What exactly do you use your Portal for?

I'm also curious: do you think it is a good idea to only keep your rules and stuff in the Portal, or should those remain on the forum as posts?

I'm using my portal as the entry to the site - any links I post will lead directly to the portal. It should be the first thing that a guest sees.

The first thing I have on my portal is a bunch of quick links to help guests find their way quickly through the information that new members need to get started, including applications, rules, the main plot and other background information. My rules aren't directly on the portal, but I have a link to them there and there's a link to them at the top of my page. Below my quick links I show the latest announcement in the announcements forum and on either side I show affiliates, a member of the month award, and users currently online. I may add more things as I go on though.

The rules should definitely be available in as many places as possible, so put them in a post as well. :)

The rules should be in the posts as well so that no one has an excuse like "I couldn't find them" or something like that.

I don't use a portal, though. It's just another thing to deal with.

Forgive my ignorance, but...portal?

The portal is sort of like a main entrance for your site, where it shows active members and topics, a thread feed, and that sort of thing, but no forums. There's a link for it at the top of most forum indexes (invisionfree) where you can check it out. I've removed it from my site completely because I never use it. Instead I have links at the very top of the forum index, in the sidebar, and in the forum descriptions. I figure if I have it in that many places, members have no excuse (besides laziness, of course) for not reading up and being able to find what they need.

I'm currently in the middle of moving to zetaboards, and I haven't got anything in it (I think it doesn't turn on if you don't put anything in it?) But the IF version of my board has it linked to the rules so it's not empty.

I guess that's one of the features I haven't gotten around to figuring out. There are many. :pink:

Our portal used to be the first thing that a member saw when loading the forum, but I decided to get rid of that because it just made more sense to have people go straight to the forum. I do, however, find it useful for showing the last few announcements, and any links that people may find useful, such as those to the rules or profile skeletons.

I honestly don't use the portal ever and never had. The only time I ever even look at a portal is if I accidentally click the link to it, and that's the extent of my use of it over the last four years on IF. Well, that and clicking it to find out what it was the first time I was on an IF forum. :p To me, it's just a completely pointless page that's just... there.

I've got a whole slew of stuff on my portal with most important stuff at the top and then more for interest/whimsical stuff as you move down the page. I've got two sidebars and a center section. So, there's a section of getting started links also another section of just frequently used links and features - like the link to the media/mp3 player (only plays when linked to), the chat room used for chat RPs, a table in the middle that shows most recent threads, replies and annoucements, member information, site statistics, a welcome and affiliates. Also, there's some fun stuff like a banner that does rotating quotes - it isn't set up yet (on the to do list) but I put amusing/memorable quotes from people's posts or threads there. And, a site calendar will be going up soon.

A lot of the essential stuff can be found on the forum page, too. I usually link people to the forum, just because it's easier if they aren't familiar with portals and how to find the forum. But, I usually set the portal as my homepage and use both.

I had a look at the one you have on your forum, Tulojow Nagde, and I wonder, can I do the same thing with an IF board??

hmm - I don't know if IF is set up to allow multiple pages - if it was, then it'd just be a matter of knowing how to code the portal itself or know someone who could. It'd be complicated and I know you couldn't use the modification packet I do. So, I wouldn't say it's impossible, just, I'd suspect, it isn't that easy.

I use portals mainly for getting news across to a bunch of members whom are too lazy to click the NEWS, IDIOT board.