pALEPHx wrote:

You can't see who's online, you can't interact in more than a time-delayed fashion . . .

And, that's the way that we like it, damn-it!  Well, it's at least the way that I believe that the majority of us prefer it.  If this place ends up with a "chat feature" which one can't quickly figure out how to opt out of, I am "so fucking" out of here.

pALEPHx wrote:

Cruel is dead, and its spirit is being slowly pureed by a visual paucity that no longer serves the purpose it was intended to fulfill.

Whoa - Hey . . .  Don't go pointing fingers a-round here.  The spirit of Cruel was murdered by Rogers his-self with that final "up-grade."  The spirit died long be-fore the e-body.

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

The "attract more nOObs with a shiny new interface" argument is specious and unwholesome.

Well, all this aside, do you have a BETTER way to do it? Perhaps you'll be selling Thin Mints outside the local Wal-Mart with your merit-badge sash on?

Square: If you would like for me to create an account for you at XM with admin privs, so you can view the ACP and judge the differences for yourself, then I would be willing to extend you that courtesy. The user would be demoted after you've made your visit.

Choad: Yes, yes, I think we get that you've declared Death to Cute and nixed avatars, sigs, and other frippery. What else died in this purge? Do your original reasons still stand, or is it too much work to undo all the plugs you've pulled? Is this how you see HS continuing, growing, and succeeding in the next 6 months, the next year?

Decadence: I wouldn't be thrilled with a chat feature either. The front page must be updated manually, items that disappear off the first page of threads are often ignored, and there but for the grace of stickies go our five most popular threads. The "extended group of [ir]regulars" don't interact daily, sometimes swinging back by once a month, if that. Retention is as important as recruitment, and I think we're hiding our [dark] light under a bushel, as it were. What have you seen that might prove otherwise?

I happen to like the no avatars/sigs, minimalist thing with very few exceptions.  While it'd be nice to have a proper wysiwyg editor, I get by just fine without it, and everyone else seems to too.

It's your world, holmes, I'm just livin' in it.

I think the priority should be a better front page, but I can't think of any way that doesn't involve a human doing some write-ups.

You want new blood? Link Exchange, it's just that easy.

I would have to agree that the front page--being the first and foremost thing any new visitor might see, short of a direct link to a thread, and I note that my query about SEO was never answered--is currently a bigger handicap than anything else. Any decent CMS could replace it, though I do not personally know which ones work with Pun. (here's one, but there appear to be a number of security holes, according to teh Google)

And let's not get tied up on the whole sigs/avatars thing. While I do feel that they lend more personality to individuals that are just screennames here (and we're never as popular as in our own minds, certainly), I'm still not hearing a specific reason why they were done away with, right off the bat. The impression I'm beginning to draw is that regulars--whether they have any sort of technical knowledge or not seems no bar to having an opinion--want the place to be as unappetizing as the content. In that, there would seem to be no logical argument forthcoming.

Do we genuinely care to have new faces and voices around here, or is it supposed to all be some sort of invite-only backroom where nobody does much inviting? Link exchanges are forum-based prostitution, but they're better than nothing. What exactly would we have to offer another site, presumably a "content peer," and who would those "peers" be?

one thing on look and feel, lets get rid of that blue shit for the default template. it's too strong a color and looking at it gives me a headache if I'm not logged in.

What O+ said X 2. Kill the front page. It's like putting a chastity belt on Tojo's grandmother. Change the default template - it's like drowning a kitten in vomit.

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

What O+ said X 2. Kill the front page. It's like putting a chastity belt on Tojo's grandmother. Change the default template - it's like drowning a kitten in vomit.

I'm there, but strictly out of respect for Tojo's sainted grandma.

Anyone interested in redesigning the default style (fuck y'all, I like blue) has my blessing. Please start with a style like Oxygen ( here and here ) to retain display and enabled function.

Auto-edited on 2020-08-02 to update URLs

Last edited by choad (2008-07-18 18:53:12)

George Orr wrote:

Orange et al:  What's your choice for a replacement for the blue?

I'm hep to "sadness", it's easy on the eyes. We'll never have a really good one, since we cannot control how the head banners will look against any given template. I will admit a fondness for dark backgrounds with light text - easier for an old systems guy like me to look at.

Awright, someone put up a poll listing all the colors of the rainbow. Then we can get to work. My two cents; multi-color does not work at all.

I've got an idea. Let's change the site into an MMORPG. I know it's radical, but you can't be radical without the "rad" right? We could wander around a fictional "high-street" conversing and killing each other - not with weapons, but with put-downs, vicious aspersions and overweening displays of intellectual verisimilitude. The medium of exchange could be the "corpsmid," and, of course, the smaller or sexier the corpsmid, the more it's worth. And of course, if you speak the word "Plugh" you're automatically transferred to some mirror of goatse.cx and banned from the site for a week. Well...that's all the time and energy I'm willing to put into that idea. Someone else run with it for a while.

jesusluvspegging wrote:

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

I've got an idea. Let's change the site into an MMORPG. I know it's radical, but you can't be radical without the "rad" right? We could wander around a fictional "high-street" conversing and killing each other - not with weapons, but with put-downs, vicious aspersions and overweening displays of intellectual verisimilitude. The medium of exchange could be the "corpsmid," and, of course, the smaller or sexier the corpsmid, the more it's worth. And of course, if you speak the word "Plugh" you're automatically transferred to some mirror of goatse.cx and banned from the site for a week. Well...that's all the time and energy I'm willing to put into that idea. Someone else run with it for a while.

I have some experience running a Diku MUD, though it has been many years.

I played Arctic on-and-off for years. Couldn't make the transition to MMORPG's etc...too unimaginative compared to the beauty of a well-developed text-based universe.

jesusluvspegging wrote:

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

I played Arctic on-and-off for years. Couldn't make the transition to MMORPG's etc...too unimaginative compared to the beauty of a well-developed text-based universe.

Amen.  Plus, any good MUD would allow user submitted mods/regions/quests, an element that WoW and its blasphemous ilk neglect.

There we go then - I propose we turn High-Street.org into a MUD. Seconded?

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

Seconded?

No.

opsec wrote:

I'm with Tojo on Cobalt, it's a comforting monochromatic.

As I mentioned earlier, Cobalt is my color scheme of preference.

At least Cobalt is open and orderly and fills the screen. I don't find the colours inviting, but really, none of the options are beautiful and who the fuck cares. Add me to the Cobalt bloc.

Give me Emergency Day-Glo Orange for the front page, like please.

opsec wrote:

If the front page isn't going to be a draw, then kill it.   In the mean time Mods and Admins, please feel free to elevate topics.

Huh? Explain, please.

choad wrote:

opsec wrote:

If the front page isn't going to be a draw, then kill it.   In the mean time Mods and Admins, please feel free to elevate topics.

Huh? Explain, please.

Right, well what I meant was Mods and Admins, feel free to select a topic that you like, and copy the url into notepad.  Then copy or capture a representative still, resize it and upload it to a server.  Add attribution and a witty title, then format it so that it more or less matches the front page template, then post the whole mess to local.  Go back and edit your fuckups, and voila.

I got a little fast and loose with the term "elevate".

BTW, my old tired eyes like new larger Cobalt font.

pALEPHx wrote:

most of them don't even know there can be something better, or what the options are

Wow.  High-Street elitism.


I have used the Cobalt setting since the get go.  It looks even better now.

I gotta say, since it's come up, that most of the fonts are really small.  But I just increase the font size in my browser...a couple times.  Maybe three.

MSG Tripps wrote:

pALEPHx wrote:

most of them don't even know there can be something better, or what the options are

Wow.  High-Street elitism.

I have used the Cobalt setting since the get go.  It looks even better now.

Ditto.  My aging eyes thank you.

How did this change from a discussion about software capability into a fey little chat about color schemes? Goodness gracious, have I turned you ALL gay? Fuckitty fuck fuck...

Dirckman wrote:

Perhaps we should let Pale figure out the color scheme cause he's the gayest one here....  Those fellers are super with that kind of stuff................

Where's lurker when you need him?