Way Too much time on my hands

Post by **Donut** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:06 pm

Hey all,

Ok, today I was looking around Kaomaris, for nothing better to do (unfortunately), and I noticed something. Many of the "Important" pages such as, the Clan Homepage, the Clan Rules, and the Clan Kaohalla; seem to be very unlike each other. It is in my opinion that if WOK is going to become more professional, many of the webpages should have a standard template. To me this include, a common background color, font text/size, table format, etc. So... Instead of just mentioning it, I thought I'd try and adjust the pages. I've changed no content, just changed it up, made some spelling corrections(as far as Microsoft spell checker can find).

I in no means expect my pages to become standard. I submit these as only a suggestion. If, however, they are excepted, I plan to "Unify" many of the pages around WOK. Maybe even the Manuals.

I really would like to here a response from you all.

http://free.hostdepartment.com/G/GMJosh/clanrules.htm
http://free.hostdepartment.com/G/GMJosh ... halla.html
http://free.hostdepartment.com/G/GMJosh/clanhome.html

Also, I made a page that has all of the banners that I've made for WOK. Please go there and tell me what you think about them too.

http://free.hostdepartment.com/G/GMJosh/banners.html

Donut
P.S. As you may have noticed by the links, I'm planning on also adding GMing to my contributions.

Post by **Donut** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 4:21 am

Another one:

http://free.hostdepartment.com/G/GMJosh ... uncil.html

Donut

Post by **Dameon** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 5:11 am

Not to step on your work, but I don't really see the need for standardization. I have always been more of a fan for showing creativity when it comes to creating webpages, and as long as the content is there and organized well, what the page itself looks like should be up to the person who maintains it. I honestly don't know who we are trying to impress- I very highly doubt that anybody who is interested in WOK will make their decision based on a standard template (or lack thereof).

Again I think you have done good work here, I just don't think it is totally necessary. However, I know that AL is a big fan of standardization and I am fairly sure he will bite on this. I however will not give into the blandness and standardization that AL is fond of; I put a lot of work into the various pages I maintain for Kaomaris and like the look of them. Unless somebody can come up with a real reason why we might want standardization I will always vote for creativity first.

Post by **Donut** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 6:20 am

Dameon wrote:I honestly don't know who we are trying to impress- I very highly doubt that anybody who is interested in WOK will make their decision based on a standard template (or lack thereof).

I'm sorry but I have to disagree completely with that statement. Not because I've put quite a bit of work into these pages, but because I think that that is the exact reason that someone would first try a game. I feel that an organized, professional looking site would attract a casual "Passerby" to give the site a second look than one that seems to be unorganized and has several important sites that have nothing connecting them. While I praise those that have made these sites before me for their creativity, I think that they can be transformed into sites that are creative, yet have a common style. I think creativity can come from banners and images (which I have also started to work on).

I definitly don't want to offend anyone by making these websites, but I also feel that WOK can become very popular. While I agree that a game the size of Kings of Chaos is not desireable, I feel that More games with more People from more GM's should be a definite goal.

Al's asking for help is one that I feel that should be answered. He has a goal to make this game Larger. It is no question to me that he can't do it by himself. If my efforts here do go in vain, so be it. I will still help as much as I can. My main goal here is to kick start the community. When I first joined this game a short couple of months ago, it was very alive. Numerous messages on the boards a day, New players coming in at a high rate, and waitlists opening like crazy. However, in the past month or so, things have slowed. We've seen some key people in the community leave. and I feel that some people need to step up and help Al grab this this game by the perverbial balls

I'm volunteering for this; at least for now.

Donut

P.S. I'd also like some suggestions for my GM homepage. I'm looking for easy accessability and a pleasant look(Yes I know hardly anyone uses the GM's homepage)

http://free.hostdepartment.com/G/GMJosh/home.html

Bjorn · Post by **Bjorn** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 2:38 pm

Fine work, Donut. I'm not sure where you are going with it, but the pages look nice.

As the current gatekeeper, I have to maintain the Hi Score and Kaohalla pages. There really is no sense in having one person act as gatekeeper while another maintains the pages.

For each clan scoring period, I like to change the background and look of the page every six months. Right now I don't believe I will do that for the Hi Score page since I rather like the current background.

I have no real objection to a standardized page for the various functions, but I believe most players like to see a change every so often. If we do standardize on a look, I would like that look to change every so often to keep things fresh.

Saladin · Post by **Saladin** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:39 pm

Well personally i prefer a more standardised look, but that's my personal preference so it doesn't really matter.

What i do find important is that all OFFICIAL WOK pages are hosted on the Kaomaris server. I find it well a bit crappy if some pages some times don't work because that free hosting provider is offline or to have a ton of pop-ups open when you go to an official WOK page (not that this is the case right now, but i remember it being very bad before).

So lets get all the pages up on the same server by giving our gatekeeper Bjorn access to some server space on the Kaomaris server.

And Donut! GOOD WORK MY LAD!

Post by **korexus** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:40 pm

Donut, did you find the GM starter pack on the files page? That has a nice, professional looking main page and good templates for game pages too. It doesn't have a house rules page but that's easily fixed.

It also gives a nice, simple, standard set up for any GMs who aren't great at html which is pretty much what I think you said you wanted.

korexus.

Post by **gm_al** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 4:59 pm

Well KaoBase V2 should take care of that 'corporate identity' look we are missing sometimes, as it gives different access to the different types of users (player, GM, Clan Head, Gatekeeper etc.) and will present a more unified way of the community.

Nevertheless good work from you there Donut, and a good training for the new GM that you will become very soon.

Btw my Clan member Father of Blood is desperately seeking a waitlist he could join, if you know any XMas games popping up make sure to contact him under tha_spawn@gmx.de - thx !

Post by **Dameon** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 7:02 pm

Donut, you probably have not been around long enough to realize this, but WOK is a community that has fast periods and slow ones. You, like most players, joined in when we were moving at a nice clip, getting many new members, etc, etc. However, we have hit a slow period now- it has happened many times in the five or so years (has it been that long AL? Hard to believe!) that WOK has been a community. In particular this sort of slowdown ALWAYS happens around Xmastime, and often during the summer as well. In my observations the size we are at right now in terms of active members is pretty much the standard size for the WOK community, in large part due to how many games we have open at any one time.

I don't think that making the sites more standardized would change our general size; it just seems to work that WOK is the size that it is. The one thing that does concern me now is the lack of real GM power. We don't have a lot of open waitlists, and AFAIK, nobody has volunteered to pick up the Champs/Vice Champs/Clan Champs, and it's already been 2+ weeks since the end of the scoring period. My advice to anybody who wants to improve the size/quality of WOK is to become a GM and open waitlists! Kaobase 2 and all the other improvements are nice, but the bread and butter of Kaomaris has always been the GMs and that, I believe, is the crucial factor when it comes to the size of the community. So I encourage you to keep moving in that direction, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Bjorn · Post by **Bjorn** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 6:07 pm

One thing we always need is more quality GMs. If beginners do show up, how long will it be before they have a game to play in? Before we can have any consistant growth as a community, we need to have a beginner game available on a more or less regular basis.

One explanation for the slow periods around Christmas and during the Summer is the lace of beginner games. Until we can solve that problem we are unlikely to grow much no matter how coherent or attractive our web pages are.

Hey Sal. What ever became of your bouncing avatar? I'm still looking for her return.

Saladin · Post by **Saladin** » Fri Dec 19, 2003 8:58 am

Bjorn wrote:Hey Sal. What ever became of your bouncing avatar? I'm still looking for her return.

Well 'some' people found her too distracting.

Isn't Deagol to your liking then Bjorn?