Chess Scotland Noticeboard

Mike Scott · King Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 676 Location: Edinburgh

It struck me again this morning that there is a weakness in the new layout/style of the web page and its what actually strikes the eye when you glance at the page? To me its the 'static' material i.e. the graphic of chess pieces, the info section headings, the section on the (new) on-line services and so on. The important dynamic news is hidden at the bottom of the screen.

The most important information (I think) is the on going Scottish Champs and on my screen all you can see is a single line of quite small text at the bottom - easy to miss: Surely this should be a headline item?? With links to all the great material that Andy and the team are making available? Why not have a live game up there on the home page?

AMcHarg · Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:41 pm Post subject:

The home page is changing in a couple of weeks which will see the introduction of a proper news system. Prior to the original launch I didn't have time to create it but wanted to get the other stuff rolled out.

The new news system will replace the static stuff that currently sits at the top of the page. Currently Douglas has to update the front page with a new link to each news article, which is more than just a bit tedious. The new news sytem will allow him to add news via a Wordpress admin panel and that news will appear on the homepage instantly, with a link to show the full article. This will also see the introduction of a few Chess Scotland RSS feeds, and I intend to integrate cetagories into the news so it will be easy to have news for a variety of different things (junior, adult, event reports, history archives etc), and appropriate feeds for each. The added advantage of doing it this way is that more than one person can add news simultaneously, which will reduce the workload on Douglas whilst increasing the amount of content available.

If you have any other ideas for this then feel free to let me know. A future idea of my own is to create a plugin for Wordpress that will allow posters to add interactive games to their posts, but I doubt I will have time to look at that until next year.

A Smile

Mike Scott · King Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 676 Location: Edinburgh

Excellent!

sigrun · King Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 307 Location: Europa

sounds good - it would be nice if we had a link from the noticebd to the home page. There are a few links from some files back to the home page which is good.
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''All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.'' Voltaire

AMcHarg · Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:36 pm Post subject:

Ian McLachlan · Rook Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 63 Location: Lanark

AMcHarg · Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:01 pm Post subject:

John Blake · Pawn Joined: 22 Feb 2007 Posts: 9

Could something like this work for chess clubs ?

http://www.bridgewebs.com/

The trick, I suppose, would be to get enough clubs interested in being part of the consortium or it could be part of the clubs' affiliation fee to CS.

AMcHarg · Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:49 pm Post subject:

To be honest, I can't see it being a major money spinner for Chess Scotland, as there simply aren't that many clubs. The most positive aspect of it could actually just be that a club which didn't have a website before, would now have one. The extra advertising that such a facility would provide might earn a few new members per club each year, which is obviously a good thing. I certainly know from my own club's point of view that our club website earned us a few new players since it went live.

Cool