New GarageGames.com Feedback

#81 Don't like the new design.. feels very impersonal and reminds me of all them RSS feed websites.

Forums like feel like one long page of text.
Rest of the things I don't like have already been posted by the other members, so I'm not going to say them again.


Also... has GG done away with associates?

#82 I see a "Notify me of new replies" tickbox now exists. Has that just been added or am I going mad?

#83 ...

#84 I keep seeing the same criticism and negativity everywhere. Way to go for crippling the useful features of the old site and alienating the community. Feels like the whole thing was designed by marketing "experts"?

The only thing really wrong with the old site was the search function, but now this new one showcases a definite lack of functionality everywhere. The art aesthetics is more of a personal thing and I'm sure that aspect will grow on me.

Hope that things begin to change for the better, since this new site is supposed to be easier to modify. At least bring back the forum sub-sections and Snapshots.

#85 I don't know if plans have changed, but back in 2K7 Josh D mentioned that GG would be putting up a new store in 2K8 and resume publishing. Of course, the IA buyout happened since then.... but I thought I'd still ask if the new site means resuming publication?

#86 Love the clean new look. Also agree with the redirect's of old url's. I got a few thread that I keep in my favourites.

#87 I can't get the Torque Developer Network to work at all. I've tried every link imaginable to login to it, but it just gives me a 404.

#88 Artisticly the site rocks guys functionally I gotta say this is a disaster.

why were the forums collapsed? To my knowledge no one has ever complained about these things. it just the searching and the limited functionality of the old forums. oh yeah and they ate post and were buggy sorry forgot about that one.

for the most part this could be done with minimal effort but he colors should have been reversed should be super light grey font on black or super dark grey bg this horrid bright white everywhere is brutal on the eyes.

#89 This sucks there is no navigation in the forums. There are no breadcrumbs there is no way to go up a level all you can do is go back to the root and access the old sections no longer exist. This is retarded. You guys have completly crippled GG it is almost impossible to find anything in the forums.

I agree the old site should be rolled back!!! I cannot believe that you guys actually did any testing on this what so ever. There is no way that any testing was done on this and people gave this the thumbs up.

#90 also when you make a post it should not take you back to the first post in a thread it should take you to the post that you just made or offer you an option of where you want to go.

Man why can you guys use something that is proven like V-Bulletin.

these forums might be the worst thing I have ever seen.

#91 Guys for the love of god can you just change this without re-designing the whole site Blogs list should be newest at the top and forums should be newest last.

EEEEEPPPPPIIIIIIICCCCCCCC FFFFFAAAAAIIIIILLLLLL !!!!!!

sorry couldn't find the clip either.

#92 no longer have access to the TGE private forums
in "My Products (private forums)" it lists only TGB, but in my profile it lists quite a few products more than that, including "Torque Game Engine 1.4.2". for me personally, this negates 99% of the utility of gg.com.

can't navigate back up the forum hierarchy
to be fair, the old site wasn't so hot in this dept. either.

emails with no links??
seriously, how did this one make it into production ?
the emails i get to notify me that a watched thread has new activity are horribly formatted, and don't include a link to the thread, nor the thread ID. here's what it looks like when viewed in thunderbird or gmail (the html markup tags are escaped or something; they're not marking up anything):

Someone has made a post on a thread you were watching. <br/>Thread: List of website &quot;issues&quot;<br/>Author: Michael (silentMike) Hall<br/><i>35.  No public email addresses?  I don't use a chat client but that info section is still there.</i>

#93

Quote:
Please consider rolling the site back for now. It's just not finished yet and should not have been rolled to the general public out at this point in development.

+1

#94 All I have to say is this:

1. The only reason GG is where it is... is because of the community.

2. The site's RETROfit kicks the entire community in their balls for the ultimate FAIL.

3. GG.com was about what the community was doing. How the community was helping one another build games. Sharing with the community the projects you were working on. - This has been eliminated. (or at least you'll never know how to access it)

4. As anyone who has done any site development knows... you work the bugs out on a NON-LIVE server and then you go live. (yes there will be bugs when released... but not massive amounts of "ERROR.. cannot find files")

5. These forums are a massive step backwards. And the GG forums have always been cited as being old school without much functionality. This new site/forum removes almost EVERY functionality of a forum.

6. Branding... Branding... Branding.... For those of us who worked hard for many years to create, establish, promote and enhance the GG brand. this new website, in one sweep, eliminates all the branding progress that was made over many years. I have never seen a blander site. So instead of Branding... GG now seems to focus on Blanding

I think I should stop there and put the keyboard down. All I can do is shake my head.

#95 ..alot of feedback here Deborah. Good luck!

This overhaul stuff is overrated. IMO, the old site's issues should have been fixed with a change of graphics/css. ..but it's not my site so..:shrugs:

#96 As Deborah pointed out, we are working on fixing many things with the website, and have no intention of just dropping a new website upon you and then leaving you to your own devices to deal with it.

We are listing to the constructive criticism carefully and weighing all suggestions in terms of priority. Emphasis on "constructive" criticism :)

The sky is not falling here people, this is a website upgrade that was long, long, overdue. GarageGames needs to move forward and part of that is having a professional, functional website. Are we there yet? Not completely, but we have made a great start and had a really successful launch last night. We WILL be addressing the issues you guys are bringing up, but that does not mean that this isn't a great accomplishment and a great start towards being able to provide the best website we possibly can. We will get there, and we will listen to you along the way.

A few thoughts on the original vision of GarageGames and some comments that we have lost our way. I believe the original vision has remained pretty close to the same. But the methods with which we act on our mission cannot simply remain static and stuck in the past. We all need to grow and improve as a company and it's too easy to simply say that there is one right way, one right vision, to serve the community and our mission.

Changing a website does not change the fact that the people who work at GarageGames here in the trenches, are just as committed, hard working, and dedicated as always to our company AND our community.

You will see this reflected from updates that will continue to roll out to the website, to listening to the community, to everything else we work on here, day after day.

So, please keep the constructive comments and criticisms forthcoming, and try to keep the negativity to a minimum. We are listening. Thanks.

#97 Just want to throw my hat in the constructive criticism ring.
Would like to see forum/blog posts be one page again, was a time saver really.
Would like to see the jobs section back, its the only real way to get Torque specific staff which are essential for any real development.
Would like to see the snapshots back mainly because it was interesting.
I rate recent blogs over featured blogs, maybe switch the featured and recent.
Personally I liked the more compact, better use of real estate of the previous community page. Time is money really.
Would still like to see an "Engine version made with:" field in the resource section.

Thanks for the work

#98 IMPORTANT: No access to private forums.

I own TGE, TGB, and TX. But I only seem to be able to get into the TGE private forums. Take this for example:

www.garagegames.com/community/forums/29

That is suppose to be the TGB private forums. But when I go there, it says I have can't view that page. This is an important issue in my mind.

#99 hey Tyler,
i'll swap you my TGB private forums for your TGE private forums! ;D

#100 Gladly! Especially since the project I'm working on is for TGB.