It took time, good planning and a lot of patients from my family. Faction 9 now has a new home, and it’s two months ahead of schedule. Being ahead of schedule is honestly the most exciting part. There were a few bumps in the road during the design and development process and as you can see they were worth it.

What’s so great about the new Faction 9 website you ask? Let me tell you.

The new site makes it much easier for gamers to join because there is a “Register” button under the log in section at the top right. Speaking of the log in section. When logged in every member will see their avatar and a notification to let them know if they have any new private messages.

A better message notification system was the top request of all members. I made sure that was top priority along with an easier registration option.

I’m not sure why but for some reason people like darker themed websites. A dark themed website can push some people away. To compromise the overall theme or color scheme was to have a litter main section where the text is and a darker background. I am completely aware that some may not be fond of this color scheme. I hope the color scheme doesn’t send you packing.

Enough about the technical stuff and let’s get into the meat of things. Lets talk about the new sections.

Community

A really neat new feature is the Community section that gives a good overview of Faction 9. This section is more of a hub of information that helps educate the public and new members. The Community section is a much better tool than the boring about us section that we’ve had in the past. It has an overview of the Spotlight Member, Forums, Club Night, Game Roster and News Feed.

Spotlight Member

I have always found our members to be the most important part of our community. I’ve seen a number of websites that spotlight members and thought it would be a great addition. Now because our community is large and likely to grow as we get closer to the release of Battlefield 3. The Spotlight Member will be a biweekly, or every other week feature.

By making the Spotlight Member a biweekly feature it makes it much easier for members to get to know one another. Plus if we have a large community then everyone will get a chance to be in the spotlight sooner. Members will be randomly picked and interviewed. That interview will be posted for everyone to read in the Spotlight Member section. Keep an eye out; you could be the next Spotlight Member.

Club Night

Nothing like a group of gamers getting together for fun. In the past I’ve setup Club Nights using the forums. By using the forums it wasn’t the most effective away to present that information. To help display Club Nights and other events an Events Calendar was added.

This calendar can be found under the Community section. All event information is in one place and easily accessible by members. What makes the Events Calendar really cool is the fact that we can add events on the fly without adding unnecessary threads in the forums. Make sure to check the Events Calendar when you visit.

News Feed

In the past we had a video game news section that was boring and not easy for information to be displayed. Sadly not everyone has the same interests as other members. To make the video game news section more appealing to members it has been changed to News Feed.

You can click on the News Feed and it will display the top 5 most recent articles from all section. However, if you want you can select Battlefield news, PlayStation news, Xbox news and video game news. I want members to know that Faction 9 can also be an information hub for video game news.

The News Feed section will be updated every few days with new content. Some days may see more content then others. Information that is related to Battlefield 3 will be updated as it becomes available.

Club News/Info

The Club News and Club Info sections are pretty self-explanatory. The Club News section will have all news related to the club. I have in the past posted the club newsletters in the forums. With a better flow to the new site they will be placed in the Club News section. The Club Info section has information related to the club.

Donations

If you’re interested in donating to the club you will find the donation page in the Club Info area. The page is called, “Support Faction 9.” All donations are used to help keep the Faction 9 website running along with supporting any contests for members. All donations are welcome no matter the size of the donation.

The Social Networks

Faction 9 has been on the main social networks for some time now, Facebook, Twitter and somewhat on YouTube. Links to these social networks are now in more of a spotlight area at the top. We’ve been using Facebook and Twitter the most over the last year.

However, we haven’t done much with the YouTube channel. We do have plans to use the channel more over the next year. Not sure which direction we will go, but we will let you know when we’re ready.

I think that about covers most of the new design.

Special Thanks: I just want to thank my family for the understanding as I developed the new Faction 9 website. I also want to thank each Faction 9 member for sticking it out until the new site was done. I hope everyone likes the new design. Leave a comment and tell me what you think.