Polycount Update - BUGS & SUGGESTIONS

adam

Use this thread to post any bugs you notice or suggestions you have on improving your experiences on the site.

Please use images whenever possible so we can see the bugs you're seeing, or to help us understand your suggestions better.

Alternatively, if you wish to keep your thoughts private please send me a Private Message directly.

COMMON/IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS & BUGS

Below is a list of common suggestions or bugs we're seeing users report in this thread.

1. The front page won't load on mobile and the forum is loading a default Vanilla skin. The front page should be loading and the forum skin needs to be Polycount themed.
2. The site could use a pass on overall spacing of information, make things a bit tighter.
3. Quote button doesn't work.
4. The WYSIWYG editor can bust formatting at times, making it difficult to fix.
5. Many users used the 'New Posts' button from vBulletin and would like to see it back.
6. The notification window that pops up from the bottom left of the screen has white text on a whitebackground, making it illegible. 
7. There is some confusion over when and how threads get updated. Some users cannot tell where there posts are going when they reply, others have a hard time discerning if a thread is updated since they viewed it last when looking at the thread list. There is an icon indicating this, but it needs to be more apparent.
8. There is a missing step in the forum breadcrumb that is omitting the main Forum name. See here.
9. Emoticons are appearing in the Lightbox and when sending content to the front page. This shouldn't happen.
10. Many users are hoping for redirects from old forum links, as many of them have specific threads bookmarked that no longer work.
11. This member's name is all kinds of buggered.
12. Users reported that Facebook & Twitter links is broken. I need to investigate this bug for better details.
13. Clicking on a front-page news post that comes from a REPLY does not link to the reply, it links to the page it was posted on.
14. Bring back custom Polycount emoticons.
15. The website favicon is missing.
16. Users are reporting some poor performance happening in the WYSIWYG editor.

PolyHertz

Yea it's "My Favorites", brought up by clicking the star icon at the top of the forum. I've cleared the notifications already, but here's a pic of the favorites (none of which I set as favorites afaik):

.nL

Loving the new look for the site, and I personally think the whitespace is fine in the actual threads. But the type is huge, and my eyes have to travel across the screen way more than usual to read a post. Any chance we could get some sizing options? It's beautiful at first glance, but I feel a bit like I'm on a 720p monitor, for all the text I can read. Viewing threads while zoomed out to 67% helps, but the icons don't look so good when I do. More of a nitpicky nice-to-have thing, though.

EDIT I second Slipsius.

pior

Here is a stab at a mockup for thread layout. In passing, working on it I realized that the forum update might have been designed on a 2560 pixels wide screen used as main monitor (hence the oversized fonts), while I would expect most users to view it on a secondary display - therefore I included a 1920*1200 frame for reference.

Full res : i.imgur.com/l89B1TC.gif
I hope this helps !

Arahnoid

Bug or Strange behavior:
To verify this bug you'll ned up to 10min

1. Type anything into the editor bellow,  like "Hello world!" for example.
2. Wait a minute and you will see a notification Draft saved 
3. Wait more but don't change anything in the editor. You will see what even if text remains the same editor continuously  saves drafts. Why to save if nothing changed?

4. Next step. Leave the draft message as it is and go to other topic and repeat steps 1, 2, 3
5 . Return to this topic and you'll see what the first draft is still here

Depends where the draft is saved on the server or in my browser cash.
If on the server you may end up with a lot of unused drafts in server database unless is a limit of saved drafts.

notman

@adamMissing the 'flag' and google+ buttons are just black boxes, in your bug's list

I'm trying not to criticize people, for their inabilities to adjust, but some of these complaints remind me of when Facebook makes changes. Everyone loses their shit, because something isn't in the exact location it was before. Then weeks later, they adjust, and everything is back to normal. As long as the information is still there, it's not a bug. Learn to adjust, and your world will be comfy again.

adam

@notman Can I get a screenshot of what you're seeing with FLAG and Google+ ?

RN

Hello.
In the old style I enjoyed seeing the amount of posts next to the thread titles. I think it was an interesting metric to see; it made clear which threads had new posts added, or which threads were just new and nobody had posted in them yet.
EDIT: Using a mobile browser here. After Notman mentioned below that the numbers are visible in the desktop version, it seems it's one more of the mobile things to fix. Thanks!

Also, if possible, have part of the OP text in that thread preview thingy. Just the first image is a bit unclear on what the thread is about or if it'll be interesting to read. The old style had a pop up with the first words of the OP text when you hovered the mouse.

Regards.

notman

It's actually visible in most of the other screenshots people have shared, but since you asked nicely, I'll add one of my own

pior

And lastly (I swear !), a mockup for the PnP sections, leveraging the height of the thread titles for a controversial feature : 



Full res : i.imgur.com/R3nKBVM.gif

Gungriffon Geona

Bug:
I can't actually quote posts, it tries to make me start a new topic.
Also uhhh... it's hard to tell when you've applied bolding or anything during the edit phase of a post.

Also, PIOR's suggestion is the best one out of everyone's so far. I would love this look if it were like that. The current method throws information over too far to the left and makes it hard to read the text. having it reach full length and the text box itself be atleast centered would help tremendously with readability. Why is there such a huge mass of wasted space?

Joost

Is there a way to view all new posts like on the old forum? 

Also definitely need more Greentooth!

oxygencube

@pior

Those mockups are great... Basically, something that if visually between what we have now and the old look.  @adam  responded to my question about the avatar/author info. I understand the logic but I think the separation ends up wasting space.. If you stack the avatar over the other info like in @pior s mockup then you are getting back 200-300 pixels of space that keeping them separate requires.   

Also, I would love to have the quote and reply buttons tucked back under the actually comment since those are more conversational actions v/s direct user actions. 

Isn't Google+ a dying social media platform? Google even stopped automatically creating Google+ accounts for Google users.  If you are going with social media at least give the options of Twitter / Facebook in addition to Google+.

Gungriffon Geona

Google said they're going to can Google Plus since it was proving rather unused. the other services like Hangouts will probably stay, but Plus is dying.

Ged

Polyhertz I have the same problem! 71 pages of favorites that I didnt favorite ever, haha. 

Also have you guys noticed that when you click on the "qoute button" it opens a "post new topic" page instead of quoting that person in a reply?

Blaisoid

"Main thing for me is that the title threads with new posts aren't colored green. I know there is a new button on the side that saysnew. But it's not as intuitive as having green color from the get go"  

Yes, bring green back please

EDIT: how do i even post quotes manually? [quote] and <quote> don't seem to work

makinmagic3

Not sure if it's been noted, but can't see like thread pages (like used to - first page and the last few pages)
When viewing threads there doesn't seem to be a way to see how many pages (unless directly going into the thread), only way to view last page is to click the "last" or replies number.

raleif

Hey, looks like switching to the new format deleted some of the images and text in my posts.  Also some threads I started are missing.
It's not a huge deal, I can go back and fix it.  But it kind of sucks in the short term, and I worry the problem could pop up again because bugs be bugs.

throttlekitty

@adam Some thoughts on the 'sticky' OP, I think it could use a splash of color along the footer maybe just a 3px green border at the bottom, so you know it's ended and user posts begin/resume. I'm foreseeing lots of massive posts that you might start skipping through as they get added to (because it's filled with old progress pics, have a quick comment, etc). That or a "roll this post up" button in the OP avatar area?

And you circled the green tabby thing in the upper left and talk about a menu. Is that functional? If so, it's not working for me on Chrome 46.0.2490.80 m

edit: omg 3 more posts

slipsius

@Joost ya, if you click the "1 new" icon on the left side when browsing, it will take you to the first new post

Carabiner

I wish that you could still see thread pages on the main subforums. That was always a quick way I used to figure out what was really popular.

Also, the OP's icon seems too large.

Edit: The button to the right of "flag" seems to take me to a Google+ page?
Also, when you go back to edit your post, the blinky cursor for writing text is huge and spacing is off:


One other thing I noticed is, do the stars to the right of people's usernames have any functionality/significance?

PolyHertz

GED: Good to know I'm not alone on this one.
Hope we can get a feature to delete all favorites at once, as doing it one at a time would take quite a while with so many.

VeluxDesign

I try to activate acc but there is no email send the activation email plz fix it !  And i lost y old account

malcolm

Links don't seem to work anymore that come to your e-mail. When I get notified via e-mail that there is a new post in a thread clicking the link doesn't take me to the thread.

Bek

Like others I'm unsure about the change to a "New" tag instead of having unread threads green + latest poster displayed rather than the OP. Personally I think (as Pedro says) the green links are much more indicative of a new reply. However, I guess this could purely be because I'm used to looking for green rather than a "new" tag. With the green links you can quickly scan the whole page for unread threads; I don't feel the same is possible with the "new" tag. Though the benefit of the "new" tag is it counts the # of new replies

And like EQ mentions having the OP of a thread pinned on the RH side rather than the latest poster is a bit different... Perhaps you could have the OP's avatar on the LH side of the thread, and the latest on the right? Or both on the right? Another benefit of having the latest poster shown is you can tell if a thread has been updated by the OP (which is handy if you're only interested in updates from them (new art) and not general comments from other users. Sometimes you're only interested in a thread because you see someone specific reply (eg: oh cool Farfarer posted in this modo-related thread, I'm probably about to learn something new or find a cool new script he's written). Some other forums show ALL the avatars of posters in a thread (with an upper limit); so surely having OP and latest wouldn't be too crazy.

throttlekitty

@Carabiner  "One other thing I noticed is, do the stars to the right of people's usernames have any functionality/significance?"

Seems that users get Stars and mods get MOD.

adam

@malcolm Can you forwarded me the email you got sent last? adam AT polycount.com

xChris

Something I just came across that might be a bit of a problem for me when I'm trying to fix things, but when I google a certain problem I have, and a thread comes up on google (acrhived or not) with the solution on polycount, I click the link on google and it points me to the main page. I've tried this with a few pages I've gone to before and it does the same thing, is this something on my end or is this happening to everyone else? Years of problems solved gone

karynatrychyk

I have the same problem with google links as xChris
And also it was very convenient when threads I'm subscribed to where highlighted in the list of all threads.

Arahnoid

Ideas/suggestions.
On the old forum when I finished reading the topic to read next one I had two options
1. to scroll to the top of the page and click on the breadcrumb link to return to subforum 
2. to click on back button in browser 

Bought options are horrible because the first one involve a lot of scrolling and the second one loads the page from the browser cash and makes me reload the page to see what posts left unread.

What I propose is:
- to add at the end of  the page a button what will  move me to the next unread/updated topic as bellow in Mockup A
- or to add a short list for the user to select what to read next as in Mockup B. For this mockup I have collapsed the editor and made it visible by pressing Write a Reply button. 

- also, this list can be done in a form of a slider as in Mockup C. This will be more engaging and will help with navigation and finding what to read next. 
The slider from mockup C may illustrate the timeline of new/unread/updated posts, a good example may be in CS GO when you open a chest. (I guess it is a bit unclear please let me know if you wish me to explain in more detail what I mean by timeline, or example is unclear)


http://i.imgur.com/EHUr9Sc.png

PolyHertz

I made a post in the Blender thread, and now every time I go to that thread the text from that last post appears in my reply window.

Arahnoid

@PolyHertz try this. Go tho that topic, clear text in editor and press the save draft button, see if it helps

Arahnoid

Some additional suggestions/feature requests



http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-display-update-notifications-in-the-browser-tab--cms-23458

Klunk

can we have the last poster back please even as a popup tool tip "on hover over" last post link

MJG

I really miss the correct wiki links. Especially everything under UV Tutorials is missing> http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Coordinates . Where can I find all the great threads and post?

adam

@mjg I will bring it up with the team and see what can be done to resolve this.
@klunk Yeah I'd like it back, too. I'll add it to my list.
@arahnoid Nice suggestions! Full disclosure, we're reviewing & addressing all bugs before we consider design changes so don't expect to see anything from a design stand point for a while.
@xchris We're looking at getting redirects working.

Arahnoid

@adam absolutely agree with you, bugs first and anything else after.

I just decided to post all this cosmetic thinks before I forget about them .  Just shared some ideas.

SonicBlue

The picture explains the problem.

Noors

All thread links from google are redirected to the main page

VeluxDesign

Still no email registration

EarthQuake

Looks like a bug, I typed a response the other day when I was logged out, and used the "post as" feature to log in. Now every time I come back to this thread, the response I had written is saved in the reply box. Let's see if this clears it.

slipsius

Bug

http://polycount.com/discussion/49362/polycounter-job-census/p1

I just noticed that the job census post, the first one with all the jobs in it, got cut off hardcore... Its missing the majority of the post now?

Chris Rohlfing

Like others I am having email issues as well.  A popup in the bottom left says "You need to confirm your email address. Click here to resend the confirmation email." I have not received any email. Digging the new layout though  .

Joopson

When I look at my notifications, I want to be able to middle mouse click each of them; but each time, the menu closes. It would be great if it stayed up after middle mouse clicking.

adam

@Chris Rohlfing I've added the email issues to our list ot send to Vanilla.

Froyok

Looks like a bug, I typed a response the other day when I was logged out, and used the "post as" feature to log in. Now every time I come back to this thread, the response I had written is saved in the reply box. Let's see if this clears it.

I noticed this one too, same behavior.

Amsterdam Hilton Hotel

There's very noticeable compression on attached images. If attaching images will remain the only way to post them, then please seek parity with alternatives like imgur, or if possible just don't compress.

I wish jumping into the lightbox view always showed images at full-res. People commonly post images larger than any monitor I own and to see them 1:1 I have to right click > view image in new tab.

I wish I could see the page count from the forum view, before entering a thread. I realize you can see postcount, but I would often jump straight to specific pages. Now it's extra clicks. Also not being able to see the most recent poster is a drag.
 
Seconding what everyone else has said about text being too large and too much padding. 

m4dcow

@slipsius Someone mentioned the same thing with the patreon list too, I suspect the gumroad one probably took a hit also.

Joopson

Just noticed, while uploading a new icon, that the compression for that is quite intense, too. Doesn't matter when it's small, but when it's displayed large, it's super noticeable.

adam

Weird, I'm getting no compressions. I'll ask.

Joopson

This is the compression I'm seeing. When you upload a new avatar, it shows you it at ~256px and then a smaller version as well. The bigger one has very clear compression. Here's the version saved out from photoshop next to the compressed version.