New Board - Props and Slops

[Gandalf Parker]

There might also be a way to have it display directly in the message the way we used to do with images.
I might get a chance to play with it later, or someone else can try.

[Kristoffer O]

Ha!

I finally made it to the reply box!

At first I couldn't log in. Had a new 'space' in my login name. And something (don't know what) was missing in my profile ???

I'm having some trouble finding my way around, but that will probably change now that I am logged on.

Considering there is a picture gallery available now, I can't see why avatars and PM's should be limited. Hmm, it might be bandwidth related when I think about it. At least the avatars. Which reminds me, I need a new one.

I'm a bit concerned about the editing stuff as well. Editing the first post will probably solve the MP problem. The mod threads might be another issue. Editing the first post will probably cover most problems, but I imagine there might be instances where attachments are added by several people developing a mod and each ned to edit their own post to make their addition up to date. If the first poster administers everything it might work anyway.

Hmm, I'd better poke around some more to lessen my initial confusion.

[Mindi]

Originally Posted by Kristoffer O

Ha!

I finally made it to the reply box!

At first I couldn't log in. Had a new 'space' in my login name. And something (don't know what) was missing in my profile ???

Was your username and login name different on the other board? We could only import one name so we went with username since that's what all the user's see.

Considering there is a picture gallery available now, I can't see why avatars and PM's should be limited. Hmm, it might be bandwidth related when I think about it. At least the avatars. Which reminds me, I need a new one.

Well the picture gallery will allow people to put pictures through their Usercp rather than uploading everything as attachments in posts. At least we hope that's the way users will use it because then those pictures won't be so hard to find. Avatars, size wise, is limited because of space issues.....as you can see people are already complaining because we are allowing 80x80 avatars instead of the previous 48x48. File size wise, we thought 20k is a big file allowance for an 80x80 pic. Do you disagree?

I'm a bit concerned about the editing stuff as well. Editing the first post will probably solve the MP problem. The mod threads might be another issue. Editing the first post will probably cover most problems, but I imagine there might be instances where attachments are added by several people developing a mod and each ned to edit their own post to make their addition up to date. If the first poster administers everything it might work anyway.

Still thinking on this one, I need to do some searching for possible solutions. Right now I'm working on the font size issue some people are seeing in the reply box.

[BadCompany]

I like this new look.It has some issues but remember site conversion sticky thread,they are still working out afew things.Be happy that the forum is up because like Mindi said,they could have just waited til everything was perfect(I missed the forums).

[Tim Brooks]

Originally Posted by Endoperez

...not something that totally changed the look. This is made worse by the fact that the new look is horrible, especially the current shrapnel games from page, and especially the bland, BLUE cd in the middle. The cursive titles It's what we do and Buy it! Buy it! are horrible. Defining your publishing as something you do feels bland, and the buy it! line seems way too direct, even desperate.I don't think your blog is supposed to be amusing, and Take it! again goes way above my comfort level. I really hope the images under "Our games" are temporary. They make it look like all your games were sold either in dvd cases or in boxes, but at least Dominions 3 isn't. Ordering your games alphabetically by category doesn't work. The current way starts from BOARD games, and ENDS in STRATEGY and WAR. This doesn't work for "publisher of permier war and strategy games". Color scheme of the new forum is bland. The old brown gave the forum most of its feeling, IMO. Graphic ads on the side of the forum are really distracting. As said before, the poster's name on top of each post takes huge amount of space. As some other people, I was shocked when I first saw the new forum. Color scheme and look were a big part in that. I even felt like this wasn't the same forum at all, and that I might leave it just for that, and the small things yet to be ironed out.

Tell us what you 'really' think, Edoperez.

Thanks Mindi, for all of your hard work! You are greatly appreciated, here at Shrapnel, if nowhere else.

[BadCompany]

Originally Posted by Tim Brooks

Thanks Mindi, for all of your hard work! You are greatly appreciated, here at Shrapnel, if nowhere else.

Ditto.

[llamabeast]

Endoperez is, I fear, merely saying what many of us feel.

Not to worry though, early days and all that. There have already been a huge number of improvements since the preview version I saw as a moderator, and no doubt that preview version itself took a massive amount of work to set up.

[JimMorrison]

Personally I'm kind of a stickler for not having things "remember me", I don't like leaving my passwords laying around - even on Firefox.

Anyway Mindi, we know (or we SHOULD know) that you all went through a lot this weekend, and I for one also appreciate all the hard work and attention to detail that was paid. It's obvious that you all want these forums to be attractive AND functional. To not only entice random surfers, but to also properly display the communities that spring up around these games, and the high level of support they tend to receive from their developers.

The problem - and I do think it's ironic that there are so many comments from Dominions players, seeing as it is the highest selling title from Shrapnel, as well as claiming the most active community - is that we are being asked to give up a LOT of functionality and capability, for a lot of control and marketing (for Shrapnel).

I don't think that anyone meant to put anything in a threatening way, but there is wisdom in looking at this from more than a police sort of view. I see so many replies with "this was out of hand", "we don't want that", "people would do this", that remind me of someone cutting off their foot to stop from stubbing their toes.

All leading up to this conversion, many of us were a bit excited, because we kept being told the new software would "allow us to do so much". Currently all I see is that the software allows YOU to do so much - but all the users of the forums get, in trade for all that we are giving up, is slightly larger avatars.

I believe your team is highly underestimating the importance of the Edit issue. I believe you also badly underestimated the PM issue. 300 is still a bit cramped for a really active player, and I think it's a bit silly that the suggested answer is manually archiving what could potentially be 10-15 messages a day.

I'm personally in no hurry to go anywhere else - I like it here. But rather than viewing things as threatening, please just have a little break and then look at these issues again. It's not that people are itching for a reason to leave, are ungrateful, or are otherwise unhappy with Shrapnel. But the Dominions community is very active, and very prolific. It's in everyone's best interests if you at Shrapnel continue to provide room for us to do our thing, and if we keep our thrumming hive of activity here, posting links and drawing attention. Just to reiterate - we WANT to stay here, so please reconsider how inhospitable the new forum functions, for our needs. I won't even go into the look of it, I think if it works great, people will tend to get over the rest.

<3

[Dedas]

Great post Jim! This is exactly my feelings as well.

[HoneyBadger]

Ok, I'll second (or fifth) three things. First of all: Quick Reply is so tiny that I can barely even type in it. Can this be user-modified? It's very disorienting and hard on my eyes.

Secondly-the dark blue, aquamarine, white coloring is inherantly cold (ice=blue/white/aquamarine) and offputting. The orange-brown/parchment color was welcoming and warm. As it is, although the dark blue itself looks cool enough, the greyish aqua that occupies most of the body of the forum page looks dull and dreary, like dirty water. Very officelike, very corporate memo, not very gamer-friendly.

Third: By eliminating editing after half an hour, you've effectively killed four mod nations I was in the process of developing, atleast for a year or two. Please give us the ability to edit atleast the first post. It will save so many problems and so much confusion-not to mention so many posts.

Also, please keep the users in mind. A strong forum community is one of the best things Dominions3 has going for it. I'm sure there are a lot of other Shrapnel games out there that also benefit from it. It's not a threat to say that if you make bad choices about the forum, and the way it looks and works, that it's going to drive people away and make the ones who are here less active and less efficient. That's just the reality of the world we live in.

I don't hate the new board like cancer, but please don't "fix" what wasn't broken already, just in an effort to look shiny and new.