Improving Gamingforce

I'm not sure that "get people into chat faster" really solves the problems we're discussing, RR. If we could integrate chat INTO the board, though (there must be a plugin for that somewhere), that would be awesome and might help to fade out the sharp line between chat regs and chat negs.

edit: never noticed that "chocochat" business before but anything involving java popups is going to be inherently undesirable to a lot of people. There must be a better way to do it without spawning new windows.

Originally Posted by DieSeLFueLeD

And if we're being completely honest here. GFF needs a new fuckin' face. The forums look like ass. The colors are a downer. The designer in me hates the fucking look of the forums .

Honestly this is probably one of the fastest ideas things we could do. There's a lot of nostalgia in the design but it's stuck in 2001 and looks it. Just a big wall of the same blue color, doesn't eyecatch at all. We know Bobo was a fuckup, why have we retained his design sense? Why have we retained his moderator picks? Does anyone around here really specialize in web design? This is something we could get cracking on right away, and have a big pile of pngs and css files ready to dump on the first admin who actually pays attention to our little project here. Hell, let's just rehaul the goddamn logo first.

I know some people will want to resist the idea of a full-body overhaul, but it's a grim necessity. Don't be a grognard. We don't need to paint flames on the hood but by god let's at least buff off the inch-deep coating of rust. If I can bring myself to agree that Devo then you can bear to dispose of that old swoosh.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

As much as a forum redesign sounds like a good idea it is hard work. It took CHz a couple days just to sepia and green the place up for Gaminfort and Gaminfort Yuletide Edition. A good deal of that grief was probably spent skinning the journals which is a hard feature to update without losing everything which is why we're stuck on such an old version of vBulletin. As much as I love chocojournal it is a real hindrance in getting this place moderned up. The other problem with updating vBulletin is the various custom stuff we have like dice roller and other misc. bbcode. Oh but we only have to reskin the place, not upgrade the vBulletin you say. Well I suppose so, but if you're going to go through all that trouble to get the place up to spec looks-wise shouldn't it's framework too?

That said I'm totally interested in seeing what people would like this place to look like. I've certainly thought about it myself.

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Shit, I didn't realize how far behind GF was on VB updates. No wonder you guys are so hesitant to install plugins and shit. Apparently the newest versions come with built-in personal user blogs so there's a CJ replacement just waiting for us to take it. Shares the forum skin, too! Most of the other stuff like the dice roller etc has alternatives for the new revisions as well, hanging onto old & busted because other old & busteds are stuck to it with duct tape is for suckas.

Chocojournal was a pretty amazing thing back when it was created in 2004 or whatever but nowadays? Honestly a lot of people might object to losing their old journal entries but it's not like we haven't survived wipes before this. At least there'd be a warning and they could back up their shit. Maybe you guys could back it all up on the database end, not sure how possible that is. OR! You could just move the whole old CJ system to a new .php address, so people could look at it if they wanted but it wouldn't need to share the new & improved forum looks. Just remove all the buttons for adding new entries and comments and all that jazz. READ ONLY

Not that the creative group can't be working on shit at the same time as the server-access group, things like "this is the logo" and "these are good colors" are pretty applicable regardless of version.

I know this is a lot of hassle for you guys and I probably make it sound a lot easier than it really is, but I'm just saying this is totally doable if you just NO FEAR this shit.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by DieSeLFueLeD

We could always have various contests, threads and ideas about the logo, color choices, forum skins etc.

I love this. If we do a re-design, it should be a community-wide re-design that everybody can contribute, take part in, and vote on.

I would hate to lose my many many entries, but I'm not against a complete overhaul of the journal system. Backing up the old journals wouldn't be too hard but having them stored on the server somewhere would be ideal.

How far behind are we on VB? What exactly has changed since our last update?

How ya doing, buddy?

In regards to the journals, I suggest:

Take down the logo and put up a notice that the journals will get wiped due to upgrades at a certain time on a certain day, and to USE THE BACK UP FEATURE. After that, it's a clean slate and the journals'll be updated. And I mean, take your time about it.

Maybe an "import" feature could be coded in even, so you could actually put the shit BACK into your journals (though not necessary)

I may have completely misunderstood Acer though (I read a little quickly because I was excited).

Are we considering getting RID of journals? 'Cause I'll be sooooo sadface about that. The journals are an awesome feature here, and I'd love to see them maintained, let alone upgraded

FELIPE NO

With a bit of artful programming, it shouldn't be impossible to import old journal entries into the new vBulletin blog system. I'm not saying it would be easy, or that it should be done, but with sufficient will, it should be possible. It is just a matter of copying and pasting database entries into the proper tables...

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I doubt we'll get rid of journals, but it can be revised per later versions of vB.

A suggestion that is more cosmetic than anything else: fix the broken thread title header images for things like [music] [televsision] [sports] etc, or get rid of them. They've been broken forever.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Couldn't we do it with .csv importation, if that capability exists in the vB thingie? (PAng tells me vB does have the journal feature in a sense)

I mean, if we're saying the journals are the only thing holding us back from a re-vamp.... well. Seems like the obvious place to start, cosmetically (and I DO agree with Devo on that)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

Are we considering getting RID of journals? 'Cause I'll be sooooo sadface about that. The journals are an awesome feature here, and I'd love to see them maintained, let alone upgraded

I don't think anybody's suggesting that at all. The point was that admin have been holding off making other improvements because of the dead weight of the old CJ system, and we're just looking for ways to jettison it while maintaining a similar functionality. Obviously the new system would be different in many ways and some folks would have trouble adjusting but I think it's a necessary surgery at this point.

In a SENSE we'd "get rid of" the journals, because we'd replace them with all-new journals. Which, IN THEORY, you could then port all your old entries into. No guarantee that would work, but.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

STOP ASKING IF YOU SHOULD MAKE A THREAD AND MAKE A THREAD

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I like the old two-tone blue.

(Can I keep it as a setting somewhere.)

Also, pang, I was thinking the same thing with some sort of direct plugin for the boards so you could see chat happening as you browse around. I mostly figured having chat show up in a somewhat more prominent way would show people there is some activity going on here.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

I like the old two-tone blue.

(Can I keep it as a setting somewhere.)

Fuck yes, THIS. Blue owns. Everything should be blue. Blue, blue, blue!

Spoiler:

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Soluzar

With a bit of artful programming, it shouldn't be impossible to import old journal entries into the new vBulletin blog system. I'm not saying it would be easy, or that it should be done, but with sufficient will, it should be possible. It is just a matter of copying and pasting database entries into the proper tables...

It's just a matter of CHz's time versus everybody else's time. I'm pretty sure CHz's time is p valuable to him though so don't get your hopes up.

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Yeah well the whole discussion depends on administrative access to the forum files being granted to someone who both has free time and gives a shit so uh honestly this whole thread is pretty pie-sky so we might as well just ask for free ponies as long as we're on a roll here.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

I like the old two-tone blue.

(Can I keep it as a setting somewhere.)

Someone mentioned customizable skins for the newer version of vBulletin. Couldn't that be incorporated as a style? i.e., New and Improved look, Old School GFF look, etc.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Custom skins are fun and all but there should be a set default style/skin that most people will end up using. People tend to make sigs that use the gff blue as a background to achieve a transparency effect. Basically I'm saying it's your choice to be different and see sigs that don't match your style's background is all.

How ya doing, buddy?

Surely the obvious solution to the users losing journals thing would be for us to just back the whole lot up and dump it back on the server under gamingforce.org/journals? I mean, with no attachments, the journals must take up a tiny amount of server space and can't we port the journals into an archive somehow? If they're just an archive then we don't even need any commenting functionality. I know literally nothing about the tech behind such things but it strikes me as something that surely isn't that hard, given we already have backup functionality.

A redesign is a great idea. A new logo competition is a great idea too. There is no point in hanging onto to things for the sake of it.

I would suggest that we need to archive the old journals, upgrade to more recent software that supports similar things anyway, redesign, and get a new logo for starters.

Once that's done, we need to think about how to promote our best stuff. One idea might be to combine the recent props and recent posts thing and have a longer list of the most heavily propped posts in the last 24 hours or so. I would suggest having a feed of the DnD threads to the front page somewhere, but a version you can't post in so as not to lead to interupting posts. Then setup a proper events calendar showing regular and one-off things.

Someone needs to get hold of Miles and Blah to get them involved in this discussion. If nothing else so they can give requisite access to someone who can be arsed to action all this.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Some folks have suggested upgrading our version of vBulletin; how much does that cost. Would we need to have another donation event?

If we're upgrading, doesn't the current version of vBulletin have support for RSS? Not to beat a dead horse, but some of us have been wanting that for years.

How ya doing, buddy?

Upgrading to VBulletin 4 will cost $175. $250 if you wanna throw in all those fancy CMS features.

Compare the features: http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=features

Only the expensive version seems to have RSS for threads and blogs.

While I concur that there is no need to emulate Facebook or Twitter, there is something we can learn from the games within Facebook. Although most are casual games that require merely a few clicks to play, people keep returning and returning to these games on a clockwork basis. Perhaps the Arcade can be revamped to draw in, and more importantly, keep some new blood.

Many of the Facebook games lets you spend money to get ahead in the game, and a small minority of people do seem to bite. This can possibly be a small way to recover server costs, in lieu of outright donations.

24/7 Santa Sleigh / Ace Combat action, on a separate page maybe? Lolocaust 2.0?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yes, the upgrade would be kind of costly (honestly we're probably small enough that we could get away with piracy, but why risk it?). Still, a quick whip-crack in the direction of the donation page is probably enough to solve that issue; I know donations probably trickled out pretty quickly after the initial rush but people here can be very generous if you give them some kind of immediate prompt. This is assuming they've let their vb license expire, but they probably have.

I upgraded Concert Hall Interactive to vb 4.0 just to see what it looked like, and damn. This needs to happen.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

$285 is chump change compared to the meet. We should be able to raise that in a week. Seriously.

I'd love to see GFF reach the modern age.

Hell, if no one else has the time or wherewithal to do it I'd even volunteer to do the upgrade myself. I need the practice.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by KING MANCHU WOK

$285 is chump change compared to the meet. We should be able to raise that in a week. Seriously.

I'd love to see GFF reach the modern age.

Hell, if no one else has the time or wherewithal to do it I'd even volunteer to do the upgrade myself. I need the practice.

Yeah, was gonna say that I'd be happy to front the cost of upgrade if you guys decide to go forward with this. I can afford that at least.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Radez29

Yeah, was gonna say that I'd be happy to front the cost of upgrade if you guys decide to go forward with this. I can afford that at least.

There's some sort of sexy catch involved here, isn't there.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You're stepping up for that, Nutty?

Thank god, I'm getting sick of shoving socks down my pants to appease him.

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There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by a_lurker

You're stepping up for that, Nutty?

Thank god, I'm getting sick of shoving socks down my pants to appease him.

You're doing it wrong. You're supposed to put the socks on underneath the sandals.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.