RMXP.org - Round Two.

[illustrationism]

Mythus. It is admirable that you would stand by the software you use, and Tiny Portal looks really cool and very useful. However, coding a web site by hand is not hard if you're good at it. There's more control and more options for customization, and SMF makes it very simple for you to hook into their system. Plus if you run into a snag, you won't be trying to look at someone else's code.

I could understand why someone would want to go either way. Just be sure not to take it personal if they don't go with it.

A community exists because of its members AND its administrators, but couldn't exist without both. Administrators are the people who make decisions for the community to make it better, communities need them, and I feel like there is a competent bunch at this community.

 

[mythus]

No, what ever decision they made wouldn't upset me. It would be silly, and childish to take such  things personally. I just wanted to make sure that it was known that Tiny Portal wasn't just some protal software, despite what I think is a horrible name choice. These admins are at least working on the site, and have made great improvements already, so I already respect them for that, and would respect what ever decision they make.

The whole line with a website not existing without the members was me trying to establish my.. displeasure at seeing an admin yell at someone for asking a question. Sure it had been announced before that a website was going to be made, but a member was confused. I think the situation should have been handled a little differently. After all, if a new perspective member was to see stuff like that, that may deter them from joining. It may also cause that member who received such attention to leave, and tell others of his experience here, which would cause them not to consider joining.

It is a vicious cycle, and sometimes patience can wear thin. Especially when dealing with subject matter that had already been addressed. I have lost my cool at times on my site, so I understand this. But it is important to try and remember, the members are the reason to make a site.

 

[Bael]

Felblog is the only useful suggestion--I'll look into it, to restore sponsorship blogs.

Aww, just blogs for sponsors? Is there a reason for that? (I've never had a forum before, so I am sorry if this is an obvious question.)

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

It's a perk to get people to donate.
You know how telethons will give you a shirt or some trifal?  After a certain amount you get all sorts of things?  While I personally think we should work sponsorship on that level, .org does it in one package including blogs and the like.
The other reason .org gave only to sponsors is because of space.  This forum is huge - it really is, and what it offers and will offer is a large chunk of space.  To be able to give perks, but manage not to shut the site down by using up all the server resources mumbo jumbo, is to give it to a select few - sponsors for example.

Most forum sites don't give you anything.  Those that do give you a very limited version if they are giving to everyone, and it's usually almost always going to be some small thing with few either parts many people hate (such as networking and the like), or very few perks (one site had a blog for everyone, but had a max word count and limited journal entries so you'd have to delete older entries to post new ones eventually).  Org's was a basic blog from what I know with none of those features, and the only limitations were that most blogs have (one being it looked like a blog - IE: little design options).  That should answer your questions.

I believe mod's also had these perks, at least in part, at one time as well, but it was before I was modded and I don't really remember.

 

[Despain]

Mythus, thanks for all the suggestions and advice. It's clear you've thought this stuff out.

But so have we. We have detailed plans for the site that we've been working on for months. A CMS might be useful if we didn't already know what we're doing. We have a design already planned and we have a person lined up who is going to be coding the site. There's no need to resort to generic SMF modifications when we have the ability to create something custom-tailored to the site.

 

[mythus]

*nods*  As long as you have a plan, it is good to stick with it. After all, an option that one likes, can not be liked by everyone. Thus the beauty of the internet, and the choices it gives.

 

[shadow]

Couple of updates to the new and improved RMXP forums:

* Clicking on a user's name gives you the option to email, sends you to an email form.
* Default theme now has bigger and easier to read reply and new topic icons.
* Guests can now post in feedback.
* Lite/archive version of the site available http://www.rmxp.org/forums/archive.php

 

[Racheal]

Archive! Yay!
I can easily check the site at work now!

thanks Shadow!

[edit] A couple things I noted with the archive/low-fi mode.
i) It might be better if images in the posts were made links instead of actually showing the images? It's not very lo-fi if all the images still load and display.
ii) The contents of spoilers are not shown.

Don't know how hard those would be to fix, but I thought I'd note them.

 

[rickster090]

can you tell me wat to edit so i can do ity please (admin)

 

[shadow]

A couple things I noted with the archive/low-fi mode.
i) It might be better if images in the posts were made links instead of actually showing the images? It's not very lo-fi if all the images still load and display.
ii) The contents of spoilers are not shown.

Don't know how hard those would be to fix, but I thought I'd note them.

Thanks for pointing those out, I'll mess around with archive.php a little bit later.

Also, I just added an advanced search system and enabled indexing for faster results!