[KEEN] Suggestions about the forum, anyone?

Post by **STrRedWolf** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 8:28 pm

Right now, we just have a basic forum going and we've lost alot of functionality since the switch (although we've gained some new powers, like having more than 4 moderators per board).

In this topic, I'd like ideas on what you think are needed to get it back up to what we had with UBB, minus the buggyness.

Some ideas I have already is:

* Making forums have a custom theme (in UBB you could modify the way it looked specific to the forums). This means the KeenSpace theme is default (and I'll be tweaking the graphics), but you request customization (including your graphic replacing that KeenSpace graphic), and thus making a new theme.

* Allowing a user to turn of viewing of any images inside anyone's signature. Yes, we just got our first complaint. It's ether that or ban 'em, and if I do the latter I'll get more complaints. Just don't push 'em too large because we still have dialup users.

Any suggestions? Let me know here.

Illian · Post by **Illian** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 8:42 pm

First, great job with the move. It was fast and everything works great! And the forums are so much faster now. Thank you.

There are a couple of things I'd like to see if possible.

The first are the "Next Newest Topic" and the "Next Oldest Topic." Those are really useful if you are just browsing through the topics.

The other thing is a way to limit to topics from today/last # days/week/month/year/all and/or topics that have been replied to since your last visit.

Those are the only things I can think of offhand. I'll get back to you if I think of or see anymore.

Nick Sacco · Post by **Nick Sacco** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 6:56 am

Oh my GOD, yes! New forums kick ASS! Instead of waiting for the Gen Disc. page to load for two minutes it takes two seconds!!

One suggestion: perhaps we can be allowed a small 10kb pic that is displayed under our name at the left column?

Kev of the Apocalypse · Sun Feb 17, 2002 8:18 am

Hey Nick, you mean like on Something Awful? That would be cool. I just think it's great to have such a fast forum now! I do like the idea of themes though. Keep up the good work guys.

Dennis K · Post by **Dennis K** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 8:42 am

Yes. I want a FOGClub theme ^^ (real simple too, just change the blue and grey to certain shades of green)

Yes. I want a logo on my forum (a few readers wrote saying they thought my forum was the keenspace general forum because of this)

And uh. That's about it. ^_^ Just tell me when you're ready to take submissions.

Nick Sacco · Post by **Nick Sacco** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 10:00 am

I don't read SA, so I wouldn't know. I got the idea from a forum I frequent for a Tribes2 MOD. It uses Snitz Forum, and for my pic I use my comic character in a T2 armor suit.

Using little pics like this is an excelent way for users to show samples of what their respective comic looks like.

Meredith Gran · Post by **Meredith Gran** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 10:03 am

Yes, it would be nice to have Avatars. Can we please have avatars? =)

FlamingDeth · Post by **FlamingDeth** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 10:33 am

Only suggestion I can think of right off hand that hasn't been mentioned is having more than fifteen posts per page...that just seems kind of small. On the other hand it is convenient to be able to go directly to the last page of a thread without haveing to go throught the firs page, and as previously mentioned, it is incredibly fast.

Nick Sacco · Post by **Nick Sacco** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 11:56 am

Ah yes, avatars, that's the name.

And about the 15 post thing, make it something you can choose in your personal preferences.

Ekevu Cheetah · Post by **Ekevu Cheetah** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 12:05 pm

That was one surpringly effective move. I didn't expect not to have to re-create my account, and I don't know if it was automagic or painfully worky, but thank you!

I agree with the "last # days" problem... Also, I know that's going against the flow, but I hate Arial when bigger than 10pt. Can we stick to Verdana? Or any other seriffed font? Please?

Or at least have a theme that does so? (Is it user-specific or forum-specific?)

[ This Message was edited by: Ekevu Cheetah on 2002-02-17 12:12 ]

Muttley · Post by **Muttley** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 12:23 pm

On the Fans! board, when I try to look at the oldest messages in the database I get an error message: -

Error connecting to the database!

partway down the list or sometimes as the first message. It is clear that there were originally more messages, because some threads give the error message straight off.

My guess would be that you haven't migrated all the messages yet, and that the error message reflects a broken database link.

Over to you, guys!

Regards,
Muttley

JimRob · Post by **JimRob** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 1:07 pm

It'd be nice to have the topics displayed most recent first... but I suppose they're jumbled up because the data's been ported over from the old boards. That's not a biggie, since new replies shoot to the top nicely.

Post by **STrRedWolf** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 5:25 pm

I'll be using the themes to provide the functionality we had with UBB, so no, you can't override it, we won't let you. It will be forum-specific.

Avatars are an intresting idea. I've seen them on the Vixen Controled Library forums, so I know what you mean. They would be locally stored here on KeenSpace so you won't have to bug out about finding space for them...

I have to calculate how much space I'm willing to give up here for it. UBB took up a gig of space...

Post by **STrRedWolf** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 5:55 pm

If everyone had a 60x60 avatar, about 4k in size max, they would take 35 megs of space. Yeah, we could.

phpBB 2.0's getting close to release, so I won't be acting on suggestions *yet*. But from what I've seen, it'll be worth it.

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 8:52 pm

I'd like to see a 'ranking'. Something on the side to let people now who's Admin, Wrangler, Moderator, etc...

I'd also like to be able to change my handle - to put the '^' back where it belongs.

_________________
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Don't Panic - Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Isaiah 43.

Schissel · Post by **Schissel** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 7:13 pm

On 2002-02-17 12:23, Muttley wrote:
On the Fans! board, when I try to look at the oldest messages in the database I get an error message: -

Error connecting to the database!

partway down the list or sometimes as the first message. It is clear that there were originally more messages, because some threads give the error message straight off.

My guess would be that you haven't migrated all the messages yet, and that the error message reflects a broken database link.

Over to you, guys!

Regards,
Muttley

One possible cause for the error: an attempt to migrate/read a message belonging to a user whose userdata was corrupted and not repaired prior to the move. (This happens on a forum I frequent - Paladins' Haven - whose moderator suffered this problem some months back, resulting in many now unreadable threads in the new phpBB-d forum...)

Eric Schissel

_________________
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http://www.livejournal.com/~malver
Where is our rose, my friend? - Pushkin

[ This Message was edited by: schissel on 2002-02-18 19:14 ]

PDI · Post by **PDI** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 12:53 am

Links to the comic from the forum page, "sticky" posts (moderator only can create a thread that stays on top), Avatars and ranking, serifed font, color, Individual logs ... that's all I can think of.

I *love* the new forums, even if nothing else gets better.

Oh, the customized "don't view sig images" option would be cool, as well as preferred length of pages, # of posts shown, etc.

Also, how come the links to the threads don't show a "visited" color change? That would make it really easy to spot new threads in a casual visit.

um, that's it for now. Great Job, Redwolf!

PDI · Post by **PDI** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 1:00 am

Also, the link text becomes unreadable when it's highlighted.

Shadowed Rose · Post by **Shadowed Rose** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 5:23 am

On 2002-02-18 19:13, schissel wrote:

One possible cause for the error: an attempt to migrate/read a message belonging to a user whose userdata was corrupted and not repaired prior to the move. (This happens on a forum I frequent - Paladins' Haven - whose moderator suffered this problem some months back, resulting in many now unreadable threads in the new phpBB-d forum...)

Eric Schissel

The reason I think this is the cause (which I've mentioned to Eric, but haven't had time to do more about) is that if the first post in a thread is from someone else than the ghost user (in this case quoting_mungo) the thread will show up to the point where the ghost user replies.

Unlucky. You who understand how things work, would re-registering the username take care of the problem?

JRedant · Post by **JRedant** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 11:05 am

I like the idea of creating custom forums for comic websites for people who want them.

...but!...

...since there are already so many forums on the main Keenspace site...

IE: forum.keenspace.com

...you can have the main and KeenSpot forums here and us Keenspace users can have ours seperately...

In my case:practicestrip.keenspace.com/forum

It's a hair brained idea.

J Redant