What do you use as a homepage?

[Greek76]

Just curious to see what some of you use as a welcome page on your forum. What I had done was make a page and added blocks to it but it looks really generic so I wanted to see what you guys use? Any good recommendations? Thanks!

[Noble~]

I have not used this one yet but will be testing it.

[Davyc]

@Greek76 Are you using the Pages app?  It would also be useful if you provided a link to your site so we can see what you've done so far.  There are loads of apps in the marketplace that can help you spruce up your homepage.  Here's mine using the Pages app to create a page and then added in some blocks.  https://moviebuffs.org

 

[Greek76]

5 hours ago, Davyc said:

@Greek76 Are you using the Pages app?  It would also be useful if you provided a link to your site so we can see what you've done so far.  There are loads of apps in the marketplace that can help you spruce up your homepage.  Here's mine using the Pages app to create a page and then added in some blocks.  https://moviebuffs.org

 

My setup is sort of like yours but the colors of your site make it look a lot more attractive and welcoming. Very good looking forum you have there. Mine is here. 

Edited March 21, 2021 by Greek76

[EmpireKicking]

My home page is done with whatever IPB has built into the system, You can create good home pages without the need of paying for it 🙂 

https://www.baysidegamers.com/ as as you can se I just use blocks 🙂 

Edited March 21, 2021 by EmpireKicking

[Greek76]

1 hour ago, EmpireKicking said:

My home page is done with whatever IPB has built into the system, You can create good home pages without the need of paying for it 🙂 

https://www.baysidegamers.com/ as as you can se I just use blocks 🙂 

Yours looks good too. I like the blocks with the rounded corners. I guess its a good thing to learn how to code unless your using custom blocks or something from marketplace?

11 hours ago, Noble~ said:

I have not used this one yet but will be testing it.

It looks good but that individual theJackal doesn't look like he supports his add ons so I'll  pass. Thanks though!

[EmpireKicking]

24 minutes ago, Greek76 said:

Yours looks good too. I like the blocks with the rounded corners. I guess its a good thing to learn how to code unless your using custom blocks or something from marketplace?

It looks good but that individual theJackal doesn't look like he supports his add ons so I'll  pass. Thanks though!

Landing page is now dealt with another person who will keep it updated, The bloacks and whatnot is not from the marketplace, all custom blocks,

[Davyc]

I would lose the fluid width if I were you - you've done that on the dark theme but not the other which is default.  The issue with fluid is that those with large screens 24" and up will find reading the topics difficult; this is why newspapers use columns to break up the width of the pages.  I'd go for a fixed width that's comfortable on the eye and this will be the width regardless of screen size (resolution may come into play somewhat).

A lot of what you see on my homepage is just CSS and the blocks that come with IPS and the Movies app by @Adriano Faria

CSS and HTML are pretty easy to learn, you just need to understand the structures - once you've got that under your hat you can create custom blocks and tune them up any way you want them to appear.  An example would be the new Page Builder Text block that comes with Pages. I used this to create the 'Welcome to...' banner.  The block does most of the heavy lifting, all I had to do was add some CSS to pretty it up, like so:

background: rgb(9,94,121);
background: linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(9,94,121,1) 0%, rgba(9,26,121,1) 49%, rgba(9,94,121,1) 100%);
padding-top:30px;
padding-bottom:30px;
font-size:48px;

The gradient can be created using a CSS gradient online editor such as >> https://cssgradient.io/

The world's your oyster to coin a phrase when you can put the little building blocks together.  

Apart from the width the only thing I would add is another block to even up your posts at the bottom of the home page - that gap at the end looks like an oversight lol.  That's me being picky BTW 🙂

Love the site, love the music (my era along with the late 60's and 70's) - keep it rockin'

[Meddysong]

37 minutes ago, Greek76 said:

It looks good but that individual theJackal doesn't look like he supports his add ons so I'll  pass. Thanks though!

He hasn't been and so is on the process of transferring his apps and plugins to @Adriano Faria, who certainly is supportive. Funnily enough, this particular app appears to have been transferred to Adriano's care on the few minutes since you posted this. 🙂

[Greek76]

21 minutes ago, Davyc said:

I would lose the fluid width if I were you - you've done that on the dark theme but not the other which is default.  The issue with fluid is that those with large screens 24" and up will find reading the topics difficult; this is why newspapers use columns to break up the width of the pages.  I'd go for a fixed width that's comfortable on the eye and this will be the width regardless of screen size (resolution may come into play somewhat).

A lot of what you see on my homepage is just CSS and the blocks that come with IPS and the Movies app by @Adriano Faria

CSS and HTML are pretty easy to learn, you just need to understand the structures - once you've got that under your hat you can create custom blocks and tune them up any way you want them to appear.  An example would be the new Page Builder Text block that comes with Pages. I used this to create the 'Welcome to...' banner.  The block does most of the heavy lifting, all I had to do was add some CSS to pretty it up, like so:

background: rgb(9,94,121);
background: linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(9,94,121,1) 0%, rgba(9,26,121,1) 49%, rgba(9,94,121,1) 100%);
padding-top:30px;
padding-bottom:30px;
font-size:48px;

The gradient can be created using a CSS gradient online editor such as >> https://cssgradient.io/

The world's your oyster to coin a phrase when you can put the little building blocks together.  

Apart from the width the only thing I would add is another block to even up your posts at the bottom of the home page - that gap at the end looks like an oversight lol.  That's me being picky BTW 🙂

Love the site, love the music (my era along with the late 60's and 70's) - keep it rockin'

Thank you for the tips!

21 minutes ago, Meddysong said:

He hasn't been and so is on the process of transferring his apps and plugins to @Adriano Faria, who certainly is supportive. Funnily enough, this particular app appears to have been transferred to Adriano's care on the few minutes since you posted this. 🙂

That’s good to know and thanks. I’m probably going to end up getting it then. Adriano is the man. 

Edited March 21, 2021 by Greek76

[Michael R]

Is anyone using articles on the front page?

[opentype]

9 hours ago, Michael R said:

Is anyone using articles on the front page?

I do on this site: https://www.typografie.info

It’s a Pages page with blocks, not the Pages database index for those articles. There is a little more flexibility this way. 

[GazzaGarratt]

The latest addition to how Pages work has really transformed how we can now do so much more with our websites imo, especially if you don't deal too much with coding too. I played around a lot about how to create a simplistic homepage to help people find all the cool bits that we have across our home. This was whilst I was waiting for the right plugin to potentially use, so I'm super glad that i've found a solution that doesn't cost me any more money than i'm paying as sticking more and more plugins into the website isn't always the answer.

https://forevergaming.co.uk/

I've also really worked to try and find the right balance on how the mobile view of the site works alongside when someone logs in via desktop. Little things like, large a block is viewable can make all difference on mobile. It also helps when you can create a buzz about just basic core functionality, such as Polls, for instance. Its not for everyone, but I think it gets the best of both worlds for accessibility (you wouldn't believe how many people don't use the burger menus these days, on desktop or mobile.

Hope this helps @Greek76 😄

[Raymond Cox]

I'm actually looking to resurrect an old webpage and Invision community. My plan is a news and sports front page something like an ESPN or CNN or something like that. This is my old site

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20060402220950/http://swacfans.com/

[VaBeach_Guy]

From about 2003 until last year, or maybe 2019, I used a custom portal. I got tired of having to come up with a new portal solution with each upgrade though. So now, I just use the main forum index as my homepage. 

Turned out that the 'portal' was only really 'important' to me and my members actually prefer the forum index. 

[WP V0RT3X]

On 3/22/2021 at 2:19 AM, Michael R said:

Is anyone using articles on the front page?

https://invisionfocus.de

The articles are written in Pages. When posting an article a forum thread is created automatically (for SEO that forum isn't visible for guests).

Comments in the thread and on the article itself are synced. So it doesn't matter where the user reads or answers, everything's always up to date.