Habbox.com Site Suggestions.

[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 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.



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.



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.

Show Hide

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.