News / NE5 Feedback

oh shit i never noticed that haha. i think it maybe wasnt there at first? idk

I still visit the site quite frequently. I think Louis' point about just popping up the main page, looking at the pretty pictures and leaving is a big problem. It's the pattern I find that I've fallen into after a year. The community does feel a little thinner, and not just from lack of activity, but in how the website functions. A banner that displays the latest releases would be good.

 

The screenshot section of the website could be bumped down below actual park releases or switched to the sidebar in place of accolades and the accolades added like how the screens are now, with the overview thumbnails replacing screen thumbnails. The normal park releases could be added below those, perhaps using the latest screenshot from the project if there is no overview. 

 

 

It probably can't be done due to it being more of a complex addition but Twitch integration would be a great addition. Even just a list of streamers in the sidebar with an 'active' and 'offline' distinction. Refer to the right sidebars of these two sites: http://teamfortress.tv/ http://aoczone.net/

 

Edit - As far as forum changes. I have always felt a negative of the NE5 layout is the lack of a forum index, with descriptions of the subforums and such. Even though it's convenient, the streamlined sidebar forum just feels "smaller" and less significant. 

Did someone say AoC? More specifically AoCZone? Raise your hands guys! Who plays AoC?

I don't really have any issues with the site layout except the lack of organization in the forums. If the threads were organized better in chronological order that would be a big improvement.

 

-live streaming-

If the forums has lost its sense of community during NE5, then live streaming has been the saving grace. Hell, i've probably gotten to know people better in the forums then i ever did in the forums. I think this is really important for the future of NE, and integrating it where possible would be a great step. Be it, a dedicated forum to streaming, maybe making monthly "events" where we can get together as a community and the admins show some newly released stuff in stream, maybe a way for members who are streaming to more prominently announce they are or will be streaming? Not sure exactly what, but something with streaming will help capitalize on what has really worked in NE5. 

 

 

I agree with all of this. Louis, I love your idea of having an official "New Element Stream". Even if it was done once a month I think it would be a great, interactive way to celebrate new releases and bring the community together... it might even help grow the community as a lot of people just come across the streams from Twitch who have never heard of New Element. The streams are always a great way to interact with other members of the site so this is something worth pursuing. I would strongly suggest making streaming links and information more prominent on the website.

I'm willing to start making accolade review videos and tutorials for youtube if you want. A cool thing would be an official NE title sequence, actually

This was something that was planned, and then fell apart. The idea is something I still wish to revisit, and obviously, as already mentioned, a weekly/bi-weekly stream will be taking place very soon.

 

People can do what they want to do, review on stream, review in videos, but I personally would much rather see people still care for the site and actually contribute by posting.

This was something that was planned, and then fell apart. The idea is something I still wish to revisit, and obviously, as already mentioned, a weekly/bi-weekly stream will be taking place very soon.

 

People can do what they want to do, review on stream, review in videos, but I personally would much rather see people still care for the site and actually contribute by posting.

 

Both are equally important. Other media attracts new members and of course this place needs activity to stay afloat

Yeah, I know what you mean about attracting new members via other media, but we are doing that more than we have ever done before, which is great, it's fantastic, and I love it, I wouldn't want that to stop, I'm just saying that we need to focus on increasing on site activity, more than outside the site activity.

First off, thanks to gee for his dedication to the site. NE5 is a phenomenal website design, and the effort it must have taken, I don't understand how you did. 

 

I think everyone's pretty on point. For me, the top things are:

 

- Strengthening the reward for those who seek and achieve accolades. 

I'm not sure on how to do this, but there's some good ideas in the thread. Definitely adding a front and center Parks space (like for screens), so that entries up for competition get plenty of attention. The old banner with the latest accolade was great as well, I miss that. I know the names are color coded for parkmarkers, but I find myself overlooking it all the time. If it's not too difficult, maybe the words "NE Parkmaker" somewhere under a person's name? It's also sort of nice to see post count and join date under a username (though I can see the reason for omitting it).

 

- Forum

Despite the functionality of the "new content" button and the forums being on the right of the home page, I still find myself missing a main index. Don't really care about signatures. Would really like to see  "like" button for posts, as my thoughts often echo others but I hate posting "I agree with member A". I remember this being mentioned as a goal when NE5 was in development, and was disappointed when it did not appear. Was it a technical issue? If people could like posts, I don't think posting would go down, but you would see a lot of people liking posts that they otherwise wouldn't interact with at all, increasing activity on the site.

 

-General site activity

 

It's tough. I share in the frustration. I go on long streaks of not posting but still checking the site. I've seen sites die as a result of forcing activity (requiring a comment for a rating or certain # of downloads, etc.), so I'm not arguing strongly for something like that. But maybe some sort of positive reinforcement system can be implemented? Just brainstorming, I don't have any brilliant ideas. But I know from my own experience that it's easy to fall into the shadows here when you're not actively building.

A lot of emotions come up for me reading through this. I can't address any of this as I don't have the power and time to confront my old life right now.

Louis, thanks for bringing this up so caringly. All I can say is that it seems there is a desire for more admin curation of content. This is a system we have abandoned however. Also because we knew we couldn't deliver. What you new admins can do depends on your willpower and skill. Don't focus all coding responsibility on Gee. We didn't focus it on darkfire either. You have to find your way like he and I did back then.

the craziest part is that Gee just taught himself how to build NE5 specifically to build NE5.

the only explanation is that he's psychic

Gee is the saint of RCT no doubt. Most amazingly he's made no profit. 

the craziest part is that Gee just taught himself how to build NE5 specifically to build NE5.

 

Well, technically he taught himself how to build NE4 specifically to build NE4 and future versions of NE.

 

But yes, our reliance on Gee is slowly disappearing, as we try to work out new options, which is a good thing as it leaves Gee not feeling so pressured and future-proofs the site too. But we are a long way off Gee's high standards.

 

Anyhoo, thanks for all the feedback so far, we'll keep this topic open for a few more days to see if anyone else has any opinions.

A cool thing would be an official NE title sequence, actually

 

 

We need to talk.

 

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I'm working on something I'd like to show you Louis, just busy with finals at the same time so it's coming along slowly. If you close the topic beforehand I can just PM.

Why not use a CMS like Joomla for a new NE design? I love all the hard work Gee has done to create this site, but Joomla is so user friendly, basically everyone can use it and add interesting site features within a click, no coding skills required really.

 

The only thing that is a huge improvement for me personally is bring back the forum index page (or extend the little index on the front page with more info/subforums/last post by etc). It just makes navigating through the forums that much easier.

Why not use a CMS like Joomla for a new NE design?

 

We don't need a new design, that is not what we are asking for. A new NE design is not going to come out of this, we are very happy with our current design.

I'm going to take the liberty of assuming six frags was talking about the future. I dont think he was calling for a new site. At some point we will want a new layout, and gee may or may not be up for it, so I think we should explore other options

So why not CMS
Why not Zoidberg

Whether he was talking about the future or not, right now we don't want to be talking about that far into the future, that's a discussion for another day. When the time comes, we will explore multiple options, and there are a number that we have in mind, but right now, it doesn't need to be discussed as a new NE is many, many years away.

You realise we had Joomla before and it was a disaster beyond compare.