The future of the site

[Sinistral]

As you guys will have noticed, I haven't been around much for the past couple of years. Real life commitments have taken over and I've now sold all the "rare" stuff off from my collection.

It's not that I don't still love the system or the games, it's simply that I need to stay focused on the things that will make a long term difference in my life.

Even though I've not been around I've continued to pay for the web hosting, domain registrations and perform monthly backups of the site behind the scenes. In-fact I've just renewed the sega8bit.com domain name for another year.

Despite this I now feel that the content and design of the site has become tired looking, and aged - I'm not a professional web designer and it never was going to be great. Although Stan and Ian are still actively adding new features and articles, the site is in dire need of some modernization, love, care and attention.

Unfortunately I no longer have the time, or skills required to bring the site back up to spec.

I'm looking for someone to take over, using modern web design techniques, making the site mobile-friendly and w3c certified. Someone who is willing to re-design and re-vitalise the site. This is no small task as the current site has grown in excess of 300 pages (not including the games or hardware database) and I'm sure there will be a lot of content that will need to be migrated over.

I don't want a fly-by troll who never visited this site before to do it, I want one of you guys to take up the task. I've never made any money from this website, and I don't want anyone else to either, it has to remain non-commercial, ran by fans for fans, without a single banner on the page.

If your up to the challenge, let me know here.

[ninjabearhug]

I like the old look of the site, in fact I prefer the layout and forums to pretty much any other site I frequent (quite a few).

I'm useless at web stuff, but if you ever need any donations for the upkeep and stuff I'll always be happy to help .

[Stan]

Phew, I'd love to say I could do this, but it would take me time to learn everything. I think you can easily find someone to do it here, however, and I'm happy you still have a vested interest in it. I'm definitely on board for continuing the work on it, but I don't have the skills you're seeking. And honestly, I rather like the look of it too, it retains the image of what the SMS is to me. The usage of bit graphic art, the layout, I think it's really cool. From an admin point of view, yeah, a lot of the database could use some updating, but I think the surface look of the site should largely remain the same.

[Aypok]

I would offer the Sega16bit codebase, but that's a side-ways step (it's a clone of this site, but in PHP). I think it's also missing one or two pages on the admin side... I forget.

I'd love to offer my services, but have learnt to stop offering myself for such things (see the aforementioned Sega16bit site). :)

[Sinistral]

Thanks all for the comments regarding the site layout etc. It's easy to become attached to things looking a certain way. Some of you might recall that people weren't happy when I changed the layout of the original segamastersytem.com website. I guess it's just progress.

I don't mind if whoever takes over decides to keep the current layout or not. All I would like to see is someone injecting some enthusiasm and putting in regular updates, wanting to develop and improve the site, you don't need to be an expert.

Aypok, I don't know the story behind what happened with Sega16bit - I' wasn't involved at all except that I supplied the sega8bit source to Peder. If you did want to take over here (and I know you have the skills to do it) you would have full control, I wouldn't interfere. The only thing I would ask for is to remain a member of staff so I could occasionally contribute to the site, and also that those actively involved in working on the site can still do so.

I would think that going forward there would need to be clearly defined "job roles" on the site. I always wanted to make it so the community here could contribute as much as possible; it's just a case of finding the best way to do this.

Stan, I know you have done a lot of work on the site over the years, and you've become a bit of a guru with the images/database. I don't see any reason why your role in all of this should change unless you want it to.

I'm still very proud of what we've achieved with Sega8bit over the last 6 years and I want to see the site continue to flourish even when I can't be around as much as I'd like to.

[playgeneration]

To echo what others have said, having a retro styled website in terms of how web design has progressed is no bad thing, it suits the fact the site is devoted to a retro console. It seems every site tries to stay upto date with current web trends, but its the content thats the most important thing, not having Facebook intergration or whatever.

Thats not to say there should be no improvements, just that theres no need to throw away what already exists and works.

[ian]

Andy my man! It's been a while.

Sorry to hear you can't look after the site anymore, it's totally understandable. I wish I had more time to contribute and update as much as I'd like to.#

I'm capable of redesigning but more skills using the database aren't so great. I, like a lot of people, quite like the design as it is. It's simple and effective. Not to say it couldn't do with some improvement though. I wouldn't mind a nice graphical look similar to Lemon Amiga. I think you'll have a hard time getting someone to take over and dedicate themselves. It wouldn't be so bad if the site just carried on as it is though.

I'll always be around to help and contribute in anyway, whether it be design, content or financially. Just wish I had more time to dedicate to an redesign and modernization.

[rupert]

I'd love to help but I too don't have the time to put in to it any more, apart from the fact I have no skills in web design outside of a simple blog. I'd like to echo what others have said regarding liking the lay out as it is, still feels like home to me despite not visiting as often these days. The only point I can see in updating it is perhaps attracting more members/ visitors but I think the forum side of things ticks along at a nice speed anyway. I'm not a fan over populated fast paced forums unless I'm just using them to search for a bit of info.

Also, like Ian, if funding is ever a problem to keep this place going I'd always be willing to help out (unless my circumstances changed badly).

[Stan]

Yeah, same here with the money, always post here before shutting anything down, I'm sure most of us would contribute personal funds to keep it going. So, Andy, what are you looking to have done with it? Mainly changing the way it functions (like going to PHP or something)? I mean, I guess I could do it, but I hestitate because I'm only able to put a little work into it every day at the moment because of everything else going on.

[Gokhan]

I'd like to help, but I don't know how much time I can commit to a job this size. Something like PHP with MySQL I have done but at a much smaller scale than this.

Edit: Just realised I bought the Ghost House manual off of you tycho

[Sinistral]

Don't worry guys I'd never shut the place down. I've put far too much time and effort in for that! I know some of you guys like the retro look of the site etc, that wouldn't have to change. But the fact is that the design is getting so old that some future browsers may start to be unable to read it incorrectly. It’s also not very good for people who have visual impairments and need to enlarge/zoom in and out of the page or mobile browsers which are becoming increasingly popular.

The database stuff is on the serverside running classic ASP, but it’s only a matter of time before our host stops offering this service and only offers asp.net. This is the main driver for a change/modernization. Not only that but back when we first put this site together I was a complete novice at database design, because of this there are various problems today that can only get worse with age.

We also have a quite a few security holes (which i won’t mention except to say that it's not good) I had to remove the "add a cheat" and "delete a game" functions due to this. If you google the site you will find the site mentioned in a few hacking forums. We also get a lot of spam in the database (due to us not having captcha or a similar system)

The server we are hosted on just now supports asp.net extensions and we have MS SQL 2008 database access which we don’t use. So this would seem like a natural step.
There is also a good lot of stuff which needs fixed, heres what I can think of just now:

•Additional countries added to the database.

•Better way to categorise the genre of game (just now a singular category doesn’t always give the best representation of the game type) It would be better to allow multiple categories.

•The reviews system needs overhauled to allow people to upload their own screenshots (which won’t overwrite the ones in the games database) and opened up to a less restrictive format.

•Professor playor’s section really needs re-done altogether. This was done in a very rushed/lazy manner.

•The focus of the site is at the moment very much focused on the games rather than on the people playing/collecting them on the site. I would love it to be so everyone has their own individual games list ( collection list) and you could trade with other members via some negotiation system. You could also have the user’s biography/images/screenshot/reviews they contributed/files etc. The site could also be linked in with the forum so that the members login for the forum is the same as the site and everything is seamless.

•The frapper map is gone – this needs taken off .

•Generally I think that the site could do with a bit of visual overhaul, the world has moved on from 800x600 displays, and we could fit a lot more article/bigger/better quality images onto pages these days.

All of these I came up with after looking at the site for 2 minutes, and I would say at the moment they make up my sega8bit.com wishlist. So the question is… What would YOU change?

[majortony]

I find it unlikely that modern web browsers will stop supporting table based layouts at any point in the future, but I agree that it could do with being rebuilt, even if the design doesn't change.

I'm a LAMP guy, so I couldn't offer any help development-wise, I'm afraid, but I could probably help out with the front-end rebuilding if needed.

[Sinistral]

Oct 24, 2010 18:18:02 GMT majortony said:

I find it unlikely that modern web browsers will stop supporting table based layouts at any point in the future, but I agree that it could do with being rebuilt, even if the design doesn't change.

Thank you for your agreement
I think you might be putting words into my mouth with what you said above but no matter.

I'm a LAMP guy, so I couldn't offer any help development-wise, I'm afraid, but I could probably help out with the front-end rebuilding if needed.

Thanks that's good to know we have more web-design skills on the boards. There seem to be quite a few people with the skills; it's the motivation and drive that we need though. Whoever decides to help out doesn't have to be super-skilled. Only to be willing to learn as they go.

[grolt]

Hey Andy, good to see you on here and get an update from your busy life! I'm kind of in the same boat as you and unfortunately wouldn't be able to help with a re-design. The benefit of having a site about a retro console is that at retro look can't really get "outdated". I've always liked the look and layout. It's simple, but it's easy to navigate. That said, the code could use a tidying, especially with embedded PHP pages to reduce the redundancy and make common updates easy. The SMS Power boys are pretty well versed in that stuff, have you thought about offering up the chance over there?

[Aypok]

Oct 15, 2010 15:25:28 GMT Sinistral said:

In-fact I've just renewed the sega8bit.com domain name for another year.

I've just realised that this still doesn't work for me. The "sega8bit.com" domain stopped working for me ages ago - it must be over a year now. I remember some others mentioning the same thing at the time. "smstributes.co.uk" is how I access the site...

So, yeah... What's up with that? :) Or am I the only one who has this issue?