Thread: New Forum Design: Ideas for Change

Overwhelming Amount of Graphics:
The previous design was simple and easy on the eyes, but the new design not only has more graphics added but the graphics themselves are large and busy. The thread detail graphics in particular I don't care for just like I don't care for the new quest tracker icons in-game. The "go to first post" and "go to last post" graphics seem completely unnecessary seeing as you're able to either click the thread to get to the first post or click the last page to get to the last post.

I thought everyone knew the phrase "Less is more!"?

The Background Colors on Thread Detail Graphics:
I'd love to see the backgrounds removed and simply left with the scroll similar to the previous icons. Without using a background, simply changing the color of the scroll would be a good way to discern between a hot thread and a not-hot thread. This used to be how it was done with the tan scroll and red scroll, open for unread and closed for read. The more there is on a small graphic, the less effective the graphic itself becomes.

New Emoticons:
The thread heading emoticons have a white halo instead of being designed for a dark background so they don't look like they belong. Also, the detailing on the faces for the small emoticons that go into posts aren't contrasting enough compared to the color of the faces so they're somewhat hard to see. They're so much more "cutesy" than they used to be which I also don't enjoy but that's just personal preference.

The "Re: Thread Title" Portion of Each Post:
The title portion on the top of each post is extremely distracting and with no color variant between that section and the thread post, it crowds the posts themselves with repetitive words, and bolded ones at that. Perhaps take away the bold and right align it so it's not in the way so much? Ideally we'd have a slightly darker color for that row to visually separate each post from the next, but any change here would be a good one.

White Borders Harsh on Eyes:
The white borders around the edges of each section is so contrasting to the rest of the backgrounds that it's harsh on the eyes when scanning around the forums. I'd suggest using either the dark green that's currently used as a top border or another varying shade of gray. This also goes for the white borders around the icons next to thread titles representing the page numbers and the forum page numbers icons on the top as well. The top section with all the navigation has the right idea.

"Online/Offline Now" Graphic Location:
Having an entire row dedicated to such a tiny icon makes the layout look messy. I'd suggest placing the "Online/Offline Now" graphic to the left of each user's name instead of under it. Moving this up would also help the current "OCD" issue of the text to the right of each profile image being slightly longer (below) the images themselves.

Not Enough Cell Padding:
Each post seems to be much closer to the border of the sections now than it used to. That could be a visual trick due to the now white border or it could be because the cell padding isn't quite large enough. Either way, the white borders, white fonts and white section lines are overwhelming to the eye making it all run together.

Post/Thread Creation Options Hard to See:
When creating a post/thread, it is extremely hard to see the b, i, u icons as well as the alignment, indent and list icons. The black on dark gray is simply not contrasting enough.

Thread Titles Crowded and No Right Alignment:
This one was hard to title but the issue I'm seeing is that the column for "Last Post By" is too wide leaving a large amount of empty space on the far right. Perhaps the thread title column could be compensated to have a bit more room with the far right column moving over a tad?

Stickies Crowding Regular Post Section:
Previously, there was a section dedicated to stickies which made the flow of the forums MUCH nicer. Perhaps bring that feature back or at very least change the row color for a stickied thread to be slightly darker than the rest so it's easier to spot the thread on the top of the list.

Border Lacking Around Avatar Images:
This one is a personal preference, but to make the site look unified, I think it would be great to force a thin black border around each and every avatar image. As it is, they stand out as non-turbine-created and just look like they're floating around.

Report/Edit Post Gone - Moderation In?
I'm not sure why the "Moderation" feature was added. I'd love to simply have the "Report Post" option brought back directly on the posts themselves as well as an "Edit" button brought back and placed to the left of the quote links like was previously there. There is no reason all those things have to be all over the place; putting them closer together makes for a section of things instead of a random placement of features that the user constantly needs to search each section of the post to find (if they even bother to look after they don't see it where they expect it to be.) Also in regard to this, the icon to give reputation to a post is hardly noticable.

New Thread and Reply to Thread Not a Graphic?
The text for creating a new thread or replying to a thread makes it difficult to find what you're looking for. People often skim past text and look for graphics so making those graphics would be great.

Poster Name Linking to My.Lotro:
Really not a fan of this feature. When I click someone's name, I'd like to see the brief summary of their account including links to see their post and thread history. If I want to see their my.lotro page, I'll go there some other way but forcing it through the forums isn't a great idea, imo especially considering how many people won't have any interest in doing anything with their my.lotro pages.

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I'm sure I have more, but this is a start..... >.<

Spot on with your details.

Plus most of the content is not even working. Things like "My Characters" and "My Kinship" tabs do nothing that I can see.

Ok I know they are trying to improve things but the old forums were really easy to read, to find things and to navagate.

Now I need my sunglasses to even read what is on the screen.

Please take a look at the color scheme once more. It just does not work in a home. Maybe it looks good in an office or a conference room with harsh commerical lighting, but in a average persons home this is really bad.

Originally Posted by Sapience

The original thread was moved to the correct forum (Community Site Discussion).
Please do not repost threads in multiple locations.

Ya know... It's not enough that we have to go through F2P changes, but since the turbine community team decided we need to put up with forum changes as well, attitudes like this are pretty unecessary. The thread I created (which you moved and had no "Moved" icon placed with it... it was just gone) was placed in a section of the forums that it would have ALWAYS been in. Then was moved to a NEW section of the forums I didn't even exist. There's going to be a learning curve behind things like that so holding the "don't repost threads in multiple locations" snide comment would be great. Especially considering I pasted the disclaimer that stated I lost the original thread and apologized in advance if it was a duplicate.

Sapience, you're going a long way to being the single greatest reason I hate these forums. I'd tell you that in a PM but it's going to just go ignored anyway.

Thanks for the suggestions - you have some great ones in there. I'm also going to be taking a very hard look at the forum menu dropdowns; it seems like there's some work to be done there.

Originally Posted by Patience

Thanks for the suggestions - you have some great ones in there. I'm also going to be taking a very hard look at the forum menu dropdowns; it seems like there's some work to be done there.

PLease just give us back what we had.


Since that is not likely, an option to change the forum template to the original would be nice. I've used Vbulletin extensively and there is a way to give users the ability to choose what format they want.




((I think the sky reall ~is~ falling))

Originally Posted by romoen

.........attitudes like this are pretty unecessary. ...................... the "don't repost threads in multiple locations" snide comment would be great.

Sapience, you're going a long way to being the single greatest reason I hate these forums. I'd tell you that in a PM but it's going to just go ignored anyway.

I used to love these forums. I'd check them before I even logged into the game. I really dislike the new set up. The forums feel bunched up, tight, restricted, and generally more difficult to navigate.

Concerning your quote: You're not the only one who feels a lack of respect from certain individuals. Its not everyone, just a couple individuals. Proper etiquette and customer care are not part of these forums much anymore. Its funny to see how other individuals start up their own sets of forums because of unjust and unfair treatment on these forums. A large group of Meneldor PvPers don't even bother posting on the lotro forums anymore because of poor treatment. In my opinion, the quality of the forums and quality of the people posting is going to decrease if this poor customer treatment continues.

Its like the Devs took the saying "If it isnt broke dont fix it" and threw it out the window.

I am usually one that supports change. However I am finding a lot of UNNECESSARY changes made to a system that worked perfectly and had very minimal complaints. There are so many other features LOTRO related that could have been focused on more. Off the top of my head I can tell you HOUSING, A more thorough Kinship Management system, and crafting could have used the time and man hours used to update our forum and community area.

Combine this Forum change and the Vault change, I am very suspicious of Turbines Priorities.

Originally Posted by Davlin

There are so many other features LOTRO related that could have been focused on more. Off the top of my head I can tell you HOUSING, A more thorough Kinship Management system, and crafting could have used the time and man hours used to update our forum and community area.

Please keep the thread on the topic of changes you would like to see.

Just to be very clear, the LOTRO dev team didn't code the site. We have a dedicated team of web engineers who work on all of our sites. They don't have anything to do with game systems.

Ideas for change (some have been stated already):

• A readable font size that doesn't induce eyestrain would be a good thing.
• On a related note, toning down the busy and borderline garish feel of the packed pages would be appreciated.
• I'd love to have the delineation between stickied pages and the most recent current thread in a forum as we had before. Finding the current thread as it stands is a pain.
• Make visible buttons, both in the editor and with things like the reputation star. Seriously, what kind of a genius would ever think charcoal gray/black buttons on darker gray/black background is in any way good web design? Sorry, but that's just mind boggling.
• I know we had dark backgrounds before, but the smaller fonts and icons are not showing cleanly against the black now.

Originally Posted by Odin_of_Freyr

Concerning your quote: You're not the only one who feels a lack of respect from certain individuals. Its not everyone, just a couple individuals. Proper etiquette and customer care are not part of these forums much anymore.

I agree with the basic premise, though for me it's just not centered in a few individuals. It's a problem I feel we've seen for over a year now. Simply put, the problem is not that things don't always work. It's the attitude used when communicating with us players. There is a vast difference between, "We know it's broken, but you shouldn't be questioning us and should be glad we're fixing it," and "We know there's a problem, we're fixing it, and we understand your concern." The former is what I've seen for the last year, the latter is what I saw from Turbine at the beginning. Both sides need to treat each other with respect.

(I posted something related in a now-closed thread this morning. Patience replied before closing the thread and I saw some of the old respect again. Thank you, Patience.)

Patience,

Can you investigate why the color-customization feature on the forum isn't working? I can change the colors of the forum and hit Save, but the minute I click to a different thread it all goes back to the green and gray theme. I'm using Firefox 3.6.9 if that's of any help.

Many thanks!