New Portal!

[Tweak]

All,

The old portal has been replaced with a newer, maintained and faster system.

The home page of the forums should now load much faster.

A few changes will be noticable:

• Staff page has been changed
• Top posters have been removed - this was a large resource drain
• Shouts are gone

Please let us know through the support channels if anything needs to be fixed or altered.

[Timmy Fox]

I'm not sure I like the new look for the staff page, it looks a bit weird to me and I'd say it's too vertical. The alignment of some entries also break if I make the window smaller.

Otherwise I can definitely tell that things are running faster!

The new home page also looks slightly more off being so used to the previous look but I think that's just a matter of getting used to as opposed to it look necessarily worse.

[Tweak]

I'm not 100% on the staff page either, I'll probably try to make some changes over time.

[Timmy Fox]

Yeah it feels like too much wasted space horizontally, the previous grid-style design definitely was a lot more space-efficient.

[Albie]

Does this mean that this site will crash less?  If so, I am really happy to hear that.

[Tweak]

Yeah it feels like too much wasted space horizontally, the previous grid-style design definitely was a lot more space-efficient.

It should now be changed to match the old one, let me know if there's further changes you think would be of use.

[Firox]

loads so much faster, kind of sad the 'top posters' has been removed made sense why, I kind of liked looking once in a while at it, nothing major to worry about


thanks Tweak

[Ventus Fall]

I can't find the staff page under Members.
Has this been removed until it's fixed?

[Tweak]

You should be able to now.

[Ventus Fall]

Confirmed
The staff listing looks nice in my opinion.

And just to let you know: Indeed, when I go to the homepage it loads much faster now, just as fast as any other page ^^
I did, however, experience some slow-loading earlier this morning. Could be/have been my laptop, but now issues now. If it arises again, I'll be sure to let you know! Right now it's no problem ;D
(*edit*: Sometimes marking all topics as read take a bit longer than it used to.)


The new portal seems to overall be more coherent, fitting more nicely together, but it also feels that it's a bit 'too busy'. I'll mention a few points/suggestions, now that I could experience it and have thought it over:

(1) The shoutbox seems to fit in better with the homepage than the previous shoutbox, but I can't help but feel it should 'pop out' a bit more than it is now. A shoutbox is supposed to be noticeable, and since the homepage looks really...'busy' to me, maybe it's an idea to have a small minor change to make the shoutbox a bit more noticeable?
(The shoutbox is also not shown when logged out.)

(2) I also see the 'fb like' and 'GooglePlus like' buttons on the home page...  I don't know if others agree, but... could they be removed?

(3) Maybe a bit less board news or make the Board News a bit more compact?
If I scroll down all I see in one line downwards is Board News, but no other things to the side, so it seems like only 1/3 of the screen is really being used instead of nearly all of it (like at the top).

(4) The Thank You page is showing appreciation to the donators from 2012. Would this perhaps also be updated or maybe removed? (I would opt for the first option.)


One more thing with this update: is it just me or is there a lot more 'blank' space underneath a post when some (not all?) users would have a score in the Arcade?


(PS: Should I post these in Suggestions or is it ok I leave this here? I am a bit unsure.)

[Timmy Fox]

Staff page is definitely much better again!

One small issue however, it does not seem to be in any particular order? Might just be an OCD thing but I guess you'd kinda expect everyone to be listed in alphabetical order (in each category, that is)

[Ventus Fall]

To add to that the homepage doesn't seem to load links properly.
At the bottom of the Board News it shows the topic New Rules, and this is shown to me:
"You can find the new rules [url=http://www.t..."

Whereas looking at the topic itself it shows 'rules' being a hyperlink, so I think something went a bit wrong there ^^;

[Michen_S]

Well, the home page sure is a lot faster now. I'd say that is a major improvement. The shoutbox isn't as noticeable, but I rarely use that. Overall I'm happy with the new design, great job.

[Tweak]

I did, however, experience some slow-loading earlier this morning. Could be/have been my laptop, but now issues now. If it arises again, I'll be sure to let you know! Right now it's no problem ;D
(*edit*: Sometimes marking all topics as read take a bit longer than it used to.)

2AM Central is when the server backups run, this can cause some slow down.

(1) The shoutbox seems to fit in better with the homepage than the previous shoutbox, but I can't help but feel it should 'pop out' a bit more than it is now. A shoutbox is supposed to be noticeable, and since the homepage looks really...'busy' to me, maybe it's an idea to have a small minor change to make the shoutbox a bit more noticeable?
(The shoutbox is also not shown when logged out.)

I added a star icon next to the title. I'm limited on what I can do without altering the base code, which I try to avoid for easier updating. If needed, I'll do so though.

(2) I also see the 'fb like' and 'GooglePlus like' buttons on the home page...  I don't know if others agree, but... could they be removed?

These have been removed. It was a default option and I missed it.

(3) Maybe a bit less board news or make the Board News a bit more compact?
If I scroll down all I see in one line downwards is Board News, but no other things to the side, so it seems like only 1/3 of the screen is really being used instead of nearly all of it (like at the top).

I've reduced this to 250 characters maximum of 3 posts.

(4) The Thank You page is showing appreciation to the donators from 2012. Would this perhaps also be updated or maybe removed? (I would opt for the first option.)

Donations are generally appreciated on a monthly basis. That page is specific to a large fundraiser we ran back in 2012 to prevent the forums from being shut down due to financial difficulties. It's a way to show added appreciation to those who kept the place running.

One more thing with this update: is it just me or is there a lot more 'blank' space underneath a post when some (not all?) users would have a score in the Arcade?

I don't notice anything too strange about it, seems like it's filling up the space where needed.

(PS: Should I post these in Suggestions or is it ok I leave this here? I am a bit unsure.)

Keeping it in suggestions would be useful but not a problem if not.

One small issue however, it does not seem to be in any particular order? Might just be an OCD thing but I guess you'd kinda expect everyone to be listed in alphabetical order (in each category, that is)

This is now alphabetical.

To add to that the homepage doesn't seem to load links properly.
At the bottom of the Board News it shows the topic New Rules, and this is shown to me:
"You can find the new rules..."

Whereas looking at the topic itself it shows 'rules' being a hyperlink, so I think something went a bit wrong there ^^;

If this comes up again, I'll look at an actual fix. Meanwhile, reducing the news articles solved this.

[Ventus Fall]

OH MY GOODNESS! Thanks, Tweak!
I'm so sorry for so many points, but thanks a lot ;3; (May I hug you? )

(1) Thank you for the information on the backup run.
(2) The star definitely helps!
(3) Looking also a lot better in my opinion ^^
(4) Ah, right! I recall now.