[News] Changing the gaming forums

Your favorite console themed threads are a click away, stop bitching.

o guru, so silly

Originally Posted by Guru

BUT ACER! It would expose people to threads they might not see otherwise, and encourage conversation! Plus people can see everything all at once so they don't have to change forums! SO EASY!

While we don't know what sort of positive changes it'll bring as far as conversation and quality, at the very least it's no worse. I went in there, saw a bunch of icons to the left, and I hit the Sony one. Took me to a page with everything but the Sony threads taken out. Suddenly, I had a Playstation forum. What is the problem here Guru? Hell, Blah or someone else is probably working on having just a text alternative for the icons.

I have a feeling you wouldn't be content with anything that wasn't what it was before. You like preserving things.

I'd be satisfied with a place where I could set checkboxes for which thread types I want to appear for me and have all of them appear without me clicking anything (after setting it up initially, of course).

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

I'd be satisfied with a place where I could set checkboxes for which thread types I want to appear for me and have all of them appear without me clicking anything (after setting it up initially, of course).

I like that idea ^^

Originally Posted by Omi-Cron Kenobi

What is the problem here Guru?

This I don't understand either. His organization he moans about is still ONE CLICK AWAY.

Although I must admit, Guru's doing a damn good job of making a case for keeping the forums split. I don't want people like him in any of the threads I participate in. I wouldn't have to read his shit if it got funneled away into a subforum.

I do like RR's idea though. It'll probably please even the laziest of whiney assholes. Win-win.

It would be interesting to have an ignore function. That way any threads that are specifically Sony or Microsoft system tags can be ignored leaving everything else that Guru desires. More than likely we'll have a filtering system like that in addition to the SA-type filter list.

I was told there would be buttons along the top of the forum to filter. Right now there aren't, and I already have to scroll around to find what I want to see. What if there are no threads about topics I'm interested in? Extra clicking, scrolling, searching.

It was never any less convenient to use the drop-down menu to scroll through the forums. This is just a different way of doing things, that has no obvious benefits, and the ones you guys are inventing for me are completely bullshit. Better conversation? More exposure? Riiight. No matter how they come across something, people aren't going to read what they don't want to read. Do you see where I'm coming from? If people weren't seeing threads before, it's because they were either stupid or lazy. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm lazy. I don't like a clunkier interface than is necessary for me to see what I want to see. But my opinion is not the majority, so c'est la vie.

I don't have a huge issue with the way the filters are set up so long as they're more accessible and less ugly. Do I prefer the other way? Yeah. Will I deal? Yeah. But quit telling me that it's for some greater good of the forum. It's just different. Plain and simple. It benefits people that have more video game systems than one because THEY are too lazy to change forums on the old system. But the conversation and exposure arguments are complete and utter garbage, and you all know it.

I may not share Guru's frustration on the situation, however my thoughts on the new design are similar to that of Guru's. People arn'e as much complaining as they are stating an observation. I believe that Guru's frustration may simply be coming from the fact that people think that his opinion is incorrect, which simply is not possible.

I don't know if it was feedback or design ideas that people were expecting to come out of this thread, however everyone, Guru included are users and in the end are these not the people you're trying to make the community experiance better for? I'm not saying to tailor to any specific user, just take note of all the feedback, right or wrong, good or bad and try to use it to achieve an end goal instead of attacking every detail in someone's suggestion.

I'm not frustrated, just calling bullshit when I see it. Does using the word "bullshit" make me seem frustrated? Okay then. Bullpoopy. ~.^

I'm not against change either. But I don't really think things need to be changed when there's nothing wrong with the way they were. That's a general comment by the way, and not only in regard to the gaming forums.

Why is the gaming forum the only place on this entire board where people bitch about seeing threads they're not interested in? You people know how to "use" the other forums as well, so why do we need to make the gaming forum special?

I'm going to do this is size 4 bolded Tahoma font so hopefully my point that was made abundantly clear by the PARDON OUR DUST messages we have been giving you guys will be driven into your thick skulls.

1. Icon images are not complete. In the meantime we have a few temporary ones and text. The final icon images will be made by ElectricSheep who will have designed a good amount of them and a general icon template so that we the community can create future icons in the future when we need to or want to.
   
2. The filter system is not complete in the least. Right now we have a make-shift filter system through the prefix icon images and text. That's only a small part. Blah has the final say in how this will work but from what I understand we will also have a SA-style filtering system at the top along with the ability to ignore certain tags or something to that effect.
   
3. The gaming forums are fucking final in what they are and what subforums they will have. We have put weeks of thought into this and run several scenarios by each other and this works the best. With the current layout and final filtering system you will really have nothing to complain about.
   
4. Prefix tags are still not complete. We believe we have gotten most of them that are forum specific. However, the more general tags like Amusing, Interesting, Weird, Scary, etc. haven't been planned out. Visit Fark or Something Awful's public viewable forums to see more of what I'm talking about. The prefix tags are something we really want to make this system strong.
   
5. As you can see by the new Entertainment section Animespot and Media Centre are making the transformation as well. There is room for change in Media Centre for a sports subforum and perhaps a comics subforum but their tags have not been completely planned yet (we are open for suggestions there). What I'm trying to get at is that the gaming forums are only a start. We have an overarching plan to implement the filtering system and change the structure of the forums for the better. The heaviest consolidation in this plan has already been done with the gaming forums. From here we will do some easier consolidation and even the creation of a few new forums. However, until we have the filtering system in place and general tags worked out we will concentrating our efforts to the Entertainment section to give you guys a big taste of things to come. We've already tagged 30 plus pages of old threads. This is hard work and we wouldn't have put so much effort into something that requires such work if we didn't think it was a good solid plan.

So in the meantime PARDON OUR DUST.

Hey, did Acer say something?

No, it was your imagination, Mikey. Go back to sleep.

Originally Posted by Rock

Why is the gaming forum the only place on this entire board where people bitch about seeing threads they're not interested in? You people know how to "use" the other forums as well, so why do we need to make the gaming forum special?

I don't know what you're talking about. I don't want to see threads on video game music discussion, so I don't open that forum. I don't want to see threads on movies, so I don't open that forum. If anything this is the one that's breaking the continuity of the rest of the forums' methods.

Originally Posted by Guru

I was told there would be buttons along the top of the forum to filter. Right now there aren't, and I already have to scroll around to find what I want to see. What if there are no threads about topics I'm interested in? Extra clicking, scrolling, searching.

It was never any less convenient to use the drop-down menu to scroll through the forums. This is just a different way of doing things, that has no obvious benefits, and the ones you guys are inventing for me are completely bullshit. Better conversation? More exposure? Riiight. No matter how they come across something, people aren't going to read what they don't want to read. Do you see where I'm coming from? If people weren't seeing threads before, it's because they were either stupid or lazy. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm lazy. I don't like a clunkier interface than is necessary for me to see what I want to see. But my opinion is not the majority, so c'est la vie.

I don't have a huge issue with the way the filters are set up so long as they're more accessible and less ugly. Do I prefer the other way? Yeah. Will I deal? Yeah. But quit telling me that it's for some greater good of the forum. It's just different. Plain and simple. It benefits people that have more video game systems than one because THEY are too lazy to change forums on the old system. But the conversation and exposure arguments are complete and utter garbage, and you all know it.

I've already brought forth one example of my ideas bearing fruit with the Lukage example. Dark Nation is another. I asked him if he would have seen and posted in the thread about the modded 360s being banned from Live in the old system, and he said no.

These may be just a few small examples, but I'm sure there's other ones that I haven't asked either. If you wanna call this bullshit, fine. I figure it's working. Maybe not on the scale I thought it would, but it's still working.

You have yet to provide evidence that disproves my arguments and shows how it's "complete and utter garbage". Other than "I want the old way back so you're full of shit". I know this has little to do with anything, but I'm sick of your shit and you calling me wrong on this. This Cain-like behaviour is embarassing.

Anywho, thanks for the update, Acer. Much <3

Calling it Cain-like (I'm not even sure how/what it is) doesn't make you an automatic winner Skills.

I can't work on everything at the same time guys

I'll get the filtering system done by Sunday night.

Yeah, I hear ya, Blah. Your plate is filled up with real life stuffs in addition to the various filter system crap, new board layout, the frontpage, and any other miscellanious forum junk. Do what you can. I'm just trying to tell these guys to keep their pants on. EVERTHING MUST HAPPEN RIGHT NOW OR I'M NOT HAPPY. WAAAAH. Give Blah and the rest of the crew that is working on this a break is all I'm asking here. We'll listen to some of your suggestions like perhaps how you'd like a sports or comic subforum set up or any additional tags you feel are needed or any generic tags that you think would be good. Try adding to this idea instead of resisting it. I guarantee you'll be having a lot more