New Spring site design, I need your feedback.

[Roflcopter]

I'm still playing with my idea.
The <IE7 PNG problem can be solved. One way is adding a little script with the website. I found this one quite easy to set up and it worked pretty well for me.

Also, scaling up to insane screen resolutions with that black banner of mine may feel wrong, as you will see a very looong black bar. I thought of adding some faded image to make it look more alive. :O

[Tim Blokdijk]

I think the priority right now should be patching up the existing site in svn and rolling it out as quickly as possible.

That means:

- Sorting out url rewrite
- A download page
- Fixing the pull down menus under Opera, they're on the left hand side covering up other menu options
- Fixing the wiki

The messageboard itself is fine.

I agree with the "rolling it out as quickly as possible" in the sense that I don't like to wait for all sorts of extras, I wrote down those processes to keep things in development. People can update the site later on.

For the todo list, you can strike the download page I did that with my last commit http://spring.clan-sy.com/fisheye/chang ... te?cs=4252
The pull-down menu's need to be fixed for IE to.
I don't plan on using "url rewrite" just content-negotiation.
And the wiki works it only needs a alias in the general Apache config.

I like to commit a sql file that has a phpbb installation, after that I'm more or less done with the messageboard.

There is a todo list in svn but it's a bit out of date, I will update it with my next commit.
https://spring.clan-sy.com/svn/spring/t ... n/todo.txt

I'm still playing with my idea.
The <IE7 PNG problem can be solved. One way is adding a little script with the website. I found this one quite easy to set up and it worked pretty well for me.

Also, scaling up to insane screen resolutions with that black banner of mine may feel wrong, as you will see a very looong black bar. I thought of adding some faded image to make it look more alive. :O

It requires some creative thinking to get things to scale but for "insane" resolutions you don't need things to look perfect, things need to function ok.

[AF]

Ive uploaded the svn site to my host and all I get is a blank page with nothing on it for every single page on the site. No error messages of any kind. imo this is a horrific flaw.

[Tim Blokdijk]

Ive uploaded the svn site to my host and all I get is a blank page with nothing on it for every single page on the site. No error messages of any kind. imo this is a horrific flaw.

The horror indeed! Anyway, are you running php5 on that host? Site won't run with php4.

[Tim Blokdijk]

I just committed a new sql file with a phpbb2 and mediawiki installation. I also updated the todo list.
See: http://spring.clan-sy.com/fisheye/chang ... g/?cs=4260
With this you can run a fully functional site on your own local system.

[Tim Blokdijk]

I wrote a quick "how to get the site running on you local machine" here http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtop ... 091#215091
Ubuntu 7.04 - the Feisty Fawn is required for this "how to".

[Tim Blokdijk]

Just so you know guy's know what I'm trying to do:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=537722

[Tim Blokdijk]

Then again, I would like to discuss the theme system as not that much is implemented and a few things are still up in the air on what to do with it.
Let me start from the start with this and plan it following the dev. process.

So what would you guy's like to have in a theme system?
Is there any need for themes? And why?

My idea is to have a theme per Spring mod.
Technically a lot is possible with themes (you can change everything you like) but we still have to figure out what is smart to do in practice.

AF gave a sideway reply, but no direct input so far, so.. is there no use for theme support? or no ideas for theme support?

[AF]

Requiring us to download an entire OS to test is far too much.

Asking us to burn a DVD or CD is too much.

Mod developers are usually busy people that're in high demand and with little time, I doubt they have time to work on a site theme.

[Tim Blokdijk]

Ok, smart-ass any constructive feedback? I can't debug stuff like "all I get is a blank page with nothing on it" in a effective way. Downloading a live-cd is a bit heavy but it should be fail save. I like that, you can write documentation on how to get the site running on other configurations.

And about the theme, that's a good question, but I like to get some input from content devs on it. So mod devs do you like to have the option to make the Spring site match you mod? And if so how exactly?

[AF]

A content mod would leave it up to their fanbase todo it. This pattern has been repeated all over spring, for example, the only modders who have actually attempted to implement AI support are argh and zwzsg for nanoblobz and kernel panic respectively.

Every other modder has either fobbed it off onto their playerbase or admitted they lack the time.

Ontop of that I doubt the target audience of your question even reads this thread (incase anyone posts a counter arguement let it be stated that there are always exceptions).

Also I cannot provide anything more helpful because I have nothing. I get a blank white page, no error messages, no content not even basic html tags, a blank white page. No tags. No markup of any kind.

http://newspring.darkstars.co.uk

[Tim Blokdijk]

"Fanbase" is a relative term to me, if someone makes an AI configuration for a mod then in my book he is a contributor and part of the AI/mod developers. So there's nothing wrong with getting Spring players to contribute as far as I can see.

They read it, just no comments on this specific thing.
So game/mod dev's to rephrase: If you look at http://newspring.clan-sy.com/index.php (in firefox) and click on the theme menu (top right) and select a game/mod from the list. What should happen?

---

About, http://newspring.darkstars.co.uk/ the response headers tel me we have a "500 Internal Server Error". So something is fucked up. Have you been playing with .htaccess? Can you run a page that only shows http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.phpinfo.php ? Or will that fail to? Can you pm the url to the phpinfo file if it works? It may contain some clue.

[AF]

its fixed now .htaccess file apaprently wasnt there

note:: the yesterday at/today at mod doesnt appear to be in the svn as it isnt working on the site

[Tim Blokdijk]

Dot files like .htaccess and .svn don't show in ftp applications. They can be there but you just don't see them listed. Making a mistake in .htaccess leads to 500 errors.

I still have to update the dev. env. with svn head, I can do that now I guess. I was still fucking around with the ├â┬®├â┬½├â┬í problem but I understand it now, so there is no real need to preserve the old database. I hope that I have enough time for it otherwise it's going to be Monday.

[Tim Blokdijk]

Dev. Env. is up to date with svn head now.
The yesterday at/today mod works but I ran into new encoding problems.. http://newspring.clan-sy.com/messageboa ... hp?p=44#44

[MelTraX]

Did you remove the screenshots because you're waiting for my stuff or do you wanna remove them completely?

If you need that stuff to continue anything, tell me.. I can finish it fast. It's just that I'm doing the ladder stuff atm and I figured those slideshows don't have to be added that soon..

[AF]

I preferred it when the message board theme had a greyish background. The new white clashes imo

[nemppu]

it is very good tnx))))

[Tim Blokdijk]

Did you remove the screenshots because you're waiting for my stuff or do you wanna remove them completely?

If you need that stuff to continue anything, tell me.. I can finish it fast. It's just that I'm doing the ladder stuff atm and I figured those slideshows don't have to be added that soon..

http://newspring.clan-sy.com/index.php still has the screenshots, maybe you're looking at the news page?
And I do like you to finish your work on the screenshots.

@AF feel free to experiment with the colour. A slightly darker colour might be a bit more easy on the eyes indeed.

[MelTraX]

Yeah, was looking at the news site..