Planewalker Development Feedback

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Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

I know I'm asking for extra work and just about begging to be flamed here. Please be kind.

I'm looking for feedback regarding the Planewalker submission system. There are some questions that I want to get answered specifically here:

1) Is it worth it to our writers/submitters to have different forms for different types of information?

2) Do we have all the different types covered that need to be covered? (I have a standing request for one extra form for monsters already.)

3) Is it confusing? Where? How would it best be fixed to be less confusing?

4) Is it awkward to get to / submit things to?

5) What is the most obvious reason you can think of for why folks might not use the system?

Nemui's picture
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factotums
Joined: 2004-08-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

Quote:
1) Is it worth it to our writers/submitters to have different forms for different types of information?

It's useful for entries of a certain type (ie monsters, spells), unnecesary for some others (errata, feat), and even overcomplicating things for some (non-magical equipment). Overall, I wouldn't remove the different forms, but I'd gladly jettison some of them. Many, come to think of it.

Quote:
2) Do we have all the different types covered that need to be covered? (I have a standing request for one extra form for monsters already.)

Other than that one, I can't really think of anything... I used the "misc article" form when I wrote my pantheons, but I don't think you could do a submission form that fits this category without making it too large and unwieldy. Though perhaps a single field with an empty "Table: Deities" would do, with name, rank, alignment, portfolio, domains, and other columns?

Quote:
3) Is it confusing? Where? How would it best be fixed to be less confusing?

Like I said, sometimes it gets needlessly complicated. For example, people that submit monsters tend to stuff all the text into the entry field on the first page, since they don't know that Combat, Habitat/Society, and Ecology are on the following pages. Some other forms have several fields (on the same page) where one would suffice.

Quote:
4) Is it awkward to get to / submit things to?

See above. Also, there was that bug that hid the "submit" and "save draft" button from time to time, but you may have already fixed that.

Quote:
5) What is the most obvious reason you can think of for why folks might not use the system?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Why they don't submit stuff at all, or why they use the "misc article" form instead of the one they're supposed to?

If it's the former, I guess the site/community is still recovering from the crash, and also, we need to make it clearer that we're taking submissions from anyone, any time.

If it's the latter, I suppose they just don't want to tackle the zilion entry fields when they can just drop a block of text and leave it to the editors. Actually, I prefer receiving entries this way, since it's usually easier to edit them than those that come in wrong or poorly used forms.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
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Planewalker Development Feedback

Which forms are you thinking of specifically that can be jettisoned or simplified? For the most part when we put together the forms it was with that thought that we wanted to make sure that everything needed for a type of article got filled in, and to make it more uniform for display.

And of course, it's generally easier to revise a form down to less fields than to revise it 'up' to more fields - so we started with overkill in the hopes of seeing enough feedback to know where to back down from it.

Nemui's picture
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factotums
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Planewalker Development Feedback

In brief:

Adventure Hook - Is this used? I don't remember any recent adventures (though I started writing one ages ago). Misc article works here.

Armor, Artifact, Magical Item, Nonmagical Equipment, Weapon - You can narrow this down to 1) magic item and 2) equipment (mundane is assumed)

Ties that Bind - Is this for the Cutters section? Not much of a form. Doesn't the NPC form cut it?

Interview - Again, is this used? Fiction Story / Misc Article covers this.

Travel Guide - That's not a form, that's just a blank field. What's the point?

Anyway, the system works as it is, but since you're already thinking about a revision ... Maybe we should keep the forms only for entries that actually require a specific format, and relegate everything else to the misc category.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

A lot of those on the database end actualyl *are* just Misc articles, retitiled slightly. The reason they were split off like that was withthe idea of helping us sort out what data we were looking at. Makign it eassier to automatically sort them into the right catagories for searching etc.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

Ok, I've added a new 'toy' to this little thing.

Now: For your posts, under edit, delete, etc - you'll see an option to turn the post into a Planewalker entry. It has a link, and a drop down box beside it.

This does a few things:

The drop down box lets you indicate what 'sort' of entry you want this to be considered. (Aka, lets you create an item entry without using the item form etc - but it'll still show up in searches as an item.)

The submit takes your post, processes it to text and html that appears the same as your post in the forum does - and creates an entry dropped into your development queue. You still need to approve it for submission before the editors will see it!! (This may change if I get enough feedback wanting to skip this step.)

It then forwards you back to your thread so you can keep browsing the forum, of course.

It's a completely new system to this little page, so it might be a little fragile. Let me know if it breaks.

Nemui's picture
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factotums
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Planewalker Development Feedback

'Clueless' wrote:
It's a completely new system to this little page, so it might be a little fragile. Let me know if it breaks.

Testing, the post went to "My Development", but when I tried editing it, what I got was this:

ERROR [recGetEntryInfo.runQuery]: Query failed:

You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 11

Query was:SELECT E.*, C.*, UO.*, UO.strUserName As strOwnerDisplayName, UM.strUserName As strLastModifiedDisplayName FROM site_Entry E INNER JOIN site_Category C ON E.strCategoryID = C.strCategoryID INNER JOIN core_User UO ON E.intOwnerUserID = UO.intUserID INNER JOIN core_User UM ON E.intLastModified = UM.intUserID WHERE E.intEntryID =

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
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Planewalker Development Feedback

Ok, fixed.

Now - in further continuation of this thread, I'm moving this in a different direction for feedback, trying to get some feedback regarding our page layout and the like. This is the chance to get things moved around to a better place for your use everyone...

Bob the Efreet's picture
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factotums
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Planewalker Development Feedback

I was thinking... could we get the 'mark all posts read' option back for the forums? I used that fairly frequently, and it's mildly inconvenient that it went away.

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Pants of the North!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

Look on the forum index page at the bottom - it *should* be there.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
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Planewalker Development Feedback

Note self: Add collapsible forums. Make sure that mark all forums read is more prominent. Make sure the option exists for subforums.

Primus, the One and Prime's picture
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factotums
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Planewalker Development Feedback

Honestly, I wish that the seperating lines between differen tposts were darker. There's no break for the eyes and all of the threads feel like an immense chaotic jumble of messy text.

YMMV

Oops... sorry. I thought this was a general grievance thread... >.> <.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

I can do that... Better?

Primus, the One and Prime's picture
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factotums
Joined: 2004-05-11
Planewalker Development Feedback

Much! Thanks, Clue. That is definitely way better.

Bob the Efreet's picture
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factotums
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Planewalker Development Feedback

'Clueless' wrote:
Look on the forum index page at the bottom - it *should* be there.

I see a 'mark all forums read' link. While I can certainly work with that, I was hoping for a 'mark all posts read' option for each forum.

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Pants of the North!

nick012000's picture
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factotums
Joined: 2004-05-19
Planewalker Development Feedback

I submitted a monodrone picture and it still hasn't appeared publically. Did I do something wrong?

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

Nope, just haven't gotten to it yet. I'm sorta the only one working the submission queues right now.

crapcore's picture
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Namer
Joined: 2005-07-20
Planewalker Development Feedback

Not quite about the submission system, but the only tip I've got is to create one download page, now you've got a official product download page, the downloads of the creatures codex and the downloads page at the features, each with different downloads, littlebit confusing as I may say.

princessbunny99's picture
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Joined: 2005-11-14
Planewalker Development Feedback

As far as the submission goes, i'd be happy to help you if you'd like, Clueless Smiling

I've got free time when I'm at work and I can help a bit Laughing out loud I don't know much about code, but I am a typer of amazing speed Laughing out loud

-pb-

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

Right now I'm trying to get a good feel for the user interface - which is hard to do from the perspective of a coder not a user. I can only hope that everyone *else* thinks the same way I do.

I've been scanning through some of the files in draft and I think one change that I *will* be doing is sending any articles created from the forums *directly* into submission - I think there's a few that are hung up b/c the authors don't realize you have to push the proverbial big red button to make it go submit. Eye-wink

kwint's picture
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Joined: 2005-12-28
Planewalker Development Feedback

So, I'm noticin' that 'last edit' actually is 'last visit' as it seems to change on all my posts each time I visit...Any chance that could be fixed so one could tell when folks edit their posts instead of the last time they logged-in and visited the forums?...
Kwint

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Planewalker Development Feedback

Fixed.

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