The Conservative Cave

The Help Desk => Suggestions and Feedback => Topic started by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 11:18:05 AM

Title: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 11:18:05 AM
Normally, I click on the home button, (top right), and it would take me to the list of the forums. It's been changed.  :bawl:
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 11:20:37 AM
Normally, I click on the home button, (top right), and it would take me to the list of the forums. It's been changed.  :bawl:

the portal is active at the moment;  click on the "forum button" to go to the forums when the portal is up
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: thundley4 on November 28, 2008, 11:28:37 AM
the portal is active at the moment;  click on the "forum button" to go to the forums when the portal is up

That works, but is the portal opening some sort of random thing like a wormhole ?
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Miss Mia on November 28, 2008, 11:33:11 AM
That works, but is the portal opening some sort of random thing like a wormhole ?


I'm worried about the space/time continuum now.  Thanks WE. 
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 12:05:43 PM

the idea is to create a more appealing landing page for guests.  a place where they can get a better idea of what is in the forums from a single page.  The portal is an SMF mod that Rebel found, and I have always been curious about.  I played with it a bit last night, and some more today.

the middle column is the last 20 posts to any forum, then the latest three posts from breaking news, and finally a number of articles that we publish manually.  I just picked the first two out of the elections forum.  the stuff on the left and right columns is just fun sort of stuff about the board and the people in it.

Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 02:46:20 PM
That works, but is the portal opening some sort of random thing like a wormhole ?

Our guest bounce rate off the the index page has always been fairly alarming;  well, it has been much higher than I liked.  this just makes it a little more attractive, a good bit more interesting, and very much easier to see what we are all about with our home screen.

 
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Sweet Dee on November 28, 2008, 03:37:09 PM
I like the new homepage!  Lookin' good :)
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 03:51:11 PM
I like the new homepage!  Lookin' good :)

I am sort of happy with it, too.  it changes dynamically.  the middle column is the 3 most recent posts from breaking news, followed by the 20 most recent posts to the overall forum.  and then after that there are 3 columns that we can publish to the portal "on demand".



Title: Re: Changes to the home page
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 05:17:55 PM

if you guys have any suggestions to the new portal, or homepage, please don't hesitate to post them in this thread.
Title: Re: Changes to the home page
Post by: Sweet Dee on November 28, 2008, 05:19:16 PM
if you guys have any suggestions to the new portal, or homepage, please don't hesitate to post them in this thread.

The only thing I'm missing is a box for my local weather forecast ;)  hehe  You're doing a fab job.
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 05:19:31 PM
That works, but is the portal opening some sort of random thing like a wormhole ?

LOL.  no.  it is active when rebel, thor, or I make it active.  I think we are going to run like this for a while. 
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: thundley4 on November 28, 2008, 05:30:50 PM
LOL.  no.  it is active when rebel, thor, or I make it active.  I think we are going to run like this for a while. 

The reason I wondered if it was random, was that yesterday it was taking me to a mostly blank page.  I'll get used to it, and it does make it more inviting for visitors.
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Sweet Dee on November 28, 2008, 05:32:12 PM
The reason I wondered if it was random, was that yesterday it was taking me to a mostly blank page.  I'll get used to it, and it does make it more inviting for visitors.

agreed!  it's a lot less intimidating.  makes us seem friendly and welcoming.  muahahahahahaha   :evillaugh:   (hehe)
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: bijou on November 28, 2008, 05:33:18 PM
the idea is to create a more appealing landing page for guests.  a place where they can get a better idea of what is in the forums from a single page.  The portal is an SMF mod that Rebel found, and I have always been curious about.  I played with it a bit last night, and some more today.

the middle column is the last 20 posts to any forum, then the latest three posts from breaking news, and finally a number of articles that we publish manually.  I just picked the first two out of the elections forum.  the stuff on the left and right columns is just fun sort of stuff about the board and the people in it.


Does that include Babe of the Day posts?  :-)

Love the new look BTW.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Chris_ on November 28, 2008, 05:37:15 PM
I noticed that when I post, I just get smart-ass responses.

I hope this bug has been fixed.
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Miss Mia on November 28, 2008, 05:39:14 PM
Does that include Babe of the Day posts?  :-)

Love the new look BTW.

I had to test, yep at the bottom it shows a new post in the BOTD thread.  :)
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Sweet Dee on November 28, 2008, 05:45:30 PM
Does that include Babe of the Day posts?  :-)

Love the new look BTW.

lol  :)  Hilarious.  Those are the most important posts!!  ;)
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 05:46:31 PM
The reason I wondered if it was random, was that yesterday it was taking me to a mostly blank page.  I'll get used to it, and it does make it more inviting for visitors.

my first run at putting the portal together wasn't exactly a success  :uhsure: :thatsright:;  thus, the blank homepage. Thor alerted me, and I commandeered someone's computer where I was at, and turned it back off.

Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 05:48:27 PM
Does that include Babe of the Day posts?  :-)

Love the new look BTW.

a babe of the day post will show up in the most recent posts, if you have sufficient posts to see the shortbus in the first place.
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Chris_ on November 28, 2008, 05:48:44 PM
my first run at putting the portal together wasn't exactly a success  :uhsure: :thatsright:;  thus, the blank homepage. Thor alerted me, and I commandeered someone's computer where I was at, and turned it back off.


If you turned the computer you commandeered off, how did you fix the problem?
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 05:49:35 PM
agreed!  it's a lot less intimidating.  makes us seem friendly and welcoming.  muahahahahahaha   :evillaugh:   (hehe)

look, let's face it, the sterile, standard SMF front page was boring to newbies.  it just didn't seem enticing.
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 05:50:39 PM
If you turned the computer you commandeered off, how did you fix the problem?
I turned the option, off via the commandeered computer.  thank you for noticing my poorly constructed sentence. :-)
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Wretched Excess on November 28, 2008, 05:51:36 PM
lol  :)  Hilarious.  Those are the most important posts!!  ;)
I was going to include "most popular threads", but most of them were run on threads, & etc, including the BOTD thread. :-)
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Splashdown on November 28, 2008, 06:13:34 PM
A tiny thing...do you think it would be better for the forum to open in the same window when you click on it rather than a new window?

Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Thor on November 28, 2008, 08:42:10 PM
No, technically, it's better to have it open in a new window. That way, the reader always has our home page up. That makes it easier to navigate back to.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: lastparker on November 29, 2008, 04:41:01 PM
Normally, I click on the home button, (top right), and it would take me to the list of the forums. It's been changed.  :bawl:

I came.  I saw.  I was frightened.   :o
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Toastedturningtidelegs on December 01, 2008, 12:20:12 PM
I noticed that when I post, I just get smart-ass responses.

I hope this bug has been fixed.
What the hell are you talking about?...Shut up! :-)
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Chris on December 01, 2008, 08:38:20 PM
I noticed that when I post, I just get smart-ass responses.

I hope this bug has been fixed.

It's not a bug, it's a feature.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Chris_ on December 01, 2008, 08:41:27 PM
It's not a bug, it's a feature.

Selling "Vista" are ya?
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: Chris_ on December 01, 2008, 08:42:36 PM
I turned the option, off via the commandeered computer.  thank you for noticing my poorly constructed sentence. :-)

Which direction did you turn the option?
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Chris on December 01, 2008, 08:59:51 PM
(http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/9411/featuregf6.jpg)
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Thor on December 01, 2008, 09:02:53 PM
(http://cybernetnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/vistajoke11.jpg)
Title: Re: Who is playing with the buttons?
Post by: SaintLouieWoman on December 02, 2008, 10:03:45 PM
I am sort of happy with it, too.  it changes dynamically.  the middle column is the 3 most recent posts from breaking news, followed by the 20 most recent posts to the overall forum.  and then after that there are 3 columns that we can publish to the portal "on demand".





It's very, very nice. You should be proud. It takes a bit of getting used to, but in the words of the annointed one, Change is good. At least in this case, it is.

Good work, WE.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Chris on December 07, 2008, 07:52:26 PM
I like the new front page, but is there an option to not display the poster's avatar?  It takes up a lot of space.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Wretched Excess on December 12, 2008, 05:49:08 PM
I like the new front page, but is there an option to not display the poster's avatar?  It takes up a lot of space.

if you are referring to the topmost avatar, you can "collapse" that category.  you can turn this:

(http://i33.tinypic.com/9tlizn.jpg)

into this:

(http://i35.tinypic.com/2gsgaxs.jpg)

by clicking the "-" sign that is circled in the first screencap.  but be aware that you will lose the links
for "Show unread posts since last visit", and "Show new replies to your posts" if you do that. 

To uncollapse that category, just click on the "+" sign that took the place of the "-" sign.

Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: jendf on December 12, 2008, 06:11:45 PM
I have a complaint that may have already been brought up but I'm too lazy to go through this entire thread to find out.

Can you adjust the front page so as to allow a person to click on the Breaking News threads? A couple of times I've wanted to go straight to a BN thread but couldn't find the link.

I can click on the link to the actual news link if that's posted but not to the thread. Instead, I have to click on Forum at the time, go into Breaking News and click on the thread from there.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Miss Mia on December 12, 2008, 06:15:55 PM
I have a complaint that may have already been brought up but I'm too lazy to go through this entire thread to find out.

Can you adjust the front page so as to allow a person to click on the Breaking News threads? A couple of times I've wanted to go straight to a BN thread but couldn't find the link.

I can click on the link to the actual news link if that's posted but not to the thread. Instead, I have to click on Forum at the time, go into Breaking News and click on the thread from there.

You click at the bottom of the post on the front page where it says "comments."  I do always want to click on the headline though. 
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Wretched Excess on December 12, 2008, 06:17:47 PM
I have a complaint that may have already been brought up but I'm too lazy to go through this entire thread to find out.

Can you adjust the front page so as to allow a person to click on the Breaking News threads? A couple of times I've wanted to go straight to a BN thread but couldn't find the link.

I can click on the link to the actual news link if that's posted but not to the thread. Instead, I have to click on Forum at the time, go into Breaking News and click on the thread from there.

if you click on the little icon that immediately precedes the thread title, it will take you to the thread.  that can be made more intuitively obvious with the use of category avatars.

thanks for the input, jen.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Miss Mia on December 12, 2008, 06:18:52 PM
if you click on the little icon that immediately precedes the thread title, it will take you to the thread.  that can be made more intuitively obvious with the use of category avatars.

thanks for the input, jen.

I didn't even realize you could click there WE.   :thatsright: 
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: jendf on December 12, 2008, 06:23:43 PM
if you click on the little icon that immediately precedes the thread title, it will take you to the thread.  that can be made more intuitively obvious with the use of category avatars.

thanks for the input, jen.

I just tried it and it works. Thanks, WE! Now what the hell is a "category avatar?"  :-)
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Wretched Excess on December 12, 2008, 06:29:47 PM
I just tried it and it works. Thanks, WE! Now what the hell is a "category avatar?"  :-)

it's a more prominent version of that little thing that you just clicked. :uhsure:
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Wretched Excess on December 12, 2008, 06:31:01 PM
I didn't even realize you could click there WE.   :thatsright: 

the thread title itself should be a clickable link to the thread.  I just don't know what these people that write free software are thinking sometimes. :whatever: :-)
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Miss Mia on December 12, 2008, 06:31:54 PM
the thread title itself should be a clickable link to the thread.  I just don't know what these people that write free software are thinking sometimes. :whatever: :-)

Ahh, if only you ruled the world.   :uhsure:
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Wretched Excess on December 12, 2008, 06:32:30 PM
Ahh, if only you ruled the world.   :uhsure:

how strange.  that is exactly what I was thinking.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Chris on December 12, 2008, 08:52:50 PM
I was referring to this:

(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7315/9tliznoh2.jpg)

The poster's name is already at the top of the article.  The avatar eats up space.  JMHO.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Chris_ on December 13, 2008, 12:30:15 PM
I didn't even realize you could click there WE.   :thatsright: 
You can, but you have to wash your hands afterward.
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Wretched Excess on December 13, 2008, 01:43:12 PM
I was referring to this:

(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7315/9tliznoh2.jpg)

The poster's name is already at the top of the article.  The avatar eats up space.  JMHO.

oh.  yes, that is an option.  I'll take a look at it the next time I am messing around with the portal, which, given my obsessive-compulsive behavior, should be about 15 minutes. :-)
Title: Re: We have made some changes to the homepage
Post by: Miss Mia on December 13, 2008, 01:53:47 PM
oh.  yes, that is an option.  I'll take a look at it the next time I am messing around with the portal, which, given my obsessive-compulsive behavior, should be about 15 minutes. :-)


15 minutes, you disappoint me WE, I expect it changed within 5.  :wink: