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..so yeah. Anyways, one of my sites on my StarCraft network is currently in a "beta", or public testing, phase.
The site is: http://vgcache.com
The purpose of it is to provide a fast, basic, and easy place for SC players to upload and share anything from maps, replays, images, files, and links. So far the site has all the basics working, but I am open to suggestions and ideas to improve it.
Update 11/17/2008: Made some graphical overhauls to make it more pleasing on the eye.
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That's a really neat idea, but just wondering how you'll make it exclusive to SC players?
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yeah how about letting us upload movies, music, games, windows vista, various tools, anything we want that would be cool
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Ok some constructive critisim...
1. Advertise banners should not be central thing in any website that doesn't revolve around spam/advertising. Different/more subtle placement/removal of ads is recommended.
2. The design is pretty much non existant, i see a gray background with a bunch of boxes with text in them, you need to..
A) ORGANIZE the design the menu should never be hidden away in some corner, it should be easy to see, easy to access. Think about what you want to promote with your website - put it in the center of attention and not some random colorful ad-banners that completely destroys the first impresson of a possibly great website contentwise.
B) Work on your banner and make that more obvious and starcraft-inspired. Design every single element of the website with the thought that it should look like it belongs together and makes sense to the visitor, which it does not atm.
C) Use contrasts way more, to be honest, using different kinds of grays against eachother is the perfect recipe for a depressive and boring looking website, i can't stand looking at it atleast. Use stronger contrats such as white vs blue, black vs blue, black vs green/turtquouse(spelling) etc. Anything really, it can do magic to any website when you have the right color combination - and remember, these colors that choose(if you choose) should run through the entire websites design, from links, text, menu etc.
D) Overall the website needs more depth embedded in the design to not make the visitor bored, using BG-gradient for certaint buttons, shadow on the banners text.. small things such as these really do wonders.
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On November 07 2008 06:29 Senx wrote: B) Work on your banner and make that more obvious and starcraft-inspired.
looks up at the top of the page...
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United States17042 Posts
I think that you're going to get a lot of random stuff uploaded, and you're not going to have space to host all of it. Just a suggestion as to how to fix that:
only allow .rep, .jpeg, or .scx files to be uploaded. All that will leave you with is dealing image spam and stuff.
I guess the nice thing about hosting sc stuff is that you don't need 100% uptime, although it would be nice. You can probably get away with like 90-80% uptime.
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On November 07 2008 06:34 liger13 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 07 2008 06:29 Senx wrote: B) Work on your banner and make that more obvious and starcraft-inspired.
looks up at the top of the page...
What do you mean? Vilegaming? What does that have do with anything?
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On November 07 2008 06:22 Nytefish wrote: That's a really neat idea, but just wondering how you'll make it exclusive to SC players? It isn't coded yet, nor final decision, but I was thinking at least having minimal "captcha"-esque security. Such as, when uploading something it would ask you a simple SC related question like.. "What hotkey is used for training a Marine?" "What race does the Zealot belong to?" "Can a Zergling attack air units?"
Nothing too hard, but at the same time requires at least minimal knowledge of SC.
On November 07 2008 06:23 hugitout wrote: yeah how about letting us upload movies, music, games, windows vista, various tools, anything we want that would be cool If only my VPS was hosted in a country where piracy was not illegal.
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On November 07 2008 06:42 Spartan wrote:Show nested quote +On November 07 2008 06:22 Nytefish wrote: That's a really neat idea, but just wondering how you'll make it exclusive to SC players? It isn't coded yet, nor final decision, but I was thinking at least having minimal "captcha"-esque security. Such as, when uploading something it would ask you a simple SC related question like.. "What hotkey is used for training a Marine?" "What race does the Zealot belong to?" "Can a Zergling attack air units?" Nothing too hard, but at the same time requires at least minimal knowledge of SC. Show nested quote +On November 07 2008 06:23 hugitout wrote: yeah how about letting us upload movies, music, games, windows vista, various tools, anything we want that would be cool If only my VPS was hosted in a country where piracy was not illegal.
thats a good idea
but have so you have to write the answer self, so that you cant guess and get right answer
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On November 07 2008 06:39 Senx wrote:Show nested quote +On November 07 2008 06:34 liger13 wrote:On November 07 2008 06:29 Senx wrote: B) Work on your banner and make that more obvious and starcraft-inspired.
looks up at the top of the page... What do you mean? Vilegaming? What does that have do with anything? I think he is talking about our herd of snowhorses.
(GET HIM!)
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
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It looks very unstructured and has an information overload. Don't like this design.
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On November 07 2008 06:29 Senx wrote:1. Advertise banners should not be central thing in any website that doesn't revolve around spam/advertising. Different/more subtle placement/removal of ads is recommended. Yea, I realize that. However, how is a site supposed to stay up and running without some source of income.
Agreed. As of this since reading your post I have removed the top advertisement (the 728x90 banner) on the index page so as to now bombard any new user upon first visiting the site. The ad unit will still be visible on any other page of the site though.
On November 07 2008 06:29 Senx wrote:2. The design is pretty much non existant, i see a gray background with a bunch of boxes with text in them, you need to.. I have to disagree with you on this one. The design is simple, fast, and clean; as is the focus.
On November 07 2008 06:29 Senx wrote:A) ORGANIZE the design the menu should never be hidden away in some corner, it should be easy to see, easy to access. Think about what you want to promote with your website - put it in the center of attention and not some random colorful ad-banners that completely destroys the first impresson of a possibly great website contentwise. Half-agree/disagree here. The navigational menu is pretty easy, and from my first pool of testers a while ago they all found it right away and reported that it was simple to get the hang of. I do want to add some kind of background to help focus on it. Something subtle like a texture pattern under the menu that fades out as it goes away from the corner.
On November 07 2008 06:29 Senx wrote:B) Work on your banner and make that more obvious and starcraft-inspired. Design every single element of the website with the thought that it should look like it belongs together and makes sense to the visitor, which it does not atm.
C) Use contrasts way more, to be honest, using different kinds of grays against eachother is the perfect recipe for a depressive and boring looking website, i can't stand looking at it atleast. Use stronger contrats such as white vs blue, black vs blue, black vs green/turtquouse(spelling) etc. Anything really, it can do magic to any website when you have the right color combination - and remember, these colors that choose(if you choose) should run through the entire websites design, from links, text, menu etc.
D) Overall the website needs more depth embedded in the design to not make the visitor bored, using BG-gradient for certaint buttons, shadow on the banners text.. small things such as these really do wonders. Agree. As I stated before, this is still a beta. While I do plan on keeping the same basic design I want to add a few minor graphical details to help it "stick". I have an artist drawing something up for the background of the top left corner and bottom of the site. I have some ideas for other small additions, too. I'll amend them later today.
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On November 07 2008 06:36 waterGHOSTCLAWdragon wrote: I think that you're going to get a lot of random stuff uploaded, and you're not going to have space to host all of it. Just a suggestion as to how to fix that:
only allow .rep, .jpeg, or .scx files to be uploaded. All that will leave you with is dealing image spam and stuff.
I guess the nice thing about hosting sc stuff is that you don't need 100% uptime, although it would be nice. You can probably get away with like 90-80% uptime. I mentioned above my solution for random stuff being uploaded, in the form of the SC security questions.
As for uptime, I have my own server that I host several sites on and everything has been running fine for the past year with the traffic I get.
The file formats you mentioned are already restricted to each upload form.
On "spam", one of the ideas I had planned from the start, but isn't coded yet, is a self-purging system that deletes uploads that have fall below certain restrictions. For example, for maps..
Types supported: .scm, .scx Size limit: 3mb Lifespan: 1 month
Double-life: X hits or X downloads Triple-life: X hits or X downloads Stable-life: X hits or X downloads To explain the above information, only maps with the .scm or .scx ending will be allowed for uploading. The max size of a map is 3mb. At the end of a month the map will be deleted. However, there are double/triple/stable life markers, if you will. Say a map reaches X hits and/or X downloads before a month is up then that map will get it's current lifespan doubled. Meaning it will be hosted for an extra month (a total of 2 since being uploaded). If during that extra month the map reaches the next X hits or X downloads it will get it's current lifespan tripled (current was 2 months since, triple that, 4 months extra, 6 months total).
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On November 07 2008 06:45 Zoler wrote:Show nested quote +On November 07 2008 06:42 Spartan wrote:On November 07 2008 06:22 Nytefish wrote: That's a really neat idea, but just wondering how you'll make it exclusive to SC players? It isn't coded yet, nor final decision, but I was thinking at least having minimal "captcha"-esque security. Such as, when uploading something it would ask you a simple SC related question like.. "What hotkey is used for training a Marine?" "What race does the Zealot belong to?" "Can a Zergling attack air units?" Nothing too hard, but at the same time requires at least minimal knowledge of SC. On November 07 2008 06:23 hugitout wrote: yeah how about letting us upload movies, music, games, windows vista, various tools, anything we want that would be cool If only my VPS was hosted in a country where piracy was not illegal. thats a good idea but have so you have to write the answer self, so that you cant guess and get right answer Of course.
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On November 07 2008 06:39 Senx wrote:Show nested quote +On November 07 2008 06:34 liger13 wrote:On November 07 2008 06:29 Senx wrote: B) Work on your banner and make that more obvious and starcraft-inspired.
looks up at the top of the page... What do you mean? Vilegaming? What does that have do with anything? hes talking about LOTR!!!!!!1111
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Okay, made some graphical changes. It does look much more pleasing.
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What is your point? I never claimed for it to be 100% W3 valid. Besides the idea of coding to 100% validity is bullshit and no one even follows it. It is just another stupid "web standard". Digg, Microsoft, Yahoo, TL, and any other major site do not even have 100% validity.
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Redid almost all of the graphics so they're easier on the eyes.
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