GWJ bugs, feature requests, and updates

Here's one that just occurred to me that is totally superfluous and adds only a little bit to the site.

What if we had some kind of indicator on a post that is the last on the page? I mean, assuming that each page has a max post count before it paginates, we could obviously count how many posts there were, but sometimes things roll over to another page and lose context. It would be nice to know which post is the last, so that the next poster could quote what he needed to in order to maintain the context.

It's 25 posts per page, isn't it?

Edit: nope, 30.

How about running pages similar to posts 1-30, 30-60, 60-90, so the first and last post are common to the prev/next page. It would have to be clearly marked to avoid confusion.

Another (more major, and difficult) solution would be to have endless pages, with a bit of javascript to load another batch of posts and put them into the page at the right point. See Never Ending Reddit from RES.

Site update!

Hey everyone, it's been a while since we've had an update, but courtesy of @joshdw1 and @trueheart78 we've got some great updates that rolled out tonight.

The Favorites module
You can now flag threads in the forums as being a "favorite" post. Simply click "add to favorites" under the top post in the thread. Any threads you've flagged will show up under your favorties page, which you can get to from the top menu. What makes Favorites even more awesome is that you can un-favorite -- a long-requested functionality of the current forum thread tracker. Thanks, @joshdw1!

Set last read post
If you open up a thread and don't have time to finish reading all the updates, you now mark your place by setting the last read comment in a thread. Thanks, @joshdw1!

Youtube in HD
YouTube videos should now render in HD and widescreen! Thanks, @trueheart78

Fewer busted quotes
We tend to have an issue where threads with lots of quotes end up eventually breaking a page because someone accidentally deletes a closing quote tag. We now try to prevent quote tags from parsing if they aren't balanced. Thanks, @joshdw1

[size=8]Top banner ad[/size]

Give us feedback!
We've tried to do some internal testing on these changes but, as with any new functionality, there's always the chance we missed some bugs or overlooked some functionality. If you notice anything, please reply here or swing by our bugs and feature requests thread to fill us in on the details.

Love the new features, but I'm seeing a few oddities viewing the site with the Android browser. First, on the main forum pages (Games and Platforms, Everything Else, etc) I can't see any links to additional pages at the bottom of the page. Second, the add banner is overlapping the tracking and favorites links on the user profile pages. It's overlapping on most other pages but it doesn't cover up any links.

Finally, a real thread tracking feature! Rock. Excellent work, gentlemen.

edit:\ Seems that the favourites list either doesn't list how many replies since you last read a thread, or it doesn't match with the number displayed in Track. Could you take a look at this?
This seems to be a lie. Carry on.

I can only see the first page of each forum; the page links that used to be at the bottom of the page are missing for me. Anyone else seeing this?

ETA: OK, I see another thread on it so it isn't just me.

Awesome new stuff, thanks guys
I'd also like to weigh in with a polite "nay" vote on the animated banner ad. I don't mind the site ads, but the flashy animation is distracting. On a site where we don't allow flashy animated avatars I wouldn't mind if we held the advertisers to the same standard.

tanstaafl wrote:

I can only see the first page of each forum; the page links that used to be at the bottom of the page are missing for me. Anyone else seeing this?

ETA: OK, I see another thread on it so it isn't just me.

I'm that way, too. No way to get to page 2 that I can see.

That's awesome, great job guys!

doogiemac wrote:

Site update!
The Favorites module
You can now flag threads in the forums as being a "favorite" post. Simply click "add to favorites" under the top post in the thread. Any threads you've flagged will show up under your favorties page, which you can get to from the top menu. What makes Favorites even more awesome is that you can un-favorite -- a long-requested functionality of the current forum thread tracker. Thanks, @joshdw1!

Can we jump right to the last unread from the favorites page? I can't seem to find how to do that. If that's not possible, I'm not sure this is going to count as "un-subscribe" in my book.

[size=100]Top banner ad[/size]

What can I do to not have those ads? Or to, at least, not have them be animated ads for things that have nothing to do with gaming. Can I donate more? Can I kill all the zoobles in the world?

Thanks for working on the site. I realize it's an oft thankless job and I am glad people are putting their time and effort into it with no compensation.

Thanks for the (mostly) really nice improvements!

doogiemac wrote:

Set last read post
If you open up a thread and don't have time to finish reading all the updates, you now mark your place by setting the last read comment in a thread. Thanks, @joshdw1!

Obviously Favorites is awesome, but this one is amazing too. Too many times I'll want to read through a long thread to catch up so I'll copy it to a new tab when I want to "pause" it to get back into the GWJ time stream. This takes care of that problem nicely.

Thanks for the improvements guys!

Wooo, nice job

Phishposer wrote:

Awesome new stuff, thanks guys
I'd also like to weigh in with a polite "nay" vote on the animated banner ad. I don't mind the site ads, but the flashy animation is distracting. On a site where we don't allow flashy animated avatars I wouldn't mind if we held the advertisers to the same standard.

BadMojo wrote:

What can I do to not have those ads? Or to, at least, not have them be animated ads for things that have nothing to do with gaming. Can I donate more? Can I kill all the zoobles in the world?

Thanks for working on the site. I realize it's an oft thankless job and I am glad people are putting their time and effort into it with no compensation.

+1 to these, I give more monies just ask.

The other updates are awesome though. Thanks for all the hard work.

We're just on a trial run with the ad thing. The only way to really get a sense of what they're pushing is to "do it live" and see what different regions get. We turn down about a dozen ad companies per month, but this is the first one that says they specialize in games. We'll see!

I won't be offended if you use an ad blocker.

The forum topics pager was broken. Whoops. It's fixed now!

Thanks team for all the hard work you do here.

rabbit wrote:

Thanks team for all the hard work you do here.

+1

Certis wrote:

We're just on a trial run with the ad thing. The only way to really get a sense of what they're pushing is to "do it live" and see what different regions get. We turn down about a dozen ad companies per month, but this is the first one that says they specialize in games. We'll see!

I won't be offended if you use an ad blocker. ;)

A wise person once said that there are ads on web pages because "Hey, I'm famous online!" doesn't buy you any groceries. However, I'd also like to weigh in that the current banner ad is distracting and not in keeping with the overall tone and aesthetics of GWJ.

I remember that a few years ago the site went largely ad-free thanks to the support of the community. Is the site in need of funds? Would a second donation drive help? Would a "pro" subscription without ads be an option, with ads for non-paying visitors?

I don't use ad blockers on principle (cf. writers need to eat), but I'd like to offset the cost of selling my eyeballs, if possible.

While I'm in here, a feature request: any way you could also add favorite topics as a tab on the recent posts page?

[MESSAGE REDACTED]

mrtomaytohead wrote:
Thin_J wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

Posting on twitter is useless to me.

Sounds like your problem, not theirs

Plus when the site's down there isn't really a better way to let people know why. Twitter is kind of ideal for it...

Twitter account is @GWJOps for anybody that's curious.

The problem is that requires I use twitter. I do not use twitter. I guess I could just bookmark that one site or something and check it when need, right? Can I plug it into google reader like an RSS?

EDIT: Evidently, yes... Too bad I only check reader occasionally and forget about it at home.

There's no pleasing you!

I have the same problem with the favorites link when there's new posts.

I have a stylistic complaint:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/LVObS.jpg)

Runs into the thought bubble. Perhaps switch Recent Posts with the Favorites. Or move the logo down. Anyway, not that big of a deal.

Thanks for the feature adds, though, I've been wanting this for a while.

To add more specificity to my concern with the favorites:

Link to new posts for a thread form the favorites page: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...
Link to new posts for a thread from the track page: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

The favorites link seems to always take a person to the first page. I suspect that a newer thread might work if there is only one page.

Edit: This is the case. New topics work fine. If the first unread post is on the first page, you link right to it. If it's on any other page, the link just takes you to the top of the first page.

Some of those ads are a really bad design (they don't say what company they are). To top that off, they go to a 404 error at the site www.bigrebelads.com.

doogiemac wrote:

Site update!

Hey everyone, it's been a while since we've had an update, but courtesy of @joshdw1 and @trueheart78 we've got some great updates that rolled out tonight.

The Favorites module
You can now flag threads in the forums as being a "favorite" post. Simply click "add to favorites" under the top post in the thread. Any threads you've flagged will show up under your favorties page, which you can get to from the top menu. What makes Favorites even more awesome is that you can un-favorite -- a long-requested functionality of the current forum thread tracker. Thanks, @joshdw1!

Set last read post
If you open up a thread and don't have time to finish reading all the updates, you now mark your place by setting the last read comment in a thread. Thanks, @joshdw1!

Youtube in HD
YouTube videos should now render in HD and widescreen! Thanks, @trueheart78

Fewer busted quotes
We tend to have an issue where threads with lots of quotes end up eventually breaking a page because someone accidentally deletes a closing quote tag. We now try to prevent quote tags from parsing if they aren't balanced. Thanks, @joshdw1

[size=8]Top banner ad[/size]

Give us feedback!
We've tried to do some internal testing on these changes but, as with any new functionality, there's always the chance we missed some bugs or overlooked some functionality. If you notice anything, please reply here or swing by our bugs and feature requests thread to fill us in on the details.

Just saw this ... awesome! thanks a ton!

Oh, and the Caesary ad with the nude woman bouncing slowly up and down and the text "Warning! Mature enough to play?" is kind of past my own personal line.

momgamer wrote:

Oh, and the Caesary ad with the nude woman bouncing slowly up and down and the text "Warning! Mature enough to play?" is kind of past my own personal line.

Completely agreed. Also, if they had less randomness to the ads and more of a "you've visited so we're going to cache this ad for 30 min" I'd be much less concerned.

Thanks for the features! And yay!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

While I'm in here, a feature request: any way you could also add favorite topics as a tab on the recent posts page?

Oddly, it's implemented as a tab for other users if you visit their profiles. I just saw this while checking a spammer's profile trying to advertise video game industry job opportunities.