Website contest: main site (CLOSED)

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Syzop
UnrealIRCd head coder
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Website contest: main site (CLOSED)

Post by Syzop »

UPDATE: This contest is now closed. We have selected a winner

We are looking for someone to make a new main website (http://www.unrealircd.com) for us.
If you are a web designer and would like to contribute to the UnrealIRCd project by making a (relatively small) new site for us, then please read on!

Note that there's also a website contest for the UnrealIRCd modules site, which you may also want to check out.

General principle on main site
The main website is pretty limited with regards to (dynamic) content and we would like it to stay that way.
It should only serve news, some background information, documentation, and - of course - the downloads.
User-content and more dynamic sites have their own subdomain, such as forums, hg, modules, bugs.

Design requirements
We are looking for a site with:
  • A simple & clear design - I know, this is subjective. In any case: no mess, no flood of colors. Keep it simple!
  • Easy navigation - The current website nav is a good example of what we don't want. I'd very much prefer a one-step navigation instead of the current two-step nav. So for example the 'FAQ' link is visible straight away and does not require a click on 'Documentation' first. For a full list of pages, see Technical requirements.
  • No animated content or plugins - Yes, no flash.
Other than that you are completely free in your website design (logo too).

Technical requirements
  • Has to be coded in PHP, and use MySQL as a backend
  • Use templates, where f.e. the nav can be edited in one file.
  • The site should pass (X)HTML/CSS validation tests and work properly on all major browsers (Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari, ..)
  • Pages will consist of: news, about, staff, downloads, documentation & support (has 4 subcategories), development information (has 2 subcategories), modules (external link), links, and donations.
    The 'modules' section will be a link to modules.unrealircd.com - which is another project.
  • The 'dynamic' content, which is stored in an SQL db, is rather limited and should consists of:
    • News - add/edit/remove news. no more integration between the forums & news posts like it is now.
    • Donations - add/edit/remove donator
    • Links - add/edit/remove link
    • Downloads - add/edit/remove a download, and keep statistics (a counter for each download)
    That's all, all the rest of the pages are rather static.
  • The website should be able to function in a read-only state. What we have now, and we also want in the future is that everything is 'locked down': all files are read-only and all sql (except for file statistics) are read-only. Only after manually running a command on the box (you will not have to provide this) we 'unlock' it and can change stuff. This is all due to an hack incident we had in 2010. Basically, the site should not have to write temporary files or require (temporary) SQL writes just for serving existing content.
  • The site should be coded securely. This is very important for us. Don't count on the locking/unlocking from above, the site also has to be fully secure without it. Also, don't forget about XSS.
Legal requirements
The website should be released to us in a license form that allows us to fully edit/alter and distribute it. Graphics (such as the logo) should be freely available without restrictions.
It will be hosted on our own machines and when finished should not require regular maintenance.

What's in it for you?
First of all, the appreciation from us and the rest of the userbase for your contribution to the UnrealIRCd project :)
Second, you can add your name (and/or company) in the footer on all the pages of the main site.

How to participate
We're looking for someone who's both good at design and able to code this (relatively) small website.
If this sounds like something for you, then we very much welcome you to apply!
The idea is you make a design (mockup), and a post one or two pictures of it in a new thread in the Website contest forum.
You may also post multiple designs. Preferably post each in a new thread, unless they are closely related (eg: only the colors are different).
Feel feel to elaborate a bit on the design, tell something about yourself, give some references regarding other sites you've made, and/or anything you feel useful for the community to know.
Other people can then comment on the design, which you might find useful... or not.

Selection
In the end we will have to decide which design wins and thus who can code the new website. While design will have a major say in it, coding skill is just as important, as is availability.
Since there's no real rush for us to have a new website, the deadline is March 1st, 2012. At that date we would like to select a winner.
In the (hopefully) unlikely case that those 2 months are not enough and we have insufficient applicants or quality, then the deadline will either be extended or the contest will be dropped.

Questions
If you've any questions, you can ask in this thread, or by e-mail at [email protected]
D34dMan
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2012 12:31 pm

Re: Website contest: main site

Post by D34dMan »

Are you ok with using open source cms like http://www.drupal.org for your website?
Syzop
UnrealIRCd head coder
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Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:57 pm
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Contact:

Re: Website contest: main site

Post by Syzop »

I'd much prefer something lightweight that needs very little maintenance. In my experience existing solutions are often full of features and overcomplicated, causing a continuous stream of enhancements and security fixes.
Something simple, self-coded (or maybe a minimal framework, such as for templates), would be better in this case.
cards
Posts: 85
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2004 5:04 am

Re: Website contest: main site

Post by cards »

For security, I would recommend installing SSL on the website, and only serving it securely. The Forum traffic can be intercepted etc. You can get a free ssl cert that has 93% browser/os compatability from https://www.startssl.com/. They are far beyond CA Cert in that they are accepted. We even got our irc.xxx certificate from them for free.
NetAdmin
irc.420-HighTimes.com
Stealth
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Re: Website contest: main site

Post by Stealth »

I don't see a reason at all to be concerned with website/forum traffic being intercepted. Even if someone with the ability to intercept traffic got your forum login information, would he/she even be interested in using it for malicious purposes? Probably not.

This always goes with the general rules of the Internet:
1) Don't access sites from school/work.
2) Don't access sites that require a login from a public network (such as one with open wifi).

Follow those 2 simple rules and anyone with access to your traffic probably is looking for something more than just a forum account to leach off of you. Also you must note that if someone already has access to your internet traffic and can capture the whole SSL handshake processes they can decrypt it with very little effort.
vebome
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 9:31 pm

Re: Website contest: main site

Post by vebome »

Have you guys thought about using a template?

There's a lot of lovely and very well-coded ones over at http://www.themeforest.net/ -- I would be more than willing to buy one and donate it!
digi198816
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 7:02 pm
Location: Brampton, Ontario

Re: Website contest: main site

Post by digi198816 »

Hey,
Just wondering if the use of external API is allowed (such as jQuery).

Thanks
Syzop
UnrealIRCd head coder
Posts: 2112
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:57 pm
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Re: Website contest: main site

Post by Syzop »

vebome: we're searching for someone to code our website, so not really for just a template. thanks for the offer, though.

digi198816: I'm no expert, but I don't really see how jquery would fit in the main website? It are just a couple of pages, nothing really dynamic. Also, we don't want to require javascript for the site to work.
digi198816
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 7:02 pm
Location: Brampton, Ontario

Re: Website contest: main site

Post by digi198816 »

Hmm okay well I have a week off from school so will see what I can do.
Syzop
UnrealIRCd head coder
Posts: 2112
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:57 pm
Location: .nl
Contact:

Re: Website contest: main site

Post by Syzop »

The design from Nathan has been selected as a winner. [thread] [design]
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