Please Evaluate this new System!

[DaveW]

I think it's general knowledge by this point that I'm a busy chap. One of the many things I've been working on, which make it difficult to properly moderate the forums these days, is an answer to the most common usability problems we have with worklogs here at TBCS.

When I got the opportunity to solve this at University, I took it on as a project, and constructed a Worklog system. The worklog system is very different from the forum system, and you'll notice that straight away. One of my aims though is to get it to feel like a forum, just of a new flavour.

So what do I want from you, my friends? Simply. Just hope over to the following URL...

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/davew/WST/

...and try it out. There's a lot missing, but there's more there than you might think. Here's a Quick FAQ I made up (which could have been made pretty easy with my worklog system!) to answer some of the questions I expect you might be asking.

1) Is my password safe?
Yes, I hashed the passwords and store only the hash.

2) Is this for TBCS?
Maybe. I can't answer at this time.

3) Can I try and hack this?
I'd rather you didn't, security isn't the point of this exercise. Although I've made it beefy enough to resist most attacks bar a persistent bastard.

4) Wait, are you leaving TBCS?
NO! I am not leaving TBCS, or standing down as a moderator. Although I will be using this system on my own site at some point, it will not be a site like TBCS, or a competitor to it. I'm not going into more detail than that, but don't worry about me going anywhere anytime soon. ;)

5) This is cool, what's the long term plan?
This website will stay live for 8 days. That's one day for setup, 7 days to play around with it. After this, all content will be removed, including your user names and passwords. I'll use the data gathered from my analytic systems, the content put into the site, and your feedback to form an analysis.

6) How do I use this?
Just play around with it. It uses BB code to format, although at this time it doesn't correctly record newlines, turning everything into a great big blob of text.

7) This sucks!
Well, it is a Beta. Betas usually suck. Try to get past the suckiness of the design and concentrate on how useful it is.

8 ) Dude, this is broken.
Let me know, I'll fix it. :)

9) Dave, is there something you want to tell us? A PINK website?
My lovely girlfriend chose the color. Now i'm used to it...

10) I have a suggestion.
Go nuts. Your feedback is the most important thing here.

11) I think I'm being watched.
If you're not on my site, then you're probably paranoid. If you're on my site, then there are two tracking analytical engines there. Please let them do their work, because I need that feedback. One records stats and visitors, and the other records things like mouse movements and clicking positions. Believe it or not there's mathematical equations for calculating...never mind. Neither engine records any guest specific data-only statistics which cannot be used to identify you in any way.

I'm stickying this thread because...well, I'm an Admin, and `I HAVE THE POWER!' (said while holding USB stick up high). Let's face it though, if I finish this system, it could mean an entirely new age for websites like TBCS. As the code belongs to me, TBCS will be the only place with something like this. It all depends on what you think of it.

Anyway, enough talk, go nuts. Thanks people. ;)

-Dave, your friendly neighbourhood Admin

[Scotty]

Dave hate to say this, but.

ITS PINK!

I dont care if your GF chose it, PINK = BAD

edit: first thing i have noticed none of the images are loading.

[BigJohnson]

The text is too big for the forum headings. This is a journal or blog-like setup, where question and comments are directed towards each post not the log as a whole, right? Pink-good clothing option for women(in moderation), but never good on my computer screen.

[Bopher]

I gotta agree with the first couple posts, pink not good. The system seems solid enough. I like the arrow tab to move through a worklog and the Q&A at the very end of the log. Pictures if you had any in there weren't showing for me either. Think a different color, which I would imagine you were already, and some text adjustment to soften the view would be good. But like you said, it's beta.

[Trace]

Two (2) things.

1. As I believe this is in PHP, let me know if you would like some help. I'll gladly offer.

2. Images do not load. Only an image that says "Worklog Image"

p.s. this is an edit.

There should be a work log rating system

[noopypoop]

Atleast put a statement on the bottom like "Real men make worklog websites pink"

:)

Oh and yea, the pictures dont show up.

[Drum Thumper]

Lose the bandaid color in the background--black perhaps? Then the purplish pink color won't look too entirely bad.

[noopypoop]

Maybe make it pink carbon fiber?:)

[DaveW]

Guys, please ignore the style altogether. I just want some feedback on the system itself. Comments like 'Pink is bad' are useful, but at this point I just want you to evaluate the system itself.

I will be including a worklog rating system in this at some point. The area which says 'icons' will include medals that will be shown to the user.

I'll take a look at the images right now, see if I can get those working.



1. As I believe this is in PHP, let me know if you would like some help. I'll gladly offer.

Thanks, but I'm good.

-Dave

[DaveW]

I fixed the images problem, I was still linking to localhost from my testbed. Thanks for pointing that out-I'll fix it so that doesn't happen in future.

-Dave

[jdbnsn]

Thanks, but I'm good.

That's an understatement. I'll definitely do this soon Dave.

[DaveW]

Thanks Jon! I really appreciate the effort. If there's something you want to see in TBCS, you want to help me here! I'm taking ALL suggestions into account.

-Dave

[Airbozo]

I will check it out tomorrow and see if I can provide some useful feedback.

Pink; Don't worry guys, pink is not powerful enough to turn you gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that...

[calumc]

I quite fond of a bit of pink ;)
fingerlickin' good....

[Drum Thumper]

I definitely like the 'Browse by letter' option--could this be taken a step further to allow a 'Browse by theme'? I'm thinking it can, each mod would have to be tagged somehow.

Edit: A 'Browse by Member' option might be a bit easier.

[noopypoop]

I definitely like the 'Browse by letter' option--could this be taken a step further to allow a 'Browse by theme'? I'm thinking it can, each mod would have to be tagged somehow.

Edit: A 'Browse by Member' option might be a bit easier.

Amen!

[DaveW]

Clicking a Member allows you to see all their mods.

EDIT:
Although you could elaborate on that:
1) System where mods are organised by membername in alphabetical order?
2) System where members can be browsed?

-Dave

[NightrainSrt4]

I like this. Color doesn't mean crap, that can be changed in like 2 seconds. I was just looking at the structure and such.

For the member thing mentioned above, I would also like to see something like this because once a lot of mods get up there it would be hard to find one your looking for.

Take like a page like TBCS Members List (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/memberlist.php) and have that in alphabetical order or what not, and when you click on the name, have it bring you to the page you already have set up with the persons mods and info and such.

This way you can easily go through by person or whatever. Or just add like a search function that you can search for the modder or mod name or whatnot.

Other than that I like it. And how you can comment on each picture or whatever.

Its different, I like it.


And to emphasize what Dave is saying, concentrate on the actual structure guys. Color and layout are the EASIEST things to change. The structure and the way things work are the things that are harder to change, and things that should be focused on ;)



Edit: A search function or some type of rep system might be better than a list with alphabetical screen names/handles. I can see it now. People changing their handle and abusing the system by deliberately making a name start with 'A' or numbers just to be at the top of the list/the most publicized. Hmmm...let me think on this one

[Crazy Buddhist]

Dave

Good work.

One comment:

Too many clicks to get to content.

In each worklog could the whole posts be shown as a thread with a link to comments below each post like a blog?

As currently configured you seem to have not succeeded in one of your purposes - to make worklogs easier to read. Currently although the log is not cluttered by comments one has to click on each entry before reading it which is just as much trouble as paging through a few comments.

Best

Matthew

ps 2nd comment:

I succesfully seem to have created a worklog however your database spat the image back at me and cursed at me in gaelic. Don't believe me? Here's the proof:

Warning: copy(images/originals/16x1.jpg) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/cr1ms0n/public_html/davew/WST/includes/functions_worklogs_control.php on line 112

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/cr1ms0n/public_html/davew/WST/includes/functions_worklogs_control.php:112) in /home/cr1ms0n/public_html/davew/WST/includes/functions_worklogs_control.php on line 37

[DaveW]

lol...thanks for the feedback there Crazy. I can confirm however that that is not Gaelic, but Aramaic. I am currently seeking a translator, but they're thin on the ground these days.

I see what you're suggesting with the idea of the blog style layout, but that leaves me with a subtle problem; that you have to load the whole worklog to see a single update. I think this might be a primary way to navigate, but I would like to give the user the option to display the worklog in the manner you describe. Do you think that this would work?

As for clicks for content: are you considering that in terms of clicking through a worklog? To find a worklog, you click worklogs. You can see the most recent updated, all worklogs, and at some point, browse them by both author and by name. When flicking through a worklog, the layout offered puts the most important information at the top, reducing in importance as the page goes down. Pieces of information that become more important, such as answered questions, move up the page.

In terms of interface design theory, the numbers add up. What I need to know is what you want to see! Here's some of the questions I need answers to at the moment.

1) Images. I personally think that the images as they are look pretty awful. Too small! Also their layout in the worklog isn't what I wanted, but I lacked the time to do something better. In terms of the actual worklog itself, I will be including all the standard things like smilies and so on. But one thing I really want is a really powerful editing/publishing system. I want to give you the power to create gorgeous looking layouts that read like magazine articles. Why is this so important? Because I want to give you the option of making a PDF of your worklog to download. In addition, I was considering a liason with Lulu, an online book publisher, allowing you create books of tutorials and sell them through the website. I for one wouldn't say no to a book of Commando's fantastic airbrush worklogs!

2) Information! What sort of information do you want to store, and how do you want to see it? At the moment, I've only programmed the most basic of things. Let me know exactly what more you want, and I'll see what I can do.

3) Reputations! I'm planning a fairly powerful reputations system being built into this. One of the biggest problems with VBulletin Rep system is that it's a bolt-on. Everything in VBulletin is a bolt-on. Normally, this would be considered the correct way to program. It is! But because the VBulletin core doesn't let these bolt-on's have any real power, it means you can't do things like sort the members by their reputation. The closest we have is sorting worklogs by their score. I want to include more things like this in the Worklog system.

Keep going guys, and let me know with your feedback what you think of the system!

-Dave

[jdbnsn]

I like the way you are heading with this, I too have wanted to see a more flexible system to present one's projects. For a visual representation, you could do a thumbnail index like we have in our completed mod gallery. Each worklog could have an index page where all the photos are visable and link to the page where the post is. I like the separate comments section, and think if the author had the ability to publish chosen questions (like we do on the front page with articles) it could help weed out the clutter. Then you could just have a link below to "see all comments" if one so desired. As for individual styles, I don't know much about this realm but if you could arrange the worklogs to behave like myspace.com in that the author could easily import stylesheets to customize their pages that would be cool. But probably not easy. You could also have a scrolling banner of index photos like this:

<div><embed quality="high" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.frappr.com/ajax/yvmap.swf" flashvars="host=http://www.frappr.com/&origin=unknown&lo=1&mvid=106588" salign="l" align="middle" scale="noscale" width="600" height="400" ></embed><div style="width:400px;text-align:left;"><a href="http://visitor.frappr.com/?sig=visitor_map&src_mvid=106588&origin=unknown" target=_blank><img src="http://frappr.com/i/gyo.gif" border=0/></a><a href="http://www.frappr.com/thebestcasescenariomodders?src=flash_map&sig=visitor_map&src_mvid=106588&origin=unknown&ct=seemore" target=_blank><img src="http://frappr.com/i/s.gif" border=0/></a><a href="http://www.frappr.com/thebestcasescenariomodders?src=flash_map&sig=visitor_map&src_mvid=106588&origin=unknown&ct=pendingpins" target=_blank><img src="http://frappr.com/dyn_map/108170/origin:unknown/p.gif" border=0/></a><a href="http://www.frappr.com/?a=feedback&type=vm" target=_blank><img src="http://frappr.com/i/h.gif" border=0/></a></div></div>


Or this...


<embed quality="high" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" wmode="transparent" src="http://widget.slide.com/widgets/frapprticker.swf" name="flashticker" salign="l" align="middle" scale="noscale" width="400" height="130" flashvars="site=www.frappr.com/?a=slidewidget&gid=108170" bgcolor="#f5f5f5" ></embed>
And each author could have his/her own gallery for their collective works.

[Crazy Buddhist]

lol...thanks for the feedback there Crazy. I can confirm however that that is not Gaelic, but Aramaic. I am currently seeking a translator, but they're thin on the ground these days.

I see what you're suggesting with the idea of the blog style layout, but that leaves me with a subtle problem; that you have to load the whole worklog to see a single update.

Just have a "new update" link that appears in the worklog listing and ... erm .. takes you straight to the new update? lol

[DaveW]

Just have a "new update" link that appears in the worklog listing and ... erm .. takes you straight to the new update? lol

Ok, you're not making that very clear...I thought you wanted all the info on a page, with a link to see comments? If so, that's what I thought, and linking to the most recent update would either be exactly what I currently have, or loading everything and scrolling down.

Or, if you want previews on every page, isn't that what I currently have? Let me know what you mean.


And each author could have his/her own gallery for their collective works.

Each member will have a 'profile' that they can go nuts customising. Part of that will be a gallery of their mods. At the moment, clicking on a member lists and worklogs they own and the most recent item in the worklog.

-Dave

[Crazy Buddhist]

Ok, you're not making that very clear...I thought you wanted all the info on a page, with a link to see comments? If so, that's what I thought, and linking to the most recent update would either be exactly what I currently have, or loading everything and scrolling down.

Or, if you want previews on every page, isn't that what I currently have? Let me know what you mean.

Loading everything and scrolling down. One post on a page makes the story hard to follow. Just have worklog author posts on the page with comments questions etc linked under each post. That way you keep the flow.

:)

[Drum Thumper]

Each member will have a 'profile' that they can go nuts customising. Part of that will be a gallery of their mods. At the moment, clicking on a member lists and worklogs they own and the most recent item in the worklog.

-Dave

More details please?

I'm guessing the usual here: different fonts, possibly a different background (if one so desires), etc. etc. etc.?

And how are we going to be able to change this stuff? HTML or ????

[DaveW]

And how are we going to be able to change this stuff? HTML or ????

You can use BB Code to edit the interface at the moment. A full-blown interactive interface system might come later.

-Dave

[Drum Thumper]

5) This is cool, what's the long term plan?
This website will stay live for 8 days. That's one day for setup, 7 days to play around with it. After this, all content will be removed, including your user names and passwords. I'll use the data gathered from my analytic systems, the content put into the site, and your feedback to form an analysis.



13 days later, everything is still up. Which is a good thing because I'm not seeing how questions are being posted. Comments only. Is that something the owner of each gallery has control over?

[DaveW]

Only the owner can answer questions. The process goes like so:

1) User leaves a comment, question, suggestion, etc. using the comments box.
2) The owner reads the comments, and may decide to reply. The owner can then `promote' the comment and reply to it. The comment is moved to the top of the page.

Yes, the system is still up at the moment, although all my tests have ended. I'm thinking of leaving the system running at the moment, possibly to continue with further tests later. I'll start adding new features later, and the popular ones may be migrated to TBCS.

I'm writing my report today, so I'd like to ask you to all you all to give me as much feedback as you can! Thanks for your help. :)


One post on a page makes the story hard to follow.

I'm not sure I agree with you Crazy, I think that having it the way you suggest would lead to a single huge page of text, with possibly important items like answered questions ignored. I think my current system of a preview of the whole worklog is better than the whole worklog itself. But, I'm open to all suggestions-if others disagree, please say!

-Dave

[Crazy Buddhist]

Dave all I have is an opinion. Tis your system :) Happy NY dude. Matthew