Ideas for updates to the forums etc...

[platypushunter]

So as we all know the new forums are the front page of the entire community, and they recently got a huge (much needed) overhaul. The new forums look amazing, but I think there's a few things from the old forums we miss, and some things that could be added which would be great...

FIRST THINGS FIRST THOSE EMPTY SPACES AT THE SIDES

So I'm sure this has something to do with mobile formatting (which btw the forums work AMAZING on the phone now) but on the desktop, which is where a lot of our activity is, these blank spaces are just dripping with opportunity...

Perhaps we could put the community polls on the sides, or maybe some breaking news things, or maybe its possible to make them customizable? Maybe even bring back the global chat, if that's possible... Maybe you could have a quickpost feature, a little box with a dropdown for the page you want it posted in, a box for the title, and box for the body... Regardless of what you want to put there, I think this screen real estate is desperate to be used (just like your mom).


NEXT THING, THE GAME CHAT LINKS

So this mainly pertains to surf and ttt and such, but these little broadcast things are super underutilized, telling people that we're looking for admins is good, and telling people to look at the rules is good, but maybe having links to the most recent community polls, or adding a link to the suggestions page for suggesting a map, or maybe adding a suggest maps section on the forums would be good, and linking to that. These broadcasts have been pretty much the same since PG days, and i feel like they could be SO much more.

Overall I think the community as a whole is miles ahead of where it was even a year or so ago, and the forums are LIGHT YEARS ahead, but improvement is always good!! Keep up the good word tech, we appreciate everything you guys do, and we know its a volunteer position, so you guys are rock stars.

Thank you all, if you guys think I missed something please by all means comment on here, or if you think I'm just really dumb for that, feel free to tell me that too. <3

 

[Wahtur]

The spaces on the sides have ads for people without DS.

 

[platypushunter]

The spaces on the sides have ads for people without DS.

Maybe people with ds can use these spaces... either way i think its wasted real estate...

 

[Luffy]

So as we all know the new forums are the front page of the entire community, and they recently got a huge (much needed) overhaul. The new forums look amazing, but I think there's a few things from the old forums we miss, and some things that could be added which would be great...

FIRST THINGS FIRST THOSE EMPTY SPACES AT THE SIDES
View attachment 3566
So I'm sure this has something to do with mobile formatting (which btw the forums work AMAZING on the phone now) but on the desktop, which is where a lot of our activity is, these blank spaces are just dripping with opportunity...

Perhaps we could put the community polls on the sides, or maybe some breaking news things, or maybe its possible to make them customizable? Maybe even bring back the global chat, if that's possible... Maybe you could have a quickpost feature, a little box with a dropdown for the page you want it posted in, a box for the title, and box for the body... Regardless of what you want to put there, I think this screen real estate is desperate to be used (just like your mom).


NEXT THING, THE GAME CHAT LINKS

View attachment 3567
So this mainly pertains to surf and ttt and such, but these little broadcast things are super underutilized, telling people that we're looking for admins is good, and telling people to look at the rules is good, but maybe having links to the most recent community polls, or adding a link to the suggestions page for suggesting a map, or maybe adding a suggest maps section on the forums would be good, and linking to that. These broadcasts have been pretty much the same since PG days, and i feel like they could be SO much more.

Overall I think the community as a whole is miles ahead of where it was even a year or so ago, and the forums are LIGHT YEARS ahead, but improvement is always good!! Keep up the good word tech, we appreciate everything you guys do, and we know its a volunteer position, so you guys are rock stars.

Thank you all, if you guys think I missed something please by all means comment on here, or if you think I'm just really dumb for that, feel free to tell me that too. <3

love the suggestion platypushunter !

 

[nitro]

i would like if they added the poll tab back to the side of the page (left or right) along with a tab for the most recent posts across the forums (it isn't as necessary with XF as it was with Vbulletin since you can see recents for sub-forums, but it would still be nice)

 

[Simon]

I just want dark mode.

 

[max]

I just want dark mode.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii thats a good idea

 

[DeerFat]

This would be cool.

 

[max]

View attachment 3576
This would be cool.

bro that would be sick dude idk about the shout box but everything else is sickkkkkkkkkk

 

[DeerFat]

bro that would be sick dude idk about the shout box but everything else is sickkkkkkkkkk

I guess the shout box can be replaced with what nitro said.

i would like if they added the poll tab back to the side of the page (left or right) along with a tab for the most recent posts across the forums (it isn't as necessary with XF as it was with Vbulletin since you can see recents for sub-forums, but it would still be nice)

 

[Emmitt]

put ads on the sides

 

[platypushunter]

View attachment 3576
This would be cool.

YES! that’s exactly the thing we need!

 

[4g0tt3nSou1]

So while those sidebars are underutilized, There imho was too much going on in the sidebars on the old forums, There should be one or two items max on the sidebars imo. Now, there is some limits as to how flexible that space is, we can't simply plop anything there.
Shoutbox is gone, it should stay that way. It was hardly used for much anyways, stuff like that should be done in discord, as opposed to bogarting real estate on the site. ( again, my opinion.)

As for these little chat adverts, I agree there should be some overhaul there, but I strongly disagree with them just posting things on the forums. I think we can do better.

I want to make something clear, By all means, both those things should be improved; the forums and chat adverts, and I really want to see more be done with Xen, We are completely underutilizing the platform. I just don't want to see either of those things absolutely crowded with stuff I probably am not looking at anyways.
Maybe Statistics and Recent Replies&Posts on the left, some other tools on the right, maybe links to stuff, or even if we are lucky, some playercounts.

To make something else clear, most of what you've talked about forums wise was already put on a roadmap somewhere when they transferred over to Xen.
Things like dark modes, expansion on the forums, and yes, shoutbox were all things we've been told were planned.

Also, It could just be me, but I don't find a whole lot of whitespace like you guys have:

The theming was done by myself by using stylish to modify the CSS and darken things down. I posted the theme here on the forums too if ur interested.
But I don't think I messed with the margins or padding any, I could've.

 

[platypushunter]

So while those sidebars are underutilized, There imho was too much going on in the sidebars on the old forums, There should be one or two items max on the sidebars imo. Now, there is some limits as to how flexible that space is, we can't simply plop anything there.
Shoutbox is gone, it should stay that way. It was hardly used for much anyways, stuff like that should be done in discord, as opposed to bogarting real estate on the site. ( again, my opinion.)

As for these little chat adverts, I agree there should be some overhaul there, but I strongly disagree with them just posting things on the forums. I think we can do better.

I want to make something clear, By all means, both those things should be improved; the forums and chat adverts, and I really want to see more be done with Xen, We are completely underutilizing the platform. I just don't want to see either of those things absolutely crowded with stuff I probably am not looking at anyways.
Maybe Statistics and Recent Replies&Posts on the left, some other tools on the right, maybe links to stuff, or even if we are lucky, some playercounts.

To make something else clear, most of what you've talked about forums wise was already put on a roadmap somewhere when they transferred over to Xen.
Things like dark modes, expansion on the forums, and yes, shoutbox were all things we've been told were planned.

Also, It could just be me, but I don't find a whole lot of whitespace like you guys have:
View attachment 3590

The theming was done by myself by using stylish to modify the CSS and darken things down. I posted the theme here on the forums too if ur interested.
But I don't think I messed with the margins or padding any, I could've.

Awesome! This is exactly the kinda response i wanna see. You make some great points, and i hope all our ideas can come to fruition in some way or another... Keep it up!

 

[Mayser]

With adding things to the whitespace, there is the potential that it could look rather cluttered, that's my only concern that it could potentially look too "busy".

 

[platypushunter]

With adding things to the whitespace, there is the potential that it could look rather cluttered, that's my only concern that it could potentially look too "busy".

Maybe that's where customizing it could come into play? Not sure whats possible but i think it could be done elegantly.

 

[Meyers]

xenforo natively supports add ons on the right side, I'm sure some of that stuff could get added

 

[platypushunter]

xenforo natively supports add ons on the right side, I'm sure some of that stuff could get added

Basically we got this set

 

[4g0tt3nSou1]

Maybe another suggestion to get added to the list of the numerous ones on this thread, But if they add stuff on the sidebars, It should be togglable. I'd like to see settings that would allow a user to hide them all if they wish, or partially, making it more about what the user wants to see rather than risking shoving a bunch of addons and our own custom stuff there, it stays clean and looks like it.