General Forum > Website suggestions
Hey Brian,
I like the dark color scheme quite a bit and the forum updates at the bottom right corner are great too. The Download, Upload Navigators could be rearranged to take up less space. Just make a Download Zone link that takes you to a page that has sections for General and Society members as well as uploading. This will leave more room on the left Nav Area to show forum topics (as I'm sure our list will grow).
The way its set up at the moment, I keep thinking I will be able to click on the Society Members left tab to see a list of the Society Members profiles or something along those lines.
I'm not entirely sure how Squarespace works, so if this isn't possible, its minor.
Justin Denton
I know you'll grow tired of me saying this...lol... but SS v6 is supposed to have several augmentations to the social networking arena. Once we can take a look at what's under the hood, we'll know better on how to proceed. There's rumors of a chat system, iphone integration, e-commerce, and improved social networking tools. Unfortunately Squarespace is rather tight lipped on their upcoming feature set. If the social interaction improvements aren't sufficient, we'll probably tie into something like Ning to provide our social hub to this website.
Brian Pohl
Is there a way to create sub-forums within the top level forum categories? It seems to make good sense from a categorical standpoint to have separate sub-forum sections specific for Pitchvis, D-Vis, Technical, On-Set and Postvis. It would be much easier for people to find and post to sections that are sorted by the main previs types and keep related posts together.
Albert Cheng
I can organize the layout of forums in the left sidebar with collapsable navigation where "folders" denote a collection of certain forums. (like I have now with "forums & blogs") Right now, SS doesn't allow for all forums to appear on a html single page like you see with most BB systems. I'm hoping that appears in the upgrade. If not, and as I've indicated to Justin, we can always migrate the forums to an outside link with something that is more robust if we have to. I'm just hoping to have a system that is entirely self contained.
Brian Pohl
Whether we continue to use SS for our forums or not, why don't we create a list of applicable forums we'd like to see. What categories should there be?
Brian Pohl
Forums have been augmented to include an activity tracker on each forum's page. Unique forums have been created for each distinct sub type of previs.
Brian Pohl
Nice! The forum subcategories seems like they could work, so that you can keep them contained within this site. Under the Previs Forums header, shouldn't there be a plain "Previs" category as well? Overall it seems ideal to keep the overall number of separate forum topics fairly low, at least for now, and add as you grow.
Albert Cheng
Yes. I can add a "plain" previs forum. I'll put it between D-Vis and Postvis... seems to be the natural order of the process.
Brian Pohl
Can the forums be set up so can there be a forum status of how many new posts were made in the first 24 hours etc as soon as I log on?
For example:
there have been "2' new posts and "1" new threads since your last visit.
The generated numbers can then be clicked to view what those are.
Emery
Hi Emery,
The Society is planning a "phase 2" for the website that will be constructed around a dynamic social engine. Our current website utilizes the SquareSpace web hosting network, which is great, but has some limitations from a social perspective. So hang in there. New updates to the site are definitely underway.
Brian Pohl
Very cool. It will be easier for everyone to be active on the forums this way. :)
Emery
RSS feeds would be nice. Would make it easier for me to keep up on what's happenin. :)
Brian Pace
Err I found the Previs Society RSS feed. :D Just for clarification I meant RSS feeds of the forums. Apologies for being unclear.
Brian Pace
No worries Brian. Once the Previs 2010 event is over on the 8th, I'll go into high gear on implementing phase 2 of the website.
Brian Pohl
Hello Everyone,
I've been busy working on enhancing the look of the website along with its various features and I would like to get your input! Squarespace is pretty flexible in that it allows on the fly changes to a number of things, while more custom enhancements like flash take a little more time. While I may not be able to address everything, lets start a discussion thread on general improvements I can work towards. For example, I'd like to unify the color scheme a little more. Should the website be "dark" like this...or should we consider a more light version. I'm just looking for the best overall look before our public release.
Thanks for your help!