Revamping the web site - want your opinions

**Updated**
Good evening everybody,

I want to thank everybody for the immense support you have given us since the inception of the site, it has grown beyond our wildest dreams and we owe that to everyone reading this post. Your suggestions, all of which have been delivered in a constructive and intelligible manner, prove just why this is the best community on the internet. I am humbled by the outcry of support that you all have offered us and each other.

I wanted to take a few moments and announce some short term plans for additions to this site. These suggestions were directly derived from your recommendations, and I want to let you know that if your idea didn’t make the list it was more than likely an oversight.

Short term plans, in no particular order:

• Avatars should now be enabled

• Request members of the site step up to assist in moderation of the forums and posting relevant information and editorials on the front page

• Minor modifications to forum layout (We hear your pleas for certain language and theme based areas, and we believe we have a solution that won’t break the community up. We are very interested in providing a more organized flow of information).

• A “newbie” forum section with critical start tips and FAQs that we can point our newest members to. This will serve to clean up general quite a bit.

• A new banner/logo (We have something in the works, but we need your help!)

• A better cosmetic look and continuity moving into the forums

• “Hall of Fame” screen shot section with rotating random image on the front page

• A section covering unique multi-boxing setups, as well as mind-blowing accomplishments

• FAQ section linked from the front page

• Link to important WoW Resources readily available from the front page (WowWiki comes to mind)

• Other important information readily available, including screenshots of GMs endorsing the dual-boxing community (let’s encourage others to join us in our distinctive journey!)

• We will be adding a donation button to help upgrade the sites bandwidth and allow dual-boxing.com to operate on a whole new level
**Updated**


Hey all :) Ellay here. With me and Xzin being featured in an upcoming online gaming Magazine, my Arena PvP video showing what we are capable of, and dual-boxing getting a larger audience everyday, it's time to flesh out the site and kick it up a notch.
Many here have helped contribute to the great site we come to everyday to enjoy, and why not make it better? With that in mind, would love to hear your thoughts on what you would like to see added.

Some ideas I currently have:
I plan on revamping the main page to have more of a blog style, and not just me writing the blogs, you too! I'm thinking to possibly centralize many of the great blogs we have going but are spread across multiple websites.

For the forums, they have been doing great. I always aim for a clean layout where it doesn't feel cluttered and easy to find what you want. Everything can always improve though and looking for ideas on what you prefer for a look and feel when you read about what you love.

Overall just really want to hear your ideas, the community here is the best of any forum out there. Lemme know what you think :)

I like the idea of an open forum blog front end but it could open a can of worms if un moderated content can be posted there.

Are you thinking of implementing some form of CMS?

Upgrade the forum to phpBB3 then add sub forums for single topics, eg keyclone. That'd make navigation easier.

I don't ever really see the front page as I have the search for new posts book marked. So IMO whatever you do to the frontpage should be replicated into a news section in the forums. Does mean regulars don't have to arrive via the front desk to know what is going on. But obviously would mean that the admins would have more work or more difficult software. (Been trying to make a phpBB3 front end for ages that works blog stylee... (Outshine.com does have one for phpBB2).

Personally what I'd love to see is some of the products that are posted onto the hardware board actually reviewed by a multi-boxer... less 'this looks like it might be cool' and more 'OMG This Roxors my Boxen...' ;)

A beginners thread, so posts asking easily answered questions can be posted (or moved) there.

(edited for spellings)

* What is possible to achieve. PVP/PVE.
- What have been done, and what is required to make it work.
- Which instances are easy, which are doable, which are hard/impossible.

* Group composition.
- PVP or PVE.
- Which classes work together, not only to cover disspells/decursing, but also to gain the most dps. Most people probably use elitistjerks.com or some other theorycrafting site, but boxing will always have it's own rules as to what works and what doesn't.

A forum covers most basic needs I guess, but it's sometimes hard to search to find just the info you need.

as to not damage the 'community', and the welcoming atmosphere we have going, a general section where the new comers will probably always post for the first time is a good idea.

too many sub groups does have the possibility of reducing user interaction.

to illustrate my point, look at the general forum on the wow boards compared to the other forums. the volume on general is just insane... but also helps generate interest for lurkers and a forum for others to communicate

keep in mind, search does work... but people will most likely ask the same question numerous times... how the forum deals with that reflects the nature of the community... and one of the reasons i constantly refer people to dual-boxing.com

I think one of the even larger issues we will see is an influx of trial boxers. Everyone who discovers it will want to have all their answers right away, and as you can see by the General Forums its getting more and more crowded everyday. I took a break from the internets this weekend when I was at my friends wedding only to find the General Forum filled. Now, I love answering questions whenever, but getting hit with a wall of text like that really hurts. I'm sure an FAQ page would be helpful and a Form to send in questions and have a few volunteers aka Veteran Boxers assist in answering them. The ones we deem worthy of sharing get added to the FAQ's. Idk, just me talking out loud. Ellay, check your PM's for more.

Also, I think <The Zerg> Needs a guild webpage or at least a private section of forums in order to discuss guild things, we have grown alot lately and I think that is something that should be considered if the site is upgraded.

Exactly the kind of replies I was looking for, thanks and keep them coming. Adding a list of what needs to get done.

I would like a blog on the front page with a public style but moderated content, a more cohesive color scheme connected across the frontpage and the forums, and a separate spot for articles on DBing (most likely just static versions of most of your stickies).

I agree on <The Zerg> having a website or something similar. We already have Vent and an IRC channel (shared with other boxers). I just don't have the time right not to put that together. Maybe somebody else wants to step up and put it together? I keep up with the community and don't mind helping out where I can but my efforts are focused elsewhere for the time being.

@Zseth
I can understand The Zerg Wanting/Needing its own site, I think if part of dual-box becomes a Zerg only page you'll break part of the community. You will get references to Zerg only information on the public threads, which will only lead to confusion.

Having a Zerg forum would be great I'm sure, my own guild wouldn't manage to be the great group it is without one, but watering down the information here with locked and inaccessible sections IMO would be a back ward step.

Not knowing the details of Ellay's hosting I wouldn't know for sure, but it should be possible to run two separate forums from the same domain or sub-domain. Thus allowing an entirely separate structure for the guild portal.

@Keyclone
Too many sub groups is bad its true but categorizing lots of posts under the same thread title, is good. I see your point about the main WoW forums, but if I'm looking for UI stuff I look in UI customization first.

And...

I'd love to see complete setups, not so much the hardware as the software, macro side of things. I'm just starting with running three, its great fun but building macros that actually work all the time is a pain. Being able to have anyone of the three my main has so far eluded me, and thats stealing macros heavily from the macro thread. Now it could be just doing something wrong, but I suspect I'm missing something.

So I'd love to see an offline macro editor, and or the text files saved in a character's WTF directory, so I can work out exactly what other people are doing. :D

How about a hall of fame, IE: What instances have been 2/3/4/5+ boxed, world bosses taken down, number of bunnies killed in one day, PVP, etc.

The forums seem fine to me, it might be good to put some of the stickied guides into the main site as well so that people who first find it can read the guides on the main site and then post questions later. It would allow for more graphical and formatted guides at least.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fling

How about a hall of fame, IE: What instances have been 2/3/4/5+ boxed, world bosses taken down, number of bunnies killed in one day, PVP, etc.

The forums seem fine to me, it might be good to put some of the stickied guides into the main site as well so that people who first find it can read the guides on the main site and then post questions later. It would allow for more graphical and formatted guides at least.

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Stickied Guides, or more importantly CONSOLIDATED sticky guides, should be something of a priority in the forums. Are there any other people in the forums other than Ellay with mod privileges? There should be some mods on the various forums that are people within the community that post a lot.

I'd be willing to work on a post consolidation movement.

As far as the website, I give a big 2nd to the Hall of Fame idea. We should definitely have something like that up.

I personally like the way the forums look and feel the way they are now, but adding a couple subgroups would be good.

A subgroup would be enough for any guild that can't be managed in a single thread. Having a separate forum would likely split the community a bit.

There is already enough stickied, there doesn't need to be more faqs there, however consolidating them may be a good idea.

A hall of fame of sorts would be good. It could work the way the sites that track raid guild progression work, but would mostly be for five-mans/heroics, and anything else thats doable. Maybe have a section for "solo", and one for teams, like two five-boxers doing kara, or even a two/three or one/four doing a heroic that hasn't been soloed yet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zaelar

I personally like the way the forums look and feel the way they are now, but adding a couple subgroups would be good.

A subgroup would be enough for any guild that can't be managed in a single thread. Having a separate forum would likely split the community a bit.

There is already enough stickied, there doesn't need to be more faqs there, however consolidating them may be a good idea.

A hall of fame of sorts would be good. It could work the way the sites that track raid guild progression work, but would mostly be for five-mans/heroics, and anything else thats doable. Maybe have a section for "solo", and one for teams, like two five-boxers doing kara, or even a two/three or one/four doing a heroic that hasn't been soloed yet.

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Wow, I didn't even think of the prospect of 2 5-boxers doing kara. I think it'd be very possible if 1 boxer did the tanking/dps and the other boxer did healing/dps.

I personally don't use the front page. I usually just go straight here to the forums. Would be kinda neat to have something similar to the Hall of Fame thing mentioned above but with some stats on what us boxers are doing, such as:

Who the Zerg is Zerging Today:
Top 10 "most killed" mobs in the last day.
Last 10 bosses killed.
PvP kills per boxer.
Most XP gained today.

Not sure this is even possible as it would probably take a mod to collect the data and an executable or web front-end to get it into an online database.

I do like the idea of a sub-forum for the zerg on Mag.

Breaking out some of our forum guides to a links section on the front page would probably be helpful, as would external links to stuff like WoWwiki, etc.

Other than that, I think things work pretty well as they are now.

I mod the forums and help to keep things tidy. But my role right now is minimal - I have other RL commitments that prevent me from being able to spend the time needed to completely revamp and revise all of the material posted so far. I would love to see the software boxing fleshed out quite a bit more. Maybe somebody who is an expert on that can chime in and do what I did?

Because these days, you CAN box 5 on 1 computer where as 3 years ago it just wasn't possible. I still point out there are some downsides to being software only but costs are much less and there are a few upsides worth mentioning too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xzin

I agree on <The Zerg> having a website or something similar. We already have Vent and an IRC channel (shared with other boxers). I just don't have the time right not to put that together. Maybe somebody else wants to step up and put it together? I keep up with the community and don't mind helping out where I can but my efforts are focused elsewhere for the time being.

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WTB vent info.

It's not my fault I play alliance.

The forum could use a different template, a bit more stylish could do no harm. Dont do subforums mostly those are not very appealing.

For the rest, not too much adds (none would be best? ;), if you need extra cash for the bandwith on the server, add a paypal button, i think many ppl wouldnt mind in donating a few bucks to help you uphold the server).

I love to take curse.com as an example, dont go to flashy, they killed the site with all the gui candy over there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Los

if you need extra cash for the bandwith on the server, add a paypal button, i think many ppl wouldnt mind in donating a few bucks to help you uphold the server).

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Oh, good idea. ;)

still looking for:

- irc chat applet

- a voice chat

- german subforum (german community grows and it ain't that easy to ask technical things in english. I'd like to start a vote which realm shall be the "EU-Magtherion")

Something to control the quotes would be good... on my phpbb forums (Nuke based) there is a mod that collapses the quotes and provides an expand button....

Someone posts a 300 line post with a guide, someone hits Quote and says "Nice work"... we don't need the extra 300 lines and it kills readability.

Something to control or autoscale image links so folks can't post 2560x1200 screenshots and totally bork the format of the site up ;).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by beyond-tec

- german subforum (german community grows and it ain't that easy to ask technical things in english. I'd like to start a vote which realm shall be the "EU-Magtherion")

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Sub-forum I can understand the need for, I couldn't use as the most German I speak is some counting, a drinking song, part of the words for the national anthem (though I have no idea what the words actually mean :D) and I can say hello...

As for EU server I think the above thing about a language specific forum should answer the question. As a mono-language speaker (okay I can get by in France and Spain, and seem to be able to read Dutch sometimes :?) I couldn't effectively function of a German language server, and while I have no doubt that a German speaker would have far less issue playing on an English language server, I'd imagine that German (or any other Euro speakers out there) would object if the 'EU Multi-box' server was one that didn't have a support for their language.

I'd be far happier to see the structure of a multi server guild formed, that has members on many (or better 1 or 2) servers but that have something in common... oh wait :P

Something the US does have which we lack is the uniformity of language, while many US citizens probably speak better English than myself and probably are better at non-English too, the common language for the US is still English. And while I'd imagine that some of the US servers have large populations of say Spanish speakers, thats a bit different to having an entire country speaking Spanish.

I have a point... but I've forgotten it. :(

Ah. I doubt that the EU side of multi-boxing could ever agree to a single language let alone a single server. :)

That's not intended as an insult, I'm UK based and wouldn't really consider moving to a non-English speaking server and probably not off my established realm of Draenor.

And that's not even taking into account PvP or PvE...

I'm all about the KISS principle. I like the forum lay out as it is. It could use a face lift cosmetically, but not on the top of my list. I like the idea of adding some sub-forums, including a forum for "Class/Race - What should I play" questions.

I know I'd donate if there was a need for more bandwidth, but "promises" don't pay the bills eh...lol. I think this community would step up tho. Jeez, if we can spend 2-5K or more on boxing, I'm sure 10-20 every couple months wouldn't break the bank. :wink:

Good evening everybody,

I want to thank everybody for the immense support you have given us since the inception of the site, it has grown beyond our wildest dreams and we owe that to everyone reading this post. Your suggestions, all of which have been delivered in a constructive and intelligible manner, prove just why this is the best community on the internet. I am humbled by the outcry of support that you all have offered us and each other.

I wanted to take a few moments and announce some short term plans for additions to this site. These suggestions were directly derived from your recommendations, and I want to let you know that if your idea didn’t make the list it was more than likely an oversight.

Short term plans, in no particular order:

• Avatars should now be enabled

• Request members of the site step up to assist in moderation of the forums and posting relevant information and editorials on the front page

• Minor modifications to forum layout (We hear your pleas for certain language and theme based areas, and we believe we have a solution that won’t break the community up. We are very interested in providing a more organized flow of information).

• A “newbie” forum section with critical start tips and FAQs that we can point our newest members to. This will serve to clean up general quite a bit.

• A new banner/logo (We have something in the works, but we need your help!)

• A better cosmetic look and continuity moving into the forums

• “Hall of Fame” screen shot section with rotating random image on the front page

• A section covering unique multi-boxing setups, as well as mind-blowing accomplishments

• FAQ section linked from the front page

• Link to important WoW Resources readily available from the front page (WowWiki comes to mind)

• Other important information readily available, including screenshots of GMs endorsing the dual-boxing community (let’s encourage others to join us in our distinctive journey!)

• We will be adding a donation button to help upgrade the sites bandwidth and allow dual-boxing.com to operate on a whole new level

Awesome work Ellay!! :)

Ellay,

Please get one of your female characters to sticky your recommendations, and put your recommendations in the first post of the thread. Thanks!

As someone who is just about to start multiboxing after doing all the reading and planning and purchasing and screwing around, etc, something that would have been really helpful for me is if there was some organized way of showing what's already been accomplished. Like seeing people's setups & their performance, their classes, and their levels... basically a centralized location for all the blogs.

Like when I was trying to design a system, I tried to find people doing what I wanted to do... and read all their posts trying to dig through and find off-hand comments about framerates and monitor setup to guess at how well my system would behave. I still don't really know how it's going to turn out. I'll let ya'll know on Monday after I've built everything.

Something as simple as a forum where each person who is successfully multiboxing has a thread where they post all the vitals of their system, its performance, the classes they are uses, the current levels, etc. Keep us up to date on their progress and everything else. Something like that would be so immeasurably valuable to someone who wants to get started.

On the subject of blogs, would it be hard to have a blog hosted for anyone that wants one? Ideally everyone could combine the blogs of everyone they wanted to and see them all at the same time, but that would probably require too much work. I don't think it would eat bandwidth since its just text, with pictures/video hosted elsewhere like youtube.

Related to the last two posts about blogs, Is there a way to have a "top list" of, say, the most recent 5 posts in all the forums? Might be worthwhile and save some bandwidth if people could skim the recent topics on one page instead of opening each forum when they saw the "new posts here" button change colors. That might take some massaging of the phpBB code, so I'm wondering if it is even feasible.

[edit] Nevermind, I'm a retard. Link on the top-right of teh forum list for "View posts since last visit." lol...Ugh needum sleep.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zaelar

On the subject of blogs, would it be hard to have a blog hosted for anyone that wants one? Ideally everyone could combine the blogs of everyone they wanted to and see them all at the same time, but that would probably require too much work. I don't think it would eat bandwidth since its just text, with pictures/video hosted elsewhere like youtube.

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http://vyndree.com/blog/index.php?blog=1

This is a thing I've been playing with today but haven't really gotten used to. It can actually have multiple blogs and aggregate them all into a main blog. (The bar at the top shows a "Linkblog" and a "Multibox" blog).

Here's the link to the official site: http://b2evolution.net/

Maybe if someone could put a list together of all the bloggers with RSS feeds, that could also work. Examples: http://allrss.com/rssremixers.html

I do not see the need of integrating guild or blog info into the site. I kept a blog when leveling my 5box group, and now sometimes update it, but I wouldnt want to port that to some other site. There must be a zillion free blog sites out there, so no new solution is really needed there.

What I think could do with some more thought, is the forum structure.

General to Macro's is good and needed.

Ater that it gets more confused. We should give the things we do in game that are different from the normal single-char player more room.
Leveling and gearing-up. Quest-Dungeon-Raid does not quite work for multiboxers, so rep, pvp and heroic badge rewards are more important after the dungeon phase.
Dungeon and Raid encounters from a multiboxing point of view. How do different boxers handle the various encounters?
PvP Again from a multiboxing point of view.
These three should keep the general MMORG forum company nicely for in game matters.

Screenshots and Movies are not really topic bound in the forum. A movie or screenshot can be about many things, and should go in the forum that is appropriate for its topic, rather than into a forum by itself. Having a forum where people post their computer setup is popular, and may deserve a separate category, but pictures by themselves not. Movies - maybe =]

My two cents, I promise I wont cry if you ignore my feedback. :wink:

Actually if you want to add blogs from ppl that have them, that should be too much of an obstacle. Must blogs support rss feeds (or some sort of rss method), you can easilly parse that into any layout you wish to have/make/get.
It wouldnt take too much time to fix. If you needed some help with that, let me know.

Suggestions:

• Any chance of a review sections that holds reviews of hardware that has actually been used by multi-boxers, I know I mentioned this further up this thread. But looking through Hardware Tools (or software for that matter) to find what has actually been tested, rather than questions about a piece of hardware or tips on how to set something up.
  
  Some of Xzin's posts are very informative, though I don't how much he's tested personally, there are others too but they quickly get buried under the dross of questions, comments and thoughts.
  
• I know at the moment Ellay uses google adverts at the bottom of the page for adverts, I've even clicked on one or two, the targeting seems to be quite good, and I've not seen a gold add yet which for a WoW fan site is rather amazing :D. I wonder though if some adverts aimed at multi-boxers might also work. I'm sure the people that make the XKeys and similar hardware or perhaps Ergotron would want some advertising, afterall some of our (okay not mine really ;)) users already use their products.