Updating the JB website

[tarquin]

Hi all!

So there's a new UT game!

Should we think about updating / expanding / changing the website in any way?

I'm going to be on paternity leave pretty soon (depending on when it arrives! any day now!) and I might have a bit of time in between not sleeping very much to do a bit of tinkering...

Some ideas I've had:

• allow mappers to create their own pages on the site for their maps, with screenshots + FTP download links
• allow management of JB releases via the site (currently the download pages are flat HTML, not managed in the CMS)

Any further thoughts on what new features we'd like?

 

[RevBillyG]

Sounds good. Also, allowing comments on news articles would be good (rather than linking to a forum thread). Might also be a good idea to get some social networking going to raise awareness. FB, Twitter etc

 

[tarquin]

Do we even have a twitter account?

It should be possible to get the website to tweet whenever there's a new news post, but probably not until it's been upgraded to Drupal 7 -- the Drupal 6 modules for twitter are hopelessly out of date now.

Regarding maps, do things like Nali City still exist? That's what put me off doing pages for maps on our site before, as we'd be mostly duplicating the functionality of map hosting sites. If nowadays people are just uploading their maps to their own FTP or to FTP mirrors, we might as well improve the showcasing of our maps on the site.

I don't think enabling comments on the news posts would be a good idea. We'd either:

a. be forcing people to create a whole new account on our site in addition to the account on our forum, or
b. let people comment without logging in, and then have a whole new bucket of spam to keep emptying

Also, it would be be confusing -- should we discuss stories on the website comments, or in the forum...? We'd end up with a mix of both. I think it's best if we keep discussion in one place -- it's quiet in here enough as it is!

 

[RevBillyG]

I think most of the mapping sites are now long gone

 

[AlteredForms]

Not many people are making maps for Unreal games anymore. And why should they? The server lists are packed to the brim with both excellent and rubbish content.

 

[G.Lecter]

Regarding maps, do things like Nali City still exist?

Mapraider is still working, but it sucks that I can't even edit the info and screenshots of my own maps...

From what I read so far, custom content will be installed through a 'Steam Workshop' kind of thing, so a place to upload maps might not be needed. It would still be good to have a place for mappers to upload screenshots, announce releases/updates, etc...

 

[Bloodyboy]

It would still be good to have a place for mappers to announce releases, etc...

I don't think we'll need more features.....

 

[tarquin]

Ok, so what I'm envisaging is that we'll have a concept of a 'project' on the site. That can be one of:

* a map
* an add-on
* a map pack
* a whole JB mod itself (eg UTJB, Jailbreak 2004, UT4JB or whatever we call it).

Each project will be its own page, where you can set:

* name
* description
* images
* multiple releases, each with multiple download links
* which mod it goes with (if it's a map, a pack, or an add-on, not if it's a mod itself though)

> custom content will be installed through a 'Steam Workshop' kind of thing, so a place to upload maps might not be needed.

If we don't need download links for UT4 stuff, that's cool. I'm planning on converting the old bits of the site that are still flat HTML into Drupal. Not that we need to update them or anything, but the hacky system I wrote to load up the old HTML pages is a bit hacky and crap. Also, you never know, people might make new JB2004/UT3JB maps or something... ?

I'll try and see if I can get a prototype site set up so you can try it out and give me feedback before I finalize it.

 

[Bloodyboy]

If it was up to me, I'd edit some stuff:

 

[G.Lecter]

The subtitle might help people know this is not an iPhone-related site. :tup:

I also like the idea of an horizontal header, although I'd place links to the different versions of the mod there: Jailbreak III | Jailbreak 2004 | UT3 Jailbreak | New UT Jailbreak, plus maybe a link to an 'About' page where everyone can know what's jailbrake and how can i get it.

Community stuff looks fine on the right side column IMO, although I agree that the Forum link should be more attention-seeking.