Sawyer Posted July 31, 2002 Share Posted July 31, 2002 The one thing that keeps popping into my mind is that I really would like to see a way for transparent communication. By this I mean that when gallery images are posted I would like people to be able to review them, gently and constructively. Also we are all involved in a pretty obscure line of work, I think that if we had a quick and easy problem solve/tips section where if say I wanted to know how to do a nice chamfered parapet I could ask. I know that there is a section like that know but I think that it could be improved to make it a bit quicker to use. But really this is the one of the best sites I have seen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Jeff Mottle Posted July 31, 2002 Administrators Share Posted July 31, 2002 Thanks Sawyer! I'm trying to understand your last suggestion about asking questions about specific problems. Obviously you can post to the forum, but are you referring to say an "ask an expert" section where there would be a few individuals that are accesseble immediatly online via an online live chat? Kind of the like the "live support" applets that some companies offer? Or have I completely misundertsood you here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted August 1, 2002 Share Posted August 1, 2002 Hi all, The site is fine imho. First things that pops into my head is a 'vote an image' part. Mainly I see it the same way as the gallery, but with an option to vote for an image and/or write a small comment underneath - a bit in the way like we can vote for members in the forum. Another example of this system can be found at www.hotornot.com - it's a different topic, but the basis remains. rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Antonio Gei Posted August 1, 2002 Share Posted August 1, 2002 Hi! I agree with sawyer and nisus about upgrading the gallery. I would also suggest that the user posted the rendering time, polygon count or other file data. I love the news section and the interviews, but as a mac user is feel the mac design community is being left a little apart. Keep up the good work, Jeff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted August 1, 2002 Share Posted August 1, 2002 Are you sure it's broke, Jeff? If it ain't, don't fix it! More importantly, where do you want to go? Who are you prime constituents--CG artists, the client base who might be LOOKING for a CG artist, the software industry looking for customers? Serve the base and don't try to do it all. I think what you've got going is fine. What drives you to feel you need a re-design? I think your site is great, and while I would like to see a few changes, I don't think there is any reason to go nut re-doing it. Also, you need to develope and trust your own judgement. Being open to ideas is fine and necessary but taking all suggestions on every bit of minutia is trying too hard to please. It is impossible to please everybody. If you try to you will just burn yourself out. Now, my minutia: The gallery is in need of some new structure. I think that showing eight (is that the number?) thunbnails at a time when you have a thousand images is an exercise in frustration for the user. My suggestion is simply to show more thumbnails per display page, less info with the thumbnails is fine, if we want to look closer we can get the data then, also the search function allows finding all the Lightscape images, or studio, whatever. Also, at some point it may be necessary to exercise some disgression in what images get displayed. I agree with the "all are welcome" mantra, but going through three slightly different angles on the same model is a frustration. I get the point with the first one. Make the forum section more accessable from the main page. I know I can bookmark the direct route, but if your goal is to foster community then make it prominent. Maybe pull a quote from a forum post every day or two, and display it on the main page, like those pull-outs you see in magazine articles. Sure, there are lots of little things that could be tweaked, but I think the important point is to look at where you want the site to go, who it is really for, and follow that path. If the current site served that goal then leave it alone. If not, identify what aspects don't serve the goal and make adjustments. Ernest Burden III Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Jeff Mottle Posted August 1, 2002 Administrators Share Posted August 1, 2002 Hey Ernest, Oh not to worry I won't be implemeting every idea, I would burn myself out without question. My reason for soliciting all this feedback is so that I can determine how much really does need to be changed and where I need to focus the majority of my efforts. The current design is limited in it's ability for me to add new sections and is getting to be a headache to update . The menu system in particular is holding me back. Also the backend programming really needs some work too. When I first built the site, I had much less experience and had nowhere near the traffic I have now, so some optimizations are in order. Also, I am considering the future scalability of the site. For the site to be able to grow without a lot of headaches, I need to rework what I have. On the outside it may appear only to be a few cosmetic changes, but behind the scenese A LOT will change. Because what I do to update the site is so repetitive and routine, I want to try to automate many of these tasks so that I can spend more time doing other more importnant things. How I make these backend changes will depend upon what you the reader/visiors like and want the most. I also want to make sure that there isn't something glaringly obvious that I have missed in my building up of the site. The whole gallery submission, profile editing, and gallery display are tops on my list of things to fix, so I will try to design aroud the ideas that you guys have posted. These same ideas have been suggested to me quite a few times already. I also agree that some more checks need to be in place for the gallery and some better organization. You may have noticed that the number of new images being posted has declined in the past week or so. This is becuase I am trying to be more dicerning about what gets posted. I hope that it has been noticed. I would like some more feedback on the quality of images being posted, the size of the gallery and how quickly it should grow. I am planning on building a best of the best site as a joint venture with an outside source (details will be more forthcoming once I start development) so that may help to seperate some of the submissions. So is the general consensus to leave most of it alone? If I changed the design a bit should it stay close to the deisgn now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Griger Posted August 1, 2002 Share Posted August 1, 2002 Originally posted by nisus: First things that pops into my head is a 'vote an image' part. Mainly I see it the same way as the gallery, but with an option to vote for an image and/or write a small comment underneath - a bit in the way like we can vote for members in the forum.That would be my only suggestion, along with making the artist enter information like: 1. what software used to model 2. what software used to render 3. times 4. hardware 5. client or self promotion Otherwise, everything is great IMHO. Loads fast [i have a cable connection though], I wouldn’t use any flash [reminds me of too many banner ads we see today], the GUI is clean and simple, and navigation of the site is a breeze. If I had to add anything else, I would ask for an option in the BB for when you go to a topic to be able to click on a button and it would take you to the last post you saw in that topic for convenience sake. A few tweaks & preventative maintenance and I think you’ll be ducky. Best site on this subject that I have seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Buchhofer Posted August 1, 2002 Share Posted August 1, 2002 My suggestion is more for the overall site, I think a more prominent link to the Community would be in order, and also a much much more prominent link to the eSTORE! I truly didn't even know you had a store set up until it popped up in one of the articles. I know there is a banner, but we are trained to totally ignore blinking banner ads now just to stay sane in the day to day browsing. I would be more inclined to read Text based advertising personally, especially if it includes some actual information about the product. As opposed to just the standard flashy pictures.. I guess this isn't you're thing.. but it leads into.. A featured product thing? to highlight some rockingly useful product that isn't exactly brand new? convieniently linked to your store of course More then one news updater mabye? So you dont have to go crazy trying to do everything yourself.. I do like the idea of a tips/tricks section of the forum, but i think it needs to be a little more compact in the set of forums to choose from. Face it, on most forums you see, there are really only 2 sections. Pretty pictures/Wip, and Talking/General. With a possibly active tech section if people ever get around to setting up a backlog of useful information. Thats about it for now, looking forward to a new gallery also. Might i suggest you check out the Gallery.sourceforge.com app for some ideas as to how to organize/setup without having to dig in. Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawyer Posted August 1, 2002 Author Share Posted August 1, 2002 Originally posted by Jeff Mottle: Thanks Sawyer! I'm trying to understand your last suggestion about asking questions about specific problems. Obviously you can post to the forum, but are you referring to say an "ask an expert" section where there would be a few individuals that are accesseble immediatly online via an online live chat? Kind of the like the "live support" applets that some companies offer? Or have I completely misundertsood you here?I think you got it Jeff. When I started modeling I looked in the Viz manual on how to do a curved wall and how to have that wall end with soft plastered corners not hard edges. It took me about a year of learning the program to be able to do that. Not because I didn't read up or try to learn new things but because there were almost no places for me to turn to for information on how to model a home especially a non traditional California style box. I think that the challenge has been part of the fun but I also am really glad to know that know if I get stuck hey there is a community that can be used as a resource. Personally I think that the education aspect of this site is really one of it's strongest features. I wish I could be more clear on this but maybe because I am more visual oriented I have trouble with the traditional forum style. Or maybe if I were more familiar with the ins and outs of posting I would feel more comfortable with hanging out in the forum. Anyway thank you for this site and for asking us to sit and think about its value. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted August 5, 2002 Share Posted August 5, 2002 Hi all, I agree with Paul about adding more info to an image post. I think his list is ok. It would be nice to see a difference between rendering time, modelling time etc. too, but I guess most people won't know these exactly... rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted August 6, 2002 Share Posted August 6, 2002 Alright, Jeff. I do have a structural suggestion. Forums: too dang many topic areas. First of all, it's too many to comfortably browse through, so I skip ones that might be interesting, but it's more than I can deal with. Second, I think that the way most of us work is with multiple applications on most or all projects. Why have each app seperate? Is there enough traffic to have a C4D only area? Why have Viz and Max seperate? On the one hand, you can say that it is a drag to have to walk through a technique question on Archicad--when you don't USE Archicad. But on the other, there is much to be learned by seeing how things are done in other apps than what you are used to. If I see that users have an easy time with mapping issues with one program, but it's a bear in mine, then I may look into that software. So there is an arguement either way, neither is perfect. Ernest Burden III Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted August 7, 2002 Share Posted August 7, 2002 Maybe it's possible with asp or some other tool to let the member choose whether he/she wants all topics in one box or in application-specific i.e. seperated boxes... Must be possible rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Jeff Mottle Posted August 7, 2002 Administrators Share Posted August 7, 2002 That's a great idea Nisus and anything is possible, unfourtunately the forum is a purchased application programmed in Perl. Although it can be modified, I havn't a clue how to program in Perl. Also, hacking the code, as many do, also nulifies your support agreement and also makes it a big hassle when new releases come out becuase the "hacks" have to be re-done each time. It's a good idea in theory, but.... Unless there are any perl programmers out there that want to give it a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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