NiteShdw Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 I am looking to expand the site to include more user creatable content. I have been introduced to a new software package called Drupal that allows users to create their own content, from forums to web pages to books. I installed the software with just the default options. I would like comments and suggestions. The capabilities can be expanded by downloading modules. I encourage you to look through them and see what we could include. You can access the new site at http://drupal.nitescifi.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arktis Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 It's a bit broad/generic, wouldn't you say? You really want us to do your work for you? Find all the appropriate modules? Determine what kind of content should be on the site? These are your responsibilities, are they not? Without you taking care of these things, it's basicly disorganized, chaotic, directionless, uncontrolled, etc... *sigh* I'm not saying it's not a good idea I just think there's got to be a middle ground. Drupal may be perfect, I don't know, but for now it just seems like you're not taking care of your responsibility to the site. I realize you've just set up a testing ground, but still... I think more is required of you than just plopping this thing in front of your existing members and saying "Here, show me what I should be doing.". Middle ground, middle ground, middle ground. Does this make any sense? Just ignore me if it doesn't. As for this actually helping things, I can't say right now. Too early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bones2097 Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 dude! he was only asking for suggestions!!! btw are the usename & pass the same as the form??? *scratching head trying to rem my pass...* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slug Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I think this is a step in the right direction and will begin the difficult task of redesigning the site with archived material of interest in such a way that it will attract the sort of new users we're looking for. At the same time it seems important that the bare bones of the site remain, including forum topics, posting numbers etc. Is it possible to convert this information into the new board? From a programming perspective, this sounds like a nightmare. I suppose what would be more feasable would be to simply retain the site a it is in Mercuryboard, with some modernising and adjustments and keep it under the forum section of the new structure. It may also be a useful opportunity to do something about the thousands of user accounts that are utterly dormant, there are currently usually more birthdays of people who have never visited or used the forums than there are people online. Ideally there may be some system to sift out the accounts that are completley unused. But, maybe its not an issue, and it might be in the general interest to keep these accounts if somehow old users get drawn back, although people that never posted before are unlikely to do so now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiteShdw Posted August 30, 2006 Author Share Posted August 30, 2006 We're not looking to replace the forums. We are looking at designing a new site that will become "www.nitescifi.com", which is currently unoccupied (it just mirrors www.niteshdw.com). It appears that I should have put much more time into developing the site before giving out the link. This is what happened: 1) We found out about a software package that is very flexible and met the goals that we were looking for. 2) I downloaded and installed it. 3) I made a quick post to see how it worked. 4) I posted the link to the fresh install. Perhaps what I should have done is encouraged people to look at the Drupal.org website, read about it, and give feedback about whether they think that this is a good direction for us to proceed in developing a new site. Again, very little (almost none) development or effort went into this (yet). All I'm looking for is feedback on whether the CONCEPT of a site that is largely user created content is the way to go. Since this was a fresh install with no tweaking or extra work, you'll need to create an account to use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slug Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I'd still reccomend that the current forum be put in the position of a sub section of the new site, as it will be difficult to keep momentum going over two sites that are not inexorabely linked, on account of the current amount of low content. I know very little about web design but would be interested in adding to a growing list of bookmarks of videos and websites of interest. With there being so much in the way of big userdefined sites, auch as youtube and googlevideo, not to mention so much on the net generally, I think that a new site would be most succesful if it simply leeched off the services of other sites, there's no shame in it, its the way a lot of sites are going. There's a lot of stuff on youtube that could be placed in imbedible players that would almost rival the site in its heyday, for instance, I stumbled across a collection of reasonably lengthy contemporary interviews of the cast of TNG from around 1991. This could be of interest to many users and does not really infringe on copyright considering that it only represents a link to something obscure that is not commercially available. This is the sort of thing that attract me to a site completely out of the blue. Its possible to create a succesful internet site that is constituted mainly of gathered content from other sites, seeing as the work to find material of interest has been done for the potential user. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arktis Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I don't think the forums have to be embedded into it. A simple navigation menu link alongside the rest of the nav links would do fine, no? But that does raise the point of having multiple accounts... one for the forums and one for the addition/editing of content. The soulution to that is either leave it as-is or have some kinda database script that adds the account info to both databases and possibly having a cookie shared between the two sites. Fun, fun... :thinking: Of course, having an account might end up not being needed except for on the forums. Anyways, this thing is looking kinda like a wiki to me right now. Also, I would like to add that the effort and thought being put out is appreciated in my own silly way, even if it doesn't pan out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If this avenue doesn't work out then I am positive that there are alternatives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slug Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 It is important that the accounts are cross compatible and that it is evident which users are responsible for particular material posted on the new site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raven3x7 Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 Nice, could turn out cool. Obviously it needs a lot of customization. I'm guessing thats the deefault look? So this is some kind of CMS/Blogging Tool combo? Something else i thought is that maybe posting and editing should be restricted to forum users who have been around long enough and/or have reached a posting limit on the forums to be reasonably sure they wont deface the site or add inappropriate content. Finally on drupal's wikipedia page there are links to sites using it. If anyone around here has an account at Wikipedia maybe that could be used as a promotional tool to a certain degree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted September 3, 2006 Share Posted September 3, 2006 Yea I wouldn't let people make forums personally. Keep the forum traffic for nitescifi.com's forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 I was going through the modules list and there really are tons of very usefull modules on there. Some examples of things that may be usefull: - Admin block - AdSense - Advanced User - Amazon associate tools - Amazon Filter - Article - Attached Node - Authorship Module - Automated Logout - Automatic Nodetitles - autotimezone - Bad Behavior - Bbcode - BBCode Formatting Bar - Bio - Block Bar - Blogstamp - Book Review - Bookmarks - Buddylist - ... It just keeps on going and that was just the A and B.... There are tons of usefull modules, none are absolutely necessary, but they do make life easier for administration and add some nice things for users. Weighing which ones are worth the trouble may not be so easy though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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