Welcome to the new site. Alot has changed and we are continually working to enhance functionality and enable Gamers like ourselves to do more... Please take a look at our Website and let us know how we can make our community a better place to be.

This poll will help us to determine where we stand as a community so please feel free to answer the poll and reply with any opinion or idea.

-Redline

i think the site looks good . it is a handy site where you instantly know where to go and to find stuff

grtz WARjunkie

As to the picture on the home page.... I love Norton as much as the next guy, but was that the only picture you could dig up?  lol

 The site looks good!

Yeah, I agree with Tom!

Norton

Hello Everyone,  I thought this would be a good place to post some up and comming features that we will be adding in the near future. 

1.) Inbox Notification (Alread Built / Awaiting Maintenance Window) Provides the number of unread or new emails at the top of every page next to your inbox.

2.) BS Watson is working on a new technology called Atlas that will allow us to present the server pages directly on the main page or a secondary page for easy navigation.

3.) Combined Sign-Up & Membership Form (Already Built / Awaiting Maintenance Window). This will reduce the amount of time it takes a user to get site access and request membership. (Site Access and Membership Request time is reduced to less then 1 minute). Affects Each Users Profile. 

4.) We are looking for alternate content that we may be missing outside of the forums ability to provide live data. This may be something like a Calendar of Events or something Simular and remains to be investigated.  Please vote and provide your opinion on what we are missing or how things could be done better.

-Redline

Okay, I'm in tears after seeing Norton as good ole Uncle Sam seeking young men for service, lol.  What makes me tear up even more is that Competitive is spelled Competative, lol. 

Fixed,  thanks!

-Redline

Hi, I'm new here and have a question.

I clicked on the button that says "Apply" on the main page next to the fellow with the Norton name tag. I then filled out the membership application and when I submitted it I recived an error message saying I need to fill out my age. I don't see and area on the application to input this data.

Please advise. 

~Thank you

US7060,  I appologize for your inconvenience.  Please feel free to come into our teamspeak between 12PM & 2PM (Central) today if possible as we have a TWL Practice and should be able to complete a majority of the required interview functions for membership manually until the site is repaired.

 Just as a heads-up the Membership form that you used is runnng off another box and we have just completed beta testing of integrated solution that I wrote to combine both the Sign-Up and Membership forms but this cannot be completed until sometime next week due to the window of opportunity to complete the work. All Admin and Developers are required to be on site to make any push and unfortunately we have several on vaccation. 

Again, I appologize for the inconvenience and hope that you can find time to visit our teamspeak and potentially take part in our TWL Practice.

Sincerely,

-Redline

Redline,

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'll need to get up to speed with team speak I have never used it and currently my headset is down.  I'll see if I can get the team speak installed today and try to get my mic back onto my headset. The kids had a little to much fun with it...

 Test..............

 I just wanted to say, that the changes I see to the forum look great! I am especially impressed with the idea of using Norton's pic as a recruiting tool. In my opinion, someone was "thinking outside the box". In all, I think the forum is shaping up nicely and is truely becoming "unique".

Teal 

WOW, I am really impressed with Volgs creation of The Team TWL Blog!!!  Excellent work that we can definitely be proud of.  Everyone please take a look at the Blog Page as Volg's knowledge and Artwork can truly be appreciated by the team.

I read an article once that said that any organization is only as strong as it's weakest members and that success comes from the inside and works it's way out.

Volg, this is an incredible work!!! 

See the new team Blog at:

http://ugcgamers.com/blogs/sample_weblog/default.aspx

-Redline

I was discussing with Redline this morning how vital our website is going to become in the next couple months, and thus how important it is that we work on it's appearance, function and content.  So, I've come up with a list of mostly small details that I think could be changed.  Keep in mind that I think the website is already very good, when I first came on the website I was thoroughly impressed.  But if we're aiming for Scalability, Functionality, Ease Of Use and Standardized Format maybe some of these considerations can make a difference.  If not, no sweat, these are just my two cents.

 Starting with the home page:

Suggestion Number 0 - My name is spelled wrong in the New Members box.   

Suggestion Number 1 - In the "Welcome to the New Site" Box, the bullets in "o UGC | o June 2007 | o Ver 1.2" could be changed to look more professional (or at least less like undercase Os.)

Suggestion Number 2 - In the "Welcome to the New Site" Box, "* Register for basic access or put your tags on (membership)" should be rewritten for clarification.  It could read "Register for basic access or competitive play" .   The word membership isn't particularly clear, so anywhere we state membership we should try and change it to read Competitive Play.  Thus, the small text under the Apply button should be changed from "Membership and Site Access are not the same.  Membership allows you to wear our Community Tag in-game and requires  up to 48  hours  to be processed".  Competitive Play Membership and Basic Membership are not the same.  For more details, see application form."  This takes all confusion out because of ambiguous and interchangable terms (Membership, Basic Access, Basic Membership, Site Access, Site Membership).  See Suggestion Number 6 for more.

Suggestion Number 3 - Now heres an issue where color and gamma come into play, but I've checked out the website on three different computers and this remains an issue on each one.  In the "Welcome to the New Site" Box, there are two background colors.  A white color that is barely different then the white background color for the main page, and another color (to the right of the tank).  This is like a very very light gray color, but it looks slightly creamy.  This color is the background for all the boxes to the right side of the page (Quick Links, Community Games, News and Information, Partnerships, New Members, Popular Tags).   While it is okay, I guess, the cream + red + teal makes the page look kind of like a business company's website, it doesn't do justice to the big kickass banner at the top.  I propose that this color be changed to a steel color, so that our page looks appropriately futuristic and stands out as a superior clan website.  This would have to be done carefully, since the cream/gray color is present throughout the website.

Suggestion Number 4 - In the "Welcome to the New Site" Box, in big letters there is "UGC live".  What is the meaning behind the live?  This could possibly be a spot for a small, generic clan logo (Like the one Redline originally designed, the capital U under the crosshairs), or the tag in big letters -:UGC:-.  But I think UGC Live once more looks like something you would find on a amateur business website, and we are neither amateurs nor business people (unless its the business of kicking butt and taking names). 

Suggestion Number 5 - This is an issue in the works right now, but on the main page we have both a Register button and an Apply button.  The register button caters to people looking for basic access or competitive play (see suggestion number 2).  The Apply button caters to those looking for Competitive play, but they both lead to the same form.  Are they both necessary, if they both lead to the same form (I don't think we should have two seperate forms, one for basic access or one for competitive play, see the next suggestion for more)

Suggestion Number 6 - The application for joining -:UGC:- applies to both basic access and competitive play.  On the form itself, theres a column called Access Requested, and the options are Site Access or Membership.  To Clarify, we should change Membership to Competitive Play, since Membership is too general.  If this suggestion is followed along with Suggestion 2, I think we can eliminate any confusion along those lines.

Suggestion Number 6B - If 6 is done, we need to change the subtitle of Access Requested to the following:

Suggestion Number 7 - On the Main Page, put a simple bar between the Quick Links (UGC Team Blog, Unread Posts, Popular Downloads, Forum Subscription, View All Users, Send UGC Invitation, Site Feedback) and the unrelated comments on the right.  It looks like the comments are describing the links on the left, when that is not the case.

Suggestion Number 8 - Make a new, seperate Donations and Expenses box on the main page and move the "Paypal" and "Get Reader" buttons to that, as well as "View Expense Report".  This box could go under the Partnerships box on the main page.  By doing this, we clean up the Quick Links box and create a seperate box with a big header, drawing more attention for people to give us their moola.

Suggestion Number 9 - Make the Photos page accessible to all members, so that we can start putting up embarrassing pictures of ourselves.

Suggestion Number 10 - I know we've talked about this, but now that the -:UGC:- only TWL Blog has been set up (and looks stunning), I think the Blogs header should link directly to the blog, not just show new updates.  Though showing new updates is nice, it's redundent, we already have a "What's New" column on the main page that updates for both the Forums and the Blog.

Suggestion Number 11 - This isn't really a suggestion but a question, in the "Welcome to the New Site" Box, the Servers button has a picture.  What is that picture?

Suggestion Number 12 - In the "Welcome to the New Site" Box, both the Servers and the Teamspeak buttons go to the Servers page.  This seems redundant, though I understand why, because the Teamspeak bar is shown on the Servers page as well.  If we're gonna keep it like this (which is totally fine)  I think that the Teamspeak info (ts2.ugcgamers.com) should be posted somewhere on that page.  Currently if one does not know that info, they have to go in-game to find it, or fish through the forums for the information.  In fact, if we wanted to we could just change the Teamspeak popup menu button that currently says "UGC Teamspeak" to "ts2.UGCGamers.com".

Suggestion Number 13 - Get rid of all the =ABC= and =BEL= blog and forum posts.  This is just to clean up, so that joining for the TWL process is as simple as can be.

Suggestion Number 14 -  CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT.  In order for our website to start getting more and more hits and more deals, we need STUFF.  This means hardware and software questions and answers, FAQs, How-Tos.  In-Game tips and guides and such.

Content Idea Number 1 - In-Game Screenshot Galleries, and a Picture-Of-The-Day.  Start taking cool screenshots and post them into a gallery for people to see and comment on.

Content Idea Number 2 - A Troubleshooting Forum, filled with Q+As and Guides on how to set up software and hardware for Battlefield and other games.

Content Idea Number 3 - Detailed Guides on game statistics and mechanics, map strategies, upcoming updates, badges, ranks, medals and ribbons.  What to unlock and how to use it, how to make it big as a commander, as a squad leader, as a squad member.

Content Idea Number 4 - Multi-Platform!  Whoever has X-box Live can put down their name so we can start kicking butt on TV screens around the world as well.

This is what I've come up with so far.  There's more, I'm sure of it.  I've totally exhausted my brain coming up with these so far.  My sincerest thanks go to Redline, Watson, Big Target, Volg and everyone thats put so much hard work into the website so far.  This post totally isn't bashing your work, its appreciating it, and my ideas on how we can make it bigger and better.  If you've read this far, props to you.