Long term health of mafiascum

[saulres]

hmm, it's way better than the current MafBlack, but I don't think I'm the only one who dislikes reading loads of white text on a black background. I think you have a bigger chance to get your design to be the standard if you start with a black-on-white design.

I agree with the above.

But:

old people who no longer have the time to play

That's me. I'm old, having used forums for I believe longer than some scummers have been alive, and so I'm very comfortable with the default skin and it doesn't turn me off. So I don't know if my opinions match what the youngsters find attractive nowadays.

[quadz08]

I will

definitely

say that if we're moving towards a skin redesign (or any other changes of that ilk) we need to get general concepts from the general public, then turn a small group loose on it to actually implement the specifics. If we let the whole site discuss the minutiae of a site visual update, nothing will ever get done.

[Quilford]

I think you have a bigger chance to get your design to be the standard if you start with a black-on-white design.

I literally just inverted the design in #19 to obtain this; is that something you'd prefer?

I will

definitely

say that if we're moving towards a skin redesign (or any other changes of that ilk) we need to get general concepts from the general public, then turn a small group loose on it to actually implement the specifics. If we let the whole site discuss the minutiae of a site visual update, nothing will ever get done.

Yep. It would really be necessary to get a bunch of designers working towards a common goal, because theming for phpBB is deathly tedious.

[quadz08]

I actually really like that.

EDIT - something that may not matter - is that color scheme colorblind-friendly?

[Quilford]

I'm pretty sure that most colour blind viewers would be able to distinguish the red text from the grey background.

[Bicephalous Bob]

I literally just inverted the design in #19 to obtain this; is that something you'd prefer?

I'd prefer it, but I'm not a big fan of the light grey/red palette.

[Bicephalous Bob]

It might work better with a broken white background and #222-ish body text.

[Casanova]

Thoughts on just making mafblack default?

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

mafBlack is 100x better than the other skins. Even the sepia one is marginally better than the current default.

[Lissa]

... I like the default blue.

[Casanova]

... I like the default blue.

It's mostly the logo/title block that makes me want to break things, to be honest.

I have nothing against the color blue.

[xRECKONERx]

I think we also might be able to become more appealing if we had a better automation system. I know automated signups/game tracking have been talked about for a long time, but no other site has that. Every site has forums where people can play mafia games and we're not the only place to play and learn anymore. But if we had the automated signups, game tracking, etc I think it'd make us stand out. No other site is going to bother with implementing that type of system when they're not specifically mafia focused.

[Casanova]

I think we also might be able to become more appealing if we had a better automation system. I know automated signups/game tracking have been talked about for a long time, but no other site has that. Every site has forums where people can play mafia games and we're not the only place to play and learn anymore. But if we had the automated signups, game tracking, etc I think it'd make us stand out. No other site is going to bother with implementing that type of system when they're not specifically mafia focused.

I agree. If you want to stand out, capitalize on your advantages. Mafiascum is 1.) large and 2.) specialized.

Automation would be more fitting here than anywhere else.

[xRECKONERx]

I also agree with the Web 1.0 sentiment.

Check out this phpBB theme. It feels more current, especially the background and bottom navbar area. Having to access the UCP through a series of informal/text-based interfaces feels bad. Or even check out this one, with responsive HTML5 design. Browsing MS from a mobile device (phone/tablet) is currently an exercise in "how to feel like it's 2006 again".

The site essentially runs itself right now, but for example, having a site presence on Twitter is a really cool idea. I wish it was used more but posting news/announcements/community engagement there is a really awesome idea. And we have a Facebook group, but that's not really doing a whole lot, and FB killed the group message thing. People only use sitechat to chat... why not play mafia games in there? Why aren't people doing it?

What about an app? What if there was a Mafia Scum mobile app that allowed users to play a live game of mafia. Nuwen and I were working on mafia.app for awhile but then she got busy, but if we had something like that, site-branded, where people could play on their phones or tablets (or even a Facebook plugin?) it would certainly increase our appeal.

All of these projects will take tons of coding and time, though, and for a site with no revenue that is purely volunteer-based, I don't think it's feasible. That's the issue. We don't want to monetize the site, and we shouldn't. But I personally think selling stuff like the t-shirts, mafia cards, even beanies or sweatshirts or TIGER ATTACK plushies, who fucking knows... that kind of stuff could be sold, and the "profits" could be used to pay someone for their efforts to get some of these larger projects done (IE, signup automation).

[quadz08]

Reck, do you have suggestions on what else to broadcast on the twitter account? All the skittles have access, but I tend to make most of the posts since I'm the most active twitter-person among the mod team.

[saulres]

Reck the sites you link to sure seem to have a lot of wasted real estate on the sides. Is that to be mobile-friendly? Because on a computer, that's just a whole lot of blank space which could be used for more content. Is that what passes for "good" these days?

[xRECKONERx]

Reck, do you have suggestions on what else to broadcast on the twitter account? All the skittles have access, but I tend to make most of the posts since I'm the most active twitter-person among the mod team.

I mean, it's just a constant monitoring/updating of stuff. I personally wish the Radioscum project hadn't died, or that we had a site podcast, or something, because that'd give us more to talk about. I'd say the Twitter account should mostly be used to interact with the community. Reply to Tweets, retweet stuff, get some exposure. Then make site announcements/changes public on there. "Hey, our Newbie Queue needs some mods to sign up, please help if you can!" or "Welcome our newest listmod!", that kind of stuff is great.

Reck the sites you link to sure seem to have a lot of wasted real estate on the sides. Is that to be mobile-friendly? Because on a computer, that's just a whole lot of blank space which could be used for more content. Is that what passes for "good" these days?

I mean, have you seen the design of the most popular sites on the web?

Facebook is basically made of blank space on the sides. Youtube, too.

I think it's moving towards a fluid, consistent design across all platforms. My YouTube homepage now looks almost identical to my YouTube app on my Android phone which looks almost identical to my YouTube app on my tablet.

Think about this: more internet traffic comes from mobile than desktop now. It's not a matter of thinking about what looks good on the desktop anymore. Design is more heavily influenced from providing a great mobile experience, then translating that aesthetic/dynamic over to the desktop experience as well as possible.

[xRECKONERx]

And, like I said... when more traffic is coming from those avenues, of course we won't keep up. Trying to use the site right now on a mobile platform is an exercise in futility.

[Riddleton]

Maybe I'm just old skool, but I can't be the only person who hates the web 2.0 bling crap, right?

I think Sepia is the best default scheme here if you want to change that. I agree that the logo and banner does need modernization, though

[xRECKONERx]

Maybe I'm just old skool, but I can't be the only person who hates the web 2.0 bling crap, right?

I think Sepia is the best default scheme here if you want to change that. I agree that the logo and banner does need modernization, though

And yet here we are about to launch into Web 3.0!

[quadz08]

White space is a really important concept in modern graphic design. It increases readability and forces designers to include content in simple, content-rich packets. (hence simple icons for social media links, etc.)

[Cheery Dog]

And, like I said... when more traffic is coming from those avenues, of course we won't keep up. Trying to use the site right now on a mobile platform is an exercise in futility.

I don't have a problem with using the site on my mobile, why do others?
Are people trying to use the mobile "orientated" themes or some rubbish? I guess I've never really tried them, but the normal theme is fine for what I do.

[xRECKONERx]

It's not optimized for mobile. You can zoom in and click and scroll, but try using our site versus a site designed to be use don a mobile and it's night and day.

[Cheery Dog]

I still rather use the full site on websites that have the option. Although I could be lying, the last site I frequented that had the option was before I got my smartphone.
They upgraded everything and I no longer like it as much, but to be fair I was losing interest in it beforehand.

[saulres]

I find that sites that have a different layout when they're on a computer vs. when they're on mobile, but have the same functionality, are the ideal. I doubt there are enough programming resources here to go that route though.

I do work on computers, so I'm on them most of the time. And I find typing on computers much easier than any mobile keyboard

ever

will be (with no autocorrect to worry about!) but as I said before, there are kids on my lawn that I need to go yell at.

[xRECKONERx]

Well, I'm not suggesting the desktop site should be the mobile site just on a desktop. There are universal design principles that provide a seamless experience across any platform.