93 replies to this topic

[EricRRichards]

Since the site changeover, it seems like there are a lot less users. I've been reading Gamedev for probably 5 years, and I've never seen it so dead.
It's not necessarily bad when the Lounge is quiet, but even looking over the Beginners Forum, there's a disturbingly low number of responses to threads.
This has been such a wonderful resource for so long, I'm sad to see it in decline. Where has everybody gone, StackOverflow?

[owl]

To me it feels like the only forum that has suffered a drop down in it's activity has been the lounge.

[jbadams]

Help Wanted has been slightly busier than it was previously; I don't know about the other forums, but they mostly seem to have a pretty similar level of activity to me, especially noting we've just come out of the end-of-year holiday season when we typically see increased levels of activity with younger people off school and older folks off from work.

It's definitely still a great resource, and I've seen plenty of great discussions getting lots of activity since the change. With GDC out of the way and site development proceeding again I'm sure we'll see plenty of new users checking out whatever new resources are provided, and continue to have a very helpful community.

[SuperVGA]

I visited several times a day before the makeover. Now it's once or twice a week. The new layout simply annoys me.
Can't really put a finger on why, but gamedev.net feels more dead now.

Wish it would be changed back.

[Waaayoff]

I visited several times a day before the makeover. Now it's once or twice a week. The new layout simply annoys me.
Can't really put a finger on why, but gamedev.net feels more dead now.

Wish it would be changed back.

I know what you mean.. i loved the old design.. this one is just plain weird. It makes me feel like i'm browsing a social network website.

[Liguria]

I visited several times a day before the makeover. Now it's once or twice a week. The new layout simply annoys me.
Can't really put a finger on why, but gamedev.net feels more dead now.

Wish it would be changed back.

I know what you mean.. i loved the old design.. this one is just plain weird. It makes me feel like i'm browsing a social network website.

Same here. It doesn't feel like GameDev.net anymore. It doesn't work smoothly enough to really enjoy visiting.

That plus the fact that the last few active threads are not shown at the top of the page is just a shame.

[SiCrane]

I know quite a few of the more active posters had real life events hit them recently. For instance right now I'm in China studying Chinese (and my brain is steadily turning into mush).

[szecs]

Yup, I'm the noise here, but I've got employed a few months ago (and beaten up, fucked up, fucked over, fucked with etc) so I'm only posting about 3 posts per day instead of 5 (huhh, I managed to add even more noise now, but the boss is away for a smoke)

[SimonForsman]

I visited several times a day before the makeover. Now it's once or twice a week. The new layout simply annoys me.
Can't really put a finger on why, but gamedev.net feels more dead now.

Wish it would be changed back.

I know what you mean.. i loved the old design.. this one is just plain weird. It makes me feel like i'm browsing a social network website.

Same here. It doesn't feel like GameDev.net anymore. It doesn't work smoothly enough to really enjoy visiting.

That plus the fact that the last few active threads are not shown at the top of the page is just a shame.

i've solved it by bookmarking: http://www.gamedev.net/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=active

a bit of a nasty workaround but ...

[magic_man]

I visited several times a day before the makeover. Now it's once or twice a week. The new layout simply annoys me.
Can't really put a finger on why, but gamedev.net feels more dead now.

Wish it would be changed back.

I know what you mean.. i loved the old design.. this one is just plain weird. It makes me feel like i'm browsing a social network website.

Same here. It doesn't feel like GameDev.net anymore. It doesn't work smoothly enough to really enjoy visiting.

That plus the fact that the last few active threads are not shown at the top of the page is just a shame.

i've solved it by bookmarking: http://www.gamedev.n...earch&do=active

a bit of a nasty workaround but ...

The active topics only works it you are logged in.

[Chris Reynolds]

Agreed, it certainly doesn't have the buzz that it used to. I tend to look more towards a general change in the game development arenas. I've said this before, but the more recent middleware engines leave traditional game programming in the dust. This was the case for me and I assume others as well.

On top of that, I would have to agree with putting a little blame on the site change. I mean c'mon, most of us are nostalgic gamers - not self-absorbed social media whores. The old school layout had remained the same since I first started programming - to see it change is to kill off a part of me that is nostalgic of those days. Also, it's quite obvious the social aspect of this website is practically useless - nobody uses it. Between these reasons and the (over)moderation of the lounge, I think the website has lost a lot of it's appeal.

[way2lazy2care]

On top of that, I would have to agree with putting a little blame on the site change. I mean c'mon, most of us are nostalgic gamers - not self-absorbed social media whores. The old school layout had remained the same since I first started programming - to see it change is to kill off a part of me that is nostalgic of those days. Also, it's quite obvious the social aspect of this website is practically useless - nobody uses it. Between these reasons and the (over)moderation of the lounge, I think the website has lost a lot of it's appeal.

I dunno. The new site has some things that are like a social site, but you can easily ignore that. The old site was falling way behind as far as features that are very much standard on forums now days go. In the first couple days it was a bit worse with the CSS changing every couple hours, but since then there's not much wrong with it.

In short, stop being a hipster and realize that it is better in practically every way.

edit: this was in reply to everyone making such comments, not just you.

[magic_man]

The old site was falling way behind as far as features that are very much standard on forums now days go.

Yes because what a forum needs is the ability to post question and be able to reply to it, clearly the old forum software was not capable of this. Therefore the requirement was to add a load of crud such as twitter messages which have nothing what so ever to do with the site and even better still to release it in a half arsed state. I am sure a lot of people appreciate the unneeded invalidating of many bookmarks for no good reason besides adding cool new non features.

I am just glad the tag feature has been added to easily search for topics.

[Alpha_ProgDes]

Well the format of the new boards annoyed me too. But since I have the Classic Black Theme back, the boards are looking much more appealing. I see why Web Design is such a high-paying profession. The Lounge has been quieter. But I think that's a good thing.

I know quite a few of the more active posters had real life events hit them recently. For instance right now I'm in China studying Chinese (and my brain is steadily turning into mush).

Are you studying to keep ahead of the curve (business reasons) or just for general interest in then language and/or culture? How is it like out there compared to Western Europe or the US?

[haegarr]

On top of that, I would have to agree with putting a little blame on the site change. I mean c'mon, most of us are nostalgic gamers - not self-absorbed social media whores. The old school layout had remained the same since I first started programming - to see it change is to kill off a part of me that is nostalgic of those days. Also, it's quite obvious the social aspect of this website is practically useless - nobody uses it. Between these reasons and the (over)moderation of the lounge, I think the website has lost a lot of it's appeal.

I dunno. The new site has some things that are like a social site, but you can easily ignore that. The old site was falling way behind as far as features that are very much standard on forums now days go. In the first couple days it was a bit worse with the CSS changing every couple hours, but since then there's not much wrong with it.

In short, stop being a hipster and realize that it is better in practically every way.

edit: this was in reply to everyone making such comments, not just you.

The WYSIWYG editor doesn't work well (inserts blank lines, removes blank lines, unfortunately not those it has inserted, ...), doing corrections to own posts may replace any formatting and style with HTML tags that will be saved verbosely (and I use many formatting because often posting in the math forum), my latest posts appear in "My Content" between 2 or 3 hours after I've posted them, searching is ... well, shit ... (e.g. searching for OpenGL 2 is declined because "2" has less than 2 characters, and searching for "OpenGL 2" (inclusive the quotation marks) gives you 1000 hits all from 2001; very useful if you're a historian), looking into posts made prior to this year may give you code snippets lined up in a single line, ...

All these are things that may perhaps be corrected in the (near) future, but at the moment they are just cumbersome. As fine as features may be (if they work), IMHO the daily use of the forum is ATM inferior to the old one. And yes, it has an impact on my presence here, too.

EDIT: Okay, the search function was never really good ;(

[d000hg]

I visited several times a day before the makeover. Now it's once or twice a week. The new layout simply annoys me.
Can't really put a finger on why, but gamedev.net feels more dead now.

Wish it would be changed back.

I know what you mean.. i loved the old design.. this one is just plain weird. It makes me feel like i'm browsing a social network website.

The same was said last time it changed. The site mysteriously failed to collapse.

[smr]

I visit the site only a couple times per week now, compared to a few times per day before. I can't quite describe why, but it seems like the style and layout of the site detracts from the actual content. Regardless of the specific reason, I simply don't enjoy the site as much. Maybe I'm shallow. The plus side is I find that I'm less distracted from actually getting things done.

[rip-off]

I find the site to have some major usability problems for someone who uses the site like I do. I'm hoping this is a temporary situation while Gamedev staff deals with the backlog of issues and other delays (e.g. GDC coverage) and the inevitable latency caused by pushing issues back to IP Board.

I'm hopeful that these will resolve themselves in time, but I fear that if takes too long it could have a lasting negative impact on the community. I'm worried about some of the decisions being taken, such as the decision to show any ads to GD.net+ members who give a donation to the site and the decision to mix ads with the normal forum content and the de-emphasis of the forums on the homepage in favour of other content.

[way2lazy2care]

Yes because what a forum needs is the ability to post question and be able to reply to it, clearly the old forum software was not capable of this. Therefore the requirement was to add a load of crud such as twitter messages which have nothing what so ever to do with the site and even better still to release it in a half arsed state. I am sure a lot of people appreciate the unneeded invalidating of many bookmarks for no good reason besides adding cool new non features.

Yes because that's what a car needs is the ability to move you places quickly and without expending much phsyical energy, clearly the Model T ford was not capable of this. Therefor the requirement was to add a load of crud such as air conditioning and seat belts, which have nothing what so ever to do with the site and even better still to release new cars without the fuel flexibility of a model T! I am sure a lot of people appreciate the unneeded invalidating of many Model T used parts for no good reason besides adding cool new non-features.

The WYSIWYG editor doesn't work well (inserts blank lines, removes blank lines, unfortunately not those it has inserted, ...), doing corrections to own posts may replace any formatting and style with HTML tags that will be saved verbosely (and I use many formatting because often posting in the math forum), my latest posts appear in "My Content" between 2 or 3 hours after I've posted them, searching is ... well, shit ... (e.g. searching for OpenGL 2 is declined because "2" has less than 2 characters, and searching for "OpenGL 2" (inclusive the quotation marks) gives you 1000 hits all from 2001; very useful if you're a historian), looking into posts made prior to this year may give you code snippets lined up in a single line, ...

All these are things that may perhaps be corrected in the (near) future, but at the moment they are just cumbersome. As fine as features may be (if they work), IMHO the daily use of the forum is ATM inferior to the old one. And yes, it has an impact on my presence here, too.

EDIT: Okay, the search function was never really good ;(

I think the wysiwyg problems are an acknowledged bug (I've reported it before and at that time it was already a duplicate). Obviously bugs are troublesome, but their acknowledgment as bugs gives hope that they will in fact be fixed. I'd say new features make it on par with the old site even though some of the old site's functionality may not be functioning correctly currently.

[dpadam450]

You all sound like your 10. You leave a community because there are different buttons on a website? It is still a forum..... So you've never been on any other forums because they werent exactly like gamedev's old layout............. I haven't had any technical problems with the forum.

The lounge is a bit more dead than I have seen a couple years ago, but it died down before the new launch.