Hello all,
After much consideration, the OAUP has decided to move V:FT into our Content Management System (thus making it much easier to put together and publish in a timely manner) and do a bit of redesigning in terms of the look of the publication. Which is where all of you come in.
We would like to solicit suggestions and ideas for what a 'new and improved' Voices might look like, what new things it might incorporate, and whatever other good ideas people might have around this.
To get things started I've pasted a post from the Boardroom that includes some ideas and examples from other online publications of things we might do with V:FT. Please feel free to suggest additional ideas or provide additional examples in this thread.:
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At the most basic, we could use a variant of the page the latest issue is displayed on here:
http://www.orionsarm.com/page/445
But change the 'topper' so that it is something V:FT specific. Probably also change the name from Orion's Arm Universe Project to Voices:Future Tense, although I'd like to have an OA logo on the page somewhere, probably as part of the topper. Perhaps clicking the logo could take you to the OA main page? I'd also suggest not having all the links down the left hand side, or maybe having a new set of links that are relevant to V:FT, such as a link to 'back issues' , a link to OA if we don't want to link thru the logo or only thru the logo, and other links to things we think might be V:FT relevant.
One notion: Perhaps we could set things up so the back issues are displayed in some sort of 'gallery' format similar to what we do with artwork or the thumb banners we use elsewhere on the site? That way, the cover of each issue could be displayed as the entry point to that issue.
I'm thinking the actual story reading pages and such could essentially all fit in the same style sheet page, much like has been done here for this issue (but with the new style template of course).
As far as the 'look' of the topper and such, my first thought would be to reach out to Arik and ask him if he could create something for us. I'm betting he'd be happy to.
Going in a totally different direction, might we want to try for something like this:
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/
No idea how easy/hard it would be to make something like this work in the CMS. That is probably a Trond question. But figured I'd throw it out there, both on general principles and as a consideration when we ultimately do the site redesign.
Just to give some additional food for thought, here are links to a number of other online SF mags:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/
http://www.darkermatter.com/
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/
http://www.apex-magazine.com/
http://www.kasmamagazine.com/index.htm
http://dailysciencefiction.com/
************
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas you'd like to share.
Todd
Moderatorbot
After much consideration, the OAUP has decided to move V:FT into our Content Management System (thus making it much easier to put together and publish in a timely manner) and do a bit of redesigning in terms of the look of the publication. Which is where all of you come in.
We would like to solicit suggestions and ideas for what a 'new and improved' Voices might look like, what new things it might incorporate, and whatever other good ideas people might have around this.
To get things started I've pasted a post from the Boardroom that includes some ideas and examples from other online publications of things we might do with V:FT. Please feel free to suggest additional ideas or provide additional examples in this thread.:
*************
At the most basic, we could use a variant of the page the latest issue is displayed on here:
http://www.orionsarm.com/page/445
But change the 'topper' so that it is something V:FT specific. Probably also change the name from Orion's Arm Universe Project to Voices:Future Tense, although I'd like to have an OA logo on the page somewhere, probably as part of the topper. Perhaps clicking the logo could take you to the OA main page? I'd also suggest not having all the links down the left hand side, or maybe having a new set of links that are relevant to V:FT, such as a link to 'back issues' , a link to OA if we don't want to link thru the logo or only thru the logo, and other links to things we think might be V:FT relevant.
One notion: Perhaps we could set things up so the back issues are displayed in some sort of 'gallery' format similar to what we do with artwork or the thumb banners we use elsewhere on the site? That way, the cover of each issue could be displayed as the entry point to that issue.
I'm thinking the actual story reading pages and such could essentially all fit in the same style sheet page, much like has been done here for this issue (but with the new style template of course).
As far as the 'look' of the topper and such, my first thought would be to reach out to Arik and ask him if he could create something for us. I'm betting he'd be happy to.
Going in a totally different direction, might we want to try for something like this:
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/
No idea how easy/hard it would be to make something like this work in the CMS. That is probably a Trond question. But figured I'd throw it out there, both on general principles and as a consideration when we ultimately do the site redesign.
Just to give some additional food for thought, here are links to a number of other online SF mags:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/
http://www.darkermatter.com/
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/
http://www.apex-magazine.com/
http://www.kasmamagazine.com/index.htm
http://dailysciencefiction.com/
************
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas you'd like to share.
Todd
Moderatorbot