Forum/Site Improvements - What would you like to see? (Please comment)

[sidetwo]

This is site related only and not related to Alan Wake, so please no posts saying "New Screenshots" or "New Media" etc.

Are you happy with the way the forums are currently? Is there anything you would want to see added here.

Do you feel we need a frontend for the news? Or are you fine with how the news is handled now. BrightFalls.com was our frontend but unfortunately due to a crash went down, since everything was handled on the forums there was no rush.

So if theres anything you would like to see then say so here. These forums are for you, the community, so feel free to suggest anything :)


---
EDIT: Just to reiterate: This topic is for suggesting improvments to these forums and alanwake.com. All suggestions for the Alan Wake game should be posted here: Alan Wake Wishlist (http://www.alanwake.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12). Thanks -Maddieman

[Fjällräven]

I would like to see a Karma-like thingy. Like the thing they have on tauonline.org. At least, some kind of ranking system. That would be nice.

[remade]

I'm satisfied currently forums.
Of course,some new features would be nice.
Keep up the good work!

[sdrawkcab]

I don't have any issues with the forums. They are on-point in my eyes. Nothing to complain about yet.

[ancient]

Oh, I found a flaw in this otherwise cozy forum :)

Log-in/log-out procedure violates certain user interface (UI) friendliness principles. First, there's no need to confirm logging in with "thank your for logging in". None of the forums do and this is an unnecessary distraction. The existence of this message implies it's important in some significant way yet, in fact, it's a trivial confirmation - a commonly found UI annoyance. Plus, in this particular case, I should spend a couple of seconds waiting until I'm redirected to the forums. Waiting = not good :)

Secondly, when logging out, the choice of where to go after should be removed. Again, it violates UI friendliness and increases user confusion. Choose one option as a default behavior and eliminate this screen completely. My thinking is the user should return to the main forums index.

And remove the confirmation "Do you want to log out?” It's unnecessary because: a) it's very unlikely to hit "log out" by accident; b) even if it happens by accident, there's no irreversible damage done.

This was the voice of a developer/UI designer :)

[sidetwo]

That should more be directed to the developers of the forum software we use, vBulletin:

http://www.vbulletin.com/

[ancient]

Oh, I thought it's configurable. I'm more used to PHPBB style forums. Anyway, it's not the end of this world to wait a couple of seconds :)

[AlianAnt]

Yes. Some sort of ranking style thing would be cool. At first glance, a newb could easily see who's talking to them.

[Corwin]

I personally do not like this kind of ranking features, I find it adds complexity to the screen without bringing much in return. There are details like "Previous Thread | Next Thread" links that I absolutely never use, but since they are small and only appear once per page, that's fine. Ranks and grades are displayed in every post and different for every user... I don't like them :p For me, they go with picture-sigs and animated avatars: distractors from the content and discussions.

EDIT: I agree with Ancient about the "thank you for logging in, please wait" screen, but I also understand that's a feature bundled with the application you're using, so that's fine. I don't really see why such a powerful and seemingly well-done tool came with such a design mistake (as Ancient explained), but oh well. Cookies make this better anyway, it's just about finding something to criticize ;)

[Morry]

Personally, I would like to see some sort of front page for the forums, so it looks a bit more...official. It could be done in the style of a blog that link in to the forum posts. A recent example is the Fallout 3 blog http://fallout3.wordpress.com/ which I visit on a daily basis to find the latest news.
For visitors, it would mean they don't have to trawl through the forums to find information on the game. All the latest news and tidbits are just on the front page in blog format. This reduces the effort needed to make everything a proper news post and we can also give smaller things a bit of coverage too.

[Briosafreak]

Thanks for your visits Morry :)
I just wanted to remind that my blog is unofficial though.

I am following Alan Wake with great curiosity, all the best.

[Maddieman]

Personally, I would like to see some sort of front page for the forums, so it looks a bit more...official. It could be done in the style of a blog that link in to the forum posts.

ADM and I have been talking about a news frontpage as a possibility for a few months now (or resurrecting Brightfalls.com as an alternative). I'd love to hear what you guys think about this, because personally, I'd like to see it happen too.

[Fjällräven]

I didn't get much from the site, but I have a question if something might work.

A spell-checking-system.

That would be good for the ones who aren't that sure about their english. And the members could edit it, but only if the admins thinks it's okay.

[Morry]

The latest version of Firefox comes with a built in spell checker that checks your writing as you type, you could look in to that if that is what you are after.

[Fjällräven]

The latest version of Firefox comes with a built in spell checker that checks your writing as you type, you could look in to that if that is what you are after.


Yes, firefox have a spell-checker. But everyone don't have firefox. And instead of getting firefox, it would be nice to have it here already.

[Ranger_]

I'd love to see BrightFalls.com resurrected.

[sidetwo]

I'd love to see BrightFalls.com resurrected.
This is definitely something that I'm interested in doing but theres a couple of things that are postponing it at the moment.

It would most likely be remedyfans.com as I'd rather widen the focus to Remedy as a whole rather than just game specific sites all the time.

So yeah definitely something that will return but right now just gotta wait for the things postponing it to clear before I start development on it.

[Paul-Hewson]

I would like to see remedy's people around here. :whoo:

Not for talk about Alan Wake only, but speaking with the community. That's all.
:worship:

Nb : but i don't want them to waste all their time here, they have to work on Alan Wake ! (it's the modo works :suspect: to kick their ass :Poke: if they don't work hard enough ! :insomnia:)

[STEALTHGUY1986]

A little (new) info on Mr. Wake .

[himynamesryan]

A release date.

a new video would be great (not a TRAILER) a video explaining the world, your abilities and your vichiles, etc.!!!!!!!!

[sidetwo]

Guys please re-read the first post, this is about the site not about Alan Wake or requesting new media (pics and videos etc) for the game.

[Paul-Hewson]

And also the forum ?
So Remedy's people here is a good idea (now we have to convince them to come and talk with us :D )

[sidetwo]

Yes suggestions for both the main site and forums can be made.

[Ruuttu]

This is really irrelevant, but the AlanWake.com has a little bug on the "Press and Reviews" -section. When you get to the last page (with only one quote in it from TeamXbox) and move your mouse around the page, "Read More" -links start to appear where there's no text to read more about.

[sidetwo]

This is really irrelevant, but the AlanWake.com has a little bug on the "Press and Reviews" -section. When you get to the last page (with only one quote in it from TeamXbox) and move your mouse around the page, "Read More" -links start to appear where there's no text to read more about.
Not irrelevant at all. Thanks for that, I'll let them know. :)

[Demite]

Oh, and don't know if this has been posted before, but there have been some self-teleporting posts. Having trouble finding any examples, but its happened a few times. Someone posting somewhere, but it ending up in another topic...

[Morry]

Usually that's the result of one of the moderators merging an unnecessary thread with an existing thread that was already generating the appropriate discussion.

e.g. Instead of having multiple release date threads, we combine all the release date threads in to the main topic.
Sometimes threads are created in the wrong section, so we move them to the appropriate area.

[sidetwo]

Oh, and don't know if this has been posted before, but there have been some self-teleporting posts. Having trouble finding any examples, but its happened a few times. Someone posting somewhere, but it ending up in another topic...
That has been brought to my attention and I've recently upgraded the forum software so we'll just have to wait and see if it's a reoccurring issue.

[Demite]

Sweet. Thanks a bunch.

[Zhinarkos]

I'm pretty satisfied with the forums, because it works exactly like guildwarsguru forums, the appearance is different of course. I guess it's made from the same "mold" what ever that means

[Kahr]

I'm pretty satisfied with the forums, because it works exactly like guildwarsguru forums, the appearance is different of course. I guess it's made from the same "mold" what ever that means
vBulletin. It's the forum software. GWGuru is using the exactly same software, only a different template/theme (colors, slightly layout differences, fonts etc.). It's a very good software too, I've used it myself plenty of times on other sites. I highly doubt we're even close to considering changing from vBulletin. ;)

[SGT. RAMIREZ]

i really like the reputation system from 2K FORUMS and a ranking system would be nice :)

[Maddieman]

Well, we've considered something like that before, along with post counts and whatnot. Personally, I can't say I'm a fan of such systems, regardless of the implementation -- it just creates a 'respect' hierarchy on the board, and can give people an excuse to push newbies around.

Besides, I'm sure we can find a better way to recognise and encourage thoughtful, interesting, and enthusiastic posters. :)

[Vlado]

no no, ranking system is not good... usually people with higher ranking are more arogant, aggressive to new users - I know, I was new one in one forum ;)

[SGT. RAMIREZ]

how about a thumbs up/ thumbs down system like on youtube? you know if anyone likes or agrees with someones post they can put thumbs up or if they dont then they put thumbs down..

[sidetwo]

how about a thumbs up/ thumbs down system like on youtube? you know if anyone likes or agrees with someones post they can put thumbs up or if they dont then they put thumbs down..
Something like this could work. I'll look into it and discuss it with the other staff as well, I'm pretty sure I brought up something like this awhile ago.

[Maddieman]

Yeah that sounds like a good idea.

[Ruuttu]

There's a little bug in the main page (alanwake.com).
As you know, when you hover your mouse over the typewriter, for example, the text "Community forums" appears below it. When you move your mouse away from it the text turns into smoke and fades away. The same cool effect appears for all the "icons", such as the TV. However, when you move your mouse away from, ie. the book, the animation of the text fading away is much more laggy than with the typewriter. The animation plays about 2 frames, then stops for about 0.1 seconds, and then plays till the end smoothly. It seems like the video file is corrupted or something. The first 3 icons have this lag, the "press and reviews" and "community forums" work perfectly.

Try it: Hover your mouse over the book, then move your mouse away from it. Then hover your mouse over the magazine, and then away from it. Notice the difference? I've got a 3.4 Ghz processor and the Radeon HD4870 - it's not about performance - it's a bug. Or something.

[TannosukeGR]

Same happens with the rest... When I entered the www.alanwake.com (NOT THE FORUMS), I did wanted to go in the screenshots, but they're no longer there like they were previously there.

For a change

Can you make a Remedysite as a central and then will include all forums of their own games, just like Bioware did ? It'd be easy, so no-one would go off-topic. ;)

BTW for the current colors, I'm more than enough satisfied. It helps my eyes to chill and be ease from the pain the white background does. :)

[sidetwo]

Ruutu: Thanks for that. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to replicate it. Either that or I couldn't notice a difference in animation.

It was a little choppy for me the first time but after a while it smoothened up so I just blame that to loading that particular movie file.

I've let Jouko know about it either way though.

[sidetwo]

Same happens with the rest... When I entered the www.alanwake.com (NOT THE FORUMS), I did wanted to go in the screenshots, but they're no longer there like they were previously there.

What do you mean they weren't there like they used to be? Do you mean the old screenshots not longer show up and only the newest show? If so that's how the site has always functioned, the older screenshots get removed as soon as a new batch comes along.

[Maddieman]

The animation plays about 2 frames, then stops for about 0.1 seconds, and then plays till the end smoothly. It seems like the video file is corrupted or something. The first 3 icons have this lag, the "press and reviews" and "community forums" work perfectly.

For what it's worth, I get this as well -- it's consistent, not a one off thing while it's loading. I've no idea why it would happen though -- maybe something to do with the flashlight or sound effects?

Not exactly a disaster, but it is strange.

[Ruuttu]

I've got another one.

The AlanWake.com main site has two ways of navigation - you can either click on the "icons" (the TV or the photos on the ground, for instance) or you can choose a location from the horizontal bar on the bottom of the page. This is the bug: when I click - for example - the photos on the ground, I get instantly transported to the Screenshots -page. However, if I choose "Screenshots" from the navigation bar at the bottom of the page I get a black screen instead - the navigation arrows at the top and the left and right borders of the screen are visible, but clicking on them causes no action - the whole thing is stuck.

Note: to reproduce, please try navigating with the bottom bar before you click on any of the icons. The bug may disappear if do it the other way around.

[Zhinarkos]

Something is wrong with the main site for sure. The navigation bar on the forums site for instance doesn't work in a way it should. It doesn't matter what option you choose(screens, videos, press..), it always goes to the main site and stops there. You can of course choose what you want from the icons there, but what I mean is, having seperate options for screens, videos and stuff is useless if the same main site transfer happens from all of them. You get what I mean?

[Ruuttu]

Yes, the forum navigation bar for the alanwake.com is broken.

http://www.alanwake.com/index.php?go=screenshots (http://www.alanwake.com/index.php?go=press)
Doesn't lead to the screenshots -page, but the main page instead.

So there's at least 3 bugs to fix at once, that's kinda handy. 1 (http://forum.alanwake.com/showpost.php?p=56249&postcount=38), 2 (http://forum.alanwake.com/showpost.php?p=56277&postcount=43), 3 (http://forum.alanwake.com/showpost.php?p=56310&postcount=44)

[TannosukeGR]

I've got another one.

The AlanWake.com main site has two ways of navigation - you can either click on the "icons" (the TV or the photos on the ground, for instance) or you can choose a location from the horizontal bar on the bottom of the page. This is the bug: when I click - for example - the photos on the ground, I get instantly transported to the Screenshots -page. However, if I choose "Screenshots" from the navigation bar at the bottom of the page I get a black screen instead - the navigation arrows at the top and the left and right borders of the screen are visible, but clicking on them causes no action - the whole thing is stuck.

Did you read this, ADM ? That's what I meant earlier..., but maybe it's the reason you said earlier that they removed anything...

The only thing I saw from there were the cursors...

[Zhinarkos]

Yeah, it's same problem, in the forums and in the site, with a bit different results. but it needs to be fixed

[sidetwo]

I've reported it, thanks.

[joukoRMD]

Try it: Hover your mouse over the book, then move your mouse away from it. Then hover your mouse over the magazine, and then away from it. Notice the difference? I've got a 3.4 Ghz processor and the Radeon HD4870 - it's not about performance - it's a bug. Or something.

Yeah, I can confirm that. It might depend on certain versions of Flash player, or be related to browser versions, if it does not appear for everyone.

Anyways, thanks for reporting this. I can pass this on, but won't promise that it will be fixed. Somehow, I have a feeling that there will be a bigger overhaul for the site during the Spring...

Same happens with the rest... When I entered the www.alanwake.com (NOT THE FORUMS), I did wanted to go in the screenshots, but they're no longer there like they were previously there.


There's a known bug in the screenshots (ie. the page with the polaroid shots), so that the page does not load every time.
Basically just reloading the page loads the photos correctly.

So far we've thought that it's related to situations when the page has been updated (ie. screenshots added/replaced), but as that hasn't happened for some while now, it might be something different. I'll dig into it deeper.

Thanks for the report, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Can you make a Remedysite as a central and then will include all forums of their own games, just like Bioware did ? It'd be easy, so no-one would go off-topic. ;)

We've had plans around this idea, and it might happen one day. But as we do not have the Max Payne rights anymore, nor do host those web sites, the game list would be quite short :)

BTW for the current colors, I'm more than enough satisfied. It helps my eyes to chill and be ease from the pain the white background does. :)

Heh, thanks. The site uses the color schemes from the Alan Wake game and it's brand guidelines.

- J

[joukoRMD]

I can also confirm, that the text navigation bar is broken. Apparently only "Press and Reviews" and "Community Forums" links work there. Also the forum links are broken. I'm looking into this right now, and might get it fixed sooner than later :)

- J

[joukoRMD]

I can also confirm, that the text navigation bar is broken. Apparently only "Press and Reviews" and "Community Forums" links work there. Also the forum links are broken. I'm looking into this right now, and might get it fixed sooner than later :)


Naah, it wasn't that easy... Thanks for reporting though guys, I'll see that this get fixed one way or the other.

- J

[joukoRMD]

Ok, two of these bugs have now been fixed, ie. the text navigation at the bottom of the page should now work ok, and the direct links from the forum (about, screenshots, videos...) work also.

Our web designer is still investigating the smoke fading animation thingie.

- J

[Dennis]

I have to suggestions

1) I would really love to have an option to embed videos directely to the post!

2) An option to chat with other community members from your friends list!

[Morry]

I have to suggestions

1) I would really love to have an option to embed videos directely to the post!

Unfortunately, this could be abused very easily. We have enough fun removing distasteful content from spammers when it's only pictures.

[TannosukeGR]

I have one suggestion regarding the spoilers...

Since everybody have the Alan Wake game, should they go to the spoilered forum sectors and the rest who don't own the Alan Wake game, shouldn't enter those sectors and oughtn't be visible to the non-owners of Alan Wake...

Everyday there are this many spoiler threads, that we don't know which one of them are the actual spoilers or not... :/ It's initially a mess at the "New Posts" search machine...

[Morry]

The Help & Issues section and Gameplay Discussion section have spoiler warnings at the Index, so that should be self-explanatory.
As for New Posts - I just read the title of the thread and if it seems like the subject matter relates to content in the game, I just don't read it...for now.

It's a matter of time really, after a few weeks, most people will have played the game and we will clean up a few loose ends.

[The]

Didn't read the previous posts, but what surprised me is that I cannot edit topic title.
Please change this if possible!
Also, why is it forbidden to post more than 8 pictures in a post?

[sidetwo]

The topic title is a restriction by the software that we are unable to change, unfortunately. If you have a topic title needing to be changed than contact one of our mods and they can do that for you.

As for the 8 pictures per post; that is by design. There really is no need to post more pictures than that in one post. If you have a legitimate reason to need more pics in one of your posts than contact me as I'm the only one able to override that restriction on a per post basis.

[The]

The topic title is a restriction by the software that we are unable to change, unfortunately. If you have a topic title needing to be changed than contact one of our mods and they can do that for you.

As for the 8 pictures per post; that is by design. There really is no need to post more pictures than that in one post. If you have a legitimate reason to need more pics in one of your posts than contact me as I'm the only one able to override that restriction on a per post basis.

Okay, thank you! :)

Gonna have to contact you sometimes. :D

[Hey You]

I think a front page with a news section would be excellent. And why is this site just for Alan wake, why not a general remedy website?

[Kahr]

Currently, BrightFalls.net (http://brightfalls.net/) is the frontier for Remedy news, and also has a direct link from the forums (named Remedy News).

As for this site being about Alan Wake only: well, it started off as an Alan Wake fan forum, and then over the years with increasing activity from Remedy members themselves, ADM handed the site over to Remedy. That said, it does not only contain Alan Wake, but has sections for other Remedy topics as well. But considering how Alan Wake is the primary title for Remedy right now, I don't see why there is a reason to generalize it any further.

Perhaps, down the road, it will be more of a General Remedy site. But for now, this works well.

[Hey You]

I guess. It just makes sense to have everything on one site.

[Morry]

As future games come out, the forum will shift to accommodate those new titles. Just like when Max Payne was the main focus, the home of Remedy will be wherever the official site lies.
We still keep sections for the older games for when fans get that occasional nostalgic feeling.

[Skip]

*Dusts off thread*

I apologizes if this has been covered or if I'm somehow missing it, but I think a nice feature to have would be a "recent comments" section at the bottom of the forum's home page. I know a couple boards that have this and I think its a cool feature. Basically it would show the 10 (5 even) most recent comments or you can even show 1 comment from several of the most recently active topics. That way its much easier to see where the "action" is happening. I know the "Recent Posts" and "Today's Posts" links kinda do something similar to this but I'm talking about seeing the actual comments as opposed to just being taken to a list of active topics. Again, this may already be in place and I might be overlooking it, so just point me in the right direction if that's the case.

Thanks.

[Morry]

*Dusts off thread*

I apologizes if this has been covered or if I'm somehow missing it, but I think a nice feature to have would be a "recent comments" section at the bottom of the forum's home page. I know a couple boards that have this and I think its a cool feature. Basically it would show the 10 (5 even) most recent comments or you can even show 1 comment from several of the most recently active topics. That way its much easier to see where the "action" is happening. I know the "Recent Posts" and "Today's Posts" links kinda do something similar to this but I'm talking about seeing the actual comments as opposed to just being taken to a list of active topics. Again, this may already be in place and I might be overlooking it, so just point me in the right direction if that's the case.

Thanks.
Thanks for the feedback.

I think it could be done, its just whether anyone would actually use it. Perhaps limiting it to the most recent posts by Remedy staff would make it more useful.

To show you how I check the forums on a regular basis, here's a screenshot.

First click on the New Posts link, which will show you all of the threads that contain posts you haven't read since your last visit.
From that list, I open up each thread in a different tab by clicking the small arrow icon next to the title. That will open the thread, starting from first unread post from your last visit.

Hope that helps!

[Skip]

Thanks for the feedback.

Perhaps limiting it to the most recent posts by Remedy staff would make it more useful.



This would actually be great too. I'm sure you got what I was saying but I'll just add this:

http://forum.alanwake.com/picture.php?albumid=87&pictureid=554

When you would click on the "10 most recent posts" link it would take you to a page that's setup exactly how the "Find All Posts By [Insert User Name Here]" link works on this forum. It shows all the comments on one page with a link to their respective threads right above it. I always found it to be useful. Either way thanks for your time and input. :)

[TannosukeGR]

joukoRMD or ADM, could you guys implement the "video" tag along with the other tags(picture, link, quote, etc)? It'd avoid this much writing code. :)

[Morry]

joukoRMD or ADM, could you guys implement the "video" tag along with the other tags(picture, link, quote, etc)? It'd avoid this much writing code. :)
Do you mean linking to youtube and vimeo videos?

We have the youtube [ yt ] video id [ /yt ] and vimeo [ vv ] video id [ /vv ] tags set up for use.

[TannosukeGR]

Do you mean linking to youtube and vimeo videos?

We have the youtube [ yt ] video id [ /yt ] and vimeo [ vv ] video id [ /vv ] tags set up for use.

yep, but I don't mean them in HTML code, but in icon implemented code. An idea is to do the same system, like how we press the link or the picture icon above and then we insert the url, so the same system would happen here. :)

[Morry]

yep, but I don't mean them in HTML code, but in icon implemented code. An idea is to do the same system, like how we press the link or the picture icon above and then we insert the url, so the same system would happen here. :)
Ah, I see. You want an icon in the Advanced Post box. That's something ADM would have to look in to.

[Kahr]

yep, but I don't mean them in HTML code, but in icon implemented code.
It's not HTML, but yeah, I get your point. A quick button for these things would be useful.

[sidetwo]

These are both changes I'll need to look into after the new year. Things are a bit too busy now, unfortunately.

Quick note though I'm leaning away from your suggestion, Skip, as I'm not sure how much it differs from the "New Posts" link at the top Navigation bar.

[TannosukeGR]

Speaking of tags, include the Spoiler Tag's icon in advanced post box, too. It's not included in yet.

ADM, you also need to look into the spoiler window's closure, because once you open the spoiler window, you can't close it. :/

[Ultimecia]

Is there a way to post youtube video's here? Not just the link where the video is located, I mean directly watch it here from the youtube website?

[sidetwo]

Is there a way to post youtube video's here? Not just the link where the video is located, I mean directly watch it here from the youtube website?
Yes:

url to youtube video here

[QuantumWake]

There is a bit of a typo in the Alan Wake Store, it says "Gamespot" when it should say "GameStop".

[TheJerkstore]

There is a bit of a typo in the Alan Wake Store, it says "Gamespot" when it should say "GameStop".

Actually I think you'll find that's not a typo. Google "GameSpot", it's a gaming site, just like IGN.

[QuantumWake]

Actually I think you'll find that's not a typo. Google "GameSpot", it's a gaming site, just like IGN.

-___- Yeah, I know that. Maybe typo was the wrong word. More like a mix-up? :p

[Morry]

i think every thing is going fine with the forum and according to me it does not need any change for its improvement. All Things are well managed by the formers.
Disclaimer: No bribery was involved in the above post :lol: