The 'Box

[Drewar]

Just a quick note to say that I really enjoy The 'Box.

It's very well put together, informative, and beautifully presented.

Great job to lawrawrrr and everyone else who is involved :)

[-Nick]

Started to be a much more community thing now. Great job lawrawrrr;

[Yupt]

Yeah I went through them the other day and it genuinely is really good, I would encourage people to check them out.

And whilst you're at it check out www.habbox.com/comps xoxo (sorry it had to be done)

[Inseriousity.]

yeah I enjoy reading it too :)

[nvrspk4]

Agreed. One thing I would say is that it's a little buried. Any way to make it more prominent? As of right now I think the only "discovery" method is via certain signature images. I don't think you'd find it on the website unless you were specifically looking for it. Maybe one of the rotating banner images on the homepage?

[lawrawrrr]

Agreed. One thing I would say is that it's a little buried. Any way to make it more prominent? As of right now I think the only "discovery" method is via certain signature images. I don't think you'd find it on the website unless you were specifically looking for it. Maybe one of the rotating banner images on the homepage?

This isn't a bad idea actually! There's usually a forum notice of some kind around the time it comes out but I know I don't do nearly enough to promote it! I'd hope people tell their friends and stuff about it and pass on the message about it 'cos there's only so many people I can spam with the link! Definitely willing to think of more ways because I really enjoy doing it and want to give something to the community from a Content side of things.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments, by the way :)

[Inseriousity.]

I suggested a subscription thing where you get told that it's been released if you sign up to being notified about it cos I nearly missed it this month myself.

[Martin]

It's a shame it couldn't have its own widget/be embedded into habbox.com or something as I think it would be a neat feature to have on the main site to keep it up to date.


Remove the articles and embed the box on the front page woo!



Seriously though, I love reading the box, I think everyone works super hard on it and it always has funny bits too which I think really helps brighten everything up! :D

[nvrspk4]

I suggested a subscription thing where you get told that it's been released if you sign up to being notified about it cos I nearly missed it this month myself.

Agreed, this would be great.

I also like the approach with releasing teasers and advance info through The Box. Obviously you won't always have things as big as HxSS all the time but even small notices about things that are coming down the pipeline gives people another reason to read it and get the news a little earlier.

[lawrawrrr]

I suggested a subscription thing where you get told that it's been released if you sign up to being notified about it cos I nearly missed it this month myself.
Yes, I will be implementing this for the next edition, opening "applications" to the subscription later this month :)

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I like the idea of a widget, but at the moment the focus is a bit on V7, so we'll see what can be done there!

[Empired]

the focus is a bit on V7
lol

I would definitely subscribe if there was some way to do that though. Find it really hard to actually find the editions even though I wanna read them :(

[xxMATTGxx]

Yes, I will be implementing this for the next edition, opening "applications" to the subscription later this month :)

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I like the idea of a widget, but at the moment the focus is a bit on V7, so we'll see what can be done there!

I have an idea for that but It will have to wait until I'm back at the end of next week.

[lawrawrrr]

lol

I would definitely subscribe if there was some way to do that though. Find it really hard to actually find the editions even though I wanna read them :(

They're all on the same page under the Community tab on Habbox.com! www.habbox.com/thebox :)
xxMATTGxx; I'm intrigued........

[Chippiewill]

Yes, I will be implementing this for the next edition, opening "applications" to the subscription later this month :)

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I like the idea of a widget, but at the moment the focus is a bit on V7, so we'll see what can be done there!

A widget is a 20 minute job, Recursion (Or a site coder I guess) should easily be able to do it if Matt pesters him enough.

[Empired]

They're all on the same page under the Community tab on Habbox.com! www.habbox.com/thebox (http://www.habbox.com/thebox) :)
@xxMATTGxx (http://www.habboxforum.com/member.php?u=1020); I'm intrigued........
oh ok thanks, I've been searching through the CNB :'(
and how dare you say i smell to yupt how rude ;l;l;ll;;l;l

[Rachel]

I always enjoyed reading The Box since Laura made it. I sure hope I can pick my next victim for the interview ;). If not it will be next month :)

[lawrawrrr]

oh ok thanks, I've been searching through the CNB :'(
and how dare you say i smell to yupt how rude ;l;l;ll;;l;l

Aaah right! I do like to keep them all together somewhere, and they're on the issuu account too :)

i swear I didn't, just Yupt; just likes stirring ;(

[FlyingJesus]

I enjoyed the mini-rant about Sam not doing her job and yeah overall seems to be hugely improved since the first one, not noticing spelling mistakes and things all through it now so that's good too :P

[Lewis]

I enjoyed the mini-rant about Sam not doing her job and yeah overall seems to be hugely improved since the first one, not noticing spelling mistakes and things all through it now so that's good too :P

where was that what

confused pls

[Inseriousity.]

lol I wondered if it was about sam but it could apply to more than 1 person so can't really be too sure :P

[Lewis]

lol I wondered if it was about sam but it could apply to more than 1 person so can't really be too sure :P

oh i think you're right

i bet you @:odey: (http://www.habboxforum.com/member.php?u=37924); wrote it or another ( A )GM ok

[:odey:]

oh i think you're right

i bet you @:odey: (http://www.habboxforum.com/member.php?u=37924); wrote it or another ( A )GM ok

i'll turn my poisonous pen on you next month mk,...

Not it wasn't me.

To be fair it's probably Viba; about me. ;)

[FlyingJesus]

Oh yeah could be about you actually

[lawrawrrr]

Even I don't know who it's about! Was submitted using the anonymous form on tumblr!

[Drew]

I love The Box! Is it September yet

[Matt]

I enjoyed reading it!

Although you had my habbo avatar in the section about Rhys & Matt :( I thought that section was all about me but I was let down. What happened lawrawrrr; ?!

[lawrawrrr]

I enjoyed reading it!

Although you had my habbo avatar in the section about Rhys & Matt :( I thought that section was all about me but I was let down. What happened lawrawrrr; ?!

I've just had a look, it was from last month and the image never updated... I definitely forgot to proof read this one oops!

[Kyle]

The Don;s feature is the best part, just needs more images :)

The box is really becoming a great community project, what a genius concept :)

Also lol at the Sam/odey rant Hahahaha

[The Don]

The Don;s feature is the best part, just needs more images :)

The box is really becoming a great community project, what a genius concept :)

Also lol at the Sam/odey rant Hahahaha

Thanks, i'm glad somebody enjoys reading it! Always difficult coming up with an interesting topic to write about :P

[Chippiewill]

I know that the whole issuu thing seems quite cool to some people. But seriously, are we stuck in perpetual 2006 just by virtue of being a Habbo fansite? I'm not sure bulky flash apps have been a practical way to distribute digital magazines for about 8 years. Could we look at moving to PDFs which have been a reaffirmed standard for digital publishing since flash went out of fashion. It's far, far easier to navigate a PDF and makes it far easier to distribute.

On the side of content it's actually improved a lot since the first issue, it's still a little light but it's nice that it's staying as mostly a community thing rather than a stamped out 100 pages from a specific department. The graphics/formatting still leave a lot to be desired (I'd be especially careful rotating pixel art AA is a difficult beast to tame) but it's also improved, and it's certainly not bland. My favourite section by far is definitely the wiki bit, nice to see the wiki getting some love.

[lawrawrrr]

Issuu is a fantastic platform for sharing interactive magazines, it also lets me keep track of stats, which is why I'll keep using it for now :)

[Chippiewill]

Issuu is a fantastic platform for sharing interactive magazines, it also lets me keep track of stats, which is why I'll keep using it for now :)

You can use a URL shortener to track stats going to PDFs. Issuu it really clunky.

[lawrawrrr]

Thank you for your feedback, but I really like Issuu and use it in every other journalism job I've done so it's what I know and what I'm going to stick with! Now we've got the plugin on the forum as well it's fairly OK for most people to read it I should think.

[FlyingJesus]

What's the interactive part don't you just click next page

[lawrawrrr]

Yes, that's generally what interactive means. There are also a lot of other cool features that I haven't managed to figure out what to do! It's simply... better than just looking at a blank document, that's why I love readers like this.

[FlyingJesus]

Well in that case a pdf is also interactive

[Chippiewill]

Yes, that's generally what interactive means. There are also a lot of other cool features that I haven't managed to figure out what to do! It's simply... better than just looking at a blank document, that's why I love readers like this.

I wasn't aware that without using issuu that the page would be blank.

It should be about the content, not the plugin with the gimmicky features. It's pretty annoying not being able to scroll through a digital document. If you have to improve upon 'just reading' the content then the issue isn't with how they're reading it but what they're reading.

[-Nick]

I love The Box! Is it September yet
Whats happening to August?

[nvrspk4]

I have experience as well with Issuu for documents that we presented for conferences we ran, it does a better job of portraying booklet-style content than Adobe and is less finicky about displaying on webpages, triggers less issues (no pun intended) from different browser configurations, etc. Designing a PDF is slightly different than designing a booklet-style paper and provides less flexibility as far as design options (limited to one page rather than a cross-page design).

Perhaps a plaintext version could be created for those who really don't like the frills? That way people who just hate the Issuu format they can get the information in another way, but it's stripped down enough that most people will still choose to use the nice-looking format? I'm sure you could find ways to track readership of the plaintext version using regular website tracking statistics.

[Drew]

Whats happening to August?
Just looking forward to the next issue :P