Website

I have talked a bit with Electric_Adrian about building a website for the game.
I have tons of ideas for the website and most importantly, how to make a interesting website which is updated frequently with various stuff so people will come back and thereby creating an active community around this game.
There is though one problem...... Neither of us know how to build a website from the bottom!

So if anyone here has the skills to do so, we would REALLY appreciate it, if you would help us out building our website!

Here's a list of stuff I have suggested for the website:

-Forum (Only topics about the game itself, music/music industry related topis, and maybe a "general discussion" for chit-chat about anything)
-Developers Blog
-Occasional Developers Chat (Where the members get to chat with us)
-Newsfeed
-Press Section (Useful stuff for the press)
-Help Us (Recruiting people to work on the game)
-FAQ
-Support (Technical issues with the game or other issues)
-Media (Videos & Images from the game)
-Diaries (Like on Osiris Games Forum, but not a part of the forum, where you make a diary of your record label) - When the game has been released
-Donate (Donate us money)
-Sign up for monthly newsletter (Not required to be a member of the community)
-Happy Birthday Video (Made by us singing a birthday song) - Just to make it more personal and give it a bit of a silly edgy side)
-Merry Christmas/Happy New Year “card” (Video made by us) - To make it more personal
-Q&A of the week/month (The members ask us questions, and we choose the best question and our answer and have it highlighted on the website)
-Various competitions

Anything more?

I really hope someone can help us out with this one!

BEST regards
Klaus

That is a HUGE and demanding list! To be honest a site that big would probably run about $20k-$30k. I would make it, but I don't have any time lately, and even if I had a decent budget it would take an extremely long time to develop; especially if most of that is suppose to be custom.

Yeah, maybe it is too ambitious. But aren't there some templates around the internet then that you can use?

That depends, but even if there were decent scripts out there, it would take a while to decide how to implement it into the site, sometimes it's easier to make it from scratch, sometimes not.

The forum definitely use a script, it's pointless to make it from scratch, but things like the diaries stuff needs to be made custom. It all depends on the feature, and then to develop it into the site is a task in itself.

I know for sure I can't do it, I still need to make a web site for Pure Quality Games, a friend of mines corporate web site, and a billion other things I need to do on top of going to school and working.

leave out some of the silliest ideas (like the videos and the one hundred support sections that serve the same purpose) and just use some cms.

Just a simple suggestion for the website. Hmmmm.... Where have I seen this before?
Somehow I think it works out pretty well to use the same design on the website! As usual, this is a very basic design, and I'm not a graphical designer what so ever. But just to give you an impression.



Actually the only web-site design program I can use is Microsoft Frontpage

aha... you want everything done custom... well then... I suggest you show us the code.

Website source code:

"Website build yourself from how I imagine it to be"......
Here you go Gothic:

www.Music-Manager.com
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Nah, I guess we'll have to use some sort of pre-designed website, or maybe I can do something with FrontPage.... If I just had the program.

I've searched for the codes for making a login-screen like that one. So I guess it is possible to find the codes out there. They "just" need to be mixed and matched, so that everything works out just fine. Again, the problem is I don't know anything about making websites. I just have tons of ideas!

ooooh no you don't.

I think you have a very "everything's magic" comprehension of programming. you see it really isn't that simple.

Login scripts you don't typically want to use though, it's best to use an in house made login system.

What do you mean? To make one on your own?
I've just searched the web, and I've found quite a lot of login scripts with good toturials on how to implement them on the website.
Can it be as simple as getting a free web-designing program, put in the different codes, design the website and then you have the finished website? Again, I have no clue about this.

You don't want to use the login scripts because it poses a threat to security. If it's made custom for the website then no one else will know exactly how it works and what data actually is held in the database.

shared source code != unsecure. many algorithms and scripts utilized have an open source code.

Show me a login script that could actually be trusted, you can't find one. That would be like giving away the scripts that Microsoft uses for their account managment, it would be stupid.

I'm not saying Open source equals unsecure, but I am saying that open source login scripts on the internet ARE unsecure.

Then I just don't get all that website programming thing! So you just have to make some script up on your own?
I actually though that each function on a website could only be programmed in a limited ways!
Is it possible to read a book called "How to make your own website" and then learn from that?

Also, I don't get the security thing! I mean I've found several different Login PHP Scripts out there. Another thing is, how can someone exploid it? Can they extract the members' codes, E-mail adresses if they know the script?

I just expose myself as a complete dumbarse on this topic!

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I just searched the web on articles on how to make your own websites. It seems it much more work that I just imagined! I guess there is a reason why you have to go to school to learn stuff like this!
I think it's best that we just make our own website, in a simple webdesigning program, maybe using some templates and then go forth from that.
I guess I was way too ambitious with the design of the website. Oh well, we can still have many of the functions that I'd like to have on the website.

sharing the source leads to far more observations of security issues. security by obscurity is *not* the way you want to go. it's the most faulty design ever, and besides - can you "trust" a script you write yourself? I hardly think so.

as for examples of working/"trusted" login scripts: Wordpress. PHPbb. *any* Free Software CMS out there.

I believe the age old irc saying "anyone saying that open source == not trustworthy is an idiot" applies here. because your arguments (or lack of arguments) just come off as Microsoft worship. Microsoft is not Jesus reborn.

yes people write awesome stuff and give it away for society's benefit. this is known as Free Software and has existed for quite some time now.

I suggest you have a read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Invented_Here.

Hmmmm.... Well, I'm a bit torn between making a website from the bottom and making a simple site in some "What you see is what you get" program.

Pro "from the bottom":
-It will look more professional
-We'll have more interesting features
-We'll have a unique website

Con "from the botton":
-The time factor. I should spend time on the game and not a website!
-It might be harder to manage

I think we'll go for making a simple one and then use a InvisionFree board, but still try to activate users on the main site somehow.

I had a vision for this website, but I think it's a bit unrealistic, unless someone is willing to make it for us, for free!

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Does anyone still think we should go forth and create a site on our own, or should we just use the "easy" method? Also considering the pro's and con's I've mentioned.

Why don't you build a site with webs or something. It's easy and I know you can use that site for .tk domain. I don't if it also can with .com

Concentrate on designing/making the game and worry about the site and all the little stuff later.

That's typically what programming is :/

Theres a billion different ways to go about something in any type of programming language, web or not.

How to make a web site and how to develop a web site are two different things. A regular web site is static, which means that the user can not interact with the web site at all, it's just content. Developing (programming) means that the site is going to be dynamic, which means the user can interact with the site, whether its when they log in, edit stuff, post, well anything other than reading and changing pages (which can also be dynamic).

Most sites now days MUST be dynamic to hold an audience, people don't like to just read content, they want to be able to interact with the site and it's users.

I assume you have heard of hacking, well when there are bugs in a script and potential hazards the developer has not thought of or imagined would be an exploit or a hole then people can gain access to a lot of resources, one of which could possibly be databases, so yes they could gain access to emails, passwords, usernames, credit card data, anything that would be stored in the database, which is pretty much everything.

Everyone can make a web site, but not everyone can make a good web site that the user can interact with.

How so? Typically it's easier.

Like I said I just don't have the time to right now, maybe when I have more time and I know for sure this project is going to be completed then I can whip something up, but until then I would just say hold off until the game is at least 50% finished.