New Forum - Suggestions

[Aaden]

I'm just gonna pretty much copy-paste the list I compiled over at GoG and extend it afterwards, so many aspects have already been mentioned:

- The profile button is not obvious enough. At first I thought it might be part of the logout-button. It's a little bit of confusion for newcomers that might easily be removed by adding a little 'profile'-text next to/underneath the Avatar in the top-right corner of the screen.

- Links should be more obvious/distinct from text.

- Wasting a bit much space by putting the avatar to the left of the user name instead of underneath it. I'd like a wider text area better. (it's working fine on gog.com due to smaller avatar and text sizes - but here it's eating up too much space)

- The reputation could be added to the user data next to the posts. As of now it can only be seen in the profiles.

- I'd like to see a 'topics you have participated in' category on the main page. It's really useful.

- Indicators in the top-right, when you receive new messages, wall-posts or direct replies to your posts.

- The edit-timestamp should be standard on.

- The friend requests should be set to "only if I approve" as standard.

- No options to stop e-mail spam (messages received, friend added...) - or at least I didn't find it, yet.

 

[227]

- I'd like to see a 'topics you have participated in' category on the main page. It's really useful.

It may not be on the main page, but for people who are unaware (or totally oblivious, like me) you can get to a list of topics you've written in by clicking on your icon in the top-right of the screen to get to your user page, then clicking on "Find my Content."

It's not perfect, but definitely easier than constantly jumping from sub-forum to sub-forum to look for updates.

 

[Aaden]

It may not be on the main page, but for people who are unaware (or totally oblivious, like me) you can get to a list of topics you've written in by clicking on your icon in the top-right of the screen to get to your user page, then clicking on "Find my Content."

It's not perfect, but definitely easier than constantly jumping from sub-forum to sub-forum to look for updates.

Yeah, I recently found that one, too... not very comfortable indeed - and the new replies indicator is different from the rest of the forums too.

And just for your personal emoticon affinity (and my amusement):

 

[Dona.794]

There, edited the first post with more suggestions. Thanks, everyone :]

 

[227]

Everyone who thinks that friend requests should be set to "only if I approve" is evil. It's set that way to encourage friendliness, so all y'all need to STFU.

 

[lycos]

I didn't think there was anything wrong with the old forums, and I'm not overly fond of the current rash of bandwidth guzzling 'social sites' everyone seems to be going towards these days. But I guess I have to deal with it - ah well.

But glancing over - the first thing to come to mind is to cull the "sticky posts". Two thirds of the first page on the community subforum is stickies requiring a fair amount of scrolling to get to actual posts.

The second is whishful thinking - An automatic script which detects anyone who types in "ALL CAPS" or 'text spelling' (you = U, etc) and is programmed to delete their account and schedules them to be fed to a Krayen.

 

[227]

But glancing over - the first thing to come to mind is to cull the "sticky posts". Two thirds of the first page on the community subforum is stickies requiring a fair amount of scrolling to get to actual posts.

Yes, a million times yes.

Another thing I've noticed about the forum--you only get so many negative votes per day. Normally that would be fine, and it's understandable given the potential to misuse them, but there's a disparity between the number of trollish figures who deserve a -1 and the number of negative votes I'm allotted per day.

This is really limiting my ability to engage in vigilante forum justice for the good of all.

EDIT: You know what else I've noticed? Even if you have just a line of text for your signature like I do, that area takes up a good 100-200 pixels of space. Cutting that down would go a long way in removing the "congested" feel of threads.

EDIT2: Another observation: sometimes threads with multiple pages will have a 1-## (whatever the number of pages it is), and other times threads with multiple pages only have the 1. It seems as though the ones that have the end page shown are the ones that were created before the new forum, with the recently-created topics being the ones that it says there's only one page to.

 

[Aaden]

Everyone who thinks that friend requests should be set to "only if I approve" is evil. It's set that way to encourage friendliness, so all y'all need to STFU.

Nah, not evil. Just a sociopathic, xenophobic, slightly mad misantrope.

Agree on getting rid of the abundance of stickies, cpt caps' and leet-speakers - especially if not able to punish the two latter with -rep sufficiently.

 

[DelighfulMcCoy]

Dull down that orange. Honestly, my right eye hurts from scrolling down and having that quote/reply/etc. string of flaming orange buttons flash by. Could you please make it a little duller? I like the idea of having orange/gray colour scheme, but orange that bright and saturated really doesn't look good.

Actually, I thought that was the friendliest new feature and it fits with the general color scheme of the site - if they have to have it inside the main page. I haven't the best eyes, but the orange doesn't irritate me at all. And please don't get this the wrong way, because customizing is everyone's privilege, but your jerky avatar does irritate me way more. And I only say that to reaffirm the color scheme.

The text. That white makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Making it a light gray would look so much better (look at GoG Forums for a good example of gray on gray).

The text is grey. I could stand just a smidge darker, but it is definitely too small for high resolutions and when you tone down the contrast, it might get unreadable, if the text size doesn't get bigger. Same goes for the font size here in the writing window, way too small. Not all witchers are 20 years old and have 125/125 eyesight.

Are you planning to add more info below user names? If not, putting them above the icon would look so much better... and give us extra 100px for actual posts.

I second that. Both The name above the avatar and more info, because this is not twitter, right?

Another suggestion for the forum: I really, really want to go to the last page when I click on a topic. It seems unintuitive to have to click the topic, then the most recent page just to get there.

First page? Last page? Can't we have the button back to go to the last unread posting, like it is on any other forum except GoG and here?

Here's another suggestion. QUOTES. You have to manually add a quote within a quote, which is a bit annoying sometimes.

There's definitely something off with the quotes... looks weird and squished here in the preview, let's see how it turns out in the topic.

The reputation could be added to the user data next to the posts. As of now it can only be seen in the profiles.

Do we need this? If you have to decide which one post a day you click on, it's badly implemented anyway. Then post count and join date under the avatar might be more informative.

The friend requests should be set to "only if I approve" as standard.

Yes. It feels weird to suddenly be on someones list or having to contemplate if it might be intrusive to add someone without asking for permission.


Now some of my own thoughs and questions.

- Can we have the list on the main page with 20 instead of 10 postings (or is there a setting somewhere hidden in the profile?)? Postings get lost quickly. If you insist on cluttering up half the page with the nice design, we have to scroll down for content anyway.

How does the list work, aynway? When I just posted a reply, shouldn't the topic get bumped to the list? I don't see this topic at all.

- Will there be a TW2 modding forum? Funnily, two months ago I though that was the only neccessary change at all.

- Are all old attachments lost forever in the old database or will they get added back in? I just noticed that in an old topic of me, the attachment with the actual mod is gone. So are all other small mods, which were provided as attachments. Ultimately invalidating the whole topic.

- There is an option for custom user name in the profile, but it is not displayed. Yet. Probably WIP.

- One thing that does not fit with the theme: I just had a glaring white screen flash on me, when I edited a topic setting. That'll wake you right up in the night, ouch.

- The PM system? Writing on walls? Please give us a real PM system, this is important. Also, isn't a "Wall" a public thing? *confused*


Last, but not least: Thank you for a proper post preview!! I've missed that so much on the nice forum that provided refuge for us in the last months.

 

[Aaden]

[...]
[my rep post, too lazy to reinsert the quote manually]

Do we need this? If you have to decide which one post a day you click on, it's badly implemented anyway. Then post count and join date under the avatar might be more informative.

[...]


Now some of my own thoughs and questions.

[...]
- Will there be a TW2 modding forum? Funnily, two months ago I though that was the only neccessary change at all.

[...]

IF CDPR wants to stick to the rep-feature, there's no use in hiding it in the profiles. I'm OK with removing it entirely, but the current solution isn't useful (or at least user-friendly) in any way. So either improve it or remove it - something has to be done about it either way.

But you still have a point there: No post count and join date, yet. Need!

I noticed that they renamed the mods forum from "Djinni thingy" to "Mods and Adventures", today. They'll need to add subforums to clearly separate TW1 and TW2 though, imo.

 

[DelighfulMcCoy]

I noticed that they renamed the mods forum from "Djinni thingy" to "Mods and Adventures", today. They'll need to add subforums to clearly separate TW1 and TW2 though, imo.

I just thought about adding a link to my Nexus mods (before May17, I had a dream of posting the first TW2 mod here, the White Wolf one, but that was long ago...). I honestly wouldn't know where to post that. People will get crazy confused, if they try to put TW1 mods into TW2 and vice versa!

 

[227]

People will get crazy confused, if they try to put TW1 mods into TW2 and vice versa!

Couldn't you just post it in that "mods and adventures" section prefaced with some kind of "WITCHER 2 MOD:" title?

 

[Aaden]

Couldn't you just post it in that "mods and adventures" section prefaced with some kind of "WITCHER 2 MOD:" title?

I suggest establishing [TW1] and [TW2] as standards until CDPR acts and gives us the much needed subforums.

 

[227]

I suggest establishing [TW1] and [TW2] as standards until CDPR acts and gives us the much needed subforums.

You should PM Flash about that since all the stickies in that sub-forum are by him. Seems like he's the go-to person for making a temporary standard like that stick.

EDIT TO AVOID DOUBLE POST: Okay, so I hit both my limit of -1 votes and +1 votes. Lots of people say entertaining/awful things, and I can't reward/punish them adequately like this ):

 

[Cyberfrog]

Settings at page [U]http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&mode=reg_details[/U] should be made easily accessible to forum members.

Because there you can e.g. enable the setting "Watch every topic I reply to", and then your forum front page will let you now when people post in that topic. Maybe it should be enabled by default, to bring this forum closer to GOG.

 

[DelighfulMcCoy]

Settings at page http://en.thewitcher...ode=reg_details should be easily accessible. You can e.g. enable the setting "Watch every topic I reply to", and then your forum front page will let you now when people post in that topic. Maybe it should be enabled by default, to bring this forum closer to GOG.

Color me blind - but how do I get to that page without your link? Not through the profile or anywhere else...

And while I can opt to fill my whole page with topics I've replied to, should a recently active topic not be on top of that list for everyone? I can only subscribe to topics I've participated in, but what about other active topics? What puts a topic on that list, if not recent posts?

Also, I've noticed on that page, that you have to manage your attachements, that there are some I used, but not all of them and why is there a limit? For all time. I put up one mod and have to take down the other? This is a little confusing and a lot unusual.

 

[Cyberfrog]

Color me blind - but how do I get to that page without your link?

Yes, unless I'm blind too, you need to be aware of its existence beforehand. Which is bad, obviously. But probably very, very easy to fix.

I'll edit my post above to make it clearer.

 

[blubeetle]

I don't know if this has already been suggested before, but based on experience, there should be a script preventing one from posting double post of the exact same message, or an empty post, be it intentionally or not.

 

[DelighfulMcCoy]

Maybe that "new reply" icon referenced in the legend is supposed to get you to the first unread post? But that feature doesn't seem to work. And this here topic has yet to make an appearance on the "recent topics" list. Or does this list only display new topics, not recently active ones? Or only topics from a select forum area?

Edit: I just found out that even moderators seem to have a limited contingent for private messages, which is defnintely NOT GOOD. They should be reachable no matter what.

Everything here seems to be very limited... starting to feel a little claustrophobic...

 

[Dona.794]

And this here topic has yet to make an appearance on the "recent topics" list. Or does this list only display new topics, not recently active ones? Or only topics from a select forum area?

It only displays newly made topics, it's stupid. :/

And thank you so much for the link, Cyberfrog! Finally got to adjust some things that annoyed me. Whee~