Habbox.com Site Suggestions.

[Alkaz]

http://assets.habbox.com/images/29habbox_needs_youi.gif


A while a go a thread was made in the feedback forum about a new site skin for Habbox.com. We've currently been planning a new site for a long time now but finally, it is actually happening. This is where we need you. We've got our own ideas of what we would like to see for Habbox and what is going to be implemented but we want to hear from you all, the users of the site what you would like to see changed, updated or added when we release our new version (v6).

We're open to any suggestions and you may post links to other fansites or images to help describe what you want to see for Habbox.

Suggestions and ideas made in this thread are not guaranteed to be implemented.


Threads merged by Bolt660 (Forum Super Moderator): As they are both of a very similar topic, and ideas can be combined here.

[Josh]

Nice disclaimer. ;)

My suggestion is... somehow link the user system on the website to your forum account. Does anyone actually use the site system?

[Mr-Trainor]

Nice disclaimer. ;)

My suggestion is... somehow link the user system on the website to your forum account. Does anyone actually use the site system?
I believe the content department especially rely on the site's system, as well as managers to update the habbox today - if it's still in use, I haven't checked for a while!

[Tintinnabulate]

Nice disclaimer. ;)

My suggestion is... somehow link the user system on the website to your forum account. Does anyone actually use the site system?

From what I was told, that can be easily possible if what I think will happen happens.

[Nixt]

From what I was told, that can be easily possible if what I think will happen happens.

Care to expand? Lol. Talking in riddles helps no one :'(

[Jamesy]

Care to expand? Lol. Talking in riddles helps no one :'(

I think he's referencing vBCMS which I really hope doesn't happen. My suggestion would definitely be to simplify the site, only keep essential information visible while making sure other content can easily be reached too.

And bring back more orange.

[Nixt]

I think he's referencing vBCMS which I really hope doesn't happen. My suggestion would definitely be to simplify the site, only keep essential information visible while making sure other content can easily be reached too.

And bring back more orange.

Yeah I am not a big fan of vBCMS either, I think it would be a mistake to implement it. If we could integrate a user system that makes it easy to interchange between the site and the forum without having to log out either end, it would be great though. Linking the two would be cool but obviously the intricacies would have to be scrutinised before final implementation.

I agree that the site should be simplified. It's simply got too overbearing over time I think. Whilst we want to stand out from other Habbo fansites we also want to bring ourselves in line with their easy navigation but also active promotion of content without having to overcomplicate the navigation of the site itself. I think we currently rely too heavily on the rotator banner which, whilst being very useful, isn't as effective as overhauling how the site is navigated and used by the average visitor.

I think the widget system that we should be introducing will be massively beneficial in making the site simpler and easier to use.

[Robbie]

I thought that during the managers meeting it was said that there's no way people were going to be allowed to use one account for both site and forum?

[Nixt]

I thought that during the managers meeting it was said that there's no way people were going to be allowed to use one account for both site and forum?

I am open to all suggestions regarding it but obviously that doesn't necessarily mean implementation. I am just throwing ideas out there. I am not talking one synonymous user system but perhaps it would be nice to link HxF to Habbox.com in the way Habbo link to Facebook (if you get my analogy) and vice versa.

[hah]

Hi.

Get rid of news from the main page. Habbox's page is twice/three times as long as any other fansite page which is a huge turn of. You could make it shorter and use the space to advertise events/comps. The news comments average at about 3/4 per article which isnt good at all, especially seeing as its on the main page.

You should also get rid of the graphics section (if its still there). I remember jake being honest when he was agm and saying that they aren't up to the standard of Habbosolutions and other resource fansites. He planned to remove them yet they are still there lol?

When you hopfully move the new from the main page you could get rid of this ?
http://rbguides.com/screenshots/1141771b.png
as they could be posted in the gap left by the news.


also get a flash radio like habboxlive cause it seems to work better lol


this sums up habbox news

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj-nDmXHmng

[xxMATTGxx]

I think he's referencing vBCMS which I really hope doesn't happen. My suggestion would definitely be to simplify the site, only keep essential information visible while making sure other content can easily be reached too.

And bring back more orange.

Theres actually been no mention of vBCMS, so I'm not sure if that's even an idea in Jins head. (Maybe it is) but he has mentioned to some of the Site Coders he is interested in some site designs which some of them have been working on/editing on and so on.


Hi.

Get rid of news from the main page. Habbox's page is twice/three times as long as any other fansite page which is a huge turn of. You could make it shorter and use the space to advertise events/comps. The news comments average at about 3/4 per article which isnt good at all, especially seeing as its on the main page.

You should also get rid of the graphics section (if its still there). I remember jake being honest when he was agm and saying that they aren't up to the standard of Habbosolutions and other resource fansites. He planned to remove them yet they are still there lol?

When you hopfully move the new from the main page you could get rid of this ?
http://rbguides.com/screenshots/1141771b.png
as they could be posted in the gap left by the news.


also get a flash radio like habboxlive cause it seems to work better lol


this sums up habbox news

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj-nDmXHmng

I don't think Habbox news is "dead" like you are suggesting in your nice music video there, nice song anyway. What you see on Habbox.com, is not what you might see on the V6, we want something different and more easier to use and user friendly which does include having widgets and what not. Regarding the Jake/GFX bit, I will leave that for Alkaz.

[Martin]

Hi.

Get rid of news from the main page. Habbox's page is twice/three times as long as any other fansite page which is a huge turn of. You could make it shorter and use the space to advertise events/comps. The news comments average at about 3/4 per article which isnt good at all, especially seeing as its on the main page.

You should also get rid of the graphics section (if its still there). I remember jake being honest when he was agm and saying that they aren't up to the standard of Habbosolutions and other resource fansites. He planned to remove them yet they are still there lol?

When you hopfully move the new from the main page you could get rid of this ?
http://rbguides.com/screenshots/1141771b.png
as they could be posted in the gap left by the news.


also get a flash radio like habboxlive cause it seems to work better lol


this sums up habbox news

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj-nDmXHmng


From what I understand (although I haven't been told too much yet), news will be more condensed in the new version. I think instead of having near enough full articles displayed it would be good to have like just the first paragraph along with an image (possibly all sized the same if possible). This would allow for "blocking" of articles side by side rather than just a long lengthy list of them. This would look smart, be functional, still mean we can attract readers attention with the headline/image and also mean that pressing "read more" will take them to the full article. Individual news pages could of course be kept normal, with full length articles, but I think for the front page more of a smart system like this needs to be implemented.

I completely disagree that news is "dead", and I think the fact that popular articles still attract comments is good. Some sites don't have a comments system and so it's a useful thing to have. Pre-merge we had a couple of articles with excess of 100 comments. It often depends on what the Habbo news is, and how important.

I think the News reporters do a really good job in writing up the articles, and effectively saying we are "dead" is rather insulting to those who work at their best to ensure the readers are happy. We have to ensure that we are aiming our articles at the correct usebase, and whilst older forum members may not like the news element of the site, we have to remember that we are a Habbo fansite and providing a solid foundation of all the news and goings ons within Habbo is a core element.

Thanks for your feedback, but I really was quite upset and quite hurt by your comments, which in all fairness lacked constructive critisism on how you think we could improve. I'm always open to suggestions. As I outlined above, I think the best way to go would to "shorten" the news aspect down by blocking the articles side by side, with perhaps 6 articles on the front page (2 columns of 3). I'm not sure if there is a new system being put in to write/present articles, but I'm sure this will all be found out in due time.


Edit: I also just read you wanted to put the Habbox today section where news is? I think that would be ridiculous considering Habbox today is something which just lets you know what's going on with departments and events etc. It needs to remain a Habbo fansite, and featuring Habbo content should remain important.

I think there is going to be widgets anyway, so you may well be able to move certain things round. Nearly 600 people took the current poll on the site (which is a lot of views alone) and 70% said the news articles look good. 40% of the figure said "they read them all the time". I know this isn't conclusive evidence, but it does show that a nice amount of people are reading articles.

[Meanies]

the whole site just needs simplifying. there's too much text and its ugly. the homepage is too cluttered and is just likely to force people away
the colours are ugly. yeah managment say 'but they're the traditional habbox colours' or whatever. every time this comes up, users object and say they're ugly. but oh no, management have to dictate what users get (which i know in a way is what they're there for, but the colouring is a key thing in layouts and having colours people don't want and have shown they don't want it just stupid)
as if the main colour scheme wasnt ugly enough, the nav colours are just awful and i don't know why management insisted on them in the first place because it just makes adding things to the menu so much harder because when i was agm i wasnt actually told how to add colour to a menu item and so had to swap items for something which already had a colour, and people say i had bad communication. look at yourselvessss
the navs also so cluttered. before i got fired (lol) my plan was to make all links go to a 'hub' as the guides page does as it's much neater, clearer and more user-friendly as it gives users an idea of whats on each page. don't know if this is still being done, but it should be done
a lot of content on the site is also a mess which i was slowly focusing on in my time as agm and making sure people were sorting it, but seems not. the staff page is something i was going to delay until the rest of the site was sorted so that it could be done well, but look at it, its just a complete mess and if i was the one responsible for it, i'd be ashamed. not being big-headed or anything (well it is but whatever), i think i was what kept the quality of content up. when i quit as manager i think the first time, the site went to **** so i offered to come back and get the quality back. then i got fired, and the site's quality has gone down again. not saying i was the only factor in this, but some content staff work nowhere near as hard as required

@graham, yeh i was gna remove that whole section but got fired before i could lol
@bolt, there's a module for joomla i'm using on someones site that does that, not sure if it'd work how you said but it worked for what i wanted, www.emergencystories.com - right hand top module. think the modules called aidanews or something

[Alkaz]

A few weeks ago the graphics section was merged with the fun stuff section. Just like the rare watch section was removed, that is now a history article which can be found under guides but -:Undertaker:- is working on a new rare watch which will soon be under the rare values section. Hopefully the fun stuff and rare values sections will have a spruce up before our new version as well as getting rid of things which just aren't used any more.

As for the rest of the thread I will reply a little later. :)

[Alkaz]

I believe the content department especially rely on the site's system, as well as managers to update the habbox today - if it's still in use, I haven't checked for a while!
Yeh we still do rely heavily on it however what was suggested I think is possible but like Garion said it is something which will have to be discussed.


And bring back more orange.
Hopefully we will but with a better orange and making it more subtle.


Get rid of news from the main page. Habbox's page is twice/three times as long as any other fansite page which is a huge turn of. You could make it shorter and use the space to advertise events/comps. The news comments average at about 3/4 per article which isnt good at all, especially seeing as its on the main page.

We're looking at trying to reduce this and fill the space more effectively however I think that there will still be news on the front page.
Hopefully with the widgets people will have more freedom as to what they want on their own homepage.

[Meanies]

Yeh we still do rely heavily on it however what was suggested I think is possible but like Garion said it is something which will have to be discussed.


Hopefully we will but with a better orange and making it more subtle.


We're looking at trying to reduce this and fill the space more effectively however I think that there will still be news on the front page.
Hopefully with the widgets people will have more freedom as to what they want on their own homepage.

just ignore my post then, not like it was there for a reason

[Blob]

In response to the news comment, I think we are letting you customise what you see on the main page, whether it be rare values, news, games, etc.

[AgnesIO]

I think sex mentioned this but a flash player for the radio..

HxL flash works so much better to WMP on hx

[Alkaz]

just ignore my post then, not like it was there for a reason
I wasn't just ignoring your post, you had a lot in there which I would have replied to but when I did post I didn't have the time.

[lTraditional]

Is this just for the website? I have ideas for both forum and site but maybe you could add some special features such as Habbo of The Week or Habbo Spotlight? Also, a suggestion for Rare Values, maybe add a page which has the latest news for Rare Values like the latest rares which will be comming soon like the old Rare Watch or something.

[Meanies]

I wasn't just ignoring your post, you had a lot in there which I would have replied to but when I did post I didn't have the time.

'As for the rest of the thread I will reply a little later.'
presumably meaning when you had more time and could have given indepth answers and an answer to mine also.

[xxMATTGxx]

Is this just for the website? I have ideas for both forum and site but maybe you could add some special features such as Habbo of The Week or Habbo Spotlight? Also, a suggestion for Rare Values, maybe add a page which has the latest news for Rare Values like the latest rares which will be comming soon like the old Rare Watch or something.

This thread is mainly for the next version of the website, Habbox.com. :)

[Con]

My suggestion would definitely be to simplify the site, only keep essential information visible while making sure other content can easily be reached too.

And bring back more orange.
I agree with this. Only keep the essentials and make it look less crowded, and remove that horrible enlargement thing of the habbos at the top.
+ Definitely bring back more of the traditional orange :)

[Dean]

Scrap orange and blue crap themes please they're boring

Reminds me of puke

[hah]

From what I understand (although I haven't been told too much yet), news will be more condensed in the new version. I think instead of having near enough full articles displayed it would be good to have like just the first paragraph along with an image (possibly all sized the same if possible). This would allow for "blocking" of articles side by side rather than just a long lengthy list of them. This would look smart, be functional, still mean we can attract readers attention with the headline/image and also mean that pressing "read more" will take them to the full article. Individual news pages could of course be kept normal, with full length articles, but I think for the front page more of a smart system like this needs to be implemented.

I completely disagree that news is "dead", and I think the fact that popular articles still attract comments is good. Some sites don't have a comments system and so it's a useful thing to have. Pre-merge we had a couple of articles with excess of 100 comments. It often depends on what the Habbo news is, and how important.



I think the News reporters do a really good job in writing up the articles, and effectively saying we are "dead" is rather insulting to those who work at their best to ensure the readers are happy. We have to ensure that we are aiming our articles at the correct usebase, and whilst older forum members may not like the news element of the site, we have to remember that we are a Habbo fansite and providing a solid foundation of all the news and goings ons within Habbo is a core element.

Thanks for your feedback, but I really was quite upset and quite hurt by your comments, which in all fairness lacked constructive critisism on how you think we could improve. I'm always open to suggestions. As I outlined above, I think the best way to go would to "shorten" the news aspect down by blocking the articles side by side, with perhaps 6 articles on the front page (2 columns of 3). I'm not sure if there is a new system being put in to write/present articles, but I'm sure this will all be found out in due time.


Edit: I also just read you wanted to put the Habbox today section where news is? I think that would be ridiculous considering Habbox today is something which just lets you know what's going on with departments and events etc. It needs to remain a Habbo fansite, and featuring Habbo content should remain important.

I think there is going to be widgets anyway, so you may well be able to move certain things round. Nearly 600 people took the current poll on the site (which is a lot of views alone) and 70% said the news articles look good. 40% of the figure said "they read them all the time". I know this isn't conclusive evidence, but it does show that a nice amount of people are reading articles.

Its a Habbo fansite, you're 18 years of age (i think) and you're seriously getting hurt over someone saying the news department is dead :rolleyes:. It's an ugly long eye sore on the Habbox main page, and there is simply no need for it seeing as Habbo provides in client news. All you and your department do is reword it

There is no constructive criticism to give because it should not be there. There is nothing you can improve on and if i wanted to know Habbo news i would look on the forums, then the Habbo client. I wouldnt look on the Habbox site.

[Special]

- change the horrible orange colour to a more professional colour
- make the 'habbox guide' a drop down menu like the other options
- the 'news' section is a bit pointless too imho - habbo users are looking for habbo related things, if they wanted real life news they would look elsewhere
- change the habboxlive website to match the habbo one - atm it's very different & anyone who didn't know any better would think it's a completely different fansite

[Alkaz]

Is this just for the website? I have ideas for both forum and site but maybe you could add some special features such as Habbo of The Week or Habbo Spotlight? Also, a suggestion for Rare Values, maybe add a page which has the latest news for Rare Values like the latest rares which will be comming soon like the old Rare Watch or something.
I like the idea of the Habbo Spotlight, it could change daily and have people on it who have won member of the month, best comments on news on the site etc. Something a little extra for recognition of their efforts.


the whole site just needs simplifying. there's too much text and its ugly. the homepage is too cluttered and is just likely to force people away
We've realised this and we're hoping for a much simpler design which we hope will actually be contemporary compared to most of our previous versions and hopefully compared to other fansites. With the widgets feature which we will be having people will be able to have as much or as little information and bits and pieces on the page as they like.
the colours are ugly. yeah managment say 'but they're the traditional habbox colours' or whatever. every time this comes up, users object and say they're ugly. but oh no, management have to dictate what users get (which i know in a way is what they're there for, but the colouring is a key thing in layouts and having colours people don't want and have shown they don't want it just stupid)
Again, coupled with a much more contemporary design we hope there wont be awful clashes of colour all over the site however despite us dictating it to everyone, we will be keeping the orange. At the moment we don't know to what extent but it will definitely still be featuring in our new designs.
as if the main colour scheme wasnt ugly enough, the nav colours are just awful and i don't know why management insisted on them in the first place because it just makes adding things to the menu so much harder because when i was agm i wasnt actually told how to add colour to a menu item and so had to swap items for something which already had a colour, and people say i had bad communication. look at yourselvessss
I agree completely with you on this point, hopefully we wont have anything as disgusting again. I don't know if you were told but the only way to add colour is via ftp and General Managers / Jin are never that keen on giving it out, let alone to change areas of the site which could potentially be a big mistake if I / you were to change everything as though it had been hacked. I hope that the new navigation will just have one simple colour.
the navs also so cluttered. before i got fired (lol) my plan was to make all links go to a 'hub' as the guides page does as it's much neater, clearer and more user-friendly as it gives users an idea of whats on each page. don't know if this is still being done, but it should be done
a lot of content on the site is also a mess which i was slowly focusing on in my time as agm and making sure people were sorting it, but seems not. the staff page is something i was going to delay until the rest of the site was sorted so that it could be done well, but look at it, its just a complete mess and if i was the one responsible for it, i'd be ashamed.
Yeh that has become a problem, we're trying to go through and updating each page and removing what is not needed. As for the hubs one is planned for the Habbox and Fun Stuff sections, the others don't really need an entire hub. As for the quality and gradually going through things there was what I felt communication issues between myself and you when I became ACDM and when I became AGM I had no idea what your intentions were or what you had planned because of the communication. There have been a lot of other things to contend with as well and as for the staff list that will be getting another make over soon as well as elements from the original staff / management list being re-introduced. The main problem at the moment is with the images as we've merged, all of the images were ...co.uk/ where now they are all ...com/ so they've all broken.
not being big-headed or anything (well it is but whatever), i think i was what kept the quality of content up. when i quit as manager i think the first time, the site went to **** so i offered to come back and get the quality back. then i got fired, and the site's quality has gone down again. not saying i was the only factor in this, but some content staff work nowhere near as hard as required

@graham, yeh i was gna remove that whole section but got fired before i could lol
It's been merged with fun stuff but we will still be keeping some things from the graphics section for the time being. The image archive which I think was only updated once was also removed a long time ago and is now a staff only feature.
@bolt, there's a module for joomla i'm using on someones site that does that, not sure if it'd work how you said but it worked for what i wanted, www.emergencystories.com - right hand top module. think the modules called aidanews or something


Scrap orange and blue crap themes please they're boring

Reminds me of puke
As I have said above, the orange will still be kept but made to look a lot better than it does currently.

[hah]

when will the site be done do you know?

[Alkaz]

- change the horrible orange colour to a more professional colour
As I have already said, the orange will be staying. It wont be as vulgar as it has been in the past so it should be pretty pleasing to the eye.
- make the 'habbox guide' a drop down menu like the other options
There are currently 23 articles in the guide hub, having them in a drop down form would make a lot less sense and make navigating guides a lot harder like it used to be.
- the 'news' section is a bit pointless too imho - habbo users are looking for habbo related things, if they wanted real life news they would look elsewhere
Some do and some don't. Personally I don't really read news papers or go to any other websites for this news as a lot of it is in the entertainment section. Anyway it isn't as though it is harming anyone and provides a bit of light reading for people.
- change the habboxlive website to match the habbo one - atm it's very different & anyone who didn't know any better would think it's a completely different fansite
Personally I have to agree but at the moment it is not a major concern of Jin / General Management. This may however change in the future as the Habbox.com is our main concern at the moment.
In red. :)

@sex ~ We're not sure at the moment. We're still trying to develop the skin and update it and this thread is helping provide more ideas and changes we can make to make the site the best we can possibly do. Hopefully nearer the time we can give people a due date for its release.

[Special]

In red. :)

thanks for your reply. i agree with everything you said apart from the news section feedback comment. if some do & some don't why not make a poll on the habbox website & habboxforum website? you said that you want to hear directly from the people who use habbox & personally i can't think of a better way to decide the future of the news section

also on the 'habboxlive website changing' feedback i made a small typo and meant habbox instead of habbo :P

[Martin]

thanks for your reply. i agree with everything you said apart from the news section feedback comment. if some do & some don't why not make a poll on the habbox website & habboxforum website? you said that you want to hear directly from the people who use habbox & personally i can't think of a better way to decide the future of the news section

also on the 'habboxlive website changing' feedback i made a small typo and meant habbox instead of habbo :P


Its a Habbo fansite, you're 18 years of age (i think) and you're seriously getting hurt over someone saying the news department is dead :rolleyes:. It's an ugly long eye sore on the Habbox main page, and there is simply no need for it seeing as Habbo provides in client news. All you and your department do is reword it

There is no constructive criticism to give because it should not be there. There is nothing you can improve on and if i wanted to know Habbo news i would look on the forums, then the Habbo client. I wouldnt look on the Habbox site.


There's been a poll on the main site for nearly a month now. As I said in my earlier post, over 600 people voted in it, with a nice healthy percentage saying they either read the articles "all the time" or that they looked nice. Yes, there will be some who don't like the news aspect, and with the new site version, It's going to be more low key from what I'm told.



Yes, there are going to be slow periods, however in the past we've had lots of comments on articles, and this kind of reader interaction is important.

It all depends on the Habbo news, but often we're able to spark a nice discussion in the comments, even more so than forum posts sometimes. The reporters enjoy it, it's set out in a more personalised way to Habbo, it's from a players point of view.

April was a great month for us, with many articles reaching very high numbers of comments. There seemed to be a serge over that period, and I'm confident it can happen again on a permanent basis.

As set out further up this thread, from what I understand we are condensing things down considerably, making it look nice and streamline, but ensuring that they are still there should people wish for them to be so.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3865423/News%20stuff/goodnews2.png

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3865423/News%20stuff/goodnews3.png



News has always been a strong point of the main site, and looking back over the years from when habbox first started out, there were no comments etc. I think it just depends on the individual, which is why this widgets thing should be perfect.

[hah]

Seriously, it was an idea. Read the thread title. I have no idea why you are shooting my ideas down when they are only suggestions, there is no need to go on a defend the news essay rant at all.

ITS AN IDEA

[Alkaz]

Even if it ends that news is no longer on the front page it is here to stay. :)

[Jamesy]

Seriously, it was an idea. Read the thread title. I have no idea why you are shooting my ideas down when they are only suggestions, there is no need to go on a defend the news essay rant at all.

ITS AN IDEA

He's making fair and valid counterpoints to your arguments. Ideas are best discussed in this way so they are refined and improved on as the process goes on.

[Meanies]

the whole site just needs simplifying. there's too much text and its ugly. the homepage is too cluttered and is just likely to force people away
We've realised this and we're hoping for a much simpler design which we hope will actually be contemporary compared to most of our previous versions and hopefully compared to other fansites. With the widgets feature which we will be having people will be able to have as much or as little information and bits and pieces on the page as they like.
if this actually happens, then obviously its going to be a plus for the site and make people come back more than previously.
the colours are ugly. yeah managment say 'but they're the traditional habbox colours' or whatever. every time this comes up, users object and say they're ugly. but oh no, management have to dictate what users get (which i know in a way is what they're there for, but the colouring is a key thing in layouts and having colours people don't want and have shown they don't want it just stupid)
Again, coupled with a much more contemporary design we hope there wont be awful clashes of colour all over the site however despite us dictating it to everyone, we will be keeping the orange. At the moment we don't know to what extent but it will definitely still be featuring in our new designs.
why. people don't want the orange and blue, listen to them and maybe the site will be popular again. or if an orange site is forced upon us, at least make the layout in a few different colours and allow users to choose
as if the main colour scheme wasnt ugly enough, the nav colours are just awful and i don't know why management insisted on them in the first place because it just makes adding things to the menu so much harder because when i was agm i wasnt actually told how to add colour to a menu item and so had to swap items for something which already had a colour, and people say i had bad communication. look at yourselvessss
I agree completely with you on this point, hopefully we wont have anything as disgusting again. I don't know if you were told but the only way to add colour is via ftp and General Managers / Jin are never that keen on giving it out, let alone to change areas of the site which could potentially be a big mistake if I / you were to change everything as though it had been hacked. I hope that the new navigation will just have one simple colour.
what do you mean hopefully. if someone says its going to be just as ghastly, object to it. the only reason i couldn't on the current layout was because i was only manager i think and oh no limey decisions are final. lol do you not have ftp? jin gave me full access
the navs also so cluttered. before i got fired (lol) my plan was to make all links go to a 'hub' as the guides page does as it's much neater, clearer and more user-friendly as it gives users an idea of whats on each page. don't know if this is still being done, but it should be done
a lot of content on the site is also a mess which i was slowly focusing on in my time as agm and making sure people were sorting it, but seems not. the staff page is something i was going to delay until the rest of the site was sorted so that it could be done well, but look at it, its just a complete mess and if i was the one responsible for it, i'd be ashamed.
Yeh that has become a problem, we're trying to go through and updating each page and removing what is not needed. As for the hubs one is planned for the Habbox and Fun Stuff sections, the others don't really need an entire hub. As for the quality and gradually going through things there was what I felt communication issues between myself and you when I became ACDM and when I became AGM I had no idea what your intentions were or what you had planned because of the communication. There have been a lot of other things to contend with as well and as for the staff list that will be getting another make over soon as well as elements from the original staff / management list being re-introduced. The main problem at the moment is with the images as we've merged, all of the images were ...co.uk/ where now they are all ...com/ so they've all broken.
well it's taking a long time to do that. it's something i'd started back in january before i was fired, why has it taken 6 months and its still not happened. its something that should have taken a week or two, or less if people put in enough effort. that's because i didn't like you and didn't want you as an assistant but had you forced on me lol. it shouldn't need another makeover, it should've been designed properly before it was released:S why would the images in content be broken, if people did as they were supposed to, images would be hosted on habbox servers to avoid that problem.
not being big-headed or anything (well it is but whatever), i think i was what kept the quality of content up. when i quit as manager i think the first time, the site went to **** so i offered to come back and get the quality back. then i got fired, and the site's quality has gone down again. not saying i was the only factor in this, but some content staff work nowhere near as hard as required

@graham, yeh i was gna remove that whole section but got fired before i could lol
It's been merged with fun stuff but we will still be keeping some things from the graphics section for the time being. The image archive which I think was only updated once was also removed a long time ago and is now a staff only feature.
in blue

[Alkaz]

The orange is staying and it may be that people can change the colours and customise it how they want, you will have to wait and see.

I mean ''hopefully'' as in everyone will like it and we wont release it and everyone immediately hates it.

And I do have ftp access but not to be able to do that. It isn't really something I have really needed to be honest, I guess Sam or Jin forgot to give me access to that when they let you go.

The images are broken because the Habbo.co.uk images updated when the person on Habbo changed their look which was better than someone updating it. Especially now it is a script and adds people automatically as well when Garion sets up their forum permissions.

Sorry my reply is not as, in-depth as you may have liked this time around.

[HotelUser]

What is your ideal Habbox.com? What do you think would draw in users, be appealing, fun and make Habbox.com the number one English speaking website around the Habbo community?

Behind the scenes we've been discussing layout ideas, but I think I speak for all of us when I say there's been a lack in communication when it comes to seeing what everyone else would like to see, particularly when it comes to features the site has to offer.

+rep for any good ideas!

Threads merged by Bolt660 (Forum Super Moderator): As they are both of a very similar topic, and ideas can be combined here.

[Nemo]

I dont think there is much you can do besides having lots of events (which afaik, we do already), having upto date and good rare values (which from what i remember/see, needs to be improved), and changing the layout (which you've covered already). Habbo has covered most things themselves, so besides this forum and the radio, there isn't much left.

[Robbie]

Would you as users of the site find something such as www.habbotimes.de and www.habborator.org easy enough to use, and do you think something like this would be suitable for Habbox?

[Nemo]

Would you as users of the site find something such as www.habbotimes.de (http://www.habbotimes.de) and www.habborator.org (http://www.habborator.org) easy enough to use, and do you think something like this would be suitable for Habbox?
i dont see anything complicated with habbotimes, but i HATE habborator. There is so much you might miss out and nothing is clear what it is unless you look at where it's linking you two. So i'd never use it if it was like that

[Neversoft]

In all honesty I think Habbox is fine as it is.

[Martin]

I definitely prefer the Habbotimes one over habborator. I love the way the articles are set out, and this is something I would like to see happen with our news. Shorter versions of the article, set out with a standard size image, meaning basically short "previews" of the article, and a link to view the whole thing. This looks better, more organised, takes up less space and should be quite easy to set up I think.

[Pyroka]

Pornbox.com. God damnit it has to happen, me and --ss-- demand it.

[Catzsy]

In all honesty I think Habbox is fine as it is.

I agree with Chris but probably because I am oldschool too.

[HotelUser]

I definitely prefer the Habbotimes one over habborator. I love the way the articles are set out, and this is something I would like to see happen with our news. Shorter versions of the article, set out with a standard size image, meaning basically short "previews" of the article, and a link to view the whole thing. This looks better, more organised, takes up less space and should be quite easy to set up I think.

This seems to be the patten for most online news and blog sites. Definitely something we could use on Habbox if it's agreed upon!


I agree with Chris but probably because I am oldschool too.

I would love to see an oldschool Habbox layout being used, but I think the cheese stands alone on that one :P

[GommeInc]

What would I like to see? Alot less :P The main page is very cluttered. Even though the idea is for users to customise, people who are not users should probably be greeted with a clean frontpage that a gaggle of news articles which aren't that amazing. ClubHabbo seem to have a mixture of what they do, rather than what Habbo do, so maybe follow that league? It's what many sites do - clean, brief information that can be obtained by clicking links and titles, like news articles are shown off by the name of the article which you click and get the full story.

It's a shame you can't merge the forum, radio and main site together, so they all look the same except when you click "Forum" it immediately loads the forum and there you have the topics. Same with HabboxLive and the main site :)

[Alkaz]

I think that the idea is that when it is finally complete that it will have minimal information on it, like you have already said and then people will be able to add other stuff as and when they like. There will be something at the top of the page as well which will be there for a while when the site is released to help people with customizing their page. Also it is a possibility that there will be a 'help tool' like feature for people to use as well.

I actually like the idea of like swapping between the three sites on Habbox.com but I don't know if it would be possible or even if Jin would entertain the idea.

[The Don]

Update the rare values more often, advertise the forum and habbox live more but please don't change it to a habborator style.

[Blob]

I find Habborator horrible and hard to use. I even spent ages looking for the site map!

[Dinosaurawrr]

HABBOTIMES IS AMAZING
just sayin....................................
I think we could learn from them.

[GommeInc]

I think that the idea is that when it is finally complete that it will have minimal information on it, like you have already said and then people will be able to add other stuff as and when they like. There will be something at the top of the page as well which will be there for a while when the site is released to help people with customizing their page. Also it is a possibility that there will be a 'help tool' like feature for people to use as well.

I actually like the idea of like swapping between the three sites on Habbox.com but I don't know if it would be possible or even if Jin would entertain the idea.
It's possible :) You could link the forum database to the main site and have the registered forum members appear logged on to the main site so they don't have to make another one. It would mean overhauling all forum skins and all site skins, then remaking them so that the light Habbo skin appears on the forum and the main site. It's do-able, but such a huge project.

[Lost_Addict]

A like button.

For those comments you like but don't believe need rep.

E.G Toy story 3 was amazing!

[Jamesy]

It's possible :) You could link the forum database to the main site and have the registered forum members appear logged on to the main site so they don't have to make another one. It would mean overhauling all forum skins and all site skins, then remaking them so that the light Habbo skin appears on the forum and the main site. It's do-able, but such a huge project.

The issue with that being that when various updates happen either side, it could potentially break the link (and we only control the updates from one of those sides ;))

[HotelUser]

Update the rare values more often, advertise the forum and habbox live more but please don't change it to a habborator style.

I can only speak from a coder's perspective here, not a tactical perspective as I'm not involved with the values department, although I do believe changes are underway to improve upon the attention and functionality of rare values.


A like button.

For those comments you like but don't believe need rep.

E.G Toy story 3 was amazing!

Sort of like Engadget has? I love it!


What would I like to see? Alot less :P The main page is very cluttered. Even though the idea is for users to customise, people who are not users should probably be greeted with a clean frontpage that a gaggle of news articles which aren't that amazing. ClubHabbo seem to have a mixture of what they do, rather than what Habbo do, so maybe follow that league? It's what many sites do - clean, brief information that can be obtained by clicking links and titles, like news articles are shown off by the name of the article which you click and get the full story.

It's a shame you can't merge the forum, radio and main site together, so they all look the same except when you click "Forum" it immediately loads the forum and there you have the topics. Same with HabboxLive and the main site :)

That would be quite nice, and it's definitely a contributing factor for leaving Joomla behind. I agree with you about clutterness, and I think what Martin's suggested should substantially improve upon that. In addition I think our layout's going to play role in how compact content on Habbox.com looks.

[Florx]

That would be quite nice, and it's definitely a contributing factor for leaving Joomla behind. I agree with you about clutterness, and I think what Martin's suggested should substantially improve upon that. In addition I think our layout's going to play role in how compact content on Habbox.com looks.

I'm not even sure why you use Joomla, it would be much simpler (read better) to just get one of the coders to whip up a CMS, integrate it with the forums database then you can share users across the two sites. Comments can just be threads, so when a news post is created, it creates a thread with the first post as the new post, when users comment on the article it just appears as a new post in the thread.

This way you can have all the features such as rep, quotes and such along with the comments!

[Martin]

I'm not even sure why you use Joomla, it would be much simpler (read better) to just get one of the coders to whip up a CMS, integrate it with the forums database then you can share users across the two sites. Comments can just be threads, so when a news post is created, it creates a thread with the first post as the new post, when users comment on the article it just appears as a new post in the thread.

This way you can have all the features such as rep, quotes and such along with the comments!

I think I mentioned this in another thread, but they did this on hffm.co.uk too, and it did prove quite popular, and ended up being an extremely popular part of their forum. Giving members the direct opportunity to react and comment on the news, and all the various sections etc. It meant that reporters kind of got more recognition for their work too I guess. Forum based news would be quite easy, it's just whether this is something general management want, when V6 is in the planning stages as it is.


Moving onto V6, I agree that news would need to be a lot smaller, it does take up a longggg space on the front page, and over scrolling on a website is never a good thing!

Rather than just having the titles (which would be quite bad for advertising the articles, and showing them off- I would propose something similar to the following:


I just mocked this up in paint in litereally like 2 seconds, but what it's basically showing, is that there would be more of a fixed "template" for where news ends up on the front page. Keep the titles, keep a SHORT introducion, and keep the image (but at a fixed size).

Doing this would ensure articles still get a deserved space on the page (they do attract 50+ comments sometimes, even hitting 100 in the past few months), and is a nice source of information for habbo players too. The new layout would look neat and tidy, and still offer the full articles at the simple click of a link.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3865423/newsidea1.png

Again, it's very rough, and could probably be even smaller etc, but just showing the basic idea.

[Richie]

Would you as users of the site find something such as www.habbotimes.de and www.habborator.org easy enough to use, and do you think something like this would be suitable for Habbox?


habbotimes

[Florx]

I think I mentioned this in another thread, but they did this on hffm.co.uk too, and it did prove quite popular, and ended up being an extremely popular part of their forum. Giving members the direct opportunity to react and comment on the news, and all the various sections etc. It meant that reporters kind of got more recognition for their work too I guess. Forum based news would be quite easy, it's just whether this is something general management want, when V6 is in the planning stages as it is.


Moving onto V6, I agree that news would need to be a lot smaller, it does take up a longggg space on the front page, and over scrolling on a website is never a good thing!

Rather than just having the titles (which would be quite bad for advertising the articles, and showing them off- I would propose something similar to the following:


I just mocked this up in paint in litereally like 2 seconds, but what it's basically showing, is that there would be more of a fixed "template" for where news ends up on the front page. Keep the titles, keep a SHORT introducion, and keep the image (but at a fixed size).

Doing this would ensure articles still get a deserved space on the page (they do attract 50+ comments sometimes, even hitting 100 in the past few months), and is a nice source of information for habbo players too. The new layout would look neat and tidy, and still offer the full articles at the simple click of a link.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3865423/newsidea1.png

Again, it's very rough, and could probably be even smaller etc, but just showing the basic idea.

Also, Habbox.com takes up 3/4 of my screen with just nonsense at the top before getting to the news bit. The header needs making less tall, and all of the other stuff needs moving to side bars out of the way, either that or make the layout 100% and have multiple columns.

[Dean]

You really need to change the layout so a volume button can be implemented. I use a Mac so I can't turn the volume down on Habbox.com

I think more colourful banners should be placed around the site and more site updates (like HFFM, their updates and banners are nice and up to date).

[HotelUser]

I think I mentioned this in another thread, but they did this on hffm.co.uk too, and it did prove quite popular, and ended up being an extremely popular part of their forum. Giving members the direct opportunity to react and comment on the news, and all the various sections etc. It meant that reporters kind of got more recognition for their work too I guess. Forum based news would be quite easy, it's just whether this is something general management want, when V6 is in the planning stages as it is.


Moving onto V6, I agree that news would need to be a lot smaller, it does take up a longggg space on the front page, and over scrolling on a website is never a good thing!

Rather than just having the titles (which would be quite bad for advertising the articles, and showing them off- I would propose something similar to the following:


I just mocked this up in paint in litereally like 2 seconds, but what it's basically showing, is that there would be more of a fixed "template" for where news ends up on the front page. Keep the titles, keep a SHORT introducion, and keep the image (but at a fixed size).

Doing this would ensure articles still get a deserved space on the page (they do attract 50+ comments sometimes, even hitting 100 in the past few months), and is a nice source of information for habbo players too. The new layout would look neat and tidy, and still offer the full articles at the simple click of a link.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3865423/newsidea1.png

Again, it's very rough, and could probably be even smaller etc, but just showing the basic idea.

I very much so like the sample design, Martin. With some catchy fonts I think that could go a long way. A good commenting interface should also make things feel more fluid too.



I'm not even sure why you use Joomla, it would be much simpler (read better) to just get one of the coders to whip up a CMS, integrate it with the forums database then you can share users across the two sites. Comments can just be threads, so when a news post is created, it creates a thread with the first post as the new post, when users comment on the article it just appears as a new post in the thread.

This way you can have all the features such as rep, quotes and such along with the comments!

The site coders have been buzzing about replacing Joomla for months now. It's certainly something you can expect in the next release of Habbox.

As for login integration with Habbox Forum that depends on a number of factors. I know it's possible to use the forum's user table to validate the login, although after speaking with Jamesy we're still trying to figure out a plausible solution to insert the posts (keeping in mind that there's one heck of a cache going on). Of course before we can even attempt to implement this we would need the permission of Oli, Matt, Garion and of course Jin too.


You really need to change the layout so a volume button can be implemented. I use a Mac so I can't turn the volume down on Habbox.com

I think more colourful banners should be placed around the site and more site updates (like HFFM, their updates and banners are nice and up to date).

I agree about the banners, and to expand upon what you said I think interactive banners might look nice. Perhaps fading text, or moving/fading images.

[Tintinnabulate]

What is your ideal Habbox.com? What do you think would draw in users, be appealing, fun and make Habbox.com the number one English speaking website around the Habbo community?

Behind the scenes we've been discussing layout ideas, but I think I speak for all of us when I say there's been a lack in communication when it comes to seeing what everyone else would like to see, particularly when it comes to features the site has to offer.

+rep for any good ideas!

http://www.habboxforum.com/showthread.php?t=657016
Alkaz posted the same thing? Better to keep it all in one place.
And more events, more "goodies" type things.

[GommeInc]

Has anyone mentioned have winners of forum events mentioned on the main site? Member of the Month for example, latest donator, competition winners etc etc. It would look nice :)

[Martin]

Has anyone mentioned have winners of forum events mentioned on the main site? Member of the Month for example, latest donator, competition winners etc etc. It would look nice :)

That would be good!

Creating more of a community feel on the main site would be nice I think. Unless you're thinking more of a list or something, maybe the News department could write up a weekly (or similar) update of forum events/winners/comps etc? Or maybe it could have it's own subcategory. I know we have a "Habbox" category under news at the moment, but maybe this could be revamped and updated manually (rather than a feed) with things linked with the forum and listing winners etc.

If not, then I still agree it would be great to have them on the site somehow! As a permanent record of achievement if antyhing! xD

[Alkaz]

There is a section on the site which links directly to the forum but we could add articles under that section. I was planning to have a list of donators but it had slipped my mind this week but is something which I presonally wanted to do as well and I like the other ideas you have had. There is a competition page under the Win! Win! Win! section on the site, we could get the competition managers to update another page for winners as well.

Thanks for your suggestion, hopefully we will see them hit the site soon!