Member Discussions

Andy, looks awesome!
I like the 'mud image' part as well, where does the banner one show up?

One thing, our review by TMC staff isn't linked anymore on the mud info, wasn't sure if you just wanted us to put that 'inline' in the description (assumed it was simply due to so few muds having reviews that it wasn't a normal field etc).

Looks great, love the new listing feel!

Thanks for the positive feedback, the entire site is going to undergo an overhaul, this was the first step in that endeavor.

I found the code that I tweaked and remember what I did to prevent the TMC staff reviews from showing up, that has been undone and they are back in the listing.

BTW - as incentive for muds to submit logos I plan to tweak the front page random mud chooser to eventually only choose muds that have specified logos, but I wont make that change until there are a good number of muds that have made that update.

There are several pages that I plan to set aside for the submitted mud logo banners, but I cannot make that change until we have some more muds taking part and uploading images. I will update the whats new info when that has been finalized and I hope it will be just a matter of days. :)

-Andy / Icculus

Oh yeah, definitely an improvement.

I look forward to listing my game soon (I hope).

I checked this eve and found enough muds already with banners uploaded to go ahead and tag some pages. I updated the Whats New page with the list of initial tagged pages, I picked a collection of various pages which might be hit by different targets, the list will likely grow in time but for now this is a good start.

I have a designer helping me rework the whole site, hoping to have the new site up in a week or two... TMC has had its current (old and outdated) design well over a decde, talk about laziness! ;)

-Iccy

Awesome Iccy thanks!

Is this something you are looking for feedback on?

Because the feature listing seems a little hard to read, to me. It sort of all runs together.

But it's still nice to see the look finally being updated :)

Koa, any chance you can take and send me a screenshot of what you are seeing? I am not sure which part of the results you are looking at and whether its a browser issue or now.

Thanks,
Andy

Firefox has been making a mess of side-bar lists for months now, but the update two days ago seems to have fixed it.



The listing for "On Wings of Dragons" looks perfect.

Some other listings have more items in that middle column, and the list doesn't line up with the logo. I guess that's because some items turn on or off as needed (ie, the link to reviews). It looks a bit crowded to me because of the underscores.

There's a concept in brain science called "chunking" - the idea is that humans can handle up to about 5 things before getting confused (and "chunking" them into groups for ease of handling). If there was a break (extra blank line) between every 5 items, it would be easier to read.

I also think some of the info could be placed elsewhere, maybe the bottom of the page?

for example:

TMC rank: 482

codebase: [MUX]
theme: Pern
site: amber.org.uk 2500 [amber.org.uk]
homepage: On Wings Of Dragons
email: worldgate989 (at) gmail (dot) com

check: connection
connect: On Wings Of Dragons
statistics: On Wings Of Dragons


These might be at the bottom of the page, maybe in a horizontal row -

vote: On Wings Of Dragons     browse: player reviews     submit: player review
listing created: August, 2006       listing updated: February 4, 2008


Anyway, I really like the new look. Keep up the good work!

I agree with the 'chunk' thought, maybe just one before Check connection (as it's not a stat but into the 'action' stuff).

I wasn't sure if we could post inline images, but this is what mine looked like:
http://www.ansalonmud.com/images/tmc_ansalon_09.gif

I really like the new feel with the game images etc, maybe a screenshots one? (Just brainstorming). Kudos Andy, thanks for being a pillar in the Mud world man.

Interesting suggestions. I am not sure how keen I am about moving some of the links to a different location, like the bottom, but bvreaking that block up into two chunks might be worth investigating. The homepage screenshot is also interesting, I will ask the designer I am working with if he can find a good spot where that might work.

Thanks,
Iccy

Keriwena said:

There's a concept in brain science called "chunking" - the idea is that humans can handle up to about 5 things before getting confused (and "chunking" them into groups for ease of handling). If there was a break (extra blank line) between every 5 items, it would be easier to read.

The concept of "chunking" in this context comes from Cognitive Science (which is the study of the mind, not the brain - that would be Neuroscience). It asserts that we can only keep up with 5-7 items in short term memory at any one time. I'm not sure this concept factors into HCI in quite the manner you're applying it. However, line breaks would help with minimizing eye strain, especially with all the underscoring. I guess that makes the point valid still.

Please don't take offense to this post. It is intended to be informative, not insulting. I only felt compelled to respond because Cognitive Science is one of the concentrations of my graduate program in Computer Science and reading the words 'brain science' made me want to cry.

Icculus said:

Interesting suggestions. I am not sure how keen I am about moving some of the links to a different location, like the bottom, but bvreaking that block up into two chunks might be worth investigating.

I agree completely. Moving those links to the bottom would worsen the aesthetics of the page and make them harder to get to - at least in my opinion.

I made some tweaks today, added a break between some of the info in the middle box breaking it into two chunks and added a break between some of the info in the right side list of options/features -- thoughts?

-Andy

I like it.




Lyanic - No offense taken, but it was called "brain science" back when computers were "thinking machines". :)

I personally feel like the new sans serif font that is being used has made the site harder to read, particularly because of the spacing between letters it is using. I definitely think going back to a serif font would probably look better...

So far all of the other changes I think have been great, though.

I think the changes look awesome!

I am very happy with the look of my mud listing now.
http://www.mudconnect.com/mud-bin/adv_search.cgi?Mode=MUD&mud=6+Dragons

Keep up the good work.

Vladaar

Hades, I was trying to switch to a typeface that would be easier on the eyes with so much text, I added extra line height and extra spacing to account for the inherent extra spacing serif fonts provide. TMC has made use of sans-serif in a few areas and serif as well, I thought it'd be good put the arial/helvetica in for the majority of text.

What aspect of the spacing makes it harder, is there too much spacing or too little? Can you show me a screenshot of which area you mean, so I can see if maybe it looks vastly different on your browser than mine?

Thanks,
Iccy

Keriwena said:

Lyanic - No offense taken, but it was called "brain science" back when computers were "thinking machines". :)

The term "thinking machines" was coined by Charles Babbage in the 1830s and common usage of it declined drastically after Turing's work. Were you, or any of us, even alive when that term was still being used? Furthermore, the term "chunking" and the entire field of Cognitive Science didn't come into being until the late 1950s...

Hades_Kane said:

I personally feel like the new sans serif font that is being used has made the site harder to read, particularly because of the spacing between letters it is using. I definitely think going back to a serif font would probably look better...

I very much agree with this. I've had great difficulty reading anything on the site this evening, since the font change.

I also find the new font incredibly difficult to read. Specifically the following info: (the section that this info is in, on all reviews)


TMC rank: 33
updated: August 7, 2006
created: July, 1996
codebase: Circlemud bpl15 modified
site: 4dimensions.org 6000 [4dimensions.org]
email: douce (at) wi (dot) rr (dot) com
theme: Time Travel
check: connection
connect: 4 Dimensions
homepage: 4 Dimensions
statistics: 4 Dimensions
vote: 4 Dimensions
browse: player reviews
submit: player review



I have issues reading that, and with the ten most recent posts text on the front page.

Also, the following information is encased in a scroll bar and not at all clearly visible (this may be browser related, currently using latest Opera).


Location: USA
Primary Language: English
Minimum Players: 10 - 24
Multi-Play: No
Player-Kill: Restricted
Extended Race Selection
Extended Class Selection
Multi-classing Allowed
Equipment Saved
Quests Available
Character Approval Unnecessary
Ansi Color
Roleplaying Is Encouraged
Newbie friendly
Level-Based Training System
Clans Offered
Detailed Character Creation
World is all original
Huge World (15,000+ rooms)
Generally Adult-Oriented
Mud is fully operational

I restored the body font back to what it was, I'll have the designer thats redesigning things figure out the best typeface style to use, what I thought looks best some of you find hard to read ...

-Iccy

Unfortunately, I didn't check back to be able to do a screenshot in time, but after comparing some of the other san-serif type used in other parts of the site, I believe the main issue was that the letters were spaced too far apart. The spacing used on the sans-serif fonts where the Announcements are right now is fine.

Thanks :)

I agree. I like it a lot.



Lyanic, we called it "brain science" in the '60s, okay?

Looks even better now with the spacing/rule Andy, awesome stuff man.