The Energon Pub

it might be easyer to get started by just putting the Demiurgic City gallerys into the TT kitbash and repaint sections,

some of us have our own sites and gallerys off site so a web ring would work well

brought this up before too, i think people liked how its set out so something similor would be great
http://www.he-man.org/site_sects/fan_cr ... ndex.shtml

lastly we need to devise a way to get pepie to stay even if we have to offer him money, gold or women. the more site elders the better

not sure on that look in general as the program outlay is simaliar to phpnuke which ryan is using so spotlights can be done well. As the overall outlay i think wouldn't work to great with the he-man listing on the homages

Well, I'm not sure how many of you guys know this or not, but TFM brought me on as an admin specifically for graphic design/site graphics promotion (like the kitbash contest sig). TFM and I bounced around ideas about giving Transtopia an aesethetic overhaul. We were talking about making it look more "G1ish" (e.g. red gradient and the grid pattern, etc.). I never wanted to do anything to this place without being familiar with the board and such, so not much came of things other than talk.

I would like to see some things aestetically happen that smooths out Transtopia. One of the things that Seibertron.com is known for is the same thing (I've always LOVED the smooth looking design of Seibertron.com). Maybe some of Seibertron's aesthetics can be mirrored here as well. I think a good idea for a tribute page to TFM would be to use the current fp design with a write-up about him and his contributions as well as a full gallery of his works.

Speaking of galleries (and I don't want to sound hypocritical since I don't have any galleries of my own work up yet), that feature in itself has always been one of my favorite things about this place. It's really cool to be able to search out artists and customs. Perhaps to mirror Seibertron's toy database, we would have another subdivion of searches for the generations (i.e. Alternators customs; G1 customs, etc).

Along this line, I really like the idea of having the galleries more artist friendly. I REALLY REALLY want to give Devestator props for ALL of the hard work he's done so far. My hat's off to ya buddy! I think an idea like that would take some of his work load off of him.

Anyways, those are just a few of my random thoughts.

Just for the record to make it clear for everyone what the primary objective is ... Transtopia will reside one day in the near future at http://www.seibertron.com/transtopia. tfmaster.com will be turned into a memorial website for Bill. The future look of Transtopia will match the look of Seibertron.com.

Seibertron wrote:Just for the record to make it clear for everyone what the primary objection is ... Transtopia will reside one day in the near future at http://www.seibertron.com/transtopia. tfmaster.com will be turned into a memorial website for Bill. The future look of Transtopia will match the look of Seibertron.com.

Objective you mean?

I guess I'm wondering how everything that is not TFM (Bill)'s will be transplanted there (such as other user's posts, the kitbashing articles, etc). What about the staff here (such as myself and the others who staff Transtopia)? What is our fate? At any rate, Ryan, as long as you're communicative as you have been recently, things shouldn't be too much of a problem.

superquad7 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Just for the record to make it clear for everyone what the primary objection is ... Transtopia will reside one day in the near future at http://www.seibertron.com/transtopia. tfmaster.com will be turned into a memorial website for Bill. The future look of Transtopia will match the look of Seibertron.com.

Objective you mean?

I guess I'm wondering how everything that is not TFM (Bill)'s will be transplanted there (such as other user's posts, the kitbashing articles, etc). What about the staff here (such as myself and the others who staff Transtopia)? What is our fate? At any rate, Ryan, as long as you're communicative as you have been recently, things shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Heh heh ... that was quicker than I could edit it. Yes, I meant "objective" ... I was in the process of editing the post.

As for the content on Transtopia ... I haven't quite figured out how to import the content from Transtopia to Seibertron.com. My website is 95% dynamic. There are no hard-coded pages on the site. Most everything runs out of the database which means that I need to figure out somehow to associate the content here on Transtopia with the content on Seibertron.com. I imagine that I will write a script that dumps all of the content into a database first and then work with the Transtopia moderators to sort out which user accounts on Seibertron.com to associate with the various galleries. It's going to be a lot of manual work to do this initially but it will make a huge difference to how easily the content will be able to be used throughout the entire Seibertron.com website.

As for the staff ... it really comes down to who's willing to step up to the plate to help make sure that Bill's dream continues. I don't even know the full site roster here. I've been talking on and off with Devastator briefly via email for the past 3 or 4 months. I've also communicated a couple of times with JAF. Pepie contacted me earlier this week. No one else has contacted me from the Transtopia staff yet outside of this post. I'm very flexible about staff members so long as the people who say they want to help can actually help on a regular basis (i.e. generally make a presence on the site daily or at least a few times a week). There's a lot of work to be done.

I want to be as communicative as possible so that no one here thinks that I'm cold heartedly taking over Transtopia. I want you guys to know that I'm here to help expand and build upon your community. I want you guys to know that I want you to get the massive amounts of exposure that Bill thought all of you deserved. I want what's best for Transtopia ... and I need everyone to understand that there's going to be a lot of changes and probably a lot of heartaches.

I feel extremely awkward being in this position. If I didn't know Bill personally, I probably would've given the keys over to someone else in this situation but since I knew Bill on a personal level, I am now obligated to complete his vision and his dream. I need everyone to support the changes that he wanted. In order to do that during these difficult times for the Transtopia community, I have to do my part which is to communicate with all of you so that I can become overloaded with an immense wealth of knowledge to hopefully fill some of the void left behind by Bill. I need you guys to help guide me to fulfill his dream/vision. In order to accomplish his ideas, I need your constant help and guidance to do what is right for Transtopia.

This is a scary endeavor for me. I don't want to do the wrong thing. I don't want to say the wrong thing. This is a delicate and sensitive situation. All I know is what Bill expressed to me about Transtopia. It's up to us to work together to complete his dream. I can only do that if I communicate with you guys as much as possible during this process. I hope that none of you think that I am being cold or uncaring. What I am doing now is out of a sense of urgency to do what I feel is right for Bill (with the Transtopia community) and for his family (with tfmaster.com as a tribute website). I need you guys to give me as many suggestions and advice as possible so that we can collectively do what's right.

I owe that to this community and to Bill to do the right thing with Transtopia.

Seibertron wrote:Objective you mean?


Heh heh ... that was quicker than I could edit it. Yes, I meant "objective" ... I was in the process of editing the post.

*snip*

As for the staff ... it really comes down to who's willing to step up to the plate to help make sure that Bill's dream continues. I don't even know the full site roster here. I've been talking on and off with Devastator briefly via email for the past 3 or 4 months. I've also communicated a couple of times with JAF. Pepie contacted me earlier this week. No one else has contacted me from the Transtopia staff yet outside of this post. I'm very flexible about staff members so long as the people who say they want to help can actually help on a regular basis (i.e. generally make a presence on the site daily or at least a few times a week). There's a lot of work to be done.

I want to be as communicative as possible so that no one here thinks that I'm cold heartedly taking over Transtopia. I want you guys to know that I'm here to help expand and build upon your community. I want you guys to know that I want you to get the massive amounts of exposure that Bill thought all of you deserved. I want what's best for Transtopia ... and I need everyone to understand that there's going to be a lot of changes and probably a lot of heartaches.

*snip*

I owe that to this community and to Bill to do the right thing with Transtopia.

Well, I've actually PMed you on this board, but I understand you've been busy.

superquad7 wrote:Well, I've actually PMed you on this board, but I understand you've been busy.

I don't have a PM from you. Can you check your sent PM folder and resend it to me if you have it still? I'll be happy to respond. Thanks!

Seibertron wrote:

superquad7 wrote:Well, I've actually PMed you on this board, but I understand you've been busy.

I don't have a PM from you. Can you check your sent PM folder and resend it to me if you have it still? I'll be happy to respond. Thanks!

Sure! I also PMed you (I think it was you) on Seibertron.com as well.

superquad7 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

superquad7 wrote:Well, I've actually PMed you on this board, but I understand you've been busy.

I don't have a PM from you. Can you check your sent PM folder and resend it to me if you have it still? I'll be happy to respond. Thanks!

Sure! I also PMed you (I think it was you) on Seibertron.com as well.

*edit* I think the one I sent never went through. Oh well . . .

superquad7 wrote:

superquad7 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

superquad7 wrote:Well, I've actually PMed you on this board, but I understand you've been busy.

I don't have a PM from you. Can you check your sent PM folder and resend it to me if you have it still? I'll be happy to respond. Thanks!

Sure! I also PMed you (I think it was you) on Seibertron.com as well.

*edit* I think the one I sent never went through. Oh well . . .

I'll send you an email to chat about this further. Thanks for letting me know.

I love the idea of this site becoming a tribute/memorial site for Bill. Anyone who has photos of bill (from conventions or gatherings) may want to submit them also.

Ryan, thank you for taking such a respectful stance on this site. Everyone here seems to be on the same page with you. Transtopia will continue to be a premier place for kitbashers to thrive. Probably the largest hurdle, as you mentioned, will be the migration of all of our static gallery pages to a dynamic format that works with Seibertron.com. If this can be done in a way that incorporates keywords to index a specific gallery for searching and sorting, then it will be a HUGE improvement. Furthermore, the common desire of most people seems to be the "user created gallery" feature. This way people can upload their photos and a description of the kitbash, leaving staff free to focus on news, organization, and promotion.

Having a randomly generated "featured" kitbash on the homepage is another great idea. It would be best if it links to either the specific gallery itself or the Transtopia homepage.

I just returned from a 2 week job out of town so I'll focus a bit more tomorrow and try to present my thoughts and ideas in a more cohesive manner.

Please keep the ideas and feedback coming peeps.

Best to all.

JAF

its times like these that i wish i weren't so computer illiterate.

Do you need a PM from me? I'd told TFM that I wanted to stay on, but I don't know if he had the chance to pass that information on.

Sturmvogel Prime wrote:Same comment as grimlockprime108

Same here.

i don't feel like such a minority anymore

Me neither

JAF wrote:I love the idea of this site becoming a tribute/memorial site for Bill. Anyone who has photos of bill (from conventions or gatherings) may want to submit them also.

Ryan, thank you for taking such a respectful stance on this site. Everyone here seems to be on the same page with you. Transtopia will continue to be a premier place for kitbashers to thrive. Probably the largest hurdle, as you mentioned, will be the migration of all of our static gallery pages to a dynamic format that works with Seibertron.com. If this can be done in a way that incorporates keywords to index a specific gallery for searching and sorting, then it will be a HUGE improvement. Furthermore, the common desire of most people seems to be the "user created gallery" feature. This way people can upload their photos and a description of the kitbash, leaving staff free to focus on news, organization, and promotion.

Having a randomly generated "featured" kitbash on the homepage is another great idea. It would be best if it links to either the specific gallery itself or the Transtopia homepage.

I just returned from a 2 week job out of town so I'll focus a bit more tomorrow and try to present my thoughts and ideas in a more cohesive manner.

Please keep the ideas and feedback coming peeps.

Best to all.

You might want to be careful with that. Unless there's some kind of verification process or trial period or validation process for people uploading their first gallery, you might end up with all these advertising spammers posting porn and other advertising junk.

I hadn't actually realized that the gallery wasn't moved over. I thought the old server was totally caput.

There are many verification tools that could be implemented to avoid bots. Image verification techniques along with an approval process moderated by the staff should catch any inappropriate material (even from human users).

None of this will be simple, that's why it's the biggest hurdle IMO.