PDA

View Full Version : |||||||||||||||||||||| Bogley.com 3.0 ||||||||||||||||||||||



accadacca
06-29-2008, 01:03 AM
Bogley.com 3.0

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JUpeuY5uQjo

You've been hearing hints and whisperings about something new coming down the bogley pipeline. Here it is, the next phase of bogley.com. We have been hard at work and this update/upgrade has taken much, much longer then I anticipated. We shifted gears during the project and decided to build a proper homepage, this wasn

JP
06-29-2008, 01:09 AM
Wow, just refreshed, great new look :2thumbs: :2thumbs:

jowchie
06-29-2008, 01:17 AM
:2thumbs:

CarpeyBiggs
06-29-2008, 03:35 AM
:hail2thechief:

Very nice work. Thanks Scott and 'Beech. Very cool indeed.

abirken
06-29-2008, 04:39 AM
All those late nights finally paid off! New sight looks reallyyyyyyyyy awesome. :2thumbs: :five:

FROGGER
06-29-2008, 06:16 AM
I agree, great new look, ou nailed it.... :nod: :nod: :nod:

DiscGo
06-29-2008, 06:47 AM
Wow. Looks great. Now, we need to start having people with GPS units listing the coords of their pictures, so when we click on the pictures from the homepage, we can see exactly where they are. (Maybe for Bogley 4.0). Anyway site looks great. Good job!

tanya
06-29-2008, 07:06 AM
Impressive guys!

http://www.bogley.com/

It's complex and interesting now ... sort of like reading a wonderful classic instead of a cheap romance novel.

stefan
06-29-2008, 07:53 AM
great stuff ... thanks for the hard work :2thumbs:

sparker1
06-29-2008, 08:32 AM
I think it sucks. You guys wasted all those long hours. (I never agree with stefan. :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: )

Seriously, The new site rocks and we all appreciate the time and effort you expended to make it better. Love it!!! :hail2thechief: :hail2thechief:

toovinnie
06-29-2008, 08:49 AM
Wow! Great Job! I love the new look. :cool2:

stefan
06-29-2008, 08:51 AM
I think it sucks. You guys wasted all those long hours. (I never agree with stefan. :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: )

Seriously, The new site rocks and we all appreciate the time and effort you expended to make it better. Love it!!! :hail2thechief: :hail2thechief:

:lol8:

shlingdawg
06-29-2008, 09:00 AM
Excellent work Scott, Justin and any and all others that put all of this work into this site for us addicted people.

The new format is excellent. I appreciate the clean lines, thought-out organization and overall appearance.

:2thumbs: :five: :2thumbs: :five:

Ih8grvty
06-29-2008, 09:09 AM
Nice, clean, good contrast... as far as looks go, this now is probably the best laid out forum Iv ever been a part of.
Nice work.

Sombeech
06-29-2008, 09:37 AM
thanks everybody... this is a huge load off.

please test it out, post your "how to" questions here if you have any. I'm gonna go take a nap. :mrgreen:

tanya
06-29-2008, 09:40 AM
Those 2 broken links are fixed! Good Job!

I take it from the nap comment that you were up LATE doing this!

Don't get burned out, but the new format is amazing!

JP
06-29-2008, 09:43 AM
I take it from the nap comment that you were up LATE doing this!
Late, what's late :lol8:

Sombeech
06-29-2008, 09:47 AM
I take it from the nap comment that you were up LATE doing this!
Late, what's late :lol8:

Yeah, Scott and I saw JP online when we were rolling it out. He was officially the first member to see the change. :cool2:

shlingdawg
06-29-2008, 09:48 AM
I do believe that JP hasn't closed his eyes since 1988. :popcorn:

What's your secret man?

DesertWoodrat
06-29-2008, 10:32 AM
Awesome, looks great. I really like the homepage. :rockon:

savanna3313
06-29-2008, 11:32 AM
Great job guys! :2thumbs:

Don
06-29-2008, 11:38 AM
Very cool. Thanks for all the hard work!

:cheers:

accadacca
06-29-2008, 02:56 PM
Thanks for the positive feedback. :five:

Working on a new t-shirt design to match the look and new branding elements. Sending it to the printer this week.
These new shirts are going to be really cool! We will have to do a poll or get some requests to see how many to order. :rockon:

Iceaxe
06-29-2008, 04:39 PM
Only comment....

I would prefer to see a little larger picture in the picture bar and less of them... the picture bar is now too busy for my refined taste... maybe double the picture size and only have 5 pictures.

Just my two cents.... the rest looks nice. I hated the old slideshow entrance with a passion.... I'm not sorry to see that go.

:rockon:

jfeiro
06-29-2008, 04:55 PM
Groovy....way to go guys. Let me know about the shirts, i'll definitely be buying.....Jim

JP
06-29-2008, 05:59 PM
Yeah, Scott and I saw JP online when we were rolling it out. He was officially the first member to see the change. :cool2:
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: And keep in mind it's even later here :mrgreen: :mrgreen:


I do believe that JP hasn't closed his eyes since 1988. :popcorn:

What's your secret man?
LOL, work midnights for 18 or so years, all I need is 3.5 to 4 hours a day. My head hits the pillow when I see it starting to get light, around 5 EST and I'm up by 8-8:30 EST. :mrgreen:

DiscGo
06-29-2008, 09:18 PM
I like Bogley 3.0. I feel like the home page is much more of a solid stand alone website, and the tribe report index seems a lot better there. It seems like the trip report section only has the option to see like 3 reports at a time, am I missing something or is there no option for how many reports you would like on each page? If it is a ton of work don't worry about it, but it would be nice if there were a simple drop down menu to select how many reports to view at once.



Also- As I mentioned I do like the homepage a lot now. Is there any concern now about the homepage, reducing forum activity? It seems like the forum is now part of the site (and I am sure it will continue to be a major part), instead of the forum being the site.

Sombeech
06-29-2008, 09:24 PM
Actually, I've spent a lot of time hanging out on the home page, just watching the latest forum posts from there. :2thumbs:

Seeing 3 Trip Reports, or posts at a time... Yes, that can be changed very easily to whatever number we want. Downside is, the Flickr photos load a little slow, because it loads the whole set. We kind of decided that maybe 3 at a time was the most functional, and then you've got your "previous" and "next" links on the top and bottom.

Sombeech
06-29-2008, 09:32 PM
Is there any concern now about the homepage, reducing forum activity? It seems like the forum is now part of the site (and I am sure it will continue to be a major part), instead of the forum being the site.

We actually think that direct link to the posts will increase forum participation. Sometimes I see the red dot in a forum I don't visit very often, and I never click to see what topics have been added. This feature shows you up front, just in case there were a topic that sounded interesting, in a forum I don't have interest in... like Canyoneering. :roflol:

We've wanted to see the website become bigger than just the forum a while ago too, basically when we moved it to "/forum" instead of just ".com". This is just a long overdue move that has finally happened.

accadacca
06-29-2008, 09:34 PM
Yeah, the homepage wont decrease but increase participation. :popcorn:

Sombeech
06-30-2008, 08:00 AM
For those interested in the derailed Flickr conversation:
http://www.bogley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12638

Jaxx
06-30-2008, 08:46 AM
I like the new layout. Sweet setup, mabey I will change my bookmark back to the homepage now! Great job guys. :2thumbs:

I can see where Summit and Four are coming from. I wish there was a good middle ground. I guess deleting all there pics fix their concerns but I do miss there TR's.

For the record you can post my pictures on flickr, but I reserve the right to change my mind.
:rockon:

DiscGo
06-30-2008, 08:48 AM
Yeah, the homepage wont decrease but increase participation. :popcorn:

It makes sense. I can definitely see that it will increase traffic to the site, and hopefully avoid some repeat posts of the same questions about the same places.

JP
06-30-2008, 09:38 AM
Hmmmmmmmm :popcorn:

Sombeech
06-30-2008, 01:02 PM
another thing I've thought about is showing more of the forum posts on the home page. You get that "word association game" going, and that's all 5 slots. :haha:

Then again, it just drops everything else lower down the side, so it's a trade off.

Another nice thing about that is you can see the titles of the threads in the "members only" sections.

Iceaxe
06-30-2008, 01:17 PM
Just a thought beech....

What about only showing the titles/threads from the most popular forums on the main page and not everything... say hiking, biking, canyoneering, yada, yada.... eliminate General, rubbish bin, political, noob's....

:cool2:

JP
06-30-2008, 03:05 PM
It all looks good :2thumbs:

Don
07-02-2008, 03:37 PM
Thanks for the positive feedback. :five:

Working on a new t-shirt design to match the look and new branding elements. Sending it to the printer this week.
These new shirts are going to be really cool! We will have to do a poll or get some requests to see how many to order. :rockon:

I would love a cool Bogley shirt, might buy more than one! It would be cool to bump into a fellow forum member on the trail and recognize. :five:

accadacca
07-02-2008, 08:29 PM
You got it Don. Workin' over the details with the printer this week. They should be sending over a proof. Getting stoked to see them. :popcorn:

accadacca
07-02-2008, 09:06 PM
I just added links to some of the main sections which have trip report index stickies. You'll see these links located on the right sidebar at the bottom under "TR Archives." Some of these sections are updated regularly and some are not so much. Anyway, stefan had the idea to add these links to the homepage (http://www.bogley.com). Good idea! :2thumbs:

http://www.bogley.com/forum/files/picture_2_156.png

Iceaxe
07-04-2008, 11:13 AM
New bitch about the "portal"....

The forum is the meat and potato's of Bogley.... and from the front page it's much to difficult to maneuver into the forum.... yeah, you can click the forum link in the banner.... but most folks will not do that at first. What's going to happen is folks will surf into Bogley.... click a couple buttons that just take them to more pictures or YouTube crap and then leave....

The Portal should channel folks to the forum, at least until you get more worth while and better content else where.

The "Categories" on the right hand side should all link directly into their respective forum.... not to some dumbass dog and pony shows....

YMMV

:cool2:

accadacca
07-07-2008, 10:23 PM
New bitch about the "portal"....

The forum is the meat and potato's of Bogley.... and from the front page it's much to difficult to maneuver into the forum.... yeah, you can click the forum link in the banner.... but most folks will not do that at first. What's going to happen is folks will surf into Bogley.... click a couple buttons that just take them to more pictures or YouTube crap and then leave....

The Portal should channel folks to the forum, at least until you get more worth while and better content else where.

The "Categories" on the right hand side should all link directly into their respective forum.... not to some dumbass dog and pony shows....

YMMV

:cool2:
Yeah there are places to play and you have some good points. However, have you noticed that there are links to the forum from each and every TR post on the homepage? Example (bottom of post, below the trail bunny pic and text :haha:): http://www.bogley.com/?p=803 "CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL POST & COMMENTS" takes you directly to the forum and more importantly it takes you to the specific TR. :cool2:

Sombeech
07-07-2008, 10:29 PM
yeah, tons of links to the forum. we definitely went out of our way to guide everybody to the forum that passed through the home page.

There's the -
*Forum button up top
*a forum link in each featured trip report
*the most recent 7 forum posts
*the trip report indexes

tanya
07-08-2008, 06:34 AM
I would drop general, trash, etc.... from the front page where is lists latest posts. Those games and subjects are an okay way for people to get to know each other but I hope we want to draw people that come to the forum/site to talk about the outdoor sports. I would keep the newbie section because that's a big please join us, we like new people thing. Also, maybe show the last post from each different sport, and include all sports. It only takes a few hard core people to come who are rafters for instance to make that section soar. That would entice people like me to post in it as well.

I really love how the portal is looking.
This portal is one super outstanding job Scott and Beech. You guys have it together. I am impressed.

Looking Deep.......

1. First thing I notice is I would remove the name of the poster on the list of last posts. Looks bad when one person (like me) does a bunch of posts in a row. Not a big thing but I will just point out anything I would try and tweak if I were doing it. It's so well done that these will be minor tweaks that probably don't even need to be done, but still things I would notice and when doing something I want honest feedback so I can look and see if I agree and if so then fix it.

2. Get rid of general, political, trash, etc.. on the front page. Even if titles stayed longer for something like [hunting] or [rafting] it would look nicer to see something like: TR to Westwater rather than [Corrupt a Wish] or {Tanya's sexual fantasy] or something.

3. Love the category section! That is classy!

4. The ad on the left is tasteful. It fits and I am glad you guys can make a little back toward the cost of this site. I know it's not enough to pay for it, but it helps.

5. Center photos and trip reports. Incredible. Don't burn out Beech. This is impressive but so much work. I don't know if you can automate it some how. We all get burnt out if we do too much of anything. It's Classy!!! I like the personal posts under this trip report with the posters id linking to the original. Very nice and there is room for 3 such reports. Nice.

6. Link to previous reports - nice touch.

7. Archives? *** Okay... this is something that I would change a bit. I click on it and it is a list of reports from the past. I don't think I would call it achieves. This group has an incredible amount of into in it. Those are your current things, not your old dusty archives. I would give it some upbeat name, something that means this is what you can go and do now. This is cool stuff we did it, we checked it out for you, go and do it or we did this so you don't have to, but here is the info any way.

Also I clicked on a couple of the 'archives' and the lists looks so short?
I would set up a standard format. Short and easy, but that includes location, difficulty and some rating of how good it is since that is why many go to groups is to get a real opinion on something instead of just a report. This might be done elsewhere and probably is, but there is so little I can see that could be better so I am going to mention this. I hate to be a yes person. You know I have to argue something. ;)

Maybe something like:

Water Canyon
Technical Slot Canyon or it can be done as a family hike
Stars - ***** (of out 5)
Locatation - Southern Utah. Hildale - Highway 389 between Fredonia and Hurricane


8. Bogley Network - nice although I would never click on those, but others are big fans of those sites and they will.

9. Bogley photos is very nice. People love photos and this group has some of the best I have seen anywhere on the net that are not all locked up.

10. Shane and my banners are very cool. Thank you so much for those!!! I will make sure and do the same for you!

11. The top menu is easy to use. Some people like to look at a members list. Is it gone? I personally think it should never be visible to the public. I get enough dang spam.

Excellent job guys. I am really behind on reading stuff so I hope this was not all redundant.

You guys have a winner site here!!!!

ps... For those that can't spell try and grab this url someday. I kept getting this site when the name was first changed.
http://www.bogely.com/news.php

Reminder to myself and others!! I need to change my links to include the awesome portal!

stefan
07-08-2008, 06:56 AM
*the most recent 7 forum posts


as you have it the section is titled "RECENT POSTS"

perhaps it should read "RECENT FORUM POSTS"


also, is there a way to remove the link to the poster's profile in that RECENT POSTS section? that is, can it be made a single link to the post?

Sombeech
07-08-2008, 07:11 AM
perhaps it should read "RECENT FORUM POSTS"


also, is there a way to remove the link to the poster's profile in that RECENT POSTS section? that is, can it be made a single link to the post?

Yeah, we could rename that. Removing the user profile is an option too.

But limiting the posts to just certain forums may be a little tricky, as it's just reading from the database. We'll take a look at it.

stefan
07-08-2008, 08:20 AM
Removing the user profile is an option too.


i think it's good to keep the poster's name, but i figured it's better kept simple so a new user doesn't click on the name by mistake and needlessly go to the user's profile page, especially since the links are the same font size.


another suggestion: perhaps to help accommodate ice's concerns, maybe the centerfold TR viewer needs a title which indicates that this stuff is posted in a forum and is being highlighted on this page. this would be above the link to "previous posts" but still within that div.

not sure what the title would be, though. want something catchy with the word forum in it. "Highlighted Trip Reports from the Forum" or more simply "Highlights from the Forum" or maybe something kewler

i dunno

Sombeech
07-08-2008, 08:34 AM
maybe the centerfold....

I'm sorry, no nudity is allowed.... yet.


:haha:

accadacca
07-09-2008, 10:03 PM
2. Get rid of general, political, trash, etc.. on the front page.
Yeah, I think the general discussion shows the personality of the website. Bogley attracts users because of the great personalities. If we talked about tent stakes all day it would get dull fast. I think prospective members are attracted to the bogley personalities. Not to mention general discussion topics rule most big forums. It's just the facts, people want to gossip and chat about this and that. I find this chat to be some of the funnest.
Good feedback in general. I will have to re-read it all. :popcorn: