Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

So here's the sitch: we're going to be picking up a second hosting account with Dreamhost, and figured we may as well do the site redesign along with it that we've been contemplating on and off for a couple of years.

Things that will not be changing, or that we're not accepting notes on:

1) The forum. It will stay phpBB, and keep this look. Because I love it, that's why.

2) The colour scheme/background/etc of the site - we have a plan that we like for the components (site will be based somewhat on the forum skin), and we're not going to listen to things like "turn the background hot pink!" or whatever.

What I would love some suggestions on:

1) functionality of the site: what works for you, and what doesn't? Should the buttons be somewhere else? Are there accessibility issues we haven't considered?

2) Content: What links do you use, and which buttons have you never, ever tried? What's a waste of space and what is awesomesauce and must remain forever?

3) wish list: if we had a billion dollars to spend, a billion years to program, and the world's best webcoder in our back pocket, what would you want the site to do/have/use? How about a real-world variation we might have a chance at?

4) The content management system. We've been using iStrip because it's what was the top hit when I googled three years and 11,900 readers ago, but it's an unwieldy cache-eating beast now. I have Wordpress/Comicspress for the ComixBlog and I'm not fond of it. What else is out there that is NOT WordPress based?

This thread is a free for all - I want to hear what you have to say! I will not take offense at any well-considered commentary or constrictive criticism. On the other hand, "You suck and your site sucks" with no suggestions on how to fix it (and that's the important thing) will get the response "suck my balls, kthxby." Just so we're clear.

Functionality: Please keep the "view new posts" link. It gives me the latest postings in one spot. Other than that I've no other suggestions.

Yeah - the forum's not changing at all. It's the main YAFGC site + archives + links etc that we're going to be redesigning, aiming at a midsummer (ie plenty of time once my semester's done) deployment.

Ah! Gotcha.

Well in regards to the main YAFGC page I've no suggestions to make. Just one fox's opinion, though.

Sure you do - I had a few questions up there for everybody! What links do you ever hit off the main page? ('none' is also a very valid answer and important data point) Archives/Forum button/use the rss feed/click the ads?

Personally, i would like the vote button in the front page so i can access it with one click, even if it is at the bottom. The rest are just fine the way they are.
If i may make a negative suggestion, i am hoping the size of the strip will not be reduced -i have seen comics where the strip is squeezed to make room for advertisements, news posts and twitter and it is a pity.

As for feedback on the buttons, i rarely click any of them mainly because i do not get the sense they update often if at all. I am just assuming that if there is an update it would be posted in the news under the comic, and i will check then. Maybe they are to discreet, because it took me some time to check them in the first place, but on the other hand this is better than having them eat away the comic's space.
On the other hand, maybe the map and some info on the lands where the story is taking place should be placed under an entirely different button. Maybe just the map, if the info would be too restrictive.

Other than that, i find it a pretty functional and organized site. The only annoyance is the ad banner on top but i understand why it has to be there and the ads are usually relevant. I did click once or twice, and i did visit the comics you suggest and the Heather Dale site. Never used the RSS feed though.

People actually USE the voting buttons? Holy crap! (see? this is what I need you guys for. I'm oblivious to the obvious.)

As far as the comic and ads goes, we won't be making the comic smaller than it currently is, and we won't be adding any more ads than we currently have. Right now we can make the site pay for itself + the upgrade, so we can't get *rid* of any of them (maybe Amazon - those aren't doing a hell of a lot in return for the real estate), but we won't be adding any more than we currently have, either.

just a random suggestion:

perhaps in addition to the comic strip archive, you could have a "plot arc" achive, I.E. undead invaision, clover becomes queen, Elf counsel meeting, ETC.

Yes, that's something we've been thinking about too. Good call:D

The only buttons I click off the main page are for the forums and the map (when I need to refresh my geography).

For the forums themselves, could you add a 'mark all posts as read' button at the bottom? It would help those of us who ignore large swathes of the forum to mark off the unread posts en masse instead of subforum by subforum.

I assume it's somehow possible, but I'll have to go hunting through BB code/addons to figure out how. I'll add it to the list.

Since it's a wish list, on the comix site, it would be nice have a link option to go directly to page one next to the comix title. Whenever I send someone new to the site for The Ten Doctors(or any other comic), I always give them a link to page one because if they come here on their own the link sends them to the last page - the end of the story for the finished ones.
Starting at the latest page is fine for those who've already found it, but button next to the titles (esp finished ones) that gives them the option to start at page one would be great. Possibly changing the link of finished stories to always start at page one might be helpful too. Sometimes the last page gives away quite a lot.

OK. Let me refine my parameters. This is talking about a site redesign for the YAFGC COMIC SITE ONLY. Not the phpBB forum (this thing we're posting on now) and not the ComixBlog. I may do something with the ComixBlog eventually, but that is not what this discussion is about.

M'reen: that's something to do with the way Wordpress works. There may be a widgit to make it go the other way (first page first), but I haven't dug into it enough to know.

Fellgrin:



I'm feeling dumb for not noticing this earlier, but I never use it myself. On the main forum page, right hand corner right above the forum itself, there's a link for "mark all forums read." That's what you want.

And it works beautifully. No more mucking about with the Tangency and Doctor Who forums.