Quake Expo 2011

"ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

This booth was added by QuakePhil (1 other booths added) on 31/12/1969."

Damn. There is being prepared ahead of time and then there's being prepared ahead of time

Chip,I agree with negke, the news page isn't as exciting as it should be. I also agree that it might benefit from a bit of rearrangement. The "Random Booths" takes too much room and should be at the bottom, after the latest news.

Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about the "Random Booths" section. I might be wrong, but I'm not sure they'll be a lot of people out there just randomly clicking on those. Most people will simply go to the full booths list or simply click "next" and "previous" within booths. Maybe the "added by" line could be at least left out. Same thing for the "Events," particularly since, at this point, the descriptions are cut (apparently) randomly. Maybe just the name of the event might suffice (in a bold and differently-clored font, maybe?). I guess the events could maybe still be on the top (so as to grab attention), but they could be arranged on a horizontal line that takes the whole width (so it'd be pretty short) and surrounded, say, by a square line, so as to stand out from the news.

Also, it might be useful to have some agreement on the font/font size of the news entry. Maybe this could be done automatically.

The description of the event, at the very top, is a little awkward. Maybe your nice logo at the bottom could be brought back up as a "banner title"? The description could then be just under, maybe compressed into one single paragraphs instead of two?

Previous QExpos had pictures on the front page. I think that might be a good way to attract attention. I was tempted to put a youtube video, then didn't because I didn't want my entry to stand out oddly. Maybe we could agree that all news can have, say, one picture of a specific maximum format? I think it'd really help in making the news section more attractive. I'll wait to see that you think before putting up one.

Just my two cents, of course, and mostly aesthetic stuff. You've been doing an excellent job, Chip!

Can we have a way to embed youtube videos? I feel naked without them.

Can we have a way to embed youtube videos? I feel naked without them.

You can still embed a youtube video, if you want, you just have to do it through the HTML editor

Yes, the possibility for small images would be nice. Changing random booths and events as per CocoT's suggestion is the way to go imho. They are not as important as the news, especially since there is no other way of knowing if or when a booth has been updated.

The news bit on the front page should have a "older news" link too (pointing to the full list), because it only shows the latest few posts. In the seperate full news section, the headlines are still small and white; the orange ones on the front page are good for better readablility.
The order in which the posts appear is odd. They are ordered by day, but within that they seem to have an inverse order, so that newer posts appear below the older ones, not above as usual.

Someone mentioned the role of one or multiple 'news guys'. This is still possible despite the manual approach of the news (=people having to add it themselves). There could be people who write daily articles/summaries/reviews on what happened on that day and which releases/events there were. This would be good considering that the front page displays only a limited (low) number of news posts and the actual news section is somewhat hidden. scar3crow to the rescue...

within that they seem to have an inverse order, so that newer posts appear below the older ones, not above as usual

I'm not quite sure if that's that the reason, but I updated the announcement for my release one or twice during the day. Could it be that the news script takes into account the last instead or the first editing of the submitted news text? If that's the case, then it'd be also worth it to fix it.

Not knowing when Chip is going to swing by, I decided to go ahead and insert two pictures in the news post. Hopefully that will spur other boothers to do the same.
I picked 200x150. Does that look okay?

QUAKE EXPO 2011 IS LIVE

Well, that was kinda unexpected... some booths are still empty.
Note that Madfox seems to have made three identical booths by accident, or rather added two faulty ones along his intended one.
The booth/event seperation feels somewhat odd. I can either make Q1SM a booth or an event, but as an event it won't be shown on the booth index. It looks like I'll have to change it back into a booth once the results are in. So I hope you're not going to close the QEXPO site prematurely as well. I might have to make the deadline for the SM pack a little earlier so people have a chance to see the maps.

Can you add a link to the IRC channel like last time? #qexpo at irc.anynet.org - I forgot how the exact irc link syntax is. If people don't have an IRC client installed, they can also use the web app on mibbit.com.

Another link for the Q2 section: apparently Q2Reloaded is the other important Q2 site beside the Q2Cafe.

I have opened the expo 4 hours before 00:00 my timezone - GMT +2. I thought that my timezone is not everyone's timezone. And 4 hours is not unexpected. There still are some empty booths.

I will not close the QExpo. Not prematurely.

The booth/event separation seemed natural for me at the time of writing the script. What is your suggestion?

Do not set an earlier deadline, The QExpo will stay open as long as it's necessary.

I'll let you guys decide when it'll close.

Do you have some sort of rolling news scheme setup or planned like previous Quake Expos where you do some sort of news blob once or twice a day with showcases of various stuffs?

Also it would be good to have some sentimental narrator say stuff from time to time (a scar3crow-like/Sajt-like person or wordy mapper).

I'll probably write something nice. Like a piece of news. Regarding the sentimental narrator I'm working on a nice story about how I started playing Quake and what Quake means for me. Other than that, the news section is open, and everyone can write some interesting Quake-esque essays.

- Comments on booths would be nice.
- Forum is inaccessible for unregistered users

Forum is now accessible to everyone.

Hmmm, I thought we discussed to not have comments on QExpo, but comment the booths here, on Inside3D.

WOOOT!!!!

SplinterTown.org Booth is OPEN!!

i like the new arrangement on the front page. ^_^

Yeah, the new layout is good!

The link colours are very hard to see on the greyish background (page body) though, especially if you are on high-resolution screens (like a mobile) or a bit too far away. Not sure I have a good idea for a better colour though.

Problem now editing my booth

Tells me I cannot edit another users booth!

Problem now editing my booth

Tells me I cannot edit another users booth!

The issue was fixed, I also added a comment to the QExpo forum.