Author Topic: Website Redesign (Read 17087 times)

Hooman · « **on:** April 10, 2012, 12:25:13 AM »

Many thanks to TH300 for the recent website re-design. The update went live on Easter Sunday. The menu system has been updated significantly, so now you should be able to actually find things on the site. It's also not so tiny for people with wide screens. Personally, I love the update.

There was still one thing we wanted to change but haven't done yet. We would like an updated image for the top of the page. As none of the admin team are particularly skilled at image design, while some of the users here clearly are, we thought perhaps we should put a challenge to the community to design a new image for the website. We haven't set any selection details or timeline yet, but if multiple people choose to submit images, we may hold a poll, with the winner laying claim to the front page of the website.

To get some ideas started, my opinion of the current image is that it's fairly visually attractive, but much too obviously a picture of Mars. I would prefer something more representative of New Terra. Or perhaps it doesn't have anything to do with New Terra. Perhaps we should have some other image that represents the Outpost Universe.

The current image is 800x150 pixels, and contains the text "The Outpost Universe". This is not a requirement for a replacement image, but I think the replacement should be around the same ballpark for size (not so big that you have to scroll to see content), and placing the website's name in the image would probably allow it to be styled a little better than if the name was added separately.

Who's interested in submitting something?

Venera · « **Reply #1 on:** April 13, 2012, 02:09:14 PM »

I have an idea in mind. I'm not an expert at image design or in any sort of layout design but I might give it a shot.

Hooman · « **Reply #2 on:** April 14, 2012, 05:03:27 AM »

Excellent!

Venera · « **Reply #3 on:** April 17, 2012, 10:23:04 PM »

Sorry I haven't finished it yet. I haven't been working on it lately due to my website, music, and since my finals are coming up. I'll try to finish it when I can.

EDIT: I've been unable to get the image to turn out right.

RipperKhan · « **Reply #4 on:** May 18, 2012, 10:42:25 AM »

Looking good guys ^.^

Cs3v3n · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2012, 07:32:24 PM »

If you need, I can help you to improve the website, I'm a webmaster and I'm working with those kind of things

TH300 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 25, 2012, 02:47:03 AM »

We still don't have this image.

Other than that, the contents could be improved.

I see no reason to change the layout/style. It doesn't look as fancy as many other websites, but it is functional and not bloated.

Cs3v3n · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2012, 09:43:55 AM »

this site, doesn't have a language switcher.

It could be interesting doing something like that.

What did you think about that?

TH300 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 25, 2012, 11:24:01 AM »

Who is going to translate the site?

What would it be worth? People who don't speak English cannot actively take part in this community. Some more people could download the game, but they'd mostly be limited to singleplayer.

Spikerocks101 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 25, 2012, 01:16:51 PM »

It would be limited to a "Download the game" and "FAQ" in other languages. :/

Hooman · « **Reply #10 on:** July 26, 2012, 01:35:20 AM »

I don't feel a need for a language switcher, but I wouldn't mind help with the website. I've never considered web programming to be one of my strong points.

You can find a copy of the source at:
svn://68.146.111.58/outpost2
If you need an SVN client, I would recommend TortoiseSVN (for Windows).

Cs3v3n · « **Reply #11 on:** July 26, 2012, 10:33:05 AM »

I can translate in Italian and Romanian (Level: excellent).

For other languages, it would be nice make a search for those people who wanna help with something but they don't know anything about programming. They can do other things like this.

However those pages,

- The main page (News.php)
- Outpost2.php
- Outpost1.php
- xmpp.php

can be translated, it's useful to be indexed by spiders , and can be easiest to understand for those people who cannot handle the english language so well.

Another idea, could be to dedicate a special area in the forum for every (almost) kind of language.

I think it could be useful doing a job like this.
Those are, some ideas ,and nothing more.

I write here those ideas to be judged and evaluated by you .

C7

TH300 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 26, 2012, 02:53:11 PM »

If you want the translation so badly, not much speaks against it. Just be aware that it will make updates/changes more complicated, because all translations will have to be changed. Also, the actual news cannot be translated (easily), because they are included from the forum.

A forum section for other languages would probably be too much. I'm not strictly against it, but we need to be able to enforce rules in those sections and therefore we need people who understand what other people write there.

Cs3v3n · « **Reply #13 on:** July 26, 2012, 04:27:59 PM »

When I talk about

Quote

- The main page (News.php)
- Outpost2.php
- Outpost1.php
- xmpp.php

I mean. All the subpages, inclusive the forum news.

Yes , everytime you have new news we must translate.
I think it's not this the harder job.

The difficulty is to find the other people, those who can and want to translate.

For the other thing the fact is same as before. Yes this time, is bit different. But this idea we can consider it for later.

If you think is a good idea, we could "try" to find people who know other languages. And if we found a minimum of people we can begin.

TH300 · « **Reply #14 on:** July 27, 2012, 03:35:39 AM »

Maybe its not hard to translate. What is hard, however, is finding people who are doing it and who don't disappear after a few months. I can just too well imagine everything being translated for a few months, then coming a period of inactivity, then half of the translators being gone. - on the other hand, we can chose to accept outdated translations...

Lets wait what the administration says.

Cs3v3n · « **Reply #15 on:** July 27, 2012, 04:33:37 AM »

Yes, I'm agree with you.

I'll wait too

Hooman · « **Reply #16 on:** July 28, 2012, 10:25:27 PM »

I still don't see a pressing need for language translations. Even less if the game was never distributed with such a language translation. I would also be a little concerned about translations being out of date or misleading. If translations are offered, I think they should be restricted to static content that is unlikely to change, and should be limited in scope. Perhaps just a small bit of info and a download link.

Of a bigger concern, is pages that are already out of date, the header banner (looks too obviously like Mars), the incompleteness of what's already on there (tech trees and such), and the general lack of interesting content.

I would love to see more details on the mechanics of gameplay, and I would love to see information on creating new levels, particularly details on the programming API.

I would also love to see interesting new projects and toys that people may not have thought of. Browser games and such. Or perhaps a section for silly content that maybe won't go anywhere, but it still mildly interesting or amusing. Like this:
http://www.outpostuniverse.net/silly/OutpostMainMenu/

CK9 · « **Reply #17 on:** August 03, 2012, 10:37:15 AM »

Here's a thought in relation to translation:

auto-translation of the forum based on the language settings of the user. I think there is a "powered by google" thing for that for use in websites and forums. It would be far from perfect, but it would create an opportunity for non-english speakers to enjoy the community as well.

TH300 · « **Reply #18 on:** August 05, 2012, 03:41:43 AM »

If people want auto translation, they can use it even if its not integrated in our site. But that won't help too much. As you said, translations would be rather bad. That can lead to misunderstandings. Not even thinking about posting, which would be impossible.

As I see it, people should just learn English. I'd assume that its taught in most schools anyways, and people of the age 13+ should have gone to school long enough to understand enough.

CK9 · « **Reply #19 on:** August 08, 2012, 09:26:39 AM »

While english is the standard for airlines, I don't agree with the idea that everyone should learn it. In my opinion, the english language has too many faults for it to be a good choice as the international language.

TH300 · « **Reply #20 on:** August 09, 2012, 11:39:59 AM »

English is probably not the best language, but its the one that most people know. Don't get me wrong, I find it a good thing that different countries have different languages and keep them. But its obvious that most countries teach English in school. That leaves few possible excuses for not knowing English.

CK9 · « **Reply #21 on:** August 10, 2012, 10:08:25 AM »

Many people say it is the most difficult language to learn

TH300 · « **Reply #22 on:** August 10, 2012, 04:55:06 PM »

Now I have to ask, just out of curiosity: which language(s) is/are easier to learn than English?

I mean, as a second language. And not in special cases where the second language is similar to the first.

Hooman · « **Reply #23 on:** August 11, 2012, 04:58:26 PM »

Esperanto? Or so I hear. I've never learned any of it.

Interesting quote from the Wiki article on Esperanto about a study to determine how many hours of practice it takes to reach the same standard level in various languages for native French speakers:
"2000 hours studying German = 1500 hours studying English = 1000 hours studying Italian (or any other Romance language) = 150 hours studying Esperanto."

I would assume there's a significant margin of error in such a study though. How exactly do you map a "standard level" between languages? Also note there will be a bias introduced due to all the students in the study speaking French natively.

CK9 · « **Reply #24 on:** August 12, 2012, 02:58:11 PM »

Esperanto was designed specificly to be easy to learn no matter what your native language was. For the longest time, it was thought that esperanto WOULD be the international language.

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Author Topic: Website Redesign (Read 17087 times)