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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

XenForo Board Ideas and Suggestions

Discussion in 'Communications' started by Circular Logic, Oct 31, 2013.

  1. Circular Logic

    Circular Logic Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2013
    I decided to make a one-stop thread by which users can offer suggestions or ideas to the mods about how to improve or add to the existing XenForo features of the JCF.

    Since the boards will eventually update to new XenForo software, I figured now would be a good time for folks to offer ideas that they may want implemented in the new boards (realistic ideas of course). For example, I recently came across the XenForo Community boards, and noticed that their "Members" page was more sophisticated and, IMO, interesting than the JCF's "Members" page. While the JCF allows you to search through a ton of users on the front page, the XenForo board has a number of tabs that include the Top 20 members with the most posts, most "likes", and most trophy "points", etc. I think they would be a fine addition to the "Members" page here. The "Search" function for members would still be available as well. Also, instead of listing the members with the most posts on the side, they instead list all members whose birthdays are today. That's a great idea for those who might want to tell a member one knows, "Happy birthday!"

    For those that care about the trophy and rank system here, this thread will provide a means to offer your own suggestions to the mods as to new trophies and/or ranks. After all, I'm sure some of you might be tired of the same old Jedi-related rankings for general members. Why not allow some measure of customization, for example, instead of a Jedi rank, you can get a corresponding Dark Side/Sith rank, for those that prefer the dark side (especially all you "Darths" out there)?

    Something like this:
    • Jedi Youngling = Dark Side Initiate
    • Jedi Padawan = Dark Side Adept
    • Jedi Knight = Inquisitor
    • Jedi Master = Sith Apprentice
    • Jedi Grand Master = Sith Lord
    • Force Ghost = Dark Lord of the Sith
    • Chosen One = Sith Emperor
    For those that don't relate to either Jedi or Sith, there could also be customized ranks based on smugglers and bounty hunters, perhaps relating to the Hutts and SW Underworld. Or something else entirely, feel free to chime in! Just some ideas I'm throwing out there. Also, I imagine that we can increase the number of ranks for those with say, 1,000 trophy points, so they advance to a level beyond "Chosen One." I'm thinking "Kwisatz Haderach", for instance.

    Trophy ideas presented here should be realistic, and not too inclusive. Feel free to add the names and associated points rewarded. I've brought up my own ideas to the Mod Squad in the past, but here we can actually get member feedback besides that of the mods. The ideas I've presented here are new, and any mods reading this, feel free to offer your own feedback, i.e. whether these are good ideas, how realistic they are to implement, etc. It could be a fun exercise for those who wish for greater customization of their profiles.
     
  2. Rox

    Rox Administrator Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 24, 2000
    We're the Jedi Council Forums so I don't think it's appropriate to change the title system. Plus too many titles is confusing. The smart play might be to change the points value assigned to each title if more trophy points are added in. Give a little more breathing room in between levels.

    This forum is 15 years old and we've been through all the X user has the most posts, quality or quantity, etc. But if people want to see those features added to the member page and Grimby and the gang can do it I don't think it would hurt anything.
     
  3. Circular Logic

    Circular Logic Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2013
    That's a fair assessment. Perhaps there is a bit of a cognitive dissonance to have Sith in the Jedi Council Forums, but then again, you guys award a trophy to those with "Darth" in their name. ;) But yeah, perhaps having regular users with multiple different titles would be too confusing. And it might trivialize the unique titles associated with most VIPs. Regarding the point values necessary for each rank, I think it's best not to change them, but perhaps consider instead reducing the number of points associated with certain common trophies, most likely the ones associated with a year spent on the forum. Presently those yearly trophies are worth 25 points each, and while I understand the incentive to reward veterans who've spent a lot of time on the site, I feel it might be a little disjointed that each of those trophies is individually worth more than the trophy for 10,000 posts (20). Shouldn't there be greater rewards for users that spend time to post extremely frequently, versus a user that's been registered a long time, but hasn't posted a whole lot? Just something I've noticed, you oldies please don't crucify me! [face_worried] If you really are concerned by some folks are ranking up to Force Ghost too early (I myself did so after less than 8 months on the boards), then perhaps you can decrease the points associated with certain trophies, like "The Other THX Award", which gives 25 points for what amounts to an additional 138 "likes"; the same point value for the trophy with 1,000 "likes". Maybe decrease that to 20 points in the interest of fairness (so it'll be worth the same as the "Opinion Leader" trophy)? Just a suggestion.

    In any case, I have a few suggestions for technical features that can be added to the boards, specifically to do with "search" functions here. While the normal "Search function here is very good, allowing you to find specific posts from specific users (provided you enter the right keywords), I've noticed that when searching an individual forum for all posts by a member in that specific forum, the search results only returns 200 posts, and does not allow you to search for more; here's an example using a search of all my posts in the SWTV forum. Notice how it ends at 200, but doesn't provide a "Find older messages" option which is available when searching through the posts of an individual user? I know that I've already written more than 700 posts in this particular forum, but it's mildly annoying that I can't find older posts beyond the last 200 for an individual user in that forum. If this can be rectified, I'd be greatly appreciative.

    On a related note, when searching for a specific member's posts, I feel you should be given an option to find posts starting from the user's first post (the current system only allows you to view the last post onward in reverse chronological order), or better yet, from a specific date if you wish to find posts around that time-frame; many users have hundreds, if not thousands of posts, and this would make searching for older posts without typing in keywords much easier.

    Those are two of my biggest concerns right now, but in the interest of full disclosure I'll admit I'm a big statistics geek. So what I'm going to add next is probably going to be considered trivial, as I imagine most members won't concern themselves with such options. I'd love if there were more personal account features that calculated your posts/day and likes/day based on your join date. And perhaps even the likes/post ratio. It would also be nice if there was a way to count the number of "likes" given to you by an individual user in the "Likes you've received" page, and be able to order them in that manner as an additional option to the standard reverse chronological order. Heck, it would even be pretty cool if it was possible to sort your individual posts based on the ones with the most "likes". Just throwing out ideas out there, that may or may not be easy to implement. The suggestions in this last paragraph are rather low on my priority list, but I'd like to throw that out there.
     
  4. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Y'know, Circular, I made a query about pretty much the same thing, and here's my question as well as Grimby's response:
    So yeah, basically you can't easily search by date, but being able to narrow down posts to individual threads or forums does make the process a lot easier.

    And yeah, I think the sorting stuff on the Xenforo forums is a pretty cool feature for egotists/organizational freaks like you and me. :p
     
  5. DarthTunick

    DarthTunick SFTC VII + Deadpool BOFF star 10 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 26, 2000
    There shouldn't be trophy points... the whole idea is utterly ridiculous, but I don't foresee them ever going away.

    :p
     
  6. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Not that they matter to game hosts and VIPs anyway, amirite Tunes? :cool:
     
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  7. DarthTunick

    DarthTunick SFTC VII + Deadpool BOFF star 10 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 26, 2000
    Yeah, well... [face_whistling]


    It's not that much of deal for me (say a 2-3.0 on the Richter Scale of Annoyance), it's just I don't fully understand the logic behind it... yeah, I get why it's done (a throwback to the old UBB titles, and this is a SW themed message board after all), but they add nothing the JC experience. Things were just fine for the 10+ years when we didn't have them.
     
  8. EHT

    EHT Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 13, 2007
    If the members page and personal account features capabilities related to likes, posts, etc. are doable with the new version of Xenforo (which apparently they may be based on that other Xenforo forum linked to by Circular Logic ), I think that would be great if it's possible to do here.

    For user titles, though, I tend to agree with Rox that too many titles and title systems could be confusing. To the points being made about trophy points, I wonder whether the average user (the average user who likes them, anyway) cares more about getting the titles associated with them, or just likes getting the points themselves (maybe a bit of a game in itself).
     
    Circular Logic likes this.
  9. Circular Logic

    Circular Logic Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2013
    Glad to hear that you think the update to the Members page is feasible. As for the trophy points ideas, I do think more users should chime in with their opinion of the current system (assuming they have one, I imagine many do not concern themselves with it), and I've found a quote from an older thread in Comms that supports the trophy/point system:
    So yes, you can treat obtaining trophies like a game in and of itself, and I think that would be pretty cool. We have a lot of trophies as is (more than any other forum I've found using XenForo), but I think that's what makes the JCF unique, and for me personally, trophies and the points associated with them are very neat; they reward longevity and how prolific your posting "contributions" are to the forums. Points are good as well since they designate user rankings... Though I can see why VIPs and other users with colors wouldn't care so much for trophies and rankings (like Tunick), but for the majority of us 'normal' users, I think it's nice to have a distinguishing rank system.
     
  10. EHT

    EHT Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 13, 2007
    Well, I actually said "if" a few times in there. I'll leave the questions on actual feasibility once we're on the new version of Xenforo to Grimby or LAJ_FETT . ;)
     
  11. Robimus

    Robimus Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 6, 2007
    Get rid of the base Jedi titles. Also the non Jedi titles(for non Mods) is applied in an inconsistent manner from one forum to the next, offered to some people, not offered to others. Not much point to them either based upon that.

    The idea that some people get a special "Game Host" (in addition to the custom titles) because they host a thread with a game in it while others that do the same thing do not shows just how many holes there are in the approach. Scrap it, treat all the users the same if 10 posts or 10,000, that would be my suggestion.
     
  12. Circular Logic

    Circular Logic Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2013
    Right. Gotta avoid promising anything just yet, that I could understand. Though I do hope that, at the very least, a makeover of the Members page is going to be feasible.

    I won't lie that I do enjoy the existence of titles/ranks for users on the JCF...they give a purpose to the trophy system, which is one of the things I enjoy about the boards. Though I can see why oldies and veterans that were here long before the move to the XenForo boards wouldn't care much for them, given that the IGN boards functioned fine without them. But to a relative newbie like me, who only joined long after the system was already in place (and who was admittedly pretty excited about the new trophies implemented in mid-June), I guess I am biased in favor of the trophy/rank system, if only because it gives one a false sense of reputation and importance. You know, meaningless Internet points and whatnot.

    I can definitely understand your argument about some people not getting the "Game Host" title for hosting games while others do. In fact, Todd the Jedi was conducting interviews in both the SWTV and Lit forums for months before they bequeathed him the "Interviewer" title; this was actually shortly after I myself brought it up in the LACWAC Interview thread. The inconsistencies might be attributed to how each individual forum runs things, but I'm sure bringing the issue to the moderators' attention can solve things, as it certainly did for Todd.
     
  13. Robimus

    Robimus Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 6, 2007
    Staff should know who is contributing to their individual communities without being told.
     
  14. Bib Fartuna

    Bib Fartuna Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 2012
    Make it compatible with Windows 8.1 / IE 11
     
  15. Circular Logic

    Circular Logic Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2013
    I imagine that we'll hopefully get a fix for the Firefox Edit issue with the Xenforo upgrade, but apparently I found from the Xenforo Bug Reports subforum in their Community forums may have found a solution here. Apparently it involves modifying the source code in some way.

    Apparently there exists a way to fix this issue:
    I hope this helps. Perhaps the more tech-savvy mods like LAJ_FETT have already looked into this, but regardless the Bug Reports in the XenForo boards may be worth looking into when improving upon the existing XenForo software the JCF is using.
     
  16. Bib Fartuna

    Bib Fartuna Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 2012
  17. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    I just implemented this fix and it appears to be working! (Mostly.)

    You will have to either clear your cache or do a hard refresh of your tab/window (ctrl+F5) to see the changes. Thanks for finding that!
     
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  18. Circular Logic

    Circular Logic Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2013
    Oh wow! This is awesome! I didn't expect there to be a fix for the Edit issue until the software upgrade. I'm just glad to be of assistance in pointing out that the fix does exist. :) Perhaps you guys can find more fixes to existing problems under the "Resolved Bug Reports" in the XenForo Community.

    Edit: On a bit of a tangent: Todd the Jedi, I recall you said LACWACkers should invade Comms if we get bored during the long offseason, and while that hasn't really happened, I'm over here! :D
     
  19. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    [face_laugh] Good memory, man.

    But anyway, it's a good thing you came here, as I'm on Mozilla and have had to deal with the annoying edit stuff. But no more! [face_peace]
     
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  20. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    Grimby - Looks like you might have broken Edit for users on older versions of Firefox. I'm on v22 and when I try to edit a post it comes up with all the HTML in the edit panel. It works OK if I open it in a new tab though. I did clear my cache to make sure that wasn't the problem.
     
  21. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    I'm seeing the HTML as well in v.25. I'm assuming that's how the fix is supposed to work.
     
  22. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    That might be pretty disconcerting for people who don't know HTML - I'm thinking of regular users here. I think I'd roll the change back. I don't consider it a user-friendly solution.
     
  23. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 7, 2010
    Allowing editing of raw HTML could also pose security issues.

    ( Grimby LAJ_FETT )
     
  24. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    Grimby - given that observation I'd change it back the way it was.
     
    jcgoble3 likes this.
  25. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    Good point. I've switched it back.