New Site Discussion

[Jonathan Capps]

Ok, so let’s move all suggestions / issues for the new site here so I can gather everything in one place and give you all a bit more information on what I’m adding in and what’s planned for the future.

Unread comments – Never fear, this is currently my top priority, although it’s proving to be a massive pain in the arse. The old site ran on Drupal and one thing Drupal does as part of core is log every user’s page visit in the database, meaning that information than then be used to show new comments since you last visited an article or forum thread. I only realised in the hours leading up to launch that WordPress does not have this, so the only plugins I’ve found are cookie based and that’s not a very nice solution. It’s very likely I’m going to have to write something myself to solve this, so if you could bear with me a bit that would be great. I’m sorry this was overlooked, because it’s the one big feature everyone was obviously going to miss if it didn’t carry over.

Category nav – Currently the top of page shows you all the categories so you can easily move between them to find what you’re looking for. There are plans to expand on this significantly, so watch this space. In the meantime, though, I’d be interested to hear any feedback you have about the site’s navigation so this can be taken into consideration.

There are also various little changes that have been suggested and I’ll be fixing little bits and bobs as we go along and I’ll try to keep you updated in here. Feel free to re-state any suggestions for us to consider. The main two things I changed yesterday were comments based:

Edit Button – Now you can edit your comment through a nice pop-up. You have this option for 15 minutes after you’ve posted a comment, after which you’ll be locked out.

Reply functionality – Before if you clicked ‘Reply’ next to a comment it would just take you to the reply box. Now, it will take the content of the comment you’re replying to, wrap it up in a blockquote, and stick it in the reply box to make quoting someone a little easier. It’s something I added on a whim, so feedback is welcome.

That’s the basics, anyway. On the whole people seem to like the new site, which is gratifying, but the re-launch is an ongoing process so I’m keen to improve on the site in the future.

Topic

[Pecospete666]

Why do my links not ome out?

[pfm]

Because your name’s not Holly?

[Pete Part Three]

Either that or you don’t post them properly. One of the two.

[Ben Paddon]

No one can post links, pecospete. The site has never supported it.

[Ridley]

>Why do my links not ome out?

Too old and too crypto-fascist.

[pfm]

> No one can post links, pecospete. The site has never supported it.

[Pecospete666]

Lets see if this works?

That works

[Sarah]

I’m not liking this “Fuck Off Sarah” everytime I go into the account page (top right corner), Smeg Off Sarah would be preferable.

[Jonathan Capps]

Hah, yeah, I’ve been meaning to remove that. I only did it so I could tell Somebody to fuck off.

[Pecospete666]

I like ,it it gives me that warm fuzzy feeling that I’m wanted here.

[Sarah]

Now it just says ‘Sarah’, can I have the “Fuck Off” readded, it’s far too insiped now.

[Ben Paddon]

“SARAAAAAAAH!!!!”

[Jonathan Capps]

Recent forum replies now added to the sidebar, you fuckers.

[mick]

*cry-wanks*

[pfm]

Really, really impressed by the new site.

[Jonathan Capps]

If you were *really* impressed, pm, you’d be cry-wanking along with Mick.

[pfm]

Yeah but you already know that’s a given with me. ;)

[Jonathan Capps]

Good point, well made.

[mick]

We’re mutually cry-wanking.

[JamesTC]

Quantumly entangled cry-wanking.

[mick]

Was that an offer?

[si]

Recent forum replies now added to the sidebar, you fuckers.

Great stuff.

Meanwhile, I wonder what Robert Llewellyn’s up to…WAIT A MINUTE?! WHERE HAVE THE BOBBYLLEW LINKS GONE?!

[JamesTC]

Ganymede and Titan is no longer interested in the audience Robert Llewellyn used to provide.

[Alex]

The TOS link is going to redwarf.co.uk rather than reddwarf.co.uk.

[Jonathan Capps]

Good spot, ta!

[Alex]

Oh, same goes for the forum link it seems.

[Jonathan Capps]

SHIT.

[Ridley]

What about the mints?

[Carlito]

The thing is, I’ve had so much coffee I don’t think I can manage any mints until tomorrow.

[Ben Paddon]

HARD FUCKIN’.

[Jonathan Capps]

In case you’re wondering, a red comment counts in the Recent Comments or Recent Replies boxes indicates that thread contains unread comments.

[Pete Part Three]

And very nice it is too. Thappsy.

[Nick R]

It’s a shame that the reviews can now only be browsed through category view, which means that to get to old stuff you have to scroll through several very long pages. The index page that was there before was much easier to navigate, especially for the DVD reviews which had the format: “Series V: Seb’s review | John’s review”.

I realise the advantage that things based on Categories and dynamic WordPress Posts are automatically updated, whereas static WordPress Pages have to be manually updated. But the Downloads section is still laid out using static pages, and it’s much easier to navigate than category view, so could the same be done for reviews?

A reviews index page would also allow you to restore the classic phrase: “Warning: Contains Crime Traveller”. :-P

Tables don’t seem to work well in the current version of the site, in either Firefox or Chrome. For example, I see this, not sure if anyone else does. Some tables don’t look good because they don’t have internal cell borders.

While browsing round some archive.org versions of the site for my post in the birthday comments thread, I found a page with a table that looks fine in its archived version, but in its current version the image doesn’t load, and the table is entirely gone and screws up the layout of the sidebar and comments form.

[Jonathan Capps]

It’s a shame that the reviews can now only be browsed through category view, which means that to get to old stuff you have to scroll through several very long pages. The index page that was there before was much easier to navigate, especially for the DVD reviews which had the format: “Series V: Seb’s review | John’s review”.

GOOD POINT. We had a discussion about how we’d move that over, but it was kind of forgotten about. I’ve remembered it, now, though, so it’ll turn up soon.

Tables don’t seem to work well in the current version of the site, in either Firefox or Chrome. For example, I see this, not sure if anyone else does. Some tables don’t look good because they don’t have internal cell borders.

While browsing round some archive.org versions of the site for my post in the birthday comments thread, I found a page with a table that looks fine in its archived version, but in its current version the image doesn’t load, and the table is entirely gone and screws up the layout of the sidebar and comments form.

Yeah, the table styles have had no attention since the relaunch, those static pages were just moved across as is and I’ve been intending to fix them after I got some of the more technical aspects out of the way. Thanks for bringing that fucked up page to my attention, too, I shall FIX.

There’s bound to be some archive stuff that’s a bit knackered (missing images, broken links, iffy layouts) so everyone let me know if you find one!

[Jonathan Capps]

Also, I’ve never much liked the ‘Older Posts’ / ‘Newer Posts’ way to navigating archives, so I’ll probably stick in numbered pagination there at some point.

[mick]

I’m now becoming massively depressed about how well you’re update is looking, as my new site launch is 6 months behind schedule :(

[Jonathan Capps]

To be fair, this relaunch was about 2 years behind schedule.

I take it you’ve got shit loads of content to migrate? That’s the fucker. Luckily, the majority of this design was sorted by Seb months and months ago so I didn’t have all that to worry about.

[si]

*Mick’s and Cappsy’s site update tech type speak whizzes over head*

Also, I posted that about wondering what Robert Llewellyn was up to, then I discover this morning that at 10:08 last night,he updated his MITRM AudioBook. Coincidence?!

[mick]

> I take it you’ve got shit loads of content to migrate?

Yea, to say the least, over 400 games reviews that all need sorting into appropriate categories and reformatting from standard old HTML pages.

You’re lucky in that G&T has a team, SS:UK’s team is me haha

[Ian Symes]

To be fair, 80% of our team did absolutely fuck all for this relaunch.

[Jonathan Capps]

Yea, to say the least, over 400 games reviews that all need sorting into appropriate categories and reformatting from standard old HTML pages.

Holy fuck, so you have to manually copy everything? God speed and bless you, son.

[mick]

Yep, and I also have to take new higher-res screenshots for every single title :(

[Seb Patrick]

Just stretch them, no-one’ll notice.

[Jonathan Capps]

On the plus side it’s going to look sexy as hell when you’re finished.

[Danny Stephenson]

Mick: Yep, and I also have to take new higher-res screenshots for every single title :(

Seb: Just stretch them, no-one’ll notice.

Seriously, just do that, and then just replace them with newer ones when you get time. :)

It’s the kind of thing I would love to help out on. Even if it’s just batch processing.

[mick]

Quadruple re-post! impressive.

[mick]

I’m sure you will all be as relieved as I am to learn that the new look G&T is still functional under Amiga Workbench 3.1;

[Danny Stephenson]

That is exactly 7 types of amazing.

[Ben Paddon]

I was actually going to check that myself tonight.

[Jonathan Capps]

I’m sure you will all be as relieved as I am to learn that the new look G&T is still functional under Amiga Workbench 3.1;

Hah, that’s smashing!

[Author]

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