Forum suggestions

[Ryz05]

Is it possible to add a "recent posts" box? I think it'll be easier to see which posts are recent. Also, what do the different colored member names mean?

[Gollevainen]

We had that feature until christmass but then it was gone... Webby can awnser to that question better than I...

The colours of the names shows the status of the members.

Grey is for new members, magneta is for members, and green is for junior members and light blue for senior members. All these are related only to the posting ammount and should be treated as such.

Blue is for vip-members and that status is gained if you have experience in military or other similar merits. Also few members have been awarded that status due their contribute to this forum.

Red is for normal moderators. They perform everyday moderation and are to be listened and obeyed (think of them as a police)

The dark violet like in my name is for super moderators. They are the real nasty ones, you don't want to come agross with them as they might just ban you ( ) They are next from god around here and you may think them as a sheriffs

Finaly there's the dark blue, and thats for administrators, Dongfeng and Webmaster. Well they are the two gods in here and altough they seldomly step down from mount olympus, they know everything whats happening...They are the ones that provides this fine forum to all of you so they naturally should earn the biggest respect.

[Ryz05]

Originally Posted by Gollevainen

We had that feature until christmass but then it was gone... Webby can awnser to that question better than I...

The colours of the names shows the status of the members.

Grey is for new members, magneta is for members, and green is for junior members and light blue for senior members. All these are related only to the posting ammount and should be treated as such.

Blue is for vip-members and that status is gained if you have experience in military or other similar merits. Also few members have been awarded that status due their contribute to this forum.

Red is for normal moderators. They perform everyday moderation and are to be listened and obeyed (think of them as a police)

The dark violet like in my name is for super moderators. They are the real nasty ones, you don't want to come agross with them as they might just ban you ( ) They are next from god around here and you may think them as a sheriffs

Finaly there's the dark blue, and thats for administrators, Dongfeng and Webmaster. Well they are the two gods in here and altough they seldomly step down from mount olympus, they know everything whats happening...They are the ones that provides this fine forum to all of you so they naturally should earn the biggest respect.

Thank you. Yeah, the color code was featured earlier as well, but it too disappeared. Maybe they can be added back in?

[WebMaster]

Okay.

I will get both of those features implemented soon. We had them and then we changed the forum theme... but no worries, nothing that can't be done.

Thanks for the concern.

[Ryz05]

I commend you on the new website design! It looks great. You have the best military website on the web! However, the frequent redirecting can be very confusing. For example, in Armoured Combat Vehicles page, the Type 80 tank redirects to Type 88, while the Type 85 redirects to Type 96, and the Type 69 redirects to Type 79/69. Instead of labeling them differently, it will be better if you just combine the articles under one title displaying the different designations. For example, the title for Type 80 will be Type 88/80 (and Type 85 = Type 96/85 and Type 69 = Type 79/69). It seems like you tried to group them separately under prototype/export, and that's a great idea, but instead of redirecting, it will be better to combine the designations if you are not going to create a new article on the specific export/prototype models - even a single picture will suffice. Finally, there's the MBT-2000, which can be combined to be titled Type 90/ MBT-2000 instead of just leave it blank as if the article does not exist. Finally, what is FengBao-1/2, Type 90 APC, and ZFB05 'XinXing'? It will also be good if you can update the Type 85 APC as soon as possible (it's been waiting empty for at least a year). http://www.sinodefence.com/army/armour/default.asp

It will be very good if you can group same articles under one title for the Transport vehicles page as well. http://www.sinodefence.com/army/transport/default.asp All those names and many redirects can be a real headache.

Also, for the menus in each article (example: http://www.sinodefence.com/airforce/fighter/j8ii.asp), can you make the links go dim when they are clicked? This way it'll be easier to track what page someone is reading.

Finally, when are you going to add up the rest of the information on machine guns? Also, there should be information on engineering vehicles (I remember you had them before). Some pages seem to be still in the old format/version. Hopefully you can finish updating the whole site before going off on a new format.

These changes will make the site more comprehensive and easier to follow.

One more question, the site is said to be run by volunteers, but it seems there are only two people working: Dongfeng on the sinodefence website, and Webmaster on this forum. Are there anybody on this forum that's also working with Dongfeng on updating the site? Thanks!

PS: Do you have any information on the Type 96G? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_96
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Type_96G.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Type_96G_MBT.jpg

If you have the time and the interest, it will be a very good idea to make another military website with the same format/outlook as Sinodefence, but on a different country. I suggest the United States military, because not only does Taiwan get most of their military hardware from the US, it is also easier to do research on the US military so you'll be spending less effort making the website. The only downside is there's so much to write about, but I bet that website will become very popular, and will make this even more popular.

[WebMaster]

Good ideas/suggestions, I say keep 'em coming! I guess, time for dongfeng to get busy?

There are other involved in the background and in the foreground as well in form of moderators, the users, etc. Any website is actually run by users and moderators... the webmasters and admins only facilitate and support needs of the users and mods.

[Dongfeng]

Dear Ryz05

Firstly, thank you very much for writing such a good feedback. It is always helpful to know what readers think about the website.

Regarding the links of armoured combat vehicles, it is a real headache since there are so many designations for basically the same vehicle. For example, the Type 88 is the operational variant developed based on the Type 80 prototype. The differ slightly in terms of armament configuration etc but they are essentially the same tank. The same happens to the Type 85/88C/96. I'll try to figure out a method to group them more logically. Any suggestion is welcome.

The only thing I know about the Type 96G is the photo, which can be seen everywhere on Internet. I am waiting for some detailed information to come up.

The same happens to the transport vehicle section. For example, there are several variants under Hanyang HY473, including HY4260, HY4301, HY4320, HY4330, etc. There isn't much difference between each variants, so I cannot creat one separate page for each individual variant. However, if I just have one link which is HY473, when people see HY4301 somewhere else and then come to this website for further information on this vehicle, how would they know it is a variant of HY473?

I'll make the link in the menu go dim when it is clicked. However, this may take a while as I am still using low-tech manual process to update the website.

There is actually a good reason why some pages never (or rarely) get updated: I don't know much about them. I am particularly weak in the field of small arms. I simply don't know enough to make any comment. So I am always a bit scared to update those pages just in case I say something stupid . So if you, or any one you know, knows a great deal about guns and grenade launchers, please help me on this.

As to combat engineering vehicles, I launched a section before but it just looked pathetic as the information was so limited. I need to collect more information before I can re-launch it.

It seems that I can never get the whole website updated before I decided to change to a new website design This is because I just don't have enough
time to work on it (since I am also doing a full-time job at the same time). I'll try my best to get this version complete.

I am the sole person writing and designing website, but there are several people feeding me information on various topic. Like I said, I am not an expert in every field, so I do need other people in this field to help me out. Also I used to have people help me writing materials for me, but this is not happening at the moment. Webmaster is the guy creating this forum. He is much more technologically minded than I am, that's why he can run this kind of high-tech forum programme while I am stuck with the old-fashioned HTML .

Do we really need another website regarding US military? There is an ocean of information on Internet on every single aspect of the US military. If I had time, I might start a website regarding Taiwan military, and then Japanese military, and then Korea and India, but you might have to wait after I retire before these can be realised

Regards
Dongfeng

[Ryz05]

Dear Dongfeng

Thank you for the response. It is a problem when people are searching for a specific model without able to find it with one look. I guess the best method is to make the links go dim after clicking. For example, people who clicked on HY473 will see HY4301 and all similar links go dim, so they know those are the same articles. Same method can be applied to the tanks, and I do recommend the MBT-2000 be linked to the Type-90 export tank as they are the same.

It's surprising to hear you are the only one writing the website. It must've taken quite some time. It's probably better then, for all the pages to adhere to one format, which will ease updating efforts. There's no need for a site on US military, I was just wondering. Hopefully, there will be more time in the future to work on your hobbies.

Regards,
Ryz05

[Dongfeng]

Hi, I've updated some pages in the fighter section so that when you are in a page, the link in the menu to that page goes dim. Please check it out. I've update the rest of the website during the weekend

[Ryz05]

The changes look great! Can you also have links be dimmed for related articles in the transport vehicles section and the armoured fighting vehicles section? Some links appear to be missing in J-8 menu as well as J-7, similar to this for the Type 79 sniper rifle http://www.sinodefence.com/army/smal...ype79rifle.asp Also, pictures appear to be missing for the retired J-6 http://www.sinodefence.com/airforce/fighter/j6.asp . Similar page formats will make navigation less confusing. Thanks!

PS: Here's a website that can help you fill in some information on PLA small arms. http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg42-e.htm

[Undead Yogurt]

How about making a few "summary" maps for the army, navy, and air force like the ones below from Congress' report on the PLA? I think they would be very convenient if a visitor wants to, say, look up quickly where the PLAAF 44th Air Division, where J-10s are deployed, is geographically.










Also, would it be a lot of trouble to make the fonts throughout the website scalable? (for example "medium" instead of 8pt). I've always found that the text is a bit too small for comfortable reading, and have had to use my browser's magnify function.

[Dongfeng]

yes, I will try to sort out the links in J-8 and J-6 pages, as well as photos of H-6, Q-5, and JH-7. These links are broken simply because the pages are not finished yet.

To: Undead Yogurt - yes, it would be great to have those kind of maps in the "Organisation" section of the website. However, I am not an expert in CG so it may take me some time to draw something like that.

By the way, I've fixed the style sheet so you should be able to adjust the size of the fonts using your IE font setting now.

Thank you both for your valuable inputs

[Ryz05]

For the "Recent Posts" box, can you make it so when one click a topic, they would be directed to the last page (newest posts) as opposed to arriving at the first page (earliest posts)? This will make it more efficient. Thanks!

[bd popeye]

Originally Posted by Ryz05

For the "Recent Posts" box, can you make it so when one click a topic, they would be directed to the last page (newest posts) as opposed to arriving at the first page (earliest posts)? This will make it more efficient. Thanks!

It already does as you suggest. Just click on the thread title uner the last post colum on the forum home page and it will take you to your latest unread post.

I hope this helps you

[Ryz05]

Originally Posted by bd popeye

It already does as you suggest. Just click on the thread title uner the last post colum on the forum home page and it will take you to your latest unread post.

I hope this helps you

The feature doesn't seem to apply to clicking on the threads in the Recent Posts box, but thanks for the help.