2008 Theme

Today sees the introduction of the long-awaited new theme. This post will briefly explain the new features that have been included with it. The theme is not 100% finished and improvements will be made over the next few days.

First Things First

Before I talk about the theme itself and how the new features will improve the site I need to spend a few moments talking about its creator. Luke Lanchester is the designer and I can’t express how grateful I am to him for agreeing to turn my vision into reality.

We took an existing design and tweaked it into what you see. Whilst I took the role of the Always complaining client, Luke managed to listen to my ideas but evolved them into something even better than I imagined.

Not only is he a great designer but he also knows his way around code and more than a number of times found solutions to problems that I thought may bring the project to a hakt.

Therefore I would like to publicly thank him for his never ending patience and commitment and, whilst I know he is very busy at the moment, highly recommend him for any design or coding work you may have.

Thank you Luke!

Design Overview

Before I look at some of the specific new features I just want to reassure readers that I will be writing a more detailed description and even making a guide video tour once we have finished all the minor details. Thank you for your patience.

Problems?

If you have any problems please post them here and both Luke and I will investigate as soon as possible.

Some New Features

Let’s start with the comments area. The two main things are a live comment preview, which means that your comment is displayed as you type. This should help ensure that everything looks exactly like you expected it. No images are displayed in the preview.

The next thing you may notice is the ability to edit your comments for around 15 minutes after you have posted it. This should avoid spelling mistakes but more likely omissions.

Also on the subject of comments is the addition of a gravatar. A gavatar is an icon that can be connected to comments made on ANY website that supports the system. The default gravatar is a greyed-out PP logo. You will notice my comments have the blue PP logo to the left of them. The gravatar can be almost any image you want, a photo of you, your dog or even your car. There is a filter on the system to block inappropriate images. More information can be found here? Gravavtar. The system is run by the same people who make WordPress.

Next is something called TAGS. Basically it is like associating maps and mods with keywords that will help readers find the type of maps they like. A list of tags can be found in the footer. Each post displays what tags have been associated with it. However, it is even better than it sounds because now readers can suggest tags for each post making the system even more useful.

Imagine this: You love maps with the crossbow included but how do you find them? Simple, click the crossbow link in the respective footer section and it will display all the maps and mods that have crossbow as a tag.

There is one problem….somebody has to add the tags manually and that takes a while so older maps and mods have no tags currently associated with them. That’s where you come in…if you add tags for every map and mod you play then the system will be useful in very little time.

I’ll be writing a detailed guide to tagging within the next few days. If you suggest a tag I get to approve it before it appears.

Recommendation images have been updated and an automatic replacement of the old images will happen soon. They recommendation images and TAG system now only appear for maps and mods, not other categories.

Know Issues

There are lost of little formatting issues that will be addressed over the next few days but the main problem is the search function. There’s definitely something not right and I and Luke have made this our top priority. I may even add a Google site-specific search in the near future.

Some pages may have disappeared and they may reappear.

The news section in the footer is left over from a promise from another website but I may use it for something else.

Conclusion

A lot of thought went into ensuring the site is as easy to use as possible. However, I am sure it won’t please all readers. I have some plans for some new content intended to help new players but that will come after the guided tour.

Please post any comments, questions or suggestions you have regarding the design. I will not amke any promises to change something you don’t like but I promise I will consider everything written.