Topic: List of Suggestions

[Zach Adams]

Alright, first I want to say good job on the forum. The new logo at the top is pretty cool and the layout is excellent. But.... the color is a little bland. You should find some way to use more then a few grays and whites. (And a very rare purple)... second, there has got to be a better way to get our names to stand out! Enlarge them, let us change the colors of our names, allow size restricted signitures (to be avature size), give us all custom titles, ANYTHING! Some of the moderators need to think about this, every board has some way to recognize members of a community more then text. So, thats all I have now.

I definatly think you shouldn't return to the old one, this one looks better. But a few changes can be made, maybe not how I think, but we can find a way somehow. Anyone else have suggestions?  

EDIT: Oh, and then there is that "see who's online" thing. Well, we need something quicker. We shouldn't need to go through an alphabet to find who's on, anyway to make the default "all" instead of "A"?  

[dilbert627]

Agreeage.   I can definitely do without avatars, but SOME kind of graphical personalization would be nice.  

[Sarail]

Is it at all possible for those who had custom forum titles on the old boards have them back?  I was given mine by Ty because of purchasing something from PGC.  Atleast with custom titles our names would stand out a little better.  What with us not having avatars and all...

[Zach Adams]

Hey Rachtman! Ah, so thats how you guys got custom titles... hmm... well I have another thing. Does the messages/day work in the profile section or is it just disabled? I thought you guys didn't like that kinda stuff.

[RickPowers]

Quote
Enlarge them, let us change the colors of our names, allow size restricted signitures (to be avature size), give us all custom titles, ANYTHING! Some of the moderators need to think about this, every board has some way to recognize members of a community more then text.

The problem is, we don't want this to become a contest, who can have the best avatar, who's got the best title, etc.  We turned all of that off on purpose.  In any message board community, the MOST important part is the conversation, the posts themselves.  Everything else serves to get in the way.  Custom titles based on post counts is part of the software, and we disabled it specifically to avoid garbage posting used to get new titles.  It's just not worth the effort.  For the record, many of those features are still enabled for moderators, so we can see your post counts, when you registered, your IP Address, etc.  It's just hidden from general view.

As for the custom titles you already had, I might consider bringing those back.  I realize that you all bought things from PGC to do that, and we do want to reward that sort of thing.  We might even do something along those lines formally in the future.  Right now, I'm just more concerned with getting the bugs worked out, and sprucing things up a bit.  Better graphics and whatnot are coming, it's just going to take a bit.  The color scheme, however, is pretty well set (and those actually are shades of purple, believe it or not).  It was a matter of improving legibility more than anything.  But maybe ... just maybe ... we'll let you guys pick your own scheme later on.  

[Matt]

Yeah, the forums are a bit "light"... I wish there was more graphics and features.

Rick makes a great point: converstation and discussion is the most important part of the forum.

[Evilmanman]

Exactly how is having an avatar, or a title a competition? I think that people use them to personalise a message more then to prove to themselves that they are better then other people. Although I do understand why you dont have colourful names (fluro green is bad for the eyes) but let us personalise our accounts more than a signature please!

Also in the profile could you please include a place to put a description of one's self.

[Zach Adams]

Quote
Better graphics and whatnot are coming, it's just going to take a bit. The color scheme, however, is pretty well set (and those actually are shades of purple, believe it or not). It was a matter of improving legibility more than anything. But maybe ... just maybe ... we'll let you guys pick your own scheme later on.

Hehe, yeah that would be pretty cool. I was also wondering about something else, that would take a lot more effort. Is it possible for each day to have a different theme that was already put in? When its 12:00 AM, the theme could change to a MARIO theme or then the next day, be a LINK theme. I don't think its anything needed at all, but it would be cool to have changes in the forum once in a while and I think EZboard let you have the theme change on certain days. Just a cool thought. And.... like EvilMan, I don't understand this whole competition thing and I think you mean that you disabled signitures, not avatars... but well, its your decision. Of course the talking is the main part, we are just finding small improvements that could be made. We can settle fine here, if that were not the case, I wouldn't be talking here! But there isn't ANY chance for you to allow a very THIN banner in the signiture area, you can enforce rules on pic size there as well as you did on avatars, and it would look fine if you allowed it to be wide enough and not too tall to stand out. Just so we can put some pic there. I don't think this would be THAT bad on the bandwidth, considering how many would even use the signitures anyway! It isn't any competition, but I like to see who someone is right away. Just some small things, its very good that you are making new graphics too, thats a great idea.

[TheBlackStallion]

Uh... why not YaBB or UBB somthing good. I even like EZBoard over this one. The interface of this one is just too bland and boring. It didnt have the same feeling that the EZBoard forum had. I dont think that people will move from EZBoard to this bland stuff. Also, is there a way to import old topics on to this board. I really enjoyed reading them.


PS: Ive pulled better looking emoticons out of my ass, atleast change THOSE

[Zach Adams]

Well they already had the layout done on FuseTalk before the EZBoard one was used. So they just went back to this.

[RickPowers]

Quote
Uh... why not YaBB or UBB somthing good. I even like EZBoard over this one. The interface of this one is just too bland and boring. It didnt have the same feeling that the EZBoard forum had. I dont think that people will move from EZBoard to this bland stuff. Also, is there a way to import old topics on to this board. I really enjoyed reading them.

PS: Ive pulled better looking emoticons out of my ass, atleast change THOSE

No one is forcing you to use it, so if you dislike it that much, feel free to leave.  We're not using YaBB or UBB, because FuseTalk integrates VERY tightly with the website.  The forums are in BETA, and we will be updating the graphics a bit.  However, it's going to stay fairly "bland" in order to keep the speed up where it needs to be.  That's the trade-off you're making for not having 12 pop-ups launch in your face every time you click a link.

We're trying to give you guys what you've asked for while trying to keep it from crippling the site.  But we're not going to try to please everyone.  That would be impossible anyway.

[Clonester]

This was most of my post about suggestions for the forum:

If I may add a few suggestions, they are:

1) Get some colour!!! (light and dark alternating purple for the posts would be good, since that is PGC's main colour)
2) Make the person's User Name appear larger on the screen, so if there are no avatar's, then at least something about the person stands out
3) Get some more separation between the Name area and the Post area. A black outline would work good



Rick, you said that the colours were actually shades of purple, not grey. Why don't you make it the bluish/purple shade of the Game FAQs forums? I really wish there were avatars by the name, but thank you for trying to keep the furums free from clutter. That is much appreciated. The new forums are great, it just lacks the personality of the old boards. The only personality there is right now is the quality of post you associate with the names of recognizable people like a Zach Adams and many others. All I and others are asking is that you try and incorporate as many ideas as possible, so that we can have a kick a$$ forum just like we have a kick a$$ Planet Gamecube website for news & reviews.

[Zach Adams]

I definatly agree with Clonester. What I can say though is that you guys did a great job with the ads, I like how it is integrated in the page now instead of popping up over stuff. And I just noticed GameFaqs, that place does not use avatars and it works fine for some reason. Anyway, it looks good. This place could use a little more color, but other then that I guess its fine. You're right on the title up there, this is the place where your readers go to bitch about everything.

[Clonester]

"Oh crap, we're losing the 'Win the Free X-box' ads?!" - PGC Forum Poll Option

LOL. That is funny!!!

(*sarcasm*)

That has to be my biggest gripe about these new boards. What were you thinking? No Xbox ads? C'mon guys and get your act together.

(*sarcasm*)

Posting options are easier to use, that's a plus. I didn't really know how to use all of EZboards posting options. When I tried to learn, my post got screwed up. Maybe when everyone starts using these boards and they get some more life (and we get used to them) then everything will be OK.

[MikeHrusecky]

The "flash" should come once the "function" is where we need it to be. I think Rick's gonna be focusing on bugs, features, and backend issues for now. We appreciate the suggestions and bug alerts; everyone's heard. Keep throwing them at us if you have 'em.

[RickPowers]

That's actually one of the few changes I made on purpose ... just because there isn't really any other link back to PGC in the Forums, except for at the bottom in the copyright message.  While we want you to hang out here and enjoy the forums, we want you going to PGC as well!

[Grey Ninja]

Well, I can respect that, but PGC is already my start page.    I just would like a quicker way of navigating the forums, as the main page isn't all that I come here for.  

[Zach Adams]

Well... heh... as far as I can see there are a few links on the top of the page to do that for you. Click on HOME as well as FORUMS. Really though, I haven't found any bugs here.... maybe you have a few, none are showing up here though, works fine to me.

[mac<censored>]

Please don't listen to these people that are calling for more neon colors and dancing GIFs.  The new forum is refreshingly simple and even rather elegant looking (especially compared to the tacky horror that is ezboard).  It may not be perfect, but unlike most web forums, it was apparently designed by someone with a bit of taste.

The web is full of sites that are apparently competing to see who can have the most clashing colors, the most confusingly complex layout, and the slowest load times; don't let this one become one of those.

[Cerberus]

I'd like to have avatars allowed on this board. It helps my small memory remember who people are a little better. Names aren't enough for me.

[ThePerm]

ok ascii art is just to hard to do...nevermind.
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+---------------------\ (----(   )--------------------+
                      \_)    ) /
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no avatar eh!  

[JSR]

I also want avatars. It really gives the forums a little more personal feel! But I understand if it doesn't work...

Great job on the forums though! It seems a little too gray, but besides that they're much better than EzBoard!

[Frozen-Solid]

I'd just like to say that it's about damn time you guys got your own forums.  EB is easily the worst forums system on the entire internet and frankly, i'm surprised you guys kept them for so long.

Also, all the complaints about colors, avatars, signatures, ect. are just annoying the crap out of me.  Who cares if you get some stupid picture underneith your name or some piddly title saying you've posted more then someone else? Things like that are what makes forums suck.  I much prefer the way you guys are doing things now then in the past.  You're old forums were slow, cluttered, and filled with stupidity. While the stupidity still remains thanks to certain forumers, at least it's no longer slow and cluttered.  While avatars at the very least would be nice (hell, they can be limited to 100x100 pixels and limited to being hosted off the site to keep bandwidth usage down) they dont really matter.

My only suggestion is to give hte look a little bit more depth.  Mainly in the forums logo and the buttons that say "customize" "profile"  and the formatting buttons on the message form.

When I was talking to Windy in the chat, I was surprised you guys paid for a forums system when such great systems as phpBB are available, but when I found out how well it integrates with the site I was pretty impressed.  Once I got a chance to get a better look at the layout and such I really like the setup.  Just one quick question. Is this the fuse talk's default layout with a custom color scheme, or did you do the whole thing yourselves? Either way I really like it.

Keep up the good work,
The Frozen One

PS: if you can add a spell checker please do, maybe I wont despise the forums quite so much if they looked at least half way intelligent, but then again no one uses the devil's...errr I mean gamefaq's spell checker so it probably wouldnt matter...

[gamecuber10]

This is awesome! I love this new forum, great job guys! Since this is a fresh start im gonna actually start posting! (yay) I always used to just watch other posts go on but this forum is so easy and FAST i can get it done quick. Thanks PGC oh and about the avatars, i do agree with some that is missing *something* but this is the BETA so we can wait right!

[RickPowers]

Frozen,

Actually WE (as in PGC) didn't pay for the forums.  I personally did, and I paid for it quite a long time ago.  I've been helping the FuseTalk guys build this product (through testing and making suggestions) for the longest time.  It started as a project for AnandTech (the hardware enthusiast site), and they got such great response, they started their own company building ColdFusion software.  I've had a license for FuseTalk since 1999, and have been buying upgrades ever since.

But yes, the main reason why we're using it is that PGC is built in ColdFusion, and having a ColdFusion forum system allows us a lot of leeway.  Having the source code for the Forums helps a lot too.  There is so much cool stuff that we're going to be able to do, you'll hardly beleive it when we start unleashing it on you guys.  In fact, it's going to make you guys wonder why you were griping about avatars and titles so much.  

And that's about as much hinting about it as you're going to get from me.