New Poll: Which of the following do you want to see most (or see more of) on MDV?

[Streetz]

10/22/07 - Given the size of Magic Deck Vortex, there is only enough time to to do a few things every night when I update the site. The following poll is meant to give me some direction on what you would like to see happen first. Please vote. If you would like to give some feedback on this, please post in this forum thread. Thanks in advance. ~Streetz~ Discuss Here.

*Note: This is a main site poll. Not a forum poll.

The Poll Options:

Which of the following do you want to see most (or see more of) on Magic Deck Vortex?
Combo of the Day (like the Deck of the Day feature)
Podcast(s)
Top10, Top20 and Top30 Features
More New Articles
More Deck Database Updates
More Tournament Content
More Fictional Card Content
New Website Design
Better Search Engine (for MDV)
More Art Updates / Art Articles

[Cashew]

What I would love to see ultimately is as follows:
A higher focus on an overall achievement designed in a way such that a single man's vision becomes an entire communitie's involvement.

Or quite simply, I'd love to see you do all those things. However, it takes a village. Obviously some of it can be delegated out - you just need the right trustworthy people. You've probably heard me say it multiple times, one man helming the entire non-forum site must be time consuming and at times stressful. Perhaps, delegating some duties to a particular person could help you to achieve this. For instance, Tynion seems to be in the perfect position to take articles from the guild to the main site to alleviate some of that.

Other tasks a monkey could do with proper instruction such as going thru the visual spoiler and making sure each visual set has the correct image for it. Even if the monkey doesn't finish the task all the way those hours invested our hours you can be doing something more worthwhile of your time.

I'd love to see a less cluttered design, but nothing as impersonal as MTG Salvation's main site, and more skewed towards the current design which is a clunkier version of the official magic site. Much of the modern designs people are putting out, look nice, but have a cold impersonal feel. So yeah, what I want is more rambling.

I'd love to see a high powered writer's suite that gives them more power over the total overall layout - such as table layouts, positioning of images, etc. I know I love images in my articles and would give me a much better visual of where I need to jazz up the plain text w/ a relevant image.

I'd also love to see a minor-wikization of the main page that effects our articles as well such as if we reference the Fallen Empires set it'll goto the appropriate page, or if we reference a particular card it is clickable on the main page to bring up an image or the gatherer entry - w/o you having to hand enter a thousand things.

[Streetz]

Cashew - Thanks again for the comments.

NOTE: The main poll is up.

To respond to some of your comments:

I would too love to share some of the responsibility of the site. The problem is, with Frontpage, all of the main site is on my computer. To let others modify the site would invite them into my computer - which I have no idea how to do nor would I trust someone else running around in my computer. I keep all of my personal files there and unmentionables.

In all seriousness, I don't have faith in doing everything on the web. I've been through several servers and hosts since I started the site, and without a consistent, daily backup - I fear one day the server will fall and I will lose weeks of week. With other working on it with me, it would be a catastrophe of time lost on multiple accounts.

However, I will keep that option in mind. People have mentioned WIKI style MDV in the past. I am not entirely closed to that option. But it isn't an option right now.

You really think MTGS is impersonal? What makes it that way, Cashew?

With regard to the high-powered suite for the writers, [] is your friend. Heck, you can even make the images and attach them to your article in the writers guild.

...sometimes I wish I was a more efficient monkey.

[Ryuzaki]

Most of these are not what I would try to work on first, but out of them, well in Order from Most to Least important. I don't use the search engine that much but it is a little annoying, the new website design would be really cool, and combo of the day would be really cool to have.

New Website Design
Combo of the Day (like the Deck of the Day feature)
More Tournament Content
More Fictional Card Content
Better Search Engine (for MDV)
Top10, Top20 and Top30 Features
More New Articles
More Deck Database Updates
More Fictional Card Content
More Art Updates / Art Articles
Podcast(s)

Then again, I'm not sure of ALL of the things you have to work on Streetz, or your list of things to do. This is a good start though, very good.

[Streetz]

Ryuzaki - (CJS ) - what to you propose I work on first then? You referenced that your vote would really by in the 'other' category ... which isn't an option. Please let me know.

[Cashew]

The whole of the site feels cold an impersonal. You have one image up top that's really nothing about magic, then there's an overwhelming amount of content in the site but it's all buried. The font and colors don't feel welcoming, and overall you easily get overwhelmed by how everything links to each other, yet the style constantly changes.

I like some of their stuff, but other stuff is just "meh." It's a nice site, just looks like a robot designed 0 personality.

[Streetz]

Cashew - thank you again for your reply. I would agree that it is a bit boring and lacking personality (MTGS's design). However, the main page gives you all the navigation you need to roam around the site. Having any more would put it into MDV's category -- cluttered. Although, which is bigger? MTGS or MDV? (Bigger in terms of non-forum content)

[Cashew]

No idea. They may have more content, it's just buried, and hard to find - their wiki is fairly large - but there's like 5 wiki's I've seen that are larger. There's no reason to do a wiki like that if you're not going to have an intensive and arguably the best one. My wiki suggestion for here would be to Wiki-ize the things that the average user can post or a handful of "guardian level users" can post to (ie. take work off your hands). These are things like your DBM, combos, and fantasy sets - basically anything with a heavy text base.

MDV does a better job of keeping content point and click. MTGS is search and discover. It's a combo of both that makes a good site. Ultimately, if you can't point and click to it, your average user will never find it, but if you can't search for it right away your power user will move on.

[Ryuzaki]

Originally Posted by Streetz

Ryuzaki - (CJS ) - what to you propose I work on first then? You referenced that your vote would really by in the 'other' category ... which isn't an option. Please let me know.

Well to be honest, my first thought would be the Front Page, seeing how many people view it, and to have it come together.

I am interested in working on things with you, if you want on MSN or in a PM you could give me your list of Things to do/work on. I'm very interesting in dedicating some time to helping you out, I imagine that you have a LOT of work to do. I think this way we can be more organized on what to do first, and focus on a few issues at a time.

[grim]

well the poll is great but too bad u can only pick one, i picked more fictional cards because it was outnumbered and i really like seeing what people come up with as fictional cards, alternative cardstyles and fictional sets

but at the same time i really like the idea of a combo of the day, it's always fun to see new combos but there are so many of them

[Maleficent]

Combo of the Day (like the Deck of the Day feature)
Podcast(s)
Top10, Top20 and Top30 Features
More New Articles
More Deck Database Updates
More Tournament Content
More Fictional Card Content
New Website Design
Better Search Engine (for MDV)
More Art Updates / Art Articles

I like the bolded ones

Combo of the Day: Goes great with the idea of MDV. And people like combos. They're very casual things. Usually.

Top 10 things: Everyone likes lists. And you can do a lot with this.

Fictional Cards: Seems to be popular here? Also, very casual player thing to do. Not sure what all you could do with it though. Any news on Celixia?

New Website Design: The front page could look better, I think. The red I like, I have nothing against that, but it could use a more snazzy look I think, with 3Dness and whatnot. Hm, I don't know how to make them like FKIH, but would a description suffice?

Art Articles: Not a big one, but I'd be pretty interested in seeing them, if anyone is willing to write them if not, that's ok.

Also: Competitions. So I can win. The Darksteel Designer contest is brilliant - we need more things like it, but not like it! Hmm.... Actually, we might not need more right now just keep 'em coming

[§cIoN]

out of the list these are my choices in order from most to least. (the more stars the more i like it.)

Combo of the Day (like the Deck of the Day feature) *****
Top10, Top20 and Top30 Features *****
More Deck Database Updates **
More Tournament Content **
More Fictional Card Content
More New Articles
New Website Design
Better Search Engine (for MDV)


@Cashew- I agree, MTGS is a pretty ugly site. It's too packed. hell, I never go there for a reason.!

[Yezzandrix]

I voted (surprise surprise) for a better search engine. The current one I don't like too much. Well, I use google to search the MDV. That should tell you all there is to tell...

I was searching an old post of somebody yesterday, and was thoroughly unable to find it. The "Find all posts from X" goes back 500 posts. Considering our regulars have between 2000 and 6000 posts, a lot of old stuff is lost, it seems, unless you REALLY know where something is that was posted 1 year or more ago.

[grim]

Originally Posted by Maleficent

New Website Design: The front page could look better, I think. The red I like, I have nothing against that, but it could use a more snazzy look I think, with 3Dness and whatnot. Hm, I don't know how to make them like FKIH, but would a description suffice?

Art Articles: Not a big one, but I'd be pretty interested in seeing them, if anyone is willing to write them if not, that's ok.

Also: Competitions. So I can win. The Darksteel Designer contest is brilliant - we need more things like it, but not like it! Hmm.... Actually, we might not need more right now just keep 'em coming

darn i can't believe i missed that website design, well hope u don't take offence on this streetz(i know how hard it is to get a good design, i can code rather well but when it comes to design i suck bigtime) but the design of the mainsite isn't all that great, the placing of the articles and all is great, it's really well-organized but at the same time due to the design and the placing of the adds it looks kinda bad

and to the other 2 things Mal posted:

art articles: sounds interesting but not as interesting as the rest

competitions: hell yeah who doesn't like winning

[Streetz]

Thank you again for the comments, guys. This thread will stay open for as long as the poll is around. I plan on writing a Words from the Streetz article regarding this poll in the next few weeks so I can discuss what I can, will and won't be able to do based on poll results.