Change our site management system?

Unr3alChi3f · Jun 7, 2007

Change our site management system?

Major Silva · Main Administrator

Heh, "drupal".

Anyway though, wouldn't that be a massive overhaul? And wouldn't it basically put us offline for quite a while? I can live with some HTML/Javascript blocks if we would be offline for weeks at a time.

Unr3alChi3f · Jun 8, 2007

i could work on it during the summer and when its ready, put it here....

Fluffaluffer · Jul 5, 2007

Drupal is very easy to use, well supported and since I myself have used it on the IGN/GameSpy hosted servers I know that it works very well if you are looking into taking the site in that direction.

Major Silva · Main Administrator

Sounds great on paper. I'd love to have a new management system, especially if it's easier than CMSimple. That way we won't have to keep LoneRanger off of it anymore :).

But how big of an overhaul would it be, in your opinion? The template would have to be re-encoded with Drupal, which could take forever being that Mercury is now gone. We'd have to find somebody else.

I'm all for it, if it's relatively simple. But a large part of me doesn't think it's going to be.

~MS

I finally get access to the forums again and this is what I find? Dispicable! I'm a writer, darnit! Not a maintenance man!

Only simple words amuse me. Jumbled letters, numbers, and lines... not so much.

-- Edited by LoneRanger at 21:13, 2007-07-08

-- Edited by LoneRanger at 21:14, 2007-07-08

Roland · Jul 12, 2007

I'd suggest contacting Geekusoid over at Helljumper.net if you need any help with the site. He did the latest version of their site, which is it's first update since I handed it over about 15 months ago......

Fluffaluffer · Jul 16, 2007

Sorry for the late reply. I sometimes forget to check back here when there's a lot of other stuff going on.

Drupal are fairly easy to customize if you know the basics of HTML and CSS. They also offer quite a few themes which can easily be customized color and image wise to suit your needs if you do not wish to recreate your current layout to 100%.

I'm quite busy from time to time but as I've said before just let me know of any problems you have or if you need help and I'll look into it and try to help as much as possible when time becomes available.

To summarize, I'll be glad to help out creating a good layout with Drupal for your site when I have the time if you think it will improve your site. Once the visuals are done inputting content is as easy as copy-paste.

For a taste of what a Drupal site can look like this is my latest site using Drupal:

http://www.personalvetare.nu/

-- Edited by Fluffaluffer at 08:22, 2007-07-16

Fluffaluffer · Jul 16, 2007

Having a very simple layout up and running under Drupal would be as simple as this:

http://fluffy.haloplanet.gamespy.com/unscdf/

LoneRanger · Secret God

That is really quick. Looks good too for such a short time invested. I can't imagine what we could do if we really went at it. Thanks for the suggestion, Fluffy.

[I call you Fluffy, since I have a problem with comprehending Fluffaluffer.]

Major Silva · Main Administrator

I'm still not sure about it. Again, I like the design of your example, I'm glad it's easy to use and edit, and I think it would generally be a great step.

But something about that fact that we just launched this thing one and a half months ago doesn't sit right. Especially being that the template cost money to get created, and especially because our newest member at the time had to pay for it. Which is sad.

If we could somehow move the template over, that would be great. But that's not the way it works, is it?

~MS

steve2frag · ODST

It looks nice. A little too Bloggish for me, though. Buy, hey, you didn't spend too much time on it, so perfection isn't expected. I think it's a good idea. You could keep this site running while creating the other one. Then, at the end of MJOLNIR Madness (that was the name I suggested to the MGS promo team) we launch the new site with a Halo 3 review and the special edition 360 and guides and stuff.

Fluffaluffer · Jul 26, 2007

Major Silva wrote:

If we could somehow move the template over, that would be great. But that's not the way it works, is it?

Without too much work it could pretty easily be done to almost look exactly like your current template. With a lot more work it could look exactly the same.

steve2frag:

It looks nice. A little too Bloggish for me, though. Buy, hey, you didn't spend too much time on it, so perfection isn't expected.

I didn't really spend any time on it. That's just one of the basic standard Drupal themes with some color customization and the UNSCDF logo added to the top.

steve2frag · ODST

Well, then that looks awesome. We can move over to a Drupal site if CK doesn't accept the ultimatu. (Silva must've been watching Bourne movies to think of that.)

Unr3alChi3f · Sep 4, 2007

BUMP. I was thinking to Silva about my "secret project" when we thought about moving the site over to drupal. And infact I went ahead and started the UNSCDF v2 project.... And we need fluffaluffer and CapnKrunk (podtacular) to help us out...

Fluffaluffer · Sep 10, 2007

Hey guys,

Long time no see. Been really busy with "that other site of mine" ;)

I'll be glad to help out of course but must warn that the next few weeks will be very busy on my part. Halo 3 coming out means a lot of extra work at IGN plus some rather big stuff soon to go down at Planet Halo. But I'll help out the best I can.

Major Silva · Main Administrator

Figured as much. We're getting together a little "event" as well as organizing things/getting new content up before the 25th. Hopefully we can get it all done in time. Speaking of the "event", you'll find the Halo 3 Co-Opolooza a few forums down.

I keep forgetting to use that darn Megaphone!

Fluffaluffer · Sep 12, 2007

Yes, using the Megaphone is a great way to reach out. Also make sure to send me an email seperately for more directed advertising of your events and new content and I'll get it up at our main site. Don't be afraid to send me links to smaller articles and stuff like that. I'll be happy to promote mostly everything from a hosted site.

Major Silva · Main Administrator

Cool. Have to remember that.

Fluffaluffer · Oct 17, 2007

If you haven't read todays email about the Megaphone update you definately should. Using the Megaphone now results in your news showing up on the xbox.gamespy.com website. This is indeed = a whole lot more hits if used correctly.

Hope everything is going great. I know I'm busy ;)