RomRaider

I'd like to have a portal style CMS set up as the front page for RomRaider.org -- something more along the lines of what a new visitor would expect to see from a software distribution site rather than just a forum. I made what I think was a big step when I added the blocks to at the top of the forum index, but it's still probably a bit difficult for new users to get the info they want right up front.

I want the design to be as dynamic and easily administrated as possible, and have the same look and feel as the forum. Same style sheets and graphics and such, with maybe a touch of flare. It will be integrated with the phpBB forum, so the user can log in to the 'main site' we'll call it, and a simple link to the forum, among other content. The way I'm seeing it is basically a custom, made from scratch php page including phpBB's common.php to handle all the backend, with posts in forums hidden to regular users to add content. But I don't have a lot of experience with other phpBB based CMS systems, so maybe it would be less work than I'm imagining.

Either way, I'm very busy with higher priority tasks (both RomRaider related and not) for at least the next few months. Plus I don't need to start yet another project that gets pushed aside and not finished for a long time. If anyone has experience with this type of thing and would be interested in helping out (read: doing it), I'd love to talk with you about implementing it. Just send me a pm or email and we can talk specifics.

What about using the wiki for the front page? A lot of sites use mediawiki for front pages, and it has the benefit of easily allowing more people to add/edit content to the site.

Use $15 of that donated money and pay for PHP Nuke.

-E-

Definately not phpnuke. I could maybe use mediawiki but I'm not sure how customizable it is.

HAHA, I hear a story! Hate PHP Nuke that much?

Before I set up the forum I was using phpnuke. Using it was rougly as convenient as if I had no CMS at all.

vbulletin?

qoncept,

Hi have experience of CMS/Wiki's
... and might be able to 'do it' depending on how complex you/we want it. It could be my contribution to this great project as I haven't done much to support it at the moment.

I've worked with quite a few CMS/Wiki systems and settled on PmWiki for the last few that I've done. It's simple, light weight, highly customisable and very active community.

If you'll commit that RomRaider will remain 'Open Source', at least the medium term (next 12 months), and you're looking at creating something quickly which provides a professional clean presentation to end users let me know.

Let's see what other offers you get... and perhaps start the requirements analysis off to scope the work.
-Steve.

RomRaider will always be open source and free. I think a wiki may very well be the best way to go, but integrating it with the forum may be a bit of a pain.. As long as we can do that and give it the same look and feel as the forum I'd be happy.

Well 'always' is good enough for me.

I've created a page on your Wiki to capture the requirements being discussed on this thread - http://wiki.RomRaider.org/index.php?tit ... g_Redesign

From what you have said so far it wouldn't seen that hard at all. Are you able to PM me a telephone number I can call you on (now ish?) to syncronise thoughts - it's a little long-winded over this... a five minute call is quicker.
-Steve.

you guys are wikimaniacs

Two sites that have clean front pages for software distribution are Mozilla and Opera. Not saying that these are what you want for a front page but it might stimulate thoughts...

http://www.opera.com/
http://www.mozilla.org/

-wikimaniac

If you look at the RomRaider wiki, you'll see I'm not much of a wikimaniac.. I like them, but I'm not familiar enough to make them look pretty and have been too busy/lazy to learn.


Does this imply we'd keep both? Because I'd rather just go ahead and add the documentation to the new CMS we use (wiki or otherwise). I didn't want to delete that without clearing it up first though.

I saw us migrating your wiki to whatever wiki/cms used as the framework i.e. PmWiki - only one Wiki for the wikimaniacs.

After a Steve has a great start to the wiki migration and it definately looks like the way to go. We could use some flashy graphics, so I'd love to have the help of a designer. Take a look at what Steve has done if you have some time to spare and would like to contribute!