Gleemax Q&A

[Saishu_Heiki]

The user interface needs to be cleaned up. It is cluttered and not intuitive. The "Coming Soon" links in the drop-down menus should go somewhere, even if that is a placeholder page, because that provides a reason for them to be there.

I agree that the color scheme is unfortunate, but that can be remedied by having the option to choose from options (like phpBB).

Some things, like Favoritesd an My Game, should probably be in a pull-down menu or an expandable section of the page.

Those are my immediate thoughts.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

sorry keterys for being off topic, but were did you get your avatar? Who is the artiest/name of work etc...

ps I need to make a pro account or whatever its called so I could just pm this... sigh...

 

[keterys]

I'll admit, I'm not sure - I got it about 8 years ago when I first started using IM, and recently noticed I had the file so picked it.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

How about a decent portal front-page? Just something that lists recently-updated staff blogs would be great, maybe along with daily/weekly Featured Community Blogs. (It would be even better if it was customizable, so you'd see new blogs from authors in your Friends/Favorites list.)

A new color scheme and layout for sure. Honestly, the default phpBB skins are more functional and prettier than Gleemax by a LOT.

How about some integration with the online Dungeon and Dragon magazines?

Website hotlinks so people can click your name/avatar and see your "public" characters in the Character Creator database? (World of Warcraft's online Armory program is probably the ideal here, although I understand this might be a HUGE amount of work.)

Even failing that, there should be some way for Gleemax users to post downloadable maps, characters, adventures, etc. within Gleemax. The D&D community is big on DIY projects, and no online portal is going to attract that audience unless it provides a way for us to share. (And if it's too highly policed for IP violations by WotC, people will quickly go elsewhere. No taking down people's homemade adventurers because they mention "beholders.")

Um... that's it for now. The immediate issues are: make it work, make it not ugly, and make it so I don't have to go to the ENworld front page to find out if the devs have posted new blogs.

 

[Aegir]

I will admit I haven't used Gleemax regularly in a while (I did for a bit after the dev blogs switched from the COM boards to Gleemax), but was driven off primarily by the nightmare that is (or was) navigating the site.

I followed the blogs religiously before they moved, but once they jumped to Gleemax, they were a nightmare to find (unless someone linked directly to them). A community board like that needs a useful search feature, but even without one, there is no excuse for what should be one of the main cogs in the hype machine being near impossible to find.

 

[keterys]

Due to needing to keep/make Gleemax separate from WotC, I'm not sure about integrated with Dungeon and Dragon... but maybe that'll be on the list of self-customizable options.

I think easy access to dev blogs is about the #1 request we get. They are listed in the compendium next day, but that's no solution for the impatient.

Armory feature does sound good.

Hosting of images and files is coming, and is important, agreed.

Thanks again for everyone responding.

 

[Maltrok]

Can you go into more detail on 'more personal area'? Do you mean just more customizable?

I'm not sure what he'd want in a more personal area, but I'd like a section/page that allows me to set up announcements to my group, notes about the next session, set up calendar appointments (maybe this is already possible) for our gaming sessions, reminders for players, DM, etc.

But I suppose at that point, I could just set up my own website...

 

[Kesh]

RSS feeds. I can't follow the blogs right now because it's such a pain to dig through the site to them. A simple RSS for each blog would be a godsend.

 

[vagabundo]

Make all the sites work with Firefox and 20 minimum font selected.

 

[Fobok]

Really, the blogging site I use most often is Livejournal. Why? Because it's simple to go to my friends page to see what those I'm watching have posted, and most of the screen is used up in showing all but what the author decided to put behind a link. In Gleemax, I look at my 'view favorites' page and I get a list of recent blog posts, with snippets, by people who aren't in my favourites list. Make it as easy to see my 'favorite' blogs as with Livejournal, and I'll switch.

I really, really like the concept of Gleemax, but something needs to be done about the presentation.