Website

Summary:

Come and give your opinion!

Website

axebreaker 09 Nov 2007 16:56

I have been wondering about revamping the website at
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~wychwood

This is for the following reasons:
a) We have tons of new and sexy photos we could put up there
b) Material could be better shared out and synchronised between the website and the Wiki
c) It generally looks in need of a spring clean

So what I'd like to put to you for consideration is this:
Shall I change the website to be much more slimmed down and geared towards promoting Wychwood, with users directed to the Wiki for info on costume, history etc.? Editing and adding to the Wiki is much quicker and easier than editing the website and can be done by any member. Any information lost from the website would be moved to the Wiki rather than deleted (e.g. the poetry on the fires page).

In essence, the website would say: "we are Wychwood, this is what we do, here's how to find us, here's some basic info on our period and over there is our wiki for detailed articles."

Please let me know what you think. What needs to be kept/lost? Do you like the layout and colourscheme? How good does it look to prospective members/people who might hire us? Bear in mind that it comes up pretty high in Google searches for reenactment in the UK/Oxfordshire and for Anglo-Saxon stuff, so lots of people see it (we usually get around 200 hits a week, almost all from outside Oxford).

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þas ofereode, þisses swa mæg

Last edited on 09 Nov 2007 17:01 by axebreaker Show more

Re: Website

Philipppp 09 Nov 2007 18:41

I don't think we should slim down the website. Of course, the primary source of information for members is the Wiki, there's no doubt about that.
However, I don't think removing things like poetry etc from our website would help in promoting Wychwood. Afterall, people who, say, look for a reenactment group on the web, find our website and then have a look around just to get an impression of what we're like. The inidividual articles on the website are also all in all relatively short, so there's no information overload for potential "customers" of Wychwood. Reducing the amount of information available would, in my opinion, only mean that we create less of an impression, because, let's be honest, our website is damn impressive as it is.
To prove my point: At the NLHF I was approached by Dariusz (see separate thread) because I was wearing a Wychwood T-Shirt and he'd been on our website and was impressed enough to remember it!
Also, recently we got plenty of requests from people for us to do stuff, so I think the website works in promoting Wychwood to the public.
As for the layout/colour scheme - I think it's great as it is.

However, nevertheless, there's space for improvement.
For example, regarding the promotional aspect, how about a section titled something like "Hiring Wychwood", giving a brief summary of what we can offer (birthday party type shows with 3-4 people, school visits with say 4-10 people, stuff like we did at the castle, then what we actually show, i.e. combat display, kit talks, crafts, …). Of course, some of this information would be repeating what's already in other sections of the webstie, but in a very concise manner to give people potentially wanting to hire us an immediate overview of what we can do/how amazing we are.
Secondly, for members, there should be a huge link to the Wiki, so that (I) freshers etc can find it immediately and (II) people interested in hiring us but wanting to find out more yet, can also come and look at all our shiny knowledge.

So, in conclusion, I'd keep the website more or less as it is, perhaps with a few minor changes. Essentially in a form that doesn't require much house-keeping, i.e. only updating who's the committee once a year and perhaps listing recent events or so, while the wiki is obviously more flexible, everyone can edit and improve it and so on.

As an addendum, regarding photos: Would it be possible to have a "gallery" type section on the wiki, just to display photos from different events etc (obvoiusly only good ones)? If so, then we could also have a direct link to it from the website.

That's all from me for now.
Ppppppp

Last edited on 09 Nov 2007 18:41 by Philipppp Show more

Re: Website

wychwood 09 Nov 2007 20:16

You've hit on one of my main bugbears there - there is a "hire us" page, but it is hidden away with no big shiny link.

Galleries, yup, that's something I thought should go to the wiki.

As for the level of info for the website, I'd say that the costume pages are pretty bang on.

I would say, though, that there are problems with the layout, e.g. it doesn't resize to fit the user's chosen window size and the mouseovers are inconsistent. Personally I really dislike the colour scheme, especially the inconsistency between frames and between pages. And when I asked someone for a neutral opinion today the response was "ewww!" If you compare it with the way the wiki looks then the latter is just so much cleaner. However, one thing I do really like in general is the way the pictures are presented and laid out.

An example of a clear, simple and well organised reenactment website:
http://www.vikingsonline.org.uk

Keep the comments coming folks!

Last edited on 09 Nov 2007 20:19 by wychwood Show more

Re: Website

bunni 11 Nov 2007 16:32

I think the website should be all about advertising us and saying what we do. For potential recruits and potential employers.

I found the website before I arrived in Oxford, and was impressed and wanted to join. And now here I am…

The wiki is totally the place for any information for current members tho.