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Eep

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Capitalization/case

This is a test since I can't seem to edit my first blog post to add this:
 
Page name capitalization/case: Having all pages be Title Case is annoying when trying to find a general concept that is not a proper-/pronoun! Only games, companies, characters, and some locations (not common ones like beach, island, ocean, etc) should be Title Case (unless otherwise written by the developer/company). Most objects ( grass, shovel, tree, etc) and concepts (which is horribly way too general/vague and needs subcategories--see my " Categories" blog post; particle system, weather, 1st-person perspective, etc) should be lowercase (but some special objects and concepts may have proper nouns). Or, at the very least, " Sentence case" (where the first letter of the first word is capitalized only, unless there is a proper-/pronoun elsewhere in the "sentence"). See Wikipedia: Manual of Style (capital letters).

30 Comments

categories

How Giant Bomb could be laid out better with more categories: 

characters


player character/protagonist


non-player-characters


objects

engines

  • lighting
  • sound
 

environment

1 Comments

Giant Bomb annoyances/bugs and suggestions

General

  1. Forcing new users to follow a bunch of unknown people (to new users anyway) is lame. And having to visit each person's profile to "stop following" them is annoying. Checkboxes and options to "check/uncheck all" and "follow/stop following" each person would be more untuitive. I still have everyone I supposedly "stop following"ed appearing on my summary page too...
  2. The image uploading sucks. When using the "My Desktop" option, I have to close the uploader and redo it for it to not say "You have attempted to queue too many files. You may select one file." even though I only have 1 image selected...stupid javascript! Some PNGs fail to show transparency and there's no info about what formats are accepted (or resolution limits).
  3. Put the user's total points in parentheses next to their name at the top of every page: "Eep (1000)" and under the name in the forum/blog posts.
  4. Page titles: for searches, instead of just "Giant Bomb Search", include the term searched for to make it easier to find the right tab in the web browser. So, if I searched for "game", the window title would be: Giant Bomb Search: "game"

Blog

  1. Blog subject text-entry field should be longer (like the full width--I forced it with Stylish).
  2. Editing/updating a blog post should state it has been last edited/updated. Also, when updating a blog forum post, there is no link back to the forum thread unless the forum page is refreshed manually.

Database/wiki

  1. Editing is slow and buggy.
    1. Often times the save/cancel bottom part doesn't show (when editing related pages sections, sometimes only editing the concepts section will bring up the bottom panel).
    2. Having to click "edit" or "edit section" all the time for each section (when already in edit mode) is annoying. One edit click should suffice.
    3. The game search field does not appear if "edit" is clicked after visiting another page beyond the first page (and returning to the first page and clicking "edit" won't work either).
    4. Search lists are limited to 12 items with no way to scroll. Adding an item to a list that doesn't appear in the first 12 results is impossible (unless an alias match is found).
  2. More categories:  actions, animals, artificial intelligence, containers, effects, gameplay, genres*, insects, interface, themes*, vehicles, weapons (and ammunition), etc, and custom-createable categories (like a real wiki). Having to use lists (see below for suggestions) or concepts (which is already cluttered with lots of crap: 4337 as of 2010-2-21!) sucks.  * Addable/editable with moderation and should have list pages like the other categories do.
  3. The "add" option should be on every wiki page to make it easier to add content (especially if something isn't found in the input field dropdown list). Or, in the main red toolbar, "Add" should be, well, added, with submenus of everything that can be added (see FAQ).
  4. Game lists: sortable (by every column and in reverse), allow a configurable amount instead of only 10 per page, and show fuzzy dates (like years only) too.
  5. "First appearance" game should be clickable and automatically be filled in by the oldest game linked to the page.
  6. Intro/overview section should allow formatting: bold, italics, underline and links (at the very least). Having to repeat/move info to the main body just to get linking ability is annoying.
  7. Company: Needs a fuzzy date (especially for older companies--and years before 1975!) and "date disbanded" field (since many game companies have gone bankrupt or merged with other companies, etc).
  8. If a "related pages" section (characters, objects, concepts, locations) subsection is opened, the opened tab and position should be remembered and restored if the user goes to another page and comes back.
  9. Adding a game to a concept (and perhaps other categories) does not automatically add the concept to the game's "concepts" section. Also, the game does not appear in chronological order (when adding from the concept page vs. the game page) but, instead, at the top.
  10. "Wiki Submissions" summary tab list should automatically detect and list/show what was changed/removed (like a real wiki does with its difference comparison) without the submitter having to manually enter in a summary. This is especially annoying after making lots of changes to a page (and/or many pages and/or lots of little changes to many pages) and then having to wait over a day after you finally reach 1000 points where it would just be easier to redo the changes yourself... The list should also be sortable by columns.
  11. Image gallery default image can't be changed--even if the image is deleted.
  12. Games need more "General Information" like engine, graphics, perspective, single/multi-player, etc, without having to clutter up the general/vague "concepts" section any more than it needs to be. Once more categories (like actions, gameplay, and weapons at least) are added they can show up under "Related Pages" too.
 
See my 3D Game Comparison wiki (which, interestingly, this site's database design is very close to...) for more ideas.

Forum

  • Search results should have a forum column
  • Tooltip when mouse is over a topic, bring up the first few sentences

Lists

Since the site doesn't allow the creation of new categories (like for actions, containers, damage/hazards, effects, game engines, gameplay, interface, weapons, etc), lists are the only way to better organize things--especially concepts.

  1. Display/list/summary mode: Sortable by all fields (name and items) in. Most commented list, even if no lists have comments, just uses the last created list--shouldn't use any list if none have comments. "Edit" and "delete" options for each list.
  2. Edit mode: Select multiple items and move as a unit to make sorting easier. Option to sort alphabetically and by order added. Have "Add to list" search field also at the top.
  3. Option to allow anyone to add/delete from a public list (with or without optional creator's approval).

TOS

The TOS conflicts with the very nature of this site, which is to edit/modify it:

Your Use of the Site

 You may not do any of the following to the site:  
  •  modify, adapt, translate or reverse engineer the site
 

Other suggestions


Last updated: 2-23-2010
19 Comments