I am concerned is all. I hope that my concerns are just that, concerns, and not fact. I WANT more options, it's why I supported the reforging. However, if I end up looking at hours and days of work to get my sites working again, I will not be a happy camper.
Would be nice if we could get some confirmation on how existing content will be affected by the Reforging.
Keelah Se'lai,
Keryth
"Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
"Campaign of the Month - July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/
Sorry I haven't checked in for a while, but here's my two cents:
I don't like what I've seen so far. Of course, I say that with a grain of salt. This isn't a beta test - what we have access to is a work-in-progress. We're not being asked to deliver any input on functionality at this point; which is good because I wouldn't really have a lot of nice things to say. I certainly hope we're going to get a chance to test-drive the reforged site before it goes live because I anticipate having a lot of questions and concerns that I'd like addressed. I think we've earned that opportunity since we helped fund the reforge.
However, I'm anticipating that anyone who has spent a lot of time and energy creating their site is going to be EXTREMELY disappointed. At this point, the entire look of my original campaign is being compromised by the reforge. It's not the end of the world, but it is going to take A LOT of effort to get things looking good again.
That being said, if I'm going to expend a lot of time and effort making my site look good again, the reforge site needs to kick ass!
Hey guys, just wanted to jump in here and address a few concerns. I'm running on little to no sleep here so please excuse any brain-farts that may occur. Here I go:
The campaign dashboard is wholly separate from the typical page layout you guys are used to on the current site. You'll still be able to customize all of your campaign but now that initial page is known as the campaigns "front page", the dashboard is a separate entity, it won't be as customizable as the front page or the rest of your campaign pages but then again you don't have to use it if you don't want to. It was made for convenience mainly, you can still tweak some colors and other settings but please know that we aren't forcing design constraints down anyone's throats on every page - yes the campaign pages have changed a bit but it's not night and day.
In regards to custom CSS, unfortunately yes tons of stuff is going to break on people's campaigns who utilize custom CSS. Most of my own personal campaigns are looking a little rough on the reforging site but that's the thing...we're all savvy enough to have done it the first time, it won't be _that_ bad to slap it back together. It was one of the major drawbacks when we were debating the reforging but sometimes you've gotta tear down a little bit to rebuild something much better in its place. Yes it will take some time and there will be kinks to hammer out but we'll all be here - working together as a community as we always do. We'll power through it and have awesome results when all is said and done.
As for reforging trickle of information, the team has been laser-focused on the reforging lately because we really want to come through on the deadline we've pushed back. Micah has had his nose to the grindstone for I can't even count how many solid weeks now. I've been managing a ton of back end backer complications, commissions, and the usual flood of tickets and day to day stuff. I'm doing KS updates and trying to keep tabs on dozens of things at once but I've still got a 60+ hour a week day job, two kids, and home improvement projects coming out of my ears. I do want you guys to know that I'm buckling down now to keep you all fed with information and address concerns as much as possible. I should have you know though that there are many, many threads within these boards which I've kept tabs on yet haven't chimed in on. I've been a lurker, and I apologize for that.
Also, believe me we hear you guys loud and clear on things like custom tabs and custom categories for characters (NPC, PC, Dead, etc.) without having to use the filter every time. I'm going to be passing these along to the team and seeing what we can do. As always, if this isn't something they can knock out immediately we can always put it on the road map for the future.
I also understand wanting to "test drive" the full reforged site before it goes live and I'll be passing that along to everyone as well. Also please remember you can email me directly any time if you have serious concerns, I'll always see an email and get to respond much quicker than I'll have time to scan the forums. So shoot me a line if you need to, anytime.
I hope I've assuaged some of your concerns at least partially, please feel free to give me feedback and ask some more questions here and I'll be sure to address them.
Thanks again guys, for all of your support, believe me - it means more to us than you might know.
Thanks so much for your response Jerry! Just great to know we are being heard- and listened to!
I expect a bunch of us that are very close to our sites to cry when they break.... and then go and fix them- myself included!
Looks like my decision to not redoe Shadows with CSS when it came out was a good one. Seems like i won;t have alot of work to redoe.
I feel for all those sites I admire so much that have heavily used the CSS though.
Then again, even my site could still break.
We shall see.
Little less concerned/worried now, however
Keelah Se'lai,
Keryth
"Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
"Campaign of the Month - July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/
I'm glad to hear that the Campaign Dashboard is a separate entity. Will have to see how things pan out to know how useful it will be to our team.
The imminent busting up of CSS codes sounds scary, but I guess I will live with it and move through it with the pain. I hope those who are TECH savvy are not to busy fixing up their own sites to help those poor miserable TECH novices like me who will be crying real tears of frustration.
With regard to the recent REFORGE announcement about ITEMS, I really don't mind that the importance of ITEMS will be dropped. I agree with Micah's argument and believe we can easily do without something that can easily be worked into a normal WIKI.
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Will the new site be able to read our old backups?
Will you implement a new backup before the switchover?
What steps should we take if pages are missing after the switchover?
I love the OP folks and appreciate the work they are doing. But (unless I missed it AGAIN) (/shakes fist at the heavens ) I can't find any recent update or ETAs, other than early October.
Not fussing, has anyone heard anything about where they are?
Do we have some kind of idea of exactly *what* sorts of things they'll be breaking with the CSS? I mean, if they're just reorganizing some of the selectors, that's not so bad. But if they're going to make it so we can't change things we previously could... That's a bit more of a problem...
Quite a few things will be reorganized. From what I see, it'll largely be changes to the base CSS and a few of the selectors. I'm pretty certain we can still edit everything we used to be able to.
Still, current heavily-CSS'd pages (like my own Edgerunners) will look quite terrible, and mostly be unreadable, at the start.
Make sure to listen to the bit at the beginning of the podcast about the "Vanguard" program.
A program where veteran volunteers get rewarded for helping those who need assistance, because they have heavily modified their campaign pages.
Sounds like a good plan. I'm just wondering of I should strip out all my custom css ahead of time and store it offline. They say in the podcast that those who "just" use it to store notes will have a transparent changeover come Monday.
Want to give you guys a bit more of an update, our UI designer is putting together a guide on all of the CSS changes and stuff like that. I'm not sure if he's finalized it yet but we're not just going to be leaving you in the dark here.
Don't dread it too much, sometimes you've gotta tear a little down to rebuild something nicer and this is one of those cases. We're going to knock this stuff out!
Comments
Would be nice if we could get some confirmation on how existing content will be affected by the Reforging.
Keelah Se'lai,
Keryth
"Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
"Campaign of the Month - July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/regnum
Here's to wishful thinking this will go less bumpy than some of the server moves in the Datacenter I worked in 2 years ago, LOL!
AZ_Rune
I don't like what I've seen so far. Of course, I say that with a grain of salt. This isn't a beta test - what we have access to is a work-in-progress. We're not being asked to deliver any input on functionality at this point; which is good because I wouldn't really have a lot of nice things to say. I certainly hope we're going to get a chance to test-drive the reforged site before it goes live because I anticipate having a lot of questions and concerns that I'd like addressed. I think we've earned that opportunity since we helped fund the reforge.
However, I'm anticipating that anyone who has spent a lot of time and energy creating their site is going to be EXTREMELY disappointed. At this point, the entire look of my original campaign is being compromised by the reforge. It's not the end of the world, but it is going to take A LOT of effort to get things looking good again.
That being said, if I'm going to expend a lot of time and effort making my site look good again, the reforge site needs to kick ass!
The campaign dashboard is wholly separate from the typical page layout you guys are used to on the current site. You'll still be able to customize all of your campaign but now that initial page is known as the campaigns "front page", the dashboard is a separate entity, it won't be as customizable as the front page or the rest of your campaign pages but then again you don't have to use it if you don't want to. It was made for convenience mainly, you can still tweak some colors and other settings but please know that we aren't forcing design constraints down anyone's throats on every page - yes the campaign pages have changed a bit but it's not night and day.
In regards to custom CSS, unfortunately yes tons of stuff is going to break on people's campaigns who utilize custom CSS. Most of my own personal campaigns are looking a little rough on the reforging site but that's the thing...we're all savvy enough to have done it the first time, it won't be _that_ bad to slap it back together. It was one of the major drawbacks when we were debating the reforging but sometimes you've gotta tear down a little bit to rebuild something much better in its place. Yes it will take some time and there will be kinks to hammer out but we'll all be here - working together as a community as we always do. We'll power through it and have awesome results when all is said and done.
As for reforging trickle of information, the team has been laser-focused on the reforging lately because we really want to come through on the deadline we've pushed back. Micah has had his nose to the grindstone for I can't even count how many solid weeks now. I've been managing a ton of back end backer complications, commissions, and the usual flood of tickets and day to day stuff. I'm doing KS updates and trying to keep tabs on dozens of things at once but I've still got a 60+ hour a week day job, two kids, and home improvement projects coming out of my ears. I do want you guys to know that I'm buckling down now to keep you all fed with information and address concerns as much as possible. I should have you know though that there are many, many threads within these boards which I've kept tabs on yet haven't chimed in on. I've been a lurker, and I apologize for that.
Also, believe me we hear you guys loud and clear on things like custom tabs and custom categories for characters (NPC, PC, Dead, etc.) without having to use the filter every time. I'm going to be passing these along to the team and seeing what we can do. As always, if this isn't something they can knock out immediately we can always put it on the road map for the future.
I also understand wanting to "test drive" the full reforged site before it goes live and I'll be passing that along to everyone as well. Also please remember you can email me directly any time if you have serious concerns, I'll always see an email and get to respond much quicker than I'll have time to scan the forums. So shoot me a line if you need to, anytime.
I hope I've assuaged some of your concerns at least partially, please feel free to give me feedback and ask some more questions here and I'll be sure to address them.
Thanks again guys, for all of your support, believe me - it means more to us than you might know.
-Jerry
I expect a bunch of us that are very close to our sites to cry when they break.... and then go and fix them- myself included!
Just trying to help out.
I am new to this site so I have not done any custom CSS on my campaign yet. I will wait until after reforging.
Looks like my decision to not redoe Shadows with CSS when it came out was a good one. Seems like i won;t have alot of work to redoe.
I feel for all those sites I admire so much that have heavily used the CSS though.
Then again, even my site could still break.
We shall see.
Little less concerned/worried now, however
Keelah Se'lai,
Keryth
"Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
"Campaign of the Month - July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
The imminent busting up of CSS codes sounds scary, but I guess I will live with it and move through it with the pain. I hope those who are TECH savvy are not to busy fixing up their own sites to help those poor miserable TECH novices like me who will be crying real tears of frustration.
With regard to the recent REFORGE announcement about ITEMS, I really don't mind that the importance of ITEMS will be dropped. I agree with Micah's argument and believe we can easily do without something that can easily be worked into a normal WIKI.
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Just trying to help out.
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Will the new site be able to read our old backups?
Will you implement a new backup before the switchover?
What steps should we take if pages are missing after the switchover?
Just trying to help out.
Not fussing, has anyone heard anything about where they are?
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Just trying to help out.
"We plan to launch sometime in October, shooting for the 20th or the 27th!"
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Just trying to help out.
-crosses fingers that CSS will not be butchered-
Not to say that I am not looking forward to it. I'm most looking forward to the expanded maps.
"Link":http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/252020431/obsidian-portal-reforged/posts
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Still, current heavily-CSS'd pages (like my own Edgerunners) will look quite terrible, and mostly be unreadable, at the start.
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
That we we could download it, dissect it, and start working on the code changes for our websites.
"Link":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/haste-ddi-goes-dark-gamer-wisdom-tabletop-sfx/#more-2719
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
A program where veteran volunteers get rewarded for helping those who need assistance, because they have heavily modified their campaign pages.
Sounds like a good plan. I'm just wondering of I should strip out all my custom css ahead of time and store it offline. They say in the podcast that those who "just" use it to store notes will have a transparent changeover come Monday.
I think I fall into the middle.
I'm scared...somebody hug me...
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
- Kallak
Don't dread it too much, sometimes you've gotta tear a little down to rebuild something nicer and this is one of those cases. We're going to knock this stuff out!
- Kallak