The Lockerroom
This is a the place to discuss the site, community issues, discuss ideas for opinions, and other things related to the community but not specifically about sports. You can add something to the locker room by clicking the link.
New Front Page (Take Two!)
Okay, let's try that again.
First off, sorry for yesterday's problems. The front page looked all funky in IE, but that's fixed now. And apparently, we had an hour of downtime, but I think the two were unrelated.
Second, here's a more in-depth look at what we added to the front page, why we added it, and how you guys can help us test it out. We realize that the front page just became a lot busier, and we fully admit that we looked at what ESPN, SI, FoxSports, CBSSportsline, etc were doing when we mocked it up. Basically, February is a slooooooooooooooooooow month in the sports world, so we're using it as a way to test a more robust front page. We'll revisit it at the end of the month, with the community's input. In other words: Give it three weeks, and if you really don't like it, we'll change it again. No big deal.
The new features:
[edit] The Featured Story
It's the story featured ('magine that!) in the upper left. That story is simply one of the recent stories with a lot of votes, and which has an image. So, no longer does a really great story disappear as other stuff piles on top of it. Getting 20+ votes... that'll get you to the top, but again, your story *must* have an image on it to be "featured".
Why'd we add it? A few reasons, but there are two big ones. First, when we have a really incredible article on ArmchairGM -- like, Davis' Tecmo Sim (which over 350 (!) sites linked to) -- it falls off the front page really quickly. Stuff like that really deserves to be at the top of the site for a while.
The second reason is, I guess, a restatement of the first. If you check out the Articles tab, you'll see that, even though every vote after the 9th is (or was) meaningless, a lot of things are so popular, and resonate so well with the community, that they get 18, 25, or many, many more. The "reward" you guys get for breaking 9, though? Meaningless. Nothing. So, we fixed that.
How You Can Help: If something has a lot of votes, and doesn't have an image, find an appropriate one.
[edit] The Hot Links Section
It's sports links from around the web. Anyone can submit a link via this link, but for now, only the five staffers can approve them. That will change over time. Link Admins will be chosen by their ability to locate great links on a regular basis. There's also a special RSS feed for it.
Why did we add it? Well, the locker room was being used that way anyway, but more importantly, we want ArmchairGM to be a one-stop sports site. If it's about sports, we want to have it here. If we had the bankroll to do things like set up a studio and have our own SportsCenter ripoff, we'd do it, and invite all you guys to be hosts.
At the same time, we can do things the big boys can't -- such as link to other sites prominently, or show off hot sports chicks, etc. So the Hot Links section does that. It also helps be a leader of the sports community. By linking to other sides -- be it ESPN or some random blog you'd otherwise had never heard of -- we can show that we aren't a parochial, insular community. We *want* to see what other people have to say!
How You Can Help: Submit links, of course! But the more important thing -- really -- is to comment on the links. Talk about other people's stuff, and the Hot Links section will be really incredible. So, go comment!
[edit] Video of the Day
Pretty straight forward. Admins can add videos to the queue -- the format is date|video name|video description. Admins:If you want to try it out, let me know, and I'll help you with it.
How You Can Help: Give me links to great videos on my Board.
[edit] Featured Experts
We're featuring people who build the encyclopedia sections. You become a featured expert by being one of the top three encyclopedia editors over the last week. Basically, it counts the number of encyclopedia pages you work on, and the top three people get themselves and their work featured.
Why did we add it? Well, let's face it, if you look at the old home page, you'd never know that a lot of users are working hard on building a pretty sweet encyclopedia. And when writing these pages up, you really do become experts on the subject. Also, we want to feature recently updated encyclopedia pages, and this was a great way to do it.
How You Can Help: Approach one of the Experts and ask them what you can do to make their work easier.
Okay, that pretty much wraps it up.
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