ID:327085
 
Keywords: website
Greetings, fellow BYONDers,

This iteration of the latest site update is mostly behind us, and (if all goes well) we will be focusing on the software for the remainder of the year. Here are a few final notes on the new site:

  • Due to popular request, we've reinstated the Developer Central page. There is a new section at the top for new users, including some writeups about the software and site. In particular, the <a href=http://www.byond.com/developer/articles/whitepaper>BYOND Whitepaper by <a href=http://www.byond.com/members/forumaccount>Forum_account fills a much-needed void of information for prospective developers.
  • We've consolidated similar forums. Code Problems + Dev How-to == Developer Help, and we merged the gaming forums into a single section, which will be aggressively moderated for lack of content and spam. We've added a new read-only Announcments forum for posts like these, and moved the bloggy community forums back to the bottom where they belong.
  • We've updated the search to use a more intuitive system. Instead of a global search bar (which previously returned ambiguous results), there are individual search bars in the games, dev, and forum pages, whose scope is restricted to games, resources, and posts, respectively. The forum search searches over everything in the current forum group (eg: the entire BYOND Forums) by default, but you can override this on the results page to only search in the current forum (eg: "Developer Help") or across all posts in the entire BYOND space (which includes visible hub forums).
  • We've changed some minor site behavior, colors, and layout. Notably, we've gotten rid of the subforum headers in favor of the older-style "all forums" listings. We replaced the pager-popup system with a direct link in many places. We updated the web pager to allow paging to non-friends, and also changed the styles of the pager discussions.

So hopefully this is "good enough" for now! We've put a heck of a lot of work into the design and implementation of this new site, and think it will be a big improvement for new and old users alike.

Now onto the backlog of bugs and fun software features!

Oh nice post I agree :D
Looks nice! I definitely love that the developer resources page is back.
I thought this post was meant to be read-only meaning we couldn't reply as well or does it only apply to creating new posts?

Anyways I rather liked how the search bar worked before as well as the layout of the games page & such(when searched and such as well)...

The site layout looks much like before on those pages instead now...

Also the forums like they are now...I posted about not liking how it worked with the grouping & the page that listed all recent posts in that group of forums, however I liked that it wasn't a cluttered list of every forum at the top & listed basically a tree of where you were in the forums...(like when it showed BYOND Forums>>Category>>Sub-category>>post)

---As for finding resources & stuff I wasn't really trying but before I used the global search bar just from the main page to find resources, games, etc... now I need to navigate to an area to find things & the search box that searches everything isn't really in an intuitive position, it seemed more smartly positioned before...

--Just my opinion it was better before it was changed quickly back because some people were not liking parts of things about it...
I'm sure you'll learn to love it.
This made my day. GOD BLESS YOU AND MAY YOU ALL WIN THE LOTTO THEN SHARE IT WITH US.
Great Job. Love it.
In response to Tom
It'll be fine, it's close to how it was before, which isn't what I like better even though I barely used either way...I think the presentation is off & a non-global search makes it harder to find things...

Apparentally xbox found that out...it has a global search but allows you to drill down to things like Games(Xbox or PC), Movies/Video & then drill down to what service is offering it & Music...also it can drill down to users & what not as well but thats a seperate thing that wasn't covered in the search bar here...you can search for an authors content but it didn't search for a users page...

I think it would be fine if you could drill down into forums search, game search, library search, user search...or just w/e

It showing all the results & if it's listed you can just click on it or drill down further into those results for games,libraries w/e if it limited the search to so many results I think is desirable...
My help points are invisible. HOW WILL I KNOW HOW WONDERFUL I AM.

D:
In response to Superbike32
Superbike32 wrote:
I thought this post was meant to be read-only meaning we couldn't reply as well or does it only apply to creating new posts?

The powers that be are trying to encourage discussion and activity on the website.

When they announced stuff on the blogs, people were always able to reply with their opinions. Making the forum capable of replying only to already existing posts just preserves that. While at the same time, exposing it to so many more people than it used to.

--

I like the Getting Started content. Forum Account did a good job with his write up. The 101 is informative enough to peak curiosity for those who were looking to make games rather than play them. And it's very obviously positioned and easy to get to. I'm diggin' that.

Popular and Newest Resources could use another row (possibly two) however. I always feel that if a websites content might be lacking if the content management page of the site is smaller than it's right menu. Possibly a twisted way of thinking on my part, but it just feels empty in there. (And it can't be, there's 54 pages of it.)

Love the return of the forum list. I missed that so much.
Nice update, it pretty much covers everything I had hoped for.

I guess my only real problem with the forum now is how cluttered the Classified Ads looks. I really think paid/unpaid tags in the subject line should be mandatory. If it's too much trouble to manage I'd do it for you.
In response to SuperAntx
SuperAntx wrote:
If it's too much trouble to manage I'd do it.

Nah, add a quick drop-down under "title" with either option. Which just auto-tags it in the display. Default Non-Paid. Desired behaviour like that needs to be automated, save everyone some headaches. =)
In response to Tiberath
Tiberath wrote:
Nah, add a quick drop-down under "title" with either option. Which just auto-tags it in the display. Default Non-Paid. Desired behaviour like that needs to be automated, save everyone some headaches. =)

That's still extra work and I have a feeling people offering admin/profit sharing would still consider their job as paid simply because the work isn't being done for absolutely nothing.
In response to SuperAntx
SuperAntx wrote:
Nice update, it pretty much covers everything I had hoped for.

I guess my only real problem with the forum now is how cluttered the Classified Ads looks. I really think paid/unpaid tags in the subject line should be mandatory. If it's too much trouble to manage I'd do it for you.

Agreed, a little header to set some things would be useful.

I forgot to mention that the Classified Ads system is a little more intelligent; the responses are still private pager conversations but users can use the "reply" box instead of having to click on the author's name.
I like this update. Everything looks more balanced... from the forum to the individual search bars.
Cool the developers page is back i missed it ... -walks off-
Love the update. One nitpick on the BYOND Whitepaper. It's supposed to be unbiased, but it isn't in this paragraph:

"That's a lot of code that you don't have to write! We know that your passion is game development, not keyboard event listener development or client-server communication protocol development. We take care of those details so you can get right to the point of game development."

Forum_account != BYOND =D.
In response to Kumorii
Kumorii wrote:
Looks nice! I definitely love that the developer resources page is back.

that ^

Also, I think the 'preview' button is broke.
Good

Boa Sorte Tom
In response to KetchupKid
KetchupKid wrote:
Love the update. One nitpick on the BYOND Whitepaper. It's supposed to be unbiased, but it isn't in this paragraph:

"That's a lot of code that you don't have to write! We know that your passion is game development, not keyboard event listener development or client-server communication protocol development. We take care of those details so you can get right to the point of game development."

I had originally written that as an example to show Tom the kind of document *he* should write, which is why I phrased things that way. I don't think I have the ability to edit that page on the site, but I figured I'd make revisions to a local copy and eventually send an updated draft to Tom.
Page: 1 2