Welcome to the new site! Please bear with us while we get all our bearings. 
Poke around and let us know what you think!
What happened to spoiler blocks?
and the /deck command?
Zousha....it's weird here...
Well it's certainly snazzy, but can we do all the same stuff that we used to do with the forums? Like the spoiler blocks? And will there be cake?
There is always delicous caek.
Ack! What happened to my alternate persona?!
It's snazzy, sure, but it's no longer cozy here. It feels like the heart's been stripped out, with the relaxed brown tones replaced by white everywhere. It's the same thing the GameFAQs forums went through some years ago, and like then, I can't say I like it. Is there any way to go back to something like the older appearance?
It looks like crap. And somehow, I lost almost 2,500 posts.
There are three different skins, I'm running the D&D one at the moment. They are a bit more "strongly colored"
My custom title. I wants it back.
Imps and/or quasits will suffer if I'm not properly restored to my position as "My Little Arcanaloth" post haste.
Hasty edit: And like magic it is back. Good! The new boards obey my whimsy as they should! Muahaha!
This new layout in unintuitive, clunky and hard to navigate. It also looks terrible.
I'd also like to know what happened to all my subscribed threads. I'm actually extremely upset those are ALL gone.
Ack! What happened to my alternate persona?!
Long gone, into the ether.
It's snazzy, sure, but it's no longer cozy here. It feels like the heart's been stripped out, with the relaxed brown tones replaced by white everywhere. It's the same thing the GameFAQs forums went through some years ago, and like then, I can't say I like it. Is there any way to go back to something like the older appearance?
I agree. It looks very .. sterile. I intend to hold back on some of my comments until I've learned the interface and options better, but I do agree the general look is far less welcoming then it used to be.
I'd also like to know what happened to my post count. WHY is it only 720something when before I had over 2k?
First thoughts
1. Ugh, plain white, this theme is not an improvement. I hate with a fiery passion making borders with color changes instead of actual lines, it just looks messy and unfinished.
2. Navigating the forums does not feel easier.
3. No pages for threads on the forum screen, related to two.
First impressions:
Some of the extra features look nice. The groups feature in particular has promise; if WotC can make turn it into a good service for finding players over the internet it would be absolute gold.
I hate how hitting enter automatically doublespaces. Do not want.
I hate the massive "recent posts" and "hot topics" bars that take up nearly half of the visual area with junk I don't want to see.
I hate how small the box for text while viewing posts. It's absolutely tiny. Get rid of the huge bars to the left and take the bar to the right with the picture & details and move it to the top like it used to be to give it some more lateral room.
I hate how I can't see the last couple messages while writing responses.
I don't like how forums are organized now; they take up less space, thankfully, but they're just so clumped and jumbled.
The backgrounds are nifty, but I'll miss my Parchment & Leather (Dark). That setting made these forums one of the easiest on the eyes on the whole internet. The lack of it is already noticeable for me.
In short, my initial response: New features good! New layout awful!
I actually like the new stuff. So YMMV I guess. But then again this is the internet.
Ack! What happened to my alternate persona?!
Long gone, into the ether.
At least quoting works...
I found my persona, but cannot access it. He was my main persona, too!
Sblocking is currently not available.
Sigs will also have to be re-created.
Is there a way to change the # of posts per page I can view?
Okay, now that I've poked around, I've come to a decision. This change was a Bad Idea, And I Hate It.
I do not want a pale-colored Gleemax. I want forums.
Is there a way to change the # of posts per page I can view?
Top of the page, link to "Preferences"
AND WHEN WILL WE GET SPOILER BLOCKS?! 
I would honestly just like to know what 'character limits' made adding ugly underlines and numbers to my screen name necessary.
And yes, also, please kill the sidebars.
The sidebars need a way to be killed. Too much wasted space. I just hope when this beta ends the end product comes out cleaner.
Whoa. Either there's a lot of hidden flash, or the site just caused my firefow to spring a big ol' memory leak.
Vaalingrade, the new board in general seems to use HTML instead of BBCode, so change the URL bit to <a href="(the url)">text</a>.
The sidebars definately need to go. I suspect the only reason I can stand to view this site at all is because of a bug caused by my screen resolution.
Also please stop having the system try to help me type. When I hit enter I want one line of space. If I need a new paragraph I'll gladly suffer the pain of hitting enter twice.
And the internal links are a total mess to navigate.
I'll forgive some things as just being different (though the prefferences placement still stikes me as insanely counter intuitive), and some as bugs showing through because it's very obviously not finished. But those 3 really need fixing fast.
And I hate to double post, but there is a good reason why: WotC, there is a good reason we have BBCode, it's so I don't have to type < to get <, and the HTML editor doesn't constantly break it whenever I try to preview, or edit, or do anything whatsoever.
I'm using the D&D skin, even so I got to say that I really don't like this. It's just too white. Also I don't like the tabs above to choose what part of the forum I want to go to, it doesn't show the full text which makes it kinda annoying to find the right one to click sometimes.
Also the Recent Topics part is distracting and also very very white.
So on the whole, the old forum was VASTLY better.
The new layout seems okay to me. I have only one complaint. The stuff on the right side of the screen is not necessary to me and I'd like a way to turn it off. This is just the beta isn't it?
Ack! What happened to my alternate persona?!
Long gone, into the ether.At least quoting works...
I found my persona, but cannot access it. He was my main persona, too!
Ohhh, quoting works, just now it takes up massive amounts of visual space.That's really my biggest qualm with it. The new layout just fritters away visual space like it's infinite. It isn't. When I view forums I want to be able to read posts. Now, you go to a thread with lots of information in it and, well, it's barely readable. For anything other than a small couple line post this forum is awful.
The problem isn't that the quotes themselves take up that much space. The borders are a little large but not bad.The problem is that WotC has decided to devote two thirds of the frame to other stuff. Inch of pretty background picture on each side. Bunch more space to the "Who posted last" column. Another chunk of space for the avatars on the left. That doesn't leave much room for the actual forums.
Oh, and are these scripted-to-hell-and-gone text boxes screwing with anyone else's spell-check? I'm using the latest FireFox on XP and it's failing hard. And their solution sucks. Badly. It's brutal.
QFT.Seriously, what is up with the formatting of this site? Only half of the page seems to be allocated to the actual content, and I'm running this on a widescreen monitor! Not to mention the themes are ugly as hell, puctures mess with formatting (and god forbid you're using the MTG format when this happens), the "forum" is hard to navigate, I still can't find how to edit my sig, and the vital [sblock] no longer works! Head down to the CharOps board and try to read a handbook now. its impossible!
All this for a few features we don't need, and probably won't even use! Videos? Are you kidding me? How many videos get shared? Honestly, is linking to YouTube really THAT bad? A wiki? Whats wrong with Wikipedia? Photos? Okay, i can see that one getting some use, but we've already got extended photo galleries on multiple other websites that we've had no problem using.
I guess what I'm saying is that we already have workable, and even efficient, methods for achieving what these extra features are trying to provide. Why mess up the forums this bad for features that we already had?
PS. Keep the quote chain going!
I haven't logged onto myspace in about a year now--this is only reminding me why. I don't want to have one site that does everything for me, because one site will not do something for me as well as another will.
I will still go to youtube to watch videos and if I ever upload a video to the internet it will not be uploaded here. If I ever want to network socially, I'll use a social network site. When I want to talk about Magic or Dungeons and Dragons... I'll come here--that's all I want to do here.
Oh, and my estimate of the post-to-crap ratio is less than 50p to 50c, probably around 40% of the page you are viewing this post in is dedicated to this thread... what's up with that?
Ack! What happened to my alternate persona?!
Long gone, into the ether.At least quoting works...
I found my persona, but cannot access it. He was my main persona, too!
Ohhh, quoting works, just now it takes up massive amounts of visual space.That's really my biggest qualm with it. The new layout just fritters away visual space like it's infinite. It isn't. When I view forums I want to be able to read posts. Now, you go to a thread with lots of information in it and, well, it's barely readable. For anything other than a small couple line post this forum is awful.
The problem isn't that the quotes themselves take up that much space. The borders are a little large but not bad.The problem is that WotC has decided to devote two thirds of the frame to other stuff. Inch of pretty background picture on each side. Bunch more space to the "Who posted last" column. Another chunk of space for the avatars on the left. That doesn't leave much room for the actual forums.
Oh, and are these scripted-to-hell-and-gone text boxes screwing with anyone else's spell-check? I'm using the latest FireFox on XP and it's failing hard. And their solution sucks. Badly. It's brutal.
QFT.Seriously, what is up with the formatting of this site? Only half of the page seems to be allocated to the actual content, and I'm running this on a widescreen monitor! Not to mention the themes are ugly as hell, puctures mess with formatting (and god forbid you're using the MTG format when this happens), the "forum" is hard to navigate, I still can't find how to edit my sig, and the vital [sblock] no longer works! Head down to the CharOps board and try to read a handbook now. its impossible!
All this for a few features we don't need, and probably won't even use! Videos? Are you kidding me? How many videos get shared? Honestly, is linking to YouTube really THAT bad? A wiki? Whats wrong with Wikipedia? Photos? Okay, i can see that one getting some use, but we've already got extended photo galleries on multiple other websites that we've had no problem using.
I guess what I'm saying is that we already have workable, and even efficient, methods for achieving what these extra features are trying to provide. Why mess up the forums this bad for features that we already had?
PS. Keep the quote chain going!
I haven't logged onto myspace in about a year now--this is only reminding me why. I don't want to have one site that does everything for me, because one site will not do something for me as well as another will.
I will still go to youtube to watch videos and if I ever upload a video to the internet it will not be uploaded here. If I ever want to network socially, I'll use a social network site. When I want to talk about Magic or Dungeons and Dragons... I'll come here--that's all I want to do here.
Oh, and my estimate of the post-to-crap ratio is less than 50p to 50c, probably around 40% of the page you are viewing this post in is dedicated to this thread... what's up with that?
Even worse IMHO is the fact that you can't see the thread you're replying to unless you quote all of it.
Typically a forum shows the thread below the reply box (which I find useful when replying without quoting, so I'm sure I'm addressing the right poster).
Oh well, -- N
This may be the beta, and I know you can't please all people, but so far I'm not very impressed. It's just plain harder to read now. Most of the onscreen "real estate" is used up by things that do not interest me at all. I keep getting the impression that this beta was designed with the explicit intent to give people Attention Deficit Disorder. My eyes are having a hard time staying on the text... I can only hope that is a result of the startling change in appearance.
The atmosphere is just completely obliterated. I see a couple familiar names (Vaal, you have my condolences), and that's it. I know all too well it's the people who make a community great, but I just feel like the very soul of the community has been eviscerated somehow in this new format. It's just not as... I don't know... "classy."
In all my 8+ years (not that you can tell) on this forum (er... I mean, in this community) I've never gotten the impression of "get with the times, or get out" as strongly as this makeover has (and I frequent Previous Editions, so that's saying a lot). I'll poke my head in once in a while to see if any favourable changes to the format have been made... until then, my posts will be at a minimum.
P.S. - To those who may be interested, hold shift while pressing enter in order to single space instead of double space.
EDIT: Aaaaaaannnnnnnddddddd... my UnCon prizewinner badge is apparently gone too. Great... I worked hard for that too...
Ack! What happened to my alternate persona?!
Long gone, into the ether.At least quoting works...
I found my persona, but cannot access it. He was my main persona, too!
Ohhh, quoting works, just now it takes up massive amounts of visual space.That's really my biggest qualm with it. The new layout just fritters away visual space like it's infinite. It isn't. When I view forums I want to be able to read posts. Now, you go to a thread with lots of information in it and, well, it's barely readable. For anything other than a small couple line post this forum is awful.
The problem isn't that the quotes themselves take up that much space. The borders are a little large but not bad.The problem is that WotC has decided to devote two thirds of the frame to other stuff. Inch of pretty background picture on each side. Bunch more space to the "Who posted last" column. Another chunk of space for the avatars on the left. That doesn't leave much room for the actual forums.
Oh, and are these scripted-to-hell-and-gone text boxes screwing with anyone else's spell-check? I'm using the latest FireFox on XP and it's failing hard. And their solution sucks. Badly. It's brutal.
QFT.Seriously, what is up with the formatting of this site? Only half of the page seems to be allocated to the actual content, and I'm running this on a widescreen monitor! Not to mention the themes are ugly as hell, puctures mess with formatting (and god forbid you're using the MTG format when this happens), the "forum" is hard to navigate, I still can't find how to edit my sig, and the vital [sblock] no longer works! Head down to the CharOps board and try to read a handbook now. its impossible!
All this for a few features we don't need, and probably won't even use! Videos? Are you kidding me? How many videos get shared? Honestly, is linking to YouTube really THAT bad? A wiki? Whats wrong with Wikipedia? Photos? Okay, i can see that one getting some use, but we've already got extended photo galleries on multiple other websites that we've had no problem using.
I guess what I'm saying is that we already have workable, and even efficient, methods for achieving what these extra features are trying to provide. Why mess up the forums this bad for features that we already had?
PS. Keep the quote chain going!
I haven't logged onto myspace in about a year now--this is only reminding me why. I don't want to have one site that does everything for me, because one site will not do something for me as well as another will.
I will still go to youtube to watch videos and if I ever upload a video to the internet it will not be uploaded here. If I ever want to network socially, I'll use a social network site. When I want to talk about Magic or Dungeons and Dragons... I'll come here--that's all I want to do here.
Oh, and my estimate of the post-to-crap ratio is less than 50p to 50c, probably around 40% of the page you are viewing this post in is dedicated to this thread... what's up with that?
Even worse IMHO is the fact that you can't see the thread you're replying to unless you quote all of it.Typically a forum shows the thread below the reply box (which I find useful when replying without quoting, so I'm sure I'm addressing the right poster).
Oh well, -- N
I wonder if we reached the limit of quoting...
ok to do a SIGNATURE click on
I just wanted to say that I really like the new forums. Good job Wizards! I didn't much care for gleemax. 
I just wanted to say that I really like the new forums. Good job Wizards! I didn't much care for gleemax.
I will concede... there is some merit to that. Gleemax was quite the disaster... though perhaps the change wasn't as "dramatic" as this is.
What I want to know is when (if?) the ability to open a thread and have the page automatically jump to the first unread post will be available again. Having to scan each thread I'm reading to see where the new posts start is extremely inconvenient.
I'd also like to see the return of the icons that indicate which threads have new posts. Not only do I currently have to manually scan to find where new posts start, but I can't even seem to figure out which threads have new posts in them without opening each thread.
So far I have to rate this whole new setup with a big fat FAIL, even if it is still only in beta.
Hmm... my post count went from alomst 20,000 to under 5000. Interesting. I would much rather see "Member since" than Post count in the avatar section.
Hmm... my post count went from alomst 20,000 to under 5000. Interesting. I would much rather see "Member since" than Post count in the avatar section.
I just noticed that as well (the join date).
It's snazzy, sure, but it's no longer cozy here. It feels like the heart's been stripped out, with the relaxed brown tones replaced by white everywhere. It's the same thing the GameFAQs forums went through some years ago, and like then, I can't say I like it. Is there any way to go back to something like the older appearance?
Seriously, this. WHITE IS NOT THE ULTIMATE ANSWER, WOTC. The human eye is attracted to lighter, brighter colors. Filling anything that isn't a Background with pure white invariably makes it harder to read. Know why I never crack your books open? 'Cause reading them SUCKS. It sucked in 3.5 because you used 8-point font, and it sucks now because I have to concentrate really hard just to get through a page or two with all the white in there. Doing the same thing to your Boards (my second-favorite part of the day!) is an awful idea!
As I'm sure you're going to get pages upon pages of people saying, please allow different Font/Colors/What-Have-You, and also return Sblocking. :S
EDIT: Also, taking up about 5-10 lines after any Quote was an awful idea. WHY, PLEASE?
In fact, here's a little list, k?
- Double-Spacing after any Quote or press of the Enter key: BAD
- Being able to press the End key to instantly un-Bold/Italicize/Etc your Font: GREAT
- Lack of Sblock, problems with Quoting, no Link Insertion Option: ANNOYING
- Facebook-copying, profile options, etc: COOL
- Bunching all of any specific Forum's Topics together, making them practically unreadable: BAD
- Having the entire right half of my screen taken up by a blank, gray area that does absolutely nothing except present a few inane "New Topics" or whatever for only about three or four posts down, and also having the margins of the entire screen reduced by the MANDATORY Background while also having a MANDATORY white posting background, which all results in a TINY LITTLE BOX being the only method by which I can post: OPTICALLY DAMAGING!!
Allow me to give you a quick analogy, Wizards. There was once a little company called Nintendo, and they made great games. They had fans that measured in the millions, until one day, they decided to reach out to people who weren't much like their fans. They succeeded, and none of their fans minded all that much that they had some fun games that even boring old Dad and Mom enjoyed playing. However, then Nintendo decided that they'd start catering to everyone BUT their good old fans, by killing off most of their successful franchises and concentrating on games that the true gamers wouldn't actually play. This has decreased their loyal fan base immensely, and though they still have plenty of fans, they aren't actually catering to the people they're supposed to be catering to anymore, and the world suffers because of it.
Now here we have 4th Edition, and many people made this case initially, because they felt WotC had sold out, preferring to think of pure profit by catering to the masses, rather than doing everything their hardcore fans preferred. Personally, I disagree; though I don't like the layouts of the books (or how they're written, at times) all that much, making the game more accessible to newer players and cutting down on much of the unnecessary complexity was a great idea.
Now here we have the new Boards, and I'm sure many people will make this case again, the only difference being that I'm with them! What was the thought process here, "Facebook has a lot of empty white space, that must be why it's so popular,"? I HATE FACEBOOK! It's utter crap to read through, because it's a completely blank white space with random crap spewed around that you have to dig through if you want to find anything useful. So now the Boards are a TINY white space with random crap spewed around that you have to dig through if you want to find anything useful! GREAT! You're now destroying my retinas, Wizards, and your Boards are now worse than Facebook.
Oh, also, give me back my damn smilies, you bastards. Christ, how do I make sure my tone comes across clear enough without 
or 
and the like?? Thanks tons! :P
EDIT2: Oh, and can you PLEASE capitalize the "L" in my damn screen name?? I didn't ask you to change that, nor did I ask for a _ between the words! "Crimson Lancer" is not hard to make happen; it worked for how many years on the old Boards?? Half a decade and then some, I believe?? So why are we now forced to have that line between words? Other sites don't force it; why do you?? Why must all second or more words be uncapitalized?? Again, why??
My guess is that the long-term archive stuff got turffed in the transition and the post counts were re-calculated by the system based on whatever was transfered over to the new system.
So the long-time posters lost some of their post count while the newer people will not notice a difference.
I see no reason why they could not include a joined-on date in addition to the rest on the side bar. After all, if they are going to insist on taking up all that space for the avatar column they may as well use it for something useful.
Honestly, I like the new Community. It's cool, it's sleak and it's modern.
sure it has it's kinks, but in time they will get sorted out.
It e-mails me Post Notifications?!?! So to check on whether or not someone else has posted in the Threads I wish I was Subscribed to, I have to go to ANOTHER WEBSITE to check on it?? SON OF A...!!
See ya later, Wizards. %^*$ this, I'd rather carve my own heart out with a spork. There are so many Logic Errors in you guys' thought trains it is mind-boggling. What's the best way to provide a quality product? Logically, you concentrate on one thing and perfect it. EVERYONE knows that. Why go here for videos when Youtube is so much better? Why use this site's (completely unusable at the moment!) chat when Facebook's is easy, personal, and intuitive? Wikipedia already does Wikis! What the Hell, man?!?!
Next thing ya know, they're going to try to replace Google with a Gleemax Search Engine! This is the freaking "SyFy" IDIOCY all over again.
WotC: You have a fanbase. We are demanding, but we are loyal. Stop pandering to everyone except your loyal fanbase. YOU FAIL, PLEASE INSERT QUARTER TO TRY AGAIN.
I know it takes time to get things up and running to speed the way everyone wants them to be, but this is just..... horrible.... It's like I went to a restaurant and order some fried chicken, then they brought me out a whole hen and lit the damn thing on fire...
I fancy myself a level headed person, and I'm all for giving things a try before I knock it, but this is so bad I don't even WANT to try... I hope things are going to be fixed soon. This sucks so bad I can't even look at it anymore...
I have to put my 2 cents in here (wheres the smiley for it?)
Let's all give it a try for a year or two, then we can rail and complain about missing features (GT, CV) and glaring mistakes (power creep, want more money or customers). Seriously this is just a beta (like the GT was 'just a alpha'). Don't worry, eventually they'll just drop it and put up a 'coming soon' sign on the main page. Then they'll start working on something else entirely and say this is 'set to the side'. Oh wait that happened to something already...
I'm all with ya. WotC screwed this one badly.
Here's how I would have done it.
I would have grabbed a cheap (or free) community/message board system that was tested and tried and true. then I would have spent 90% of my time on making scripts that would port everything over to the new system.
If I would have a choice for a real 'beta' I'd have used the Google Wave beta that is going on now. That thing is plain awesome. It does everything that this is supposed to do out of the box. You can drag and drop videos, pictures, sound files, and links directly into posts. You can even see what people type as they type it, no more hammering the refresh button waiting for a reply.
In short WotC once again proved that they value money over the customer!
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You would have done your way, WotC did it theirs, at least I can post on theirs.
Bel
Dude, they're not making any money here, and while the DDI options that are available actually add to the DnD experience, this new Forum format intrinsically detracts from the experience. It's not a great analogy.
Personally, I always prefer it when a company says, "Sorry, guys, wait a little bit longer, we'll get it to you soon," rather than, "Here's a half-baked framework, good luck!" Take the Charbuilder, for example; they didn't rush it out the door with only half the Classes working. They made sure everything worked with the excpetion of some very specific discrepencies that they then also fixed fairly quickly. I'd totally prefer it if they now just took the Forums down again and said, "Down for Maintenance due to Outstanding Feedback!" for another 5-10 days, FIXED s%$* so that it actually WORKS, and then got back to us with something that actually functions as a decent Forum rather than yet another MySpace rip-off.
Then again, I guess I'm probably just in a rant mood right now. Probably due to how painful this 10-point font on a glaring white background is. GRRR.
After many years, many frakkin' years! Ya finally did it!!
Ya finally grew up!!!
About damn time!
Dude, they're not making any money here, and while the DDI options that are available actually add to the DnD experience, this new Forum format intrinsically detracts from the experience. It's not a great analogy.
Personally, I always prefer it when a company says, "Sorry, guys, wait a little bit longer, we'll get it to you soon," rather than, "Here's a half-baked framework, good luck!" Take the Charbuilder, for example; they didn't rush it out the door with only half the Classes working. They made sure everything worked with the excpetion of some very specific discrepencies that they then also fixed fairly quickly. I'd totally prefer it if they now just took the Forums down again and said, "Down for Maintenance due to Outstanding Feedback!" for another 5-10 days, FIXED s%$* so that it actually WORKS, and then got back to us with something that actually functions as a decent Forum rather than yet another MySpace rip-off.
Then again, I guess I'm probably just in a rant mood right now. Probably due to how painful this 10-point font on a glaring white background is. GRRR.
Your right, I'm just too bitter from past experiences.
I agree with your assessment though. They should have left the old forums up and took the next 3-36 months to implement a really nice 'community' site that is not just a really cheap rip off of other community sites. This way we could still enjoy the old forums, and they wouldn't have let out a half baked 'pre-alpha' 'community' page.
Dude, they're not making any money here, and while the DDI options that are available actually add to the DnD experience, this new Forum format intrinsically detracts from the experience. It's not a great analogy.
Personally, I always prefer it when a company says, "Sorry, guys, wait a little bit longer, we'll get it to you soon," rather than, "Here's a half-baked framework, good luck!" Take the Charbuilder, for example; they didn't rush it out the door with only half the Classes working. They made sure everything worked with the excpetion of some very specific discrepencies that they then also fixed fairly quickly. I'd totally prefer it if they now just took the Forums down again and said, "Down for Maintenance due to Outstanding Feedback!" for another 5-10 days, FIXED s%$* so that it actually WORKS, and then got back to us with something that actually functions as a decent Forum rather than yet another MySpace rip-off.
Then again, I guess I'm probably just in a rant mood right now. Probably due to how painful this 10-point font on a glaring white background is. GRRR.
I agree that taking it down for a longer time to get things perfect would be the ideal solution. Unfortunately I also suspect that this would cause a number of posters to start screaming about how the new forums are vaporware after a relatively short period of time. At least this way they can have the forums in such a way that with relatively short periods of downtime during the week we can hopefully see progress, and head off that kind of thing.
Hmm... my post count went from alomst 20,000 to under 5000. Interesting. I would much rather see "Member since" than Post count in the avatar section.
+1
except mine was 6k, not 15k
This place really sucks. All this white is horrid on the eyes. I like the welcoming natural brown old parchment paper look.
I used to come on everyday, sure it could be slow and down a lot at times but I loved the layout for the most part. Now it's all white and all the subforums are jumbled together. This place SUCKS.
All you had to do was like... make the old layout faster in loading and not have the forums down so much... thats all you had to do! Not make any other changes! I don't think I'll be coming on as much as I used to anymore.
Edit: And why is my post count so low? I been here for YEAAARRRRS
edit #2: and get rid of this recent/popular topics crud, I don't care about it and it just takes up space 
I come to this site specificaly for the character optimization board, and this is what I've noticed:
All the guides are completely screwed up now. Very few posters will be willing to put the time in to reformat them, and they're going to be all wonky now as a result. Editing a post that was made before the switch automatically turns it into an unformatted wall of text.
Double spaces are BAD. SO BAD. PLEASE REMOVE THEM.
Echoing the sblock return request.
Too much white space. The sidebar is an eyesore. Only about one third of the screen is dedicated to content.
I realize that this is a work in progress but these issues really need some addressing.
The guides should be re-done and put in the Wiki rather than continue on the boards. (Though it has been suggested that the discussion/additinons changes discussed on the boards, then the actual wiki edited after.)
I agree that taking it down for a longer time to get things perfect would be the ideal solution. Unfortunately I also suspect that this would cause a number of posters to start screaming about how the new forums are vaporware after a relatively short period of time. At least this way they can have the forums in such a way that with relatively short periods of downtime during the week we can hopefully see progress, and head off that kind of thing.
Heh. See, I think it would be ideal because they wouldn't have anywhere to start screaming about it being vaporware! Lolololol! :D
I have to say, i'm somewhat unimpressed. I don't need the Wizards forums to be Facebook, i have Facebook for Facebook, and as far as i can tell, apart from arbitrarily changing the format for everything that seems to be the only major change.
Oh, and custom avatars, which is nice, i'll give them that.
--EDIT--
Ok, the GIGANTIC freaking 'recent topics' thing on the right is incredibly annoying. It's goddamn portals all over again. Dammit Wizards, hire a freaking web designer who knows what he's doing.
I agree that taking it down for a longer time to get things perfect would be the ideal solution. Unfortunately I also suspect that this would cause a number of posters to start screaming about how the new forums are vaporware after a relatively short period of time. At least this way they can have the forums in such a way that with relatively short periods of downtime during the week we can hopefully see progress, and head off that kind of thing.
Heh. See, I think it would be ideal because they wouldn't have anywhere to start screaming about it being vaporware! Lolololol! :D
Or they could do the smart thing and take it down while they work on it, and put the old forums back up. They could work out the bugs in the new system WHILE the rest of us post on the old forums. See its win/win. Instead of lose/lose how it is now.
max size of the posts is way to short, and in the transition from the old forums software, any post that was too long got truncated... which is pretty much the whole core coliseum, as it stands.
After a bit more experimentation i take it all back, this new website sucks. Why is everything sandwitched over onto the left, what is with the massive ~150 pixel white space on the left and right and what happened to being able to choose the page number of a thread from the forum itself rather than entering the forum and then pick the page.
Seriously, i am not kidding, who designed this? If you paid him you got seriously ripped off. This is just plain poor design, there's no excuse for some of the design errors going on here.
The guides should be re-done and put in the Wiki rather than continue on the boards. (Though it has been suggested that the discussion/additinons changes discussed on the boards, then the actual wiki edited after.)
That is an unfair expectation. People aren't likely to put the work into the reformatting and reposting when all it would really take is a fix on Wizards' end to make sure that previous formatting procedures are maintained. Things like spoiler tags, size tags, etc., aren't consistent, and I highly doubt that many people will want to go through the guides and fix everything - that's a huge undertaking. Plus, many of the authors aren't around anymore. All of a sudden their guides are eyesores at best, useless at worst.
I respect the fact that you're concentrating on user-generated content with the wiki, but it's paradoxical (and somewhat hypocritical) to expect us to put in even more work now, just to maintain the previous status quo.
I can't say the new layout appeals to me at all. Custom avatars are nice, but the overall cost isn't worth it so far. 
Ah, well. On the bright side, I'll be spending less time here and more doing something more worthwhile!
We need some of the old skins back. I preferred the low bandwith skin, as it enabled me to use the forums on my phone, which this site does not. It also made the site readable on my PC, which this site is not.
This site is a waste.
A waste of space in the forum view.
A waste of money to who ever you paid for this software.
A waste of time for me trying to figure out where everything is, what's now broken, finding my missing subscribed threads, and about 1000 other things.
ugh.
I'm using the D&D skin, even so I got to say that I really don't like this. It's just too white. Also I don't like the tabs above to choose what part of the forum I want to go to, it doesn't show the full text which makes it kinda annoying to find the right one to click sometimes.
Also the Recent Topics part is distracting and also very very white.
So on the whole, the old forum was VASTLY better.
Racism! Racism! 
Anyway, I agree - this forum needs a ton of work. The old ones weren't perfect by a long shot, but they worked.
I won't bother repeating anything since all of my negative feelings about the site have been repeated over and over again. But I need to make one thing clear:
The forums are too white, too bright, and I don't know how we are supposed to read the forums at night time, let alone in the day time.
Seriously, i am not kidding, who designed this? If you paid him you got seriously ripped off. This is just plain poor design, there's no excuse for some of the design errors going on here.
From what I've heard (WotC please correct me if I'm wrong) the base software for the new forums was outsourced / purchased from www.onesite.com
Seriously, i am not kidding, who designed this? If you paid him you got seriously ripped off. This is just plain poor design, there's no excuse for some of the design errors going on here.
From what I've heard (WotC please correct me if I'm wrong) the base software for the new forums was outsourced / purchased from www.onesite.com
Oh, its definitely right. Go to the team page. Note how your profile on this site shows up in the upper-right hand corner? Apparently one site serves all (pun intended).
Unsurprisingly, their website text overlaps with my avatar, showing just how incompetant they really are - not even their own webpage displays correctly. :\
Before I get all acidic burst about the new forum, does anyone know how to get the search function to display threads instead of posts?
1. Why isn't the preferences section anywhere near the user control panel? Having a signature shouldn't be in your preferences, it should be under your profile!
2. FORCED double spacing on the enter button? Really?
3. Why sidebars? That takes up too much space!
4. Where is my beloved sblock?
5. What happened to the parchment? This white hurts my eyes...
6. All of the old avatars are gone? This means that if you wanted your old avatar, you have to have had it saved to your computer prior to the change? Can't do that now, can I. The old avatar is gone.
7. I can no longer tell what page of any given thread I am on! It has never been so easy to get lost in a thread.
8. I can no longer preview the first post in any given thread by holding my mouse over it? Now I have to judge the "books by the cover"!
9. I am running on a wide-screen monitor. Half my screen is completely unused by the forum! I used to have this thing strech clear across my screen, and now it's just small.
10. It took me a long time to find this, in order to figure out what is going on. The organization is custered and difficult, but there nevertheless.
General opinion: This new setup is just clunky, garish, and inefficient. Sorry, it just doesn't work as well for the purposes by which it was used.
The guides should be re-done and put in the Wiki rather than continue on the boards. (Though it has been suggested that the discussion/additinons changes discussed on the boards, then the actual wiki edited after.)
And who will redo them? In some cases especially on the D20 char op boards the OPs don't go on the forums anymore but their guides are still useful. It is unrealistic and poor policy to expect the forum participents to do extra work because wotc screwed up. Seriosly.
Do you have the time to redo every link on this page:
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
How about this one:
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
Wotc screwed this up and they screwed it up big. Porting every link on those two pages is unrealistic when the simple solution is to make sblock work again.
From what I've heard (WotC please correct me if I'm wrong) the base software for the new forums was outsourced / purchased from www.onesite.comOh, its definitely right. Go to the team page. Note how your profile on this site shows up in the upper-right hand corner? Apparently one site serves all (pun intended).
Unsurprisingly, their website text overlaps with my avatar, showing just how incompetant they really are - not even their own webpage displays correctly. :\
Um, wow. This is not only correct but somewhat scary. This type of thing does not speak well about their data security and commitment to their users information privacy. No, it does not automatically mean there are security holes but when the developer has your log-in and cookies leaching out to other sites they manage it is not a sign to inspire confidence. Considering WotC's aim seems to be to make this into a social hub containing lots of personal information and photos and such this is worrying.
For anyone wondering, go to the onesite site and click the 'meet the onesite team' link. Your avatar and user controls show up in the top corner.
If I can't have my alternate persona on which all my DnD pride was posted, I am packing up and leaving. For all the torture WotC has put on me for being a fan of 3.5 and now the old 3.5 forums, I might as well write my own RPG and have less issues!
Is anyone reading the previous posts? It seems the same problems keep cropping up over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
And it's not so much the same problems as the way the posters have of posting them as if it was done personally to them.
Just list the problems, skip the commentary and move on.
Bel
-Edit-
If this was my old forums I would be combining most of the whining threads onto one complaint forum.
Adding my 2 cents echoing the previously mentioned issues. I'm not impressed. At all.
the screen is too wide for my monitor. I just tried increasing my video mode and it's still too wide. I know, I know, it's just the beta...
To emphasise just how bad an idea the auto-double-spacing is, let's consider a really cool thing the new forums let us do. Or at least what they very nearly let us do. With HTML, we ought to be able to fairly easily include our own homebrewed monster stat blocks and power cards in our posts, but can we?
This is what they should look like:
That's an HTML power card without this forum screwing it all up with extra line spacing.
This, however, is a preview of the same HTML inserted into a forum post:
As you can see, the extra line spacing ruins the whole thing. Monster stat blocks, being longer to start with, are screwed up even worse.
I'm also not sure why the forum changes the colour of some of the text, apparently at random, but that's a minor problem compared to the spacing. There is currently no way for a forum user to fix the spacing problem. I can take out the extra lines and resubmit the post, but the forum just puts them back in again!
Actually, if one holds Shift and presses Enter, it does a single space.
Weird, I know, but it works.
Annoying, I know, but it still works.
We wish this wasn't a default, but that's how it is.
Example finised.
Any questions, just ask.
I's hafta agrea ta thas, ma spellchecka don' werk ne morre.
Seriously there are way too many issues to call this a Beta. This is more like a pre-alpha.
WotC, the new forums suck. Plain and simple. I probably wouldn't be as irritated though if it weren't for all the EMPTY AND USELESS WHITE SPACE!!!
What browser do you use?
If firefox, I've altered the color scheme to make the background of posts a marbled gray. I'll pass on the script if you can use it (it's for the Stylish plug-in).
I was all set to walk away from the place (although I was a several-times-a-day visitor), but I'm much happier with the arrangement now that I've changed the background image.
What browser do you use?
If firefox, I've altered the color scheme to make the background of posts a marbled gray. I'll pass on the script if you can use it (it's for the Stylish plug-in).
I was all set to walk away from the place (although I was a several-times-a-day visitor), but I'm much happier with the arrangement now that I've changed the background image.
Google Chrome. FireFox is okay (definitely better than IE), but I ultimately, didn't like it.
Ah. Oh well. It appears that Wizards will have to create new images for the backgrounds (the white background is part of an image, AFAICT, and not just a CSS color selection). It's part of (or related to) this image:
Ah. Oh well. It appears that Wizards will have to create new images for the backgrounds (the white background is part of an image, AFAICT, and not just a CSS color selection). It's part of (or related to) this image:
Wow...what terrible design that is. :/
Ah. Oh well. It appears that Wizards will have to create new images for the backgrounds (the white background is part of an image, AFAICT, and not just a CSS color selection). It's part of (or related to) this image:
That's only the WotC default scheme. The D&D scheme has the white bits as separate elements. The background image actually has a mid-grey space (you can see it on the 'post reply' page) and each post then has a white background (not an image) that lays over that.
EDIT: The D&D background is actually two images. The outer one is this:
with this:
positioned infront of it (and the white background laid over that).
WotC, the new forums suck.
You should def ask for a refund.
WotC, the new forums suck.You should def ask for a refund.
Okay. I want all the money refunded that I've paid into WotC products that was then spent on the development of these new forums.
What, you don't think this stuff is free, do you? It's embedded in the price tags.
That's only the WotC default scheme. The D&D scheme has the white bits as separate elements. The background image actually has a mid-grey space (you can see it on the 'post reply' page) and each post then has a white background (not an image) that lays over that.EDIT: The D&D background is actually two images. The outer one is this:
I stand corrected. That's much simpler to change, if you use one of the non-default themes.
The main problem I have with the new forum is the main forum view. One thing which is common and prevailant in just about any forum once chooses to go in is that "walls of text" are frowned on, called out, bitched at and often go unread. Where as here community.wizards.com/go/forum/viewcateg... on the main page listing all the forums and subforums we have walls of text actually built into the forum design. It seems with the main post double spacing, that they've gone out of their way to avoid WOT syndrome in peoples posts, but then gone an included such unreadability as standard in the site design. The forums and subforums section desparately needs to be expanded for readabilities sake.
Okay. I want all the money refunded that I've paid into WotC products that was then spent on the development of these new forums.What, you don't think this stuff is free, do you? It's embedded in the price tags.
I'm not WotC so unfortunately, I can't give you a refund. Maybe you should ask for one?
More on point, I understand marketing is included in the price tag. That's business. I don't ask for a refund on my lunch because I dislike McDonald's commercials. Do you?
Okay. I want all the money refunded that I've paid into WotC products that was then spent on the development of these new forums.What, you don't think this stuff is free, do you? It's embedded in the price tags.
I'm not WotC so unfortunately, I can't give you a refund. Maybe you should ask for one?
More on point, I understand marketing is included in the price tag. That's business. I don't ask for a refund on my lunch because I dislike McDonald's commercials. Do you?
I do, mostly they laugh me out of the store.
Yeah me too. But I complain because of the food not the ads 
Yeah me too. But I complain because of the food not the ads
yeah, that's one of the first examples they use in business classes. They ask why McDonald$ is so successful, invariably someone says because their hamburgers taste good. The teacher usually walks up behind that student and slaps them in the back of the head. Then proceeds to talk about the marketing department of McDonalds, and how they manage to sell millions of greasy not quite real meat burgers every day.
After 10 minutes reading this post I got a headache...