GWJ bugs, feature requests, and updates

Scratched wrote:
Kannon wrote:
General Crespin wrote:

Profanity filter needs to work better. Replaced "F_cking" with "f_cking"!

I also like the link-to-the-IRC-channel idea. Not that I really need to say that. But hey. I like it.

A public link to the quakenet webchat would be an awesome thing.

Like this: http://webchat.quakenet.org/ ?

Like this: http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channel...

General Crespin wrote:

Profanity filter needs to work better. Replaced "F_cking" with "f_cking"!

I also like the link-to-the-IRC-channel idea. Not that I really need to say that. But hey. I like it.

The profanity filter, for what it's worth, also has a gaping hole in it. Replacing letters with their escape character equivalents will let you write anything you want. It might be too much hassle to screen for words submitted this way, but it is a bug.

Blink tags! rainbow backgrounds!

...

Not a high priority, but I always appreciate sites that implement the ability to switch to a white on black theme, like arstechnica.com. Just a bit of style sheet fiddling, right?

I would like to say that I appreciate the feel of the GWJ site, and that its not cookie cuttery like most forum sites. That said some modernization would be nice.

How about a catch-all directory, for want of a better phrase. When creating a thread you have the option to tag it as a catch-all and it has some special icon, and and entry in an A-Z or something else easy to search through.

Just skimmed this as I'm late to the party so forgive me if these have already been suggested.

1. XBLA/STEAM/etc. lists could be filtered and better presented. I know a lot of folk put these details in their signatures, but the current master list is difficult to locate a specific member in.

2. RSS for an individual's recent posts, or for an individual's tracked threads (should the tech behind these be evolving). Entirely selfish, but this would allow be to keep an eye on things ate work without having a tab open

3. Speed up the search, I see Solr's been suggested and we've had some decent performance from that at work, so that'll probably be fine.

4, Actually on an already mentioned point:

doogiemac wrote:

Calander (xbl, psn, steam integration)

A friend of mine did some work on a little javascript planner that helped people arrange gaming slots across time-zones (I seem to remember it was so that he could organise TF2 mapping tests with other mappers from around the globe on his forum). Something like that could be nifty to integrate to bring harmonious fragging between the eurogoojers and the goojer-primes.

5. I'd like to see some form of hub for goojer projects and/or interests that could centralise a lot of what's tucked away in forums and provide a sounding board for any projects being launched by the community. Gaming servers where multiplayer stuff is happening, events or activites outside of GWJ, but which still have ties to the community that sort of thing. A categorised and navigable list of that sort of information could prove useful. Something like the calendar from the previous point might fit in well to that sort of system.

I'm sure my brain will spin up to speed and produce some decent ideas once I've pushed some caffeine into it, until then that's all I have.

Scratched wrote:

How about a catch-all directory, for want of a better phrase. When creating a thread you have the option to tag it as a catch-all and it has some special icon, and and entry in an A-Z or something else easy to search through.

I'm quoting because this inspired my idea; should we consider "tagging" people? Sounds social-network-esque, but if we're considering tighter integration with a calendar, gaming platforms such as PSN, XBLA and Steam, maybe having a way to tagging people (rather than just a link to their profile).

Or revamping the profile.

Let me through something up as a mock and you guys tell me what you think.

A few people mentioned they would like a mobile version of the sight or at least one that works better on a mobile. This isn't a big deal for me. I really dislike every mobile version of a website that I've run across. I always switch back to the regular full version. This particular drupal site works really well for me on mobile Safari. The only thing that is annoying is the inability to read spoiler tagged text.

It seems like it would take a great deal of work (not sure on this) to put together a mobile version of the site. I, for one, would rather see the time spent elsewhere... like on all the great suggestions mentioned earlier in this thread.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

It seems like it would take a great deal of work (not sure on this) to put together a mobile version of the site. I, for one, would rather see the time spent elsewhere... like on all the great suggestions mentioned earlier in this thread.

It probably depends. If this issues people have are purely cosmetic (the site's too wide, they'd rather dispense with decorative graphics because of their mobile device's limited bandwith etc.) then it could be as simple as adding some new CSS. I'm sure the site's running a templating engine (not checked the code base, but I assume drupal supports all that sort of stuff) in which case even creating new html could be done fairly quickly if required. I wouldn't say it should be a top priority, but I don't think it's a massive undertaking either.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

A few people mentioned they would like a mobile version of the sight or at least one that works better on a mobile. This isn't a big deal for me. I really dislike every mobile version of a website that I've run across. I always switch back to the regular full version. This particular drupal site works really well for me on mobile Safari. The only thing that is annoying is the inability to read spoiler tagged text.

I'd tend to agree with 2 notable exceptions; arstecnica; they keep a very good site, rather light for my archaic Blackberry browser and the page design matches the original.

The other example, Google Reader where I concentrate all my RSS feed needs does not resemble the original site in the least, but the functionality works, again, for the sorry Excuse RIM has for a browser.

A mobile version of GWJ.com should keep in mind functionality first and design at a minimum (again, for better page loading) but keeping the essential design should be achievable without pouring too many resources into it.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

A mobile version of GWJ.com should keep in mind functionality first and design at a minimum (again, for better page loading) but keeping the essential design should be achievable without pouring too many resources into it.

Keeping in mind the mobile users, I'd also appreciate a shorter URL - it's a shame that gwj.com is not available and probably costs a ton of cash to buy. However, gwj.me is available and for $10 for the first year from namecheap (it's $22 a year after that). It's also fun to say

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

A few people mentioned they would like a mobile version of the sight or at least one that works better on a mobile. This isn't a big deal for me. I really dislike every mobile version of a website that I've run across. I always switch back to the regular full version. This particular drupal site works really well for me on mobile Safari. The only thing that is annoying is the inability to read spoiler tagged text.

It seems like it would take a great deal of work (not sure on this) to put together a mobile version of the site. I, for one, would rather see the time spent elsewhere... like on all the great suggestions mentioned earlier in this thread.

Too bad drupal isn't one of the supported boards for tapatalk. Then those of use who would like a more mobile centric view could just get an app for it. I use the free versions specfic to XNA and AVS occasionally when I'm killing time with my phone reading forums, and it works relatively well.

EDIT: Quick search result gave me this thread from last year when somebody saying they were from tapatalk was talking about integrating drupal support.

On another note, it's nice that Youtube can work with all characters now. I frequent another board that has a [youtubehd] tag that gives you a bigger embedded window for higher res videos. I tend to click straight out to youtube here as the window is so small.

Things like steam/xbl/psn ids are currently in your profile, it's just that they're not presented well (at all) outside of the profile page. Perhaps an opt-in to show a minimalist list attached to your posts somehow. I don't want to go for feature creep on the forum, but seeing as it's a gaming forum it makes some sense.

Wow. There are so many good ideas in here, it's hard to know where to start!

Are we breaking up into teams/projects?

Search is all I want. Embarrassingly started a new "catch-all" a couple weeks back since I couldn't find the previous topic.

And I guess that catch-all directory is a cool idea. Heck that could just be a sticky thread at the top of each forum though. Games catch-all list, tv catch-all list, sports catch-all list, etc. At that point it's a matter of someone having to add threads to the original post and keep up with that.

Stele wrote:

Search is all I want. Embarrassingly started a new "catch-all" a couple weeks back since I couldn't find the previous topic.

And I guess that catch-all directory is a cool idea. Heck that could just be a sticky thread at the top of each forum though. Games catch-all list, tv catch-all list, sports catch-all list, etc. At that point it's a matter of someone having to add threads to the original post and keep up with that.

I don't really see it as that big a problem. Someone *cough*s the old catch all, discussion moves over there, and everyone gets on with their lives. It doesn't mean the problem couldn't be improved though.

I'm not 100% convinced the problem is the forum software, as there's nothing to stop someone not searching, searching with a typo, and just making the thread. I've no idea if there's the possibility of when a catch all thread is made, the forum pre-emptively searches and says "It looks like these threads might already be catch-alls for this game. (list of threads) Proceed with making this thread?"

Scratched wrote:

Things like steam/xbl/psn ids are currently in your profile, it's just that they're not presented well (at all) outside of the profile page. Perhaps an opt-in to show a minimalist list attached to your posts somehow. I don't want to go for feature creep on the forum, but seeing as it's a gaming forum it makes some sense.

If possible, I would suggest putting it right under the location.

Has anybody mentioned a "report" link on posts? I know the forum is generally more well behaved that average, but we still get spammers.

I don't know if all Firefox users experience this (probably not, or there'd be complaints about it in this thread), but maybe somebody in this thread can help me figure this out: When I type shift-i (like I just did in this sentence... twice now) or shift-b, it automatically inserts the appropriate formatting code (i = italics, b = bold) into this text box. However, as soon as I do ctrl-shift-b or ctrl-shift-i, this behavior stops and it works like it should (formatting codes only show up when I do ctrl-shift-character). This doesn't happen in IE. Any idea why this is happening and whether it's something I can fix?

I know exactly why it happens and pointed it out probably about 2 years ago. There's also been at least one specific thread about it. I might just dig it up again when I'm at a computer next time.

JediK809 wrote:

I don't know if all Firefox users experience this (probably not, or there'd be complaints about it in this thread), but maybe somebody in this thread can help me figure this out: When I type shift-i (like I just did in this sentence... twice now) or shift-b, it automatically inserts the appropriate formatting code (i = italics, b = bold) into this text box. However, as soon as I do ctrl-shift-b or ctrl-shift-i, this behavior stops and it works like it should (formatting codes only show up when I do ctrl-shift-character). This doesn't happen in IE. Any idea why this is happening and whether it's something I can fix?

Happens in Chrome sometimes too.

You don't even need to do ctrl-shift-i or ctrl-shift-b to clear the issue -- just tap the ctrl key once and the bonus tags cease.

Still, it'd be nice if it never happened to begin with.

Maybe it's just a trend and in a few months this feature would not be as useful, but as of late I've gwj's interested in tourney-like competition (SCII, TF2 mainly, and Worms if I ever get off my ass and start working on the brackets).

Should we have a tourney maker for Goodjer games?

very basic, organizers, rules, maps, Message of the Day, team/player registration.

there's some code snippets around the web, but I can't tell bad php from good php code. it's been a number of years.

Oh, just ran into a feature request earlier today:

It would be great to have the "Post a Topic" button appear when you're viewing recent posts, instead of having to go into a sub-forum to post a new thread.

nossid wrote:

I know exactly why it happens and pointed it out probably about 2 years ago. There's also been at least one specific thread about it. I might just dig it up again when I'm at a computer next time.

Before I posted, I tried searching around for a thread about this issue, and I couldn't easily find one. I hope you'll be able to track it down.

JediK809 wrote:
nossid wrote:

I know exactly why it happens and pointed it out probably about 2 years ago. There's also been at least one specific thread about it. I might just dig it up again when I'm at a computer next time.

Before I posted, I tried searching around for a thread about this issue, and I couldn't easily find one. I hope you'll be able to track it down.

One from 2009, one from 2008 and my initial post explaining it.

nossid wrote:
JediK809 wrote:
nossid wrote:

I know exactly why it happens and pointed it out probably about 2 years ago. There's also been at least one specific thread about it. I might just dig it up again when I'm at a computer next time.

Before I posted, I tried searching around for a thread about this issue, and I couldn't easily find one. I hope you'll be able to track it down.

One from 2009, one from 2008 and my initial post explaining it.

Clearly, I did not search very well. I'll use the ctrl workaround until a fix is implemented. Thanks.

I was wondering about the outskirts of GWJville; like the Ventrilo Server thread, should we consider limiting access to these pages to members only? Or go even further, attain Intern status before seeing the information?

Possible bug?

I'm not sure if it's just me or not, but all the text from GWJ's site is showing up as Centered instead of the standard Align Left formatting. I'm running Windows Vista and this formatting problem doesn't happen on any other website.

It makes reading longer forum posts pretty distracting. Any suggestions?

Hobbes2099 wrote:

I was wondering about the outskirts of GWJville; like the Ventrilo Server thread, should we consider limiting access to these pages to members only? Or go even further, attain Intern status before seeing the information?

I'd vote no, simply because some goodjers might not post much, but still play a lot of games with other goodjers where that would be useful information.

Edit -

Aaron D. wrote:

Possible bug?

I'm not sure if it's just me or not, but all the text from GWJ's site is showing up as Centered instead of the standard Align Left formatting. I'm running Windows Vista and this formatting problem doesn't happen on any other website.

It makes reading longer forum posts pretty distracting. Any suggestions?

It's a problem with the site's current code (an unclosed [center]) and I.E.. Switching browsers should fix it.

Stengah wrote:

I'm not sure if it's just me or not, but all the text from GWJ's site is showing up as Centered instead of the standard Align Left formatting. I'm running Windows Vista and this formatting problem doesn't happen on any other website.

It makes reading longer forum posts pretty distracting. Any suggestions?

It's a problem with the site's current code (an unclosed [center]) and I.E.. Switching browsers should fix it.[/quote]

I'm currently using IE8. Is that what's causing the problem? Should I try to dial back to IE7 or wait for GWJ to catch up? Is there any adjustments I can make to IE8 to fix it?\

/too many questions