intro

[Agent_137]

Ok. So i forgot what thread it was, but some one posted this:

http://www.armageddon.org/slides/intro1.html

And I don't know where to find that on the main page.

is it suppossed to be hidden like this?

am i blind and can't see it but it's there?

I know there are many more pages like this, i've found them with google on accident.

?

[Miee (not logged in)]

As the person who posted it:

Off the main page, take a right turn onto Introductory Information, go straight through two lights to What You Know, then turn down If You Are From Allanak.  You'll see a sign right as you turn that says Life in Allanak.

I suspect it's an old page, and I found it and lived off it and the help files when I started.  

Miee read -everything-.

[Agent_137]

See, if I wanted to help redesign the webpage for easier access (don't tell me it's simple and straightfoward, did you read that above post?!@?), who should I talk to? Email the webmaster email? Or the mud?

[Miee (not logged in)]

Shoulda taken that left toin at Albe-kerkie, eh Doc?

It'd have to be discussed in the committee of the GDB, then the more important committee of the Imms, and maybe you should just volunteer for a site map?

[Agent_137]

hm. yea, thanks for the tip, i think i'll steal the whole website, redesign it, host it on my own, and then see what the players and imms think of it.

of course, i'll submit this idea to the mud account before actually doing it.

[Angela Christine]

I think someone (John?) did make a site map.  I don't know where it is.

If you decide to may a "pretty" version, make sure it is still useful for all the players.  At this point much of the Necessary documentation is no longer available in the game, you -must- use the website, and that requirement kinda sucks.  So when you pretty up the website, make sure it still works for people using a dialup modem and a 386sx.  Make sure it works for people using  aging library computers that access the internet with Lynx.  You can play a mud using a bloody AT computer from 1988, text games are nice that way, I doubt many people are still using ATs, but there are still plenty of people using  386s, 486s, early pentiums, classic macs (the ones with the tiny black and white monitor built into the same case as the processor) and other hardwear/softwear combos that haven't been on the cutting edge since the early 1990s.  The GAME runs on those computers, so the NECESSARY documentation should also be available to those computers.  Some people play text games because graphical games do not run well on their machines.


AC

Edited to add:  http://midnight-sun.ludd.luth.se:3328/index.html is a really pretty game page, but it took over 1 minute to load the first time I looked at it.  That was icky.  Dial up modems suck, but plenty of people aren't using high-speed options yet.

[Anonymous]

I think the Website just needs some clearer categories.  Having documentation spread out over 3-4 links from the main page leads to a lot of situations where longtime players go WOW over a page they had never seen.

[Agent_137]

yea, that's that i'm going for, crw.

if you want to see my work, www.robertpate.net

I think the less clicks to get where you want, the better.

my biggest inspiration is the best page in the universe.

The biggest problem with my webpage is the large pictures. But if you stay away from the photos page, everything is clean.

[Cuusardo]

Site map is your friend.

http://www.zalanthas.org/ArmDocs/Community/sitemap.html

[Bestatte]

Sitemap doesn't help at all. I tried the very first one - all it is, is a link to the intro page. I want a list of EVERYTHING accessable on the website. I mean shoot - even the sitemap isn't easily found by someone who doesn't already know their way around the website.

When I click on "Intro" on the site map - here's what I want to see:

1) The initial list of everything that's on the main intro page.
2) A drop-down list of everything that is linked to each of the links on that intro page.
3) A drop-down list of everything that is linked to everything that is linked to each of the links on that intro page.

and so on and so forth.

No graphics necessary, but a 1-sentence blurb explaining the primary function of each link would be helpful.

www.ke9.com does an amazing job of this, and I"ve mentioned it before. It has an actual tree/map of the website, and shows various cross-references in links that include info mentioned in other places.

The only bad thing about ke9 is that it -is- very graphical. But I doubt it would be all that difficult to emulate such a map/tree system and omit the graphics.

[spawnloser]

You're not using the sitemap very well if you can't find something.  It is arranged EXACTLY like the rest of the site.  All links that you can go from the site, you can go from the sitemap.

[Bestatte]

I know it's arranged -exactly- like the rest of the site. And the rest of the site is hard to maneuver through. That's the whole point I'm making. A site map shouldn't just link to the same stuff that the main menu offers, if the main menu doesn't actually include a -list- of what you'll find within it.

The very fact that the site map doesn't even appear on the home page is indicative of the problem. The entire website is a jumble of links and cross-links with no listing for easy access to its inner depths. If I'm looking for info on "how to deal with this situation" and there actually exists a page explaining it.. I shouldn't have to go to Page #1, then link to page #23, then link to page #18, then link to page #94 just to find what I"m looking for. As a newbie I was utterly lost on the website and missed SO much because it wasn't easy to find, and I was chastized many times for being obtuse, by people who had already spent months and months and even years looking over the website.

[Miee]

See I clicked every link on the website before I even whipped up my first PC.    I think it took me about an hour or so on dial-up, but then I'm a fast reader.  If I can't find the particular piece of information I'm looking for, I'm willing to think of as many synoyms as possible and look for those.  Next would come google and then the helpers.

[Bestatte]

A perfect example of the trouble I had, last year.

I had a rope. I had no idea how to use it. I didn't even know if it could be used, or if it was strictly an RP prop. So I looked in the help file - nothing about ropes. Okay - no problem. I'll just look in the other parts of the website. I looked and looked and looked - I tried everything that made sense to look in. Crafting, guilds and subguilds, plants (since ropes are made from plant material) - what you know about Tuluk, what you know about Allanak, racial RP (since maybe, I thought, only certain races would have use for it), etc. etc. etc.

Turns out there was NO reference to ropes other than rope-making. It took me almost two hours to find this out.

Another thing I was looking for, was misnamed. Sub-guilds. I mean - how hard would it be to find that? The primary classes are called GUILDS. So it seemed to me a no-brainer. Just look in the help file for "sub-guilds. " And it didn't exist. Okay fine - look in the main website for it in "General" info, then in "Intro" - not a single reference to sub-guilds anywhere.

Turns out it's called sub-classes in the help file. A properly listed sitemap would have shown this to me within seconds, instead of the 2+ hours it took me to figure it out.

It would've been listed in a single category called SKILLS

[Angela Christine]

yea, that's that i'm going for, crw.

if you want to see my work, www.robertpate.net

I think the less clicks to get where you want, the better.

Sure, but there seems to be much, much more information on the Arm site than on your page.

I have a tip, on the front page there is nothing but pictures.  There is nothing wrong with that, per se, but some sites have little lables that show up next to the picture icon if you don't load the images.  That is very helpful for people using non-graphical browsers (like lynx) and people that have auto-loading of images disabled to speed-up a dial up internet conection.  It is a nice picture of a watch, don't get me wrong, but it isn't a _necesary_ picture of a watch.  


AC

[Sanvean]

I've linked those pages, which I'd done a while back, into the Other Resources for New Players section of the Intro section.  I think they got shuffled aside when trying to pare down the pages at one point, and I'm glad you pointed that out.

I'll ask John about updating the site map at some point. It goes out of date just about as soon as any update takes place, which means it's perpetually behind, unfortunately.

[spawnloser]

I know it's arranged -exactly- like the rest of the site.

Yes, Bestatte.  It's a map.  Maps are like that.  :twisted:

Honestly, if it wasn't, people wouldn't know how to find the stuff later after using the map.  Just expand everything and go through it all until you find what you're looking for.

[Miee]

I'm also going to point out, that while I'd imagine the uses for a rope would be intuitive, if it's not in the help files or on the site under "rope" or any possible use the rope might have, then it might be something for you to fuck about with IC, or just use as an RP prop.

It's possible.

[Bestatte]

No, it was an overlooked syntax issue and I created a helpfile, which Sanvean added to the help files recently.

[Agent_137]

Sure, but there seems to be much, much more information on the Arm site than on your page.
I have a tip, on the front page there is nothing but pictures.  There is nothing wrong with that, per se, but some sites have little lables that show up next to the picture icon if you don't load the images.  That is very helpful for people using non-graphical browsers (like lynx) and people that have auto-loading of images disabled to speed-up a dial up internet conection.  It is a nice picture of a watch, don't get me wrong, but it isn't a _necesary_ picture of a watch.  

AC

Thanks for the tip! I'll add the text description right now.