As many of you know, I am knee-deep in redesigning the AresCentral.com web site (as well as all of our "product" web sites, and the Ambrosia web site as a whole -- it's a large project).

One of the cool things I've come up with is a "story" display system, which we're now using for our online newsletter, The Ambrosia Times. This system allows stories to be posted (complete with formatting and images), the current "featured" story is displayed on the main page, older stories are archived & searchable, and people can easily add their comments to the stories.

I think it's a neat system; you can see an example of it in use here:

(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=14")http://www.AmbrosiaS...opics&number=14(/url)

To the point of this post: I got to thinking about the number of stories I'd seen people write about Ares over the past few months, and I'm considering making a "soapbox"/"notes from the underground" section on the AresCentral.com web site where users can submit stories about Ares and/or editorials of some fashion about Ares.

Of course, these stories would be reviewed by an admin from the community before they went live, and they'd be posted no more frequently than once a week, to ensure that everyone's story/editorial got a fair shake as the featured article.

So, that do you think? Anyone think this is a good idea, and would like to see it happen?

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Hmm. Its certainly a great way to disseminate information, and keeps the community alive by requesting input. Not to be self-serving, but that was essentially the purpose of (url="http://"http://www.axis.n3.net")my site. (/url) Would this sort of thing be open to any sort of input, or would it be limited to "news" of map development, community news, etc. I feel like there is merit in accepting strategy stuff...

Here's a thought: Since you're using the UBB code at heart, couldn't you have multiple news threads? Like the boards, have either two separate pages, or one composite page. One for General News, including development stuff, and a strategy page for user-submitted strategy articles. It'd be nice to have one central page that would have all your map/strategy/news needs, along with the forums.

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Pax - Drew Harry
sagitar@earthlink.net
(url="http://"http://www.axis.n3.net/")Ares Axis - axis.n3.net(/url)

"...they say that every five minutes someone dies in a car accident, but how often are there seven hundred and sixty one armless and legless corpses in one hangar?" - Terminal 2, Where are monsters in dreams, Marathon Infinity

I think it is a great idea! C'mon, do it!

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I come, I go; You'll never know...

-Admiral Dennis
(url="http://"mailto:admiraldennis@mac.com")mailto:admiraldennis@mac.com(/url)admiraldennis@mac.com

Sounds good to me. I have a few stories I'd like to share (maybe my crushing defeat by Admiral Grammaticus?)

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Sundered Angel ,
The One and Only

I think that everyone would love that, man. I think that it's a great idea. Out of curiosity, would these be like war stories about net games, or more like stuff about the game itself?

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In the next world war,
In a jack-knifed Juggernaut,
I am born again.

Eh...well...no comment about the soapbox. Seems kinda' like wasted effort to me. But don't ask me.

I had no idea that the big (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com")http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com(/url) was being redesigned ('bout time, too; how long has it been there? Pre-1995?). Whatever you're doing, I hope you work out a system that makes sub-category pages look different from the main page. It's maddening to click on the "Download" link and end up in a place that looks unusually like the main page.

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"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room!"
-Dr. Strangelove
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Will Oram