Pending Forum Changes

Post by **Fiffergrund** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:49 am

While this isn't happening right away, I wanted to tip everyone off well in advance:

Steve and I are discussing a fairly major upgrade/redesign of the message boards.

Possibilities include:

- Upgrade to phpBB 3

- New color scheme to coordinate with products/web site

- Reorganization of forums

TLG is going forward with a renewed emphasis on their proprietary lines, and we agree the forums should compliment that. We're still working out the details.

In the meantime:

-If you have suggestions, feel free to post them.

-If you have special threads that you want to preserve in the forums related to discontinued product lines, I suggest personally backing them up. If they are removed, we will have an archive, but we aren't going to dig through it to find things on request.

Thank you!
_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

AGNKim · Post by **AGNKim** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:07 pm

Fiffergrund wrote:
-If you have suggestions, feel free to post them.

Boobies.
_________________
kim@trolllord.com

Click here: http://tiny.cc/4rvo5

Dranoel · Post by **Dranoel** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:28 pm

Get rid of the two month old notice in the header:

23rd August 2008 - There was an issue with our name caching server at around 08:00AM GMT. It has been fixed.

And, definitely need a "Boobies & Beer" forum

K2h2m3 · Post by **K2h2m3** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:30 pm

This was expected and in my current state I agree completely.

cheeplives · Post by **cheeplives** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:53 pm

Tigthen the focus of the boards. Condense all the disparate fora into tighter groupings. Or at least reorganize the order a bit (i.e. move the SIEGE Engine games from the very bottom of the page. If TLG wants to promote their SIEGE line, they might want to make it a bit more prominent). Subforums are your friends (phpbb 3 lets you do that).

Get off of freyabb, time to host your own forums (I talked with Steve about this recently)

Make sure you keep the option to keep the chat box at the BOTTOM of the page rather than the top.
_________________
discreteinfinity.com -- my little corner of the internet.

Author of StarSIEGE: Event Horizon -- Available now from Troll Lord Games!

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:01 pm

Does this mean I'll need to spam a new message board to have a l33t post count again?

cheeplives · Post by **cheeplives** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:14 pm

DangerDwarf wrote:
Does this mean I'll need to spam a new message board to have a l33t post count again?

If they stick with phpbb, they should be able to port over their user and message lists over... so you should keep all your info between versions (might need to update your avatar again).

I had no problems when I moved from phpbb 2 to phpbb 3 on my personal site.
_________________
discreteinfinity.com -- my little corner of the internet.

Author of StarSIEGE: Event Horizon -- Available now from Troll Lord Games!

Julian Grimm · Post by **Julian Grimm** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:14 pm

Haunted Highlands Forum....'nuff said.
_________________
The Lord of Ravens
My blog

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:17 pm

Yup, and consolidate some of the others. Like the conventions etc.

Weird. It's almost like we had this thread before.

Post by **Fiffergrund** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:25 pm

DangerDwarf wrote:
Yup, and consolidate some of the others. Like the conventions etc.

Weird. It's almost like we had this thread before.

Yeah, but there wasn't a dramatic change in TLG focus to drive the changes. I'm fairly motivated to say "out with the old, in with the new." That makes me willing to do the work to upgrade and convert.

I agree with the consolidation advice and have several thoughts about that already that I'll be pitching to Steve.
_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

Post by **Fiffergrund** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:30 pm

Cheeplives, maybe you can advise -

I'm thinking that the upgrade to phpBB 3 will have to occur before any forum reorg, is that correct? Or should I re-org this version 2 forum and *then* have them migrate users and posts?
_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

cheeplives · Post by **cheeplives** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:31 pm

The beauty of phpbb 3 is that it does support subfora, even if it's a bit tricky to set up (I only recently figured it out).

If you need help with phpbb 3 stuff, Fiff... just ask, I run my own board, so I can break stuff in testing and not have it effect as many people as you would.
_________________
discreteinfinity.com -- my little corner of the internet.

Author of StarSIEGE: Event Horizon -- Available now from Troll Lord Games!

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:31 pm

Thats cool.

I'm pretty stoked about all of this. A new look to the boards and a new focus for the company. Cool beans I say.

A non-gimp chat room would be sweet too.

Matthew · Post by **Matthew** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:44 pm

I like the current colour scheme, so would appreciate it if it could be left as one of those "user preference" options. I would hate to see some of these threads lost during a reorganisation, including some of the interesting Castle Zagyg threads; any way those can be archived or something?
_________________
It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after ones own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.

Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350)

cheeplives · Post by **cheeplives** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:02 pm

Fiffergrund wrote:
Cheeplives, maybe you can advise -

I'm thinking that the upgrade to phpBB 3 will have to occur before any forum reorg, is that correct? Or should I re-org this version 2 forum and *then* have them migrate users and posts?

Definitely upgrade first. phpbb 3 is SO MUCH different from 2 from an Admin perspective that you'd be better served to upgrade first.

You have a lot more options and power as an admin in 3 than you ever did in 2.
_________________
discreteinfinity.com -- my little corner of the internet.

Author of StarSIEGE: Event Horizon -- Available now from Troll Lord Games!

Post by **Fiffergrund** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:18 pm

cheeplives wrote:
Definitely upgrade first. phpbb 3 is SO MUCH different from 2 from an Admin perspective that you'd be better served to upgrade first.

You have a lot more options and power as an admin in 3 than you ever did in 2.

That makes a great deal of sense. I'll need to figure out when to request it ,how long it's going to take, and then notify the user base that everything after a certain date may not be moved.

And yes, if subfora will be used, I *must* upgrade first.

Noted. More when I have a chance to think. Maybe next week! We have a system going live early next week so I can't do much now.
_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:20 pm

Fiffergrund wrote:
That makes a great deal of sense. I'll need to figure out when to request it ,how long it's going to take, and then notify the user base that everything after a certain date may not be moved.

And yes, if subfora will be used, I *must* upgrade first.

Noted. More when I have a chance to think. Maybe next week! We have a system going live early next week so I can't do much now.

But can Fiff handle more power? It might go to his head. Course, there's lots of room up there...
_________________
"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:25 pm

Is it Real Ultimate Power?

If so, I'm pumped.

Facts:

1. Fiffs are mammals.

2. Fiffs fight ALL the time.

3. The purpose of the Fiff is to flip out and kill people.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 4:20 pm

Did someone say yiff? Oh, no they didn't. Nevermind.

-O
_________________
> Omote's Advanced C&C stuff <
Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

Post by **Fiffergrund** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:27 pm

DangerDwarf wrote:
Is it Real Ultimate Power?

If so, I'm pumped.

Facts:

1. Fiffs are mammals.

2. Fiffs fight ALL the time.

3. The purpose of the Fiff is to flip out and kill people.

You just described my online presence around 2003/2004!

_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

Luther · Post by **Luther** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:55 pm

Maybe I'm just a sentimental old fool, with rose coloured glasses who plays C&C only out of nostalgia [descriptions of me from RPG.net posters because I prefer C&C to 4e], but I seriously think we should preserve all the posts by the late, great Col_Pladoh.

Furthermore, if it's possible, we should create a specific closed thread on the new board 'The Wit and Wisdom of the Colonel' that collects all of his posts into one place for posterity.

I think it's the least we can do to honour Gary's time with TLG...
_________________
IMHO, AFAIK, YMMV.

gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:57 pm

Luther wrote:
Maybe I'm just a sentimental old fool, with rose coloured glasses who plays C&C only out of nostalgia [descriptions of me from RPG.net posters because I prefer C&C to 4e], but I seriously think we should preserve all the posts by the late, great Col_Pladoh.

Furthermore, if it's possible, we should create a specific closed thread on the new board 'The Wit and Wisdom of the Colonel' that collects all of his posts into one place for posterity.

I think it's the least we can do to honour Gary's time with TLG...

All Gary's posts are in the Keepers Advice forum

No one's talking about deleting threads, just re arranging the structure.
_________________
"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

Buttmonkey · Post by **Buttmonkey** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:42 pm

Not to mention that Dragonsfoot has a similar archive that I believe collects all of his posts from everywhere.

Pending Forum Changes

Pending Forum Changes

Re: Pending Forum Changes