New GarageGames.com Feedback

#1 Note, forum search will be available shortly. In the mean time, blog and resource search should work fine.

#2 Would be nice for the time to appear on the comments post for blogs and threads. Not exactly world ending having just the date, but would be nice to have time as well.

And is "recent forum comments list" coming back?

Apart from that and initial shock at lack of colour compared with old site. Nice!

#3 This is great, but the forum is going to take some real getting used too. It's not like any forum I've ever visited or used. It looks great tho, and I'm sure, with a little time it will feel like home again. Again, great job guys. I like this new site. :)

#4 Woot! Pretty, pretty, shiny, shiny.

The important stuff seems to be in place, I'll save my feedback for the morning after I dig around some more.

#5 Ack. No edit feature.... and smilies stil don't work. (I understand the reason for not using them btw.)

#6 Looks great !

Links appear to be broken - resources refer to links that no longer work. Download link appears to be missing in many resources.

All bookmarks (links) appear to be dead:

http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=10333

http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=3673

Looks great, but much harder to use and navigate - the need for speed and functionality vs shiny and eye popping.... (speed and func win every time...)

#7 I like the new color scheme and the cleaned up banner/top menu area.
Now, down to business. :)

I second the 'recent forums post' list of everything posted and the associated 'mark all items as read'. I definitely use that first thing every time I come to the site to catch up.

TorqueX isn't showing up under 'My products (private forums)'.

#8 I like the old art and logo better. But I do like the new set-up.

Also, why isn't the IP site working? I use that because I get disconnected alot from this hostname.

#9 I'll third the recent forums post listing. It just makes finding new posts easier.

One other thing is to fix the "add your reply" box to only the last page. Currently, due to the fact the box is on the first posting page, and we aren't used to more than one page, it's easy to overlook second, third, etc... pages as when you see the posting box, it makes you think you are at the end of the postings.

#10 I also would like to have back, "recent forums posts" & "mark all items as read". Also, I did notice that a couple of my product purchase dates are off. Under My Account, it tells me that I purchased Torque Engine 1.4 on Jan 1, 1970... Thanks.

#11 With no real documentation for it, it would be nice to get all of the houdini posts back

#12 @Tyler, you should not ever need to use that IP address again.. and in fact we ask that you please do not! Your connection woes should be over.

@Everyone, keep the feedback coming :) we will be listening carefully to feedback and of course fixing bugs as we go.

#13 Keep 'em coming, guys! Our plan is to go through this list pretty thoroughly first thing in the morning and prioritize the stuff that needs to get done ASAP. (And of course, we'll be checking back over the site periodically tonight to make sure nothing is falling off.)

#14 I love the new design but where did the Torque Constructor forums go??

#15 What happened to the 'threads and posts I created' link in the profile section? I posted a thread in the 2d Art (TGB section) and now I can't find it. I thought I could use that link, but it isn't working.

#16 Wow, what a surprise! I knew it was coming, but I was still surprised when it happened. Does that make sense?

Anyways, I wanted to give some initial feedback.

1. Smooth - The look and feel is pretty good. As well, the site loads quickly and smoothly on IE7 and Chrome (so I'm covered anyways).

2. Snapshots Gone! - The 80+ pages of snapshots are gone? If so, this is a real shame. There was a lot of history in that content and I still (till today) referred to it on occasion. Suggestion: 1. Bring that content back, or 2. Package it up somehow so that those who care about that history can download it for reference.

3. Spell Checker, check! - Very nice. I just noticed that there is a built-in spell checker in this editor.

4. Search Changes, Good and Bad - I like the fact that there is a away to constrain searches by using Search, Author, Created From, Created To, and any combination of 31 unique Locations. This is all awesome. However, being needy I want to see if there is one more thing we can get. Can we get a checkbox that negates the author criteria? For example, I'd like to be able to do the following advanced search: Find all blog entries where I wrote a comment, but was not the author.

5. Watched Threads - This was not a feature on the last site either, but it would be nice if there way to show all threads you're currently watching, regardless of whether new content has been posted. This would provide a means of book-marking within the site and allow one to 'un-watch' threads. Mostly I like this idea since it is like book-marking. If you're already tracking 'watched', finding all watched doesn't seem like it should be that much harder.

6. Blogs, only 100 words or less? - I think it must be a typo, but this comment Blogs must be 100 words in length is shown when you click 'Post a Blog'. Is this a real rule? If so, that's too bad. I really enjoy epic blogs (assuming they are well written). 100 words or less might as well be a twitter entry.

7. Formatting help - The old site had a link on most content posting pages that would pop-up a formatting rules page. i.e. How to bold, italic, insert images, insert URL links, etc. I know most of these, but new folks will probably be a bit confused. I suggest upgrading the editors to be interactive (buttons to apply these attributes) if you can, but if not we'll need that shortcut page somewhere.

More later perhaps... Now, it is time for me to get back to work. Also, I'm sure others will chime in with ideas and their own feedback soon.

#17 8. I couldn't confirm it till I submitted my first new post, but I can't modify my forum post after submitting. I know it is somewhat contrary to some folks belief, but I really liked being able to re-edit my forum posts. The benefit for me was that it allowed me to fix typos and 'jiggle' the content to make it more useful and legible, etc. There is no point in posting a forum entry/response if it ends up being hard to read or understand. Can we get this feature back? i.e. The ability to modify any and all content we post after the fact. This still works for Blogs, just not forum entries.

#18 Ack, this is what I mean. I ready my second to last post item 4 and found a stupid typo. Now I can't fix it.

So, for now I'll correct my prior post by reposting and correcting the goofed up part. (I don't want to seem like a total idiot. :) )


4. ... For example, I'd like to be able to do the following advanced search: Find all forum (not blog like I said before)entries where I wrote a comment, but was not the author.

#19 I would like to have the "recent forums post listing" back too. Still a bit confusing going through the new design but I don't see the screen shot section or job/team/developer/ section anymore. Will those section still be available ?

#20 A few things...

• You need a redirect of links to the old forum urls to the new
location.[/li]

• Gosh we really need the "unread forum posts" list back quick... i can't use the forums without it![/li]
• Need info on what the new site markup is... a link near all reply boxes would be great.[/li]
• Now that we have a new site... how about getting more RSS feeds including feeds for specific forums.[/li]
• How about we finally list all a users puchased products in their profiles... this makes it much easier to verify people have licenses for things and helps expose people who are pirating stuff.[/li]
• You don't need a time on the "Member since:" field in the profiles.[/li]
• I miss the links in the "Posts" section of the profile to get a list of all my forum, blog, and resource posts.[/li]
• There is something wrong with the old "ul" tags for doing bullet lists... its got some weird graphic glitch instead of a bullet.[/li]