[sheep01]

The Community is a massive part of the site. Where would we be without it? Normally staff go behind the scenes making changes and leaves this as a pleasant surprise. Well, I wanted to consult you and see what you wanted to see change the most. It can be ANYTHING from the adding new forums to seeing a field added to the items database(be sure to include why!). I'm not promising that everything can be accomplished overnight, but I guarantee you, all suggestions will be looked at.

Thank you
Sheep01(PM)

[emschorsch]

Have a homework help forum. I doubt theres much of a demand but you could make it a subforum and see how many people post there.

[DarkAngel]

how about a community forum if you want it so bad?

not trying to be mean.

[sheep01]

You mean like the Community Forum?

The description is as follows: "A place to catch up with friends and to discuss the RuneHQ community."

[King_Dancing]

For Site:

• Add 'Compare Items' option to Items Database. This would be a GREAT addition.
  
• Add 'Achievement Diaries' on menu. It's frustrating to go first 'Mini-Quests', find and click there them.
  
• Add 'Monster Hunting' on menu. It's really annoying to find something on Special Reports Page.
  
• Add image of 'x' skill next to 'x' skill on 'Skill Guides. Same would be good for 'Guild, Mini-Games, Mini-Quests, and Calculators
  
• Add 'Welcome to RuneHQ' menu new 'Next Event:'. This would be good for Events Team.
  
• Add 'RS Poll' feature on 'Site News', like Tip.it has. It would be nice addition.
  
• Reorganize 'Special Reports' page. It takes about one minute to find something there.
  
• Make 'Submit Updates/feedback' form more user-friendly. Currently it is not.

Any Support?

[admiral_bunny]

Skeletonmat I deeply agree with you ideas most of all the compare itmes option love it. What I think would be more interesting to see is like a world news forum. I think it would be cool to read up on some world news and then talk about RS or other things on Runehq. I dont see some other of the younger users using it as much as the older members would but I think it would be a nice addition to the forum but it isnt really needed just helpful and interesting to see what happens in the world.

[Wolfee]

emschorsch, on Jan 5 2009, 12:16 AM, said:

Have a homework help forum. I doubt theres much of a demand but you could make it a subforum and see how many people post there.

If you have unfinished homework, you really shouldn't be on RuneHQ in the first place, should you?

[emschorsch]

XxAdamxX, on Jan 5 2009, 11:22 PM, said:

emschorsch, on Jan 5 2009, 12:16 AM, said:

Have a homework help forum. I doubt theres much of a demand but you could make it a subforum and see how many people post there.

If you have unfinished homework, you really shouldn't be on RuneHQ in the first place, should you?

I prefer going on runehq's homework site than facebook. But the point of homework help (if you seriously wish to consider it) would be to aid people who don't understand a homework problem or a subject that they're learning, it wouldn't be to post it and say do it.

[Gagan]

Ask a parent, ask a sibling, ask other family, ask real life friends, ask teachers.

Don't ask the internet.
Homework boards never work on forums once the initial fad dies.

It has been suggested here many times and always denied.

[MagicalBob]

Either A: Make Javascript menus work for the top to make it neater and more organized...

or

B: Get rid of the Casino, Battle, Arcade, and Downloads. Then combine FAQ and Help to centralize all help. Also, since the contact form is for registration issues, then I would recommend putting in a conditional statement that, if you are in the validating group, then you can see the button, otherwise, hide it (except for admins and mods).

I feel that the Battle system has see it's best days in the past and I think it just creates more clutter than it helps. The Casino and Arcade are cute, but this is a RuneScape Fan Site, not a game site for playing Casino games or the Arcade. Thus, I believe that they have no real need to be here. They don't really attract new users since most of the features require the member to be established and that discourages new users since they see they have to post to use any of the "pointless features".

[Gamekid13579]

I agree with Skeletonmat's idea's.
There was one thing that I couldn't find. Member hosted events. If it's already here somewhere can somebody give me a link. If not this would be a good add on. This way people can host their own events for the members of Runehq Community to take part in.

[King_Dancing]

Here you go

http://www.runehq.ne...p?showforum=304

[Rogan]

Skeletonmat, on Jan 5 2009, 01:36 AM, said:

For Site:

• Add 'Compare Items' option to Items Database. This would be a GREAT addition.
  
• Add 'Achievement Diaries' on menu. It's frustrating to go first 'Mini-Quests', find and click there them.
  
• Add 'Monster Hunting' on menu. It's really annoying to find something on Special Reports Page.
  
• Add image of 'x' skill next to 'x' skill on 'Skill Guides. Same would be good for 'Guild, Mini-Games, Mini-Quests, Calculators and City/Area Guides.
  
• Add 'Welcome to RuneHQ' menu new 'Next Event:'. This would be good for Events Team.
  
• Add 'RS Poll' feature on 'Site News', like Tip.it has. It would be nice addition.
  
• Reorganize 'Special Reports' page. It takes about one minute to find something there.
  
• Make 'Submit Updates/feedback' form more user-friendly. Currently it is not.

Any Support?

* Compare items = Good idea.
* I don't think putting more things on the menu is a good idea later in this post I'll suggest something about this.
*I think this would be fine for skills and possibly minigames, but definitely not on the main page or for cities, we don't want big images or more clogging up the main page
*This could be a nice addition to the menu, a "Next Event" page, editable by anyone with sitefun access so ET could get their pages put up quick... Would have to have a default layout tht minor changes are made to, so it doesn't get too messed up by people who don't know how changing it.
*Special reports is already alphabetical, but maybe two columns, one for members and one for non-members would help somewhat? Would be quick and easy.
*Uh, what's not user friendly about it? Possibly a link to it on the manu would be good, otherwise I can't think of any additions.

admiral_bunny, on Jan 5 2009, 10:02 PM, said:

Skeletonmat I deeply agree with you ideas most of all the compare itmes option love it. What I think would be more interesting to see is like a world news forum. I think it would be cool to read up on some world news and then talk about RS or other things on Runehq. I dont see some other of the younger users using it as much as the older members would but I think it would be a nice addition to the forum but it isnt really needed just helpful and interesting to see what happens in the world.

Hmmm, not too sure about that... Interesting news and events can be posted by anyone in General Category > Off Topic... If we had a forum for it, I can see it dying and only having dedicated staff posting the news... But if there was enough persistent interest, I'm sure you could convince Clamball to add it into Gen Cat

Gagan, on Jan 5 2009, 11:09 PM, said:

Ask a parent, ask a sibling, ask other family, ask real life friends, ask teachers.

Don't ask the internet.
Homework boards never work on forums once the initial fad dies.

It has been suggested here many times and always denied.

He's right.
It has been suggested a million times, and it's something you can still post in Gen Cat > Off Topic if you really need help, but I've never seen a successful homework help forum, it's more like one you add to fill space

Again, if it's something that shows a large amount of persistent interest, I'm sure it'd be more readily considered.

MagicalBob, on Jan 5 2009, 11:29 PM, said:

Either A: Make Javascript menus work for the top to make it neater and more organized...

or

B: Get rid of the Casino, Battle, Arcade, and Downloads. Then combine FAQ and Help to centralize all help. Also, since the contact form is for registration issues, then I would recommend putting in a conditional statement that, if you are in the validating group, then you can see the button, otherwise, hide it (except for admins and mods).

I feel that the Battle system has see it's best days in the past and I think it just creates more clutter than it helps. The Casino and Arcade are cute, but this is a RuneScape Fan Site, not a game site for playing Casino games or the Arcade. Thus, I believe that they have no real need to be here. They don't really attract new users since most of the features require the member to be established and that discourages new users since they see they have to post to use any of the "pointless features".

Agreed on organising the the forum menu. Not sure on how this can be done using ipb other then removing things.
I LOVE the idea of combining help and FAQ.
Not too sure about contact, I know it's intended for registration, but I think it should stay up and just be for general use.
Possibly Casino, Arcade and Forumbattle could be combined? IPB is quite limited so I don't know if they can, but it's certainly help a lot.

Downloads... What is even in there
Flash calculators is the only thing worth downloading, and the link is broken, I think we can safely remove that from the top menu.

I personally think these pointless features should be available to new members, then they could be somewhat more of an incentive to join, and would get more use.
Also, a query about a monthy/yearly forum battle level reset? I think it'd be neat and make more competitions as right now new people can't compete at all with veterans.



My idea for the site itself's side menus is could they potentially be coded so they were + - (expand/collapse) drop down categories? Like in the explorer view of windows file explorer?
This could be done very eloquently, and they could only load when being pressed in turn reducing clutter and load time, and making it quicker to find things.

[DarkBlitz]

Skeletonmat, on Jan 5 2009, 05:36 PM, said:

For Site:

• Add 'Compare Items' option to Items Database. This would be a GREAT addition.
  
• Add 'Achievement Diaries' on menu. It's frustrating to go first 'Mini-Quests', find and click there them.
  
• Add 'Monster Hunting' on menu. It's really annoying to find something on Special Reports Page.
  
• Add image of 'x' skill next to 'x' skill on 'Skill Guides. Same would be good for 'Guild, Mini-Games, Mini-Quests, Calculators and City/Area Guides.
  
• Add 'Welcome to RuneHQ' menu new 'Next Event:'. This would be good for Events Team.
  
• Add 'RS Poll' feature on 'Site News', like Tip.it has. It would be nice addition.
  
• Reorganize 'Special Reports' page. It takes about one minute to find something there.
  
• Make 'Submit Updates/feedback' form more user-friendly. Currently it is not.

Any Support?

I like your Special Reports reorganising suggestion. It could be put into categories... like 'Combat' (Fighting Tips/Demon/Metal Dragons/Salarin etc); 'Items' (Bank Space/Charos/Rare/Making a.../Enhancements); Possibly some area (I'll go for Misc. for now ) such as 'Misc' (Fonts/Security/Stat Signatures/Vocabulary)

Could be layed out like Maps has 'Land' 'Dungeon' and 'Mining'.

There's my suggestion

[Ludo]

How about adding drop-down menus on RHQ main page?
e.g.:
[Special Reports [v]] [GO!] -> takes you to current Special Reports page
[Special Report 1] -> takes you immediatly to Special Report 1, 2, 3, ...
[Special Report 2]
[Special Report 3]
[Special Report 4]

Faster navigation and not too many links either

I love RHQ and it's community. It's not one of the biggest (anymore ), but definately the friendliest.

[Roklykthat]

I cannot reply to all of the ideas, the ones that require coding I have no idea how much work would be required so I can't even guess if they are possible. I will reply to the ones that have not been answered that I actually do know what I am talking about lol.

emschorsch - As far as the homework subforum, I suggest starting a topic in the Off Topic board and seeing if there is any interest. I ask that anyone posting in it does not provide answers, but instead help the person with the question understand how to figure it out for themselves.

Skeletonmat - You posted a lot of ideas that look great but I have no idea how much work would be involved in implementing them so I can't comment, just wanted to say thanks for posting them.

admiral_bunny - The world news subforum, I suggest the same as I did for the homework one. Start a topic and see if there is enough interest to warrant considering a subforum for it.

MagicalBob - As with the other ideas I cannot comment on the aspects that require coding. The contact form can be used for other problems, it is primarily for registration issues but if someone else has trouble with something that is a means to ask for help.
You can opt out of the forum battle, and choose not to use any features you don't want to use. I don't know what would be involved in combining some of the links, but I don't see any need to remove features that are just fun and provide entertainment. And new members do now have access to those things. They are not there to attract new members, but just as a fun diversion.

I_M_Bad13 - I personally like the drop down menu idea, but again it is coding and I am still quite challenged in that area.

Okay so I really wasn't able to provide much input, but did want to address what I could and thank you all for your thoughts and ideas so far.

[GIR]

I_M_Bad13, on Jan 6 2009, 04:06 AM, said:

How about adding drop-down menus on RHQ main page?
e.g.:
[Special Reports [v]] [GO!] -> takes you to current Special Reports page
[Special Report 1] -> takes you immediatly to Special Report 1, 2, 3, ...
[Special Report 2]
[Special Report 3]
[Special Report 4]

Faster navigation and not too many links either

I love RHQ and it's community. It's not one of the biggest (anymore ), but definately the friendliest.

Drop-down menus and HTML don't mix. To the best of my knowledge, it's near impossible to code drop down menus into html (not sure about xhtml) I'm not that familiar with HTML, but I'm quite familiar with coding in general and I know the concepts behind most of the languages. It's really a pity how expensive it is to hire someone to code, otherwise I'd just say do it all in PHP .

[Steffan]

Steve-0, on Jan 7 2009, 07:27 AM, said:

I_M_Bad13, on Jan 6 2009, 04:06 AM, said:

How about adding drop-down menus on RHQ main page?
e.g.:
[Special Reports [v]] [GO!] -> takes you to current Special Reports page
[Special Report 1] -> takes you immediatly to Special Report 1, 2, 3, ...
[Special Report 2]
[Special Report 3]
[Special Report 4]

Faster navigation and not too many links either

I love RHQ and it's community. It's not one of the biggest (anymore ), but definately the friendliest.

Drop-down menus and HTML don't mix. To the best of my knowledge, it's near impossible to code drop down menus into html (not sure about xhtml) I'm not that familiar with HTML, but I'm quite familiar with coding in general and I know the concepts behind most of the languages. It's really a pity how expensive it is to hire someone to code, otherwise I'd just say do it all in PHP .

The RuneHQ Site is XHTML compliant, HTML is just weak, also, the site coders are probably very knowledgeable in php so alot of the stuff requested is no hassle.

PROTIP: XHTML is the clean cut, extended version of HTML, like C++ was to C, not a whole different language, just improved alot.

[Sccrluk9]

Steffan there are actually very few people on staff that can do php well.

Although the drop down menus would be nice to have I dont see it ever being done.

[Im4eversmart]

Sccrluk9, on Jan 7 2009, 10:00 PM, said:

Steffan there are actually very few people on staff that can do php well.

Although the drop down menus would be nice to have I dont see it ever being done.

Exactly, hence we are forming a coding team

[spect3r]

I personally like the Homework help idea. I know that I've gotten ridiculous assignments before from teachers that are above the ability level of the students. I do think it would be a bad idea to see something like this:

PL0X HALP! EYE NEED THYS MAHTH DUNE NAO!
1. 5^6
2. 8x+7=4x+2
3. 8/x=1/2
......ect

(Reply) here you are bro
1. 15625
2. x=-5/4
3. x=16
...ect.

It would need to be a "HELP" thing and not a "do these for me" thing. And that would be very hard to regulate.

[Salvette]

spect3r, on Jan 8 2009, 05:40 PM, said:

It would need to be a "HELP" thing and not a "do these for me" thing. And that would be very hard to regulate.

It could be on mod queue, like the Debates forum, so any posts trying to answer rather than teach wouldn't be seen... But then it'd take a while for each post to be approved. I'm no expert on homework, so I don't know how far in advance you get it.

[spect3r]

Salvette, on Jan 7 2009, 11:48 PM, said:

spect3r, on Jan 8 2009, 05:40 PM, said:

It would need to be a "HELP" thing and not a "do these for me" thing. And that would be very hard to regulate.

It could be on mod queue, like the Debates forum, so any posts trying to answer rather than teach wouldn't be seen... But then it'd take a while for each post to be approved. I'm no expert on homework, so I don't know how far in advance you get it.

Well, as long as a reply was seen at least within an hour it should be fine, and the mods seem quite fast at approving things. I wouldn't think there would be much more than 10 questions on homework a night after the initial shock of its existence appeared.

[Rogan]

spect3r, on Jan 7 2009, 11:51 PM, said:

Salvette, on Jan 7 2009, 11:48 PM, said:

spect3r, on Jan 8 2009, 05:40 PM, said:

It would need to be a "HELP" thing and not a "do these for me" thing. And that would be very hard to regulate.

It could be on mod queue, like the Debates forum, so any posts trying to answer rather than teach wouldn't be seen... But then it'd take a while for each post to be approved. I'm no expert on homework, so I don't know how far in advance you get it.

Well, as long as a reply was seen at least within an hour it should be fine, and the mods seem quite fast at approving things. I wouldn't think there would be much more than 10 questions on homework a night after the initial shock of its existence appeared.

Would be a gen cat forum, with Me and Mary and soon to be another mod, we usually manage to get to posts within an hour or two, sadly IPB is buggy at the moment and isn't showing that they're hidden from the main page which is why it takes around this long.
I'm sure we could speed it up when the bug gets fixed, and if we were needed to.

I still think it'd be an initial fad, and then peatier out... As Lisa said, make a dedicated topic for it, if it grows we'll give you a forum

[emschorsch]

For searches there should be a way to go to the page of the search result. I mean if you search a certain term and one of the results is a 10 page topic it should either tell you the pages that the result is on or allow you to be taken straight to the pass that has the search result. This would be really helpful and otherwise makes you waste your time going through each page using the find function.

Btw just a question I'm assuming that for the mod approved topics they get put into a list similar to abuse reports, because otherwise posts to old topics will most likely never been seen?

[admiral_bunny]

That seems like it would take a lot of work to be done. Looking through pages isnt that horrible. I agree with hilwin about the monster max hit idea. It would be helpful but probably long to get all the current monsters max hit. Also it depends what you wear that they would hit out at. You would need a max hit for no armour then bronze through third age, melee, range, and mage. It would take a long time but would be helpful to maybe a few group of people that would actually use it.

[emschorsch]

admiral_bunny, on Jan 8 2009, 11:02 PM, said:

That seems like it would take a lot of work to be done. Looking through pages isnt that horrible. I agree with hilwin about the monster max hit idea. It would be helpful but probably long to get all the current monsters max hit. Also it depends what you wear that they would hit out at. You would need a max hit for no armour then bronze through third age, melee, range, and mage. It would take a long time but would be helpful to maybe a few group of people that would actually use it.

It seems to me that it wouldn't be that hard to do. The search has the page its on because it looks through every page I'm assuming to find the post, correct me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't it be possible to simply pull the information from the search result and display it next to each thread?
And looking through pages is horrible if its like 300 pages, or you simply don't have the extra time to spend.

[Rogan]

emschorsch, on Jan 8 2009, 08:33 PM, said:

Btw just a question I'm assuming that for the mod approved topics they get put into a list similar to abuse reports, because otherwise posts to old topics will most likely never been seen?

Nope. Abuse reports come up in a popup/their own page. They're also made invisible.

Post awaiting mod approval are considered invisible as well.
From the front page of the forum, categories that have invisible posts in them *should* have an icon to show it contains invisible posts, this also works from inside categories and even in sub categories showing the topic itself.
Sometimes this feature glitches (seems to be a little too often lately) and the icon doesn't show up, but once it does all the posts are easily found, uaually once another post is made or summat.

[MagicalBob]

I just want to point out that organization through the use of Javascript menus can be done without the need to write up new Javascript or borrow scripts from another site. One can instead use the IPB JS already provided and in use on the forums, perhaps even the styles to match the options drop down that one sees on each topic.

[Akaris_Light]

emschorsch, on Jan 8 2009, 05:33 PM, said:

For searches there should be a way to go to the page of the search result. I mean if you search a certain term and one of the results is a 10 page topic it should either tell you the pages that the result is on or allow you to be taken straight to the pass that has the search result. This would be really helpful and otherwise makes you waste your time going through each page using the find function.

If you go to the advanced search, you can select show result as post, and the post preview link will take you to the exact post and page.