Forums » Suggestions & Development Discussion » The transformation of groups

THE TIME HAS COME.

Major changes are being rolled out for groups. Hold on to your hats. Today marks the first of many.

Today

• Group profile layouts have been revamped.
  • The new design is more reliable across different devices and screen sizes
  • easier to maintain
  • easier to navigate
  • generally better organized
  • eliminates the issue of sidebars being a completely different height than the page content.
• More customization options, including two "accent colors". Buttons and other layout elements will no longer depend on using the page title and border colors, so you can go back to using those colors the way you want to use them.
  
• Appearance customizer now includes a list of quick links to every possible option, so you can go straight to the thing you're interested in instead of exploring the board to see what's customizeable. This should cut down on confusion, and save time for people who are already pros.
  
• Appearance customizer now demonstrates how the colors are used in buttons and other elements like forum posts.
  
• Group banner size increased to a maximum of 960px X 250px. This allows for the creation of FULL WIDTH banners, for a more immersive look.
  
  Seriously, check these out:
  
  
• Group name will appear over the banner if the banner is full size, allowing for better integration of the visual and text elements
  
• Maximum upload file size for banners raised to 2000KB.
  
• text boxes on group pages expand to fill the space available, depending on whether the sidebar is in play or not.
  
• Stylesheets have been consolidated for faster page loading.
  
• Group profile layouts detecting whether or not the page has a sidebar and reacting accordingly should work much better now. No more space taken up by blank sidebars.
  
• A link to your private message inbox has been added to group toolbars, that will alert you when you have unread messages. People sometimes spend a lot of time inside a group, and if another member needs to ask them a question about a RP they are doing (for example), they may not notice the new message in time without such a link.
  
• When trying to access a group page that requires you to log in, most pages now give you a link to the main site so you can actually log in or create an account as necessary.
  
• When someone submits an application to the group, they won't be taken to the RPR mainsite to be told that it submitted (or didn't) successfully. Instead, the confirmation will occur inside your group, with your group's look.
  
• Group profiles now support nested navigation (dropdown menus).
  
• New interface to manage page creation and heirarchy has been installed. You'll recognize the same workings as the new interface that was recently developed and deployed for character profiles.
  
• The navigation is repeated in the footer of group profiles, to make getting around extremely easy.
  
• Group toolbars now sport dropdown navigation, for quickly getting to other areas of the site
  
• Group taglines appear in the footer of group profiles. This accomplishes two goals:
  1. It provides a standardized location for people to go if they are confused and need a quick summary of what the group is about.
  2. It's a minor piece of search engine candy, increasing the odds that people who aren't even members of the RPR but who want to join a RP group like yours will find their way to you.
• Separate columns for sidebars have been removed. They proved too unmanageable.
  
• Recent Activity widgets will no longer fall out of group sidebars
  
• When you drag your widgets to new locations, the "landing areas" will no longer disappear or shrink so small it can no longer be used after you move the last one.
  
• When you add widgets to a landing area that has a "No widgets yet, drag some here" notice, the notice will go away.

Test it until it breaks then claim your rewards!

EDIT:

Forgot to mention that there is a new "announcements" page that appears in the navigation after the group makes its first announcement. It's like the news page, you can look back through all the old articles.

whoa kim...this is epic *wonders who will break it first*

A few people did instantly.

*wanders in, holding up some sort of bizarre magical hammer device* Ohai, just stopping by as I utilize some Exodian Magitechnology to bust up the new features. Y'know, see how they hold up against magical devices.

Pretty sturdy thus far... *tralalas away, whistling merrily*

Already sent in 2 reports.

Edit: Make that 3.

Edit2: I think I have 4 now. I lost track. ;_;

Edit3: Up to 5! It's tea-drinking break time now.

YAY FOR ZE KEEM. YAY FOR ZE GREWPZ. YAY.

Of course, the instant this goes live, a client calls. Give me a few minutes to get done with that and I'll fix eet all.

NOT ME! I never break anything. *is good!*

I love breaking new features. *strokes her accolades* Skynet will never see me coming...

But seriously, I LOVE these new features!

o-o Soooo much info.

That's amazing. @.@

*_* Woah! So much new stuff! Awesome!

*is giddy from dancing around in glee*

Kim.. you are the most awesome of awesomeness.

All hail the Queen!!!!!

Thanks guys! I love how supportive you all are.

I've been hard at work addressing all the issues that were reported over the last two days. I'm happy to say, so far it's all been pretty minor stuff.

• Removed a capitalization error in the "edit group" link on group toolbars that was causing the link to break.
• Group banners preview correctly on the "edit appearance" page.
• Open applications no longer have an odd indentation when viewed by the person that submitted them.
• The "leave group" link has been replaced in group toolbars.
• The "go back" button after editing members takes you back to the admin area, not to the public members list.
• Group forums are no longer overzealous about security and won't lock people out of discussions who should have access to them.
• Group invitations are better at correctly reporting who they were sent by.
• Images in text widgets on the editing pane won't overflow their surroundings any more (everywhere except IE, which refuses to recognize maximum width directives).
• Special characters in group widget titles no longer devolve into code soup.
• "Update Look" button was changed to "Save Colors" to clarify that it wasn't just for reloading the preview.
• "Save Colors" button no longer displays in the wrong location in FireFox Browsers.
• Adjusted the alignment of dropdown menus.
• Prevented links in dropdown menus from displaying all in one long row.
• Corrected link colors in slideout menus (that occur when the toolbar has been moved into the sidebar)

If you find anything else, be sure to report it so I can fix it and give you accolades for helping out.

I'll soon be starting work on phase 2 of the group update process. In phase 2, I will once again be going back to rebuild, polish, expand and improve old group features. Where phase 1 was mostly about the core code and the overall profile layout, phase 2 will focus more heavily on widgets and tools -- for example, group announcements have had a checkbox for allowing or disallowing comments, but it's never actually been possible to comment on announcements regardless of what that box said. That'll be changing in phase 2. I want to make sure everything that is already there really shines, works reliably, and is fun and easy to use before I move on to adding new stuff in phase 3 or 4.

Some stuff I did ages ago and forgot to report:

• When applications are auto-accepted, the group founder is no longer sent a PM prompting them to review an application
• When applying, it's now clear to the applicant whether they were auto-approved or not.
• Private messages are no longer sent to people when their application is auto-approved, since they now receive an on-screen message that tells them that's the case right away.

Some stuff I did over the last few days:

• Removed an error message from the group warning pages
• Made the group warning pages prettier
• Database copes better with topic subscriptions after a topic has been deleted, an entire forum is deleted, or a person has removed themselves completely from a group.
• On a related housekeeping note, I cleaned the database of old topic subscriptions that matched the above descriptions. We shouldn't generate any more going forward. You mostly won't notice any difference, this just makes me feel warm and squishy inside.
• "Show Game Tags" window and groups & games widgets will no longer show the names of top secret groups -- unless the viewer is also a member of the same clandestine organization.
• Fixed alignment issues of game tags in Chrome

Anniversary stuff, server move prep and illness derailed me from Group stuff a bit, but it's still in my mind and a very high priority. I can't wait to release another huge update.

Great additions so far!
Can't wait to see more added.