Popular Post Chaos he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Good morning, Sharders! Things look quite a bit different today, don't they? It gives me and everyone on the staff great pleasure to reveal the new 17th Shard--our fourth major iteration since we launched in 2010. I've referenced this for so long, worked on this for what seems like an eternity, that it feels unreal to finally show it to you. We hope you love it. With this version of the site, we've updated our software to version 4.1, from our previous 3.4. That jump from 3 to 4 is a huge one and a massive overhaul of many site systems. Things will be different, but that's okay! It's different in (hopefully) a good way. Let's talk about what 17th Shard 4 has in store for you. You can immediately tell, whether you are looking on the site on your PC, your phone, or your tablet, that things are really different. That's the biggest feature of this update: we now have a fully responsive design. It's just one theme that expands to the device you are using, instead of having some shunned mobile skin. What this means for you is that when you visit 17S on your mobile device, you actually have all the power of the site, all the time. Quoting multiple people at once? Easy. You'll find the editor on mobile is the same thing as desktop. You can edit all your account settings on your phone. Everything just works the way it always should have. Though I absolutely love having a great mobile site, I also can't stop staring at this glorious art Will, aka Shivertongue, made for us. A new, cleaner logo; a glorious new background; and cleaner iconography. Legend has it that he just appeared in my apartment and left a flash drive there with this art, and then promptly vanished into the mists. In addition to his enigmatic help, Kerry (KChan) and Monica (Moru) helped with a lot of design and coloring as well. Design is important, but what other features are in store for you? Well, there's a ton! We now have a Cosmere Q&A board where people can pose questions, and other members answers. It's like our old "Question and Answer" thread, only it no longer needs to be in just one topic. People can rate questions as well as answers so you are sure to get the best answers. So, if you're new to the cosmere and have a lot of questions, or you are a veteran with complex questions, or maybe you just want to know if this thing you heard actually has a quote to support it, make sure you get right on it over here! What else? There are a lot of reputation improvements. You can, at long last, undo an accidental upvote or downvote, and the color scheme for positive and negative reputation is more neutral. But that's not all. You can now @mention particular people in posts and they get notified (of course, that can be turned off if you like). User profiles are pretty different and now allow you to have a cover photo. The "View New Content" is now "Activity" and is that newspaper on the navigation bar, and it's very cool now. There's a bunch of small stuff, and I'm sure you'll really like it. Some things are in different locations, though. Your account options are on the upper right, under your username. That's where you can edit your sig, for instance. You can also edit some other settings directly on your profile. On mobile, your account options are in the dropdown menu under "Account". The editor is now rather radically different from before. It's a far superior Rich Text Editor, and in my experience, actually does the things you want it to. One important difference is that when you press Enter or Return in the new editor, it automatically creates a new paragraph, with spacing between the two paragraphs automatically supplied. You don't need to press Enter twice for the same effect anymore! Of course, there are times where you'd really like to not have that extra space between lines--perhaps in your signature, for example--so to do that easily in the editor, just press Shift+Enter. Easy! The editor is also quite smart on knowing what spacing you want if you paste text from elsewhere, so that's a plus. Long time users of the site probably input things in BBCode. You can still use BBCode, though the actual post data is no longer stored as BBCode. You might wonder as you go about your merry way on the site today, why on some tabs, there is sometimes a Pause icon on the tab. It's not that 17S is trying to play music, it's that when that pause icon is there, you aren't getting browser notifications for stuff on the site, because you hadn't been to that tab in a while. Known Issues There are some things I am noticing upon this update that I want you all to know about. Some content was just not quite converted exactly as I (or anyone) would have expected, so let's talk about that. We talked about how in the new editor, it defaults "Enters" to automatically put space between paragraphs. This caused no problems on some posts, where the old empty line between paragraphs that you needed before was removed nicely. On other posts, there is still an empty line between the two paragraphs, and because the editor thinks, "hey, you wanted extra space there too, right? Right!?" it puts extra space after that empty line. This causes those posts to look ultra-spaced out (which sounds way less cool than it actually is). I've identified why this is happening and am actively working on removing these extra spaces. Just bear with us a bit, and don't feel obligated to edit your previous posts to fix it. I'm on the case! The line spacing also affected signatures a great deal. The fix I have planned to do on posts might not work on certain signatures for various dumb reasons, so if you have time, you might want to update your sig. (Hey, that's a lot more practical than editing all previous posts!) Remember, in the editor, you can use shift+enter for a line break, if you don't want that extra spacing. Some avatars--for reasons completely unknown to me--totally vanished, leaving users with the default avatar. We're sorry. (Sorry Matt.) You'll need to reupload the old avatar. Should you not have a copy of the file, I could probably find it in the old site files. I've also heard reports on our test site that some people just can't log in on the new site somehow. I'm not totally sure why this happens. But, there is an important distinction to the name you log in with in this new version. Previously, you could have a Username (your log in name) and a separate Display Name. This was deemed as a somewhat unnecessary distinction, so now you only have a Display Name. So make sure you're logging in with your Display Name! If you do that, and are still having log in difficulties, perhaps try a password reset or email me at [email protected]. I am hoping these aren't widespread, but I am happy to help. Myself and other staff will be on hand especially often, tweaking minor things, and helping you all out! So, if something is broken, if you're confused about something, post here! Also, in addition to suggestions or criticism, feel free to send us some love. We've worked on this for a long, long time, and in particular, it's caused me more stress than you can possibly know. So send us some love if you like it, and of course criticism and suggestions. 29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Hey guys, I'll be watching this thread (and many others) very closely today, but now I think I am going to sleep <3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orlion Blight he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 I'm really liking this update! Thanks! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eerongal he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 I hate it. It's garbage. Change it back. Change is bad. This is terrible. *rage quit* Kidding, i actually love it. I think it looks great, nice work chaos! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STINK he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 I like the bubbles. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haelbarde he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Looks awesome! I made a thing while I was waiting: And the new reply notification is awesome. Oooh. And the 'page' button is the horizontal rule! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyali she/her Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 (edited) On the old site, I could click my avatar in the upper right corner and click on "My Content" to view every thread I've posted in and whether or not there are new posts in any of those threads. Does that feature still exist? I can't seem to find it anymore. I really liked that feature, as it let me reply to people and follow content I was already interested in without getting distracted by new posts. Very good when I only have a few minutes to check the site between things. Also, it let me see those posts without having to check every single forum that I happened to post in. I know Notifications can do similar, but the My Content page was significantly more convenient than notifications. With notifications, I couldn't always tell if the notification was for something I had already checked or not, since they all were marked as read the second I saw them, even if I didn't follow the link to the post the notification was about. I'm not sure how notifications are on the new site, but I'd still really like a handy little list of posts like we had before =\ EDIT: ... and just after posting that, I managed to find it xD The new site equivalent is "Manage Followed Content" - I had thought that would just be a settings page, but if you go there and click on "topics" on the left, you get to a page very similar to what I was looking for. It's more clicks, but it also has better info about notifications and doesn't show topics you've Unfollowed, so I guess it works just as well. I'll have to make sure to autofollow topics now though. Edited June 14, 2016 by Nyali 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magestar he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 (edited) I like the new background. (Shadesmar?) And it looks very clean and modern. Very bright. I almost had to turn down my screen brightness. Personally, I prefer darker tones to lighter tones, but that is purely a matter of preference. The site looks really nice. Are you going to move the Question and Answer thread to the new Q&A sub-topic? Edited June 14, 2016 by Magestar 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamma Fiend he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Love the update! Everything looks really nice! Also, just noticed the new feature when you highlight text it lets you automatically quote what you have highlighted! This will be very useful! I can't wait to see all the other new cool features! (Oooh, and a blip noise when there's a new reply in-thread when you're typing one up! Ninjas are no longer silent! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STINK he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Just now, Nyali said: On the old site, I could click my avatar in the upper right corner and click on "My Content" to view every thread I've posted in and whether or not there are new posts in any of those threads. Does that feature still exist? I can't seem to find it anymore. I really liked that feature, as it let me reply to people and follow content I was already interested in without getting distracted by new posts. Very good when I only have a few minutes to check the site between things. Also, it let me see those posts without having to check every single forum that I happened to post in. I know Notifications can do similar, but the My Content page was significantly more convenient than notifications. With notifications, I couldn't always tell if the notification was for something I had already checked or not, since they all were marked as read the second I saw them, even if I didn't follow the link to the post the notification was about. I'm not sure how notifications are on the new site, but I'd still really like a handy little list of posts like we had before =\ Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but if you go on your profile now then underneath the cover photo and stuff is something similar to 'My Content', where it shows your different posts in different subtopics (and includes any tags on that thread :P) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mestiv he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Is my top menu supposed to be so low (Chrome and Firefox on Xubuntu)? I think it should be up there, close to the top of the page. Except for that, I really like this new design 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyali she/her Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 1 minute ago, IrulelikeSTINK said: Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but if you go on your profile now then underneath the cover photo and stuff is something similar to 'My Content', where it shows your different posts in different subtopics (and includes any tags on that thread :P) It isn't what I was looking for, but I did find what I was looking for (points at edit to previous post). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamma Fiend he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Love the update! Everything looks really nice! Also, just noticed the new feature when you highlight text it lets you automatically quote what you have highlighted! This will be very useful! I can't wait to see all the other new cool features! (Oooh, and a blip noise when there's a new reply in-thread when you're typing one up! Ninjas are no longer silent! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecthelion III he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 (edited) Not bad! Change is hard but this update looks promising. (Except for the round profile picture. I hate that.) Edited June 14, 2016 by Ecthelion III 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 6 minutes ago, Nyali said: On the old site, I could click my avatar in the upper right corner and click on "My Content" to view every thread I've posted in and whether or not there are new posts in any of those threads. Does that feature still exist? I can't seem to find it anymore. I really liked that feature, as it let me reply to people and follow content I was already interested in without getting distracted by new posts. Very good when I only have a few minutes to check the site between things. Also, it let me see those posts without having to check every single forum that I happened to post in. I know Notifications can do similar, but the My Content page was significantly more convenient than notifications. With notifications, I couldn't always tell if the notification was for something I had already checked or not, since they all were marked as read the second I saw them, even if I didn't follow the link to the post the notification was about. I'm not sure how notifications are on the new site, but I'd still really like a handy little list of posts like we had before =\ EDIT: ... and just after posting that, I managed to find it xD The new site equivalent is "Manage Followed Content" - I had thought that would just be a settings page, but if you go there and click on "topics" on the left, you get to a page very similar to what I was looking for. It's more clicks, but it also has better info about notifications and doesn't show topics you've Unfollowed, so I guess it works just as well. I'll have to make sure to autofollow topics now though. You can go to http://www.17thshard.com/forum/discover/content-started/ as well. I may have, uh, obfuscated something important. 2 minutes ago, Mestiv said: Is my top menu supposed to be so low (Chrome and Firefox on Xubuntu)? I think it should be up there, close to the top of the page. Except for that, I really like this new design That's by design. I like it more vertically centered in that space. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kynedath Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Wow. I like it. I had to check that I was on the right site twice. It'll take a little bit of getting used to, but it seems very promising so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamma Fiend he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 4 minutes ago, Mestiv said: Is my top menu supposed to be so low (Chrome and Firefox on Xubuntu)? I think it should be up there, close to the top of the page. Except for that, I really like this new design My profile menu bar is down that low as well too, and the white of the logo kind of bleeds over to the Create button, making it almost unreadable as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mestiv he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 1 minute ago, Chaos said: That's by design. I like it more vertically centered in that space. All right then, it's unusual for me, but I'll get used to it I guess 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecthelion III he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Wait wait wait hold it. There's no longer a "go to first unread post" button when you go to a thread. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 2 minutes ago, Ecthelion III said: Not bad! Change is hard but this update looks promising. (Except for the round profile picture. I hate that.) If it makes you feel better, some staff had a reaction like that. It is a thing I can change, but for now I want people to get used to the round ones. There are a lot more circles in the design, so I actually do think it fits. It is very different though! Let's see how things go this first little bit. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eki Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 1 minute ago, Ecthelion III said: Wait wait wait hold it. There's no longer a "go to first unread post" button when you go to a thread. It's the symbol on the left of the title (circle/star, depending). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 4 minutes ago, Gamma Fiend said: My profile menu bar is down that low as well too, and the white of the logo kind of bleeds over to the Create button, making it almost unreadable as well. This could be a consequence of different screen resolutions on the desktop site, as now the width can vary a bit. I'll do some tweaking 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magestar he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 (edited) Are there new Rep ranks? Also, the site no longer appears to show total rep next to any of the profiles, in-thread. Is that intentional? Also, the unread topic headings are a bit buggy for me, I think. There are ones I have not read showing up as read, and such. And the lighter text is a little harder to read. At least for me. I like that the site makes sounds when new things have been posted. My ears are far more attentive than my eyes. Edited June 14, 2016 by Magestar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecthelion III he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Stuff I like The new spoiler and quote design The "unread content" button The tab design at the top The new layout of where it shows member title and reputation on the left of posts Stuff I don't like Round profile pictures It's harder to tell unread subforums and threads from read ones (the bold text is less obvious and visible than the flashy Allomantic symbols) The lack of flashy Allomantic symbols in general 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe ST he/him Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Just now, Ecthelion III said: Stuff I don't like It's harder to tell unread subforums and threads from read ones (the bold text is less obvious and visible than the flashy Allomantic symbols) The lack of flashy Allomantic symbols in general Same, the light/dark blue isn't different enough from the grey 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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