Arwen-Undomiel.com
http://arwen-undomiel.com/forum/

AU Revival: Main Site [Non-Image] Headquarters
http://arwen-undomiel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=21192		 Page 1 of 23
Author:  Nurrantiel Mashiara [ February 15th, 2011, 8:17 pm ]
Post subject:  AU Revival: Main Site [Non-Image] Headquarters
Welcome! Welcome! Come in, take a seat. :) Here at the main site non-image headquarters our team will be talking about everything related to updating the main site, minus things dealing with images/graphics. There's a lot of work to be done and a lot of clutter to take care of. With this in mind, please let's not clutter this thread! Try and keep chat to a minimum, and if you have ideas about the revival in general - meaning, not specifically about the main site cleanup - it'd be best to post it in one of the other threads.


Alrighty. I've made lists of the things on the main site that we'll need to look at. There are a few different types of things.
[x] General Housecleaning
[x] Brainstorming new ideas/Planning organization
[x] Writing
Basically, if you're not interested in any of these, I'm sure there are other teams that will fit you better. :)


Still here? Yay! Okay, I'm just going to go section by section from the site. A few ideas here:
[x] When you see something you'd like to work on, post here and claim it. :P
[x] Don't hesitate to work with other people! Two heads are better than one?
[x] Give updates on your progess. A good timeframe is once a week. Even if you haven't gotten much further than last time, just a post to let me know you're still around is helpful.
[x] Some of these things are "in the future" things that will be (hopefully) ongoing. If you choose to start working on it now, it'd be great if you kept it going until either we're running pretty smoothly or you find a successor.
I will be adding ideas and comments as things come up in italics.


Home Page (Pretty much all "future things")
-The Poll: It's currently waaay out of date, as it says PJ isn't doing the Hobbit. *UPDATED - ANA*
-Guestbook: It's still being used! As in, I saw comments from this month. Though I don't actually know what we do with a guestbook.. // LOOKED AT BY JF AND HRAVAN
-Tag: Is it still being used? // NEW ONE BY NICOLE
-News updates // LAR AND JF
get a new tag (they're free) to draw back old taggers, replace "featured site" with a forum link, another host for the guestbook, make the top banner a link to the home page

Books
-"Creative": To me, the Tolkien section could be better organized. Opinions? Thoughts? Ideas?

Film
-Cast bios: Update the info, give some current/past projects, check links
-Crew bios: same, as well as add more
-Scripts: covered by Lady Rinoa and Nurr
-Music of LotR: New section! Someone desirous to take it on?
-Making of: New section! Info about behind the scenes/Weta/etc. PS: I'm sure JF would love to share her knowledge of the Weta part.
Lar : cast bios
JF : behind the scenes

Contests
-Update with the results of previous
-Someone to take over running new ones? ("Future thing")
make the contests linked with the forum / large monthly (?) site-wide contest

Links
definitely good for multiple people. coordination between them and coders. especially good for people who are part of both teams.
-Go through the pages. Make note of broken links; it will be passed along to the coders so they can delete them.
-Ambitious? Look up new sites we can link to. If there's a broken link, see if you can find the site again and fix the link.
Ana, Lar

Site
-Affiliates, Fanlistings, and Credits: check for broken links and make note.
-Contact: needs updated.
-FAQ's: need updated
-A new page about the "new regime" as it were. Info about us, the donation process, etc.
Nurr : updates, broken links, new pages
Himlond : contact

Quizzes good for multiple people
-Make note of broken links.
-Organize? Look for new ones?
Lady Rin

Misc
-Brainstorm better ways to organize, ie "fun" page and "tut" page instead of tutorials and games and all the rest together.
games/quizzes in "fun" section, site/graphic tutorials in a different one



I think that's covered it all. If you have questions, just ask. :D Oh, yeah, you can do more than one thing. Whatever you think you can take on.
Author:  Johnny's Fan [ February 15th, 2011, 9:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
Awesome post Nurr. Borrowing some of it if I may. :teehee:

I would like to do the behind the scenes info if I can. It can cover a lot of different things from Weta to the costumes etc. I'd like people's thoughts on what subjects there should be though. :-)

I'm also really happy to work on any bios as I have had experience with them before. :-)

There are a couple of other things I wouldn't mind working on, but I need to see what needs doing to the image part first, so I may be back. ;)

[I have just 2 comments; first I'm not sure if we need to bother with a contest for visitors and second I'd like to say that I believe a general "fun" section would be best suited for the games/quizzes etc and another seperate section for the site/graphic tutorials would be more appropriate]
Author:  Aredhel Ar-Feiniel [ February 15th, 2011, 9:55 pm ]
Post subject: 
I second what JF's saying about the contest thing. We should have some kinda incentive for people to join the forum, which is our main community, and to get involved here with livening this place up... contests can be one of those things. If visitors can participate in contests without being a part of the forum, then what's the use in joining us?

I think maybe we could have a big monthly contest (LotR only), that gets advertised on the homepage with the awards and entries (and past awards/entries) posted on a separate page for visitors to see. But the rule should be that you can only post entries on the forum, meaning you have to register here as a member to participate.
Author:  Eä [ February 17th, 2011, 6:03 am ]
Post subject: 
Great list, Nurr - you are indeed a Queen of List-making! :-)

The Hobbit
An idea is one of the other threads was having a specific place/topic/sub-site.. whatever it's called for The Hobbit. Everything relating to the filming, news, gossip, behind-the-scenes, the book, the actors etc. I know some of it might as well fit under the general trilogy but maybe we could still feature The Hobbit - to hype it to new visitors who would find us when searching for The Hobbit on google.

Tag-board
It's free, isn't it? For the sake of the tagger-community as well as for having general traffic to the main site I think we should look into getting it up and running too.

The forum
Like I mentioned somewhere else I suggest we display the forum clearly on the main site. As it is now when you look at the 16 categories, you wouldn't go.. Ohh, there's the forum, I wonder if there is a whole community hiding behind the that hidden wardrobe door! An idea could be to take out the Featured sites and put a box/button.. thing there with the forum.

And later on we'll need a link to donations there too.

Guestbook
I kinda like the idea of having a guestbook as this is an easy way for visitors to drop a line.. And yes, apparently people are still using it - and using the website - including someone called Nurrantiel! ;)
Perhaps I'm for another host .. and that you have to provide less info to sign the guestbook, but those are minor details.


And a small request for the coders: Is it possible to make the top-banner a shortcut back to "Home" as in the front page like it works on the forum. It's just a more natural thing since most websites works like that.


EDIT:
I know this probably belongs in the Image thread but I'd like to mention it here too. We've been talking back and forth about the old stuff on the site. How about having an archive for it somewhere on a hidden site under the main site or a couple of threads on the forum to save everything that is removed from the main site. Maybe not so much for nostalgia but as a back up for.. I don't know... But there is so much stuff people have sent in, art, pictures of themselves, etc. Just dumping it seems.. wrong.. :)
Author:  Anameleth [ February 17th, 2011, 4:11 pm ]
Post subject: 
I had to borrow my friend's computer to be able to look at this thread :P
But this looks really great, Nurr. :) Hopefully we can get people to start working on these things. As I've already said before, I'm happy to look up broken links, but obviously I need more people with me as it's probably going to be a big job. Maybe you could look through the "sign up for jobs" thread and pm some of the people who volounteered for it there?
Author:  Himlond [ February 17th, 2011, 4:41 pm ]
Post subject:  I
I volunteer for Contact under site ! :cool:
Author:  Nurrantiel Mashiara [ February 17th, 2011, 7:07 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hehe Ea, I do love my lists.

Good ideas on the contest section, guys. I like the idea of some sort of regular "site-wide" one to draw people in.

Re: The Hobbit
It seems to me that if we keep the news on the main page, and link to the hobbit info, it can fit in the same categories. After all "films" can cover any film, not just LotR.

Re: The tag-board
Arweb posted in the other thread that it just isn't running anymore. We certainly can get a tag board for free easily, and work it in (perhaps a new section) to draw taggers back?

Thanks Ana, I'll take a look back through and start with the PMs. ;)

Thanks Himlond! Question: are you going to be using the original AU e-mail? And have you talked with Arweb about it? If not, free e-mails are pretty easy to get. But I know she mentioned she didn't want to just throw all the access out there.
Author:  Himlond [ February 17th, 2011, 9:07 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'd have to think about using the email. We might have to use a different address (maybe contact@arwen-undomiel.com?) or something like that. I don't actually have contact with Arweb, so it might be best if one of you could possibly pass on my messages or something or ask how she would like to deal with the email issue.
Author:  Larael [ February 18th, 2011, 5:12 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'd like to volunteer for updating cast bios as well as helping Ana out with checking links. Question: How should I go about updating the bios? Work them out in a Word document and then send them off to a coder?
Author:  Nurrantiel Mashiara [ February 21st, 2011, 2:12 pm ]
Post subject: 
^I would think just typing them up in Word (or something like TextEdit/Notepad might even be better) would be the best, and then we can work it out with the coders.


FOR THOSE WHO HAVE VOLUNTEERED TO CHECK LINKS:
First of all, thank you!
BUT. Can you please mention, specifically, what links you are going to look at first? There are a lot of them out there. So just post and say, for example, "I'm looking at quizzes" or "I'm looking at links>web design". That way we aren't all looking at the same pages and it's easier to keep up with. :)

I, specifically, am looking at the "site" links - affiliates, fanlistings, credit.
Author:  Larael [ February 22nd, 2011, 12:45 am ]
Post subject: 
I'm looking at "Links" links - LotR and Cast.

[Next up might be "Links" links - Web Design depending on what Ana does. Otherwise, I'll move on to another section.]
Author:  Dark, Queen of Angmar [ February 22nd, 2011, 3:03 am ]
Post subject: 
SITE
-Affiliates, Fanlistings, and Credits: check for broken links and make note.

I'll do this.

Who do we pass this along to?
Author:  Nurrantiel Mashiara [ February 22nd, 2011, 9:52 am ]
Post subject: 
It'll be passed along to someone in coding who has access to the site. Right now no one does, so just make notes of what needs changed and save them somewhere.

Thanks guys! :)
Author:  Anameleth [ February 22nd, 2011, 1:39 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'll get started on links-webdesign, and then I'll move on to the quizzes section.
Author:  Anameleth [ February 22nd, 2011, 2:37 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sorry for double-posting, but

I've gone through the first page of quizzes, and I found only two (2!!) quizzes that still existed (out of what felt like a thousand). I'll go through the other pages as well, but if this continues, I suggest we either completely remove the quizzes section, or have someone make new ones.

Webdesign was completely intact, btw.

EDIT: I've also checked the entire Misc section.
Author:  Rinoa Amarth [ February 24th, 2011, 3:05 am ]
Post subject: 
It a great list Nurr! I'm loving it! *bows to the Queen of List-making* :notworthy:

I am where I should be on the list. :cool: Most of the quizzes I can have back online with fresh links in under a half hour. Once Codeing is sorted out and we have tested everything and stuff... (w/ "my answer was" or just links in gerneral). As LOTR quizes have become increasingly rare in the Harry Potter and Twlight craze on Quizzila. I have saved a lot of LOTR quizzes for my random episodes of "I am bored and have nothing else to do." Though sadly some of the best ones were taken down when the site switched owners. :frust: (Also thus all the broken links) I have also found a number of good ones here and there on the web that I saved somewhere on one of my computers. XD Anyway....



As for:

The Tag Board:
I hardly ever use it myself but a lot of people did I noticed. It has been out of commision for well over a year now so perhapes we should try and find a new one to bring more traffic back to the main site.

Guestbook:
A guestbook is always a good idea. Sometimes people will come in and have a suggestion and give us some true feedback that can help us improve the site to make it more enjoyable. Plus it's kind of nice to see that so many people enjoy the site and all the hard work that went into it. :P

The Hobbit
I agree with your idea Nurr of just sticking it in with Films and linking to it on the News. That way everything is still in order and people will know about it. :)

Contests
I fully support Haldir's idea on the subject. It would be a great way to involve others in the process and maybe getting people to realize the fun little community we have behind-the-scenes. :)

I also liked the JF/Gimli's idea of a general fun section that could consist of the Quizzes, most of the stuff in Miscellaneous, and the humour section. It will create a few more pages for the coders but it will make the link bar under the top banner less intimiadting in the future. Speaking of the top banner, the idea of making it link to the main site is a great idea. I don't know about you guys but I sometimes click on it thinking it will do that anyways. :lol: Then I remember it doesn't. :duh:


Anyways, I'll check back tomorrow just noticed the time and I need to be up at 03:00 (aka 4 hours) to take my dad to work an hour away from home.
Page 1 of 23 All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/