Ok, so I know that I've been rather on the quiet side lately, but there's a reason for that.

I've spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to make things around here more appealing, and after a few talks with folks, I have started mapping some actions out.

To start!

The Portal.

To me, the portal is nothing like what its' name suggests; let alone you have to essentially guess where it is and hope that you get the front page. 'What's New' does not exactly scream 'THIS IS OUR PORTAL/HOME PAGE CHECK IT OUT', and I feel we need to fix that. To that end, I have started to put together a portal page that is a bit more in tune (rather than old old articles and polls and recent posts) with what happens here. Sections that are blurbs for Daily Character Spotlights, RPers of the month, forum events (to be explained later), and yes, a spot for recent posts that is shored up a small bit.

This is very incomplete, but it's still a start imo, and right now we need a start.





Just like we used to have back in the day, it's time we brought the counter back. And with Ep 7 on its' way, I can think of no better reason.

As you can see the main center section would be a small blurb about the site, and maybe a nod to its' history.

The boxes for SW RP and General RP would send folks straight to those particular subforums, so that they can get an immediate look at the RP that happens here. According the proposed portal page, the SW and General verses would have a defining line between them, and there would be a separation between the two. You can still go to the overall forums that would have everything, but from the portal page the lines would be far less blurred, which in my opinion would greatly help with first impressions for folks giving us a gander for the first time.

Below those two links would be the section for articles and possibly even blog entries.

Left Column:
  • Kale brought up a very good notion I thought, in integrating member created music to pages, and it got me thinking about the old 2advanced pages that had both ambient and cinematic style music that you could play, so I added in a music player that would allow visitors to have a choice on whether they would like to play music on the site or not.
  • The Forum Events section would highlight a boardwide event that would be taking place that isn't long, yet would allow all members who wish to participate the chance to do so. The Vangaurds series would be a good example I think, and any sort of MU or WoD event would certainly be able to be featured as well.
  • The Daily Spotlight functions as a sort of character of the month, but on a - you guessed it - daily basis. If we can get a code that randomizes member characters and swaps out their avatar each day that, when clicked on, sends someone to that character's wiki page, I thought that something of that nature would be pretty awesome to have.
  • Of course we would still have RP of the Month, and would still cast votes etc in the planning forums, so that would not change; only showcase the winners on the portal for all to see.
  • Jace's map is something I feel needs to be offered, since it is so well done and useful. I added it on a sidebar section, but it can also be easily moved to the upper main navbar, which might be better.


Right Column
  • Recent posts. Self Explanatory.
  • Polls for whatever recent polls were made.
  • Affiliate list. This is something that gets brought up every so often, but now is the time I think that we actually take the time and effort to get the old program up and running once again. It's a really good idea I think.




There is a lot more that I have plans to address, but I thought that it would be a good idea to start this off now with our portal page. As I said before, this is very basic. I did not even add the main navbar sections since I wanted to get the overall look of the portal mostly reworked.