New Board - Props and Slops
 

Things I immediately noticed and didn't like.

SLOPS

1. The tiny stored PM cap.

I know that there was a huge issue with the number of PMs being saved in people's accounts, but the current 100 message limit is far too low. I generate well over 100 messages from a single game. I use the board PM system explicitly so that I can store those messages and look at them later in case I forget about an agreement/trade/pact. Since I usually play in 4-5 games at any given time, I can usually expect a load of about 300-1000 messages depending on whether or not I survive for a long time.

In short, the cap was put on because a tiny fraction of the users were clogging up the database with their PMs. PLEASE raise the cap to something more reasonable, say 1000 PMs, so that I can continue to use the on board PM system to do diplomacy.

2. The board itself seems smaller. It's like someone took it and squished it in from the sides. There's less room given to the individual threads, and I find the screen much more "busy" with irrelevant stuff. I'd really like to see the individual cell size of each thread increased (when browsing from a general page outside of a specific thread) as well as the text inside of those cells.

Basically I feel like I'm playing in this tiny little sandbox and not using the majority of the window.

3. The number of icon usable for the main thread of the posts has shrunk considerably. I always used the icons to show a difference between the multiplayer game threads so that they're easy to pick out. So, basically, please add more icons that we can use for the post ones.

4. I dislike the "new post" icon. I felt the way the old system worked where the thread itself was simply bolded was much more effective. It's more difficult to differentiate between a thread that has a new post in it than one that doesn't because the icons are all so similar.

5. Apparently there's no way to delete posts anymore :( How frustrating. Can an admin please move this to the general board?

PROPS

Otherwise things look okay, and I'm glad the transition is finally over with! Thanks to all the admins for putting in the time and effort to get stuff over-hauled so quickly. Hopefully the transition will equal less down time in the future. Oh, and the new boards are very zippy, which is extremely nice. No more waiting for load times.

Jazzepi

I think the new forum is a major downgrade, on the order of Windows Vista. We all knew the ins and outs of the old board, and it was quite well done. This new forum is full of useless bells and whistles, and is quite generic. It looks and acts like any old board you might find on the web.

And I agree that the 100 message limit is a joke. C'mon Shrapnel, it's just text. You can store 1000 per user easily.

The animated icons are driving me nuts.

I predict that this new board will drive down MP game participation by at least 50%

Overall, the new site looks really nice though. It's just the boards that I find useless now.

yeah i agree i really do NOT like the new boards... and i too am also scared of MP suffering due to it.
It is the first day they have been put up though. maybe things will be improved. (im still for the old boards though :P )

I started to comment on the new forums, but the animated gifs are drilling a hole through my skull. How am I supposed to get in character for Perihelion, Lord of all Creation, when I keep seeing this stupid bouncing question mark out of the corner of my eye? If forum admins are reading, please ditch the animated icons. Didn't we learn anything from the <blink>blink tag?

I Agree! 8(
 

Maybe I just wanted so much out of these forums, it's just like "morning after" disappointment?

Jazzepi already hit most of mine.

But I wanted to add:

6. Anti-Idle - Can this be disabled somehow? I used to leave browser pages open to my PM Inbox, and to the forums. There's no data being transferred unless I click on a page, so essentially the anti-idle is sucking bandwidth from the server by forcing people to log back in constantly.

I love you guys, just please please..... Make these forums more like the comfortable and loving wife we left behind on friday, and less like the cheap **** we woke up with after a weekend in Vegas.


<3 <3 <3

I understand that you use a new board software, now can we tweak the interface back to where it was? This tiny font used in quick reply is killing my eyes.

BTW, what's up the huge user name row? IMHO, the space would much better be used for other things, like text in a post.

I would just like to say that I agree on everything said above. Why all this clutter and advertisement? It just feels cheap and disrespectful, and that is certainly not the recipe for a strong community.

Do use the possibilities the new forum software offers but please don't throw everything at once in my face like this.

Sorry for these additional gripes:

* All cross-links inside posts were not converted. The Strategy Index is now a list of strings to search for.

* My friends list was not converted and is now empty.

* My 'favorite threads' are likewise gone.

* I don't seem to be able to edit my own posts ... but I'm sure that's just me ... is it? If I can figure out how to edit my posts, then I can delete this line! EDIT Okay, so I can edit this post with the 'Edit' button. But I don't have an 'Edit' button in my old posts. I'd like to update the first post in my 'Max Path to Search By' strategy thread. Is there a time limit on how old a post can be before it is editable? Or is it just posts that were converted from the old board?

And, I have to say that back when I was playing 5 MP games at once, I'd fill up the 100 messages limit pretty quickly. Some turns I'd get 3 or 4 or 5 PMs from one player. Organizing gem contributions for a secret Dispel could be 10 or 15 messages for just one turn for one game. What I don't get is that PMs are actually really tiny, compared to attachments and most posts ... so why is the limit so low?

Editing is very possible for me (and easy too) by just clicking the edit button under my post. Very capable forum software I must say but it could be used in a much better way.