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Blastfrog

Forum software

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I realize that this is a forum for an old game inhabited by people who swear by old hardware and software, but I noticed that the forum software we're using is ancient. I realize that the forum works just fine as-is, but an upgrade wouldn't hurt, I guess. Honestly, a lot of the web design feels like it's from the past, particularly the 8-bit images everywhere with dithering.

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hex11 said:

What images?

The ones up top. They look pretty fugly due to being dithered without an optimized palette.

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Purchasing an update mightn't break the bank - depending on who's paying. The fun part's likely to be migrating the database and customizations, since what we're currently using might be too old for vBulletin 5's upgrade tool.

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Is there some reason this version can't handle more colorful images? In theory it should just display whatever image files are in htdocs directory, or equivalent DB entries.

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Hm... don't change the web design of doomworld, because now the design is serious. I think it should stay in that way the next 100 years and I think doomworld with the design now will enforce again until then.

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Images have nothing to do with the forum software. They could be easily replaced without changing the software if there was a need to.

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Jodwin said:

Images have nothing to do with the forum software.

I never said that they did. All I was saying is that the site design in general feels extremely dated, and that the old forum software is just one part of that.

I don't think the general design really needs to be changed, but a few polishing jobs here and there would really be nice. The main problem I have is with the gif images in the top banner. They appear to be 8 bit, but with some kind of external palette and not their own optimized one. Just look at the dithering on the gray water flat, we have 256 colors to work with, and 4 shades of gray is the best we can do?

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I really have to wonder what resolution you're running in to see that. I have to zoom in 200% before any dithering is noticeable. Or stick my face 4 inches from the screen.

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With all your recent retarded threads I'm starting to see why you got banned from the Zdoom forums.

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Sodaholic said:

I realize that this is a forum for an old game inhabited by people who swear by old hardware and software, but I noticed that the forum software we're using is ancient. I realize that the forum works just fine as-is, but an upgrade wouldn't hurt, I guess. Honestly, a lot of the web design feels like it's from the past, particularly the 8-bit images everywhere with dithering.


It works on every browser in existence. Even ones from the mid 90s. Why do you hate The Internet?

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I routinely use computers with 200-400% zoom and my face four inches from the screen. I still don't notice any dithering of the DW graphics unless I'm looking. I suppose red-green colour blindness has uses after all.

The only thing I really don't like about DW is the lack of a multi-quote feature. That's the best part of Bethesda's forums. Pretty easy to live without that anyway.

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Csonicgo said:

It works on every browser in existence. Even ones from the mid 90s. Why do you hate The Internet?

Not just that, but the sleak, stripped-down format of the forums leads to more emphasis on what your saying, rather than how loud and bling-bling your signature is. Hell, I don't even use my signature anymore (mostly because I can't be arsed to check that little box at the bottom to include it.)

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Csonicgo said:

It works on every browser in existence. Even ones from the mid 90s. Why do you hate The Internet?

I suppose an upgrade really isn't necessary, but being a perfectionist, it'd be nice to see some higher fidelity art assets in top of the screen.

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I don't think anything has been changed around here since Linguica was the webmaster. Look at the Planet* sites and be thankful DW didn't go down that route.

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I've never noticed any kind of dither for as long as I've been here. Find a new hobby and/or monitor.

Also I much prefer this over modern slow-ass-JS-infested web junk.

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Sodaholic said:

I realize that the forum works just fine as-is, but an upgrade wouldn't hurt, I guess.

Bullshit it wouldn't, you've obviously never had to deal with this before. You don't just click a magic update button and everything works fine. You click a magic update button and a gate to hell opens and your error log is getting hundreds of entries per second and all your non-standard features are broken and your custom themes don't work anymore and...

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Sodaholic said:

I suppose an upgrade really isn't necessary, but being a perfectionist, it'd be nice to see some higher fidelity art assets in top of the screen.

I'm not sure that higher fidelity artwork of an almost-20-year-old video game is really necessary.

The forums do their job, and do it well without a lot of the modern nonsense you see on many sites.

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If anything, I don't think it's a stretch to say the front-page is completely useless at this point. I bookmark directly to the forums, so it's not a whole hell of a lot to me, but I think the real-estate would have some better use than a trickle of news and a mossy tomb of the Doom community of some 12 years ago.

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I don't think anything needs changing on this forum. Maybe clear out a couple of shitposters, just to tidy things up a bit :P

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If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The forums get the job done, so why mess with things? Plus the software is old enough that it's might be a bit more secure as a result. Sort of like Windows 3.1 is probably a bit more secure than Windows 7 these days because exploits don't get written for it anymore.

Plus, I rather like the more minimalist design of this place. It feels right.

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Sodaholic said:

I suppose an upgrade really isn't necessary, but being a perfectionist, it'd be nice to see some higher fidelity art assets in top of the screen.

How about you work on some (stick to the current dimensions), submit them without fanfare and see if they're accepted.

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I'm with Soda. I have always found the forum software here a bit clunky and weird and I have never worked out how the forum recognises whether a thread has been read or not. It doesn't seem to comply to the rules that I see on other boards and seems to have some sort of time limit factor as well as whether the thread has actually been looked at or not.

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Technician said:

I'd wait until UGO decides to cut the fat before switching the community over to new software.

If that ever happens, I'll gladly provide funding for new hosting.

yukib1t said:

Plus, I rather like the more minimalist design of this place. It feels right.

Hey, minimalist design is a good thing. I never said that the general concept behind the visuals should be overdone, just a bit of polish on the rough spots is all. I never said that anything needed major overhauling, the minimalism is definitely a good thing to keep.

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Enjay said:

I'm with Soda. I have always found the forum software here a bit clunky and weird and I have never worked out how the forum recognises whether a thread has been read or not. It doesn't seem to comply to the rules that I see on other boards and seems to have some sort of time limit factor as well as whether the thread has actually been looked at or not.

I've never really liked any version of vBulletin honestly, but what Doomworld has isn't bad.

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Doomworld is about the only sane forum when it comes to design and functionality I've seen in the last decade. Why would you want to downgrade to inferior software for the sake of being more modern? The effort and money would be better used into therapy for anyone who shares this pathological "I must have the newest thing, regardless of its actual quality" mindset.

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Personally, I'm not advocating change for the sake of change because I find the software odd and not as easy to use as the software I have seen elsewhere. That being said, it's not that bad and I don't really expect it to change anyway.

It probably is worth saying though that the "sanity" of this forum is as much to do with the way things are set up here as the software itself. Small avatars, no pics in signatures/no signatures etc etc can be enforced with any forum software worth its salt. It's just that many board administrators don't seem to want to do it. So, different software doesn't have to mean an insane forum.

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