| Petesimple
- 14 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 319
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Hey everyone in cyberville,
Pete here, we are nearing time to make new and interesting changes to AHW. Any new or old ideas please place them in this thread and Q and I will scrutinize your ideas with what we have time to accomplish.
www.petesimple.com
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| stubbs7
- 16 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 582
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Thanks for starting this thread Pete. My suggestions are in order of priority:
1) Page load response time - It's either a server or database issue
2) Information architecture - The organization of information is confusing
3) Overall design - It's looking dated
I'm happy to help with 2 and 3.
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| Petesimple
- 17 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 319
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stubbs7 said: Thanks for starting this thread Pete. My suggestions are in order of priority:
1) Page load response time - It's either a server or database issue
2) Information architecture - The organization of information is confusing
3) Overall design - It's looking dated
I'm happy to help with 2 and 3.
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All great ideas Billy! I will look into number one on your list. As for 2 and 3. Can you and Q come up with a nested menu and how you want it to look. That will drastically make a good change in the site. I will put it together. Just use the space already provided as your parameters.
Cool
:)
~Pete
www.petesimple.com
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| ajflanagan
- 18 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 509
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I don't see any advantage to picking through this site and trying to improve antiquated technology that never really looked or worked "great" to begin with. Huge props to Travis for taking on the project... but I believe it was always more of his own pet project than anything else. This site was his testing ground for his programming skills. Luckily, we benefited from it to some degree.
Today's web technology FAR surpasses what we have here in both design and function. A skilled, experienced web designer could put the groundwork of a brand new site together for less money that you probably realize. It's a worthwhile investment of a few thousand dollars. This is the ONLY face that competitive Air Hockey has. Shouldn't it be a good one? The best it can be?
I would consider a well structured WordPress site utilizing the BuddyPress technology. Imagine a contemporary site design that incorporates the social aspects of Facebook that we are all accustomed to in our daily lives. With a few clicks of a mouse, you can have fully operational discussion forums that blow these away in functionality. Every player who visits the site should have their own profile page... a user friendly and easy to update page with all their pics, vids, stats, etc.
Q and Pete... you two guys are way too smart to waste your time putting bandaids on this thing. It's time the USAA dusted off that money in the shoebox and put it to real use.
In my opinion, Q and Dan should be spending their time creating a Podcast for Air Hockey or a short video "talk show" themed series. They brought some real creativity into the sport when they started playing with some really entertaining blogs. But now Q spends all his time plucking away at this site keeping it updated.
A skilled developer could be hired for less than what is in the USSA coffers to design and build the fundamental structure of the site (preferably in a parent/child format so individual elements of the site can be updated without the whole thing falling apart, as is the case with most amateur Wordpress sites). From there, Pete and others have the knowledge to build on that platform, adding content, etc.
I understand there are some features on this site that would be difficult to replace (ratings system). Until someone can develop wordpress plugins to replace those elements, it seems to me that it would be relatively simple to maintain those elements separately, visually matching the new site, and just link back to them through the new site.
Seriously guys, work smarter.
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| stubbs7
- 18 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 582
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I agree with a lot of what Andrew's saying. It might make sense to try and get access to the databases from Travis, to port over all of the match data etc. Would this help? Do we already have access to these?
In addition to Andrew's suggestions, Joomla, via Template Monster, offers good flexible templates that support blogs, robust forums, responsive design, and retina display (the last that I checked, forum support was not readily supported by WordPress). It might make sense to start with one of these to help keep work/costs down.
I'm happy to help with this. Could we start a private thread with people that are interested in helping? I've already done quite a bit of work with architecture/structure. 
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| Q
- 18 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 497
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Porting: Would help. Have been looking into best way to approach. Don't have the level of access I would like for it but doable.
Private thread is possible but I'd just as rather use email and a shared Google doc/Dropbox folder amongst those interested.
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| stubbs7
- 18 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 582
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| Sounds good to me Q.
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| Petesimple
- 18 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 319
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Agree with the private thread, wordpress does have multiple BB widgets and apps. I've used both Joomla and Wordpress they are both very versatile and can handle the ideas presented.
www.petesimple.com
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| ajflanagan
- 18 Aug 2014
Total Posts: 509
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The aspect of WordPress most appealing to me from a marketing perspective is BuddyPress. The addition of an Air Hockey social network tying together all the rated players around the globe would really begin to weave the framework for what I've been talking about for years now. Imagine an Air Hockey, Golden Tee and Facebook mashup.
I've read that Joomla is better than WP at some things. Does is have something akin to BuddyPress?
The first real question is, how difficult will it be to get the USAA to sign on to spending some money? This is something that could be up in running in a few months rather than a few years if the right contractors were brought on board.
Perhaps Gold Standard would be interested in sponsoring or partnering with the USAA to defray some of the cost? This could help pave the way for worldwide wifi air hockey tables tied into a social ratings network.
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