What is your overall opinion of MLP Forums? What would you change?

[Sane Marbles 180]

Did anyone else find it very confusing on how to post topics and to change ranks. I remember when I first found this site, you could click on anyone's rank and a small little box would appear and you could see what the rank's order was and what it took to achieve it. Now, I am unable to do that and I can't figure out why this was changed.

If you have anything you found that you don't like and/or would like to see implemented, please post below as I am quite interested to see what everyone else thinks of this site.

[Pr0m4NV14 837]

OH, yes please.

(Bloody character limit."(

[Venomous 18,813]

@Sane Marbles

Because this thread is asking for overall opinions/views regarding MLP Forums and what others would like to see changed, I will be altering its title to give it said proper context.

Thank you.

[Jeric 46,834]

I am all for continuous improvement, however I really want them to fix several broken issues before they implement anything that is a new feature. That includes any plan to rebuild features that were removed by the makers of this software (that wasn't MLPF's fault just so we are clear). 

I've been fairly vocal (and admittedly sardonic) in my opinion of the character counter overlay, but that is not my biggest issue. 

The Roleplay database UI is in such a state that the RP team had to effectively close EQE (their show accurate RP section) to new applications. A few on RP know that I have plans on actually (wait for it) applying for a character and introducing my OC. I can't do that without the RP database actually functioning. 

I am giving the development team the benefit of the doubt, since I know they may be working on other quarrelsome issues. However, seeing an entire RP method effectively closed to newcomers is concerning, especially since members keep inquiring about the DB status with little to no updates from Development. The lack of communication feeds into the assumption that roleplay is merely a periphery element in the organization. 

They need to fix the bugs first.  

[Rawzy 1,302]

I would bring back the complete old version of the forums just because of nostalgia and because you could see a lot more of the recent posts.

[Jeric 46,834]

On 5/28/2017 at 4:32 AM, Rawzy said:

I would bring back the complete old version of the forums just because of nostalgia and because you could see a lot more of the recent posts.

Unfortunately they can't as the old version is no longer supported by the software developers who made it, which opens it up to security risks. 

[Meeps 297]

I found the ranks system to be a bit confusing coming in, and I don't like that you can't directly drop links as attachments in messages and such. I also don't know if there's a way to get rid of it, but the way the character box (20 is the minimum) covers part of the text I'm writing out drives me crazy. ot a real gripe because its easy to get around though, heh.

[Jeric 46,834]

26 minutes ago, Meeps said:

I also don't know if there's a way to get rid of it, but the way the character box (20 is the minimum) covers part of the text I'm writing out drives me crazy.

You aren't the only one. The overlay was added after they upgraded the site to IPB 4, and even in the face of criticism, all we know is that they are 'working on it' and that it is proving tricky to get rid of.

I have actually had a great laugh at that last one and had to share that response to a few old colleagues and peers of mine. Their response to the staffer in question was amusing to say the least. It boiled down two thoughts. "It's a blow off response", or a general question of skill. 

There are decidedly trivial solutions to that particular complaint. The counter's continued existence in it's current form is owed to lack of availability resources (no one available to tweak it) or desire (no one willing to fix it). I have difficulty believing that the dev team is challenged by it. I can name a few non-staffers who could adjust it as well. 

Of course, all we have are assumptions since there is still a lack of communication. I hope to be proven wrong about the desire issue, and if I am, I will earnestly apologize. Somehow I don't believe I am. 

[Wingnut 6,725]

4 hours ago, Jeric said:

Unfortunately they can't as the old version is no longer supported by the software developers who made it, which opens it up to security risks. 

True.  At the end of the day, change over the course of time is inevitable.  It's come up on every message board I've been involved in for a long time.  But I know they're still working behind the scenes to regain all the bells and whistles the previous version have. 

That being said, there things I miss and I don't know if they can be restored or not.  Among them, I miss the ability to click on a thread's post count to see how many posts each member contributed to it. 

[Rikifive 23,472]

Um.. To be honest everything was self-explanatory to me. Kind-of.. 

On 24.05.2017 at 4:28 AM, Sane Marbles said:

I remember when I first found this site, you could click on anyone's rank and a small little box would appear and you could see what the rank's order was and what it took to achieve it. Now, I am unable to do that and I can't figure out why this was changed.

Oh that's true it was a nice detail. As far as I know, it's no longer available after the forum update - it wasn't removed by the staff - they're working on bringing it back if I'm not mistaking.

 

I've created Walls of Text™ about my dislikes, but an Ultra Short Too Long; Didn't Read™ version would be Text editor.

Now a detailed and still long version of TL;DR
All bugs and inconvenient things combined together aren't as annoying as the text editor. There are many flaws and bugs in that single feature. It's really easy to glitch that, yet sometimes extremely hard to fix that. One mistake can lead to hours of work trying to fix the post and most importantly - you can't backup your post. Previously you could access BBCode Mode and copy the raw version even to notepad - then you could easily paste it back to the editor and voila! The post totally worked anywhere across many forums and now? Thanks to these fancy boxes it's no longer possible! Are you a member of multiple forums and want to copy&paste the same 'about me' page? Well too bad, it will break! You need to configure the contents each time you'll copy&paste the contents. Good luck with spoilers! Those are funny!  

Another awesome thing in the text editor in IPB4? Lack of 'Remove Format' button! Who needs all-in-one button, when you can set your font to default by changing the settings back to normal one-by-one! That's so clever! Why I wasn't doing that before! That saves tons of negative-amount of time! So much fun! That's good we always have CTRL+X CTRL+SHIFT+V Combo, but it's not always working. 

Heh...
YAY that doesn't have much to do with MLP Forums!   I think that's good, because I could whine like Rarity keep going forever...  

 

So um.. Does Character Counter counts? Yeah, that's an issue! I agree.

 

Well, besides software-related things I think MLP Forums do a great job. Everything is nicely organized, though their FAQ section and such is a mess at the moment - that's bad, because there were actually really frequently asked questions with answers. It would be nice to see refreshed articles.

 

Besides that, what I can say... Most of the issues, that really bother me come up with the forum software or even further. I can't really blame MLP Forums for these. Generally everything is great, considering the software limits and such. That's true there's always something to improve, but again, I'd rant on IPB first.

 

8 hours ago, Jeric said:

Unfortunately they can't as the old version is no longer supported by the software developers who made it, which opens it up to security risks. 

Too bad MLPF staff got bored of banning bots all day.