The new website

[Adanorcil]

[img]http://forgetburgundy.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/champagne_bottle.jpg[/img]

We're ready to take to the skies with this one. As of the posting of this topic, the new site is now live!


What to do next

• You guys need accounts. The option to make an account yourself has been turned off, because otherwise any old spambot could apply for one. I made accounts for those of you I had e-mail accounts of. If you have not yet received an e-mail about, please PM me with your e-mail address and I'll make one for you promptly.
• We need more content. Now I know we all can't wait to play with our new toy, but rather than just throwing everything on there in one go, I say we use our new content. There's only one screenshot gallery yet, for instance. This is very much on purpose. I suggest that in a a couple of days, we create another one with a certain topic, make a news item about, post it on the Beth forums, Facebook, Twitter and what not. A while later, we do the same again, etc. We make tutorials and other interesting stuff and release it gradually, each time inviting people through all available channels to take a look.

[Lady Nerevar]

Looking great It's basically what I've wanted since, like, 2005. Thanks to everyone involved for finally making it happen.

Can we get that big banner off the top now?

[edit] One more thing - when looking at the mockup, I'd assumed that the twitter and facebook links lead to our twitter and facebook. Instead, they invite you to share the link, which isn't really useful. Could we get them replaced with links, instead, and add a tumblr icon? Perhaps get rid of the twitter one, too, unless we plan on using it again.

[Adanorcil]

Hah. Working on it.

[Why]

Nice work Adan. Add a link to our IRC channel at the top, maybe? Or do we want to direct attention away from IRC?

[Yeti]

Comments and suggestions from someone (me) who might not know what they are talking about.

1. We should add a link to our Stirk mod in the downloads section, along with a link to our Hammerfell art book. The second of these in particular is a testament to our project's creative juices at work, and a towering artistic achievement in its own right. It is definitely something we want to display up front for people who are forming an initial impression of Tamriel Rebuilt to see.

It would also give us a chance to address the history of our Hammerfell mod quickly and concisely. Ideally, there should be a definite and readily available explanation of what happened to it on our website, if only for those who might be confused about that part of our history.

2. The about, downloads, join sections could use some visual elements. At the moment they feel kind of empty compared to the News section and its fancy latest images column.

3. I'd suggest a bolder color for links. Right now they don't stand out visually from the normal text much.

4. The text on the site might look better if it was justified. This might just be my personal preference, but I've always found justified text to have a cleaner and more professionally appealing appearance.

5. It would be nice if the about or faq sections provided a little more information on what the world of Morrowind is like. Why should people be interested in possibly helping us build this land? What makes the Dunmer a distinct culture, and their homeland a compelling place to explore? Obviously anyone who has ever played Morrowind likely already knows the answers to these questions instinctively, but it would still be nice to remind everyone what makes Morrowind a fascinating work of fantasy genius.

I'm thinking of a brief overview highlighting what province's key identifiable features; something similar in style to the release statement I wrote for [url=http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42333/?]the first Skyrim Home of the Nords release[/url]. And yes, feel free to consider this a shameless plug.

6. Speaking of other province mods, I don't think it would hurt to mention our more prolific cousin projects somewhere on the website. Perhaps under the "Why 'Tamriel' Rebuilt when you are really only building Morrowind?" section of the FAQ, so people know other parts of Tamriel are also being worked on to some extent.

[Adanorcil]

So we're gonna talk content now. (Note: this is about content, i.e. "pages", not functionality. We'll talk about that some other time.)

The priority right now would seem to be the creation of a new "Community" (name pending) section for the website. The general theme for this section would be that it includes all things that TR has to offer to the modding community or the public at large that are neither game downloads (which go in the Downloads section) or images (which go in the galleries). To put it a different way, this section should include everything that draws people to the website that's not the mod itself.

Specifically this means:

- Tutorials and other knowledge
- Utilities
- Name Generator (reinstated at http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?q=namegenerator - works exactly the same as the old one)
- Links to other projects and sites?



I'd like to compile a list of things for each of these subsections.

For tutorials, I refer to [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24260]this thread[/url]. Discussion of tutorials can stay there. I do think our initial offer (even if it's only a few to start with) should be sort of well-rounded, so it's neither overly technical or completely abstract.

Utilities: could someone please make a quick list of these, along with download links?

Links: could someone make a list of these?

[Adanorcil]

To reiterate my request from the previous, it's time we get some stuff online.

A "Modding" section has been created on the site, which currently only links to the Name Generator.

The idea is for this section to include two more subsections: "Tools" and "Tutorials". Blank overview pages have been created for either of those, [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?q=content/tutorials]here[/url] and [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?q=content/tools]here[/url].

The tools section should be pretty easy, but someone more knowledgeable than me should go over the old Utilities page and rewrite/update it. Either edit the new page directly or send me a new list and I'll update it. Who is up for this job? Please post.


The tutorials section is a bit more work. I think some of the old tutorials can probably be salvaged, given they're polished a bit. Specifically, I think it would make sense to remove TR-specific instructions from them, so they can be read by a general audience.

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=22530 E.g. remove the step of the exterior map. Maybe add more tips and tricks.

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=20577 Finish/cut the unfinished sections.

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=17911 Good to go?


Mostly we need a lot more. I think each senior member should try to come up with one topic that they pledge to write a tutorial/how-to/insightful text about in the near future.

I'll give the good examples by finalizing my "How to write natural sounding dialog" text.

[Haplo]

As mentioned in the tutorial-specific thread, I plan to do more work on the exterior guide (namely the under construction parts).

I can also go over the utilities as well for the Tools page when I have some free time.