Planning HTPC website

[Underfunded]

Hi,
I am planning a new HTPC focused website for users of all HTPC software and hardware. A community to share knowledge, frustrations and successes. It will be a community site where everyone is welcome to contribute and will be not-for-profit. There will be advertising, but just as a method of covering operational costs.

As a place where everyone is welcome what would be a good name? I have a few ideas already that I'll post and see what you think. Hopefully someone doesn't register them just to try to make a buck but if they do then I'll just pick another name.

What are your thoughts on the following .com potentials. None are yet registered:

htpcunlimited
ultimatehtpc
premiumhtpc
everythinghtpc
exclusivehtpc
htpcinformation
htpcmadesimple

[Underfunded]

I already have a mockup of the site at a domain name I registered for fun since it was cheap:

www.underfunded.info

also what do you think about the design so far? No forums yet but I'll be getting to that part.

Thanks,
Ian.

[korben_dallas]

Looks pretty nice. I'm not a huge fan of pure-white backgrounds, but otherwise it's clean looking.

[Underfunded]

thank you for the feedback and a couple questions:

1. What are your thoughts on a potential .com domain? I had some other plans for the underfunded.info name (just a personal blog) and would like the name to be more subject appropriate.

2. While the background of the main area is white, the text boxes are shaded a little, would you like to see them shaded a touch darker?

Thanks again,
Ian.

[nick_l]

Since you are asking,

I favor:
1. everythinghtpc
2. htpcmadesimple
3. htpcinformation

As for you site layout, it is fine but didnt really excite me. I find it a little clinical or bland or something. I cant quite explain it, but it just doesn't compell me to want to spend time reading it. Perhaps instead of a solid grey outside box, some suble texture, like boilerplate or some halftone might liven it up for me. Also, I really didnt like your banner/logo area. To me it looks like a stop smoking ad. I do like the clearly marked/easliy found rss feed links.

Hopefully I didn't offend. I think we all appreciate anyone who puts effort into the HTPC community.

Nick

P.s. Just took another look at your mockup, I think another thing that I dont personally like is that your right hand box of information is unbroken. you poll goes right into your ad which goes right into your rss. I personally would like to see those broken up in some way, to give more perceived movement to the site.

[Underfunded]

@nick
Nothing is taken personally. Thank you for the responses. The site is still in an alpha stage, heck, it didn't exist four days ago! Thank you for your comments. I will look into changing up the background texture and breaking up the boxes in the columns. I'm not very good with graphics design so the banner at the top is a generic I found until I can find someone to create something a little more pleasing that fits the color scheme. Also thank you for your responses to potential names for the site.
Ian.

[nick_l]

Good luck. I'll make sure to add you to my rss reader when you're done.

Nick

[GKusnick]

Personally I dislike the term HTPC, since it doesn't really seem to mean anything. "Home theater" to me implies projectors, theater seating, automatic drapes, deluxe sound system, and so forth. A tuner card and a fancy PC case don't magically transform your living room into a home theater.

As for "HTPC" hardware, my Sage system is identical to my desktop gaming rig except for tuners and a big disk. Same mobo, CPU, graphics card, etc. 5.1 speakers on both. So what makes one an "HTPC" and the other not?

If you want to make a website about tuner cards and PVR software, that's great. But I don't see that the "HTPC" label adds anything useful to the discussion.

[Underfunded]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

But I don't see that the "HTPC" label adds anything useful to the discussion.

I think the term HTPC is more about implying usage within a home entertainment arena. It is a way of identifying the role of the computer, for instance you referred to your 'gaming rig' why not be able to refer to your 'htpc'. It is actually a little more appropriate than the term PVR because a PVR is more generic in that it could be a Tivo or a number of non-pc items.

[mayamaniac]

I like to call them Media Center computers, rather than HTPCs. So you can use the "mc" abbreviation for the domain name. Plus I like shorter names.

byomc.com, byomcpc, and mcpcforum.com are available.

[Underfunded]

mayamaniac, you actually raise a very good point and have me thinking about using mcpc or hepc, for media center or home entertainment, the only downside that I can think of is that many people think of it as a htpc, although I think that describing it as he or mc is a good option as it is a better description of what my vision of them is, but that does not match the common vernacular which could cause issue with people finding the site.

I just put up a new design of the site as well as a new poll related to what it should be named. Please go on over and vote!

[sic0048]

Not to be a buzz kill here, but aren't there lots of sites out there like this??

AVSforum being one of the biggest.

[mayamaniac]

AVSforum covers mostly the hardware side of just audio and video, not necessary PC related. So a forum focusing on just media center PC softwares and hardwares can be useful. His main competitor is htpcnews.com, although that site is pretty dead.

Underfunded, what is the new site coded in? Is it something like Joomla?

By the way, mcpcnews.com is also available.

[Underfunded]

the new site is in drupal. I found that wordpress (the old site) was not giving enough control (content management system).

oooh. mcpcnews might be a good option. the only caveat about that one is people thinking that it is just for media center and not sage/meedios/...

Right now I am looking at external webhosts. It is currently being hosted off a spare computer in my apartment, but I have comcast residential which changes my IP address every couple months and that is a hassle I don't want to deal with once I get the site up and running.

As an interesting note, I have already started getting hits from people finding the site off google!

As far as competition goes you are right that avsforum is mostly hardware for audio/video and their computer portions are relatively weak. The largest competitor out there would be missingremote. That is a site that does a good job with the news aspect, but not so much in bridging the gaps of the communities.

I even found a good host for the site, hostmonsters.com offers good service with good pricing, I just have to take the leap, register the name and cough up the 72 for the first year of hosting. That part is a little tough with my wedding and honeymoon coming up over the next two months, but I'll probably register the domain in the next day or two.

[Underfunded]

I think I found the name for the site, haven't registered it yet but I like:

www.hepcunlimited.com

Home Entertainment Computers Unlimited: For all your entertainment computer needs.



What do you think? maybe HEPCUNLEASHED instead?

[mayamaniac]

How good is the drupal forum? From everything I've seen, its more like a blog commenting system compare to a full featured forum like phpbb, simple machines, vbulletin, IP board, etc. I'm assuming that drupal can be extended but if drupal is lacking in comparison, then I suggest to use free ones like phpbb or simple machines.

[Underfunded]

While the base drupal forum isn't anything to write home about the key to drupal in general is that you can add modules in and there are a few modules that give drupal all the options that you can do with phpbb. But that aside, the primary reason I am considering starting out exclusively with drupal is that it is a single integrated CMS (content management system) and I won't have to worry about connecting different programs to get them all to play together.

what are your thoughts on that potential name? I'm pretty much ready to roll with this and am ready to get everything going.

[mayamaniac]

Unless the name is really good, I'm not a fan of long domain names, too many letters to type.

Thats why my suggestions are shorter ones. From the ones you selected, pick the shortest one and thats my vote.

[mickp]

hepcunlimited...

My first reaction is what's a hep cun limited?

Mick.

Edit: Ditto for hep cun leashed. It's probably just specific to the way my mind works tho

[Underfunded]

Originally Posted by mickp

hepcunlimited...

My first reaction is what's a hep cun limited?

Mick.

Edit: Ditto for hep cun leashed. It's probably just specific to the way my mind works tho

nope. not just you. i saw it too.