Reaching out for input, feedback, thoughts, etc..

Kallak
Kallak
edited September 2018 in General Discussion

Hey there OPers.

Looking at the calendar, it occurs to me that I'm coming up on having six months "on the job" as OP's community and content manager. That being the case, there are a couple of areas I'd like to touch base with you all on. I'd like to see how people feel, what they want, etc. So, I hope you'll be willing to have a candid discussion, or at least provide some feedback. For ease of reference (and because it's how I do everything basically), I have numbered these items.

[1] The Help Area

Now that the updated Help area has been out for a week or two, I'm hoping that people have at least had a chance to take a gander and formulate an opinion. While obviously it's still being filled in with entries over time, people can see the format, how it's shaping up, etc. What I'd like to know is: What do you think of the format for entries? Is there anything else you feel should be added to the FAQ area? What do (or don't) you like about it? Are there other elements that you'd like to see on here that aren't there now? (As an aside to this, I haven't forgotten your question regarding login @Krothos, it's being looked into).

[2] Blog Content

While I have been doing the blog content since before taking on the job, I'm curious to see if people still feel as though I'm doing it justice now that I've also got other pots on the boil. On a personal level, I enjoy doing it, but I also think it would be great to get more and new contributors to write guest articles and the like. Back when I had the blogger's association going, it was really helpful not to be the sole author. This is even more true now that I also have support tickets, how to's, social media posting, interfacing with partner entities and so forth (seriously, if you'd like to write a guest article, or be a regular contributor to the blog, please let me know, I'll love you forever).

[3] Communication and Performance

I came into this job hoping to make a difference; to help take the positive trends I was starting to see from the back end and add fuel to that fire until it was a raging inferno. While I wouldn't say we're at inferno just yet, I like to think things are better now than before I started (and will continue to improve). But ultimately it's not my thoughts and feelings that makes this true or false, it's yours, the community. So, I'd like to hear from you: What am I doing good? What could I be doing better? Is there anything I'm ignoring or not giving enough focus? Am I going overboard anywhere?

[4] Content and What You Want to See

Part of what I do is communicating with the dev side. I forward support tickets to them for things that need to be fixed or looked into, I bring feature ideas (both my own and those that come into the support area), I give the user-side perspective on things being developed or brainstormed. In short, I try to represent your interests and desires for the site as best I can. As someone who has been on OP for quite a while, I generally feel like I've got a decent handle on this, but it never hurts to check one's calibration from time to time.

That said, I'm interested in hearing what you want to see for the site. Content-wise, feature-wise, in general. Even if you end up talking about something that's already in the works, that's okay - because it lets me know we're on the right track.

~~

I hope to hear from you,

Post edited by Kallak on
All the best,
- Kallak
«1

Comments

  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230 edited September 2018

    Thank you for not forgetting my question. :)

    Regarding [4], I do have some suggestions for some improvements....


    1. You already mentioned that you're working on updating the New Campaign information. This would be great!

    2. Allowing the ability to copy a campaign to a new campaign. This would be great is you like the setup of your existing campaign and want to use it was a springboard for a new campaign site.

    3. Updating the calender to allow scrolling and right-clicking to add/update/delete events on a particular day.

    4. Removing the requirement from End Time when creating a calendar event. Or removing the requirement of having any time. Leave the fields there, just remove requirement of populating them. Just a quality of life improvement for those campaigns that always start and finish at the same time when it's scheduled.

    5. Update the Advanced tab of the Campaign Settings with better explanations on how the different checkboxes and down drops work.

    6. Add a Preview button to the Style tab on Campaign Settings. This will help when customizing the colors and backgrounds to see how the campaign will look without having to save it and edit it and save it and edit it and etc.

    7. Add checkboxes to disable certain items in a campaign, such as stream-module-container, where-we-game-container, user-container, comment-count-wrapper, to name a few.

    8. Have all the webpages match in style (Dashboard, Front Page, Forum, Calendar, etc) regardless of who is viewing it.

    9. Expand the supporting Maps of non-square size (think you previously mentioned work was being done on this but you indicated above to mention something I'd think would be an improvement even if it's already being worked on).

    10. Allow option to use the entire banner space with a user-input banner (right of the dragon head).

    11. On the Forums here, add an option to mark all Topics as read.

    Ok, I think I'll stop here. When I have a few moments later, I'll look into your other bullet points.  :)

    ~ Krothos

     

    Post edited by Krothos on
  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230 edited September 2018

    12. Add additional categories in the Characters. Currently, the character is marked as PC or NPC and the list can be sectioned/separated by those categories (using the option found under Settings > Advanced). Add more like Creature (or Bestiary) or even allow the option to create additional unique categories. Sure, this may be accomplished by using the Tags, but they won't be categorized with a header in the Characters like PC and NPC are currently. It would be a nice feature to click on Characters and see everything already pre-sorted based on those categories. I'm making sense on this one.

    ~ Krothos

     

    Post edited by Krothos on
  • JaymesBolton
    JaymesBolton
    Posts: 278

    Allow private conversations on the in-campaign forums. Would be a great way to converse privately with a player/character for more intrigue based games. 

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090

    Wow, lots of interesting stuff so far.

    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • weasel0
    weasel0
    Posts: 435

    Uhm...


    • An overhaul of the search for campaigns.

    • The return of old ways to "sort by" options for the same.

    • Any chance that can become the new/old face of OP? I liked that much more than the current you get to see only your latest/newest campaign every time you log in.

    That's it from me for now.

  • Keryth987
    Keryth987
    Posts: 1,047

    My biggest suggestion, and I realize this will effect my own campaigns standing, but, the default view for campaign listings right now is by popularity, which is great, until you look and realize most of the top ones haven't been updated in years. Personally, I think it should still sort by number of favorites, but only after it sorts by when it was updated. Maybe use January or the current year as a cutoff. It kinda looks bad for a new user to come on the site and see that most of the campaigns he/she sees on the first page are campaigns that havent been active in years

    I'd also suggest a seperate page that lists all the COTY and COTM

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090

    I appreciate the responses everyone, keep them coming please. I want to hear more from the community!

    As an update, I've gotten ahold of the answer to your question regarding the Help area sign-in @Krothos. There's a bit of development that is going to have to go into syncing up these two pages similar to how the forums operate (since there's not a pre-made integration with Zoho), so for the time being there will be no sign-in for it. You can still browse the knowledge base and whatnot, but the My Area and other login-related elements will be non-functional for the time being with respects to being linked with OP accounts. You can still always open tickets via the [email protected] email, so the partial functionality of the page won't prevent you from making at least some use of it.

    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006

    The Help Area looks good.  I haven't had a chance to read through everything but the types of questions seem very appropriate and the layout is crisp and clear.  The Blog has become a really important feature in OP and has excelled under your enthusiastic guidance, Kallak.  Communication is much improved and I must commend you and all you have done for the site to bring it back on track after the real dip it went through.

    I have no further suggestions at this point, as there are already so many above.  I am happy that the site is now functioning and I can get on with designing the next section of my campaign.

    smiley

     

     

    "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

  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230

    Thank you @Kallak for following up on my question regarding the Help login. Completely understand why that function is not yet available.  :)

     

  • Johnprime
    Johnprime
    Posts: 252

    I agree with Keryth987. Seeing inactive campaigns in the all campaigns view is kind of discouraging. I was recently looking through the Rifts campaigns, and most of them at the beginning haven't been updated in quite a while. So you have to go through page after page to find one that has had any activity.

    Johnprime

    Deadwood Deacon Banner

    Where the west is really wild!

    The Valley of Life Banner

    The Valley of Life

  • cgregory
    cgregory
    Posts: 780 edited September 2018

    I agree with Keryth987 and JohnPrime that the default should be a sort by popularity with a activity cutoff. My suggestion would be a 1 year last activity cutoff rather than January or the current year simply because code wise a constant of last activity within 365 days is a very simple and efficient query.

    Post edited by cgregory on

    They are among us!

    image

                       XCom: Defiance - Campaign of the Month November 2016

     

     

  • ragnarhawk
    Posts: 168

    I agree that the site has seen considerable improvements since you stepped up into your current role.  One suggestion that I have is that OP change the default editor back to Textile, instead of the CKEditor, at least until CKEditor gets updated with the missing functionality.  It seems that a lot of questions come up due to the missing functionality in CKEditor, and the advice is almost always "switch to Textile".

  • UselessTriviaMan
    UselessTriviaMan
    Posts: 546

    I also agree about defaulting Textile over CkEditor.


    Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year

    "Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life."  - - Kevin Smith

  • Bortas
    Bortas
    Posts: 645

    Same, I think the community has been overwhelmingly in support of default textile since CkEditor was introduced. We didn't make too much noise, as we recognize its new, and a change, and we'd just sound salty. But how many new threads have been started, all the confusion waded through, only to realize: wrong editor?

    -bort

  • JaymesBolton
    JaymesBolton
    Posts: 278

    Or a better description section next to the editor in order to help new people understand what each one is capable of? Not sure what would be an easier solution. 

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090

    It's something that needs to be discussed for sure.

    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230

    20. Adding a "flag" to the top a Wiki page that is marked as GM-Only when the entire page is GM-Only. As the GM of the page, I can see everything. It'll be nice to see which Wiki pages are flagged as GM-Only as I make changes.

     

  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006

    I agree with Krothos' idea above.

    "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

  • Keryth987
    Keryth987
    Posts: 1,047 edited September 2018

    The Obsidian Portal Style Guide  in CSS & Styling should probably be unstickied, and maybe even removed as it is incredibly out of date and of no help, not to mention the last few posts are...not good ones

    Post edited by Keryth987 on

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090

    I was just looking at the stickies this morning and thinking about some of them being removable at this point. Quite true about that topic. I'll make it a point to go over the stickies first here shortly

    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • Elesday
    Elesday
    Posts: 2

    Glanced over the thread and I think it has not already been brought up: a way to create a recurring event on the calendar. Like a “repeat this event every week” button.

  • Abersade
    Abersade
    Posts: 417 edited September 2018

    I second Elesday's idea, that would be amazing. An alternative idea (at least in my case anyways) would be a batch scheduler so that I could set up more than one date at a time.

    Post edited by Abersade on

    GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM

    GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM

    GM of Stream of Kairos

    Need CSS Help? It may be covered here: Abersade's CSS Hub

  • Omegabase
    Omegabase
    Posts: 41

    I too would like to endorse Keryth987's suggestion to sort Campaign Listing by number of favorites after most-recently updated date. And a separate page listing COTY and COTM campaigns, again listed by most-recently updated.

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

    Arcanearth

    Gammaworld 2754

  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230

    Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but thought of another idea that would help those of us who are CSS-challenged.

    Add a checkbox to the editing of the Front Page, Adventure Log, Wiki, and Characters pages to allow transparency, showing the background instead of the standard white.

     

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090

    No way man, always keep this thread going! I'll add it to the ideas list. I know not everyone is a CSS type, so making that sort of thing easier wouod be great.

    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • ESElrond
    ESElrond
    Posts: 5

    I only just noticed this thread, and wanted to add another request for Krothos' idea from a few posts above: to add some sort of graphic -- that is visible outside the editor -- to indicate which wiki pages are currently flagged as "GM-only".

    The character and (deprecated, but I use it for my campaign) items sections accomplish this with the greyed-out background color and "behind-the-screen" graphic to indicate which characters or items are still marked GM only.  But there's nothing analogous for wiki pages in general.

     

    This would be a big help, because I generally "work ahead" -- creating rough wiki pages for future content in advance while they're still marked GM-only, then finally flipping the flag to make the page fully visible once the PCs have visited the location, learned about the faction, etc.

    But there's currently no way for me, as GM, to tell whether a wiki page is marked "GM-only" outside of opening it up in the editor, scrolling to the bottom, and looking for the corresponding checkbox.

     

    Ideally, I'd like to see something that shows up (behind-the-screen graphic at the top of the page, etc.) on the individual wiki pages marked "GM-only" and some sort of indicator (icon, graphic, etc.) when using the "See All Pages" widget to display pages.

    I'd like to be able to identify that "Oh yeah!  I need to make that page I worked on a month ago visible now!" quickly and easily.

  • Abersade
    Abersade
    Posts: 417

    This could be useful and it's actually easy to do on your own. Tagging the page as GM or something would probably be the easiest way but if you wanted a whole separate background image/color you could use the following code snippets if you're an Ascendant member.

     

    On the page that is marked as GM Only:


    /* At the top of the page */
    <div class="gm_only">



    /* At the bottom of the page */
    </div>

    Then in your custom CSS area for your campaign use this code:


    /* This code sets the background to a neutral grey */
    .gm_only{background-color:#cccccc;}

    /* OR */

    /* This code sets a specific background image */
    .gm_only{background-image: url(INSERT YOUR IMAGE URL HERE);}

     

    GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM

    GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM

    GM of Stream of Kairos

    Need CSS Help? It may be covered here: Abersade's CSS Hub

  • Abersade
    Abersade
    Posts: 417

    Neat and slightly related tangent:

    Use the following code snippet to change the background image of a specific character on the characters screen:


    /* Characters Name */
    .game-content-image[title="CHARACTER'S NAME AGAIN"] + .character-info {
    content: " ";
    display: block;
    height: 96px;
    background-image: url(YOUR IMAGE URL);
    width: 100%;
    background-size: 100% 100%;}

    Which looks like this:

    GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM

    GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM

    GM of Stream of Kairos

    Need CSS Help? It may be covered here: Abersade's CSS Hub

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