Our 2005 Year in Review issue is coming up December 12th. It’s a two week schedule so we’ll give you half on the 12th and some more on the 19th. And just because you’ve all been nice this year we’ll give John Allison’s great cover art for the issue today 🙂
We’re also in the process of running our new site engine for Comixpedia through a BETA test which will last through December and hopefully before the January issue we’ll do the full switchover to it. You can help by looking around and reporting to me (xerexes AT comixpedia.com) stuff that doesn’t work and stuff that’s just hard to figure out. As part of this test we’ll be running the December issue articles on both Comixpedia.com and the BETA site.
More details, including the URL for the beta site after the jump.
The BETA is at altertainment.net. (Note this is for the BETA testing only and Comixpedia.com will continue to be the URL for the official site.) Most of the BETA site works although the design (i.e., the layout and graphics) is not final and in fact may change signficantly before 2006. Having said that – it is a beta and if it don’t work don’t stress (although an email to me would be appreciated).
You can log into the BETA site with the same user id and password as Comixpedia.com.
For all readers of Comixpedia.com there are some new features at the BETA site. Warning – currently the navigation isn’t great — at the top of the site on every page there are icons that lead to the major sections of the new site: From left to right at the top is Comixpedia Logo, Link to News, Link to Magazine, Link to Community (forums), Link to Library, Link to Portal (Top List), Link to Your Account page
NEWS: At this point, no changes to news.
MAGAZINE: The monthly Comixpedia magazine is better organized now and you can easily browse by issue, department, and contributor. (The magazine articles are at their new URLs but will also remain at their original URLs. Old comments are still attached to the original URLs)
COMMUNITY: The forums have been slightly consolidated. At present they are empty but existing forum threads will be preserved in some fashion. We’ve also added a calender (you can add events to it), a new groups function (feel free to email me about new groups to add) and of course the map of creators.
LIBRARY: A new feature for Comixpedia, the library is a directory of creators and webcomics. (Work continues on this portion of the site so don’t be alarmed if it’s not available sometimes) Although not currently available Comixpedia readers will be able to suggest creators and webcomics to add to the Library.
PORTAL: Another new feature for Comixpedia, the portal will feature various lists of webcomics. Currently it has a traditional top list which lists participating webcomics by reader votes. Not functional yet, but coming soon, it will also list webcomics each week by Comixpedia user recommendation. Finally the Portal features a Surf List to read serialized webcomics in a framed window. Although personalization is not yet available, Comixpedia users will be able to personalize their surf list.
FOR CREATORS the BETA site offers you the opportunity to customize your creator entry, add and edit your webcomics, put your webcomic on or off the portal top list. We feature the most recent creator news updates (from the creators themselves) on the front page of Comixpedia – once you have claimed your creator entry you will be able to change your news update however you want. If you are a creator and want to get started
(1)Make sure you have a creator entry in the library. If you do go to step 2; if you don’t email me (xerexes AT comixpedia.com) with the info to create you one!
(2) Log-in and go to the Group home page – http://altertainment.net/index.php?module=pnGroups and apply for membership to the Creators group. When you get notice that you’ve been accepted you’ll see a link to your Creators Dashboard on your Account page – http://altertainment.net/user.php.
If you have questions about how to use the Dashboard email me!
Can I suggest not making the majority of the site white? Especially the articles. Staring at a white screen is very similar to staring at a light bulb. It really hurts the eyes, and the things on this site can be quite a lengthy read.
Kinda squished for me. Like 200- 300 pixels (I didnt count them) of white space on the right of my screen.