Can you spare an info dime, E-mpire?

[VG Aficionado]

Per Viper's suggestion, and on my own will as well, I'm creating a thread to discuss various subjects on board features this forum lacks and what's being done to keep it up to date, and what else is yet to come if possible.

I've been concerned for a while about the seemingly uncalled-for lack of useful forum features, although I haven't made threads about them. To name a few: embedding videos (why can't we embed a youtube video instead of going old-fashioned and simply posting a link? ), automatically adjustable margins (why so much horizontal area has to be wasted?), hide tags, greater profile customization to show more info about us and our online activities including network IDs and whatnot, etc. Oh, of course, automatic picture resizing.

Also, some minor things puzzle me, like the fact that there are superscript and spoiler protection features that have to be manually enabled by the user, and most people ignore they're there and they of course won't use them if they think they're not available. Even some of the staff don't seem to know they're there.

Yeah, there have to be many reasons behind all these matters, but just how many people besides some of the staff members know about them? I just found through Viper that it's not convenient to implement a lot of stuff because there's a good chance they screw the whole system in no time the second you want to upgrade something else. I totally understand that you don't want to have to close the boards for a while simply because attempting to enable a new all pink theme can cause the whole system to die on you. I also understand that if a new feature compromises the security of the board it's always more sensible not to implement it until you're sure you can do it safely.


I'm of course not mandatorily demanding new functions, but I would like to at least know why can't we have them available because I'm sure you're well aware of how much we'd all benefit from additional features that would make our lifes easier and make our experience at the boards richer. I'm sure there have to be reasonable motives behind your decisions, but just don't keep them all to yourselves if you can talk about them and share your concerns with the community, which I'm sure is also here to help the staff when possible. I don't want to see threads like this one (http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=76563) now and then reminding everyone to follow a de facto protocol, no matter how kind you're being when you're approaching this issue, and failing to elaborate more on the "why" and going all "just shut up and do it, lazy bastards". I'd rather see you acting like "We hope that we will end up having all these useful features that will help us all to save our precious time and make everyone's posts content richer. In the meantime, please do this".

That thread was closed not because of me, but because there's a reluctance from E-mpire's staff to delve into these matters timely and for some reason I had to be called a hard ass instead of getting satisfactory answers and more than 1 reply like "I see what you're talking about, and our stance on this issue is like this and this and the problems are that and that". IMO.

Please E-mpire staff, make sure to be as open as possible on what I'd like to see discussed here, please. And refrain from calling me a hard ass again... if you can.

[Viper]

Embedding videos like Youtube requires HTML to be accessed on the forums. At least this is the manner I'm familiar with using. If there is another way, let me know. Enabling HTML on a forum is bad. It messes with the actual site code itself if a tag is misplaced or maliciously coded.

The margins are there because the skins were made 2 years ago back when smaller screens were much more common. We also use some of that space for ads. We're currently in the process of looking to add user generated content there like fan art. We also have new skins being considered that might remove the margins altogether and of course our own forum software in development. Both would also eliminate the ad placement and since ads pay the bills, we'll have to handle that with prudence.

I've already added gamer tag profile slots. I did that a long time ago. As well as some other bio slots. What others do you suggest? I can add those right now.

Spoiler tags and other things like that require the tag to be installed and a button to be coded and skinned for it. They're not as easy to add as they sound when you have a custom skin.

Smileys, I know you didn't point it out but others have before and will here too so I'm heading them off. I've tried adding some myself but the data paths gave errors. That was a while bask so perhaps we'll try again.

Something that many of you already know and others may not. Nearly every single facet of this forum, the sites...the whole network is under a behind the scenes renovation. From the way things will look and interact to the system that powers it. All a propriety system. These things take vast amounts of time, money and energy to design, code and implement. Anytime that must be used to add a simple feature here now is time way from finishing work on the bigger project.

Last night we spent hours updating the vBulletin software that powers the forums to the most up to date version. Much of the newest features are not on the user end of things. Even the mods and admins will see little actual difference. It's largely a security measure which is why we'd take time away from the big project to deal with this. Some have suggested it was actually a step back in that we lost some functionality. While not entirely true in that it is a step back, one of the problems with updating to new new software is sometimes the transition isn't as seamless as you'd like and some facets may not work properly until the kinks are ironed out. Smiley don't work perfectly yet. A few threads have incorrect page references making them inaccessible from certain index links. These will all be fixed in due time.

I hope I've been able to answer your concerns and if you have anything further to add to it, please feel free to express it.

[Omega]

I think you have alot of great suggestions and ideas. Just so you know, our forum software has been upgraded to the latest releases and by default, it doesn't come with some of the features you mentioned.

Its not a matter of us deciding not to implement those features, the issue is researching to find the best and most secure solutions.

I will research some of the ideas you've presented and see which ones are most practical to implement.

Sorry that you were called a hard ass for your feedback, I don't know who did it but I don't condone that type of response.

[VG Aficionado]

I'm glad that I just got some answers that I only wish had been given before. Thank you very much.

[Viper]

YouTube embedding - Check

[VG Aficionado]

Yeah, we realised. What we'd like to know now is why Omega said "only one per thread". I mean, who's going to be the first one who posts more than one in a given thread, intentionally or not?

[Viper]

I don't know the exact reasoning but there could be some server stress issues but I don't know.

Perhaps after a week of testing we'll go lax on the 1 per thread rule.

[Omega]

The inclusion of multiple flash objects on a page, whether they are playing or not, can cause lags for people viewing the thread.

[OnBake Platinum]

That's actually true. I've experienced it myself.