Going Live

I have got the info for Armgeddon, it looks expensive. When is the web site going up so I sent the organisers there to have a look?
Has Ryan got all the updates from last weeks meeting from Craig?

I’ve only got what’s been posted in the NZLARPS forum.

From me? It’s just the stuff in the minutes from the meeting.

[quote]
6. Website
The blurb on the front page is fine, perhaps add another line or two.
Need to make a button to Contact President for meeting details
NZLARPS is to be in small caps wherever possible.
The faint text on the right hand side has been discussed and as it should be readable as is it will be left like that.
The layout is fine, we need a Documents page containing all our downloads.
Tone and personality seems fine as is, reasonably simple, upgrading it to a more complicated and prettified sort of outlook would not be worth it.
There will be a link to the Diatribe forum placed in the top bar and also Diatribe itself will get a line saying it is the official forum for NZLARPS.
We should have a link to our original Stone Golem movie, and perhaps think about making more short clips of our best monsters or costuming.
When all this is redone – the website will go live – voted unanimously. [/quote]

So there’s:
Minor copy changes
Documents page
"Forum" top link that opens Diatribe in a new window

Not sure about the “links to our best monsters or costuming” that’s really for the projects and affiliates pages to do themselves.

Then we get to go live.

Okay.

Craig, can you design the auxillary link to Diatribe? It shouldn’t look like the main navigation items, because it’s an external link.

Also, can I have answers to my previous questions about the content on the Contact Us page?

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]4 - Contact Us Page

a) Do you want to give the address and time for meetings? What is it? I think the address should be given so that people can attend meetings easily, it makes the society feel more open.

b) I’ve assumed that Craig will be creating generic email addresses for the committee. That way new committee members can just take over the old addresses. Are you happy with the email addresses I’ve used? They are community@nzlarps.org. Craig, are you happy to create these on the server? I haven’t given any email addresses for general committee members who don’t have named roles, is this okay?

c) What other contact information is needed? A mailing address? A phone number? Does the webmaster need an email address to be presented here? Any other information needed here? A description of the current geographical layout of the society (totally in Auckland, but expecting to expand)?[/quote]

Can I recommend that one committee member be “Project Manager” for website work? Responsible for letting the implementer know what to do and answering questions about details.

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Okay.

Craig, can you design the auxillary link to Diatribe? It shouldn’t look like the main navigation items, because it’s an external link.

Also, can I have answers to my previous questions about the content on the Contact Us page?

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]4 - Contact Us Page

a) Do you want to give the address and time for meetings? What is it? I think the address should be given so that people can attend meetings easily, it makes the society feel more open.

b) I’ve assumed that Craig will be creating generic email addresses for the committee. That way new committee members can just take over the old addresses. Are you happy with the email addresses I’ve used? They are community@nzlarps.org. Craig, are you happy to create these on the server? I haven’t given any email addresses for general committee members who don’t have named roles, is this okay?

c) What other contact information is needed? A mailing address? A phone number? Does the webmaster need an email address to be presented here? Any other information needed here? A description of the current geographical layout of the society (totally in Auckland, but expecting to expand)?[/quote]

Can I recommend that one committee member be “Project Manager” for website work? Responsible for letting the implementer know what to do and answering questions about details.[/quote]

=> Project manager is Craig.
=> For the meetings have a link to the president’s e-mail for details for the next meeting, ie location, time and date.
=> General committee members don’t need e-mail address at this stage.
=> All contact details are e-mail address at this stage.

Cool, thanks.

Will get the changes up at the next opportunity.

Working on this at the moment. Outstanding questions for Craig:

  1. Can you design the auxillary link to Diatribe? It shouldn’t look like the main navigation items, because it’s an external link.

  2. Are the email addresses for committee members set up? We need to get them set up and tested before putting a site live that uses them. Is there some way that emails to these addresses can be stored permanently, so that incoming committee members have access to the complete history of emails sent by previous people in their position? Like web form for accessing the email?

Righto. See the latest changes here:

www.nzlarps.org/new

Note the new Documents page, updates to the Contact Us, and addition of a “DIATRIBE FORUM” link to the top navigation (I don’t think that’s the right place for it, but it’ll do for now). The nzLARPS text has been updated throughout.

Only remaining question: are the email addresses live? I’ll PM Craigie.

Looks good, 2 points:
=> The diatribie link should open in a new window, that was our concession to it being a different site. Also Craig needs to change the wording at the top of diatribe from New Zealand Live Action Role Playing Community to New Zealand Live Action Society’s forum. I’ll PM him.
=> The Logo at the top is still using small ‘nz’ not the new high tech, state of the art ‘NZ’

I’ve added this image to indicate Diatribe is an external link

For best consistency we should make all external links do that - and we should make them all open in new windows too.

For some crazy reason I think “documents” should go between “projects” and “affiliates” in the navbar. I’ve switched them - let me know if you disagree.

All the listed email addresses are set up.

[quote=“adam”]Looks good, 2 points:
=> The diatribie link should open in a new window, that was our concession to it being a different site. Also Craig needs to change the wording at the top of diatribe from New Zealand Live Action Role Playing Community to New Zealand Live Action Society’s forum. I’ll PM him.
=> The Logo at the top is still using small ‘nz’ not the new high tech, state of the art ‘NZ’[/quote]

Done, except that no links open in new windows.

I think I’ve got all those external links with arrow images and opening new windows now.

Craig - I’ve updated the “head.php” and “projects_and_affiliates.php” files now so make sure you download them before making any more changes.

I reckon the “nz” in the logo is looking just a little too small now.

But apart from that minor point, I think it’s ready.

Minor points then we go live:
THe documents page:
= ‘that’ spelt wrong.
= the financial projection spreadsheet;
1 spreadsheet is spelt wrong.
2.This should be filled out for all projects, not just if you need a loan. Eg stargate needed one to help clarify what Julianne needed to charge so she could be refunded for her props. Using the forecast, the game came out with $3.00 over for the society, right on the nose.
= mention the fact forms are to be sent through to the president, with the e-mail address, so it is clear and easy for people.

Okay, I think that’s all sorted.

I also fixed the mis-spell of spreadsheet on the Projects page. I had copy-pasted from there.

I’ve sent an email to president@nzlarps.org - are you set up to recieve these yet Adam? That email address is all over the site and you may get emails not long after we go live.

That address works (they’re set up as forwarders). Not sure if some of the others do yet - but prez’ and secretary do.

Will replies appear to come from the nzlarps address?

Nup. We can go about sending emails from those addresses, but it’s a fair bit more work on the senders part.

I think it’s worth it. Things get messy otherwise.

Is there any way of doing all the email through a web client? That way members could just hand the whole account with all history of previous emails on to the next person who takes their position.

Yep the forwarding works OK.
I agree with Ryan it would be great if we could use a web client to access as a mail box. Thus when I send e-mails to places like armageddon it will appear more official.