BBGameZone v2!

[Zeggy]

Okay, so lately (as in the past few months), bbgamezone has become really stagnant.

I've decided to give bbgamezone.net a complete makeover, the first redesign of the website, ever!

It might take a while, as I plan to properly integrate the forum with the site as well, and introduce some new features.

I've attached a preview screenshot, but the new site is far from complete.

What do you think of it?

And I would love to hear any suggestions about new features that you would like to see. A game directory/listing? Contests? Anything!

[mobeamer]

You know I have much love for what you have going on here Zeggy so take the following as constructive criticism.

I really like the preview layout...a few things.

Get rid of the welcome box, we know where we are and we are allready glad we came...

Change the welcome box to show the last 5/10 new posts (title only)

Love the game of the month...keep it in the center

Stats....Those are more for you the admin, they don't really help a new user or old user right? I'd get rid of that and put the last 5 most active posts. (Keep the stats on the front page, just not so dominate a position)

Latest News....good

Last Article...I'd actually tie your blog in on this one,(Last Blog Entry) take the last post from the blog and put it there.

That's my 2 cents. Even if you left it the way it is, I think it would be an improvement.

[Zeggy]

Thanks for the advice mobeamer!

I had already changed the Latest Stats box into a login box for guests, and info like unread messages for logged-in users.

I'll make sure to add the latest blog post to the page

As for the welcome box... I'll change it to latest 5 posts, but I still need the welcome text somewhere, for the new visitors who have never been here before

[Chris]

If you have the time for this, why don't you 'fix' the current features instead?

The vote for games does not work.
The official IRC channel is abandoned (not even a gamesurge bot anymore). Also there is no direct link to the chan (only server list). Either kill it completelly or reviewe.

I'm really sceptical about layout change, who cares? This site is not supposed to attract players, but game owners. OK, make a new layout if you want, but please, make sure the other features work first.

[Zeggy]

Good point Chris, I have noticed that nearly everything except the forum is broken, and even the forum is slightly broken.

The games directory has already been closed for quite a while, I just didn't remove the little sections which showed a random game.

As I said, BBGameZone is going under complete reconstruction. I'm going to be taking down all the features that are currently here (and broken), and they might not be added back in. Even the forum will be started over (but posts/members will be kept).

This site is not supposed to attract players, but game owners.

Yep. And that's still going to be what the site is supposed to do.

[codestryke]

Zeg I like the screen shot so far

My only concern is the X post thing to get the script archive. Maybe tie it to karma or some other type of system. Seems every weekend a new face shows up wants the scripts and just posts nonsense in the forums to get to the script archive.

Then on the other hand if someone really wants to learn and they are pretty new what do they really have to post about to get to that X amount of posts.

I've actually been pondering this question so I could offer you an alternative.. Unfortunately no great ideas have come up yet LOL

[Zeggy]

Thanks codestryke!

I was actually thinking of either removing it or making it public (or maybe require registration).

It seems most people have wild fantasies about what's actually in the script vault, and when they finally get there they are disappointed So I figured I might as well make it available to everybody. Most of the scripts can probably be found elsewhere, too.

[JGadrow]

I agree with you Zeg. Requiring registration is probably as 'hard' as it should be.

I didn't sign up for the scripts, but I did glance over them out of curiosity once I hit the required posts limit. There really is just not enough to require such dedicated work to receive at this time.

[Chris]

Do not change the vault, it is a good incentive to join conversation (but I do agree that it should be connected with karma, also minimum 7 days membership?). Sure, there is nothing really interesting (but also not absolute rubbish), I would say the content is just right. To be honest, I started to post on this board only because of the curiousity what is in the vault (even through, I never needed these scripts for anything)

[Go_on]

Looks good, but i suggest you use a few extra darker colors, to not make it too light.
For example make the small bar above latest news and article a little bit darker.

[03laceys]

What happened to the revamp?