Vanilla Incoming Features/Request for Feedback

xanime0x

don,t like that i have to sign in to arc to even use forums or even post. Don't care for the vannila fourms they are a mess in genreal. if i try to sign in out side of arc i just get a loop to the frist pages or if i try to do anything. worse move yet for fourms of any game company. i see it as a way to drive player form even using them. you have lost the stablity of the system you have to settle for less capable system.

eldarth

protogoth wrote: »

eldarth wrote: »

protogoth wrote: »

I like the dark theme. It's far easier on the eyes than the blinding white of another forum site when it was first redone that caused migraines in several people (fortunately, I was not one of them, but it was still hard on the eyes).

I don't like either extreme, but prefer the darker especially if reading later at night.
I prefer a nice soothing middle ground -- hence The Blues, a nice relaxing calmness with too much contrast.

Blue has at least two contraindications:
1. Blue light encourages macular degeneration; I'd rather not lose my sight from forum activity.

2. Blue in STO is associated with the Federation, which is already favored over the Klingon Empire (Red) and the New Romulan Republic (Green) in many ways (and this is not a baseless accusation; even Devs have admitted that the Fed side gets more stuff than the other two put together, and then went on to engage in circular reasoning as a "justification" for the situation). Making the entire forum blue would probably encourage even more perception of that favoritism.

Ah. As for #2, I'm not on the STO forums so don't really care one way or the other. Didn't mean "Pro Blue", but rather this one:

...much more Carribean/Ocean/teal blues, but I imagine still contributes to #1. perhaps I need to work on a nice soothing amber theme.

gulberat

Oh my goodness, please, no to that blue theme. I think we are fine with what we have, or a fine-tuned variant of it.

ambisinisterr

Please keep the dark theme. That blue Eldarth suggested is just as bad as black text on white backgrounds to me.

And I really hate the animated signatures.

There are decent ways to animate signatures but there are also many more obnoxious ways. I would rather moderate them on a case by case basis but if the option is between none and the nonsense some people force us to deal with I would rather have none at all.

tehbubbaloo

i certainly dont recall javascript hijacking my window and forcing it into a frame being on my wishlist.

gulberat

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

i certainly dont recall javascript hijacking my window and forcing it into a frame being on my wishlist.

Seconded. That is NOT cool. Undo immediately.

eldarth

ambisinisterr wrote: »

Please keep the dark theme. That blue Eldarth suggested is just as bad as black text on white backgrounds to me.

Sorry - not meant to be a suggestion, merely an existing option for those that can't stand the existing theme. They can use the community provided fixes and select from several different themes here:
PWE Vanilla Forum Bug Fixes, Enhancements, and Themes

...while we wait the months (or years or never) for PWE's "update."

nrglg

protogoth wrote: »

Blue has at least two contraindications:
1. Blue light encourages macular degeneration; I'd rather not lose my sight from forum activity.

You don't know what blue light is, do you? I'll tell you right now that what you think it is, it is not.

gulberat

nrglg wrote: »

protogoth wrote: »

Blue has at least two contraindications:
1. Blue light encourages macular degeneration; I'd rather not lose my sight from forum activity.

You don't know what blue light is, do you? I'll tell you right now that what you think it is, it is not.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing when I saw that post. I was thinking it was all fluorescent light/LED light, to include all computer, phone, and tablet screens. Which, BTW, will also play havoc with your sleeping patterns.

bejaymac

What idiot set up a forced redirect, keep getting booted back to that crappy arcgames site which leaves me looking at the forums in that crappy frame, it's also breaking the KDF theme I'm using

nrglg

bejaymac wrote: »

What idiot set up a forced redirect, keep getting booted back to that crappy arcgames site which leaves me looking at the forums in that crappy frame, it's also breaking the KDF theme I'm using

For those that want to break out of the frame because either A, it breaks the custom designs or B, it is laggier feeling on their system, solution link is below...

Solution: http://perfectworld.vanillaforums.com/discussion/comment/12592776/#Comment_12592776

Edit: A number of people have complained that there are numerous issues with the embedded iframe. So why was it forced?

yetweallfalldown

I'm not sure why logging into the forums pushes back to our homepage. It should stay within the forums. Added to the list!

gulberat

yetweallfalldown wrote: »

I'm not sure why logging into the forums pushes back to our homepage. It should stay within the forums. Added to the list!

Yeah, I've had that problem as well. I think the redirects as a whole need to be addressed, since as mentioned above, the forced ARC redirect while IN the forums breaks several features. Could those be addressed together?

frtoaster

Someone at PWE should read this:

http://perfectworld.vanillaforums.com/discussion/comment/12559777/#Comment_12559777

I've already explained the problems with the embedded iframe multiple times.

ambisinisterr

Can we not have 3 notifications per PM. Quite irritating. Just show us a notification at the inbox icon rather than next to our user name and notification list as well.

siruk

DEV TRACKER a must and RECENT POST\TODAYS POSTS section to quickly view all recent posts from all sub-forums for STO. These were both features of the old forums and without them the forums are basically useless. These should be top priority over all other things especially all the cosmetic complaints.

khamseenair

NO! No auto redirect to your horrible embedded forums! Stop that.

monkeybone13

Can't delete notifications in the forum account settings. I was able to at first but it changed. Now I have pages and pages of notifications from threads I've posted in. I get one every time someone posts in those threads. And I don't have any threads bookmarked.

primar13

Copied from my thread from launch day. Updated it today though ~~~ LINK

primar13 wrote: »

Trendy I love all the work you have done and am very grateful for all the work you and the team are continuing to do.
I'm someone who prefers to see a long list of suggestions all at once, that I can work on at me leisure, so that is what I am gonna try and do here

I'm going to give an ongoing list of updates I would like to see... be nice to me.

Also Remember if Anything Breaks.... #ItsAllMarcosFault

This was up before the Forums Suggestion Section returned... Move if you must.

1. General Stuff
   • Unread Thread Button
   • Twitter Connect would be Nice
   • PM Subjects, would be nice!
2. Profiles/Walls
   • Friends/Foes!
     • Don't know how possible this is, but on our forums we can designate friends and foes, which put them in a short list for sending pms, so we don't have to search for the name..
     • Example:
       
3. Categories and Category View Page-
   • On the Main Category Page we had the option to choose between seeing all Categories and "Subscribed" categories, this is gone now and we need it back.
     • Right now I cannot Access forums I have hidden. Without a Workaround, that has to then be disabled after use. Its a long proccess.
   • When I view the Star Trek Online Forums, and it include 5 Main Category Headers, I would like a List of all the Sub-forums and the Post counts and so forth, I am not a fan of have to go 3 Category folders Deep before getting to the bug section.
     • Not sure how doable this is, but it is something i would like to see if possible. Like the way they used to look once in the STO section, Just layout wise.
4. Discussion Page
   • Most Recent, links to the Correct page, but to the top of the page, we that have to hit "End" or Scroll
5. Thread View
   • We need the "Page Change Menu" Shown at the top and Bottom of the Page
6. Posting Page
   • I would like to have a "Color Wheel" or Color Picker with all the available colors in a dropdown if possible. Clicking a color, adds the correct Color Tags around the highlighted Text
     • Example:
       

Pipe Dream Suggestions:

• Tapatalk Plugin
  • Tapatalk is a 3rd Party Mobile Application that is used by many STO Fleets as a way to better view forums.
  • It provides an easy to use interface for browsing and Modding forums on your mobile devices.
  • It is also free to use for both the forum owner and forum user.
  • https://tapatalk.com/

arcgames.com/en/forums#/discussion/1190586/macros-list-of-suggestions

ambisinisterr

siruk wrote: »

DEV TRACKER a must and RECENT POST\TODAYS POSTS section to quickly view all recent posts from all sub-forums for STO. These were both features of the old forums and without them the forums are basically useless. These should be top priority over all other things especially all the cosmetic complaints.

Dev Tracker is on the to-do list as stated in the first post.

Recent Posts is as simple as hiding all non-STO forums and clicking "discussions." TBH I have actually fopund navigating newer posts far easier on Vanilla than on VBulletin once I properly set it up.

primar13

ambisinisterr wrote: »

Recent Posts is as simple as hiding all non-STO forums and clicking "discussions." TBH I have actually fopund navigating newer posts far easier on Vanilla than on VBulletin once I properly set it up.

Sad to Say... Its not working right... I have all the Games Hidden but STO. I still have threads, posts and Announcements from other games that Show up in the "Duscussions" Page. Most of the ones I see though are from Mods/Admins, so I that that might be bypassing the Hidden function for the Discussions Page.... ~~~~~ If that Makes Sense

where2r1

Now, I have resigned myself to using ARC window to access the Vanilla Forums because I have less issues logging in amd commenting this way.

But now the problem is when someone uses a link inside their post that points back to a URL that starts with "http://perfectworld.vanillaforums.com/......." (directly linking to the forums). That link will open up in a totally separate browser window. In the new window I am not signed in.

I understand everyone wants to use different browsers and access the forums in ways that work best for them....because I am doing the same thing. But there has to be some way to get links posted in a thread to work all in one browser window.....even if it is "embedded" in ARC.

I am slightly concerned because there are a lot of changes happening on the test servers for STO I am trying to keep up with, and one can not read any posts in those Test Server folders when not signed in.

+++++++++++++++

Oh and additionallly: I tried to sign in via Chrome on my Chromebook laptop this afternoon. Of course, this triggers the ARC Defender.

This usually goes normally. (Though I can not say it is smoothly. I am having to refresh every time I change to a different page for the forums to see I am actually logged in already.)

Well, this afternoon.... while trying to sign into ARC....it sent me 2 emails with 2 different pass codes...neither one of which worked. And I get the warning that I will only get 5 tries before they lock my account out. I decided to come to my main computer and sign in via ARC.

ambisinisterr

There are a few bugs. I see some Raiderz posts for some reason. However if it is not working exactly as I stated it should be listed in a bug report. Citing which game forums are going through your filters would help the administators a lot.

Sarek1701

1. As a STO player with a number of forum titles from the STO forums, I would like to see those make a return. Many of them required a pack purchase, so there was some real money involved in getting the title.

2. Obligatory Dev Tracker request

3. The user pages have never been great or all that self-explanatory, even in the old forums. I'd like to see a better layout for the user page for our personal pages (e.g. if we have multiple titles, a dedicated "Change your title" button).

4. The search function needs to be updated. I would like a way to search by user rather than key word. I would also like to be able to sort results based on different criteria (e.g. "Most Relevant" or "Most Recent").

5. I'd like to see better tags for guides, etc. Right now they all read "Announcement" when they could be guides, stickied math/theorycrafting, or announcements. At the very least, I'd like to see a separate "Guide" tag for the many guides in some of the forums.

protogoth

Yeah, this redirect to framed blech has to stop. I would like to note: I'm not opposed to the frame; I'm opposed to the breaking of ordinary forum functionality because of it:

I click on a notification and it takes me to the top of the page where that post is, so I then have to scroll down to find the post I came to read (and usually have to go back to the notifications page first to see which post it is based on the timestamp).
I post and it takes me to the top of the page where that post is.
I can't even bookmark my own posts now; there's no way to do it.

If you want to "fix" something, make sure the "fix" doesn't break anything in the process. I want to bookmark my own posts (okay, maybe not all of them, but at least some), and that's a feature which forum users have come to expect, so I don't think I'm being remotely unreasonable, but you've made that impossible with your "it must have the 'Arc' name on it" policy. I don't care whose name is on it if it works right. If you can make it work right, I don't mind the frame.

frtoaster

where2r1 wrote: »

I am slightly concerned because there are a lot of changes happening on the test servers for STO I am trying to keep up with, and one can not read any posts in those Test Server folders when not signed in.

This almost certainly has nothing to do with the embedded iframe or the redirection. An admin has set the Tribble and Redshirt forums to be hidden unless the user is signed in. I have no idea why, because those forums were not restricted before the forum migration.

primar13

frtoaster wrote: »

where2r1 wrote: »

I am slightly concerned because there are a lot of changes happening on the test servers for STO I am trying to keep up with, and one can not read any posts in those Test Server folders when not signed in.

This almost certainly has nothing to do with the embedded iframe or the redirection. An admin has set the Tribble and Redshirt forums to be hidden unless the user is signed in. I have no idea why, because those forums were not restricted before the forum migration.

Probably to Prevent, Posts regarding unreleased content from making its way into the Search engines and RSS Feeds.
I wouldn't want Comments about unreleased content and any negative feedback about WIP versions, appearing in Google and driving down reviews. but thats just me.

frtoaster

primar13 wrote: »

Probably to Prevent, Posts regarding unreleased content from making its way into the Search engines and RSS Feeds.
I wouldn't want Comments about unreleased content and any negative feedback about WIP versions, appearing in Google and driving down reviews. but thats just me.

If it's a deliberate policy decision and not a bug, then they should say so. It doesn't make much sense as a policy decision anyway because people are posting the changes on Tribble to reddit and the visible forums. The information will get out one way or another.

frtoaster

where2r1 wrote: »

But now the problem is when someone uses a link inside their post that points back to a URL that starts with "http://perfectworld.vanillaforums.com/......." (directly linking to the forums). That link will open up in a totally separate browser window. In the new window I am not signed in.

I just tested this, and I think it's happening with all URLs.

http://perfectworld.vanillaforums.com/discussion/1193222/vanilla-incoming-features-request-for-feedback
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums#/discussion/1193222/vanilla-incoming-features-request-for-feedback
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_authentication_code

But it doesn't happen if I wrap the URLs with BBCode url tags.

http://perfectworld.vanillaforums.com/discussion/1193222/vanilla-incoming-features-request-for-feedback
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums#/discussion/1193222/vanilla-incoming-features-request-for-feedback
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_authentication_code

khamseenair

primar13 wrote: »

ambisinisterr wrote: »

Recent Posts is as simple as hiding all non-STO forums and clicking "discussions." TBH I have actually fopund navigating newer posts far easier on Vanilla than on VBulletin once I properly set it up.

Sad to Say... Its not working right... I have all the Games Hidden but STO. I still have threads, posts and Announcements from other games that Show up in the "Duscussions" Page. Most of the ones I see though are from Mods/Admins, so I that that might be bypassing the Hidden function for the Discussions Page.... ~~~~~ If that Makes Sense

Be aware that the hiding of boards is a little, bizarre. If the Devs change the name of the board or it's position in the category listing then it becomes unhidden again on the discussion page even though it still shows to you as hidden on the main page. If you simply unhide and then rehide the board (or it's game board) it will no longer show up in the discussions page. I had this issue with a few boards from games I'd hidden and doing this resolved it. Now I only get posts about STO or from the ARC Forums boards in my discussions page.

frtoaster wrote: »

where2r1 wrote: »

I am slightly concerned because there are a lot of changes happening on the test servers for STO I am trying to keep up with, and one can not read any posts in those Test Server folders when not signed in.

This almost certainly has nothing to do with the embedded iframe or the redirection. An admin has set the Tribble and Redshirt forums to be hidden unless the user is signed in. I have no idea why, because those forums were not restricted before the forum migration.

There was a post from an admin (non STO, can't recall name or game or even which of the numerous threads relating to Vanilla issues that it was in) saying this was done because these boards are only supposed to be viewable by people who can use the test servers. Since the forums can't tell if a guest has access, they rely on you being logged in to check. Apparently most of the other PWE/Cryptic game forums already used this system so I guess they just tagged STOs test server boards in with the same rule. It's a little odd for STO simply because 90% of the time everyone can use it, but still I can see their logic in a bizarre way.