• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

Official Suggestions Thread

Jimmu

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Blogs have not been removed, the side bar has though. The main reason I have removed it is an issue we have also discovered in the add-on showing deleted blogs in the side bar after they have been deleted still. Since the ad-on for blogs is free and not developed by Xenforo there are a few issues with it. For now I'd suggest simply disregarding, scrolling past, and not reading any blog posts that you don't wish to see. I'll keep an eye out for any potential updates for the add-on as they come.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
England
Gender
Absolute unit
Blogs have not been removed, the side bar has though. The main reason I have removed it is an issue we have also discovered in the add-on showing deleted blogs in the side bar after they have been deleted still. Since the ad-on for blogs is free and not developed by Xenforo there are a few issues with it. For now I'd suggest simply disregarding, scrolling past, and not reading any blog posts that you don't wish to see. I'll keep an eye out for any potential updates for the add-on as they come.

Removing the side bar for blogs entirely is a terrible idea and will not be good for exposure for our entries. Therefore participation in both creating and replying to blogs will be down. Simply renaming deleted blogs as Deleted Blog and changing the first few lines of text would be sufficient to hide its contents from public view.
 

Kylo Ken

I will finish what Spyro started
Joined
Aug 10, 2011
Location
Ohio
The sidebar was removed in response to Athenian's request.

Lmao so the sidebar was removed cause of one person's request? In that case I request to put it back up. I enjoyed that feature.


I'd suggest simply disregarding, scrolling past, and not reading any blog posts that you don't wish to see.

@athenian200 there, that's what you do, athenian, if you see a blog you don't like.
 
Im gonna agree with @Deus and @Kylo Ken and disagree with the sidebar removal. I'll list my points below.

1. I only follow 4 other members, however, other members who post blogs often have interesting things to say and sometimes even need support. Without the sidebar im no longer able to see blog posts from members unless i visit every page individually (this is the only way i'm aware of being able to view blogs without the list being present), this is a major inconvenience for myself and im sure other members too.

2. As a member who writes blogs its much easier to scroll down to the blog list and select my blog if i wanted to make changes to it rather than clicking through my profile.

3. Im not sure how inconvenient the sidebar was. I use mobile so i dont know where it would be on a desktop but for me the blog list is at the very bottom and easy to ignore. I imagine notifications for blogs are much harder to ignore than a list at the bottom of the page.

4. Not having quick access to the list of blogs will majorly decrease the frequency of comments and blog making. Fewer people will see them thus fewer people will comment. An example is myself who will only get blog notifications if one of the four members i follow posts, thus i wont see the majority being posted.

(As a sidenote the idea Deus had of editing the blog title to 'deleted' and erasing the text seems like a sound fix to me until a better solution is found.)

I dont really see any benefits in removing the sidebar, which is easily ignored to begin with (at least on mobile) but maybe the desktop version has flashing lights and bells.
 
Last edited:

Ninja

Well well well
Joined
Jul 5, 2017
+1 for the reintroduction of the sidebar and the blog thing.

Even though I don't quite post blogs myself, Indo enjoy reading them and the convenience to quickly access them. I was thinking about starting one myself, since we all lead very interesting lives and it seems that a lot of the comments and feedback on blogs make this community even closer together.
 
My take on the matter is if you haven't the self control to not click on blog entries you know will upset you, that's not something the staff should be forced to protect you from. Is it really so difficult to refrain from clicking on things? Same thing applies to threads, really. If a thread topic doesn't appeal to me, I simply don't read it. Why would I? But just because I don't necessarily care for its existence doesn't mean it's not allowed to exist.
 

Vanessa28

Angel of Darkness
Staff member
ZD Legend
Administrator
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Location
Yahtzee, Supernatural
Gender
Angel of Darkness
If there is a potential problem with the addon I agree with it to be removed at least till another addon is installed. But other than that I don't see why the sidebar would be such an issue. I found it very useful to get at least a quick look at new replies or blogs entries being written.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
England
Gender
Absolute unit
If there is a potential problem with the addon I agree with it to be removed at least till another addon is installed. But other than that I don't see why the sidebar would be such an issue. I found it very useful to get at least a quick look at new replies or blogs entries being written.

From what it sounds like the only problem is deleted blogs don't disappear but I did offer a solution which was replacing the title as deleted blog and removing or changing the text. This still allows the majority of blogs (which don't get deleted) to be easily viewed by forum dwellers.
 

athenian200

Circumspect
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Location
a place of settlement, activity, or residence.
I'm more than satisfied with having the sidebar removed from the main page. I really wasn't expecting such quick action on this issue, and thought it might be something to consider when thinking of features to add or issues to fix. I was at most expecting them to remove the text preview of blog entries from the sidebar and simply display blog titles so that it would match the sidebar for new threads. If you'll notice, the sidebar for new threads doesn't include a preview of the OP's text. But with blog entries, the actual text of the blog entry was shown. It was a bit asymmetrical and always kind of bothered me for that reason, really.

Thanks for paying attention to my request. I also apologize to everyone I've inconvenienced by pointing out something that resulted in the blog sidebar being removed entirely. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I am willing to take my share of responsibility for creating an unpleasant situation here. I'm sorry.
 
Last edited:

Jamie

Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out...
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
Gender
trans-pan-demi-ethno-christian-math-autis-genderfluid-cheesecake
Blogs have not been removed, the side bar has though. The main reason I have removed it is an issue we have also discovered in the add-on showing deleted blogs in the side bar after they have been deleted still. Since the ad-on for blogs is free and not developed by Xenforo there are a few issues with it. For now I'd suggest simply disregarding, scrolling past, and not reading any blog posts that you don't wish to see. I'll keep an eye out for any potential updates for the add-on as they come.
The sidebar was removed in response to Athenian's request.
Whoops, looks like Zachie didn't get the memo on time to tell everyone the "real" reason. Step your staff coaching up, senpai, it's pretty clear that without Athenian's request it never would have happened, but at least make sure all the staff say the same thing next time to at least keep the illusion that that wasn't the primary reason.

1025287_1.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dio

Jimmu

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Removing the side bar for blogs entirely is a terrible idea and will not be good for exposure for our entries. Therefore participation in both creating and replying to blogs will be down. Simply renaming deleted blogs as Deleted Blog and changing the first few lines of text would be sufficient to hide its contents from public view.

I can see where you're coming from and that this is a better solution to keep the blog section more active and convenient. We will be doing this from now on as you'll be able to see on the blog roll at the forum index at the moment. Thanks very much for your constructive suggestion, it is much appreciated.

My take on the matter is if you haven't the self control to not click on blog entries you know will upset you, that's not something the staff should be forced to protect you from.

I agree with this. If you don't wish to respond to something just ignore it. That being said, I wouldn't want the blog section to ruin anyone's experience here completely. So I've taken the liberty of adding a Blog Opt-Out item to the shop. Should you not want to see the blog section anymore, you may purchase at 1 rupee per day or 5 per week and you can cancel the subscription once you feel like seeing the section again.

Whoops, looks like Zachie didn't get the memo on time to tell everyone the "real" reason. Step your staff coaching up, senpai, it's pretty clear that without Athenian's request it never would have happened, but at least make sure all the staff say the same thing next time to at least keep the illusion that that wasn't the primary reason.

1025287_1.jpg

As I was in the process of looking into the issue and removing the widget I had to leave the house yesterday in a bit of a rush. So I could have probably communicated the removal better as I didn't actually mention it in the staff chat before I went out, I'll keep that in mind for next time. Someone brought up that the deleted blogs were not removed as I noticed when scrolling through the staff chat logs and that's the main reason I went ahead and removed it. Sure, athenian's suggestion triggered the discussion that noted the deleted blogs remain in the sidebar. But as you can see now by my restoration with @Deus's suggestion in mind that wasn't the main reason that I removed it. Thanks for the salty/sarcastic reply though, I was wondering when your next one would be since it has been a little while since the last one now. As you can see I am more than happy to take user feedback into account for these kinds of things. I'm also happy to be friendly, it is a shame to see that for others that isn't always the case.
 

Jamie

Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out...
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
Gender
trans-pan-demi-ethno-christian-math-autis-genderfluid-cheesecake
Thanks for the salty/sarcastic reply though, I was wondering when your next one would be since it has been a little while since the last one now.
I'd like you to cite all of these salty/sarcastic remarks, because I am almost always civil when approaching you. Perhaps sometimes I am a bit angry about something the staff have done, which is often a misinterpretation of sorts, but sarcasm isn't something I employ very often when talking about on-site issues and it's incredibly disingenuous for you to imply otherwise. I could probably go through all of our last 10-20 Skype conversations and display this, but perhaps that is too much of a breach of privacy to post it all publicly.

Ironically, in your attempt to reprimand me for acting sarcastic, you held that very same tone yourself with the "thanks, I was wondering when your next one would be". Perhaps if you plan on correcting people's behaviour, you should act somewhere in line with the ideas you're trying to convey. I think there's a word for people who say one thing and do another. Hippopotamus, was it? Hypnotist? Ah, it'll come to me.

Regardless of how I say things from time to time, although I maintain that sarcasm isn't my usual go-to method, I only mean to help the site. Certainly you can see the problem with a moderator saying one thing and an administrator saying another, and how that can be wildly suspicious, and in fact perhaps actually deserving of a humourous quip (or at least, I intended it to be humourous, perhaps it did not land). I'm not sure how I'm being unfriendly, or how you pin me as someone who is regularly unfriendly, since I've stated numerous times that you're one of my favourite staff members and I'm generally happy with what you do. I think this is a tad bit of an overreaction.
 

YIGAhim

Sole Survivor
Joined
Apr 10, 2017
Location
Stomp
Gender
Male
I suggest disabling getting Notifs for earning rupees.

I get a billion notifs every day because I keep getting 1 rupee for someone commentng on my post, and I kinda just wanna disable that...
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom