Throwing a question out to you guys re: PPT main

[TDG]

Humm, coming from a very geeky perspective, I'd be tempted to make up a news/article posting system in PHP and give a couple of people accounts to it. Though... they'd kinda need to know HTML, so ideally you'd need to plug in an HTML-generating text editor... *rambles*

*5 minutes later*

There must be quite a few people who HTML here. I'm sorry I haven't thought to volunteer earlier... I'm a webpage geek, I'd be happy to help Not sure about a PHP system, might take a bit too long. It'd be useful though.

That's currently what the system is Its just a problem in the sense that after a month or two, it becomes too much hassle to carry on doing the news even. I know when I was a News poster, it seemed it was only me posting any unreleased news on Neopets, and due to the unreleased thread's inactivity here, it became a daily chore of going around all of the other sites and finding what was coming, then you'd have to credit things which people would disagree with and it became too much of a hassle.

I meant to take a week or so of break from it, but after I had it, I couldn't get back into the swing of things and my activity as news poster trailed off.

Personally, I'd be happy to get back into it if there was a team of people doing the unreleased Neopets News and people started posting the news here. That way, it just becomes a case of updating as stuff comes through, rather than having to sift through a whole days worth of news and posting it all at once.

[Matt]

The system at the moment is that we have a dynamic front page, and a static back end, meaning that though what we do can change the front page, everything else has to be manually changed. (At least that's the impression I got from Kym's post)

What do I recommend? Well, it will take a long time but if we can totally restructure the site to work on a dynamic back end as well it would work a lot LOT better. It would be hard, but you already have the Pink Ink template to work with so you surely wouldn't have to add a lot in there to change it to work with the site. Then, as soon as you (or someone else) has typed the article in and pressed 'submit' it gets posted as an HTML file and all menus are updated accordingly.

[theonlysaneone]

The system at the moment is that we have a dynamic front page, and a static back end, meaning that though what we do can change the front page, everything else has to be manually changed. (At least that's the impression I got from Kym's post)

What do I recommend? Well, it will take a long time but if we can totally restructure the site to work on a dynamic back end as well it would work a lot LOT better. It would be hard, but you already have the Pink Ink template to work with so you surely wouldn't have to add a lot in there to change it to work with the site. Then, as soon as you (or someone else) has typed the article in and pressed 'submit' it gets posted as an HTML file and all menus are updated accordingly.

The problem there is that there is no content checking mechanism. Someone could post a guide that says "Faerie Cloud Racers" and it could just be "AMANDA IS GAY ROFL!" over and over again. That's pretty tame compared to some of the things people could post. Allowing people to just upload anything they want is dangerous.

The other problem is that for popular games, a lot of people would be willing to write guides. These guides might not be factually correct and even if they were, they would disagree on various things, and depending on which guide you read you could get better advice. If you have 15-20 guides for a game, how do you know which one to read?

I also think articles like make 15000 NP in one hour just by playing games are a) not helpful and b) too common. Really, I don't even think these should be here. If you've ever tried to follow one of these, you would know many of them don't work, and the rest just say to play games. Inaccurate, irrelevant, outdated guides need to go, and I think a committee of forum members could volunteer to go through and clean up the site. I'm sure if you posted a thread asking for help, you would get enough volunteers.

After that is done, a committee of members (possibly the same one) could have access to an email address where people could make their submissions, and the committee members could pick out articles, see if they're any good, and if they are, post them.

PS: I think the shoutbox needs to go. Why do we have a shoutbox if we have forums?

[Matt]

The system at the moment is that we have a dynamic front page, and a static back end, meaning that though what we do can change the front page, everything else has to be manually changed. (At least that's the impression I got from Kym's post)

What do I recommend? Well, it will take a long time but if we can totally restructure the site to work on a dynamic back end as well it would work a lot LOT better. It would be hard, but you already have the Pink Ink template to work with so you surely wouldn't have to add a lot in there to change it to work with the site. Then, as soon as you (or someone else) has typed the article in and pressed 'submit' it gets posted as an HTML file and all menus are updated accordingly.

The problem there is that there is no content checking mechanism. Someone could post a guide that says "Faerie Cloud Racers" and it could just be "AMANDA IS GAY ROFL!" over and over again. That's pretty tame compared to some of the things people could post. Allowing people to just upload anything they want is dangerous.

The other problem is that for popular games, a lot of people would be willing to write guides. These guides might not be factually correct and even if they were, they would disagree on various things, and depending on which guide you read you could get better advice. If you have 15-20 guides for a game, how do you know which one to read?

Naturally there'd still be the need to log into a username to use this form, so it'd be much like the Pink Ink, where once you have been given a username you can post onto the front, but without it, you'd have to give your article to someone with a username.

[mazil]

Humm, coming from a very geeky perspective, I'd be tempted to make up a news/article posting system in PHP...

That's currently what the system is

Ah! Hehe, I kinda guessed that the news system would be like that. I thought maybe it'd be good to be extended for posting of articles, as Matt said, though

Hmm, forgive me if I'm going on a bit of a tangent, but I just had a thought that relates to PPT main, but not the problem of news/article posting...

---

I'm thinking, maybe PPT main is trying to do too many things at once? There's just so much going on when you visit the front page (all the links on either side), though I know Kym (and others?) have done an amazing job organising and re-organising it over the years. And there's just so much information and so many pages (I guess that relates back to the maintenance problem).

Some other sites seem to have it easier, mainly because they are limited to one topic/theme - NeoItems, Neocolours, maybe also IDB? When you have one theme, it's easier to be the one that finds the news (eg. pet colour websites would have a group of people passionate about pet colours, so they'd be constantly looking for them), and it provides a focus for the newsposters and the site as a whole as well.

I'm not sure that PPT could limit itself to a theme like that, but I realised that the first time I came to PPT, it was because I was looking for Neopets help. Maybe that could be the focus? I used to love hanging around the Help Chat board on Neopets, it's a nice "do-goody" feeling If that were more of a focus, it wouldn't call for too much of a change to the site, but might give it a bit more direction. "PPT - Your #1 Neopets Help Site" has ... a kinda nice ring to it.

One example I thought of is how good our community is with the plots - its certainly when we get the most new members, I think, and is a really fun time. It'd be cool if that could be reflected on the site a bit more ... so when a new plot comes up, if someone is stuck, people will be like "oh! Go to PPT, they have EVERYTHING there". Because we do already, really... it's just not completely on the main site.

Another example is that it'd give a bit more focus for the news... Instead of unreleased items/colours (which sites like NeoItems and Neocolours do anyway), it could be tips/help for Neopets in general. These could range from everyday (eg. "The Neolodge is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to keep your pet fed and happy") to topical (eg. "SDB bug! Don't remove any items for a while!").

---

Okay, that's enough of a ramble for now
*scampers back to hideyhole*

[Jacob]

in terms of making the articles, you could consider restructuring the site to be more of a wiki so people could add things without you having to do anything... you'd just have to get some peopel to volunteer to check the changes peopl have made...

I've just realised that my suggestion completely forgets the neodex - why not try and combine the two? you have to be registered to add stuff to the neodex right? why not add the ppt content to the neodex and then scrap the main ppt site as it is in favour of the neodex, which seems great so far, so can only get better!

I think the NeoDex and main site should remain separate. The NeoDex is a place for unbiased, factual information, much like Wikipedia. Game guides don't belong there because they aren't factual: they're strategies and ideas that are different for every player. It would DEFINITELY be a good idea for there to be a NeoDex article for every game, with links to the guides on PPT, but they still need to be somewhat separate.

I can see why i was sent a private message about this now.

to tell the truth, i have thought about the main site and the wiki to be combined, as a lot of information is repeated in different articles. it could be done, but would require more staff and a coding update (much more than was thought before). still, having the main site seperate is ideal, because as stated, the NeoDex is to present unbiased material not pertaining to any personal perspective. And the main site can contain that.

on terms of Kym being swamped...i can see why, as he uses his email to have everyone contact him about everything pinkpt, and it's also used for sending people ppt forum announcements. so, perhaps a new submission program is in order. different emails for different purposes will be needed, and perhaps even different people for those mail accounts.

was just thinking...would someone submitting an article about titled "An Afternoon of Adam Powell and Asparagus" (an example) be better placed in the Pink Ink or on the main site? perhaps articles could be placed to the Pink Ink for overlooking, and forwarded to the main site article provider if it doesn't apply?

[Shoyru_Lover]

was just thinking...would someone submitting an article about titled "An Afternoon of Adam Powell and Asparagus" (an example) be better placed in the Pink Ink or on the main site? perhaps articles could be placed to the Pink Ink for overlooking, and forwarded to the main site article provider if it doesn't apply?

This is actually a VERY good idea. I'll poke Nessa and Pudding to enter this thread and give their opinions.

[Pudding]

was just thinking...would someone submitting an article about titled "An Afternoon of Adam Powell and Asparagus" (an example) be better placed in the Pink Ink or on the main site? perhaps articles could be placed to the Pink Ink for overlooking, and forwarded to the main site article provider if it doesn't apply?

This is actually a VERY good idea. I'll poke Nessa and Pudding to enter this thread and give their opinions.

I want to hear what Ness and the rest of the team think about this, but I am definitely interested in this plan. It seems like it would work out well for all of us.

edit: I talked to Nessa, and she likes the idea as much as I do.

[Nessa]

was just thinking...would someone submitting an article about titled "An Afternoon of Adam Powell and Asparagus" (an example) be better placed in the Pink Ink or on the main site? perhaps articles could be placed to the Pink Ink for overlooking, and forwarded to the main site article provider if it doesn't apply?

This is actually a VERY good idea. I'll poke Nessa and Pudding to enter this thread and give their opinions.

I want to hear what Ness and the rest of the team think about this, but I am definitely interested in this plan. It seems like it would work out well for all of us.

edit: I talked to Nessa, and she likes the idea as much as I do.

Yes haha! I've very curious about all of these and eager to begin negotiations

[theonlysaneone]

This is somewhat off-topic, but I do think one thing that would be extremely useful is a color-coded site status alert. It would always be there on the front page, and would have levels ranging from blue (Neopets is completely safe to use) to yellow (don't move items around, several glitches) to red (don't go on Neopets at all). Think like President Bush's terror threat level colors, except they'd actually be useful. NCW has done this for a long time, and I think it might be a nice idea.

I agree wholeheartedly that Pink Ink is being underused. Perhaps staff interviews, neopoint-making articles, etc. could go in there? You know, things that probably don't belong on the main site but still represent someone's personal opinion. Someone else probably knows WAY more about this, though. I do think that Pink Ink should be linked from the front page (that was the best sentence ever).

[Matt]

I agree wholeheartedly that Pink Ink is being underused. Perhaps staff interviews, neopoint-making articles, etc. could go in there? You know, things that probably don't belong on the main site but still represent someone's personal opinion. Someone else probably knows WAY more about this, though. I do think that Pink Ink should be linked from the front page (that was the best sentence ever).

However, I don't want Pink Ink to become the sort of "sweep it into the carpet" case. The way that sounds (and I may be interpreting you wrongly) is that you want any good article on PPT; and any bad article to be given to Pink Ink so as to not waste space.

Neopets Making articles are, frankly, rubbish. I can tell you to buy cheap things and seel them for dearer; I can tell you that games give you money and that the auction is good. The difference is that I do it in two clauses without making myself sound verbose or stupid. They don't deserve a place on the site, and, if we have to endure these being stockpiled into the Neopets section of the PI, it'll lose all credibility and (more importantly) readers.

[theonlysaneone]

I agree wholeheartedly that Pink Ink is being underused. Perhaps staff interviews, neopoint-making articles, etc. could go in there? You know, things that probably don't belong on the main site but still represent someone's personal opinion. Someone else probably knows WAY more about this, though. I do think that Pink Ink should be linked from the front page (that was the best sentence ever).

However, I don't want Pink Ink to become the sort of "sweep it into the carpet" case. The way that sounds (and I may be interpreting you wrongly) is that you want any good article on PPT; and any bad article to be given to Pink Ink so as to not waste space.

Neopets Making articles are, frankly, rubbish. I can tell you to buy cheap things and seel them for dearer; I can tell you that games give you money and that the auction is good. The difference is that I do it in two clauses without making myself sound verbose or stupid. They don't deserve a place on the site, and, if we have to endure these being stockpiled into the Neopets section of the PI, it'll lose all credibility and (more importantly) readers.

Oh, I agree they shouldn't be anywhere on the site. But if they must be included, that's the place to put them. Again, people who are more expert on matters Pink Ink should probably weigh in on this.

[Nessa]

I can guarantee that Pink Ink will not under any circumstances be printing just whatever comes along. Just because so far we haven't had to kick articles back to the author due to not being 'good enough' doesn't mean that we'll just print anything. All it means is that the level of work that has been submitted to Pink Ink is the level of work that we prefer to publish. And we will stick by our standards through the dry spells where we just don't have enough articles to publish. We're not desperate, and we never will be.

I do think that Pink Ink should be linked from the front page (that was the best sentence ever).

On the left side of the screen on the sidebar, under the section 'PinkPT Community' we're the 3rd link from the top down, even above the PPT Forums link.

[Jacob]

This is somewhat off-topic, but I do think one thing that would be extremely useful is a color-coded site status alert. It would always be there on the front page, and would have levels ranging from blue (Neopets is completely safe to use) to yellow (don't move items around, several glitches) to red (don't go on Neopets at all). Think like President Bush's terror threat level colors, except they'd actually be useful. NCW has done this for a long time, and I think it might be a nice idea.

a terror alert level? as long as someone of good judgement who won't jump because someone on neopets says so, it's a grand idea. And i'm sure the terror alert will almost all of the time be in green (the lowest level), unlike the true terror alert level in USA...which is rubbish.

I'm glad to hear my idea is appreciated by the Pink Ink. And yes, i do know the Pink Ink has a standard of quality to follow, as does the main site itself. But with Pink Ink receiving article submissions first (or whatever the system will be), it would be able to pick those which are of the proper material.

on article submission in general...PinkPT accepts many new articles, some of which look like multiples of previous articles (this is apparent in the game guides). outdated "tips" and "secrets" aren't taken out, but merely crossed out. I think i recall one game have all its content crossed over. if this is done as a ways to show these users contributions, i understand, but it does look very messy.

I thnk the best way to go about it is to revise the game guides into one section, rather than seperate ones. would require an authoer to format all the data into a cohesive document. Doing so would convert the work of all those who submitted already, but their contributions could be mentioned at the bottom of the document. And perhaps the outdated game data could be referenced as part of the games previous history?

on the main page design in general, perhaps the "box" which all the news is part of could be widened out as well? this would allow more content to be displayed in the middle, and perhaps lower the problem of the news updates overflowing the sides.

and...um...would it be possible to look over the banner ads as well? i think some of them are of questionable content, and...*shifts eyes* i saw a banner ad scroll over my screen, which may constitue a pop up. Sorry, not really joking about this.

[Mongrel]

on the main page design in general, perhaps the "box" which all the news is part of could be widened out as well? this would allow more content to be displayed in the middle, and perhaps lower the problem of the news updates overflowing the sides.

If the middle column is widened by any noticeable amount and the other columns stay the same width, it wouldbe too big for an 800x600 resolution. And yes, I know the rest of the world has moved on, but anything bigger than 800x600 is blurry on my computer and trying to read it gives me a headache. I'm sure there are two or three others left like me.

Very few of the news posts are based around a lot of text anyway, and they tend to take up a lot of vertical space. Mostly they look like this:

Here are the new colours for [name of pet] Day!

[Pet Image][Pet Image]

Here are some new items!

[Item Image][Item Image][Item Image]

Here's a new game!

[Game Image]

[two sentences about game]