DL Wordpress: Now What?

[Halbarad]

So we have a WordPress installed, with the theme everyone wanted. Now comes the next stage of customization: deciding on look and feel.

There are several things that will need to be decided with the new WP arrangement; getting these sorted out soon would be wise.

1. Site subtitle. This is the "Just another WordPress site" tagline that appears with the title. When deciding on this, bear in mind that this is starting to shift the emphasis of the site; we may even want to consider changing the site's name from the RPG Duelling League to something else (like Data Library). Not saying what should or shouldn't be done, just something to keep in mind.

2. Blogroll. The title can be changed, but this is a list of links that will appear on the sidebar. It's best to keep one around, but the question is "what sites are we linking?" We can link member-affiliated sites such as gensokyo.org or Tide's blog, or we can link to more utilitarian sites such as GameFAQs. Coming up with specific links is only part of this question; the other part is "what's our justification for having links/what makes them important to link?"

3. Site widgets. These are the side subsections like the Blogroll or Meta sections (Meta will be going away soonish). There are a bunch of standard widgets, such as a calendar to show when posts have taken place, a category tree for searching posts, a longer-range calendar to show posts from a particular month, etc. There are also custom widgets that can be added, such as a poll widget (see gensokyo.org main page for some examples); you can browse through http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/widget to get an idea of what's available. Adding new widgets isn't hard, but it's best not to clutter up the site with a bunch of 'shiny'-looking stuff unless you think it'll actually see use.

For this overall, we'll need to consider what widgets we want to display, and whether we want to add anything to the standard set.

4. Site graphics. The overall header graphic and the widget headers use a custom graphic (the 'sunrise over Earth'-looking thing); we can change these to use our own graphics, but in order to do so we'll obviously need graphics to use. Deciding on whether to change these and what to change them to is also a need.

5. Post content. There's been some work on this in other topics, but you'll need to decide on what posts will contain (such as reviews, news about stat topic updates, whatever you think is important/valuable for people to know about) and get people ready/willing to write those posts.

-----

The answers to the first four questions will probably need my input/help in implementing, as currently I'm the only administrator on the WordPress (and thus the only person who can make changes to the look and feel of the overall blog). Number 5 is purely up to you guys; the only thing you'll need me for is to set up the folks who will be the editors, and thus have the ability to approve or reject post content from the folks actually writing it.

With that said, let's get some questions settled.

[Dark Holy Elf]

1. Subtitle: Well. Tide suggested the subtitle from my GameFAQs sig, which is "An unparalleled source for RPG information and discussion". I feel it pretty well describes what we are, though it might be seen as a bit arrogant, I dunno.

2. Links: I feel we should definitely link to sites that are also valuable resources for RPG gameplay information, since that's pretty much what we're all about. In particular, I'm in favour of linking to www.rpgclassics.com, www.suikosource.com, and www.serenesforest.net. The first frequently has better mechanical information on RPGs (e.g. things like enemy stats) than I've found at any other English website (including GameFAQs); both the Chrono Trigger and MMXCM stat topics owe a great deal to RPGClassics for instance. The latter two are simply the best sources for gameplay information on Suikoden and Fire Emblem respectively.

3. Widgets: I don't feel too strongly here; I haven't yet looked closely at what widgets are available, granted.

4. Seems to me we have two options here: grab the banner currently used for the RPGDL tournament main page, or have Djinn/Tide/someone other brave volunteer assemble a new one. I do in principle like the idea of a collage of characters from the various series we cover.

5. Hm. Updates for anything major or content we add of course. We're always generating new content, from stat topics to gameplay analyses (e.g. Tide's, mine) to patches (Eviltype, MF6, LFT) to humour (e.g. Crystalgate's DW3, mc's FF7, etc.) to other things like Andy's IAQ. Announcements of tournaments on the tournament board would also be a good idea.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Sweet! WP functions! 

Well, the website seems to be loading from work, though my home PC still isn't quite registering it.

1. Site subtitle.
Well, I don't think we should change the Website's name. While Data Library has a nice ring to it and DOES fit the RPGDL acronym... I feel like we have some established recognition with our current name (mostly on GameFAQs, but we even got a mention in TVTropes for what we do, so that's something). And regardless of how we branch out, our most unique feature, now and probably always, is going to be that we have duels.
The subtitle DOES present an opportunity to show how we're branching out, though. I feel like NEB's subtitle sounds a bit lofty, but since we're promoting ourself among hundreds of RPG sites, we might as well proclaim that we're awesome. We have math on our side, at least~


2. Blogroll.
User sites should be the primary focus here, I'd think. 'Resource' sites should be kept to a minimum. If we link to GameFAQs, maybe just the Contenders board? rpgclassics, suikosource, and serenesforest are good, too. But I wouldn't add many more than that.
User sites that I know of:
gensoskyo
Tide's
VSM's (mostly abandoned)
Idun's
Tonfa's TF7 updatelog
Lance's RPG Tournament League board on Foxkei forums

Perhaps we could have a 'Suggested RPG LPs' link page, too?

3. Site widgets.
Would definitely like some kind of Poll widgets available. Maybe not always active, but certainly available. For a site that loves statistics this much, not having polls as an option seems like it would definitely limit ourselves.

I wouldn't mind having some random-generated "_____ of the Day" recommendation widgets. Maybe something like "Stat Topic of the Day" (perhaps I'm the only one that thinks this is interesting, but Stat topics can be fun to just read), where it randomly chooses a link from the Stat Topic archive list page from the DLWiki and makes it easily perusable. Could also be done with Reviews/Articles/Artwork.

Idea that I keep forgetting to mention! Is it possible to make a widget/program/page/function that simulates the "Guess that RPG Character" topic. We have about 100 or so cluesets collectively and this could be a fairly unique feature, and it even showcases user creativity/writing skill. And from my very basic knowledge of programming, I think coding a feature that displays a clue and then prompts a reply (What character do you think this is?), and then spits out either a 'Correct' or 'Here's the next clue' based on the result is possibly the easiest thing to program in the world?
*I've held back a bit on suggesting it because it's one of the few things that I can't implement myself and I hate suggesting work for other people that I'm not willing/capable of doing myself.


4. Site graphics.
At any rate, the site looks nice, the only major aesthetic changes that need to be made are to the main banner and the buttons. If possible, it'd be kind of cool if we could feature a different banner for different main pages, sort of like Tide's site. I'd be willing to make banners, though my last suggested designs were shot down. Tide, Trance, or Lance might be better people to ask. I personally would like Lance to do them if he's willing/has time.
My currently uploaded stuff that's possibly usable to give you an idea of what it would look like if -I- end up doing the graphics:
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDL_BeachLadies1.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/r0xva0.png
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDL_BlueDesignDigital.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDL_Greenmockup.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDLgold.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDLblue.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDL_RedWP.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDL_SuperEffective1.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGcharacterSig1.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDL_GunnersHeaven1.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/RPGDL_BHAPrincess.jpg


5. Post content.
Well, the main headings should be
Tournament (DL Main Tournament site, and subsequently, NR records?)
Writing (Reviews, Articles, Guides, Fiction/Abridged, LPs if possible/links otherwise, Artwork?)
Game Patches (LFT, MF6, EvilType, TF7?, Trance's FE7 project?, Djinn's FF6 project?)
Database/Wiki (Link collections to Wiki materials, such as new Stat Topic/IAQ updates, or Archived Statistics/Tournament results for non-Main tournament data)

Basically, the Writing tab is the catch-all tab for things housed on the main site itself.

I'd love to see more archived data for things like Board Tournaments (I've attempted this with the Nyarlie's Dungeon Museum on the wiki; RPGmon topic has a lot of this, too), or Initial Rankings (NEB says he has all of these saved since the inception of the DL).

I wouldn't mind having a place to upload my DL-related art, such as the Tarot deck, or the water color paintings I've done. Trance and Bard have some of this too.

LPs are an interesting idea and it would be awesome if we could upload episodes of an LP to the site. Meeple has at least 2, and Neph finished 1, and there are a number of others interested in making these. For Video LPs, just linking to youtube/viddler would probably suffice, but for a Screenshot LP (like most RPG LPs), it would be awesome if the images could be hosted on the DL itself. Though I don't know if that would kill our bandwidth or make things cost too much? It might be possible to host the SShots on another server and link them to the DL page with the writing? Not sure of the logistics there, but I'm interested in making them myself.

-----

Number 5 is purely up to you guys; the only thing you'll need me for is to set up the folks who will be the editors, and thus have the ability to approve or reject post content from the folks actually writing it.

If possible, I would like to be an editor. I feel like I can get a lot of the content stuff posted in my free time once we decide what kind of stuff is pertinent.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Also, it looks like a bunch of images from the Tournament site are broken now - the 'mascot' image and the Division header images (Godlike/Heavy/etc) are just broken image icons.

[Dhyerwolf]

For Video LPs, just linking to youtube/viddler would probably suffice.

KEEP THEM AWAY.

[Tide]

1. Re: Site subtitle. See NEB's post. To me, at its core, that's what the DL is about. We have a very diverse group when it comes to RPG players, not strictly focusing on FFs, VPs, WAs or what not like some other communities. And we have different people who are good/knowledgeable about those games. I don't think it sounds too arrogant - I mean, no site promotes themselves as just another RPG website/community. It's a good tagline in any case. I don't think stating right out what we're expanding to is going to help. People who haven't been to the DL or RPGP are unlikely to know about the history, and simply stating what we do...well the links/headers should cover the various things we offer anyway.

2. Re: Links. My criteria when I described it to NEB was that it should at the very least have some resemblance or association to RPGs. That said, GameFAQs is the obvious one. I support RPGclassics and you're free to welcome to link to the Guides/WA4 portion of my site if you want. I support User links anyhow, so that's probably the exception. Temporarily iffy on other links such as webcomics, but if other people push for it, I won't make too much of a fuss.

3. Re: Widgets. The only widget that came to mind that's a must have is the sorting by Category. This makes things much much easier to find. Usually, you can also sort Chronologically, but I find this to be of dubious worth to the DL, where the age of the post is unlikely to be a high sorting criteria. The other stuff is all candy. I don't find polls to overly useful - but top rated links might see some use. We could find out what people really like from the new site based on traffic that way. Alternatively, a random link to one of the site's pages would also be cool.

4. Re: Site graphics. I definitely feel we should customize these to avoid having the site look too generic. I don't mind doing portions of the art, but the difficulty usually lies in getting the artwork and then meshing it together. I'm not a skilled graphic artist though, so if I am doing it, expect very basic things.

5. Re: Post content. Think Djinn has a pretty good handle here. My opinion on the headers (no particular order):

About (Site history, version updates, what we do, etc.)
Tournament (The main board tournament/records)
Writing (Articles, reviews, Guides, anything else)
Media ( Videos, artwork, graphics art, stream links)
Patches (or some other better name) (LFT, MF6 and the ilk)
Database/Wiki (Wiki link, stat topic database/anything else worth archiving)

[DjinnAndTonic]

Updated list of things that were essentially created to be hosted on the main site that's already complete.

RPG REVIEWS!
http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/index.php/RPG_Reviews
CmdrKing's were all specifically crafted for site use. Tide's are all well-formatted as well. At the very minimum, all of their Reviews need to be put on the main site.

Game Patches
Meeple Fantasy 6 patch (Needs to be hosted as an IPS on the main site - make sure that Meeple has access to it so that he can update it as necessary)
Laggy Fantasy Tactics patch
Sage's FF6 Eviltype patch

Articles (These were all deemed worth putting on the main site) :
Niu's Corner ( http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/index.php/Niu%27s_RPG_Corner )

FE7 Stats Spreadsheet

AndrewRogue's DL short fiction ( http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php?topic=3086.0
http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php?topic=3163.0 )

Djinn's RPGDL Tarot deck and various DL fanarts ( http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/index.php/RPGDL_Tarot_Cards )

Team DL's The Top 10 writeup
( http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,4019.0.html )


Let's Plays (There was some agreement that they would be good on the main site, but there are questions of viability issues)
Meeple's Bahamut Lagoon and Fire Emblem 4 (screenshot) Let's Plays
Nephrite's Suikoden 2 (screenshot) Let's Play

FAQs authored by DLers (There was some strong agreement that these should be hosted on the main site to showcase the knowledge base of our members, assuming that the authors wish to have it hosted here) :

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/935509-soul-nomad-and-the-world-eaters/faqs/50427 Tonfa Baton, Soul Nomad and the World Eaters Unit FAQ

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/199175-valkyrie-profile/faqs/12648 Captain K, Valkyrie Profile general (CAPTAIN K IT)
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/199175-valkyrie-profile/faqs/31208 Captain K, Valkyrie Profile bestiary (Meeple and NEB more or less co-authored this one though).

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/198537-saga-frontier/faqs/43401 MeepleLard, Saga Frontier (OK and Infinity Dragon wrote portions of it)
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/554041-final-fantasy-iii/faqs/33792 MeepleLard, FF6, Character FAQ
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/554041-final-fantasy-iii/faqs/28939 MeepleLard, FF6, Natural Magic Game FAQ
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/554041-final-fantasy-iii/faqs/23415 MeepleLard, FF6 again, Single Character Challenge FAQ
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588648-seiken-densetsu-3/faqs/12800 MeepleLard, SD3, Hawkeye FAQ
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588648-seiken-densetsu-3/faqs/13682 MeepleLard, SD3, Techincal FAQ

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeA-WtljugZ1ZDU1YjU5a18wYzhuZnJkaHQ&hl=en&pli=1 NeoElfBoy, Wild Arms XF, Battle Mechanics Guide

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/918840-wild-arms-4/faqs/41269 Grefter, Wild Arms 4, Weapon/Armor Compounding Guide


I am trying to be very specific in what I think should be transferred to the main site, because I know that people don't just want to 'throw up a bunch of shit'. These are all things that people have agreed, on various separate occasions, to be worth showcasing. These should definitely be uploaded.

Other articles that I personally think are worth showcasing:

NEB's Chrono Trigger character analysis
Tide's WA4 character analysis
Grefter's Deus Ex review
metroidcomposite's Pokemon metagame dissertation

At the very least, a main-site Link to the IAQ section of the Wiki. We put a lot of work into that and I think it's good to show off that the DL will work on projects like this from time to time. We worked on that for over a year and produced a lot of content for it, it'd be nice to at least get a link.

[NotMiki]

1.  I say go with "RPGDL: An unparalleled source for RPG information and discussion."  We can explain what RPGDL stands for in an FAQ page (which, btw, we should have one of on the top bar, especially since we're going to be linking things from the main site that need a little explanation, like LFT.)

2. User sites and a discerning selection of RPG sites.  If we come in under 20 links, I say it's fine.

3.  I think this really depends on how often and for what reasons we plan on updating the main site.

5.  I'd like to see the results of the Tournament posted in short form, maybe with a little commentary.  I think it's nice and tidy to have at least one update to the main site per week.  It's a message to people who visit the site that things are up and running.

[Idun]

Ah, for the record, I can polish any after-made images up in PSCS3 if anyone needs it. I have a disagreeable game aesthetic . .  so I'd rather mess with what people've already made.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Actually, I'd be rather interested in what you came up with, disagreeable or not.

[Idun]

I can. I'd like to know what page categories (Reviews/etc) you guys'll be narrowing down on. You guys seem to be going for the many characters banners, so I might be able to do something.

[DjinnAndTonic]

5. Re: Post content. Think Djinn has a pretty good handle here. My opinion on the headers (no particular order):

About (Site history, version updates, what we do, etc.)
Tournament (The main board tournament/records)
Writing (Articles, reviews, Guides, anything else)
Media ( Videos, artwork, graphics art, stream links)
Game Hacks (LFT, MF6 and the ilk)
Database (Wiki link, stat topic database/anything else worth archiving)

This was the agreed-upon list of categories from the chat.

[mia~]

Are you planning on making all of those posts or pages? (This is important for organization.)

[DjinnAndTonic]

I'm not entirely sure. I think we're mostly going for posts with the appropriate tags and we want the header links to simply gather and organize all posts with those tags on them.

So... if my WP memory is correct, the basic format would be:

An editor posts a Review as a new post. This Review is tagged "Writing" and "Review" (and possibly something like "Final Fantasy Tactics" or "NeoEflboy")

The header link titled Writing, when clicked, should display a list of all posts with the "Writing" tag, such as the new Review that was just posted, as well as things like Articles or Guides.

The sub-header link from the dropdown box from Writing, titled Reviews, when clicked should show a list of all posts tagged "Review", including the new Review that was just posted.

All the pages under the Writing header should probably display the same banner.

I think that's the general idea.

[Idun]

For the record, after using the new home page to get to the forums, that banner is awkwardly large! I'll get adjusted to it.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Hey, is the Tournament going to be ready again anytime soon, or are we on hiatus for some reason?

[Halbarad]

All right, pushing this along a bit. Next area of focus needs to be the blogroll/links list.

Currently there are two ideas, we can probably do both:

 - List of links to serious RPG-related sites
 - List of links to user streams

Both lists need to be compiled; after doing some research, I think I can have the site display an 'on/off air' icon for people's streams as well, for that particular group of links. My focus will be mostly on that list for now, although I'd recommend other people focus on the RPG sites list too.

For the stream list: If you have a stream, and want it linked, I'll need to get the link to the channel itself. Currently I should be able to do the icons for both ustream and livestream, not so sure about any other streaming sites though.

EDIT: The front page has been updated with a User Streams links section showing online status; I still need to fix the icons themselves and tweak the spacing a bit.

[DjinnAndTonic]

So... it looks like Hal got the images working again on the Tournament pages! Yay! Hal is the best! Also, it looks like the Season Bracket Trees are working now? Double Yay! Still some weirdness with the Bio pages' records for duellers who have been in upgrade/downgrade matches, but otherwise, it looks like the Tournament is workable again!

So let's get to finishing up this season! Yay~!

(Unless of course there's some terrible unobvious bug that I don't know about...)

[Shihali]

Didn't someone also make a hack of CT once?  I have a third-hand copy somewhere "without the bonus" and pre-patched, I believe.

[Twilkitri]

So let's get to finishing up this season! Yay~!

(Unless of course there's some terrible unobvious bug that I don't know about...)

Does anyone know what's delaying the tournament?

[DjinnAndTonic]

No clue. I think Hal's still mucking with some things. Super tried to fire an update, but it didn't work for some reason.

Unrelated note!

Talaysen, or anyone with mod powers on the Wiki: The mainpage of the Wiki has a broken link to the Stat Topics subforum. Do you think you fix this so that it links to the correct place? (My suggestion would be here: http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,1943.0.html )

[Twilkitri]

Anyone know if there's been any progress in the last month?

If it's going to be killed off, I know that I personally would prefer it to be officially done.

[DjinnAndTonic]

We've got a bunch of bios ready, but we're waiting on Hal. I'm not entirely sure what needs to be fixed at this point, but super at least can't fire updates on the Tournament page, so we're waiting.

[Grefter]

These bots man, I am kind of falling in love with their scripts and the things they do to language.

[Dhyerwolf]

Their accuracy is great improving as well.