I'm currently working to drasticly overhaul the case section of the site. This should be done hopefully before the end of the week. As I go I'll post some updates on the progress and look to get some feedback from you guys.
The first as of this moment I have it setup to show your histor cases (the system in place currently), and the new cases. Each "New Case" will have the option to Upgrade. Upgrading will bring you're current case into the new system. All vote stats will be preserved, so it won't effect rank or anything like that. The upgrade option i think is a great option because it lets people transition at their own pace, plus it'll prevent some down time. On the case vote page, you'll be presented slightly differently. It'll preserve the same order as before, with one exception. As incentive to move you're cases over, it'll show all the upgraded and new cases before any of the previous cases. It's not a huge incentive, but it's something. Hopefully the new functionality i'm adding will be incentive enough, lol.
I'm planning to really ajax it up so you shouldn't ever have to refresh the page to see any of your changes to effect. This is a little tricky for image uploads but i think i have that one figured out as well.
As for the bennefits and improvements....
Instead of viewing a default image with a description and the thumbs below it, it'll be more blog style. You'll have the case Description, with current topics below it. To make things even better, I'm going to tie it into the forum, so you can get to the case discussion from two different directions. Some of the blog style is so that you can link worklogs and other discussion directly to the case.
Lastly I plan to change the style so that you can view an album for the case. I've set it up initially for just one default album per case, but this is something relativly easy to change down the road to make it have multiple albums that you can create and destroy per case.
The last plan I'm going to do that I'm going to call on you guys for since you have the true creativity behind the site is, durring the upgrade, if the default image does not exist, and no other images exist for the case, I'm going to want to create a "Coming Soon" image. If you guys feel inspired and want to make me a "Coming Soon" image, I'd love it :) it'd have to have a 4:3 image sizing, I can handle the specifics after that.
So what do you guys think as of this moment? Right now I have the upgrade optin just about finished, so if you have any ideas for it, this is 100% the time to get them in. If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
As of this moment I have the upgrade feature done for the new case system, this will take your current cases and bring them over to the new setup, and everything works fine. It is tested and you won't lose your ranking or anything.
Tonight I'll try to start the "New Case" feature that'll use this sytem. I can't promise it being completed tonight though because like i've been saying, I have a lot on my plate, lol. This system will do the majority of the work and should run incredibly smooth.
In my time i'm always developing my skills, and in the last year i think I've gotten a real boost to logical navigation. Hopefully this system will be far more clear on how everything works. I'm also aiming for a far far far higher ease of use. I'm not a fan anymore of the current create/edit functionality. It was one of the very first areas of the site to come into existance, so it's not a real suprise. This new system should hopefully be an incredible improvement in all potential areas :)
Remember, the current functionality will include..
- integrated blog style updated linked both to the case and the forum
- photo gallery with unlimited number of images
- a higher ease of use and an improved logical navigation
If you guys have any suggestions, get them in as soon as you can :)
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
I made a quick sketch of what I thought and sent it over to my sister who loves photoshop and she spent a couple hours working on it and some other ideas that stemmed from it. Here's what we ended up with. http://img79.imagesh.....fusionmodsjpgph9.jpg
Paradoxal n.
1. A mythical creature that exists only if you don't believe in it.
That looks really cool but i should have mentioned it'll be in something like a minimum size of 200x150 pixels. I didn't test the image that small but the thin font might really throw it off. The use of the pic would also be blown up when you view the case, but it'd have a primary role of serving for a thumbnail image when someone creates a case without any pics.
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
So I have all of the ground work in place for this system, not I'm looking at the implimentation, specificly the way it's viewed and I really wanted to bounce some ideas off you guys.
I have the rough layout drawn out on paper, but to track everything, it'll be a slightly long url, lots of variables in the domain. I prefer not to use cookies if I can avoid them too just because they're pretty annoying to deal with. So what I was thinking of doing was something almost like myspace, and create new pages just for this stuff. I'm thinking something like... http://fusionmods.net/caseID/index.php
or maybe http://fusionmods.net/caseName/index.php
Honestly I'm more for the caseID because it's far safer. Case names can contrain illegal characters and all the fun stuff that make them tedious to create, and after stripping out the illegal characters and spaces, it probably won't be so cool.
But back to the main point. The spage specificly for the case would be a lot like a myspace thing. Case owners would be able to see the editing options for their case, non-owners wouldn't. The pages would be stripped down versions of this page, essentially creating more space for just the case image.
What do you guys think? Should I create a myspace style thing for the computer cases with seperate pages outside the site itself, or should I cram them into this template? Both have their good and bad from the coding side of things
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
yeah i'm still going over a few of the finer details, but since everything would be tied into the forums as well as the case system, you can post a case update through you're case profile, and it'll update in the forum as well. then people can respond from both sides too. This still needs a few of the smaller details penciled out, but i'm really liking the direction of this
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
Alright guys I've really been rolling this around in my head and I'm still completly divided. I know initially I started to talk about making the case vote system more like myspace and I really like that idea, but there's the good and bad to each so I wanted to ask you guys what you'd rather see...
Would you rather ahve the case vote system fit into the site template, much like the forum or any other piece of the site...
- or -
would you rather have the case vote system break out of the site in a myspace spage, where you have a full page view dedicated just to the info on your case?
Theres good and bad to each approach from a programming perspective but it'd be difficult to change from one to the other once one of them is in place.
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
One of my gripes with forum based worklogs is that when comments are in between worklog posts it can be a bit overwhelming for people just looking at the progress of the build. Separating the actual worklog and comments saves time and bandwidth.
steamid: dead7iest_weap0n
AMD X4 720 @ 3.5GHZ, 4GB DDR2, PowerColor 5770 1GB, 40" LCD, 200gb+ 2TB HDD's
Now A+, Net+, Linux+ and MCTS Windows 7 and Server '08 Certified :D
This new system should really take care of that. There will be access to worklogs through the forum which will have everyone's comments, but I'm also lookinto into the most effective way to have worklogs viewed from the case profile that are more direct. I'm planning on each post made by the case owner to be viewed as a blog style posting, keeping it really clean and to the point. I'm still debating a bit on how to organise these in the forums, but I'm thinking either way I decide, it'll take a little tinkering until I'm really happy with it. As of this moment I have the case profile view about 10% done. Most of the work as of this moment has been back end coding, and almost no time has been spent on the aesthetics. Once I have it done, I'll probably open it up to a few members to test out.
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
wow im soo sad to say i do not have time to play with this tonight...grrrr
faceless, thanks for being the man and not needing sleep, its so obvious to see this is your baby and you love her much =] (thanks for sharing her)
**safety note**
try not to think of the price of the part your cutting in half.
