Young Writers Society

I hate the front page; it's an annoyance when I visit the site. I do quickly skim it to see the most recent topics, but that's all. Otherwise, I quickly move from it to other parts of the site. It's a link page and nothing more.

And judging by some of the data I'm getting back from the new google analytics software I just set up for the site, I'm not the only one. Except for the forum index pages, which really are just link pages and can't really be anything more, people spend less time on the front page than on any other page.

So I'm in the process of redesigning it. I've gotten some feedback, mostly from the Instructors group, on what I've done so far, but now I want to open it up to everyone:

test.php

I hope to make that the front page by tomorrow. In short, what I'm doing is moving Squills from one of the back pages to the front page. This way, hopefully, people will come to the site and spend more time on the front page; just reading what's there. This also adds a lot more content to the site, which is something the site needs in order to move it from just a forum to a full website.

So what do you think so far? Do you find the Stick figures annoying or funny (I'm going to add tons more by the way)? Does the page look boring or interesting? And so on and so forth.

Ah. I glanced at the new front page. I... don't particularly like it. It's so open and strange and just... weird. I dunno Nate, are you sure that's the format you want to use? -_-

I think it could be more intersting than plain white... just a bit boring as is. And in all seriousness the stick figures really don't add. I mean, I think the front page is great as it is. I really do not like the format you propose. But maybe that's just me, maybe I'm being weird. Umm, what do the mods think?

I'm gonna have to go along with Dreamy on this one. It looks weird, and the stick figures don't do anything good for it. I like the main page the way it is. Why do you need people to spend more time on thr front page, anyway, since the literary forums and usergroups are the more important ones.?

Sorry Nate, but I have to agree with Dream Deep and Rei. With this test page, there's just an imbalance about it... I really prefer information/statistics on both sides of the page, with the most important information in the middle. I think the current front page is very well-conceived, actually.

The only thing I might change about the front page is manipulating how some of the graphics are stored, and some of the PHP programming, because that is by far the slowest-loading page of the whole site, for me.

I dunno if this is the right place, but I'm thinking that it'd be a good idea to place the 'Interactive Fiction' link higher up. At the moment, it's not really that obvious, which could explain the kind of low ammount of participation it's recieving.

Looks like I'll have to change a few things, but it is going to change quite a bit.

Surreal ->> I prefer suggestions like that go in the comments/suggestions thread or be PMmed to me. But in any case, I really don't know what you mean since the interactive stories link is at the very top of every single page. I'm not sure how much higher it can get than that. The lack of participation is more likely due to low activity overall; August is a slow month since a lot of people are on vacation. Those who do log in tend not to do much other than glance around since there's so much else to be done right now (especially with most schools in the States starting next week).

I hadn't noticed the news at the top. It's only on the Community and Literary pages, and I never look at them (I just look at 'view new posts' from the home ).

Surreal, I forgot to make the necessary changes to the YWS Dark and YWS Blue templates, so if you're using either of those, that's probably why you don't see the link. It's fixed now!


I've redesigned the test page and got rid of the all white. I kind of want to stick with the stick figures though (haha, a pun!) for two reasons:
1. I think they're funnnnnnny
2. I think they can help grab people's attention
By the way, if you're using YWS Dark or YWS True Blue, the stick figures will look quite odd right now, but that'll be fixed later on.

Once again, the site address is:
test.php

It's much improved...though I still think I prefer information on both sides.

I'm with David. Still don't like the stick figures. Also, I severely dislike having Squills articles there instead of the most recent literary posts. The literary posts are supposed to be the most important ones on the site. I hate to say this, but I think you may be beginning to go along the same path you did before, and find lots of distractions from the original perpose of the site, to share and critique people's writing.

Thanks for being honest Rei. I went ahead and got rid of the stick figures, although I still like them. But, it was just too much trouble to make them work right when I haven't received positive feedback on them.

I made the decision to move Squills to the front page after realizing no one was reading anything on the front page. You may like the literary posts, and you even may read them, but most people weren't reading them at all. Right now, the front page is a link page, with most people clicking on the header links at the very top. Very, very few scrolled on down the page.

Plus, there's the problem of people not reading announcements. This has always been a problem, but some were upset that they didn't find out about the Grand Re-Opening until after the fact (though I'm not quite sure how they missed it). With the new change, I can heavily advertise such an event on the front page.

Squills also provides the oppurtunity to talk about what's going on in the forums, hence the Heard In The Forums post I made the other day. I also plan on doing a YWS roundup once a week of stories and poems that are a good read.

All in all, Rei, this is not a decision I made lightly, as you seem to think. I've been thinking about ways to make YWS not only into a community of young writers but also into a resource for young writers. Right now, you can share your work, but that can only help you so much. There should be information on book reviews, proper grammar, submitting to a publisher, author interviews, etc. Changing the front page is the first step in that.

Sorry Nate. I like this one better because there's more on it and there's way too much scrolling on your proposed idea. Of course, you can do what you want, but I think you shouldn't put the Squills posts on there. The most important ones are the literary posts, right? This is a writing site after all! And I didn't see the stick people? Where are they? lol

I'm sure a mix between the two or just this one the way it is are perfectly fine. I actually quite enjoy the main page because it's easy to scroll places.

I quite like having the Squills posts up there, though- Squills posts are pretty important, too- and will help you out.

You can't really critique a two sentence blurb of a story- the blurb of which is someone's hasty introduction and a couple of spaces.

Besides, Squills doesn't get a whole lot of attention. If everyone read Squills...it might not need to be the focal point. But since it's one of the features of YWS that make it unique, I think it's pretty important.

It does look sort of imbalance- perhaps do a sort of flip effect? If you had the blank space on one side, and then on the next row down you had the text on that same side, it might look a little more balanced.

I like the new page, although I don't like the YWS logo next to the Quote/Word of the Week.

This is what I think I'm going to do as a compromise...

The My YWS page is still absent, and should be brought back. In essence, what is now the front page, save the literary posts, will become the My YWS page. Of course, quote/word of the week will be on the Squills page.

But on the front page, what I may end up offering is the choice to have either posts from Squills or the literary posts. The default would be Squills, but there'd be an option at the top to change that. However, doing that will require an extra couple of hours of my time, so I'll only do it if I hear from more people that they want the literary posts more than the Squills posts.