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Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#1 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 2:26 PM
Default Site Suggestions Thread - Winter 2008
Hi All,

MTS2, like all good sites, has undergone quite a number of changes, additions and feature enhancements over the past year. We've added the tag cloud, a new dowload browse pages, slightly revamped download pages, as well as a whole heap of other stuff detailed in my journal.

I'd like to take the opportunity, however, to throw out the suggestions for features you would like to see on the site to you all.

You can comment on anything you like with the following 3 conditions:

Do not ask about Q-Xpress!
Do not ask for a Requests section!
Do not talk about any bugs/issues you are having - this is for suggestions not issues!

These conditions are subject to change at any time as the thread progresses.

Regards
Delphy

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
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Test Subject
#2 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 4:09 PM
would it be possible for on the downloaders page to have say maybe the 5 most recent uploads?
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#3 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 4:06 PM
What do you mean the downloaders page? The most recent uploads are already shown on page 1 of the Downloads Home, as well as individually if you look at a members profile, and also in each sub-section as well. So.. I'm confused about this request since it's been part of MTS2 since the beginning.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Test Subject
#4 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 4:50 PM
Could we have the ability to filter out downloads we do not want?

Example: Would you like to see []Houses []Hacks []Pets []Clothing []Objects ect...

Checking the box would allow the download to be shown on the downloads page (the same way as it works with expansion packs)
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#5 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 4:58 PM
I'm curious as to why you'd want that particular ability - don't people usually drill down to show specifically want they want, or drill back up if they want to see everything?

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Pettifogging Legalist!
retired moderator
#6 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 5:57 PM
This may be an old suggestion (that may have been dismissed already), but just in case it isn't:

it would be nice to have an option for how many downloads to show on one page (similar to the "X posts per page" option for viewing threads). I have a broadband connection, so for me loading the thumbs doesn't take long -- viewing one page with 50 d/ls would be faster than viewing the first 10, then the next 10 etc.

Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
Scholar
#7 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 7:59 PM
do you think it whould be possible to make all of mts2 (main dowload page...ect) customizable like Creator pages are? (users profiles?)
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#8 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 8:26 PM
sim~obsessor - no. However, have a look at the myMTS2 feature - second latest news item.

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#9 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 8:39 PM Last edited by Delphy : 9th Nov 2008 at 9:06 PM.
plasticbox: It's currently hard coded into the browse.php files (and changes according to which view you are using). I doubt I'd make it totally customisable but maybe a dropdown like the Posts per Page option might be useful.

Edit: Done. Only works on db though right now. Please verify and test.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Pettifogging Legalist!
retired moderator
#10 Old 9th Nov 2008 at 10:56 PM
In FF 2.0.0.whatever, this works nicely. Thank you! =)

Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
Test Subject
#11 Old 10th Nov 2008 at 4:47 AM
I really hate the new format style on the downloads page and it will not let me change it back to the old type display.
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#12 Old 10th Nov 2008 at 8:43 AM
It should do, Theresa. There's a dropdown in User Tools -> Edit Options. Is that not working?

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Field Researcher
#13 Old 10th Nov 2008 at 10:02 AM
I also can't seem to get back the old view. I've tried all the different options, selecting old thread view, trying different download views, even tried selecting skip core pages... None of these seem to work...

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up.
One horse disagreer of the Apocalypse
#14 Old 10th Nov 2008 at 10:06 AM
I don't know if this is possible/feasible, but obviously we're encouraged to keep an eye on site news, and therefore we cannot unsubscribe from the site news forum. However, sometimes these threads really take off, with ongoing comments over many months, most of them not essential reading as the initial post contained the important information. Of course each time someone posts a comment, the thread is flagged up for attention again.

I wondered if rather than having all users subscribed to the news forum (unless they want to be of course) there could be an alternative compulsory view on it, which would only list new *threads* - and those which are flagged as announcements by staff (presumably those in the Site News forum)?

While I think about it, we don't need everyone to be required to see other people's Site Issues etc do we? Wouldn't it be ok to only have Site News compulsory?

"You can do refraction by raymarching through the depth buffer" (c. Reddeyfish 2017)
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#15 Old 10th Nov 2008 at 11:26 AM
moshrulz, theresag: Please be aware of the big text, in bold, at the top of the Edit Options page. It says that changes to that page will take a few minutes to update. In other words, changing the options will not work IMMEDIATELY but will take a couple minutes.

Change the download view, then wait a few minutes and refresh the download browse pages - you'll see the new updated style.

Inge: The idea behind having site issues as compulsory too is that often there are issues which are not in the news (like cookie problems, download problems etc) that people should still be aware of. I consider it one of the "key" forums on the site along with site news... therefore I doubt I'll change the behaviour of these. I hope you understand.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Test Subject
#16 Old 10th Nov 2008 at 6:53 PM
Would it be possible to opt out of seeing the tag cloud?

Also, I have been attempting since yesterday to change my view to show more downloads per page without success. Regardless of what I choose and save, it stays at the #1 option with the fewest possible displayed. I do see where you told plasticbox it might not work in every configuration, but it's a feature I'd definitely like to use. Of note, I upgraded to Firefox 3 for one of my accounts on this computer a couple of days ago, not realizing it would make the change for all accounts, and I would not be surprised if the non-function of this feature is related to the browser.
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#17 Old 10th Nov 2008 at 8:17 PM
jadin: That download multiplier only works on the development server right now - it doesn't work on the main www servers. Once it's been beta-tested for a while it'll be rolled onto the main servers.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Test Subject
#18 Old 10th Nov 2008 at 10:00 PM
Ah. That makes sense. I feel a little foolish Well, it's a feature I'm looking forward to when it's finally ready for the masses.

But what about the tag cloud? Can we get a ticky box to make it go away? Certainly, plenty of people like them and find them useful, but for me they're annoying, at best - at this site or any site - and I can't be the only one who'd rather not have it taking up space on my screen.
Field Researcher
#19 Old 11th Nov 2008 at 1:40 AM
I agree with making the tag cloud go away, and I would also like to suggest (and please point me in the right direction if it's already an option I just can't find), but I would like to be able to deselect categories from the main downloads page. I have no interest in downloading a sim and I just don't like seeing them in the list of downloads. If not, it's not a big deal for me to have to deal with it, but it would be nice to see only, say, build and buy all at once instead of having the genetics all through it.

I basically just like to play uglacies.
Field Researcher
#20 Old 11th Nov 2008 at 7:19 AM
Hmmm... how about having under walls and floors more catagories... like floors/carpet or walls/siding. It would just make it so much easier to find custom walls and floors.

The Sim Supply!

Call me PD :)
Sesquipedalian Pisciform
retired moderator
#21 Old 11th Nov 2008 at 11:55 AM
I am not sure if it exists yet, but how about some " interesting" statistics on what EPs site members have? It would be good to see if an item/lot/ is available to a certain percentage of users. Of course, the goal can always be " always compatible with base" but sometimes you just want to make a lot using multiple EPs.
Eg, I want to make a lot using features from AL, Seasons and OFB, but see that only 10 percent of users have that combo. I might choose to remove one of the EPs or replace with a different EP, review the percentages and decide what to do so as many people as possible can get my item.
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#22 Old 11th Nov 2008 at 12:28 PM
leesester, The only possible problem I could see with that is that members don't update thier profiles that often. Even when a new EP comes out people still don't update (and then complain that the download pages show no Apartment Life things, for example...). So you'd get statistics... but they'd be flawed unless you only took (for example) people who had logged on for the last 6 months.

It's an interesting idea, but it's not something I'd have in real time. Maybe generate graphs once every couple of months or something.

jadin, swampcandy, the tag cloud currently has no option to turn it off. I'll have to look into doing this.

swampcandy, You could just drill down into the Build mode and Buy mode categories seperately - or load up each section in a new tab/window. To be honest, coding what you want would be... difficult. So it's not something that I'd want to do if only few people use it.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Sesquipedalian Pisciform
retired moderator
#23 Old 11th Nov 2008 at 12:43 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Delphy
leesester, The only possible problem I could see with that is that members don't update thier profiles that often. Even when a new EP comes out people still don't update (and then complain that the download pages show no Apartment Life things, for example...). So you'd get statistics... but they'd be flawed unless you only took (for example) people who had logged on for the last 6 months.

It's an interesting idea, but it's not something I'd have in real time. Maybe generate graphs once every couple of months or something.



I see that the lack of updated data is a possible problem and I think the 6 months log option might help clean it a bit, but maybe a graph (updated monthly or quarterly) on the creator pages or something where we could see what groups to target....or we could just have fun and create cool stuff to make ourselves happy, and anybody else who wants it :D
Inventor
#24 Old 11th Nov 2008 at 1:32 PM
Would it be possible to display the featured downloads only on top of the first downloadspage, so I don't have to scroll down past them on every following page?
My CPS RSI arm would be very gratefull for that!
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
Original Poster
#25 Old 11th Nov 2008 at 4:37 PM
Cocomama, considering that we've gone from "display featureds on every page" to "display them only on the first 5", I will not "cheapen" them more by reducing it to only one page.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
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