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Why change? I believe without some changes that RPoL runs the risk of stagnating. Google, with their search engine dominance and ability to stipulate pretty much whatever they like, have clearly stated that unless you have a responsive layout as well as https (which is already available for testing via https://rpol.net or https://www.rpol.net) then your website will be ranked lower. I don't want to introduce anything that will alienate the existing player base, but I'm also realistic and know that if there's not a reasonably steady flow of new members then the site will slowly wither. So what's this war and peace post all about? This requires more text. Sorry! I've tried adapting the current layout to be responsive, but as soon as you give the directive to mobiles/tablets to do this, everything goes awry. I tried updating the current table-based layout to be responsive, but I was pushing a round peg into a square hole and it was getting messy, unreliable and really time consuming. Ergo a fully responsive, designed from the ground up, website has been in development for quite some time. It's using more modern (but not bleeding edge) web design and zero javascript (besides what we've already got). Requirements for a fully functional website are any major browser beyond ~2011, but it'll degrade for older browsers. Why the trepidation? A few reasons. Firstly I realise that some people have a lot of fondness for the existing layout, myself included. For desktop browsing it's not broken, though it certainly could benefit from some readability improvements. Secondly the beta site is very unfinished, but despite that I want to give you all the opportunity to see what's in development, and I think that will cause issue for some. Lastly it's been designed from scratch, so it doesn't carry over much that's... familiar. If it's unfinished what's to see? A few things. Though it's not many they're the important parts.
What's not finished?
OMG it's so different, and for that I hate it. Sure is, but give it time and it'll hopefully grow on you. Besides the adaptive layout there's some major changes that aren't responsive centric.
What do I expect from you?
Remember, if I wasn't interested in your thoughts and input as well as trying to find a compromise that will please as many people as possible then I'd just roll out the changes and not bother posting here. TLDR version; Step 1: check http://beta.rpol.net, step 2: don't panic. | |||
I think it's a good step in the right direction, and your reasoning for it is sound. And I appreciate the effort you're taking to not break the site for as many people as possible while moving to a more modern layout. | |||
Mobile is really the way we need to push the site in order to help the user base grow, as well as increasing involvement from current users. I've messaged you about a mobile app I would love to assist with, and I even wrote my own script (link to a message in this forum) in order to make the site work better on mobile for myself. My vision for RPOL would be as an app, or at the least a mobile site with push notifications for games. Most people don't/won't use the site on their phones because it's so unwieldy with the pinch/zoom. But imagine how much faster games would move forward if every time a post was made on a game your mobile buzzed (special thanks to the Unofficial RPOL notifier app), you clicked and were taken right to the post and had a very mobile friendly interface for posting. This is what I do now with my custom script and it allows me to make far more updates than when I was using the default RPOL site on mobile. Instead of people "waiting to post until I'm at a computer" I think the involvement would skyrocket. Heck, I don't care if the entire site is pink with care bears flying around, if it works on mobile I'm going to pee my pants with excitement! :D And as I've said in several other posts, I'm a web dev with over a decade of experience and I would be more than happy to help you in any way possible. This site saved my relationship with RP and I've made my positive feelings and apprecaite toward RPOL.net really clear :D (link to a message in another game) Thank you so much for your work jase. | |||
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The main menu now contains Your Games Watched Games Watched Forums Discussion Boards Deleted Games Support RPoL Clicking on these from the main page doesn't seem to do anything, as I assume they're not working yet. Though I could be wrong as I can't seem to find a reference to what a "Watched Game" is on the current iteration of the site (at least in the Help/FAQs), so I'm not sure if this is an old concept I'm personally unaware of, or a new one being introduced. Therefore I don't know if I have any "Watched Games" on the Beta site that should now, or eventually, somehow interact with that link in some way. So knowing what falls under these new(?) categories vs "Games You Own", "Games You Play In & Peruse", etc once that information is relevant would be useful. Overall, on the desktop at least, the layout seems functional and intuitive for current users. It retains enough elements that seem fairly itterative of the current layout to make it feel familiar while still being quite quite functional once you find your way around. The only real issue that I'd have as a user is that at 1080p resolution, the text under the "Thread Details" portion of individual threads is a little on the small side in comparison with the "Thread Title" text. In most general threads this isn't too much of an issue, but in the "Wanted - Players" it seems to be slightly worse. Perhaps because there's three lines vs two, or maybe the combination of small bold text alongside small regular text, but it seems less easy to quickly scan through the System and Genre info for individual posts vs the current design. |
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