Season 2013 - Site suggestions

[Skink]

Resize the image. Remember my avatar in December? It was originally far larger than the limit, and downsizing it actually did not adversely affect the image quality far as I'm concerned. If you need any help manipulating images, shoot me something.

[labchick]

This is more of a forum suggestion, but I would suggest that most study events should have a question marathon like Fermi does as well as a typical discussion forum. Also the site's graphics/design could certainly be improved. I would love to see a forum discussion about this with all members with an interest in graphic arts contributing some ideas, and from there have a few contests (like the favicon contest) with some premade rules based on the general consensus in the discussion, e.g. "Theme Contest: theme must use only black and white" (not that that's a good idea. : P )

[Skink]

They have, actually, tossed aroud the idea for Disease Detectives, for example. It would work for many events, but the reason it's done primarily for ID events is because the questions are very easy to write making the game move quickly. It could work, but it would also probably require a subforum to prevent clutter if several more are made.

Re: the look, there is no interest in that currently. I asked about that already.

[zyzzyva980]

Given that competition season is beginning to intensify, no major changes will be made to the theme or site layout at this time. We encourage you to continue to submit ideas, but be aware that changes will not take place now, nor are they likely to take place in the near future, based on the staff's current state of mind.

[robotman]

There will not be a theme contest, there was little interest in anyone creating a favicon, and a full theme change is a much larger undertaking. If someone is interested in taking on that challenge, feel free. We will be more then willing to offer opinions on your ideas, and if we like the product there is a chance it might be used.

[Skink]

Not if you were to entertain my earlier proposition that we commission someone to make the theme change according to some provided specifications. It could be done after the National tournament during the lull of summer so as to not impose a change on anyone mid-season and be ready for 2014.

[foreverphysics]

I think the theme is simple and effective. This is not a website designed to win a fashion show; plain and simple is good. The point of the website is to provide a platform for students in SO to ask questions and receive feedback, not make a beautiful yet pointless webpage. In all honesty, there is little to no point for this--the aesthetic appeal of the website is already high enough that it sets it pretty far apart from any other forum, and I don't see a reason to mess with the tried-and-true, simple and clean design.

[knittingfrenzy18]

There will not be a theme contest, there was little interest in anyone creating a favicon, and a full theme change is a much larger undertaking. If someone is interested in taking on that challenge, feel free. We will be more then willing to offer opinions on your ideas, and if we like the product there is a chance it might be used.

Hey I may or may not try and develop a theme. I feel it's a little ugly, although, as fp said, it's effective and that's all that matters. Again, though, being a web programmer/designer I like pretty webpages.

[labchick]

I feel like it could be simplified a bit/ made more effective. That would be a lot of the goal of a redesign. It would also be nice to see some new features made possible by HTML5. And with the shift to tablets and smartphones an iOS or Android app would be cool. Of course, all of this is quite ambitious considering the size of the forum. But there are a lot of great coders who compete(d) in SciOly (cite example Aaron Swartz).

[Skink]

chalker7 posted the following in the Helicopters forum earlier tonight:

So I've been noticing a lot of new topics lately, mostly asking very general questions. We are definitely here to help and provide advice in whatever way possible, but I would suggest browsing through the previous postings and topics (and years) before posting. Often you will find your question has already been answered.

Also, I would strongly suggest providing as much information as possible. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to provide detailed responses to general questions.

This isn't to discourage you from participating in the discussion or asking questions, in fact just the opposite! Everyone wants lots of questions and conversation here, you just probably won't get the information you are looking for if you don't do a bit of background research first.

A Person posted this regarding the Mission forum:

I know that this discusses the wiki, but can any moderators clean up the Mission Possible forum? No one created a thread for each task, so people created a new one for every question they had. This makes it impossible to transfer any information efficiently.

This only applies to these two subforums seeing as how Boomilever looks clean, but can something be done yet this season? Even something as simple as sticking a note like what Chalker wrote at the top of the forum (what do you call that here? Stickying? Pinning?) might do some good. That or there are forum descriptions as another option for a real brief message, right? I am sure there is some way that is not too obtrusive to communicate the above sentiments.