Excellent ideas and comments Etherlord! As this is a non-functional site yet I won't take it too hard

1. I've thought about this one and I agree with you. I looked at Elder Scrolls Online's site and they have two. But they don't duplicate the links. I think we'll drop the top one. But I like a top one, just like the one on Soundcloud. Hmm... Any ideas or favourites?

2. You are correct. I've been thinking the the logo size for a while. I like a big logo on the front page and a smaller one on the other pages. Currently it's the same size of the logo itself, but the spacing changes. I will make the logo smaller

3. I have an idea with the background to be able to feature certain seasons and themes. Perhaps a winter background for the winter, something related to our Fantasy Awards when that's happening, something for summer, something to support graphical artists etc. So my intention is to be able to change this quite easily.

4. I think I'll go with a font or two from Typekit or Google Fonts. I haven't really decided yet on which one. We'll see

5. It should maily be two columns, one big "main" and one smaller on the side. So ignore the double new columns. I'll include a screenshot of what I have in mind:

6. You are correct. I am not satisfied with what I showed here. So I'll move it and bring it forward more. 9 out of 10 visitors just click the play button directly and leave. So playing the music should be prio 1.

- Automatically starting the music would be nice, but perhaps also annoying. And sometimes not possible. Mobiles don't do this. But we could do it for desktop.

- I have worked with a player that is on the page and where I load pages in the background with javascript, just like Soundcloud works. The radio remains playing when navigating around. Still working on a few things where forms are posted such as the forum, profile pages etc. But it will come!

Phew! Any more ideas anyone? I will try to add the elements missing on the beta site to get it to show what it actually can do already

Now the player should work, somewhat. Select any of the servers at the bottom there. It will store a cookie and remember this for your return so you will be able to easily pick, keep or change the prefered server, yay, finally! I've scrapped the top menu tar and moved things to the main nav. The current playing track has been moved too. However no styling what so ever there yet.

Not sure about the auto-start, even on desktop. Could it be made an option that people can choose for their profile? Also, a link to "all unread" forum posts would be handy. The short list on the front page doesn't always show everything I haven't read yet, especially when I've been offline for a couple of weeks on vacation.

i like the radio image on the current website.

Maybe can you create a gramophone for the newest website litke this

or an instrument with a dwarf which plays a wagner tuba

Updated 4 June 2015 (22:24)

As I said, I could be wrong and I had to sleep with it. Now I can say that indeed the music shouldn't autostart, but there should be an option to do so.

A (very) rough design:

As for background, you need to prepare the background in the way it's a background and not a foreground.

What if the background was changing along the logo? That is on the first page the background would be colorful and the logo big, and on other pages the logo would be smaller and the background darker.

You could just create two backgrounds:

– bright background with big logo with shadow

– dark background with small logo without shadow

If your logo won't change (or it will change together with backgrounds, e.g. for Winter season), then it makes perfect sense, as you need to prepare backgrounds anyway.

As we are at it, your logo is aligned considering the image center, but the image is not balanced; it's weight center should be higher, so the logo should be lower.

full size

Purple and green lines should connect.

Updated 4 June 2015 (23:59)

If autostart is there, it would have to be optional and not on as default. I really hate it when websites start ramming noises down my ears without being asked to. It's especially annoying if I've, say, just watched a Monty Python DVD and have my volume on a high setting.

Posted by Vinnie johnsoni like the radio image on the current website.Maybe can you create a gramophone for the newest website litke this(...)or an instrument with a dwarf which plays a wagner tuba

Since this is Radio Rivendell, I'd rather propose a harp.

Posted by MuadMouseIf autostart is there, it would have to be optional and not on as default. I really hate it when websites start ramming noises down my ears without being asked to. It's especially annoying if I've, say, just watched a Monty Python DVD and have my volume on a high setting.Since this is Radio Rivendell, I'd rather propose a harp.

Dwarf playing a wagner tuba is fine too.

it's an amazing instrument.

https://youtu.be/XNuLeifSJFk

Autostart should definitely be an option and it should be off by default.

And a list of unread posts is on my list of things to do!

Posted by KitharisNot sure about the auto-start, even on desktop. Could it be made an option that people can choose for their profile?Also, a link to "all unread" forum posts would be handy. The short list on the front page doesn't always show everything I haven't read yet, especially when I've been offline for a couple of weeks on vacation.

Regarding the logo image.. A grammophone or harp sounds great! Perhaps a harp will look great? Or will we be too similar to Guinness?

I will continue the work on this! You are correct, it's just pasted right in the middle there regardless of the "weight". I will also get some more work than just white as it is now. White is too dull. It's more a placeholder than a finished logo

Posted by EtherlordAs we are at it, your logo is aligned considering the image center, but the image is not balanced; it's weight center should be higher, so the logo should be lower.

I like the TESO-style web design. But don't forget to put in an advertisment space into the design concept, to see better how it gonna look in the end. Background image in the footer looks great. I don't know about new logo... Maybe it would be nice to make some changes in logo, but i prefer current one. Maybe if there will be some good ideas, but I don't want to see just text-logo.

Yeah, everything is more or less work-in-progress, and the logo is faaaaar from being finished. It's currently just a placeholder with a font I'm trying out. I want gold, 3D and stuff

I just remembered, that once, here on forum, was an idea about implementing Middle-Earth calendar. Maybe you can make it? I think we can just take dates from the Great Years (3018 - 3019) from "Lord of the Rings" Appendix B: The Tales of Years. We don't need to make some crazy adjustments to correct dates, let's just use dates from the "Appendix B", describing the events in "The Lord of the Rings". There are a lot of described daily events throughout the year. I think it will gonna look great on the main page of the website. I think about 10 years ago, I made one by myself with some additional dates. I will try to find it, because it should be somewhere...

We could always use the Hobbit calendar. We have the words from Tolkien himself how they translate, so why not use them?

I'll leave the rest of the commentary to you techno-types, but I do want to weigh in on two things. First, I love the map of Middle-Earth as a backdrop. Definitely a keeper. Second (and I think I mentioned this to you a while ago, Lord Elrond) I always loved it when you have the snow during Christmastide, and I believe I encouraged you to do the seasonal animations. I still support that idea most wholeheartedly!

I also want a Middle-Earth calendar, I actually looked into it a couple of years back. There are lots of information how to calculate things, but I think I found that it's not the same calendar with 365 days and a leap-year every four years. But I could be wrong of course. It was not just to add a bunch of years and rename the months And YES, we'll still have seasonal animations, and hopefully more of it in the future!

BTW, do you know that 2100 won't be a leap year?

Posted by EtherlordBTW, do you know that 2100 won't be a leap year?

Oh, I missed that! I'm not so into leap years, but it sounds like we should have one there otherwise? What a bummer we'll miss out on that one in that case

Posted by ElrondOh, I missed that! I'm not so into leap years, but it sounds like we should have one there otherwise? What a bummer we'll miss out on that one in that case

leap years have weird rules. If the year is divisible by 4, then it is a leap year unless it is dividable by 100. in that case, the year must be dividable by 400

so the next leap year to land on a century start will be 2400

Tyler Max hopes that he makes sence, he needs some sleep!

Something not related to the design at all... What about we choose a race and class when registering? This way we'll add more personality to our accounts. For example I would be an elf with the class... ehm... what "occupation" is Elrond anyway? What do you think?