Forum changes/updates/problems - Changes are coming!
- Thread starter Samael
- Start date
Re: 2016/2017 Rumours & Offseason Random Shenanigans
We'll have to agree to disagree on the avatar front then. Personally I couldn't care less what someones avatar is, i'm far more likely to look at their post and username than need their avatar to tell me what sort of 'character' they are on here.
Forum changes will be happening in the near future, including the implementation of the 'like' feature. We went ahead and purchased the forum software this morning after deciding that you (and possibly Finny - I can't remember content of his post right now but i'll quote at the bottom) were right, it's been 8 years since this version of the forum was kicked into being, we updated the theme a number of years back but it's looking tired.
I haven't changed the content yet, but I will endeavor to get what I can updated today or over the next couple of days.
I'm not sure I agree with this. Where needed myself and James have stepped in and usually found ourselves facing more flak on here and Twitter because people don't like the moderation. I agree that at times things have got slightly out of hand, but that's typically because neither of us have had the time to read every single post on a rapidly evolving topic and then make a judgement call on what to do. With regards to self-moderation, we feel that has worked well and will continue to work well with the forum.
If you want an 'introduce yourself' thread then feel free to start one. Personally I don't think they're needed and most forums I use don't have them. The ones that do have been started by a user who thinks that one is needed, rather than mods. Marking people out as part of the organisation or not has always been an option if they want it, otherwise we decided that keeping things as level as possible was the best way forward. The official accounts that have been created and used over the past 8 years have typically been abandoned fairly quickly. How do you feel that marking these users out is going to remove the 'cliquey in-jokes'? Because I can't see how it would help.
The ranking system will not be coming back, the post counts were reintroduced a number of years back when we implemented some changes behind the scenes. All the ranking system does it create a hierachy which the forum doesn't need. We may choose to remove the public display of post counts again when the new forum goes live.
I agree that it is subjective, but we clearly have different views. The donate button was put onto the site when we had to significantly increase the hosting for the site and myself and James could not afford it at the time. However it has not been mentioned for several years now and we are not 'begging' for donations. With regards to adverts, we agreed to try and avoid them at all costs from the very beginning, we never planned/expected/wanted to make money from the site. We have one advert on MNL because of the help that they have provided to us over a number of years to keep the site running.
The forum layout will not be changing significantly, we will not be introducing sub-forums for different news items. The old Blaze forum (FireAndIce) had this and half the forums were empty for several years or more, another were posted in every 6-12 months and then there were 2-3 forums that were regularly used. We believe the setup we have works well for the number of users we have. Just because YOU think the forum needs subforums doesn't mean it does. Why does the position of the search button need to move? Does it not display well on the browser you are using, because again I don't see the issue when it takes you to a new page?
With regards to MNL getting more traffic than the forum then I can't disagree more. That has always been the case for The Inferno, from the very first version to the current one. MNL attracts fans of other teams who are looking for game details and nothing more. With regards to taking revenue away from the club and webcasters, that has never been the aim but we believe MNL fills a gap; not everyone uses Twitter or Facebook, not everyone wants to pay £8 for a webcast. Those that don't are welcome to look at several text updates a minute, it's not as exciting as watching the game live, or watching the webcast but it's not something we're going to stop because you've raised it as an issue you don't want to talk about 'at this point in time'.
This pretty much sums up what I have written above. We don't make any money from MNL so we're not exactly profiting ourselves from running it, it's there to fill a gap that people seem to like and enjoy (for the most part) so we will continue to run it now we have a few texters in IAW and at away games. We continue to link to IceTime and their webcasts for home games, and for the opposing teams we face that run a webcast.
This is the post I was thinking of at the start of this stupidly long post. There will be changes coming with the change of forum software, but nothing too major that will affect the number of forums, subforums or users. Hopefully the changes will make it easier for the forum to display on smartphones and freshen things up.
We'll have to agree to disagree on the avatar front then. Personally I couldn't care less what someones avatar is, i'm far more likely to look at their post and username than need their avatar to tell me what sort of 'character' they are on here.
Forum changes will be happening in the near future, including the implementation of the 'like' feature. We went ahead and purchased the forum software this morning after deciding that you (and possibly Finny - I can't remember content of his post right now but i'll quote at the bottom) were right, it's been 8 years since this version of the forum was kicked into being, we updated the theme a number of years back but it's looking tired.
I haven't changed the content yet, but I will endeavor to get what I can updated today or over the next couple of days.
I'm not sure I agree with this. Where needed myself and James have stepped in and usually found ourselves facing more flak on here and Twitter because people don't like the moderation. I agree that at times things have got slightly out of hand, but that's typically because neither of us have had the time to read every single post on a rapidly evolving topic and then make a judgement call on what to do. With regards to self-moderation, we feel that has worked well and will continue to work well with the forum.
If you want an 'introduce yourself' thread then feel free to start one. Personally I don't think they're needed and most forums I use don't have them. The ones that do have been started by a user who thinks that one is needed, rather than mods. Marking people out as part of the organisation or not has always been an option if they want it, otherwise we decided that keeping things as level as possible was the best way forward. The official accounts that have been created and used over the past 8 years have typically been abandoned fairly quickly. How do you feel that marking these users out is going to remove the 'cliquey in-jokes'? Because I can't see how it would help.
The ranking system will not be coming back, the post counts were reintroduced a number of years back when we implemented some changes behind the scenes. All the ranking system does it create a hierachy which the forum doesn't need. We may choose to remove the public display of post counts again when the new forum goes live.
I agree that it is subjective, but we clearly have different views. The donate button was put onto the site when we had to significantly increase the hosting for the site and myself and James could not afford it at the time. However it has not been mentioned for several years now and we are not 'begging' for donations. With regards to adverts, we agreed to try and avoid them at all costs from the very beginning, we never planned/expected/wanted to make money from the site. We have one advert on MNL because of the help that they have provided to us over a number of years to keep the site running.
The forum layout will not be changing significantly, we will not be introducing sub-forums for different news items. The old Blaze forum (FireAndIce) had this and half the forums were empty for several years or more, another were posted in every 6-12 months and then there were 2-3 forums that were regularly used. We believe the setup we have works well for the number of users we have. Just because YOU think the forum needs subforums doesn't mean it does. Why does the position of the search button need to move? Does it not display well on the browser you are using, because again I don't see the issue when it takes you to a new page?
With regards to MNL getting more traffic than the forum then I can't disagree more. That has always been the case for The Inferno, from the very first version to the current one. MNL attracts fans of other teams who are looking for game details and nothing more. With regards to taking revenue away from the club and webcasters, that has never been the aim but we believe MNL fills a gap; not everyone uses Twitter or Facebook, not everyone wants to pay £8 for a webcast. Those that don't are welcome to look at several text updates a minute, it's not as exciting as watching the game live, or watching the webcast but it's not something we're going to stop because you've raised it as an issue you don't want to talk about 'at this point in time'.
This pretty much sums up what I have written above. We don't make any money from MNL so we're not exactly profiting ourselves from running it, it's there to fill a gap that people seem to like and enjoy (for the most part) so we will continue to run it now we have a few texters in IAW and at away games. We continue to link to IceTime and their webcasts for home games, and for the opposing teams we face that run a webcast.
This is the post I was thinking of at the start of this stupidly long post. There will be changes coming with the change of forum software, but nothing too major that will affect the number of forums, subforums or users. Hopefully the changes will make it easier for the forum to display on smartphones and freshen things up.
Re: 2016/2017 Rumours & Offseason Random Shenanigans
On the topic of forum updates, is it possible to make it more friendly with wide screens? currently when i load it up i am left with 3 inch black bars on each edge of the screen.
Related issue is that MNL on my phone only uses the top half of the screen. Is it possible to make the forum and MNL fill the screen that is being used? Do i need to change any settings?
On the topic of forum updates, is it possible to make it more friendly with wide screens? currently when i load it up i am left with 3 inch black bars on each edge of the screen.
Related issue is that MNL on my phone only uses the top half of the screen. Is it possible to make the forum and MNL fill the screen that is being used? Do i need to change any settings?
Re: 2016/2017 Rumours & Offseason Random Shenanigans
The next version of the forum should be a lot more responsive than this one, so it should look a lot better on widescreen monitors. Obviously we're still messing around with it, but when it goes live we'll see how it works for everyone else!
Not quite sure what might be going on with MNL as that's the first i've heard of a problem like that. Any chance you could take a screenshot and upload somewhere?
The next version of the forum should be a lot more responsive than this one, so it should look a lot better on widescreen monitors. Obviously we're still messing around with it, but when it goes live we'll see how it works for everyone else!
Not quite sure what might be going on with MNL as that's the first i've heard of a problem like that. Any chance you could take a screenshot and upload somewhere?
