[Scummvm-devel] GOG-Affiliate program, recent additions to website

[Paul Gilbert]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 8:22 PM, clem <clemty at gmail.com> wrote:

>> I'm a bit concerned where this takes the web design.
> >>
> >> In my opinion, the top bar of the forum is getting cluttered.
> >>
> >> It started out with "Forum Index" and "ScummVM website" next to the
> >> logo (originally because there might be confusion if the ScummVM logo
> >> was linked to one thing or the other, like with most phpBB2 templates)
> >> and the phpBB2-specific things like Login/logout to the right.
>
> > No problem. Give me a nice-looking replacement and I will publish it.
>
> My suggestion is to remove the GOG link, remove the banner from the main
> page and have the respective link(s) on "where to buy games" on the wiki:
> http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Where_to_buy_games
>
> To ask more provocatively, why is there just the GOG banner up? Why not
> also
> make the forum link to Amazon, ebay, and the other sites selling ScummVM-
> supported games? Because it does not generate revenue?
>

I thought I might jump in with my own thoughts on the matter. From my
perspective, GOG is somewhat different Amazon or Ebay. Firstly, because
they've agreed to some revenue sharing with the project, which I think is a
wonderful idea. I'd like to think that ScummVM draws a wide audience these
days, and any schme where we (the project) can benefit financially from
encouraging people to buy legitimate copies of games is, IMHO, a great idea.

Secondly, most people already know about the major sites like Ebay or
Amazon; it doesn't, to my mind, hurt to encourage more companies to start
seriously providing ScumMVM compatible games. We can hope that GOG will
increase the number of ScummVM supported games sold in the future.


> >> I was not too happy about the addition of "Contact us" because it does
> >> not belong to these two navigational categories. I voiced my concerns
> >> in the channel but eventually got used to it.
> >>
> >> Now there's an advertisement up there. In bold text. While I can see
> >> that money may be useful for the project, what is the justification of
> >> having it more prominent than the other links?
>
> > The main reason was to attract attention of old forum readers, who may
> > miss the announcement. Since we have number of links over there, they
> > just can go unnoticed.
>

I've never minded having any extra links on the top line - I never tend to
use any of them anyway, so I pretty much just ignore it.


> I think the announcement is enough to announce it, there is really no need
> to make permanent changes to the web design for that. If you mentioned it
> again in the 0.13.0 release post, I'm sure all regulars will notice it.
>
> Again, more provocatively asked: people sending out bulk email could as
> well claim that their message otherwise could go unnoticed. That does not
> make them right. But at least I can delete/filter unsolicited email,
> whereas I'm stuck looking at the link at the forum.
>

Given that with a topic like this we're unlikely to end up with every one
being happy, I'll mention in passing that there are plugins available (for
Firefox at least), that allow you to dynamically alter the HTML of a web
page as it's loaded (such as for removing ad bars). So if a particular link
such as this is specificaly bugging you, there's always the option of using
one of the plugins to hide them.


> >> Moreover, the gog banner on the main page also doesn't fit the design.
> >> In my browser window it is a different size than the sf.net banner and
> >> the position is also seemingly arbitrary.
>
> > Give us a replacement. Or provide the button size which I could request
> > from GOG.com. Give us replacement of PHP code which generates the page.
>
> Ditto to above. Remove it.
>
> >> In conclusion, I liked the original design better. Any chance to get
> >> back to that?
>
> > Do you mean to remove both button and link on the forums? Well, I could
> > also remove the news item altogether, but I really would like to hear
> > sound reasons before doing that.
>
> Yes, I would prefer to have both the button from the main page and the
> link from the forums removed (and the "contact us" link, or at least move
> that to the bottom of the page). I don't have that much of a problem with
> the news item/the announcement on the forum (other than it's a pretty
> thinly veiled advertisement), but at least I don't have to look at that
> constantly.
>
> It might well be that I'm the only one thinking like that, but I still feel
> I need to voice my opinion on this matter. Any opinions from other readers?
>

About my only concern is the fact that "Buy Supported Games" seems a bit
misleading.. since it links directly to the GOG website, it may give people
the wrong impression that games like, for example, Simon the Sorcerer 3D are
supported. I know the news announcement specifically mentions which games
ScummVM supports are available to purchase, but people clicking on the 'Buy
Supported Games' may not have seen the news article.

Maybe it could link to an intermediate page, like the Where To Buy Games
page, which could have it's own copy of the GOG announcement and a transfer
link.

DreamMaster.
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