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UnrealSP.org update status

For discussion about UnrealSP.org itself.

Moderators: Semfry, ividyon

How would you like the navigation bar (at the top) to behave?

Poll ended at 26 May 2014, 16:09

Leave it at the top of the page. If I need something, I can scroll up.
3
60%
Scroll it along with the viewer! I don't mind a little less vertical space.
2
40%
 
Total votes: 5

User avatar ividyon
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Subject: UnrealSP.org update status

Post Posted: 29 Jun 2011, 17:38

19/05/2014:

Punk Development not dead! :) After being forced to shift development to another platform again (this time, the page will be based entirely off the newest in-development phpBB 3.1 software, to allow seamless integration of all the features), motivation had died for a loooong time. However, with the help of ebd and Wire (the latter not part of our community) I've managed to learn the basics of how the damn thing works - despite almost zero beforehand experience - and development has picked up pace again in these last two days!

As always, what you see is in-progress and subject to change; particularly the "old" icons you see. The forum database isn't ported onto this development platform, which explains the lack of posts. However, I still felt like sharing this with you all:

<Aaaand it's gone, because outdated!>

Feedback is always welcome. :)
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07/11/2013:

Analyzing our current design and the new design further, I realized that the fixed elements of the page eat quite a bit of processing power, the large background image in particular. It seems that, no matter what, a fixed background image will make site scrolling a somewhat choppy affair even on highest-gen computers, while letting the background scroll with the page makes the experience buttery smooth.

Rather than making the decision myself, I decided to put it to the vote. Do you feel that UnrealSP should definitely keep the fixed background image to add flair around the content? Or would you consider it fine if the background eventually faded into black as you scroll down, as long as it meant the scrolling isn't as choppy?

(Note: the current forum performance counts as 'choppy'. If you use 'smooth scrolling' on Chrome or Firefox, you may realize it doesnt scroll as fluidly as it could, since it has to re-draw the entire background image on every frame.)

- - - - - - - - - - -
29/10/2013:

I changed the topic name to be more descriptive. It used to be called "Site updates/changes".

A new forum style is now live, featuring following changes:
- Layout now occupies 60% of screen width with a minimum of 960px; this, in my opinion, helps make forum content more presentable with more frequent line breaks for both short posts (the kind of which we have a ton of) and longer texts. In addition, it really helps with making everything look nice and mobile-friendly!

- The header now spans across the entire width

- Header button icons have been remade and their positions fixed

- Buttons, text fields and other navigation elements across the board are now USP styled and feel better/more responsive

- |sshot| tag now shrinks screenshots to a certain width rather than a certain height
This makes MOTW and project threads look good, as it keeps 2x2/1x2 blocks of screenshots consistent with the forum width; however issues turn up when screenshots with different aspect ratios are mixed. May need considering. (It points out issues with people's crappy Upcoming Maps formatting though!)

- Shoutbox: Buttons lined up next to text field

- All images are now set to have a maximum width of 700 px, meaning you can't nuke the layout by posting 4000x4000 px images as they will automatically be scaled down (either way don't post 4000x4000 px images)


Please report any problems you encounter!

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16/06/2013:

System features implemented so far:

- Full integration with USP forum accounts
- Displaying and sorting the review list
- Displaying reviews
- Submitting and editing reviews
- Displaying, adding, reporting, approving and deleting review downloads
- Displaying and adding review comments

Users can submit their own reviews/articles to the site for approval. They can comment on reviews/articles, report broken download links as well as suggest their own. The new UnrealSP main site will be a much more community-driven endeavor, solving the "nobody ever visits the main site" dilemma Hellscrag faced back in the day and drawing some attention away from the forums to the actual site. :D

I'm also pleased to report that UBerserker has already gone through the effort of porting all existing reviews to the new system. :) Downloads and review images still need to be managed, but that's a task that will be tackled in the coming days, as well...

Other steps in planning: Moving 'Upcoming Maps' from the forums to the main site.

It's 4:30AM... I lose a lot of coding time by just jumping around the site and testing all the shiny new features because I'm so proud of it all!
After some sleep I will, first of all, work on deleting/approving reviews and deleting/reporting comments.

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09/06/2013:

I'm pleased to report that, after many, many months of hiatus, I have finally found my fighting spirit again and I'm continuing work on the new site! I'm quite proud of my amateur achievements thus far, and I can slowly see the site creeping towards completion. Staffers will assist with carrying over content to the new system once it is ready (which should be pretty soon), meaning even faster progress. The USP2 project is alive again! Just thought you'd like to know. :shy:

- - - - - - - - - - -
28/06/2012:

Changed topic title to more accurately reflect what I'm doing here (informing the community of changes made to the site.)

- - - - - - - - - - -
09/12/2011:

Hi! Truthfully, I have neglected work on the website between all the schoolwork, gaming and general being a sloth, but a sudden spark of inspiration has re-awakened my webmastering spirits! Therefore, I'm digging up this thread to both provide and ask for some info.

Current re-design goals include:

  • CSS styling etc. instead of embedding the entire design into every page
  • Visual revamp/modernization (example: CSS borders instead of .gif files)
  • Transition to PHP/MySQL-based article system
  • Review & guest article submission forms
  • Ability to comment on articles (perhaps with forum account integration?)
  • Wider coverage of subjects (Single-player Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal Tournament 3 & UDK projects/modding)
  • Changes to project forum structure (why finished projects in "Projects in Production"? why hardly any attention to Upcoming Maps guidelines?)

Sadly, since I've basically no experience with creating modern web content from scratch (my latest work being table-based, not making use of any CSS styling and made in Dreamweaver, a WYSIWYG editor), it will take quite a bit until I can fully realize most of this stuff. However, let us begin with small steps! First of all, I'd like to read your opinions on this particular little concept I thought up.

Image

UnrealSP.Org doesn't really have an official logo beyond that one box with Courier New text in it, yet I thought it should have one. In addition, you will find a notification tab system in that concept shot. These little tabs would inform you of new content popping up on the main site (like reviews, articles, news posts) as well as things occuring on the forums (new PMs, replies to threads you started, replies to threads you've subscribed to etc.) The logo would be shared between site and forums, further fusing the two together, and the addition would be combined with a clean-up of the forum's header to make it more compact.

Do you like the logo change? What is your opinion of the tab notes idea? Think it's worth realizing? :o

- - - - - - - - - - -
Original post:

Hi! I'd like to hear your opinion on this. How would you feel about a visual redesign of UnrealSP? I've been playing with the idea of revamping the whole site so that I can more comfortably add new content. As it is right now, the system is a bit awkward to use, but before making any major framework changes, I need to know whether we will be keeping the current design.

This poll aims to find out just how attached to the current UnrealSP theme our regulars are. This is all strictly hypothetical; I don't have exact, set-in-stone plans to change the website yet. This is just a "what if?".
UnrealSP.org webmaster & administrator

User avatar Semfry
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 29 Jun 2011, 17:43

I went that either way is fine. I like the current design but if there was something new that was just as good I wouldn't mind. It sounds like the most important part is making the site easier to maintain.
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 29 Jun 2011, 19:00

Voted no. 2 - old design may be lil bit outdated but personally I like the color scheme. If you'd like to redesign it - I suggest use of HTML5 and CSS3 (with magic compatibility layer for crappy browsers such as IE :P) it's nice and readable. As for framework you can either use own, or something that floats around the web (kohana is nice) , or I can send you my own I've used in tco website. Of course you can use joomla or some other ready to use cms.
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 29 Jun 2011, 19:19

Don't think that a redesign is necessary in any way. Completely fine for me.
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 29 Jun 2011, 19:38

I really like the current design, but if it has to be redone, you should keep the color scheme as is.
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 29 Jun 2011, 19:46

I voted I don't mind a redesign, but I would like the same colours. Just make sure a change is more convenient for everyone, not just you! :P Too many times I've went to a site spending hours finding where they moved the darn toolbars to.

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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 29 Jun 2011, 23:09

Redesign or not, but please keep the colour scheme, I'm too old to survive drastic changes :wink:

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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 29 Jun 2011, 23:14

I'd rather stick with the original design. Well, you may just change the logo a bit, but that's all if you ask for my opinion on this.
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 30 Jun 2011, 00:28

Don't mind a redesign, but keep the good ole yellow/black/grey color scheme and the background images :o

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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 30 Jun 2011, 04:26

Keep the current design D: USP is probably the best looking & easiest to use of all the Unreal-related sites
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 30 Jun 2011, 05:21

I personally would hate to have a major redesign visually. I understand the advantages of a backend redesign and I'm all for it. The easier it is for Sana to add new content the better. However the change should be one that goes totally unoticed on the front end. The visual design and layout of this website is great/minimal/beautiful/awesome.

tl;dr version: The page layouts should remain along with the colour scheme, but the backend should be revamped as much as possible.

I always liked being able to middle click on a page and have it pop out of the frame when it opened in a new tab. It's a bug/feature that would probably disappear in an upgrade :P
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 30 Jun 2011, 08:26

Am I the only one who is using 'prosilver' theme? Both black themes do not highlight current page in pager list (Page 10 of 11 • 1 ... 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). That is, I'd rather stick with better usability than visuals. My vote is 'either way is fine'.
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 30 Jun 2011, 09:10

For me a visual change won't affect me but I am also not in need of new design, so I chose the last opinion.
The background images should be the only thing to keep, these make this website's design outstanding!
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 30 Jun 2011, 15:33

diamond wrote:Am I the only one who is using 'prosilver' theme? Both black themes do not highlight current page in pager list (Page 10 of 11 • 1 ... 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). That is, I'd rather stick with better usability than visuals. My vote is 'either way is fine'.

This is for the website, not the forums.
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Subject: Re: Hypothetical site re-design question

Post Posted: 30 Jun 2011, 15:44

I think the site is good.. :D not need redisegn..but the vhat doesnt work...
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