We are potentially going to be updating the website by doing some changes with where content is available.
Some of the proposed changes include moving most of the frequently updated content off of the homepage (in order to make it much less busy). We can make the frequently updated content available several ways but want to know some of your preferences for looking at this site.
Would a “dashboard” view still be of value to people who use the site frequently? By dashboard, I mean a single page that has lead in to most recent posting, open auctions, top 20 information, most recent news, maybe who’s online and/or the dynamic map. Perhaps we could even make it user configureable if there is enough desire.
Feel free to respond with comments and/or suggestions of what you would like on this page.
Or would it be better just to have things like auctions on their own pages and not worry about combining them with other content?
My thoughts are all for perfomance on the web, I don’t really care how easy it is to click on something since i generally have about 10-15 tabs open on mozilla. I am for whatever makes things run faster, i.e. Top 20 List is slower than molasses in January.
Undead Love,
Gman
Smoke
:twisted:
don’t know how much extra work it would be but I really like the idea of configurable-type homepages. I’m sure everyone looks primarily at different things first, and it’d be a shame to lose stuff that we might like to have at a glance (open auctions comes to mind) vs stuff that we might only look at occasionally (live who list and such), and this obviously isn’t going to be the same for everyone - I’m sure that there is probably someone who looks at the ‘who’s grouping’ lists, for example, but it certainly isn’t me :)
Also… RSS for forums/auctions? Gotta love getting outbid with 10 mins to go on something….
I have my resolution set insanely high so I generally don’t have a problem with the way things are now, and wintin doesn’t use enough bandwidth that I care about page size.
Personal settings and such would require me to log in, which could be bad at times.
That said, I agree with Guinex because new folks aren’t impressed with clutter and slow page loads.
It might be worthwhile to have several front ends, and we can just bookmark the one we use most. You can assume that calls to slothmud.org are newbies and put up advertising and newbie pages and the rest of us can bookmark slothmud.org/main.htm and get the content we want without the ‘Welcome to Slothmud!’ stuffs.
Or maybe that whole idea sucks :)
I’m just trying to figure out if “Yes - just give me what you got” and “Leave it the way it is” mean the same thing…
I think the current site has issues that would be nice to fix, but it’s mostly pretty good. It’s busy, but most of the information has a good reason for being there. I think the biggest issue is the overhead the site contains. Some of that can be reduced by cleaning up the contents on the home page, but I think a lot of it’s just the way the site’s built.
Something like the sloth pages aren’t exactly my specialty, but I do build web based, data driven business apps for a living and could give feedback if nothing else.
As for the poll, I’m all for letting each user decide what they want, but I’m not sure if the overhead and time required is worth it in this case.
… and could give feedback if nothing else.
[/quote:1lfc2o3k]
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to conduct interviews right now. This is the time and place for feedback if there is a desire to have any impact on the site for the next 6-12 months.
I’m just trying to figure out if “Yes - just give me what you got” and “Leave it the way it is” mean the same thing…[/quote:1lfc2o3k]
Just for you, I’ll make a special login that make the site look like this[/url:1lfc2o3k].
Actually I thought Weasel’s point was pretty valid, I couldn’t work out what the poll was really asking either. Dont the first and last questions mean the same thing, or does the first one mean “Just give me what you think is best?”
The first one is pretty bad. Dependiing how you interpret it, it can mean the same thing as either of the last two. I took the easy way out and didn’t click on any of them :P
I’ll put it another way then Clink - I think that what you and whoever else has worked on the current site design have achieved to date is great and I see nothing wrong with it. If you wish to alter it, I trust your judgement - I know from years of website design I like to change site layouts every now and then just because I enjoy doing it, not neccesarily because it’s required, so if you feel like changing things around then by all means go for it. Alternatively, you may wish to visit the same place you referred me to.
:wink:
or does the first one mean “Just give me what you think is best?”[/quote:2yrqshed]
Yes. That is a much more disambiguously non-incoherent way of restating what I non-loquaciously giberished in the poll choices.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to conduct interviews right now. This is the time and place for feedback if there is a desire to have any impact on the site for the next 6-12 months.
[/quote:2iqewxh1]
Ok, then here’s some feedback:
I’m sick of logging on and checking “remember me” every single day.
Instant messenger is near worthless.
Giving people easy access to all recent messages makes it that much harder to find which board an old message was posted to. I’d like a layout where you know which boards have new messages to make it easier to assosciate a board to a message for future reference.
I understand the reason for there being 2-3 items from the chopping block on the home page, but it lends to featuring those items that don’t have other items that close right before them. If I added something my concern would be that my items never got featured because of other items for sale. I’m not sure that it’s a solvable problem, or a problem at all, just an observation.
If I’m on the boards, and I want to reduce a window to the left, I have no way of going home, so I lose the setting (and for gods sake use script don’t make the page repost, if you even keep that ability).
As for massive new upgrades that I’d like to see, it would be to have all data related to classes, spells/skills, books, equipment, maps, etc all integrated with each other.
Please, don’t add music.
That’s good for right now. Those come to mind immediately. I’m not sure what sort of changes you’re considering making to know what to look at or look for.
I’m sick of logging on and checking “remember me” every single day.
[/quote:2qtmr0nd]
This should only happen once every 8 days at the current setting. If you are experiencing something different, I’d be interested to know.
Instant messenger is near worthless.
[/quote:2qtmr0nd]
It’s being axed like Marie Antoinette at a hunger strike.
Giving people easy access to all recent messages makes it that much harder to find which board an old message was posted to. I’d like a layout where you know which boards have new messages to make it easier to assosciate a board to a message for future reference.
[/quote:2qtmr0nd]
Noted. I hope to improve on this in the new dashboard view.
I understand the reason for there being 2-3 items from the chopping block on the home page, but it lends to featuring those items that don’t have other items that close right before them. If I added something my concern would be that my items never got featured because of other items for sale. I’m not sure that it’s a solvable problem, or a problem at all, just an observation.
[/quote:2qtmr0nd]
Ditto.
If I’m on the boards, and I want to reduce a window to the left, I have no way of going home, so I lose the setting (and for gods sake use script don’t make the page repost, if you even keep that ability).
[/quote:2qtmr0nd]
I don’t understand what you mean by this.
As for massive new upgrades that I’d like to see, it would be to have all data related to classes, spells/skills, books, equipment, maps, etc all integrated with each other.
[/quote:2qtmr0nd]
We are going to try to integrate the eqlist/maps better into the site. We’ll see how far I get with integrating it with the spellbooks. Good suggestion, just not sure how far it’ll get at this point.
Please, don’t add music.
[/quote:2qtmr0nd]
Nuts. I was planning on adding “It’s A Small World” to every page. Would some flashing text on every page be a suitable replacement?
I’m sick of logging on and checking “remember me” every single day.
[/quote:3141zv92]
This should only happen once every 8 days at the current setting. If you are experiencing something different, I’d be interested to know.
[/quote:3141zv92]
Yeah, it’s pretty much every single day, I can’t remember the last time it’s remembered me for more than 2.
If I’m on the boards, and I want to reduce a window to the left, I have no way of going home, so I lose the setting (and for gods sake use script don’t make the page repost, if you even keep that ability).
[/quote:3141zv92]
I don’t understand what you mean by this.
[/quote:3141zv92]
The stupid plus/minus signs on the left side panel. They don’t work. They also serve no useful purpose.
Please, don’t add music.
[/quote:3141zv92]
Nuts. I was planning on adding “It’s A Small World” to every page. Would some flashing text on every page be a suitable replacement?[/quote:3141zv92]
Could you also email my boss with a message titled “Dean is wasting more time?” The flashing text would provide sufficient annoyance to the user (though you could never reach the same quality of irritation that It’s a Small World is capable of providing). However, it doesn’t solve the area of effect capabilities.
One more thing. At the moment if you try to log in while in a thread it won’t allow you to, you have to log in using the username and password at the bottom left of the page. It would be nice if either both worked or the option to login as part of the message response options was eliminated.
Few more things I think would be nice:
I prefer the threading way was done on the old crier. It was easier to get subthreads of threads. I know we changed to this to stop the incessant flaming, but it would be nice to have a message board that allowed indented threaded views as well as requiring registered users.
Maybe it is hidden somewhere, but I would like to see the dressing room come back, preferably somehow built off the current EQ list.
As a matter of interest I do use all the live features except the top 20 lists. I can’t MUD at work so it helps to get a feel of how busy the MUD is. Having said that I would not want them on the home page.
Grue
Maybe it is hidden somewhere, but I would like to see the dressing room come back, preferably somehow built off the current EQ list.
[/quote:1dgwooe6]
The old dressing room had to have equipment added manually, from what I was told. In order for it to be practical to have a dressing room, the eqlist database would need to be rebuilt to be able to classify effects that the dressing room can read. Currently most of that’s just in freeform text.
“The stupid plus/minus signs on the left side panel. They don’t work. They also serve no useful purpose. "
Two sets of these, one above the window (eg the - next to SlothMUD III), and the one next to equipment, royal library etc. I assume you mean the one next to Connect to SlothMUD and SlothMUD III? Anyway both work for me and always have and I have just tested them again, so it is a browser issue of some kind.
Having said that the ones next Live Info, Royal Library etc I use a lot and are pretty quick, and I do find those useful.
The other other ones are are as slow as a dog and require a complete screen refresh, and those are a pain and just need to be disabled.
Music-wise I was think of Puff the Magic Dragon.
Grue
“The old dressing room had to have equipment added manually, from what I was told. In order for it to be practical to have a dressing room, the eqlist database would need to be rebuilt to be able to classify effects that the dressing room can read. Currently most of that’s just in freeform text.”
Each item has two effects and possibly a proc or MUDL. It could be rewritten with 2 fields and a comment field, and provided the 2 fields follow a structure it would be doable. I’ll even volunteer to take the XML file, dumpit in excel, split the data into the relevant fields, publish the standard, and get it back in a day if it would help. Then someone would ahve to work on the EQlist to use that, and we could rewrite the dressing room. The dressing room logic would have to look in each of the two fields for an effect.
Grue
“The stupid plus/minus signs on the left side panel. They don’t work. They also serve no useful purpose. "
The other other ones are are as slow as a dog and require a complete screen refresh, and those are a pain and just need to be disabled.
[/quote:3aejl7fb]
These are the ones I’m referring to. I did some more checking, and they sort of work right - though they’re still stupid. If you’re on a message, and you contract the menu with the SlothMUD III header, you have no way to go home. If you hit the back arrow, because you’re navigating through pages in history, that window expands again. If you refresh the page, though, it will work fine.
“The old dressing room had to have equipment added manually, from what I was told. In order for it to be practical to have a dressing room, the eqlist database would need to be rebuilt to be able to classify effects that the dressing room can read. Currently most of that’s just in freeform text.”
Each item has two effects and possibly a proc or MUDL. It could be rewritten with 2 fields and a comment field, and provided the 2 fields follow a structure it would be doable. I’ll even volunteer to take the XML file, dumpit in excel, split the data into the relevant fields, publish the standard, and get it back in a day if it would help. Then someone would ahve to work on the EQlist to use that, and we could rewrite the dressing room. The dressing room logic would have to look in each of the two fields for an effect.
Grue[/quote:1ga3c5z5]
It’s all data, sure it’s doable. It involves rewriting the eqlist input and output as well as converting the existing data, and creating a dressing room, but it’s doable. There’s all sorts of things that would be sweet to do with a dressing room, but it’s all got to be written.
…The stupid plus/minus signs on the left side panel. ….
[/quote:2104n793]
I removed these, but now you’ll be stuck seeing the scroll bar along the top since it’s a global setting.
Also I changed the settings so you shouldn’t be logged out at all. If you still have problems it’s your browser.
[quote:2htqyynr]Blackmore: The old dressing room had to have equipment added manually, from what I was told. In order for it to be practical to have a dressing room, the eqlist database would need to be rebuilt to be able to classify effects that the dressing room can read. Currently most of that’s just in freeform text.[/quote:2htqyynr]
I think that a list of standard effect strings would be worthwhile even if we don’t recode the eqlist itself to support the different effects. It’s currently a little difficult to find a list of options that you might be looking for. What I mean, it’s hard to find a list of sleeves with MR because the entry for the item freetext effect field may say [+2 MR] or [+2 Mana Regen] or any other variation that might mean mana regen. I’ve had similar problems with healbonus vs. heal bonus vs. +heals vs. whatever else.
For other general feedback, I don’t use the forum views at all. The 4 most recent crier posts on the right of the home page are my most used feature of the website. When those are full of items I don’t recognise, I switch to the “view posts since last visit” option of the forums.
charles
a drop down menu for continents in for the map room link would save me about 5 seconds every time i use it…
:!: :twisted: brand
a drop down menu for continents in for the map room link would save me about 5 seconds every time i use it…
:!: :twisted: brand[/quote:197cecxo]
Actually, I’ve wished for this option in the eqlist every time there’s been an eq group running. Just because I haven’t figured out how to get the eqlist for continents that’s in the maproom to sort.