Subject:
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Re: Prototype friendlier LUGNET homepage (was: Re: A requested improvement for LUGNET)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.general
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Date:
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Fri, 23 Jun 2000 19:02:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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419 times
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In lugnet.admin.general, Frank Filz writes:
> - It would be good to add the organizations (and pointer to the map)
> somewhere's visible. Also a pointer to a calendar of events.
ahh, the map -- yes!
How would you make a calendar? Maybe this can be one of the community projects
for the upcoming projects area. I don't have time to maintain a calendar of
events but perhaps someone else does. It would nice to see some sort of
"overview" page of events which pointed (linked) to the individual events
for more details...or something like that.
> I assume the "Top Stories" is automated.
Yop! It uses the same data as this:
http://www.lugnet.com/spotlight.cgi?days=7&threshold=50&sort=fuzzy
The "fuzzy" sort is a combination of "newest first" and "Most recommended
first" -- just like "headline news" works -- new stuff goes to the top, but
falls with time and falls with lesser recommendations to read (i.e., the more
people mark it "spotlight", the more recommended it is, and the longer it will
stay on the fuzzy list.
> - You may want a "headlines" area which is more mannualy updated to point to
> important current items (like the weeks before Brickfest, you might have
> pointed to their web page or the discussion on Lugnet, right now, a pointer
> to a page of info on Kidvention would be valuable).
Ahh, sort or like a persistent spotlight for certain extremely notable items
-- like a manual bookmark sort of thing.
> - I think you probably can find a better use for the space occupied by the
> new members list, though that is nice. Add a link to "join" somewhere though.
I was thinking the member area (currently linked to by the "more..." link)
needs some heavy revamping -- giving better details about what membership is
and how it works (how the sign-up process goes, etc.) If a link labelled
"join" were given on the homepage, I think it would still be good if it wasn't
a direct link to the sign-up form but rather a link to something explaining
what it's all about, and then to the sign-up form.
> - You might think about whether putting the groups on the left would be more
> effective (one thing I wonder is if your positioning of the new members list
> overly stresses membership over participation).
It might overly stress it, but it's something we really need to get into the
open...the numbers are way low. We also want to de-emphasize the newsgroups
from the homepage view -- LUGNET currently suffers from a popular conception
that it is a news site (which it is, but that's not its sole purpose).
> - Important links which are missing:
> - links
> - perhaps the S@H specials
Those are both actually there. The links page is labeled "Everything LEGO"
at the top of the "REFERENCE" list and the S@H page is labeled "S@H Phone
Specials" at the bottom of the same list. Maybe the links page should be
called "links" from the homepage, if that's what people expect a big links
page to be called.
> - inventories
Ah yes. Or at least linked to from a special page listing in detail all of
the reference stuff.
> - you may want to list more of the TLC web sites, or at least have a "more"
> link
I'd probably go with a single link to www.lego.com and "more" link listing
all the rest.
> - fun under groups
> - admin under groups
> - database under groups
> - basic under themed groups (though it doesn't have much discussion)
We wanted to keep the list of groups on the homepage really short -- putting
strongest foot forward with the more active groups, giving a higher probability
of someone finding something interesting when they click on a link. Of the
4 above, I think lugnet.fun could probably go in as being general interest/
appeal.
> - traffic
Ah...yes...
> - You may want to think about what cross links would be effective in making
> all the top level groups accessible from a reasonable looking link. (I see
> for example that ZNap is accessible from the Technic page). Is it possible
> to come up with a category which covers Belville and Scala at least (if not
> Fabuland also).
Great idea! I'm not sure how close we could get but I like it! Space and
Star Wars are related, as are Space and Aquazone, and Western and Castle,
and Castle and Pirates, etc...neato. Even Boats and Aquazone and Pirates
might be considered related?
> - Bring back the choice of number of messages for the more (I've switched
> from 20 to 10 because both at home and at work, 10 messages basically fit
> on the screen.
Hmm, hmm, a tough call -- a brand new user who's never been here before
or has been here a few times (and these are _mainly_ who this page is
designed for) won't know whether to click 10 or 20, and seeing a choice
might only be intimidating rather than comforting. It may make sense to
try it with something like "10 more | 20 more" although the display isn't
actually "10 more" or "20 more" but rather the most recent 10 or 20. (Click
it and see. :-) Hence simply "more..." which doesn't say how many.
> I assume that when the makeover is complete the more messages
> pages will look more consistent with the home page (though I hope they will
> keep the summary, though I can see why you've eliminated that for the home
> page [how about a choice summary on/off, perhaps separate for home page and
> continuation pages]).
Hadn't planned on that, no, although it would be as simple as changing a link
from
http://www.lugnet.com/?n=*,-20&v=b
to
http://www.lugnet.com/?n=*,-20&v=h
(The "v=h" means "view" equals "headline" mode.)
The headline mode was really only created specifically for the homepage.
That's another reason to use "more" without a number -- not only does it
show 20 messages instead of the 7 shown on the homepage, it also shows more
about each message (being in "brief" mode rather than "headline" mode).
> Oh, somewhat unrelated - a request for the traffic page, add a in the last 6
> hours column (usefull for what happened recently now that I'm on lunch break,
> or sitting at the computer after dinner, etc). In some ways, it may be more
> valuable than the last hour.
http://www.lugnet.com/news/traffic/custom.cgi?hours=6
--Todd
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