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[Urme]

How come TDA only got a forum? When WAR gets here wouldn't it be sweet with a functional website, some news, rss feeds, statistics, screenshots etc?

[Oneeyedjack]

True. I dont do websites myself. I create the content for websites, but I have people working for me that do the tech thingy. So I hope some one(s) will step up and help with this. So many "nerds" it should be possible. 
Nah, to be honest it would be really nice to have something ready for WAR. So if anybody want to help out I suggest we setup a group of people and sort out what we need and who does what. So dont be shy, we really appreciate all the help we can get.

[Fenderon]

I can host it etc.. but I know jack shit about making one... html (and so on) has never interested me one bit :\

[Urme]

I can code it with no problems, can use an open source cms and build it around that, but I can't design websites

[Fenderon]

Open Source CMS works for me. .. something that can be integrated with the forum (or the other way around) .. tinyportal or something. I have been looking a bit into it already with Delay .. but RL takes alot of time these days.

[Urme]

Was more thinking of Joomla 1.5, not 100% sure you can integrate SMF into it, might be possible with some extension.

[Maar]

Was more thinking of Joomla 1.5, not 100% sure you can integrate SMF into it, might be possible with some extension.

Integrate as show forum within a CMS should not be to hard but to have the CMS authentication modules work for the forum aswell can mean some nasty coding .

But I agree would be nice with a CMS or as minimum some kind of portal with forum integrated.

http://www.opensourcecms.com have some demo systems running so should not be to hard to check out a solution that could fit a "gaming" community.

Edit: Joomla have some forum bridges for SMF, see http://extensions.joomla.org/   Communication | Forum bridges.

[Joric]

What they said. (Maar, Urme)

Opensourcecms.com as a starting point to search and test, but if you want the big pack, Joomla is a safe choice.

I am more a fan of smaller CMS/portals, but I also installed and maintained some Joomla 1.0 Websites.

On the other hand I am not sure that we need a complete CMS, a good forum extension should do nicely imho. It should add some kind of portal which shows static/dynamic content and can integrate forum stuff as well as RSS --> this keeps the workload low for authors as most of the dynamic content can/will be generated from "normal" users.

Most important question: will we stay with SMF?

---

Update: a quick webfind: http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/joomla/joomla_smf.htm (Joomla 1.0.x + SMF)

Joomla extensions list: http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,listcats/cat_id,1969/Itemid,35/ --> this lists a Joomla 1.5 integration: http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,5388/Itemid,35/

If community is the main focus, PHP-Fusion (http://www.php-fusion.co.uk) or e107 (www.e107.org) might be a choice. These systems have native forums.

general discussion: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=18370.0

[Joric]

on the other hand... why do we need that strong integration of CMS and forum? We could easily live with just a CMS website and a link to a forum...

[Fenderon]

What is it that people miss in general?

Like the portal that is now, except for it being somewhat limited by the fixed width by the default theme .. what do you think we need/want?

[Joric]

What is it that people miss in general?

Like the portal that is now, except for it being somewhat limited by the fixed width by the default theme .. what do you think we need/want?

Yep - good question. /thumbsup

In general I think people talk about a "cool" (looking) website or have something like that in mind (no offense meant, it's what I see from average web-projects at work, too).

For me functionality comes first, but if that is "embedded" into a nice looking design, I wouldn't mind that

Here comes a first list:

#1 - communication
- forum: asynchronous communication, should have sections and stuff, a good search function, should list new threads/posts --> basically I don't think we should change much here, already got a nice forum software
- chat: synchronuous communication: a web-based chat with gateway into the game would be nice, also in combination with a bot. could see who is online without logging in, chatting while not being in-game etc. (low priority, nice2have)

#2 - portal (stay up2date)
- news, including RSS feeds etc.
- calendar

#3 - CMS
- articles: HowTo's, level guides, everything ingame related (but tbh you can do that in a forum, too)
- gallery: piccies (can do that in a forum, too - a gallery has better browsing and management function)

Hosting of bigger files won't happen anyway, as server space/bandwidth is expensive if you hit a certain point (i.e. video hosting and lots of downloads)

For me the most important thing is, that it is EASY and USABLE and that people are ACTIVE in that thing, that makes 80%+ of a good community.

So if we really want a website like "we are TDA and here are our guild rules and stuff - come and join" I'd be happy to have a small easy CMS for that kind of stuff, can also have RSS feeds there etc. and integrate the forum with a normal link.

Who wants to maintain such a website anyway? Posting new CMS articles on a regular base? Would people read this? To my mind all people will look into the forum and/or the chat anyway...

[Fenderon]

RSS we can do on the front page today .. just have to have the proper html or php code for it.

Chatting ingame etc using a webthingy probably wont be possible for WAR .. it might be possible for AoC, but does anyone even play that anymore?

Calendar we have - it's a part of the forum and you can schedule events on it that will appear on the front page (of the forum, unsure about the frong page - will look into it )

A gallery integration is possible - but I have not done so yet since I only have 100MB of web storage. This will change once (if) I get a permanent position here .. and things become ...free

[Maar]

What is it that people miss in general?

what do you think we need/want?

I dont miss anything important and I like the look and feel of it so far, in time would game stats be nice to have on the frontpage (if and when possible) and if TDA will support several games a user preference option to load default "AoC portal", War portal", DAoC portal" etc would be nice to keep the frontpage less cluttered but maybe not necessary. One thing that could be nice to have are a calendar box "text by date" listing of upcoming hunts and again only if possible since it's easy to browse the forums anyway.

[Xandax]

Sorry - only codes .net and sql - Don't do php and similar. (also can't design squat ).
However, could be that I should take a look at some tools for various things, perhaps combat log parsing, xml parsing etc........ if I get bored after a day of coding at work


But anyways - I think it would be a good idea to make some plans for a site with information as well. I hate having to scrounge around the web for reliable resources, so would be fun if we could make some.

[Fenderon]

as for info, I tried to make a Links thing (look next to the logout button on top bar). But people seem to prefer to add info into threads instead