SL Website Facelift?

I was wondering if there are any plans to update the AV pictures on SL website? To be honest, most AVs look a lot better (at least on my graphics card) than they are shown on the home page there. I'm not sure, maybe shading wasn't completely implemented back when these pictures were taken? They all (except maybe the Lincoln one) look too much like "cartoon cels".

The first time I came to the SL website back in the beta stages, this was probably one of the first things to turn me off (though had I known SL did scripting back then, I probably would have joined anyway).

I hope there are plans to do a few touch ups, as I hate to think that people are not giving SL a chance because they are turned off by their first impressions on the home page.

It'd also be good if there were some *immediate* links on the home page to a gallery of really good screenshots which open into high resolution (at least 1024x76 pictures.

A page for each of the major creative outlets within SL would probably be a great idea too, with text and pictures to describe what is possible. I can imagine several separate web pages, one for each of the follwoing titles:

- Building With Prims
- Customizing your AV
- Adding your own Sounds and Textures
- Clothing Design
- Events
- Scripting the World with LSL
- Buying and Selling
- PvP Dynamics
- AV Animations and Socializing
- Creating and Programming Your own Vehicles
- Fun with Physics
- Building your own Home Sweet Home

The pages could be a dozen paragraphs or so long, with maybe a half dozen screenshot icons (which expand to high res) to fully describe each of these activities and all of the things that can be done.

I almost feel eagar enough to do this myself if I knew it would bring more people in. I know SL would draw so many more people if only they knew what it had to offer.

The first day of my trial I was blown away that SL had so much more to offer than I had ever would have expected just from reading the website. Maybe a little facelift wouldn't hurt? ^^

Yea, the one on the right looks like something is seriously wrong with it
oh yeah and they should all be lit up at the same time, too

I'm bumping this because I was bored and was going through the SL Gallery (About Second Life -> Image Gallery) and all the pictures there are old.

Two or three even have the old interface pictured.
And one has something about the Events Board.

While those pictures should be documented somewhere else, someone browsing this site and seeing those and then logging in may be confused. It doesn't really show what SL has to offer now days either.

Also I agree with everything Kex stated.

The pictures for the navigation need to be updated also.

While this may not be a *major* concern for LL, the site is looking a little stagnant.

Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I think everyone can agree it needs an update.

I agree with Kex and Oz! And please bring back the Resident Life section too!

PS: Kex, quit doing the HIPPO events when I can't come to them!!

Yeah, agreed too. Especially about including more up to date information and screenshots for potential customers.

And I'd definitely like to see a reference section as Kex suggests, which would serve both residents and potential residents.

And links to some of the 3rd party sites that are springing up.

Oh, and put Pendari on the front page, I say! She so cuuuute!

Last I checked it still said referrals get the person referring 3k not 2k. As I recall this was pointed out and acknowledged before yet still remains unchanged.

Yes. It says 2k at the top, but 3k at the bottom. And you definitely do only get 2k for a referral.

*major blush*

awww.. you are such a sweetie Kris! *hugs*

Please, please, please update the website. Get rid of these dark grey and black colors, blech! It's such a depressing look. I'd much rather the colorscheme we see on the new NWN Blog site.

Oh, everything everyone said in this thread is perfect. Yes.

Maybe it's just my minimalist tendencies, but I sorta think the current SL website is... well, clunky.

Do we really need the flash banner?

Alot of things aren't accessible within the menu options from the pulldowns.

The forum doesn't look anything like the web page, and it seems overly clunky for what we use it for.

There's tons of stuff out of date (like, 90% of the page)

We should assemble a team of crack html SL citizens to redesign the SL page

LF

** deleted **

When I first saw the website I thought it looked kinda dark and dreary.

I don't mind the Flash effects so much, I think the thing that follows your cursor on the one page is cool.

Maybe if they lightened it all up a bit, kinda making it look like a combination of the Linden Lab home page and NWNs page, lighter blues, drop the black background, make it a lighter grey/gray.

What do you mean by "clunky"? If you mean like hard to navigate and find stuff kinda, I agree with that, kind of have to search around a bit. But I don't really have any ideas on how to improve that.

I wouldn't mind helping redesigning, I know HTML, some Flash, and some PHP.

The Linden Lab page is looking a little dated too.

Kind of like the web designing team at LL fell into a hole.

Keep the image gallery as it is..... I like my place on it

I think I'll pick on the "About" page, just to give an example of what I mean...

http://secondlife.com/about/

This page needs more details. Maybe a bulleted list below each paragraph that describes each "category" (ie like the list I made in my original post).

Just a few examples:

Explore:
- Fly through the world just like in your dreams
- Get a vehicle and ride the roads, fly through the air, or navigate the waterways
- Go shopping for clothes, furniture, or any of thousands of various player-created items.
- Player-made content means there's always something new to see

Create
- Build a 3D model of anything you can imagine with simple shapes
- Upload your own sounds and textures and add them to your builds
- Bring your creation to life with the versatile custom scripting language
- Become a fashion designer - design and sell your own clothing line

Connect
- Attend games and events held by fellow residents, or hold your own event!
- Learn how to build, texture, and script by attending in-world classes
- Hang out with friends at their place and throw a party
- Form groups with other residents and collaborate on grand build projects

Compete
- Build your own weapons, guns, bombs, and deal out damage in special combat regions
- Script your own avatar-seeking missiles, land mines, tanks, etc
- Script your own fully-featured game within the world with your own rules


While there are a few good screenshots on this page, some of them are quite outdated or could be easily improved upon:

http://secondlife.com/gallery/whatis.php?screen=0

The Good:

1: Very nice scene, though a little foggy

2: A fair demonstration of variety of primitives and textures

4: A bit crude, but after seeing the rest, I had to move this one up into the "good" category.

6: Nice architecture, shows off transparency, good natural scenery, good details with the furniture and good texturing. The best pic of the lot. I actually went looking for this build as soon as I started SL.

7: Very nice building. This picture shows off both the building and visualizes an example of the virtual commerce aspect.

12: Looks nice, shows the social aspect. Though it's somewhat mysterious what everyone's doing.

15: A good scene that appeals to the gun-toting types. The cylindrical scene is a good reminder that SL isn't all cubes and flat surfaces.

The Bad:

5: looks very undetailed -- I know we build with prims, but does it have to be so obvious? How about a screenshot of one of those nicely done dragons people have sitting on their lawns instead?

8: impressive model, very poor textures

9: This whole scene is quite nice, except the dresses are awkwardly primitive and it feels closed in instead of showing off the nice sky.

10: not a good example of texture alignment, no transparency in the water, very plain and boring background

13: good pic in the foreground, but the background is lacking with the big untextured wall

14: Everyone looks bored! Uh, this is not a good advertisment...

The Ugly:

3: crude avatar, low detail on the hills to the right

11: Did the women in this picture just get out of bed? Hair (and fashion) has apparently come along way since this picture was taken ...

15: no fashion award contest winners here, boring background, sitting on plain white cubes?


http://secondlife.com/trailer/

This trailer shows off a lot of SL very well, except many of the avatars that are shown up close are kind of dated. I'm thinking 1.1 must have made a big difference in avatar appearance. However, this video shows off a lot of good builds and good scenery. I especially like how the fast-motion build shows an example of construction. Most of the builds shown in this video are actually quite good compared to the ones shown in the screenshots.

Anyway, that's just my critique of one section of the SL website. Overall, I think what it needs is just some work to bring things up to date with the 1.2 world, where things are starting to look a lot better (especially avatars).

I have a couple of proposals, dunno if anyone wants to go in with me on this, but I think it could be both fun for us and helpful to the Linden(s) that update the website.

This proposal won't work for every section of the website, but for the following I think it would:

1. For the "Image Gallery" section, we could each take snapshots that match the current captions that are listed, and pile them together and one of us could send them all to the Linden(s) that handle the website and they could pick the best from the lot to put in the place of the current pages. This would also update all the pictures that are currently on the "What is it?" section as well. (These sections found under "About Second Life"

2. For the "Second Life Features" page, we could do the same thing. New pictures for the current captions. And certainly something new to take the place of the now outdated "vote box" picture that is on that page. (This section found under "About Second Life"


3. One or more of us could offer to make a page of links that would be updated and have a list of the current fan sites out there for the "Links" section. (This section found under "Community"


4. One or more of us could put together some free textures based on the current themes under the "Textures and Extras" section. (This section found under "Downloads"


These are the only sections where I see we could really be of any help. The other sections are pretty much ones that are strictly in the Linden's hands. But I feel like if we go through the trouble to do the above suggestions, and bundle them and submit them to the Linden(s) doing the website, then I bet they would use them. Who wouldn't like a bit of free help?

For me, what I would get out of this is the satisfaction that new people coming into SL would have a more updated look at what SL is like in its current state.

Anyone else want to take on this project with me?

I like the look of the original Linden Lab site better than the one we have now.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

Many apologies that the site is so out of date. We're hoping to get all the updating done, and maybe even some redesign, over the next few months. Please keep the ideas coming, and we'll integrate as much as possible.

To help with this project we'll be adding a part-time web project coordinator in the SF Linden Lab office. Anyone in the Bay Area with web marketing experience who's interested in the position should send a resume to [email]resumes@lindenlab.com[/email]. A full job description will be posted next week on the Linden Lab site.

Another suggestion: you might also want to update the screenshots on various other sites which have a profile of the game, such as these on mmorpg.com: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setView/screens/gameID/83/setStart/1

I think all of those shots are from the ancient beta days...

Having good shots on sites like this I think would be important since that will be a lot of people's first exposure to the game.

Another suggestion is to take the top rated screenshots from the photo contests and put them on the gallery or something.

I like that better too Darwin, atleast the color scheme, thats something like I had in mind, blue is a more relaxing color.

And glad to see its on the agenda and getting some attention Robin.