You probably notice a few updates to the site today. We wanted to do more to promote the awesome writing our staff produce here, which kicked off a bunch of layout tweaks. Here are the patch notes, for lack of a better term:
- The top area of the site now showcases the latest "feature" articles and rotates some classics into the mix in case folks missed them.
- The main page and article areas are now running at a fixed 1024 pixel width to save us the nightmare of trying to make things look nice at the old variable width style. This is going to give us more flexibility as we tweak the site.
- The forums have been left as a variable width, because it just works better that way. We've also changed it so the first post of a thread doesn't show up at the top of each page, but it's still easy to refer to it if needed.
- Secret back end updates have also been made and some small changes to the front page article layouts. I'd like to wish fond farewell to the article category icon; enjoy your imitation Rolex watch and fruit basket as you step into retirement.
That's all for now! If you find any bugs, let us know in the comments.
Comments
Pages
Did you nerf the Paladin's talent specs?
"$10 - Exclusive Sean-cam where he just shakes his head, over and over." From Pyro's Kickstarter, "Endless Pit of Human Misery Livestream"
Oooh, shiny!
The 'new' link in the forums doesn't scroll down to where I need to start reading - the post opens to the top each time.
Disclaimer, I'm running IE6 on my work machine (not through choice) - don't know if that's related.
EDIT - seems it is - Firefox works just fine.
You've never known true joy until you've shaken a lich stick at someone.
Looks great so far.
Send your email to [email protected].
I can't see the article links at the top.
I wish you guys would stop encouraging him.
EvilHomer3k wrote:You are an evil, evil person.
Baron Of Hell wrote:YOU VILLAIN!
Nice! Thanks!
The Youtube tag still fails on underscores, which is supposedly fixed in version 2.1 of the Video Filter module. I'm assuming that's what's in use to provide that feature; I'm not a Drupal user myself.
You should follow me on Mastodon: @[email protected]
You should follow me on Bluesky: @legion.bsky.social
"The golden shower threw me off." -- garion333
*hugs*
"Duke Nukem Forever's switch from Quake II to Unreal technology took six weeks, but it will ultimately save months of development time."
@Holysh*tMatt
In Chrome, there are no article links, and the image of the (in this case) Darth Vader from your last article is shoved into the red Article box, and nothing else appears.
We're here. We're queer. We'll rip your f*cking face off with our fabulous claws - kaostheory
Steam
PSN
Battle.net - SpykeTDwarf#1345
Nevermind. Problem vanished.
Geek Bravado | Twitter | YouTube | Twitch
Make sure to refresh your browser. Some changes just made.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ― Howard Thurman
I fixed a couple of permissions issues a few minutes ago and Chrome looks good to me now. Let us know if you're still having issues with it.
Leeloo Dallas Multipass.
Aww man, no category icons? You mean no longer will we be able to see Elysium's bearded countenance when viewing Maximum Verbosity awesomeness?
The OP thread thing is a nice touch though.
Bacon is a goodjer in your pants.
steam profile
Hmm. I'm not seeing these issues in Chrome in Windows or Linux, or in the Chromium nightly build in Linux.
You should follow me on Mastodon: @[email protected]
You should follow me on Bluesky: @legion.bsky.social
"The golden shower threw me off." -- garion333
All good now.
We're here. We're queer. We'll rip your f*cking face off with our fabulous claws - kaostheory
Steam
PSN
Battle.net - SpykeTDwarf#1345
Nice job on the changes!
I like the front page setup much better. On more than one occasion I've almost missed a good article because I didn't scroll down far enough.
The OP fix is awesome and definately helps out. The catch-all's OPs are usually image heavy and not having them there on every page makes surfing the site at work subtler.
The only thing upsetting to me is the back end changes. I love your back ends just the way they are.
The De-Pedophiling Theorum of Advanced Bangburgling.
The Drunken Prophet kexx wrote:Shalalm Baskur
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE OH GOD IN HEAVEN
Actually no I approve of the change.
I might be just missing it but, as far as I know, there is still no subscription by email option for forum threads. I'm probably just lazy but the lack of this feature keeps me from participating a lot more than I currently do.
XBL: Mr GT Chris
I really appreciate that you guys are trying to change the site, but I agree with a lot of what Lucan is saying.
Steam: Dysplastic / Battle.net Dysplastic#1920
The "Recent posts" link seems to be 1024-fixed width, but when you click through to an individual thread it reverts to variable width. Not sure if you guys intended for it to be that way - you may well have - but it's a little jarring.
Please, I hope this doesn't come off as too harsh or disapproving, I've tried to be as constructive as possible. I hope it is useful.
---
While I don't disprove of the new features I think the top half of the page is badly designed.
1. The advantage of the old layout was being able to see the latest article instantly as it was on top area of the page. This area is now filled with articles I've already read. I have to scroll down to see if there is a new article.
The black banner on top of the site however isn't used for anything. Move the right panel (showcase and frontpage articles) up and you'll be using the vertical screen estate more efficiently. Alternatively redesign the entire page header to be smaller.
2. The images in the showcase are too small to be useful. You can't really identify what is in the image. They merely serve as recognition for articles already read.
So perhaps rather then cropping the images down to size, zoom in on a significant detail in the image?
3. The article showcases description
text is
awfully
hard to
read
vertically.
Fewer articles in the article bar would provide more horizontal room for the description texts. As an added bonus, long titles don't need to be spread out over two lines any more either.
4. The showcase category label is big and red, it invites clicking but isn't actually clickable. The other elements of the showcase aren't so easy to click. Being able to click the picture is good but is typically on the web used to show the full sized picture. This causes confusion.
Basically making the whole showcase area clickable and conveying this by highlighting the outline around the showcase would improve this.
5. To accommodate users viewing in <1024 move the left side bar to the right. This again puts the most important information, the articles, in view first. That screen estate isn't being used efficiently is especially noticeable when scrolling down, after two articles, there is a large empty space on the left.
Edited for typos another other endangered species.
People go to the front page? My bookmark goes straight to the forums menu.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
Ooooo, scary changes!
Left GWJ for good.
I only read it for the articles!
The black space at the top houses ads, unless you have them blocked.
Not anymore, right? The GOG ad has been moved to the left sidebar under the Popular Forum Threads.
Yup, plus the compression makes the thread titles get about four words per line. It makes everything a lot less vertically efficient.
I don't feel disadvantaged with the stick I've got.
The first three boxes at the top are the latest feature articles. The scroll down you do to see the article blog area is no different than before, newest articles at the top, etc.
There will be ads there, eventually. In-house stuff at first, maybe game-specific stuff down the line.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ― Howard Thurman
[Asked&Answered]
Design ideas are appreciated, but I'll warn you now that they'll be taken more seriously in a week or two once people have settled in and got used to the existing changes. I personally HATE website changes until I get used to them. It's a normal reaction.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ― Howard Thurman
This is the best I've seen the website. None of the other design updates have jumped out to me like this one has. Bravo.
"Once you can accept the universe is matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy." -- Albert Einstein
Pages