New Times Call For A New Website

[Chief John]

Over the last few days, I've been on a journey of exploring the machinima community in search of a new webmaster. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting a lot of interest for a clan that hasn't been the most active in the world. It's really a testament to how cooperative the machinima climate is today that we found a man for the job! Blinding of Firelight Studios helpfully directed me to Genetic Spartan, who apparently is a Swiss Army knife of the online world.

He has welcomed the opportunity to help us out in a time of need, so give a big Halopen welcome right back to him! This thread will serve as a suggestion thread for anything you think would benefit the new website. We're not exactly sure what the limitations of this new site are yet, but Genetic can clear things up for us once we talk to him a little more in depth. For now, suggest anything and everything that an improved website could share our artistic vision better than it is right now.

Once again, a thanks to Blinding and Genetic for enabling us to find shinier pastures!

[FuzzDuck]

Do a complete format if you have to. We really don't need all these old threads, and we can always repost the important ones.

[Reclaimer52]

First off Welcome To Halopen Genetic. I hope you enjoy your stay, and i thank you for your assistance in getting us up to par website-wise.

Im going to start writing this then updated it with more as i think of them.

Suggestions:

A page for our videos with room for descriptions and youtube embedding so viewers never have to leave our site.

We need a better method to keep bots and spam accounts from signing up, im not sure if its still an issue, but it was in the past.

An About us page to explain our history, members, and films.

A much better graphic interface, custom graphics and logo images. we have a lot of talented Photoshop people here who can help with that.

More to come as i think of it.

[Dustar 7]

If we make Halopen's web-sight resembled Bungie.net. Our main colors could be Blue & black colors & with some of our own art work showcased on some threads. The newer members would feel familiar with our set up because they most likely they have seen Bungie sight.
http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq277/Biscuit448/bungienet.jpg

[Dustar 7]

Let's make Halopen's web sight resembel Bungie's. New members would feel more familiar with the BLACK & BLUE color's & we can showcase some of our artwork for some different threads.
<a href="http://photobucket.com/images/bungienet" target="_blank"><img src="http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq277/Biscuit448/bungienet.jpg" border="0" alt="bungie.net Pictures, Images and Photos"/></a>

[FuzzDuck]

Is this still happening or what?

[OMGIts Renegade]

I would love to see some nice drop down menus, and if you are any good with flash, possibly have a nice splash on the homepage, nothing bandwidth killing but something pretty nonetheless.

I think the forums are fine, maybe just a cover and art overhaul, but the website as a whole needs to be sped up, sometimes pages take much too long to load, even with my decent speed internet.

I would love a more minimalistic design, something very clean, easy to navigate, but one that still catches the eye and makes it a website people would enjoy coming back too.

And the Videos page is what needs to shine, there needs to be something special for that.

If anything make the homepage clean and fun to navigate with a catchy color scheme and then make the videos page really shine.

I think we are all in an agreement with a Members page, something that can be updated on the fly be someone like me, firestorm, fuzz or reclaimer whenever theres a new member or something like that, and allows us to make a quick bio with a pic next to it.

After searching some sites, this one gets realllllly close to what I like to see

http://www.thismanslife.co.uk/

its not perfect, but the color scheme is nice, its got a great home page, and seems very personalize (herp derp its a guys personal website derp herp)

I also really like the social media links on the side, thats something we could look at as well.

this site is veerrrry cool too, really like the place for an embedded video right on the front page:

http://www.gangibob.com/

http://mediaboom.com/#/home O.O drooooooooooool

edit:

on second thought, we could always go retro 90s' style

http://v5.jasongraphix.com/index.php

[Firestorm12]

Yeah. This is still happening, but we still have to meet with Mr. Genetic. We had a nice date scheduled a little while back, but he didn't show. I don't know if John has communicated with him or tried to reschedule a chat, but I think the current plan is to try to catch Mr. Genetic on Skype and go from there. So...

[Reclaimer52]

I made this cuz i was bored at work, thought maybe we could find a use for it or improve upon it.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a339/Reclaimer52/Goldenhalopen.jpg

[Chief John]

I made this cuz i was bored at work, thought maybe we could find a use for it or improve upon it.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a339/Reclaimer52/Goldenhalopen.jpg

Hot Damn that's awesome!

Yeah, after he didn't show the plan was to catch him on skype, but he never appears to be on...Looks like we'll have to try scheduling again and if he doesn't show up again we'll have to look in a different direction.

[Firestorm12]

O rlly?

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z185/Spartanguy12/raw.jpg

:p

[Chief John]

O rlly?

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z185/Spartanguy12/raw.jpg

:p

Nvm...

That's the hottest piece of hot sauce i've ever had the pleasure to pour on my HP nachos! :D

That would make for a pretty awesome T-Shirt....

[Reclaimer52]

O rlly?

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z185/Spartanguy12/raw.jpg

:p

is that bryboy's room lol

[FuzzDuck]

Did Firestorm just make something in Photoshop? O.o

[Firestorm12]

Did Firestorm just make something in Photoshop? O.o

:rolleyes:

How do you think I've been doing the War (or War) comic?

[Chief John]

:rolleyes:

How do you think I've been doing the War (or War) comic?

Black magic and a hint of spice.

[VIN211]

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q89/vin212/Scarface-1.png
I had to join in :D

[Firestorm12]

Off-topic picture war!

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z185/Spartanguy12/trollii2.jpg

I win...

[Chief John]

LOL

That might be the best picture ever created.

[VIN211]

So what is the deal? I am taking a guess that this is not happening anymore?

[Chief John]

We ran into a little communication struggle (he didn't show up) and then college hit and the new website idea seemed to slip our minds. You're right though Vin, its a little embarrassing that we seemed to completely forget about it after one setback. We'll have to see if we can't do something about it as school draws to a close and the blissful machinima summer months begin!

Going along with this, we really need to figure something out about getting new members. A new site may help with this, but I'm not sure if its enough to get some honest to god activity around here. Medieval Stories has helped us in the YouTube department (3,500 hits and counting), but we need to figure some way to generate activity on the site itself. A large part may be the current machinima climate, but I still see groups that have pretty steady website activity compared to us out there. Like here (http://hazardousent.com/forum/).

On a side note, it's great to see you again! (As much as I hate your sig and avatar :()

[Blekk]

If you guys ever need me just let me know the day and time and I'll try to show up. I'll be getting a Macbook and a bunch of production software and maybe even a capture card before summer starts. I've gotten a lot better at editing and stuff and want to try and get into machinima again!

Oh, and my gamertag is JeZZeB. If I'm ever on don't hesitate to invite me.

I miss you guys!

[Chief John]

I miss you too Bleck! Can't wait to maybe start up (and finish) some projects with you! This summer sounds like it's going to be awesome.

You should totally re-apply to be a part of the team again. Cough Cough nudge nudge.

(spoiler alert: You would more than likely get in)

:D

[Blekk]

I will think about it!