Suggestion A few Design Flaws

Welcome to this mess!

First of all, Ill put this out there now- I know that I am not a professional and have studied enough of web design to have a perfectly clear view of what this site may or may not be, but that doesn't mean my views shouldn't be token into notice. I have taken a few digital media classes and currently am taking a Digital publishing coarse however, but I really do have some things on this site of which tend to bug me.




1. Message System


Alright, honestly, its one of the most agitating things. Sure I know that it gets the thing done but. . Garsh its kinda ugly. .

Not only that, but the basic design of it looks more like a comment serious then personal DMs. Finding a more free-flowing message system would be much more pleasing to the eye and could even look a bit more professional. Maybe i think this because of the popular use of more high-tech messaging systems such as on Facebook or Instagram is shading my view, putting this site to a higher standard But I still do think with the sites current updates and whatnot, fixing up the messaging system should be easy. Even MSPARP, a site that for years had run unsupported, had a far better messaging system and even a tool that let you know when the other person was Typing.

Basically what I am saying is; The message system should look more like an actual message/chat room and not so much as a YouTube comment section. Maybe even have you profile picture a much smaller icon to the side, as well as have your message and the person(s) who you are messaging with text on different sides of the chat.
Little things like this could make the site much more pleasing to the eye.





2. Main Tabs


What I mean by the main tabs are the tabs at the top of the page. You know what I mean, the ones that say "Forums, What's new" and so on.

First of all, I think the 'Gallery' and the 'Members' tabs are simply unneeded, as well as honestly the 'What's new" Tab. Personally, the only one of these I've used is the 'Forums' one, and for that the slide bar below is more confusing than helpful- at least to me. More unneeded details, as well as missing ones.

Also, not to mention, we could have a main welcome/new page for when you first open the site. On this page we could have things such as the basic guidelines to the side as well as other important threads everyone should read. Along with that, a few main threads that would be 'Featured' on the home page, similar to Amino. On this page we could also have the latest news and updates from the RPN staff. Things like that is important especially to the new users of the site.



Another thing- When opening the Forums tab, instead of getting a long and confusing list of options, have the Forum Categories! Aka, When hovering over, the slide bar will list 'BBCode Center' 'Searching for Characters' and other of the forums that are the most popular with the current community, offering a much faster way to get to those options, especially for the new users to the site!


So yes, basically- Make the tabs have things that are actually *usefull* to us!



Thats all for now. I guess im just not good at rants. . But seriously, The design of this site could be a lot better.

I wouldn't really call these "flaws" as this theme designed is working as intended when we obtained it with some minimal changes to match our site's color scheme and improving some features over time. A huge thing to note is while you may prefer a chat based message system, not everyone does. The PM system is something that is developed by the forum software we use, not us. While we get addons to improve on the basic function (as shown with recent updates to it), it isn't meant to be used as a "chat" system. We are not Facebook or other true social media type sites. (Which IMO I loathe FB's messaging system.) This is a forum based site.

We have a Discord server to serve as our chat and is open for our members to join and use. Additionally, I wouldn't say the PM system looks anything like the YT comment area. Comments there can be upvoted, are threaded with replies which must be expanded upon to view, and so forth. The PM system here works like the forums do, they post the newest message on the last page in chronological order of when it was posted.

The thing about the tabs is easy navigation to those sections of the site. If we remove them from there, then we have to put them someplace else to be found. Where they are at currently is the best from an organization standpoint within the forum software we use. If say, we do as you suggest and remove 'Gallery' have you not noticed there is no other link anywhere else on the site to it except if you go to your own media through your profile? That's a lot of clicks versus a single one at the top tab that is always available.

The same is for "What's New." Only if we remove that tab, there is no roundabout way to reach it otherwise. Members use the "What's New" to view the newest content for things like profile posts, which actually are really popular and their personal news feed for the content/users that they follow.

As far as featuring messages on the main page, the inherent problem - and this might make many laugh, but it's true and sad that for a writing site a common problem - users tend to not read that content. When users first join they are informed of a 10+/24hr system to protect the site from spam bots. Yet the most common question asked is "Why can't I pm?" The same thing happens when they sign up. Users are required to check a no-ERP agreement box, and sadly we still get new members making those requests for the simple fact that they don't read it.

Additionally, many member's I believe wouldn't want to have that content constantly there resulting in the ignoring of the "featured" information. Not to mention the cluttering of the main page. Also, we're more of an "opt in" than an "opt out" based system. Meaning we may announce things, but we don't force members to read the content. They can choose to ignore it at their own risk. Also, when new users joined they used to be sent a "Welcome" PM message, and again, most times it was ignored and users would still ask questions that were answered within that message.

I also don't understand how exactly you find the Forums sub-menu confusing as it's fairly direct. New posts are new posts. Your threads are your threads. It sounds like you would prefer the sub-menu to list all the forums themselves? The main page is the "directory" itself of the forums which can be easily accessed via clicking the logo image. If we added to the current sub-menu for that tab, it would be monstrously long. Also, popularity would result in pretty much all be KPOP and fantasy, those are the most popular types of content on RpNation at this time.

What you consider 'useful' may not be useful to others or to the community itself. :\

I would say that what you want is really only the matter of your personal preference, and the thing is there is no way to cater to ever single users preferred functions or aesthetics. We are restricted by what the forum software is capable of and what we currently have set up works. We do look to improve and will consider suggestions, but we have to look at every single thing and consider the good, the bad, and the ugly of any suggestions. Yes, having a sub-menu for quick forum navigation would be kind of nice, but the problem is either we make another tab, making the tab menu longer, or add it into the sub-menu making it so long it'd most likely need a scrollbar for that menu to stay within the visible area of a browser.

Any changes we ever do to the site always causes a stir, so we have to be careful with what we do change and look at how the community overall uses the functions and features.

The way it is, is the way the forum software is. We can visually change some things, but its pretty cookie cutter.

Shooting_Star_Cipher said:

1. Message System


Alright, honestly, its one of the most agitating things. Sure I know that it gets the thing done but. . Garsh its kinda ugly. .

Not only that, but the basic design of it looks more like a comment serious then personal DMs. Finding a more free-flowing message system would be much more pleasing to the eye and could even look a bit more professional. Maybe i think this because of the popular use of more high-tech messaging systems such as on Facebook or Instagram is shading my view, putting this site to a higher standard But I still do think with the sites current updates and whatnot, fixing up the messaging system should be easy. Even MSPARP, a site that for years had run unsupported, had a far better messaging system and even a tool that let you know when the other person was Typing.

Basically what I am saying is; The message system should look more like an actual message/chat room and not so much as a YouTube comment section. Maybe even have you profile picture a much smaller icon to the side, as well as have your message and the person(s) who you are messaging with text on different sides of the chat.
Little things like this could make the site much more pleasing to the eye.

Click to expand...

But seriously, I'd love that C:.