I love the new layout! Thank you.

One of the major perks of using Netscape, (now Flock) over Internet Explorer for me was the tabs. IE included them later. I like the separate download tab and the option to see "overview" and "comments" separately. I appreciate the new option of using the "thumbs up thanks" while also adding a quick comment. I like to comment on specific aspects of an item, yet it's seldom feedback of a "can you fix this" nature (most uploads are "peer reviewed" so they are nearly perfect anyway, right? ). A quick thumbs up and line of comment is excellent.

Less clutter, faster load times, what's not to like (IMHO)? Thanks for the revamped MTS2 interface and for the option to "opt out" if that's what fans want.

Last edited by slcd : 7th Jan 2009 at 05:34 PM. Reason: additional comment

There are also tabs at the bottom of the screen for that very reason. You can scroll down to read the whole overview, then click the tab at the bottom to get to the download files.

There's also another new feature which Delphy might have forgotten to mention. Creators can now enter a little description for each file they upload, and it will appear on the download page. I have an example of that here. Creators can add descriptions to their old uploads by editing the thread and clicking the "Manage Attachments" button, and they can also enter descriptions in the Upload Wizard. So hopefully once people start using that, it'll make getting the right file a lot easier.

Last edited by fanseelamb : 7th Jan 2009 at 05:56 PM.

Can you give me an example of where this is happening? 3rd party links should only appear in certain circumstances and not in the case where the mesh is included, so it all depends on which section it's in and what it looks like. I can easily move that particular info box but this particular scenario isn't one I specifically accounted for when designing the new layout.



I can see your point of view but how is this any different to having to click to view the comments in the old layout? Especially since it's now "click once to the comments tab, click again to see comments" as opposed to before "scroll down a ton, then click to see comments".

The other thing to be aware of is that to be perfectly honest the majority of people never read comments. The reason I put the comments behind a clickable link is for this reason and one other: It saves load on the database. When you only load 1 post (the first one, containing all the download details) it's a lot less intensive than loading that post plus all the comments, especially when you consider that not everybody reads them anyway. And as I said, it's really not that different from scroll-click to click-click.

Perhaps as a compromise I could put a note on that comments tab when comments are hidden to say "If you always read comments on downloads, you might want to turn on the auto-loading of them in your Edit Options screen".

Incidentally, just as a history lesson - I had originally put the screenshots on the same tab as the downloads, seperate from the actual Overview and description. However, based on staff feedback I moved them from the Downloads tab to the Overview tab. So these things are not set in stone.

One other thing to realise is that not everybody who views, downloads.



Fansee is correct - this has been on the site a couple of weeks now, and I also use it in my DDO thread. Very useful for telling people which file is which and what they need to download.

Great look Delphy! It looks great now!

I absolutely LOVE the related threads page. Now I can link all my posts that are part of a set together! Much love Delphy, THANK YOU!

I`m afraid that I cannot give you any specific examples at this time, but I see it **OFTEN**. The uploader includes the mesh, then also provides a link to the mesh`s original download site, and the link appears in the Mesh Required box in the Download section. With the new layout, these no longer appear at the same time. With the old layout, I have frequently seen people complain that the mesh link doesn`t work, when the mesh is already included anyway.I guess I must be atypical; I always read them. They can be very interesting, and often contain important information that never made its way into the original post.I`ve used this feature myself on occasion, when I`ve uploaded an attachment. Thanks!

Speaking of new features, how do we do the "Quote Spoiler" like you did, Delphy?

oh, first i was a bit confused about these changes and thought i won´t like them at the first moment, but now i think they´re great

Last edited by dustfinger : 7th Jan 2009 at 07:50 PM. Reason: spelling

This is one example Delphy, and it's not the only case I think, as said by G.O.D.
http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=313912
In the overview the creator states that the mesh is included, and in the download tab there's the the link for the mesh


thanks Quinctia and Him666

Delphy, here is a thread with a related issue: 9 summer recolours of Fishie's babydoll halter tops for (young) adult females. The mesh is included, but the Downloads tab says that a seperate mesh download is required.

This is awesome, thanks Delphy!! :D

Well, the thing with those Meshes Required is that if the mesh is already included then they don't really need to link to an off-site mesh. It is obviously useful for people to link to another mesh if it's on MTS2 (so that it triggers the Recolours / Other Recolours function) but including the mesh and linking to it using that achieves not much.

I think a compromise solution here would be to simply state in the Meshes Required box to check the Overview tab for more details.

Delphy, I just love the main screen setup "Wonderful " but what happen to the Active users viewing that was at the bottom left of the screen ? So many new changes I hope my eyes are not blind again.

Want to add one more thing Delphy's I went to User Tools then to Uploads/ Downloads. I got zero as far as taking me to that screen, all else there work, when I click on Uploads/ Dowdloads it is do not get highlighted at all there for it go no where to the screen for that option ( Upload )

Last edited by Simonut : 7th Jan 2009 at 10:33 PM.

I'm really loving this new layout. I think it's so much more organized and easier to go through. Keep up the great work :D

Simonut: I removed it because of server load (hence the strikeout in the first post)

Ok thank you, but in the user tools the option for Uploads/ Downloads is not working. I pointed this out on a post just before this but you answer me back so fast. before I had time to add about it as well sorry.

Oh never mind, I feel like a turle with my head cut off or my eyes are just blind as a bat I found the Upload thingee at the top under Creator Link. I need sometime out of here in this court house to rest my eyes and find my head.

Last edited by Simonut : 7th Jan 2009 at 10:49 PM.

The new changes are all good additions, thank you Delphy and the rest of the staff. The additional download option are awesome - I like being able to flip through the tabs for information, it makes things quicker and more to the point. Thank you!

I must say I love all the changes that you have made to this wonderful site. Everything is easy for me to find and is just overall really organized. Thank you so much for this awesome site and all you have done for us!!

Edit: Like GeneralOperationsDirector, I too read the comments. I always read them in case a problem was mentioned with said download or different links to meshes that may have broke over the course of time.

I have to admit, first thing I did was turn on "old layout". Then I thought - no give it a go - and many of the old things that had bugged me were replaced; for things that were not changed I clicked on edit options - and they were all there - so, welcome to 2009 and a new layout which is better if we all just give it a chance.

Thank you

Simonut, the "Upload items" link has been in the Create dropdown for many months - I removed it from the User Tools dropdown and added it to the new Creator Tools dropdown instead.

Big thumbs up to the new layout!

I absolutely love the tabs in the download section. It makes everything so much easier to find.

I think the issue here may actually be one of clarity on the uploading side. I can certainly give you an example off of one of my own sets, because, if I remember correctly, there isn't anything that explicitly says "it's fine to leave this blank if the meshes are included." Coupled with the general experience people have with webforms that you can't just leave fields blank, I'm sure lots of people just filled them in when they included the meshes.



I just think the first impression most users would get would be that, if they clicked on a tab that said "Comments," they would see comments, not another link that says "click to view comments." It's not really more work than in the past, it just seems sillier, if that makes any sense. It makes the user wonder "Why would you have it off in its own tab and then have it still be collapsed?" (Though I understand why it is working this way, as you have just split off the old functionality into a new tab, but new users will probably go "Huh?" at this.)



That would definitely help out, I think.



I don't think there's going to be a perfect solution to where the screenshots should go. To be quite honest, while I understand what you were trying to do with splitting the information up into tabs, I simply don't think that most download posts contain enough information for this setup to work effectively. It'll be great for the huge conglomerate posts, but it's excessive for, say, an outfit. There's a short description, a picture or two, and a download link. There's not really a good reason for these things not to show up on the first page, together.

I'll admit that I changed it right back, but that was more because of the fact that I had just recently discovered that I could toggle comments on constantly, and I was going "Oh crap, now everything isn't on the page at once again." Which is why I missed that the tabs were on the bottom, too--I went looking for a way to toggle it back the way I just had picked almost immediately.

However, I always read comments here. I also read comments on youtube videos and news sites and everywhere else that comments exist.

Anyway, I was just giving some feedback. I see lots of people like it, and there's a way to change back to the old layout, so it's not a HUGE DEAL if I don't like it, obviously. XD

Loving it!

WOW! Thank you. When did you have time to do this? Do you ever sleep?

I'm itching to try the multi part / multi post feature. I'll have to check if older threads can be updated to use this too, since I have so many old threads that are big sets with downloads in several posts.

Great idea, adding that related threads tab thingie.

Also noticed that post edit / delete buttons have a new look, nice!
However, why is the delete button just a red minus sign with no "delete" word?
If it's universally recognized and everyone knows it's a delete, that's fine,
or they can look at the tooltip to see it is delete, but it would be clearer
if it was a button like the others and said "delete". No big deal though,
especially if everyone else thinks it's clear enough.

Will try the new bb codes too, see if they work fine for me.

Hi Delphy.

I have a couple of questions and maybe a problem to report for the new Social Forums.

1: Our Mod Group is reviving itself for phase 2, now that we have that nice social forum section you made for us on the MTS2 site. So, I logged in as N8iveSims to invite the original members to the new private mod thread, I included 'porkypine' in the invites. - The invitation part went fine. Then I logged out of N8ivesims and logged in as porkypine and opened my email to accept access to the private forum.

This is the message:

Dear porkypine,

You have been invited to join the N8iveSims-Modding Section group! This is a private group here on Mod the Sims 2 and requires registration to join.

To confirm this invitation, click on the following link:

Join the N8iveSims-Modding Section group!

Regards,
N8iveSims

I clicked on the link which goes here

http://forums.sims2community.com/gr...joingroup&id=17

It gives this error:

porkypine, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

When I go to the social forums, I only see the public invitation thread. I can not see or join the N8iveSims mod group. I'll post this, log out and back in as N8iveSims and see if there is something there that might accept porkypine and get back here.


2: Enhancement request.... Since we want to use the social forums as a modding section, I noticed that once I created the private thread for N8iveSims modding group and tried to make a new sub-thread, that it appears right along with all the other NON-N8iveSims threads.. I can see that being a problem when we are working on a project. Our modding stuff will get lost in the pages of other people's Social groups. Is there a way for you to make an option for members of private threads only see the content of that private thread?

Thanks!

*************************************

Ok, screenshot time.

When I navigate via sitemap to social groups, this is what I see: well.. no option for screenies here.

Anyway, it says:
Group threads = This folder is currently empty.
Groups you are a member of: This folder is currently empty. Try joining a group, or making your own!
Groups you own: This folder is currently empty. Try making your own!

In the All Public Groups area I can see N8ive Sims and all the other public threads. It has the option to join.
Before 'joining', I click on the N8iveSims thread for details and it opens a new page - http://www.modthesims2.com/forumdis...=546&groupid=14

You are currently viewing all threads in the "Turtle Island Project" by N8iveSims group - N8iveSims is a group of creators who will bring American Indian themed content to the Sims 2 Community via the Turtle Island Project.. To go back to view all threads click here. To go to the groups control panel, click here.

This page does NOT display the contents of the Turtle Idsland Project join page. But it does show all the social groups like as if they were readable threads. no JOIN option is displayed to their right.

I CAN now see the *N8iveSims Modding Section, for Nez Perce along with all the other private non N8iveSims groups and also the public ones. BUT, when I click on the public ones, it tells me I do not have permission to access their pages.

I will go back now to here http://www.modthesims2.com/groups.php and JOIN

NOW I only see the PUBLIC group threads for N8iveSims instead of all the other non-N8iveSims thread's cluttering up the view. HOwever, I still can NOT see the private thread. I'll log out now as porky and see what the N8iveSims thread creator can see.

Last edited by porkypine : 8th Jan 2009 at 07:29 AM.