New Forum Thoughts, Suggestions, and Problems

[Northrop-Grumman]

Since we seem to lack a place to throw together all of everyone's thoughts and concerns, I thought this might be the best place to start a thread dealing with such to keep everything from being scattered throughout the forums and to provide an easier place for the admins/mods to look. If you have anything that falls into Violet's list below or even just want to comment on how good the boards look (it really does! ) feel free to.

1. Things that need to be fixed ASAP: major problems with the forum or game integration that will create significant problems if not addressed by admin now
2. Missing features or minor issues that should be addressed by admin, if/once the board has survived a load test, and we know it's viable
3. Cosmetic tweaks and customizations; nice-to-haves, which can be dealt with by admin in due course, or a Forum Admin sooner if you're really nice to her

[Northrop-Grumman]

Going through the various features, it seems that the Yahoo, AIM, and other chat clients don't really show their information up anywhere on the profile after you've submitted them.

And in looking at the signatures, is there any way to up the character limit from 255? That has been quite a bit short.

[Reploid Productions]

Going through the various features, it seems that the Yahoo, AIM, and other chat clients don't really show their information up anywhere on the profile after you've submitted them.

And in looking at the signatures, is there any way to up the character limit from 255? That has been quite a bit short.

I just bumped the sig limit to 800 characters if you want to test and see if that's working.

Additionally, I just got done testing and putting in the new Strikeout BBCode you can now see in the posting page. Since Hack was moaning about it mentioning it in the sekrit forum.

[Northrop-Grumman]

I just bumped the sig limit to 800 characters if you want to test and see if that's working.

Additionally, I just got done testing and putting in the new Strikeout BBCode you can now see in the posting page. Since Hack was moaning about it mentioning it in the sekrit forum.

Awesome! Thanks! It works perfectly.

[Naivetry]

One minor thing - I was clicking around and noticed a link that's broken, at least for me: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=36

It's from the Got Issues? forum, the thread entitled "NationStates Issues (originally started by Ballotonia)". The message I'm getting says, "The requested topic does not exist."

Also, while copying over my link list, I noticed that the forum doesn't recognize the newer(?) version of BBCode with " " in the commands. So for example, [color="green"]just doesn't work.[/color] That's usually not a problem, because no one usually types that way; but it makes cross-postings from a forum that automatically inserts the " " a little annoying. Is that something that could be changed without a lot of hassle?

It looks great, btw.

[Tanaara]

Hmmm, earlier I had a sig, then I logged out and wet away. I've come back and my sig is gone. I've reinstalled it so maybe this time it will stay

Testing...

Editing to say that : "Okay it has stayed so far..."

[Tsaraine]

Oh boy. I for one am mucho opposed to images in sigs. No hate for you, Tanaara, but the potential for abuse is rather large. And it will make the people with giant obnoxious sigs that much more obnoxious.

[Reploid Productions]

I've started up a discussion in the sekrit forum about it, actually. Unlike on Jolt, I can put in restrictions on the size of images in sigs, so we may be able to come up with some sort of compromise to minimize OMG HEUG IMAGES in sigs but still let people use them.

[[violet]]

Going through the various features, it seems that the Yahoo, AIM, and other chat clients don't really show their information up anywhere on the profile after you've submitted them.

I have added these back: they only show on your forum profile page, though.

Also flags now link directly to nations; names link to profiles.

[The Most Glorious Hack]

Additionally, I just got done testing and putting in the new Strikeout BBCode you can now see in the posting page. Since Hack was moaning about it mentioning it in the sekrit forum.

You know you want my body value my suggestions.

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

So...

there's no chance of importing existing/saved threads from Jolt, and if so, what does this mean for existing, long-running threads/RPs, like Silly Proposals and Strangers' Bar? [/WA-centric] Will we just have to start them all over again? (That's somewhat annoying.)

Do we have to squish all flags down to the same rectangular dimension? My angel Kenny looks slightly chubby now thanks to the effects.

[Ardchoille]

I've tried importing the Jolt ones after they've been saved the way Sirocco described in his blog, but there's so much formatting to do that way when they're re-posted here it seemed easier to just copy, paste and re-format post by post.

As for Silly Proposals and the Bar, it seems to me that the old ones should go in Archives and new ones take their place. But that's just me. The Bar introductory I've just done could be stuck onto the current thread if people would prefer to keep it live. We could re-start Silly Props by copying Fris's original. Thoughts, folks?

Maybe it would help to have a WA archive separate from the mass one. What do the folk who'd have to do the work of adding one think of that?

Speaking of work, you've done wonders on the Passed Resolutions list, Kenny. The angel should be skinny from the exercise. Thank you.

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

As for Silly Proposals and the Bar, it seems to me that the old ones should go in Archives and new ones take their place. But that's just me. The Bar introductory I've just done could be stuck onto the current thread if people would prefer to keep it live. We could re-start Silly Props by copying Fris's original. Thoughts, folks?

If we must have a new Strangers' Bar, then you've bestowed as excellent an opening upon it as anyone could. Well done! Now we can all finally start assuming that those darned headquarters have finally been built, without all the haggling about construction contracts and gnomish foremen and accusations of Godmode!

Makes no sense to open yet another Silly Proposals thread, though. If it could be stuck to the old one, more power to whomever could do it.

And as long as there is some way to import all those threads we spent so much time saving (at your behest, remember!), then I'm happy.

Maybe it would help to have a WA archive separate from the mass one. What do the folk who'd have to do the work of adding one think of that?

Look again, there already is a separate WA archive. I assumed that's where all those old UN/WA debates would be stashed. Am I right?

Speaking of work, you've done wonders on the Passed Resolutions list, Kenny. The angel should be skinny from the exercise. Thank you.

*Blushes, sways bashfully, hands in pockets, kicking the dirt*

Aw, shucks! 'Tweren't nothin', ma'am!

[quote=Reploid Productions]Unlike on Jolt, I can put in restrictions on the size of images in sigs, so we may be able to come up with some sort of compromise to minimize OMG HEUG IMAGES in sigs but still let people use them.[/quote]
Yes, please turn the image codes for sigs back on! I won't be able to edit my sig until you do!

And a final note, to all concerned: this new forum is shaping up beautifully. Kudos for all the hard work put into it! [edit: even if those last stubborn quote tags don't want to work!]

[[violet]]

So...

there's no chance of importing existing/saved threads from Jolt, and if so, what does this mean for existing, long-running threads/RPs, like Silly Proposals and Strangers' Bar? [/WA-centric] Will we just have to start them all over again? (That's somewhat annoying.)

It's possible, but there are obstacles. First, it's a ton of work. Second, it's a different type of board, so a lot of the formatting & links will be broken. Third, it may create more load than this server can handle (the Jolt board has 10 million posts). Fourth, it would create forks of each thread, where after the import there would be one instance here and one on Jolt, each potentially being added to by different people afterward, which is confusing.

My feeling is that we start afresh here, and use Jolt as an Archive. Anything people feel is valuable enough, I'm happy for them to copy & paste here. But I would like to avoid an import.

[Tanaara]

If you all decide to go no images in sigs, it won't bother me. Though I don't feel that my current one is overly large or obnoxious - I know how bad they can get (Oi! have I seen some that are beyond the pale )

I am actually willing to give mine up and campaign for no images in sigs - for thought most of us are very reasonable adults we do have enough posters who's mental and emotional states - and maturity - I wonder over so that I worry about offensive or unwork safe images being imported. I know we get ever so many school kids...

One thing I would really appreciate is the ability to send private messages - there is a vetted, tested etc hack over at php.com ( the origional php bb site ) - I put it in my board and it has all the features needed - in box, out box, keep copy of sent pm, reasonable number of messages kept etc.

Link to: http://www.phpbb.com/

Another thing I'd appreciate is choice of fonts ( not just font colors )

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

My feeling is that we start afresh here, and use Jolt as an Archive. Anything people feel is valuable enough, I'm happy for them to copy & paste here. But I would like to avoid an import.

Then the forum won't be erased? And what would the rules on the new Jolt archive be? Will players be given short leave to finish up any unfinished Jolt business, or will everyone have to post new threads here if they wish to continue current RPs, etc.?

[[violet]]

My feeling is that we start afresh here, and use Jolt as an Archive. Anything people feel is valuable enough, I'm happy for them to copy & paste here. But I would like to avoid an import.

Then the forum won't be erased? And what would the rules on the new Jolt archive be? Will players be given short leave to finish up any unfinished Jolt business, or will everyone have to post new threads here if they wish to continue current RPs, etc.?

What Jolt do is up to them, but they're not planning to take down their NS forum as far as I know. If they did, we would try to load an import, to preserve important threads.

As for transition, it's going to be a little messy no matter what. If this forum survives a load test, I'll replace the sidebar links, but players will still have Jolt accounts, and be free to move between both.

[Quintessence of Dust]

Ardchoille, the imported WA sticky has a metric buttload of broken formatting, mostly [indent] and [center] that needs to be switched to [align=] and [blcoktext].

[Somewhereistonia]

It looks good generally.

Just a couple of suggestions/comments:

On the top of each post is RE: [thread title here] in green, its a bit on the large side in my opinion.

Is there a way to link individual posts like on jolt? This has been quite useful in several ways, such as helping you moderators find spam/flame posts and for linking team rosters in sports.

[Adihan]

As you can see from my flag avatar to the left, it's currently stretched to fit certain dimensions. Can this stretching be turned off and the default dimensions of each individual flag just be used (maybe put in a max limit for large flags)?

(Edit: Mea culpa, forgot about Alak's thread I could've used. Feel free to merge.)

[Quintessence of Dust]

The large green text acts as a link.

[Somewhereistonia]

So it does. Well, I still think its a bit on the large side

[Tseaby]

Can we get the margin reduced?

[Tsaraine]

Now that is a good point, Tseaby. It is a wee bit wide. I'd say 50% of the current should do, if it's alterable.

[[violet]]

Can we get the margin reduced?

Unfortunately that is a side-effect of a hack I did on the CSS to display user profile boxes on the left (the default for this forum style is the right). Thus far I've been unable to get it perfect. The margin only shows up if your browser window is quite wide.