Website Renovation

[Crzy1051]

<p>Hello,</p><p> </p><p>

I would like to formally introduce myself! My names Will and im addicted to Greydog Software....</p><p> </p><p>

The truth is, although I'm a fan i am also the owner of Will Designs a full service Graphic, Web and Print Design company and I'm in the process of revamping GDS.com</p><p> </p><p>

I have spoke with Arlie and have gotten input and permission from him to ask for your advice. As the consumers and fans of GDS what would you like to see on the new updated website? Remember not everything will happen, but it doesn't hurt to ask.</p>

[Derek DiBenedetto]

More modern design that does not rely on Flash to load should be the top priority, IMHO.

[Derek B]

Something that ensures the latest games and their latest updates are readily available on the first page. Most games on here have Technical Support forums with the latest patch a available in them, so having direct links to those pages would be a top priority to ensure the best possible support for the user base.

[Crzy1051]

The new website is going to be a lot more modern and even mobile friendly. As well as my goal is to allow for more updates and games to be posted on the website's first page more frequently.

[Ragin Cajun]

<p>Would love compatability with Tapatalk for mobile browsing on the go. </p><p> </p><p>

Spice up the colors a little bit.</p>

[Crzy1051]

No guarantees, but i will see what i can do. The site itself will be alot more mobile friendly, however with Tapatalk being an external application, i will try to see what i can do to make it compatible.

[Idolized]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Crzy1051" data-cite="Crzy1051" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44081" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>No guarantees, but i will see what i can do. The site itself will be alot more mobile friendly, however with Tapatalk being an external application, i will try to see what i can do to make it compatible.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> A website built on wordpress core with a responsive theme would be awesome.</p>

[Crzy1051]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Idolized" data-cite="Idolized" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44081" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>A website built on wordpress core with a responsive theme would be awesome.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> That is actually what im building it on. The wordpress core has tons of capabilities and I am currently converting the current website to the wordpress core.</p><p> </p><p> As for the responsive theme, it will be responsive however it will be a custom built theme and layout.</p>

[Azul]

More modern design that does not rely on Flash to load should be the top priority, IMHO.

 

I would like to second this. Most of the stuff on the front page doesn't work if you are using a tablet or smartphone because of the Flash requirement. I don't really use the front page so it doesn't really matter to me, but if I needed to use something on the front page than it would be important for me.

[Arlie Rahn]

Azul, that's been the main catalyst of the site change. I was going to take it on myself but I'm very happy Will came along for me to hire. He's doing a much better job than I ever could - plus I really didn't have the time to mess with it.

[Jaysin]

Get rid of star ratings on threads please.

[Idolized]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Jaysin" data-cite="Jaysin" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44081" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Get rid of star ratings on threads please.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> An update to the new IPB software would make the forums so much more user friendly.</p>

[mistaken]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Jaysin" data-cite="Jaysin" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44081" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Get rid of star ratings on threads please.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> keep them</p>

[Big Roguey]

keep them

 

They don't really serve a purpose though? No one one stars a thread and then says why which just leads to demoralisation and projects being cut off before they get going. Places like here thrive on creativity and feedback and right now, we only got half of that.

[Mootinie]

Remove star ratings. They do more harm than good. People get their Dynasty five-starred by some stranger and then sometimes they don't even get nominated for DOTM. At this point it's a useless, counter-productive and frankly dated feature. It was a smart little vBulletin feature years ago, now it's a weapon for the trolls because of its anonymity.

 

Add a like / upvote feature to posts. Sometimes I like a post, I like what the person is saying but I don't want to make a post to that effect because if we all did that, the forum would wind up hella cluttered with lots of spam. These work really well on every other forum I'm on and encourage positive interactions.

 

Clean the site up a little. The index is very cluttered and it doesn't need to be. Here's some things I would do:

 

Move the Grey Dog Software Think Tank section of the forum up and place within it the Grey Dog Software General Discussions sub-forum and The Dog Pound sub-forum. Putting all the non-games related stuff in one area is smart and will encourage traffic to those areas.

 

Put the Total Extreme Wrestling Discussions 2016 General Discussions sub-forum in the Total Extreme Wrestling 2016 forum. And then do the same for all the other games. Having one dedicated area for it means that when somebody wants to talk TEW2016, it will all be in one place.

 

Stick all the dated versions of games within a large Archive forum. Now there's TEW 2016, there's no reason for three sub-forums from TEW2013 to still be visible on the home page. Putting them within an archive of-sorts means that it's all in one place, easy to reach and isn't filling up the home page with rarely visited sub-forums.

 

Customisible profiles! I'm on another forum that lets you have a cover photo and add lots of little personal details to your profile, a bio, a location, a gender, etc etc. It also tracks all of your forum activity so I can see my first post, see when I've liked something, see every reply I've made to every thread. After so long, you can also have a Custom User Title so that promotes activity and allows you to continue building your "persona" so to speak.

[Derek B]

If it is possible to replace the star ratings on threads, that would be great, though I suspect that isn't part of this project.

 

The best approach is basically the same as Facebook. Give a small range of positive feedback. You can then see if something is popular and why from that. We also have the ability to report posts if they are negative, so board admins like myself can handle any negative feedback in a more private setting.

 

This combination has been proven to work well across many social media and would be a boost to the ability to find quality posts around the site and help to provide great feedback to the many contributors in the many sections of the forums. If this could also be done for individual posts that would be fantastic, especially for writers in the dynasty sections where it could provide the kind of feedback that all users would appreciate.

[Crzy1051]

Those are good ideas, however the forum will be next on the project list. We are trying to focus on the .com at the moment.

[BHK1978]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="mistaken" data-cite="mistaken" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44081" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>keep them</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I agree with keeping the one star system.</p><p> </p><p> I get a one star every time I start a thread. So much so, that I give every thread that I start a one star in order to beat the other posters to the punch. To me I find it funny when people get so upset over getting a one star on a video game website. If that is the most upsetting thing to happen to you then I think it is pretty safe to say that you are living a charmed life. </p><p> </p><p> I actually find it flattering in a sense, because people are actually taking time out of their day to inform me how much they dislike me or dislike whatever content I am writing about. I also like them because it allows people to voice their opinion. </p><p> </p><p> As someone who has been told in the past that I am not allowed to speak on certain subjects or I am stupid and wrong for having a different opinion just because I do not have a hive mind thought process when it comes to certain topics. It is refreshing to see that I still can have some sort of way to voice my opinion on a subject matter if I choose to do so.</p><p> </p><p> Granted it has been some time since I last one starred a thread, but I like having the option to do so should I choose to.</p>

[jack ryder]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Crzy1051" data-cite="Crzy1051" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44081" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Those are good ideas, however the forum will be next on the project list. We are trying to focus on the .com at the moment.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> You have already mentioned working on the flash thing for .com.</p><p> </p><p> Whenever you are moving towards forum, I would like to suggest you to take a look at Xenforo.</p>

[Kingster]

<p>I rarely use the main site, so I don't care that much about it.</p><p>

But I have one request: Obviously it's a good thing to modernise the page and make it more mobile-friendly. But please don't forget to keep it pc-friendly, as well.</p><p>

So many websites I visit or used to visit have become unusable in their programmer's effort to modernise it and to make it look better. The most important thing for me is how easy it is to navigate the website both on a regular pc and on mobile devices. Look and fanciness is nice, as well, but only if it doesn't hinder its usability.</p>

[Azul]

An update to the new IPB software would make the forums so much more user friendly.

 

Honestly, it takes 20 minutes to create a new forum. A service like zetaboards takes 20 minutes. I don't know what IPB software is, but I can't imagine wanting more than what a service like zetaboards has. Why make more work if it isn't needed?

 

Azul, that's been the main catalyst of the site change. I was going to take it on myself but I'm very happy Will came along for me to hire. He's doing a much better job than I ever could - plus I really didn't have the time to mess with it.

 

Sweet.

 

If it is possible to replace the star ratings on threads, that would be great, though I suspect that isn't part of this project.

 

The problem is you would have to get a new forum, and what would happen to all the posts on the old forum? I guess you could hyperlink to it on the new forum if you want to check out old material.

 

 

Remove star ratings. They do more harm than good. It was a smart little vBulletin feature years ago, now it's a weapon for the trolls because of its anonymity.

 

Yep.

 

Add a like / upvote feature to posts.

That is going to cause the same problem as the star rating system by people creating tons of accounts to upvote certain projects and not doing it for others. Please no star ratings or like/upvote or anything like that. I don't think you can compare it to social media because people aren't posting projects on social media that they spend crazy amounts of time and effort on. At least not the amount of work that you see on this site. Nice comments are good enough, and mean comments won't be anonymous.

 

I know the star ratings are b.s. because of trolls, but some people might not realize there are trolls doing it.

[Idolized]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Azul" data-cite="Azul" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44081" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Honestly, it takes 20 minutes to create a new forum. A service like zetaboards takes 20 minutes. I don't know what IPB software is, but I can't imagine wanting more than what a service like zetaboards has. Why make more work if it isn't needed? <img alt=":D" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Integrated mobile view, emoji integration from your phone, a WISYWIG editor, faster loading speeds, those are just some of the benefits.</p>

[RayW]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Azul" data-cite="Azul" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44081" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>That is going to cause the same problem as the star rating system by people creating tons of accounts to upvote certain projects and not doing it for others. Please no star ratings or like/upvote or anything like that. I don't think you can compare it to social media because people aren't posting projects on social media that they spend crazy amounts of time and effort on. At least not the amount of work that you see on this site. Nice comments are good enough, and mean comments won't be anonymous.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> The like system I have used on many other forums is not in the form of a like/dislike, just like. It is on every comment and is more of an 'in agreement, thanks for this' type thing. IE: If I was reading this and agreed with your post, I'd click 'like' instead of posting 'I agree'. On most forums it is used to stop posts like "+1 for me". I've never seen an anonymous one, either. It is usually in the format of: "Liked by username1, username2, username3" So you can clearly see who has liked the comment. You can also use a Like system where it is not public, only the OP gets notifications of the like button being hit, no one else can see.</p><p> </p><p> I think in a forum where the creativity of the users is at its core, something like a like system - which is not anonymous - is important. I hardly ever post here now, but I look at a lot of posts in the dynasty, mod and feature request section. Being able to hit like on the latest episode of a dynasty I follow would help me feel like I am encouraging the writer. I dont want to make a post after every show saying "Good show". It's clutter.</p><p> </p><p> tl;dr: 'Like' systems in forums I am a member off that are creativity based are extremely effective; ie on forums such as that for Kodi or PLEX, where encouraging active development of projects is important.</p>

[LoganRodzen]

Long overdue. Very glad to see this getting done! <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

[JaCeLo3]

Don't use flash.