GarageGames.com Site Update: Jan. 16, 2009
by Jacob Fike · 01/16/2009 (4:08 pm) · 69 comments
Launching the website has been a little like one of my favorite games, Left 4 Dead: intense, cooperative, and full of zombies.It's been a few days since you heard directly from the web team. I know there's been a lot of activity on the site, and I am glad to have had awesome co-workers to take care of keeping you guys in the loop so I could focus my energy on the first update to the new site.
After making sure the site did not crash down over our ears (thanks Ops team!), the web team immediately huddled and make a SWAT list of things we wanted to tackle based on the feedback we received. So here is what you should find on the new site:
- Redirect URLs should now be working: This one gave me the most headaches because something went wrong between the test servers and the live site, but it should be working fine now. HUGE thanks to Orion for his short-term solution.
- Missing forums have returned: iTorque, GreenEar, and Collada are all available. We also pulled Constructor out of the Artist Corner into its own category.
- International Sales: There is now a Country drop-down list on the billing information form, this should help our international customers.
- What's my password?!: There's a new reset password option on the login page in case you're having trouble logging in.
- TDN lives: You should be able to log into our online wiki once again.
- Download links have been added to resources: So now you can get all those files back.
- Return of Watched Threads: All of your previous watched threads have magically returned (don't worry, it won't remove any you may have marked as watched since the new site went up).
- Edit comments on forums and blogs: Fear typos and 1 am comments no more!
- Unread forum threads functionality is back: You can mark all forum posts as "read" so you can always log into the site later and see what's been happening in your absence.
- The Markup Lite cheat sheet is back: No more guessing to try to remember how to add a video or otherwise pretty-up your post.
- Tweaked bulk accounts for educators: It should be easier now to manage student licenses if you are working for a school.
Thanks, and I'll keep you posted when the next update goes live. I'll be fighting off zombies until I see you next time.
About the author
As the CTO of Avalon Labs LLC, I am responsible for the technology behind Fellowstream, our team-based to-do list.
#22
01/16/2009 (5:41 pm)
@Jacob - Great job! The site is already 100% better. 
#23
01/16/2009 (6:01 pm)
@EVERYONE involved: Good Job! Thanks for everything! Now take a rest from putting up with all of us caterwauling heathens! 
#26
01/16/2009 (6:26 pm)
Huge step guys, great job. 
#27
01/16/2009 (6:49 pm)
uhm am I the only one seeing this but you guys are posting from the future accoarding to my clock. it says all of us are posting on the 17th but here in USA Central time is 8:49pm On Friday January 16th. 
#28
01/16/2009 (7:00 pm)
That's a glitch they haven't fixed yet. They'll need to reset it. It should be a simple fix, but wouldn't necessarily be a high priority.
#29
01/16/2009 (7:25 pm)
Very nice! We appreciate all of your hard work! 
#30
Literally I yelled that
01/16/2009 (7:28 pm)
Great work everyone! I don't think anyone yell in the office today, went something like: "TDN IS UP! I HAVE MY WATCHED THREADS. THANKS WEB TEAM WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"Literally I yelled that
#31
Cheers! :~]
01/16/2009 (7:40 pm)
Thanks for the hard work! I have made my own modifications (ala Greasemonkey, no offense, just like less spacing around stuff.)Cheers! :~]
#32
(I was worried there for a little bit. ;)
01/16/2009 (7:45 pm)
Congrats, web team... Good job keeping your heads and getting a solid update together. :)(I was worried there for a little bit. ;)
#33
01/16/2009 (7:55 pm)
Looks nice.. not a fan of the forums though :/ Combining each group into one is frustrating, and I can't find where to change "My Products" forums options, as I own both TGE and TGEA, but only TGEA shows up. 
#34
Who are you calling a zombie?
:)
Home sweet Home
Good job getting us back home keep up the good work :)
01/16/2009 (9:10 pm)
@JacobWho are you calling a zombie?
:)
Home sweet Home
Good job getting us back home keep up the good work :)
#35
01/16/2009 (9:19 pm)
Nice work. 
#36
I know it had to be demoralizing, working hard to get the site out then facing a storm of criticism. Well done all for focusing anyway and getting out a great update. Now relax and enjoy your weekend, the zombies can wait till monday. :)
01/16/2009 (9:24 pm)
Good job Jacob and the team. :)I know it had to be demoralizing, working hard to get the site out then facing a storm of criticism. Well done all for focusing anyway and getting out a great update. Now relax and enjoy your weekend, the zombies can wait till monday. :)
#37
Another glaring problem I see is that the separator for resources is wonky.
Might need to change .separator-950 div.right to a width of around 120px, and .separator-950 div.left to a width of around 150px.
01/16/2009 (9:53 pm)
Hey again,Another glaring problem I see is that the separator for resources is wonky.
Might need to change .separator-950 div.right to a width of around 120px, and .separator-950 div.left to a width of around 150px.
#38
i liked the old site ya i know your saying its outdated and you like newly updated site but some times new stuff is never good. it was easy to find and access stuff last time now its hard to find a forum just for xsi now all 3d programs are all in the same area. more personal thread areas i think works good and not all in the same spot each 3d program is not the same they are all different.
there is no longer a way to find updates on your programs ether it used to be where you could click on the latest update info right from the program you want to look at at lest tgea was like that i understand there's not going to be more updates on it besides bug fix but i kind of liked those links when first coming here. tge did not have the links like tgea so it was harder to find any info on it. its hard to find info on teh old side on any program though but now its imposable i like to see how many buy programs now that there's no info. i am lucky to have come be for you put this new site if i came here and it was to hard to find info like it is not i would of stopped looking here and looked at another engine i can find info on.
there's limited info on your stuff in the first place and that's why many people leave they just cant find the info they are looking for. the demo helps allot but its still very limited. the one thing that is hardest to find and i cant fined at all is how big and help full the community of gg is that info is all locked away to non buyers. i know in the non locked forum there is a small % of the community but how about the rest of the %.
i not mad at all but some people in this world want more info on things be for they buy. i looked for over a month looking for info on old site to whee i know its worth buying now but if i just came yesterday i might of left today already. there's no info to be found unless you ask in the forums which is not much of a help ether.
01/16/2009 (11:44 pm)
there is a problem that i think should be fixed in the next fix is when you click a persons name how are we to find there resources there's no links to a page to all there resources or blogs.i liked the old site ya i know your saying its outdated and you like newly updated site but some times new stuff is never good. it was easy to find and access stuff last time now its hard to find a forum just for xsi now all 3d programs are all in the same area. more personal thread areas i think works good and not all in the same spot each 3d program is not the same they are all different.
there is no longer a way to find updates on your programs ether it used to be where you could click on the latest update info right from the program you want to look at at lest tgea was like that i understand there's not going to be more updates on it besides bug fix but i kind of liked those links when first coming here. tge did not have the links like tgea so it was harder to find any info on it. its hard to find info on teh old side on any program though but now its imposable i like to see how many buy programs now that there's no info. i am lucky to have come be for you put this new site if i came here and it was to hard to find info like it is not i would of stopped looking here and looked at another engine i can find info on.
there's limited info on your stuff in the first place and that's why many people leave they just cant find the info they are looking for. the demo helps allot but its still very limited. the one thing that is hardest to find and i cant fined at all is how big and help full the community of gg is that info is all locked away to non buyers. i know in the non locked forum there is a small % of the community but how about the rest of the %.
i not mad at all but some people in this world want more info on things be for they buy. i looked for over a month looking for info on old site to whee i know its worth buying now but if i just came yesterday i might of left today already. there's no info to be found unless you ask in the forums which is not much of a help ether.
#39
One thing I noticed though is that my watchlist isn't complete. I guess it should have 200 items but I only see 10. Maybe it's possible to fix that as well.
01/17/2009 (12:05 am)
Thanks for that important update. Good job!One thing I noticed though is that my watchlist isn't complete. I guess it should have 200 items but I only see 10. Maybe it's possible to fix that as well.
#40
as Stefan mentioned the watchlist only appears to show 10 items though unless I've missed something on how to view the full list, if I subscribe to watch more threads they don't show up.
01/17/2009 (1:09 am)
Ahhhh great work guys so happy to have some of the features back again, especially the resources, yippee :) as Stefan mentioned the watchlist only appears to show 10 items though unless I've missed something on how to view the full list, if I subscribe to watch more threads they don't show up.
Torque 3D Owner Kenneth Holst
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