About the new EN World front page - I LOVE IT!

[Simplicity]

... I hate the change.

The front news page served as a kind of community trough for the site, and now the front page has become completely useless. I may as well skip it entirely. But because I typically spend more time on the forums than reading the news, I probably will not bother going to the news page at all. I suspect a lot of people will feel the same way.

Take the news page away, and all of the news will wind up being in forum format because that's where the community is going to be. The news page will disappear.

 

[Morrus]

... I hate the change.

The front news page served as a kind of community trough for the site, and now the front page has become completely useless. I may as well skip it entirely. But because I typically spend more time on the forums than reading the news, I probably will not bother going to the news page at all. I suspect a lot of people will feel the same way.

The news page is still there.

The reason the splash page appeared was because the software I'm using to automate the news page had to be called index.php. The existing front page was called index.html. Now, I could have just deleted index.html and hoped that those who had bookmarked it directly figured it out when they got a "Page Not Found" error, but I thought it best to have something there, lest they just think EN World has gone.

Sure, I could have just put "The front page has moved - click here for the new one", which serves exactly the same function as the one I've put there now. I can't imagine people would say "Hey I like that page!" either.

So there has to be an index.html. No choice in the matter. So what goes on it? Either nothing, or something. So I put some links on it.

 

[hafrogman]

Having taken a look at it, I kind of like it actually.

Not for any of us, I expect; long time users will just bookmark the news or forums or whatever they use most. But for first time visitors to the site, it gives a nice overview of all the different features, and an explanation to go with them.

If you do have to buy art, you should totally see if you can find the guy who made these.

Oh, and I'm getting a broken image link off "Account Stuff".

 

[Morrus]

Not for any of us, I expect; long time users will just bookmark the news or forums or whatever they use most. But for first time visitors to the site, it gives a nice overview of all the different features, and an explanation to go with them.

That's pretty much my thinking. I can watch the traffic over the next few days to see if that's the case.

 

[freyar]

I like it! Very functional. (And thanks for the link to the storefront.)

 

[LightPhoenix]

[EDIT] NOT a Big Issue: Visiting some of the links logged me off. I'll do more research. Nevermind, must have been a problem on my end.

Short version: I like it.

Longer version: I think this is a lot less cluttered than the old-new front page, while allowing everything that you want on the front page to be there. The lack of news on the front page is not optimal, but on the other hand the new News page is a lot easier to read without the clutter. I agree with the sentiment that most people either bookmark the forums and get news there, or will just bookmark the news page.

I'm not sure if it's my system (Firefox 3.0.5, Win XP SP3) but the boxes on the front page are not the same size horizontally. I think it's due to the GSG and WotBS boxes, which have longer titles. I only mention this because the News box, while in the most prominent position, is also the smallest. Also, as a personal style thing, I think the grey boxes are a little too bright. I think if they are a little darker it will provide ample contrast with the background as well as providing more contrast for the text.

Regarding the News page, fba827 already mentioned the "if" in the title. I don't know how much work it is, but I'd love to see the news a little more categorized. Basically, I mean taking the articles and putting them in headings like you already do with the Official D&D Updates. It makes it easier to scan the page looking for the news I'm interested in. For example, if I only play Pathfinder, I can scan for the category that would include it (OGL?). Similarly for if I'm interested in Miniatures, or CCGs, or General RPG Articles (drawing from the most recent news box). Now that I type it out though, it seems like a bit more work than might be worth it.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The news page is still there.

The reason the splash page appeared was because the software I'm using to automate the news page had to be called index.php. The existing front page was called index.html. Now, I could have just deleted index.html and hoped that those who had bookmarked it directly figured it out when they got a "Page Not Found" error, but I thought it best to have something there, lest they just think EN World has gone.

Sure, I could have just put "The front page has moved - click here for the new one", which serves exactly the same function as the one I've put there now. I can't imagine people would say "Hey I like that page!" either.

So there has to be an index.html. No choice in the matter. So what goes on it? Either nothing, or something. So I put some links on it.

FWIW, it would be possible to tell apache to look for index.php first and index.html second, thus allowing you to keep index.php for the main news page without breaking those who have index.html bookmarked.

So there isn't a technological issue that means you have to have the html version of the front page (although I can understand that they may be other reasons why you'd like to).

Cheers

 

[Morrus]

FWIW, it would be possible to tell apache to look for index.php first and index.html second, thus allowing you to keep index.php for the main news page without breaking those who have index.html bookmarked.

So there isn't a technological issue that means you have to have the html version of the front page (although I can understand that they may be other reasons why you'd like to).

Cheers

No, you misunderstand me. Many people have bookmarked EN World - D&D / Dungeons & Dragons / RPGs, not www.enworld.org.

 

[Merkuri]

FWIW, it would be possible to tell apache to look for index.php first and index.html second, thus allowing you to keep index.php for the main news page without breaking those who have index.html bookmarked.

Or you could put a redirect on index.html that sends you to index.php (or both).

 

[jaerdaph]

Well, I've only just started. it's likely to change a lot over the next two weeks. I just wanted a starting block in place.

I see that - and I'm still lovin' it.