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Check out Telltale's new beta site!

puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
edited February 2013 in General Chat
Hey all! You might have noticed the shiny new banner at the top of the page... the web team here has literally just launched the public beta test for our new site.

I can't add much more instruction-wise to what's already in the blog post, so go check that out for more info. However, if you want a shortcut, here's the path to the Community section (aka the new forum).

Your feedback is welcomed and appreciated - let us know on the beta forum what you think of the new look and feel, and of course flag it up if you find any bugs we can squash! It'd be awesome if discussion of the beta forum happened ON the beta forum, but I'll leave this thread open just for anyone who might have trouble registering in the new place.

See you over there!

UPDATE: The beta is done for now - thanks so much to all who participated! Your feedback has been well received, and the web team will be making some updates to the site functionality before the big launch. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!
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Comments

  • RibsRibs
    edited February 2013
    But does this mean we'll have to start Numberwang from Scratch?!?
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited February 2013
    No. It's just a beta. Read the blog post in its entirety, Ribs.

    All your nasty numberwang nonsense will be restored.

    Look upon the site beta as some kind of ultimate forum game. :D
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2013
    Ribs wrote: »
    But does this mean we'll have to start Numberwang from Scratch?!?

    For the actual switchover, everything currently in the beta forum will be purged (gone, kaput, blown away, kablooey, etc) and the current forum's user accounts and threads transferred across to the new home. Even Numberwang. :rolleyes:
  • coolsomecoolsome
    edited February 2013
    I can't verify the account. I do like the thumbs up down thing though.
  • Darth MarsdenDarth Marsden
    edited February 2013
    coolsome wrote: »
    I can't verify the account.
    How so?
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited February 2013
    coolsome wrote: »
    I can't verify the account. I do like the thumbs up down thing though.
    Check your spam folder for the verification e-mail from Telltale. Mine went straight to spam when I signed up on the beta forums.
  • coolsomecoolsome
    edited February 2013
    Nah just crap in my spam.
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2013
    coolsome wrote: »
    I can't verify the account. I do like the thumbs up down thing though.

    Did you miss out on getting the verification email? Some of the mods reported issues with that as well. The web guys are working on it.
  • der_ketzerder_ketzer
    edited February 2013
    Vainamoinen wrote: »
    Look upon the site beta as some kind of ultimate forum game. :D

    I already have 3 points. Yay!
  • FriarFriar
    edited February 2013
    I too have yet to receive a verification e-mail. I have created two separate accounts using two separate e-mail addresses (Gmail and hotmail). Neither has received anything, even in the junk mail boxes. Plus, I've asked it to resend the verification mail several times.

    I can only conclude that the new forum hates me.

    It looks nice though.
  • CrossbowKillShotCrossbowKillShot
    edited February 2013
    I created this account with the new method and it went through quite smoothly. I like how it gives a bunch of mail options for the mailing lists so that you can opt-in or out of a lot of items and that you can sign up for updates for specific games as well.

    Thank you for all of your hard work!
  • Chyron8472Chyron8472
    edited February 2013
    King's Quest section located here. (It's hidden.)
  • corruptbigginscorruptbiggins
    edited February 2013
    All I can say so far is that I don't like it. I don't even really want to post on it. Maybe it just needs time to grow on me but I mainly don't like the way the threads are laid out. Instead of the straight thread lines here it's stepped by conversations or something like that. That stepping looks terrible after multiple replies back and forth. And it all seems a bit disjointed to me.

    Someone else described it best when saying it's more like comments on a blog than an actual working forum.
  • AlcoremortisAlcoremortis
    edited February 2013
    The bar that traveled down with the rest of the page annoyed me. I told it to stay at the top where it belonged but it kept on following me down to tell me about Not Bacon.
  • RibsRibs
    edited February 2013
    corruptbiggins wrote: »
    All I can say so far is that I don't like it. I don't even really want to post on it. Maybe it just needs time to grow on me but I mainly don't like the way the threads are laid out. Instead of the straight thread lines here it's stepped by conversations or something like that. That stepping looks terrible after multiple replies back and forth. And it all seems a bit disjointed to me.

    Someone else described it best when saying it's more like comments on a blog than an actual working forum.

    I share this sentiment.
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2013
    Remember to post your feedback on the beta forum! That's where folks will be looking for it.
  • AlcoremortisAlcoremortis
    edited February 2013
    We could make it work if we all work together and never +1 anything or reply to any posts.
  • coolsomecoolsome
    edited February 2013
    Alcoremortis wrote: »
    We could make it work if we all work together and never +1 anything or reply to any posts.

    That comment deserves a plus 1!
  • RibsRibs
    edited February 2013
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    Remember to post your feedback on the beta forum! That's where folks will be looking for it.

    Shame I can't join as the verification system's not working, then.
  • fleskflesk
    edited February 2013
    Doesn't seem to be working for me either. Actually I don't really know, because the site is seriously broken on mobile devices, which is what I use most of the time. I'm able to open the register dialog but I can just barely fit the fields I need to fill into my view and I'm not able to scroll around to see all of it because of the way it keeps repositioning. When I submit I just get a modal gray overlay and I don't know if I'm supposed to do anything there because that's all I'm able to see, but I'm not getting any emails, so something is wrong for sure.

    The repositioning is also a problem with that annoying menu that keeps jumping around since that means I'm never able to see more than the left half of the menu. If Telltale finally gets around to implementing Tapatalk like most forums on the internet I won't mind too much, since I hardly ever visit anything but the forums anyway.

    EDIT: Just got the email after about ten minutes and was able to register.
  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited February 2013
    Chiming in to say Verification isn't working for me. I also experienced some formatting issues on my iPhone as flesk said above. However, the website works fine on iPad for me.

    I also like the polish you added to various game sites, such as taking time to remove the small unfinished sections from the Back to the Future website or sprucing up the Sam and Max website.

    EDIT: Just now got a verification email, yay!
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2013
    flesk wrote: »
    Doesn't seem to be working for me either. Actually I don't really know, because the site is seriously broken on mobile devices, which is what I use most of the time.

    I believe the web team is working on a mobile site that scales nicely.
  • fleskflesk
    edited February 2013
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    I believe the web team is working on a mobile site that scales nicely.

    I'm glad to hear that. I hope it will be better suited for mobile networks as well.
  • AlcoremortisAlcoremortis
    edited February 2013
    Yeah, this verification thing doesn't seem to go very fast. What if I change email accounts before I get the verification?
  • Secret FawfulSecret Fawful
    edited February 2013
    Alcoremortis wrote: »
    Yeah, this verification thing doesn't seem to go very fast. What if I change email accounts before I get the verification?

    Then you are branded a dumb for the rest of your days, and all your degrees and diplomas and other accreditation is then burned.
  • AlcoremortisAlcoremortis
    edited February 2013
    Apparently, Telltale didn't like my fancy university account, so I had to dredge up my account from highschool to be able to get on the new forum.

    My verdict: No.

    It's just... difficult to navigate. I hate the fact that the most recent post isn't at the end of a thread. This is probably my single biggest problem with the forum because I am a person who shows up the forum every once and awhile, checks all the updated threads for new posts, and then moves on. I don't have time to reread every goddamn thread over again to find new posts that were +1'd to a higher plane of existence or stuck somewhere weird because they were a reply to another post.

    I already posted this on the forum, but I just wanted to make my displeasure clear. If the site stays too similar to the beta, I will most likely be on this site much less and move my residence to myth-weavers or minmax boards.
  • corruptbigginscorruptbiggins
    edited February 2013
    I'm with you. I really don't think I could use it regularly. And it's not easy to dip in and out of every few days while also keeping up with postings. This isn't a fear of change talking, this is my fear that the sense of community alive in this place will be irreversibly lost in the new place. I get that changes to the site need to be made but it needn't be so radical especially with the community heart of the place.

    But this is only my opinion and I doubt that it carries much weight around here.
  • AlcoremortisAlcoremortis
    edited February 2013
    Yeah, I mean, I like the shiny look, but it's the shiny allure of a double stamped jigsaw puzzle. You spend more time looking for the right pieces than actually playing the game.
  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited February 2013
    I would be alright if multiple nested comments applied to official news posts to give them that Reddit feel while either removing nested comments beyond a reply to a forum post or keeping them but having them toggled (not on by default would be nice). I made a post with more feedback on the beta forums.
  • AlcoremortisAlcoremortis
    edited February 2013
    Or we could just agree as a community to always respond only to the original post. This would make our own normal forum.
  • GuruGuru214GuruGuru214
    edited February 2013
    corruptbiggins wrote: »
    I'm with you. I really don't think I could use it regularly. And it's not easy to dip in and out of every few days while also keeping up with postings. This isn't a fear of change talking, this is my fear that the sense of community alive in this place will be irreversibly lost in the new place. I get that changes to the site need to be made but it needn't be so radical especially with the community heart of the place.

    But this is only my opinion and I doubt that it carries much weight around here.
    Blind Sniper wrote: »
    I would be alright if multiple nested comments applied to official news posts to give them that Reddit feel while either removing nested comments beyond a reply to a forum post or keeping them but having them toggled (not on by default would be nice). I made a post with more feedback on the beta forums.

    These are all the things I've been saying for the past three and a half months, and it's exactly what I hoped and expected to hear the community say when the beta went public. I don't think I'll be able to continue using the forums either, if they remain structured this way.
  • Darth MarsdenDarth Marsden
    edited February 2013
    GuruGuru214 wrote: »
    These are all the things I've been saying for the past three and a half months, and it's exactly what I hoped and expected to hear the community say when the beta went public. I don't think I'll be able to continue using the forums either, if they remain structured this way.
    Likewise, sadly. I love hanging out here, but the new forum's just too cluttered to cope with.
  • ryannumber1gamerryannumber1gamer
    edited February 2013
    Well, I'm still waiting for that verification email :/ But i did look at the fourms and while i like how they got rid of the classics part and gave each game their own box. I will say that it looks cluttered. On the bright side at least it might be harder for spambots to spam on these new fourms.
  • AlcoremortisAlcoremortis
    edited February 2013
    GuruGuru214 wrote: »
    These are all the things I've been saying for the past three and a half months, and it's exactly what I hoped and expected to hear the community say when the beta went public. I don't think I'll be able to continue using the forums either, if they remain structured this way.

    Well, I've been talking and apparently there's a very easy fix that will give the best of both worlds. Most recent comment at the last page (so we get chronological order), but it has a link back to see the rest of the nested comments. I'm assuming this would be similar to what youtube has, but nicer.
  • GuruGuru214GuruGuru214
    edited February 2013
    I love it.
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited February 2013
    Alcoremortis wrote: »
    Or we could just agree as a community to always respond only to the original post. This would make our own normal forum.

    If only that could work. The new conversational paradigm goes deeper than that. Essentially, there's no option to quote people any more, neither in part nor in full, so we'd loose the opportunity to actively respond to a previous comment. The proposed protest posting would impair our communication even more.

    I must admit, after seeing nesting in actual action on the beta, I'm beginning to really loathe it.

    Youtube, reddit or, say, DeviantArt are no points of comparison for this community. Reddit's way of communication is so impaired that it mostly serves for the formation of internet mobs, people who are used to understanding only a quarter of the conversation. Youtube commenters are also famous for something all right. And DeviantArt already had to restrict critiques to their paying customers, which is possibly even connected to their nested comments.
  • der_ketzerder_ketzer
    edited February 2013
    Vainamoinen wrote: »
    I must admit, after seeing nesting in actual action on the beta, I'm beginning to really loathe it.

    I am enjoying it now but imagine several hundred more users and extra long topics. This will be a nightmare. for all of us. Especially the mods.
  • GuruGuru214GuruGuru214
    edited February 2013
    I can tell you right now that this new forum won't tolerate a Whatever thread. If we were to allow that thread to continue after launch, it would collapse under its own weight within a month, and that's being generous.
  • coolsomecoolsome
    edited February 2013
    IDK if this a feature already on the new forum but a Tweet button would be good like you can retweet people's comments and link your account to twitter like youtube.
  • OMAOMA
    edited February 2013
    Hello, I'm writing here since I can't even post in the beta site, because I never receive the confirmation e-mail (not even in the spam folder).

    I feel that switching the forum software from the mature, tried and tested vBulletin to an untested (until now) custom-made proprietary forum software is a mistake. vBulletin has been working great for lots of years. Why change that to reinvent the wheel while doing a worse job overall?

    The new interface is confusing, hard to navigate, and has poor design choices. The new design is bad for both low and high resolution screens. In low resolution screens, you have too much fixed bars at the top taking screen real state. You have:

    - The top grey "telltalegames" bar (with options for "Store", "News", etc...)
    - The dark grey "ticker" bar which also contains the "Login" and "Cart" buttons
    - The animated thick beige bar that appears when scrolling down just to inform you of what forum are you in and giving options for "like", "dislike" and "flag".

    All those fixed bars make the actual forum viewport too small in a low/medium resolution monitor (I use a 1360x768 screen). Why make all those top bars fixed? It would be way better if they all just moved up when scrolling, like in the old website. No need to have all that stuff at the top of the screen at all times. When you're reading a forum, you don't need to have access to ALL those buttons at all times. You're just reading text! And while reading text, it's better to have a big viewport, rather than a small one that forces you to scroll a lot.

    In addition to the visible scrollable part of the forum being vertically small, it's also inexplicably narrow horizontally as well! Why? This makes the website worse also for high resolution monitors and also makes it look like a really old website (old websites were narrow since they were made for the low resolution monitors of the day). In my other monitor, which is 1920x1080, the whole website looks too narrow, because it's made for a width of only 1024 pixels! The old forum was made for a width of 1280 pixels, which is still narrow for a 1920 pixel width monitor, but quite better. Also, 1280 is the minimum width most people have. Who has a 1024x768 monitor nowadays? (unless browsing with an old iPad).

    So the new design manages to be bad both for low and high resolution screens...

    Also, the nested messages are ok for a comments section in a blog, but not for a forum! Also it's missing regular forum features such as attachments, subscriptions, polls, etc... which is regular fare for any standard forum.

    I can understand that implementing all those features can be time consuming, but again, why reinvent the wheel when the vBulletin forum software had those features years ago and Telltale was already using it in the old site?

    I think Telltale should only remodelate the other parts of the site, but not the forum. They can't reach in a few months the quality vBulletin and other forum software have reached in more than a decade (vBulletin started development in the year 2000!).

    Sorry if I might sound harsh but I think it makes no sense to reinvent the forum. Other sections of the website, sure, but not the forum, for the reasons stated above. Surely TTG should have other development priorities than redeveloping a forum from scratch when there is an already mature forum software such as vBulletin.
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