Welcome Back!

[Mercator]

Originally posted by curtsibling
We are all good at making tech trees in CIV2 - Let's put that
design rationale to work and make some ingenius forum website structures!

[curtsibling]

I'm happy with either option, milord!

Let's start posting up some structure plans for how to set everything out...

[Mercator]

What about a wiki?

Originally posted by Panda
I think it would be just as valid to maintain a master thread for links to graphics posts, scenario workshops, and tips and guides discussion.

But wouldn't that make a website obsolete?

My only real concern is with the graphics showcases. Would it be acceptable to encourage the use of linking to new graphics from personal upload space rather than as attachments? This would be easier to maintain an "index" if it only required another link rather than another attachment. The showcase threads could still retain the old form of submission, feedback, improvement, requests, and occasional OT trolling.

You can also link to forum attachments.

The advantage of that is that people won't be limited by the amount of upload space they have and newer versions don't have to have the same file name.

The drawback of this, probably also when using the upload space, is how can you force people to update an existing attachment, or force them to keep all their uploads and keep using the same filename? Once people start neglecting the rules or the people in charge of maintaining the indexes lose interest the whole system will fall apart.

[Panda]

Hmm...okay, let me try that

Using img tags:



Using html:



Edit: Ha ha!

So there was one of Merc in the picture thread

[Panda]

Alrightly then, since that seems to work I take back what I said about using the upload space.

[Panda]

Originally posted by Mercator
...At the moment, St Leo is the only one working on the SL website, AFAIK. He can't possibly do this on his own.

That's also why we've been mostly sticking to the forums. It's much easier to maintain. But it can also quickly become a muddled mess.

St Leo was obviously quietly beavering away making our lives better, before he asked the forum be deleted

http://sleague.apolyton.net/db/generic.php?urlgameid=1&urltypeid=13

Question: is this better than the GL style thread he also set-up and topped? IMO, no. Put it to a poll?

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Harry Tuttle did find something...

Yes I did. My current scenario work and the Petition with all its glory is now uploaded onto a conglomeration of off-site storage areas. Come hell or high water these files will survive.

I suggest everyone find an off-site storage area for their files. I think Fairline's crash and the recent Armageddon that we've witnessed here is testimony to off-site storage effectiveness.

[techumseh]

IMHO, we should put the contest on hold for a while while we sort this out.

I'd be very interested in helping design a site, with help from Merc and anyone else who's interested. I can put up a rough draft on my existing site, and people can comment and make suggestions as we go. My html is very basic, but I have been involved in helping design a couple of sites at work.

Once we have a basic structure, we can upload the new site to Apolyton where St. Leo and perhaps one or two others can be webmasters. I suggest adding Merc.

If this is agreeable, I think I can have something to look at up on my site by Sunday night. Is this OK?

[Leonidas]

If people are looking to setup websites for themselves and for Civ2, FREEWEBS offers FREE websites and webpage design with about 40MB of storage space and with 500MB of user bandwidth per month:

http://members14.freewebs.com/page.jsp?page=aboutFreeWebs

[Broken_Erika]

Originally posted by Leonidas
If people are looking to setup websites for themselves and for Civ2, FREEWEBS offers FREE websites and webpage design with about 40MB of storage space and with 500MB of user bandwidth per month :

http://members14.freewebs.com/page.j...=aboutFreeWebs

well being the devilish little hoarder girl that i am, i've managed to hoard pretty much most of ALL graphics from this site, so even if ther were no backup of the older posts, we wouldn't have to worry about graphics backup,
(note to self, get life,)

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by Broken_Erika

well being the devilish little hoarder girl that i am, i've managed to hoard pretty much most of ALL graphics from this site, so even if ther were no backup of the older posts, we wouldn't have to worry about graphics backup,
(note to self, get life,)

I know the feeling.

I have a whole CD full of Civ2 graphics

Using FREEWEBS to make your own website is pretty easy. They include everything to design and set it up...

Cheers!

[:) Smiley]

How about a website similar to DeviantArt or Elfwood? How much programming would that require?

[fairline]

I know absolutely squat about websites and website design, but I do know that the majority of links I had from 5 years ago no longer exist.

If the resources of the SLeague are dispersed onto personal sites, doesn't this leave us open to half of it being lost as member's inevitably drift away from the community and stop maintaining their sites? Surely it's safer to keep stuff either in this forum or in a revamped SL site hosted by Apolyton, which, despite this current catastrophe, has proven staying power on the net?

I disagree with Panda and Harry's suggestions about using the forum as a glorified links page when it comes to resources. If the resources are kept on personal sites, then you can bet your ass they'll disappear in a few years. The Poly personal upload space is a no-no also - I could fill mine 10 times over with memory-hungry bitmaps

[curtsibling]

While I agree the webs would be good for some things;
Tips, scenario showcases, special cases like the petition...

Let's be realistic, people will not want to hunt far for what
they are looking for, and if they cannot find it quick they
give up - This is an internet psychology fact.

I do advocate sticky topics with master threads, covering
all the different areas.
This way, new users can easily browse and be inspired
to join in our community or make a new mod/scen...

We also could have a links thread to lead onto various specific websites.

But please keep the units and graphic resources in a coherent whole.
The system we had was OK, all we need to do is this:

1)
Keep the threads in a structured system = Master thread & links.

2)
Make guidelines for submission = The guidelines fairline suggested earlier.

3)
Make sure the community backs up everything voluntary,
this way we can rebuild should the forum collapse again.

Just my tuppence...

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Mercator

There are just a few problems. Ideally I'd like to see the site redesigned from the ground up, clearly organized and consistent, with no left-overs from past designs. But that's a hell of a lot of work. Even if we're going with the current site there will be much to do.

In fact, that's pretty much the problem I'm running into with my own website as well. Things are all over the place. And that's just about organizing existing data. There's also so much new stuff I have to add.

At the moment, St Leo is the only one working on the SL website, AFAIK. He can't possibly do this on his own.

That's also why we've been mostly sticking to the forums. It's much easier to maintain. But it can also quickly become a muddled mess.

Those observations seems spot on,

The problems you're describing when it comes to organizing information in a group already point towards a Wiki documentation like structure. In a way this already happened in the old forum with the top graphic threads. A forum isn't really meant for organizing information, although you can try.
A Wiki is different from a forum in that its focus is on organizing&editing content (in principle everyone can edit and add new pages). In a forum the focus is on debate and discussions. You can also do debates in a Wiki but that's not really where a Wiki is intended for.



My suggestion would be two-fold: the SL would, in time become a Wiki and the Scenario forum would still have its function that it has know : Top threads for showing off graphics (albeit a bit more organized to prevent clutter and spamming) and the usual debates about scenarios, questions, events etc...If a subject is really important you could easiliy copy&paste the content from that thread to a new or existing wiki page at SL. It would save St.Leo a lot of time in keeping SL up to date himself.


So, news&discussions&debate = forum and documentation = Wiki


Wiki pages can work quite well once you get used to them. The Freeciv site is actually a Wiki.

http://www.freeciv.org/index.php/Events