see when you press the 'games' button.

With 'walkthroughs' I mean long tutorials that teach you for example how to program your first game in a specific language, or a walkthrough that teaches you how you can set up fenix so it becomes fully ready for usage.

Maybe we also should have a fourth category, with command lists for languages (like the command docs on Flamingbird).

[Edited on November 10, 2005 by Rincewind]
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Personal website: http://www.loijson.com
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November 10, 2005, 15:56
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

Elaborate, I don't understand exactly what you are proposing and how it is different from what we have.

[Edited on November 10, 2005 by Fiona]
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laffo
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November 10, 2005, 16:04
PEader
お前はもう死んでいる
1486 posts

Div-arena had command documentation?
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I see 57,005 people.
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November 10, 2005, 16:05
Rincewind
programmer
1545 posts

omfg I can't believe I said that. I mean Flamingbird! Wait I'll elaborate.
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Personal website: http://www.loijson.com
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November 10, 2005, 16:08
Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac
703 posts

I think the article page is good at the moment, but I think we need to change the way the categories are done. For starters I think its going to be better to store them as rows in a database table. Also I think the categories should be nested. So we can separate them into tutorials and articles, then separate the tutorials down into what they're about, and so on. I think the user should be able to search for articles. I think the articles should link to one another (eg, "see also: blah").
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November 10, 2005, 16:34
Rincewind
programmer
1545 posts

Frimkron just pretty much elaborated with the nesting thing what I meant. What I can add to that is that we could maybe have an index-page for the different categories like this one. But then with small descriptions.
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Personal website: http://www.loijson.com
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November 10, 2005, 16:48
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

I'll see what my mind can conjure.
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laffo
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November 10, 2005, 17:05
Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac
703 posts

Also, a some new bbcode tags might be a nice idea for formatting articles. Stuff like an image box tag, which lets you specify an image, a caption and a float direction - much like the wiki you started. A general side box tag might be good too - for stuff like "Fun Fact!" or "Top Tip!" - you know - stuff off to the side in a lil' box seperate from the main body of text. Tags for doing tables - that's another idea. Or lists - you know - stuff like that.

[Edited on November 10, 2005 by Frimkron]
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November 10, 2005, 17:06
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

Examples and details?
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laffo
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November 10, 2005, 17:14
Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac
703 posts

Come on - you know what I mean.

Ok image box:
Code:
[imgbox float=left caption=A picture of some fecial
 matter]http://www.feces.com/images/dung_pile.jpg[/imgbox]

That would produce a box with a picture of some dung in it - with a nice frame and a caption underneith it.

Info box:
Code:
[infobox float=right 
title=3 Things you Always Wanted to Know About Mammals 
but were Afraid to Ask]
#1 They don't lay eggs. 
#2 They have milk. 
#3 They are warm blooded.[/infobox]

That would produce a similar framed box over to the right with a title and some text.

You may decide that its easiest to make these 2 tags one and the same actually. Infact just a tag that makes a floated box would do, really.

[Edited on November 10, 2005 by Frimkron]
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November 11, 2005, 06:35
Woody
HEAD BLACK MAN
722 posts

FCKeditor
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boredome is the bitter fruit of too much routine
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November 11, 2005, 10:23
PEader
お前はもう死んでいる
1486 posts

Quoting Frimkron:
I think the articles should link to one another (eg, "see also: blah").

That would be where an overall editor would be needed to ensure that new articles link to the relevant old ones and the old ones link to the relevant new ones.
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I see 57,005 people.
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November 11, 2005, 14:48
Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac
703 posts

FCKeditor is very impressive... its a bit sluggish on my (admittedly ancient) machine though. I assume it uses html? Maybe we should simpl just allow html for articles then?
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November 11, 2005, 15:06
Woody
HEAD BLACK MAN
722 posts

Why not both? FCKeditor just outputs HTML.
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boredome is the bitter fruit of too much routine
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November 16, 2005, 15:45
Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac
703 posts

Multiple parts to the same article would be nice too. See Gamasutra or Gamedev.

Ok wiki wiki wiki wiki. I think it would be cool. Like a mini-wiki. Split into a glossary section and an FAQ section. We could have short, concise definitions of terms and short answers to frequently asked questions - each linking to helpful sites or articles here or whatever. We could have a bbcode tag for the forum that links you to the wiki page for that word - like [[Java]] or something. Or [wiki]Java[/wiki]

The question is, would we be bothered to maintain it? What about if page edits had to be approved first or something.
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Message Board > Site bugs/ideas > What next

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