SX and TW - what to do?

[dibz]

Hey everyone, me and vbt were discussing this and decided to get your opinions on the matter. I'm just going to list some questions to get some opinions.

What sections would you like to see stay around? What is a section or feature you would like added? We are thinking of keeping SX/TW seperate forums although more integrated content, opinions? What about things like a auction/trading system for b/s/t? New ways to handle things?

This is open to any idea you have, lets discuss. :cheers

 

[schi0249]

Personally, I'm all for merging NX and SX into 1 site. I visit NX way less, and there is also less traffic in the forums. If there was an easy way to merge them, I personally think that would be best. Instead of what to keep, I'll list what I think could be dropped:

Fan Fiction

Reviews

I will modify this as I go along.

 

[it290]

I'd say just drop Tendoweb altogether. It doesn't get much traffic at all, and merging the two into a generic video game site would no doubt take away the flavor and make traffic decrease over time.

One thing I think could be beneficial to the site is the posting (on the site itself, not in the forums) of more technical homebrew & mod related information. These things are the main draw for a lot of people here and it would be nice to have them in an easily referenced manner. Maybe in wiki format? I dunno.

 

[Zziggy00]

Originally posted by it290@Tue, 2006-04-11 @ 02:47 PM

more technical homebrew & mod related information

I agree with this statement.

on another note: I really don't know how new members find this site anymore, I come back here multiple times daily being a creature of habit and am intrested in the different discussions that take place here.

Some thing must be good... I've been coming back for almost 5 years now

 

[dibz]

I was already thinking about making the dev and homebrew sections wiki based. I was thinking of making everything based on the new vBulletin install similar to how vgx is set up so far, although I imagine we will likely stick mainly with SX and maybe TW.

 

[VertigoXX]

Dude, ONE bulletin board, with multiple sites serving as portals. So you go to SX and see SX news, click the board link and see the board with the SX skin. Go to NX and see NX news, click the board link and see the board with the NX skin. Same content on the board, just a different skin depending on which site you come in from.

I like the idea of making all the various FAQ and How-To files into a Wiki format layout. Just make sure all edits and additions have to be approved by an admin or a mod or admin at least. I speak from experience when I say that people will fuck it up if you allow any sort of free posting. The only thing keeping this board civil is the fact that users have to verify their e-mail address before being able to post and that everyone's IP is logged.

 

[mal]

:agree

There's no need for a merged SX and TW to become a generic gaming site. It would be good to intergrate the overlapping forums (news, b/s/t, general, etc) while still maintaining seperate Sega and Nintendo sections.

The idea of Wiki-ing the help and FAQ section is one that's long overdue. :thumbs-up:

 

[Kuta]

I would not be in favour of merging the two sites. The reason why I like this site so much is because it is specialist Sega site. If it became a Sega AND Nintendo site then it would just be another retro gaming site and its not like there aren't many already out there. I would like the Tendoweb to stay, I think it just needs a bit more publicity to get it going. I'm sure there are many Nintendo enthusiasts out there somewhere.

1 more suggestion; has anyone considered have sections dedicated to each console eg. Mega Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast? I think it would make the site more appealing to those who are interested in a particular console.

 

[dibz]

Just to clarify, I messed up my post earlier. And what vertigo mentioned - having one site that does a different slant based on Skin is exactly what I am planning at the moment. That way it can keep things together while seperate at the same time, depending on if you have Nintendo/Sega selected. I was thinking it would show different forums based on selection while technically being the same forum database and users. Or basically, what VertigoXX said.

 

[dibz]

Just made a quick mock up of what I had in mind, although remember this is just a mock up. The left block is for content specific menu items, and the link above it is to hide it so the content can take up the view. Then there is a link to switch between SX and NX, which would change the theme and content that shows. Opinions?

[attachmentid=1813]

 

[it290]

Looks nice, but I'm worried that that type of layout may lead to slow rendering.

 

[dibz]

I was thinking very basic css, the elements I was planning on using shouldn't cause any problems as the shadows would not by dynamic. Although I may remove them all together as they are not really necessary. Feel free to provide opinions on what you would like in a layout.

 

[dibz]

Seems only the content would be able to change based on theme, and not what forums showed. After looking in to this doing that would apparently violate the license agreement for vBulletin, as it would be considered a seperate domain/forum.

 

[racketboy]

like I mentioned long ago, an RSS feed with news would be nice.

I just dug up this link:

http://forums.segaxtreme.net/index.php?showtopic=13152

Since nobody did it before, I started my own site

SX's strength is its technical stuff.

In a Web full of gaming sites, you need to focus on your strong niche. I recommend having a blogish news page with the message board and maybe a wiki.

A lot of the existing content would work well in a wiki and collaboration and management would be much easier.

Put in some tactful Adsense ads and you'll help pay for the site.

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

wiki wiki wiki. As has been said before, our strong point is our techincal knowhow and knowledge. I'd like to see pretty much a database of Sega info. Wiki format would be nice, type in saturn modchip and get a list of tons of relavent topics would OWN. Only problem is sucking all that info out of the boards/other areas of the site would be hell, but oh-so worth it.

I'd also like to see more manual scans, solid emu section, and sega magazine stuff. I do not however, want this to end up being an emu-related site. That would be no good.

As far as NX...I like it, I really do. Only problem is that nothing is done w/ it and there is nothing there to draw new ppl in...it's a dead fish so to speak, just kinda there. Maybe w/ the revolution this will change?

 

[VertigoXX]

Originally posted by dibz@Wed, 2006-04-12 @ 09:21 AM

After looking in to this doing that would apparently violate the license agreement for vBulletin, as it would be considered a seperate domain/forum.

[post=145662]Quoted post[/post]​

Another reason why I would've never gone with a non-open-source message board program. <_< PHPbb may have it's share of problems, but you can modify it to do whatever you want without legal repercussions.

 

[dibz]

Honestly I would never use phpBB again. While it is easy to use and modify for our own needs, I have dealt with this software enough at work to know it is one of the most hacked scripts out there, including up to date versions. I have no problem using open source, although phpBB specifically I do have a problem with.

 

[vbt]

Maybe we should do a big check on all sections, remove dead one, find people motivated to add content or update, the wikiidea was good for this.

The return of a SX kaillera server would be nice, the same would be great for Nintendo emus.

Why not a goodies section with funny things linked with video games( stupid sheep moving on the desktop, bomberman, screensavers,clock,etc)

 

[dibz]

I like the kaillera server idea and the other ones too, however the server would need to run off-site because we are currently running on shared hosting that doesn't allow background processes.

 

[dibz]

Here's the layout in action (partially) of the screenshot I posted before, using the vgx domain (it's sx though).

Segaxtreme Layout

The forums are horribly broken since they haven't had their templates modified, and my icon set I made isn't in use yet. Be sure to check out the +/- menu link under the header. It also needs some tweaks for IE for positioning yet.