A few ideas for improving TMS

[jrgp]

I'd really like for my Soldat mapping site to be as good as possible so I want to know if I should make the following changes, because I can if need be, but certain things might take a while. Pretty much what I want is a TODO list.

 - Make overview&screenshot thumbnails larger?

 - Add a mapping contests feature, like the one SML has

 - Implement a "private" mapping section of the site; it'd work like this: A user uploads a map, marks it as "private" and picks certain site members who can see it. These people then are the only ones who can download it (the actual maps and screenshots), and make comments & suggestions. And when that map is finished the uploader can just click "Make Public" and it'll appear on the rest of the site with all the other ones.

 - Make a more appealing equavilent of Frenchi's MAD, implement it into the site, and create a little cross-platform downloadable app (c++ using either the QT or GTK toolkit, probably QT since it looks better on Linux and is easier to develop with it) that lets you click OK and then promptly downloads every Soldat map that exists (uses lobby protocol to get lists of servers allowing file downloads, snags each mapslist.txt and requests the maps within, whilst avoiding duplicates (maps & files you already have)), or pick a list of user-uploaded maps on TMS, in its entirey to your Soldat folder giving you instant playabilty

 - Add unlimited map screenshot slots (current limit is 3)

 - revamp the site's layout (compete redisign, currently looks like this) and have it use AJAX (with jQuery) to make the site apear to me more responsive while providing usable fallbacks if the browser doesn't support or has Javascript turned off.

 - Redo the BBC code that it lets you submit maps to forums with.

 - Another little downloadable app that lets you use it to upload maps insead of the site's web uploader in your browser

As usual, ANY suggestions whatsoever are greatly appreciated.

[As de Espada]

1º size is ok
2º nah.. you can use the news, there won't be that many contests
3º that's interesting
4º what? download a map to your soldat folder if I understand right... I won't use it
5º 3 is ok...
6º layout should be changed from times to times, but I'm happy with that one
7º nahh... BBC is ok
8º what? Oo

[DorkeyDear]

3- Could have it so private makes it require a password so even non-members can get/view it; ofc not unless non-members origonally can't get them xD
8- Would be a nice to have.. but what if you had everything accessible through an app as well? So basically there's no need for a site unless you don't have the app or don't want to use the app? But tbh I don't think a lot of people would actually use it either way.. I guess if you have spare time then it would be cool to have.

I got an idea: Make a program that opens and scans a map, and makes many screenshots of it with a correct size to be soldat-like.. and then have something like a java app on the site that you can move around on the map, zoom, change the viewing style (such as remove scenery, turn on waypoints, change polys to be no-fill texturless, etc.; features like that)
Would be kind of hard imo though unless you know what your doing. Something like google maps xD -- actually, if you have the exe constantly running, then you could have the site request the images from the running exe, and the exe would then see if it already exists, if not, it'll create it; this could make it usable with zooming as well so it looks better..