Task Pages

1. Task Pages

   #1

   This submission took some time to finish. I have been off line for a while and life got complicated.
   
   Let me preface: I was in the airport in New York. I had some time before Strolen’s flight left and my own actually departed (and see the details of my sojurn in that thread). Strolen had revealed how he wanted to make things work for the site. He wanted to simplify the use of the site. The Site is almost too feature rich. It is hard to use if you are not familiar with it. Part of that plan was revising the front page and making a custom homepage for everyone. Folios, Worlds, and Regions were discussed. The one navigation bar on the right side was suggested. It was a lot of info floating around in my head when his flight left.
   
   Thus I was left alone with my thoughts for a time while waiting for my flight.
   
   Never leave me alone with my thoughts… It can be dangerous.
   
   And I had a lot of time thanks to the airlines.
   
   There were two or three ideas that had come up in our discussions. They were sticking in my head. They just were not perfect yet.
   
   1) Custom Homepages.  Well in honesty, I hate this idea. You have to be familiar with the site before you actually know how you want to work with it. If you change your page around, you may lose or diminish features that you never knew you needed. There has to be a better way.
   
   2) The “I am New-ish” link. It is a link to a page that would cover some basic links and ideas. While FAQ links would be there, it would take you on a whirlwind tour of the site.
   
   3) The” I am quickly looking for ….” link. This link would take you to a page has a number of links for commonly used and predefined searches.
   I am quickly looking for Monsters.
   I am quickly looking for Pirates
   I am quickly looking for Plots (short)
   I am …. well you get the idea.  
   Each link would take you to a specific search or main page.
   
   Two and three would be links on the right side navigation bar on the home page. The last two pages would be great features for new and casual members.  They would be direct and functional. Strolen said he wanted to simplify the use of the site and I thought these ideas would do it.
   
   To simplify is to make things concrete and discrete. Like these pages. What if we made pages for every function.
   
   Task Page.
   
   A Task Page is a page for a specific task - given way or mode of using the site. The two pages I mentioned above are rough Task Pages, for new members and for casual searchers. So I thought about what everyone did on the site. I listed them in general usefulness order.
   
   I AM….
   
   Hunting: I am searching for something specific…
   *Advanced Search
   *Freetext Search
   *Quick goto links for each type of submission
   *To the region sorting page
   
   Touristing/ Browsing: I am just looking around, but not for anything specific
   *What is new (last 20 submissions (or just keep listing the last submissions in chronologic order)
   *Random (20 items)
   *Free Text Links to list and cloud.
   *Regions Links
   *Folio Library (Folio Region)
   *See something (sends you to a random submission)
   
   Creating: Making submissions
   *click to create a submission of a given type
   *FAQs for HTML in submission
   *FAQ for Codex /Scroll /Folio /Books/ Regions/ Worlds/
   *Making Idea Stubs
   
   Exploring: Getting to know the site better. This is advanced browsing.
   *Site FAQ
   *A list of several Folios on “Places to Go- subs to see”
   *Personal articles by people who have been here a while and how to do things.”How I use Strolens…”)
   
   Helping: To support others on the site
   *Link to the request edit submissions
   *Link to the request advice
   *Link to the specific forum sections (Sage Advice/ Announcements/ etc)
   *List of things with No Comments (in general and for you)
   *List of things with No Votes (in general and for you)
   *Links to In Works
   *Making Idea Stubs
   
   Looking for a Game
   *3 links to the sections of the Forum for RPs.
   *Our post an idea area for games.
   
   Looking for Community
   *Link to Chat
   *Link to Forum sections
   
   I am New   (while a task page, not in the general task page list)
   *FAQ info, with links to the greater FAQs
   *Links to site highlights
   *links to each task page and a quick line or two explaining what each one is.
   
   I am quickly looking for….(while a task page, not in the general task page list)
   *pretty much what was said above.
   *I am looking for inspiration. It takes you to a page that gives you one of each type of sub. Your job it to make something of them.
   
   
   So lets review this. Are there are "ways of using the Citadel" other than what have I have explored?  Have I missed things for a given tasks page?
   
   
   
   Now how to implement these?
   Most Section Navigation will be on the header navigation bar. Add to that Folio (The Stacks (the Library so you can browse the folios/ scrolls/ codices and netbooks), and World (loose the search box on that bar).
   
   Well they would have to be part of the right taskbar. So there would be blocks of things to move about on each taskbar side.
   
   If there is a submission on the page, the top of that column will be what is there now. It would include the freetext and back links. If it is a main page or a type home page.. that order can shift about.
   
   Search Box   (always in the upper 1/3 of the task bar)
   *Text Box with a radio button for site wide or region wide between it and the submit button.
   In this context, region would be either the region you are in or the submission type if you are on a type homepage (So if I was on NPCs page, and I clicked region and searched Cat, I would get all the NPC submissions that had Cat in them).
   
   Casual Box
   *This would be your "I am quickly looking for" and "I am New-ish" links. These would be associated with the search box normally, or first items (then followed by search)
   
   Shout Box (usually in the middle of the page, so it is useful)
   
   The I am Box (The Task Page Navs)
   *Here is your list of Tasks… on every page so you can go and do what you need to do.
   
   Subtype Box (pulling the two categories of a given type over) Used for Type/ Region Header pages. It would move the left nav bar to the right side and if you pull on it, the last five things (or more?) of that type would come down.
   

2. Re: Task Pages

   #2

   With respect to the "I am looking for..." section for people quickly needing something: could we just link that into the list of freetext? Obviously that doesn't give them everything of that type, but it'll give them the ones that the author meant for it to be there and whatnot. It seems like a simple extension/usage of what we already have.

3. Re: Task Pages

   #3

   The "I am quickly looking for" page will be just links to a given search result...
   Freetext "Monster"
   Freetext "Villians"
   Category Plots
   Search Cursed magic item
   Search magic weapons
   etc....
   
   That is exactly what it is going to have. If we are going forward with this, we just need to determine what will be those searches will be. I have determined 5 or so, I am sure between all of us we can come up with 10 to 15 more. (Then of course there will be appropriate tagging of free-text).
   

4. Re: Task Pages

   #4

   Rereading this, I love the Task Pages idea!
   
   Hunting
   Browsing
   Creating
   Exploring
   Helping
   
   Each page concentrating on that specific theme and giving all the tools and listings that will help encourage it.

5. Re: Task Pages

   #5

   BUMPY!

6. Re: Task Pages

   #6

   Task pages, task pages
   eat them up yum
   in the morning
   browsing through the task pages
   in the evening
   floating in the soup

7. Re: Task Pages

   #7

   Hunting
   Browsing
   Exploring
   
   They all sound/look too similiar. There needs to be a single taks category that does all three or there needs to be more of a difference between them and a better word to describe them. A new person to the site, glancing at that list won't be able to quickly figure out what is what.
   
   Exploring
   Creating
   Helping
   
   Those are the three I am voting for right now.

8. Re: Task Pages

   #8

   Hunting
   Browsing
   Exploring
   
   These features must be there... but I am not wedded to the titles
   
   Hunting is a search that is not part of our "I am looking quickly for" searches
   
   Browsing is Surfing the site
   
   Exploring is Surfing the site but with more emphasis on how the site works.

9. Re: Task Pages

   #9

   They still sound all the same, I'm afraid to say.
   
   Now: Exploring, Creating, Helping... that sounds eminently usable. Might even be able to fit the Read, Post, Play trio upon it.

10. Re: Task Pages

    #10

    Hunting and browsing can be subsets of the Exploring task page....just not on the main page perhaps.

11. Re: Task Pages

    #11

    Exploring is going to all the spots/ features/ and threads that teach you how to be a more supporting member. Really, it needs to be an easily accessible page.
    
    I am Hunting could just be Looking for (in contract to Quickly Looking for).  If we put them on the Quick Looking Page, then those search and sort functions will be lost in all the links to the regions and free text clusters.
    
    As I said, break out a thesaurus and choose a term.
    
    

12. Re: Task Pages

    #12

    We need to be careful not to create Strolen specific jargon.
    
    
    
    

13. Re: Task Pages

    #13

    We need to be careful not to create Strolen specific jargon.

    
    But why, after all those attempts? :)
    
    
    

    
    Hunting
    Browsing
    Exploring
    
    These features must be there... but I am not wedded to the titles
    
    Hunting is a search that is not part of our "I am looking quickly for" searches
    
    Browsing is Surfing the site
    
    Exploring is Surfing the site but with more emphasis on how the site works.
    

    
    
    

    
    Exploring is going to all the spots/ features/ and threads that teach you how to be a more supporting member. Really, it needs to be an easily accessible page.
    
    I am Hunting could just be Looking for (in contract to Quickly Looking for).  If we put them on the Quick Looking Page, then those search and sort functions will be lost in all the links to the regions and free text clusters.
    
    As I said, break out a thesaurus and choose a term.
    

    
    
    So, "Exploring" is basically a "Learn About us" page - like Citadel Explained already is (not that it couldn't handle improvement.)
    
    "Browsing" is the basic looking through the various listing pages for anything of interest. This is what people are doing most of the time.
    
    "Hunting" is the Search on steroids. Call it simply Search, then will people know what it is about (we can add Hunting to the page title or something, but make sure that Search - or Advanced Search or whatever - is the link to it; aside: see a large report on search).
    
    
    So we can still weld the ReadPostPlay trio onto basic functionality - and make it big on the home page, and keep the rest close at hand.

14. Re: Task Pages

    #14

    New(ish)
    FAQ's, How the site works, tutorial type articles...
    *FAQ info, with links to the greater FAQs
    *Links to site highlights
    *links to each task page and a quick line or two explaining what each one is.
    
    Hunting for
    Advanced search, freetext search, region links, folios...
    *Advanced Search
    *Freetext Search
    *Quick goto links for each type of submission
    *To the region sorting page
    
    Creating
    Submission articles, option FAQ, category descriptions...
    *click to create a submission of a given type
    *FAQs for HTML in submission
    *FAQ for Codex /Scroll /Folio /Books/ Regions/ Worlds/
    *Making Idea Stubs
    
    Exploring
    Random lists, freetext cloud, quick lists...
    *What is new (last 20 submissions (or just keep listing the last submissions in chronologic order)
    *Random (20 items)
    *Free Text Links to list and cloud.
    *Regions Links
    *Folio Library (Folio Region)
    *See something (sends you to a random submission)
    *Site FAQ
    *A list of several Folios on “Places to Go- subs to see”
    *Personal articles by people who have been here a while and how to do things.”How I use Strolens…”)
    
    Helping
    Advice requested, uncommented/unvoted, section links...
    *Link to the request edit submissions
    *Link to the request advice
    *Link to the specific forum sections (Sage Advice/ Announcements/ etc)
    *List of things with No Comments (in general and for you)
    *List of things with No Votes (in general and for you)
    *Links to In Works
    *Making Idea Stubs
    
    Looking for a game
    Current game listings, how to start your own...
    *3 links to the sections of the Forum for RPs.
    *Our post an idea area for games.
    
    Looking for a community
    Join Strolen's Citadel, shoutbox, forum sections...
    *Link to Chat
    *Link to Forum sections
    
    ============
    
    This is the current nature of things. Does that sound about right. (mostly copied from Moon's First post but to match the front pages current standing)

15. Re: Task Pages

    #15

    These are still in place. Just need tender loving care. The concept is still awesome!! My implementation just sucks llama balls.

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