well self proclaimed non-euclidean pixel worshipers seem to be responsible for the design of the site so I would think such 'non-conventunal' enities could mutate the site some.

 Erm, okay.... 

I'll go with the answer myself. 

Kage

I think should be usefull some "slots" (forex 1 max. 3 linkZ) for user so-called "Topic WatchDog" which let user after Loging localize (annotated) Threat Quick 'n' easily. Not a history because history remember even unwanted only user defined link to Topics.

One click instead of min. four....
0. Login /1. FFG Forums /2. Board Games /3. Descent: Journeys in the Dark (or any other...) /4. concrete last viewed/anottated topic

If is not on first but on another page need much more ...

P.S. I know its possible get there through "See the messages written in the forum...." but there's could be plenty of them (need time to loading all on page)

 Guys, let's try not to clutter the thread too much. The more to the point it is, the more chance there is of changes being implemented.

We have good news! There is now a larger range of Avatars available - all 14 TI3 races are now available as avatars. It's definitely a step towards a better forum, so thanks to everyone at FFG for that.

Just a couple of things from another thread:

• Spell checker - For us, non-native (or for the native english speaker that still have trouble writing!) it is important to have a good english so it is important to have this implemented.
• Add-on skin - Have more skin for the web forum. Light gray writing on medium gray background can be quite annoying on my eyes.
• Last page connection - When you write an address, you always get on the last page. Thing there wasnt on the last board, but that there was on the previous to the last one.
• PM - Very important for PbEM

A few thoughts...

Fix the post page

I just lost a very nice, constructive, detailed post because the window was jumping all around and I had to constantly re-adjust my screen. I hit backspace to delete something, and instead when back on my web browser and lost all of my message, because I was no longer focused in the text editing frame.

Remove the Hubris

We come to forums to view content, not to view links to other content or see big labels that tell us that we are, in fact, about to view the content we want to view. Each forum has about 1/2 a page of junk preceding any actual content. Reduce the gap between the header and the content panel (about 1/8 a page). Remove the links to other forums (1/8 a page), they're already at the bottom of each forum. No need to display them twice. Shrink the sub-forum marker to a single line of text (You are here: FFG Forums / Fantaasy Flight Games / Support). That big label right below is completely redundant (and about 1/8 of a page).

Alphabetical is Nonsensical

Subforums are listed alphabetically. They should really be listed by relevance. Finding Fantasy Flight Games / Support had the difficulty level of an epic quest. This should be like killing kobolds. Fantasy Flight Games was buried in the middle of a list of links to game type sub-forums. It should have been the first or the last listed thing, not buried in a list of unrelated subforums.

Contacting Non-Friends

I'm ambivalent towards the whole "forum turned facebook" thing, but it's worth pointing out that about 75% of people I send or receive PMs from on other forums are people I would not have already had added as a "friend" if it were possible. Private communication between people who are meeting for the first time is sort of a neccessity. It's how people become friends in the first place! If it's not a PM system, at least let us send messages to annonymous email addresses through the forums!

Points

Basically, the points system as it appears is about as close as possible to a textbook example of how NOT to have a positive impact on behavior. It's destined to backfire if the goal is to encourage positive community development. This is much more effectively implemented through community regulation -- e.g., allowing people to rate the quality of posted messages on, say, a scale of 1-5, or perhaps as simply as being able to check a box if a post was good or bad. Here is why it doesn't work.

Either points will have an impact on forum behavior, or they won't. If they don't, one has to wonder why they were implemented in the first place. And if they do, it's even more problematic.

On the one hand, you have people who are regular posters that now receive an external reward for continuing their behavior. Probably about the worst thing that could possibly be done. If anything is going to happen, it's going to be a decrease in the quality of posts, with no -- or a marginal -- increase in the quantity of their posts. There's a huge literature on extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation. The take-home point: if you give a reward for doing something that people are doing already, you actually decrease the quality of their behavior.

On the other hand, you have people who have ideas but might be too timid, or just don't care, to post. Hooray for them. Maybe some of them will start posting now. It's a shame you're also giving more motivation to troll as well. Thorndike's law of effect: behaviors survive or die by their consequences. In theory, all behaviors (positive or negative) have the same consequence here: points. So all that's been accomplished is an increase in the number of posts, and not their quality. In practice, however, it's much harder to come up with a constructive or interesting post than it is to come up with a trolling post or a flame. So the real net effect here is an overall decrease in forum quality.

Trolling is only compounded by this little line from the exclusive contests: "according to your Point total, you can enter in pages with scoops that only a privileged few will see before the rest.". I don't think I've ever seen a better reason in my life to forum troll. If someone thinks this can be avoided with clever design, I assure you that any large enough community will have many more individuals, far more clever than the designer. Anything that can be exploited will be exploited, and then propagated through the entire community.

On the bright side, we'll probably only see an increase in trolling towards the end of the month when prizes are awarded. Fixed interval reward schedules have a bigger impact on behavior the closer to the reward it gets. Think: cramming before an exam, or doing all your work the night before a presentation first thing in the morning. The forums will probably have PMS once a month, but be otherwise unaffected. Well, except for the decrease in activity by regular posters who are no longer internally motivated to contribute to the forums. Variable ratio or interval reward schedules are much better for increasing desired behavior overall. Think: slot machines or random-interval work evaluations.

61 seconds to open this thread!

Average of 14 seconds to open any page on the website/forum.

This should take a 1-2 seconds.

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Smiles need to work without editor which only slows down posting in the first place.

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Forced double line spacing... bizzare and waste of white space.

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Lack of donuts, unforgivable. :)

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In closing, the absolute worst forum system I've ever seen, and I've seen ezBoard in its bad days.

I think that mostly I'll be posting only when I have insomnia, as posting at this new forum is the best cure for that if you get over the frustration. ;)

jgbaxter said:

For what it's worth, if you switch to HTML mode, you can space things however you want :)

ced1106 said:

This is a good idea and one I would like to see as well.

For the profiles of others, I would like to see location.  i am slowly tracking down friends that kept the same user name but without avatars, location helps me decide who is legite and who isn't.

For the "Stats" section, besides the title of a posting, I'd like to see which subforum the post comes from. Titles like "should I buy this game" don't help when we don't know which forum the post is in!

Thanks!

to user "hollis"

in the last analysis from your opinion I agree though I have got to pair reservation...

Contacting Non-Friends isnt problem because, I alone taken advantage of this possibility and addressed 3 peoples with which are interesting for me to type (thus not because earn points). I see problem in obtaining points for firends or friendship - and this is main problem! I hope that "PM, e-mail, www..." (as it was in old forum) will be integrated in the future. Exist some kind of ignorance between visitors on forum (old too) and maybe this should it repair, Oh god but not for points (dont be like a Judas). ..... is good if I can exchange experiences from game playing all over the world or through screen meets new peoples.
 

Points and bad adjusting Point system are responsible for abusurd creation new topics. Vote system is Good solution, this dissociating constructive writers since as other (creator of any new Topic must reach forex 100 points which he then could spend/exchange for creation of Topic). Weak place of vote I see in that, from my own experiences .... group members automaticaly vote for each (even non-constructive, redundant, or by content same) post their member.
 

... thanx hollis for his post (that can I extend )

P.S. vote system RULEZ

For me, it's all about simpler / faster navigation on the forums:

• Faster load times (or at least the option to turn off part of the heavier elements if necessary)
• Smaller windows for each post and more contrasting colors for text and background
• The possibility to see the name/time of the last topic and post from the Thread list
• Feed subscription available for each forum thread
• A customizable list of our favorite forum threads for quick access
• etc.

I really don't mind the additionnal features and the "social community" look, in fact I really enjoy it and I'd like to see it evolve even more, but the priority, in my opinion, should be the forums for now.

On the other hand, I'd like to see an general statement from FFG about this, more specifically about how much control they have over the design of these forums, their functionalities, etc. For example, the fact that this seems to be the same model as the forums for the Spanish company Edge Entertainment would indicate that this model is fixed (thanks to Peibolvig who posted about this in another forum thread).

Unless I missed it, I am a bit concerend about the lack of FFG officials popping in and giving us some status updates.  But I am getting to the point this slowness has been going on too long to make it worthwhile to check in.

Unfortunately, there are some threads worth saving on teh other forum bu if they are to become static objects here - with no editing - what's the point?  They really need to extend the life of the old posts until they get everything working here.

 Oh, another feature there isn't/I can't find:

• The ability to add Polls to a thread.

Has anyone from FFG read this thread?

I agree "Pools" was very good. Because they bid feedback and Easy 'n Quick informations. I'll only invite their comeback too.

 Has anyone from FFG read this thread? It's not to say we're demanding all these changes happen now, but it'd be nice to have the acknowledgement of our input to trying making the forum better.