The Website

[celmive]

Hi - just a thought about the Mongoose Website...

Could you possibly split the Game sections up a bit more to make things a bit easier ?

Rather than just lumping all the Supplements / Rules / Scenario's etc under a generic heading (i.e. Traveller or Runequest) could they be split up into true product lines ?

E.g. Under "Traveller" have a long list of what is available but add Sub Categories like "Judge Dredd", "Third Imperium", etc and under "Runequest" you would have "Elric","Hawkmoon","Glorantha" etc.

This will make it easier for us customers to ensure we have all the (Delete as appropriate..) Elric/Dredd/Slaine/etc you print

Just an idea

 

[lastbesthope]

This will make it easier for us customers to ensure we have all the (Delete as appropriate..) Elric/Dredd/Slaine/etc you print

Just an idea

This may be of use to you in that regard:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/catalogue.php

LBH

 

[celmive]

Cheers LBH... That is similar to what I was wanting but still not broken down enough - maybe checklists would be a good idea for the job... I just like to easily know what is available for each system/genre/product line

 

[lastbesthope]

I already suggested such delineation of the lines on the new website to Matthew, it could do little to hurt your cause if you email him to suggest it again.

LBH

 

[celmive]

I already suggested such delineation of the lines on the new website to Matthew, it could do little to hurt your cause if you email him to suggest it again.

LBH

I like your style

Will do it this week !

 

[MongooseMatt]

Already in hand with the new site!

 

[celmive]

Great stuff - Cheers Matt !

 

[lastbesthope]

Already in hand with the new site!

Excellent.

LBH

 

[Strom]

Great stuff - Cheers Matt !

Cool avatar celmive. 8)

 

[celmive]

Cool avatar celmive. 8)

Thanks - I am a huge fan of the Pulps with iron jawed heroes and Bug Eyed Monsters so it sums things up perfectly

 

[Strom]

Thanks - I am a huge fan of the Pulps with iron jawed heroes and Bug Eyed Monsters so it sums things up perfectly

Me, too. Mostly the Howard pulps but not exclusively.

 

[EDG]

Already in hand with the new site!

Please tell me you're updating the forums to the latest phpbb3 build as well...

 

[lastbesthope]

Already in hand with the new site!

Please tell me you're updating the forums to the latest phpbb3 build as well...

So long as it doesn't go the way of the Alderac forums when they upgraded, never been as easy to navigate around since they upgraded, they used to be just like these ones too. I like the forums the way they are, change the codei f you like, but please leave the dashboard as is :lol:

LBH

 

[EDG]

Already in hand with the new site!

Please tell me you're updating the forums to the latest phpbb3 build as well...

So long as it doesn't go the way of the Alderac forums when they upgraded, never been as easy to navigate around since they upgraded, they used to be just like these ones too. I like the forums the way they are, change the codei f you like, but please leave the dashboard as is :lol:

LBH

If you look at the Spica Publishing boards and the SFRPG boards, they're phpbb 3.0.5. They've made things a lot easier on the admin side, and it's more secure with better anti-spam measures. If you can upgrade the MGT boards directly from their current version it'll probably just remember and keep the theme/skin anyway.

 

[lastbesthope]

Please tell me you're updating the forums to the latest phpbb3 build as well...

So long as it doesn't go the way of the Alderac forums when they upgraded, never been as easy to navigate around since they upgraded, they used to be just like these ones too. I like the forums the way they are, change the codei f you like, but please leave the dashboard as is :lol:

LBH

If you look at the Spica Publishing boards and the SFRPG boards, they're phpbb 3.0.5. They've made things a lot easier on the admin side, and it's more secure with better anti-spam measures. If you can upgrade the MGT boards directly from their current version it'll probably just remember and keep the theme/skin anyway.

I just did, but they did nothing to assuage my worries.

The difference between the current Mongoose boards and those boards is in the way lists like Posts since last visit or unanswered posts are listed.

For example, Mongoose:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/search.php?search_id=unanswered

Forum and Topic of unanswerred posts clearly in separate columns, makes it nice and easy to skim for the threads from the Conan, or 2000AD or subforum area of your choice.

ALderac was like that until they upgraded, now they're more like SFRPG and SPICA:

http://www.sfrpg.org.uk/phpBB3/search.php?search_id=unanswered&sid=cc44c327c47d19669de4ca538fa22e1e

http://www.spicapublishing.co.uk/phpbb3/search.php?search_id=unanswered

Big nbold text for the topic title, but much smaller for the forum area the topic is in, making it much harder to skim for your areas of interest quickly and easily.

Now I don't know if the upgrade forced them to start having it that way, or if they set it that way after they upgraded, what I AM saying is I like it the way it is here on Mongoose, rather than the way it is on those other forums.

Makes it much easier for me to skim for Trav, B5, etc and ignore the Runequest stuff.

I mean when you conceivably have 4 or 5 threads entitled "When is it being released?" (I've seen it happen on these very forums) about 5 different books in 3 different forum areas, under the existing Mongoose forum list format I can easily tell which are to do with Trav books, under the other formats I need to read the smaller text under the forum headings.

Please Mongoose, when you do the upgrade, don;t change what isn't broken if you don;t have to.

LBH

 

[EDG]

Forum and Topic of unanswerred posts clearly in separate columns, makes it nice and easy to skim for the threads from the Conan, or 2000AD or subforum area of your choice.

But... the phpbb3 version says the same thing! It's just that the forum is in small text underneath the subject line. And since you're probably wanting to click on the subject line (to read the post) rather than the forum I think that makes much more sense than giving them equal weight.

Now I don't know if the upgrade forced them to start having it that way, or if they set it that way after they upgraded, what I AM saying is I like it the way it is here on Mongoose, rather than the way it is on those other forums.

It's part of phpbb3. But if you really wanted to have a phpbb2-like skin, I'm sure there's one out there somewhere that could be added and set as default. Either way, the changes to the admin/mod side are well worth the upgrade just by themselves. e.g. SFRPG and Spica are running on vanilla phpbb3.0.5 with no mods or upgrades and they've had no spam issues at all.

It makes no sense to me whatsoever to stick to outdated forum software just for the sake of a column layout on one page. Plus, when you upgrade, some things change - you just get used to it.

 

[lastbesthope]

Forum and Topic of unanswerred posts clearly in separate columns, makes it nice and easy to skim for the threads from the Conan, or 2000AD or subforum area of your choice.

But... the phpbb3 version says the same thing! It's just that the forum is in small text underneath the subject line. And since you're probably wanting to click on the subject line (to read the post) rather than the forum I think that makes much more sense than giving them equal weight.

It says the same thing, but not in the same way, and I like the old way better, you don't, fair enough. I find it is much easier to find the Conan (or other forum sub division of your choice) topics the old way than the new way.

Yes I do want to click on the subject line to read the post, but before that I have to figure out which posts I want to cloick on to read, and since the primary way I filter that is based on forum area, it makes it much easier for me if the forum area is more visible than it is in the phpbb 3 forums.

If a topic is titled "NEW RELEASES THIS MONTH!!!!" I don't want to have to squint below that in smaller tect to find out if it to do with Trav(and thence might be the revamp of A:2089) or if it's Runequest related (which interests me not a jot)

It makes no sense to me whatsoever to stick to outdated forum software just for the sake of a column layout on one page. Plus, when you upgrade, some things change - you just get used to it.

Well it's not just one page, it's any time you do a search for topics, like posts since last visit, or searching for text in topics.

And upgrades don't often NEED to cause change, they choose to cause change, I mean is there any technological reason why phpbb 3 forums can't have been written so that thay could produce ther equal weighted columns when a topic search is carried out? I can't think why there would be. If they can't it's because someone wrote it so they couldn't, not because it couldn't have been written so they could.

In such a case where change is pushed on people we get used to it because we have no option, not because we want to (or we keep running old software. I still run an old Pentium DOS box so I can play X-Wing from time to time, can't do that on my newer Windows PC)

New tech is not necessarily better tech. New things are not always better than old things. Older is not necessarily worse than new.

LBH

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Can we get a contacts board? For PBM or Skype or whatever on the new website?

Gaming over the internet is Da Futchah!