OK, so this will end up less of a roadmap and more of a collection of thoughts and ideas, no particularly order to the below.
This is a combination of brainstorm and notes I made while putting in either elements (the list of other things ticked too to get to this stage dwarfs the rest of this!)
Site developments are limited by how much time and effort is needed (and available) to get in and figure them out. No promises of implementing all of this then, getting some more articles written up should be the main focus for now. Most of the core functionality and styling is in place so a lot let is more enhancements and further down the chan that actual useful content.
There are some firm items below though, just a matter of when.
Site Development
Forum Development
Dev log
Just adding a log of completed updates, because why not. Not going to note content additions, more just technical changes and added (or maybe retired, in future) functionality. Initial provisioning is naturally very broad given a lot of work was completed then, I expect further logs and updates to be pretty specific as particular bits of functionality are added.
Naturally not the quickest given it's a hobby it has been an age since I had a web project. (Plus I'm juggling work projects, 2 young kids and a pregnant wife!)
This is a combination of brainstorm and notes I made while putting in either elements (the list of other things ticked too to get to this stage dwarfs the rest of this!)
Site developments are limited by how much time and effort is needed (and available) to get in and figure them out. No promises of implementing all of this then, getting some more articles written up should be the main focus for now. Most of the core functionality and styling is in place so a lot let is more enhancements and further down the chan that actual useful content.
There are some firm items below though, just a matter of when.
Site Development
- Dark Mode [Larger Dev]
Social Media kick off- add old posts
- activity and engagement (may not bother)
- User generated content / hosted user blogs in the main site navigation [Larger Dev]
Squash the last few unfinished bits of CSS and visual bugs.- Posts only on mobile- Visual H1 title issue and popular threads in posts, check theme option for specifics or ass CSS to adjust this only.
Posts only - resolve issue with sidebar length / showing too many articles.
- Wider site launch.
- Update tracker / structure / article planning pipeline documents
Aim for agreements with discord and reddit communities to link to them either in community or resources- Contributors / other authors [Larger Dev]
Category descriptions- Category Pages development - Beyond descriptions - adding links, internal title distinct from meta title, banner images (i.e. making a proper landing page with articles beneath).
Community showcase - category and structural setup prior to launch, future considerations (ensure not backed into a structural corner and needing to change later with SEO and redirect impacts).Forum summaries from the community? (Hobby showcase would be great for the main site)- Hot or not style voting and content / competitions, maybe this is a forum thing, likely heavy dev load / pie in the sky unless there is a Wordpress plugin.
- Enhanced Search and Filter [Larger Dev]
- Lightbox functionality for larger images [Larger Dev]
- Set up child theme
- reaching enough CSS and, potentially, code from other tweaks that a child theme is likely warranted
- Move code from snippets plugin to child theme,
- retire code snippet plugin to testing only
- Add push notifications / work out the settings
- CSS Padding issue -pages, resolve (nav class)
- CSS class for social media SVG buttons.
- add CSS and button to top Nav.
selfhost files and remove likes to external resources for optimisation
- Link site articles and comments to Xenforo [Larger Dev]
- Temp solution - using an iframe with relevant link (SEO impact) and embedding the forum thread
- Check CWV impact
- html and CSS refresher, maybe php
- Image sizing, containers, popups, thumbs etc. (formatting fiddling)
- Higher level SEO on pages, canon tags, cornerstone, silos (all overkill)
Lower level SEO work, images, content, alt tags (pointless for such a small nice site, but perfection, eh?)CWV optimisation and investigationFurther image optimisation (logo, page heroes, defunct css and java)- Google fonts, drop / local host (banner image - needs CSS editing on the page)
- Analytics and search console when there's enough data (out of interest, some keyword volume so low as to be pointless)
- Proper consideration of tag application / use, if any
- prior article empty links - review and list for close out
- link through to the planned articles when written and cornerstone article
add specific forum article discussion links now step
Forum Development
- Forum guides - linking, BB code,
rules (urgh),media,limits and requests (name changes, image file limits etc.) Manual (for now) article links in forums and vice versa.- WP integration if connector is on the xenforo side rather than WP side. [Larger Dev]
- Media categories and fields - further configuration
- Mobile widget setup (likely need to make a user guide)
Custom BB code for image sizing- 40k / EC specific emojis and reactions (fiddly if doing own pixel art, maybe try ai) [Larger Dev]
- User trophies, group promotions, titles, banners, gamification etc. (not my cup of tea but know folk enjoy them) [Larger Dev]
User badges functionality- EC relevant badge images
- Development of proper badge system / listing (can be organic as requirements emerge)
- Proper forum banner image (likely commission someone)
- Additional forum for games / factions etc. or clarify off topic description
- Collate threads:
- Resources (internal and external)
- Character / Warband threads then link summary to main (transfer images to art gallery / folder)
- 3rd party manufacturers and STLs
- SEO if I can be bothered, likely not a priority for forums.
- Add on additional fields / options for other games and factions in profile? (minor consideration, low priority)
- Build CSS tags or other widget to show hobby focus either under avatar, in sig or profile (potentially picking a second user title) [Larger Dev]
- e.g. x/10 for Gaming, Hobby, Lore or thematic / coloured titles for main / dual / tri-focus.
Dev log
Just adding a log of completed updates, because why not. Not going to note content additions, more just technical changes and added (or maybe retired, in future) functionality. Initial provisioning is naturally very broad given a lot of work was completed then, I expect further logs and updates to be pretty specific as particular bits of functionality are added.
Naturally not the quickest given it's a hobby it has been an age since I had a web project. (Plus I'm juggling work projects, 2 young kids and a pregnant wife!)
| Date Complete | Area | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Jan 2024 | Hosting | Domain decision and registration |
| 2nd Jan - 23rd March 2024 | Site | On and off planning, design and research. Site outline and rough project plan developed. Forum provider and main plugins / functionality selected. |
| 24th March 2024 | Hosting | Site - Hosting provider selected / hosting plan purchased. Wordpress development started. |
| 1st April 2024 | Site | Base site configuration, theme finalisation and in-theme customisation complete, aside from minor CSS. Minimum plugin set installed. |
| 8th April 2024 | Site | Custom CSS final tweaks, adjusted layout and functionality updates completed. Relearning / retraining on html and CSS. |
| 12th April 2024 | Site | Categories finalised and initial batch of articles completed as a test. 3/28 draft articles fleshed out, researched and published. |
| 15th April 2024 | Site | Baseline SEO optimisation completed and areas of development identified. Basic good practice only, small niche, less required. Cornerstone, internal linking plan and silo map developed. |
| 16th April 2024 | Forum | Baseline forum configuration and styling completed. |
| 17th April 2025 | Both | Reactive early soft launch to EC Index news (3-4 weeks early). Indexing turned on. SEO tracking, analytics, GSC. CWV check, optimisations identified and added to plan. |
| 18th April 2024 | Forum | Forum - Custom BB code added for resizing images [ img2] |
| 19th April 2024 | Forum | Badge functionality plugin added / tested. |
| 20th April 2024 | Site | CSS and display bugs fixed. Image optimisation and SEO fixed. CDN and lightspeedcache configured, CWV from 60-70 to 97-100. Sitemaps and Indexation pushed to GSC. Sitemap settings tweaked. |
| 21st April 2024 | Site | Quash additional visual bugs - post category flex block, quote blocks, padding on nav items on posts vs pages (post hero edit). Secondary nav added and nav menu updates. Community category added. Resources added. Added Category descriptions. Social media auto-post tested / posted. Discussions with discord and Reddit admins started. |
| 23rd April 2024 | Site | Full review by device, minor bugs on mobile logged. Updated tracking docs and article planning flow, eliminated redundancy, content plan updated. |
| 1st May 2024 | Site | Minor visual tweaks, navigation updates, social media updates (svg files). Discussions with discord and reddit concluded and links added. Fixed post widget for popular articles. Fixed some old links. |
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