HoopScoop
08-21-2007, 11:16 PM
Hello everyone! Hope everyone has had a great summer and I'm sure everyone is looking forward to the new season.
About this time every year I try to re-evaluate various aspects of HoopScoop.net to see what can be done to better everyone's experience on this website as we talk about Big 12 Women's Hoops. As has always been the case in the history of HoopScoop.net, this website is primarily, if not all, about the forums. That is why state-of-the-art software (vBulletin) was purchased to provide security and plenty of support for the framework.
Last year I tried to implement a type of Content Management System (CMS) that would allow anyone who signed up to create their own website and maintain any type of information they would like. However, that has not really taken off and has not been used for some time now. And I don't blame you. The software, TWiki, is quite terse and not a very exciting CMS. Thus, during the next week it is history.
Instead, I will be making some changes that are more directly tied to or built around the forum software. The forums WILL NOT change. Don't let that statement scare you. There is a tremendous user base associated with vBulletin. And many very helpful mods have been built to enhance the user experience with this software. I will be adding several mods over the next several weeks. These include a content management and portal system that provides a lot of information in module form around the forums including top posts of the day, user and thread statistics, a welcome block, navigation block, and much much more.
I will also purchase software that allows us to set up a photo gallery forum. We can structure the gallery to show pictures for each specific team. As well, each registered user can have their own picture galleries on non-basketball related activities if they like.
vBulletin has also been testing their new blog system which should be released in a future version. Not sure when this will be released - it could still be several months away. No one has beem clamoring for a blog system so I'll just wait until it becomes available.
There are many other mods such as RSS feed mods that allow for automatically updated news links from each Big 12 institution.
So, there is much that can be added to enhance everyone's enjoyment of the website. As always, if you have any thoughts, questions, comments please speak up right here in this forum. And be patient please, as I will need to take the forum down periodically to implement the new changes.
Thanks to everyone who contributes to HoopScoop.net!
About this time every year I try to re-evaluate various aspects of HoopScoop.net to see what can be done to better everyone's experience on this website as we talk about Big 12 Women's Hoops. As has always been the case in the history of HoopScoop.net, this website is primarily, if not all, about the forums. That is why state-of-the-art software (vBulletin) was purchased to provide security and plenty of support for the framework.
Last year I tried to implement a type of Content Management System (CMS) that would allow anyone who signed up to create their own website and maintain any type of information they would like. However, that has not really taken off and has not been used for some time now. And I don't blame you. The software, TWiki, is quite terse and not a very exciting CMS. Thus, during the next week it is history.
Instead, I will be making some changes that are more directly tied to or built around the forum software. The forums WILL NOT change. Don't let that statement scare you. There is a tremendous user base associated with vBulletin. And many very helpful mods have been built to enhance the user experience with this software. I will be adding several mods over the next several weeks. These include a content management and portal system that provides a lot of information in module form around the forums including top posts of the day, user and thread statistics, a welcome block, navigation block, and much much more.
I will also purchase software that allows us to set up a photo gallery forum. We can structure the gallery to show pictures for each specific team. As well, each registered user can have their own picture galleries on non-basketball related activities if they like.
vBulletin has also been testing their new blog system which should be released in a future version. Not sure when this will be released - it could still be several months away. No one has beem clamoring for a blog system so I'll just wait until it becomes available.
There are many other mods such as RSS feed mods that allow for automatically updated news links from each Big 12 institution.
So, there is much that can be added to enhance everyone's enjoyment of the website. As always, if you have any thoughts, questions, comments please speak up right here in this forum. And be patient please, as I will need to take the forum down periodically to implement the new changes.
Thanks to everyone who contributes to HoopScoop.net!