Forum Upgrade Incoming

[Glen-i]

6 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Hang on, I don't ever recall using the tags, which is why I put the consoles in the title.

Oh my! Are you implying that mod shenanigans are at play here?

Ooooooh, conspiracies!

Edited Friday at 01:44 PM by Glen-i

[darksnowman]

4 hours ago, Josh64 said:

definitely also think we should still have a dedicated Nintendo board. 

Yeah. For what, though? Come on, get down off the fence, man. 

You'd be coming at this from an interesting perspective. Like, when you report something that's not Nintendo exclusive, that's obviously going to stir up some Nintendo discussion...? Would you like to see the N-E news roundups divided between a Nintendo-exclusive board and a multiplatform board? You've likely bigger fish to fry and couldn't care less.

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

This is something that we used to do years ago. We had the initial topic and then that was closed and an official topic was created for the game's launch, usually with details, reviews, trailers etc on the first post. I remember doing this for a few games. A lot of the images are now broken though.

There was always a bit of a buzz around the appearance of an official thread. So many options now, we barely ever converge on the same thing. Mario Wonder had a bit of convo. All these rereleases aren't doing it for us long-serving Nintendo gamers.

3 hours ago, Ike said:

But there isn't much activity happening after a game has released to warrant a second thread. Paper Mario thread is only 3 pages. No one has talked about Luigi's Mansion 2 HD since it came out.

Right, that's the thing. If anything like what's being suggested is followed through on, the only chatter left in the Nintendo board will be the online meet-ups. The rest will be X posts. At which point the forum is obsolete as if it hasn't been on the brink for a long time already.

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

4 comes before 5.

 

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Don't you bring maths into this!

You joke but I did once have to tell a colleague 4 is greater than 2.

In terms of only two tags displaying I may be able to change that but obviously don't want to have too many. But maybe we just tag "Switch" and "the great unwashed". 

[Shorty]

7 hours ago, Happenstance said:

Noticed by the way that the forum has been running nice and smoothly again for the last day

It does seem to have improved doesn't it! I haven't really done anything, except set up a monitoring service to automatically restart the service that kept going down. I'm hoping that maybe just as more and more of the site went into the new caching system, things have gotten more stable by themselves. 🤞

[Julius]

5 hours ago, Ashley said:

I am sure the "other gaming" forum is positioned where it is not by some kind of othering design, just history/things moving around etc.

Oh yeah, to be clear I wasn't trying to imply that it was done that way purposely (in saying that I don't think you were implying that I was implying that but...yeah ), I can see how over the years it probably just ended up being trimmed down to those few sections 

5 hours ago, Ashley said:

As to indie games I think people are just gun-shy about creating new threads and I've never figured out why. We've tried to be more heavy handed in the past about not relying on huge threads but people seem to naturally gravitate to having fewer threads to check. 

As the person who made The Star Wars Thread a few years back...yep, that last part definitely tracks  

I think maybe 5 or so years ago (more honestly, 2019 doesn't feel like it was 5 years ago) it could've been doable, but we're so overwhelmed with the sheer volume of indies these days that the odds two people are going to play and talk about their experience with one on here (especially considering the average indie is short in length than the average game) even if it's a GOTY contender seems incredibly slim. 

A proper sticky wicket. 

5 hours ago, Ashley said:

Related, I've considered before now if we need a pre-release and post-release thread for things because sometimes by the time the game/console is out we're dozens of pages deep. Obviously managing that both from an admin and logistic point is difficult as people end up with copies before the release date so when do you define that cut off. 

Yeah, that's an interesting one -- and thanks @Hero-of-Time for pointing out that it used to be that way for some games a good while back (before my time here), I was always curious what the deal with that was. I just figured there'd been a bust-up and a thread got locked 

It's a tricky one again for me, because like @Happenstance says, with some games they do end up with many pages of fun speculation and rumours long before anything official drops -- but how rare is it that that takes up more than a page or two these days before the game releases? The only recent example I can really think of having so much attention years out from release was Tears of the Kingdom. But then I totally get the excitement angle of having a thread pop to the top which is the fresh new release, I think the closest we get to that is when someone gets a game a day or two early or reviews drop, but even then those aren't the easiest things to use as conversation starters. 

I do like some of the ResetEra OTs I've seen, but it's tricky for a place like this because it could be a good bit of effort for all of a page or two of discussion. Which is fine! But I don't know, outside of something like the next Zelda or Mario (honestly, the Nintendo stuff and maybe anything HUGE that gets ported over next-gen) I just don't know how much conversation it would really help spark. So I totally see where @Ike is coming from. 

5 hours ago, Ashley said:

I'm happy to have flexible rules when it comes to moving threads (although obviously that makes it more complicated). If a title gets announced without consoles, or without Switch confirmed, but later gets it announced prior to launch shift it over to Nintendo. If it eventually comes to Nintendo, like the example you gave, just give it it's own thread. We could always make use of the pinned post feature to include a link to the original and that way it will show up at the top of each page. Some people may want to go and see the historic discussions, others may prefer a fresh start. And obviously it gets complicated that there are normally differences between the versions too. 

Specifically thinking of the Elden Ring example (it's been on my mind, okay?) a fresh thread would honestly probably be best with how long after it would come compared to the original release. 

Not to mention, I don't think anyone wants a filthy Link-shoved-into-Skyrim-costume-type situation stinking up the original thread 

Though the Living Jars could pass for Waddle Dees with a bit of tweaking...

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

But take Ys X? @Hero-of-Time inputted the tags in the order "Switch", "PS4", "PS5". Not trying to rag on the order, it's perfectly sound, but it does feel a bit weird that PS4 gets priority over the currentPlayStation.

All I'm going to say is

Are we sure H-o-T didn't just edit that knowing you'd pick it out and comment on it, so he could respond in kind? And why would H-o-T do that, you might ask? 

Why, for more points on the forums so that he can get the Plat for N-E and ascend, of course 

28 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

So many options now, we barely ever converge on the same thing. Mario Wonder had a bit of convo. All these re-releases aren't doing it for us long-serving Nintendo gamers.

I think the parts in bold are pretty key to this. 

There's a silly amount of games to play even if you just have a Switch -- which, as has been established, is pretty rare these dats. Then there's the fact that Nintendo are rounding off the generation with a bunch of remasters (their prerogative, obviously from a business POV it makes perfect sense), but just how many people want to talk about games they've already played again to the point that it might spark a conversation or discussion to begin with, let alone one which hasn't already been had, while playing through it? It's pretty rare. 

I do think if there's a time to consider a change, though, around now might be the time purely because we're probably less than 12 months out from Nintendo's next console, and I'll be shocked if that thing and it's launch window lineup (at the very least) can't spark some life into the place for a bit. Heck, even the PS5 and Series X|S announcements and launches brought some people back for a short spell. 

35 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Right, that's the thing. If anything like what's being suggested is followed through on, the only chatter left in the Nintendo board will be the online meet-ups. The rest will be X posts. At which point the forum is obsolete as if it hasn't been on the brink for a long time already.

Eh, I think it's tricky. Same could probably be said for the Other Consoles board at times, too. I also don't think multiplatform releases generally drive much conversation regardless of release platform unless it's something massive on here these days. 

I love to revive an old thread as I play through a game, be it in Other Consoles or Nintendo Gaming. If I really think about it, though, I reckon I'd probably get through far more games if I didn't do that, and in some cases I've burned myself out on games through perhaps talking about them while playing them a little too much. The From Software games come to mind: those games are already a bit on the tricky side, but then to talk about them at any real length when you're not playing them while still going through? Can be a little draining. It's why I've not really commented on Shadow of the Erdtree in the Elden Ring thread yet, despite finishing it the other day. 

But then, again, I love reviving an old thread. Whether it's just a quick comment from someone remembering their first time playing a game, or us two talking about the Link's Awakening remake and it's technical malarkey and just how important it was or wasn't to the conversation around the game, it sparks a bit of life and conversation into the place even if it's just a simple "Julius YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THIS ZELDA/MARIO/POKÉMON GAME YET YOU HEATHEN WHAT ART THOU DOING WITH THINE LIFE"  I could just save my thoughts until I'm done with the game and post them in my favourite thread - the Gaming Diary thread - but it feels like a waste to me personally at the relatively slow pace at which I play games these days to not try to incite and invite further discussion, even if I'm playing a game that's pretty old at this point. 

But I realise that approach might not be for everyone, which is okay too, like I said I can't do that for every game I play either. Outside of new releases and the hype cycle that comes with one, though, I don't think many threads for new games really sustain consistent conversation beyond that initial wave around launch. 

Personally, I don't know how much changes on the Nintendo Gaming board if multiplatform releases make the move. They generally seem to sink to the bottom 

12 minutes ago, Ashley said:

But maybe we just tag "Switch" and "the great unwashed". 

Y'all potentially left us out in the cold without showers in Other Consoles and now we're basically hermits, this much is correct 

[Eddage]

What's the criteria for a thread to have the summary box on the right side? I find the width of the content changing when going between threads that have it and those that don't really jarring.

Is it possible to remove it? Personally I don't think it adds any real value.

[Happenstance]

13 minutes ago, Eddage said:

What's the criteria for a thread to have the summary box on the right side? I find the width of the content changing when going between threads that have it and those that don't really jarring.

Is it possible to remove it? Personally I don't think it adds any real value.

I haven't seen any posts without it. Only ones where I don't see it straight away are ones that take me to the latest post and if I scroll back up its still there.

[Eddage]

Seems to be only the larger threads that have the side bar and also seems like a waste of screen space.

Edited Friday at 07:45 PM by Eddage

[Shorty]

I imagine a thread just has to be big enough to be worth summarising, and then it appears. I'd advise hiding it with a browser script if it's a bother, you could install the Stylus browser extension then create a script to add the following CSS

.ipsLayout_sidebar {
    display: none;
}

Since it's new and novel, and people tend to be a bit... reactionary when it comes to change (remember when everyone said avatars over 25x25px were obscenely large? 😉), I'd rather just leave it a while and see if people get used to it/get benefit out of it. It's handy for giving people ways to engage with the quality content from the middle of a thread that they might otherwise miss.

[Eddage]

Can it be moved to the top of the thread with the option to expand it, this would match how it appears in mobile view.

I like the idea of having the summary, it’s just the position that I think impacts negatively due to reducing the width of posts and adding inconsistency with threads that don’t have it. 

[Ashley]

I can have a look on my laptop (certain parts of the admin area just don't display on mobile) but I'm curious how big is your display? General design principle is that text shouldn't be full width anyway so in theory the sidebar should help that.

Although I do see you point regarding the consistency. 

[Eddage]

It isn’t ever full width. If you’re viewing a thread that doesn’t have the side bar then it just uses the space the sidebar takes up as extra width for the posts.

[Ashley]

1 minute ago, Eddage said:

It isn’t ever full width. If you’re viewing a thread that doesn’t have the side bar then it just uses the space the sidebar takes up as extra width for the posts.

I'm confused by this. 

So it's not full width but when there's no sidebar the space is used up with extra width for the posts? So when there's no sidebar it's not 100% but like 90%? Is that what you're saying?

[Eddage]

Just log in on your laptop 😜

let’s say that on 1920px wide screen the content of the forum uses a width of 1000px. So if you’re viewing a thread without the sidebar then the posts will be 1000px wide. But the sidebar takes up 300px, so the posts in a thread with the sidebar are 700px wide.

Then if you scroll down beyond the sidebar you’re then seeing posts that are 700px wide and the other 300px is just empty space.

[Shorty]

Sorry but we're just going to mostly use the forum as it's built for now. We're not going to be shuffling whole parts of a third-party system around which might expand or change in future updates, just giving ourselves headaches when things break. I'd prefer to reduce barriers to keeping the system up-to-date going forward so we don't end up back in the position we were in before with broken themes and out-of-date plugins holding us back.

Hopefully you'll get used to it, or check out a browser extension to customise it as you like.