First Drupal - Fantasy Sports Blogger Site
This site started as an idea long ago...a place where fantasy sports lovers could come together and just talk fantasy sports. After all, isn't that what we do best? And to think that there are people out there that claim to be "fantasy sports experts"! We are ALL fantasy sports experts! That's why we play the games. We think we're smarter than the *real* people calling the shots. So we draft our own teams, set our own lineups, evaluate talent by ourselves, and live and die by our team's performance.
RotoJoe.com was built on D5, but will be upgraded to D6 sometime in the near future. It's basically built around a contributed theme, Roople Theme's Tapestry, with a few contrib mods thown in to make everything work better and add some color.
It's still very much a work-in-progress, as there are multiple features that I'd like to implement, but haven't had the time to work out all of the kinks. But, we're getting some traffic through the doors now with the (very) small membership base, so we figure we'd see if we could grab a few as members now, and see what your thoughts might be towards improving the site's design.
very nice!
how did you do that main page with the tabs ( i see quick tabs in blocks, but is the main page a tabbed views thing?)
looks great - my only advice is really personal, change "blog/comment' (upper right image flow thing) to "participate" - why? because blog sounds like work, that's writing and labor, and you want people to get it - if they do anything they earn points, just participate, they don't have to write articles (that scares people)
also, you don't explain clearly WHY somebody would want to earn points...
perhaps your home page should be an information page and not a content delivery page? just a thought...i mean like:
http://37signals.com/ - this is an 'information home page' (what we do, what you can get from us)
versus blocks of content, views, etc...
also, if you're interested in spending maybe 100ish bucks on a theme or less, then check out:
http://www.themesnap.com/theme-demos/publisher-theme/ (i have no affiliation with them, i just like the theme a lot)
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i love to waste time: http://twitter.com/passingnotes
Nice thoughts on the
Nice thoughts on the changes. I'll definately look into this.
...as far as the "points" go, it's still a conceptual thing we're trying to work through. Ideally we'd like to offer contests for top point getters, but the $$ is pretty much non-existant. We'll definately look into clearing that up and better defining what we're going to do with these.
I like concept of an "information" page, but I don't know if I can "let go" of the content on the front page. It's something to consider, though.
As far as the front page tabs, it's a themed quick tabs block using block views. The theme has a bunch of user regions, and the block is in the "content top" region. The page I'm using as a "home page" is actually a blank page (only spaces in title and body), but it still pulls in the digg/etc. links.
Agreed on the theme. It needs to be updated, but that will probably have to wait until we go to D6.
Looks good overall. I think
Looks good overall.
I think the section explaining what RotoJoe.com is should only appear on the front page, its a little wierd having that show up at the top after clicking on various links. Also the Red Balls explanation looks alot like an advertisement and hence might be ignored by many visitors.
Also maybe think about changing the typography of the theme a bit, increase line-height and possibly change font, and add some extra padding?
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You don't like that most of
You don't like that most of the "above the fold" space is taken up by a banner ad and an "about us/join" block? I thought the point was to annoy your visitors and force them to find the content on the pages! lol.
I was meaning to pull that down off of the non-"front" pages, but had forgotten/never gotten around it. I also just switched the banner ad to not show up on the front page, and pulled out the adsence injected ads in the node bodies.
You're right about the typography. It just seems to run together in some places and looks confusing. We definately need to work on building an original theme...or perhaps having someone develop one for us.
Thanks for you comments/suggestions!
I have got the best info for this group
I am Big Mike and I have the best stuff for this blog. Check out my web site bestfantasysportshelp.com for great advice. Here is a taste of it and it is my pick ups blog for this week. Remember, bestfantasysportshelp.com.
Great Pick- Domenik Hixon- With all of Plaxico Burress's complications, Hixon will probably be the new starter and should see a lot of passes. He and his teammates Amani Toomer, Kevin Boss, and other WRs and TEs should do better.
QBs- Tyler Thigpen- He could have a huge week against a shaky Denver defense and could put up huge numbers.
Gus Frerotte- Frerotte could have a break out game against a terrible Lions defense this week.
RBs- J.J. Arrington- Arrington has not taken the number one role yet in Arizona, but he is getting closer. He is number two right now and is seeing more carries. He will hopefully emerge this week and he might be a good risk to take if you need it.
Brandon Jackson- He is still a back up, but he sees some carries and could get a late touchdown against Houston. This is a desperation RB pick and e-mail me if you need to resort to this. There could be someone better in your league.
WRs- Malcolm Floyd- They might start going more to Chambers, but against Oakland, they might just keep scoring and scoring and he could be a good target.
Mark Bradley- Bradley and Thigpen could be a dominant QB and WR pairing this week against Denver. They did not work out great last week but they should do better this week.
TEDonald Lee- Lee is fresh off a touchdown last week and is ready to have a good game against Houston.
DEF- Miami Defense- There are no great defensive picks this week, but if their not owned yet, Miami would still probably be the best choice.
nice...I'm not at a point
nice...I'm not at a point where I can convince people to post anything on RJ, but I managed to get this guy to post a fantasy football article on Drupal! Crazy.