so right now i think we're all aware that the main site is really, really outdated. what should we try to do to revise it and make it more userfriendly and robust? my personal idea has been to rework the games section to give each game its own individual "booth", wherein a developer can put their game up for display as soon as they have something reasonably presentable and update it as development progresses. each booth would have its own "microcommunity" where users can ask questions, talk about the game, get help, etc. this could replace the comments section of each game, and isn't unlike steam's game community pages.

There are so many quality of life changes the main site needs. I know these ideas are already planned, but here's a few off the top of my head - Better searching with tags and whatnot - Choose between grid or list view - Better filtering - Show forum posts on website for important events like competitions - Better review system and more visual indicator of review score (5-star system was talked about a while ago) - Ability to show more screens? - Instantly see recent updates rather than having to rely on staff posts - Joint mainsite/forum account Honestly TSR's website shows a lot of what this website needs.

@ Mit: the booth idea is interesting. I know you've been thinking about that one for a few years now. But I'd like to hear, more elaborately, what the difference between a booth and the current system would be. @ Kritter: - tags confirmed to be in the works - Grid/list view is a wonderful idea - Better filtering: elaborate please? - Events being pulled to the front page is a great idea, and it's on the list - 5 star system in the works - Showing more screens is, I think, a pretty important upgrade - Hmm... instantly seeing updates. That's a really good idea, actually. - The forums will be an extension of the mainsite; instead of clicking off to phpBB, you'll go to a page on the mainsite that has the boards tSR has truly done very well for themselves! They've not only modernized themselves, but had a powerful hand in modernizing the internet gaming scene I think. They have ties to huge YouTube channels, like DidYouKnowGaming.

booths would appear like this on the main site: [img]http://i.imgur.com/nCFme5Z.png[/img] and be organized like this: [img]http://i.imgur.com/pwTuz3U.png[/img] the actual game page wouldn't be unlike how they currently are, however comments would be replaced with discussion boards, which allow users to create threads based on the game and ask support questions and otherwise talk about the game. it's a much more organized way of discussing the game than comments, as commonly support questions get lost if they aren't directly addressed. basically, change game pages to be similar to steam.

I definitely like the idea of booths. I think it would help integrate the feel of the forums and the main site together a bit more, since as it is, they do tend to feel like disparate sites. (Though maybe that's because I use Codec Cyan so the sites literally look completely different.)

I like this idea a lot.

[quote="HylianDev"] @ Kritter: - Better filtering: elaborate please? [/quote] I think I meant better searching. Right now you can search within categories like Games or Sprites but you can't filter the search to include only Birdo or only Demo Games something like that.

[quote="Kritter"][quote="HylianDev"] @ Kritter: - Better filtering: elaborate please? [/quote] I think I meant better searching. Right now you can search within categories like Games or Sprites but you can't filter the search to include only Birdo or only Demo Games something like that.[/quote] Yeah, this is something I noticed very quickly on this site which I've always wished would be improved. I think this is a pretty vital thing to implement.

The idea of booths for games is a neat one, but what would change for sprites, sounds and other resources? Would they still use simple comments? Will they too have ratings out of 5 stars? Just wondering...

i think ratings would be a good idea, and i think smaller files should be embedded into the page (full sprite sheets should be regardless), or at least some kind of preview if it's a full sound pack. i think tutorials and engines and whatnot should follow suit of full games and have communities where people can figure out how to figure things out together.

[quote="Mit"]i think smaller files should be embedded into the page (full sprite sheets should be regardless), or at least some kind of preview if it's a full sound pack.[/quote] Is that possible with Zip files?

[quote="Willsaber"][quote="Mit"]i think smaller files should be embedded into the page (full sprite sheets should be regardless), or at least some kind of preview if it's a full sound pack.[/quote] Is that possible with Zip files?[/quote] no, but you could upload a separate preview file that isn't in a zip. sites like gamebanana use this when hosting soundpacks.

It MAY be possible. I'll look into it

I think that MFGG3 should have an iframe with another, smaller MFGG3 inside

[quote="Syaxamaphone"]I think that MFGG3 should have an iframe with another, smaller MFGG3 inside[/quote] This is a great suggestion. I want to make MFGG3 as efficiently as possible.

The big thing I'd love to see is thumbnails in the search results.

[quote="Mit"]booths would appear like this on the main site: [img]http://i.imgur.com/nCFme5Z.png[/img] and be organized like this: [img]http://i.imgur.com/pwTuz3U.png[/img] the actual game page wouldn't be unlike how they currently are, however comments would be replaced with discussion boards, which allow users to create threads based on the game and ask support questions and otherwise talk about the game. it's a much more organized way of discussing the game than comments, as commonly support questions get lost if they aren't directly addressed. basically, change game pages to be similar to steam.[/quote] I feel comments should stay. It'd be a lot easier, plus it'd be annoying if there were a bunch of threads based on one thing instead of one general thread.

Ideally there wouldn't be a bunch of threads based on a single thing. Each thread would be about a particular subject, and the purpose of that is to prevent questions to get lost amidst a single comment sections.

I'm definitely for Mit's proposed system, but it would make comments that just want to say, "I liked this game! Thank you for making it." troublesome, since they'd necessarily be unique threads.

We could have comments AND threads.