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

[sothis]

this is a really massive topic, but i'll try to type it all out here.

i'm going to be moving into the next phase of development for the site... which is going to bring about a lot of hardcore changes.

ill try to mention the major features, and then go into detail about each one. i am asking for feedback, good or bad, so i can tailor make this.

Major Features to be added

-Use of cookies throughout entire site, login system for all users
This includes: being logged in to the rest of the site when you are logged in here in the forum, or vice versa... you'll use your forum account as the universal login, removal of themes from all urls, set instead with cookies, and you can select a theme on each page of the site for a "permanent" one.

-Restructuring of the site... again.
I'll explain more about this in a bit.

-AniRec Database rehaul
This will include enhanced voting and searching capabilities. Voters will have the option of selecting which votes to use for t he make opposites feature, and maybe other things. I plan on making the search smarter, as well as making use of a synonym table I just made. More about this below.

-A fully autonomous review section
This is the big one, guys. Very massive to explain, so I'll leave it for later on.


Interested? I'll go into more detail now. Keep in mind these are preliminary ideas, and this will be a LONG post. If you like the site, do me a favor and read all of it. There are a lot of things that I haven't decided on, and I'd like ideas on new features and such that I didn't think of too.

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Use of cookies throughout entire site, login system for all users

The cookie thing should be obvious. I want it so if you are logged in here, you are logged in elsewhere. Also, I want there to be an option so you don't have to log back in to make recommendations, let's say, if you want to stay logged in. I want the theme names removed from the urls, so this topic really will be a first priority.

But here are my concerns.

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?

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.

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Restructuring of the site... again
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.

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AniRec Database rehaul

-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.

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.

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A fully autonomous review section

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 n ot be adding genres for the anirec database, so please don't even bring that up ;)

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 :)

[DS AP]

i really like the universal login featurea as i often forget my stuff to login to make recs and having a feature for people to oh say report bad comments or the like woudl be a niceeity also

the log in keep emloged in thing you were talking about could got quite unobtrusivly under the index of topics/forums ont he page for atelast the forum part and at or near the bottom of hte page everwhere else its the place where youve got ht most room to work isnt THAT out of the way and at the same tiem not glairingly bad looking

[sothis]

bottom of the page is an idea, though i wonder if that's too much out of the way. people tend to look for logins at the top, and if its way at the bottom, that might be unintuitive...

[Arcardo]

cookie/one login for everything thing sounds useful

"report a bad comment" thats rather useless. mods are more practicable, so "officialy" announced users who check all usercreated content on the whole site for ads, unwanted comments etc

dont implement content which is not really useful, as u said it will just confuse and scare off newcomers

"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."
-sorry this makes no sense to me so everyone will be able to post but not every1 able to read it??? why should the ones who cant read post something

reviev page=very useful

[sothis]

there will be two aspects of the review site.

the actual website.. which would be something like http://www.anime-planet.com/reviews/ ... this would have a layout like any other review site.. you could search for reviews alphabetically, etc. but only chosen reviewers would have the ability to post reviews there.

but, the reviews section here in the forum would still exist too! and anyone could post a review here. if your review fits the format that we mention, is long enough, and sounds good, we might add it to the "actual website".

so you can still post reviews, and people in the forum will read them. if your review is good enough, people on the website might read it also :) does that make sense?

Sounds good.


I might have a few ideas for the "Checkbox thingy".

But first i'll have to : 1. Sleep (7am) 2. Think alittle of where it can be perfectly visible yet not annoying/disturbing.

But it sounds good.

I'm proud of you !

/Rikard

[Arcardo]

aaah i see
so its like a chokepoint where the lower quality/incomplete etc reviews can be filtered out

[sothis]

yeah, sorta.. though that makes it seem fairly negative ;)

[DistMan]

Cookies sounds nice, reviews sounds okay, you dont want oppinions regarding genres so I wont bring that up. Since I do not use the other parts very often I'll leave those comments to the people who does.

[sothis]

dist: no i definitely want opinions on genres, just not for the anirec database.. only about the reviews section ;)