Siteplan for: Dark Flame Collaboration (temporary name)

Author: Katherine Irvine

Mission of the site

Provide a space for authors, artists, and roleplayers to collaborate on various projects, and to share and recive feedback on their individual projects.

Goals and Objectives of the site

  1. Publish my own writing and art on the site, and recieve feedback
  2. Have several other people publish writing and/or art and recieve feedback
  3. Move discussion of the collaborative projects I am currently working on to the site
  4. Encourage people with other related collaborative projects to use the site

Audience who will view/use the site

Inspirational sites and sites of competitors

Kat's Forums
A forum currently housing some of the collaboration I want to move to the new site
Darkflame's Study
The site currently housing my work that I want to share on the new site.
Legacies
The community website where most of my audience will be coming from (at least initially).
Mortal Tears
A community website where some more of my audience will be coming from.
DeviantArt
Picture sharing & reviews - competition
FictionPress
Writing sharing & reviews - competition
Flickr
I like their design, seamless editing, etc

Key Players

Scope and Priorities

  1. Set up collaborative discussion (forums) and file sharing for projects
  2. Set up individual areas to display individual work (writing and art/photography)
  3. Move my individual work that I want to share onto the site, get the people who have indicated they will be willing to review and comment on my work to create accounts and use the site
  4. Move discussion of the projects I am working on to the site, and get the people I am collaborating with to create accounts and begin using the site
  5. Encourage more people to use the site for individual work and other collaborative projects.

Hook to encourage return visits

Participation in discussions, opportunity to show off their own work, sense of community.

Functional Requirements

Visual scheme (color and style)

Offer various skins/stylesheet options both for color combination and layout to accomodate different preferences and monitor sizes.

Domain names desired
Muted Wings
mutedwings.com - available
mutedwings.net - available
mutedwings.org - available
Legends Are Born
legendsareborn.com - available
legendsareborn.net - available
legendsareborn.org - available
Faerie's Dream
faeriesdream.com - available
faeriesdream.net - available
faeriesdream.org - available
A Gathering of Muses
gatheringofmuses.com - available
gatheringofmuses.net - available
gatheringofmuses.org - available
Quill and Dagger
quillanddagger.com - parked
quillanddagger.net - owned by me
quillanddagger.org - parked
LARPers Unite
larpersunite.com - available
larpersunite.net - available
larpersunite.org - available
Sword and Starlight
swordandstarlight.com - available
swordandstarlight.net - available
swordandstarlight.org - available
Dark Flame
darkflame.com - parked
darkflame.net - parked
darkflame.org - taken
Navigation schemes

Navigation is by user or project, then type of file; can search over all public files. Discussion/reviews automatically link back to the project/file to which they refer

Technical Requirements

Site hosting services available

A2 Hosting - hosting will be included in my current hosting package; domain registration will be 12.95/year.

Databases needs

MySQL - all the CMSs I am considering use MySQL as the database.

Site structure

To a large extent this will depend on the CMS chosen, and most of the site will be database-driven rather than flat files. I will be giving preference to CMSs that produce friendly urls.

Functionality Requirements
Maintenance and Content Management options

Plone - upside: Has all functionality required. downside: installation is a bitch, have had previous database/backup problems. This could probably be solved by using MySQL as the database, though that might make installation harder, also, rediculous of space overhead on the server for a small site

PHP/MySQL options:

MODx - http://www.modxcms.com/

Mambo - http://mambo-foundation.org/

Joomla! - http://www.joomla.org/

Drupal - http://drupal.org/

The other option is to use various applications for different funtions, and write php script to combine them under a single login myself.

phpBB - I have worked with phpBB2 before and it seems to work well. phpBB3 has just been released.

phpAlbum - for photos and sharing artwork. This does not use a it's own database, which would make it easier for me to modify it to use the phpBB database for login, etc.

TinyMCE - JavaScript WYSIWYG html editor. I could use this in a php form to allow users to create and edit pages, again using the phpBB database to look up permissions. TinyMCE claims to block disallowed code and force XHTML 1.0 compliance.

 

Browser compatibility needs

Mac - Safari, Firefox

Windows - IE 6, IE 7, Firefox

Promotional needs

What keywords and phrases will maximize search engine listings?

Not interested in search engine rankings at this time, as this is meant to be a resource for existing comunities to which I belong.

How will you promote the site in print and online?

Word of mouth, project leads will invite people to collaborate on their projects. I will post announcements of the site launch on the Legacies site and the Mortal Tears site, and inform people in various offline communities I belong to who might be interested (roleplaying groups, authors circles, etc.).

Immediate opportunities

I have several projects which I would like to move to using this site, and the people I am collaborating with seem amenable to using our projects to beta test the site.

Potential pitfalls

Lack of interest among potential users - it's possible no-one else sees a need for a tool like this.

Budgets

Key players' time

I will probably need to devote 8-10 hours a week to this project.

Design, production, and hosting costs

Host with a2hosting.com; hosting will be included in my existing package, domain name registration will cost $12.95/yr.

Schedule phase 1

Week 1

Create site plan

Week 2

Create a site template, and create a site template

Decide on which CMS to use

Week 3

Create 'default' design - photoshop mockups and css files

Week 4

Add dynamic navigation functions to the prototype

Week 5

Design a form to invite project members to join the site

Week 6

Test database connectivity for simple data output

Week 7

Install a CMS

Week 8

Create accessible and alternate styles

Week 9

Add web services, test thoroughly

Week 10

Present site to class, incorporate feedback.