haloman30 168 Posted June 17, 2022 Hey, everyone! Over the past while, we've been hard at work starting a major website improvement project. The first part of that starts today - with a forums theme refresh and a redesigned About section. Theme Update Our new forums theme was designed to be a refresh of the previous 2021 theme. The overall design was good - but there were some areas where it needed some facelifts. Some of the changes you should notice include: Better display on lower-resolution displays Leveraging newer browser features like backdrop-filter to give some elements a glassy/acrylic appearance Redesigned navigation and user menus Improvements to Theme, Privacy Policy, and Contact Us links in footer Removing the all-encompassing page background to reduce the overly boxed-in look of the 2021 theme If you don't notice any changes, make sure you check the Theme menu and select Chaotic United - 2022 or Chaotic United - 2022 (Dark) at the top of the menu. About Section Redesign and Content Migration The other, more significant change is the redesigned About section. What used to be a collection of disconnected pages is now a unified, easy-to-use website section that allows you to view virtually any info about Chaotic United - past or present. You'll see a menu on the left side of the page that allows you to switch between the different pages. In addition to rewriting things like the Story and updating the Timeline, other pages which were previously very incomplete have been given some much-needed love. The credits page is now significantly more thorough, as we wanted to try and credit as much as humanly possible. Along with this, the staff list has been moved to its own page - where you can get an idea of what each member of our team does. We even rewrote the About text finally - after having been left unaltered for a number of years. The only page you might notice missing is the Veterans page - as this was left behind in favor of the Credits page. In retrospect, we feel that having a separate page for a handful of specific people, while honorable, is too prone to leaving out key players who we might be simply unaware of. As such, the Credits page is the only place you'll find their names going forward. This redesigned About section is the start of an ongoing process to unify the main website and forums content. This originally started with the Helpcenter a number of years back, and as time has gone on, future content has been developed within the forums - rather than the main website. This is another major step towards moving away from having a separated main website and forums. Eventually, only the homepage will be left - and when it's replaced, the entirety of the Chaotic United website will be under one system. Having this strange separation is jarring from an end-user standpoint - and makes backend management more difficult. Website Archives However, we also are real keen on legacy and historical preservation. That of course extends to the website. When the main website is finally retired, it won't be gone - rather, it'll be moved to a new home in the Chaotic United Archives - a new home for a collection of as much of CU's historic websites as possible. We'll be unearthing the oldest backups, dusting off the most forgotten bits of the website's history - and giving them their own spot to shine once again. You'll be able to view not only the current main website as it is right now, but you'll be able to view every iteration of the main website we've had since 2014. In fact, we might even try to have it go even further back. But I suppose we'll have to wait and see about that, won't we? We can't provide any ETA on this at the moment - likely the current main website will be the first, and as time goes on, other bits and pieces will be brought back. Wrapping Up And with that, I think we'll be wrapping up there. We've got a lot of exciting stuff planned - both for the site and the MC server. As per usual, if you find any hiccups with the site - let us know! We can't fix a problem if we don't know it's out there. Keep your eyes peeled for our next item on the list: Cross-server teleportation and warps for the MC server! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
