OtLand XenForo 2 and forum changes

[Ezzz]

I do like the new layout and the entire interface of the forum itself, everything looks smooth, clean and organized.
Of course, wouldn't mind seeing a dark theme option with this new organized forum scheme

 

[Don Daniello]

Also imgur is not reliable for me... but that's maybe because i do not have a account? i just upload pics to my server or facebook..

Facebook links mostly expire by definition, so that's not the best idea. Your server is probably not forever either. If you compress your images, you are welcome to just drag and drop them into the editor. That's also new in XF2, it's easier to add pictures. We've also increased the thumbnail size from 100px to 250px because... well, 2019.

 

[Mudrock]

I'm having trouble creating a new account.
Clicking the register button does nothing.

 

[Don Daniello]

Clicking the register button does nothing.

Check browser console for errors and let me know if you see any.

 

[Mudrock]

Check browser console for errors and let me know if you see any.

There are no apparent errors, when I click on register nothing happens.
A friend had the same problem while trying to register.

 

[Don Daniello]

There are no apparent errors, when I click on register nothing happens.

PM me and I'll tell you how to send me a HAR so I can investigate.

 

[poopsiedoodle]

WOWWWWWW DARK THEME PLIX
NICE IDEA TALATUREN

but nah tho this all looks pretty good
y'all are doing great <3

 

[Don Daniello]

I'm not aware of any obvious reasons, I'd really like to read something about it as the main posts contains no reasons or anything related to that.

Here's one reason to upgrade: XF2 came out over a year ago and because of that, XF1.5 is becoming EOL in a few months and losing security updates by end of year. We should not be running an abandoned engine. So it's not really a choice whether or when to upgrade, we do this to keep this thing running at all.

So you're saying that the Home button has just no reason to be there? Why to have it in first place?

Quite correct. It's gone.

Meanwhile having a decent Home landing page with all these functionalities that you think I haven't explored yet might be a nice feature for everyone to see what's going on instead of having only half-dead support threads with stupid and uninteresting questions no one really feels like answering.

Such a landing page does not exist. We're not a server list and we don't have many events. We have tutorials in specific boards - that's where all the information is or should be. No reason to replicate that on a new "home" page. There is another attempt at explaining "OTS" to new people (that is docs.otland.net) but it's in very early stages. If it gets anywhere (not many people wanted to help expand it) then it may be featured in the menu.

Now, what should we focus on you'd say "to keep it alive"? Well, code, I think. And that is on GitHub and not here. Here we talk about it but there's not much to talk about if nobody wants to share/develop serious code.

I hope that helps explain why some changes happen and some don't.

 

[Andréew]

@Don Daniello " We're not a server list and we don't have many events. " Maybe we should have some events tho? its fun!

 

[Tony32]

The whole content needs to be wider or the topic fonts needs to be smaller. Looks very messy as it is right now. Other than that, its decent.

 

[cbrm]

I'm a simple man. The palette of colors is similar. I like the changes.

 

[Don Daniello]

@Don Daniello " We're not a server list and we don't have many events. " Maybe we should have some events tho? its fun!

We're open for community-driven suggestions.

 

[Rexxar]

i just upload pics to my server or facebook..

I wouldn't recommend Facebook at all for image hosting. Mainly because of the big "Facebook Exodus" which has caused a lot of people to install privacy addons and outright block the facebook domains. I've even heard of entire colleges/universities blocking it because of privacy reasons.

So you'd end up with a lot of unnecessary posts going "I can't see the image" because they have FBCDN blocked, while you can see it fine, which leads to a lot of unnecessary troubleshooting and... well, you get my point.

 

[Kaspar]

We all like Tibia, which is a very grind-oriented game where you love to see your character develop from time and effort you put into it.

This is the exact reason I also think why the ”Best Answer” implementation was so good — people were grinding for more ”Best Answers”. Same concept with ”Likes”.

Now imagine adding something like ”Great Code” for people who share codes etc. Maybe it’s a dumb suggestion but perhaps we could see some more good changes to OTLand now in time with the forum layout change.

 

[Andréew]

I really have to agree with @Kaspar on this, things that make you develop your account on OTland such as "likes, best answer" is actually a great motivation and one of the reasons people keep posting their stuff and development.

and the great code idea well ye i like it, but would be unfair to the mappers of the forum would like to see a "Great map release" aswell if something like that would become reality

 

[Don Daniello]

This is the exact reason I also think why the ”Best Answer” implementation was so good — people were grinding for more ”Best Answers”. Same concept with ”Likes”.

I know what you mean. I'm still working on possibly bringing those back.

Now imagine adding something like ”Great Code” for people who share codes etc. Maybe it’s a dumb suggestion but perhaps we could see some more good changes to OTLand now in time with the forum layout change.

I was thinking about that as well - something similar. Look at this: XF 2.1 - Reactions (https://xenforo.com/community/threads/reactions-%F0%9F%91%8D%F0%9F%98%8D%F0%9F%A4%A3%F0%9F%98%B2%F0%9F%99%81%F0%9F%98%A1.154898/)
It may become a reality

Now let me explain some other minor issues we have with people contributing: quality of contributions. It looks like nobody has posted anything new in the various Downloads subsections in a very long time, and it's true. There are very very few new topics (if you sort by thread start date descending you'll see). And when there is a new topic and we need to approve it, it 99% is covered under one of these:

• not attached because well, someone didn't care to read the giant new notice about attachments on the thread creation page
• no screenshots at all and often no description, just "im releasing my map" - great, who will download that?
• completely unusual format of the download (like .o files with a datapack), or adding EXE to a datapack (which is not allowed)
• not specifying which engine the datapack is for or even which protocol version
• uploading "a completely new datapack" that is just a few different pieces downloaded from here thrown together.

There are many more issues like that that make us decide whether we want to approve something useless or delete it and detract potential new members (who may have just started with OT) from contributing in future.

Now if anybody feels like tackling this problem (maybe through some tutorials, guides, etc) or offering suggestions, we'd be all ears.

 

[Rexxar]

not attached because well, someone didn't care to read the giant new notice about attachments on the thread creation page

Actually that's something I've been curious about; Exactly what is the size limit on attachments?

 

[Don Daniello]

Actually that's something I've been curious about; Exactly what is the size limit on attachments?

50 MB per file. We ask that you don't attach dumb stuff and waste space. Dumb stuff is e.g. *.o files. Anything else is welcome.
A well-compressed full datapack with a big map will fit under 50 MB. If you are attaching also AAC and Map editor, please make them separate files and that can help get over the limit as well.
In the end, the donations make it possible for us to host all those files, as opposed to free (and now defunct) hosting sites like mediafire. Therefore, it's necessary to use your best judgement.
One bad example I'll add: attaching >3MB screenshot for a support issue is useless. Please make sure to compress that first to ~200KiB for a good quality JPG of 1080p screen.

 

[Don Daniello]

Best answers are back and stats are available at Notable members (https://otland.net/members/)

 

[ochmar]

It's seems like time is a bit off, isn't it?
@Edit
Ah, no, it is not. It was my local time being wrong...