DKC Atlas Forum

[Jomingo]

Well, after you put DELETE POST you could then report that post, which will make it pop up in my little box thing, and I'll notice it and Delete it. But as you said, there must be an easier way.

[egruntz]

I realize that this topic hasn't been discussed for about a month, but I would like to bring up that the DKC Atlas logo for the atlas2 skin theme is off-pattern with it's background:



I don't know...it bothers me, for some reason. Also, on the first page of this thread, you mentioned that you were going to try to make the forum look more like the actual website. I would really like to see that happen (unless the atlas2 skin was what you had in mind). The design of the trees and the sky and the paper-looking text areas is really neat.

EDIT: Also, is showing the time of the day that a member joined really necessary (displayed in the forum mini-profile to the right)? It just makes it all seem elongated.

[Simion32]

I also think that the join date for members doesn't need to be displayed there; it can be in their profile where it belongs. But then again, it wouldn't affect the forum much, because there is a certain size each post must be to accommodate for avatars and the like.

So I vote the "Date Joined" to stay where it is already.

[Qyzbud]

Welcome to the DKC Atlas community, egruntz.

The atlas2 forum style (AKA theme/skin) is an early work-in-progress. Certainly not ready to use just yet. In fact, I didn't intend to have it available on the theme selection list yet. I've now disabled it from the list, but I'll enable it again, marked 'BETA' when it's ready for public use. Don't hold your breath, though...

As for your suggestion regarding the join date on mini profiles; that's something I'm planning to address very soon. I'm thinking of either simplifying it to show less detail, or changing the format to something quite different:

Current:
Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2008 4:14 pm

Proposed:
1. Joined: June '08
2. Joined: 2 days ago -this would change accordingly, of course


For the 2nd proposed format, I'm thinking it would good to have it stay very simple, only giving single, complete units of time.
(for example; Joined: today, then 1 day ago - 6 days ago ... 1 week ago - 3 weeks ago ... 1 month ago and so forth)

Full join date/time could still be shown in the main user profiles, as it currently is.

How does that sound?

[egruntz]

Welcome to the DKC Atlas community, egruntz.

Well, thank you.

The atlas2 forum style (AKA theme/skin) is an early work-in-progress. Certainly not ready to use just yet. In fact, I didn't intend to have it available on the theme selection list yet. I've now disabled it from the list, but I'll enable it again, marked 'BETA' when it's ready for public use. Don't hold your breath, though...

What a bummer. I much more prefer thin and narrow layouts rather than thick and wide. Good to know that you're working on it.

For the 2nd proposed format, I'm thinking it would good to have it stay very simple, only giving single, complete units of time.
(for example; Joined: today, then 1 day ago - 6 days ago ... 1 week ago - 3 weeks ago ... 1 month ago and so forth)

Full join date/time could still be shown in the main user profiles, as it currently is.

How does that sound?

I like it! It's sort of how Neopets displays their users' joined dates (I think some members there are up to seven years). Anyway, it's much better than the overly-detailed display that we have now. I really don't see how the exact time the user joined is necessary.

[Jomingo]

I don't think anything is necessary. I think that it should remain in the profile, but not next to every post. I think that maybe there's something more important to put there.

[egruntz]

I don't think anything is necessary. I think that it should remain in the profile, but not next to every post. I think that maybe there's something more important to put there.

Well, usually that's the area where statistics of that member would go, like how many coins they've earned (from making posts). But I really would discourage that idea, as it really just brings about a lot of spam just to get a higher ranking/currency. The avatar, username, title, post count, and joined date of a member is all that's really needed for that sub-profile (as well as the messaging buttons).

While we're still small on the subject of the atlas2 skin, Qyzbud, the "return to DKC Atlas website" link at the top of the page brings me to a 500 Error.

[Kiddy14]

I also think the Joined info should stay only in the member's profile, rather than his/her posts.

I was thinking it may be better a Last Post Date or a Last Login Date to it.

[Jomingo]

I like that idea better.

[Kiddy14]

Cool! =)

Anyway... um... I was kinda wondering, can we have a Calendar?

You know, many forums have one... to point out I don't know... special celebrations inside the forum. Or just to see all of the birthdays in one place.

[Qyzbud]

Kiddy, your ideas are nice ones. I'll see what I can do about a calendar, as I think it would be nifty.

I will work on both the mini profiles and the full profiles tonight, hopefully.

[Jomingo]

Yeah, a calender would be nice, it probably wouldn't show much other than birthdays, though.

[Stone]

We could fill it with crap like when DKC's 14th birthday is (would be easier if they sold them on the same day worldwide )

[Jomingo]

Well, we've already decided for DKC's birthday we'll be doing DKC History Month all through November, considering how DKC, DKC2, DKC3, and DK64 were all released in November. We will probably be having something very special going on for DKC's 15 anniversary. Who knows, maybe we'll do a Christmas special. We'll probably do something big whenever the DKC2 Atlas is ready to debut, whenever we start working on that.

[Qyzbud]

I also think the Joined info should stay only in the member's profile, rather than his/her posts.

I've now removed the joined info from postprofiles, and they do look cleaner now. Do we think this is a good change?

[Jomingo]

Looks great to me.

[FunkyKong]

I think the forum needs more of a Jungle theme

[Kiddy14]

And what about languages packs? Like Deutsch or... Spanish?

...I was kinda wondering, can we have a Calendar?

Or as an alternative, the upcoming Birthdays.

Give users the option (during post-editing) to mark a thread as "last post edited" when said post is also the last in the thread.

I realized an alternative of this is already in the forum. When you are the last poster of a topic and it was in about a few weeks, a "Bump Topic" button appears next to "Bookmark Topic". You can edit the post and then click the button. But I'm still into the button, since you have to wait for the "Bump Topic" button to appear.

Oh, and may we have the option to choose how many replies/topics we can see? I'd like to see 50 per page instead of the normal 35, but I know many people are ok with it so it would be cool to have it as a configurable option.

[Jomingo]

Well, I think it's better if everyone views the same format. I don't know, it would just limit confusion.

[Kiddy14]

You mean with the languages pack or the posts on display? I don't think it would be a problem with both, maybe with the language packs, but the posts would be the same.

[Qyzbud]

I'd like to see 50 per page instead of the normal 35

Done.

I may make this user-configurable in the future.

[Jomingo]

But now we can't do the 35 post jiggy.

[Qyzbud]

...which has been outlawed, anyhow.

It was the 36th post, by the way.

[Jomingo]

Oh, I didn't know that had been outlawed. You learn something new everyday.

[gamer_boy997]

I think the forum needs more of a Jungle theme

I agree, this forum only looks like clouds, and it's all blue. It looks more like the game that's not in a jungle, but takes place in the sky.

[BlueTronic]

I think Random Thoughts should be a sub-forum of Anything Goes.

[Kiddy14]

There are some forums which have "Spam" dedicated sections. Where people can randomly start topics. The thing with this sections is that usually post counters are disabled and topics are usually cleaned (as in deleted) constantly.

It'd be cool but I'd rather wait until the forum has more members

[Jomingo]

NO SPAM FORUM. Seriously though, what good can come of us encouraging members to post for postings sake?




I think we need a subforum on Other DKC related games for the Bongo games, and another one for Cameo Games. We have like 11 topics that would fit Cameo games, if you count Smash Bros.

I also think that we need a "Random" subforum onto the DKC Atlas Forum Discussion, for topics like Birthday Thread, Introduce Yourself, Post a Picture of You, and Names.

I also wish people would post in some of my topics. This one is popular, but a lot of them don't ever get posted in. It hurts me on the inside.

I also think that we need that Emu Forum we were promised. It could be a subforum of Anything Goes, right next to Banana Recipes.

[BlueTronic]

No spam forum!

Shouldn't this be in the Ongoing Site Developement Discussion?


Qyz says: Er, no... it's about the forum. I've now merged it as appropriate.

[CaptainEddie]

Sorry, Joemingo. You post a lot of topics. It's overwhelming. Too much for my poor pirate brain.

[Jomingo]

Another thing, how come in Other DKC related Games Discussion we have to post in the subforums? In other forums you can post in the forum or the subforum, but you don't have that option with Other DKC Games Discussion. If we opened that up we could put topics there that don't fit into any of the subforums, or topics that deal with more than one subforum.

[Kiddy14]

I never said about opening a SPAM forums =P

That forum isn't opened because it is actually a disambiguation of all of the other games, but I agree that the Konga and Jungle Beat game sections are missing. They ca be mixed just like KoS and JC are.

And I also thing this should go in the Forum Discussion Forum xP

[Qyzbud]

Yep, I've moved it here now.

That forum isn't opened because it is actually a disambiguation of all of the other games, but I agree that the Konga and Jungle Beat game sections are missing. They ca be mixed just like KoS and JC are.

I've assigned subforums in Other DKC Related Games for each game that I feel is relevant to the DKC series. This lets people know what is considered as part of the DKC series. Do we really think of Donkey Konga and Jungle Beat as DKC games? I sure don't. There are more DKC characters/environments in Mario sports/racing games...

You can always discuss games such as Donkey Konga and Jungle Beat on the Gaming Discussion board, and if we later deem that game (and/or its discussion) DKC related enough, I can create a board for it and move the discussion(s) across.

Do people really think any game with DK involved should be considered as DKC related? Perhaps that's the consensus...

[CaptainEddie]

I'm not so sure about Konga, but Jungle Beat is DKCish enough for me. You still collect bannanas, beat a variety of enemies, use animal buddies, etc.

[BlueTronic]

The only "DKC-ish" ones are the DKC series games themselves. That's why they're called DKC and Jungle Beat isn't called Donkey Kong Country Jungle Beat.

[Kiddy14]

[...]but Jungle Beat is DKCish enough for me.

MANY people consider Jungle Beat as the ANTI-DKC.

[CaptainEddie]

Ah, but the DKC games can't be "DKC-ish" because that would mean they are esque of the DKC games.

Moreover, Jungle Beat has the same core gameplay, such as collecting bananas and using animal buddies. They just changed the characters, enemies, and enviornments.

Kiddy, people consider JB the anti-DKC because they didn't like the bold new things that were put in. You've still got a 3-D platforming side-scroller, and that's close enough to me.

[Qyzbud]

Jungle Beat features a number of DKC-relevant concepts, and a comparable gameplay format...

Donkey Konga (series) contains lots of DKC elements in the form of graphics and audio media...

So I have buckled. A little. Take a look. Let me know how this works for you guys.

[CaptainEddie]

Seems perfect to me. It's a good compromise.

[BlueTronic]

Will the SSBB topics and all the other Mario related topics in the Gaming Discussion be moved to the Cameo sub-forum?

[Qyzbud]

...when Jomingo's finished scaling fish. I'm busy on other matters.

(plz, no fish-scaling discussion here - you know where that belongs)

[Jomingo]

Done. With the fish scaling and the topic moving.

[Qyzbud]

Trying to decide the perfect layout for the Other DKC Related Games category... The way it currently stands, I'm not sure where the DK arcade games would belong. They don't feel quite right among the Mario and DK Titles (Mario Kart, Smash Bros, those sports titles, etc.) or the Other DK Titles (Donkey Konga/Jungle Beat). Maybe a 'DK Arcade Games' board is required.

I'd like to rename the Other DK Titles board, too. Any ideas, guys?

All thoughts on these matters are welcome.

[BlueTronic]

They don't feel quite right among the Mario and DK Titles (Mario Kart, Smash Bros, those sports titles, etc.) or the Other DK Titles (Donkey Konga/Jungle Beat). Maybe a 'DK Arcade Games' board is required.

I see what you mean about not feeling right in the Mario sub-forum, but I think they'd do perfect in the Other DK Titles sub-forum.

I'd like to rename the Other DK Titles board, too. Any ideas, guys?

All thoughts on these matters are welcome.

Maybe Cameo DK Games? That's all I can think of right off the bat.

[Jomingo]

Other DK titles be Cameo DK titles? But the only ones that are technically cameos are the MvsDK ones!

Wow, I never thought of this but it would make sense for them to be in Mario and DK. Hmmm...

Welll, you already know that I think that Mario Discussion should be a subforum of gaming, right next to Rare.

As for Other DK titles, I don't know. It seems most of theses subforums have relatively little activity, so maybe it would be better to combine them into more vague categories. Like perhaps a Rare, Paon, and Other setup. Or maybe combine DKBB and DKR into racers. Or maybe combine DKBB into Peg swingers and just call that Paon. Or maybe instead of an "Other DK Titles" section, we could just split that into Arcade and Bongo Bangers.
Let's see....
DKL
DK64
DKR
Peg Swingers
DKBB
Mario and DK
Arcade
Bongo Bangers
Hmmm, that would cover everything, wouldn't it? But then, there's the question of whether we want to cover everything? It seems you don't think that the Mario or Other DK titles are DKC enough, so we could just make them into a combined "Irrelevant DK Games" Discussion under Gaming. Or just have the General Mario Discussion under gaming, and leave the Other DK Titles where they are.
I don't know, anybody else have any ideas?

[Qyzbud]

Some fine suggestions, Joey Joe-Joe Junior Shabadoo... I'll wait to hear what others think before making changes.

[Tiptup Jr.]

Oh, Qyzbud. Such are the woes of a Donkey Kong fan.

The way I see it, the board should be divided like this:

Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
Other Donkey Kong titles (Rare era): This would be for DK64, Diddy Kong Racing, and the Donkey Kong Lands.
Other Donkey Kong titles (Arcade era): For the discussion of Donkey Kong and its sequels, as well as the Game Boy iteration and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series.
Other Donkey Kong titles (Bongo era): Jungle Beat and Kongas.
Other Donkey Kong titles (Paon era): Kings of Swing and Barrel Blast.
Cameo titles that feature Donkey Kong and/or a DKC-related character: The only reason why I didn't put "Mario titles" is because the Smash Bros. series wouldn't fit under that umbrella.

So, those are my thoughts at least.

[Jomingo]

Hmmm... well first off it looks as if each of those "eras" are whole forums and not subforums. I think we'd rather have only the DKC's each get there own forum, and then the rest be under one forum. This puts more focus on the DKC's as that's what the sites about.

Also, bad wording. Instead of calling each one Other Donkey Kong Titles (..... era), let's just call each one ".... Era".


I'm not sure about that setup. Let's wait until Qyz posts.

[Qyzbud]

Here's my post.

Erm, anyhow, I like several of both of your suggestions, and I agree with Jomingo's entire previous post. I like the 'eras' idea. Finding a balance between eras, genres, developers, etc. is a fair challenge... I'll put forward my proposed layout after I've had some breakfast. In the meantime, continue the debate!

[Tiptup Jr.]

Oh my God! You're just now having breakfast?! I'm about to go to bed! ...Time zones amaze me.

Like Jomingo said, instead of having "Other DK titles" we could just put "Rare era" or "Paon era". But it doesn't sound very thorough... Ah, I'm sure we'll work it out.

Good night/morning, everyone!