Forum Home Page Layout

Florin

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Hi Guys,

So, we are the Official Warwick Forum again, so we need to tweak the Home Page a little.

First we should think about it's purpose.
In my opinion, home page should be a good orientation tool, and a place to show News and cool forum topics as articles.

Chatbox: you know I love it, but I don't think it should be the center of the home page, except if we set it to show in real time the activity on the forum on the main chat page, and by that it brings a feed, turning the whole forum in a chatbox. You see one of us answering in our topic, click, and chat there.

However most of you complained about being harder to use as a proper chatbox that way. So chatbox is still there, on side bar, but we need to keep the center of the page for more important features.

So what should we have on the home page?
- Articles
- Forum categories, to know where and what to look for.
- Recent activity, new posts/ topics.
- other features we have on the forum like media and gear reviews.

I also think we should redo the forum's structure, so we have proper Warwick bass, Rockbass, Warwick Amps, etc categories, so new users to find help easier.

Any feedback is a great help for us now!

Flo
 

Hoggles

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I thought the way it was for a few years, was somewhat perfect. I understand the desire to want to change it up, but I guess in my opinion...it's a forum at heart and therefore "recent posts" of the forum should be the center of attention on the home page. To me, that's the most important feature of the Warwick Forum. Chat box could still be on the side, though I liked it right were it was before as well. Seemed clean. It worked. It flowed.

Just my 2 cents. I think the people who visit this site daily, or near daily, will get a bit bored always seeing the exact same thing on the home page. Old classifieds and a lot of Ryan Martinie (love ya Ryan, but ya know) :rolleyes::p:)

My vote would be to go back to Chat on top, recent posts next and then go crazy with infinite scroll ads below that ;)
 

Hector

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I would also ad a nice place to put an ad for Warwick / Framus itself....
 

Florin

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What we have now:
Articles
classifieds in agrid with infinite scroll
I thought the way it was for a few years, was somewhat perfect. I understand the desire to want to change it up, but I guess in my opinion...it's a forum at heart and therefore "recent posts" of the forum should be the center of attention on the home page. To me, that's the most important feature of the Warwick Forum. Chat box could still be on the side, though I liked it right were it was before as well. Seemed clean. It worked. It flowed.

Just my 2 cents. I think the people who visit this site daily, or near daily, will get a bit bored always seeing the exact same thing on the home page. Old classifieds and a lot of Ryan Martinie (love ya Ryan, but ya know) :rolleyes::p:)

My vote would be to go back to Chat on top, recent posts next and then go crazy with infinite scroll ads below that ;)
Then we should think if we really need home page at all, because it would be much easier to just make "FORUM" as home page, with chatbox on top, and recent posts on sidebar, while having a good overview on the whole forum, easy access to "New Posts" button, etc.
What do you think?
The only reason home page is to exist is articles, other than this, opening Forum directly is way more convenient.
 

Florin

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For example please check now the "Forum" page
Warwick Forum

Isn't that pretty much everything we need?
The only reason for the home page to exist is Articles/ Orientation
Orientation is easy on forum page, so home page's only role is for articles.
 

Hoggles

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Flo, you rock. Thanks for switching it back to the original look. Just one person's opinion...but I think this is perfect.

As for needing a separate "forum" and "home" page...I think it's still nice to have that separation, because easily finding the full list of forum categories is important in a forum.

Having those adverts and video clips right under the chat and recent posts looks great. Love it. To me, thats a perfect "home page".
 

PaulS

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How do I get the chat box from being at the top of every page Flo?
 

Florin

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"settings" I can also set it of by default
 

PaulS

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I don't see a settings buttton anywhere, where might it be? I don't see it in my account nor at the bottom of the page
 

Florin

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In the chatroom upper corner, right.
 

PaulS

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Ooooh lol I was looking in my account or on the page, thx Flo
 
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