Re: Forum Changes
 

If they were meant to spark flamewars, they did a pretty bad job of it. Highly active, friendly debate as we see occasionally is a good thing.

But, it seems that you of all people, GP, have dragged this thread off topic!

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So, to bring it back, some of the points and suggestions made recently:
1) Using the top game-banner to show news, perhaps colour-coded by subject/category
2) Changing the backgrounds on the news items for improved contrast and topic matching.
3) Turning the "Order <game related to forum>" link at the top into a special button on the sidebar.
4) Options for location of sidebar, or hiding it.
5) Fixing the black border line and the lack of space between it and the actual forum text.
6) If the "not-an-ad" bars are too intrusive, they will simply be blocked, and there is no way to force them to be shown except on a very temporary basis.

Re: Forum Changes
 

1) Yes, I think a much more effective way to do the very top of the page is have the new oval Forums icon on the left, ad banner in the middle, and some sort of iframe to load a random news item from the past X days (perhaps summary/link of blog posting?) I just can't seem to get myself to like the eagle logo, though.

2) The changing-of-news-item backgrounds is a good idea as well. Adds a bit more variety as well, and helps people zoom in on items of special interest (read: SEV http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

3) A golden "Buy This Game" button right below the Support button would fit nicely.

4) This, I think, is very much needed. On my 1280x1024 screen, the beginning of text for the forum pages almost begins in the center of the screen (!) This is a Bad Thing (TM). Then I tried scaling down to 800x600 (people do still use that resolution), and the result was squished everything, and you need to scroll all the way over in some threads (mainly, this one) to even see all the text. Then you can't even see the poster or the sidebar when reading the forum, and that is a Very Bad Thing (TM).

Two ways to resolve the problem are:
A) keep press release sidebar on the forum and topic listings only, and remove from the thread pages (ie, where messages are).
B) move the bar to the right side, or allow the option for users to move the bar to the right. Perhaps keep it defaulted to the right, requiring users to register to change it.

5) Add padding/cellpadding to the table cell the main part of the forum is held in, to prevent the border-merging. Also, it looks like there's supposed to be a drop-shadow on the PR image backgrounds, but it's cut off...

6) As soon as I get some time, I'll be looking for this Proximitron program. I always thought it was a firewall, not a way to edit out "undesirable" HTML.

Re: Forum Changes
 

Let me be frank based on some recent commentary. OT posts are always welcome in the SE:IV community. That has always been and always will be the policy of Shrapnel Games on the matter and I thought we had that issue settled.

The sidebars were added for the reasons I specifically stated and no other. They were no form of punishment.

Feel free to block that portion of the site with any 3rd party tool if you would like. Also feel free to post directions on how to do that. Again no big deal.

If you have questions about the official Shrapnel policy on these things feel free to PM any of the current staff members of Shrapnel Games.

Re: Forum Changes
 

Yikes...
They're even there in the PM section of the forum!

The sidebars really should be limited to the top few levels of the forum... when you're doing something specific, like PMing or replying to a message, they are totally unnessesary and just get in the way.

Re: Forum Changes
 

Thank You, This should clear up any confusion.

Re: Forum Changes
 

Now that they have backgrounds in them they're even more distracting. I may just have to start using Proxo again.

Edit:...yeah. I think I will. Thank you, Shrap.

Re: Forum Changes
 

Thank you, Richard. I wish more people would have that attitude. I too, think that the sidebar would be fine on the topic and category level, but it is just wasted space in the threads and other areas.

Its not a firewall at all. Its an ad-blocker and HTML filter.
Proxomitron

Re: Forum Changes
 

Ah, readability. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Thanks Covert. Took me a bit to figure out why it wasn't working..I forgot to turn the new filter on. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif A bit of a resource hog, but not too bad.

EDIT: of course its also making the top of the area (user controls, banner, announcments..) disappear as well. Oops. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

EDIT2: speaking of bugs, even with a non-proxied Firefox, the edit window now has a non-functional button in between "change this post" and "delete this post".

Re: Forum Changes
 

Yup, noticed that about Covert's filter too. I turned off all other filters, just to make sure.

Re: Forum Changes
 

Richard:
Are there plans to make the press releases more legible? It is not that it is a bad image, it is just really hard to read the text on top of it.

That used to be the Spellcheck button. I can confirm that it is now bugged in Firefox.

Gandalf Parker, please do not post anything if all you are going to do is try to incite flames. Those issues have long since been resolved and you dragging them up does nothing productive. Thank you.