Evaluation & Testing - Test Site
Some of you guys have answered my call for suggestions and feedback. I really want to thank those that have. I know how hard it is to tell us when you don't like something, because you know that we've put a lot of work into things, but we can't improve and be a better site without your feedback. Up till now, we have been focused on getting a working site together as fast as possible. Now that we have a stable base, beta though it may be, we can look at the problems in more depth.
In dealing with some of your frustrations, it has become very apparent that not all of them are quick fixes. I can feel your pain, but I can't always fix your pains. And while this will continue to be the case, I want you to know what we're doing behind the scenes to help remedy these problems.
1. We're listening, and actively encouraging you to tell us your issues, concerns and suggestions.
2. As of today, we're working on getting a clone site up and running. This site will allow us to install new modules, check functions and test them, without over stressing the site or the patience of the community.
3. We're actively working to get solutions to our problems. Top of our list is finding a WYSIWYG editor that works better, less extraneous code, better tabling, etc. While trying to keep features that so many of us like, like the picture insert and spell check.
I don't want to be a community that says, this is what we have, learn to use it or don't play here. I want you to know that we want to be the most intuitive, user friendly site that we can be. ...but we are going to be constrained by technology (what is available to us), time, money and what is best within our vision for NextGen RPG.
Our vision is to be an intuitive site that will allow the average user to come in and play with minimal learning curve. We have to go with solutions that work for the greatest number of people; that is why it is so important that we get your feedback. While I understand and opperate under the beliefe, that 'we can't please everyone all the time', I find it personally frustrating that this is the case.
We ask for your patience as we try to find solutions that work for everyone, and we ask for your indulgence and understanding when we can't. In the mean time, keep bringing us those suggestions, comments and concerns so that we can add them to our list.
Comments
Here's a list of what we're working on and what we see as our priorities, this list can be modified by community feedback. So, if you want on the list, holler!
1. FlashChat - Our hosting company has seen a drastic increase in our server side CPU, since we integrated flashchat with our site. Our number one priority is verifying that this is the server side drain and fixing it or disabling it while we look for another dynamic solution.
2. WYSIWYG Editor - Several of us are experiencing frustrations with our editor. It works great for basic things, but if you need to code something special or prefer not to use the WYSIWYG editor, the extraneous code that it puts into the plain text editor, borders on chaos. In addition, creating dynamic pages, closing some quote tags, centering, selecting All to implement font changes - can be buggy and problematic. We plan on test driving some alternate editors to see if maybe there is a better solution for us, this one has the best reviews... but that doesn't mean it's the best for us.
3. Forum - For people that are avid forum users, some of them find our forum a bit chunky? :) We're going to make sure this is the forum solution we want to stick with going forward, by checking out some other solutions.
4. PMs - Right now, we have the best game in town for PMs, the module is not perfect - but it is supported by a community of developers and we're hoping they'll eventually turn it into our dream PM. Right now there aren't any other options that we can find.