Dies to Removal

Like.

Ditto

i think there should be something dying. preferrably to removal

Yeah, I was partial to the multi-banner rotating images idea that was floated.

I've been god-awful busy running an insanely aggressively deadlined project. There's also sorts of things we previously discussed for the front page that we should be doing, such as RSS feeds, event calendars - the list is kicking around here somewhere.

I'm thinking we should add a hitler-mustache, just to be in the clear.

I don't think I am allowed to use copyrighted images? So I used my very limited drawing skills to draw a Chandra lol.

Banner:


How it would look like on the blue banner background:


It's fine if you don't like it. I'm just playing around with photoshop.

It's not Chandra. It's just a girl with goggles and a flame on her finger. Absolutely no relation to WOTC intellectual property.

Sure, sure.

Gotcha. I could scratch my brain for some appropriate place-holding text, but there won't be too much point in it until we have some of our features up and running.

Az, I know you've been rooting for this, so if you are on prosilver skin (didn't had the time with the others yet) you can browse here:

http://community.ist.utl.pt/frontpage/

Mind you some links are not working yet (about and below) but all the forum links are fully functional

Excellent, glad to see we're moving forward on this, bit by bit. Anything I can do?

Book'd up. Commencing the learning of HTML5 & CSS3 for the front page. Looks pretty simple to pick up.

What should I grab next?

I will take you a while harnessing all the power of CSS.

Though if you're bold you could go with either javascript or php/sql. GR might give you a hint or two on javascript and its difficulties (I'm not familiar with the language)

Books that
may help:

1. Beginning Javascript Wrox.3rd.edition.pdf
2. Haverbeke -Eloquent JavaScript, A Modern Introduction to Programming.pdf
3. Oreilly.JavaScript.The.Definitive.Guide.6th.Edition.Apr.2011.pdf
4. Wrox - Professional Javascript For Web Developers - 2005.pdf

Nice, thanks!

Book'd up. Commencing the learning of HTML5 & CSS3 for the front page. Looks pretty simple to pick up.

What should I grab next?

By the way, Scumbag, when do you want to switch over to the new domain? I can get that info to you pretty much anytime you like.

Sounds like a neat idea.

Its just that the way it works is different from what some of us were used in the vbulletin forums.

Here is a tutorial on how to multiquote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrxrWmX4CcA

Should work well enough for everything except mafia, and that's not exactly a critical priority atm.

Multi-quote would also be excellent, especially if we're hosting mafia in the future.

Is there a way to fix having to put " " around people's names to create quote brackets?

I can try to make it happen if you detail the request a bit more

Right now, the formatting for quotes requires the following format:

[quote="name"']

If possible, it'd be simpler with the following format:

Is there a way to fix having to put " " around people's names to create quote brackets?

By the way, I made a post in the sally staff inbox giving them a vague heads up and clearing the path for a recruiting campaign.

We're clear to move on that front. They're taking it pretty well, actually.

You can PM me if you care to see what I wrote, or the thread contents.

We're going to need moderators other than myself for the MTG sections of the community. I've not played a game of modern in my life, and I'll be stretched on too many other fronts to give them the TLC they'll need to grow.

Absolutely. Lets arrange for this

What's a good time for you? Almost any time during daylight in EST works for me, my hours are flexible.

I'd do thrice.

The two first things are easy. As for the third: The typable domain is our largest, largest flaw, and we've been already discussing it at large. We can keep the site in its current physical location and use the typable domain as an alias, but this requires converging into a definitive name for this community and purchasing the domain (the latter option shouldn't be difficult, even financially speaking, and I'm willing to help).

I'm gonna work double shift in implementing the multiquote and the image attachments upgrade and then i'll fire the "GO!" shot in here.

Pretty excited about having the site populated with more content and new users to interact with!

*nods*

Should you and I and anyone else chat in real
time to prep an agreement deciding exactly how the forum's going to be owned and operated, managed, and costs divvied up?

*nods*

Do it.

EDIT:

We should probably describe what we mean by going live. Mass signature campaign. Individual invites. Typable domain. I'd favor all of the above.

Just learned about http://www.bluehost.com. Free domain, unlimited server space and subdomains, mySQL database and a lot more shit for five bucks a month. Can't beat that.

Nice. Very nice.

*nods* Until we find someone more capable, I'll put learning some code on the long-term schedule.

I have no problem opening the floodgates.

At this point, I've hit a dead end on finding programmers. Mulling over what to do about it, but I'm guessing the amount of work it'd take to hire a professional to implement these features on a wage basis is prohibitively expensive.

I wouldn't be opposed to learning the skill-set myself, but that seems like a long-shot.

I know for a fact that purchasing URLs is dirt cheap. Servers - don't know as much about that.

EDIT: I'm seeing figures ranging from 20-80 per month on cursory perusal.

No problem with inviting people, but if we really want this thing to snowball, we need a URL that can actually be typed.

Tapped seems way too fucking good to be available.

I just checked. It's not available.

MTG Phoenix isn't bad.

These are available:

Mtgswarm.com
Alphastriker.com <--- I kinda like this one.*
Manaburnt.com


* It says, "ballsy, confident people who turn all their men sideways like to use this site".

@Admin - *nods* At this point, I think the only way the iridium's going to get pull themselves out of their tailspin is being ruthless enough to very kindly, and very politely put their problematic staff on probation, and terminate those who don't shape up. But in all likelihood, they're just going to remained turtled up for the foreseeable future, holding hands, with the spoiler page as their only meaningful growth engine.

---

Having gone on a name-finding expedition the last time I hoped to get this concept off the ground, I've found that many of the potential names "'mtgcommunity", "mtgcity", "jacebook", have already been taken.

May have to think a tad outside the box.

*think think think*

I'm thinking our official stance, once we go public and implement our *super secret industry-changing strategies*, should be one of cooperation with MTGS, not rivalry. I think we could make significant inroads through that tactic, as opposed to polarizing people into two camps and leading iridium to fear that this is a threat to their existence and a calculated insult.

Of course, if the changes go well, some degree of unofficial rivalry, comparison/contrast, competition, and userbase bleed from MTGS would be somewhat inevitable...

Main necessity right now is to find more personnel with programming expertise to assist Scumbag with some of the more complicated front-page coding we have in mind. Compensation is a possibility. Suggestions or volunteers?

Also, we're going to need a catchy URL that appeals to the broader MTG community, possibly something that captures that "synthesis of info" notion that was alluded to
above.

Here's what I'd recommend to adapt the blank canvas to something that's more visually pleasing and psychologically effective.

-In general, minimize the amount of white space wherever possible. We're conditioned to regard the color white as blank and uninteresting, as a vacuum, and it subliminally pushes people to go elsewhere.
-Quote buttons are greyed in.
-In posting window, no distracting splotches of colors on both the right and left sides of the screen, which dance subliminally in your periphery and distract the human eye, making it subtly more difficult to concentrate on the text you're writing. (font color and smilies)
-Post windows should be relatively more compact in size.
-Post windows should utilize an above-text-box model for editing features, with graphics buttons, not word-buttons.
-Each post should occupy a more compact vertical amount of space, to make reading and scrolling easier.
-Search buttons/
options at top/right

Other features to bear in mind:
-A "like post" feature. The ability to give and receive positive reinforcement helps keep people posting.
-At all times, you can click your way to front-page content
-User CP should use grayed in background on left side, not white.
-The "important announcements feature" is a good one, but would be more helpful located near the PMs, not at center screen, particularly if you're not using regular announcements.
-The "welcome to user CP" message is unnecessary and utilizing valuable real estate at center of screen

Long term goals:

-Catchy name, URL, and getting off the university server.
-Commercialize the site for sustainability. and profit.
-Front-page content. One area that I think there is GREAT room for improvement upon in the MTG world is information synthesis. There's any number of ways that the current major websites, MTGS, SCG, TCG, Wizards, Channel Fireball, are completely failing at synthesizing the
information that magic players are looking for into a single convenient location.
-Find volunteers and other personnel to assist with the above


Things we could do better than other people:

*REDACTED TO PRIVATE FOR THE TIME BEING*