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

[clem]

> (Eugene Sandulenko <sev at scummvm.org> to clemty at gmail.com,
> cc sev at scummvm.org, Max Horn)
> 
> Hi Clem,
> 
> First thing I am really puzzled with is why did you post this message
> on forums? There is scummvm-devel for such things, then there is e-mail
> after all. So I took liberty and removed your post from here, and
> quoting it below with my comments.
>

I saw the svn commit when the GOG-change was made to the templates; I voiced
my concerns in the channel. Nobody seemed to take it seriously.
I'm surprised that the GOG "affiliate program" was not discussed on -devel
beforehand myself actually.

Was there any prior discussion about the affiliate program on the channel?
I can't find one in the logs offhand.

I posted on the forum because this seemed the obvious place to reply to the
announcement. I also posted there to have opinions from other (forum) users. 
I am not happy that my post miraculously vanished over night.

>> 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 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 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.

>> 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?