www.planetarion.com

[Judge]

The Portal as has been said (by many ) is a waste of time and effort, UNLESS it is kept upto date and relevant.

As for the "Splash" idea, sorry but I personally hate splash sites, I always switch to non-splash options, or <skip intro>

But that said, whatever is done should be relevant and kept upto date, or by its design be upto date due to current input/status

From what i can see Wakey has some good ideas (as do a few others)

[mist]

what a truely awful website. far too much info on one page. suppose it at least didn't have flash tho

-mist

[djcomplex]

Originally Posted by mist

what a truely awful website. far too much info on one page. suppose it at least didn't have flash tho

-mist

Mail the owner of the site, i'm sure the leading authority in the world on website usability will appreciate your feedback.

[mist]

just because he's the leading authority doesn't mean i have to like what he produces.

take a look at the charts, the vast majority of it's crap.

[Brimstone]

IMO, www.planetarion.com should go back to what it USED to be.

A page with some pretty graphics, and a set links to the key areas: News (could be associated, in some way to a portal), login, Manual, Forums.
And, of course, to add to this some sort of "Jumpgate" that shows screenshots and info etc about the game.

All other things, such as columns, polls, blogs and the other rubbish can be added on a seperate community based page, such as wiki.

Brimstone

[mist]

given that pa i brower based and therefore, short of some rather heavy scripting, is never going to be graphically impressive is there much point using a high graphics/low content cover page? seems to me that the only people it'll attract will rapidly loose interest in the game as it's not what they expected.

personally, i'd have gone for something that said stuff about the game, some bold headers, a few ship pictures, maybe a backdrop of a space battle, that kind of thing. something like the old eu world of warcraft site (which appears to have been replaced with something much more useless, but thus is life).

[Banned]

Originally Posted by Brimstone

All other things, such as columns, polls, blogs and the other rubbish can be added on a seperate community based page, such as wiki.

As much as I try to avoid being 'boss' of the wiki, I'm not ****ing wasting bandwidth on crap like polls or blogs.

[GReaper]

Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7?
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10

Some aren't archived very well, however you can get the general idea of what most front pages looked like.

[djcomplex]

Originally Posted by GReaper

Round 4

Seeing that nearly brought a tear to my eye

[Alki]

same, i actually remembered all of those, and barely minded them being there for the shear fact i had login page bookmarked neway, buts its nice newho

[Zo0f]

Originally Posted by Alki

same, i actually remembered all of those, and barely minded them being there for the shear fact i had login page bookmarked neway, buts its nice newho

Same for me, this seems to be something PATeam miss. Most people who play the game bookmark the direct urls to what they want to see (login, forums...etc). New people want a nice simple attractive overview of the game to get them interested. Is it so difficult to see this and cater for both?

All it would take it a single starter page, with an overview of the game, some pictures etc. Then stick some simple links at the top/bottom for everything else. This way all current players can get to the specific pages and bookmark them and new players can see what the game is about. People seem to like making things far more complicated than they need to be.

[Alki]

yeh create an overview of the game and maybe create posters of planetarion which they cud advertise in various places

[Veil05]

Originally Posted by Alki

yeh create an overview of the game and maybe create posters of planetarion which they cud advertise in various places

LIKE BUS STOPS! someones on the ball

[Alki]

i meant online posters u tard which they cud stick on a few well known webbies SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE. im back in mboro next week;D

[Cannon_Fodder]

Originally Posted by GReaper

Round 4

Someone tell me what is wrong with this and why we cant have it now?

[noah02]

why doesnt PA copy the pilkara thing and make there own bcalc?

[Banned]

Originally Posted by noah02

why doesnt PA copy the pilkara thing and make there own bcalc?

Apparantly Jolt hates anything open source.

[mist]

i though pa were against the idea of battle calcs?

[Judge]

Originally Posted by mist

i though pa were against the idea of battle calcs?

so, they must expect everyone to launch and hope ?

not the brightest tactic

I just hope the Bladze calc or the Vision calc is available next round

[master2004]

Originally Posted by sniborp

Someone tell me what is wrong with this and why we cant have it now?

I agree the round 3,4 pics were really good etc, and it was just 1 link. It would be good to have to login page on there though, nice and quick and easy...

[wakey]

Originally Posted by noah02

why doesnt PA copy the pilkara thing and make there own bcalc?

Perhaps because they should learn that items like this are Community projects rather than official projects. They should help support community projects by advertising them and such like rathere than try and do their own versions of it.

Its this practice of 'stealing' ideas that has helped 'kill' this community somewhat and I just hope by now they have realised this and will start supporting community projects rather than undermine them. Leave the community to do what they do best (ie support the community and build up the sense of belonging and sense of being able to help) leaving PATeam/Jolt to focus on teh areas only they can do anything about

[wakey]

Originally Posted by sniborp

Someone tell me what is wrong with this and why we cant have it now?

Cant say the r4 one really strikes me as that professional tbh. It just doesnt look sleek enough, more a high level hobbist . The Round 6 one is alot sleeker imho

[Cannon_Fodder]

Originally Posted by wakey

Cant say the r4 one really strikes me as that professional tbh. It just doesnt look sleek enough, more a high level hobbist . The Round 6 one is alot sleeker imho

I didnt look at the others, and yes the picture is...poor... but i meant the layout, cool graphics pic and quick links to every thing else.

[Banned]

Originally Posted by mist

i though pa were against the idea of battle calcs?

This begs the question: Who is PA?

[Proxi]

Originally Posted by wakey

Cant say the r4 one really strikes me as that professional tbh. It just doesnt look sleek enough, more a high level hobbist . The Round 6 one is alot sleeker imho

Combine round 6's sleekness and a nice graphic of some ships in combat instead of a human pilot and your onto a winner

[Ultimate Newbie]

both R6's and R7's are quite sleek, attractive and very functional and would be a good template for future versions. R4's, however, brings back old memories of glory days

[jerome]

Whilst lolling on the internet, I must ask, did "PA" expect a strategy game to not involve calculators and derivants of it ie: bcalcs ?:D

[demiGOD]

Originally Posted by wakey

Leave the community to do what they do best (ie support the community and build up the sense of belonging and sense of being able to help) leaving PATeam/Jolt to focus on teh areas only they can do anything about

also pateam should only be constantly initiating roids for r13 so they could help out the community by being roid farms heh

[Envious]

So everyone more or less agreed PA portal does NOT need any non-PA stuff just to make it look more alive.. and what do we get?

"Posted by: Marv
Posted on: Monday 24th January 2005 at 23:49

The Portal team are looking for new and fresh writers to inject a new found spark of life into the Portal in anticipation on Round 13!

You can write about anything you want! From opinions to Alliance biographies to the CD you found in the bargin bin in HMV last week!"

Nice one.

[Kal]

regardless of where the content goes, its nice to have some content somewhere

[Cannon_Fodder]

not really, quality > quantity

[Blixxard]

Originally Posted by Envious

You can write about anything you want! From opinions to Alliance biographies to the CD you found in the bargin bin in HMV last week!"

Nice one.

Have I misunderstood the thread or is that exactly what the community did not want?

[Envious]

Originally Posted by Blixxard

Have I misunderstood the thread or is that exactly what the community did not want?

that was what my post was about.

[Zo0f]

Originally Posted by Kal

regardless of where the content goes, its nice to have some content somewhere

I think "Learn to walk before you attempt to run." fits in quite well here. The portal is looking for people who write about CDs from HMVs bargain bin, yet the FAQ and Guidebook (clearly not as important) are out-of-date. The simple and obvious things are more often than not far more important.

I suggest the request should of been for people willing to update the guidebook areas that are now outdated or for people to update the FAQ section.

While im sure columns are easier to get people to do, and it can be classed as 'another job done', the FAQ and Guidebook will have a far greater effect on Planetarion, especially the new players. Would you start to play a game run by people who are looking for column writers yet have outdated FAQs and Guidebooks? Its not the best first impression.

[Kal]

the portal team in #portal is atm purely concerned with content rather than the look and feel of the site - the current portal will hopefully be going into a bin soon

[JC]

One day the constant upgrading of the portal will end .

[Zo0f]

Originally Posted by Kal

the portal team in #portal is atm purely concerned with content rather than the look and feel of the site - the current portal will hopefully be going into a bin soon

The FAQ and Guidebook were and could be useful content for prospective and new players, or are you saying the new portal will drop the FAQ and Guidebook in favour of columns on HMV CDs? If that is not what you were saying any updates to the FAQ and Guidebook could be moved over to the new portal.

Looking at it from another perspective does the new portal already contain information that would replace the FAQ and Guidebook, making this disscussion pointless?

I really would like to see functionality a priority in the external surface of Planetarion, as im sure most other players would.

[Kal]

the new portal design doens;t even have columns

[pablissimo]

Originally Posted by Kal

the new portal design doens;t even have columns

Then what the hell's Marv's post about?

[Kal]

Originally Posted by pablissimo

Then what the hell's Marv's post about?

just becuase the portal does not have columns on, does not mean there can't be a sub site hidden away that does, but th eportal itself whould be clean and minimal and give key information abotu the game and any ciurrent developments in it

[pablissimo]

Let's call it Uplink and update it every other week.

[Zo0f]

Originally Posted by Kal

just becuase the portal does not have columns on, does not mean there can't be a sub site hidden away that does, but th eportal itself whould be clean and minimal and give key information abotu the game and any ciurrent developments in it

If there will be a sub-site with columns on, then is it safe to guess the same would happen for the FAQ/Guidebook?

This would all be a lot easier if you told us what PATeam invisions the portal doing and gave us a list of content (or planned content) on the new portal.

[Kal]

atm I am trying to find out what jolt actually wants and then I can see if what jolt wants and what the community wants firts together and then we can all have a big party

[Zo0f]

Originally Posted by Kal

atm I am trying to find out what jolt actually wants and then I can see if what jolt wants and what the community wants firts together and then we can all have a big party

Jolts opinion should be enough, im sure they have far more knowledge about the external side of a product in relation to marketing. While also being able to judge wether anything else is needed for the community in general.

From what has been said on the www.planetarion.com thread it seems to me people are asking for a portal that is made from experience and common sense. Something not managed to date.

I also find it sad for PATeam that they cannot make these decisions for themselves. If Jolt is not to run PA directly themselves then do PATeam not need to learn to make these types of decisions themselves?

This is not intended to be an attack on PATeam, I just feel these are the type of decisions you should be making (and doing them well). Mine, yours and Jolts opinion of what PATeam should be doing are most likely very different however.

[Zeus]

Is it so that Jolt make all the decisions now? or?
Surely responsibilities must be deligated out and those given the responsibility, should make the decisions?

[Kal]

jolt provide the coding resources, unless someone who is willing to sign an NDA would like to volunteer?

[Cannon_Fodder]

Originally Posted by Kal

atm I am trying to find out what jolt actually wants and then I can see if what jolt wants and what the community wants firts together and then we can all have a big party

EY! We can get the PAteam drunk and get em to put pink wings on zik ships!

Originally Posted by Kal

jolt provide the coding resources, unless someone who is willing to sign an NDA would like to volunteer?

woosh! that went over my head

[Kal]

ok... here is my idea - at www.planetarion.com we have a very simple portal - all it needs is to show the last 2 news items, have info on the game, some exciting info about bakground, links to sign up and a devblog(maybe). We also on there have links to blixxard's jumpgate, the game, the forums, the pa wiki, and a community portal. THe community portal would be a site coded by the community for the community - it could have column style content, pa tool kits, bcalcs etc - as well as having its own features it could also link to external sites like pilkara,sandmans, vision tools.

The advantage of this is that the community portal can be coded by anyone, as it would not require NDAs, so anyone could contribute to the codebase - so in effect the coders would be allowing us to host there work, and if at any time they wanted it removed from pa servers it could be.

The only condition we would apply to the community portal is that there are pateam staff on the editorial and devlopment teams to ensure that the portal does not conflct with pateam and jolt - if at any time there is a disagreement the worsed that can happen is we stop hosting it, or the coders stop allowing us to use the code.

We would maintain control over the look and development of www.planetarion.com forums.planetarion.com and game.planetarion.com and thus be concentrating on our core product the game and its image but community.planetarion.com would be in the hands of the community

its also worth noting that this community site would not be disrupted by things like the passport either

[Cannon_Fodder]

what about pirate.planetarion?

[JC]

Originally Posted by Kal

forums.planetarion.com

pirate.planetarion.com

Dont go changing that.