- Feb 22, 2015
- 1,052
- 1,990
Currently, on all pages with sidebars on SFF Network (predominantly category and single-post pages), we include a module called the "SFN Project Spotlight", which displays a simple banner that promotes a community project on SFF Forum. This module works by randomly selecting a banner, from a pool of options, to display at any given page load.
If you haven't noticed it yet, you can get a sense of what it looks like here:
Although we don't know how long we'll include the module on SFF Network, we created it for the time being since we wanted a simple way to let readers know - in an unobtrusive way - about some of the really great projects that their fellow enthusiasts are working on. It's great for us, since it encourages readers to explore our forums, but it's also great for project creators, as it helps to gain exposure for their work.
Anyway, we reached out to a selection of existing project creators in order to have some banners in place for the site launch, but moving forward we want to open this promotional platform up as much as possible, to anyone and everyone who's working on a project, and discussing it on SFN. As such, if you'd like us to include a banner for your project, we just ask that you do the following:
1. Ensure that you have an active thread on SFN, that qualifies as a "project". For the most part, this means that you're working on something that makes sense to post in the "Custom Cases & Projects" subforum. But if you're unsure, just ask.
2. Reach out to any mod (though preferably myself) via direct message, and ask whether or not you can submit a banner.
3. We'll take a look at your thread, and let you know if we're happy to add it to the promotional pool. For the most part, we'll generally approve any project we can, but we do retain the discretion to decline inclusion.
4. At that point, we'll ask you to provide us a banner that's 600x500px in resolution. It will appear on all web browsers as 300x250 points in actual, physical size, but this doubling of resolution ensures that the banner looks good on Retina and Hi-DPI screens. Consequently, though, you'll want to stick to large fonts when possible, so everything stays readable.
5. Once you send the image to us via direct message, we'll let you know if we're happy with how it looks. If so, we'll immediately put it in rotation, but if not, we'll let you know what we'd like to have changed, and help with such changes if needed. The aforementioned text legibility being a fine example of the sort of thing we'd request a revision for.
Any questions, comments, complaints or concerns about the above can be directed towards me, or posted here! We'll be experimenting and trying out a lot of things that tie SFF Network and SFN together, this being just one of those things - so we're keen to get feedback from you all on an ongoing basis.
If you haven't noticed it yet, you can get a sense of what it looks like here:
Although we don't know how long we'll include the module on SFF Network, we created it for the time being since we wanted a simple way to let readers know - in an unobtrusive way - about some of the really great projects that their fellow enthusiasts are working on. It's great for us, since it encourages readers to explore our forums, but it's also great for project creators, as it helps to gain exposure for their work.
Anyway, we reached out to a selection of existing project creators in order to have some banners in place for the site launch, but moving forward we want to open this promotional platform up as much as possible, to anyone and everyone who's working on a project, and discussing it on SFN. As such, if you'd like us to include a banner for your project, we just ask that you do the following:
1. Ensure that you have an active thread on SFN, that qualifies as a "project". For the most part, this means that you're working on something that makes sense to post in the "Custom Cases & Projects" subforum. But if you're unsure, just ask.
2. Reach out to any mod (though preferably myself) via direct message, and ask whether or not you can submit a banner.
3. We'll take a look at your thread, and let you know if we're happy to add it to the promotional pool. For the most part, we'll generally approve any project we can, but we do retain the discretion to decline inclusion.
4. At that point, we'll ask you to provide us a banner that's 600x500px in resolution. It will appear on all web browsers as 300x250 points in actual, physical size, but this doubling of resolution ensures that the banner looks good on Retina and Hi-DPI screens. Consequently, though, you'll want to stick to large fonts when possible, so everything stays readable.
5. Once you send the image to us via direct message, we'll let you know if we're happy with how it looks. If so, we'll immediately put it in rotation, but if not, we'll let you know what we'd like to have changed, and help with such changes if needed. The aforementioned text legibility being a fine example of the sort of thing we'd request a revision for.
Any questions, comments, complaints or concerns about the above can be directed towards me, or posted here! We'll be experimenting and trying out a lot of things that tie SFF Network and SFN together, this being just one of those things - so we're keen to get feedback from you all on an ongoing basis.
