NZFF Site

[Alex]

Hi guys,

I've come up with this idea (well not really mine, Trolly had it first, by pure coincidence I happened to think of it as well) to make a site either above or operating in tandem with NZFF. On it we'd have articles, links to sceneries, links to aircraft, independent reviews, tutorials, the whole kaboodle . Of course this would all be NZ based. Jimmy has graciously offered me support with graphic themes and articles. Of course this is approved by the top man himself, and I was also wondering what the general NZFF public thought of it.

Ideas?

Constructive Criticism?

Alex

[ZK-Brock]

I think it's a good idea, however many small-time FS sites turn out pretty poo. When the site is launched it should already have a decent amount of content, not just an empty shell.

[Alex]

Yep, we do plan to be launching at the end of next month, hopefully having it ready to add content by the end of this month, if not sooner, so that should give us a wee bit of time to add content. At the moment the url is http://nzff.awardspace.com and I have put a basic index on there. I will almost certainly using Joomla! to manage the site, so it should be relatively easy to maintain, which means I will have more time to add content.

Alex

[Zöltuger]

i think the key is to add something new to the flight sim community. there's no use having 20 FS websites reviewing the same new aircraft.
maybe reviewing NZ scenery/NZ addons/NZ repaints? keep it simple, eh.

[Alex]

Yep, thats what we were thinking, as a NZ-based site, we would review almost exclusively NZ products, free and payware.

Alex

[Charl]

Very timely idea.
The forums have grown to the point where valuable stuff is now buried in ignored topics.
There will be a fair bit of maintenance , there is nothing sadder than a site trying to look fresh with nothing but out-of-date content.
Best of luck; I'd be keen to see a scenery section describing what works best where, in combination with what, and what the limitations are if any - what framerates do you get etc.
Bear in mind that the competition is stiff - all you have to do is go to AVSIM and type in "New Zealand" to see all there is to see.
The site will be made by the local knowledge of postings on obscure sites etc

[ZK-Brock]

Also for the love of god DO NOT put those little signs in!

[Jimmy]

however many small-time FS sites turn out pretty poo.

I think if this one is kinda like a part of the nzff it may do much better, theres already over 100members here that are bound to find out about it.

If it was a site taht had "members" or something it might be a good idea if nzff membership accounts can be used on this new site too.

Any ideas on what this site will be called? NZFS or something, keeping with the nzxx title.

Best of luck; I'd be keen to see a scenery section describing what works best where, in combination with what, and what the limitations are if any - what framerates do you get etc.

What about if there was a page where all the scenery was divided into sections of performance, or were each link is for a certain senery the background of the title or lettering was in a differant colour for how taxing it is on fps ,thatd be kool

James

[ardypilot]

I think if this one is kinda like a part of the nzff it may do much better, theres already over 100members here that are bound to find out about it.

I know the editor of the AVSIM frontpage, so perhaps we could also get some advertising done there.

All the best with it guys!

[Alex]

Yea, some good ideas brought up, and there will probably be a capability to have a members section, is there a yay or nay for that?

Alex

[Charl]

I'd sign up with no problem, but why bother? What don't you want non-members to know about?

[Zöltuger]

membership to forums is ok, but not to news and reviews.

how are you going to fund this website?

[toprob]

Yea, some good ideas brought up, and there will probably be a capability to have a members section, is there a yay or nay for that?

Alex

Anything which allows input from visitors, yes, you need to be a member, otherwise you get too much spam. Anything else, no way! I wouldn't have been happy to sign up here without being able to view the content before-hand.
From experience, though, offering any visitor input is asking for trouble, the spammers are just nasty, certainly this was the reason why my blog was removed. Even though the spam needs to be oked to make it live on the site, and I was not likely to do that, it still showed up in huge quantities every day.

[Alex]

Charl, Yes, thats what I was thinking, of course we could have certain members that are able to submit articles and reviews etc, but there isn't any huge advantage that members would have over non-members. And all visitors would be able to read all reviews, articles, view scenery files etc etc.

Zoltuger, hmm, well seeing as the forums are already here it would be slightly tricky to restrict them unless all future members had to be members of the site or something, but in my opinion thats a bit too authoritative. At the moment I'm planning to use some free hosting, 5 gig of bandwidth, 200 megs of disk, an SQL database, FTP and a couple of other things, but if this proves insufficient then I would have little worries about paying about NZ$100 per year for some decent hosting. A domain could be on the cards, as long as we decide on a name, and until we do that (decide on the name) I can do pretty much nothing.

toprob, I'm having trouble thinking of possible places where members could have an input, unless its here of course, and at the moment I'm keeping the site and the forum seperate but linked (if that makes sense ). With the members thing, there are three levels that would be available to us (for submitting information to the site, Authors, Editors, and Publishers. Authors being able to submit info, Editors being able to edit that info and publishers overseeing and making major changes pretty much. I am planning to use Joomla, so if anyone is familiar with that they will probably know what I'm talking about.

One thing that I should stress is the need to make a name, I can work with any name, and I have no preference, but if nothing comes up I'll have to make a pathetic one up. Until we get a name I'm pretty much sitting on my ass answering questions in this thread .

Alex

[Alex]

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[Charl]

That's not a bad look, I'd trim out a lot including feeds and live updates and stuff - you have to cut yourself a little slack if you take a day or 2 off!

New Zealand Flight Sim Central?

[Alex]

Yea, like I said, this one is really messy, and a whole lot of the stuff will go.

Thats not a bad name either.

Alex

[ardypilot]

Looks fairly well presented so far, a few names I could suggest:

NZ Sim Portal
Kiwi Sim Centre
NZ Flight Simulation

PLus, I'd be happy to help out with any graphics/logos etc.

[Alex]

Well KiwiSim is already a site, and that could cause a few problems if we decided to put that up as one..

So I think either NZ Sim Portal, or NZ Flight Sim(ulation?) at the moment my preference is the latter, any problems with that?

Alex

[toprob]

Are you thinking of getting a domain name? I'd be happy to donate one once you decide on a name.