The front page www.thebookforum.com

[Zolipara]

The front page of this site has not been updated since january 2005 as far as i can see. This makes the site look inactive, even if there is some activity in the forums. The winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize for literature can hardly be called news any longer. Unless it is actually updated i see no reason to keep it like that.

Instead i suggest you make a general "presentation" of the forum and perhaps a list of the latest forum discussions. Another idea could be to give the users a bit more influence on the front page. Perhaps give some/all users access to post articles or news on the front page? At the moment the front page just adds to the impression of a dead or dying forum by displaying "news" from 2004 and januarys book of the month.

 

[Kookamoor]

Great point. It wouldn't be too difficult to have the current book of the month on the front page, at the very least. But obviously this adds work for someone...

 

[Kenny Shovel]

The Help&FAQ button doesn't seem to be working either. All I get is :

Cerberus [ERROR]: Could not connect to database. Check your site.config.php DB_* settings.
Reason: (Access denied for user: 'thebookn_tbn@localhost' to database 'thebookn_cerberus')

If it was working I might be able to find out how to add a book to the library so I can review it.

 

[Zolipara]

But obviously this adds work for someone...

Well yes, but i figured some people would volunteer to write a few articles or post some book-related news on the frontpage. It doesnt have to be a lot of work if a few people contribute. But if not its better to just remove the news section from the frontpage and just add a general description of the forum and links to the latest forum threads.

 

[Ice]

It wouldn't be too difficult to have the current book of the month on the front page, at the very least.

This is a good idea, but one only Darren can answer I am afraid. He is the only person who has access to the content of the homepage.

 

[Kookamoor]

This is a good idea, but one only Darren can answer I am afraid. He is the only person who has access to the content of the homepage.

What about having a permanent link to the current book of the month? There could be some code written to indicate the month automatically (says she who knows very little about web page design).

Well yes, but i figured some people would volunteer to write a few articles or post some book-related news on the frontpage. It doesnt have to be a lot of work if a few people contribute.

Now *that* is a good idea! It would depend on Darren, though, as Ice said.

 

[Darren]

Yes, the front page is badly in need of updating

I've been waiting for an update to the software which runs the front page, which has been a bit slow in coming.

There is a facility for people to login and create articles which would be shown on the homepage though.

I'll try to update the design and post some details in the near future when I get some more time.

I orginally wrote the PHP code which displayed the latest forum discussions and the login box etc, but the recent vbulletin update made this defunct. It's on my to-do list of things to update/fix around here. At the same time, I can fix the Book of the Month display.

 

[Ice]

Thanks Darren

 

[Shade]

If you look at the link in my sig you'll see the kind of personalised home page which can be done fairly simply with any vBulletin board - showing latest threads etc., plus (I realise this won't show up if you're not a member of the site in my sig) details of your PMs, new posts since your last sign-in etc.