huge changes for the site - adding a reviews section, logins

[DistMan]

Ohh..okay, guess I missunderstood heh. Well, I definetly think genres should be displayed with the reviews (like they are on the forum right now). I think genreinformation is quite helpfull, both when looking for live action movies and anime. If a description sounds promising but the genres states: Magical Girl Anime, ecchi, Schoolgirls then it has helped me to save time...because those animes rarely rarely interrests me for instance. I have experienced in the past that a description has been interresting but the anime has downright sucked becuase of yy genre which is xx cliché by now, if you know what I mean. Also, I dunno but I think it's more or less a worldwide standard to always have genreinformation included when writing reviews..it's one of those mutual things...
My 2 pennies

[XMrNiceguyX]

Originally Posted by sothis

Where will the login info go on every single page? There needs to be a non-intrusive login box, with a "keep me logged in" checkbox as well, on every page. They will look like ass in the theme graphics, but will also look like ass at the top of every page under the button bar. It needs to be visible enough to be found easily, but non intrusive. ideas?

That's a fairly hard to solve problem. If you do not want a bigger button bar, or if you don't want some sort of pop-up on entering either the forum or anirec db, I'd say: don't put it on the main page, but make it so that once you click on either "add reply" or "start new topic" or "log in to make recommendations for this series", you'll be presented with the option to sign n. Why not putitng the "keep me logged in both anirec db and forum" box there, since people who either want or don't want to stay log in will not use this option more than I'd say.

Originally Posted by sothis

Also, what kind of functionality could I add for regular users? There will be other users who need the login.. such as to make anime recommendations, to edit things (not many at all will have this ability), etc. But what about regular users? I know the advantage is you can log in to the forum, but I'm wondering if I'll just confuse people that think that signing up gets you something special on the REST of the site. So, can anyone think of special features that should be available for regular users? Maybe a "report a bad comment" button for the database? I have no idea.

Doesn't signing up already give you certain privileges? ie: Chatting in the forums (or being able to make recommendations). I think people who visit the site are perfectly aware of the extra things they are allowed to do once they sign up. The report a bad comment function will probably not used *too* often, since the most people who are signed up just check the db to make recs and not to find recs theirselves. I still think most visitors of the db are random guests who have no interest in signing up.

Originally Posted by sothis

This one is a bit more cut and dry. You've already seen that I am going to be removing the quotes page in one format or another... no matter what, it'll be removed from the button bar. I know I just recently made the site community and non-community, but this is confusing and I think it's detracting people from visiting the forum cause they can't find the link. So, the proposed new button bar will have the following:

Home, AniRec Database (or spelled out if room), Vendors List, Reviews, Forum, MAYBE Links

Pic Site is another one that just isn't used much. People occasionally will say "go here to see me!", and I don't want to get rid of the resource... but at the same time, it takes up space in the button bar. I think what we'll do is link it from the top of the forum here. Since hey, the forum IS the community for the most part... so people will still run across it if they come to the community aspect. Otherwise, it'll clear up room.

Not to be a real spoiler: But I've honestly never visited the "links" part, nor intend to ever use it. I'd say: get rid of the links and get the quotes up there instead. Those have probably a fair number of visitors more than the link section.

Splitting the site in a community part and a non-community part was never a really good idea imho and I'll be happy to see that go.

Originally Posted by sothis

-I'll change it so every vote for a series has a checkbox next to it... only the ones you choose will be affected if you use the make opposites feature. This will be helpful for people that only want to do a few, and don't want to have to go delete the others, or copy/paste.

-Smart search. I plan on making it so searching for captain tyler (misspelled), would still show you the results for captain tylor, etc. I still am researching this, but I want to make it as smart as possible.

-More alternate names. I don't want every one to be in the listing, but since we have the mozilla plugin now, I want users to have the capability of at least SEARCHING for common names, such as konomini, marimite, etc. So I made a table (which works, try searching for marimite), I will just need people to enter names, as I obviously don't have time to. Once I build the login system, I have some people lined up to do just that. Again, these names wont show up in the alpha list, but you could at least search for them.

Our thoughts are completely on one line for point 1 and 3. I am not really sure about 2 though. I'd say: don't o it if it takes too much effort. The rendement of that option is imho a bit too low... Typo's are easily fixed by just pressing the "back"-button of your browser and correct what you typed. I, for one, hardly ever use the search db button at all, since I just directly browse to the character the series starts with and pick the series I'm looking for out of that list.

Originally Posted by sothis

Any other ideas for database features? Talk about them now. But keep in mind, I don't want to reinvent the wheel for a lot of features. Things like studio, year, all of that is available easily through anidb... so if possible, make the suggestions something that is done elsewhere but you still think its a necessity here, OR, original ideas ^_^ i'm all for those.

Licensing flags. I think we discussed this earlier and even though you say it'll take a helluva effort to maintain that, I disagree. Since series are not licensed at random throughout the year, but mor eon conventions and others big spectacles. Especially after you said this: "I will just need people to enter names, as I obviously don't have time to. Once I build the login system, I have some people lined up to do just that.", I don't see the harm in giving those people the ability to add those licening flags.

Maybe another option which would be a bit provoking for the forum users is to actually make a new line, just below the number of post you made, which tells you how many recommendations / reviews / vedors the person has added. Once again I'll have to use my excuse of "I am a noob when it gets to scripting / programming", so I have no idea how hard it is to make that.

Originally Posted by sothis

Alright, here's the big one. A lot of the functionality has been decided, after discussing with both Kamenoko and Masakari... but some is still up in the air.

By autonomous, I mean we will have a link to "Reviews", with a searchable database, just like many other review sites such as themanime, animetempy, etc. This will not be a public review database like animenfo or anidb.. or at least, not exactly.

There will be a select number of reviewers who will have the ability to add a review to the actual site. These will be people that consistently write high quality, lengthy, spell-checked/grammatically readable reviews. Considering barely anyone writes reviews at all, this won't be many at first. :p You'll be able to browse the database of reviews that these people have completed. You'll be able to look up a reviewer and see all the series they've reviewed, along with what scores for each one in a nice clickable list.

For each series reviewed, there will be a link back to the "review discussion" thread here in the forum. This will be run the same way as it is now, but no required format for the first post. Why? Cause the first "post" will be the review on the site! And if the review isn't up in the official site database, it's ok too. Anyone can still post reviews here in the forum.

So how is this different than it is now?

Right now, the first post of a review has to be in a certain format. Anyone else can post whatever they like.

Once the new review section is up, anyone can post in whatever format they want, here in the forum. We will still leave up the format as suggested guidelines, and here's why. Let's say you aren't one of the initial people chosen to write reviews, or you've never written one here before, but you think you can do a good job. You would post your review in the format that would be required on the review site, and if the moderators like your work, we will add your review to the actual site. If you do a few more, and consistently have good quality stuff, you'll get a login, and be able to add them whenever you want. ^_^. So it will still be to your advantage to write the reviews in the format, in a lengthy manner.

The point is, I'm not trying to take anything away from the community aspect, or trying to get people to not come to the forum. The only difference will be, we will have an actual reviews page on the site. Not only does this make the site look more credible, but it will draw in a lot of attention. You can still post here in the forum, and possibly be added to the actual database as well. :)

So in a way, the review site won't be available to the public, but in a way, it still will be, because you can post here and possibly be added.

The one thing I am faltering on is adding genres. Before you say anything, please keep in mind I won't be adding these for the database. As I've said before, I don't want to do this because I'd rather people read the description and decide for themselves if it sounds good, rather than not giving it a chance because of a genre label. The same goes for reviews, as far as I'm concerned, but I also know that I've gone to review sites and have looked at, say, all horror reviews to try to get ideas. So I'm not sure what to do. Adding genres to reviews will be a lot of work that I don't really want to do, and might dissuade people from reading the reviews. So I'd like feedback on this.

Again, I will not be adding genres for the anirec database, so please don't even bring that up ;)

I agree wholeheartedly here, besides ONE thing you said here: "So in a way, the review site won't be available to the public, but in a way, it still will be, because you can post here and possibly be added.". Besides not understanding why it wouldn't be available to public, I don't really get the "so" in there. Unless ofcourse, you meant to say that people will be able to read those reviews like normal, but cannot add reviews themselves. If that's how you interpret "available" here, I agree.

Originally Posted by sothis

That's all I can think of for now, but I know there are more things I'm forgetting. Please discuss ANYTHING here, or ask questions, etc. I'd like everything figured out before I develop any of this :)

What about adding some more smileys to the forum? =P

[CodeWordChobits]

The cookies will be nice... but more themes should be added eventually, and perhaps a color scheme for the forums and such. Having an actual review site will be nice. The forum gets the job done but it will gain the site more prestige I think... then also having the forum so ppl have the option to agree and disagree with the "official review" and/or give a review of there own. I also agree that genres are a double edged sword... I know I am more likely to only look at the genres I know I enjoy. But perhaps the Anirec DB will offset that, people will go into the DB and look up a show and see something of a diff genre and go ahead and check out the full review. The login bar or whatever could be placed anywhere, so long as it is not just a box. Just make the "box" it is in go with the rest of the tabs... make it rounded and shaded or whatever so it at least fits the site... it's not going to look aweful but it won't look awesome anywhere, we just have to get used to it and then it'll be no big deal. Are you going to be redoing the front page at all? Just wondering with all the overhaul, you may be comsidering some more of the aesthetic work too.

[sothis]

*just going to respond to codeword's post and then the rest a bit later, since i just got up ;)*

adding more themes has always been a plan, but this is up to dave, who is extremely overworked right now with other real life things. he adds them when he adds them, and i try to not bug him about it ;)

as far as redoing the main page, why would i do that? i think the site graphics look amazing as it is, and i certainly am not going to askdave to totally redo 12 themes when the page looks damn good as it is :p

i probably will not make additional forum changes, because the site uses up 30 gigs a month bandwidth as it is, and i rarely get donations. adding multiple themes in the forum will not only create extra work for dave, but itll shoot the bandwidth through the roof, since the forum gets the most hits by far.

[CodeWordChobits]

Oh hehe... not so much to redo the home page, just need to update it more often. I almost completely missed that you had put some new news up because it has been the same for so long now... sorry for that bad wording. It does look great. And as to Dave being overworked, that's completely understandable. I just like to change my themes on stuff all the time... it would be nice to have more but is no biggie. Won't changing the themes to cookies help with the bandwidth? I dunno much about scripting and such so I have no idea if this is so... meh.

[sothis]

wont help the bandwidth at all, i dont think :/

indeed, i need to add more updates! part of the problem is i dont think anyone really reads it, ive always tried to get feedback on that and failed ;)

[Rar]

Quick reply to the above: sothis, getting feeback here in the forum isn't exactly a good cross section of users. Even if none of us lot look at the front page much, still got to make a good impression on all the new visitors.

I'll go read the rest of the post now. :D

Rar

[Rar]

Right.

Cookies:
All sounds very good. I'd put the login in the left side bar, just below where Dave's theme ends. That way it doesn't mess up the prettiness of first sight of the page, but is still very accessable when people know it's there. As a side note, you'd probably want some newbie friendly introduction linked somewhere on the front page.
If you have cookies for login, I imagine most users won't ever be using a login box, perhaps when logged in you could merge it a little more with the side bar background, or just have a 'log out' button or somesuch. This brings up another issue though, at the moment the AniRec content is completely different if you are logged in or not, so if most users will be always and automatically logged in, there needs to be another way of separating the 'read recs' from the 'make recs'. Personally, I'd like the two pages to be intergrated, as the recommendation is writeen in a popup at the moment anyway.
Final point, I wouldn't nessersarily grant every user a 'report bad comment' ability, but setting up several mods who could contact users and suggest that some comments could do with a little expanding/rethinking might be useful.

Restructuring
Recombining seems good to me, having the site split in half does seem a little odd to me. Your list of pages looks good, I would probably use that last page (Links) to hold not just links but also a link to the Pics page, and anything else community based - like a link to the Quotes forum page - which would be only accessible if you were logged on, of course ;)
You probably are going to want a 'My account' type page somewhere though (under login button?), where you can change your theme, any other options and check/change your details (I'd like lots of rec based stats too :D)

AniRec Database
Reverse options checkboxes sounds good. Smart search and alternate names sound good, you'll want those alternatives showing up as 'did you mean:' for the search, just not in the alphabetical list I imagine.
But yeah, the big thing I would say is combining the current logged in and not logged in content.

Reviews
Hm... sounds good, I'll leave this one to you though.

Hope some of that is helpful,

Rar

[sothis]

All sounds very good. I'd put the login in the left side bar, just below where Dave's theme ends. That way it doesn't mess up the prettiness of first sight of the page, but is still very accessable when people know it's there.

the problem with this is that it's designed for 1024x768, and is essentially the full height of the page at that res. in some themes' cases, the page is short enough so only that shows up, and the repeating part isn't even there. plus, the background color is different for all of them.. sometimes a light green, sometimes dark brown, sometimes black. this means i couldn't just pick one universal color for it, which is kind of annoying.

i think what people are saying about not needing it on every page is smart, cause at the moment, we dont HAVE any content for users besides the rec system and the admin features i'm going to make. what i might do is only have the login easily available on the rec database page, until we get more features elsewhere.

also, i'm running into some major roadblocks anyways with this. it seems it's pretty easy to check if you are logged into the forum on another page on the site.. though if the forum crashes, any page that checks your login info also crashes. so that's easy. BUT... if you want to be able to LOG IN from any page on the site, without it shooting you to the forum when it validates, that seems really damn difficult unless you really know what you are doing with the phpbb code (and i don't, nor do i know if i have a lot of time to figure it out). there are a few mods available that can help do this, but they are unwieldly and only beta versions.

so i'm not sure what to do. i might make this a last priority or something.

You probably are going to want a 'My account' type page somewhere though (under login button?), where you can change your theme, any other options and check/change your details (I'd like lots of rec based stats too :D)

thought about this, but i probably won't implement it till there are more features. for choosing a theme, i will probably have a drop down on every single page that says 'select theme". i originally made the "themes" link because i wanted people who randomly came to, say, the database, to see that there are multiple themes and would investigate. since i am removing that for room, someone suggested to me that i just have the dropdown on every page so it's obvious, and i'd tend to agree. other things like rec features are already available once you log in to make recs, if you click "my recommendations" or whatever that link is, it brings up a window which shows you all the recs you've made, and the number you've made.

so for now, i don't see the point in having a profile page, even for the reviewers (since their series they've reviewed with scores will be public)... it'll also cause more nastiness as far as finding a link for it, since it couldn't go in the button bar.

What should i say..., this just keep getting better and better. :)

Now, about this elite reviewer list, will be static? or you'll constantly searching for new reviewers (or a mix of both :P)