Captain Jordan

Mahz's Dev Journal

<Snipped quote by Captain Jordan> Not if we lock it and retitle it every time the next "version" of the Guild occurs.

@LegendBegins

I think you're overthinking it. It may seem like needless clutter, but a single topic for every newsworthy feature is probably going to be more effective than some complex system to ensure the same topic can be reused.

Mahz's Dev Journal

<Snipped quote by BBeast> Such as a sticky topic in news that is updated when announcements are made.

@LegendBegins

Probably more like a new post for every major feature. Otherwise people will ignore the thread as simply being further comments, and not new news.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Haven't caught up in this topic yet. But I did just push up a change: The guild now resizes images and hosts them itself. - Max avatar dimensions changed from 150x150 to 150x200 (150px wide, 200px tall) - You can choose an image larger than 150x150 and the guild will resize it to 150x200 for you (maintaining aspect ratio) - You must upload your old avatar manually to move it into the new system. In a week or so, I'll be removing all old avatars. If you go to your "Edit Avatar" form, you'll be able to access your old avatar so that you can conveniently upload it into the new system. - Performance boost on pages that display avatars since you use my fast host and I aggressively cache avatars. Lemme know if you have an issue. I also ask that you don't try to break the upload system by selecting non-images or massive images. It's kinda fragile.

@Mahz

Fantastic. Hopefully this will let you move on to bigger and better things.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Etherpad (new, fancier name should be invented)

@Captain Jordan

I said this in jest, but people took me seriously. That seems to be a rather big problem these days... Anyway, here's a collected list of the ideas so far: Collabinator 6000 Guildpad Collabs More to follow, I'm sure.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Here's the rating system summed up in an image: - Without the rating system, would two people have posted? No. - Did the rating system prevent two amazing posts from being written? No. - Did it lower the barrier to feedback and enhance @Captain Jordan's post? Yes. - Did @TheMaster99 sheepishly like it? Yes. - Is it kinda funny/fun? Yes. - Did some people think that revealing user post-count and join-date would lead to peen-measuring contests? Yes. - Did it lead to peen-measuring contests? No. - Does anyone care about post count? No. - Does anyone care about join date? No. - Will anyone care about aggregate ratings? No. Not until proven otherwise, and I'm always willing to be wrong. But I'm rarely wrong. What I actually do need help with: - I need people with opinions about the Etherpad integration to give me ideas for how to implement it. What would be the most useful for them? Does anyone have a vision? - I need people with opinions about the dice integration to also give me ideas. What's the ideal?

@Mahz

Want to like...defies principles. Gahhh! Anyway, I mentioned being able to create an etherpad as a supplement to a PM conversation. What about a cloned PM feature that would create Etherpads instead of PMs? It would be a much simpler creation interface (simply a textbox with space to add comma-delimited usernames and a button), but the options would have to be expanded to allow new users to be invited later. I see it working like invite-only Google Docs: I send an Etherpad (new, fancier name should be invented) invitation to @Mahz and @TheMaster99. Now Mahz, TheMaster99 and I can write and edit my Etherpad. Mahz suggests that @LegendBegins be invited. Only I can invite LegendBegins, and I decide to do that. Now Mahz, TheMaster99, LegendBegins and I can edit my Etherpad. LegendBegins thinks @Hank should join us. I don't invite Hank to the Etherpad. No one else can, either. Only Mahz, TheMaster99, LegendBegins and I can edit my Etherpad. When we are done with the Etherpad, I click the Close/Lock* button. Now no one can edit the Etherpad, including me. The contents of the Etherpad are still available to myself, Mahz, TheMaster99 and LegendBegins. *Now, I haven't dived too much into Etherpad. Is there a way to disable it from further edits? If so, I'd suggest a Close/Lock button that the creator can use when the Etherpad is finished. The other way to do this might be to extract the Etherpad text and chatlog, create a PM with the contents of both and the users on the Etherpad, and destroy the Etherpad instance. Just my $0.02 on the matter.

Mahz's Dev Journal

*sigh*

Mahz's Dev Journal

an optional rating system

As long as there is no button for me to hide those fields on my profile so that neither I myself nor any other user can see them, it is NOT optional. It is very much completely obligatory. It was thrown at us without warning, it takes up more than half of the general info section of our profiles, and there is no way for us to opt out of that. Not having any popularity systems (and that's what it inevitably is and will always be, as such is human nature) was one of the things I honestly used to like about RPG... I kind of doubt it would be completely purged (which I'd personally prefer) now that it has been regrettably already been implemented, but I'd minimally necessitate a way for users to hide the statistics panel on their profiles from anyone's viewing. If no one else makes it an option before, I might do so myself, should I find the time. Edit: Tags still eat spaces. Words still get randomly glued together due to that.

@Shienvien

And while your personal frustration is certainly good feedback, this has been discussed before. All these salient points were brought up before to Mahz, and he thought it was inconsequential. I don't agree with the decision, but it's made. Continuing to rant about it is just going to sour relations and that's not good for anyone. So chill. Seriously. Mahz knows some people hate the system. Mahz knows some people love the system. It's his choice whether to abide by the haters or lovers. We can hope that some steps are made to alleviate any pain of the those who disagree with the rating system if he chooses to maintain it. But this discussion has gone on for three pages now, and the arguments have repeated themselves one after another. After the first page, we lost pretty much all rational argument for it, and it's pretty much turned into a circlejerk of 'I hate this idea'. I'm pretty sure Mahz has heard you all loud and clear. So let's let him make up his mind and move on to other things. Like dancing bananas, or why people still can't figure out what the link/go to last post button is.

Mahz's Dev Journal

If you aren't judging people by their aggregate ratings, then why do you assume it's an issue everyone else is going to struggle with but you?

@Mahz

I don't. I just think it's entirely unnecessary. I'm sure I'll get used to it in due time, as I've gotten used to everything else, but my initial reaction is basically "y u do dis".

@Hank

Again, I agree with Hank here. I also feel what's the point of having a userbase if you're not going to garner public opinion on big changes, like a ratings system? Adding a front page poll for even a week would be able to provide a general idea on the feelings of the guild as a whole, instead of just a few individuals.

@Aeonumbra

Please, please, please don't ask @Mahz to design by committee. That's awful. I'm perfectly fine with Mahz building the Guild to the way he envisions it. If he deigns to accept a suggestion or feedback from me, great. If not, his code is open source on Github. It doesn't help the average person, but if enough people are discontent with the current featureset, someone in that group will likely have the code knowledge needed to change the features and submit a pull request to Mahz, who might incorporate that code.

Mahz's Dev Journal

I need a fourth rating option, and I need it to be silly.

@Awson

Maybe a option?

@TheMaster99

If you do, I will probably click that on every single post just to troll you guys. You have been warned.

@Captain Jordan

And your rating count will be reset to 0, making it all a waste of time in the end

@TheMaster99

It's not the rating counts on my profile that matter (see previous post for reasoning). But simply the joy that every post will have a dancing banana on it.

@Captain Jordan

I mean, those will all be reset. No gaming the system, or else nobody will be able to enjoy your dancing bananas

@TheMaster99

I don't have to. By successive quotes, I have succeeded in propagating the dancing bananas anyway! MUAHAHAHAHA! Anyways, this is soooooooooooooooooo off topic, so I'll stop now.

Mahz's Dev Journal

I need a fourth rating option, and I need it to be silly.

@Awson

Maybe a option?

@TheMaster99

If you do, I will probably click that on every single post just to troll you guys. You have been warned.

@Captain Jordan

And your rating count will be reset to 0, making it all a waste of time in the end

@TheMaster99

It's not the rating counts on my profile that matter (see previous post for reasoning). But simply the joy that every post will have a dancing banana on it.