Move the portal off the front page.
 

I have been giving this some thought and I feel that the Portal needs to be moved off of the front page. The first thing people should see when they visit www.planetarion.com is clean idea of what to expect and something that will capture their interest and make them want to stay.

I believe the portal does not do that and never will.

My suggestion is simply to revert back to the splash screens of old with minimal links to other interesting information. Here is what I propose;

SPLASH SCREEN:
This should have a nice graphic on it, the name of the round, the price to play and a brief captivating write up with links to the following;

-Login
-Sign Up
-Portal
-Playing Guide (quick guide)
-FAQ

The aim of this page will be to catch a persons interest and make them want to sign up, so its important not to have too much information displayed. Keep it clean and to the point.

PORTAL
This should be where all the juicier information can be found along with community contributions.

Announcements
Playing Guide (more detailed)
Sign Up
Login
Forums
Community Sites (PAWiki, Vision Tools, LCH Tools, Scouse History)
Creators Hour
User Agreement
Glossary
Manual
Com Unit
Support
IRC Information
History Files
Downtime Proceedure
Mini Games
Background Story
Competitions
Postbag
PAWiki
Credits
Affiliates
Merchandise

I feel the purpose of the portal should be a place to come for information concerning not only the game but also the community as a whole. At the moment most of the stuff is PA related but I think this should be extended into community related stuff. For example, offer blogs to community, links to tutorials on web design, film + album reviews, funny websites, etc.

This extended section does not have to be extensive but interesting.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this?

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

7582903rd thread about this.
7582903rd thread that everybody thinks has a great idea.
7582903rd thread that nothing will come of.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

7582903rd thread where I agree the portal is rubbish and shouldn't exist as the main entrance.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

well now that chef is gone and they are looking at getting someone else in to run it and maybe someone to develop a new one, now might be a good time to keep putting your opinions forward. Its clearly in the minds of those in charge and if they do go ahead and spend money on new development then it will make a lot of difference whether its on the front page of second and what it actually will contain.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

A spash screen can never be the main www.planetarion.com page.

While I agree the portal needs significant work to become user friendly and attractive, a splash screen simply does not fulfill the potential of the space and makes advanced Search Engine Optimisation techniques impossible and directly limits our ability to use advertising efficiently.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

Perhaps Spinners new game managerleague should be looked at. It is growing fast thanks to advertising and other stuff. This model should and could be implemented here with ease.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

Fine search engine ranking may be important but when the portal looks like some half arsed PHP Nuke website that thousands of people have thrown together then it doesn't help. Especially when over and over again the people involved with running it decided the key is to select people to write regular 'columns' but as its official they are so watered down and bland that no-one really cares what they have to say and anyway after about 3 they get bored or run out of things to write.

This is supposed to be a portal for a Professional product that you are asking people to pay for and it shouldn't be resembling some amateur looking fan site. Do we see Eve's portal looking unprofessional and littered with user content,? no you don't, what about WoW? again no. Even take a look at Jolts website and again it looks professional and lacks all the ametuer 'modules' that your average persons "first portal installation" would have enabled.

The only parts of the portal that should be requiring regular 'post' should be the news page and a dev blog that all developers can post to and which someone does a couple of times a week to show some active development is being done

I mean come pretty much every PATeam member there's been over the years has gone through at least one attempt at producing a portal in their time (and normally multiple) and every time the same mistakes are made in that they try and make a fan site when they should be making a official gateway into the game that appealing and makes them want to check it out further

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

I admit that I dont fully understand how SEO optimisation works best but I dont see why a simple first screen that is useful to new visitors and captures interest cant be effective. Google does just fine with a minimal front page, I know this is not a great example as googles primary business is to search but PA's primary business is to get people to sign up - which can be done from page one.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

Having a front splash won't affect SEO enough to be a worry, all the content will still be the same and the search engines will pick up on the portal being at a seperate URL.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

its a question of which of the sites you want to be highest in the rankings though (and hence which you want people searhcing for the game to find). Google quite often returns multiple sites for the same organisation in a search. For example if you search for Planetarion you will note that game.planetarion.com is not high at all in the rankings.

I would strongly argue that a portal site with regular and developed content that is well designed is a) more useful for new players and b) more likely to be higher in the rankings.

I absolutely hate for example the m anagerleague main page I don't think it tells me anything about whether I want to play the game or not.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

I believe google probaably gives itself an automatic high ranking :p

I don't see why we can't have a simple first screen that is useful to new visitors and captures interest that isn't also a portal.

For example I like the eve portal.

Re: Move the portal off the front page.
 

Eve online looks like it has a) a lot more money spent on it and b) people willing to put the effort and commitment into creating good content.

Planetarion seems to have neither and right now to imagine PA being like that is a pipe dream.

Eve has many things going for it; merchandising, magazine write ups, a backstory, chronicles and world wide appeal - things that can fill a portal. Planetarion doesnt.

Coming to the site and seeing a portal full of (to be frank) drivel is not a good thing. Thats why I think the way forward is to start small again and build up.