Changing the gaming forums
 

I mentioned this once in my journal before but I'd like to bring it up here to get a wider opinion on what everyone thinks. What I would like to do is condense the amount of gaming forums we have to just 2 or three. Then we can allow people to set prefixes when they create a thread (like xbox360/Wii/DS/RPG/whatever). There are a few reasons I want to do this:

1. Its annoying having to visit each individual forum to see all the topics, especially when they each only have like 2-5 active topics. Having them all in one forum makes it easier and look more active.

2. With the prefixes its still just as easy to scroll past threads you wouldn't want to read in the first place.

One thing everyone likes about the current setup is that the fanboys can stick to their forum. Having it all mixed might cause huge fanboy wars and crap like that. That's why I plan on making a new sticky thread with much stricter rules. And if people insist on running around posting "xbox360 is better than wii and ps3" we'll remove their access to the gaming section completely for a set amount of time or permanently.

Thoughts? Opinions?

I think some sort of separation is still needed. Maybe not by platform, but if we have everything in one giant mass, it could be pretty confusing for people who don't readily know about applying filters.

Mostly I think RPGs should still have their own forum, and I think PC/Online games should have their own forum. Other than that, I think it's OK for everything else to be mixed up, assuming everything gets tagged and is easily filterable.

I still think it would be much more convenient and less troublesome to leave the forums seperated, but apparently few people agree with that sentiment. At least not anyone willing to be vocal about it since I've talked to several members who agreed, but would never post during previous debates. Considering how things turned out with Guru, I can't say that I blame them.

I'm fine with this new setup as long as Blah codes those tags at the top that sort by console and such. Keeping the RPG forum around would also be great, of course.

If we go through with this, I was thinking we could have 2 subforums inside the gaming forum. One for planning online game meets with GFF members and the other for all the RPG (Final Fantasy SIGH) threads.

I don't know how flexible vB forums are, but would it be possible for users to "create" a custom forum that contains specific tags? For instance, my account could have a forum that displays all gaming threads that are tagged as "RPG" and "PC"? This would be in addition to the two proposed default gaming threads, so no posts/threads are missed.

The gaming section of GFF was dead before the crash. We're going to start with a lot less activity on this new iteration. I fail to see the need to even discuss this. Having separate forums for each system is like having separate kitchen forums for each kind of food. Tags are a good idea, but not really needed for the three threads being active at the same time. We can use the search function for everything else.

I'd say the board index needs to consolidate even further. This place feels terribly empty with all the countless categories and subforums.

Whatever happened to the discussion over at SB regarding the much needed consolidation and purging of forums?

Yeah, I like the idea of chucking it all into one, with the RPG's and online games still keeping their own seperate sections. I don't think this would cause an explosion of fanboy horror to smear all over the joint, we're not retarded like NeoGAF. =) If we are gonna go with tags, keep 'em simple, just the current systems and a 'multi' or something. Like Rock mentioned, the whole gaming part of GFF was a dead as a doorknob. Removing the electric fences and compressing it all down can only be a good thing.

A single overbranching game forum would be fine by me, especially since there has been a bit of confusion in the past about where to put threads about certain games/events and what to do when a game goes to different platforms, etc. (for example we had a Prey thread in general gaming and a Prey thread in the Xbox forum...wouldn't it make sense to just have ONE Prey thread since it's the same game?).

Out of curiosity though, would it be possible to set it up so that you could filter threads based on the tags they have? So if, for example, a person only wants Xbox 360 news, they can set it so that threads about Wii, PS3, DS, PSP, PC, etc. don't show up? Since I own (or will be owning) all the current systems it isn't something I'd use personally, but it might make things more convenient for anyone that only cares about news for a limited number of platforms.

Shouldn't this announcement be in all the other gaming forums as well (or at least a redirect to it)?

If we're going to merge the gaming forums, why keep the RPG forums seperate? I understand the Online Forums are different and used more for planning rather than discussion, but why RPG forums?

I'm all for the merging, though I do not entirely understand how it's going to lead to stricter moderating. It's not like it was impossible to enforce rules when they were kept seperate.

I'm pro-merging. I thik everyone saw my large post about this on SB. I still hope this means that the gaming forums will be cleaned up rather significantly though. No more "What's your favorite emulator" or things like this. (That should be in the Wii thread).

But perhaps, as expanding on something DarkComet said, how about we put an online megathread as a sticky or something. Not just Live tags. Not just friend codes, not just PSN names. Something incorporating all that. I dunno if we'd need a seperate forum for organizing games, you could either start a thread or ask in a game's official thread or whatnot.

I think I'd like this the best:

General (need to have this for things that don't fit elsewhere)
Consoles+Handhelds+Console/Handheld Online Gaming (tagged forum)
PC+MMOs+PC Online Gaming
Non-Online RPG

That's really all you need.

I do agree that if we're going to do tags by console/handheld, they need to be filterable. And I like the idea of a second layer of genre tags, similarly filterable.

And I like keeping RPG in its own forum since we have a large section of the community that is exclusively interested in RPG...the tone in those threads are always completely different from the other gaming threads.

I don't know why but maybe a genre grouping as opposed to the current one or lumping it all together is what I would like best. RPGs for sure with their own forum, and then FPS, action, puzzle, music, etc. to their own devices. I keep getting the impression that popular games for everything will override everything else and that obscure sleeper releases will be quickly pushed to the bottom by the newest most popular games.

That's just my opinion though.

There are too many games that fill multiple genres, and if we were to separate them into the most logical groupings, we'd have like 20 forums.

That's why I like adding tags for genres, and being able to check multiple tags for certain games. So you can mark a game like Actraiser as an action and a sim game.

Ah yes the issue of multi-platformgames. The genre tags would be a neat idea, and I guess as long as gaming isn't just lumped into a single solitary forum altogther, then sleeper titles will have a chance of being seen.

I am confused. Most of the people who advocate keeping the forums split seem to think that our gaming section is active enough that there's enough activity to make finding specific threads difficult. Even merged, you probably won't even have to dive one page to find the thread you're looking for, if it's recent.

Going Sony tags might give you 5 or 6 active threads, while Sony-->Action like BM is saying for Genres would give you what? A God of War 2 thread?

I guess I shouldn't have said second "layer", like they were on top of each other. But a second group. So you can search for Sony or you can search for Action or Sony and Action. Think Newegg Power Search. There's a logical grouping (the 4 categories) but you can get whatever categories you want. You could even get rid of the RPG forum with that.

And when you do specific searches like that, you won't miss stuff that fell off the first page that you might want to remember. And we could have it so each user can save certain search types so every time they log in they could always look at Sony+Action and DS separately.

(I've been designing new user interfaces for my product at work so I'm thinking way too big probably.)

The only objections I have to this higher-level "genre tag" system is:

1. I can optimistically trust newbies to tag a thread as SONY / MICROSOFT / NINTENDO, but not add on the specific "puzzle/action" or "action/dating" or "music/rpg" etc... This would result in a lot of moderator action, properly tagging game threads when people don't label the different genres correctly.

2. Where would these tags appear? If they're on the main forum listing for the threads, the tags would be incredibly cluttered. You'd be seeing SONY / RPG / ACTION images for a single thread. I'd much prefer a single SONY icon.

My thought was to the right of the "(Started on ______)" text. Just a list of the tags that represent the game.

My argument about the moderator thing is that we don't really have enough to do as it is. And if the gaming forums stay dead, it won't be hard to tag new threads. We get fewer than 10 new threads a day in the gaming forums currently.

It's just a thought, it's a lot of work and probably not feasible, but I'm a dreamer. :P

I really dug the merged forums of SB, so I'm all for merging them now. The adding in the MMO and RPG subforums eased my worries of seeing a half dozen Final Fantasy threads always bumping other game's (or genre's) threads off the front pages.

Couldn't agree more with this. Plus, it brings up all sorts of problems with things that are hard to classify, like a thread on Katamari or something. Someone might search "puzzler" while someone else searches "action", or something.

Tagging threads depending on the platform is a nice idea, but adding a genre is a bit too much. Not only are some games open for interpretation, and is giving them in one genre be different depending on the person, but I also think that the forums aren't active enough to NEED this sort of detailed tagging. It would be different if there were 50 active threads a day, but if the trend from before the crash continues, I doubt that there will be any confusion. I would definately get rid of the Music Games section, and PC gaming, since these aren't the most effective places on GFF, and they could easily be assimilated with other forums.

Something like this could be interesting:
-General Discussion (guess the videogame, do you buy guides, etc, stuff that can't really belong to a console. I also think that it would be better to put the console discussion threads in here, like the PS3, DS or 360 threads)
-Online Games, MMO
-Game Discussion (This would be the forum to discuss specific games, were the platform tags would be used, with sorting options, etc)
-A Seperate section for RPGs, like it or not, this is still a niche on GFF and a few general threads wouldn't cut it, maybe a subforum in Game Discussion?

I like the slit sections like they are now, but I can understand there has to be some change because there is not enough activity.

I think it would be better to just merge the respective platform-specific sections into 1 general forum, but have a seperate PC-section. Also keep the RPG-section. Something like what BlueMickey proposed would be very good.

I think you have to be very carefull not to merge too many sections (see NeoGAF; it's not very user-friendy wading through the topics you like).

You wouldn't be restricted to tagging it with a single genre.

I'd actually like the tags because I tend to read threads on GFF about games that look neat, but I can never remember what they are a few months later when the games are cheap enough for me to buy them. This way I could just look under the certain tags I think it was under.

So I think we'll end up doing something like this.

Video Gaming with following tags:
360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC, DS, PSP, Arcade, Multiplatform, classic, general gaming

I included PS2 since it still has a decent flow of games coming out on it. The original xbox and the gamecube are pretty much dead now and could be considered classic. We'll have a Online gaming subforum for planning meets, sharing friends codes, xbox live stuff, MMORPG meets, etc. We'll also give the RPG section its own subforum due to popular demand.

What do you guys think?

(we could include xbox, gba, and gamecube tags too if you want)

I think this sounds good. The PC forum was so dead that I think it will help to include PC threads in with the console threads. I think adding genre tags is a bit much - I know that for myself I pretty much know the genre of the games being discussed before I click on the thread but maybe that's just me spending too much time on the 'net researching games. :)

This sounds excellent. I'm all ready for our new frontier of tags!

Sounds like a good enough layout, although rather than a generic "multiplatform" moniker, maybe be able to set multiple tags for each system the game is coming out for. It would make filtering easier, so that if you want to see all the upcoming games for a specific system, you don't miss any by unchecking multiplatform which may include games coming out for that system. Otherwise it seems like there'd be a pretty large amount of games with the multiplatform tag, and it would also be somewhat confusing when a game goes multiplatform later on and the tag would need to be changed.

How about cool little bouncy console icons instead of the ugly text tags?

Because the text tags on SB were quite uglimous.

or non-bouncy ones. http://www.snk-capcom.com/forums/ima..._post_icon.gif

No separation of any kind required. If you have a brain, you will simply combine them all into one Gaming Forum.

I kind of liked having each section separated. Specifically the Nintendo section. I don't mean for this to come off as an attack against people who post in the N section, but it is no secret that some of the N fanboys have, in the past, behaved very zealously about N, and have had a history of getting very upset whenever someone made a post that was not glowing in praise of N. This is why I basically avoid the N section. While it is simple to say to just avoid the threads that are related to N in the big, new combined gaming forum, not everyone would be able to adhere to a self imposed avoidance policy.

And a point of fact is that in the past, the N forum was moderated differently than the other gaming forums, in such a way that the zealous N fanboys were more or less protected. I'm sorry, but N fanboys clash pretty violently even with people who are console neutral.

I propose creating an N subforum. If you want to, just say that because N's goal is to create new and innovative ways of gaming, they should be held separate from more "traditional" forms of gaming.

Jesus, group them together already.

I've wanted that for months now.

I'm up for tags as long as (I've only stated this like 5 times already but here I go again) the ability to click the tags to sort them is implemented. :O

New rule thread done.

The new tags are fugly.

The current ones are only placeholders until the final ones are complete. (in a week or two) Its either those or just plain text.

They're temporary tags, dude. =/

Wow, it's amazing how much shorter the root of the forum looks with all of the game threads condensed into a single sub-forum. I think it looks nice, I'll probably see quite a few threads I would've missed otherwise this way. And maybe I'm just missing something, but is there/will there be a way to filter multiple tags at once instead of being limited to either seeing all the tags or only seeing one?

something is messed up with the tables or whatever in the light set.

Just thought you should know~

Updated the lite set template.

Mission complete! You may now return home, blah.

Thanks, I'll leave the future template updates in your hands <3

Haha WOW this is different, but welcome. I sat there for a while looking for Sony Scape...

Looks good, guys. Great job.

Is there any way to set an auto-filter for stuff like "everything except for Nintendo and Microsoft"?

I agree with RR, we need fanboy buttons.

:3:

Its pretty cool that you can just click the console icon and it puts those type of threads on top.

I think you should have a designated Console War Thread. It gets a lot of people fired up and passionate and provides an unlimited amount of hilarity for everyone else.

I can't say that i'm happy with this at all. I was perfectly happy with the way it was before. Everyone went to his own place and did his thing without bothering others.

I'll need time to adjust to this. =/

Yeah I'm not really a fan of this setup either (but everyone said I just didn't know better). I don't really see how it's encouraging more or better conversation. I don't feel like it's easier to navigate, since we had those little dropdown menus before that were plenty easy (in fact, i feel like they were easier to use).

And I know they're placeholder, but the icons suck. I'd rather they were just text at this point. I hope that the new icons are smaller -- I don't like having all that garbage over to the left of every thread. It makes the forums feel off-kilter compared to the rest of GFF. It's not balanced. I like balance.

I don't like it either... the forum are way more confusing for me now... and it doesn't look very appealing to me...

This is you guys:

http://a.photos.cx/myworldischanging-stephen-487.jpg

I'm hoping better icons will fix it for us. I imagined being able to look at a glance and see the threads I wanted, but the icons are just too awful to be able to do that. Maybe with good ones it will look nice.

So far this new setup is just as bad as I figured it would be. I know it's still being worked on and such, but why didn't we wait to combine them until we actually had icons and filters ready? Everything is too cluttered at the moment.

As an actual issue though, there's something screwy with the text tags (PC, Help, News, Attention, etc.) in IE. They show up fine in Firefox, but in IE they're all just blank rectangles like they're images that refused to load.

The filters do work. Click on one of the prefixes. They aren't as fully featured as they will be but they do work. Text works just as well as temp icons for the moment. Blah more than likely tests everything in Firefox first but IE will probably work fine once everything is in place. Also, IE sucks yadda yadda.

I'm using IE7 and I'm not having any tag issues. Perhaps this is with earlier versions of IE, I'm not sure.

As for the forum setup I'm not overly enjoying this either. If we were to make the area where you select "Video Gaming" off the main page the general gaming area with optional thread console tags and then seperate Forum areas for each of the indevidual consoles like the Multiplayer and RPG areas already are, this would allow acces to console specific forums off the main page while also keeping the list of the main page small and make things a little more organized for the users.

EDIT
PC, Help and Question appear to be the only tags I see boxes for, didn't notice this earlier.

No no, that's not what I mean about the filters not being ready. Originally I thought it was planned to have the filter tags up at the top to easily click on too, or a way to set custom filters.

IE does suck, but I hate dealing with Firefox.

Except, y'know, wrong.

I asked Lukage about this, and he has told me that in regards to the Bioshock thread he posted in, that he would either not have seen it at all or not seen it for several weeks (depending on it's location), if the gaming boards weren't centralized like this. That's a prime example of what I was talking about before. More users see more threads more often that they wouldn't have before and we get more discussion.

The rest of your complaints/issues are all opinion so I won't bother addressing them.

I will agree that the icons are too big at this point and should be shrunk. Other than that, I'm in love with this.

Question
So what will happen to the once forum specific Sticky threads? Are these just simply going to get lost, buried amongst all the other threads or what's going to be done?

I LIKE the new icons. They just need to make the column width smaller.

awesome, one guy, one thread. :rock:

who seriously doesn't check the general gaming board anyway? haha.

I'm citing just one quick example. I'm relatively certain this won't be the only instance of this ever happening.

I clicked on a thread involving the 360 by accident and promptly closed the tab...does that count?

That's five to ten seconds wasted. It could have been completely avoided had you just been in the forum of your video-gaming platform of choice!

BUT! Since you opened the thread, you should have read it and replied to it! Tsk tsk, we're trying to encourage conversation here!

I'm fairly sure that we'll be having a filter system similar to SA.

Check out their gaming forum and filter system:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/for...php?forumid=44

If they don't apply any more or aren't important then they have been unstickyed or rewritten or planned to be rewritten.

Are there any stickies that you see needing to come back that aren't there? Please tell me.

I always wanted to keep pace with all the systems forums. Thanks to a consolidated gaming forum, I can now see what's hot at one glance. This sure helps some exotic games getting the exposure they deserve.

The only things I still don't agree with are tags and the Multiplayer and RPG subforums. Really, dealing with subforums is always cumbersome, even with the little popup windows. I totally appreciate the effort put into these nifty extensions, but I don't think they're really needed.

What's keeping us from just putting all gaming threads in a single forum? We don't need tags, either, those are pretty pointless if you just put the platform name in the thread title or something. The gaming forum would look so much better without tags and subforums. Just keep it clean and simple - less is more.

Because those of us with only one system will become ENRAGED every time we have to dig through 10 threads to find one we think is remotely interesting.

RR nailed it. Rock, you're so wrong here it isn't even funny.

I can see what both Rock and Reaver's points are and they each have their points.

Rock: Without the tags and subforums people will more likely to participate in discussions that they might not normally seek to participate in.

Reaver: The tags and subforums is to give people the option to be more selective with the things they want to read and Discuss.

As for myself I'm still a bit sketchy on the idea. I think that more participation on the community is a good thing, however people already get frustrated when someone has a difference of opinion on a topic, imagine when you get all the fanboys of group A voicing their opinions in the threads of group B. Perhaps I'm underestimating the maturity of the community here but from what I've experianced from being on other gaming forums from gametrailers.com to GaiaOnline these things tend to not often turn out for the better.

All things aside, I think if perhaps we could order the threads in the gaming section by console a litle easier with perhaps a drop box for console selection over the tag colum instead at the bottom of the page like it is now may be the simplest fix for everyone.

Yeah.

Basically with absolutely no sorting function, the forums would be a complete clusterfuck. I can live with the way they are now, it's functional enough to be acceptable.

But with no sorting features, I really couldn't enjoy paging through the forums just to see if something strikes my fancy. Maybe we should combine all the community forums into one big clusterfuck and put "general," "community," "politics," "jokeslol," "adult," "food," and "emo" tags on everything. It'd be so streamlined that way.

It would be Fark and you are retarded and yes I know you're exaggerating.

I agree with the subforum part. That stuff makes 100% sure I never know where to find Squeenix games. Plus, you guys don't know either since you keep making threads and moving them back and forth. So it's not just me. :D

But tags are absolutely necessary.

BUT ACER! It would expose people to threads they might not see otherwise, and encourage conversation! Plus people can see everything all at once so they don't have to change forums! SO EASY!

It might make it so I actually go into Community. :p

o guru, so silly

While we don't know what sort of positive changes it'll bring as far as conversation and quality, at the very least it's no worse. I went in there, saw a bunch of icons to the left, and I hit the Sony one. Took me to a page with everything but the Sony threads taken out. Suddenly, I had a Playstation forum. What is the problem here Guru? Hell, Blah or someone else is probably working on having just a text alternative for the icons.

I have a feeling you wouldn't be content with anything that wasn't what it was before. You like preserving things.

I'd be satisfied with a place where I could set checkboxes for which thread types I want to appear for me and have all of them appear without me clicking anything (after setting it up initially, of course).

I like that idea ^^

This I don't understand either. His organization he moans about is still ONE CLICK AWAY.

Although I must admit, Guru's doing a damn good job of making a case for keeping the forums split. I don't want people like him in any of the threads I participate in. I wouldn't have to read his shit if it got funneled away into a subforum.

I do like RR's idea though. It'll probably please even the laziest of whiney assholes. Win-win.

It would be interesting to have an ignore function. That way any threads that are specifically Sony or Microsoft system tags can be ignored leaving everything else that Guru desires. More than likely we'll have a filtering system like that in addition to the SA-type filter list.

I was told there would be buttons along the top of the forum to filter. Right now there aren't, and I already have to scroll around to find what I want to see. What if there are no threads about topics I'm interested in? Extra clicking, scrolling, searching.

It was never any less convenient to use the drop-down menu to scroll through the forums. This is just a different way of doing things, that has no obvious benefits, and the ones you guys are inventing for me are completely bullshit. Better conversation? More exposure? Riiight. No matter how they come across something, people aren't going to read what they don't want to read. Do you see where I'm coming from? If people weren't seeing threads before, it's because they were either stupid or lazy. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm lazy. I don't like a clunkier interface than is necessary for me to see what I want to see. But my opinion is not the majority, so c'est la vie.

I don't have a huge issue with the way the filters are set up so long as they're more accessible and less ugly. Do I prefer the other way? Yeah. Will I deal? Yeah. But quit telling me that it's for some greater good of the forum. It's just different. Plain and simple. It benefits people that have more video game systems than one because THEY are too lazy to change forums on the old system. But the conversation and exposure arguments are complete and utter garbage, and you all know it.

I may not share Guru's frustration on the situation, however my thoughts on the new design are similar to that of Guru's. People arn'e as much complaining as they are stating an observation. I believe that Guru's frustration may simply be coming from the fact that people think that his opinion is incorrect, which simply is not possible.

I don't know if it was feedback or design ideas that people were expecting to come out of this thread, however everyone, Guru included are users and in the end are these not the people you're trying to make the community experiance better for? I'm not saying to tailor to any specific user, just take note of all the feedback, right or wrong, good or bad and try to use it to achieve an end goal instead of attacking every detail in someone's suggestion.

I'm not frustrated, just calling bullshit when I see it. Does using the word "bullshit" make me seem frustrated? Okay then. Bullpoopy. ~.^

I'm not against change either. But I don't really think things need to be changed when there's nothing wrong with the way they were. That's a general comment by the way, and not only in regard to the gaming forums.

Why is the gaming forum the only place on this entire board where people bitch about seeing threads they're not interested in? You people know how to "use" the other forums as well, so why do we need to make the gaming forum special?

I'm going to do this is size 4 bolded Tahoma font so hopefully my point that was made abundantly clear by the PARDON OUR DUST messages we have been giving you guys will be driven into your thick skulls.

1. Icon images are not complete. In the meantime we have a few temporary ones and text. The final icon images will be made by ElectricSheep who will have designed a good amount of them and a general icon template so that we the community can create future icons in the future when we need to or want to.
   http://a.photos.cx/20highbreaker-dd2.gif
2. The filter system is not complete in the least. Right now we have a make-shift filter system through the prefix icon images and text. That's only a small part. Blah has the final say in how this will work but from what I understand we will also have a SA-style filtering system at the top along with the ability to ignore certain tags or something to that effect.
   http://a.photos.cx/20highbreaker-dd2.gif
3. The gaming forums are fucking final in what they are and what subforums they will have. We have put weeks of thought into this and run several scenarios by each other and this works the best. With the current layout and final filtering system you will really have nothing to complain about.
   http://a.photos.cx/20highbreaker-dd2.gif
4. Prefix tags are still not complete. We believe we have gotten most of them that are forum specific. However, the more general tags like Amusing, Interesting, Weird, Scary, etc. haven't been planned out. Visit Fark or Something Awful's public viewable forums to see more of what I'm talking about. The prefix tags are something we really want to make this system strong.
   http://a.photos.cx/20highbreaker-dd2.gif
5. As you can see by the new Entertainment section Animespot and Media Centre are making the transformation as well. There is room for change in Media Centre for a sports subforum and perhaps a comics subforum but their tags have not been completely planned yet (we are open for suggestions there). What I'm trying to get at is that the gaming forums are only a start. We have an overarching plan to implement the filtering system and change the structure of the forums for the better. The heaviest consolidation in this plan has already been done with the gaming forums. From here we will do some easier consolidation and even the creation of a few new forums. However, until we have the filtering system in place and general tags worked out we will concentrating our efforts to the Entertainment section to give you guys a big taste of things to come. We've already tagged 30 plus pages of old threads. This is hard work and we wouldn't have put so much effort into something that requires such work if we didn't think it was a good solid plan.

So in the meantime PARDON OUR DUST.

Hey, did Acer say something?

No, it was your imagination, Mikey. Go back to sleep.

I don't know what you're talking about. I don't want to see threads on video game music discussion, so I don't open that forum. I don't want to see threads on movies, so I don't open that forum. If anything this is the one that's breaking the continuity of the rest of the forums' methods.

I've already brought forth one example of my ideas bearing fruit with the Lukage example. Dark Nation is another. I asked him if he would have seen and posted in the thread about the modded 360s being banned from Live in the old system, and he said no.

These may be just a few small examples, but I'm sure there's other ones that I haven't asked either. If you wanna call this bullshit, fine. I figure it's working. Maybe not on the scale I thought it would, but it's still working.

You have yet to provide evidence that disproves my arguments and shows how it's "complete and utter garbage". Other than "I want the old way back so you're full of shit". I know this has little to do with anything, but I'm sick of your shit and you calling me wrong on this. This Cain-like behaviour is embarassing.

Anywho, thanks for the update, Acer. Much <3

Calling it Cain-like (I'm not even sure how/what it is) doesn't make you an automatic winner Skills.

I can't work on everything at the same time guys :(

I'll get the filtering system done by Sunday night.

Yeah, I hear ya, Blah. Your plate is filled up with real life stuffs in addition to the various filter system crap, new board layout, the frontpage, and any other miscellanious forum junk. Do what you can. I'm just trying to tell these guys to keep their pants on. EVERTHING MUST HAPPEN RIGHT NOW OR I'M NOT HAPPY. WAAAAH. Give Blah and the rest of the crew that is working on this a break is all I'm asking here. We'll listen to some of your suggestions like perhaps how you'd like a sports or comic subforum set up or any additional tags you feel are needed or any generic tags that you think would be good. Try adding to this idea instead of resisting it. I guarantee you'll be having a lot more fun, not to say it's easy or 100% enjoyable because it isn't but it is something to pass the time with and helps the community move forward even if just a bit.

I can go around and ask people individually whether or not they had hard times finding threads under the old system, and get plenty of people to corroborate my opinion that it was not hard to find interesting threads with the old format. There's probably a dozen other people in this thread that have said there was nothing wrong with the old way the forums were set up. At the least, we're tied 2-2. Does that mean anything? Not really.

There was nothing hard about finding threads under the old format. People who missed them just weren't paying much attention or they didn't care. If people don't pay attention or don't care, they're not going to post in threads regardless of how they come across them.

If you're going to compare me to Cain, I think I'd like to point out that you're being just as bullheaded as I am in this regard. We have right to our own opinions, and we're not going to see eye-to-eye. At least you got what you wanted, so you are teh winn4r. Congratulations :tpg:



And thanks Blah, I look forward to the interface being done. I know you're still working on it, and I'm getting used to it. :gonk:

Doesn't this ever get you weary, Guru? Doesn't it start to eventually wear you out?

God. I'm getting old.

HEY GUYS I JUST WANNA POST TO SAY THIS NEW SYSTEM IS BULLSHIT

SWEAR TO GOD

FUCK YOU ALL FOR DOING SHIT THAT HELPS OUT

FUCK GAMINGFORCE

who even plays games anyways what are you all twelve jesus christ

Tails, your posts would actually mean something if I agreed that this was actually helping anything. But there lies the point of contention. Maybe you need to realize that!

And OO, I don't get worn out. I obviously enjoy a little debate. I think people ought not to take me so seriously though -- it's funny how many people are all up in my grill. OMG THERE HE GOES AGAIN!

lol man

just lol

You really are thick aren't you? Tell you what I'm gonna do. Starting tomorrow, all gaming threads will be strictly categorized by Genre, which will then each have individual sub-forums for specific platforms inside said forums. Then we're gonna take it to the next level and have developer subforums inside THOSE forums.

Organization!

I know you're joking (I hope), but GOD would that be a nightmare. Suddenly things don't look so bad, nm guys things look good as they are. Keep up the good work ^^;
lol

Yeah, because that's obviously what I've been supporting the whole time. :rolleyes:

look.

you obviously need to make up your mind. said forums are already in the works, and are currently visible only to certain parties and will be made availible tomorrow

mario party 10 thread, what!

Tails, what happened to you since I left? So hostile.

Someone give Tails a hug. I would except I fear for my life.

Ordinarily I'd say something back to you right now Guru but with Tails around here being silly and his style... It's like the Benny Hill song's on the minute he walks in here. =OOO

You know how I roll. Who needs hugs, hugs are for queermos.

This would be more fun if it were OO. He's always a blast to fuck with.

Nothing "happened" to me, I just fail to see how anybody could miss how awesome this change is.

I can see FOREVER now and it's great

Uh, if it's certainly not an unimprovement and it allows us to consolidate forums and allow for better organization than before then what do you call it, Guru? You call that "not helping anything"? I don't even see what you're arguing against anymore, man.

I had mentioned this before, but this might be a better time to bring it up (or if this has already been discussed/mentioned, I apologize).

dead horse dead horse dead horse.

that's exactly what i don't agree with.

it's all opinion. why do you keep telling me my opinion is wrong? i like what i like, and i don't agree with the reasons you give me to like the way it is now. but what difference does it make? it's not like what i'm saying here is going to change anything, because i'm the idiot.

but you can all keep trying to drive your points home with me and make jokeslol and make me look dumb if you want. it really doesn't bother me. :)

Yeah, but I've already said pretty plainly in huge text that we plan to have a feature that allows you to ignore certain tags just like you have an ignore list for users you don't want to see. Bam, no more Microsoft and Sony system tagged threads for Guru if he sets them to ignore. Instead of acknowledging that he still goes on resisting this whole shebang for god-knows what reason. I'm highly confused.

but i don't like that way of doing things.

do you understand me now?

Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah!

Stop the fucking presses, guys!

He doesn't LIKE this change!

Clearly, we should all just scrap the plans that were accepted by pretty much everybody else, because he doesn't like them!

::everyone lols::

Ideally, yes. Did I ever say anywhere that things had to be my way? No.

I'm debating my opinion. Is there anything wrong with that? I didn't think so.

I'm not the one that gets immature and attacks people and throws out what are supposed to be scathing remarks trying to make people look stupid.

*shrug*

No, you're misunderstanding me completely. Still. After about 20 posts of me saying the same thing.

My opinion is that there was nothing wrong with the way it was before, therefore, there is nothing to fix. If I don't agree that there is something that needs fixing, then there's nothing that needs "to work."

You are all acting like the forums are going to be a huge failure just because I'm voicing my opinion. Do you have such a problem with one person believing that you're wrong? I've already accepted that all of you think I'm wrong, if you'd read the last 5 or 6 posts I've made in this thread. There's nothing I can do about it, the plans are already in motion. I'm going to see what happens. So far, I have yet to be convinced this does anything aside from change the way people navigate the forums.

I'm just a little bit defensive when people are trying to imply that I'm some big asshole that wants to see the forums fail. Get a grip. If I didn't care, I wouldn't have donated money, I wouldn't even be wasting my breath.

You liked Mario's Warp Room, right? I ran that place. I should know what it looks like. It had Nintendo DS threads, Nintendo Wii threads, and other misc. Nintendo-related discussion. It generally didn't have any RPG threads in there even if the game was on a Nintendo system so those would be in RPG Forum or sent to RPG Forum.

So yeah, picture Mario's Warp Room but merged with General Videogame Discussion which had multiplatform games (some of these multiplatform games were on a Nintendo system! =D) and some general discussion and little fun crap like guessing screenshots from videogames that could pertain to any videogame system (including Nintendo videogame systems! =D). Plus the benefit of tags to help things to be easily organized and filtered on demand with those icky Microsoft and Sony system tags put on ignore that's pretty much what Mario's Warp Pipe would be like but now with the added benefit of all the fun from General Videogame Discussion.

It would look a good something like this. =)
Oops! My bad. I forgot to get rid of the PC marked ones too. I didn't exactly specify that I'd be putting them on ignore as well though. Well, I'm too lazy to go back into Dreamweaver and then ImageReady to poop out another image for you, but I'm sure you get the idea. Maybe you'd want PC tagged threads after all. =o

So how does that sound? =)

Acer, I know how tags and filters work, and I know they can be formatted to fit my preferred browsing preferences. I just think that it's too much work to change them if I decide sometime that "hey, maybe I want to see what's going on with the PS3." I had a system. I clicked the dropdown menu, select the SonyScape forum, and I was there. I liked the way it was easy before, and I was used to it.

I'll get used to filters too, I imagine. I'd be fine with them, actually, if it didn't require me to run a forum search to change things up. That's extra clicking and extra menus to go through, more than I'd like. But Blah said he's going to put some buttons up at the top or something to make it fast and easy, and that should be cool enough.

Maybe if someone didn't come along every so often and throw out some underhanded comment because they're annoyed by my opinion. I'm not even defending my idea anymore, I'm just tired of the other things people are trying to imply about me because we don't see eye to eye.

Making conveniences for your inconvenience is inconvenient. Noted! =D

And that's why I'm trying to compromise so that even someone like you who isn't so hot on the initial phase of the idea will like it when it's more fleshed out. How can I do that? I'm trying. I've tried real hard so far! =D

That's only the baby steps of the filter system that you are seeing! =D

I did mention that before! Several times in fact! =D

Opinions are great! Ideas to help us help you are even better! =D

fixed so well

Voicing your opinion once is fine, rewording it into thirty different posts makes us have to consider that you have some sort of mental deficiency.

There's help for that sorta thing, you know.

Except, it's easier now. Argument fails.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but Sony Scape was never in a dropdown menu before.

Not that I really care, but I don't know how you think selecting the Video Game area, scrolling to the bottom of the screen to select the filter and then re-load the page to get console specific stuff is easier then simply clicking on the console specific area to begin with. However I don't think that the redesign was meant for simplicity as much as it is for getting more people to see & participate in more discussions.

Well, I think the filter is going to be at the top. If they put it at the bottom that would be needlessly awkward and annoying. Once that's finished then this setup won't be too bad, but still more complicated than the previous one. Guru's right; the participation excuse is complete bullshit, so don't bother using that again.

The best part about this thread is watching everyone flame Guru just for disagreeing with the new setup. Look at the unity this layout has already created!

Hey where were you guys when I was the cannon fodder?

I knew I wasn't the only one who wasn't drinking the "it's so much better" kool-aid.

Maybe you guys just know better than to waste your time, which I can't really blame you for. See, now people are telling me I'm like Cain. And I shall revel in my infamy...

This thread is pretty much a waste of time, but it's entertaining. Tails and Dev, if you have a problem with me posting here, why are you even reading it? It's kind of hypocritical of you to condemn me for posting here when you're doing nothing but egging on my responses. Just kinda how I see it.

You're pretty much wrong. All the forums and subforums were in the dropdown menu.

Whether or not you liked using, or thought the dropdowns were easy to use, is a matter of opinion. You obviously weren't well versed with using them. But your opinion is duly noted. Cheers~

Pretty much, yeah. Nothing would've come from posting in the middle of all that, so why bother?

Besides, I've already expressed my dislike of the new system in this thread and other places before it. I know several people who felt the same way, but didn't bother saying anything in the threads because of all the flaming and such against anyone who doesn't think this change is the greatest thing ever.

So Guru is more like Sass than Cain, because he's speaking up for the scared masses who are afraid of being shouted down by the most vocal members of the forums.

Also, I like how you guys say Guru doesn't like the new setup because he hasn't been here for a few months. Last I checked I've been around here pretty recently and don't like the setup a whole lot. :tpg:

I've already explained the Cain reference. The showing up out of nowhere and being pretty demanding thing was what I was refering to, not the him being stubborn thing, and I already told Guru in a PM I retract the statement.

Yeah. Me and Skills are cool now. Much <3 CS~

Just wanted to say that the updated Icons for the different systems are a very nice touch.

Seconded. The new icons look fanstastic, kudos to whoever made them.

yep those are nice, the general one and multi system are not as good as the others but I suspect that they will change soon enough ^^

Yeah, those were made by Paco for the frontpage reviews. They're pretty much temps until we see what Electric Sheep comes up with. The "General" tag is a temp tag made by JazzFlight.

I like the icons, they're quite flashy. Almost seem a LITTLE big though, would it be possible to have the option for a reduced size or even text tag in their place? I thought they'd be in a column the size of thread status row when I first heard the idea.

Oh, and this is a total nitpick, but shouldn't Twilight Princess have the Multi tag since it's on both Gamecube and Wii?

Ha, that's an interesting point considering its Nintendo Multiplatform.

I'm flattered you Blah actually USED my icons. <3

Anyway, here's a couple more for the prefixes I didn't do because I was too busy making Wonderswan and N-Gage icons.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...Icons/News.gif

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...cons/Rumor.gif

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ns/Classic.gif

I also cleaned up that Multi-system icon because it looked fucking indecipherable, at least now it has a bit of offset depth to it.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...cons/Multi.gif

Along the same line, the Guilty Gear XX AC thread should also be tagged Multi. Except we're allowing specific console threads for multiplatform titles.

Maybe there should be a clarification or guideline of sorts (if there isn't one already).

Hmm, maybe we can figure something out. Putting a "multi" on a game that's just on different Nintendo platforms doesn't seem right.

And...the controversies with the tagging starts.

Mark it!

Was so easy to just dump them in the general forum before =P

(Ok ok, low blow. I'm just posting this for fun anyway.)

Unlike you, Guru, I doubt anyone's going to make a big stink about something as small as this. We'll get through it I imagine!

I just have a suggestion that might make 360 Gamertags, PS3 Network IDs, and Wii Codes easier.

I know that on some other forums that I’ve been to, they have a section in the profile setup where users can enter their ID for each specific console they may have, and it will automatically add them to a list showing everybodys IDs.

While I think that the system that we have in place right now is just fine, I think that it may be easier for whoever may be in charge of gathering each individual members system ID and adding them to the list. It may also even encourage more/new users to sign up who may have missed the designated stickied thread.

I don’t know. Just thought it was a nice little feature that I’ve seen before.

That sounds interesting. Like an automated usergroup for convenience. I kinda lost track of what your point was though. Like, does someone adding their ID to this thing for each specific console he owns enable them to see the relevant threads or what?

I think what he's describing is a thread/place where you can see a list of all the people who filled in those "online console codes" things in their profile, which is updated automatically as new people add it to their profile. It sounds like a good idea to me, perhaps there could even be a link to the complete list from the profile page?

While that might work great for 360 and PS3 it's worthless for Wii and DS b/c Nintendo is an idiot at online gaming and we just can't put up Friend Code sections for every game in your profile. Or can we? Still, it seems dumb. I dunno.

Maybe a checkbox for whether you want a link to the GFWiki Friend Code page in your profile? I wouldn't mind having a fast link like that anyway.

Well, here. I don’t think I explained it very well. I’ll use EvilAvatar as one of the examples where I have seen it:

LOL it's part of the Edit Profile page for BlueBomber at EvAv:
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8...lesetupqx3.png

...aaaannnnd The resulting PSN ID page!:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/501...inglistio6.png

I guess all this really accomplishes is neater/easier organization and maintenance of the Online ID’s for forum members. I think it may also attract more people to share their ID’s as well, especially if they see a section for it when they initially set up their profile. I don’t know how the whole Friend Code thing works for the Wii, as I have yet to see one in a store :(.

Anyways, it’s still just a suggestion, and I have no idea how hard it would be to actually implement, or if anybody would even want to implement it for that matter.

EDIT:
Yeah. Surasshu pretty much got it. Didn't see that earlier.

With the DS we do get a code per game (which is super, super lame), but isn't the Wii friend code universal? Then again I've never played an online game on the Wii. For some reason. =D

So far it's the same bullshit Friend Code crap for the Wii as well. Pokemon Stadium 47 and Mario Extreme Kick the Ball At Your Face Hey We're All On Fire both use individual Friend Codes. Nintendo is so inept.

What the hell are these friend code things? Don't tell me that it's the code for EACH INDIVIDUAL WII GAME people play!?

Each individual Wii or DS game that goes online so far, yes.

Good God.

Okay, so what's going on here concerning this? Are you trying to figure out a way to have all this information available for viewing and where to put all this info? What else will you do with the codes?

I guess so! I just found that out but! Yeah! This is pretty terrible news!

You'll have to excuse me for my SHOCK. You see, I'm lucky if I get the chance to play with an N64 in this fucking country. Forget Wii.

See, the huge problem with Friend Codes is you can put them whereever you like but unlike the Microsoft and Sony solutions you really have no way of confirming anyone has you in their list except through external communication or by accident. Actually that's not quite true. The Wii system code has a sort of confirmation to it but no word if Wii game Friend Codes act the same. More than likely they act just like DS Friend Codes. Shitty.

Just wanted to say that the video game forums look a lot better now with the new console specific icons. The old one's were, frankly, crap, so seing that you guys pulled this off in the end makes it all good. Keep up the good work!

Frankly, they were temp icons because, get this, they were temp icons. =/

But yeah Paco's a great graphic designer.

Ok, I just gave you guys a compliment and you get grumpy. Wow.

Yes, because everyone is so demanding. It all has to be perfect the first time. ROAR! >=U

Well, as long as you keep up the good work. I'll try to be a bit more subtle next time. It's just that the previous icons, temp or not, really were an eye sore and didn't go with the overall design at all. Just wanted to show my appreciation on the improvement, that's all. <:\/

What the fuck? These new icons are a fucking joke, I cant even read them. Speaking of which, why should I have to read an icon in the first place? What maggot did this?

http://members.westnet.com.au/rbelford/roland/crap.png
DS is the only slightly acceptable one, oh and General.

Here's a fucken idea: Just use the real console logos. Everyone knows the Xbox, Dreamcast, Playstation, Gamecube, Super Nintendo, DS etc. logos when they see them.

Just breath deeply and relax, bottlenose. And it's good to hear words of encouragement, Familiar. These fuckers put in some good time and effort.

Get glasses.

I'm wearing them.

I know Ence put effort intot hem, And they looked fine in his journal where they weren't squashed down and unreadable.

Also I still need to know why we should have to read icons, talk about defeating the point. Colour coding threads would be more intuitive than this.

We should really have a text only option for this. Can't satisfy everyone. =/

No no I like icons. I like Pictures.

My point is well, Oh your computer, does it says "Folder" in teh fucking folder icon? Does it inform you "Document" in the document one and does Word inform you taht it is infact Microsoft Word in the icon? NO! BECAUSE IT IS AN ICON Picture represent the words, we dont needs the words written in some non consistant font in tiny unreadable writing sitting there next to the icon.

They look fine on my display at 1024x.

They're normal on every machine I've seen them from, Rab. What the hell did you do to your computer to achieve such squished images?

Dude, something's wrong with your browser. The icons aren't actually squished like that. Have you tried a hard refresh (CTRL+F5)?

How things should look like:

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/9747/bild1hf2.png

"General" looks kinda stretched, though. Maybe it's because things are still temporary.

General is the only one rthat looks right.

I think it's more a "I'm using GFF Lite theme" problem.

If that theme is going to be there, you have to cater to those of us who use it.

All the new icons are showing up fine for me, but the text labels are still broken in IE-6.

I imagine once things are worked out those that use lite theme won't have images there at all. I'm pretty sure that was the whole point of lite theme. So yeah worry not your little head about those icons, Rab.

I was about to ask just that. It makes perfect sense to get rid of tags for the Lite theme alltogether - especially since I feel that they're more of an orientation guide for people who don't regularly visit the forums or have no clue what's going on in here.

I totally support this plan. It's actually reason enough to start using the Lite theme.

Don't get sarcastic with me over some shit like this. Gamingforce isn't Microsoft and we don't necessarily have to have an icon anywhere. So I was wrong, YOU LIKE PICTURES, but we still need a text only version for guys like Guru so just relax there chief.
Well, if you're using the lite skin why would you favor these images over text? Not saying you can't do that sort of thing, just wondering why.

I see why you're using the Lite theme. ;-)

The point of lite set is to load less of everything and make things more compact. Most people who use lite set also turn off sigs or images as well. It would make sense to turn off icon images but leave text there. The tags are used for the filtering system.

Go choke on a cock plzthx.

Christ sakes, talk about missing the whole damn point.

This isn't about whethor I like these icons or not. My point is; if you are going to use icons MAKE THEM WORK. Right now they look terrible and distorted on 50% of Gamingforce's skins. This is probably something worth fixing.

My second, less relevent point, is that is it stupid and redundant to include text in the icon. It defeats the entire point of the icon and takes up unnessesary space. I'm NOT saying to scrap a "text only version" or whatever you claim Guru requires. I think a text alternative to icons would be a great idea. What is NOT a great idea is having text and icons as part of the same thing. It is just flat out stupid.

I could talk about the fundamental design flaw in having different sized and styled text in every bloody icon too but I think this discussion is already beyond the majority of you. Not to mention irrelevant since we shouldn't have text in the icon to begin with.

Such wit, such crucial imput to the discussion. Is this how promotion to moderator status is acheived? No wonder the GFF intelligence prize is named after you what with these flagrant displays all over the place.

As opposed to your shining example of EVER-SO-HELPFUL INPUT below?

Look here, chief. We're doing the best we can and to say that you're not exactly a top priority in our list of people to please we are still working on this. After all, we didn't set this in stone yet and you're fucking bitching about it, presumably just to spite us. So if the man tells you to choke on a cock, you fucking better start juggling those motherfucking nuts in your mouth. One more outburst out of you and I'm threadbanning you; I don't give a fuck if I mod this place or not.

As for a Lite Version, do you guys think it would be better if we just removed the icons altogether and have Blah set text labels instead or should I make a small version (about 20 or 25 px high tops) of the icons there? I already have all these things done and it would only be a matter of copying the file and making a "Lite Set" out of them.

how about 25 x 25 px?

And at least I did make a contribution with my shiny example. I brought this matter to staff attention. In my own inflammatory way.

As if we weren't already aware of the matter?

Which is exactly the kind of example we DON'T need and why I promise you that the next one will earn you a threadban.

Having a bit of text in the icon image is logical, Rab. We won't be just having icons in the gaming forums. We will eventually be spreading icons throughout the board. A good deal of icons can't speak for themselves or aren't specific enough. It's a lot more than just console and pc pixel art.

Blah just hasn't really worked on the lite set version of the icons I imagine. When he gets around to it they'll be more than likely made to output text. It makes the most sense for lite set. I mean thanks for pointing out that he hasn't gotten around to it and all but no reason to cry foul.

Can we actually have a boardwide setting for icon/text for tags?

Well, I suppose that would satisfy those like Rab then who want icons in their lite set.

Ah, but now I saw your point. See? All it took was a simple explanation and not using ridiculous analogies. I agree with you. And the fact that Reaver took that stance with you (he doesn't even have to rebuke you because everyone already knows) says a lot.

Hey, I know that this topic was like, a page or two ago, but I just read this involving the Wii Codes.

Apparently Pokemon needs to use specific individual codes because it ties in with the DS game? I don't know. So if this is indeed true, then wouldn't implementing that system be a little easier (easier for the Wii, anyways)?

EDIT:
Uh. Yeah. Apparently I should link to the actual article instead of an Odin Sphere trailer. How the fuck did that even happen.

(I'm posting here because a search for my name brought up a bunch of new posts in this thread about me).

Just for the record, stop saying that I want text filters. I think the text filters look worse than the graphical filters.

If it were up to me, there'd be no prefix column on my thread list at all. Too stretchy!