Oh I didn't mean to skip over that, I already mentioned that part earlier is all.
Homepage Layout
- Thread starter Trev
- Start date
Oh I didn't mean to skip over that, I already mentioned that part earlier is all.
I love love love the layout near the top of the page. Pokemon forums are long overdue to be front and centre and that horizontal layout of the older gens is great. My one suggestion here might be to bump up the trade/battle forums to be right under the main game forums instead of having random discussion in-between since that seems a bit strange but I never really touch the Pokemon forums anymore anyway so /shrug.
However, I hate it at the bottom. I've read why all those forums were crammed into Off-Topic, but I definitely disagree with it. I acknowledge I'm not here often and I do trust that the staff has thought this through, but my personal complaint with it is I will only ever get to see ONE post at a time from all of those subforums as the most recent on the homepage.
It's a great, compact layout if you're a regular and you're used to checking in on the forums you visit all the time. It's not so great if you generally don't venture out of your usual forums (or to the site at all, but obviously you aren't trying to cater to that kind of user, lol) and now there are even less reasons to do so. I didn't like how many forums were in the Off-Topic section lately because it seemed like a lot, but I still found myself visiting more often than expected because the "most recent" post from the forumhome would pique my interest. Now that they're all stuck together, I will only ever see one recent post from ALL of them instead of like 5-6 at once. If there were some way to add them back into the layout while still keeping them relatively condensed, I think it would be a lot better.
Edit: Admittedly I could also just learn to click "Off-Topic" and then everything I need is on its forum list, but it was nice to save a click and be able to see all those recent threads on the front page. Usually when I visit PC nowadays, I only stick around if something on the homepage catches my eye. :( But, again, I realize this update is not for irregulars like me, so...
Edit 2: ALSO ALSO thumbs up to staff for undergoing a big forum reorganization like this. It's never easy and there are ALWAYS lots of knee-jerk complaints so I just wanna let you guys know that even when it doesn't always feel like it, on big days of change like this, we really appreciate all you do. No big change happens without a lot of deliberation and from the opposite side, members have no idea how much work and thought goes into something like this. (And at the same time, you never know what things might have been overlooked until you go live and suddenly hundreds of people are critiquing your ideas instead of the small staff thinktank ahahaha.) So thanks for taking this feedback with grace and thanks for having the continued interest in PC to keep looking for ways to improve it, however major or minor!!!
However, I hate it at the bottom. I've read why all those forums were crammed into Off-Topic, but I definitely disagree with it. I acknowledge I'm not here often and I do trust that the staff has thought this through, but my personal complaint with it is I will only ever get to see ONE post at a time from all of those subforums as the most recent on the homepage.
It's a great, compact layout if you're a regular and you're used to checking in on the forums you visit all the time. It's not so great if you generally don't venture out of your usual forums (or to the site at all, but obviously you aren't trying to cater to that kind of user, lol) and now there are even less reasons to do so. I didn't like how many forums were in the Off-Topic section lately because it seemed like a lot, but I still found myself visiting more often than expected because the "most recent" post from the forumhome would pique my interest. Now that they're all stuck together, I will only ever see one recent post from ALL of them instead of like 5-6 at once. If there were some way to add them back into the layout while still keeping them relatively condensed, I think it would be a lot better.
Edit: Admittedly I could also just learn to click "Off-Topic" and then everything I need is on its forum list, but it was nice to save a click and be able to see all those recent threads on the front page. Usually when I visit PC nowadays, I only stick around if something on the homepage catches my eye. :( But, again, I realize this update is not for irregulars like me, so...
Edit 2: ALSO ALSO thumbs up to staff for undergoing a big forum reorganization like this. It's never easy and there are ALWAYS lots of knee-jerk complaints so I just wanna let you guys know that even when it doesn't always feel like it, on big days of change like this, we really appreciate all you do. No big change happens without a lot of deliberation and from the opposite side, members have no idea how much work and thought goes into something like this. (And at the same time, you never know what things might have been overlooked until you go live and suddenly hundreds of people are critiquing your ideas instead of the small staff thinktank ahahaha.) So thanks for taking this feedback with grace and thanks for having the continued interest in PC to keep looking for ways to improve it, however major or minor!!!
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i'd like to thank everyone for their swift and comprehensive replies. clearly there are still some issues to be resolved, but this discussion has helped me gain more insight in the thought process of the staff team, and why such a rigorous rearrangement was implemented. i realise now that PC was in fact rather cluttered, and it has been a positive change all in all. if you don't mind however, i would still like to discuss some of the issues...
i see what you mean: technically there is no reason for Community Square to be up top, because new users will get a notification anyway. still, to me that is not enough reason to put it at the bottom instead. specifically the rules and feedback forum i believe should be above all others, because it needs to be a place of reference and communication with staff members. as i understand, the reasoning for putting it downward is because it would be closer to boards that get more activity? but this seems sort of backwards to me. M&G i can understand, but rules and feedback forums should not strive to be active boards in the first place. they are places for members to voice their concerns and opinion, not casual discussion - and exactly for this reason i feel these forums should stay at the top, so members know where to find them if they need to.
i'm happy to read about the future implementation of icons and other visual changes to the horizontal tiles for the Pokémon gens. i genuinely think this is a good and elegant solution, and in hindsight i do believe it is good for the current gen to have its own parent forum. my OCD does still dictate that PGC be placed above the gens, but i understand and can agree with the current alignment as well.
lastly, the "Off-Topic" forum... i would agree most with a similar approach to the Pokemon gens, as has been mentioned in this thread multiple times already. if each got their own icon and tile in a similar manner to those, then perhaps with the Treehouse as a parent forum, it would be resolved much more neatly. do note the worry that they will need clear, succinct descriptions if their current 'cute' names want to be kept in place.
separate issue, do not mind, but i didn't want to delete it...
i see what you mean: technically there is no reason for Community Square to be up top, because new users will get a notification anyway. still, to me that is not enough reason to put it at the bottom instead. specifically the rules and feedback forum i believe should be above all others, because it needs to be a place of reference and communication with staff members. as i understand, the reasoning for putting it downward is because it would be closer to boards that get more activity? but this seems sort of backwards to me. M&G i can understand, but rules and feedback forums should not strive to be active boards in the first place. they are places for members to voice their concerns and opinion, not casual discussion - and exactly for this reason i feel these forums should stay at the top, so members know where to find them if they need to.
i'm happy to read about the future implementation of icons and other visual changes to the horizontal tiles for the Pokémon gens. i genuinely think this is a good and elegant solution, and in hindsight i do believe it is good for the current gen to have its own parent forum. my OCD does still dictate that PGC be placed above the gens, but i understand and can agree with the current alignment as well.
lastly, the "Off-Topic" forum... i would agree most with a similar approach to the Pokemon gens, as has been mentioned in this thread multiple times already. if each got their own icon and tile in a similar manner to those, then perhaps with the Treehouse as a parent forum, it would be resolved much more neatly. do note the worry that they will need clear, succinct descriptions if their current 'cute' names want to be kept in place.
separate issue, do not mind, but i didn't want to delete it...
Spoiler:
test_account
for all that is broken, I am the test.
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I have tested this and find it inconclusive at this time.
..will need to give it time to wear in and see what happens then.
..will need to give it time to wear in and see what happens then.
LegendChu
❤ CAREFREE, BUT CARING ❤
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Okay, I think I'll have a say here, not sure if anyone will listen, but here goes.
Whether this is a welcome change or not & how much it will affect overall activity on the Forum, I'm not very sure, but most of the Layout does look good.
The only section I have issues, actually lots of issues with, is the Community Square Section, so I'll take that up bae.
1. The main problem I have is having "Forum Games" under this section. Trivia, Underground & Playground cater to different audiences & the kind of games in those sections are mostly different from each other. There are people who are working on trying new things to make the gaming sections more interesting & making Trivia & Underground seem like side-notes won't help at all. There should be a completely separate Section for Forum Games & The Playground, Pokemon Trivia & The Underground, should fall under that section.
2. Feedback is important right, but Feedback & Support is located right at the bottom of the layout. Why?
3. Main Street should be one of the First sections that any newbie views. As a Community its important to make any new User who registers, feel welcome, whether they decide to stay for long or not. I've been quite active on that section recently & I've noticed that many newbies who register are hesitant & shy at first, which is quite obvious, coz its a new place for them, hey I was one of them once. Seeing an introductory Forum at the top, makes people more comfortable & more welcome. Putting it at them bottom will only turn people away, normal human psychology.
4. Also, maybe move Off-Topic away from there & give it a separate Section. "General Entertainment" can have Video Games, Entertainment & Media, Anime & Manga, Food Fashion & Fitness, even Science & Technology (would still look cluttered though). Round Table involves discussions that are much more serious, so keep it & maybe New Leaf, separate as well.
5. In a community that boasts of over 6 lakh Users, I fail to understand why there isn't an easy to access Members Directory. No really, I want to know, why not? Maybe add a "Member's Directory" as a Section Under Community Square.
As for the other sections:-
Pokémon: General Discussions, Fan-Made Games, Create & Discover - No complaints.
Pokémon: Main Series Games - Although I'm not playing Sun & Moon, it does make sense to have it as a Parent Forum, coz they are the newest games. Maybe in future have separate Sub-Forums for GBA, DS & 3DS games, but not necessarily, coz the horizontal layout does look fine.
Pokémon: Play Together - Maybe move "Challenges" into this section, but otherwise no complaints.
Imo, the Layout can be:-
Community Square
Meet & Greet
Feedback & Support
Member's Directory
Pokémon: Main Series Games
As it is (for now).
Pokémon: General Discussions
As it is.
Pokémon: Play Together
As it is.
Forum Games
Pokémon Trivia
The Playground
The Underground
Fan-Made Games
As it is.
Create & Discover
As it is.
Off-Topic Discussions
Round Table
New Leaf
General Entertainment (with all the Sub-Forums mentioned above, but it can be worked on more)
There u go.
Not necessary that everything be so, but this does like a good layout to me :).
Pika Pika :chu:
Whether this is a welcome change or not & how much it will affect overall activity on the Forum, I'm not very sure, but most of the Layout does look good.
The only section I have issues, actually lots of issues with, is the Community Square Section, so I'll take that up bae.
1. The main problem I have is having "Forum Games" under this section. Trivia, Underground & Playground cater to different audiences & the kind of games in those sections are mostly different from each other. There are people who are working on trying new things to make the gaming sections more interesting & making Trivia & Underground seem like side-notes won't help at all. There should be a completely separate Section for Forum Games & The Playground, Pokemon Trivia & The Underground, should fall under that section.
2. Feedback is important right, but Feedback & Support is located right at the bottom of the layout. Why?
3. Main Street should be one of the First sections that any newbie views. As a Community its important to make any new User who registers, feel welcome, whether they decide to stay for long or not. I've been quite active on that section recently & I've noticed that many newbies who register are hesitant & shy at first, which is quite obvious, coz its a new place for them, hey I was one of them once. Seeing an introductory Forum at the top, makes people more comfortable & more welcome. Putting it at them bottom will only turn people away, normal human psychology.
4. Also, maybe move Off-Topic away from there & give it a separate Section. "General Entertainment" can have Video Games, Entertainment & Media, Anime & Manga, Food Fashion & Fitness, even Science & Technology (would still look cluttered though). Round Table involves discussions that are much more serious, so keep it & maybe New Leaf, separate as well.
5. In a community that boasts of over 6 lakh Users, I fail to understand why there isn't an easy to access Members Directory. No really, I want to know, why not? Maybe add a "Member's Directory" as a Section Under Community Square.
As for the other sections:-
Pokémon: General Discussions, Fan-Made Games, Create & Discover - No complaints.
Pokémon: Main Series Games - Although I'm not playing Sun & Moon, it does make sense to have it as a Parent Forum, coz they are the newest games. Maybe in future have separate Sub-Forums for GBA, DS & 3DS games, but not necessarily, coz the horizontal layout does look fine.
Pokémon: Play Together - Maybe move "Challenges" into this section, but otherwise no complaints.
Imo, the Layout can be:-
Community Square
Meet & Greet
Feedback & Support
Member's Directory
Pokémon: Main Series Games
As it is (for now).
Pokémon: General Discussions
As it is.
Pokémon: Play Together
As it is.
Forum Games
Pokémon Trivia
The Playground
The Underground
Fan-Made Games
As it is.
Create & Discover
As it is.
Off-Topic Discussions
Round Table
New Leaf
General Entertainment (with all the Sub-Forums mentioned above, but it can be worked on more)
There u go.
Not necessary that everything be so, but this does like a good layout to me :).
Pika Pika :chu:
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I think we should adopt the "page 2" thing that HFBoards does.
Their main focus is hockey, of course. So the main page of the forums, the page you see when you first log on, is all hockey. Nothing else.
Then you click on a link in the header to go to page 2, which is another main page on the same forums, but it's all the other sections.
So you can then, on the page two here, put all the non-Pokemon sections back to like they were before this realignment. No sub-forums needed. Everything gets its fabulous due right there on the main view.
EDIT: I just did the math. There are 18 Pokemon sections. On a page 2, there would be only 13 (or less) non-Pokemon sections.
Their main focus is hockey, of course. So the main page of the forums, the page you see when you first log on, is all hockey. Nothing else.
Then you click on a link in the header to go to page 2, which is another main page on the same forums, but it's all the other sections.
So you can then, on the page two here, put all the non-Pokemon sections back to like they were before this realignment. No sub-forums needed. Everything gets its fabulous due right there on the main view.
EDIT: I just did the math. There are 18 Pokemon sections. On a page 2, there would be only 13 (or less) non-Pokemon sections.
Desert Stream~
Holy Kipper!
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I actually really like this layout idea, with one or two minor tweaks. A few people have been complaining about the messy fangame section, so you could fix that easily (Don't even need a new section, just don't have it go from Rom hacks to fangames to rom hacks to fangames)
I also liek the idea of the pokemon forums thing being moved over to offtopic, and if there was a way to see the latest post with that layout, that would be great.
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That hasn't been the case for most of today, it was fixed last night.
Palamon
Silence is Purple
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This is just... I don't know? Too big a change? Some forums were doing find as standalones (Ie Anime & Manga, Pokemon Anime, etc.) Why just throw them into a sub-forum, it really doesn't make sense to me.
Eh. We'll see how this goes.
Eh. We'll see how this goes.
Guest123_x1
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Although I'm starting to get used to the new layout of the home page, I am a bit miffed that the Feedback & Support and Meet & Greet are at the bottom alongside the off-topic forums (which are perfectly fine where they are, actually), where those two could have been at the top as they used to be, under their own category that could be called something like "Information Center", "Community Resources", or some other similar name.
tokyodrift
[i]got me looking for attention[/i]
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still would like to have prefixes go back to readable font-sizes on the index.
Wicked3DS
[b]Until the very end.[/b]
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Off-topic is a mess. I get compacting things, but now things just look cluttered down there.
The idea of the update is to make all sections easy to reach and cut down on clutter. People are already upset that their normal sections are under a subforum, how would putting them on a completely different page help at all? If you think no one's going to click on a subforum, they're sure as hell not going to click on a page 2 link squirreled away.
Dragon
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Re Meet & Greet: Today new users came in like normal, with the around the average numbers we get each day (around 5), soooo I don't think there's much to worry about in this regard?
In fact, some members claim that they got more motivated to post in Meet & Greet, so I do hope that number will increase in time. In fact, I think the newcomer section might do even better as time flows along. :]
Well, it's only been one day. Observation will continue, but I feel optimistic~
In fact, some members claim that they got more motivated to post in Meet & Greet, so I do hope that number will increase in time. In fact, I think the newcomer section might do even better as time flows along. :]
Well, it's only been one day. Observation will continue, but I feel optimistic~
Trev
[span="font-size: 8px; color: white;"][font="Monts
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Oh wow, I didn't realize this was going to get so much attention.
I support the fan-game section as it is. I especially support renaming the forums to differentiate between ROM hacking and game development, great job.
The rest of the forum actually looks good to me, but yeah, I'll be honest, off-topic forums are going to see significantly less activity because of this switch. They're so tucked away now that I barely notice them. Granted, I barely noticed them before because I rarely went past the creative section (usually only did it by accident/zoning out), but I can understand how bad it would feel for them.
Maybe in the new-user notice, you could promote the big sections and talk about what happens there instead of just pointing to introductory forums? That way users can get a little taste of each section and figure out where they could possibly fit in.
I support the fan-game section as it is. I especially support renaming the forums to differentiate between ROM hacking and game development, great job.
The rest of the forum actually looks good to me, but yeah, I'll be honest, off-topic forums are going to see significantly less activity because of this switch. They're so tucked away now that I barely notice them. Granted, I barely noticed them before because I rarely went past the creative section (usually only did it by accident/zoning out), but I can understand how bad it would feel for them.
Maybe in the new-user notice, you could promote the big sections and talk about what happens there instead of just pointing to introductory forums? That way users can get a little taste of each section and figure out where they could possibly fit in.
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It already looks incredible. Do something similar for the off-topic areas, and this whole realignment will go from great to superb.
SirBoglor
[b][I][FONT=Satisfy]It's over, isn't it?[/FONT][/I
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Thoughts On The New Layout
I have found myself liking this quite a bit, to be honest. The clutter feels greatly reduced, and I didn't even think the old layout was cluttered in the first place. Pretty nicely done, in my opinion.
But at the same time, I'm still pretty new to forums so I don't think that my input on this subject means too much. Take this comment as a forum newb enjoying the changes just because it looks nice to him. ^^
I have found myself liking this quite a bit, to be honest. The clutter feels greatly reduced, and I didn't even think the old layout was cluttered in the first place. Pretty nicely done, in my opinion.
But at the same time, I'm still pretty new to forums so I don't think that my input on this subject means too much. Take this comment as a forum newb enjoying the changes just because it looks nice to him. ^^
tokyodrift
[i]got me looking for attention[/i]
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i love the way the new posts for the earlier generation pokemon sections are designed! is it possible to increase the font size by a tad?
Drayton
Chilled Dude of The Elite Four
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Despite my previous post stating that layout is tidy, but I feel wanna criticized something.
-> The past generations as a sub-forum way too cramped and slightly wider than the rest of the sub-forum.
-> I would be better if the mall would leave it be than naming it to food, fashion and fitness hence mall is all about lifestyle than just the 3 Fs
and I feel community square should always be on top, since there's update and it strange if update were below it
-> The past generations as a sub-forum way too cramped and slightly wider than the rest of the sub-forum.
-> I would be better if the mall would leave it be than naming it to food, fashion and fitness hence mall is all about lifestyle than just the 3 Fs
and I feel community square should always be on top, since there's update and it strange if update were below it
Desert Stream~
Holy Kipper!
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I agree about the mall renaming, that could lead to a slight drop in activity if someone wants to post about their garden and decides to do it in offtopic. Lifestyle wouldn't be a bad name.
Edit: Right now I am 90% satisfied with the layout. Good job.
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