[Sandwich]

http://www.hard-light.net/news/article/new-site-launched-much-derp-very-bug

[Shivan Hunter]

immediate thoughts in no particular order: (using firefox 26)

I like the news section, more compact/more information available but I liked seeing the newsletters on the page itself, they might get less attention here

highlights take up too much space? maybe I'm just used to the compact style, but they seem to crowd out the news section which has more content

Wrong highlights displaying? I see some old ones but the unread replies page shows the new ones e.g. FSFiles

"HLP Network" at the top not immediately distinguishable as a non-link, maybe just make it "HLP Network:" to communicate that the rest of the line is a list

Holy popups! I much preferred the old menus for the HLP Network links that didn't crowd the page - if I'm using these menus, I just want some way to get to e.g. the Wiki, not a rehash of the front page and tons of space to look around.

There's a bar with only the "home" link on the homepage - why does the page have a link to itself?

I often used the forum links on the sidebar, now users have to use the "HLP network" link to get to the forums. Might not be immediately obvious for noobs. Also the space under the highlights is wasted space atm

Black background is a bit distracting - I think #171819 would work better and eliminate unnecessary borders

Also, since I'm a grumpy old curmudgeon who hates all change, it's terrible and you should change it back

[Axem]

I don't like it because my newsletters were only done up to June, now I need to repost the others or else I look like a stupid fool...! 

[deathfun]

I don't mind it short of the fact that the tab to go directly to forums isn't anywhere on there
While sure it's on the drop down HLP one, something that important sort of deserves a one press as opposed to a two press

[Sandwich]

Yay, helpful feedback! On it.

Axem, I believe you know how to do fixy-fixy?

EDIT: I'm considering simplifying the top items in the main nav as much as humanly possible:

HLP (which is meaningless!) -> a Forums nav and an IRC nav. Or perhaps just call it a more industry-standard "Community".
FreeSpace Wiki -> Wiki
Hosted Projects -> Projects
External Sites -> Links (?)
Mantis & Installing FreeSpace Open -> These I'd like to combine into one menu, which would contain "FreeSpace Open - Downloads" and "SCP - Get Involved" sections. Not sure what to call the menu itself though... Productions?

I'd also like to add a dedicated "Install FSO" section to the blank area below the highlights on most every page, for visibility.

[Sandwich]

I like the news section, more compact/more information available but I liked seeing the newsletters on the page itself, they might get less attention here

Not gonna happen, sorry. They're far too long to show up on the frontpage. However, I am considering doing something similar to Salamandra (PDF), where content's visual prominence can be adjusted according to its importance.

highlights take up too much space? maybe I'm just used to the compact style, but they seem to crowd out the news section which has more content

I actually wanted them to be even larger (full-width), but then they took over the entire page a bit too much. We'll undoubtedly tweak their display as time goes on. The important thing is to make sure that the original images uploaded for the highlights are nice and huge (web-huge, not Photoshop-huge) - 1920x1200 if at all possible. The CMS dynamically resizes them down to whatever size is required for any given instance.

Wrong highlights displaying? I see some old ones but the unread replies page shows the new ones e.g. FSFiles

Repercussions of not really wanting to wait anymore for something that wasn't happening. The hope is that having the outdated stuff shown in public will kick the relevant parties into action.

"HLP Network" at the top not immediately distinguishable as a non-link, maybe just make it "HLP Network:" to communicate that the rest of the line is a list

Fixed.

Holy popups! I much preferred the old menus for the HLP Network links that didn't crowd the page - if I'm using these menus, I just want some way to get to e.g. the Wiki, not a rehash of the front page and tons of space to look around.

The old, traditional dropdown menus were getting far too full of links to be effective anymore. Too many menus and sub-menus, and not very mobile-friendly to boot. So mega-menus it is. However, I definitely do want to make it easy to get the the main destinations quickly, so we'll be tweaking things as time goes on, based on y'all's feedback.

There's a bar with only the "home" link on the homepage - why does the page have a link to itself?

It's the breadcrumbs bar (eg. Home > News > FreeSpace 3 is real!!!!!11233), but you're right, it has no real use on the frontpage. Removed.

I often used the forum links on the sidebar, now users have to use the "HLP network" link to get to the forums. Might not be immediately obvious for noobs. Also the space under the highlights is wasted space atm

I don't mind it short of the fact that the tab to go directly to forums isn't anywhere on there
While sure it's on the drop down HLP one, something that important sort of deserves a one press as opposed to a two press

Perhaps a "Community" sidebar section under (or above?) the Highlights, with links not just to the forums index, but perhaps also to the more active boards (over 100k posts?), as well as to the IRC channel...?

Black background is a bit distracting - I think #171819 would work better and eliminate unnecessary borders

Hmm... perhaps, but it's necessary for those news articles that have full-page image backgrounds, to keep the text readable.

Also, since I'm a grumpy old curmudgeon who hates all change, it's terrible and you should change it back

Ysy, mission accomplished!

[Sandwich]

Playing around with the appearance of the frontpage news articles, in case you spot any wonkiness.

[Goober5000]

I see from the main page that the highlights and announcements are now separate ... but I think a system to pull them from the forum should be a high priority.  The main reason is that people posting them now have to do it in two places instead of one.  The secondary reason is that when you're viewing the forum, the highlights are displayed along the top of the screen, and those are pulled from the forum.

To see how much trouble it is, why don't you yourself post a duplicate highlight thread, Sandwich?

[Sandwich]

I'm actually phasing out posting content to the discussion forums. Just like the nav bar up top, the Highlights will also get pulled into the forum templates from the mainpage's database. It's just a matter of time.

[deathfun]

Perhaps a "Community" sidebar section under (or above?) the Highlights, with links not just to the forums index, but perhaps also to the more active boards (over 100k posts?), as well as to the IRC channel...?

Might work, would have to see it in play to see how it truly looks though

[Shivan Hunter]

Perhaps a "Community" sidebar section under (or above?) the Highlights, with links not just to the forums index, but perhaps also to the more active boards (over 100k posts?), as well as to the IRC channel...?

That sounds like a good idea. Something to give the forums a bit more prominence on the front page, since they're what people are usually here for.

Black background is a bit distracting - I think #171819 would work better and eliminate unnecessary borders

Hmm... perhaps, but it's necessary for those news articles that have full-page image backgrounds, to keep the text readable.

I'm a bit confused by this - I just edited it in Firefox (very zoomed-out pic) and it looks OK to me. Is the error just not apparent with these particular news posts, or is it something else?

Otherwise, good changes. Seems quite streamlined now.

[headdie]

Fyi, just clicked on the FB link at the bottom which goes to https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hard-Light-Productions/113949898652963 . That page hasn't seen any activity since 2012 by the looks of it while https://www.facebook.com/groups/Hardlightproductions/ is far more active with me posting the newsletter as well as there being general activity from this month.

[Mongoose]

I want to +1 the calls for a far more prominent forum link.  The only way to get here shouldn't be buried under any sort of drop-down; it should be something at least as big as the blue Donate button, if not even bigger.

[Scotty]

Especially since there's a prominent, easily identifiable button to search the forums already, but not one to actually go there.

[Mr. Vega]

I want to +1 the calls for a far more prominent forum link.  The only way to get here shouldn't be buried under any sort of drop-down; it should be something at least as big as the blue Donate button, if not even bigger.

Ditto.

[Mongoose]

Especially since there's a prominent, easily identifiable button to search the forums already, but not one to actually go there.

Yeah, I actually clicked on that the first time thinking it was the forum link, only to be stymied.  And I'm not even a n00b around here.

[Sandwich]

Black background is a bit distracting - I think #171819 would work better and eliminate unnecessary borders

Hmm... perhaps, but it's necessary for those news articles that have full-page image backgrounds, to keep the text readable.

I'm a bit confused by this - I just edited it in Firefox (very zoomed-out pic) and it looks OK to me. Is the error just not apparent with these particular news posts, or is it something else?

Not all news posts have full-page backgrounds. This one does - try to see what happens when you remove the mostly-opaque black BG for it: http://www.hard-light.net/news/article/new-site-launched-much-derp-very-bug




I hear all the calls for a prominent forums button - I'll get on it soon.

[Black Wolf]

I'm actually phasing out posting content to the discussion forums. Just like the nav bar up top, the Highlights will also get pulled into the forum templates from the mainpage's database. It's just a matter of time.

I just got the importance of this statement. So, you've taken away the functionality of posting a simple forum topic that then updates the main page in favour of a system that requires people who want to post news to post two separate items on the mainpage and the forums?

That's... really, really stupid.

[niffiwan]

I've just gone and copied the 5 most recent highlights from the forum to the new site (a wee bit of notice about going live would have been nice Sandwich )

FYI - the resizing seems to retain the aspect ratio rather than:

Instructions:  Will be resized and cropped to 800x272.

So I've made everything 4:3 so far.  Otherwise each highlight pic is a different size...

(ps; if anyone doesn't like the current pic their highlight has got, just send me a different one to put up instead.  If it's not 4:3 aspect then I'll crop it to that...)

edit:

I'm actually phasing out posting content to the discussion forums. Just like the nav bar up top, the Highlights will also get pulled into the forum templates from the mainpage's database. It's just a matter of time.

I just got the importance of this statement. So, you've taken away the functionality of posting a simple forum topic that then updates the main page in favour of a system that requires people who want to post news to post two separate items on the mainpage and the forums?

I thought from this that eventually it would be back to a single post "highlight" entry would put highlights on both the forum and the mainpage again?

edit2: ack - fix confusing use of "post"

[deathfun]

Especially since there's a prominent, easily identifiable button to search the forums already, but not one to actually go there.

Yeah, I actually clicked on that the first time thinking it was the forum link, only to be stymied.  And I'm not even a n00b around here.

Oh good I wasn't the only one fooled by it
I was all "Y U NO DIRECT ME" and then was about to post about it being a glitch and then realized... wait... that's the search...
Ffffffffuuuuuu