General Forum Issues

[BetaNotus]

I figure there might as well be a general thread for smaller questions and issues. It seems silly to start a new thread for each of them.

- I feel like I'm Buddy the Elf when I post. Why am I shouting in caps?
- The "Referrer" option when creating an account prevents you from creating an account when you enter the name of a user not already registered on these forums.
- The process for changing avatars seems really unintuitive. One would think that "My Profile" would allow for edits to be made, but that's all on the separate "Settings" page.

[cr00cy]

Yeh i agrre on avatar thing. Took me a while to find it. Also manualy re-siszing image - not sure why, i always used the same image for my avatar, and never had to resize it manualy (even on old forum).

[Silvonis]

I figure there might as well be a general thread for smaller questions and issues. It seems silly to start a new thread for each of them.

- I feel like I'm Buddy the Elf when I post. Why am I shouting in caps?
- The "Referrer" option when creating an account prevents you from creating an account when you enter the name of a user not already registered on these forums.
- The process for changing avatars seems really unintuitive. One would think that "My Profile" would allow for edits to be made, but that's all on the separate "Settings" page.

1. You can't be referred by someone who is not a member, that is working properly.
2. The font is a design choice.
3. Changing your avatar is really simple, and is probably only an issue until you get use to the new software. To change your avatar, click the "settings" button in the upper left hand corner. Then scroll down to "My Settings" on the left bar and click "Edit Avatar".

As far as having to resize your avatar, the dimensions are stated on the edit page and it is required in order to maintain a uniform avatar size.

[Itherael]

Overall, it looks great!

[cr00cy]

1. You can't be referred by someone who is not a member, that is working properly.
2. The font is a design choice.
3. Changing your avatar is really simple, and is probably only an issue until you get use to the new software. To change your avatar, click the "settings" button in the upper left hand corner. Then scroll down to "My Settings" on the left bar and click "Edit Avatar".

As far as having to resize your avatar, the dimensions are stated on the edit page and it is required in order to maintain a uniform avatar size.

Well, i agree taht changign avatar is simnple, its mor eliek findign hwo to do it is a bit confusing. At least at first. Well mayeb add thsi info to FAQ when its ready.

About resiszing - well only thing i wa ssuprised was that i had to resize image manualy. Liek i said, it never happened before. Not that its some big issue, just tough i point it out.

[Silvonis]

I've added "How do I change my Avatar?" to the FAQ. Thanks all.

[Greyfyn]

Yup, I see the design choice. Nevertheless, it's hard to read. It's not just about the caps, it's about the word spacing and the fact that the actual caps are not "cappy" enough. Sure, you're stylistically exciting, but you're gonna find a lot of people will not bother to read any of it. Personally, I'll be making a copy of any long post and moving it elsewhere to be re-formatted for reading.

WHEN THERE ARE ENOUGH POSTS HERE AND YOU SEE THE MAGNITUDE OF READING THIS TEXT, THERE MIGHT BE ANOTHER ANSWER TO THE STYLE QUESTION. ALSO, THE FIGURE GROUND ISSUES COMPOUND THE ISSUES WITH THE TEXT. BROWN ON BROWN IS VERY LUSCIOUS, BUT IT IS TAXING IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ALL CAPS FONT. I SAY PICK ONE, NOT BOTH. FOR EXAMPLE, YOU HAVE A VERY DIVERSE AUDIENCE, MANY WHO ARE OLDER AND MANY FOR WHOM ENGLISH IS NOT THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE--IT'S STILL WORTH CONSIDERING ALLOWING HAVING A WAY TO OPT OUT OF THIS TEXTUAL STYLE.

[Erthiel]

I personally don't like the 2 marked areas on the screenshot. They take up too much space. They are everywhere and have basically no relevant information after you look at them once. The logo could be moved a bit. Every time I click on a link I see exactly what is on the screen shot. First time I came to this page I clicked on something and wondered why nothing is happening only to realise, to see what I was looking for, I have to scroll down.

forum's limit of 97.7 KB for this filetype (jpeg) - that's quite low for images, took me a while to shrink the size...

1

[Silvonis]

I personally don't like the 2 marked areas on the screenshot. They take up too much space. They are everywhere and have basically no relevant information after you look at them once. The logo could be moved a bit. Every time I click on a link I see exactly what is on the screen shot. First time I came to this page I clicked on something and wondered why nothing is happening only to realise, to see what I was looking for, I have to scroll down.

forum's limit of 97.7 KB for this filetype (jpeg) - that's quite low for images, took me a while to shrink the size...

1

Thanks for your feedback. I have disabled file attachments completly as images can be hosted on a third party site like Imgur. I appreciate your style related feedback, but both parts referenced serve a function. The main logo is scaled down when compared to a lot of similar websites, but that area also features the search box - which is an important function of the site. The 'Welcome' box can and will feature important updates as we move forward. Thanks again for your feedback.

[Greyfyn]

I like the sword on the page tab for my browser. Also, I had no problem setting up an avatar or linking my steam account. Thx!

[BetaNotus]

A few other things. If someone is using multiple monitors, or multiple windows, things don’t resize themselves properly. The “Welcome to Project: Gorgon” box’s text tends to overflow. No horizontal scroll bar is provided at any window width, which can cause reading problems. Posts themselves don’t wrap beyond a certain point, A default Windows 7 split-screen tab at 100% zoom cuts off about 5 characters of text from the end of each line in a post or thread topic.

On a mobile device, the “Welcome to Project Gorgon” box overflows from the darker image being used for its background. The overflown text sometimes blends into the foggy background image. Also on mobile, while threads and topic lists scale reasonably, the forum home page layout prevents scaling of the actual important information (the topic links). The “Latest Thread Activity” and “Twitter Feed” while great, impede the usefulness of the forum home page on mobile.

There also seems to be a missing “Forum Footer” on the sub-forum pages. For example, on the “Gorgon Community” sub-forum page, there is a large empty box titled “Forum Footer.”

[Silvonis]

A few other things. If someone is using multiple monitors, or multiple windows, things don’t resize themselves properly. The “Welcome to Project: Gorgon” box’s text tends to overflow. No horizontal scroll bar is provided at any window width, which can cause reading problems. Posts themselves don’t wrap beyond a certain point, A default Windows 7 split-screen tab at 100% zoom cuts off about 5 characters of text from the end of each line in a post or thread topic.

On a mobile device, the “Welcome to Project Gorgon” box overflows from the darker image being used for its background. The overflown text sometimes blends into the foggy background image. Also on mobile, while threads and topic lists scale reasonably, the forum home page layout prevents scaling of the actual important information (the topic links). The “Latest Thread Activity” and “Twitter Feed” while great, impede the usefulness of the forum home page on mobile.

There also seems to be a missing “Forum Footer” on the sub-forum pages. For example, on the “Gorgon Community” sub-forum page, there is a large empty box titled “Forum Footer.”



Thanks for the additional feedback. As far as viewing the webpage on multiple monitors, it is not currently supported and we recommend viewing the website on a single monitor. It may be an issue that I address in the future though. As for mobile browsing, it is trickier because it depends on phone itself, the operating system and the browser. That said, I am looking at implementing a very simple mobile design that will allow users to use the forums without the frills.

[srand]

Hey, Silvonis! I think we talked a long, long time ago about different themes that a user might switch between. Is that available yet?

[Silvonis]

Hey, Silvonis! I think we talked a long, long time ago about different themes that a user might switch between. Is that available yet?

No, but I will be looking at creating and implementing an extremely basic style for mobile. The issue with multiple styles is that there is a ton of custom backend code that would need to be modified for each.

[Greyfyn]

It's hard to assume what browsers people use. Is there a survey function on the forum? If we assume firefox is a primary browser, then I can say that the text boxes tend to cut off the bottom of letters. In typing Greyfyn, I could not be sure I had y and not v typed because it did not fit in the box.

Another case of the text being too close to the border and being tough to read is on the welcome post. If there was a couple of pts around the text, it would not bleed into the border. I assume it's not an em--a scaleable font, so it will continue being a very large type on a very small screen for a phone. On my ipad mini, the welcome note bleeds way down into the border underneath the text block by three lines. We're talking refinements here. ;)


PS:
Oh, and if posters want to not talk in caps, they can use the "Go Advanced" button down below and be as fontly creative as they like.

[Auth]

Can we get spoiler tags added?

[Auth]

Thanks for the additional feedback. As far as viewing the webpage on multiple monitors, it is not currently supported and we recommend viewing the website on a single monitor. It may be an issue that I address in the future though. As for mobile browsing, it is trickier because it depends on phone itself, the operating system and the browser. That said, I am looking at implementing a very simple mobile design that will allow users to use the forums without the frills.

I'm a php dev & web designer. I'd be more than happy to lend a hand if needed.

[Greyfyn]

Ah, I see that the option to change text type has been removed. I state again that your design choice is not readable. As a contributor, I find walls of this font choice impenetrable and will continue to save off messages elsewhere to read them.

[Erthiel]

I did not see an option to upvote, like or thank an author of particular comment to show my support or approval for the particular point in that comment. It would be great to have such a feature.

EDIT:
Further I noticed everyone who registers gets 25 points. I registered among the first people and did not receive my registration points :(

[cr00cy]

Can we get spoiler tags added?

I second this

Also erthiel + i think point are for posting not just registering. Sometime points for mz post atke a whiel to load so thsi might eb it too.

[Silvonis]

Thanks for everyone's feedback thus far! I am working on making improvements, and the first major change is the default font. As you can see, moving forward, this will be the default font. It has standard capitalization and great spacing which makes longer posts easier to read.

[Silvonis]

BetaNotus Greyfyn I've updated the default font for readability - thoughts?

[Shadower]

Thanks for everyone's feedback thus far! I am working on making improvements, and the first major change is the default font. As you can see, moving forward, this will be the default font. It has standard capitalization and great spacing which makes longer posts easier to read.

Much much better!

[Silvonis]

I have implemented a custom coded 'Spoiler Tag' which is available on the Quick and Advanced text bar. This is a test of the Spoiler feature.

[FURY]

@BetaNotus (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/member.php?u=10) @Greyfyn (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/member.php?u=18) I've updated the default font for readability - thoughts?
Yes! Quite a bit better.

[ShieldBreaker]

This Font is much easier to read. Thank you. :)

[BetaNotus]

BetaNotus Greyfyn I've updated the default font for readability - thoughts?

I love it! Thank you. Looks fine on the three devices I'm viewing the forums on.

[ShieldBreaker]

A few more issues on the forum to work on.

1) The Spoiler Tag, the button starts as "Show" but once you click it to hide again the button says "Ocultar" instead of hide and if you do hide it instead of show it says "Mostrar" or something like that.

2) On the menu bar "Home Forum Blog Wiki Activity vBShop" you have vBShop at the end shouldn't it just be Shop.
also
on menu bar" My Activity Visitor Messages About Me Friends Activity Mentions Thread Tags Quotes vBShop " again vBShop
from member.php the member list page i think.


3) two vbActivity in on page text on vbactivity.php
'
Activity Home
Welcome to vBActivity!

You can use the side menu to navigate through the various features available.
'
and the side menu reads
'vBActivity Actions'

[Silvonis]

I've updated the Spoiler feature to fix the button wording.

[Greyfyn]

Yes, the new font is extremely readable. I can parse the page instantly. It's great.

I do like cool fonts like the original, but long swathes of it made my cortex ache with effort.

[ShieldBreaker]

It might just be me, but I find it really difficult to tell the difference between the swordsman icon for unread posts, and no unread posts on the main forum page. I notice a slight brightening on the unread posts icon but seems kind of hard to notice. Maybe if the sword was in a different position or maybe had a glow or blood on it just something to make it easier to tell when there are unread posts.

[BetaNotus]

Alright, I found some other things.
- When you conduct a conversation between two people on a profile page, the text is still capitalized, and is pretty small.
- Once you add someone as a friend, the "My Activity" tab under "My Profile" will display all of their forum posts (which is fine and can be toggled) in extremely small text, also in full caps (the size part is the issue).

[Niph]

Perhaps I missed it in the previous posts, and it's a minor issue anyway... If you look at a new thread entry, then return to the previous page in the browser, it shows all threads and the one you just read is still displayed as new. It's expected, and if you refresh the page, the thread title is correctly displayed as "read".

However, if instead you browse to the previous page again, this time showing the main forum page, and refresh, the forum still indicates there are new threads (even if you've read them all). It will only acknowledge you have read a thread if you refresh the correct forum page, not the main page, which is weird (and minor).

This on Google Chrome, in case it matters.

[Tagamogi]

I would really prefer it if either the header was much smaller, or the "Welcome to Project Gorgon" box only showed up on the initial forum index page. With my display settings, the header information takes up my entire monitor screen, and having to scroll down a whole page whenever I go to a new forum, or a new subforum, or a new thread, or the next page in the current thread becomes irritating very quickly. (And confusing when I see a prompt telling me to log in but no login box anywhere on my current screen because it's all header.) I like the idea of updating the box with current news, but I really think it would be just fine to only have it on the main forum page.

I'd also really like something like the Thank You feature from the old forums.

Oh, and I like the new font. :)

[Extractum11]

1) The homepage style doesn't match the new forum.
2) It seems to 'update' read/unread posts pretty slowly. I can read all the New Posts, go back to the main page, and still all the forum sections that the new posts were in are still highlighted.
3) Ticker on the homepage still shows the old forum, the very first thing says "Forums Closed -- Read Only". I imagine it could be offputting for new players.

[ShieldBreaker]

Silvonis
Can an emoticon be add to the selectable icon ones.

Is it possible to get an icon for this :| or :-| Emoticon Straight face, no expression, indecision ?

[Hood]

@Silvonis (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/member.php?u=1)
Can an emoticon be add to the selectable icon ones.

Is it possible to get an icon for this :| or :-| Emoticon Straight face, no expression, indecision ?

Please add a Devil Face. Lately I have found myself needing that one a lot here.

[Hood]

Hrm..on a more serious note, when I view the forum on my mobile (Firefox), the twitter feed widget seems to function correctly. However, in Firefox (Linux) none of the tweets populate. Chrome, on the other hand, displays them perfectly. This is a minor compatibility issue.

[Silvonis]

I have added some additional custom code to allow members to minimize the 'Welcome Box' at the top of the forum by clicking the arrow in the upper right corner of the box. It will remain collapsed until the user uncollapses it or until I manually uncollapse it system wide for important announcements. I would highly recommend those who choose to minimize the window check it periodically for updates as we will not be responsible if you miss out on something cool.

[Yertle]

Really Nice!

[Yertle]

I think there is an issue in the Latest Thread Activity in that it does not honor my Time Zone.
"Last Post By Silvonis (38 replies)
Today, 06:02 PM in Website Technical Support"

When it was actually 10:02 AM for me. Could that be updated to honor the Time Zone setting?

[Greyfyn]

Under the tab Forum Actions, the general settings tab, there is an option to set your time zone.

I'm replying as a test to see if it is working properly.

Edit: it is.

[Tagamogi]

I have added some additional custom code to allow members to minimize the 'Welcome Box' at the top of the forum by clicking the arrow in the upper right corner of the box. It will remain collapsed until the user uncollapses it or until I manually uncollapse it system wide for important announcements. I would highly recommend those who choose to minimize the window check it periodically for updates as we will not be responsible if you miss out on something cool.

Yay, thank you!

[Yertle]

Under the tab Forum Actions, the general settings tab, there is an option to set your time zone.

I'm replying as a test to see if it is working properly.

Edit: it is.

Mine is set correctly and the time displays right in all places except for the Latest Thread Activity widget (on the right side of this page http://forum.projectgorgon.com/forum.php )

[ShieldBreaker]

Okay the FAQ for changing your avatar as posted in the official FAQ on this site, was brought up in discussion in-game.

https://forum.projectgorgon.com/faq.php?faq=website#faq_avatar

Well the instructions don't seem to match the UI in game at all. So is this for a new UI or is it something left over and needs to be removed? Causes confusion either way.

Oh, I see what happened, that is only the website avatar. Not the game avatar. Someone thought it was for the game avatar and want to make changes, and most of us were like huh? But I can see where the confusion came from. Maybe some way to make it easier to tell which part is for game and which part for website.

[Mijja]

Is it possible to change nickname or should i recreate an account since it's fresh ?

I just noticed i made a typo naming myself "Mijja" instead of "Mijka" ^^'.