Jump to content

VHL Magazine Power Poll - Goodbye my friend


Toast

VHL Magazine Power Poll  

28 members have voted

You do not have permission to vote in this poll, or see the poll results. Please sign in or register to vote in this poll.

Recommended Posts

Lots of threads on this today, so it makes for a good topic...

 

Today, it was announced that the VHL Chat system will be no more. Draper was kind enough to provide us with several reasons as to why league officials came to the decision, but the important question here is... do the public agree with it?

 

For this week's VHL Magazine Power Poll we want to see some numbers for who is on what side here. Do you agree with the league's decision to remove chat?

 

While the chat may have had things working against it, it was the primary way for members here to chat with one another. Either it be GMs discussing trades or off-season plans, players talking to each other about recent games, or even just two people catching up. The chat was a well supported part of the league it seemed, and with its departure it seems that a little part of the forum has died.

 

BUT this is all for the better it may be as this will lead to the forum being upgraded, as Draper said in the announcement. On top of this, we now have the opportunity to get more discussion going on the forum and make it look a bit more appealing to people who haven't seen the site before.

 

There are many more arguments that could be made for either side, but let's get to the point. What do you think about the change? Make sure to comment with your vote for a chance to get into the Mag as always!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Senior Admin

does democracy even matter? here we are voting on if we agree when the dictators already have voted to get rid of it.  

 

im just joking. I just want to have my quote in the mag. 

 

Nowhere do we claim this is a democracy ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm eager to see what these forum improvements are going to be. They are part of the reason chat had to go, so maybe it will have been worth it. I don't buy into the concept that having chat takes a lot away from the activity of the league, and when we've been without chat in the past, people wanted it back. I'm on the fence right now, but I support the league in whatever direction they go with this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm eager to see what these forum improvements are going to be. They are part of the reason chat had to go, so maybe it will have been worth it. I don't buy into the concept that having chat takes a lot away from the activity of the league, and when we've been without chat in the past, people wanted it back. I'm on the fence right now, but I support the league in whatever direction they go with this.

this right here. Honestly, i liked chat. but i will wait to see what the improvements are before i threaten suicide over chat. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ALSO what i feel, is that whoever makes the donations on the site should have a bigger stake in what goes on here. They put money into the site. They are the ones who pay for chat more than likely among other things and if they are ok with chat not being here than I will see where they go with it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll probably talk about this more in my podcast tomorrow, but probably the biggest loss with the chat being gone is losing the "catching up" aspect of it. Discussing games and the league is probably more appropriate on the forums anyway, and as I said in the Announcement thread, negotiating is probably better in PM. But losing the ability to quickly say hi to forum friends in indeed a bummer.

 

Overall, glad to have my 10 pixels at the bottom of the window back. :exercise:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

good, some people are still rational here.

I don't think expressing the opinion that you don't like chat being gone is a lack of rational being shown.

 

Saying you are going to quit the league because chat is gone isn't rational.  Most people (there are a few who don't fit this) are just disappointed with the change but are still going to stay here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The whole debate shouldn't be even there yet. People only see the downside of it because the actual reason why there's no chat is because we'll update our board (which haven't happened yet).

 

So why creating a debate when we only see one side of it ? I don't think this is rational. 

Of course the chat was awesome, and I'll miss it, but every big decision has his downside. No offense to eagles, but the chats around emoticons (:3) won't be a big lost here. Yes negotiating was easier since we could talk in private easily, but the biggest difference between us and other leagues isn't that we have a "chat", it is mainly because we decided to spend money on a non-BS board like IP Board. That's where the focus should be.

Edited by boubabi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Key Changes

The next major release for IPS Community Suite 4 is now in the final stages of development. We have added dozens of new features, enhancements to existing features, fixed the majority of 4.0 bugs, and made large performance gains. See our blog entry for full information.

Changes and New Features Include:

  • New menu structure and drag-and-drop menu manager
    • Ability to have two menu levels
    • Option to create both custom-link menu items and embed preconfigured menus
    • Preview before publishing
    • All menu items support group permissions
  • Discovery system that allows for both admin and user created Activity Streams
    • Admin-defined streams always visible to users. Users can edit and save admin streams to create their own, custom copy.
    • The main show-all stream automatically tells you when there is new activity
    • Users can create custom streams
    • User streams can be shared but viewer will only see content based on their permissions
    • Filter options include:
      • All content or specific apps. Some apps support further refinement into categories or content-type.
      • Unread content
      • Ownership
        • Content I posted in
        • Content I started
        • Content by specific members (user can create a list)
      • Content I follow
        • Areas I follow
        • Specific content I follow
        • Posted by members I follow
      •  Time Period
        • Any time
        • Since my last visit
        • Specified number of days
        • Specific date range
    • Activity Streams that reference features not available to Guests such as unread tracking and follow system will auto-hide
  • Option to serve images via a local proxy script (useful for SSL sites)
  • Option to globally disallow remote images in posts
  • Ability to preview email template wrapper
  • Version number in AdminCP header
  • Selective quoting to highlight a bit of a post and quote just that
  • Pages application enhancements
    • Now installs with better default content to help new users
    • Pages menu manager removed in favor of Suite-wide menu manager. Upgrade system will attempt to preserve menu items.
    • Blocks
      • New blocks
      • Members block, Blog comments, Blog List, Download comments, Download reviews, Poll block
      • commentFeed/itemFeed based widgets have date limit (today, 7 days, etc)
      • RecordFeed has a customisable title
      • Calendar widget has a calendar selector to restrict events to specific calendar(s)
      • Better selectors for open/pinned/featured selection
      • External Widgets: Ability to add blocks to other websites via generated iFrame code
    • Pages
      • Larger editor box when editing/creating pages
      • More tags in sidebar when editing/creating pages
      • Custom error page configurable
    • Fields
      • Simple relational field added
      • Ability to place fields above or below record content
      • Simple Name: Value display format added
    • Media Manager
      • Ability to upload media for use within Pages pages, CSS, templates and blocks
      • Compatible with designers mode
    • Templates
      • New templates for when viewing the record homepage as 'articles'
      • Ability to export and import templates to share with other IPS4 communities
  • Gallery application enhancements
    • New upload image process
    • Images and movies are submitted to the same upload field
    • Image reviews
  • Editor updates
    • Uses div-mode which is much faster and more reliable. Clicking into the editor is now pretty much instant.
    • Auto-linking and member mentions to use new APIs for better reliability
    • Quotes, code boxes, and spoilers can be dragged and moved and there is no more "red line"
    • When cmd/ctrl right-clicking: options to remove or break-out of quotes, edit links and edit image properties
    • Pasting asks if you want to convert to plain text
    • Totally new code plugin with syntax highlighting as you type
    • Option to make enter behave as a new line rather than with spacing
    • Editor is responsive, and ability to have small editor show in areas with less space
    • Member @mentions in posts can now be selected by tab key
  • Upgrade process
    • New upgrade process where new files are downloaded and installed automatically when possible.
    • Option to set email address for notifications when an upgrade is available
    • Banner shown to admins on the front end when an upgrade is available. It can be dismissed except for security updates.
  • Design and interface enhancements
    • Improve typography for titles
    • Better contrast for user-entered text (posts/comments/etc)
    • Brighten background colors
    • Pre-select text in when share popup is opened
    • Make positive/negative colors consistent across all uses
    • Better hover highlighting of 'blended' links
    • Better styling of mentions in posts (both the username, and the menu to select a user)
    • Better contrast for ipsAreaBackground
    • Flatten the default photo image
    • Checkbox/radio buttons now use custom styling, giving themers more control of their style
    • Improve popular/selected post styles
    • Change popular post icon to heart for consistency with likes
    • Make date a permalink for sharing
    • Improve sidebar contrast and block styles
    • Remove tab bar 'stretch' option and use CSS approach
    • Improve attachments dialog
    • Add more IDs to the user bar template for hook use
    • Add X to close mobile nav menu
    • Upgrade FontAwesome to 4.4
    • Select messages for multiple deleting in messenger
    • Make leaving a conversation clearer
    • Improve warning panel in user profiles
    • Move content status icons (pinned, hidden etc.) to start of row
    • Improve cover photo so it automatically puts it into position mode after uploading
    • Android title bar inherits theme header color
    • Added date uploaded to Downloads version dropdown
  • Browser notifications for completed actions (such as large file uploads)
  • Option to prompt users to re-consent to Terms and Conditions and/or Privacy Policy when you change them in AdminCP
  • Search
    • The main search box defaults to the app you are currently browsing unless you are on home page where it searches all
    • New default interface
    • Results now highlight and skip to search term in preview
  • Retina emoticons
  • Ability to uncheck all when adding Moderators in AdminCP
  • Instant Notifications
    • Receive notifications via your Browser Notifications of new Personal Messages and anything in the notifications menu
    • Intelligent auto-polling that only polls when needed to reduce server traffic
    • Browser local storage used, to allow for cross-communication if you have multiple tabs open to further reduce resource use

combined with other features that past updates have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

and people speaks like there was no alternative, which is false. Looks like no real research has been made to look if another chatbar was available for the new version. We haven't had a chance to experiment and test the new board, who looks way more friendly to use for an administrator. The possibilities are infinite. A community chat on top of the site would be just enough to get people going. 

Edited by boubabi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll pretend I understand half of that and say I look forward to seeing it action.

 

Until I do though (and feel there is a legitimately important upgrade here), I stand firm that chat is at the moment a loss that understandably many are not pleased about (including myself).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes because it'll return in the future in some form, and there are worthwhile benefits for the upgrade

 

 

@username tagging alone makes it a no brainer IMO. 

For you, tagging is worth it.  I see tagging as one of the worst possible features to any site I've been on with it.  I find it annoying to read and inconsistent to use (not sure what the site was running but it didn't work half the time).

 

and people speaks like there was no alternative, which is false. Looks like no real research has been made to look if another chatbar was available for the new version. We haven't had a chance to experiment and test the new board, who looks way more friendly to use as an administrator. The possibilities are infinite. A community chat on top of the site would be just enough to get people going. 

Adding any other sort of chat bar will cost more than we can probably afford given we are going to be "upgrading" here.  I'm under the assumption that won't be cheap.

 

Community chat really isn't what the point of chat was but yes I would imagine that would likely be installed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...