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cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

In a nutshell, we don't know.

That should clear up everyone's questions, right? Good ...

As a development team and as a company, we know that the forums are extremely important to some of you, and we know that some of you have put a lot (!!!!) of effort into building up the community here, especially those who have written the more creative poetic stuff. C'mon, how many of you have > 5,000 posts, raise your hands. That amount of effort is *staggering*. Seriously, I think the highest post count I've seen was ~8400? Over 2.5 years, that'd be like 10 posts EVERY DAY since AG2 launched.

The effort of migrating that much data from AG2 to AG3 is almost as staggering, since the guy who wrote the AG2 forum software didn't make it terribly efficient, and the way we're linking accounts, etc., between the two systems might cause problems. Trying to migrate it to AG3 will be a pretty big job, and it will probably fall in my lap since I'm sorta the database guru around here, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's up to me whether I want to do it or not. If Dan says do it, I do it.

Whether we start over, and wipe everything, and build a new forum engine, or implement someone else's forum software, remains to be discussed internally because it's not a critical feature for us yet. That doesn't mean it's not important to us, it just means we have to get core features working like, y'know, logging in.

Will we migrate old posts into the new forum software? It depends whether we can find an easy way to make the old forum data compatible. Nothing's *impossible* but it's also not practical for us to spend development time (read: dollars) for us to spend a big amount of effort trying to sort stuff out so it's all perfect and pristine.

If we start over with forum posts, will we archive the old forums? Again, nothing's impossible, but I can't answer that right now.

What will happen to your armor points for forum posts? Well, since armor points are also up in the air regarding the same sort of "wipe vs migrate" discussions, I can't answer that question right now either.

Please direct people asking about the future of AG2 forums to this thread if they start asking questions in other forums/threads. I'll post updates to this thread as I have more information.

  • 438 Replies
thaboss
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thaboss
1,649 posts
Nomad

I really like that there's going to be separate sections for RPGs and other forum games. I also like the idea of a Technical Support sub-forum. I hope it's in the forums.

cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

you can get people looking for different things to do with the same game, for instance: walkthroughs, general discussion, possibly tournaments within game, and foor colony at least an anti hack team. so perhaps 1 topic might not work.


Well, walkthroughs will have their own forum or may just end up on the game play pages instead of within the forums. General discussion and ideas, certainly. Not sure about tournaments, that might be another whole forum.

I do not see a thread for flash games outside of AG


I've never lurked much in the Flash Games forum, to be honest, so I'm curious if anyone could guess what percentage of threads are about Flash Games that are NOT on Armor Games? What sorts of topics revolve around them, etc.? We kinda want to keep the focus of the game forums on OUR games, y'know? They might fall into the "Other Video Games" category.
acmed
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acmed
3,518 posts
Nomad

I actually (believe it or not) have an idea:

Following a Thread

Following a thread allows you know when someone posts in it. They'd message you if someone replied on your followed thread. Example: There's nothing to do on the forums, nobody's responding to your thread, and you want to follow it. You go play some games, and you'll get a message when someone replies. How bout it?

kitesarecool
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kitesarecool
42 posts
Farmer

I have an idea. When a game creator you like, and are friends with or whatever makes a game, when someone comments on your post, profile, game, or mentions you, you could get a notification. Like facebook or whatever.

Darksaber
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Darksaber
191 posts
Nomad

you sould give us a preview button so we can see if are code works

acmed
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acmed
3,518 posts
Nomad

you sould give us a preview button so we can see if are code works


I think I remember seeing something in here that cormyn said it might me implemented.
Jefferysinspiration
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Jefferysinspiration
3,168 posts
Farmer

you sould give us a preview button so we can see if are code works


I think I remember seeing something in here that cormyn said it might me implemented


This post already involves way too much quoting, but yes Cormyn has given us an insight to the editing idea, which sounds very reasonable.


A user writes their post, they have to preview it before they can post. That's where they look for spelling, grammar, links, broken images, whatever.

Once they post, they have a 5-minute window to edit their message, and then that's it, it's locked in.

With proper preparation, etc., I can't see why any OP would need more than that control, and it's custom code that we'd have to build in, and in my opinion is unnecessary.

If they forget, then they can post a follow-up. I'm not writing custom code to accommodate users who don't plan properly before writing a message that's viewable by 1.3M other users.
cormyn
offline
cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

I actually (believe it or not) have an idea:


Too bad it's not original. We've already discussed this.

When a game creator you like, and are friends with or whatever makes a game


This has nothing to do with the forums. But we've discussed this already.

you sould give us a preview button so we can see if are code works


Again, we've already discussed this.
CommanderPaladin
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CommanderPaladin
1,531 posts
Nomad

Please tell me that there will be a search function that allows you to enter a thread name or subject and find it. It's aggravating when I try to find a specific thread that I want to read and can't without scrolling through 300-500 pages of topics. Do you have any idea how long that takes?!

GhostOfMatrix
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GhostOfMatrix
15,622 posts
Herald

I'd like to refresh the idea of having no time limit on editing posts. A time where that can come in handy is in this thread. It'd be nice if I was able to include previous movies into the opening post so people know which movies have already been posted onto the thread. It's much better than having to skim through all the pages to find all the movies that have been posted.

Cenere
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Cenere
13,658 posts
Jester

Perhaps you ought to summarise the movies in your newest post, and become good friends with a mod who can edit your title to nod towards the newest movie post.

GhostOfMatrix
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GhostOfMatrix
15,622 posts
Herald

Perhaps you ought to summarise the movies in your newest post, and become good friends with a mod who can edit your title to nod towards the newest movie post.

That's nice and all, but I much prefer being able to put all the previous movies that were movies of the week in an opening post where everyone can read it no matter what. I doubt people will read all the pages of a thread such as that. And I'll have to bug a moderator every week for an update on the thread, and I don't think most of them are active, so I'll have to go around most of their profiles posting the same thing, which can be considered spamming. I just don't see why they can't put an unlimited editing option.
It might be implemented, too

With proper preparation, etc., I can't see why any OP would need more than that control, and it's custom code that we'd have to build in, and in my opinion is unnecessary.
kingofwar1234
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kingofwar1234
605 posts
Peasant

Let it be possible for some threads to edit your own posts .
Then it's less work for you mod's to figure out if it works .
Like the thread : Newcomers Forum can be used for an test .


Well, theres a good idea, but it has a couple of problems...

1. If there was a way to edit your post.... Or delete your post, the armor points you earned would have gone.
SPIFFEN
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SPIFFEN
35 posts
Nomad

Every game should have their own main thread in : Game Walkthroughs .
This should make it easyier to find the game your looking for ,
with or without an search engine .

I would recomend that members start there post with game name first , then add text for topic , so it's easy to see whats needed .
Like this : Game name - need help on lvl xx

Patrick2011
online
Patrick2011
12,321 posts
Treasurer

[quote]Let it be possible for some threads to edit your own posts .
Then it's less work for you mod's to figure out if it works .
Like the thread : Newcomers Forum can be used for an test .


Well, theres a good idea, but it has a couple of problems...

1. If there was a way to edit your post.... Or delete your post, the armor points you earned would have gone.[/quote]

I think it's too late to add post editing to AG2. Also, AP as we know it will not be in AG3. Therefore, post editing is a good idea for AG3.
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