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What would you like to see on a "Front Page"? What can VPU be doing better for the community?


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Now that the server is stable, downloads are fast, and the community is really coming together.  I can now focus on other aspects of this site that may be lacking.  I know the site is lacking a real "Front Page".  I've been messing around with it, but I'm not sure what you want to see when it comes to the initial site page... https://vpuniverse.com/  For the most part the site defaults to the Forums once you login, but the initial site page is really lacking and a bit embarrassing.  

Also, what can I do to help further the community?  I know there are a couple bugs here and there on the site...  but what else would you like to see? 

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Two features of vpinball site that I really liked. They may not be possible to reasonably implement for your site though.

 

1) Attractive display of most recently added tables/files, although there was minor drama about bumping major new tables off list with minor table updates

2) List of most recent forum posts. Thats how I typically viewed forums was through the cross-category most recent forum posts

 

 

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I agree with njk70, having everything "new" at a glance would be nice.  Right now I scroll through the forums page looking at update times, and then go to the downloads and scroll down; scroll sideways sometimes if a lot happened (like HauntFreaks and BorgDog reuploading ALL the tables lol)

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I believe the complaint on Vpinball was wheel authors individually posting a lot at once and people updating multiple tables in a short amount of time, it could drown out anticipated table releases quickly.

If there's a way to have a feed/display specific to new table releases (and then maybe another one for backglasses and one for updates and frontend media and so on if desired) then that complaint shouldn't be an issue.

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1 hour ago, njk70 said:

Two features of vpinball site that I really liked. They may not be possible to reasonably implement for your site though.

 

1) Attractive display of most recently added tables/files, although there was minor drama about bumping major new tables off list with minor table updates

2) List of most recent forum posts. Thats how I typically viewed forums was through the cross-category most recent forum posts

 

 

+1, esp. new forum posts

 

If anything I would try to really simplify the site. Kill underused categories or features, especially on the forums. The days of forums in general are waning. Hopefully this will continue to be a place to have a fun conversation about pinball or vp projects but I don't know if having a category for every topic under the sun best serves the handful of people actively participating. Add stuff back as it is needed or have people use the clubs feature (which is awesome). Might just be a case of getting behavioral metrics for 3 months and then start really focusing on the areas of high use.

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That's basically how the downloads page works now.  Maybe just a limited version on the front page - newest 5 in each category, alongside sitewide newest comments and newest posts?

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3 hours ago, bord said:

 

+1, esp. new forum posts

 

If anything I would try to really simplify the site. Kill underused categories or features, especially on the forums. The days of forums in general are waning. Hopefully this will continue to be a place to have a fun conversation about pinball or vp projects but I don't know if having a category for every topic under the sun best serves the handful of people actively participating. Add stuff back as it is needed or have people use the clubs feature (which is awesome). Might just be a case of getting behavioral metrics for 3 months and then start really focusing on the areas of high use.

 

Forums can be very simplified to only show new replies/active threads.  Just click this button...

 

 forums.png

 

Yes, all of the first threads are pinned threads... Not sure how to get rid of the pins in that view, but after that are all the active threads.

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Your layout is pretty good with the banners making it simple to view the new machines. Good to see a lot of the existing machines coming here, and identified as reupload. That way I'm not searching for which version of table author I have. One possible addition is to add the  version number in the file description. With all of the reuploads coming over here, its not always easy to know which version is old and which is new. 

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