As a webmaster I often take great pleasure in coding new features for the site and also revitalising old parts of the site that need updating. I thought I'd briefly talk about my current project in this little blog.

TESSource uses a completely custom-coded content management system to run pretty much everything; from the forums, to posting news, content, files, images. Just about everything is handled by the CMS which I've dubbed the "Source Engine".

The idea behind the Source Engine is to create a system whereby I can create a new site within hours simply by changing the look and the content of the site. For instance tomorrow, if I had the time, I could upload the Source Engine to a new account on the server, say quake.gamingsource.net and have a Quake website ready and going within hours.

The other idea behind the Source Engine is flexibility and ease of use. Everything has been designed to allow staff members to help work on different aspects of the site (adding news, editing or deleting files, adding content, etc.) even though they have no knowledge of HTML or internet coding. All this is done from a behind-the-scenes area (called a "backend") that staff members have access to. By using such a system not only can I recruit willing staff members who I don't need to teach, but I can also access the backend from anywhere in the world and edit or update the site as needs be. I could edit the site from an internet cafe in Prague or at the airport all through the backend. I think that's pretty cool!

The plan is to have atleast a few new Source sites out by this time next summer. Hopefully a Quake Wars Source site before the release of ET:QW in 2007. Why am I telling you this? Well, this is a blog, and I class blogs as the mind's way of doing a dump...so go figure!

Cool
This sounds like it will help alot on the site and as well as making things simple

Will there be a source code release in the near future?

Yep, as a staff member I can confirm that the "backend" system is a joy to use when you know jack about coding!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_engine

All together everyone - Oooooo!

The Source engine seems to be working superbly for this site, it'll be good to see some other ones spring up soon

This idea if pathetic. Might be a good idea but it is an idea. Not something that is realistic. Stop day dreaming and posting blogs here!

Are you deliberately trolling to try and increase your forum penis size; or are you just thick-witted?

Banning him would be doing something "proactive," now wouldn't it --- especially considering little gems like this?

The fact still remains that this site is still a bitch to visit. The mods are poorly organised and hard to find. Why were the current forum posts removed from the homepage??

If you don't like it, don't use it, and don't complain here. There are enough people who use it and think it's fine.
Or do you want to give it a go yourself? It's not easy to build up a site like this, so it would be appropriate to give Dark0ne the respect and support he deserves.

Or provide constructive criticism rather than just blunt, useless criticism.

OK Stalin. For one put the current forum topics back up on the homepage, and then put the page numbers at the bottom of the page so I don't have to scroll back up to the top, and then, if your really feeling proactive, find a way to improve the way the mods are sorted...is that constructive enough for you?

Find a way to improve the way mods are sorted? What is wrong with it? HOW it could be improved would be a more useful comment than "Just find a way".

Page numbers on the bottom of the page? If you're talking about threads, they are. If you're talking about mods, there is a "To Top ^" button which will bring you back up.

About the topics on the homepage... I don't know. They are sorted by the threads initial post, and not any posts made after it. I rather use the View New Posts option, or just go to General Oblivion to find out what's new. I wouldn't say not having this option makes the site crap, I don't think it was a must-have feature.

I occasionally visit this site for mods since the selection is quite vast, and there are a number I've been able to find here that aren't over at my usual spot (planetelderscrolls). With that said, I do have a number of things that I've found bug me a little each time I visit.

First off, I don't log in before I actually browse for mods - or often times I'll be linked directly to a mod page from a google search. In these cases, when I go to download (and the mod is over the size limit) it will ask me to login. That's fine, but after I login I'm sent back to the main mod page - and I have to navigate back to the mod.

So I use the handy search button that's right there. Type in the name of the mod I'm looking for, but that seems to direct me to another page with a more detailed search description, and not any actual search. It's a little thing that could be user error, but is still a little frustrating.

So I enter the name again in the new search engine, come up with the mod I'm looking for, and download. It'd be much easier if after you logged in, you are returned to the page you came from (the mod you attempted to download and needed to login), rather than be thrown back to the beginning.


Also, since I do visit this site infrequently, I seem to always forget my password! Well, sort of. I have two handles that I use for all my sites, and two passwords to go with those handles (with number variations for sites that require em). It's complex, but I can usually figure out what goes where with a few tries, or retrieve the password. Well, I was trying my combinations that I thought I had used at this site, but it wasn't working - so I went to the password retrieval option.

Here's where I think you should have the person enter their email address as opposed to their username - or maybe in addition to. Mainly being because I do use two handles for site logins, and when retrieving my password, you only ask for the username. So in theory I could be queing a password retrieval for someones else account if they have one of the names I regularly use!

The other problem came in that after I hit the "retrieve" button for both my usernames, I wasn't recieving any email! I tried this a few days ago, and never received anything.

I thought to myself that maybe I had used an obscure email to register to prevent spam. Thats ok, that would be my fault, I'll just re-register using my normal email. Unfortunately when I tried to register again, it said that email address was already in use. So that means that my email address wasn't incorrect in my login, but I still wasn't receiving any response to my retrievals.

So finally I re-registered with yet another email. In the end now I have this account with one email, and another account with another email that I can't seem to access or retrieve my info for.


Finally, when browsing mods in the mod area, I'll click on a mod - view the description, decide I don't want it, and push my "back" button. Only for me it doesn't go back, it just reloads the same page. Not sure why that is. I have to manually go back and look at my back-history, and select the previous page I want to go to. I'm using the latest IE if that helps, and it doesnt happen at any other site. I haven't tested this in Firefox.

So the three things that seem to irk me are:

• Login sending you to main page, and not last page viewed
• Retrieve Password function (include email with username)
• Back button being wonky

If I were a regular user, I'm sure my opinion would be far different as I'd probably be logging in ahead of time, figure out what settings I need to tweak to make the back button work, and I wouldnt need to retrieve my password. However, because I'm not a regular user, the experiences here leave me a little annoyed and not very interested in becoming a regular user.

In the end I wrote this because I had a frustrating experience and needed to vent, and happened to see this thread on the main page, so I thought I'd share my experience. This isn't a bash of the site, I think it serves a great purpose and has a good selection of mods, but it's not the easiest to visit for me (a 2-3 times a month visitor).

I would have considered added a Alias field to the profiles.. (as ESF alias..) as it is really hard to use this site when trying to get in touch with mod makers.. also might sort the other than English mods in a own category.. and/or add a review possibility.. (have someone check before allowed to be published.. )

I would suggest that 'Online Users' should by default be members only.
EDIT: Also, an option to disable all of the left panel except name, and maybe a tiny avatar, for very short posts.

Hmmm the "Backend" system is good (I'm able to be at home to finish work) but it also means I don't have an excuse to put off looking at resumes. affectively, I now do more work. SIGH!!! you win some you loose some.

"Are you deliberately trolling to try and increase your forum penis size; or are you just thick-witted?" (DarkOne 06).

Lol

Is having titles/total postings encouraging more people to post and remain active? I would rather have what Abramul described above.

Well for me the site is cool and even thou searching for a particular mod is a hassle its not that big of a problem. a next page button at the bottom of the page MIGHT be helpful, and I cant remember if there is one at the top of the page I dont really download that many mods for Morrowind and I just got my new computer to run Oblivion, so I'm still haveing fun with the basic game before I start to play with mods.