It's almost here...

[Berserker]

The full trailer for the new Wolf-Man movie is unofficially out (Comic-con debut,) which means the release for the film isn't far behind. I posted my thoughts on this at the start of the year, but now it's really getting close.

When this movie comes out, it's probably going to be a hit, but mainly, it's going to prompt thousands of people to look up werewolves on the internet out of curiosity. The Pack should be using this film to its advantage. The potential for generating interest in Freeborn (and werewolves in general) will be enormous, and this site should be a top search hit when it happens.

I'm no web programmer, and I realize it is a serious workload to tinker at this site... but The Packs Den needs to be updated and prepared! We need at least semi-pro presentation. We need a new front page with working sections, information, and links. I would post this in the website update forum, but it's not just about the technical aspects of the site, it's also about helping The Packs Den become the #1 werewolf resource on the net. It can happen.

I'm prepared to design and print out some clever fliers and/or cards to leave in strategic spots closer to the Wolf-Man's release directing people to this site. Viral marketing for The Pack and/or Freeborn would work, but it needs infrastructure support!

[Set]

What we need right now is for the main page to do a simple redirect to these forums while the actual site is being worked on. Considering that takes oh, maybe FIVE MINUTES to code it amazes me we don't have one.

The website is long overdue for an overhaul. I don't know who has access to the server though, so I have no clue who is actually in charge of the site's upkeep.

Also, after taking a look at the source code...tables and JavaScript? It would be easier to use Cascading Style Sheets for the basic layout. I have JavaScript disabled on my browser anyway.

[Berserker]

What we need right now is for the main page to do a simple redirect to these forums while the actual site is being worked on. Considering that takes oh, maybe FIVE MINUTES to code it amazes me we don't have one.

I absolutely agree with this. Either have a fully functional main page or none at all. A splash page should replace the skeleton that we currently have.

[outwarddoodles]

The redirect-idea has been suggested before, and yet no one has taken the initiative to actually change the front page. Most pack members really dislike the front page at this point, and taking it away immediately shouldn't be a difficult decision to make -- Neither do I think we should have a poll on it.

Takyoji has been doing the forum updates lately, and he has agreed to help re-design a new layout. I have been considering bombarding him with PMs to change the front-page so it re-directs.


There's no lack of content available for our front page. We're one of the largest all-around and specifically werewolf forum -- and most of our members are willing to write/donate news, articles, stories, reviews, etc.

[takyoji]

What we need right now is for the main page to do a simple redirect to these forums while the actual site is being worked on. Considering that takes oh, maybe FIVE MINUTES to code it amazes me we don't have one.

The website is long overdue for an overhaul. I don't know who has access to the server though, so I have no clue who is actually in charge of the site's upkeep.

Also, after taking a look at the source code...tables and JavaScript? It would be easier to use Cascading Style Sheets for the basic layout. I have JavaScript disabled on my browser anyway.

I guess that would be most logical to just tear it up and have it redirect to the forum rather than haved a lot of stub pages that aren't serving much of a purpose. As for the tables and Javascript, that's actually not my fault and I certainly won't make such mistakes. All the main pages were apparently just made in Photoshop and directly exported into HTML from Photoshop's HTML exporter. Last of all, all of the text is in the pictures that crawlers can't aren't able to find. We're certainly going to have it more optimized for search engines than that.

And yes, I COMPLETELY agree with the idea of making this website far more resourceful than it currently is and we're all pretty much on the exact same page as of views. The main focus to get us up in search engines results is: valuable text that have "werewolf" and other needed keywords mentioned numerous times (like what the forum already has done for us), and PageRank which is basically links to this website. Any links count such as those from Digg, Facebook, MySpace, deviantART, YouTube, and pretty much any other website. I know for a certain fact that we could be #1 in various search results regarding werewolves.

Additionally, the reason why I haven't really done anything yet (again, I wasn't the one that did the main pages of the website at all, I wasn't even around then) is because I'm writing a special framework that'll make it easier to write a control panel and everything to make it easier to manage the website. Just recently I've finally been nearing completion on my concepts and will hopefully finish it in time. And by now, the end of my summer vacation is narrowing and I'm REALLY trying to focus hard on completing it now since EVERY project I currently have deeply depends on it. So when it's done, I'll take in all the reasonable suggestions from this thread: http://www.thepack.network/thepackboard ... f=8&t=6890

Last of all, I'd like to run a little web design competition on the forum where members are free to submit their suggestions for the new look of the main page. I'd however need a date of when it should be done by. I'm assuming 2-3 weeks would be best, yet I'm assuming that's far past the time that it'd be required. If anyone would like to debate about this a little quicker, then you're free to contact me via instant messaging or on the IRC channel: http://kiri.nonexiste.net:2001/