Revamping OKgamers.com - What do you want to see?

[Rislone]

Or it would be cool if you had like an applet that runs on the front page that detects their IP and gives them tourneys that are close to them. That would be nice but require loads of work I'm sure. And some people are at school and on other computers or using proxys or what have you but it would still be pretty cool IMO.

[Furyswrath]

Or it would be cool if you had like an applet that runs on the front page that detects their IP and gives them tourneys that are close to them. That would be nice but require loads of work I'm sure. And some people are at school and on other computers or using proxys or what have you but it would still be pretty cool IMO.

Unfortunately that wouldn't work for every person.  Like say me.  Im on ATT UVERSE but if you did an IP trace it'd say I was somewhere in Missouri?   so it'd have it oddities.   But we can however (time being a factor here) make something that would search say a 100mile radius of a zip code they put in.   It would just take alot of time and planning to make a database searchable like that.  But its just a cool Gewhiz thing.

[Rislone]

Or it would be cool if you had like an applet that runs on the front page that detects their IP and gives them tourneys that are close to them. That would be nice but require loads of work I'm sure. And some people are at school and on other computers or using proxys or what have you but it would still be pretty cool IMO.

Unfortunately that wouldn't work for every person.  Like say me.  Im on ATT UVERSE but if you did an IP trace it'd say I was somewhere in Missouri?   so it'd have it oddities.   But we can however (time being a factor here) make something that would search say a 100mile radius of a zip code they put in.   It would just take alot of time and planning to make a database searchable like that.  But its just a cool Gewhiz thing.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I figured. Otherwise I can't think of much else right now.

[X_A]

 What about any Facebook interaction with that?  Perhaps there is a usage of FB to indentify where they are at, and use that, and/or zips?



X A

[Furyswrath]

 What about any Facebook interaction with that?  Perhaps there is a usage of FB to indentify where they are at, and use that, and/or zips?



X A

Yep Im sure between Lorien and Myself we can show you the facebook Connect API way.  Pretty fun stuff. I just converted Plasma Burn over to Facebook Integration,  Lorien is way better at it than I am. Im still learning the API.

[loriencfau]

 What about any Facebook interaction with that?  Perhaps there is a usage of FB to indentify where they are at, and use that, and/or zips?

X A

We can totally do that, my man.  As soon as I get this one thing off the ground (April 1) I should have more free time.  We will code, and perhaps make-out.

[loriencfau]

Or it would be cool if you had like an applet that runs on the front page that detects their IP and gives them tourneys that are close to them. That would be nice but require loads of work I'm sure. And some people are at school and on other computers or using proxys or what have you but it would still be pretty cool IMO.

Unfortunately that wouldn't work for every person.  Like say me.  Im on ATT UVERSE but if you did an IP trace it'd say I was somewhere in Missouri?   so it'd have it oddities.   But we can however (time being a factor here) make something that would search say a 100mile radius of a zip code they put in.   It would just take alot of time and planning to make a database searchable like that.  But its just a cool Gewhiz thing.

There are a number of PHP classes designed to do this very thing.  It's a easy hack for most geo data, if you're so inclined.  We used it on our movie database to present the closest theaters to our readers, automagically.

[loriencfau]

Or it would be cool if you had like an applet that runs on the front page that detects their IP and gives them tourneys that are close to them. That would be nice but require loads of work I'm sure. And some people are at school and on other computers or using proxys or what have you but it would still be pretty cool IMO.

I'm apparently working backwards!

If we could include a ZIP code as a data point, it would be easy (read: the wheel has already been invented) to show people the nearest within an x mile radius.

[loriencfau]

Another thing I am going to do with the site - front page variation testing.

Some people have expressed the fact I should push the Tourny links down, others say higher, etc.

So - I'm going come up with 3 versions of the front page for testing, etc - that will be swapped out and studied.

If anyone would like to specifically make suggestions on what I should do / cut / etc - post them for that discussion to be had as well.

X A

We've been using Google Website Optimizer to test different designs.  It's an easy way to gather metrics on what people click between designs.  Not just for ads, but emphasizing them.

[loriencfau]

Saif I think Fury was meaning a calendar with actual okgamers/members events on the calendar. Example: it would be great to actually look at the calendar and see the funhouse monthly or Hybrids Halo 3 tournament on the calendar.

We have that, just very few use it. Just click on calendar and it will show you everyone's birthdays and events if someone puts one in (i.e. the Stillcon event this month is on the 20th and you can click it and it takes you right to the post. It all just relies on the person and linking their event to the calendar.

Im working with the calendar deal off and on this week.  Im trying to see if i can get it to have additional "required" fields. Seeing how the Calendar API in SMF already has forum posting capabilities. So give me a little time and I bet i get it working with out error-ing out on me.

If we can get a .ICS file out of this API, I would be happy to include the cal data on our Mg calendars.  Let me know if I can dedicate a few cycles to this project, Sammy.

[loriencfau]

Well, for the alerts / subscription system we talked about - tags seemed MUCHO importante.  If your not going to mess things up, I'd love to see tags working, and then review how / if we can still do that.   Are you still up for the form / system / yea?

Also - should I perhaps enable galleries / work with one - http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=1

That site is running SMF - and I thought about it after seeing it.  Course, I think putting them up on Facebook might be a better system heh, dunno.

X A

Here's what we need, people.

a.) A requirements doc.  What are the top ten reasons people come to OKG, and what are the top ten reasons they should come to OKG. Take those 20 things, prioritize them through a series of round tables with the users, drop the bottom 10, and writer your requirement doc.

b.) Code versioning and a build system.  As any project gets larger (especially with multi-personed teams) version control and build systems become more important.  Would it be nice to have a sandbox environment on your laptop, a staging server that mirrors production, and a production server that only gets updated when it's been vetted?  The answer is yes.

c.) Reboot OKG.  I'm not saying we don't use SMF for the forum, but I think it's time to run the core site on a more robust engine.  I'm platform agnostic, so it's definitely something we can talk about.

d.) More cookies.  We need them.

That's my summary of this thread, and I think if we even just build a requirements doc we'd be a long way to saving us a huge amount of hassle in the next 6 months.  Scope creep is evil, and a requirement doc will help us keep on track.

Or maybe I'm crazy!

[Furyswrath]

Saif I think Fury was meaning a calendar with actual okgamers/members events on the calendar. Example: it would be great to actually look at the calendar and see the funhouse monthly or Hybrids Halo 3 tournament on the calendar.

We have that, just very few use it. Just click on calendar and it will show you everyone's birthdays and events if someone puts one in (i.e. the Stillcon event this month is on the 20th and you can click it and it takes you right to the post. It all just relies on the person and linking their event to the calendar.

Im working with the calendar deal off and on this week.  Im trying to see if i can get it to have additional "required" fields. Seeing how the Calendar API in SMF already has forum posting capabilities. So give me a little time and I bet i get it working with out error-ing out on me.

If we can get a .ICS file out of this API, I would be happy to include the cal data on our Mg calendars.  Let me know if I can dedicate a few cycles to this project, Sammy.

funny you say that, I was reading up on a deal I read about in SMF that would allow for ICS.  I will look at it more indepth.

[Furyswrath]

Here's what we need, people.

a.) A requirements doc.  What are the top ten reasons people come to OKG, and what are the top ten reasons they should come to OKG. Take those 20 things, prioritize them through a series of round tables with the users, drop the bottom 10, and writer your requirement doc.

b.) Code versioning and a build system.  As any project gets larger (especially with multi-personed teams) version control and build systems become more important.  Would it be nice to have a sandbox environment on your laptop, a staging server that mirrors production, and a production server that only gets updated when it's been vetted?  The answer is yes.

c.) Reboot OKG.  I'm not saying we don't use SMF for the forum, but I think it's time to run the core site on a more robust engine.  I'm platform agnostic, so it's definitely something we can talk about.

d.) More cookies.  We need them.

That's my summary of this thread, and I think if we even just build a requirements doc we'd be a long way to saving us a huge amount of hassle in the next 6 months.  Scope creep is evil, and a requirement doc will help us keep on track.

Or maybe I'm crazy!

Exactly,  Saif maybe we can have a sit down with all the people that can help you and those who have some good ideas sometime?   Im all for like ive suggested before doing some sort of integration with some blogging software for a front end to manage the front page, that way its not so "static" I think the site needs to be more dynamic. Change is always good.

[loriencfau]

Saif I think Fury was meaning a calendar with actual okgamers/members events on the calendar. Example: it would be great to actually look at the calendar and see the funhouse monthly or Hybrids Halo 3 tournament on the calendar.

We have that, just very few use it. Just click on calendar and it will show you everyone's birthdays and events if someone puts one in (i.e. the Stillcon event this month is on the 20th and you can click it and it takes you right to the post. It all just relies on the person and linking their event to the calendar.

Im working with the calendar deal off and on this week.  Im trying to see if i can get it to have additional "required" fields. Seeing how the Calendar API in SMF already has forum posting capabilities. So give me a little time and I bet i get it working with out error-ing out on me.

If we can get a .ICS file out of this API, I would be happy to include the cal data on our Mg calendars.  Let me know if I can dedicate a few cycles to this project, Sammy.

funny you say that, I was reading up on a deal I read about in SMF that would allow for ICS.  I will look at it more indepth.

Great!  Let me know if I can pitch in.