Staffing Managing Content & Pages

[Kaycakes 78]

I poked around asking about this, but I thought this would make a good topic. I had intended to transfer a lot of our information from threads into pages on jcink, using the webpage maker feature. This became a huge discussion between an admin and I today on how we want it to look, how we want to use it, and how we'd organize it. For example, perhaps we could do articles and blogs as well as important documentation. Just considering all the possibilities and how we'd make certain things look and be easily navigable. So, I started digging up sites that I knew had pages for documentation to see how they did things, and that meant asking around for people to share their sites for inspiration.

 

Anyway!

 

1. Do you use the webpage maker feature? If so, then what do you use it for? If not, why not?
2. If your site isn't hosted by jcink but has a similar feature, what is it?
3. How did you organize yours? Layout, categories, etc.
4. Did you use a lot of html, was it easy to do? Does this feature automatically use the skin theme you have for your site?
5. If possible, link me to your site or PM me! I want to see it all.

[KARA BELLA 18]

I used it in the past on an old site for like a beginner guide thing and currently use it to store the affiliates on both my sites.  When I used it for the beginners guide I used HTML for the template that hosted the info.  Other than that no I haven't really used it mostly because I have not really wanted to or known how to.  It does seem like it would be a good way to hold all the info for a site though.

[CovertSphinx 710]

I'm a newbie at it myself. So far it seems the page itself uses the skin style sheet; however, you have to completely HTML pretty much everything you want on the page from scratch. 

 

I was thinking about using a page for an In Character News Blog; but I'm not really sold on how effective it may be long term. So far the only thing I used it for is my beginners guide. It seems very clunky to be used for anything other single-shot informationals that are kept simple. Either that or I'm just looking too superficial and lazy into the situation.

[VirusZero 176]

So I don't use Jcink anymore, I use MyBB. MyBB does have a webpages plugin (by OmarG if memory serves) though. 

 

At present I don't really use it because I have our wiki integrated so it kind of doesn't serve a lot of purpose. (I had plans to use the webpage maker for other, more advanced things that the Wiki couldn't do... Like a page that can generate random numbers. Since on Jcink I had a code that could randomly generate stat sets for one of the character sheets we had. If you want to see it... here's where it is.) 

 

As for themes, it can automatically use the set theme. Unless you set it to use PHP in which case then you have to manually set it. But this isn't an option on Jcink (last I checked users couldn't use their own PHP code in the webpage maker due to security concerns.) Just remember when you're inserting HTML to set the class/ids of existing similar items to take effect. (Or add the ids/classes to the CSS to make sure things get styled properly.)

 

[Bishop 172]

I have truly only ever seen this done well twice. The other site I can't remember, but Sarah at Absit Omen has a wiki to knock your socks off.

 

Personally ,I'm all about those wix pages recently especially as I learn to code and what not. I think you can create something beautiful from them. Ours https://www.venicerp.com/

(though a huge WIP) makes the webpage maker thing just easier? I don't know. I've tried to tinker with it, but I just can't get it to work and that is pretty much because I flat out don't know how to HMTL all the way. I'm trying! I think tumblr is too clunky, gdocs is too slow, and I love the whole concept of a table of contents but at the same time that is hard to navigate. Wix is free, (though I paid to link it to our domain) and there are so many beautiful templates and layouts.

 

 

 

[Kit the Human 758]

1. Do you use the webpage maker feature? If so, then what do you use it for? If not, why not?

I've used the MyBB equivalent that VZ mentioned. I used it for rules/guidelines and a quick overview of the setting. I picked it because I like the look of it. Buuut I got sick of editing the HTML and I was always worried that it looked dense. So I switched back to threads.

1. How did you organize yours? Layout, categories, etc.

One page with anchor links for players to quickly scroll to whatever they want to read about.

1. Did you use a lot of html, was it easy to do? Does this feature automatically use the skin theme you have for your site?

I find it easy to do although I think I could have laid it out more nicely and made it easier to navigate. Maybe used tabs rather than the anchor links? Just thinking that it'll look easier to read. I've seen it done well but I'm not satisfied by my own usage.

[Sage 289]

I LOVE Jcink's webpage maker, but I've found little reason to use it myself. I think it's very useful for things like wiki information or if your site has a lot of lore or structure that members will need to comb through. But if it doesn't, I usually find that it detracts from the overall aesthetic of the site. I like a more uniform look, and unless I've got the depth of information that needs a series of webpages to best explain it, I usually stay away from it. You can usually accomplish what you need within a regular topic anyway.

[Kaycakes 78]

Oh heck. This is kind of discouraging, LOL. I know I'd seen a site or two before that did an amazing job of using the webpage maker, but I can't seem to find them again. These replies are great, though, in giving me plenty of things to consider. I had a look over the links offered and they're all pretty freaking neat, too. 

 

@Sage I think you're right regarding that topics do well enough in holding all the information needed. My idea is sort of that I could have primarily interactive forums (Mainly IC with a little OOC), while all the info and everything would be contained in pages. If that makes sense?

[Sage 289]

@kay I think if you could find an engaging way to do that, then go for it! Don't get discouraged if that's something you want to do. I'd really love to see it done well, and you may just give me inspiration to try it as well. I think, for me as a member rather than staff, it's more a matter of it being accessible that bothers me. Like, if it's just another topic in a forum, then I know where it is and I'm familiar with the layout. With my experience using webpages in the past on sites that didn't lay it out so well, I had to hunt for things and ended up getting lost or missing important articles that ultimately ended up turning me away from the site as a whole. In a forum, I know all that information is going to be in, like, an "important information" topic. No hunting necessary. But if you could lay it out in an intuitive format, it could work really well and be really really useful! 

 

That said, I just took a look at @Bishop's wix site and I think it's a great example of an intuitive layout. All the pages are neatly displayed at the top and you don't have to hunt for anything. You don't get lost in the content, either, and it's a beautiful way of displaying important information. You could easily accomplish something similar with Jcink's webpage maker if you know how to code. But it will take some effort.

[Josie 198]

1. Do you use the webpage maker feature? If so, then what do you use it for? If not, why not?

I use it, yes. Simply put, I feel that I can make the information for my site more accessible by putting it on another page instead of putting it in a thread. It's also easier to navigate in my opinion, as you don't have to click back to a main forum to get to the next topic, and the like.

 

However, I tend to also have informational topics posted in the forum as well, the way people usually do rules and the like. The difference between these types of information, for me, are one is more about world building that anyone is invited to take part in, and the other (hosted on pages instead of in threads) is for the more concrete things, the way the forum is run and the rules of the world.

 

2. If your site isn't hosted by jcink but has a similar feature, what is it?

I use MyBB, and there's a plugin for it. Before, I used to use wikia- but I've stopped doing that for two reasons. It's easiest to edit things that are on the site itself, and it's also more difficult to lose guests if you aren't forcing them to navigate off the site.

 

3. How did you organize yours? Layout, categories, etc.

I put all the essential information on one page, most of the time. It's easier to edit that way from an admin point of view. There's plenty of ways you can organize the info if you have a lot that needs organizing, like tabs.

 

4. Did you use a lot of html, was it easy to do? Does this feature automatically use the skin theme you have for your site?

With MyBB, you have the option to either use the header and footer templates for the site, or use none of them at all. This means they can either be very light on HTML or very heavy on HTML. For me it wasn't hard, but I code for fun LOL.

 

Attached are a few quick shots of such pages I've done recently.

[Kaycakes 78]

5 hours ago, Gothams Reckoning said:

1. Do you use the webpage maker feature? If so, then what do you use it for? If not, why not?

I use it, yes. Simply put, I feel that I can make the information for my site more accessible by putting it on another page instead of putting it in a thread. It's also easier to navigate in my opinion, as you don't have to click back to a main forum to get to the next topic, and the like.

 

However, I tend to also have informational topics posted in the forum as well, the way people usually do rules and the like. The difference between these types of information, for me, are one is more about world building that anyone is invited to take part in, and the other (hosted on pages instead of in threads) is for the more concrete things, the way the forum is run and the rules of the world.

 

2. If your site isn't hosted by jcink but has a similar feature, what is it?

I use MyBB, and there's a plugin for it. Before, I used to use wikia- but I've stopped doing that for two reasons. It's easiest to edit things that are on the site itself, and it's also more difficult to lose guests if you aren't forcing them to navigate off the site.

 

3. How did you organize yours? Layout, categories, etc.

I put all the essential information on one page, most of the time. It's easier to edit that way from an admin point of view. There's plenty of ways you can organize the info if you have a lot that needs organizing, like tabs.

 

4. Did you use a lot of html, was it easy to do? Does this feature automatically use the skin theme you have for your site?

With MyBB, you have the option to either use the header and footer templates for the site, or use none of them at all. This means they can either be very light on HTML or very heavy on HTML. For me it wasn't hard, but I code for fun LOL.

 

Attached are a few quick shots of such pages I've done recently.

 

Eee! I love it! Thank you for showing me. That looks great. I'm going to have to get back into learning how to code because I love stuff like this. 

[dreamsleever 6]

1. I do!  I keep the rules, plot, timeline, races, etc on my Pages.  If I didn't, though, and had a lot of information, I'd probably host it all on a wiki on my own hosting.
2. Hosted by IcyBoards, it's one of their plugs, called Pages, I think.
3. Mine are pretty simple.  I intend to have some navigation links on the side that I can use to make it easier for people to jump from page-to-page.
4. The beautiful thing about it is that you can select whether or not to use the site's theme!  IcyBoards is cool like that.
5. I'll PM it to you when it's done!

[Kaycakes 78]

On 4/27/2017 at 10:32 PM, SithLordOfSnark said:

I use it for the affiliates and ratios on all my sites. It makes editing these two things so much easier.

 

Oh that's awesome! Jcink has its own affiliates thing set up, and it's the easiest thing in the world, so I won't be messing with that much. Ratios, I'm intrigued about, though.

 

23 hours ago, Vanguard said:

1. I do!  I keep the rules, plot, timeline, races, etc on my Pages.  If I didn't, though, and had a lot of information, I'd probably host it all on a wiki on my own hosting.
2. Hosted by IcyBoards, it's one of their plugs, called Pages, I think.
3. Mine are pretty simple.  I intend to have some navigation links on the side that I can use to make it easier for people to jump from page-to-page.
4. The beautiful thing about it is that you can select whether or not to use the site's theme!  IcyBoards is cool like that.
5. I'll PM it to you when it's done!

 

Yay! Can't wait.