I may be a pooka, but I have a nocker streak a mile wide.  Several things irk me about the site so I'm going to point them out - some of you folks may have ideas I haven't thought of.

1) Drupal is text oriented - TOO text oriented.

Humans are visual creatures.  Icons make a site more accessable.  Drupal doesn't use icons - it uses cascades of menus within menus within menus.  **I** have a hard time navigating through it all - I can imagine what new users feel like. This site has the potential to host a hell of a lot of content. I think the organization is ok but the presentation is lagging.

2) Content Voting

Drupal has a feature whereby users can vote content onto or off from the front page - sorta like slashdot.  Unlike the vbulletin rep system this item doesn't allow for comments to be left nor is any user told who voted for or against their post. It also doesn't keep a running tally for each users article count. I'd like to gather some information on how users feel on this (note that if an admin designates something as front page - it goes front page, period).

3) Gatherings

I think this is our niche folks - no site has this available elsewhere and if we can get it populated this is a major draw. So please, I'm asking everyone here, please submit conventions and gathering you find on the net. In the case of gameday's and the like please steer their organizers here to take advantage of the sign up mechanism built into the page. The more listings in this system the more powerful and useful it becomes.  It's a self feeding thing. Advertise it on other boards please - but do not break the posting rules of the boards you visit.

4)Tab organization
Any ideas on how this can be reoraganized?

Any other thoughts welcome.

What is the difference between "articles" and "news" and "collaborative works" etc. . .  I see a bunch of different things under "articles" (but mostly my SH) which is weird.

I think articles submitted by members should be limited to blog entries so they don't get confused with News articles.

As for the tabs, the order I suggest is: Home, Forums, News, Reviews, Gamer Blogs, Games, Collaborative Works, Gatherings.

Oh and call the "Games" tab "PbP Games" so it is clearer what it is.

Quote from: Pooka3) Gatherings

I think this is our niche folks - no site has this available elsewhere and if we can get it populated this is a major draw. So please, I'm asking everyone here, please submit conventions and gathering you find on the net. In the case of gameday's and the like please steer their organizers here to take advantage of the sign up mechanism built into the page. The more listings in this system the more powerful and useful it becomes.  It's a self feeding thing. Advertise it on other boards please - but do not break the posting rules of the boards you visit.

Personally, I'd like to see this function not only as a convention/game day database (which is useful and cool) but as a total gamer networking tool.  I mean I'm not exactly looking for anyone, but if it were set up that way I'd at least list my Buffy game there.  Might have someone in the area looking, or may get talking about other games, and so on.  I agree that once we get it populated that would be a major draw, especially if it turns into a great game finder.  The trick isn't so much to find games, but to find gamers.  IME gamers work in a social network and once enough of them get together they start a game up.  So once the game exists the problem has been solved.  Just saying I think we should list and search individual gamers and games as well as conventions.

As far as the organization, I would agree that it can be a bit confusing.  I managed to bugger up the story hour when I started it, putting it in the wrong place.  I'm still not sure where to go, I just find the story hour and click 'add page'.  I don't think I could reliably tell someone else how to get started with a story hour.  I think it's 'collaborative works', though I could be wrong.

On the tabs, I'd like to see a seperate tab for "Story Hour", with the story hours listed there.  I think its cool that when they're updated it shows up on the main page, but it would be a lot more intuitive if someone wanted to read, create, or update a Story Hour to click on the Story Hour button.

As long as we're talking, what are you looking for in reviews exactly?  New books only, or should everyone start submitting reviews of their favorite games and books they have sitting around.  I think this is a great site and like creating content for it, but don't want to provide something we aren't interested in.

Also, is there a way to edit or rearrange the books/pages?  When I started my story hour I just started with the first episode, then made the others child pages off that.  I'd rather have a page for the game in general, then each episode a child page.  I'd also like to insert a page with character summaries for all my PCs, and maybe even an NPC guide.  Is there a way for me to do that?

Quote from: MaddmanPersonally, I'd like to see this function not only as a convention/game day database (which is useful and cool) but as a total gamer networking tool.  I mean I'm not exactly looking for anyone, but if it were set up that way I'd at least list my Buffy game there.  Might have someone in the area looking, or may get talking about other games, and so on.  I agree that once we get it populated that would be a major draw, especially if it turns into a great game finder.  The trick isn't so much to find games, but to find gamers.  IME gamers work in a social network and once enough of them get together they start a game up.  So once the game exists the problem has been solved.  Just saying I think we should list and search individual gamers and games as well as conventions.

As far as the organization, I would agree that it can be a bit confusing.  I managed to bugger up the story hour when I started it, putting it in the wrong place.  I'm still not sure where to go, I just find the story hour and click 'add page'.  I don't think I could reliably tell someone else how to get started with a story hour.  I think it's 'collaborative works', though I could be wrong.

On the tabs, I'd like to see a seperate tab for "Story Hour", with the story hours listed there.  I think its cool that when they're updated it shows up on the main page, but it would be a lot more intuitive if someone wanted to read, create, or update a Story Hour to click on the Story Hour button.

As long as we're talking, what are you looking for in reviews exactly?  New books only, or should everyone start submitting reviews of their favorite games and books they have sitting around.  I think this is a great site and like creating content for it, but don't want to provide something we aren't interested in.

Also, is there a way to edit or rearrange the books/pages?  When I started my story hour I just started with the first episode, then made the others child pages off that.  I'd rather have a page for the game in general, then each episode a child page.  I'd also like to insert a page with character summaries for all my PCs, and maybe even an NPC guide.  Is there a way for me to do that?

at the moment, that kind of organization is difficult to deal with on your end. however, If you PM us with the name of the book that you wish to make (something like "maddmans story hour," or possibly more creative even) the we shall create a base page and migrate all of your work into a proper hierarchy for you.

we apologize for the difficulties inherent in this, but we will get it fixed at some later point.

Quote from: Thjalfiat the moment, that kind of organization is difficult to deal with on your end. however, If you PM us with the name of the book that you wish to make (something like "maddmans story hour," or possibly more creative even) the we shall create a base page and migrate all of your work into a proper hierarchy for you.

we apologize for the difficulties inherent in this, but we will get it fixed at some later point.

Thanks - and I understand.  This is a new thing and it'll take a little while to get the kinks worked out and get the dummies out there (ie, me) used to dealing with it.  I'll go ahead and write everything up and send it to you.

Thanks!

Quote from: MaddmanThanks - and I understand.  This is a new thing and it'll take a little while to get the kinks worked out and get the dummies out there (ie, me) used to dealing with it.  I'll go ahead and write everything up and send it to you.

Thanks!

We have a better suggestion - write it up at submit it as you normally would, then send us a PM. we will then do the different edits and organization required in order to turn it into something like the Aquerra Story hour.