In an effort to extend Blenders appeal to the masses, I will be working on expanding the Blender3d.org education pages. The forums at Elysiun are important part of the learning process and the pleasure of working with this incredible and sometimes bewildering application.
Therefore, I propose that Elysiun’s keepers consider adopting a look similar to Blender3D.org with the goal of a common set of Navigation links between the sites to display a stronger presence to the world.
mthoenes
Not sure about this…
the way it is now, we can very easy distinct them from each other, right now some people asks questions on blender.org - forums that is mostly right to be asked in here…
ztonzy said:
they way it is now, we can very easy distinct them from each other, right now some people asks questions on blender.org - forums that is mostly right to be asked in here…
Exactly. Tighter integration is necessary. Blender.org should clearly direct newbie questions to a common QA forum here at elysiun. The newbie coming to elysiun will wonder why it bears no resemblance whatsoever to Blender.org and why they cannot be supported at “Blender official forums.” A few apperance adjustments, header and navigation, etc . would help in my opinion. I do not believe being distinct is an asset in this case.
The site should stand independantly to prevent the community ever being fractured again as it was when the Blender.nl site went down, but it could look more like a part of Blender.
umm…maybe you’re right 
but then it would need to be a whole totally new redesign…wonder how much work that would be 
I think you may want to consider doing it the other way around. Elysiun is easy to use and easy on the eyes. The forum at Blender.org is easy enough to use but the rest of it is so convoluted and geeky that I can do without putting myself thru the torture. Blender3D.org is also less navigation friendly than Elysiun and since it doesn’t have its own forum new users somehow seem to migrate to Blender.org.
A simple solution would be to have a (locked) forum topic at Blender.org titled ‘USER QUESTIONS’ that either takes you straight to Elysiun, or to a page of links to Elysiun, Blenderwars, Nicodigital, Pablosbrain, etc, with a paragraph explaining why we don’t want user questions posted at Blender.org. The same link would be useful at Blender3D.org since the only way to get here from there is to go to ‘Community’, usually the last link one tries when your’e looking for an answer, not another detour.
%<
why not jsut put a button on blender3d.org that says
QUESTIONS or FORUM
and jsut sends you straight here.
nothing more needed, and would be much easier than going to a locked forum etc…
Alltaken
I agree with Fligh %. Elysiun is much better designed. However, in the sign-up page on elysiun you can choose the style. Maybe a ‘Blender.org’ style could be incorperated there?
QUESTIONS or FORUM
A button would be a good the place to start.
Elysiun is easy to navigate. A total redesign is not necessary.
Just some elements to tie it more closely to Blender visually. The site does not even carry a Blender logo anywhere that I can see.
I know the home page has some links, but a Logo link in the header to Blender.org would also be a good start.
Elysiun in my opinion saved Blender for a lot of people who would have otherwise given up during the blender.nl bankruptcy. Then during resurrection of Blender it was planned that Elysion would be “THE” community site for Blender. Blender is evolving. The question is should elysiun evolve with it? I teach classes to newbies. Believe me, they are confused by the fragmented nature of Blender resources.
The site does not even carry a Blender logo anywhere that I can see.
It IS the Blender logo. Joke. Thanks for pointing out what your students are finding. I honestly hadn’t even considered that. My main beef is the questions that clutter .org
%<
Well the easiest way to help them is to expand the site to contain all the user resources, such as those lost in Blender.nl. There is no longer so much user input into Elysiun save the forun, the gallery has collapsed and there is no ‘User recources’ page. If users were to produce models, tutorials and the such for Elysiun for a special page it would be easier. But that page needs to be created, and a page to submit articles and models, etc. If such a page existed I would be pleased to help out and submit articles, but I would not know who to ask or what to do to start it off.
lightning wrote
Well the easiest way to help them is to expand the site to contain all the user resources, such as those lost in Blender.nl.
Those resources are here:http://www.blender3d.org/Education/?sub=Tutorials
I have another thread running about the tutorials and the expansion of Blender3d.org education section.
But they are not so easy to access or updated as before.
But they are not so easy to access or updated as before.
They are buried, I doubt a newbie could find them if they wanted to. I plan on extracting, updating and incorporating into the Blender3d.com education pages. Which should probably be divided into Learn Blender and a sub section Teach Blender, I want to bring back the FAQ - updated.
Many people are discussing this, we just need to get started.
look here: http://oldsite.blender3d.org/support/index.php
Theres also the Knowledge base - that has a link off the QA forum. I http://www.vrotvrot.com/support/browse.php
I will have to ask B@rt if he is still managing that.
Yup.
I’ll help if you need anything…
I dont think Elysiun should be changed to suit another blender site, they are 2 sepperate pages by 2 seperate groups about 2 seperate topics (blender art and blender programing). No reason for them to look the same, that would suck…
And besides they do already look simmilar, one is gray they other white, all the rest is the same forum look and feel…
Matt
Blend on, and blend well!!!
exactly keep them seperate - all other communities are much the same - they have their forums but the other independant sites seem to contain the most needed info on getting up to speed with a program. just link it man 
I dont think Elysiun should be changed to suit another blender site, they are 2 sepperate pages by 2 seperate groups about 2 seperate topics
I appreciate your point, I tend to visit both sites frequently and do not see them as separated as you may. Blender3d.com may emerge as the public face of Blender with blender.org remaining a dev site. That decision is really not mine to make. Blender3d.org (.com) is where the tutorials will go. The problem with that site is there is no news or forum, so it does not seem as alive as blender.org - elysiun.com. The education section will link to the elysiun QA forum for questions about using Blender if things go as I plan.
Keep the comments coming. Thanks
Re the knowledgebase, - I find this a VERY useful resource, and I feel its one of the best places to direct people with specific questions. However, I can never find it when I want it, as there are no obvious links from anywhere. Perhaps a simple sidebar on blender3d.org, elysiun.com, and blender.org saying
blender3d.org - Welcome to the world of blender
blender.org - Programming and upgrading blender
www.elysiun.com - Artists forums
www.vrotvrot.com - blender knowledgebase
Worded better of course. This would make navigation, esp. for the newbie, a WHOLE lot easier… - Just an idea
Well, it is linked from blender3d.org - support->knowledge base.
Did you have trouble finding it? (honest question - if the navigation’s not working well, I need to know in order to fix it)
yeah, i can sorta remember the url now, but before, when I was trying to find it, I couldn’t :-/ The linking between sites is VERY un-obvious.