Agreed. The clue could/should be extremely subtle mind you. P’raps using little red icons like those currently indicating date and author?
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Right now we’re using tags to categorize things by system. I don’t know the ins and outs of the Wordpress style we’re using, but it might be easy to show tags at the top of the post. I think we could also put in our “style guide” that we add a parenthetical with the platforms (links, too) at the first mention of the game.
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Would a thread for random updates reported by the users that aren’t covered in news articles be worthwhile?
Stuff like Solitairica getting released on Android today, or other games we might think fit the vibe of the games covered here?
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I think that’s a great idea, and calling you all Stately Citizens makes me happy.
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On the home page for each intro blurb, can you add another line in the header section for tags like format and game type?
maybe something like:
Article Title
Date Author
Formats (PC, iOS, Mac) - Game Type (TBS, RTS)
Just helpful to see that information at the top.
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So, the right way to do that (from a semantic web perspective, which is an admittedly rather dated perspective) would be to program the backend to have every review have special fields defined as “platforms” and “type”, and then edit the site formatting so that these were displayed on the main page. That’s far enough beyond my current skill set that I fear that I’d break things worse before I got them working, and it would be hard. Another alternative would be to list our tags on the home page–that’s slightly easier, I think, but still beyond my current skills.
The easy way is just to start every review with that information. The bad news there is that the home page summaries don’t seem to respect line breaks, but I think, if we put that at the top of each review in bold type, it’ll be pretty visible. Does that sound like a reasonable method to you? I can try it on my next review (or just edit it into the Potion Explosion review) so you can see what I mean.
All of that said, I don’t know what TBS means. Tactical Battle Skirmish? Tabletop Boardgame Strategy? Topless Bar Simulator? More generally, we’re a little loose with tags. Do you have any idea what you’d like to see as types?
Ah–Googling “TBS” was no help at all, but “TBS game” helped me out–turn-based strategy. All is now clear.
Wait–almost. WeGo counts as turn-based, right?
Anyway you do it would be fine. I don’t even know if the game type is necessary, I am just so used to using Steam Tags for a reference point I thought of it for here.
I actually meant Turn Based Strategy, but perhaps acronyms are not clear, so things should be spelled out).
Thanks for listening 
Curses! The preview on the main page doesn’t respect bold type, either (or links, or italics), it’s not just line breaks. My current solution is to list the platforms at the beginning of the review, followed by space-bullet-space. That sets it off a little, anyway. I’d like it to be clearer, so I may poke at this some more, but that’s a start.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll talk over with the other staff to see if they have any ideas.
Wordpress usually strips out the HTML from posts to create a preview since it can’t guarantee that the closing tags will be included in the text preview that it takes.
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We need a search field on the front page so we can search the articles. I know you can get them through the forums but it would be nice to have the ability to search right from the website and to only search articles, not forum posts. Thanks.
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That turns out to have been way easier than I was expecting. Guess I needn’t have waited for a good opportunity!
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As this site is also looking into PC games, how about a little presence in Steam? I’d fancy a Stately Play Steam Group and would love to see a SP-Steam Curator. The last one not for me, but to raise interest in other potential readers, and maybe even for the profit of some Indie-Gems that SP approves of.
Is it worthwhile to use the site links to buy games? i.e. I want to support the site by buying games through your links if you get a benefit. Otherwise, I’ll just get myself to the app store any quick way I can.
What’s going on with your front page? I’m sure it is more frustrating for you than us. I don’t see new articles on the front page, but they are there in the forum. I also just saw a new article about a game coming in May but it disappeared. What that an oops?
Gotta agree. I’d say figuring out this front-page publishing thing has to be top priority right now.
Like with the 64-bit post. I typed up a comment saying, “hey, this is a great forums post; it should be re-purposed into an article” … but, apparently, it is an article?
Another example: I can’t comment on the Race for the Galaxy post. It doesn’t show up in the forums, and there’s no “reply” button on the post itself. And, as everyone knows, I have fascinating thing to say, so this is a big loss for the community.
The publishing issue should be cleared up. The article about RftG was an “oops” on my part. I broke an embargo and removed the post until I hear from the publisher.
If they still want me to hold off on reporting it until next week, I’m going to need all of you to act surprised when the story reappears next Tuesday.
We get a little money for links to the App Store, so if you could use us to buy all your iOS games we’d love it.
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If I use the link but then buy a different game do you also get a little money? Or is just for that game.
I want to support this website the best way possible.
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Well, right now we apparently aren’t getting money for shit. I must have broke something on the back end that isn’t giving the correct link to the App Store for us to get our cut.
I’ll be fixing that ASAP, but to answer your question, I think we only get compensation for the game we linked to and not others that you might find afterwards while exploring the app store. I will look into it but, for now, go with that.
Maybe some sort of SP shopping list post with links to every game reviewed on the site might help with that?
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