Site Design

Cthulhu

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
I quite like the TrendyBlog one (minus the scroll, but that can be removed I'm sure), :monster:

Engine looks rather busy with all the images and boxes and whatnot left and right; I'm not sure what the focus of the page is.

MightyMag seems mostly image-driven; I personally prefer a bit more text on a webpage.

Same with Fraction, although I prefer Fraction over MightyMag, the actual content of the page is a bit higher up.

SmartMag seems all right, but maybe more suitable for a site with more various categories (as on the demo page). Not sure how customizable that one is though.

Newspaper's 'classic blog' variation is all right, but again, you need to scroll down quite far to get to the content; we're a news site (basically), not a brand site like a lot of the themes seem to be aimed at.

so er, my favorites are those without the "buts" or "I prefers", :monster:
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
Of all of these, my favourite is probably Fraction. I really like Smartmag too, but that's possibly because you can preview a dark theme right off the bat. Whichever we choose, we need to think long and hard about what content is going where.

I know that's a given, but I want to give front page focus to things like the translations and audiobooks in some way since they're what tend to bring people to the site in the first place. Right now they're just hidden behind unclear menu items.

To be frank, I've yet to see a theme that I don't think is too busy but I need to remember that we can choose how much or how little to put on it.

Fraction fits the bill for me for this reason. It's heavily customisable in every respect, has previews for all kinds of devices and with the right tweaks would absolutely suit our colour scheme. The thing I like most about it is that there's a lot there, but I don't feel like I'm being overcrowded with information because it's so well designed. If we can transplant our content onto that then I think it's a winner.

Really any will do, but that's why I think Fraction is good. No matter what we get, it's going to require some form of butchery. I smell frustrating times ahead XD
 
Pixel

Pixel

The Pixie King
Are those prices a one off payment?

Fraction definitely does it for me. I've always wanted a featured content thingy on the site, but it was so fiddly. Hopefully its easy to use.

And with more stuff immediately visible, we dont have to worry about, say if a podcast and and an article go up on the same day.

Only thing I dont want is heavy flash based ads. My browser bugs out when I go on Nerdist and sometimes nova crystalis. Just makes me not visit there regularly.

I see theres a shop thing there. I wonder if its possible to link up one of those amazon partnership things, and display selected products... like PS4s :P
 
Flintlock

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
Fraction is definitely something I'd be happy to work with as well; amongst those that have been mentioned so far, it might be my favourite (with the proviso that we'd switch off the menu "plop", as Mage described it, which Claymore said should be possible).
 
Claymore

Claymore

3x3 Eyes
Pixel said:
Are those prices a one off payment?
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Usually, but I got these for free, so whatever one you need, is yours.

Fraction definitely does it for me. I've always wanted a featured content thingy on the site, but it was so fiddly. Hopefully its easy to use.
Click to expand...

I've used Fraction before on a client site, so I can tell you that it is. You simply tick a box on what post you want to appear on the home featured content area and it's there. (Just as long as the home page has all the corresponding categories pre-selected).

The additional 'spotlight' feature (the excerpt / summary of specific content that you can display within posts) requires just a tiny bit more effort - you need to input the post ID.
 
Cthulhu

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
Pixel said:
Only thing I dont want is heavy flash based ads. My browser bugs out when I go on Nerdist and sometimes nova crystalis. Just makes me not visit there regularly.
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You're a donator, I'll make sure donators don't get ads, :monster:. That, and I won't complain too much if you'd use an ad blocker.

I do wonder if we should open up to advertisers though; I'm fine / comfortable with regular boring old google ads, but there might be better paying ones. Off course, chances are they'd give us more offensive ads (pr0n games and shit), do full takeovers (feck off), that kinda shit - I'd rather not.
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
Surely there's a way to specify that there are specific ads you don't want appearing? Like you would obviously want to keep the ads that are here game-focused because that's the demographic that largely comes here.

EDIT: LOL I just imagine a massive Sean Cody ad sitting on the front page and it gives me the chuckles. If you don't know what that is, don't ask and don't google it.
 
Pixel

Pixel

The Pixie King
Damn you Lex. Dont tell me not to google something and expect me not to google it. :(

DON'T google "2 kids 1 sandbox" :P
 
Mage

Mage

She/They
AKA
Mage
Thanks the gods for Urban Dictionary because frankly I don't need to see that shit after my experience the other day. o.O

Ahem, moving swiftly on, are there any arguments against Fraction? It seems to be ticking a lot of boxes for a lot of people. Does it have the support that Fangu mentioned?
 
Channy

Channy

Bad Habit
AKA
Ruby Rose, Lucy
Lex said:
blue waffle
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STOP SAYING THINGS

shutup.gif
 
Jason Tandro

Jason Tandro

Banned
AKA
Jason Tandro, Doc Brown, Santa Christ, FearAddict, Thibault Stormrunner, RN: Micah Rodney
Oh god the stories I could tell you of the videos my friends and I discovered in the adolesence of both the internet and ourselves. The kind of stuff so foul I can't even give keywords without grossing you out.

And why did we subject ourselves to this? Because teenagers.
 
Claymore

Claymore

3x3 Eyes
Mage said:
Ahem, moving swiftly on, are there any arguments against Fraction? It seems to be ticking a lot of boxes for a lot of people. Does it have the support that Fangu mentioned?
Click to expand...

Yep. It was recently updated as of 5th December to support an included plugin that was upgraded (Visual Composer).
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
Maybe for argument's sake we should all pick a competitor? Fraction seems to do it for all of us though.
 
Flintlock

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
I'm not sure we should all pick one but it would definitely be worth looking seriously at one or two alternatives.
 
Claymore

Claymore

3x3 Eyes
Looking at recent exchanges, discussion and interest has come about from Newspaper, Smart Mag and Fraction. Perhaps we should do some mock ups and then throw up a vote for those three?
 
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