Addressing forum issues

[goate]

Hey all,

I've been trying to pick up where Snoteye left off in providing some IT janitorial support to the DM team.  I've seen increased frustration with the forums recently, and I just wanted to say that I plan on attempting to address those issues in the future, possibly in a couple of months. Our two most obvious options are to get the current forums working better, or to move to a new forum software.  There are some other EFU-related tasks that take precedence for various reasons and must be completed first.  If you have an issue with the current forums, please detail it as meticulously as you can in this thread.

Don't include EFUSL issues in this thread, they are separate.

Cheers,
Gracken

[Pentaxius]

Thanks Gracky! That would be wonderful indeed...

Let's see.

1. Formatting posts is a major gripe. We need the option to "reveal BB code" in order to know where stuff is. Quotes in particular can be a nightmare.
2. Not enough fonts to make things pretty for us spastic perfectionists.
3. The general theme of the forum could use improvements (Purple Crystal). The previous one was nicer. There are some color glitches in the PM section.
4. The memory limit for forum PMs makes me feel in the early 2000's. The need to constantly drain inbox...
5. The Search function just doesn't work. I resort to Google with the flag "site:EFUPW.com"
6. The page number navigator reaches a limit on some subforms, which makes it impossible to consult the old stuff without hacking the page number in the browsing address.

That's all I can think of right now, I'll add to the list as I meditate on my gripes.
 

[Starstruck]

There's a general functionality issue throughout the forum with things freezing up and pages not properly loading, but my biggest gripes are:

1. Posts being written on a white background with white gray text. I almost always type out posts in notepad before I put them onto here because it's so impossible to read.

2. Every time I post something, the forum freezes up and I have to go back to the index, then reenter the thread to see my new post.

3. Creating new subforums and giving access to them has become a huge problem.

[Pup]

Starstruck: Change your background from white to black.  Easier to read nearly everything and it's certainly much healthier for your eyes.  Plus it just looks cooler, imho.

[goate]

1. Formatting posts is a major gripe. We need the option to "reveal BB code" in order to know where stuff is. Quotes in particular can be a nightmare.

I do this by clicking the "Toggle Advance Editor" icon (Big letter A with an underline beneath it) to the upper right of the reply input form, then by clicking on the "Source" icon (Looks like <>) to the upper left. Then everything is in straigt up BB code.

2. Not enough fonts to make things pretty for us spastic perfectionists.

Amen.

6. The page number navigator reaches a limit on some subforms, which makes it impossible to consult the old stuff without hacking the page number in the browsing address.

Yes, that is incredibly annoying. You can enter a number above 20 into the URL manually, but it's not pleasant for moving around.

[Starstruck]

Starstruck: Change your background from white to black. Easier to read nearly everything and it's certainly much healthier for your eyes. Plus it just looks cooler, imho.

​Can you elaborate? I'm using the Purple Crystal skin. When writing posts, the background on the post/reply is still white. Is there a way to change this that I'm not aware of?

[goate]

3. Creating new subforums and giving access to them has become a huge problem.

I know this is a problem, but I don't know the details.  Please expound if you can.

[Rothebaron]

The Send Message button could be less hidden away for PMs.

[Serenade of Thorns]

I know this is a problem, but I don't know the details. Please expound if you can.

The issue relates primarily to a usergroup limit, if I recall correctly. The current forum software has placed a cap on how many groups can be supported, and each group decides who can view which forum. This prevents new divisions from being utilized and has necessitated a compression of our current options. There are subfaction forums (such as the Knights of the New Path) which have never been viewed by players.
 

[goate]

6. The page number navigator reaches a limit on some subforms, which makes it impossible to consult the old stuff without hacking the page number in the browsing address.

The limit is now set to 1000, at least for some problematic subforums (IC letters).  If you find subforums with the same problem, let me know.

[Pup]

​Can you elaborate? I'm using the Purple Crystal skin. When writing posts, the background on the post/reply is still white. Is there a way to change this that I'm not aware of?

I was referring to Purple Crystal.  But I see what you mean now.

[Pentaxius]

Praise the Kraken

Another issue (may be in my side) : The log in timeout time is very short. I often need to reload the page and copy/past my work, log in again, and finally post. Is there a way to extend this period to an hour?

[smile and nod]

Why Not

[NothingGoldCanStay]

Why Not

Because there's no way to do faction secrets, and the social media approach looks frankly really bad.

If we need to switch platforms, there's really great options out there.. but they all require a lot of work to get fully set up. PHPBB is a tried and true option, FluxBB/PunBB, Vanilla... All these are free options as well.

[smile and nod]

Private subreddits are a thing. Ultimately it's a platform, not social media. Costs nothing and is intuitive. Appeal to suitable niche communities similar to our own and facilitate some much needed growth too maybe? Though I would agree that it doesn't really live up to our community of hardcore turbonerd's unrealistically high 'aesthetic' standards.