If you guys had a choice...

admin

Retired Administrator
Would you...

A.) Keep everything as it is currently
B.) Change all templates to look like main MITMVC
C.) Change all templates to look like forums/portal
D.) Change to a new template entirely
E.) Something Else.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I liked the Satellite template, except that it didn't support the shout box. I used to like the main MITMVC template, but it sort of become rather cluttered and slow loading. I liked the original vBulletin template; it was speedy and easy to read, even if it wasn't always the most aesthetically pleasing. To be honest, I hate the new forum/portal template. The blue is really ugly, the arial is a lot harder to read than the verdana, and there's just too many buttons. Is it possible that the MITMVC is too large?

I hope I've answered your question, in a sort of roundabout way.
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
as i just stated in the other thread, i like the blue/grey colours and the portal etc style, less than the green. so c).
 

admin

Retired Administrator
I personally am not a fan if this template, but until I can find another template it will have to do.
 

arach

New member
I would do one of these two:

C.) Change all templates to look like forums/portal
D.) Change to a new template entirely

The green on the main page doesn't look bad, but it won't fit in the forums. And it should be in one design altogether, or it looks like the pages don't belong to each other.

And most important thing is that the menue is the same everywhere! It's so confusing right now!

Also, "Home" should be called "News", and instead of "Portal" you should write "Seasons", like you did at the menue for the green pages. Pretty confusing.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
I don't care b/w the old forums and the new one. The old one loaded faster, but only marinally. But I don't like the shade of green the main page is. So I guess E.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
Yeah, its really difficult as 2 sites. I am going to redesign the entire site after the switchover to the malcolm in the middle servers.

If anyone has a site they like then show me and I can design a template like it.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
We are currently in the process of finding a template to fit all our sites. The forum and the news go well together, but we must find one which suits the MITMVC as well. We cannot constantly have 3 separate sites
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
The green on the main templete is a bit harsh on my eyes. So C would be my choice, the templete for the fourms/news are good.
 

Wemboy

New member
Well personally i like the design of the main VC page. So if i could choose then i'd like the chatroom to look more like that. I agree that it's quite a bright colour scheme, so it might be harder to read threads if the forums where redesigned inadequately , but i have faith in David's skills as a designer!
 

admin

Retired Administrator
Well I hope we have catered for everyone now...

What Have We Done?

Well all pages that can be moved have been moved over to the forums, multimedia, shop, links, faq, contact, and news

The gallery and flashchat have remained as full size screens, as they are most effective and easy to use on those formats

The Original site, to be know from this moment onwards as the "Episode Guide" remains its green colour, but it has been simplified slightly to remove the clumsy clutter there was before. Without preventing easy access to episodes that is.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Episode Guide. Fancy. You've just changed the whole focus of the site now, with the forums being cental instead of the so-called episode guide. Nice job.

The one thing that still annoys me with the episode guide (it just doesn't have that same buzz as main VC, does it?) is that the new menu is sort of all over the place. Can you figure out any way to make it not be off the screen on smaller displays? There must be a way to always right-justify it??
 

admin

Retired Administrator
right i have moved that, so hopefully it will not caused you any more hassle.

I will not be changing anything for a while now, I think we've all had enough of me messing around with templates. I believe we've got to a situation which can please both sides.

Although the MainVC or Episode Guide is still what fronts the the mitmvc server, it is no longer what our visitors will see first. Instead of an episode guide with a ton of information, they will be faced with a sleek list of recent MITM news events.

From this point they can venture into the MainVC via the episode guide, vote, rate etc. Or they can venture into the forums, chat room etc.

I noticed this model is very close to the Malcolm Mittendrin model. Their gallery (sort of the same software as the main vc) is not particulary well intergrated - and I can see why now, they are damn difficult to.

Anyway I hope everything is OK.
 

Wemboy

New member
Yeh i like it. I think it's a good move to have the focus shift from the episode guide to the forums, especially for us that post on the forums. I spend much more time on this site, so having all the galleries and everything at the top is much more convenient than having to keep returning to the old VC page to look at pics or whatever. Nice one!
 

arach

New member
admin said:
Although the MainVC or Episode Guide is still what fronts the the mitmvc server, it is no longer what our visitors will see first. Instead of an episode guide with a ton of information, they will be faced with a sleek list of recent MITM news events.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the Episode Guide is still what you see first, when you enter http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/ into your browser.

You just get to the news page first when you want to enter the forums. I think of it as pretty useful. That way I won't miss any important news. ;)

Really good job you did implenting all the sites to the forum. Although there is still one thing that I would have changed. I already told you that. I don't know why you dont use the same menu on the Episode Guide page that you use in the forums and news section:
Episode Guide FlashChat News Boards Multimedia Shop Links FAQ Gallery Search
Instead, you use >Home >Seasons >Gallery >Forums >Chat Room >Multimedia etc.
That makes it difficult to, for ex., get back to the news page after browsing around in the Episode guide.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
Some good ideas.

Sadly my htaccess codes will not forced a redirect on the mitm server, so what ever I do it won't work!

I shall look into the menu thing. Most likely what will have is at some point both sites will be made into one.
 
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