Forums Rant/Suggestion

[PizzaEatPizza]

Forums Rant #1

When I am on the FFF all I do is sit and look at the new replies thing and look for something I might like to post on. But that is something I don't like to do.. I do this because I can't seem to scroll down and look somewhere to post.
Why? Reason 1: The forums are too dark of a colour and that just makes it hard to read stuff... Reason 2: There are too many forums!!! I look at em and it goes on for years!
I think the forums should have selectable skins and less forums. Generalize it a bit more maybe? If possible. I guess not.

The Chat Box

The chat box is slow to some people. But if you were using something like XAT that is fast for everyone... I think.

Forums Rant/Suggestion #2 [RESOLVED]

The little bird that shows you if there is a new message is convenient but I like it when it is on all threads. It just makes life easier for me. I was also wondering if there is a mark as read button. If not then please make one. EDIT I found out that if you double click the forum it marks as read.

Quote Rant/Suggestion

I think it would be more convenient if when you quoted somebody their quote would be in your quote.

Forums Rant/Suggestion #3

I think you should be able to drag and drop forums to wherever you want them to be so they can operate at your own convenience.

ALSO post a rant here so that if I think it is bad I can add it to the list of things I dislike about the forums
~Pizza

 

[Donald Trump]

The skins are, shall we say, a work in progress and nothing can be done about them at this point in time.
The sections have been reshuffled recently. However I've never had a problem. If you are looking to post, just use "New Posts".
With the high amount of members and as a result of that, large amount of posts, the forums are always going to be rather large. If we were to shorten the list of forums on the front page, we would have to create more sub-forums, perhaps making the site more difficult to navigate.

 

[Davey Gaga]

1: The forums are too dark of a colour and that just makes it hard to read stuff...

There are a number of difficulties surrounding this issue. We were in talks with someone who was willing to make us a new skin and, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure where we ended up with that.

Reason 2: There are too many forums!!! I look at em and it goes on for years!

If you have specific suggestions, feel free to post them. Otherwise, it's just an "I think you should improve because I said so" suggestions. xD

We've done a lot of re-organising in the past few months and this is already much better than you could imagine.

 

[PizzaEatPizza]

Hey that last quote didn't include my suggestion. I said Generalize them more (if possible).

 

[Davey Gaga]

How, though? What I meant was that we've done the best we can and, so, if you want to see some change, you should probably give some examples of what you want to see done differently.

 

[PizzaEatPizza]

Well I guess if you guys can't think of anything, I'm gonna have a hard time doing so. I will think though. I am gonna add a new rant/suggestion to my list.

 

[Marquis of Granby]

I don't have any issues with the structure of the forums, mainly 'cause I'm a lazy, inactive sod...as for your "skin" issues, there are plenty of graphics folk lurking on this site, and CSS really isn't that difficult to pick up; get your arses in gear...although technically you COULD just make the "new" graphics with the same filenames and dimensions as the current ones.

http://www.w3schools.com/ for your viewing pleasure.

 

[PizzaEatPizza]

UPDATE**** I have added a new Rant/Suggestion. Check it out. Am I allowed to make these updates?

 

[Davey Gaga]

UPDATE**** I have added a new Rant/Suggestion. Check it out. Am I allowed to make these updates?

Absolutely. I'd personally recommend posting them, so that people are aware of the updates as they read the latest replies, and then update your first post as well.

As for your current suggestions:

1. We are in need of a technical administrator for a number of issues and lag on the shoutbox is one of them. Until such a time as one is found, it is unlikely that any improvements will be made in the near future.
2. Once you've read all of the replies in a thread, the title ceases to be bold and this signifies that there are no new posts in that thread: the site automatically marks threads as read once you've read them. I'm not sure if there is a manual option anywhere. Again, however, if there is not, we need a technical administrator to do this.

 

[Donald Trump]

The SB isn't slow, your connection is. Someone else in the past had a problem with it and keep saying change it to some stream thing, who knows.

Forums Rant/Suggestion #2
The little bird that shows you if there is a new message is convenient but I like it when it is on all threads. It just makes life easier for me. I was also wondering if there is a mark as read button. If not then MAKE ONE!

~Pizza

Firstly we don't MAKE THINGS just because you want them, politeness goes a long way. Secondly unread threads are bolded, whereas threads you have read are not.

 

[PizzaEatPizza]

Well I will still post my rant/suggestions even if they won't be fixed. I find it useful for when you can fix it. You could train me to do that job I would be up for it.

I don't find the bold/unbold good enough to mark as read/unread.

The SB isn't slow, your connection is. Someone else in the past had a problem with it and keep saying change it to some stream thing, who knows.


Firstly we don't MAKE THINGS just because you want them, politeness goes a long way. Secondly unread threads are bolded, whereas threads you have read are not.

Errr sorry I just got a little carried a way with the MAKE ONE thing. I was joking a bit... I changed it now.

Admin Edit: Please please do not double post. Use the edit button in the future. Thank you.

 

[Daenerys]

Forums Rant/Suggestion #2 [RESOLVED]

The little bird that shows you if there is a new message is convenient but I like it when it is on all threads. It just makes life easier for me. I was also wondering if there is a mark as read button. If not then please make one. EDIT I found out that if you double click the forum it marks as read.

However, if you had bothered to look in the first place, before mouthing off, you might have noticed that we DO have a mark forums read button -

As for the shoutbox, that might be a problem with your computer, as opposed to the shoutbox itself. It works fine for me, and many other people have said they've had no problems with it.

As for the other things you hate, like Riku said, we can't do anything about them without a Tech Admin - but that doesn't mean we aren't aware of them. The Skin in particular - we're looking into ways to get a new skin, however each new lead seems to hit a dead end, so you're just going to have to be patient with us.

 

[Aztec Triogal]

None of these things seem to be suggestions we haven't already heard in the past. Some of them are in the process of being implemented... some have already been shot down. All in all I'd put our boards in the top tier of internet forums but a some slick new tech stuff might not necessarily be bad. Unfortunately, those things happen slowly around here. It's not bad to express your opinion... but understand if your suggestions don't happen immediately, even the good ones.

It is sad though that the staff got so upset so easily over such minor comments.

 

[SaShman]

Forums Rant #1

I think the forums should have selectable skins and less forums. Generalize it a bit more.

Every couple of months someone suggests that we should get a new skin. I think the problem last time was that no-one knew how to make skins. Plus we don't have a tech admin who can do that kinda stuff atm. I am quite happy with our current skin to be honest.

The forums were only cleaned up a few months ago. As Riku said, if you can think of any specific things that should be done, please share.

The Chat Box

It is slow! I type something in and it takes a while to appear in the chat. I usually end up getting "ninja'd".
Get something like the XAT chat. It is very useful and convenient. It even has a friends list

A few people have complained about Shout box lag, personally I have never noticed any, but then again I hardly use the thing. >_>

Forums Rant/Suggestion #2 [RESOLVED]

The little bird that shows you if there is a new message is convenient but I like it when it is on all threads. It just makes life easier for me. I was also wondering if there is a mark as read button. If not then please make one. EDIT I found out that if you double click the forum it marks as read.

I personally think the bolded text is good enough to see which threads have new posts and we do have a 'mark forums as read' button (as stated above).

Quote Rant/Suggestion

I think it would be more convenient if when you quoted somebody their quote would be in your quote.

If I interpreted this correctly, I think it would be a pretty good idea. It can get a little annoying when you have to go back and forth to see who quoted who.

 

[Dark n Disturbed]

Well, most of these I don't have an issue with. I don't have any issue finding posts to post on, and I don't have any issue searching the forums. Now, one suggestion I would had, would be for us to have more than just one background. I do like the background, but I agree that sometimes the background is a bit too dark. I would like to see users able to have a few backgrounds to choose from, that way we don't all have to have the same one and we can all pick ones that our eyes enjoy. That's just a suggestion though.

Another thing I don't really like is that usernames aren't clickable. On other forums I have been on, I have been able to click on my own username at the top of the page, where it displays the private messages, and it would lead me to my profile. I know that on posts and on the member list you can click the usernames, but we can't up at the top where it says "Welcome, ...." It would be nice to be able to do that. We also can't click on usernames while searching forums. In other forums I have been able to click on the name of the users making certain threads. Anyways, other than that I don't really have any issues and don't have problems with most things.

Edit: I just realized how you guys have already mentioned skins. When I was a Super Mod over at another forums, we had this guy who was just excellent with making skins. Since we don't have that here I guess, it'd be a bit hard. My ideas for skins though would be something to do with FF7, or something to do with the Final Fantasy games. For example, having Cloud at the top with an introduction to FFF as a banner, or something like that. Then the background could be the colors of FF7. Anyways, if you guys really would like to create some new skins, I might be able to get a hold of that guy to help us out.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

Our problem, I think, isn't just that we don't have a tech admin to install and code the skin (although LG could do that if he really wanted to), we also hit the problem that do we actually have a GFXer on the forum who knows how to make a skin? Yes, we have brilliant GFXers here but if they don't know how to make a skin then it all accounts to nothing really. It's better if the person making the skin knows how to code as they will know how they want everything to work, furthermore, we hit the little problem of Darkblade's cocked up coding which makes anything difficult >.>


"I think you should be able to drag and drop forums to wherever you want them to be so they can operate at your own convenience"
That seems somewhat complex to install, it seems very basic to do but I can't imagine it being easy to find the hack and install. Plus, I could see problems with it D:

 

[SaShman]

we also hit the problem that do we actually have a GFXer on the forum who knows how to make a skin? Yes, we have brilliant GFXers here but if they don't know how to make a skin then it all accounts to nothing really.

Now that I think about it...I could've sworn I'd seen a few threads like "hey check out this new skin I made" in the GFX section and if I remember correctly, I thought they looked pretty good too.

If a similar thread were to pop up, maybe the staff could ask the GFX'er if they would be willing to create a skin when we get a new tech admin or when someone figures out how to install them. =/

 

[Donald Trump]

Now that I think about it...I could've sworn I'd seen a few threads like "hey check out this new skin I made" in the GFX section and if I remember correctly, I thought they looked pretty good too.

If a similar thread were to pop up, maybe the staff could ask the GFX'er if they would be willing to create a skin when we get a new tech admin or when someone figures out how to install them. =/

That thread was made right after discussions about the forum's skin.
Also even though I know nothing about GFX I think I'm right in saying that making the skin isn't the hard part, coding it is. As there is no Tech Admin, we have no way of getting round that problem. Every month or so, someone says something about the old skin, we always reply that we're trying but can't do at this point in time etc. Until we have a shiny new skin, it's fairly safe to assume that it is still a matter of can't rather than won't

 

[Takaiki]

Hey that last quote didn't include my suggestion. I said Generalize them more (if possible).

The problem with that is you would end up with masses of posts in a few forums. This would cause the people who are interested in just one of the games to get annoyed and possibly leave.

 

[Serah]

I appreciate all your rants/suggestions, whatever. I actually encourage them. It seems our staff have been doing their best to answer your questions. They've all pretty much said everything I would've said to you as well. However I will ask you one thing. Could you PLEASE post your suggestions with a little more tact next time? You come across as very pushy, rude, forceful and condescending. If you could be a little more polite then maybe some of your ideas could be considered have we the proper things we need to implement them. That's all I ask. Thank you.