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.
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)
- 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.
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]