The grand hub site feedback thread

[MacGruber]

Just starting a thread for random feedback for this fancy new hub site!


Unordered feedback I wrote down while playing around:

1. I really like that you can post multiple versions of resources and it stays the same thread.
2. When posting a resource, it might be useful to have a drop-downfield for the VAR file licences.
3. Maybe clarify the "Upload new icon" button. It confused me quite a bit since I already uploaded images for the post itself. You could name it "Upload resource thumbnail". You should also specify the optimal dimensions.
4. Since resource icons are rather large on the resources page, it might be a good idea to allow a longer "tag line". It's wasting space and for the stuff I'm doing it can be rather hard to summarize in one short sentence:
   • 
5. How to handle EarlyAccess releases? The current model seems not really suited to it?
   1. A potential option could be maintaining two resources threads, one in "Free", one in "Paid". However it would appear twice in the resource overview page and it's also some overhead to maintain.
   2. Adding a new category "EarlyAccess"? It might require some customization to make it easy to find the latest paid and the latest free version of the resource. Not sure that is doable?
   3. Having two threads as in 1, but link them somehow so you can easily navigate? Maybe a button "make update free" that automatically copies a post to the "free" thread?
6. VamTimbo managed to enter a date into the version number field. That's supposed to be the VAR version, right? Restrict to integer?

 

[MacGruber]

For the forum it would be cool to be able to upload images right from the clipboard. Its really helpful to quickly help someone by using the Windows 10 "Snipping Tool" to make a screenshot, make some red circles of the button in question and inline it into your post. Not sure how complicated it would be to add.

 

[MacGruber]

Uploading images into a media album adds them in reverse order. How can I reorder images?

(Edit: It sorts by descending date by default)

 

[meshedvr]

1. Yeah I chose this forum software specifically for how it handles Resources. Downloads/external link/discussion thread that ties it all together
2. We will be working on auto-extract of info from the var during upload and including that in the display, but this won't work for external links. Let me think about that
3. I'll see if I can easily fix that. Let me just say I spent a couple weeks customizing stuff, and I don't want to spend another couple of weeks tweaking things that are difficult to change. This is commercial forum software.
4. I can increase tag line max length easily
5. Resources can be "moved" by moderators from one category to another. I can't allow users to do that though so you will have to request it.
6. If you don't enter a version it puts a date. The version you put does not have to correspond to the var version but it is helpful to sync in most cases.

 

[meshedvr]

For the forum it would be cool to be able to upload images right from the clipboard. Its really helpful to quickly help someone by using the Windows 10 "Snipping Tool" to make a screenshot, make some red circles of the button in question and inline it into your post. Not sure how complicated it would be to add.

I don't see any way to enable that, but someone might have made an addon for it. I agree that is super useful on Discord

 

[meshedvr]

Uploading images into a media album adds them in reverse order. How can I reorder images?

(Edit: It sorts by descending date by default)

I don't see any way to reorder. I'll say the media gallery is not as well flushed out as I would have liked. It doesn't have slideshow and some other features that exist if you just attach images to a forum post.

 

[Spacedog]

I have to say this place looks fab.

Just one thing so far, this thread has 6 messages and it is already on page 2. Having more messages per page would be nice, especially for long discussions.

Edit: Well forget that, it looks like it was changed already

 

[meshedvr]

I have to say this place looks fab.

Just one thing so far, this thread has 6 messages and it is already on page 2. Having more messages per page would be nice, especially for long discussions.

Thank you! I really like this forum software! It took a couple of weeks to mold it into what you see here.

I just fixed the number of messages per page. It is now 25 per page.

Forum thread lists and resource pages have endless scroll like reddit, but that is not done within the thread for posts because it would be hard to get to the last post on long threads.

 

[Damarmau]

It might be ideal to have an instructions thread?
Do we upload just the VAR, do we include the dependancy text seperately etc.

What is ideal, posting the vars directly to here or from external link? Is this to be part of the auto download of content or just a more centralized and organized location to host it?

Sharp looking site, looks very promising from initial exploration.

 

[Spacedog]

It might be ideal to have an instructions thread?
Do we upload just the VAR, do we include the dependancy text seperately etc.

What is ideal, posting the vars directly to here or from external link? Is this to be part of the auto download of content or just a more centralized and organized location to host it?

Sharp looking site, looks very promising from initial exploration.

The dependency file is for your information so you know what to tell people to download when you release the asset, you don't need to include the file.

 

[MacGruber]

5. Resources can be "moved" by moderators from one category to another. I can't allow users to do that though so you will have to request it.

Just to clarify, there was a "not" missing in my original post:

5. How to handle EarlyAccess releases? The current model seems not really suited to it?

1. A potential option could be maintaining two resources threads, one in "Free", one in "Paid". However it would appear twice in the resource overview page and it's also some overhead to maintain.
2. Adding a new category "EarlyAccess"? It might require some customization to make it easy to find the latest paid and the latest free version of the resource. Not sure that is doable?
3. Having two threads as in option 1, but link them somehow so you can easily navigate? Maybe a button "make update free" that automatically copies a post to the "free" thread?

As a programmer I understand the reluctance to have too many modifications. Whenever there is a new software update, it can become hard to integrate. However, there are several creators using the EarlyAccess model and VAR package officially have this as a licence option. I think there should be at least an official way how to handle it, maybe just put under "Rules" somewhere. Option 1 might be just fine, if you are ok with the double posts? (Uploading directly to the site once the asset is free would also enable auto-download, right?)

 

[meshedvr]

It might be ideal to have an instructions thread?
Do we upload just the VAR, do we include the dependancy text seperately etc.

What is ideal, posting the vars directly to here or from external link? Is this to be part of the auto download of content or just a more centralized and organized location to host it?

Sharp looking site, looks very promising from initial exploration.

Yeah that is a good idea to have a sticky or official post on what to do for resource upload. I recommend upload to site (current limit is 100MB - will probably increase later if there are not issues). If you upload, we plan to scan the var and display additional information automatically in the post (like license, dependencies, etc.). If you externally host, we can't really do that. But we do plan to make auto-download work with both uploads and external links if the var file can be found.

 

[Spacedog]

One minor thing, when you post a new resource you select the type from the list but then you must also select the type again from the dropdown next to Title. Surely this should be automatically selected as it is already implied by your type selection?

 

[meshedvr]

@MacGruber I think the paid->free path will be this. Use same resource. Post an update when you want to make it free. Ask a moderator to move the post. You retain all discussion history, all updates, all icons, etc. The discussion thread moves automatically when moving. Perhaps you could make a sample paid asset now, and I can move it for you to see how it would work?

 

[meshedvr]

One minor thing, when you post a new resource you select the type from the list but then you must also select the type again from the dropdown next to Title. Surely this should be automatically selected as it is already implied by your type selection?

Yeah - the software didn't have that automatically selecting when there was only 1 choice. I have it on my list already to auto-select the prefix. I too found that annoying. I think I can fix fairly easily with some php tweaks.

 

[MacGruber]

@MacGruber I think the paid->free path will be this. Use same resource. Post an update when you want to make it free. Ask a moderator to move the post. You retain all discussion history, all updates, all icons, etc. The discussion thread moves automatically when moving. Perhaps you could make a sample paid asset now, and I can move it for you to see how it would work?

Ok, so what should be done when there is another paid update? Would it need to be moved back? For example I have currently "Essentials v2", which is free, and I have "Essentials v3" which is still in EarlyAccess till Friday. I think it would make sense if people could find v2 under "Free", even if there is a newer paid version.
Another option could be just to have an EarlyAccess category that works just the same as "Paid" and "Free" where I would just post a normal update to announce it as free? However, people might miss content when searching the "Free" category only.

 

[meshedvr]

Ok, so what should be done when there is another paid update? Would it need to be moved back? For example I have currently "Essentials v2", which is free, and I have "Essentials v3" which is still in EarlyAccess till Friday. I think it would make sense if people could find v2 under "Free", even if there is a newer paid version.
Another option could be just to have an EarlyAccess category that works just the same as "Paid" and "Free" where I would just post a normal update to announce it as free? However, people might miss content when searching the "Free" category only.

I don't think moving back and forth is ideal. I was thinking 1 time move, but if you have ongoing updates that people get access to early on Patreon that would not work. I would be open to Early Access in between Free and Paid, but it does suffer what you suggest where it won't show up in the free search and it won't always be obvious when the content is available for free. 2 posts is not idea as you end up splitting reviews and reactions into 2 posts. Let me think on it a bit more.

 

[Damarmau]

How are the dependency files going to work? Should I be providing links to them in the description like we currently do on reddit/discord or is that being handled some other way? Assuming this is manual we should be providing links for here if the asset/hair etc is available here?

Rules in regard to images and stuff I assume is same as discord? As in nudity is fine but the stuff that is against the rules there is still obviously against rules here.

 

[JayJayWon]

@meshedvr absolutely loving the new site. It's so much better than the reddit and discord systems. I presume that if we upload VAR files (rather than linking to Patreon pages) a future dependency download system should eventually pick them up automatically?

Potentially a very minor setup bug, I think in the Paid Resources sections you have disabled the option to load resource files onto the page - which makes sense for people to provide links to their Patreon pages - however the exception seems to be the Paid Plugins page which still has the file upload option. Is that intentional?

 

[meshedvr]

How are the dependency files going to work? Should I be providing links to them in the description like we currently do on reddit/discord or is that being handled some other way? Assuming this is manual we should be providing links for here if the asset/hair etc is available here?

Rules in regard to images and stuff I assume is same as discord? As in nudity is fine but the stuff that is against the rules there is still obviously against rules here.

If you post a var file, it has the dependencies captured inside it in the meta.json file. The auto-downloader system coming in 1.20 will use this + a generated directory to find the var files it needs.

Rules: pretty much same as Discord. We will be much more strict here about age, violence, look-a-likes, and/or appear to infringe on a copyright because this is now a company-run site that could be held legally liable for content posted if reasonable removal actions are not taken. I consulted with a lawyer last week and have him as official DMCA agent and contact for problem material if needed.

 

[meshedvr]

@meshedvr absolutely loving the new site. It's so much better than the reddit and discord systems. I presume that if we upload VAR files (rather than linking to Patreon pages) a future dependency download system should eventually pick them up automatically?

Potentially a very minor setup bug, I think in the Paid Resources sections you have disabled the option to load resource files onto the page - which makes sense for people to provide links to their Patreon pages - however the exception seems to be the Paid Plugins page which still has the file upload option. Is that intentional?

Glad you are liking the site! I fixed the issue with Paid Plugins - it should have had external url only.

 

[meshedvr]

@MacGruber So it looks like I might be able to do some coding to make it so users could move their own resources around (from free->paid->free, etc.) to remove that burden from moderators.

 

[Acid Bubbles]

What I'd really love would be to:

1. Have a "draft" for new versions, i.e. being able to create and share the post but don't enable listing just yet.
2. Be able to create new versions using an API. I'm not sure which tech was used to build this site (I didn't search much though) but if it doesn't have any method for an API, then I'd have to resort to ugly selenium automation. I'm at release 101 of Timeline, and I have 11 maintained projects... so filling a form every time is not going to be fun.

Another thing is when sharing links, there's no image link even though there's at least the icon. Example: https://socialsharepreview.com/?url=https://hub.virtamate.com/dev/index.php?resources/timeline.94/

Is this "dev" version temporary? Or is this a throwaway version for testing?

 

[SupaRioAmateur]

Yeah that is a good idea to have a sticky or official post on what to do for resource upload. I recommend upload to site (current limit is 100MB - will probably increase later if there are not issues). If you upload, we plan to scan the var and display additional information automatically in the post (like license, dependencies, etc.). If you externally host, we can't really do that. But we do plan to make auto-download work with both uploads and external links if the var file can be found.

Why does this site need to hosting package, those upload download stream could hinder site performance and reliability. everyone use external cnd method iirc, why not just stay that way.

 

[SupaRioAmateur]

What I'd really love would be to:

1. Have a "draft" for new versions, i.e. being able to create and share the post but don't enable listing just yet.
2. Be able to create new versions using an API. I'm not sure which tech was used to build this site (I didn't search much though) but if it doesn't have any method for an API, then I'd have to resort to ugly selenium automation. I'm at release 101 of Timeline, and I have 11 maintained projects... so filling a form every time is not going to be fun.

Another thing is when sharing links, there's no image link even though there's at least the icon. Example: https://socialsharepreview.com/?url=https://hub.virtamate.com/dev/index.php?resources/timeline.94/

Is this "dev" version temporary? Or is this a throwaway version for testing?

1. agree
2. would love to have CLI accessibility too. too much clicking and filling forms.