LivingFlame wrote:On that note:
Q: What is the Journal? / What is the purpose of Journal entries? / How does the Journal work?
A: ???
A: It's what blogging about AMVs was before every Tom, Dick & Harry knew what blogging was, thought it was cool or went nuts with their own little Wordpress havens.
It is, as far as I can tell, a way for site members to record their thoughts often - but not necessarily always - relating to AMVs. Some people have public journal entries, some people have private ones, some people rant and rave about stuff that only they would ever give a s*** about (me), other people deliberately seek to communicate with other members (me), still other people make nonsensical commentary which no one but they can understand (me).
Is the journal a donator's only function? I'm not sure, I'm a donator so it's always been there for me to use...anyways, I go onto the member's main page, hit "My Journal" ion the left, then "New Entry". I then write a bunch of nonsense and hit post and watch my reputation for being excessively fond of the written word go up a notch.
So now back to the real topic at hand, because you just know I wasn't done with it. Many thanks to Savia for taking me seriously (I think you are, anyways...).
Making an exhaustive run down about every "problem" I find on this site is overkill, I already mentioned a few quirks on just on one page that might bear looking into. Instead, I'm going to throw out a few things that I'd really like to get off my chest which may get the ball rolling and spark interest/other ideas. Please bear in mind that I understand the ripple effects of making fundamental changes to an existing system (such as Web sites). I know very well that you can’t snap your fingers and implement such changes without first looking long and hard at the big picture. Perhaps what I’m going to suggest is not feasible for a-m-v.org – I don’t know, but until someone In Charge says so and I believe them, I'm going to operate on the assumption that my suggestions are neither ridiculous nor out of the question.
My #1 general observation, which encompasses just about every area of this site (excluding the forums) is that a-m-v.org has layout issues. It's very much about vertical spaces - menus go up and down, data goes up and down – and consequently it requires a lot of scrolling to get around. In many cases there is too much information jammed onto one page, causing it to become unnecessarily long (provoking scrolling). A few specific negative effects I previously noted, like important menus and alerts winding up literally offscreen. These kinds of problems suggest that there are underlying layout flaws which could be addressed by updating the site with – for starters – a menu bar of some kind permanently at the top. Imagine what THAT would do in terms of a ripple effect...the possibilities are fantastic!
Let's digress a little more about the opportunities to streamline the site. To recap, right now too much information is trying to be crammed onto too few pages, there's not a lot of rhyme or reason to the way some things are laid out and the site itself doesn't seem very efficient. One huge and very basic step forward would be to create separate areas for different subject matter (see below for more on this) and - obviously - implement an effective and user-friendly system for navigating through it all (see above for main menu ripple effect). A snapshot example of the disorganization I'm talking about would be site statistics - everything from donation levels to uploaded videos are currently scattered all over the place, often taking up way too much room. It's kind of crazy, really.
So now for something a little less general that might not require a complete site overhaul:
please, please PLEASE can we have a more centralized method for exploring the AMVs found on this site. This is #1 on my wish list and probably the #1 thing that would give a massive boost to the site’s usability. Currently the “Search for AMVs” item is nowhere near the specialized lists (Top 10%/Top Star, etc.), nor do those specialized lists immediately jump out as a great way of finding AMVs because they’re just kind of sitting there out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by other menus which bear no relation to them. Clicking on “Search for AMVs” brings you to yet another screen with even more options, etc. How about having ONE menu, or just one section of the site completely devoted to accessing the database? (see above rant about streamlining).
And keep those big menu options available at all times! For example - don’t make people have to go all the way back out to their member’s page to access the Top 10% list or the search function. I want the door to the database in "front" of me and accessible at all times - it's why this site exists, after all - just like I want links to my Member's Page, the forum, the FAQ (or maybe "Help" would be a better alternative - that could put the guides, the FAQ and probably a few other things into one tidy place) and some other areas right where I can see them no matter where I am on the site (main meeeenu baaaarrr...)!
*pant pant pant*
ok, I think I've poured enough gunpowder for one day...
