With the upcoming release of Shadowrun 4 I think DSF, its users and its administrators need to take a serious look at how this place operates, and more importantly how it looks.

I'd like to see the way the forums work changed, as well as their lay out. I'd also like to see a new color scheme, and feel to the place.

I do not have good ideas to suggest, only the suggestion that we look for them. I also know there are some functions we could do with out, and some we could use. I'd like to think with all the talented people here we could come up with a better look for the forums.

I like what they've done with the front page. (Even if I think it's ugly.) It's functional, and easy to use and that's money in my book. I'd like to see the forums get sorted out too.

If I ever see the name "Hackshock" appear as the title of these forums there will be hell to pay.

I don't think the name of the Forum itself needs to be changed, but the subforums could use some looking at.

Well dumpshock may not be a problem in SR4, But I would like to keep the name so that I can confuse and impress newbies in a couple of years with my arcane knowledge (like Freedonia Aeronautics and Space Administration.)

I like it the way it is now. Easy to use and providing a good overview. Why change a running system?

I like the way it is too. My hamburger is fine without mango marmelade.

Why wouldn't you have dumpshock? Even with the WMI I'm sure there will be some form of hot ASIST, and therefore the chance to get "dumped" back into realtime if you don't follow the proper adjustment period (graceful logoff). Dumpshock is a good balancing factor, in that is makes people think a little before just "cutting their hard line" in response to IC and such; I doubt it's going away in the revision.

The only thing I'd like to add is a "Link" button next to all those buttons at the top of each post (next to Quote, etc) that provides a link to that exact post. It'd make things easier to reference from thread to thread (or within a very large thread) without having to remember a post number.

Well I think Dumpshock is ugly. Look at Wired reflexes, which admittedly is a bit easier to run since it doesn't have 6000 or so users, but anyways that's one example of what this page could look like. I'd like to take a page from that and other forums.

I'd like to see the basic catergories remain:

Shadowrun

I think Welcome to the Shadows should be a subforum here.

Everything Else

I think General Gaming and all Administrative Stuff should go here.

I think the practice of opening new forums for each book is a bad idea. I think instead we should have tags-instead of these crappy smilies, and silly symbols why not use Book Tags?

I also think the color scheme is horrible. It's not as bad as the old salmon ones or whatever they were, but I am campaigning for Black and white, with dark blues! (The one thing Bulldrek got right!)

Simplest Solution: Spend most of your time on Bulldrek and Wired Reflexes.

I'm not a big fan of this color scheme or the software being used, but it's not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. At worst, it feels a little amateurish. If things were just a bit more crisp, I'd be happier. But by no means do I want to see it turn into the visual nightmare of blues that is Wired Reflexes and Bulldrek. Sorry, but blue is not a pleasant color to read with.

The only thing a little odd is the nested forums, they confuse me most of the time. Other than that, this is the best color scheme I've seen on Deep Resonance/Dumpshock (those of you with Bulldrek accounts know exactly how far its come today ;7). I miss avatars but oh well. Black and white is never a good idea, and personally I think wRx is too dark to read comfortably. Bulldrek works, but some of that is there are avatars to break up the monotones.

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[Fixed]

I'd like to see the fast reply respect topic notification settings, the contrast between background and text increased somewhat, the PM storage space kicked up (though this is more of a request rather than something that I think is broken), and a free dikoted ally spirit for all board members.

~J

I like it just the way it is, even if some think it's "amateurish".

Being amateurish has the huge benefit of being simple enough for those (like me) without massive computer skills.

Keep it simple. It's the content and conversation that keeps me here, not the look of the forums.

honestly, I prefer the spartan look of these boards over many many others.

because the lack of 'flash' to me says: "This board is about content, not shiny web-widgets".

it's also very text-only friendly for those people who use text-surfing on some mobile devices.

Style over substance is never ever the best way. So these boards are perfect.

Amateurish to me is animated .gifs as avatars, huge images as sigs, and messages like: "th1s is ubark1tty252, i am teh haxz0r d00d!!!!11!11!

DSF, on the other hand, seems a more sophisticated board. I like how it operates, and I like the colors; they fit well together, IMO.

I just realized, I take the hard work of the Admins, and this board, for granted. Good job, guys! You keep the fire burning through rain, hail, and drop bears. Thank you.

I actually like the current format quite a bit. Especially the lack of avatars and image sigs. Among other things, it allows me to read the forum at work without feeling unduly self concious about other people observing what I'm doing.

oh, fuck yeah, no matter what may change, no avatars, no image sigs.

I actually agree with that. I like the idea of a completely stripped board. No smilies. I hate smilies.

Nothing wrong with smileys, but I'm all for keeping the forum free of image sigs and avatars.

Echo that!

Now, if you wanted to change the colors ...

Dumpshock has a long and glorious history of changing its colors on an irregular basis. I wouldn't mind if it lost some of the gray and blue for something else.

I also wouldn't mind if the forums for each seperate book were melded into the main Dumpshock section.

Yeah, I have to admit that these colors are my favorites thus far.

Needs purple!

As I've mentioned in other threads, one of the things I'm going to be working on in the next couple of weeks is getting a test install of the latest version of the forum software up and running against a copy of our live database. Once that's up and running we'll spend some time tweaking the look and feel and making things nicer.

FWIW, here is a list of facts about this:

• This skin will go away.
• I don't know what the new skin will look like or what colors it will use. Maybe Bull can help with this.
• We will not use nested forums. At most, there will be categories of forums that are grouped together.
• We will not be resetting the forums or user accounts. All posts that exist in this forum today will exist in the new incarnation.
• We will continue to use Invision.
• What Adam said. Absolutely no avatars or image sigs.

I'm certainly open to suggestions, preferably in the form of a mock-up, on how people think the forums should look.

That's it, mister, one more expletive out of you and you're getting a fucking 24 hour ban. Hoser.

Aww man -- it would be a fucking accurately timed 24 hour ban now, eh. Poutine!

Coolness.

My "rocking" coment had more to do with the "no sigs or avatars" then your liberal use of profanity.

Since the quote fits in right here, and I've been really pining to use it... (Spoilered for you working types.)


Anyway, on a more serious note...

Yay new skin! Yay no avatars or images in signatures! DS just wouldn't be right with them.

Shadow views profanity negatively, and even bans it from his games.

Oh right, I seem to remember a way old thread about that now.

How un-genre.

It does force me to edit on occasion.

I thought there was a thread like that floating around, I just didn't want to take the time to find it. Good call Kage.

Adam is a poo-head.

Ahh, you guys know the fragging difference.

You know, the funniest thing about that thread, is just days before, Mr. Platinum had dropped me a PM to let me know that he had just moved to a city near me, and wanted to hang out.

Needless to say, we never hung out.

I hadn't read that thread. Too bad I missed it when it was alive.

Good god. I didn't even remember that thread, let alone posting in it.

Fortune: I, ah, think I can safely say you didn't miss much.