BoddaH1994 Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 For the past year or so, we've been tossing around the idea of changing the look of the front page. Not necessarily to make a new version of the site but rather to enhance your experience on PKIC with what we currently have. The idea that I've always wanted to do was that, on the front page, there be three front page articles set up kind of like how a newspaper would be set up. That would mean having the main article as is, as well as two sub-articles side-by-side under it in sort of a newspaper column style. Here's the kicker. Our articles are generally long. We rarely put anything on the front page without giving you full and detailed information. Therefore the best possible solution would be to have article blurbs with a link saying "read more" which would redirect you to the rest of the article in the forums. The question I pose is, would having three articles on the front page result in enough benefit to deal with the inconvenience of having to click a link to read whole articles? One of the biggest problems with running a site like ours is never really knowing when to bump something off of the main site in favor of other news. Recreating the front page in such a manor would allow the users to tripple the amount of information that can be seen simply by going to our home URL. This will allow the staff to communicate important information to the users without having to bump an important thread and also not risking loosing important topics by having them buried in the forums. It always would allow for newsworthy but less prominent information to be relayed to you without being the center of attention. For example this past weekend could be a main article of, "Final Rides on The Beast Sunday at 7pm" while a subarticle could have been "End of season candy sale in the emporium - $1 per quarter pound". Obviously the candy wasn't important enough to have on the main page, but it certainly was information that PKIC users may be interested in. This correlates with PKIC's motto of "What's to do at King's Island?" in which we try to express to both loyal PKI fans as well as a regular family of four which might stumble over the site that there's a lot to do a Kings Island... not just ride rides. Although rides are a fundamental part of the news we bring you, we would like to also expand into more information on entertainment, foods, games, special events, etc and help bring them into the limelight. Please feel free to ask any questions or give any feedback. Best regards, Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 I really like the idea of having more than one story on the front page. I think it would benefit the casual viewer the most because most of us regulars usually catch anything new within hours of its release on the site. In my opinion I could see more casual viewers and first time users going to the front page more often to keep current without needing to dig through old threads. The Gold Club news letter used titles to link you to a relevant stories either by linking to another page or it linked you further down in the page for a more complete article of that subject. Would the style of the front page articles be similar to that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
standbyme Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 This response may not thrill you...but at least it is honest...I am also curious if I am the only one like this...I probably only visit the "main" site about once a month, if that. It seems like I get all the news I need here on the forums...and it seems like by the time it is on the main page it is kinda old news because people are usually talking about it here in the forums before "it" happens. The same goes for pictures, someone always posts a link and I just go from here to the pictures. I do think it is great that the main site exists...but i'm curious if the only people who use it are "newbies"? Am I the only one like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dane Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Its common and understandable that people that are here all the time do not visit the main site regularly. Its more meant for new people to PKI and just general info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 I myself actually go through the main page first so that I can see if a new story or any breaking news is happing that the Administrators want to pass onto us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIVortex Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Same here, I always go thru the main page. I think a change would be nice to the main page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortexlover2 Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 You could have an archives page. I like the idea... but where would we put the recently posted on forum topics thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIBeast Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I like the idea of three articles. Here is something you can think about doing that I have seen over at Pointbuzz. When an article is done on the home page, one of the admins usually links to the article in the forums in case anyone who skips the front page misses it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOPGUN1993 Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I like the Newpaper Idea. Maby could you change the front Pic. regularly to like other rides when nothing real important is going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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