The new stratics main page

[gunneroforgin]

What is this new page I am being redirected to when I load Stratics. It is terrible. It looks unfinished and unprofessional. Most of Stratics was unavailable all weekend.

 

[Salivern_Diago]

OMW it really is compared to the rest of the site! Talk about a downgrade

It looks amaturish at best, I guess its just while there are upgrading some stuff and will be replaced with a proper one soon.

 

[Taylor]

The Stratics Central Managing Editor is currently developing a new theme.

However, it's worth noting that the current theme has been the theme for at least the past year that I've been around. That is to say, it's not ideal, but it's not new.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Just to clarify, is this Stratics you're meaning or UO Stratics *New* ?

 

[Kiminality]

Let's hear it for constructive criticism!

 

[Taylor]

If the latter, please note that UO Stratics was designed as closely as possible to its former look. This project was a huge undertaking, requiring nearly a year of development, many hundreds of purely volunteer (and mostly thankless) hours on the part of dozens of Stratics staff members. Petra and her team meticulously copied thousands of pages, including the most recent content, as well as content that memorializes the legacy of UO and the UO community.

Thus, if you are criticizing the latter, you'll have to get used to it. There are no designs to change it in the foreseeable future.

 

[Ludes]

[This project was a huge undertaking, requiring nearly a year of development, many hundreds of purely volunteer (and mostly thankless) hours on the part of dozens of Stratics staff members. ]

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with UO Stratics for the hard work they've put it.

Thank You!

 

[Taylor]

Thank you, Ludes.

 

[Capn Kranky]

yeah ... me too! Huh. Gonna have to go explore.

 

[Njjj]

I'd also like to thank the stratics team. Uo would not be the same without it

 

[Kayne]

Thanks those who have said thank you for the work that went into the new look uo stratics.
Having recently rejoined stratics staff, I fully appreciate the work it took to get UO stratics updated now that I've seen the process that has to be undertaken and done it myself. My thanks go to petra for the huge amounts of effort she put in and still continues to do so.

 

[AirmidCecht]

UO Stratics was phase I of upgrading all of Stratics.com. It needed to be first because of the drupal/newspro hybrid used at the time.

We have a few Managing Editors working on their portals like EVE and as we update each one with content and news you'll see us focus more on the overall site.

If anyone is interested in helping with other MMO's please PM and let Syrus know. Or if you want to focus on general gaming news, Cirno is working on a new theme for Central as Syrus pointed out so you can PM Cirno on that.

Criticism is hard to take sometimes when so much effort goes in behind the scenes. However that is also how you improve so we take it all into consideration.

UO Stratics has been 14yrs of progress. It will always have bumps along the road much like our beloved UO itself but we're in it for the long haul.

 

[Ludes]

i've been using the resources on Stratics since I learned abaout them approximatialy 8 years ago.

But I agree it is kinda funny how little I know about the actual Stratics site.

My link goes straight to "Main.. news" and I browse those before I hit Uhall.

I never go to any other Stratics site even though I play a few of the games that have Stratics support.

 

[AirmidCecht]

i've been using the resources on Stratics since I learned abaout them approximatialy 8 years ago.

But I agree it is kinda funny how little I know about the actual Stratics site.

My link goes straight to "Main.. news" and I browse those before I hit Uhall.

I never go to any other Stratics site even though I play a few of the games that have Stratics support.

Stratics started with UO so that makes sense. Over the years though as more games have come out that generated interest, other portals were developed. Support for them however had not been ideal and the resources to support them even less ideal.

With George and becoming a division of TGN we have found someone who understands the need for expansion without losing the beating heart of what makes it whole. Slowly developing the resources and finding what works for an old dog with a new toy has it's challenges as some have experienced recently.

Just trust us that we have the best of intentions and want to see Stratics grow towards it's potential and make it a better experience for everyone. Not all will agree with our improvements but that is a given no matter where you are.

 

[Taylor]

Stratics has hired a number of Managing Editors to build or update other portals. A complete list of our current MEs may be found here: Stratics Forums - FAQ (scroll to the bottom).

Stratics Central | Combat Arms | EVE | LOTRO | RuneScape | SWTOR | ToonTown | UO | WoW | RIFT (currently having issues)

 

[Spyderis]

Dont start bashing Stratics, What they have done and are working on is an Epic Win!! If you feel like being grumpy with no new content, Halloween Failure, Mega bugged HS, No communication with UO producers or Devs or anything else game related, Write to EA or to the producers themselves!!

Stratics is more or less a huge social site for playes who play the same game. Players helping players with ideas questions. (forums) The stratics team cannot add any new content. Why you ask, because there is none...Send your anger to the correct places!

Stratics= Epic Win Grim= Epic Win Communication from Devs and Producers= Epic Fail

Like Mama always said UO is like a box of chocolates you never know what you're gonna get

 

[gunneroforgin]

Just to clarify, is this Stratics you're meaning or UO Stratics *New* ?

yes i mean UO Stratics New. it is so unfinished. I get redirected to this uo2.stratics.com when i go to uo.stratics.com I have had it booked marked for years. Many of my favorite articles are missing in action I have found some of them though. I am sorry I didn't really mean to step on anyones toes.

 

[AirmidCecht]

yes i mean UO Stratics New. it is so unfinished. I get redirected to this uo2.stratics.com when i go to uo.stratics.com I have had it booked marked for years. Many of my favorite articles are missing in action I have found some of them though. I am sorry I didn't really mean to step on anyones toes.

No worries Gunner

We weren't sure which front page you were referring to but thank you for clarifying. Prior to last weekend there was an existing thread highlighting links. We had server issues through Sunday and lost that thread but Petra still went through this week and recovered many of them.

If you have any issues finding a link or info please feel free to PM Petra Fyde on the forums. She is committed to keeping it updated.

Cheers!

 

[Petra Fyde]

I'm sorry about the links.

Every page has had to be copied to the new system. As we copied pages over we couldn't update links in them to pages that hadn't been done yet, and some links were broken when the site was set live. I hadn't realised just how many of the there were though.

I spent most of Sunday and a little of yesterday working my way through fixing as many as I could. Please let me know of any that I've missed, or if there's a page you simply can't find, send me a PM or an email ([email protected]).

 

[Salivern_Diago]

The UO Stratics page is awesome as is the rest of UO Stratics. But the main stratics frontpage lets it down (As in Stratics), also the latest news is about Jobs... isnt there some game news worth putting on the front?

 

[5% Luck]

I am happy about the TONS less scrolling needed to find the basic references. The only thing I still need to find is the imbue ingred lists. I know it must be somewhere, used to be under items but...?

The new site is a lot less clunky, kind of slow and, much easier to navigate!

 

[Petra Fyde]

It's a subpage of 'skills' - 'imbuing'.
UO Stratics *New* | Imbuing Ingredients Table

or if you put in 'imbuing ingredients' in the search box, that will find it for you too.

 

[iamSnippa]

I hate to get on this topic again, because I've already made my opinions known, but I do have a question and a couple more comments on the whole thing.

First of all, was there something wrong with the old scripts the site was using before the big change, and if so, any details on that?

Secondly, I have been having alot of trouble finding many of the old articles without using the search bar on the main page... that is just a pain.
And I don't know if there could be something done in this regard, but there is a certain wiki (which im not sure if I'm allowed to link here) that has become immensely popular... maybe something could be done to merge that site into stratics, combine all information from both sites and have a wiki area of stratics.

 

[Taylor]

The UO Stratics page is awesome as is the rest of UO Stratics. But the main stratics frontpage lets it down (As in Stratics), also the latest news is about Jobs... isnt there some game news worth putting on the front?

Cirno has been pretty swampped designing the new layout. Fortunately, she just hired her first reporter yesterday, so hopefully we will see some updated news soon.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Sure you can mention uoguide. I do so myself, frequently. The two sites complement each other very well.
(that's complement with an 'e' not compliment with an 'i' for those readers who don't know they are different words, not a spelling error)

As for merging it into Stratics. I can't imagine that JC Builder would want to do that, why would he?

What articles are you having trouble finding? With such a large site it isn't always easy to decide where to put items to make navigation easy, but we try to cross reference as much as we can.

 

[Taylor]

First of all, was there something wrong with the old scripts the site was using before the big change, and if so, any details on that?

Sure, I can answer this portion. Formerly, we used two separate systems for content management: Drupal, which required a fairly advanced understanding of HTML and was somewhat easy to break, and an in-house developed software, which was not very robust and often experienced technical difficulties.

Our new content management system, WordPress, is both more robust and extremely easy to use. Volunteer news staff are not a dime a dozen--it really takes a uniquely committed person to offer their time to post community news. WordPress makes it much easier to train and support these folks.

Additionally, WordPress will eventually allow us to organize all portals under WordPress Multisite, which will make the Stratics network feel much more connected.

Lastly, WordPress is much more secure than an in-house developed, unpatched system, and given our history of attacks, I think that this is pretty important.

I know it can be hard to get used to a different layout, but these changes really were necessary for professionalization and reporter support. Fortunately, you should still be able to find all of the information that you've come to rely on from UO Stratics Section within the new layout.

 

[Cirno]

The UO Stratics page is awesome as is the rest of UO Stratics. But the main stratics frontpage lets it down (As in Stratics), also the latest news is about Jobs... isnt there some game news worth putting on the front?

Cirno has been pretty swampped designing the new layout. Fortunately, she just hired her first reporter yesterday, so hopefully we will see some updated news soon.

All true.
The current theme for SC is designed to replicate the appearance of the old Drupal theme, which was designed long enough ago that it was pretty good, at the time. It's been one of my biggest issues with the portal, and hence the reason I've been giving the new design greater priority over content (little point drawing traffic to a site that they're not going to enjoy using).

I do have a new reporter, as Syrus says, and a devious scheme hatching in my cranium.
Of course, if any of you reading this fancy a foray into MMO news reporting, you can always PM me here

 

[Salivern_Diago]

I'm not a good writer sadly, but I would be willing to help out in any way. I produce and manage alot of live action events and have in the past produced several online Roleplays/mini mmo's.

If theres anything I can do, please just give me a shout!

 

[iamSnippa]

What articles are you having trouble finding? With such a large site it isn't always easy to decide where to put items to make navigation easy, but we try to cross reference as much as we can.

It is possible that I haven't searched the new menus thoroughly enough, but a quick scan of them, I cannot find info on plants (must use search to get to the page(s)), or the lists of holiday items and rare/oddity items.
This also includes information on stealables and it seems there is alot of missing information on expansions. This missing or misplaced information is sorta why I brought up uoguide... because the articles on there seem to have quite alot of information on many things like that. Though, the reason I suggested the merger of uoguide into stratics was due to the fact that stratics usually does a more thorough job at providing information on content as well as providing a list or menu (in one way or another) of links to related content. Take the gardening pages on stratics for example, you can find far more information on these pages than you can on uoguide and there are links at the top of the articles that take you to the other related articles.
The benefit of either creating your own wiki or merging the uoguide wiki into stratics I believe would be that the information provided could be managed much easier, especially if the normal(or super) user were allowed to add/edit information like a regular wiki.

Also, to Syrus; thanks for the answer. I knew there had to be a reason other than changing the whole cosmetic design of the site. I'm glad the administration side of things has become easier to manage because of the changes. Personally as far as news scripting goes though, I prefer the script I wrote for my old site, even though it may not be as secure as wordpress... sometimes having the ability to create and manage your own tools can have great benefits. Though security and having pre-built tools can save your team from alot of headaches.

 

[Taylor]

sometimes having the ability to create and manage your own tools can have great benefits.

There is some truth to this. Unfortunately, the folks who wrote the software have gone and nobody currently on staff knows heads or tails of it. Some of the older sites, such as WoW Stratics or ToonTown, are being converted because nobody (including George) knows how to edit them with the old system. They're just frozen in time.

Knowledge management wasn't a priority in the golden age, apparently. :<

 

[iamSnippa]

There is some truth to this. Unfortunately, the folks who wrote the software have gone and nobody currently on staff knows heads or tails of it. Some of the older sites, such as WoW Stratics or ToonTown, are being converted because nobody (including George) knows how to edit them with the old system. They're just frozen in time.

Knowledge management wasn't a priority in the golden age, apparently. :<

That gets on my nerves when I hear about or see undocumented code that will eventually be looked at by another person. Especially when it comes to businesses or organizations... it seems either the person does it because they want to secure their job, making sure only they know the ins and outs of the code or because they were to lazy to write it up.
Job security is important, but I hope businesses and organizations current and future that plan to be around for a very long time ensure that there will be documentation in the coding so that when the person working on it moves on or something happens to them that someone with a similar skill set can come on board and take over or help out.
I wonder if that is one of the issues with Ultima Online... Did Mr. Garriot or any of the previous developers leave undocumented code in the game? Hmmm
I do hope that the current developers are making sure everything they write is documented.

 

[Kayne]

It is possible that I haven't searched the new menus thoroughly enough, but a quick scan of them, I cannot find info on plants (must use search to get to the page(s)), or the lists of holiday items and rare/oddity items.
This also includes information on stealables and it seems there is alot of missing information on expansions. This missing or misplaced information is sorta why I brought up uoguide... because the articles on there seem to have quite alot of information on many things like that. Though, the reason I suggested the merger of uoguide into stratics was due to the fact that stratics usually does a more thorough job at providing information on content as well as providing a list or menu (in one way or another) of links to related content. Take the gardening pages on stratics for example, you can find far more information on these pages than you can on uoguide and there are links at the top of the articles that take you to the other related articles.
The benefit of either creating your own wiki or merging the uoguide wiki into stratics I believe would be that the information provided could be managed much easier, especially if the normal(or super) user were allowed to add/edit information like a regular wiki.

Also, to Syrus; thanks for the answer. I knew there had to be a reason other than changing the whole cosmetic design of the site. I'm glad the administration side of things has become easier to manage because of the changes. Personally as far as news scripting goes though, I prefer the script I wrote for my old site, even though it may not be as secure as wordpress... sometimes having the ability to create and manage your own tools can have great benefits. Though security and having pre-built tools can save your team from alot of headaches.

I can say the gardening links are definitely there I use them lots! If you go into Skills and in the list is gardening if you click it you get the main gardening page, however all the sections are also listed under gardening.

UO Stratics *New* | Skill Guides

As for holiday, rares, artifacts etc you only need to click Items and its all there

UO Stratics *New* | Items

for instance here is holiday and special items - directly from the items page
UO Stratics *New* | Holiday & Special Items.

Please feel free to drop me a PM with further difficult pages/missing info and I can have a look for you.

 

[iamSnippa]

Thanks, I did finally see the link to the gardening page earlier after I posted that, thought for a second that someone had updated it, then checked a stratics page i've had open for over a week now and saw it was there as well.

Guess for that it was just the whole moving things around that made me miss it.

Thanks for the links to the holiday items.
If I have any other difficulties with finding anything, I'll let you know.

 

[Kayne]

Also do let me know if there is info you believe is missing from the pages and I can go looking for it and/or update the page to include it.