Obsidian Portal Launch Feedback

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  • madartiste
    madartiste
    Posts: 328
    I think the line-height space might be tied to the p element -- at least that's what I've been finding. If Thor's suggestion isn't working try @.main-content p {line-height:1.2;}@
  • Leonidas300
    Leonidas300
    Posts: 273 edited November 2013
    Thanks madartiste, that actually worked a bit better than the one Thor gave me (still thanks Thor). I will try to limit myself to these last two question for tonight as I am again frustrated by the time sink fixing my stuff has been and will continue to be:


    Is there a way to add items to the OP's side navigation bar? I don't totally hate theirs but the one I had finally got to work on mine pre-reforge was a much better avenue for navigating my campaign. If I could add to it awesome if I can get it off in favor of something better awesome as well.

    I finally figured out how to get the damn links to change color so not every link was indistinguishable from regular text, I went with classic blue and it works great except for the actual edit box links, the dark blue on black is hard to read, when I mouse over it turns to white (which is the one instance the white text is not horrific) would this be something I'd have to use an !important thing on? and if so what the hell would I name it without screwing up the other link colors?


    "Leonidas300":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/leonidas300
    "A Manifestation of Chaos":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/main-page
    COTM - Sept. 2012
    Post edited by Leonidas300 on
  • madartiste
    madartiste
    Posts: 328 edited November 2013
    I'll let someone else tackle the first question since I can't honestly think of a way you could *add* stuff to the sidebar in a way that would work well.
    What do you mean by "edit box links"? I can't access the page in your sig (says not authorized -- I assume it's private), so I can't really scope it out, I'm afraid. Do you mean the "edit this page" button on the front page? If so, the selectors looks like should be @.wiki-edit a.button@. Or if you want to change all the buttons @a.button@ Or do you mean the little icon you click to edit most of the pages? That looks like it should be @body.campaign-public-layout .header-icon a@.
    Or you probably mean something completely different and I'm not bright enough to figure it out?
    Post edited by madartiste on
  • Leonidas300
    Leonidas300
    Posts: 273 edited November 2013
    madartiste, yes I mean wiki-edit as well as all similar buttons such as reply and the see all. (sorry, we switched to private while we are thinking things over).

    I opened it back up to public
    Post edited by Leonidas300 on
  • Teak_Dhara
    Teak_Dhara
    Posts: 61 edited November 2013
    Ok, I am really frustrated now. I am not a web programmer and have no idea how to program CCS. I picked this site over a year ago because I DIDN'T have to be a web designer but this "reforge" seems to require that you do massive coding to get your campaigns to look and work somewhat decently! I do not understand at all what in the heck ObsidianPortal management was thinking. I have been reading this forum and have tried some of the code suggestions listed above and they do work, but I feel very betrayed that I now have to spend literally hours and hours trying to get my sites somewhat functional. In the meantime, some of my players have left this site as a result of this "reforge" so here I am working to try to get my campaigns working only to have perhaps no players.

    I have been looking for alternatives to this horrible disaster on this site and found www.epicwords.com --- which is a competitor to obsidianportal.com. Their site is cleaner than what this mess is now. I am going to be moving at least one of my campaigns over there. Anyone else have any alternative suggestions as well?
    Post edited by Teak_Dhara on
  • Omegabase
    Omegabase
    Posts: 41
    Initially I was really disappointed. But after a few days of tinkering and using the various options (and I think a few bug fixes went in during that time), I've got my site looking good again, better than before actually since I can now upload a custom background and the other UI/display enhancements help. Love the custom domain name as well. Part of my positive experience may be due to the fact that I use only vanilla features, no custom CSS or character sheets and I don't rely on graphics containing textual information (thus not impacted by any formatting/display issues).

    But overall, the reforge is a big improvement for me. Love all the new features and new look.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Arcanearth

    Gammaworld 2754

  • Leonidas300
    Leonidas300
    Posts: 273 edited November 2013
    @ Montana

    I won't lie; not happy as well but I also looked at epicwords.com about a week ago and IMHO it sucks ass, a major step down from the portal which if after doing the work of moving all my crap over there I'd be pissed about for a good long time. I will once again risk being defamed as jerk but I think it is important enough to restate the barrier to entry that the Reforge has created has turned many low - mid skilled users sour on the portal and this barrier has been wholesale ignored or super downplayed with condescending statements and attitudes about relative skill needed to do x,y,z. I also believe (rightly too) that the reforge has been a source of upheaval and drama in many people's groups especially those groups that had active player participation. The portal was always about facilitating the game not making it more difficult by adding a metric of drama and coding to complicate the game.

    I'd suggest you stay and try to work on it a little at a time, if you can run your game off the grid for a time while you get things squared away on here, Any other venue you choose is going to involve a ton of work at least here there are great people like Thor, Madartiste, Kallak and Killervp who will help with what they can (they are pretty damn good too).

    This probably not the option you want to go with ATM but after looking around at the alternative options and given the time and work in migrating a campaign; it may be the lesser of multiple evils to stay. I think as vocal as the community has been some of this stuff will get better (and to be fair, some of it already has) and others like a Wolfhound, Areesh and others will eventually have some drag on drop all purpose CSS magic sitting around for folks to use.



    "Leonidas300":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/leonidas300
    "A Manifestation of Chaos":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/main-page
    COTM - Sept. 2012
    Post edited by Leonidas300 on
  • dr_venture
    dr_venture
    Posts: 32
    *shakes head* Still can't believe what's going on here. Montana, I totally understand your feeling of "betrayal" - it's easy to feel that way given the whole situation. That said, as crazy as all of this is, I'm sure the last thing the OP folks had in mind was spending so much dev time to tick off the customers. Updating a fairly big site with a lot of users using the system in a variety of ways is not an easy task under the best of circumstances - in this case, "ripping off the band aid" to get the pain over with all at once was pretty disastrous... but the deed is done, and it appears there's no going back. But the errors in judgement weren't due to the OP folks having their hearts in the wrong place.

    But the current situation it is what it is, and we've got to deal with it. Honestly, if there was a strong competitor I'd likely have jumped ship right away... but there really doesn't appear to be anything close. I agree with Leonidas that the path of least resistance at this point is probably to swallow those feeling of betrayal (they didn't mean it, honest) and stick with OP while they get the bugs ironed out. I'd suggest taking advantage of this Vanguard system they have set up and get some help from some willing devs to get your campaign back in running order. There is far too much CSS required right now for site dev, but the OP folks have recognized this and come up with a reasonable solution - it's meant just for folks like yourself, so be sure to lean make use of it.

    Hang in there, bud.
  • Aenor
    Aenor
    Posts: 20
    So now there's an ugly "Show all pages" block on the right side of the content area... and it just happens to block my sidebar. Could it PLEASE be made optional? I just updated every bloody page in my wiki and I really, REALLY don't feel like doing it all over again.

    What's the point of trying to fix my site if it just gets jacked again after a week or two?
  • dawnhawk
    dawnhawk
    Posts: 113
    @Aenor - The simplest solution is the following:

    .sidebar-see-all-wiki-pages{
    display:none;
    }

    That will remove the button entirely without needing to update any individual pages.
  • madartiste
    madartiste
    Posts: 328
    Leonidas300, you should be able to change the color of the text of your button links with this: @a.button {color:blue;}@
  • hpb3
    hpb3
    Posts: 4
    @Dublin

    I'm using Safari. I wasn't even aware that Chrome was available for the iPad. :)
  • hpb3
    hpb3
    Posts: 4
    I just found out a "work around" on the iPad login issue. If you rotate the screen so that it's in landscape format, the login option does not disappear.
  • Leonidas300
    Leonidas300
    Posts: 273
    @madartiste

    Thanks again, pretty soon I am going to have to add you to my list of Greyhawk deities.



    "Leonidas300":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/leonidas300
    "A Manifestation of Chaos":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/main-page
    COTM - Sept. 2012
  • Aenor
    Aenor
    Posts: 20
    @dawnhawk

    I'm not an Ascendant so that's not really an option. Thanks anyway.
  • Nestor
    Nestor
    Posts: 10
    Wow. I just had to jump in here after discovering this tidbit.

    With the total mess the re-forge had become, I'd canceled my Ascendant membership (thankfully I'd signed up on the monthly plan so I wasn't out that much cash) with the plan to keep checking in and seeing if it would be worth coming back.

    I saw what looked like a useful piece of CSS, so I went into my campaign page settings to see if it would help, and lo and behold, I discovered that applying custom CSS is only available to Ascendant members.

    It has become clear now. The business plan is not to improve the site, but to make the basic functionality so unattractive that users will need to sign up to get anything useful out of it. Well played, OP, well played. You've made it even less likely you'll ever get another cent from me. :-P

    I'd originally left the campaign page up for the sake of my players, but now I will be alerting them that I will be deleting it shortly. I've lost whatever shred of good will I had left about this service, and I don't want to even tacitly support it anymore.
  • madartiste
    madartiste
    Posts: 328
    Um. Nestor. I think custom css was always an ascendant only feature. At least, that's what my experience has been.
  • Nestor
    Nestor
    Posts: 10
    Yes, but before the re-forge, I didn't /need/ any stupid CSS to get what I wanted, because the basic site worked just fine.
  • MarkGiguere
    MarkGiguere
    Posts: 53
    And the basic site works just fine now too.

    Unless, of course, what YOU are complaining about is that the non-standard changes you made were not ported over perfectly.

    h1. THAT

    would be something else.

    The basic site works fine. I even created a new campaign just to see. The biggest problem was the editor's white-on-light-grey colour scheme and that has been fixed.

    Now, this is not to say there are not issues and ...design...choices that can be questioned, but it's been what? All of three WEEKS since the Reforge? Based on industry standards, OP is responding VERY quickly and very efficiently to these issues. And, as far as I know (and I might be wrong), you can STILL make the page-by-page changes you could before, ascendant or not.

    Now, MY main gripe is more towards the lack of communication. Take, for example, the "show all" button that suddenly appeared. There should be a post about this SOMEWHERE from OP. We should have an approximate idea of their plans for fixing the various issues and other stuff. In other words, we NEED more than an occasional post from DreadGazebo and, as I have said before, it NEEDS to be sent out on the forums AND by email so ALL the users get it.

    That being said, the Reforge is still, IMO, a quantum leap forward despite the growing pains.
  • Teak_Dhara
    Teak_Dhara
    Posts: 61
    Thanks everyone for sharing how you are dealing with this site. I so want to this site to work-- I think the concept is great and epicwords.com is not as good as the old site here was. I have spent a number of hours this week trying to reorganize my forums (man, I miss the "sticky" feature) and I still wish that adventure log comments could edited and would allow you to add images (like the forums).

    That being said, I do like how on the frontpage you can put a themed image as the background but I wish that background image would display on every part of the site, not just the front page and the characters. Have any of you CSS whizzes been able to come up with a code that does that-- displays the main background image on every page?
  • Leonidas300
    Leonidas300
    Posts: 273 edited November 2013
    Sorry to see you go Nestor also sorry your valid critisims have been met with what seems to be overwhelmingly dismissive opposition.

    I hope at some point you are able to look back in and return but until then be well,

    "Leonidas300":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/leonidas300
    "A Manifestation of Chaos":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/main-page
    COTM - Sept. 2012
    Post edited by Leonidas300 on
  • Leonidas300
    Leonidas300
    Posts: 273
    Montana - hang in there dude and just walk away from it for awhile when you get too frustrated and come back too it a little later, any way you look at it there will need to be a great deal of time spent putting things back to the way you like and your players want it to be/look like. It sucks but it is what it is.
  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    I'm on board with @MarkGiguere's paragraph about the main gripe.

    I can't think of any situation where a new button should show up (especially with all the flak about the reforge) and there wasn't even a forum post.

    _Unless I missed it of course, then apologies all around._

    I can imagine the situation is tough right now, but that type of feedback is crucial in a process like this. I speak for myself, but I would rather have gotten the "show all pages" even a day later if that had been what it took to have communication and an update from someone here.

    With that said...

    THANKS, that button is great and will certainly help out a lot. Good work and hang in there.
  • dawnhawk
    dawnhawk
    Posts: 113
    @Skidace - I suspect that's why they've decided to hire a customer service rep. To handle just that... ^.^
  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    Ahhhhh...yeah. I forgot.

    Excellent point. Thank you.

    /backing out slowly
  • Cynic
    Cynic
    Posts: 1
    Well I initially liked the idea of the dashboard but now it's become an annoyance for me because you cant customise it. I would much rather my default loading would be the Home Page for the campaign because I don't find I use half of the stuff on the Dashboard and it adds an extra click every time I load to go to a more relevant screen. Unless the Dashboard is able to be customised I would like the option to remove it instead, or at least not have it as the default start screen
  • gaaran
    gaaran
    Posts: 740
    So this isn't intended to be dismissive, but I'm genuinely curious why people are saying that they need to be expert coders to change the site to make it useable? Below I have links to two of my campaigns (out of like a dozen) and these two used absolutely no site-wide custom coding. (There's an in-line menu on one of them).
    "The Fantastinomicon":https://the-fantastinomicon.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page
    "The Secrets of Death":https://the-secrets-of-death.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page

    Below is a page of mine that does have custom coding (although not site-wide CSS, I set this one up before that was an option)
    "The Melekar Chronicles":https://melekar.obsidianportal.com/

    The first two campaigns I linked look almost the same as they did before (although there are some differences in, say, the characters, and maps pages and stuff). The latter uses some custom coding, and is now broken. The pages without the custom coding seem perfectly functional to me though. If this was explained above, I apologize for missing it, but this is a really long thread at this point. I'm just wondering, in a site that didn't utilize custom coding to begin with, why that you guys feel that you have to now, to be able to use your sites? (and I'm certainly not saying that some things are broken or different. The forums, adventure log posts and all that, they all appear pretty differently, and my old banners no longer work properly).

    If you guys have already explained this and don't want to take the time, I understand, but I'm just curious, and if there's anything I can do to help, I will.
  • Praesi
    Praesi
    Posts: 31
    First off, I really don't want to start a fire again! I'm just answering gaaran's question from my point of view.
    To me it feels like coming home, opening the door to my living room, and find that the landlord painted each of the walls in a diferent colour during my absence. A new rug on the floor replaced the antique one I found at the flea market and which I was so proud of. The new LEDs are bright and shiny but I'm missing my dusty lustre. The tv is still there, but it was put infront of the opposite wall. It still works, but the antenna's receipton was better at the old spot... . The door to the living room is, of course, still there and works, but it opens the other way now, so I bumped my toe already several times.
    Some things were taken out of the cupboard and put into the cabinet and vice versa, and some things I still can't find. Probably that guy has put them in the trash, because he thought I would'nt need them anymore.
    I just wonder what will have changed when I come home tomorrow - and also, when the landlord will have finished the renovations... .

    To quote George Takei: "Oh Myyyy!" ;-)
  • Thorvaldr
    Thorvaldr
    Posts: 141
    @Praesi: ...that... that might be the best, most even-handed fair and accurate description I have seen for the reforging yet. Brilliant!

    -Thorvaldr
    DM of "Tyellador":https://tyellador.obsidianportal.com/
  • JDarkshadow
    JDarkshadow
    Posts: 6
    I held off on posting on the re-forge till now, seeing that a lot of people had the same issues I did, I assumed they would be quickly resolved... Seeing that they haven't been, I'll chime in really quick:

    Major Issues:
    1. Wiki-page content width too narrow! wtf, 2/3 of the page is background
    2. What is the dashboard? What is its purpose in relation to the Front Page? I set up my front page to be the first place players see when they visit the campaign.

    Likes:
    1. The new look is slick
    2. The cool dragon logo
    3. Top ribbon is great, especially the search bar

    Conclusion: Though there are a couple nice features, it hurts to try to add to my campaign in its current format. I'd rather just get my own url and build something myself (gaaahhh). I'm going to check when my ascendant membership expires, and if we can't fix the width thing by then, I'm out.
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