HQ Website comittee forming

R

Robb G

Exemplar
Gang,

As you may have seen the Alliance Publicity Committee recently announced the formation of a website committee to redesign the National Alliance LARP website. Well, as it happens, the HQ site is kind of sharing the same design with the National site, and we've been talking for some time now about how we'd like to give HQ it's own website with alot more HQ specific things tied to it.

I have already procured a new domain name for the site and worked out hosting with Mike V, and now that I am back from getting hitched, I can start to devote time to getting the HQ site started.

Mike and I have some great ideas for the new site, but what I'd like to do is get some other folks involved so that the site can appeal to a broader amount of players. If it was up to me, the whole site would be dedicated to logistics, and we don't want that. So if you're interested, let me know. post here, or e-mail me at robb_at_winterfell_dot_org. We'd love to see this thread (or others) devoted to ideas for the new site.

Who/What are we looking for?

Well, I'm actually a professional web designer/developer/graphic artist... so, we have that covered (but if you'd like to show me your design ideas, that would be awesome).

I hate writing content though, so if you like writing or editing, we'd love the help.

Once we have a good handful of folks who want to help, we'll announce the committee members and get cracking on making a new killer HQ site. Gobbies will of coarse be awarded to anyone who helps out. And even if you're not on the committee, we'd still love to hear your ideas. Ultimately some of the content and ideas for the site may be rejected so that we can establish a whole and coherent vision for what HQ is all about, but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate hearing from everyone.

If anyone has any questions, please contact me or post them here. Thanks!

-Robb
 
Items that may be appearing on the new site:

OOG
- Logistics Forms (character builder, pre-logistics, etc)
- Chapter Policies
- Staff info / contact
- Photo gallery
- Site(faire play) Info
- Event Info
- Facebook Integration

IG
- Maps
- Who's who reference guide to nobility and the like
- Ashbury Times (searchable (we hope))



what other things would you guys like to see? what things do other chapter websites have that you wish HQ's site had?
 
Ohio has a lot of cool things on their site such as an IG library of lore and stories as well as pictures of heraldry. I think encorporating images of heraldry and colors and even artwork of the nobility would really add to the nobility section. Maybe a section with the laws of Ashbury written out would be helpful too.
 
Gwendara said:
Ohio has a lot of cool things on their site such as an IG library of lore and stories as well as pictures of heraldry. I think encorporating images of heraldry and colors and even artwork of the nobility would really add to the nobility section. Maybe a section with the laws of Ashbury written out would be helpful too.
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I agree, I like their site alot (though ours will look different) and would like to see at least that much info on the new HQ site

I will talk with Mike about how much of the Players Guide info we will be putting up (since it's for sale, i suspect we can only put up so much)
 
I think a "Whos Who" of not just the nobles but also the adventurers would be cool. Players could upload their picture (in costume of course) and maybe underneath the picture can be links to their email or Facebook page (or whatever) if they want to participate.

Also, a photo section should be on the web page instead of using the Facebook page.

It would be great if someone wanted to take the maps from the Players Guide and redo them in color.
 
It would be great if someone wanted to take the maps from the Players Guide and redo them in color.
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if you're giving me permission, i'd be happy to do so, just wasn't sure what was and wasn't going to be allowed.
 
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I don't know if this applies but we really need to be able to have a reference look up info ability. For example, if someone wants to look up all references and info on vampires it has been impossible for years.

On a similar thing, I will pay via money or in costumes. I seriously need someone to print out all old, and new in game news letters. I need to cut and paste the info so the guild books can be easy to research in in game times of need. If anyone can help please do so I am in info limbo in game as a result. The only time I get printed news letter is if we get a mail return. Please someone help here.
 
Heidi said:
I don't know if this applies but we really need to be able to have a reference look up info ability. For example, if someone wants to look up all references and info on vampires it has been impossible for years.
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i intend to look into this, though it may not be available for the initial new-site launch. I know mike had the old site using Google to search through the newsletters, but google changes their search metrics and rules every 2-3 weeks, so just because something worked a while ago, doesn't mean anything now a days. ultimately it would be best if the whole online-newsletter was put into a searchable database. But this will mean there also has to be a way to add new newsletters that Amelia (or whoever is doing it at the time) can publish them without having to know the back-end. And ultimately it would be nice to have an e-mail subscription linked to the database as well so when new newsletters are added, subscribers are automatically notified.

-Robb
 
Guys,

I wanted to make a quick update before I couldn't do so re: this project. I had 1 person (Kris) offer to assist in the project and (no offense to her) it wasn't in a way that would have alleviated a lot of the work from me. For the time being I'm not interested in doing this without more assistance, so this project is being shelved unless the current HQ staff want to pick it up and run with it.

If more folks get involved later on, contact me and I might be able to help with the design/development work depending on my schedule.
 
I'm sorry I couldn't offer help on the design/development front. I'm not nearly experienced enough to crank out a good product.
 
It's cool Kris I don't fault you for it. What I wanted to do was work on a committee with like 4 or so people who all wanted to contribute so I wasn't left with the brunt of the work. When I design websites at work, the client typically is alot more involved, or has an expectation that if they are not involved they get whatever I feel like designing for them and live with it. I don't feel like doing 30 design and revision sessions with the HQ staff though. I'd rather have something given to me to work from so I know what direction to go.

I'm going to be working with Rich on the Alliance Gettsyburg site since he is prepared to present a site plan to me before we start the project.

If HQ is interested in the future, maybe someone else can spearhead this and contact me if you need me.
 
So to clarify, you're looking for a team of helpers to point you in a direction and tell you what to do? That's the sort of help you need?

Just checkin, cause my best friend does professional web design stuff as well, but she's not a LARPer (though she loves fantasy and such), so it's not like she would be the one picking the direction for this. She'd just be another great person to have on the team of making it happen if people tell her what to do.

Would you like me to contact her to see if she's interested, or is that sort of help just redundant at this point?
 
well, if someone wanted to spearhead the project, and you used her a designer and left me out of it totally, sure.. but normally 2 designers on the same small project like this is like 2 cooks in a small kitchen. i wouldn't need another designer. I'd need someone to tell me what they want to go where, write content (which kris offered to do) and what they wanted stuff to look like so we could work together as a team to keep things moving.
 
Yeah, ok. I sorta figured that was the case, just thought I should double check to make sure I understood what you were asking for. So I guess we won't be needing her help! And if I come up with creative ideas or figure any way I can help with this, I'll let you know... but as of right now I've got nothin' to offer, then. Good luck!
 
I'll totally write content as well if you need other folks to do so :)
 
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