May 4th Forum Developer Update

[Wagonlitz]

We also do not plan on changing what you preferred about this community and we do not want to change anything just for the sake of it, that is not the goal at all.

Ok. I presume that means that we'll get back things like the icon counter, i.. the golden plate showing the amount fo icons we have?

Also, something extremely essential whihc you didn't mention is to have the watched thread page show you the newest unread, watched threads (with an option to switch to seeing all watched threads). The old fora had this and it was extremely useful and essential if you are a long time forum user like me. The old fora used to show the 20 newest unread, subscribed threads and as you read them then the list would update, until you eventually ran out of unread, watched threads.
Without it then it can be really cumbersome to keep track of unread, watched threads, as the list is a mix of read and unread ones.
It's a feature which is so essential that if it's not reimplemented then I'll consider the upgrade a massive downgrade. So here's hoping it'll be coming back.


I also really hope that we'll get the "who replied" feature back. It was a feature where you inside a thread could press the button called who replied and then get a list of how many times somebody replied in that thread. And if you clicked the number you got a list of all the posts of that person in that thread. It was extremely useful when having discussions with select people in large threads or when needing to find old posts in a thread.
It's antoher thing which I'd consider a large downgrade if it isn't getting restored.

Removed the background color behind avatars

Why did you do that? It looks way flatter now, whihc isn't really a good thing. Having some depth is good, I think, and having the area around your avatar, stats, and icons have a slightly darker background, as on the old fora, was good imho.

Investigation and resolving an issue with login session not being retained for the intended timeframe (I.E. users being logged out “randomly”)

Lets hope you manage to fix it. Don't despair too much if you fail, though. It's been an issue since the 2015 forum migration, i.e. when Xenforo was introduced, and it's been attempted fixed countless times. So far without 100% success.

And just as I pressed post reply I was told that I'd been logged out, or rather I was told I needed to be logged in to post.

They are still working on fixing badges... i presume we may be getting the plaques back afterwards ? maybe ?

And you call yourself an icon zombie. It's called icons, not badges...

 

[DarthJF]

• Dimmed the main text color from white to off-white to improve contrast and readability

The contrast isn't as bad as before but the bright green elements on a dark background are still irritating my eyes. I hope there's further tweaks to the graphical style or alternative forum skins coming soon.

 

[stnylan]

Hey everybody, my name is Ian and I am with the web development team working on the launch of the new Paradox community. I love being a part of the Paradox community with you all, and have thoroughly enjoyed working alongside @pdxfreddy on this project.

Thank you guys for bearing with us while we get everything back up and running after a long few days. We know that some of your requests and some features could have rolled out quicker, and apologize for the lack of communication on our part. We have been scouring the threads and keeping up with all of the bug reports, feature requests, and general feedback that you have been throwing our way. We are working hard to address these concerns and will continue to until we get it right. This may take some more time but will move quickly as we can. So to everyone who has provided helpful feedback, thank you very much, and keep up the great work .

And I know change can be challenging, especially when it isn't always clear why we had to change in the first place. This new platform offers faster (some extra scripts are running right now if it feels slow occasionally, this should be done by Monday), more reliable, more secure, and a more extensible code base for adding more useful tools in the future. So while some things are getting moved around, where we settle will be in a much better place. Pardon the dust a bit longer. We also do not plan on changing what you preferred about this community and we do not want to change anything just for the sake of it, that is not the goal at all. The entire Paradox team had a simple goal in mind: to offer a better community experience, and that is where we are heading.

Ian, do you have any idea how many people in the community that you claim to love you have managed to piss off the last few days? I have lost count of the number of times I have seen forum members moaning about these changes, in a whole slew of different threads.

Do you know how few of them will even notice this post exists?

And whilst it is good to read this post of yours, to be blunt, the communication strategy needs an urgent upgrade.

Just as an example, why in all the green buttons of the new forum did you not post a link to this post in the feedback thread? It makes your apology for poor communication look pretty empty, to be honest.
(Edit - NB - It turns out I missed this notification (thank you @KitCat below), perhaps because of the following from an earlier post in the other thread
13 - Reading a thread. I actually find it, relative to the old forum architecture, sometimes hard to notice where one post ends and another begins. This has caused me some confusion several times today. The posts seem to run into each other. Something to do with the lack of clear borders I think, or possibly colour palette choices. )

Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for all the work that has been done thus far to improve matters, but this whole episode still leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth.

In terms of suggestions I don't especially have anything to say I haven't already said here and here.

 

[KitCat]

Just as an example, why in all the green buttons of the new forum did you not post a link to this post in the feedback thread?

Hold your horses there.

 

[PDX Forum Dev]

And whilst it is good to read this post of yours, to be blunt, the communication strategy needs an urgent upgrade.

You are 100% correct, and I intend to continue posting updates like these so that everyone knows what things are changing on the forum.

I still personally don't discern a difference between a sub-forum that is read and unread, but maybe that fix is still processing.

We are looking to improve this as well. Currently there is a green border to the left of unread threads, but this does not appear to be noticeable enough, so we will iterate on this.

They are still working on fixing badges... i presume we may be getting the plaques back afterwards ? maybe ?

We will be adding the plaque back once the badges are finished re-building.

 

[stnylan]

Hold your horses there.

That is fair enough ... so I suppose I find my point about missing posts perhaps rather more relevant than I thought.

 

[stnylan]

You are 100% correct, and I intend to continue posting updates like these so that everyone knows what things are changing on the forum.

Thank you

 

[Wagonlitz]

You are 100% correct, and I intend to continue posting updates like these so that everyone knows what things are changing on the forum.

When the 2015 upgrade happened there were small banners across the entire fora. Somethign like that might be useful to communicate some things. Perhaps even just have them have a little text explainign there's an update on things and then a ilnk. That's make way more people notice it.
Since as was mentioned then 99% of people don't really ever visit the general forum area.



Also, any word on the unread watched thread list coming back and the who replied feature?

 

[nmcj1996]

Two other things that would be amazing if you implemented:

Could you cut down the number of badges we see as currently in many pages the majority of the space is just taken up by badges? If you want to keep them, maybe only display games and not dlc on threads and then show them all on a person's profile.

Personally I don't see the point in any of the new reactions, but I'm guessing you didn't add them by accident so they won't be going anytime soon. However, please please please get rid of either the like or agree reaction - there's no real difference between the two and it just makes glancing at the reactions confusing.

 

[loup99]

How come reactions received are listed from oldest to newest? It makes it pretty much impossible to view newer reactions.

No, it is because newer reactions are still being processed, they are still listed from the newest to the oldest.

 

[KitCat]

Could you cut down the number of badges we see as currently in many pages the majority of the space is just taken up by badges? If you want to keep them, maybe only display games and not dlc on threads and then show them all on a person's profile.

I think the limitation of 50 (and the sorting) is currently not applying, so for anyone who has more, the section gets a bit messy.

Personally I don't see the point in any of the new reactions, but I'm guessing you didn't add them by accident so they won't be going anytime soon. However, please please please get rid of either the like or agree reaction - there's no real difference between the two and it just makes glancing at the reactions confusing.

I don't actually agree with that. I think liking something is entirely different from agreeing with it. I can like that someone has given me his opinion/standpoint on something without necessarily agreeing with it.

 

[gigau]

Could you cut down the number of badges we see as currently in many pages the majority of the space is just taken up by badges? If you want to keep them, maybe only display games and not dlc on threads and then show them all on a person's profile.

I think ther following implies the number of displayed icons will go back down to 54 like before.

We will be adding the plaque back once the badges are finished re-building.

 

[charliex3]

So MUCH wasted space only because of the badges... this needs to be worked on too


An idea:
Show only first ~12 badges, and the rest will be hidden under the arrow...

 

[KitCat]

So MUCH wasted space only because of the badges... this needs to be worked on too


An idea:
Show only first ~12 badges, and the rest will be hidden under the arrow...

Go to Account > Preferences > Toggle "Collapse postbit by default" on. That'll remove the badges entirely until you collapse them out manually on a per-post basis.

 

[Kayden_II]

Go to Account > Preferences > Toggle "Collapse postbit by default" on. That'll remove the badges entirely until you collapse them out manually on a per-post basis.

Yes, there's this preference-option, but it hides everything.

My opinion is that all badges don't have to be presented everywhere. I'm posting in the Stellaris-Forum ? Just my Stellaris-Badges ( base-game and DLCs ) "need" to be presented. ( Which Stellaris-Player would care that my CK-II-/ or EU-IV-badges aren't presented in the Stellaris-Forum ) ? In general forums like this one my base-game-badges "need" just to be presented. And if someone wants to look into my profile then all my badges could still be presented. That way, all badges that matter will still be there.

I don't actually agree with that. I think liking something is entirely different from agreeing with it. I can like that someone has given me his opinion/standpoint on something without necessarily agreeing with it.

You've already spotted the weakness of "Like": It's not distinctive, but a matter of interpretation, especially if you're the one who has to figure out why someone else has "liked" your post. "Like" can range from "I'm with you" ( "Agree" ) to "That was "helpful"" to "That was funny" ( "HaHa" ). And since we've already these 3 more nuanced options for "Like", "Like" itself is pretty redundant, too. ( "Love" is just an other word for "thankfulness" and pretty similar to "Like" ). ( "Hate", too, just from the opposite perspective ).

Long story short: "Agree" and "Disagree" are quite distinctive and can stay. If any "Helpful" and "Not Helpful" as well as "Funny" and "Not Funny" make somewhat sense as additional distinctive options, but whether they're necessary or not is an other question.

 

[gigau]

Finishing the script to add back all developer post functionality. This includes the following:

• Developer posts unique styling for easy recognition

Will there still be something like that for moderation posts as well ?

 

[Wagonlitz]

View attachment 573991

So MUCH wasted space only because of the badges... this needs to be worked on too


An idea:
Show only first ~12 badges, and the rest will be hidden under the arrow...

It used to be that you could show up to 54 icons, which is 9 full rows.

On the icon page atm it claims to have a 50 icon limit, but it's bugged atm and hence shows way more for some of us. Given that it shows a limit on that page then we probably can expect it to go back down.
Though I really hope it'll be back to 54, and not 50, since 54 is 9 whole lines, whereas 50 is 8 whole lines plus two stragglers, which just looks ugly.

 

[gigau]

It used to be that you could show up to 54 icons, which is 9 full rows.

On the icon page atm it claims to have a 50 icon limit, but it's bugged atm and hence shows way more for some of us. Given that it shows a limit on that page then we probably can expect it to go back down.
Though I really hope it'll be back to 54, and not 50, since 54 is 9 whole lines, whereas 50 is 8 whole lines plus two stragglers, which just looks ugly.

Agreed... and i hope there will be a center alignment, not to the left as currently is.

 

[Wagonlitz]

i hope there will be a center alignment, not to the left as currently is.

Couldn't agree more.




Hopefully there'll also be some kind of customisation of the look, if nothing else then getting back the ability to use the EU, CK, and HOI skins everywhere if so desired.
Since atm I legit fear that some of the subfora are gonna if not die then take a huge hit in activity. I'm already seeing it in some of them that there just isn't the activity which there were as late as last week.

 

[loup99]

Since atm I legit fear that some of the subfora are gonna if not die then take a huge hit in activity. I'm already seeing it in some of them that there just isn't the activity which there were as late as last week.

That is mostly because of the log-in issues, one would presume.