Plans for the GFF Front Page
 

The frontpage has changed since a couple of weeks, but I have quite a few problems with how it looks at the moment. For starters, there is no link to the forums, nor is there any information that might suggest that there is more behind gamingforce.org, aside form the reviews that have been posted. Seeing as this is a FORUM PROJECT, it should be a given that the community behind the reviews should be made clear.

Second, the links to the comments do not work. Visitors who don't know anything about GFF, will just look at the three reviews that have been posted, and when they can't check out the comments, they'll easily conclude that it's the work of some kid who likes games but knows shit about web design.

Those are just the two most important issues, but there is a lot more that needs to be done of course. It should be made clear that this is not the main purpose of Gamingforce, but just a SIDE PROJECT. It should be made clear that the forums are what matters most, especially at this early stage. Later on, when and if there are more reviews, and the site actually gets some succes, there could be talk about putting both things on an equal level.

I also think that it needs to be made clear who is in charge of the project, right now there is ZERO transparency about who decides which reviews get posted on the frontpage, what the criteria are for the reviews (just a sticky thread isn't enough), and how someone can submit their review (again, this is where the connection to the forums is important).

Thoughts and ideas?

I definitely agree that there needs to be links to the forum and that the comments need to be fixed but you need to remember that this is a work in progress. The linking to the forum should be fixed asap. I do agree strongly with this.

There could possibly be a section that will show certain criteria in that it's up to the reviewers in how the score or make a review but ultimately there is a bit where good grammar, spelling, etc. will help get to the frontpage sooner and all. This section could also show who is on the frontpage staff and will link to their profiles on the forum.

So yeah, good thoughts but Blah is a busy man. A big ol' link to the forum is VERY MUCH needed though.

Sigh, I'm not going to do everything by myself. I'm playing a facilitator role here, it's up to the people who initiated this project in the first place to continue to push it along.

Since the frontpage currently makes me look like "a kid who knows shit about web design" I'll just take it down. I have enough crap to worry about at the moment.

Also, if editors don't want to edit, we might as well do away with the process entirely.

Well I think most of us get that you're busy, Blah. I just want to confirm this is a temporary thing with the frontpage being down and not permanent, correct?

We definitely need some way of adding new articles to the frontpage beyond admins. I figure all super mods and frontpage staff should be able to do this if we want to get this rolling.

In any case take your time.

Articles can be published to the frontpage by editors, mods and admins. Nobody is doing it. Heck, even a randomly designated "featured" article would make the front page much more presentable.

Oh I see. It's in Thread Tools, Publish Thread. I never knew.

Well, whenever you decide to bring it back I'll be sure to publish some threads after I read them.

I'm not blaming you for all of this, and sorry if I offended you. I didn't even know that you designed the front page and were in charge of it. I was hoping for some reactions from the members who started it (Devo, Skills and others). From the comments in my journal it does seem that there is some work going on, but why does it have to happen behind the screens by a small group? It's not like every member of GFF would want to interfere is there was discussion going on in this subforum. I just want some openess, and an occassional update from the other members who are in charge of this thing.

Yeah, I get what you mean. There's been insufficient coherency to this project so far. I'll sit down with everyone sometime and hammer out a proper outline.

I think this is probably for the best. I know I personally had no idea we had access to the thread tools in order to publish people's work.

Me either! MAGIC.
I still need to copy over a lot of my journal reviews. =o Everyone's gonna get nightmares from seeing 'Simple 2000' as like every second thread, ahauaahahauahahau.