Forum or comments for news posts?

[Snootle]

I see no point in contributing throw-away comments on news articles and I find reading other people's opinions a much less enticing prospect when I can't properly respond to something that catches my interest.

Without the opportunity for in-depth conversation on topics the whole thing is cheapened. It's that much less personalised and that much closer to every other gaming site out there.

I don't think it necessarily needs to link back to the forums but it most certainly needs more functionality that what is currently provided.

I agree with this completely, I tried to respond to the thread about cisco's stealth updates and found that image tags don't work... which I'm now unable to remove because there's no editing function either. As others have said there are already plenty of gaming sites out there that offer this kind of commenting from the community.

Yeah this. The functionality does need to be extended, which Tim says will happen. Hopefully he agrees to include at least some of the forum formatting functionality we're used to (image tags etc).

[Tim Colwill]

found that image tags don't work... which I'm now unable to remove because there's no editing function either

The functionality does need to be extended, which Tim says will happen. Hopefully he agrees to include at least some of the forum formatting functionality we're used to (image tags etc).

Certainly increasing the functionality of the comments section is something we'll be doing, hopefully in short order. It's clear that we underestimated the community's reliance on features provided by the forum software, so we'll do our best to replicate that.

I have another option that has kind of been brought up. How about merging the comments database into the forums, so there is actually no difference?

Essentially the comment entry bit remains on the article, but every time somebody makes a comment it gets added to the end of the forum thread as well and vice versa. Would be easier if they were the same database obviously since a copy operation wouldn't be required. Shouldn't be too hard for a competent web dev to write a transform plugin if Wordpress doesn't like the PHPBB database formatting.

As for the changing the forum thing if the article changes, don't have a blurb just have a link. You shouldn't be changing links to articles after they're posted anyway.

It's not that simple unfortunately. There is no clean way to implement a bridge between phpBB and Wordpress that doesn't result in unnecessary duplication. The previous CMS that GON was using shows clearly how difficult it is to manage forum threads that link to front page articles.

Unfortunately, sometimes it is necessary to change articles after they're posted. Sometimes they have to be pulled, edited, or held back temporarily to meet embargo deadlines. This makes managing a separate forum thread a nightmare.

It seems obvious to me that an overwhelming majority of the existing community wants the forum option. Currently it looks like you are giving them the finger to try bring in new people.

While the results of this poll are certainly in favour of the old system, games.on.net receives between 120,000 and 150,000 unique visitors each month. Until I see 150,000 entries in this poll saying "I prefer the old system", I won't be too quick to can this new system.

where will competitions be held? forum or the new news system?

Competitions will be held on the front page under the new news system. Competitions, again, are a great way to get people to register for the community and become a part of it.

**** website **** management **** ideas, seriously who thinks this is ok. on a 24inc monitor i have less than half the useage from the website. its like you must fit all on a A4 size. are you people just dumb? its the year 2012 and you are still maing webpages to fit a 17 in monitor and fit all on a A4 size screen.

why?
can we have a LOGICAL and INTELLIGENT answer as to why you make this webpage so **** and so small and seems like such limited functionality to the original site. you did not give the site a face lift, you totaly made a new site that NO ONE Likes, since NO ONE likes alot of things are you going to FIX those things., GoN community has been around longer than iiNet douchebags so i think the community should come first.

and i think you should listen to the community and not what the iinet douchebags say

not only do the morons now use WHITE with black writing which may be fine when wrting on paper but i do NOT want to stare at ehe BRIGHT WHITE WEBPAGES akin to staring into a 100watt light. so if i get snowblindess from your website i can sue?

think about it, how stupid do u have to be not to realsie tha most have very big bright LCDs and DO NOT want o stare into the damn sun. are you people jsut complete idiots or what?

I've addressed the issue in other threads, but here's an explanation of why the site is the size it is: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=195720&p=2617272#p2617272

We have thought long and hard about the best way to sustain and grow the GON community throughout this entire process, and I hope you'll trust that we're doing this because we want to see it continue.

[Otto-matic]

While the results of this poll are certainly in favour of the old system, games.on.net receives between 120,000 and 150,000 unique visitors each month. Until I see 150,000 entries in this poll saying "I prefer the old system", I won't be too quick to can this new system.

You are seriously determined not to change anything aren't you? Thanks for the obvious "screw you" message to the people who care enough about the site to vote. I suspect that if by some miracle we can convince every one of those 150,000 users to vote you'll come up with some other excuse for why it can't be changed

Also automation, not manual entry for the forum. If you have to do it manually, you have done something wrong.

[skitzor]

Certainly increasing the functionality of the comments section is something we'll be doing, hopefully in short order. It's clear that we underestimated the community's reliance on features provided by the forum software, so we'll do our best to replicate that.

good. the current quote system on news is a bit silly.

<blockquote cite="comment-275">

<strong><a href="#comment-275">pinothyj</a></strong>:

what is that ****? being able to use the forum syntax and being able to edit, and being able to add images would go a long way in improving the functionality.

[Tim Colwill]

You are seriously determined not to change anything aren't you? Thanks for the obvious "screw you" message to the people who care enough about the site to vote. I suspect that if by some miracle we can convince every one of those 150,000 users to vote you'll come up with some other excuse for why it can't be changed

Also automation, not manual entry for the forum. If you have to do it manually, you have done something wrong.

You misrepresent my intention. I'm glad people care enough about the site to vote. I hope you'll understand that I care enough about the community to take the time to respond.

As editor my job is to deal with not just the community but with the 150,000 people who check out the site every month. I'm sorry if this makes you think I or others don't care. The reality is that we deal with more than just forum users and while we are very keen to ensure the growth of the community - see my other posts in this thread - we can't just act on something because 58 people have voted.

Again, automated creation of forum threads represents a logistical nightmare and is not a workable solution for the number of reasons I have outlined.

good. the current quote system on news is a bit silly.

<blockquote cite="comment-275">

<strong><a href="#comment-275">pinothyj</a></strong>:

what is that ****? being able to use the forum syntax and being able to edit, and being able to add images would go a long way in improving the functionality.

Adding forum syntax to the comment box is going to be the first thing I'll be looking at doing. Wordpress supports shortcodes so this shouldn't be a big deal.

[exe3]

Well at least I know why you did this but in all honesty it's not going to have the effect you want. You might get more people registering, you may even get a lot more random casual comments in news articles, you will NOT however grow the community. More registers does not mean the community grows, at best you're going to get a bunch of random comments on a news article while sacrificing the ability to have actual discussions for those who are a apart of the community.

I also agree with Mekon that there is no link to the forums particularly now that the comments are actually separate from the forums unless you're defining the news article comments as part of the community.

[Makena]

Well at least I know why you did this but in all honesty it's not going to have the effect you want. You might get more people registering, you may even get a lot more random casual comments in news articles, you will NOT however grow the community. More registers does not mean the community grows, at best you're going to get a bunch of random comments on a news article while sacrificing the ability to have actual discussions for those who are a apart of the community..

I think it's far too early to call it one way or the other, the new site hasn't even been up for 48 hours yet.

[exe3]

Yeah probably but that's my prediction. I for one have already stopped going to the main page (though admittedly clicked on a link or two in 'latest news' I guess it's working?) and have no interest in dealing with that comments section, I haven't even posted when I did have something to say as I just can't see a point in doing so anymore. Even if they deal with the lack of functionality just the format itself doesn't feel very friendly for discussion. Or maybe i'm crazy and will 'get used' to the changes, who knows.

[Otto-matic]

Again, automated creation of forum threads represents a logistical nightmare and is not a workable solution for the number of reasons I have outlined.

I'm clearly failing to see what is so difficult about a process you don't even need to think about for the most part.

4 main article functions: Create New, Edit, Delete, Hide
Create New: Sends a PHP request to create a new forum thread with a simple link to the article in the body (Pretty much identical to what you have at the top of the forums now). Attach a link to the bottom of the article pointing to the forum thread. Mark thread as hidden until article is authorised for publishing.
Edit existing article: Doesn't change anything unless you decide to change the link to the article. Can also be automated using thread renaming and post editing, but slightly harder than the other functions. Rename linked thread if title changed, fully replace first post with new article link, replace forum link at bottom of article if forum link was changed.
Delete article: Hide the linked forum thread.
Hide/unhide article: Hide the linked thread or unhide the linked thread.

There must be something I'm missing. Apart from editing links, the rest can be made to just happen relatively easily. Again if you have to touchup the created forum threads manually, you have done something wrong and should fix the automation.

PS Apart from the obviously ridiculous 150,000 votes required to change your mind (reminds me of Uwe Boll's 1 million votes to stop making movies), is there a certain number of votes that will? Or is this more of a management decision that you can't change for now?

[Cas Bitton]

I for one have already stopped going to the main page

Did you previously?

[exe3]

I for one have already stopped going to the main page

Did you previously?

I know what you're trying but you'll be disappointed to know that I practically spent more time on the front page than the forums before the website changed. I was always looking for new news to read and comment on when I couldn't bring myself to start a game for whatever reason or was just simply interested in knowing what was new.

[Marius]

Well my feature today still has 11 comments and we're having a discussion, so mwah.

[Cas Bitton]

I'll cya on the front page Marius!

[TheBard]

Old style, Interesting to see other opinions on news pieces/editorials.

Really it was the only thing that kept me coming back here now its gone.

[Shuth]

I tried to go with the comments in the D3 article but it's not the same. Now I just read the article and close the tab without even bothering to look at the comments.