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Website Improvements

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:34 am
by Marv
I'd like to invite you to think about the future of the website with me (yet again).

[hide=Log]
Top: latest | Bottom: oldest

Thu Oct 15 11:29:27 CEST 2018
Installed a mail server so the forum can send out mails again
RVIO now displays the correct names for event classes (Semi-Pro, etc.)

Tue Sep 25 16:50:11 CEST 2018
Fixed the session parser
Reinstalled pagination and file-content add-ons to grav to fix issues on the main site
Fixed the page feed to include the forum again
[/hide]

Recently, I've been feeling like something is missing. I know I've taken many parts off maintainance (creations, archive, ...) but I just couldn't allocate any time for caring about them.
The website isn't simple and accessible enough, it's not clear where to download the game and the screenshots are also somewhat hidden. My schedule is somewhat full already (RVGL, add-on, ...) so starting this all on my own might be a bad idea.
Still I'd like to think about ways to improve the website. The biggest problems I have right now are the following:
  • The server is too slow. We'll probably move back to DigitalOcean when I can afford it. Right now we're paying 3 Euros per month but people from America can hardly access our website at all.
  • The website is too complicated: Too much information scattered around too many pages.
  • The design is inconsistent across browsers, especially with dpi scaling. Does it look alright for you?
  • The design is kind of messy in terms of the backend. This is only something we admins notice.
  • The website is not optimized for search engines: RVIO is too far at the bottom on Google and other search engines.
  • The documentation/tutorials need to be finished and finally need to mention how to work with my add-on. A car tutorial is missing.
  • I'd still like a place for people to share their creations. Someone might be working on something so we'll see.

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 5:42 pm
by Pyves
The website could definitely be improved. Typically depending on which part of the website you're on, the sub-menu bars are either horizontal or vertical, which is confusing. Nevertheless, I've never actually noticed it being slow.

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 9:45 am
by Marv
I started giving the pages a more uniform look. Main pages (the ones that are not in the drop down menus) will act as landing pages for their category in the future, so that people who can't see the dropdown (mobile) can reach the sub-pages better.

I started with the downloads...

https://re-volt.io/downloads/game

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 12:58 pm
by Marv
You might have noticed that the website has undergone some changes. I'll try to list all I can think of:

The game downloads are a bit more structured.

The events now work on a post-based system (they used to be a static page).
Most recent events can be accessed on the home page itself (and will be displayed up to 6 hours after they have begun. After that they can still be accessed via the /online/events page.

The CSS has been cleaned up a bit and the style looks a bit cleaner now.

I put some work in SEO-ing the website so it's further up the Google results. You should already be able to see the results.

To do:
I want to transfer the tutorials to an mdbook page (the same I use for the Blender Add-On docs) so that I can work on it better (with git).

Icons in the home page header for downloads, community and tools/creations.

Icons on the main Downloads page.

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 6:35 pm
by Santiii727
is a possibility to add more languages to the io page and add local time and keep the UTC time?

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:04 pm
by Marv
Santiii727 wrote: Sun Sep 16, 2018 6:35 pm is a possibility to add more languages to the io page and add local time and keep the UTC time?
I'm not sure if the time thing is possible but adding multiple languages definitely is!

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 7:23 pm
by Marv
I'm moving re-volt.io to a faster server.

To do:
docs.re-volt.io and some minor things


Done:
rvgl.re-volt.io
distribute.re-volt.io
files.re-volt.io
www.re-volt.io
forum.re-volt.io

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:09 pm
by Marv
The forum has been transferred to the new server!

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 11:04 am
by kiwi
Thanks for your work Marv, the forum feels much faster now. :)

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 4:14 pm
by Instant
Well, even if it's obvious, the forum is much faster than it was. Thank you very much for you work!

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 2:25 pm
by Marv
Glad it works well :)
I added a log to the top post. Hope it'll help you to keep track of changes.

Re: Website Improvements

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 9:30 am
by Marv
Yooo, updated the log with some minor fixes. It already happened on monday but I forgot to post.