OP9 Forum Suggestions [Archive] - Outpost Nine Forums

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 02:13 AM

Please post suggestions for things that you think should be done with the forums here. Not that they'll get done, but I think that there should be a thread for things that would be handy to have.

I would like to see the post count counter removed so that people aren't so fixated on post counts.

I would also like another forum selector on the bottom of the page, rather than a pull-down menu. If we could have another Outpost Nine Forums (http://outpostnine.com/forum/index.php?) > General Discussion (http://outpostnine.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=7) link at the bottom of the page, it'd rock. After I reply, I'm at the bottom of the page, and I hate going back up to the top to check my usercp, and to hop around forums. If they were also there at the bottom, it'd kick some butt and save some time.

Psychochink

08-26-2005, 02:24 AM

I would like to see the post count counter removed so that people aren't so fixated on post counts.

Never saw the point in post counts anyway.

Deadhead

08-26-2005, 02:27 AM

Neither have I.

Azrael

08-26-2005, 02:37 AM

I would like to see the post count counter removed so that people aren't so fixated on post counts.
I've actually been considering this myself.

Deadhead

08-26-2005, 02:38 AM

Really, All it does is let stupid 14 year olds (not mentioning names) rag you about post count.

Does the fact that you recently started visiting the board effect the validity of your opinions?

Tssss..

08-26-2005, 02:44 AM

I would also like another forum selector on the bottom of the page, rather than a pull-down menu.

i love that suggestion....i've been thinking that for a while but couldn't quite figure out what to ask for. :) brilliant!

akitaka

08-26-2005, 02:45 AM

If there were some way to keep the spam out or low, I'd be appeased. I'm speaking more of newer users who are always one-lining without any sort of thought, or showing that they even read previous poster's responses.
In the RWPW I'm not mindful of this, but I've seen a few too many in the General Discussion.

I believe this is mainly on part of the laid-back modding, as the current ones are rather busy people. I'm thinking, "delete the post because it obviously doesn't fit in", as done by some discussion mods in the Japan Today site, just not as extreme (as they sometimes overburden users with this policy). Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

Citizen

08-26-2005, 02:53 AM

I'd really love a button that makes my nipples explode.

Edit:

I'm also for having another forum selection thing at the bottom of pages.

Henjin

08-26-2005, 03:12 AM

If you hit 'home' it'll take you right to the top w/out scrolling.

setrict

08-26-2005, 03:35 AM

I also agree that the post count removal is a good idea, but wanted to add a way to appease the masses e-go by removing the custom title from general use, and making it mod-only. Then you (or mods) could give titles to really good posters, as 'prizes' for game threads or other contests... that type of thing.

I was going to say limit some of really obnoxious avatars (poor epileptics), but then I realized Ad-Block under Firefox does wonders for avatar control too. And on a related note, thank god you can disable signatures in the CP.

MajorProblem

08-26-2005, 03:45 AM

I agree, removing the post count is a good idea, it really has no purpose. We know the people who post a lot anyways, and it just encourages competetiveness (at least in me...I admit it!).

Also, I don't think that this is possible, but more emoticons would be helpful, they are so fun! Other than that, I think that signature size should be limited.

h2orowe

08-26-2005, 03:51 AM

Make me a mod, considering I'm on 24/7 pretty much!

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 04:27 AM

Ah yes, and along with being able to disable avatars, signatures, and inlined images, if there's a plugin to disable the bloody emoticons. I hate images in my forum browsing at work because a purple smilie really kills the illusion of me being hard at work when hardly working. You dig?

Jay

08-26-2005, 04:51 AM

I like post counts.

It's funny to bang on about how your post count is so high and this and that and the other, and then someone comes along and makes a big long statement about how they're pissed off and post counts are nothing to be proud of.

Can we keep 'em? Pleeeeeeease?

Jiant Flying Panda

08-26-2005, 04:55 AM

I don't know if you have the power to do this Az (considering that it's pretty new) but I think that we should now have a Googletalk tag option when creating/updating your profile.

I have more but I can't think right now.

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 05:21 AM

Postocounts get removed, and suddenly everyone and their mother slows way the Hell down and stops spamming. Miraculous how efficient that was. "What? I don't get more postcount for spamming anymore! I'm going to switch to IM!"

Azrael

08-26-2005, 05:23 AM

Post counts are dead.

Next item on the agenda - more smilies/emoticons. IIRC there should be an option somewhere not to display them. I'll look into that too.

Bottom of the page navigation...I'll look into it.

I also reeeeeeeeeeeally want to turn off PM tracking. Please? Does anyone actually use it/actually care?

Jay

08-26-2005, 05:25 AM

h2orowe

08-26-2005, 05:27 AM

Jell, I'll spam in RWPW, I don't care for post counts.... it's the pure rush of it all!

Myrsilus

08-26-2005, 05:27 AM

You obviously haven't been watching me.
Yeah I'm not really slowing down any. Makes no difference to me.

I agree with the whole more emoticons. We need laughing one/ones.

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 05:29 AM

Go ahead and turn it off please. And also, the option for disabling smilies disables them in your POSTS or in your editing space, not the viewing of them in others' posts...

Jay

08-26-2005, 05:30 AM

Post counts are dead.

Hooray. Now we can stop all the discussion about being proud of the amount of posts, or whatever the whole debate over it is.

Next item on the agenda - more smilies/emoticons. IIRC there should be an option somewhere not to display them in your own controls if you so choose.

Have a wander over to gtplanet.net/forum and look at their smilie list. It's totally massive. Talk to the webmaster, Jordan, about how to add them if you don't know.

Bottom of the page navigation...I'll look into it.

This would be cool. I agree with PLF, your post's at the bottom of the page, so it's annoying having to scroll up to find the forum link.

I also reeeeeeeeeeeally want to turn off PM tracking. Please? Does anyone actually use it/actually care?

I never saw the point of this one, either.

CuPoNoOdLe

08-26-2005, 05:31 AM

h2orowe

08-26-2005, 05:35 AM

Oh my god, I found a way to find out the post count! PM me for it! I am the coolest!

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 05:38 AM

It's not hard to get the post count, it's just not available next to every post. And if you want to perform post-count masturbation by comparing yours to other people's, that's just sad.

Jiant Flying Panda

08-26-2005, 05:39 AM

Oh my god, I found a way to find out the post count! PM me for it! I am the coolest!

Guess what?

So did I :).

Should I go in for another chance at outsmarting Az? :p.

Jay

08-26-2005, 05:40 AM

h2orowe

08-26-2005, 05:42 AM

No Don't tell Az!

Azrael

08-26-2005, 05:42 AM

If you are that hellbent on post counts, I can disable the search function and prune posts as well.

h2orowe

08-26-2005, 05:43 AM

I seriously don't care for post counts, I just like giving people problems when it comes to little minor things such as this!

Jay

08-26-2005, 05:44 AM

Should I go in for another chance at outsmarting Az? :p.

Obviously.

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 05:50 AM

Az, I really think that giving folks a negative post count wouldn't hurt if they keep whining 'bout it. Serious disincentive to whining, no real harm, and generally good juju from the anti-spam Gods. Plus I hear that negative post-count doling gets you all the women.

Jay

08-26-2005, 05:53 AM

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 06:00 AM

You don't keep lowering it. If someone whines, you reset their post count to zero, or make it -300 or something. Then they post, it goes back up towards zero, and all is well in the world.

Azrael

08-26-2005, 06:01 AM

If people really wanted to complain, I'd just restrict their posting priviledges to the RWPW for a week.

At any rate, post counts in all forums are now frozen. So even if you devise a way to see it, it's not going anywhere.

As for smilies, I think if you turn off the "show images" option in your user CP, then that will nix smilies as well. I think, I'm not sure.

I can add smilies, but not now. Not from work at least.

PM tracking? Going once....going twice.....

Jay

08-26-2005, 06:04 AM

Going three times... gone.

mediocre

08-26-2005, 06:14 AM

I think we need signature intervention. As much as love seeing people with a half-page signature, it is slightly off the mark that I am forced to turn off sigs because a few people feel the need to have a signature the length of War and Peace.

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 06:14 AM

Okay, now to toss a usercp.php? link into the bottom frame along with the forum navigation thing. And if there's any chance that we could get user groups perhaps? If someone misbehaves, drop 'em down into a warning group, and that'd be good.

Also, if you could find a way to remove the images (or make an option to not view the images) in the memberlist.

And finally, limiting signature screen size rather than just the amount of characters would be nice (that cannot be done automatically, but rather has to be done by mod intervention, but Jay man's sig is like 6 stories tall).

Jay

08-26-2005, 06:17 AM

Would you like me to change my signature at all, Pierrot?

Citizen

08-26-2005, 06:23 AM

And of course, the exploding nipples button gets ignored. Darn.

This might be something for the future, as I'm not sure that we have enough yet, but an entertainment forum might be a good idea, as a few music/tv/movies/etc. threads pop up every day. It'd be easier to manage the quality of such topics in their own forum, and make thme easier to find.

The people who use GD just for debate would also have an easier time.

h2orowe

08-26-2005, 06:30 AM

Pfft, no make a Debate forum.

Citizen

08-26-2005, 06:47 AM

Errr....GD pretty much is a debate forum. We don't need two.

Pierrot le Fou

08-26-2005, 07:11 AM

Or at least some sort of Japanese cartoon forum of some sort. I swear to God if I see more anime threads polluting the forum with their...geekiness... I will drop the hammer and dispense some indiscriminate justice.

Or something.

I have no problem with the casual viewer of Japanese cartoons, just as I have no problem with the casual viewer of porn. But obsessing over either (and especially the combination of the two) disturbs me intensely. There is more to life than anime, and you do not need 200 gigs of porn.

So yeah, anime/entertainment/music/movies/I-am-a-japan-o-phile forum would be nice.

Azrael

08-26-2005, 07:15 AM

I am going to disable vB code in the sigs. So if you are using it, your sig is gonna become a whole lot more messy when I do. This is your fair warning.

Citizen

08-26-2005, 07:23 AM

Some less important issues:

1. New/better smilies(yes, already mentioned, but I agree)
2. The ability to disable all smilies, not just yours(also already mentioned)
3. New skins. Maybe even one that's really plain to help people not get caught at work.
4. The ability for mods. to edit avatars/signatures. I've not run into anything offensive yet, but it'd be nice to be able to handle things like that right away.
5. I'd also like to know how Az feels about people advertising sites(other than porn, as that's already against the rules) outside of their signatures, and then have it added to the Q&A.

h2orowe

08-26-2005, 07:27 AM

There Seriously should be an anime thread, considering since this site has to do with Japan, and all the little Wapanese kids (me included) can roam there!

Arctic_Slicer

08-26-2005, 08:30 AM

I think signatures should be text only and maybe a limit of 512 characters or so. Long enough to be "a signature" but not so long it takes up a page or two on the thread. Oh yeah thank you for getting rid of the post counts. Now we shouldn't see nearly as many post padding spam threads popping up.

EDIT: One other thing I would like is the ability to stop animated avatars. The still image ones don't bother me but some of the ones that have annoying animations can be really annoying when reading. Or maybe just not allowing animated avatars for all but administrator/moderators. That is really the only problem I have with avatars. Nothing is wrong with size limits or anything and I am very happy with the 160x160 it is currently set at and think it should stay as such.

h2orowe

08-26-2005, 08:45 AM

No, cuz than Ichigo will be still, and lame!

decswxaqz

08-26-2005, 09:52 AM

3. New skins. Maybe even one that's really plain to help people not get caught at work.
There is the archive button at the bottom. It doesn't sort by newest posts, just by when it was created. That might be useful?

I think sigs should be reduced to URL and text. A url is fine in my opinion as long as it's not breaking the rules. People (inc me) like to see people's sites, this is one way to do it. It's also useful to provide links like mine to the RSS feed for OP9.

Animated avatars are ok for me, apart from that flashing one.... or the ones that take 2 minutes to download =/.

An anime forum would be a great idea.

PopCulturePooka

08-26-2005, 10:26 AM

Sig's should be size limited dimension wise, including text.

Avatar max size could be reduced.

Maybe 'I am a Japanese school teacher' could be refocuse to be a general Japan discussion area? Or not.

whispering

08-26-2005, 10:38 AM

Jay The Man's avatar (and all similar ones) should be removed, i feel like getting epileptic seizure when browsing the forums. I really dont get this "who has the most annoying avatar" competition. Also text sizes on sig's should be removed.

Kass

08-26-2005, 10:59 AM

I also reeeeeeeeeeeally want to turn off PM tracking. Please? Does anyone actually use it/actually care?

I do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When I send some one a PM asking them to quit doing something, I want proof they read it so they can't pretend they didn't. You don't have to request one. I don't for friendly PMs, just board related stuff.

Jay The Man's avatar (and all similar ones) should be removed, i feel like getting epileptic seizure when browsing the forums. I really dont get this "who has the most annoying avatar" competition. Also text sizes on sig's should be removed.

Oh dear God yes. His avatar gives me a migraine. Seriously, it is way uncool to do that flashing crap. It does cause health problems and is actually not allowed on US government webstes as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Praetorian

08-26-2005, 11:44 AM

Jeff, when I talked to you on msn didn't you say you wanted someone to upload new skins? If you want I can do it. I PM'ed you about it, but you never replied.

Roxie

08-26-2005, 01:08 PM

I am going to disable vB code in the sigs. So if you are using it, your sig is gonna become a whole lot more messy when I do. This is your fair warning.
noooo, don't do that! don't freeze search, I use it all the time.

PopCulturePooka

08-26-2005, 01:16 PM

Search does take heavy system resources.
Maybe do a time limit between searches?

stillbornsinger

08-26-2005, 01:24 PM

Jay's sig and Av need to go, they are both annoying and don't really serve a purpose.

little animations are fine, like h2orowe, decswxaqz, and Az's

I'd like to see a serious discussion forum where pointless posts are totally shunned and moderated.

PopCulturePooka

08-26-2005, 01:29 PM

Jay's sig and Av need to go, they are both annoying and don't really serve a purpose.

Jay and that clone of him guy...

Loc

08-26-2005, 03:30 PM

I've got quite a lot of smileys from a website I mod at, they're good so gimme a PM if you want em. :)

setrict

08-26-2005, 04:16 PM

I think avatars like Jay's should be removed because im getting seizures.. lol.

Like seriously, its bugging me.. i can't stand it.. is there anyway to disable it without him changing it? He obviously thinks its funny.

Just wanted to mention again. Firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com) + Adblock (http://adblock.mozdev.org) plugin lets you just right click on any image and block it. You don't have to ever see that avatar again. I think my BP dropped about 10pts when Jays avatar disappeared forever.

whispering

08-26-2005, 06:22 PM

Just wanted to mention again. Firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com) + Adblock (http://adblock.mozdev.org) plugin lets you just right click on any image and block it. You don't have to ever see that avatar again. I think my BP dropped about 10pts when Jays avatar disappeared forever.
...or Azrael snaps hes fingers and nobody has to see it ever again. No need to install anything.

Jay

08-27-2005, 09:52 AM

I am going to disable vB code in the sigs. So if you are using it, your sig is gonna become a whole lot more messy when I do. This is your fair warning.

...hang on mate.

You're not disabling the whole colour and size, et al, functions, are you? :(

stillbornsinger

08-27-2005, 11:09 AM

setrict- The problem with that is some of us are viewing the forums with our work computers.

Here we're not allowed to install our own software, so its either IE or netscape unfortunantly.

Jay, thanks!

Jay

08-27-2005, 11:18 AM

Jay, thanks!

For what, dude?

Illusion

08-27-2005, 02:35 PM

Create a Japan-related Forum and restrict the General Discussion Forum for non-Japan things only? Reason: Easier Navigation. The I am a Japanese School Teacher can still be kept though since it's the main reason the site exists.:) This will also involve moving the threads to appropriate forums, the Mods should be able to help in this task.

Well, not really necessary but I think that maybe you could combine the Editorials & Stories into one instead of two, the Editorial is dying. It will make it easier for the members when posting, no need to choose between the two.

Just my opinion.

harper

08-27-2005, 03:26 PM

For what, dude?

My guess would be for getting rid of the seizure inducing avatar...

Jay

08-27-2005, 03:33 PM

I didn't want to, but I can't ignore requests from hot e-chicks. :p

Bobbybirdtree

08-27-2005, 04:03 PM

Good changes i guess. I doubt spam will stop however.

D-pad

08-27-2005, 04:54 PM

Does anyone find my avvy annoying?

whispering

08-27-2005, 04:58 PM

Does anyone find my avvy annoying?
I look the other way, when seeing it. But it doesnt result in brain damage though. But your older one was better.

Jay

08-27-2005, 05:38 PM

Does anyone find my avvy annoying?

That depends, did you make it?

Random

08-27-2005, 08:04 PM

Maybe look into making forums WAP compatible?
I like browsing forums on my phone when bored, but it ends up expensieve if it's having to load a full page etc. WAP compatible version may also work with very basic theme for work-safe viewing --> both need to be simple etc.

I think that with WAP browsing, one problem I find is the post body box is so big that the phone does not reconise it, which means that you can't post :'(

So something like outpostnine.com/wapforum where all pics are disabled by default, and it's a basic theme and stuff. That'd be cool.

Jay

08-27-2005, 08:09 PM

Random

08-27-2005, 08:10 PM

It's the internet you get on mobile phones.

(Wireless Application Protocol. And you're the 2nd person in a day who didn't know what it was, or what it stood for.)