Apolyton: A forum with a website?

Chris Wilkinson · March 23, 2002, 10:48

Does anybody else feel that the site here needs a major make-over? I don't visit use the site as it has been kind of left to rot apart from some news postings.

Provost Harrison · March 23, 2002, 11:29

Hehe, don't tell Markos that.

DOH!

And speaking of which, why haven't you linked CGN on the links pages Markos

DarkCloud · March 23, 2002, 11:30

How would you propose to do this makeover?
Make a bigger deal of the forums on the front page?

Or make large links to the hosted sites which still update and smaller onesto th elder sites?

HisMajestyBOB · March 23, 2002, 13:51

Have apolyton.net automatically foward you to the OT forum

spartak · March 23, 2002, 14:47

No point doing that unless you restore the post count in OT

May I refer you gents to my signature?

loinburger · March 23, 2002, 20:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Gasmaske
No point doing that unless you restore the post count in OT

Why would not having a post count in OT make it pointless? Plenty of new people have started posting on OT despite the fact that they're going to be permanent settlers.

At any rate, I agree that the forums (no, not just the OT) seem to be the most important feature on Apolyton. If I want to find out basic information about a game, I'll go to the official website for that game. If I want to ***** about the game developers or set up MP games, I'll go to the Apolyton forums. I think the only time I ever looked at the Civ III section on Apolyton was to read the list (which was also available on the forums, albeit in a shoddier format).

Locutus · March 23, 2002, 21:01

The problem is that the databases are still in the process of being upgraded and that Mark and Dan are working on new sections for RoN and MoO3. Aside from that, the non-forum part of the site offers: news, columns, interviews, chat, links section, radio, tournaments, stories, reviews, tons of background info and screens not offered on official sites, (some) active hosted sites and probably some things I forgot. Not bad, I'd say, although the modification sections could certainly use more work (but that requires input from the entire community and not just from Markos and Dan) and the databases *really* need to be brought online/updated...

HisMajestyBOB · March 23, 2002, 21:02

Quote:

Originally posted by Gasmaske
No point doing that unless you restore the post count in OT

May I refer you gents to my signature?

Bah, he owes me about 200 posts.

Hydey · March 23, 2002, 22:20

I like Apolyton just the way it is.

DanQ · March 23, 2002, 23:25

Markos and I are both full-time university students, and also have a part-time and freelancing/volunteer responsibilities respectively. We do not have any "HTML" etc. volunteers at the present time that can help with some of the more time consuming update portions of the site, and as a result work on this with the exception of occasional minor cosmetic changes are often relegated to our summer vacation months (even though our jobs et. al. often continue on).

On the database front, Markos is sprearheading this work and unfortunately has had an ongoing string of computer problems for much of this year (see the "Paging MarkG" thread in this forum for more info) which has resulted in their delay. As far as CivIII goes on this front, don't forget about the 'CivIII Creation'/'CivIII Files' forum that supplements the DB and at the moment fills its void.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

Chris Wilkinson · March 24, 2002, 07:02

Quote:

Markos and I are both full-time university students, and also have a part-time and freelancing/volunteer responsibilities respectively. We do not have any "HTML" etc. volunteers at the present time that can help with some of the more time consuming update portions of the site, and as a result work on this with the exception of occasional minor cosmetic changes are often relegated to our summer vacation months (even though our jobs et. al. often continue on).

I haven't seen you ask for help from people on the forums

Urban Ranger · March 24, 2002, 08:07

I don't see any problem with the current setup: it is a forum with a website. Face it, people stay because of the forum, so it is by far more important.

Shaka Naldur · March 24, 2002, 08:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I don't see any problem with the current setup: it is a forum with a website. Face it, people stay because of the forum, so it is by far more important.

yes, but i don´t see where is the problem
a forum is usually more interesting than a webpage

TCO · March 24, 2002, 09:29

forums are the most important part of the site. No contest.

MattHiggs · March 24, 2002, 10:18

I could offer my help with *html* work of the site. I do lots of work on html nearly everyday. Send me some tasks.

Stefu · March 24, 2002, 10:43

It *is* a forum with a webpage, and sooner admins realize it, the better it will be. No need for apolyton.net taking you straight to forums, tho - I mean, currently, if I'm writing apolyton.net to the address bar, my fingers almost automatically add /forums to end of it.

Locutus · March 24, 2002, 11:44

Quote:

Originally posted by DanQ
As far as CivIII goes on this front, don't forget about the 'CivIII Creation'/'CivIII Files' forum that supplements the DB and at the moment fills its void.

Well, that's a nice feature if you're into Civ3 but it doesn't really help the CtP1/2, SMAC, Civ2, etc people (and even for Civ3 it's far from ideal)...

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Face it, people stay because of the forum, so it is by far more important.

Well, that may be the case for us, but Apolyton gets hundreds of thousands of visitors each month, yet only 2500 people posted in the forum in the last 3 months. So at least some people don't come here for the forums (or at least don't post in them)...

DanQ · March 24, 2002, 12:33

Well, that's a nice feature if you're into Civ3 but it doesn't really help the CtP1/2, SMAC, Civ2, etc people (and even for Civ3 it's far from ideal)...

I never said it was ideal for CivIII database coverage -- I said that it was intended to be supplemental and that for the moment it was filling the void of a full database. And yes, it does not help for coverage of other games on the site nor did I infer that it did.

In addition to Markos' ongoing computer difficulties, we also need database managers. We had some volunteers come forward before but as we have been unable to give them any definitive answers we are not certain if they are still interested/available. If anyone is interested/available to assist with any future files database, please let us know.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

Martin Gühmann · March 24, 2002, 14:29

Quote:

Originally posted by DanQ
If anyone is interested/available to assist with any future files database, please let us know.

What about existing databases like the CTP1 and CTP2 ones?

-Martin

DanQ · March 24, 2002, 15:27

Yes, existing file database help would also be welcomed.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

Locutus · March 24, 2002, 15:51

Dan,
Yes, I know and understand what you said. It's still very annoying though, IMHO the file databases are the most important part of Apolyton after the forums...

Anyway, as you know I've offered my services for the CtP1/2 Databases numerous times in the past and am still very eager to help out wherever I can, whether it is for the Databases (present or future) or any other part of the CtP1/2 sections. Just let me know if there's anything I can do...

DanQ · March 25, 2002, 22:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Chris Wilkinson

I haven't seen you ask for help from people on the forums

Unfortunately, we would be unable to put anyone "to work" at the moment as neither Markos or myself have the time to co-ordinate such an effort at this point. Myself, perhaps beginning in mid-May and Markos in April maybe if he is able to get his computer issues resolved. Moreover, regarding non-database matters, we would be unable to give any helpers remote access (e.g. FTP, SSH) to the server because of security issues, complicating the procedure for getting such updates published.

If the former condition was not a factor at this point, we would be able to work around the restriction inherent in the latter as soon as we had established arrangements to bring a helper(s) on staff. As for the databases themselves, again, that is something for Markos to address when he is available to do so.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

Lancer · March 25, 2002, 23:49