Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

October 30, 2006 10:37 AM Posted by mike_ch

Some of the choices are a bit weird. No Aladdin in the buffet? Paris bumping Caesars and Mandalay out of the Best Restaurants? Well, okay, if you say so...

October 30, 2006 10:41 AM Posted by Hunter

Yeah, the nominees were determined by a reader ballot so of course people make weird choices sometimes.

October 30, 2006 1:40 PM Posted by detroit1051

Hey, why doesn't he like Wayne Newton? LOL

October 30, 2006 2:13 PM Posted by mike_ch

For the same reason Bellagio is an option on best and worst table games. The choices were reader-nominated and a result the poll probably has more in common with Vegas4Vistiors' yearly awards, where MGM Grand and Harrah's beat up Bellagio for best casino.

While all the website awards are always a little bit weird, they're probably more fair than the LVRJ' more respected Best Of, which must have a TON of voting by managers and employees in the industry. I somehow doubt that Sheldon Adelson reads VegasTripping.

October 30, 2006 11:41 PM Posted by Hunter

I'm experimenting with some new headers for the site... Right now we've got a picture of Wynn's Atrium and I've also got others with Bellagio, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay that I'll put into rotation...

I've also been toying with reducing the vertical height of the image to allow for more content on the page... Some images are more suited to that treatment than others.

I was ready for a little change so, that's what I'm up to.

October 30, 2006 11:51 PM Posted by Hunter

It's not on the site, but another option that might go up:

http://www.ratevegas.com/blog/images/headerimage_mix.jpg

October 31, 2006 12:03 AM Posted by Mike E

MIX lounge. That's a good one and I like the rotation idea.

Congrats on the nomination. It sure pleases me to see Venetian makes its rounds a few times in the "worst of" categories.

October 31, 2006 12:08 AM Posted by Hunter

Yeah, that one was from MIX.

I am going through my photos to try to get some shots that show off some cool design elements, since that's what this is really about...

Fortunately my wife is helping me - she's the Photoshop expert. Once she saw I was posting stuff she now wants to take over so I expect I'll be changing out the above pretty soon with some new versions that make better use of the tools - the above is my 5 minute version.

October 31, 2006 12:08 AM Posted by Hunter

I should also say that while I am excited to be nominated, you guys are a big part of that so - THANK YOU.

October 31, 2006 12:26 AM Posted by Hunter

Since we're talking about the blog, I wanted to get some feedback on something I've been thinking about for some time...

Basically, I've been thinking about re-vamping the categories significantly - making them more consistent, re-organizing them, etc...

For instance, I have an MGM MIRAGE category and a Bellagio category but no categories for other MGM properties. Huh?

If I make the changes, I would do something like:

MGM MIRAGE
and then Subcategories like
Bellagio
The Mirage
Treasure Island

etc...

Probably have a category for each major gaming company plus other categories like:

Las Vegas
Macau
Podcasts
Casino Design
Business of Gaming

Stories are almost always in more than one category and I think that this re-vamped organization would make sense.

There is a big drawback and that is breaking all the old links to the stories, since the URLs are based on the category name.

Now, this can be mitigated by me creating re-directs for each story but that would be a huge job. I need to commit to it as a medium-sized project if I want to do it.

So, I'm interested to hear how people use categories, if this would help them, their thoughts, etc...

October 31, 2006 4:48 AM Posted by detroit1051

Headers for the site: The more the better, but I'd be careful about making the images too narrow; they might lose their impact.
Your new categories make sense, but with CityCenter, Echelon and Wynn's future golf course redevelopment, you might consider a separate category for all these major mixed-use "cities within the city."
I search your current categories frequently and find them useful, especially "Business of Gaming."

October 31, 2006 8:17 AM Posted by Hunter

Ok, that sounds like a vote for better/saner categories. I'm gonna keep a tally.

On the headers, I'm not talking about major vertical choppage, just maybe 20-50 pixels if the image allows for it.

October 31, 2006 8:48 AM Posted by Hunter

Back on the category tip, if we were going to re-organize there are some options... Basically, do we go with a ton of semi-specific categories, i.e.:

Business of Gaming
Casino Design
MGM MIRAGE
++ Bellagio
++ City Center
++ The Mirage
++ Other Properties
LAS VEGAS SANDS
++ The Venetian
++ Palazzo
++ Sands Macao
etc...

This would end up with a lot of categories but things would be very organized. Plus, you can view the 'parent' category (i.e. MGM MIRAGE) to see all the sub-category stories.

Or, do we do something like:

Business of Gaming
Casino Design
MGM MIRAGE
++ Las Vegas
++ Atlantic City
++ Macau
++ Other Geographies
WYNN RESORTS
++ Las Vegas
++ Macau
++ Other Geographies

I tend to lean towards being more organized (first option) but my fear is too many categories.

I am very interested in your feedback and even suggestions on other options (including doing nothing).

October 31, 2006 4:09 PM Posted by Hunter

I still haven't committed to re-doing the categories but if I did, this is the list I am planning to use. You'll notice that some of the existing categories have been combined (we had some near redundancies) and some eliminated.

Some hotels are omitted because when I looked at the stories, we wouldn't have anything to put in the categories. Hotel categories could be added as needed, after the fact.

Is this list too specific? Are we gaining anything here?

I try to denote where something is a sub-category by using the stars.

* Atlantic City
* Las Vegas
* Macau
* Business of Gaming
** Financial Reporting / Stock Market
* Casino Design
** Construction and Implosion
* Las Vegas Photography
* Interviews
* Podcasts
* RateVegas.com / This Site
* Trip Reports and Reader Reviews
* Stripping Series (Las Vegas Strip Reviews)

* Boyd Gaming
** Echelon Place
** Borgata
** Coast Casinos

* MGM MIRAGE
** Bellagio
** City Center
** The Mirage
** MGM Grand
** Mandalay Bay / Luxor / Excalibur
** Treasure Island

* Harrah's Entertainment
** Caesars Palace
** Harrahs Las Vegas
** Ballys / Paris
** Horseshoe

* Wynn Resorts
** Wynn Las Vegas
** Encore at Wynn Las Vegas
** Wynn Macau
** Wynn Golf Course Development

* Las Vegas Sands
** The Venetian
** Sands Macau
** The Palazzo
** The Venetian Macau

Categories wouldn't be created for a property unless there were enough items to make it worthwhile and you can always view all the sub-categories together in aggregate by clicking on the 'parent' category (i.e. MGM MIRAGE or Harrah's).

So, is this too many? Is this way over thinking this?

October 31, 2006 8:19 PM Posted by mike_ch

I feel like they're too many categories. I prefer more general catch-alls like Macau, rather than having to search multiple categories on Macau hotels.

October 31, 2006 8:22 PM Posted by Hunter

I am trying to gauge if this is too many... But, with your example, to see stories on Macau you'd only have to click on the single Macau category to see all those stories.

November 2, 2006 11:42 PM Posted by motoman

Hunter--
To aid searching, you wouldn't want to omit something just for brevity, because sure as heck someone would want to look for that one thing you cut.

As long as they're organized outline-style as you propose, more is better....IMHO.