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OFFICIAL Further Updates To The Forum

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Hello everyone! So, we had an hour or so of down-time this morning so we could do some final work on DB to complete the forum update. This has now been done and we have some new features:

1) On the main page, forum nodes can now be collapsed and expanded and this will be remembered through cookies across sessions (but not devices). If you never look at the Community forums, for example, these can simply be collapsed using the widget on the right of the node. Now, I have enabled this thinking that it would be useful for those users that don't like the Latest Posts section at the top, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to get applied to that!!!! I'm looking into why this is and how it can be fixed, and hopefully I'll be able to apply it there too in the near future...​
2) FULL EMOJI SUPPORT! 👯‍♂️🥳👯‍♀️ We now have a full set of emoji available from the "Smilies" button in the Rich Text editor. It's a minor thing, but I felt it was important that we had it as emojis really are a part of everyday online conversation.​
3) The return of the dreaded DISLIKE BUTTON. Yes, we have added in a dislike button to the reactions for posts. I know this is something that a lot of people aren't happy about, but I do feel that it's important to be able to register dislike over someones content or behaviour, and it is offset by the fact that the Love reaction is worth 2 likes... :) That said, we WILL NOT TOLERATE ABUSE OF THIS REACTION, so use it sparingly and only when it is justified. I don't want to see revenge dislikes for negative comments on games, or dislike spamming on a user because they happen to hold an opinion you disagree with. I should mention that the points are awarded as: Like and Ha-Ha are +1, love is +2 and dislike is -1... the others are all 0, so "neutral" (each reaction should now have its value beside it, to clear up any ambiguity... Thanks @Alice for the CSS!)​
4) I promised trophies and/or badges for users after this update, but sadly it's not going to happen at the moment. The built-in Xenforo trophy system is pretty bad and I've been looking at addons that create a better and more fun system. However, for various reasons, none of the ones available are applicable for the GMC and so it'll have to wait for now. This doesn't mean it'll never happen, just that it's not going to happen right now.​

And that's about it! Hope you like the changes and aren't too sad about the trophy situation!
 
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Coded Games

Member
So now that we have proper dislike is Angry still counted as a dislike? What is the value of each reaction?

Also can we do another poll to determine what shows up in the Latest Posts section? I talked about this earlier but I think it would be cool to have both Work in Progress and Made with GameMaker topics show up there. Since I think highlighting what people have made with GameMaker is one of the more important aspects of the community. Profile posts can serve a similar purpose though
 
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GMWolf

aka fel666
4) I promised trophies and/or badges for users after this update, but sadly it's not going to happen at the moment. The built-in Xenforo trophy system is pretty bad and I've been looking at addons that create a better and more fun system. However, for various reasons, none of the ones available are applicable for the GMC and so it'll have to wait for now. This doesn't mean it'll never happen, just that it's not going to happen right now.
I'm curious as to how a trophy system would work?
What would they be? How would they be attributed? What would they do?
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
So now that we have proper dislike is Angry still counted as a dislike? What is the value of each reaction?
Like is +1, love is +2 and dislike is -1... the others are 0, so "neutral". I'll add this into the OP...

Also can we do another poll to determine what shows up in the Latest Posts section? I talked about this earlier but I think it would be cool to have both Work in Progress and Made with GameMaker topics show up there. Since I think highlighting what people have made with GameMaker is one of the more important aspects of the community. Profile posts can serve a similar purpose though
I think that WIP stuff is better left for status updates, so the latest post section shows The Community Chat, Programming, GMS2 Tech support and Made With GameMaker sections. Finished games get less feedback than WIPs too, so this to me make more sense and I don't think it really needs a poll (but I can make one if enough people want it).

What would they be? How would they be attributed? What would they do?
Well, the basic Xenforo 2 trophy system is simply based on posts or like, and as such I don't feel it's very reflective of actual contributions. You can be a ****-poster in off-topic and get millions of likes, but that doesn't mean you are a helpful member in programming. So I've been looking at systems that reward different badges or trophies depending on the sections of the forum that people post in. So you'd have a badge/trophy for helping a lot in programming, or a special one for getting a lot of like in the Tech Support forum, etc... This is more representative of how people use the forum and a fairer system. Unfortunately the addons I've been looking at all have some caveat attached to them and as such none are viable options at the moment, hence the choice not to se any just yet.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Reactions:
I'd suggest that "Haha" reaction counts as +1, too, since most of the time it's meant to be something like "good one!" Especially since we can't give multiple reactions to a single post, so we can't communicate "that's a funny one" and "I like this one" separately.

And while we're at that - we could add little indicators to the reaction buttons so that people wouldn't need to memorize which icon has which value:


Here are the CSS styles I used to add these little markers:
CSS:
.reactTooltip .reaction {
    position: relative;
}

.reactTooltip .reaction--1:after, .reactTooltip .reaction--2:after, .reactTooltip .reaction--3:after, .reactTooltip .reaction--7:after {
    position: absolute;
    bottom: 0px;
    right: 0px;
    font-size: 8px;
    background-color: #599735;
    color: white;
    border-radius: 50%;
    width: 12px;
    height: 12px;
    display: flex;
    justify-content: center;
    align-items: center;
}

.reactTooltip .reaction--1:after, .reactTooltip .reaction--3:after {
    content: "+1";
}

.reactTooltip .reaction--2:after {
    content: "+2";
}

.reactTooltip .reaction--7:after {
    content: "-1";
    background-color: #dd3535;
}

Latest posts:
I definitely would like Made With GameMaker to be added to the Latest Posts section. WIP is one thing, but actual finished games is definitely something that deserves exposure.

Trophies:
Just want to point out that any trophies system that doesn't allow giving GMC Jam trophies to specific users is fundamentally broken. ;)
 
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Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
I definitely would like Made With GameMaker to be added to the Latest Posts section. WIP is one thing, but actual finished games is definitely something that deserves exposure.
That is included already. :)

Just want to point out that any trophies system that doesn't allow giving GMC Jam trophies to specific users is fundamentally broken. ;)
Indeed! Which is just one of the many reasons why the basic Xenforo 2 system is useless and I have been looking at alternatives.

Here are the CSS styles I used to add these little markers:
Ah, nice idea! Will look at adding this as I think it clears up any ambiguity. And yes, I'll make the "ha-ha" reaction a +1 too. Makes sense. :bunny:
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
I just came up with a way to move the points awarded thingy a little further towards bottom-right, so that they don't overlap too much with smileys:
CSS:
.reactTooltip .reaction {
    position: relative;
    margin: 4px;
    padding: 2px;
}
(originally, the margin of 6px is set and there's no padding, so 6+0 balances out with 4+2)

Current version for comparison:


Modified version:


Finally, Haha reaction doesn't try to eat the number of points awarded.
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
or a special one for getting a lot of like in the Tech Support forum, etc... This is more representative of how people use the forum and a fairer system.
When you do figure it out, would perhaps a person who makes a very helpful guide that the community has had a laugh at and is widely known get a special badge? ;)
 
I disagree with awarding trophies by looking at the number of likes a member gets in each subforum, because I won't get any trophies. As we can all see from this, that plan has serious flaws, because zero trophies is way less than one hundred trophies.

Status update 💩💩💩💩posting gang, rise up! The establishment is trying to keep us down by using flowery words like "fairness" and "awarding members for actually contributing to the forum." Unacceptable!

:p

edit:


X'D
 
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TheouAegis

Member
Just pointing out one thing I noticed about the new forum: It's compatible with my phone's keyboard. Or at least for now, it seems to be. Previously if I was typing a post on my phone and tried to move the cursor to edit something, there was about an 80% chance the old text would be deleted when I tried to type. It was a real pain in the butt. After the forum update, I haven't had that issue at all to date.

Also more emojis! 🤩
 
Are the code colors for these forums going to change to GMS2's default code colors?

Or are the color changes happening because of the new stuff in 2.3? Or are these new colors just preference? lol
 
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Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Are the code colors for these forums going to change to GMS2's default code colors?

Or are the color changes happening because of the new stuff in 2.3? Or are these new colors just preference? lol
My plan is to fix the code colours to be something a little less... pastel? Just haven't had time yet!
 

Roa

Member
My plan is to fix the code colours to be something a little less... pastel? Just haven't had time yet!
You know, kinda hated the fact it was so bright, but now that I've actually adjusted to it. I love it, and actually prefer it. It feels more lively within the new style. The old forums were a bit dingy. If you do change it, at least consider making it a GMC classic scheme vs removing this one.
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
My plan is to fix the code colours to be something a little less... pastel? Just haven't had time yet!
I'd think it would be ideal to make it match the IDE color highlighting so its easier to read the code to be able to help users, syntax highlighting is cool with random colors but having the colors be practical would be nice
 
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