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Suggestions Box / What I want for TWG
« on: September 04, 2003, 05:16:51 PM »
Because I am at the receiving end of suggestions/complaints/snarkiness/whathaveyou for the TWG website, I started thinking again about why on earth we have this site, anyway. Initially, it was an excuse to get free games. While it has fulfilled and continues to fulfill this original goal passably, it seems that various people want TWG to be various things.
On that note, here are some things that I think about regarding TWG. These are in no particular order, and some of them are strictly my deal. But please feel free to add or comment on anything after reading this.
First and foremost, I want to know WTH is up with PHP truncating strings when entering into MySQL for pre-built packages. Both the polls and phpmyadmin are doing this, but nothing else is. This only started happening after the Solaris 5.8 OS upgrade. Whatever the cause, it's given me renewed motivation to simply move my server back to FreeBSD. This would mean downtime for TWG as I worked out the problems that come with switching OS.
I know that most people enjoy the little titles associated with your post count, but I'm tired of the Perl YaBB and wish we could move to something MySQL-based. Of course, this would mean rewriting the entire user authentication system. (i.e. more downtime for TWG)
I hate the current way the departments are handled. TWG was originally built that way because EUOL wanted to have full control over his department pages. So I made it so each department has its own directory and homepage. Of course, shortly after EUOL stopped admining (is that a word?) and the only department that's ever had any significant work done is the RPG section. Everything else looks like crap.
If we aren't going to have department heads who want to actively maintain their own pages, I want to go back to the "single page template" that PHP-nuke uses. Adding features to a single department page is so much easier than going through every one in every directory. Also, then we'd be able to manage departments through the database, instead of having to do it all by hand.
When Fell and I started TWG, we really didn't know what to expect. I made the online article submission so that we could branch out and let other people write articles without making Fell do everything. At the time, we thought we'd have more admins: me, Fell, EUOL. Turns out EUOL and I aren't interested in maintaining the site content, so it ends up being all Fell anyway.
What we do have now, though, is a small but loyal group of regulars. Some of you even write great articles, so I'm glad we have the online thing. The question is, are all of you using it? If not, why? If so, what do you like or dislike about it? The one thing I'd really like is to see more content, and more submitters, working with TWG. I'm not sure how to facilitate that, though.
Despite all my ignoring and resisting, I personally feel that TWG still has a lot that could be improved. Most of the reason I avoid changing things is because there's no real consensus on what should be changed, and how. If we're just going to keep posting reviews here and there, and occasionally get free games for it, I see no reason to change anything at all. However, if the TWG community (now that we have one) wants something else, I feel like we should at least know what that is.
On that note, here are some things that I think about regarding TWG. These are in no particular order, and some of them are strictly my deal. But please feel free to add or comment on anything after reading this.
First and foremost, I want to know WTH is up with PHP truncating strings when entering into MySQL for pre-built packages. Both the polls and phpmyadmin are doing this, but nothing else is. This only started happening after the Solaris 5.8 OS upgrade. Whatever the cause, it's given me renewed motivation to simply move my server back to FreeBSD. This would mean downtime for TWG as I worked out the problems that come with switching OS.
I know that most people enjoy the little titles associated with your post count, but I'm tired of the Perl YaBB and wish we could move to something MySQL-based. Of course, this would mean rewriting the entire user authentication system. (i.e. more downtime for TWG)
I hate the current way the departments are handled. TWG was originally built that way because EUOL wanted to have full control over his department pages. So I made it so each department has its own directory and homepage. Of course, shortly after EUOL stopped admining (is that a word?) and the only department that's ever had any significant work done is the RPG section. Everything else looks like crap.
If we aren't going to have department heads who want to actively maintain their own pages, I want to go back to the "single page template" that PHP-nuke uses. Adding features to a single department page is so much easier than going through every one in every directory. Also, then we'd be able to manage departments through the database, instead of having to do it all by hand.
When Fell and I started TWG, we really didn't know what to expect. I made the online article submission so that we could branch out and let other people write articles without making Fell do everything. At the time, we thought we'd have more admins: me, Fell, EUOL. Turns out EUOL and I aren't interested in maintaining the site content, so it ends up being all Fell anyway.
What we do have now, though, is a small but loyal group of regulars. Some of you even write great articles, so I'm glad we have the online thing. The question is, are all of you using it? If not, why? If so, what do you like or dislike about it? The one thing I'd really like is to see more content, and more submitters, working with TWG. I'm not sure how to facilitate that, though.
Despite all my ignoring and resisting, I personally feel that TWG still has a lot that could be improved. Most of the reason I avoid changing things is because there's no real consensus on what should be changed, and how. If we're just going to keep posting reviews here and there, and occasionally get free games for it, I see no reason to change anything at all. However, if the TWG community (now that we have one) wants something else, I feel like we should at least know what that is.