A few thoughts on the welcome/landing pages:

- I think they contain too much text, too many paragraphs, etc. The bullet lists are great, and maybe the page should emphasize on lists more than block paragraphs. Maybe style them a little too. It's very possible that potential players from search engines and/or TMC/TMS/whatever will be glancing over a handful of MUDs and wont be up for reading that amount of text. Likewise, those unfamiliar with MUDs in general might not understand what they're reading about.



- Maybe include some of the testimonials on the page? Perhaps use PHP to pick one randomly.



- The links to the helpfiles are great.



- The version with the (blood) red text has a really 1995 look.



- Instead of having a page that reads like a page from a book, perhaps lay it out more like a magazine or something like that. Categorize information into boxes or sections. Something a little more modern. This might make the content easier to digest before people get bored and stop reading.



- The guides and info people have created regarding the "nanny" process is great. Perhaps expand on this, either on the website or via the MUD, with some basic information on how to essentially survive levels 1-10 without screwing up too much. Some basics tips on what to do, where to go, things to buy, stats to train, etc that set a complete newbie on the path of a not-so-crappy low level character. A very basic walk through of the NEWBIE levels for the average Galadonian. This will help complete newbies avoid some of the common frustrations of learning a game that, no matter what you say, has a steep learning curve (at least compared to any graphical RPG and/or MUD that is much less restrictive on OOC chatter). Like I said though, people have posted an excellent start to this, and combined with the Wiki (on Qhcf) it's almost already done, and just needs to be compiled and polished.



- The tabs are a dark gray on black and impossible to read. Likewise, the links are purple, which doesn't match the site. This is still a work in progress, I assume. Otherwise, great idea. Being a usability freak and a big fan of NoScript, I'm also going to suggest adding links with a POST/GET option in noscript tags so that the tabs work with Javascript off. Trivial? Quite possibly.



Overall site suggestions:



- Wrap the search results in pre tags or use the css white-space property along with a fixed width font. Things like the ranger terrain/expertise don't display correctly unless you view the source.



- I think this has been said before, but standardize the font family, size, etc across the site.



- I understand this is difficult as it requires time, but one of the big problems with the CF website is that the Help information often gets outdated and/or not updated when new changes go in. With a fairly minimal amount of work, some of these pages could probably be made dynamic with PHP and all but forgotten about.



- The connect page is nice. Maybe include example MUD clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux. A Java client might not hurt, but probably isn't necessary.



- Update the poll more or get rid of it. Maybe use that space for the vote links instead of putting them on top so the main graphic can be centered.



- More functionality in the helpfile search. Maybe an alphabetical listing. The links from within the site (Kasty's welcome pages, for example) are great too. With a little PHP/Perl/whatever helpfiles could be converted in such a way that the "See also" keywords are converted to links. Probably not worth the effort, but that'd be kinda fancy and neat.



- Cabals page says Nexus is defunct. It also says: See also: STORY PHILOSOPHY ARBITER BATTLE ENTROPY MASTER HERALD SYLVAN EMPIRE DAWN SCARAB -- Maybe update that list?





Forums:



- This is probably a lot more work than it's worth, but RSS feeds?





Permanent Death:



- Most of the MUDs that don't have a permanent death system tend to be the ones that don't enforce such strict standards of RP, many of them to the point where a lot of the time spent on one's only character is used chatting with other players about whatever. Very rarely do people age die on Carrionfields and say, "Damn, if only I'd had another 500 hours." Most of the players thrive on new roles, different cabals, etc. Somewhat unique to CF is the fact that in many ways, a character can impact the game in permanent ways. BattleRagers have their pillar, Heralds can contribute to the Lyceum, epic battles are displayed on the homepage (as stories), etc. A character that age-dies, and some that con die (not the Shamanman way) often quite literally go down in CF history as heroes and legends, some to the point where guildmasters and other mobs are named after them. Maybe advertising the fact that your epic, legendary warrior will die at the height of his Imperial reign isn't the way to phrase it, but permanent death is definitely a feature, and one worth advertising. The way the page describes it now seems fine. It might be worthwhile to mention the whole PBF right after that so people know that once they die, they have the opportunity to check out a ton of awesome stats which they can brag about forever.