Interactive Lists Showcase and Discussion

I'm starting this thread to not only toot my own horn on some of the lists i've made in the past or recently working on, but also showcasing some of the greatest interactive lists Listal has to offer, as well as a place for people to discuss HTML coding tricks they use for these lists, and to give others an idea of what is possible.
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Please Note: A LOT of work and effort went into making all these interactive lists, all on member's spare time. The only thing we look for is recognition (such as this thread) and to give props to us by clicking the green PLUS to vote for the list.

(reserved thread to be used for Feature Lists showcasing)

List designed for smaller game series

I recently (well, today to be exact) finished spicing up an old and great game series list, the Quest for Glory series from Sierra. For larger lists, I tend to use sparing info and smaller images, but for such smaller series like Quest for Glory, with only 9 items in its list, I think it works well to go overboard images and notes... almost make it a fan-site list rather than strictly an organizational list.

Notice the use of links to video for most of the entries, fairly large sized images (using 250 pixel wide screenshots, two of them side by side, fills it up quite nicely), and for compilations packs (like the Anthology) its great to add box art of all games the anthology references.

Also, in the case of Dragon Fire entry, by eliminating the usual small and playing around with exact pixel size, you can have two images side by side resemble one larger image, such as is the case with its inner sleeve game box graphics.

I also use a lot of blockquote html tags to split up areas on the right panel into blueish boxes, and also heavy use of cross-promoting other lists, like all related Sierra Adventure game series at bottom of the right panel.

List designed to introduce people to new/unknown games

The New & Upcoming Games lists have evolved over time, and I'm fairly happy with the current style which is the same across all the gaming platform lists:
* New Xbox 360 Releases
* New PlayStation 3 Releases
* New Nintendo Wii Releases
* New PC Games Releases

The biggest challenge with these lists is their dynamic nature, always adding/deleting entries and re-arranging games on the list, so best to keep to one style for each format. Only difference I use is a bigger screenshot image (linked to trailer) for the bigger, more-anticipated games (240full for big releases 160full for all other releases). I've also added a quick line of Gamespot and IGN scores (out of 10) for recently released games.

These lists have given me lots of ideas for suggestions, some of which Tom has already implemented:
* Multiple Editors for lists (Thanks Tom!)
* default HTML template for all new entries (to make data entry easier)
* different background colors (or dividers) added to lists, to help differentiate between just released (i keep about 1 month back of new releases before deleting them off the list), coming out that week, and long-term TBA releases
* integrate the lists into the Explore Games section for each platform (awesome, thanks Tom for adding that!)



The Casual PC Gaming list I've begun (about half completed) takes a lot more interactive approach to showcasing specific type of games, in this case, the oft-ignored but gaining popularity of Casual Games on the PC.

Among key things in this list is a nice big screenshot (which links to a trailer or gameplay video of the game) and a link to a free (or demo) version of the game, since most of the games are primarily sold online only. I've also included simple text links to commercial platform releases of the games. I kept those links text-only since my emphasis is on PC market only, but its nice to know at a glance if console versions exist.

List with links to all videos/episodes

I didn't realize so many full episodes of the classic Disney shorts existed on YouTube, so until there is a crackdown on it on the YouTube level, I figure there is no harm in linking all screen images of the Donald Duck shorts series list to their respective youtube-linked full episodes. This would be great list as well to show youg kids, so they can quickly and easily watch every episode at their leisure. List is still in progress, mostly since nearly all entries need to be manually added and all images uploaded before they get added to this (soon to be) huge list.

Huge Lists (100+ items) with interactivity

The key to bringing spice to huge list is to keep it small and minimal. The IMDb Top 250 list of top-rated movies, according to IMDb.com, is a key example of this. Keeping each entry to a short synopsis, small image (150full pixel), and link each image to a movie trailer will work well, even on this 250 item compilation.

The one problem I now have is broken trailer links because of the video being deleting on youtube.

Also notice I began putting the images flush right, with the align="right" code to the IMG SRC syntax, which makes it more streamlined than the old way (you can see part way down the list, it still uses the old way - need to clean that up on next major update).

If anyone wants to help out maintaining the IMDB Top 250 List, let me know and I may add you as a contributing editor.

Community-driven List

A great example of how Interactive doesn't always have to mean the use of images and links, Kryptic Centurion's list Listal's 100 Films To See Before You Die is a perfect example of web community-driven interaction. It started this spring with this thread posted in Groups at Listal, and thru the contribution, suggestions, nominations and votes cast by over 30 members of Listal, this list took off quite well.

Similar community-driven ideas are very much welcome, but best read over the original thread to see how it went about and how its rules and contributions evolved.

Another great example of community-driven interaction is Grand Assault's Listal's A to Z Library of Films list, which originated thanks to this thread. A nice manually-created feature is the addition of List Statistics on the right panel, which is another feature that we hope makes it into Listal's list options.

Informative / Trivia-based and Unique Lists

GemLil's list of the Greatest Disney Villians (co-written by Kryptic Centurion) was a pioneer into very informative, trivia-driven and unique lists that we see lots of these days on Listal (especially with the addition of People/Actors/Directors lists we can now create).

The use of a catchy image (typically uploaded to each entries' list of images), nice contrast of bold and normal text, along with an explanation of what the unique list is about (found in the right panel) makes for great and informative lists. The use of tons of filler images along the length of the right panel is also a nice way to spice up any long list.

Other notable lists that follow this style (and show that imagination is the limit):

* Stars Behind Bars by GemLil
* Racist Disney by GemLil
* Crisis Beards by Kryptic Centurion
* Disney's Animal Protagonists by GemLil
* Art Inspired by Film by Dionysian Child
* Natural Born Pirates by Sam I Am
* Bad Kids by GemLil
* Infamous by Prelude

Don't forget Pre-dawg, I co-wrote that Disney Villains List!! Thanks for the mention aswell.

Fantastic thread idea mate. Recognition is what all our lists require. Might I also suggest GA's A-Z List for the Community Driven section.

Thanks for the note there dear. I have been campaigning for ages for more appreciation to the html lists, a list full of links, videos and Jpegs takes vastly more time than a simple one. I like the way you use an image as a link to videos, in fact I stole in and used it in both my David Attenborough and Jim Carrey lists. Shouldn't your Infamous list be up here somewhere?

Also I nominate KC's One-eyed man list for the trivia section. You've opened a floodgate here mate :)

Original Lists with their own unique pointing system

Not sure who gets the credit for starting up this list style, but they bring some nice life and soul to Listal. One of the first (if not the first) was Kryptic Centurion's list where famous movie walks are rated: Just Walking.... Notice the clever pointing system used as shown in the right panel.

Other great 'Points' lists:

* Are We Not Men? by Grand Assault

* In the Kingdom of the Blind by Kryptic Centurion

* Scarred and Dangerous by GemLil

A variant of this is to have subjective factor ratings, such as in Grand Assault's lists The Greatest Taglines Ever Conceived, Most Ridiculous Taglines Ever, as well as Kryptic Centurion's Retired Action Legends.

Lists of Lists

What a novel idea! Use a list to link up other lists! Great way to organize the flood of lists out there. The most famous of which is The Big Listal Author List by escafeld. What easier way can there be to find all author-related lists all in one place?

A variation on this is to link up actors/actresses/directors to movies in which they where cast as re-curring characters, such as The U-Dogs by Kryptic Centurion, or Femme Fatales of Film-Noir by Coroner.

How about Cast/Character Profile Lists? Thats what I spend most of my time efforts on atm, I got a backlog in Private. Its a mess!

United States Colonial Marines
U.S. Special Forces
Retired Action Legends
Cylons Revealed
The 2nd Incarnation of AVALANCHE
The Rogue FOXHOUND Unit
The Villains of Sunnydale
Defence Against the Dark Arts
The Administration
The Crew of the Icarus II

GemLil's (/and My!) Weasel List is a Point-Based Bonanza aswell. I'm 100% sure that the Pointing System was first used on my Just Walking List.

www.listal.com/list/the-girls-of-bollywood

Check this out. I'm improving this list, rather than make it a gallery of just sexy pictures, I'm laying it out two mid-sized one, one larger one that hugs the right margin, links on each to their respective full size format (so you can vote on the pics themselves), link to rest of pictures gallery, as well as link to 3 or 4 movies that each actress has a major role in, via a small linked thumbnailed.

LOTS of html work, but you set the layout once, you can copy & paste it into others and just replace the image # that you wish to use.

Did it on first two girls only so far, but hope to ive others ideas on what you can do with actors/actresses interactive photo galleries.