Congress of Awesome Blog

[Hyperguy]

In all honesty, I'm not too satisfied with TinyPortal and don't find it very intuitive.  In fact, I think I would much rather use Wordpress to manage content.

In short, would anyone be interested in contributing articles to a Congress of Awesome blog?

It could be just like a magazine, complete with reoccurring features and give us the opportunity to write about the things that we care about that nobody seems to write about, like how awesome such and such character, series, hcg or whathave you is.


We could then change the main page of the forum back to a forum(instead of a news feed) while still keeping the sidebar features like the shoutbox and Carrerachan previewer still intact.

That, and link the blog and the forum's databases so that you could use the same account on either, but on the Wordpress CMS, have better control of the things you've written and more easily manage images and uploads.  You could use your forum avatar on Wordpress also.

Other reasons for using Wordpress over TinyPortal is because I feel it presents things better, and allows people outside of the community to comment without having to make a forum account as well.

Here's some ideas I have for reoccuring features:

Series Spotlight: We pick out a character, series, or thing, and feature it.  We could even accompany it with videos, mp3s, or other downloads.  No real limit on what it is.  You could write up a whole paragraph on Miki if you wanted, and have it post to the front page.

YouTube Video of the Day: Just as its name implies, someone submits a YouTube video to be the YouTube video the day.  Or if that's too much, a YouTube Video of the Week would work just as well.

Hentai Detective Agency: From user submissions we put our Google Fu to the test to identify or find out more about a series and/or its company.  The advantage to this having front page exposure is that maybe even a regular visitor will be able to give us a tip.

A biweekly Viper Thumbnail Theatre: self explanatory I guess. (Edit: How silly of me. We have a forum dedicated to these.  Still, some more exposure and consistent updates wouldn't hurt.)

A doujinshi section: Basically, a post that contains a cover and a link to a download of a doujinshi.  But the advantage to having it through Wordpress is that you could tag it, and through that, allow people to find more doujinshi by the same artist or circle amongst the ones we've featured/submitted.

Image posts: a post that with no more rhyme or reason than to post several related images at once, like for example "Viper Islands Vol. 6 Image Rips".  I know stuff like this could be handled with a gallery, but for those really small image collections (3-9 images) I think this would be ideal.



Of course, I want your feedback.  I feel like things have been really stagnant around here, and I think some change may very well bring some life back into the Congress of Awesome.

Not to mention, something like this would allow us to combine our efforts toward a common goal, which is to be frank what we have been doing, but not with the same level of organization.

Edit: Also, if we did go this route, I already have a theme I'd like to skin for this project in Equilibrium, a magazine style Wordpress theme.  Do check it out and picture it with the Congress of Awesome's colors and instead of screenshots of Wall-E and Mirror's Edge, with things like Viper V6-R, Love Fetish, Artificial Girl, Alignment You You! for example.

I did a quick mockup of how it might look using this theme:

http://www.hyperguy.net/images/forum/coa_magazine_mockup.jpg

[bfg00]

I like this idea.  Would there be a sign up to write articles or would it just be on a as you want to basis?

[Hyperguy]

It would be on a as you want basis.  You'd log in to Wordpress and be able to submit content at your leisure.

This is similar to the system we already have, but far more intuitive and with a greater emphasis on content.  It would list all of the articles you've written and make it easier to write new ones with its fully featured editor that has supports for several file types(images, movies, music, downloads), and would display them more professionally than the system we have now.

Though, at the onset, user accounts would have to be given out manually, and right now I'd like to gauge how much interest there'd be for something like this.

[JG]

I did a quick mockup of how it might look using this theme:

http://www.hyperguy.net/images/forum/coa_magazine_mockup.jpg

Needs moar dancing Ratty.

[Hyperguy]

This topic, circa yesterday:

http://hyperguy.net/images/forum/yesterday/topicseen.html

[Mirai Doft]

Yeah, that's a nice idea. It sure would be fun to have something to read here every now and then. But I didn't like the layout very much, maybe it would be better if you separated the posts by subject, like one blog for each subject, in a way we can see links to new posts, like in the forum. But I probably wouldn't contribute since I don't write much =P

[Hyperguy]

I can make a feed for new blog posts.

Could you elaborate a little please?  Are you suggesting making categories for the news forum?

[Mirai Doft]

Not for the forum, for the blog. Like something in the sidebar listing the categories and the newest posts in there. If you click a category, it'll show all posts in there, or you can directly go to a post by clicking on it.

But maybe this would only be good if we had lots of posts everyday, but with the recent activity we've been seeing, I doubt it. Perhaps you can make it into a community thing, like a you-blog.
Want to write about something, don't know where to put it? Congress of Awesome, for all your awesome articles. But that's just an idea >_>

And make the main page SFW =P

[bfg00]

Well one doesn't even have to write like a 5 paragraph essay when they are writing an article.  One could just write a paragraph.  As long as its interesting/entertaining, length really isn't an issue.

[Moge]

A Hyperguy podcast would be gnarly, although talking about porn sounds like a dead end; what else is there to this site?

[Hyperguy]

Not for the forum, for the blog. Like something in the sidebar listing the categories and the newest posts in there. If you click a category, it'll show all posts in there, or you can directly go to a post by clicking on it.

This feature's available, but not enabled by default.  I'll go ahead and enable it as per your suggestion. :O
Should appear below the fold.

But maybe this would only be good if we had lots of posts everyday, but with the recent activity we've been seeing, I doubt it. Perhaps you can make it into a community thing, like a you-blog.
Want to write about something, don't know where to put it? Congress of Awesome, for all your awesome articles. But that's just an idea >_>

Like a blog for all of the members of the Congress of Awesome community?  I like this idea, and it would probably give some variety to the content.  Though, I'd probably have to give people extra incentive to write there in the case that they already had a blog.  I guess one incentive is that when you post something, most people in the CoA will be able to read and comment on it.

And make the main page SFW =P

Funny you say that, because banners for HG.net were originally going to be SFW, but one time ROMate snuck an ecchi banner in and I let that slide.  From then on I just let all NSFW banners slide.  Speaking of, I'm thinking we should have a banner donation drive for the new domain, congressofawesome.net.  That is, once I figure out the dimensions and how I'd like to display 'em.  But yeah, I don't see an outcry for hentai banners occuring anytime soon, so maybe it would be to make 'em SFW this time around.

A Hyperguy podcast would be gnarly, although talking about porn sounds like a dead end; what else is there to this site?

Fighting games!  Personally though, I just write about or feature whatever I happen to be liking at the time, like that Thunder Warrior Raidy and Wrestle Idol! stuff I had on HG.net.  If it's something cool that I happen to like and want to right about I generally will write about it and would encourage everyone to do the same about the things they like.  Caring is sharing.

I think a podcast would be me complaining into a microphone about all of the little things on the internet that irk me.  Then I'd probably change my voice a couple a times and say how X thing is the best thing ever and how you should knock over a bunch of people on the way to it.  I'd try to make it entertaining regardless!

It'd be like that show Mad Money, but with tips on how and where to get things on the web instead of stock market tips.

[Hyperguy]

Double posting!

Alpha phase of Congress of Awesome blog/cms has been set up at:

http://hyperguy.net/congressofawesome/

At this point it's not ready for a release since it hasn't been skinned and there aren't any articles, but anyone daring enough to fight the monsters within to test it out is more than welcome to.

Just post here or PM me and I'll set you up a user account.  I'll just need to know what username you want and a temp password(which you should change later after logging in.  I don't wanna know your password. >_>

Login's here:

http://hyperguy.net/congressofawesome/wp-admin/


In the future I'll try bridging user databases so that you can just use your forum account to login, but at the moment they're per request.

-------

Things needed for final release(That is, a release in the sense of making congressofawesome.net point to the front page of the blog):

*Layout Customization (In other words, making it look similar or better than the mockup)
*A few good articles (Five should do it!)
*Categories (I guess 'hentai' and 'video games' are shoe in's, though might be better as 'eroge' and 'fighting games instead. O_o)
*I think that's it really, though I'm sure I could add more functionality through plugins later.  I guess I could try recycling some old articles too, though the jury's still out on that one.)

It'd probably be a good idea to put a feed from the blog onto the CoA forums too.

Also, just thought of something.  COurAge.

Though maybe a tie-in slogan could be 'Covering Our Age'. Heh. >_>

[Hyperguy]

Triple post!

I've added some basic styles and did some minor formatting on the template.  Colors mirror forum's now.

Just need to figure out what to put in that big blank space under title.  I figure I could put a banner there, though it'd have to be a skinny banner.  Or something.  Hm, you take a look at it. O_o

[bfg00]

Well here are a few categories besides the ones already mentioned:

Anime/Manga: Non-porn, I know this is a foriegn concept but there are exports from Japan besides porn as small as that volume may be.
Random: Doesn't fit into any of the pre-existing categories.
YouTube: I liked the idea of having a YouTube video of the moment linked on the front page ala ED, this would basically feed into/replace the YouTube thread in Lurker's Haven.

[Hyperguy]

Added section for A Nimes/Mangoes.

But, since categories won't show unless there's an actual post that belongs to that category, I wrote a up a quick article for it:

http://hyperguy.net/congressofawesome/?p=32

I'll add a YouTube category next(Since we already have Random.) :O

Edit: YouTube videos do work, but don't show up on the featured section correctly since it only supports images.  Will work on this some.  I'll probably end up having to make a general use image for videos, or just have videos omitted from featured tabs altogether.

[Ellendesu]

Ya'll niggas gonna be readin' some blogs up in herre.

WHUT WHUT

[Hyperguy]

Made a generic, compatible image for featured YouTube posts.

Current categories on the alpha are:

A Nimes/Mangoes
Fap Fodder (Will most likely change)
Fightan' Gaems
Random
YouTube

[Hyperguy]

Styled captions.  Default styling was well, not very stylized at all.

I'm getting closer and closer to being able to release it.

[JG]

I'm getting closer and closer to being able to release it.

Watch out folks!!  That's lingo for "Hyperguy's about to do something to the server", so make your backups now.

[Hyperguy]

Oh, you!

But yeah.  I will make a backup this time, just in case.