I knew this was migration was going to make me shudder. I was so much happier with a forum, not a social network. If I wanted to be on facebook or myspace, I would do it.
Is there any way to opt out of the silly home\profile page. I will not be blogging anything, I will not be adding photos, I will not be joining groups or in need of a calendar on my D&D forums. I do not want people knowing what I have been looking at. I see I have been placed in a group by default because I am a subscriber to D&D Insider. I don't want to have to go to a bunch of different places to view posts and content. I would prefer to leave the D&D Insider group as I have no desire to participate in the social networking aspect, but I can see now that posting will be fractured into these different shards and I will have to go hunting all over the place, surely missing valuable information, just to stay informed and to read the posts that I used to come to the forums to read.
I do not come to the D&D forums to be in a touchy-feely social network. I come here to get insight and suggestions from other DMs and players. I came for a forum not for a play date.
So, there are 2 things I want to do. First one I have already mentioned, finding some way to opt out of the home page profile. I have set all my privacy setting as restrictive as I can, but I would simply not like to have it available for viewing by anyone. Secondly, is there a way to get rid of the recent post banner on the right side of the site. I find that very distracting.
I am happy that Wizards realized that there were issues with the gleemax forum's reliability, I just wish that they hadn't gone so far away from what the forums are supposed to be.
What's the big whoop? You make an avatar, fill out your name and adress and only use the forums... it's all extra. No one is forcing you to blog or join groups, it's just a conveince you might one day enjoy yourself...
Are they forcing you to do this or something? :P They aren't to me. I've been posting on the forums with no difference all morning.
By not having a way to opt out of it, then yes, they are forcing me into it. By having important content specifically posting in groups instead of in the forums themselves, then yes they are forcing me into it.
To me, it is a huge whoop. And I am not the only one who feels this way.
Lighten up dude! They've added functionality to a free platform. You can still post on a forum and get all the things out of it that you want. It has some extra bells/whistles for people who want them. I'm not going to use most of it, but once I'm used to the new patform I'm sure it will work for me as well as the old one did.
Give it a while and it might grow on you.
I'm not really annoyed by the new board.
Personally i like the new community options. Unlike myspace and facebook everyone here shares the same intrest. Yes i agree the bright white background on the forum makes my eyes bleed. But 200 app invites on myspace everytime i log in makes me wana visit everyone on my friends list and shove their pc down their throats. At least here we all share a common thing Love of the game. I love the idea of having groups. I also love having a profile that i can use to share info to some of my players and other dms without it getting barried in a forum after a few days. I plan to blog our weekly games on it so others can read it and go "thats a cool idea for my campaign". But its not for everyone i guess. Personally i think after reading all the complaints from the long time vets they need to spend more time playing and less time posting complaints about a forum thats still in beta.
Lighten up dude! They've added functionality to a free platform. You can still post on a forum and get all the things out of it that you want. It has some extra bells/whistles for people who want them. I'm not going to use most of it, but once I'm used to the new patform I'm sure it will work for me as well as the old one did.
Give it a while and it might grow on you.
They've removed just as much functionality as they've added, if not more so. And that's not getting into the poor layout design and navigation issues.
I knew this was migration was going to make me shudder. I was so much happier with a forum, not a social network. If I wanted to be on facebook or myspace, I would do it.
Is there any way to opt out of the silly home\profile page. I will not be blogging anything, I will not be adding photos, I will not be joining groups or in need of a calendar on my D&D forums. I do not want people knowing what I have been looking at. I see I have been placed in a group by default because I am a subscriber to D&D Insider. I don't want to have to go to a bunch of different places to view posts and content. I would prefer to leave the D&D Insider group as I have no desire to participate in the social networking aspect, but I can see now that posting will be fractured into these different shards and I will have to go hunting all over the place, surely missing valuable information, just to stay informed and to read the posts that I used to come to the forums to read.
I do not come to the D&D forums to be in a touchy-feely social network. I come here to get insight and suggestions from other DMs and players. I came for a forum not for a play date.
So, there are 2 things I want to do. First one I have already mentioned, finding some way to opt out of the home page profile. I have set all my privacy setting as restrictive as I can, but I would simply not like to have it available for viewing by anyone. Secondly, is there a way to get rid of the recent post banner on the right side of the site. I find that very distracting.
I am happy that Wizards realized that there were issues with the gleemax forum's reliability, I just wish that they hadn't gone so far away from what the forums are supposed to be.
I know how you feel. wolfstar76 was kind enough to point out that there currently is no functionality to opt out of the community beta testing. However we should make these requests to Customer Service: www.wizards.com/customerservice
Others have as well and the message back from CS is that there is no way to do so right now. I figure though that those of us who wish to opt out of beta should go ahead and send a message directly to Customer Service.
Well, I do have to say that I am quite impressed with how quickly the team has moved on the sidebar issue. I am absolutely thrilled to see that gone. I actually sighed in relief. So, thank you to the team.
So, I suppose I have to give some time to see how the rest of things flesh out. I am truly hoping that the blogs, groups and wikis don't cause discussions to be so dispersed as to make the actual forums worthless. I am willing to give it a few weeks to see how the "community" begins to use these new features.
Thanks again for the quick response to the request of so many.
I knew this was migration was going to make me shudder. I was so much happier with a forum, not a social network. If I wanted to be on facebook or myspace, I would do it.
Is there any way to opt out of the silly home\profile page. I will not be blogging anything, I will not be adding photos, I will not be joining groups or in need of a calendar on my D&D forums. I do not want people knowing what I have been looking at. I see I have been placed in a group by default because I am a subscriber to D&D Insider. I don't want to have to go to a bunch of different places to view posts and content. I would prefer to leave the D&D Insider group as I have no desire to participate in the social networking aspect, but I can see now that posting will be fractured into these different shards and I will have to go hunting all over the place, surely missing valuable information, just to stay informed and to read the posts that I used to come to the forums to read.
I do not come to the D&D forums to be in a touchy-feely social network. I come here to get insight and suggestions from other DMs and players. I came for a forum not for a play date.
So, there are 2 things I want to do. First one I have already mentioned, finding some way to opt out of the home page profile. I have set all my privacy setting as restrictive as I can, but I would simply not like to have it available for viewing by anyone. Secondly, is there a way to get rid of the recent post banner on the right side of the site. I find that very distracting.
I am happy that Wizards realized that there were issues with the gleemax forum's reliability, I just wish that they hadn't gone so far away from what the forums are supposed to be.
I know how you feel. wolfstar76 was kind enough to point out that there currently is no functionality to opt out of the community beta testing. However we should make these requests to Customer Service: www.wizards.com/customerserviceOthers have as well and the message back from CS is that there is no way to do so right now. I figure though that those of us who wish to opt out of beta should go ahead and send a message directly to Customer Service.
it should be ntoed that the WHOLE system forums included is in beta and the only way to really opt out of doing it,would be..well not coming here until its out of beta...
This is the beta of what was the Gleemax alpha. Gleemax died because it was a terrible idea with an even worse implementation. It was believed that WotC learned from this error and went back to making software to solve problems rather than inventing features to address problems that never existed in the interest of being "cutting edge."
Well, we were wrong. Not only did they not learn, but this time they ate the forum system instead of just giving half of it a terrible skin.
It annoys me to think of how much of the profits from money I have spent on D&D products went into this.
I think what annoys me the most is that while looking for bits of information on various topics I encountered a number of blogs and forums whose look/coloration/setup I absolutely hated. The new look is just like those I hated so much. 
There are some other things I like and dislike but I figure I will run with it and so how it pans out.