Just posting a note letting you all know that our Australasia-wide events page is back after a massive overhaul! The short summary is that it's now much easier for members to add any upcoming event to our events page, and more useful for those checking up on upcoming games, developer, or digitally creative events in Australia and New Zealand. Members can also mark/unmark themselves as going to events.
So, for the longest time, we've had a "What's On?" page which did a simple job of listing upcoming events in Australia and New Zealand. It was an extension of our news section, so every time an event was added, someone (usually me) had to write up a summary of the event along with all the event's details and post it up. Combined with the daily news postings and site maintenances, it ended up being a laborious task for me, so the news section was dropped along with the What's On events section. So, that's the reason the events page was gone for a bit. For it to return, it needed to be rethought and rebuilt in a way that was more useful for members to view, easier for members to contribute to, and have minimal maintenance requirements from me as possible. The great news is that that's all accomplished. So, it's now:
1: More useful for members. As mentioned before, the old What's On events page was simply a list of events which you could click on for more information. We still have a listing, but the most obvious change here is that we're leveraging the uses of a map service so we can visually show where the events are held. All events are also categorised by their event type, so if you're looking for game jams or meet up's only, it's simple to show that only. And if you're curious only about events occurring in your particular city, it's easy to zoom the map there with a click of a button. Members can also add themselves to the event to list themselves as attending, if they wish. It's simple to do - click on the event marker, and then to the link "Click to mark yourself as attending this". You'll get listed with others attending on the events page.
2: Easier for members to contribute to. To add events to the old list, you needed to post a whole lot of information about it. This time, we need just the essential things (e.g title of the event, when it's on, a link for for further information etc). Entering an event takes no time at all, so there's no need to send press releases to me, you can just add it yourself! If your event is a games festival, games developer related (GCAP, Unity etc), or digitally creative field (3D software, Concept art, Animation etc), whether it be a conference, festival, workshop, meet up etc in Australia and New Zealand, we want it listed!
3: minimal maintenance requirements from me as possible. Probably the least interesting about all this is that I'm a real busy guy these days and have no time for messing about anymore. So the least amount of work I need to do here, the better! New events posted need a quick check by me before they're posted public, and that's it. Fantastic!
That's the basic jist of our new events page. I could write a whole lot more on all the issues I had ran into to get this implemented, and how it all perfectly hooks in with all the social functions that we implemented last year on the site, but it's a fairly boring read. Check out the events page now!
