Gamer Blogs and New Layout

[SALvation]

We now have a new feature here at GameMecca...introducing Gamer Blogs!

As you can see, we have a slightly new forum layout which includes a nav bar at the right along with excerpts from our new gamer blogs feature. Click on the title of someone's story and you can view their full blog.

Gamer Blogs are a free service to those who have a Mecca Pass. It is a fully featured blog that you may style and use however you want (as long as the content stays within our rules). Once you have a gamer blog, it will be included in the randomly selected excerpts in the navigation bar. Note that a Mecca Pass is not needed to view a blog, only to own one.

If you are interested in a Mecca Pass, please PM me as the button on the left is not function yet.

If you already have a Mecca Pass, contact me if you are interested in having your blog and I will set you up. Let me know what you guys think. I hope you enjoy the new feature.

[Pure_Evil]

Is there a setting so that you can hide the blogs?

just curious

[SALvation]

Not right now. I can look into making a skin that doesn't have the blogs feature if people are interested in it.

[SALvation]

Actually it was easy than I thought. There is a new skin titled "GameMecca w/o Blogs" if you do not want to view the blogs. You can change your skin using the menu at the bottom.

[Pure_Evil]

uhh, the bloggless skin is missing chat, arcade, etc

[Fragetti]

Thanks Sal looks cool :)

[BobtheCkroach]

Is there a setting so that you can hide the blogs?

just curious

You don't want to read the ongoing events of my life, as expressed through the beauty of Blog? Jerk :P

SAL, I think it's pretty kewl! I have my resolution jacked to 1280x1024 and it looks fine now...I had some off-the-right-edge issues at 1024x768, though. Just so you know.

[SALvation]

I will add those nav links to the blogless skin in just a bit.

[Pure_Evil]

Jerk

+off = Bob


enough said http://bestsmileys.com/hat/4.gif

[BobtheCkroach]

If I might make a suggestion...

Since the blog contains no link back to GM, you might want to consider having the link to the blog open in a new window.

[SALvation]

Good idea. I will put it on my to-do list.

[DiTomasso]

It looks like some add, its a completely different styleIt doesn't look like GM at all :confused:

[SALvation]

Hmm...Would you guys rather have the blog previews running horizontally along the bottom of the page?

[OUTLAWS WHOCARES]

Hmm...Would you guys rather have the blog previews running horizontally along the bottom of the page?
Yes the side is a bit annoying IMO.

[Saretta]

Is there a way to get the white skin without blogs pls?

Another note: The forum is now loading soooo slow with this stuff showing :(

[Mad Fox]

Good idea i like the new blogs

[FUS1ON]

Another note: The forum is now loading soooo slow with this stuff showing :(

Same for me. I was on earlier this morning just before you turned the blogs feature on and when you did, the forum pages started taking forever to load.

I'll be using the skin without the blogs. The features look great and are a good idea, but I wish I had a W_I_D_E screen to view them on. My "little bity 21' monitor" run @ 1280x1024 just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. Looks like i'm peeking thru a crack. :P

EDIT: When I switched over to the non-blog skin, the pages started loading faster again.

[SALvation]

Thanks for the input guys. I changed it now so that the blogs alone show up on the bottom of the pages instead of the side. Is this better? Performace shouldn't really be affected as there are no extra database calls. Let me know what you guys think.

[Pure_Evil]

Is there a way to get the white skin without blogs pls?

Another note: The forum is now loading soooo slow with this stuff showing :(
default would be nice, I hate the dark skin. I was going to ask earlier, but I figured 1 gripe a day would be enough :D


*much better with bloggs on bottom, TY Sal :thumbs: *

[SALvation]

If the pages continue to run slower, I'll reduce the number of blogs shown as that may speed things up.

[BobtheCkroach]

I agree, the layout is a bit better with it at the bottom, though I fear you'll lose the visability and its' not going to get recognized/viewed as much. Maybe you can add a link to the top menu that takes us to a "Blog Homepage" type of deal...

On another note, when you moved it to the bottom, you took away that second little display, so currently the links to articles, arcade, etc, are non-existent.

On a side note - I hate you Pure :P

[SALvation]

Another update: I changed the number of blogs from 5 to 3. I think it looks better and this should make the pages just as fast as they were before the update. Also, I'll update the nav bar at top again and look into making a blogs link.

[Slice]

It is running slow for me too. Is there anyway to have a link under the memeber's name that have blogs? Also who the heck are those people listed in the blogroll? You can't get to another members blog from the one you are looking at...

[BobtheCkroach]

Since there's not an overwhelming number of MeccaPassers (I don't think anyways), maybe you could just do a link that drops down, like search, and just list those of us w/ a blog right there, instead of making a whole new page...just a thought.

[SALvation]

Slice, those are just generic links put there by default. You can edit them out by editing the links in your blog.

The performance decrease may have been because I have been doing heavy stuff in the background of GM all day. I'm done for now so lets monitor the performance and see where it stands.

[SALvation]

Ok I lied...one more update. I just realized that there is probably a big performance hit because of the blog preview was loading on every page. I changed it so it only loads on the forum home page now. That should take care of the performance. Let me know what you guys think.

[Slice]

Slice, those are just generic links put there by default. You can edit them out by editing the links in your blog.

The performance decrease may have been because I have been doing heavy stuff in the background of GM all day. I'm done for now so lets monitor the performance and see where it stands.Is there a way to have the other bloggers show up in that list for GM? Like if I click on someones blog page you have to back out to find the other peoples blogs in GM.

[SALvation]

There's no automatic method right now. I can look into one, but I doubt its an easy process.

[BobtheCkroach]

Is there a way to have the other bloggers show up in that list for GM? Like if I click on someones blog page you have to back out to find the other peoples blogs in GM.

Obviously you're talking about a dynamic solution, but for the moment here is everybody that did the testing for him (there might be others now)

http://www.gamemecca.net/blogs/slice/
http://www.gamemecca.net/blogs/terminathare/
http://www.gamemecca.net/blogs/bobtheckroach/
http://www.gamemecca.net/blogs/diehard/
http://www.gamemecca.net/blogs/salvation/

You can just add them statically until SAL finds a dynamic solution.

[BobtheCkroach]

There's no automatic method right now. I can look into one, but I doubt its an easy process.

That's sorta why I suggested a "homepage" for them...you can just make a quick MPMembers table in the DB and keep track of who you make a blog for and then generate a list of links based on that...or a drop down on the menu doing the same thing...either way...

or, since the file structure appears to be "http://www.gamemecca.net/blogs/<folder_for_user>" you could just dynamically generate a list of links for every folder inside the blogs folder, perhaps...I never did much PHP so I don't know what kind of power you have to do stuff like that.

[Slice]

There's no automatic method right now. I can look into one, but I doubt its an easy process.
Where's the fun in easy? :P

[Die Hard]

The forums are still running slow for me. Also, I don't see the blogs at all now?

[Pathos]

Spanky little idea, Sal! Had me a grand ol' time with those who have indulged us thus far (slice, dh, term, et al). Keep it up, fellas!

So do us self important, dedicated hosting types have to pay extra for this so called mecca pass? [cheapskate-like smile] Because, y'know, I could see myself with a blog... [cue misty dream sequence]

Dear Blog,
Today the nice men with the white coats put some leashes on me and lead me out to read poetry for spare change. It went really well, with everyone laughing in pity and being super nice to me... (well, okay, except for that one guy who gave me the "WHAT?" expression).

Anyway, i made close to five whole bucks! Unfortunately that wasn't enough to indulge my gambling and prostitution problem, so instead i bought a small hand mirror and spent the rest of the day laughing at my deformed reflection and doing things my parents really wouldn't approve of. Or the law, for that matter.

So until tomorrow, i remain... a very swollen me.
-Yourself

[end dream sequence, cue barney theme song, fade to black]

[SALvation]

Excellent idea Pathos. If you have GM Hosting, I have no problem giving you a blog. I'll set your's up tonight and send you the info. We all look forward to reading it I'm sure. :)

[SALvation]

FYI - I had to take the blog preview offline as it was causing an error and blowing up the forums. I will have them back up soon.