Future Forum Feature And Section Suggestions Thread

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by TrainSim-Dmitri, May 9, 2019.

  1. TrainSim-Dmitri

    TrainSim-Dmitri Well-Known Member

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    Hi everyone.

    We are planning to eventually move to a better forum software. Many, including myself, would like to see some forum sections reorganised. For instance, it was suggested to combine Train Sim World PC and Console discussions into one, considering that we are now aiming to release on both versions at the same time.

    Feel free to add your suggestions here.
     
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  2. pschlik

    pschlik Well-Known Member

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    I would definitely like to see some better (perhaps automatic) handling of the content suggestions section. Too many threads with just a few replies clog up the entire section, pushing the suggestions that had effort put in down the list and making them harder to see. A proposal that's just 3 sentences long and has zero replies does not deserve to have its own place on the top of the list.
     
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  3. NorthRail1

    NorthRail1 Well-Known Member

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    Perhaps auto-delete suggestions that don't reach a certain length to stop spamming of content suggestions with low effort posts.
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2019
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  4. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    Disable any downvote functionality as it is mainly creating bad vibes.
     
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  5. Jeannot41

    Jeannot41 Well-Known Member

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    Delete suggestions and proposals of road, loco, material, because you do not take it into account
     
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  6. Rail Master

    Rail Master Active Member

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    Sintbert Yes, no Downvotes! And the bottom wallpaper of the forum with a Winner Screenshot, please. Also, we can only post a proposal if is GOOD, with minimum 2 images and X number of words.
     
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  7. SamYeager270

    SamYeager270 Well-Known Member

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    Please make ensure that users can only post in existing subforums i.e. prevent the current situation where if you select the PC, PS4 or XBox forums there are numerous threads which are not posted in any of the existing subforums.

    It would be nice if users were able to mark various subforums as read. Currently the only way to do this is to individually open every thread in a forum which is not really feasible in some of the more popular subforums.
     
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  8. UnlimitedMagic

    UnlimitedMagic Well-Known Member

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    DTG should actually respond to proposals and ideas that took effort.
    Like if you do a proposal that catches their eye they could say ‘this is a good idea we will take it into account’ or something like that
     
  9. UnlimitedMagic

    UnlimitedMagic Well-Known Member

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    A gallery section and no downvote since the downvote isn’t creating a good vibe like someone said
     
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  10. Shukiii

    Shukiii Well-Known Member

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    Definitely agree with that, content suggestions are a mess. Good proposals are drowned in a sea of low effort posts.

    Agree with that too. A forum doesn't need downvotes.
     
  11. Ninetofive925

    Ninetofive925 Well-Known Member

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    Half of me agrees, but the other half not. Let me explain why:

    While downvotes aren't always given for valid reasons, if you see a post you disagree with, you can just downvote it and move on. I think disabling downvotes would actually encourage people to respond with text, and with that, personal attacks. I think upvotes/downvotes are a good way to sort of show "approval ratings" of a comment/post without insulting or turning threads into keyboard battlefields.

    Just my opinion though.
     
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  12. Dynamite Andy

    Dynamite Andy Member

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    A gallery section would be nice, there is alot of screenshot threads - but no place to easily view them all.
     
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  13. Gabe_1.0

    Gabe_1.0 Well-Known Member

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    Had a giggle about this one, but all we'd need is a usefull button so it gains intrest of other members to hopefully get it noticed sooner so the idea/feature can reach the development stages. downvote dose have a small purpouse but not very useufull
     
  14. LastTrainToClarksville

    LastTrainToClarksville Well-Known Member

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    Far too limiting. Not every post requires a screenshot -- in fact, most don't. Limiting number of words (either low or high limit or both) strikes me as ridiculous and dictatorial.
     
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  15. kalteVollmilch

    kalteVollmilch Well-Known Member

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    I gotta agree with LastTrainToClarksville. This system probably will get abused quickly with just 2 useless pictures and useless words to reach the requirements.
    But maybe some kind of form would be a good idea?
    You could have dedicated fields for loco name, why it is interesting, pics, more information and whatever else would fit.
    By doing so this system could also be expanded, where users can vote for their favourites, and this way a kind of leaderboard of the most wanted suggestions could be created.
     
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  16. palme111100

    palme111100 Active Member

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    (Nice user name btw ;))
    Agreed, some kind of form would definitely help to organize the suggestions.
    And the limitations would either lead to abuse or to users not posting their perhaps useful suggestion, so I'm as well not a fan of this idea.

    Now, what I would want to see in the future is some kind of response from DTG, especially on the feature suggestion.
     
  17. LeadCatcher

    LeadCatcher Well-Known Member

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    Much better than KalteMagerMilch..... :)...

    I do think a form would be helpful to at least standardize the information one should put into a request — not a fan of #of Pictures or length of prose
     
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  18. LastTrainToClarksville

    LastTrainToClarksville Well-Known Member

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    Once this issue is solved (if ever), can we just get back to herding cats?
     
  19. UnlimitedMagic

    UnlimitedMagic Well-Known Member

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    There could be a ‘proposal of the week’
    So every week Dovetail say what proposal they found best
     
  20. Sunscreen

    Sunscreen Guest

    Better search functionality with perhaps a word checker against new thread titles to screen pre-existing ones (if thats even possible).
     
  21. thearkerportian

    thearkerportian Well-Known Member

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    What I'd like to have is a section to talk about real railways. Would be a great place to explain and get explained how various things on the rails work, which in turn might also help with some confusion in TSW.
     
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  22. Sunscreen

    Sunscreen Guest

    Edit- I should have specified this was a reply to the post above by thearkerporkian which was looking for real railway info.

    This might be useful in the meantime..
    https://www.railforums.co.uk/
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 14, 2019
  23. LastTrainToClarksville

    LastTrainToClarksville Well-Known Member

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    RailUK Forums strikes me as far too wide-ranging. Yes, there is one section called "Modelling, Simulations & Games", but that, too is very broad. I'd prefer these TSW forums to remain focused on DTG's simulations.
     
  24. LastTrainToClarksville

    LastTrainToClarksville Well-Known Member

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    Combining the PC and Console sections strikes me as a good idea, but perhaps with each message blank including a set of check boxes labeled PC, PS4, and XBox, which would allow posters to indicate their platform choice(s). My choice is PC, but I often find posts in one of the Console sections that interest me as well.
     
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  25. Sunscreen

    Sunscreen Guest

    See my edit above.
     
  26. Factor41

    Factor41 Well-Known Member

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    Could we get a ribbon bar across the top of the forums, similar to the Cookies ones that pop up on a lot of sites, which just has a big, red message saying, "Yes, Mastery is still broken." I think that would remove the need for about 50% of all recent new threads across both TSW and FSW.
     
  27. StratPlayer62

    StratPlayer62 Well-Known Member

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    While I'm never opposed to trying to improve something, I honestly don't see much of a problem with the current forum.

    What would be nice if DTG staff would take more part in the forum, acknowledge when a bug report is posted, perhaps you could say, "Thanks for reporting this, we have added it to our list of bugs to check out". Or "That is a good idea, thanks for posting". Just some indication that you guys actually take note of what we are posting here. And yea I know submitting a ticket is the "preferred" way to submit a problem, but that also takes more time, and I honestly never see any result from doing it anyway.

    Just some indication that you actually care about your customers and the quality of your product would be nice.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2020
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  28. LastTrainToClarksville

    LastTrainToClarksville Well-Known Member

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    I sincerely & completely agree! Knowing that someone -- not just from DTG in general, but someone who we "know" is associated with TSW or TS has read serious reports of problems would be a great improvement over the current state of affairs in which only occasionally does such a thing occur. However, that leaves the problem of "separating the wheat from the chaff" unsolved and I certainly see no reason why anyone -- let alone TSW-TS staff members -- should bother with or pay any attention to the plethora of habitual and perpetual pusillanimous pettifogging that superciliously stifles all departments of these forums. And that's my P.T. Barnum/W.C. Fields rant of the month.

    Separate from that issue, I'm beginning to think that limiting the length of individual posts to the forum would be a good idea. I've taught myself to completely ignore some people's posts on the simple basis that life is too short. By doing this, I may miss something valuable, but I'm willing to take that chance. And this post is now reaching my maximum attention span length. So ...
     
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  29. Tomas9970

    Tomas9970 Well-Known Member

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    I would like an option for users to create a custom personal CSS file similar to how it works on Fandom so that anyone can customize how the forum is going to look for him without affecting anyone else.
    For example if someone wanted to replace the background image, he could do that and the new image would only display to him when he is logged in.

    It would allow people to do things like this:
    Snímek obrazovky (101).png
    I did this example using the web browser's dev tools but a custom css behaves in the same way (overrides anything) and can do all of that as well.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2020
  30. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    Just go to your browsers extensions hub and download a css restyle/theming package like "stylish" in the chrome store and customize it however you want.. no need for anything on the website itself..
     
  31. Tomas9970

    Tomas9970 Well-Known Member

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    I've tried Tampermonkey (which seems to be only such software for the Edge) and while it can certainly get me where I want to get, it's a nightmare to work with. Every rule has to be on a single line and there's a lot of extra code to make things work. Both of these things make the code very unorganized which is bad if you want to write something relatively large or tweak it later. That's why It's better to have an actual css file. Also it's nice to have it tied to your account.

    addGlobalStyle('.messageList .message { background-color: rgb(15, 15, 15) !important;}');
    addGlobalStyle('body { color: rgb(220, 220, 220) !important;}');
    addGlobalStyle('.bbCodeQuote .type { color: rgb(240, 240, 240) !important; background-color: rgb(90, 90, 90) !important;}');

    .messageList .message
    {
    background-color: rgb(15, 15, 15);
    }

    body
    {
    color: rgb(220, 220, 220);
    }

    .bbCodeQuote .type
    {
    color: rgb(240, 240, 240);
    background-color: rgb(90, 90, 90);
    }
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2020
  32. AntonK_007

    AntonK_007 Well-Known Member

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    Will the forum switch to new software?
    Sorry for my English.
     

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