FEEDBACK - Getting social

andreww38

On OP, you have 2 profile pages.
I'll use killervp as an example.

One is your "forum profile":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/account.php?u=60627 (built on vanilla forum)

One is your "OP profile":https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/killervp (built on OP's secret blend of spices and ruby on rails code)

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Your OP profile has an "add friend" and "personal message" link.

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to add a friend while you're talking on the forum, you need to find your way from the forum, then to obsidianportal.com, and find the person (via their campaign or other pathfinding sorcery), which can be as tough as getting from the shire to Mount Doom on foot.

My question is:
1) Would you like to easily access "add friend" and PM functions on a user's profile?
2) Would it be useful? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most useful, would it be? (Spinal Tap "volume 11" ratings will be counted as a "10")

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Current situation:
because they're on 2 separate platforms, we need a fair amount of work for them to "talk" to each other.
At the same time, I feel it could potentially be useful and make OP more social, it might be worth doing.
But only if you guys tell us you want it.

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Hoping to capture as much feedback (ie: more than 10 responses) to this by the weekend.

Vote wisely.

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My questions (again):
1) Would you like to easily access "add friend" and PM functions on a user's profile?
2) Would it be useful? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most useful, would it be? (Spinal Tap "volume 11" ratings will be counted as a "10")

GamingMegaverse

This would be great. However, there are over 100 open help tickets, probably closer to 200, right now. I vote for after all of those are fixed.

Lxcharon

I would love a add friend option on the forums, actually I'd like a like a lot more accessibility between the two. Making jumping from one to the other more natural, as they are they seem almost as two separate entities that are loosely related. I also feel like this would help new users a lot. I think most of us have work arounds (or just know to use google to find what we need on OP)

But as Killervp pointed out there are a number of more glaring issues that should probably be addressed first. Fancy new toys are nice but they don't cover up the broken heater in the corner.

Basileus

Same boat.

These old forums on a separate platform do seem a little isolated from the main site; however, I've personally never had trouble finding profiles in the past, so while this might be convenient in the future, I don't think it would save more than a few seconds every so often. Maybe worth some cycles in the future, but right now probably not a high priority.

Kallak

My opinion on this is yes, absolutely. Having some manner of link between the user profile page on the forums and overall site would be great. I can't tell you how many times I've read something someone posted and then had to go to my own profile page and then type in their name to replace mine in the address bar to see their bio or campaigns. It's not god awful, but it certainly feels a bit old school.

Maesenko

I would rather have it so clicking on a person's name in the forum just redirected them to the OP profile, so I wouldn't have to bother with the method Kallak has outlined above. I'd just as soon do away with the forum profile pages altogether (I've never liked them in the years I've been here).

A straight redirect, rather than adding more buttons to the forums or slightly-buried forum profiles, would be more effective at making it more social, since we could click a name and immediately see what they are a part of on OP. Besides, the OP profile has more detail and function; the only thing the forum profile really shows is visits and post counts.

So to answer the questions directly:
1) NO, because a direct link to the OP page would be better.
2) Usefulness rating: 0/10 if above suggestion is implemented, 3/10 if not.

andreww38

Thanks for your feedback. Filing for future ref.

twiggyleaf

I was going to say 11 and then I saw Maesenko's post. However, although I would prefer a link to the OP Profile (and it would be more useful for making friends, sending PMs and looking at Campaign Details), I also like the way the Forum Profile shows involvement on the Forums.

I agree with KVP that deflecting resources for such changes would detract from fixing important issues, so I will just ride things out for now.

twiggyleaf
CURRENT CAMPAIGN: "Mysteria":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mysteria - set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: "Shimring":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring

Kallak

I'd like to hope that everyone knows that andrew isn't going to stop working on big/important issues to sideline development for smaller stuff. Pretty sure these posts are for down the road. While yes I agree that the primary focus should continue to be on big things, that doesn't mean you can save up notes for a rainy day. I imagine everyone here has done this for campaigns, I know I certainly have. Working on my Star Wars campaign ATM, but I've got at least 4 notebooks with ideas for other stuff that I plan to work on eventually.

ketherian

For future reference:

1) Would you like to easily access “add friend” and PM functions on a user’s profile?
Yes.

2) Would it be useful? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most useful, would it be? (Spinal Tap “volume 11” ratings will be counted as a “10”)
5

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Ketherian
"Signs & portents":swtwc.obsidianportal.com

Keryth987

I would like to be able to click on someone in the forums and go directly to their OP Profile. the Forums Profile is pretty useless.

Also, it would REALLY be nice if the forums allowed a signature file. Having to go and copy and past mine every time works, but not having to do so would REALLY be nice.


Keelah Se'lai,
Keryth
"Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
"2013 Campaign of The Year":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/2013-coty-shadows-over-new-york/
"Campaign of the Month July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/

Lxcharon

I second a signature.

GamingMegaverse

@Kallak- except that has not been shown in the past to be the case. There are things being rolled out that took some time investment, yet the help tickets are still there, not being addressed.

saethone

I'd say its about a 3. I honestly don't think it'd be worth the work. If any work is going to be put into the forums, I'd suggest just going all in on bringing them to the same platform as the main OP site. These are archaic, disconnected (both programatically and from the user experience POV). Obviously thats a larger project to tackle after the reforge goals are finished, but it is what it is. These are outdated and at a certain point its better to just retire them and start from scratch than keep modifying something thats fallen behind the times.

andreww38

The forum is vanilla forum, a PHP-based forum platform.

OP is a custom coded Ruby on Rails script.

So there is no easy way to unify platforms, and will require advanced planning, hence I brought it up now.
It's unlikely to see any major changes until the bigger issues get resolved, but it will help me in planning out what resources to ask for in the later part of the year.

All feedback, positive or negative, is welcome.

Maesenko

Side note: remember that issue we had on the forums before, where it was showing those "strict standard" lines at the top? I'm seeing it again on my forum profile page (and only my page, I clicked every name in this thread).

Can anybody confirm if it's showing on my profile page for them (e.g. killervp sees it on Maesenko's forum profile), or alternatively if it's just a user's own page (e.g. killervp sees it on killervp's forum profile) ?

Lxcharon

I've actually been seeing it on my page for a few days now but because it didn't seem to affect functionality I ignored it.

GamingMegaverse

Only on my page, not on anyone else's as well.

weasel0

Just for kicks(that's probably the 6th time in 6 years I've ever looked at that page) I checked and same for me.

Basileus

Yeah, this has been there since the forums were "fixed" a while back. I mentioned it but never got any response from OP:

http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=4088&page=1#Item_13

GamingMegaverse

Wow, thanks Basileus, for showing that it is not just me that can bring up old issues that have never been addressed.