Yes you are right the game industry drives development and vice versa, but I come to game dev for it's community and the information it can give me on the technical side of game development. This is why I use the site, if I want to know about the industry in general then there are other sites out there that I can get that information.

I liked the format of the GD news as it was and happy to see only a few posts a week,but I don't want to see the site watered down by the industry in general, you have something fairly unique, a good community that delivers excellent informative resources. I think expanding what you have is a much better alternative than trying to becoming a one stop shop for all Game Industry related news.

We have always tried to be a one stop shop for all things game development, which seriously underscores then how bad of a job we have been doing with it. Ultimately it's going to come down to views of the news and which one you pick. I just need to add in some saving capabilities so that if you choose to view news one way (say, top in 24 hours) it sticks.

The challenge is how we take this news and begin to match up specific types of posts to users based on your interests.

- Michael

<<Insert standard complaint about working on new features rather than fixing major bugs here>>

<<Insert standard complaint about working on new features rather than fixing major bugs here>>

We work on both simultaneously. Adding a new feature does not mean we're not addressing bugs. The entire header is an example of that, and Drew just posted a staff blog about the major article revamp going on. I've been working on a source formatting bbcode that mimicked the old [ source lang= .. ] tag. All told we have a subset of about 30 issues we are addressing this month and we're probably at the halfway point now, which is good.

Adding a new feature means manpower that isn't being spent on addressing bugs, unless you have infinite manpower, which I know is not the case with this site. I'd much rather you focus your efforts on restoring the forums to working order than uglifying the front page. We're talking about usability issues that concretely affect the quality of the forums. The lack of updates in viewing user content means that fewer follow-ups on posts occur. This is a bug that was filed in early January. You know, right after the new software launched. The loss of bookmarks means that many people can no longer find quality content that's been buried by the site's new obsession with showing only new crap. Again, a day one issue.

Also, you're also acting as if new bugs aren't being introduced as these new features go in. Have you noticed yet that post ratings haven't been showing up properly on individual posts? I doubt it, because no one has bothered to look at new issues in the tracker in a couple weeks. So you've fixed about 15 bugs in the last half month. That would sound more impressive if there weren't at least 20 unfiled issues in the problem tracker's bug report section. I'm sure some are duplicates, but it still doesn't sound like any actual progress is being made here.

And then there are the features that you've taken money from users for and still haven't delivered on, which is just bad ethics. See complaints made in the GDNet+ discussion.

I don't mind how big the "Like' button is, but I do mind it's color. Hardly anything on the front page is green, mostly it's all blue.
The like button should be a subtle shade of blue also, so it blends better with the page: visible but not disruptive.

Compare:



[color=#1C2837][size=2]Also, on the news feed, the articles from "http://www.gamesindustry.biz/" you have to register on their site to read. Please don't link to news sites on the front page that require registration. ([color=#1C2837][size="1"]same comment also submitted to the issue tracker[color=#1C2837][size=2])

On the plus side, your targeted ads are getting better/more relevant.

Have you noticed yet that post ratings haven't been showing up properly on individual posts?

That might be by design -- in line with the suggestion I made on the mods list that we should hide individual up or down ratings to stop users getting upset over a single opinion when the majority of users might not agree. Some of the higher-rated posts still display a post rating -- best I can tell, 3 up (or presumably down)-votes equates to 1 showing up on the post.

I doubt it, because no one has bothered to look at new issues in the tracker in a couple weeks.[/quote]
I've raised that issue as well, and they've since changed the text in the tracker to note that bugs are only submitted there, not resolved -- I don't think that's a proper solution though, and I don't know that they're looking at the general feedback as well as the bugs. It would be good to see more feedback on what is actually be done. We can all see the major changes, and those of us affected by minor bugs will normally notice the fixes, but if a lot is being done behind the scenes un-noticed it might help to be up-front and clear about it -- perhaps there could be a weekly round-up of which issues have been dealt with or something.

I've stopped submitting feedback because I've issues in the tracker which haven't been looked at. I noticed the post ratings issue but didn't even look to see if an existing bug had been filed because my existing issues are sitting unfiled.

If you're seriously requesting feedback you're going to have to respond to it, even if only to say it is low priority/not a bug/whatever.

We're going to look at ways to better format the news. There is actually less information on the front page than the old design, but the style we're using appears to be causing it to look more cluttered. In fact, we're looking to eventually reorganize the front page altogether to better present information.

Just to clarify my comment, I did quote a comment saying always as this is not a new problem. I personally would be very happy with the latest forum threads being the front page

Some of the higher-rated posts still display a post rating -- best I can tell, 3 up (or presumably down)-votes equates to 1 showing up on the post.

The post I submitted as an example has a net positive five and shows up as a zero. It also would completely not jive with the fact that the rating does show up right after you rate a post up or down.

I've raised that issue as well, and they've since changed the text in the tracker to note that bugs are only submitted there, not resolved[/quote]
Then it's useless. So much for that whole new push for communication with the users. I guess it lasted three months which is a bit better than the usual abortions the staff plans. Oh wait, need to take out the month the staff was completely AWOL. That's about usual.

We can all see the major changes, and those of us affected by minor bugs will normally notice the fixes[/quote]
Really? The problem is that some of these bugs render features of the site completely worthless, so I don't bother even checking them. If they ever get fixed, I'll never notice. Case in point: the user content bug.

Case in point: the user content bug.

Yep. It was mostly fixed, now it's full of missing or out of order entries again.

I think GDNet is defective by design at this point. Why write news when you can trash up the place with link spam? Why have articles when the stooges at intel and autodesk are happy to post puff pieces and 'reviews' that are written like sales pitches.

What good is a 'review' of a 3D modeling package by a someone who writes all the books for that software, and only lists the new features instead of objectively listing the pros and cons of that year's release? They've had many mis-steps and some off years. The user base has complained about many things that have been degraded or broken and go years without being fixed. But never any mention of that in these 'reviews'.

What is this supposed to be?
http://www.gamedev.n...r-creativ-r2786

It's written like a sales pitch, and Pete Falco, the author works on the photoshop team.

That stuff would be fine if it were mixed in. I have no problem with it existing here. But that's all there is anymore. The only real content in recent years has been the dev journals, which was basically users paying you to populate generate your content.

It's insulting at times that you think your audience is not going to notice this. GDNet is now just a big advertisement posing as the old GDNet. A lot of the most interesting people in the GD community don't even bother coming here anymore for these reasons. I know because a lot of them told me as much when I said something about GD net on twitter the other day. 'What's up? I haven't bothered to go there in years!"

We all want the site to make financial sense for the staff and be profitable. But the direction the site has been going has led only to irrelevance and alienation. I'm sure there is a proper balance between serving the game development userbase and your advertising commitments at the same time. Does this site actually want to be a useful game development hub, or do you just want to rack up ad views from every mmo noob who types game developement into google and clicks on your link?