How long did it take to build Rome, anyway?
If you live on Dtoid 24/7 like I do you've probably noticed a hell of a lot of little changes here and there around the site over the last 6 months. There's a good reason for that -- we're in the middle of launching all kinds of new features, including a massive database of games to help us better organize our blogs. We tried this last year all at once and it wasn't particularly stable, so what we've done instead this year is incrementally built it out little by little. You'll be able to tag your blogs to specific game titles very shortly, just like our editors can. We're also tackling some long-standing site bugs along the way.
We're also taking the time to sort out some long-requested site upgrades like making the community podcasts easier to find and subscribe to (done! middle center of the main blogs page) and upgrading the comments system (launching very shortly). The video uploader in the cblogs is also getting a total overhaul, so that feature will be back online soon.
Ok, so what have I been up to today? A few things! The most important one is the addition of search refinements. When you search the home page for a game name you'll now be able drill-down by review, preview, video, or gallery.
Try it out!
That should make it much easier to find what you're looking for. We also silently rolled out a up and downvote buttons for Reddit, and our Buy & Sell games thing now has screenshots and videos of the games right on the page. We also fixed some recent bugs which forced iPad users to see the mobile site (its back to full beefiness), removed YouTube playlists from the Dtoid show which was causing some Mac computers to scroll chunky, removed the massing previews and videos thumbnail list on the sidebar (nobody cared, lol) and made a few optimizations under the hood to make the site load faster overall. There's also some nerdy stuff in the works to speed up the site -- we're replacing our database drive with a solid state hard drive in the coming weeks so that should give us a nice boost in read time. I'm probably putting everyone to sleep by now, so I'll stop while I'm ahead. We also upgraded our Podtoid hosting. Ok, I'll stop.
Anyhow, that's all I have for today. Tomorrow I get to try to stop those full-page pop-up Stride ads from being served to our registered users (that's not supposed to happen!!!) and continue working on our elusive database project.
Any requests for me? Holler!
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My only request is an edit & reply feature, which I'm sure you've been badgered endlessly about. If you just steal GoNintendo's comment system (it's awesome) that would be fine by me.
Also, I mentioned an idea in one of the CBlog Recaps recently. You should put a sign on the c-blog page that says "__ Days Without A Failblog", which adds up, then when a failblog or spamblog pops up the sign resets to zero. It's not useful in any way, but it would be fun to see.
I'm glad to hear about these new features, especially the new search functionality. I like how if you search for something in the blogs, it only brings up results from the blogs. Makes looking for great blogs a whole lot easier.
I'd be interested in a Cblogs pageviews feature like you get in the forums.
I'd still like some refinement on the cblogs (now cblogs/forum) bar off the main page. I'm not really sure why you need that featured piece to be included with. I'd have it use the screenshot on top with the title in a smaller separate bar above it with the forums and cblogs sharing a bar. cut in to the height a bit for the cblog/forum bar if you need to conserve page space, but I think it would effectively look simpler and more efficient.
Essentially, this is the setup now:
This is my ideal:
Since you are asking for requests and all...
On that same note, can I use the Buy & Sell feature if I'm from Mexico? :(
Oh, and I love you.
2. The ability to see more than one page of a user's comments. When I go look at my comments, there's no "Older" link to see more of them. Even putting start=50 or whatever in the querystring doesn't help.
I also like what Knutaf said
I love the new bios, but I think if you have an account they should be hidden, because after you read them once they just become clutter. I think it's a really awesome for the new readers, but for us frequent commenters it's just one more thing to scroll down to get to the comment box.
Another thing I've noticed is that in the about me section of the blogs everything has been pushed to the right, meaning people who had centered images now have images that cut off at the side.
The post a photo link above the comments now redirects you to the front page versus showing BBcode examples like it use to
Also I think that if a user doesn't write something in their Gamer Profile section of their bio it should not show up. So if they write nothing the section should not appear, or say they leave a section empty like the 3DS Friend code that doesn't appear but their steam and PSN ids do.
I preferred it when people's friends was a list versus being a box. When it was a list I liked it because it would say the last blog someone posted, and that lead to many curious clicks that helped me find some fantastic blogs that I would have missed, now that this feature is gone it's become much more difficult to browse old blogs.
Nice to hear that the site is getting sleeker and faster! I tend to have multiple windows open so this will be a big bonus for me!
I also like manasteel's suggestion regarding the sidebar image - it's simpler and fits in more blogs.
@braulio - the "Buy and Sell" feature seems to be only available for US residents. I tried to buy Fable 3 for $17.00 and it wouldn't take my Canadian address. I'm still a little pissed about missing out on that great deal for Fable 3!
... the changes are going to be great (though it seems to be my bad luck that I always seem to catch the site when it's in flux)
@Elsa
:(
That just killed it for me as I was in the midst of joining up as Duke Nukem for the PS3 is $24 without a case which is about the right price for me to buy that game.
Almost every person I've seen comment about that section has said the same thing, so I'd hate to see this fall by the wayside before it even starts to gather momentum.