I’ve been working on and off on the first beta incarnation of 3mension, but most of that effort has been invisible in code. That is about to change, as I have started contacting some logo design contractors in order to create a logo for 3mension.com.
This is a significant step, as the logo will be used as the base for the theme created for the website. It will also help with the development of the site, as it is the first really visible part of the site that falls into place.
It seems ImpressCMS 1.2 might come out before the 3mension site goes live. A beta of ImpressCMS 1.2 is forthcoming, and the package should be feature-complete by now. During the wait for answers on the queries for a logo design, I plan to migrate all the work that is done towards that version, in order to have the newly added functionality and enhancements at my disposal.
Well, I’ve taken the plunge now, there’s no going back. I posted a small announcement in my GarageGames blog about the 3mension project. I already got some positive comments, so this might even be a good idea after all!
Some people are subscribing to the announcement list, which is great. All that is also the best motivation to get a first version of the site online as soon as possible for people to try and break it, and to get feedback on the way things are handled and presented.
I have some fairly good idea about the direction I want to choose theme-wise. A first impression is included here. Feel free to comment.
Very proudly, I present the 3mension blog to the world. Some time ago, as I also mentioned on my personal page, I got the idea that some game art related services might be interesting. I’m a Torque Game Engine licensee, and an avid Blender supporter, and those are at least 2 communities that might benefit from such a service.
Unfortunately, setting up a website the way I imagined it, even in its most austere form, was not easy at all. Then the job got a bit in the way too, just to make things more interesting. I didn’t give up though, and I’m slowly building up the framework to run 3mension.com .
Firstly, I’ll build a Xoops-based version. I have most of my PHP development experience with that framework, and I think it will be a good exercise and a valid testcase for developing something other than a standard community site with news posts and a forum. Based on my experience, the decision will have to be made after the first version of the site whether to continue with Xoops, or if other frameworks provide more of the needed functionalities out of the box.
Right now, all I want is to do two things very well:
- Provide an easy and efficient upload experience to publishers
- Make it easy for non-publishing users to find the files they need.
That seems to be two trivial goals, but don’t let that fool you. The word ‘easy’ is not difficult to write in a post like this, but it is not so easy to write the code for that elusive little word ‘easy’.
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