Trying to be resonable - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 rugsrat Aug 29, 2009 7:29:27	I wasn't exactly a major player on the old forums, but I felt that since I have concerns, I'd voice them. Free country, right? And it seems my opinion mirrors the opinions of many others: In many ways, I like the new community. While I admit that there are many things that I won't really use (at all), there are others that I probably will. I'm actually thinking about getting my playgroup at school onto this, so that we can sync our schedules and things somewhere dedicated to gaming. Some of the features, the Blogs, Photos, and Videos functions I can do without, but I can simply ignore them, like I do on every other community page that I'm a part of. It's not a big deal for me to simply use the features that I want, and to ignore the ones I don't. I'm not going to begrudge Wizards something that they're trying to do for me, and honestly don't really understand those people who see these features as 100% evil. Change is hard... and many of the changes will take getting used to. Some changes for the better, some for the worse (which I am about to address), but even so, Wizards is trying to do something better, even if they miss the mark for some things. Now, to my complaints, which are honestly very few when I think about it, mostly nit-picky, and will probably be corrected when we're out of the beta phase: The lack of color schemes for the forums is a huge issue for me. The constant barrage of white on my senses is literally giving me a headache. It'd be very nice (in fact, I'd love it) if more control were given as to color scheme. The old browns and golds were very easy on the eyes, and gave a very intimate feel to the forums. I saw someone else (several others actually) describe the forums as "cozy" before the changeover, and "sterile" now. I tend to agree. While the artwork currently being displayed is lovely, it's just not the same, or really enough to make up for the loss of the old color schemes. I miss having the "Magic: The Gathering, Black" scheme. The way sub-forums are displayed is incredibly ugly. I used to not even have to look for the forum I wanted. I knew I only had to count down four lines from the "D&D Community" forum to click on the Campaign and Adventure Workshop. When I first tried to read threads upon the forums reopening, I found myself dismayed and shocked that all of the sub-forum listings ran as one paragraph, separated by commas. I'm sorry, but that's messy, and makes anything harder to find. And while I have a secondary complaint about missing the "Last post" as opposed to "last poster" I'm willing to let that go, because having the sub-forum listings more spread out is much more important to me for my own ease of use. The lack of old functionality irritates me to no end. Lack of sblock and /deck commands make many threads (particularly in the optimization and other forums requiring lots of text) incredibly hard to navigate. For instance, I'd love to be able to sblock many of my points, as to avoid looking as long winded as I am. Alas. No such luck. And finally, the subject of Avatars. I'm not entirely sure why we're now required to have one... but I used one anyway, so it doesn't really affect me as much. But my CHOICE of avatar has been. I used the "Wheel of Sun and Moon" art on the old forums. I happen to think that particular art is gorgeous, and would very much appreciate having all of the old choices that Wizards provided back. I'm sure I can find the art elsewhere and import it here, but I'm choosing to wait and see if that will be fixed with other bugs. But as a whole, I'm fairly pleased. New features are nice, even if I won't use them for the most part. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, or rage-quit something when it changes. I'd just like some things from the old forums back, and after that I'll be happy. I do hope that my wish-list is reasonable... I don't know, not being a whiz with coding, website building, or most other things "tech" I'm not at all sure how feasible anything I've asked for is, or how many hours would have to be put in to make it work. Annnnd there it is. My opinion... with many more words than I anticipated writing...
#2 dieffenbachj Aug 29, 2009 17:11:27	I don't see what the problem with having to import your avatar is though. The benefit is, you can have any avatar--at any quality (some of the old avatars had REALLY horrible quality)--that you can squeeze in. The "cost" is, now Wizards doesn't have to provide thousands of options for you to peruse one page at a time. Oh, and they don't have the artwork you want if you want Wizards-related artwork--but it's easy enough to download/crop/upload to your exact specifications. I think it's win-win, really.
#3 greatfrito Aug 29, 2009 22:09:38	Just wanted to say, quickly, that I agree with most of the OP's (fairly minor, I think) complaints - though I'm, thus far, happy with the majority of the changes. The color scheme literally hurts my brain (well, my eyes). It's the same reason I avoid Paizo's forums. Lack of sblock (I hadn't noticed yet) is going to be... well, horrible for the forums in many places. Avatars aren't a big issue - uploading is nice.

I wasn't exactly a major player on the old forums, but I felt that since I have concerns, I'd voice them. Free country, right? And it seems my opinion mirrors the opinions of many others:

In many ways, I like the new community. While I admit that there are many things that I won't really use (at all), there are others that I probably will. I'm actually thinking about getting my playgroup at school onto this, so that we can sync our schedules and things somewhere dedicated to gaming.

Some of the features, the Blogs, Photos, and Videos functions I can do without, but I can simply ignore them, like I do on every other community page that I'm a part of. It's not a big deal for me to simply use the features that I want, and to ignore the ones I don't. I'm not going to begrudge Wizards something that they're trying to do for me, and honestly don't really understand those people who see these features as 100% evil. Change is hard... and many of the changes will take getting used to. Some changes for the better, some for the worse (which I am about to address), but even so, Wizards is trying to do something better, even if they miss the mark for some things.

Now, to my complaints, which are honestly very few when I think about it, mostly nit-picky, and will probably be corrected when we're out of the beta phase:

The lack of color schemes for the forums is a huge issue for me. The constant barrage of white on my senses is literally giving me a headache. It'd be very nice (in fact, I'd love it) if more control were given as to color scheme. The old browns and golds were very easy on the eyes, and gave a very intimate feel to the forums. I saw someone else (several others actually) describe the forums as "cozy" before the changeover, and "sterile" now. I tend to agree. While the artwork currently being displayed is lovely, it's just not the same, or really enough to make up for the loss of the old color schemes. I miss having the "Magic: The Gathering, Black" scheme.

The way sub-forums are displayed is incredibly ugly. I used to not even have to look for the forum I wanted. I knew I only had to count down four lines from the "D&D Community" forum to click on the Campaign and Adventure Workshop. When I first tried to read threads upon the forums reopening, I found myself dismayed and shocked that all of the sub-forum listings ran as one paragraph, separated by commas. I'm sorry, but that's messy, and makes anything harder to find. And while I have a secondary complaint about missing the "Last post" as opposed to "last poster" I'm willing to let that go, because having the sub-forum listings more spread out is much more important to me for my own ease of use.

The lack of old functionality irritates me to no end. Lack of sblock and /deck commands make many threads (particularly in the optimization and other forums requiring lots of text) incredibly hard to navigate. For instance, I'd love to be able to sblock many of my points, as to avoid looking as long winded as I am. Alas. No such luck.

And finally, the subject of Avatars. I'm not entirely sure why we're now required to have one... but I used one anyway, so it doesn't really affect me as much. But my CHOICE of avatar has been. I used the "Wheel of Sun and Moon" art on the old forums. I happen to think that particular art is gorgeous, and would very much appreciate having all of the old choices that Wizards provided back. I'm sure I can find the art elsewhere and import it here, but I'm choosing to wait and see if that will be fixed with other bugs.

But as a whole, I'm fairly pleased. New features are nice, even if I won't use them for the most part. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, or rage-quit something when it changes. I'd just like some things from the old forums back, and after that I'll be happy. I do hope that my wish-list is reasonable... I don't know, not being a whiz with coding, website building, or most other things "tech" I'm not at all sure how feasible anything I've asked for is, or how many hours would have to be put in to make it work.

Annnnd there it is. My opinion... with many more words than I anticipated writing...