User login

A couple of site ideas

56 replies [Last post]
Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009

My first idea, as already received by Stab, is to add text links below each YouTube video so that mobile phone users can still view the videos posted on this site.
- Difficulty of implementation: 1/10

My second idea, which may not even be possible with the current site format, is to allow for a skinning/color change for this site on a per-user basis. This clean bright look is hard on my nightowl eyes. Cool
- Difficulty of implementation: 10/10

I figure those two suggestions combined average out to a 5/10, so I'm hoping there's a 50/50 shot of at least one of them happening. Big smile

IanXO4's picture
IanXO4
Offline
Administrator
male
Joined: 10/08/2009

stab, how does drupal manage the color scheme? css? can we make a list of css schemes from which users can choose?

watchurback400's picture
watchurback400
Offline
Citizen
male
In the dark shadows behind your house/apartment
Joined: 11/11/2009

You might be able to make a video uploader for assassins creed videos we make.

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009

To add to my list of difficult implementations Wink , I have a couple ideas for the user info bar at the top of each post.

It currently shows our name, pic, online status and joined date. Is it possible to update it to include gender and location like on the Interative Maps forum? Might as well fill in that empty space with useful info, right? Smile

The second idea is more of a question: Is it possible to remove the scroll from the same header? It scrolls but there is no actual info to scroll down and see (except for the last couple rows of pixels of our pic). It can be annoying because I use my scroll wheel to move around web pages, and if my mouse cursor is resting over top of one of these headers, it scrolls only the header box and not the page. Makes me want to assassinate myself sometimes. Angry And maybe add a background color to this header box, to split up the posts even more?

Oh, and some of the smiley shortcuts don't work. When you click on the devil face one, it produces Evil which doesn't actually show it. Instead you have to type the word evil with : on each side, as shown in the tooltip when mousing over the icon. Just thought I'd point that out. Smile

Sera22's picture
Sera22
Offline
Citizen
female
Germany
Joined: 11/08/2009
Asaic wrote:
Makes me want to assassinate myself sometimes.

Please don't do that. Tongue

*cough* Ah, you mentioned two very good points! I feel the same about it.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.
- Voltaire

IanXO4's picture
IanXO4
Offline
Administrator
male
Joined: 10/08/2009

ok i added text links to my vids. it spammed up the recent posts list a bit, but i only have to do it once. Beer

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009

These are all good suggestions, Asaic. You hit the nail on the head when you said per-user color schemes would be the most difficult to implement. Ian, Drupal uses "themes" to define the general look of a site and "color set" is an attribute of the theme. There's an easy way to enable a bunch of themes and let each user pick their favorite. It's trickier to offer one theme with multiple color sets. I'm looking into it.

There's a funny reason for the scroll bar in each header. The default user picture size is 85x85. I upped it to 100x100, so now the userpic doesn't fit in the header! That should be easy enough to fix.

I won't bore you with details on the other suggestions. They're all going on my todo list.

You won't even feel the blade.

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009

Thanks for the text links, Ian. I really appreciate it!

Stab, thanks for the explanations. While it might bore some people, I'm always curious about the stuff going on behind the scenes.

For the color scheme thing, would it not be possible to simply make several different themes all identical to the current one, but with different color sets? Like maybe one with gray background and blue highlights, or black background with red highlights, or whatever combinations look good? Then users could just pick from a few pre-chosen themes, which are technically all just copies of the original theme but with different colors. Or am I not properly understanding your explanation?

Oh, and one more thing to add to the list -- spoiler tags! I couldn't find any reference to them in here. Unfortunately, my color theme suggestion would eliminate the poor-man's spoiler cover of simply re-coloring the text to match the background. Puzzled

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
Asaic wrote:
For the color scheme thing, would it not be possible to simply make several different themes all identical to the current one, but with different color sets? ... Or am I not properly understanding your explanation?

What you describe is exactly the recommended workaround. You understand it perfectly. Smile

You won't even feel the blade.

ROB_88's picture
ROB_88
Offline
Citizen
male
up north
Joined: 11/11/2009

what's up with the topic name listings?
why does every title go down instead of to the side?

like for example in the Forum games section it looks like:
Last
Person
to
Reply
Wins!!!

when it should be just like:
Last Person to Reply Wins!!!

Things will not calm down, Daniel Jackson. They will in fact calm up

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
Asaic wrote:
Is it possible to remove the scroll from the same header?
When you click on the devil face one, it produces Evil which doesn't actually show it.
Oh, and one more thing to add to the list -- spoiler tags!

Done, done and done. Evil

Spoiler: Highlight to view
With AC2 coming out, let's make good use of the spoiler tag, folks.

You won't even feel the blade.

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
ROB_88 wrote:
why does every title go down instead of to the side?

That's what happens when viewed in a narrow window. Does maximizing your browser fix it? If not, get a frickin' widescreen Rob! Glasses

You won't even feel the blade.

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009
stabguy wrote:
Done, done and done. Evil

You da man. Big smile

Spoiler: Highlight to view
No how about those color schemes? Wink

A bunch more:
- How about clickable buttons for bold, italics, spoilers, etc?
- Multiple line returns are ignored. Sometimes I'd like to separate one section of a post from the previous with a couple blank lines. Can that feature be added in?
- Is it possible to put a box around quoted text? Spoiler boxes have a dotted outline, but quoted text has nothing.
- Having to enter the "capcha" (or whatever it's called) characters on the first post after each login is a pain. Any chance you'd consider dumping that feature?
- What's with that faux subject line thing when previewing posts? It just takes the first five or six words of your post and bolds them, but it never shows up in the final post anyway. Can that be dumped from the preview?
- Is it possible to put the breadcrumb links again at the bottom of pages so that we don't have to scroll all the way up to the top to go back and browse other forums after making a post? By breadcrumbs, I mean the part where it would have links like "Home > Forums > The Hidden Blade > Site Suggestions".

Good thing I'm not the nitpicky sort, huh? Wink

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009

The following suggestions have been implemented:

  • text links below each YouTube video
  • include gender and location in author pane
  • add a background color to this header box
  • nuke emoticon for TriggerPhzyc Trig's nuke
  • drum roll please... per-user color schemes!
  • The last one requires some explanation. To choose your color scheme, click "My account" and "Edit". Scroll down to "Theme configuration". The site default is called "Mediterrano". Pick whichever one you like and click the "Save" button. Note that it won't affect the color of the advertisements or author pane.

    I know the preview screenshots all look the same (Blue Lagoon color scheme). There's not much I can do about that given the nature of this workaround. Just click Save and if you don't like it, pick another scheme.

You won't even feel the blade.

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009

Great job, Stab!

Fly Like an Eagle's picture
Fly Like an Eagle
Offline
Citizen
male
CBus, Ohizzle
Joined: 11/11/2009

Alright this is a big one but if it's possible I think we'll all be quite happy.

Currently under the "create content" section all we are allowed to do is post comments. Could we possibly expand this to videos? For example, rather than have to constantly be posting youtube links, could we just have the videos featured right here on THB? I guess what I'm basically saying is, can we have a "record/upload video" feature, if at all possible?"

And because you and Ian can feature things on the site, if you see a video of particular interest, perhaps you can feature that to be on the front page. Stab, you're a genius, but it's a little off-putting to see all the videos on the front page be your videos, even though all of them are very insightful towards AC1 Big smile .

It won't be long before people start making AC2 videos, and it won't be long before I finally get a video camera (maybe now you all can finally see Eagle's Bruise in action Wink ). So if this is at all possible, probably a lot of other users and I would greatly appreciate it. But if it's not, no big deal, we can still use youtube. I just think this would be a much bigger convenience and would probably organize all the Assassins Creed content we make better.

Live by the creed, die by the creed!
Pussy, money, weed, that's all a n*gga need!

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
Asaic wrote:
- How about clickable buttons for bold, italics, spoilers, etc?
- Multiple line returns are ignored.
- Is it possible to put a box around quoted text?
- Having to enter the "capcha" characters on the first post after each login is a pain.
- What's with that faux subject line thing when previewing posts?
- Is it possible to put the breadcrumb links again at the bottom of pages

The clickable button module isn't supported in the latest version of Drupal. I've been thinking about going one better. What would you think of a full on WYSIWYG editor? It would look something like this:

Multiple line returns are supposed to be automatically converted to HTML tags. Something's not working correctly there.

Boxes around quotes are done. The background becomes a progressively darker gray as quotes are nested (up to 4 deep).

Is everyone here being regularly challenged by CAPTCHA? The claim is that only 2% of human posts are flagged as "unsure" by the spam filter and challenged. That 2% = Asaic. Tongue

The faux subject line is an artifact from the forum's ability to allow each comment to have a unique subject. I turned on "generate automatic subjects" and turned off "subject required" and "display subject". It still shows up in the preview. Puzzled

I'm not sure breadcrumbs at the bottom of the page would look right. That pink background thingy is a function of the theme and there isn't one at the bottom.

You won't even feel the blade.

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009
stabguy wrote:
The clickable button module isn't supported in the latest version of Drupal. I've been thinking about going one better. What would you think of a full on WYSIWYG editor?

I would like that very much. Laughing out loud Well, provided it works on my phone too. Do you know any sites currently using it which I could test it out?

Not that it's solely my decision.... Smile

stabguy wrote:
Boxes around quotes are done. The background becomes a progressively darker gray as quotes are nested (up to 4 deep).

Awesome. Cool

stabguy wrote:
Is everyone here being regularly challenged by CAPTCHA? The claim is that only 2% of human posts are flagged as "unsure" by the spam filter and challenged. That 2% = Asaic. Tongue

It's far more than 2%. I haven't even made 100 previews yet and I've had to do it no less than 10 times. Probably more. Lilk was also complaining about it.

It's also a full page of additional bandwidth I have to absorb when I'm using mobile internet.... Wink

EDIT: I just had to enter the CAPTCHA again just now. Tongue

stabguy wrote:
I'm not sure breadcrumbs at the bottom of the page would look right. That pink background thingy is a function of the theme and there isn't one at the bottom.

This entire forum system seems unusual to me. That's just because it's pretty different from most other forums I've been on and it's brand new (to me). It's my problem, not yours. Smile But if there are ways it could be made nicer for me, of course I'm going to be selfish and ask. Big smile

Anyways, the only reason is it saves me from needing to manually scroll all the way up to the top of a page full of posts once I'm done reading. There's always the Back function, but that doesn't apply when I've just added a post of my own. I don't have a mouse or scroll wheel or a Home key on my phone, so it's manual sliding only. It's by no means a necessity. Just merely a wish. Smile

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
Fly Like an Eagle wrote:
Could we just have the videos featured right here on THB?

The problems with locally hosted videos are disk space and bandwidth. We have to remain within certain quotas or else this site is going to become expensive to maintain. Take a look at our video catalog. Do you know how many of those are locally hosted? Three. That's it. Ian and I will continue to use YouTube except in situations where there's a compelling reason to have them here.

Currently under the "create content" section all we are allowed to do is post comments.

(I think you meant create "Forum topic".) You aren't missing out on much. The only other thing Ian and I use is "Create story", where a "story" is an article that does not appear in the forums. We embed YouTube videos just like everyone else can.

And because you and Ian can feature things on the site, if you see a video of particular interest, perhaps you can feature that to be on the front page.

That's exactly how I envision it working, FLAE. Say you make an Eagle's Bruise video for AC2. Upload it to YouTube and create a new forum topic here (it can't just be a comment on another topic). Embed the video using the [youtube] tag and describe your brawler strategy in detail just like you did on AC-maps. A topic like that would be an excellent candidate to be front-paged. Then your video/article gets more exposure and the front page isn't just Ian and me. Everyone's happy. Smile

You won't even feel the blade.

Ichanolic's picture
Ichanolic
Offline
Citizen
male
Australia
Joined: 11/11/2009

Is there a feature to put the peoples info next to the post like ACmaps and not above it? If not can you add one?

Fordeadlysin's picture
Fordeadlysin
Offline
Citizen
female
Denver , CO
Joined: 11/25/2009

haha love the picture <333

-Nothing is true,eveything is permitted.
-I speak Darnassian

Greyjeth's picture
Greyjeth
Offline
Citizen
male
Petaluma, CA
Joined: 11/16/2009

which picture?

Why have one blade in the crowd when you can have two?

Fordeadlysin's picture
Fordeadlysin
Offline
Citizen
female
Denver , CO
Joined: 11/25/2009

Full time assassin lol

-Nothing is true,eveything is permitted.
-I speak Darnassian

Greyjeth's picture
Greyjeth
Offline
Citizen
male
Petaluma, CA
Joined: 11/16/2009

ohhhhhhhhhh xP

Why have one blade in the crowd when you can have two?

Ichanolic's picture
Ichanolic
Offline
Citizen
male
Australia
Joined: 11/11/2009

It's just my sig from AC maps, but with the white background here, you can't see that it says:

Full Time Assassin
Ichanolic

I'll probably make a new one when I'm bored.

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
Asaic wrote:
- Multiple line returns are ignored.
- Having to enter the "capcha" characters on the first post after each login is a pain.
- What's with that faux subject line thing when previewing posts?

The faux subject line is gone.

I've turned off CAPTCHA for registered users creating topics or comments. So far there hasn't been any spam... except from Greyjeth and Fordeadlysin. Tongue

The HTML filter converts a single line return into a <br/> and multiple line returns into one <p>. So it's working as designed. Sorry, I misread what it was supposed to do. Still looking for a workaround there.

Do you know any sites currently using it which I could test it out?

There are many WYSIWYG editors available. Here's a demo of one (click "Add new comment").

You won't even feel the blade.

Greyjeth's picture
Greyjeth
Offline
Citizen
male
Petaluma, CA
Joined: 11/16/2009
stabguy wrote:
Asaic wrote:
- Multiple line returns are ignored.
- Having to enter the "capcha" characters on the first post after each login is a pain.
- What's with that faux subject line thing when previewing posts?

The faux subject line is gone.

I've turned off CAPTCHA for registered users creating topics or comments. So far there hasn't been any spam... except from Greyjeth and Fordeadlysin. Tongue

The HTML filter converts a single line return into a <br/> and multiple line returns into one <p>. So it's working as designed. Sorry, I misread what it was supposed to do. Still looking for a workaround there.

Do you know any sites currently using it which I could test it out?

There are many WYSIWYG editors available. Here's a demo of one (click "Add new comment").

Sorry!

Why have one blade in the crowd when you can have two?

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009
stabguy wrote:
There are many WYSIWYG editors available. Here's a demo of one (click "Add new comment").

Damn, doesn't work on my phone. Man, I hate Mobile Safari. Tongue

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009
stabguy wrote:
The HTML filter converts a single line return into a <br/> and multiple line returns into one <p>. So it's working as designed. Sorry, I misread what it was supposed to do. Still looking for a workaround there.

It looks like [br] works to add extra line returns in a post. I never considered the idea that BBCode might actually have a 'br' tag.





Check it out!

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
Asaic wrote:
It looks like [br] works to add extra line returns in a post.

There you go!

Greyjeth wrote:
Sorry!

I was just kidding. My definition of a spammer is someone (or some bot) who joins the site for no other purpose than to post commercial links. You and Fordeadlysin are welcome to socialize here.

You won't even feel the blade.

Greyjeth's picture
Greyjeth
Offline
Citizen
male
Petaluma, CA
Joined: 11/16/2009
stabguy wrote:
Asaic wrote:
It looks like [br] works to add extra line returns in a post.

There you go!

Greyjeth wrote:
Sorry!

I was just kidding. My definition of a spammer is someone (or some bot) who joins the site for no other purpose than to post commercial links. You and Fordeadlysin are welcome to socialize here.

ah ok wasnt sure hehe Laughing out loud

Why have one blade in the crowd when you can have two?

Fly Like an Eagle's picture
Fly Like an Eagle
Offline
Citizen
male
CBus, Ohizzle
Joined: 11/11/2009

A spammer is more like that guy back on ac-maps that posted all the links to beating Assassins Creed 1 that weren't actually his, or the person's who posted them to youtube for that matter. In fact, those screenshots were made by developers as well, not his, and he hasn't visited since we called him out on it!

I am curious about that site in his sig, though. Could our community possibly have a rival in it's midst?

Live by the creed, die by the creed!
Pussy, money, weed, that's all a n*gga need!

Pty James's picture
Pty James
Offline
Citizen
male
Panama City
Joined: 12/05/2009

What would be the danger of having a rival?

JoeyFogey wrote:
ROB_88 wrote:
[On the meaning of BAMF]i figured it was something similar to a MILF

Babes Await My..............Flap-a-doodle Laughing out loud

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009

Here is the link from the spammer's sig. I don't foresee anyone visiting that site again and again.

You won't even feel the blade.

Fly Like an Eagle's picture
Fly Like an Eagle
Offline
Citizen
male
CBus, Ohizzle
Joined: 11/11/2009

Yeah I guess we're safe Big smile

Live by the creed, die by the creed!
Pussy, money, weed, that's all a n*gga need!

Lilkanyon's picture
Lilkanyon
Offline
Citizen
female
Weed, CA
Joined: 11/05/2009

Funny, one of his jpg's of AC1 looks EXACTLY like a screeney I took and now use as my background on one of my systems....weird.

Here's to you as good as you are. Here's to me as bad as I am. As bad as I am, and as good as you are, I'm as good as you are, as bad as I am.

Fly Like an Eagle's picture
Fly Like an Eagle
Offline
Citizen
male
CBus, Ohizzle
Joined: 11/11/2009

He's not a master assassin! He's a master thief!

Live by the creed, die by the creed!
Pussy, money, weed, that's all a n*gga need!

dougiethe1derboy's picture
dougiethe1derboy
Offline
Citizen
male
South Louisiana
Joined: 12/17/2009

Trigs got her Trig&#039;s nuke so I can't possibly live without mah Bolt. Big smile

Fly Like an Eagle's picture
Fly Like an Eagle
Offline
Citizen
male
CBus, Ohizzle
Joined: 11/11/2009

And I can't live without my eye-roll Big smile

Live by the creed, die by the creed!
Pussy, money, weed, that's all a n*gga need!

Lilkanyon's picture
Lilkanyon
Offline
Citizen
female
Weed, CA
Joined: 11/05/2009

Can we have a 'are you on chat' topic so we can announce if we are on chat? I've been a member on other forums where the number of ppl in chat was displayed on home or forum page and I know you can't do that..so another way of announcing if ppl are there?

Here's to you as good as you are. Here's to me as bad as I am. As bad as I am, and as good as you are, I'm as good as you are, as bad as I am.

ROB_88's picture
ROB_88
Offline
Citizen
male
up north
Joined: 11/11/2009
lilkody wrote:
Can we have a 'are you on chat' topic so we can announce if we are on chat? I've been a member on other forums where the number of ppl in chat was displayed on home or forum page and I know you can't do that..so another way of announcing if ppl are there?

i approve this message
(i want it too)

Things will not calm down, Daniel Jackson. They will in fact calm up

Pty James's picture
Pty James
Offline
Citizen
male
Panama City
Joined: 12/05/2009

I support lilk's idea.

JoeyFogey wrote:
ROB_88 wrote:
[On the meaning of BAMF]i figured it was something similar to a MILF

Babes Await My..............Flap-a-doodle Laughing out loud

Leo K's picture
Leo K
Offline
male
Toronto, Canada
Joined: 12/30/2009

This probably has NOTHING to do with the rest of your ideas, and will also probably never make it in, but I thought it would be pretty nice if we also added some forums (doesn't have to be help videos like Ian/Stab or anything, just forums) of the OTHER AC games (AC2: Discovery, AC: Altair's Chronicles, AC: Bloodlines).

Tell me if it's possible.
The difficulty of implementation is like, a zero.
But whether admins choose to do so or not is what remains to be seen.

Smile

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
dougiethe1derboy wrote:
Trigs got her Trig&#039;s nuke so I can't possibly live without mah Bolt. Big smile

Fly Like an Eagle wrote:
And I can't live without my eye-roll Big smile



Done: Dougie&#039;s lightning FLAE&#039;s eye roll

You won't even feel the blade.

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009

How about a :/ type of emoticon? The 'puzzled' one doesn't quite fit for the situations this one would be used for.

A thumbs-up one would be great too. Smile I also like the one where the face is wearing a grad cap and waving a finger ('teaching/correcting'), but I've only seen it on a couple sites. It might not be available in the emoticon style this site uses.

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009

None of these custom smileys are "available". I'm doing the artwork myself.

You won't even feel the blade.

Fly Like an Eagle's picture
Fly Like an Eagle
Offline
Citizen
male
CBus, Ohizzle
Joined: 11/11/2009

FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll FLAE&#039;s eye roll

(making up for lost times, thanks Stab!)

Live by the creed, die by the creed!
Pussy, money, weed, that's all a n*gga need!

Asaic's picture
Asaic
Offline
Citizen
male
Canada
Joined: 11/11/2009
stabguy wrote:
None of these custom smileys are "available". I'm doing the artwork myself.

Wow, nice. I just might need to make a list... Wink

Fly Like an Eagle's picture
Fly Like an Eagle
Offline
Citizen
male
CBus, Ohizzle
Joined: 11/11/2009

Could we have something like a photo dump? Like a topic folder we just post photos and such? I think Asaic already has some hilarious ones he could throw in there. We could have funny pics, screenshots, fanart, etc.

Live by the creed, die by the creed!
Pussy, money, weed, that's all a n*gga need!

dougiethe1derboy's picture
dougiethe1derboy
Offline
Citizen
male
South Louisiana
Joined: 12/17/2009

Wow Stab, I feel so special. Not only did you take the time to custom make my Dougie&#039;s lightning but then you went and named it after me to. Shy Thanks so much Stabby. Big smile Dougie&#039;s lightning Big smile Dougie&#039;s lightning Big smile

Fly Like an Eagle's picture
Fly Like an Eagle
Offline
Citizen
male
CBus, Ohizzle
Joined: 11/11/2009

ROB thinks that we need an applause smiley face in my honor for something I did on AC-Maps. It would be nice to have TWO emoticons dedicated to me, but it's your call stab... (I kinda want it too).

Live by the creed, die by the creed!
Pussy, money, weed, that's all a n*gga need!