New GPWA Portal Site and Member Directories

[MichaelCorfman]

Greetings:

I'm very pleased to announce the launch of new GPWA portal site and GPWA member directories.

The portal site directory (which you can get to by clicking on "PORTAL SITES" in the top navigation bar has been completely revised to include all member sites we currently know about (we think no new sites had been added for a couple years).

The directory is now expanded to include a lot of additional information. Specifically, it includes an image of the site home page, the site name, the site URL, the types of games covered by the site, the Alexa rank of the site relative to other GPWA member sites, a site description (sometimes present, sometimes not), and the GPWA members associated with the site. Each member name is linked to a members detail page. We've also added the ability to select sites by type of games covered by the site.

We have also created an entirely new and greatly expanded member directory (which you can get to by clicking on "MEMBER DIRECTORY" in the "MEMBERS" section of the top navigation bar. The member directory lets you find members by member name. For each member, there is a link to a members detail page. Besides the basic information about each member that has been available historically, member detail pages now include complete details about the member's portal sites.

I'd encourange everyone to review their member profile, and let us know if there are any updates that should be made to your list of portal sites. For the time being, portal site update requests should be sent to manager@gpwa.org. In the future we will add an administrative interface so you can make these changes yourself.

Member profiles also include additional information such a a bio when one is provided. We have updated the interface for personal information so you can now enter a decent bio. Previously there was a limit of 100 characters, which didn't exactly allow for a very interesting bio. To add your bio, click on "USER CONTROL PANEL" in the "FORUMS" section of the top navigation bar, and then click on "Edit Profile" in the left navigation bar of the user control panel page. Your biography is one of the items you can update on this page.

I hope everyone appreciates the new information about portal sites, and the fact that we now connect members with their portal sites. We did this work with the idea that it would help members work together to an even greater extent based on being able to associate members and their portals.

Also, this is just a beginning, and we will be improving these directories as time goes on. Current plans include better search facilities and ways to order sites, identification of sites with the new GPWA Seal of Approval we are in the midst of rolling out, making it possible to also find CAP members and their websites, a fully integrated update facility for all of the information in the directory, and better integration of the new directories into the forum software.

Let us know what you think of this initial release of these directories, and your suggestions about the improvements that would be helpful to you.

Michael

[aksana]

Great work!!! Very good and useful directory!

[Doolally]

I agree, nicely put together and very handy!

[Robert Bertram]

Very nice and well built!
Although when trying to view the "view all" page (https://www.gpwa.org/portal_sites/index.asp), it takes some time to load because of the long list. I think you should consider using pages for it and putting only 20-30 per page.