First off, some backstory, then the question. It's kind of important,
so if you're busy, at least scroll to the bottom and look at the
question. And answer it, darnitall.
Way back when, when the Phoenyx first got a web site, each
game had a page. Yeah, *a* page. A few had more, but this was
back in the olden days, and nobody was web-savvy. I built these
pages, for the most part, off of a text file that I required. That's not
terribly important, other than to say that gamemasters didn't come
to us with huge predone websites.
So we built them, and each one followed a similar pattern, but was
customized to give it a unique look. (See
for a
couple examples.) This was cool, and Phoenyx games all shared
a look and an URL, and had forward/back links so you could go to
the other games (yes, I invented the webring), and we were A
Community.
Then I got tired of shuffling the links everytime I added a new
feature (on the two examples given, you'll notice the buttons aren't
*quite* the same), so I invented the navbar. This was nifty, and let
people edit their own pages a little more without having to worry
about getting all the button codes right. And then I started not
worrying so much about the appearance of the pages (or even the
content, which was a bad thing, but that's another whole thread),
and relied on the navbar to let people know that this was a
Phoenyx Game and we were A Community, only I didn't want to be
too obtrusive, and so nobody pays attention to the navbar, and
doesn't know we're A Community, so we're not.
So in the chat, we talked about this, and decided that the web-
based part is where we need to start building community. So
okay, how to do this? Obviously, we need to bring the scattered
games together somehow... either on the phoenyx.net domain, or
via graphics and more-closely-woven interlinks, or something else.
Now, a lot of people have their own domains and all that, so asking
anybody to change their web site is A Big Deal. So I'm wanting
ideas, *especially* from the people this would most affect... what
*would* you be willing to change on your web site? Or what would
you *not* be willing to change, more to the point?
Would something like (Karen goes off and makes a quick mockup)
this: ,
where the gray part at the top is a table, not a frame, and would
actually contain some navbar-esque content where the tagline is,
that's just to give you a jumping-off point for what kind of real estate
it takes up, be an acceptable replacement for the navbar? Or
would a standardized template make everyone run screaming? I'm
thinking something basic, like what Kalyr's got... a top bar, side
bar, and main content text, with colors and graphics specific to
each game (or at least to the genre, if the gamemaster doesn't
have/want his own graphics).
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