The New Apolyton Civilization Site - Comments

[Nikolai]

I think the background image is a pain. I found how to get rid of the nuisance, though, thanks for allowing that.

I think that http://apolyton.net/forums/ going to the Spotlight instead of the forums is utterly evil. I don't care about the spotlight. If at least it gave me a 404 error like http://apolyton.net/forums does? But now, it puts me to a page that is not the one requested just because of a trailing slash. This means an error in url typing (yes, I still type urls) will lead you to the homepage instead of an error page, and that is very wrong.

The dark backround color scheme is also hard on the eyes. It's almost unbearable, honestly. I think I won't visit 'poly for anything except checking the option to have some dark text on light background is available until I find a bearable color scheme.

This. Horrible color scheme. My old apolyton.net/forums bookmark being page not found, while apolyton.net/forums/ at least WORKING, but then NOT SENDING ME TO THE FORUMS... I'm speechless.

[·Imhotep·]

And I'm speechless that you guys are so aggressive. It was announced this was a work in progress and far from being finished and perfect, but it seems ranting is so much fun that you do it nonetheless. How about giving the guys some time and meanwhile enjoy that the foundations for a better future have been set with the new server environment? But nah, that would be too easy...

[Nikolai]

I'm a polytubby by heart, but when the admins say this interface looks great as is, I feel the need to point out some rather obvious problems with that sentiment.

[·Imhotep·]

@Nikolai:

I for one like the new design, but everyone has his personal tastes. I just feel that everybody likes to take the least chance to gripe instead of being grateful for the things that already work. Criticism is fine and needed, but being polite when doing it never hurts . And yes, I understand that being in love sometimes confers ferocity . But still...

[LDiCesare]

This. Horrible color scheme. My old apolyton.net/forums bookmark being page not found, while apolyton.net/forums/ at least WORKING, but then NOT SENDING ME TO THE FORUMS... I'm speechless.

When you type an URL that is not valid and it doesn't direct you to an error page, there is a usability issue with the site. It is NOT WORKING (hey, I know caps lock too) like you say it does.

[Jeroen Schweitzer]

Half of missing attachments should be fixed again. Still working on the other half.

Pain in the ass three legacy systems to store attachments grmbl grmbl... *mutters while heading off to his basement again*

[MRT144]

The formatting on blackberry is only weak on the thread listings.

[LDiCesare]

I miss several points in the forum interface.
The Reply to Thread button just moves me to the Quick reply box. So what is it here for? Make Quick reply title white in orange background and remove the Reply To Thread since it just moves you there?

Also the button left of the 'Top' button at the lower right of the forum is hard to use. Transparent black with white text on black with white text background is hard to notice and navigate through. Hard to read. Maybe just fixing colours would soolve that. Also the name of the button is bad. In this forum, it's titled 'Site Feedbacks & News' so I expect when I click it to be directed to the 'Site Feedback & News' forum, leaving the current thread. But no, it opens a 'Site Area' window. So the button should hvae been named 'Site Area' or 'Navigation' or something, but not the current section, as it doesn't let me jump to that current section without an additional click, scroll, read, click.

Also, I'm still trying to figure out where the most useful 'go to first unread post' button is. This is the only one I normally click for visited threads. Now I have to click the 'go to last past' smallish button and scroll up/move to previous page. 'Poly hasn't ever had a very good 'go to first unread' option since it tended to remember your last visit to the forums rather than the thread, but it's a neat and needed feature.

Last, for the blogs/main sites/non forum content, is there an option to get rid of the blogs/twitters listings to the right? They take some space, which is not that much of a problem, but they are also filled with pictures that attract the eye and therefore distract from what I came here for (reading the big text on the left), and even worse some of those images are animated, like the icon left of the link to http://apolyton.net/entry.php/13-Dev...ou-re-Worth-It. on the http://apolyton.net/content.php/36-A...nds-On-Preview! page.
It is so distracting that I have not been able to start reading the actual content. Again, a dark background really hurts there, because it gives me the impression fo a big void where the only content (images) are peripheral and unrelated to what I want to see. So make it smaller, remove the images, at least the animated ones, give an option to get rid of it, or maybe hope changing the color scheme will help?

[SpencerH]

And I'm speechless that you guys are so aggressive. It was announced this was a work in progress and far from being finished and perfect, but it seems ranting is so much fun that you do it nonetheless. How about giving the guys some time and meanwhile enjoy that the foundations for a better future have been set with the new server environment? But nah, that would be too easy...

Welcome. This is not that other puerile "family friendly" site. This is poly, where spite and aggression are a way of life.

[Robert]

Welcome. This is not that other puerile "family friendly" site. This is poly, where spite and aggression are a way of life.

We are tolerant to that in the OTF, not in the rest of the Forum.

http://apolyton.net/forums does give an error msg. If you want to go to the forum you now go to: http://apolyton.net/forums.php

I'm a polytubby by heart, but when the admins say this interface looks great as is, I feel the need to point out some rather obvious problems with that sentiment.

It has been said many times already that new styles would be offered, and some have been offered already.
I am just asking some question to find out what exactly is the problem for some of you. Just complaining in big capitals doesn't really help. We need to know what exactly is the problem for you, to be able to know if we can provide you something that does suits your needs. Especially because all of you are of course unique. What works for one may not work for the other.

I hope you can see the difference between asking more questions about your complains and discarting you complains as worthless. What I am doing is the first.

[SlowThinker]

1)
It looks there is a quota 5MB for attachments now. I was over that quota, and so all my attachments were deleted?

If I try to upload a 152kB file then I get this info:

Civ2Admin.7z - Exceeds your quota by 26.68 MB
Sum of all attachments owned by SlowThinker: 31.53 MB
Current Attachment Total: 31.53 MB

but no attachment is visible. It looks I cannot reach those 31.53 MB of files, and my attachments downloaded from threads are 0 bytes long.

2)
I don't know whether there is any relation with the previous problem, but:
If I click Click here to view your attachments then I get a page with a list of smilies.

[Robert]

Many attachments are still on the old server.
I'll look into the limit-issue.

[Sirotnikov]

well done

it feels snappy

i don't particularly care for the black/orange + bg design.
but having the new site is incredibly important, so a large amount of
to everyone.

[SlowThinker]

Many attachments are still on the old server.

So they will be moved later?

[Sirotnikov]

another note - it's a problem common to dark-bg forums - it's hard to separate the sigs from actual post content.
i suggest two tweaks:
1) make the separation between two consecutive posts more evident (where it says Today 00:40                 #88)
by choosing a brighter color.

2) make the signatures a duller gray white. make the post title a bright non-white.

extra tip:
change the buttons from being white on orange to being black on orange.