What do you think of the new board features?

[Richard]

First off uploading is broken but should be fixed by this evening. Here is what is new:

Polling Support added.
Avatar Support added.
Who's Online Support added.

Plus a few other things. We are still putting up new graphics for the poll stuff, so it looks broke but isn't.

Anyway what do you guys think?

[Richard]

You can reply to the poll too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

[Gimboid]

Originally posted by Richard:
First off uploading is broken but should be fixed by this evening. Here is what is new:

Polling Support added.
Avatar Support added.
Who's Online Support added.

Anyway what do you guys think?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I'm a fan of all of those http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Keep up the good work

[Taz-in-Space]

What time frame does recent visitors entail?
I mean: that day? A couple of hours? Is now Online?
Just asking because that's what Taz's do! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

At the moment, there are 6 votes.

The first choice has 100% (3)
and the next three choices have 33%(1)

That means 200% of the people who voted chose one of the top four options.
Is ballot stuffing a feature of these new polls? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Taz-in-Space]

...and now with 200% of the votes in...
* I want a recount! *

[ 09 May 2002, 16:17: Message edited by: Taz-in-Space ]

[geoschmo]

I think the dimpled and hanging bits are getting counted twice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Richard]

I think you got it in mid update. Last time I checked it was 8 of 8.

BTW I think next time I will lock the thread so the poll doesn't disappear. Unless I can find a sticky post mod...

[Captain Kwok]

I like the new features especially the most recent visitors and the avatars...as you can tell by my quick upload of Captain Kwok himself.

[ 09 May 2002, 17:00: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[Val]

Looks really cool, especially like the "most recent visitors" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[kalthalior]

I like them, pretty cool.

[mottlee]

Wow what a change in 2 hrs http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Seems that some of the "Buttons" are not loading http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[ 09 May 2002, 18:08: Message edited by: mottlee ]

[LGM]

The poll adds up to 181%. I thought polls should tabulate to something around 100%, or are they adjusting for inflation?

[Ragnarok]

I like the changes, though some of the buttons do not show up correctly. Also it won't let me choose a avatar. I click on the "Select a different Avatar Image" button and it does nothing. Is it just my computer or the forum that's the problem?

[capnq]

The avatars are pretty cool, though I wonder how many people will bother to page through all of them before choosing one. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

At the time I posted this, both the vote and results buttons were pointing to javascript.void(0).

[Baron Munchausen]

The responsiveness of the site is dramatially worse. If this is not fixed then I am not in favor of the new features. I'd rather have the old system with good responsiveness. All I see are cutesy doodads, not anything that really makes the bBoards more useful.

The only thing I'm curious about is what the new ranks are. After being at the 'top' of the ranking system for months I suddenly find there's more space for progress up the ranks. How high do they go now? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ 09 May 2002, 19:12: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Captain Kwok]

Except for a few broken picture links, the board has loaded fine and just as quickly for me. I'm sure they'll fix the pics soon.

I have a cable modem so I don't know if the extra pics (avatars) are making things slower for our friends with dailups. I like them, it gives the Users a little bit more flavour.

If anyone has a custom avatar they want to use but don't have a site to host it, just let me know, I have webspace that allows remote links.

BTW, the avatars are forced to 48x48 pixels in size...

[Bman]

Yep, I've noticed the board is slower now...I can only imagine the increase in bandwidth needed for some of this stuff. The "recent visitors" especially seems fluffy. I wish I could hide it as even on my super-wide screen it is still sucking up 2 lines of text with all the people on. A simple summary along the lines of "10 people currently visting" would be nicer IMHO.

[Richard]

Board is just as slow as normal, the new features haven't contributed to that.

However we are in the process of moving this entire thing to a new server over the weekend. This old server will stay behind to handle downloads, while the new server handles our e-commerce and web site.

[Captain Kwok]

I like the recent visitors sign because it lets you know how many lurkers are out there! Also, I noticed " Malfador Machinations in the list earlier today - so does this mean that Aaron stops by and checks out the board?

[Bman]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
Except for a few broken picture links, the board has loaded fine and just as quickly for me. I'm sure they'll fix the pics soon.

I have a cable modem so I don't know if the extra pics (avatars) are making things slower for our friends with dailups. I like them, it gives the Users a little bit more flavour.

If anyone has a custom avatar they want to use but don't have a site to host it, just let me know, I have webspace that allows remote links.

BTW, the avatars are forced to 48x48 pixels in size...<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I am on a big fat connection (multiple T1's) and the slowness seems to be from shrapnel's website.

Another thing I have noticed: In the past, after posting I would be taken back to the topic and it would show my new post. Now it takes me back to the topic and shows me what was there *before* my post. I have to hit Refresh to see my post. Annoying to say the least.

P.S. I might take you up on your offer. How do I go about giving you a picture?

[Richard]

Also if folks want specific avatars or have a "pack" of avatars to add I can put them into the software for everyone to use.

[Captain Kwok]

If anyone wants to send me an avatar, just attach it to an e-mail and send it to:

capt-kwok@rogers.com

I'll upload it to my webspace and give you the address so you can use it!

It works better if the image is a 48x48 .gif so there is no scaling when it's displayed!

I can help with transparency if you're having trouble.

[Captain Kwok]

Bman:

Got your message...

http://members.rogers.com/capt-kwok/avatars/beholder.gif

Is your avatar's address...I sent an e-mail but it was refused I guess because of your settings.

[wr8th]

Looks like I'll have to remember to log off

[Bman]

Thanks! My sysadmin is pretty strict about blocking incoming email from domains that may have once ever sent him some spam. That includes hotmail, yahoo, aol and most any free mail site you can think of http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
Bman:

Got your message...

http://members.rogers.com/capt-kwok/avatars/beholder.gif

Is your avatar's address...I sent an e-mail but it was refused I guess because of your settings.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">

[Cylapse]

The listing of who's on might be better suited to the bottom of the forum list, but that's a matter of taste vs usefulness... If it were at the bottom it might not ever be seen by those who just reply to new threads. So its probably better off where it is.

Overall though pretty slick, but I gotta say that the default avatars suck. *lol*

[Resident Alien 2]

Test

[TerranC]

Great work guys. Truly great work.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
The only thing I'm curious about is what the new ranks are. After being at the 'top' of the ranking system for months I suddenly find there's more space for progress up the ranks. How high do they go now? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well, SJ is a National Security Advisor, which is almost as high as you can get.

And about avatars, you can upload them to shrapnel, to save your own server space. If you click on this link (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=upload_form), you can still upload stuff to shrapnel. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Just use the url that it gives you in your profile, where it says "Use Custom URL".

[ 09 May 2002, 23:46: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[TerranC]

Who knows? Minister of war for us Commonwealth Countries or Head of Joint Chiefs for the US?

(I know they are not the same things but both of them high up the ladder.)

[Gil Hamilton]

It now takes me 2x to 4x longer to load a page....You guys accessing on company T1s don't have to worry about banwidth, but us living in the Qwest induced technological suckhole do. I thought waiting 45 to 90 secs. for a page to load before was bad, now I can see I won't be reading very much here. Bells and whistles. Besides, It cheapens the special effort people went into to get pics on their sig before. Why do I care if someone else in logged on? I'd rather have my privacy. Pic for "Poll" and a couple at the page bottom are not loading.

[Zarix]

Check your profile. At the bottom of the page there are "Hide from Recent Visitors" and "Hide Avatars of Other Users". Hope that help.

[Richard]

The load time is not due to the mod, it is due to the fact that our server is maxed out and it why we will be moving to a new server over the weekend.

[capnq]

In the past, after posting I would be taken back to the topic and it would show my new post. Now it takes me back to the topic and shows me what was there *before* my post. I have to hit Refresh to see my post. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I've never seen any behavior like that.

I only have a 31.2K connect, and I haven't noticed any change in the page loading speed.

[Richard]

It might also be because I cleared the board Cache Last night because of some config issues.

Whent he board has it's Cache up to date it is much quicker.

[Wardad]

I love my avitar. It has attitude. To bad I don't have the talent to build a shipset for it.

[DirectorTsaarx]

I like the new board features; they add character, as it were...

Seriously, I really like the "recent visitors" feature, so I know who's available to give fast responses to my Posts.

And the avatars give a little more insight into people's personalities.

[Gil Hamilton]

Richard- Yeah, OK...but I was havin' fun harshing the phone co. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif It is kinda' neat with the avatars. YooHoo fur new tech!

[dmm]

Is it my imagination, or did I lose rank? I could have sworn I was a Capt. or Major, now suddenly I'm a 2nd Lt.

[Lisif Deoral]

Originally posted by Gil Hamilton:
It now takes me 2x to 4x longer to load a page....You guys accessing on company T1s don't have to worry about banwidth, but us living in the Qwest induced technological suckhole do.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, from here the board doesn't appear any slower, and I'm using a 33.6 kbaud analog modem from Old Europe...
Actually, now that I think about it, I suspect that my international connection has always been so slow that it "compensates" any difference... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[mottlee]

Hmmm I did get demoted http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif was 1st Lt now Sgt http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Gaurav]

I like the ability to "preview post". No one else seems to have mentioned it so far.

[Richard]

Since I the rank structure got blown away this weekend I had to put it back in. When I did I decided to have some fun with it. Plus someone has to keep SJ in line, that guy is a post monster http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

[Gaurav]

I just noticed we cannot delete Posts any more unless we are forum leaders. What gives? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

[ May 14, 2002, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Gaurav ]

[Gaurav]

Could you post the new rank structure, Richard?

[eorg]

C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cgi-bin/ubb_lib_files.cgi: Missing right curly or square bracket at C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cgi-bin/ubb_lib_files.cgi line 19, at end of line syntax error at C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cgi-bin/ubb_lib_files.cgi line 19, at EOF

sorry for this :-)

[Richard]

I am trying to get that part to work correctly (ie the time). I don't have the old settings so I am not getting veyr far http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif .

The top post thing will be your best friend in the future, trust me..

[geoschmo]

Heh, I was going to post and say one of my favorite things about the forum is the times NOT being in zulu anymore. Of course if they are only displaying Shrapnel local time then I could see that being a problem for those of you unlucky enough not to be in the same time zone.

Rollo, nice Avatar! That's one of the few that made me laugh out loud. Of course it's probably not as funny to someone who hasn't played aginst you in a game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo

[geoschmo]

Hmm, that's odd. Must have cuaght the board in midupdate as it put my Last post as being made at 8:00 AM.

Geoschmo

[Rollo]

I do like the new board features, but I absolutely hate the times not being displayed in Zulu time anymore.

Also I am not a big fan of the "Last post shows on top" layout of this board.

[eorg]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Heh, I was going to post and say one of my favorite things about the forum is the times NOT being in zulu anymore. Of course if they are only displaying Shrapnel local time then I could see that being a problem for those of you unlucky enough not to be in the same time zone.

Rollo, nice Avatar! That's one of the few that made me laugh out loud. Of course it's probably not as funny to someone who hasn't played aginst you in a game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">zulu is good - but it can be local time for everyone like pbw

yeah rollo where is the beer :-)

[Rollo]

"Rollo, nice Avatar! That's one of the few that made me laugh out loud. Of course it's probably not as funny to someone who hasn't played aginst you in a game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif "

"yeah rollo where is the beer :-)"

Woohoo, back to Zulu time.

Glad you like my avatar http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif . Unfortunately I had to cut the beer glass out. Otherwise the picture would have been hard to recognize. Twas a very tough decision... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Rollo

[Suicide Junkie]

Plus someone has to keep SJ in line, that guy is a post monster<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Argh! Demoted back to a lowly General.
I used to be a "National Security Advisor" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

*sigh*

[Richard]

Just giving you some room to grow http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

Besides NO ONE is close to you in Posts...

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Richard:
Just giving you some room to grow http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

Besides NO ONE is close to you in Posts...<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, I think I'm #3 in total Posts on this entire forum and I don't even have 1/2 his level. Why hasn't he got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or something?

BTW, is there a way to post a 'ranking' list of posters? Other than manually searching the user records, that is... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Daynarr]

SJ, you are REALLY a post monster. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

When do you manage to eat, drink, sleep.

3300 Posts!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

Well, I'm eating and drinking right now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I probably got most of these Posts in the newbie rushing days Last year.

Collectively, we had a 30 minutes or less response time to new questions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[DirectorTsaarx]

So, any chance we'll get to see the new rank requirements?

At least I didn't get demoted back to enlisted ranks... but going from Lt. Colonel to 1st Lieutenant hurt.

[Richard]

Most of the rankign structure is based on getting to certain points. Before 1000 I think every upgrade is at an even hundrend number, but I don't remember the increment off hand. After 100 I think it goes up to 250 or something, I will have to check.

[geoschmo]

I guess I would be a Colonel under the new rankings, as I have almost exactly the same number of Posts as Baron. But I had to give up my rank when they put me in SpecOps. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I was just looking at the star Ratings. I know they've been around a while but I never paid much attention to them. I have 4 out of five stars, and 33 votes. Most people only have a half dozen or so. The closest I could find is SJ with 23 votes, and 5 out of 5. (Well deserved I must say).

Can people vote more than once for someone? I am just wondering why I have so many votes compared to others. I guess it's possible I have ticked off a couple people around here over the months. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Geoschmo

[mac5732]

Richard, question, the new board shows recent visitors, does it also mean that they are currently on the fourum?? if not how about a 2nd line to show who is currently on the board

just wondering

just some ideas mac

[dumbluck]

I like all the new features. What I don't like, though, is the side effect: s - l - o - w load times. On my 700mhz cable modem computer, it takes the main SE4 page (displaying only the Last 2 days) almost 30 seconds to load up. Before the new features, it came up in at most 5 seconds. I shudder to think how long you dial-ups have to wait; and that's just to see the main screen. I turned off viewing the avatars in my profile in an attempt to speed up load times, but there was no joy there. [ Edit] Well, it did speed up individual topic load times. That helped alleviate the pain somewhat...[ /edit]

All the new features are nice, but they are really just "eyecandy". The most useful would probably be the polls, but even that is only marginally useful. I have yet to participate in one.

So, my final opinion? I don't think the new features are worth the severe lag in loadtime. I liked the old Version better. Sorry if I'm stepping on toes, but that's how it goes.

Heh. I'm a poet and didn't know it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[ May 18, 2002, 09:16: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

[Richard]

It shows who has been on in the Last 30 minutes, I can tweak the value but I think it is a fair measure.

Again the load time is probably increased by the features but that isn't the real problem. The problem is our server. It has been increasingly hit by Space HoRSE downloads and is under a lot of strain. Once we move to the new server that will fix that. I have tried the new forums under a lot of different browsers and connection speeds and I have noticed little difference since the switch.