Not sure if this is a correct forum to post this but there doesn\'t seem to be a specific one dedicated to \"website feedback\", so I\'m posting it here. Feel free to move this thread to an appropriate forum, if this one isn\'t.
And by the way, I have done the \"search\" on similar topics, so what I\'m posting here is an addition to what\'s already been said, as well as a more recent take on the website situation.
To be frank, the current website isn\'t very well constructed or organized. The whole feeling is rather unprofessional, no offense.
The very first thing that jumps out is the useless flash intro sequence, which doesn\'t match the main website\'s colors at all. Any good web developer and designer knows that this is a no-no for a website with a lot of news updates. It really should go straight to the point or to the main_01.html page, which should be renamed to index.html. Leave the intros for the \"Media\" section.
Once it gets to the main site, it uses the unnecessary flash at the top with what is called a \"Mystery Meat Navigation\" with a link to the forums. If you\'re curious about \"Mystery Meat Navigation\", check
Web Pages that Suck site. It\'s a really horrible approach to a web design. There should be an easily accessible forum link on the front page but it should be clear and obvious rather than hidden inside a mystery meat nagivation.
Then comes the clumsy looking graphic of a \"dwarf\" that merges down into a dark brown color, which isn\'t even the main background color. The end result is that the dwarf\'s \"trail\" abruptly ends in an ugly \"block\" at the bottom of the page. At least correct the main page\'s background color to the same color that the dwarf\'s body merges into.
Moreover, once you go to other pages like \"Story\" and \"Overview\", the dwarf\'s \"trail\" is broken up. There is a visible gap in it. That looks extremely unattractive and unprofessional. Yes, I tested it in Firefox.
The formatting in \"Pictures\" section is again broken up. In fact, the screenshots that are seen on the main page and throughout the site look out of place and some of them don\'t load at all. Leave the screenshots for a \"Screenshot\" section or organize them better at least. They just look like they don\'t belong.
The \"Races\" section uses very pixelated and jaggy graphics for each race. It looks like the graphics were taken from the old \"PlaneShift MUD\" site. What we know, however, is that the high resolution, high quality drawings of each race exist. Take a look at the \"PlaneShift France\" site - the guy uses those high resolution drawings on his site. He most likely got in touch with Luca Pancallo to obtain them. So, the question is why are the old and ugly versions still used instead of the smooth and beautiful ones? In fact, on the French PS site, we can see the drawings for both genders for many races - something which isn\'t even on the main PS site. We can see male Diaboli, female Xacha, male Nolthrir and Dermorian, female Ynnwnn and so on. Something like that would\'ve been nice to have on the main site. At least the fans would have an idea of what some of the non-implemented races or genders are supposed to look like. It would help with fanart contribution as well. At the very least, it would look more professional.
Examining the old \"PlaneShift MUD\" site and the PlaneShift flash intro, we can see that there are a lot of good looking 3D renderings of the PlaneShift world. Anything from Yliakum panorama to the sewers. The rendering or drawing of Laanx tower has some sort of flying creatures circling it, and what looks like a moss hanging from it. Basically, a very cool effect. Why isn\'t
that used on the main site somewhere? Why isn\'t it at least available in the \"3D Renders\" section? PlaneShift graphics quality can and will change, so using the in-game graphics for the site can end up looking outdated very quickly once the graphics are updated. However, utilizing an already untapped wealth of good looking renderings for the site design could\'ve given it quite a bit of longevity, no matter how many graphical and other revisions the game itself goes through. Just seems like a big waste to me.
Another problem is the account creation link is hidden within the \"Download\" section. Most other professional MMORPG sites have a clear link/button for \"Account Creation\" or \"Sign-up\". Once you get to the account creation page, it looks like a completely different website.
Doing a little research, I found that it looks like the old PlaneShift site, so clearly it has not been updated like the rest of the site. One of the responses by \"acraig\" has stated that it\'s because the registration page is on Fragnetics server, which is different from the main site. Apparently, the \"Laanx Fragnetics\", as well as this forum are being managed by \"Andew Craig\". My question is why can\'t Luca Pancallo and Andrew Craig negotiate an updated account registration page, so it follows the same theme as the main PlaneShift site? What is the main stumbling block in not being able to do so (no excuses please)? It wouldn\'t take long at all from a coding stand-point. According to \"waybackmachine.org\" archives, it hasn\'t been updated in at least a year.
Back to the main website issue... It\'s really unintuitive, a lot of things are burried so deep, they are nearly impossible to find. Some sections of text are still in Italian rather than English (old-site leftovers?). Some graphics look like they don\'t belong at all or to put it bluntly, look ugly.
For example, the latest news use a new graphic (news.jpg) as a bullet but as you go further back in the archives, the bullets are replaced by an ugly pink (which is still used in many other sections of the site), and the text is suddenly blue-green. I went all the way back in the news archives to find a very interesting \"hidden\" section about history of PlaneShift, as well as it\'s old MUD page. Something like that should really be linked in the \"About\" section somewhere. The current setup is like a mutated version of \"mystery meat nagivation\".
Also, the forum (again, managed by Andrew Craig, I believe) uses what looks like default forum colors. I found something called \"PlaneShift-test\" theme in its preferences but why it\'s not made a default theme seems to be a mystery. Again, it\'s extremely unprofessional looking. The whole thing reminds me so much of those default vBulletin colors that a lot of amateurish websites never edit, so it completely clashes with the main site. Quite honestly though, I absolutely hate the main website\'s \"theme colors\" - the dull, drab, and washed out feeling doesn\'t exactly convey \"fantasy\" very well. Too much uninteresting brown is overbearing. The yellow and greenish just makes it worse. Are these really the \"PlaneShift theme colors\"? Where are the beautiful blue and red, for example? Steel blue perhaps? Same goes for the overbearing brown+green PlaneShift GUI. Aren\'t there enough dull colors in PlaneShift already? How about something like a World of Warcraft or Guild Wars GUI instead? I really really question the color choices.
I\'m not a fan of the outdated lef-justified layout of the site either. Why not make it at least fixed-width centered, fluid, or even better - an elastic layout?
The main site\'s code doesn\'t even validate with W3C validator. It\'s clearly a non-standards compliant code, something which professional web developers and designers have been trying to battle for years. All the articles at w3c.org, all the letters to Microsoft to get their act straight at least with IE7, all the efforts by the creators of Firefox, still seem to fall on a lot of deaf ears. It\'s very clear that the site uses a Dreamweaver template. None of the WYSIWYG html editors ever put out a valid code. What they put out is something that professional web developers call a quirky code or \"html soup\". I believe Dreamweaver is attempting to improve its standards-compliant code in the latest version but it\'s still a far cry from the hand-coded correct and professional code.
It may be easy to learn a web design and development but it\'s not easy to master it.
You\'d think that Luca Pancallo would either learn a standards-compiant code or someone would contribute a better site by now but doing a search on this forum shows where the problem with that lies. I found a topic where a couple of guys wrote about sending in their XHTML 1.0 + CSS site proposals to Luca Pancallo but he turned them down and said he will not accept anything that isn\'t a \"Dreamweaver template\". Someone named \"Kiva\" stated that it\'s because Luca uses \"Dreamweaver\" (well, duh). But I think the reason he uses Dreamweaver is because he doesn\'t know how to write a standards-compliant code. He\'s paying for a basic website without a database, so there\'s no CMS (Content Management System). That is why he is dependant on Dreamweaver.
What\'s very contradicting to the other member reports though is the \"Web Designer\" section on the \"Recruitment Page\":
Please insert this information :
- Previous experiences on building web sites.
- Web languages you know (php, perl, asp, javascript, etc...)
- Web applications you use to build sites. Please tell us how many years of experience you have in those.
- Post references to sites made by you, or send a proposal to update the layout of our main page.How can anyone send any more proposals when people have clearly reported that Luca doesn\'t want an XHTML 1.0 Stict + CSS standards-compliant code but rather a dreaded and ugly \"Dreamweaver template\"? On the other hand, the web designer position doesn\'t even state that it\'s open, so perhaps he wants to be a web designer all by himself.
Frankly, I\'m very disappointed that he supposedly expects top-notch work from other contributors but yet he insists on a horrible code and ugly and disfunctional website layout.
As a professional web developer myself (I work for a huge development company here in Canada), I can guarantee you that none of the previously posted exuses like \"c\'mon, it\'s not that hard to bookmark a this page or a forum\" will work. It DOES drive a lot of the new visitors away, it DOES make PlaneShift project very unattractive to professional developers who might\'ve otherwise applied for the team. And hiding behind the \"it\'s free\" veil excuse is really old and doesn\'t work. Crap is free too, pardon my saying.
I realize this post may sound very harsh but someone had to come out and speak out the truth for once. I\'ve been lurking around this forum quite a bit before I posted this and I notice that as soon as someone posts something negative about anything PlaneShift, they get a ton of so called \"regulars\" screaming their heads off and insulting that person.
Scream all you want but this needed to be said.
PS I don\'t care if you end up deleting this thread, if you find it too harsh. I said what I wanted to say and that\'s good enough for me.
