Post by Zeli on Apr 16, 2007 18:47:25 GMT -5
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Today, 10:58 AM
Tarinth
Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Eastern MA
Posts: 623
Tarinth is on a distinguished road
Big Update: April 16, 2007
April 16, 2007
We've just added a lot of new features to GuildCafe, and there will be more coming this week--much of what we've just added lays the groundwork for further enhancements.
Favorites System
The biggest new addition to GuildCafe is the Favorites system. This is a system where you can contribute content that may not exist within GuildCafe itself. For example, if you find videos, well-written articles, juicy news or other fun content--you can submit it here. Unlike other "social bookmarking" services, our Favorites system is built around the world of gaming--with news/content categories tied to all the same games that you can associate with your personal page or group.
The main way to access to the Favorites system is through the "Favorites" link on the navigation bar.
What's next:
The Favorites system is going to be expanded in two ways: more integration with the rest of GuildCafe, and special interfaces/widgets that can be used on other sites.
In GuildCafe itself, we're going to make it so that when you vote on a forum thread, or on a blog entry, the content is automatically channeled to the Favorites system. That way you'll have one organized place to look for all the content submissions people are making, both on and off GuildCafe.
Blogs: We're also going to be tieing the blogging system to this more tightly: when you write a blog entry, you'll be able to flag it as a "favorite" automatically so that it can be considered by other members of GuildCafe. These blog entries will initially show up in the "On the Radar" section, and move up to the Hot/Popular sections as they receive votes from other members.
On the outbound side: we'll be making a set of special buttons that you can put on your gaming-related blogs and websites which will enable you to keep track of the votes your posts/articles receive on GuildCafe. The idea is to help you promote your game content and use GuildCafe as a way to help get your best stuff in front of the eyes of more people who are interested in what you have to say.
More on that soon!
Tarinth
Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Eastern MA
Posts: 623
Tarinth is on a distinguished road
Big Update: April 16, 2007
April 16, 2007
We've just added a lot of new features to GuildCafe, and there will be more coming this week--much of what we've just added lays the groundwork for further enhancements.
* The implementation of the Favorites system is the largest new feature of GuildCafe. Scroll down to the bottom if you want to read only about that.
* The navigation bar has been revamped. The most common features are now present on the toolbar without needing to access a drop-down list. A few of the options that were previously available only from the drop-down list are now on the footer (FAQs, chat).
* You can more easily see how many mail items are waiting from you from throughout GuildCafe, and if you want to send someone a PM you need only click the "Mail" link on the navigation bar. The number in parenthesis is the number of messages in your inbox.
* The most common search functions have been unified in one easy-to-access interface, right about the navigation bar. This allows you to search for players (it will search their member name as well as their various character names), blogs, forums and the new Favorites system.
* The "Tag Cloud" has been enhanced. It will now show you more useful statistics, such as the most popular tags on GuildCafe and a breakdown of how the Bartle categories divide up for our members. The link to the Tag Cloud is now the "Tags" item on the top navigation bar.
* The various "Tag Space" pages now include a summary of the most recent "favorites" in their category; for example, the most highly-rated news items associated with Warhammer would show up under the Warhammer tag.
* The "Tag Space" pages for games are cross-linked to other related GuildCafe content: you can link to an index of of groups/guilds/clans for a particular game directly from the tag page.
* The group/clan/guild index pages include cross-linking to the "tag" page as well as the "favorites" pages.
Favorites System
The biggest new addition to GuildCafe is the Favorites system. This is a system where you can contribute content that may not exist within GuildCafe itself. For example, if you find videos, well-written articles, juicy news or other fun content--you can submit it here. Unlike other "social bookmarking" services, our Favorites system is built around the world of gaming--with news/content categories tied to all the same games that you can associate with your personal page or group.
The main way to access to the Favorites system is through the "Favorites" link on the navigation bar.
1. You can submit any web page or video (YouTube, google video, Quicktime or Windows Media player) to GuildCafe.
2. You can vote on the submissions of other people. Just click the up-arrow that's next to the item on a Favorites list. You should see the number increase by one. Once an above-average number of votes are cast for a particular item, it will be tagged as "hot" which means that it will show up on lists of the most current, hot news--which is linked from What's New tab on personal pages as well as the default page shown from Favorites.
3. If you don't like something, you can vote it down. However, you should focus on the things you like most--save voting things down for spam, items of poor quality, etc. Even if you don't like what a person has to say about something in an article, it isn't really worth a negative vote unless it is poorly written.
4. When you vote something up or contribute content, there is a "Favorites" tab on your personal page that will list the things that you personally like. This will let other people see what you're interested in, and help you promote the articles, content and news that is of interest to you.
5. You can set your default homepage within GuildCafe to any of the "Favorites" pages, or to your personal page. To set a Favorites page as your default, find the section you like and then click the "Make this your Default GuildCafe page" from the sidebar to the left. If you want to set your default page back to your own personal page, that option appears on the "What's New" tab on your personal page.
7. In addition to the default "hot" content in the Favorites section, you'll see a number of other tabs. These help you check out other peoples submissions as follows:a. "On the Radar" will show the newest content, regardless of votes--it is a good way to monitor the newest things everyone has submitted.
b. The "Most Popular" tab will show you things in a category that are ranked by the number of votes they've received. Whereas "hot" attempts to show you the most recen/active subjects, this is a record of the things that have ever received the most attention.
c. "Friend Picks" will show you the newest items that your friends have submitted.
d. "Group Picks" will show you the newest items that other members of your groups have submitted.
What's next:
The Favorites system is going to be expanded in two ways: more integration with the rest of GuildCafe, and special interfaces/widgets that can be used on other sites.
In GuildCafe itself, we're going to make it so that when you vote on a forum thread, or on a blog entry, the content is automatically channeled to the Favorites system. That way you'll have one organized place to look for all the content submissions people are making, both on and off GuildCafe.
Blogs: We're also going to be tieing the blogging system to this more tightly: when you write a blog entry, you'll be able to flag it as a "favorite" automatically so that it can be considered by other members of GuildCafe. These blog entries will initially show up in the "On the Radar" section, and move up to the Hot/Popular sections as they receive votes from other members.
On the outbound side: we'll be making a set of special buttons that you can put on your gaming-related blogs and websites which will enable you to keep track of the votes your posts/articles receive on GuildCafe. The idea is to help you promote your game content and use GuildCafe as a way to help get your best stuff in front of the eyes of more people who are interested in what you have to say.
More on that soon!