Portal page update and questions.

[TheHolo.Net]

The portal page is up and close to fully functional. I still need to work out a few minor color issues with some sections. I am also trying to figure out a way to include a poster’s Avatar within the posts in the center “News” section, which brings me to another point I wanted to bring up.

The Center News section is related to a forum of our choosing here on SWFans. Currently I have it set to the Star Wars Films forum, but I am considering adding another forum, specifically devoted to the “News” feature. In a round about way, I have also made an initial contact with one of our posters, “Eve” formerly Darth Eve in regards to possibly helping us update such things as News articles. Does anyone else think this a good idea? How many "News Articles" should we list on the Portal page at a time if you do?

In the News Forum, I am considering making it so that posts must first be moderated before they can be allowed to actually be “posted”, and if Eve does decide to come on and help us out, I would also think that she could be the moderator of that forum along with all of our current staff. I wouldn’t want to make the job of moderating all those posts any harder than it already would be by only having a single individual moderate them.

My reasoning for wanting to moderate such posts before they become part of a thread are mainly due to the fact that the content on the Portal page links and is pulled directly from that forum and I wouldn’t want some non related topic making its way to our portal page.

You can have a look at our current portal page, which I still plan to add a few different features to in the side areas, such as a local weather section, a “Shoutbox”, and maybe even a top 10 posters section, but haven’t done at this point. The header section is also missing our logo/name currently because I used a pre-built style to layout what we have. The style is for those with lighter color background tastes, but all in all, I think that lighter colored tastes are more widespread than darker color tastes.

Currently you have to enter the full URL to actually get to the page, but all I need do, once it meets all of our approval and is completely ready, is remove the redirect script I have in that folder and the page will load when the URL www.swforums.net is input.

Here is the full URL of the portal page:

http://www.swforums.net/index.php

Another small issue that I plan to resolve and already know how is that the portal page is only currently viewable if you are using the Jedi style on the boards, and the portal page’s style itself cannot be changed, it’s a single style deal.

If anyone has any ideas or concerns, please let me know.

[Nupraptor]

Hmm..... It looks very nice. But I'm thinking that the news part doesn't seem very helpful or interesting.

[TheHolo.Net]

That is the point behind creating a News Forum and seeting up someone in charge of updating it. I know from past experiance that Eve used to hardcode such things into some of her ezboards and doing it by simply posting a topic here would be quite easy. And adding Avatars to the news articles, maybe even just random images from a specific directory would make it even more appealing to the eye.

[Nupraptor]

Yeah, that sounds about right. I get you now.

[TheHolo.Net]

I have added the My Weather block to one of the left side column and also have made it so that avatars display in the news articles/topics.

There are a few bugs with the My Weather module and Admins changing their personal settings making that locaton the default board setting, but I hope to be able to get that all worked out in the coming few days.

As I said earlier, the news topics are generated from a forum of our choosing, per a configuration file that can be easily modified by either Nup or I, since we have access to the host FTP. Though right now, Nup doesn't know which file I am talking about.

Administrators can look at the web based configurations for vbPortal by going to this page and logging in with current log in information:

http://www.swforums.net/admin.php

I am still of the opinion that a dedicated news forum, with moderated posts is the best way to go.

I am also going to do a little looking around tomorrow/later today for a random image javascript that I can use in place of the current avatar insertion. If we are going to be having a single individual doing the majority of the initial news posts, I think using some predefined random images for each news article/topic displayed on the portal page would look better than a repetitive avatar.

I will also be adding the shoutbox feature sometime soon.

EDIT: I got the errors in the Weather block fixed and added the shoutbox. :D (I will be looking into integrating a different version of the shoutbox that fully integrates all our smilies, if it gets released and if I can swing converting it into a vbPortal block. :))

[TheHolo.Net]

I am in the process of adding the Portal templates to all the current template sets so that the portal can be viewed from any style. It is too much work at this time to make each portal style correspond in any way with all the different styles and would not be entirely possible unless there were a separate template set for every style, which there are not. All the “Star Wars” styles (like 12) are based on one set of templates. The portal page will appear the same no matter which style you are using, though I am considering modifying the portal page templates for the text based styles so that it fits that style for our bandwidth impaired visitors, or those who just have a need for speed.

I have also taken the initiative to start formal discussions with Eve on the prospects of bringing her in to help with the news section, and possibly some graphical designs as well. The discussions have only just started, but I really do think she would be a great addition to the staff here and could help us make our forums and portal page a fun, interesting, and informative place to visit on a regular basis.

Now I’m back to work on making this all happen. I don’t think it will be completely ready by December 1st, to be part of our vBulletin board of the month consideration, but alas, maybe we can make the nominations another month in the future and have it an integrated part of our site then. =)

Edit: One fruitful thing that has come from the discussions with Eve thus far, is her suggestion to make a style based on the look and content of the Portal page itself, which I will also be working on completing before it is officially unvieled and becomes the default page when accessing www.swforums.net.

[Champion of the Force]

My head is hurting too much to read all that and take it in, but I've checked out the portal Ogre linked and it's pretty damn good. I like it a lot - especially the way in which it has the most recent posts displayed in the middle.

A 'News' forum sounds like a nice idea - it could probably go down in the General section with Communications and the FAQ forum. One query though - what exactly will go in it? If you've already explained it, sorry I must have been :x through it.

I also wouldn't mind seeing a theme based on the portal colours and layout.

So far i give it a good thumbs up. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I have been disussing the contents of the news forum with Eve and it loks like we plan to have Star Wars news compiled from varying sources, as the topics posted there. They will end up being what occupies the mddle of the Portal page. Tondry has also expressed an interest in writing editorials of some fashion for the news forum as well.

The style to match the portal page is pretty much completed, and allows a user to switch on or off a left column, which is pulled from the portal page. Currently I have the style set as non-selectable, but if you change that setting to yes instead of no in the style properties, you can see the style here:

http://www.swforums.net/forum/index.php?=s&styleid=30

There will still be an active topics link that lists all active topics, except those in this forum on the side column.

I was also thinking of placing the News forum in the General category. :)

[Champion of the Force]

:: applies theme ::

Wow - that looks excellent. :)

About the only thing I would complain about is the size of the font in the forum desciption etc. I prefer the standard size used in all the other themes.

Of course, it depends on how much you want to replicate the portal page. :)

EDIT: another problem - the buttons at the bottom of the posts differ. Things oike 'search' etc. use the standard vB buttons, but others like 'report' use another type, so they don't all match.

Do you want me to leave it available as a user option still, or turn it off?

[TheHolo.Net]

Go ahead and turn it off fpr now. As I mentioned, it is only pretty much complete. I still need to change a couple things, like the buttons you mentioned. Font sizes are a tiny bit tricky in it, because it uses the same CSS file to define them as the portal page does. Any changes I make in the font sizes, will affect both.

[Champion of the Force]

Ok, it's turned off now. :)

Pity about the fonts - the size makes the board look like an ikonboard. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

I just had an idea for a solution. :) Copy the CSS file and rename it and use one for the portal and one for the style, then I can change font sizes and not affect both. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I was able to fix the font sizes, but it only works when the left column is switched off. When switched on it draws from the portal CSS file, but at least topics are readable either way.