[Andrew Field]

I've recently been making a few changes to the ContentGenerator.net site - you may have noticed the links at the top of the forum become a bit less 'forum centric'. You may also have noticed the new dedicated support section. More improvements will appear soon - for example I'm going to move this forum from the .co.uk domain onto the main .net domain. There are some complex reasons why I originally had it on a separate domain, but I think things will be much better all linked together more clearly.

These are part of changes I'm gradually introducing to link everything together a little more effectively. One further development is this new section. I've entitled it 'ContentGenerator.net labs'. This section is where I'll post early developments of new programs and developments. These will range from playable demos of early ideas to beta versions of newly developed programs.

I think it will add to the utility of the whole forum. Plus, as the new support section will hopefully take care of more mundane support issues, this forum can hopefully develop more into a community to share ideas and developments.

[Andrew Field]

In fact, let's start this section as I mean to go on. Do you like the look of the support section? The way it integrates into the forum too? I plan to put this header across all the ContentGenerator.net sections. Thus the main site will be redesigned to sport a similar look.

Do you think those links are clear enough - have I missed anything out?

[Douglas Bell]

Andrew

I like the light, fresh look of the support section, maybe because there is more white space than blue in the background.

A few thoughts:

Will you be changing the background of the fourm to suit?
Will we all need to register for the new support area or will you import the current ContentGenerator forum membership?
I'm not sure if the Knowledgebase & Tutorial section will work too well as most of the helpful hints/tips are already in the main forum areas and if you hyperlink back to there, people might get confused which section they are actually in. If they then click a few links in the forums they may find it difficult to get back quickly to where they started. I don't know, I'm just thinking about how I jump about forum questions/links and usually have to start again from the top.
I might take the ContentGenerator.net forum link out as the Community header link is already at the top of the screen.

These are just my first thoughts and about this section.

[Andrew Field]

Thanks for all these ideas - very useful. What I aim to to is make each section have the same header and get everything looking as similar as possible. If you view the forum / support section at a higher resolution the backgrounds are actually identical now. However, whereas the support section has lots of space, all the forum options do take up a lot of the screen when you are viewing it.

Regarding the need to register on the support section I'm looking to use the same logins as on the forum, but I still haven't quite figured out how to do this. Where the support section is good is that you don't actually need to register to send a support ticket - it automatically sets this up. So I'll develop the options there a little further.

What I also plan to do is pick out the FAQs from the forum - to be honest there are really about 5 / 6 things that repeatedly occur - and turn them into a formal knowledgebase. I don't plan to hyperlink back into the forum, but rather try and pick the key points out.

Anyway - thanks for the feedback - much appreciated.

[Andrew Field]

Oh - also - just to add - the http://www.cg-scorm.net site (Moodle based ContentGenerator.net test site) won't be able to share logins, so it might all get a bit complex with the different options. Thus if I can find a way to get the support site & forum working together that would be much more preferable.

I think the fact they are on different domains may cause issues though.