How should the homepage be done?

[RastaLulz]

I thought I'd ask the community how DevBest should implement the homepage. I'd like to make the homepage have news, as it'd promote discussion on new content about things this community is interested in. I attempted to do something about this at the beginning of the year, but never fully got around to implementing it the way it should.

There's two ways we could go about how articles are displayed there:

1. We have journalists, and they have permission to write articles in a specific section and they'll be automatically displayed on the homepage.
2. Staff have the ability to promote threads they find in specific sections that are homepage worthy.

Also, articles would probably be displayed in the manner that they are on sites like

You must be registered for see links

(full articles displayed), as opposed to

You must be registered for see links

(a bunch of thumbnails with titles).

Another option is to not use XenForo at all for the homepage, and use WordPress (and attempt to integrate it in a similar way to MacRumors).

Anyways, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

[Cameron]

Option 2 seems like a good idea.

 

[Brad]

Option 2 seems to be good, gives other people a chance and also will save you time.

 

[Strangirs]

A little bit of both (Split the page in two columns)
But I think it's professional the way it is now.

 

[Wickd]

Option 2.

 

[RyanzRetros]

Anything but Wordpress

 

[Sysode]

Well, what objective are you trying to achieve? If you are going for an informative route to inform the community of gaming news and whatnot (something that already heavily exists) then go for journalists, although I can't see this being self sufficient or beneficial to anyone.. The idea of having promoted threads is good, it'll encourage better written content but what if there isn't enough to promote? The homepage then becomes dead and gives a negative sign for new visitors..

What kind of content are you after? Put your main focus in on that and keep it active.

I like the idea of having something MacRumours (kinda contradicting myself here) but minus the "whole posts" being shown, just from a UX POV - it limits the reach on more content and requires scrolling to view more posts. Maybe a similar approach to them but with titles and thumbnails would be a better option?

 

[Benden]

I'd like to see option 2 implemented. Obviously sections like habbo or random banter etc won't be having featured articles but an example where this would have worked was when Wassim wrote the threads about paid mods. It would have been cool to feature the threads as they were nicely done

 

[Ecko]

All of the above

 

[Donkjam]

I used to read news feed all the time. However since it moved to /articles I never check now cause I keep forgetting. Maybe something like this would be good. I'd go for option 2, try to integrate Wordpress with it

 

[Owen]

Option 1 could be abused, Option 2 needs fair but depends if Staffs are biased not saying they are but it would be good to give everyone a chance at getting their news put on the homepage so its a fair community

 

[Sledmore]

Preferably option two, but a mixture would be nice. Kind of bored of @TheVerge, he's a bit of a cunt IMO.

 

[JayC]

A way to do this, is to try them both Have an option to view threads that staff promote, and have an option to view threads created by Journalists. The problem with Journalists is this:
1) Creating too many threads
2) Not creating enough threads (Do to being busy)
3) Not enough information when posting

So you should have a whole team designed if you do option 1, where you have Journalists -> Proof Readers -> Staff To Agree with Post

The problem with staff promoting threads, there wouldn't be a lot of movement because only once in a while is there a thread that actually gets "the ball rolling" and all the other threads are just repeats/dry

 

[aliking]

It sounds really silly, but how about both of them?
For an example, the default would be the one we currently have as our homepage; and if a user wants a different one - they can change it on their profile settings? So there are multiple choices to use
(this is especially good, considering some people don't like change very much).

But that's just my opinion.