Forum

Understood. Sorry for the miscommunication.
As to answer your question, a few ideas come to mind right way as far as features

-http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=348
-http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1297
-http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1675
-http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3304

The above are just a few items.
I would also change the front page and place all those forum posts/news in a less prominent place. Instead I would put current game play videos, current in game photos and so forth.

The idea is to attract new and old players by all means.

Just some ideas

Thanks for the suggestions. Personally, I'm always open to them as I get stuck with what to do next. I looked over them and I don't think a staff page would do anything aside from clutter things up. With the mAAp Pack, we had a credits and readme page which hardly ever got used. It would be interesting to maybe have a section on admins somewhere but not a dedicated page. There's already a bunch of pages crammed in the navigation, adding another one for a page that I don't think would see much use is not really worthwhile.

The affiliates mod, as far as I can tell, is just advertising. We already have a spot for that in the code but don't use it yet. Long story short, I never received a banner from my host to put up. I don't think we need a mod to do this, just simple non-bloaty code.

I do like the profile page but I'm having a hard time justifying it in my mind. Maybe if others think they will use it a lot...

I have nothing against the social buttons for profiles. It's simple and easy to do. I will wait to see what others think about them first.

For the home page, where do you suggest we get gameplay videos and in-game screenshots? Personally I hate "frag" videos but if others like them, I'm all for tailoring the site to the masses, not to what I like

Heh, I think we have conflicting theories because of how we want to utilize the website. All of us devs are mostly happy with the current setup because all we need to do is check for hackers and new development discussion.

Right now, I think the forum is primarily a dev oriented forum. It would probably be a good idea to have the "good-old" gamer style site following some of august's suggestions. He has legitimate suggestions, look at any video game's home base and it will have the things august suggests. I think we need to set aside a space for the GENERAL Assist, not trying to merge the DEVELOPER Assist with it. Might be time to start using the sourceforge website to do some of this?

Jonny has that aa25.org domain pointing to the sourceforge. That's all I know.

A few responses :

1. the staff page would show new and returning players who is running the Assist and who is doing what to keep AA2 going. not only would it show professionalism, but it would allow for the community to know and thank those of you who are running Assist.
As far as space, I see plenty of empty space. One example is next to the players number in game.

Also, on the subject of the menu, why not use a drop down menu?

2. my idea for the affiliate mod is not for advertising/money making, but for banner exchanges with active clans/units within AA2.5, AA3 and any other games and/or gaming communities.
the more people see, hear and learn about Assist, the better for all of us. Consider it free advertising.

3. I understand where you are coming from. As consultant, site developer and having managed/owned many SMF sites I know what you mean.

4. there are plenty of softwares around allowing to take in game screenshots. The easiest is Xfire.
There are also plenty of softwares for videos. Whether it is frag videos or not doesn't matter. And honestly, what counts is what will attracts players and make them talk about Assist. Like I wrote above, attract new and old players by all means necessary.

Blue makes a good point. As devs, you are all thinking about dev and catch hackers. The best advice I give to anyone in my businesses goes something like this:
Put yourself in the shoes of the players. You, as a player, what would you like to see the site to look like, to be like. As a player, what do you think will attract more players.What will it take for players to learn about Assist

As far as sourceforge, I would get a domain named assistdev and forwarded to the sourceforge url

put the news in Assist, the same news window can be used for warnings, ruels & etc.

edit: something like this

Alright august, I went into the header and removed the league and link to Assist site. Both are really unnecessary now. So, there are room for 2 extra pages in the navigation. I know the info page could be done better so if you or anybody else has any suggestions, here it is for you to edit:

<div class="news_item">
<div class="news_body">
<a href="#FAQ">FAQ</a> &bull; <a href="#Downloads">Downloads</a> &bull; <a href="#Player_Stats">Player Stats</a> &bull; <a href="#Official_Server_Providers">Official Server Providers</a> &bull; <a href="#Anti_Cheat">Anti-Cheat</a>
</div>
</div>

<a name="FAQ"></a>
<div class="news_item">
<div class="news_body">
<h1><i class="icon-download"></i>FAQ</h1>
<b>&bull; I have no idea what this is!?!?!?!?!?! (History)</b><br />
America's Army is a game created by developers hired by the US Army. The game was basically a recruiting tool designed to show people what it's like to go through training to become a soldier and then take those skills learned to the digital battlefield. Developed and released in 2005, the game has gone through many updates. In 2009, America's Army 3 was released on Steam which was a complete re-working of the game. It was utter chaos. The bugs in AA3 have since been worked out and because of that, the previous version, America's Army 2 (AA2) was dropped entirely. This meant that the developers shut down the account and authorization systems making the game difficult to use.
<br />&nbsp;<br />
<b>&bull; What is Assist?</b><br />
Since the official servers were taken down, creative developer JonnyM enhanced his Assist program to include an account authorization system. Taking over the entire game, he was able to introduce new anti-cheat systems that previously weren't possible. Assist also includes the ability to run a server on both home and dedicated setups seamlessly. For more detailed info on how to use Assist, see the <a href="http://aa25assist.sourceforge.net/Data/readme.txt" target="_blank">Assist FAQ</a> and <a href="http://aa25assist.sourceforge.net/gettingStarted.php" target="_blank">Getting Started</a> guide.
</div>
</div>

<a name="Downloads"></a>
<div class="news_item">
<div class="news_body">
<h1><i class="icon-download"></i>Downloads</h1>
25Assist - America's Army 2.5 all in one client<br />
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/aa25assist/files/Binaries/25Assist-Linux.zip/download" target="_new"><img src="images/linux.png" alt="Linux Icon" width="32" height="38" border="0" /></a>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/aa25assist/files/Binaries/25Assist.app.tar.gz/download" target="_new"><img src="images/macos.png" alt="Mac Icon" width="32" height="39" border="0" /></a>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/aa25assist/files/Binaries/25Assist.zip/download" target="_new"><img src="images/windows.png" alt="Windows Icon" width="36" height="32" border="0" /></a>
<br />
<a href="http://aao25.com/2-5-assist/aa2-5-assist-readme/">Readme</a>
<br />&nbsp;<br />
Dedicated Server - For use with a hosting company<br />
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/aa25assist/files/Binaries/ldedisrv.tar.gz/download" target="_new"><img src="images/linux.png" alt="Linux Icon" width="32" height="38" border="0" /></a>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/aa25assist/files/Binaries/wdedisrv.zip/download" target="_new"><img src="images/windows.png" alt="Windows Icon" width="36" height="32" border="0" /></a><br />
<a href="http://aa25.org/Data/LReadme.txt">Linux Readme</a><br />
<a href="http://aa25.org/Data/WReadme.txt">Windows Readme</a>
</div>
</div>

<a name="Player_Stats"></a>
<div class="news_item">
<div class="news_body">
<h1><i class="icon-signal"></i>Player Stats</h1>
<center>
<img src="http://aao25.com/stats/playersgraph.png" /><br />
<?php mostplayers(); ?>
<br />
<?php authFull(); ?>
</center>
</div>
</div>

<a name="Official_Server_Providers"></a>
<div class="news_item">
<div class="news_body">
<h1><i class="icon-inbox"></i>Official Game Server Providers</h1>
<a href="http://www.hosters.at/" target="_blank">Hosters.at (Europe)</a><br />
<a href="http://www.totalgamehosting.com/" target="_blank">Total Game Hosting (Europe)</a><br />
<a href="http://lowpinggameservers.com/" target="_blank">Low Ping Game Servers (U.S)</a><br />
</div>
</div>

<a name="Anti_Cheat"></a>
<div class="news_item">
<div class="news_body">
<h1><i class="icon-flag"></i>Anti-Cheat Security</h1>
PB Kicks &amp; Bans:
<br />
<a href="http://auth.aa25.org/PBLog/ALERT.txt" target="_blank">Hacking Alerts</a>
<br />
<a href="http://auth.aa25.org/PBLog/bans.txt" target="_blank">Hall of Shame</a>
<br />
<br />
PB Screenshots:
<br />
<a href="http://auth.aa25.org/ss/msgpbssv.html" target="_blank">AA25.org OFFICIAL SERVER UK</a>
<br />
<a href="http://176.35.187.226:1719/msgpbssv.html" target="_blank">AA25.org Dedicated mAAp Server</a>
<br />
<a href="http://ss.braef.com.br/" target="_blank">Brazilian Elite Force</a>
<br />
<a href="http://24.75.166.87:8080/msgpbssv.html" target="_blank">{G.O.W} Gods of War 1</a>
<br />
<a href="http://98.167.141.23:8000/msgpbssv.html" target="_blank">{G.O.W} Gods of War 2</a>
<br />
<a href="http://90.146.231.194/svss/msgpbssv.html">&nbsp;-VerT!go RooM. )&gt;&gt;&gt;Normal</a>
<br />
<a href="http://188.93.234.133/svss1722/msgpbssv.html">-PUF SF Server</a>
<br />
<a href="http://188.93.234.133/svss1719/msgpbssv.html">-PUF SF Server mAAp</a>
<br />
<a href="http://95.211.134.117/1716/msgpbssv.html">-PUF SF Server Border</a>
<br />
<a href="http://95.211.134.117/1716/msgpbssv.html">Belg Clan Server</a>
<br />
<a href="http://80.162.6.3/msgpbssv.html">Danish Elite Fighters</a>
<br />
</div>
</div>
I know I can do a staff page, it will just take some time.

For screenshots and videos, I know how people shoot videos and take screenshots on their computer, the problem I'm having is how to get those from various people's computers to this site. The media page as-is uses Dropbox for the images and YouTube for the videos. There's no frontend so the pages are edited in Dreamweaver. I don't know how to go about getting videos and screenshots from users and easily adding them to a homepage to keep things fresh. I made the media page to show the maps as they are and a couple of videos. If there's a few good 2.5 videos roaming around, I'll gladly add them to that page but as far as keeping content fresh, that's more difficult.

Spanky, why don't you use the staff mod I linked. You will probably have to edit it to fit the custom theme though.

For the info page, let me think about it and will post again.

Concerning getting media from players, I would suggest the use of a SMF mod:

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=977