5punky Kickstarters

[Dog Pants]

I've been thinking about the front page this morning. If we were to use Wordpress or somesuch, would that need to be hosted in the same place as the forum or could we set up a blog page and use redirects? If it's the latter I'll try to get something basic set up as a starter.

[spoodie]

You mean using Wordpress.com or using Wordpress software on 5punk.co.uk? I imagine the latter would be easy enough. Having something like 5punk.co.uk/blog/ or 5punk.co.uk/front/ as the blog and the first thing that comes up when visiting 5punk.co.uk, with links to 5punk.co.uk/forum/.

Technically that's simple enough, it's the design and content that'll take more work. Making the design consistent and making sure you're not raising any kind of barrier to the forum, that being the core of the site and community.

[ProfHawking]

Do you want a blog? I thought it was going to feed off latest posts etc from the forum.

[spoodie]

Do you want a blog? I thought it was going to feed off latest posts etc from the forum.

I think it's more about using it as a content management system. And maybe leveraging dynamic cloud space paradigms.

[mrbobbins]

[Joose]

And maybe leveraging dynamic cloud space paradigms.

Maybe we should just promote synergy with our core values?

[eRabbit]

And maybe leveraging dynamic cloud space paradigms.

Maybe we should just promote synergy with our core values?

[Joose]

We should definately have a 5punky version of that. "Bumming", "Caeks", "Bacons", "Games too I guess"

[tandino]

Do you want a blog? I thought it was going to feed off latest posts etc from the forum.

I think it's more about using it as a content management system. And maybe leveraging dynamic cloud space paradigms.

I'm spending most of my days in work at the moment trying to learn all there is to know about Wordpress. After a bit of dabbling I've come to learn that if you can think of something, somebody has already made a wordpress plugin for it. If we wanted to have a Wordpress front page, this plugin could make the most recent posts display on it.

[mrbobbins]

SYNERGY!

[FatherJack]

Do you want a blog? I thought it was going to feed off latest posts etc from the forum.

I think it's more about using it as a content management system.

Yes, to both, sort of. The idea being it's easy for anyone to do stuff in it and to make minor mods when required without having to check it won't break anything else. It also has a ton of pre-built plugins, so we can add features without needing to code. There are other CMS systems, most of which are arguably more secure than Wordpress, but many other things point in its favour, such as the widespread availability of free add-ons and the profligacy of people's experience with using it.

I'm sure you all know that just because Wordpress started out as a blogging tool, all sites using it don't have to look like blogs. It's a tool for making web pages easily, in some cases full-on ecommerce sites with plugged-in shopping carts or brochure sites for products, but in ours for now just a single home page. Having it in place would probably make it easier to add articles or reviews straight in if we wanted to.

Fortunately the forum links are contained within the /forum/ (and a few other) subfolders, so it could easily be installed independently without conflict, got up and running and tested and then switched to be the home page when we're happy.

[Dog Pants]

When I have some time then (and I've had fuck all this week so far) I might set up a gash WP site and play about with it. Then if I can get something workable we can recreate it here. I might fail miserably, but I'll give it a shot.

[Dog Pants]

Hmm, okay as I understand it the free WP accounts aren't customisable, and I'm not buying hosting just to piss about with designs. Can anyone contradict me on this, and if not, FJ, would it be safe (and agreeable) for me to create it here?

[FatherJack]

Hmm, okay as I understand it the free WP accounts aren't customisable, and I'm not buying hosting just to piss about with designs. Can anyone contradict me on this, and if not, FJ, would it be safe (and agreeable) for me to create it here?

It's safe to install here - to be double-safe (so it shares no directories at all with live5punk) give it a new domain name, ie: dptest.5punk.co.uk if it's just for pissing about in or maybe home.5punk.co.uk if you think it might actually end up as the real FP. If you'd prefer me to install let me know, but it's pretty straightforward, just delete all the extra design templates you don't want after it's installed.

There's also wordpress.org and wordpress.com. We're wordpress.org - that is we just download the software from there (automatically via DH control panel) and can fully customise. However there are benefits to also having a wordpress.com (customisable based off pre-set themes, but you can't make or upload new themes) account. You don't have to post anything on your blog, but by linking the 5punk wordpress installation to the wordpress.com account gives you extra options, or Widgets. I think I can link it to my own account as well as my existing blogs though, so we don't need to worry too much about it yet.

[Dog Pants]

I've set up a WP page at http://www.home.5punk.co.uk/. At the moment I'm just pissing about with themes and plugins so it's ugly and useless, however I'm seeing the potential already. Suggestions on how I can make it useful and pretty are most welcome.

[buzzmong]

I've set up a WP page at http://www.home.5punk.co.uk/. At the moment I'm just pissing about with themes and plugins so it's ugly and useless, however I'm seeing the potential already. Suggestions on how I can make it useful and pretty are most welcome.

Oh my, yes. I see RSS feeds for news, a scheduler and a bit for teamspaks. I definitely see the potential in that, although I'd change the banner to something relating to the forums (ie "GO TO THE FORUMS!", "Join the discourse" or something similar) and have it link to them directly as they're the main part of the site.

Nice work Doggers!

[Dog Pants]

Yeah, I was hoping to be able to use the same top bar as the forum, or something that could carry across. It's not anywhere close to finished yet, but I've an idea of the plugins and layout which seems to work. I'm an abject amateur at this though, so it's all a bit clunky.

[FatherJack]

Yeah, I was hoping to be able to use the same top bar as the forum, or something that could carry across. It's not anywhere close to finished yet, but I've an idea of the plugins and layout which seems to work. I'm an abject amateur at this though, so it's all a bit clunky.

Nice work. The forum hasn't had a top bar for a while, but I know what you mean - it's more useful to get the functionality worked out, making sure the things that do things work - making it look pretty can be done best once all the bits are in place.

The css can be directly edited so every component of a page can be customised. A useful tool is the Inspect Element right-click option introduced in Firefox 10, or with the Firebug plugin for an enhanced version - which will show you the css tags which enclose each item on the page, so you know what to seach for in what template file to edit specific parts.

[Grimmie]

I can bugger around with the header.php and .css files later if you want?

[Dog Pants]

Any and all assistance greatly appreciated, especially from professionals. Poke me when you fancy a go and I'll let you know the account details (I'm leaving one admin account in there for now rather than creating them for people because I want it to use the board authentication ultimately).