New Thread Display Format: Are there editing options?

[Aki]

I was looking at the Showcase and wondering if there's any way to specifically edit the preview/blurb text that appears for your thread? I noticed a couple things about it:

• If your thread happens to be one of the 5 threads near the top of the current page, the resizing causes it to display twice as much text as the other threads do
• The blurb completely ignores all formatting such as paragraph breaks, italics/bolding, hyperlinks, and text size
• As far as the blurb is concerned, spoilers and anything in them do not exist

The second thing is the main issue for me, since I like using things like bullet point lists or breaking up different text sections with headers; when the formatting is removed, it's a real mess. Is there any way to directly edit the blurb that will appear, or are there any other formatting tricks like using spoilers that can be used in the thread to control how the blurb will look?

 

[Marin]

Unfortunately, there is no simple way for users (or even us admins) to change the previews. The one single "trick" you can do is changing the cover image, by attaching an image with the [ attach ] tag or linking an image with the [ img ] tag, and then setting its width to 0 (e.g. [attach width="0px"]450[/attach]) and placing it at the very top of the thread.

But that's obviously not the main issue, which is the lack of formatting in article previews. I can't easily add formatting in that preview, so I'm now trialling an "expanded" article view instead. The difference between "expanded" and "preview" is that you do get formatting in the expanded view, and it uses up the entire width of the page. Preview, on the contrary, doesn't have formatting and is arranged in a 1-2-2-4-4-4-4 setup, dividing the width of the page over that many threads per row.

An alternative solution to the issue is making the preview text shorter, so that it doesn't compress as much text and formatting as it possibly can, and instead uses the first one or two sentences. All you'd then need to do is make sure you have something representable in your first two sentences, which could simply be the game title and version, and the creators of the game.

The purpose of the article previews is to allow games and authors to catch visitor attention in a very short time and with very few characters, through a cover image and structured introduction. These changes make that possible, but the author might have to make some adjustments to make that happen with respect to formatting and the top of their thread.

Please feel free to leave any feedback you have on these solutions, or your overall experience with the new forum types.

 

[Aki]

Ehh seeing the "expanded" style ones today I do think the tiled look of the "preview" are nicer just because you can see more games at once. A couple of the articles look great with their formatting intact but there's way more inconstancy amoung how much content for each game is getting shown (Pokémon D.W. can fit 3 large images but Lost Hope doesn't get any images or text at all?)

I can roll with whatever format is gonna appeal to the most players, but not knowing if the article preview is gonna show 0-3 images or cap the number of characters at 500 or 1000 is hard to plan around! n_n;

 

[Marin]

There are still no formatting options in the preview mode, but I've reduced the text length that is previewed now. As long as you have a proper thread header, it'll show up nicely in the thread list now.

 

[Aki]

I've reduced the text length that is previewed now.

If we're talking specific numbers I do think the 90ish right now is a bit low. Tweets have more characters...


I wasn't trying to say that having a certain number like 500 characters or 1000 characters is a problem.
The issue I was trying to raise was that articles would show 500 characters...unless they're at the top of the page, then they show 1000. So to make sure my article looks good, I need to assume simultaneously that the visitor can see the first 1000 characters, but also that they will only see the first 500. Both are true because articles get moved in the order all the time, and besides they can be filtered into any order too.

That's...okay but it would be half the editing work if they just showed the same number of characters all the time. Whatever that number may be.




As for the lack of formatting I'm gonna predict we all start adding decorative filler characters around the actual text like:

====================================================
====================================================
#========"This game is about Pokemon and was made by me!"========#
====================================================
====================================================​

Or start hiding entire articles inside of spoiler tags so that only the specific text+image for the preview are visible.

 

[Marin]

I wasn't trying to say that having a certain number like 500 characters or 1000 characters is a problem.
The issue I was trying to raise was that articles would show 500 characters...unless they're at the top of the page, then they show 1000. So to make sure my article looks good, I need to assume simultaneously that the visitor can see the first 1000 characters, but also that they will only see the first 500. Both are true because articles get moved in the order all the time, and besides they can be filtered into any order too.

The article preview shows the first 150 characters - this doesn't change at all. So as long as you make those first 150 characters work with your preview, everything is fine.

As for the lack of formatting I'm gonna predict we all start adding decorative filler characters around the actual text like:

If you choose to add decorative, meaningless characters from this point on, knowing about the preview, you're just shooting yourself in the foot. The point of the article previews is to put your game out there and draw attention to it. If you choose not to optimize that, that's the OP's choice. My reasoning for bringing the preview length down to 150 is so thay you have a few characters dedicated to the image, and the rest for whatever header text you want. If the preview were 1000 characters without formatting, you'd most likely run out of text to present without any styling or whatsoever. A 150-character feels like the sweet spot to me, providing just enough characters to inform present the game, but not too many that it drags on and breaks into the main post and its formatting.

It's also not as though you make a new game thread every week, so writing a very small header/description/summary or whatever shouldn't be too much to ask, for something positive for them in return. It's just different, that's all.

 

[Aki]

The article preview shows the first 150 characters - this doesn't change at all. So as long as you make those first 150 characters work with your preview, everything is fine.

BASED

Spoiler: This bit isn't relevant at all anymore I just don't feel like my point got across well

If you choose to add decorative, meaningless characters from this point on, knowing about the preview, you're just shooting yourself in the foot.

I mean when I first posted my question one of my articles had this fat wall of text:​

If you have the latest version, the titlescreen should say Version 1.1 at the bottom. Download the game here!Plot and Features: As a pro Birdkeeper, you have been hired by Professor Finch to help him investigate some bird business. From his lab you need to head out in each direction to find some special birds and collect their feathers! In this game you can expect to find: ›Birds!›Choose your starter from a pool of options that include different movesets and abilities!›Hidden/Bonus starter choices!›Soft resetting for that shiny starter? See it instantly when you start the game!›So many boss battles›Fight Boss Birds to unlock the paths to secret boss battles in other areas!›You can beat the bosses, but they're all able to be captured if you want to challenge yourself!›Fight those bosses in any order you choose, because this game is open world!›Find Mini/Optional Bosses!›What else is in this game?›Field moves that aren't tied to learning specific HM moves!›But if you like moves there's tons of TMs to customize your team!›More characters appear as you play! That means more trainers with stronger Pokemon!›Optional sidequests!›Hidden items everywhere

So if the character count was going to remain that high, then yeah I would prefer a snappy summary full of filler characters that'd be readable:

#=================================================================================================================As a pro Birdkeeper, you have been hired by Professor Finch to help him investigate some bird business. From his lab you need to head out in each direction to find some special birds and collect their feathers! ========================================================================================#

Marin it's not too much to ask for me to edit old threads. I like editing and I'm looking forward to actually doing it to all my game's articles so they look their best. I like the recent updates to the site! Please stop changing the website each time I post?
That other "expanded" style wasn't even up for 24 hours and I'm the only one who got to say anything about it. Now the character count changed has twice in one day.

 

[Marin]

That other "expanded" style wasn't even up for 24 hours and I'm the only one who got to say anything about it. Now the character count changed has twice in one day.

I tried (and mentioned) that I was trialling the expanded view, but it was very inconsistent with character count and image size and count, so I quickly decided to go back to the preview mode and instead reduce the number of characters.

Your point for those did come across, and I completely agree with you. That's why I went back to the preview style, which is overall cleaner and shows more games at any given time. It also makes everything more consistent, as it is guaranteed to use 1 image and then fill the preview up to 150 characters.

And I don't intend on changing any of that anymore! So if you like the way it is now, feel free to start editing your threads!