Concerning one's own posts and threads, there are multiple improvements that could be made.
1. There should be a better way to respond to people in threads so that you get a notification of it so that it's easier to find your last conversation.
2. Notifications when someone responds to one of your own threads (can be turned on or off for individual threads)
3. An easy way to find all of your own threads.
4. An easy way to find all of your past posts.
Note: Three and four could be made into a Forum History page, which has been suggested in the past, or your threads could be at the top of your own individual forum page, or have a green bullet point next to them, or something else to distinguish them from the rest.
I agree with all of these options. None are easy to implement however. The big question here is do we keep our current forum system, or implement a new one that has more functionality? With the first option, it's much harder to change anything (though not impossible). With the second option, we may lose forum data that's been a big part of our history.
Suffice to say, we've been on the first path right now. We've done some forum tweaks, but they have been slow moving. You may not have noticed them, but the forum is 10x faster then it once was.
The big question here is do we keep our current forum system, or implement a new one that has more functionality? With the first option, it's much harder to change anything (though not impossible). With the second option, we may lose forum data that's been a big part of our history.
As a newbie on the block here, I kind of enjoy the "back to basics" quality of it. No bells & whistles, good But, well, the downside is it's obviously pretty basic. (Not being able to keep track of conversations surely can't add to a community spirit. Next step, obviously being able to distinguish unread threads would be very nice.)
I don't know if I've ever witnessed a forum migrating between different packages. Probably not. You'd think it should be possible to keep & migrate the previous databases -- but I'm sure you guys must've given it more thought than I have, and then a techie I'm decidedly not
Anyways, good luck with it, and keep up the spirit It's a friendly place, lord knows I've seen a helluva lot worse.
Here is a good question: If you could fix ONE thing about the forums that would have the most impact. What would you fix?
Edit button.
I don't know how many times I've posted something just to see a mistake. I either have to post below it with an asterisk, which looks sloppy, or deal with my sentence missing a few prepositions. Edit button or post preview.
But, okay maybe that's not a fix but an addition. If the above doesn't count I would say sometimes when you click last post it takes you to a page or two before the last post, especially in larger threads.
I actually like the basicness of this forum too. I'm not lost in a sea of buttons and options when I post. I don't have to choose between reply to thread or reply to post (on most forums there seems to be no difference so that always confusing) I don't have to click quick reply or full reply (which are both so similar it seems like a wast of time).
I like that you can't (or at least it's difficult [?]) to change font size and color. I also like that there are no signatures. Some people can utilize font size and color changes properly, some people post in varying huge or tiny fonts and it makes things look like a mess. Signatures are so pointless. People either put in an image that is too big, forcing the user to scroll way too much.Sometimes people make there signatures look like part of their post (no I don't want to visit your website). I like that there aren't any animated or static smileys. Didn't those things go by the wayside in the late 90s?
I also like the font and color scheme of the Armor Games boards. The Dawn of the Dragons forum is white text on a black background. It's harder to read, it's harder to see when font is bolded too.
I like that these forums are basic and I think that keeping things that way, with a clean look, is beneficial. Look what happened to MySpace compared to Facebook. MySpace let users embed images and videos on user pages. You could change the background colors, font, and everything. The site was a mess and it also caused for security issues. Facebook didn't allow you to change the font or color or rearrange you profile page. It was neat, streamline, and easy to use. it's safe to say Facebook came out ahead.
(Okay, I thought I was going to keep it short, looks like I always ramble in my posts, which gets you made fun off over at most websites : [.... lol)
Yes I agree with Reton in that the absence of sigs on the forums is something that I love.
There could be some complications with an edit button in that some sort of "edit etiquette" *ha* That you would have to note that you made an edit below your post if it was more than grammatical or there would be a cut off time for editing.
For me, the one thing that I would fix that I feel would have the impact is forum notifications. It's really troublesome to have to keep looking back into the forums that you posted in to see if anyone responded or not. Especially if you forgot about it, or if it is a fast moving thread. I feel forum notifications would make forum conversations a lot easier for the community and more people would contribute. Also, less people would just "leave" threads mid-conversation and/or not respond to questions.
If you could fix ONE thing about the forums that would have the most impact. What would you fix?
I'd be all for a post history/subscribed threads function, so as to keep track of conversations. I personally prefer this over a notifications function; I don't need all that stuff in my inbox, and I've seen it lead to rash responses, people feeling personally addressed when they're not, and such.
Then a search function, to further unlock what you already have here.
Edit function would be nice, but yes it has its obvious drawbacks. Putting a timeframe on it can help, indeed: You have Z hours after posting to edit, then that functon stops working. (Also stops drama queens from leaving taking their entire post history with them, messing up all the threads in question, or deleting them completely even. Disable the ability to delete a thread by deleting first post!)
some sort of "edit etiquette" *ha* That you would have to note that you made an edit below your post if it was more than grammatical
This can be automated; there is forum software where a note "edited" gets added, you can then fill in the reason why if you like. But so those in the know at least can see that in fact it has been edited.
I've known it where that note only gets added if you edit after an x period upon posting; I'd suggest to make that immediate, so that it is indeed always clear.
But it does have its drawbacks, and it is open to abuse. Maybe learning to live with people just posting their afterthoughts and amends is actually to be preferred.
Post nrs., btw. Handy to keep track. (And along those same lines: I've seen people link to individual posts here. How the heck does one do that? I see nothing to link to. Maybe there's a post # and I'm blocking it?)
an integrated search engine could add a lot more versality, and so better search results.
If one is ever implemented btw, may I strongly suggest making it one that offers the ability to sort results chronologically (and so backwards, too). Invaluable, to unlock an archive such as this.
With the new games on front page, it would be nice if at once (e.g., in the pop-up description menu) you could see whether a game is an MMO. Saves you from opening them when you're not into it, or not right at that time.
