Thoughts for complete site redesign

What do you think of these ideas?

  • Good thinking, let's try them!

  • Nah, bad idea, keep it the way it is

  • Let's try it, but with MY ideas, not yours!

  • Nice try noodlehead, you should crawl back to the slime you came from


Results are only viewable after voting.

dlloyd

Official Pianist
I think MacOSX.com should be more than just a forums site. Here are some things that we could do:

1) Have a section where members can post reviews of hardware and software with links to VersionTracker or MacUpdate for downloads of the free software and links to places where people can buy commercial software and hardware with a commission to go to MacOSX.com. We could build in an option for people to add ratings, much like Amazon.com.
2) We could have a built-in VersionTracker and or MacUpdate search feature. Heck, for that reason we could build in a [/software] tag that acts like the [/url] one. i.e. if someone did this: "[software]BBEdit[/software]" then the board would change that into a link to search MacUpdate for "BBEdit".
3) I really do think we should upgrade, yes 'upgrade', to Invision Powerboard. It is faster, less bandwidth intensive, and we would save big time on the licensing fees. There is a forum conversion script that you could use to transfer from vBulletin to Invision Powerboard. Oh, and the skinning system rocks :D
4) We NEED more emoticons! :eek: Go to http://www.siegenetwork.com/forums/ and see how many they have. It's really cool to use that many :D
For example, I've always wanted a version of the iChat ':-/'. I have to use :( instead which isn't quite right... Oh, and isn't the ':readthereadme:' just a laugh? Or the Shrugging Shoulders one.
5) We could have a Help section, with Getting Started on your Mac, or HowTo Switch, or Resources for learning HTML/CSS/XHTML/Cocoa etc., tutorials, maybe a version of the old NoWonder for newbies who need help. I think that would be really cool.
6) A Homepage with a news system. Members could submit news items to be posted, after Moderator approval, of course. The homepage could also have a section for Most Active threads, or Newest Threads, etc. We could also have a 'Chatterbox' on there.

Anyway, these are just some ideas. If they are popular, then maybe Scott will implement them! :D I'm happy to start on some mockups or anything, and I know enough PHP that I could do much of my suggestions, if that helps.

Feel free to add any ideas of your own!

P.S., I just noticed the countdown 'until MacOSX.com is born again', maybe some of these things are already planned?
P.P.S., Should this be moved to Site Discussion so more people can get in on it?
 
my only reply is to #3 - NO. i really don't like the new forum software at macfora. i think it was a big step backwards for them. the only advantage it has is speed. it's features aren't near as nice imho.
 
MacBidouille just did the same upgrade... the system is VERY fast, but the design is ugly (looks like XP). Now they are working on a complete redesign. I'll juge later, but for the time being I'm not convinced.
 
Originally posted by dlloyd
P.S., I just noticed the countdown 'until MacOSX.com is born again', maybe some of these things are already planned?
Noticed that that's counting down to the exact second when Panther's released?
 
voice-, I noticed that. It is purposeful. My anonymous source says that the site will go down for about an hour, and then be back up ('reborn') exactly as Panther is released.
Trip, my anonymous source also says that there will probably be a new theme at least ;) :D
 
Uhhh... Don't mention Bush to me, and definitely don't say Bush and WMD in the same sentence... I'll start flaming anything that moves...

:D
 
i've moved this back to the roundtable. i'm more interested in what site supporters have to say about this than the general populus.
 
Back
Top