Greetings citizens of TRF. Most of you know who I am, but for all the newlings I'll briefly outline what I do. I shirk duties. :-P I'm the technical administrator, in charge of keeping the board and website online and working as smooth as possible. I also work with the styles and such. We all may have noticed that I've been really busy for the last while, and TRF hasn't seen much in the way of updating at all. I'd like to change that soon.
I'd like everyone to consider what they like about TRF, and what they would like to see TRF offer. I'm open to discussing anything. We're not talking about rule changes, or modifying The Game. This is a brainstorm for an update to the Website and forums.
Here's what I'd like to do:
New Style. Something fresh and different. Portal Default has worked wonderiously for the last year and a half, but it's time for something different.
More Databank info.
New front page. I'd like that front page to be arrayed in a more effective manner.
New way of displaying Groups, group boards, etc
Return Folder functions to UserCP
The board is here for you, so let's hear what you would like it to do.
This is something I was going to PM you about, but I'm lazy. And I'm not sure if it would work...
At any rate: you might have seen the TNO webpage at www.demosthenesx.googlepages.com, which I haven't updated in ages because I'm lazy and it's a bit of a PITA.
Basically, what I wondered is if it would be feasible to give groups the power to create their own sites hosted off the TRF server. There are lots of free alternatives, but very little with FTP access.
If you make a new style, can you leave Portal Default as an option? In case some people don't like the new style but like Portal Default. I'm an old grumpy man who dislikes change. :)
But you do what you think is best Titus, seems to have worked so far.
A new skin would be nice, but until then I think the default should really be changed to Bold Blue or whatever it's called. While the gray layout is nifty I think the Blue one is much easier on the eyes as a default for passers-by.
I think a new, better laid out front page would also be a pretty good idea.
I would appreciate it very much if you modified the Duel skin to be more friendly with some of the additions you've added that only seem to apply to the other skins. Duel is by far my favorite skin out of the list, and I use it on all of my accounts. But using Duel I can't see links to the galaxy map, the new database (there is a link to a database, but when I click it it tells me I don't have permission to see it), and probably some other features I don't know about.
Also, the default skin doesn't show the shoutbox.
Just a few gripes, nothing that desperately needs fixing.
As far as layouts go, I think it would be great to have different color schemes available for each of the layouts. For example, Bold Blue having a Red & Black version and so on.
I also like this idea. Especially if it means each faction leader would be the Admin of their forums and free to make what changes they would like to the graphics and boards. I, for one, hate bugging other people to do it for me.