Freeciv.org Facelift

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Arbogast
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Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by Arbogast »

Just to revive this Forum's Forum and to throw an old wish of mine...
IMHO The look of Freeciv.org is too standard and too much plain vanilla.
(There was an old post -more than a year old- about changing the looks of the site.)

Ideas? Suggestions?
AndreasR
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by AndreasR »

I also agree that Freeciv.org needs a redesign. In my opinion, Wikia should not be the frontpage of Freeciv.org, since a custom designed HTML and CSS website would allow us to customize the website much more. Also Wikia has lots of annoying ads where the profits go to Wikia. The wiki could still be hosted on Wikia, but I think Freeciv.org needs a custom frontpage.

I started with a proposal for a redesign of Freeciv.org. This is what that proposal looks like http://home.gna.org/freeciv/

The source code for this can be found here: http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/freeciv/website/.

It would be cool to continue this process of creating a new website for Freeciv.org. Perhaps someone wants to complete this work? Or perhaps someone has a better proposal?
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Arbogast
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by Arbogast »

A new web site? I didn't mean such a drastic change. I'm talking just face lifting the existing one. Just like that other site... ;) or better...
Andreas: Gna.org it's just too obtuse for me. Why not bring your opinions, in plain English, in this site? :P
louis94
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by louis94 »

Why does it require Javascript just to display the homepage ?

I can help writing html/css/basic js, but in February - now I have to study.

Louis
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by AndreasR »

louis94 wrote:Why does it require Javascript just to display the homepage ?

I can help writing html/css/basic js, but in February - now I have to study.

Louis
All browsers support Javascript these days. The proposed website uses Javascript to translate the whole webpage into the user's prefered language, and uses Javascript to detect the user's operating system to give download links specific to the user's operating system.
louis94
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by louis94 »

Lynx does not support JS ;).
Still, some people prefer disabling it. Displaying English-only content to them would be easy to do (the script replaces the HTML anyway, so all we need is default text).

There is also a problem when somebody speaks, two languages A and B. Let's say A is detected by the script but there's no translation for it. Then, the user cannot switch to B, even if it's supported.

Android and iOS users should be redirected to Google Play and App Store when clicking "Download".

Louis
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by cazfi »

louis94 wrote:Android and iOS users should be redirected to Google Play and App Store when clicking "Download".
Umh, that would make sense if we had freeciv in those. There's separate freeciv fork for Android, but if we link to it, it should be associated with disclaimers that we have nothing to do with it and not as default download.
louis94
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by louis94 »

cazfi wrote:
louis94 wrote:Android and iOS users should be redirected to Google Play and App Store when clicking "Download".
Umh, that would make sense if we had freeciv in those. There's separate freeciv fork for Android, but if we link to it, it should be associated with disclaimers that we have nothing to do with it and not as default download.
As far as I know, Freeciv-web is the official way of running Freeciv on Android. Since it is on the Play Store, we can link to that. I through Freeciv-web was also on the Apple Store, but it's not, so forget that part of my message.

Louis
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by AndreasR »

louis94, I think relying on Javascript for a website is very normal for websites these days. I don't think giving lynx much attention is important.
louis94 wrote:As far as I know, Freeciv-web is the official way of running Freeciv on Android. Since it is on the Play Store, we can link to that. I through Freeciv-web was also on the Apple Store, but it's not, so forget that part of my message.
Louis
That Freeciv-web link on Google Play is one way to play Freeciv-web on Android devices. It is still a work in progress, any feedback welcome!
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Re: Freeciv.org Facelift

Post by cazfi »

Arbogast wrote:A new web site? I didn't mean such a drastic change. I'm talking just face lifting the existing one.
Current www.freeciv.org is actually just an page on wikia.com wiki. We have limited control of what can be done there.

Reading the release notes I just got very annoying ad there; suspicious (might be safe software, but ad has malwarish smell in it), following when the page is scrolled, and impossible to close.

Migrating away from Wikia has been in consideration since 2010 at least: http://gna.org/task/?7257
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