An Irish Atheist Website - Your Input

nozzferrahhtoo

Hi all. Sorry for the long post. Background first but questions in bold should you wish to skip the long parts.

Ok first to express a desire that likely will not be met. I am hoping this thread will not become a thread discussing whether users agree with, or disagree with, the policies of Atheist Ireland (AI) or how they go about implementing them Also AI have not asked me in any way to make this post. I am doing this under my own steam in the hope I can pitch the finished product to AI and not only help them but improve them in the eyes of their detractors by developing them alongside developments in their site.

I have currently mirrored the entire Atheist Ireland website from www.atheist.ie along with the blog and forum at http://www.atheist.ie/phpBB3/index.php on my home development SandBox PC.

My goal is to experiment with new websites, new technologies, new softwares and new ideas and invest my time for free to produce a site that does everything the current site does and more and reflects the requirements and desires of members of Atheist Ireland and nonmembers alike.

I will then pitch the final product to the AI committee as a free replacement for the new site which I will administer and maintain (free, at no personal profit or gain to myself).

So my question is what do you as Atheists in, or interested in, Ireland want from an Atheist Resource such as this? What would make you use such a resource more.

To spur on the thought process here are some general headers but add your own or whatever you feel and I will try and incorporate what I can in the new site that I pitch to AI.

• General look and feel.
• Types of Technology (social networking, chat rooms, integration to other systems like twitter etc.).
• Software options (Is there software you enjoy seeing sites use).
• Types of Information. (Things happening in AI, things happening in Ireland, digests of popular or interesting posts from other popular sites like JREF, Pharangua, WhyEvolutionIsTrue etc, Digest of posts on popular Atheist Forums around the net. What else?).
• Types of campaign you would like to see AI engage in, or host a central Inforrmation post on.
• Discourse and Debate (maybe a seperate section for online debate between representatives of AI and representatives of people who disagree with them for some reasons, whether that be the religious, or other atheists and humanists. An example would be the economist debate between Sam Harris and Mark Oppenheimer.
• Types of user input or interaction from users (Polls, user profiles, user blogs.... how else can users be heard by other users and more importantly the committee of AI in order that their policy reflects the opinion of as many Irish Atheists as possible).

Basically to summarise, what would attract you as a non-user, or attract you more as a current user, to a Central Irish Atheist Resource. In terms of technologies, content and types of content. And more importantly in terms of bringing your input to the site, rather than just a site where Atheist Ireland preach to the choir about what they think and want.

MagicMarker

Just get rid of that bloody awful header for a start!

nozzferrahhtoo

Indeed, I was thinking I would donate some of my own money to a submissions competition for a new header and compile the winner from a list of forum votes on here and on the site itself who will get the dosh. Probably not a lot of dosh as I am loaded but better than nothing and I am sure there are some graphics students and artists who would like a hundred euro or so for a night in the pub and if I beg hard enough the committee might add to that coffer.

But yes a graphical change in the layout and the images used would be certainly on my agenda and there is a couple of people I am thinking of approaching to ask for some help as I have been impressed with their work before.

Dades

I'd imagine you shouldn't need to offer money as incentive for people to draft up headers for a competition?

I mean, unless you want the whole site redesigned you don't need anything crazy arty or different. You need a functional look to the place and a professional looking banner.

I'll have a go myself if I find time (11 years of professional web/photoshop!)

On the whole, I'd implement a shallower, slicker looking banner that spanned 100% of the page. I'd lose some of that white space (margins between articles, etc) and change the font from a print font to a web font. The article titles could be less stark, too.

But the basics are there.

I wouldn't bother too much with the forum. It's merely there to facilitate discussion and it does that.

nozzferrahhtoo

Ta for that too.

So those are some good layout points and a comment about the forum. I am interested what other things people would like to see in the site though aside from layout. Features, content types... if you were going to join what should the members area have for members. Things like that.

Galvasean

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

if you were going to join what should the members area have for members. Things like that.

A bunch of contradictory rules and a bunch of other rules which don't actually mean what it says they mean... or they might actually do....

Oh and take 10% of our wages, for the craic like.

nozzferrahhtoo

Nah I will save that one for my next website when I start a religion called "the Church of Doubting Thomas" based around the idea that Jesus actually respected Thomas' skepticism

Actually, tenner says someone already has done that one but who knows.