New Forums - Where do I start?!?

I hate to say it, Alien, but I'm really not digging the new forums. Much of it is nice, but I don't find it's as user friendly as the last version.

My opinions on where improvements can be made:

• The forum names definitely have to get more user-friendly.
• Please bring back the email login box on the main page. That was tremendously helpful.
• The color difference between the new posts and no new posts icons isn't different enough to really tell when there are new posts in a forum.

Some of the things I like about the new forums:

• I do really like the new icons beneath a user's name and avatar. While the badges were a nice personalized touch, I feel they brought negative behavior from some of the AS population.
• I also like the new color scheme. The colors are a little brighter and easier to read.
• The forum FAQ's are in a nice noticable place now.

I'm sure many of these things are only in use under the "beta" test, and may be altered, but these are my thoughts on it.

Keep up the good work.

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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious."

 

You know, I didn't even realize that there were no more badges until you mentioned that, DD. And I gotta admit, I do sorta agree with the forum names. They're just a *wee* bit confusing. Sorry, Awien .

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"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." ~ Semi-Sonic

 

Considering that we've all been here a while and know how the forums are laid out, and we're having such a difficult time figuring out what topic belongs in each forum now, imagine what a new user just joining must think when they first arrive?!?


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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious."

 

Well first off I didn't notice the badges were gone til ya said that either...but I happened to like 'em, gave ya a sense of purpose...but oh well *shrugs*

Second, we're just used to the old ones. WHen a new user comes, they'll be used to these, cuz they haven't seen the others. I like 'em because they make the forum rather human (which Im sure was not your goal.... )

Third, the colors rule, and all the new options. Although I wish the posts were still visibal without having to put mouse over icon, that'll get kinda annoying....

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Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I would like you to wonder your eyes toward another one of Napoli's posts, for it will complete your life

 

Ah, that's exactly why I like the fact that the post counts aren't there.
As for them giving a sense of purpose, what purpose would that be? Just to have the most posts? Without them having any sort of meaningful content, the number of posts is just an empty statistic.

Personally, I'd prefer to have people strive to have more useful content than just to have more posts than the next guy. Quality over quantity...

As for the forum names, I look at it this way... if a person can't glance at a forum name and figure out what posts go in there, they're too confusing. I don't think it has anything to do with us being used to the old system. If I were to look at the word 'Movies', I know that posts related to movies goes in there. If I were to look at the phrase '10 bucks for popcorn my ass!', that could be a movie forum, but it could also be rants, consumer issues, or any number of other topics.
If you have to read the forum description to figure out what goes where, you've made the title too vague.


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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious."

 

Thanks for the responses guys.

For a little while, we'll be switching things around that work the best. Anything is subject to change, since now there is no 'freeze' on changes, you will see alot come forth and be updated.

I appreciate feedback like this to gather what works the most for the largest userbase.

Oh one thing I did want to address. There will be some sort of badge or multi-colored stars for your rank, that just hasn't been finalized yet for the images. However when I do decide, it takes 60 seconds to code. .

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"Everything was true. God was an alien. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed

"The quickest way to a woman's heart, is with a pickaxe." - Cryptkeeper

 

Well I think that's what the forum descriptions are there for.

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Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I would like you to wonder your eyes toward another one of Napoli's posts, for it will complete your life

 

Nap> The rule of thumb is this: a typical web surfer is only as ambitious as they have to be. The more obstacles you make them go through, the less likely they will stay on your site or come back.
The easier you make things, the more likely that they'll want to not only come back, but stick around once they do come back.

Making most people stop to read the forum info to make sure that what they're about to post is being posted to the right place is enough to deter 95% of the web surfers out there from posting at all.

It's all a matter of user-friendliness.
The shortest distance between two points...

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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious."

 

Yeah I know all that, I just liked having those humorous titles! .

And the stars are cool! Alien's rules, cuz he's got all the colors. . Me jealous...

Also, why do you keep saying that I go for quantity over quality of posts? I could care less how many posts I have...I post because I have something to say. When I have something to say, I say it...just my nature. So please stop bringing that up! .

You know what I just noticed though? Everything is loading a bit faster. Didja do something in that nature Alien?

(edited for the soul purpose of editing)

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Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I would like you to wonder your eyes toward another one of Napoli's posts, for it will complete your life

<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by NapoliJ10 on December 27, 2000 at 04:56 AM</font>

 

Nap&gt; I never said 'you'. I meant in general, I would prefer that people focus on quality of their posts over how many meaningless posts they can have.
I was just responding to your comment, not talking about you personally.

As I said before, if there's no meaningful content in the posts, then the number of posts is an empty statistic.

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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious."

 

Alien&gt; WOW! What a difference a day makes.
I have to tell you that I didn't even notice that you had changed the forum names back, because it just seemed so natural that I knew what forum I was going into.
I suppose that would be the desired effect. .

The email login is back, I really like the Add To Favorites button, and the site is flying, even on my slow-ass modem.
.

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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious."

 

wow.. i didn't notice it until dan said it.. the site is loading up faster.. good job alien.. .

 

colors rock, forum names awesome ., loading time great (although it could be deceptive preloading), lack of post counts a thumbs-up, um... and other stuff cool!

i just hope i didn't miss anything, like what "add to favorites" button?

i also miss the badges, although they were basically post counts. i still don't understand the star system. i think badges or stars should represent amount of time in the soup, not number of posts or karma or whatever... oh yeah, i miss karma

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This message will self-destruct in 5...4...3...

 

Alien&gt; LOVE (!!!) the new avatar. .

mj&gt; Add to Favorites. On the main forums page, all the way on the right hand side, there's a column with a yellow folder with a star on it.


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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious."

 

*dies*
psh, nice going! changing everything while i was gone, i'm so very confused......
i just have one major comment on the whole thing, those little jumping people or whatever that signify if there are new posts or not are, well, confusing.

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oh well, spaghettio's

 

'jumping people'

.

Those images are being replaced.. All colors and graphics are still subject to change. .

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"Everything was true. God was an alien. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed

"The quickest way to a woman's heart, is with a pickaxe." - Cryptkeeper

 

and where can you see how many kudos a person has?

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oh well, spaghettio's

 

Kudos is a hack for 'another software'. .

We use Karma here, and it's not currently up at the moment.

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"Everything was true. God was an alien. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed

"The quickest way to a woman's heart, is with a pickaxe." - Cryptkeeper

 

. duh
yea, i meant karma, sorry

 

Naughty naughty, scarier.
With the forum names, I think creative ones are better, but they've got to be obvious as well, so that it's interesting, but not too confusing.

Apart from that, I can't think of much else, yet, anyway, but it's looking really good so far.



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Lister from Red Dwarf -
"I want to get married, have a family... get lots of practice in the things you need to do to get a family"