Walkthroughs
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[UPDATED] Zelda Informer 4.0 - What To Expect
April 24 2012 by Damir Halilović
Updated with more info!
Fun times are afoot! As you probably noticed, we have a brand new look. However, it’s not just a brand new look, it’s a brand new back-end system! In simple terms, it means the site will be faster, have tons of new features, and it’ll make the work of our staff a lot easier. However, it also means that things will be a bit busy around here for the next 7 days or so. There is a lot of content to be ported over, and our staff will be working diligently to get it across as fast as possible. For now, news posts are working, which is the main thing you probably care about. More info after the (new and sexy) jump.
Please note that Disqus comments will be restored in due time as well. Chances are that comments you made on old posts now will be lost once the old ones are ported over.
For starters you will notice the new featured bar. It was given an overhaul and was simplified a bit to make it cleaner. The main thing I want you to direct your attention to however is the “Submit News Tip” link to your left. We’ve been getting a lot of news submissions on the old site helping us find obscure but nonetheless awesome news-worthy stuff, all thanks to you, and despite the link being hidden away in the bowels of the footer. We are very excited to see what will happen now that it is so prominently featured.
Update:
Now that things have calmed down a bit, let’s talk about the new stuff some more. The search has been implemented and finalized (Without any bugs hopefully). Some more work on the layout is being done - tweaks here and there. We’ve listened to feedback, so the white from the right-hand content area (the space containing the actual news posts and comments) is gone, replaced with a cream-ish color that should be easier on the eyes. Furthermore, while we do not agree to the few color complaints, it did give us an idea of a color-picker for the site. This however isn’t really high up on the priority list and as such will have to wait until public registration is open at the very least.Public registration you say? Why yes, that’s exactly what will happen. Accounts will be linked to our current forum (Which will receive a matching skin in due time), and many fun perks will be available, starting with user blogs / reviews. As we grow our current system allows us to facilitate a great number of features - polls, integrated chats, FB integration, the list goes on and on. Obviously our goal isn’t to clutter the site for the sake of clutter, but rather to make it a more interesting place to visit, and to provide you, the readers, stuff to do even on a slow news day (Zelda quizzes with ranked lists for example) and a much tighter integration with the community (Up until now the forums and the site have been pretty much separate). Of course this is a fine line to thread, as we do not want to force any of this onto people who come here only looking for the usual news / article fix.
Speaking of articles, finding and navigating those will be much easier than before - and in combination with user articles, it’ll give us a great tool for finding new talent, and it will give you more content to read. Aside from this, it will be possible to rate posts up and down, and as such it’ll be easier to find the best articles.
Last but not least - gigantic thanks to Dennis Wyman, our webmaster and dedicated server guy for his back-end assistance, as well as Phil Stetson for the visual design. You guys rock!
These are some of the ideas that are currently being tossed around. Bottom line is that our previous back-end system was pretty broken, and this change gives us a better pipeline for delivering content, as well as more options. Please continue leaving feedback, as it is that what fuels change and innovation. The future looks bright indeed. Welcome to Zelda Informer 4.0!
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