Ok, firstly, the groundrules:

- Keep it constructive. It's all too easy to whinge and moan; this is the place to make the new forum the best it can be, not to have a bitch.

- The staff are probably putting in a lot of work to make this change, so keep that in mind; at the end of the day, the change is happening and it's happening for a reason, so let's make the best of it.

In your post, simply state which changes you think would benefit the forum, and give any support/constructive criticism of other ideas/current events as you see fit. Hopefully, it will establish a firm line of communication between everyone, making the experience better for everyone.

Here are some changes which I think would be fantastic:

• The addition of a "Quick Reply" button
• The ability to upload personal avatars
• At the bottom of each post, there seems to be a lot of unnecessary space (see this one for proof). I think if this could be removed, then that would be good.
• Extending the "Edit" deadline, prefereably removing the deadline completely.

possumman said:

Echo all of these 100%.  Would also add the following:

• Private Message System - if it is here, I missed it
• Subscription to threads/forums - I like to follow specific topics that I don't regularly check
• Color Scheme - we need to establish a better color screen - gray on gray is very hard to read; or give us the option to select our own
• More options in editing - I'd like to be able to add color and change font size/type

But the site is a big improvement - especially on the product pages.  I understand it takes time to work out the bugs so we just all need to be patient.  Great job so far!!!!

•  EDIT or PREVIEW Required. If you are unwilling to, or incapable of, adding the Edit ability; at least give us a Preview option. Preferably both. As the system is currently, we may as well be using Yahoo Groups circa 1998 technology. I am all for saving money where you can but utilizing decade old technology?

• Leave OLD FORUM as "READ ONLY". There is a lot of information there and due to odd design of the text entry system at this new forum it is incompatible with Copy and Paste from the old website.

• REPAIR CODING. The current coding affects Firefox and Safari's ability to use Spell Check. Such as the word Firefox is shown to be spelled incorrectly as it is a name, not an actual word. However clicking the word does not give suggested spelling, instead it gives coded options Cut, Copy or Paste. Again, technology from 1980's, I think we can all cut, copy and paste on our own without the use of dinosaur technology.

• CORRECT the SPANISH Language Roll Over Quick Description Text. The Main Forum Page Description Roll Overs are all in Spanish.

You can preview your post already.  Its the "print preview" icon from most Microsoft applications.  Not that it does much that I can see but put your text in a white box.  But it's there!

I also agree that the ability to have personalised Avatars is very usefull, you get to recognise people by them, and multiple people with the same avatar is confusing.

Add a PM system would be excellent, for those that are playing in PBeM games here especially it would be very helpfull and leave less clutter on the forums themselves.

Cancel the Edit Deadline, if possible.

The possibility to add more information to your personal profile, this way you could truly build a community, perhaps even a blog option.

Suggestion: Bring over all old content, both from the web and the forums.

Where I work, we deploy both customer facing and internal web site updates. We run both the old and new sites in parallel, and have the users test the new site to ensure it meets or exceeds the standards of the old. Before the new site goes live, we ensure all content from the old site is available. Note the word "before" - failure to follow that ensures you'll be asking your next customer if they want fries to go along with their hamburger.

The Quote System

I'm not sure if anything can be done about this since it seems to be a core element of the software itself, but as it stands it is horrendously difficult to use when replying to a thread that involves multiple discussants.  As it stands, either you're going to have people serial posting as a means of replying to all the little tid-bits in the previous replies, or people just aren't going to use it.

Motion Sickness when Typing

It might only impact (fast?) touch typists, but when you're typing in a reply the screen dances all over the place.  It is actually quite nauseating and I don't actually get motion sickness.  Having a fixed box ala the majority of free BBS would certainly help usability.  IMO, of course, but then again I type at 130 wpm (and have the typographics to match! )

Keyboard Interface

At the moment, almost every action requires that you use the mouse to put in smilies, adding formatting, etc.  Even when you do have the ability to use the keyboard (Ctrl-I for italicised text, etc.) it requires that you highlight the text and then add text.  I'm not sure whether this is a problem with the FCKeditor in general, or whether it is peculiar to this forum.

Once again, it might just be my own little hurdle that I have to get over, but I would rather have UBBcode or the equivalent.  Typing in an [i]extra[/i] few characters is less invasive (to me!) than having to stop, highlight the text, and then either press Ctrl-I or move the mouse and point and click "I" just to get some italicised text.

I strangely find it easier to strip away the FCKeditor and just code HTML. For those that didn't know that you could do that, just press Control, keep it pressed, and then hit the Tab button once. Of course, if you do that then you're going to have to type in HTML code, but that might even give you a few more options. Well, unless that particular code has been stripped away by the software, which is eminently reasonable.  (It certainly helped in allowing me access to the endash in the following comment, as well as completely removing the motion sickness glitch, since the page isn't always bouncing around.)

The Wandering "Edit" Button

This keeps on disappearing, which is frustrating when coupled with people getting used to the new formatting options, and the new – forgive me – terrible quotation system.

Community Builder

I can understand the desire to push the product range, but community does have a more expansive meaning on the current web.  Users are just expecting more from their web time, whether it is personalised avatars, the ability to put in more information to their profile, or the ability to select a game (for example) that lies outside of the FFG range.  Not a great push mechanism, for sure, but more client oriented than company oriented.  Makes people feel a bit more special, rather than as a potential punter.  (Admittedly, you are providing them a place to chat, but a "community" is that much more than a BBS, despite phpBB's tagline.)

Leave Old Forum

I definitely agree with this one.  Just throw it as old.fantasyflightgames.com/gobbledegook_url and remove the ability for people to post to it.  It might take up server space, but surely not that much.  Surely?  (I might be surprised, but given the amount of posts on the old boards, I would be very surprised if this was a particular load on the server.

Just some comments that might help to improve the overall site. In general, though, I think that it is a much improved interface and kudos to the designers.

Kage

When "Adding a Friend", let us write a note to introduce ourself. I may know the person, but not the username.

Also, allow us to add a friend by clicking on the "friends" icon under the avatar in a post.

Thanks!

 In hopes of having semi-manageable quotes for replies to multiple discussants, I ended up (as above) skipping into the HTML code rather than using the FCKeditor.  Much to my surprise it actually allowed me to do the most basic of styling, but then for some reason stripped out the text that was being quoted, leaving the blockquote there, just with no text.  Very strange.

Guess I'm going to have to quote using a combination of bold for the name, italicised text for the relevant quote, or even do what Wu Ching and others have suggested and use Word.  It's going to bloat the post with inline styles but - hey! - I'm a selfish user.  Well, now I am. I wonder if some of the text will end up getting stripped out of those replies, though?

Just some more thoughts.

Kage

Also, I'd like links back to the main website. When clicking the "logo" of a game, I would like to go to the game's page on the main website, NOT the forum. (When I click the "name" of the game, it goes to the forum entry of the game.)

 I second the comments about being able to [b]bold[/b] words, that'd be really helpful.

It'd be nice to have a navigation menu in the bottom-right like in the old forum to jump between forums easily.

I'd like to second the requests for a private messaging system, a quick reply button and the ability to preview our posts before "publishing" them.

I'd also like to throw in a couple other suggestions, if I may:

1. Add an option to turn off viewing of avatars and signatures.

2. Give us the option of a simpler text editor.

EDIT: 3. Let us edit our posts whenever. This is kinda important for people on the CCG forums, where we tend to maintain trade lists.

Another feature I miss that may seem minor, but I used it a lot:

The "Jump To Forum" feature; it was at the bottom of every forum page, and allowed you to jump between game forums VERY quickly.  Without it, it is sometimes a hassle to go find a different game (especially since the new forum eats up a LOT of screen real estate per entry, which makes scrolling a pain).

One has to wonder how many of these changes are releastic. Is the website custom crafted, or does it use an established CMS that has been heavily tweaked?  The answer to that might see whether there is any light at the end of the tunnel...

Kage