Feedback on Zam.comFollow

Okay, Illia, just demonstrated to me that using the old allakhazam.com instead of zam.com in addresses shows everything except the main page in the old news face. To be honest, I really like the new color scheme, and I've always been partial to light text on dark backgrounds. Looking at the old colors didn't seem all that bright until now... and now it's blinding.

I think I'll be quite glad to stay with the new version once the fixed width thing is um... fixed.

I still think filter options for which games you get news for would be nice. I don't mind having the previews of all recent articles in the top corner of the screen, but having ALL articles shown on the main page tends to make things move off the front page too fast if you are only watching for certain topics... makes me feel like I'm looking at the news on Max Console.

EDIT: I REALLY need to stop writing half a post and then pasting it into another post and trying to fix it... Always looks stupid afterward.

Another EDIT: This isn't so much a problem with the new news face as an issue that's bugged me for a long time. You know those "allakhazam.com/fcluster/gotopost.pl?mid=" links on the User Posts list? For some reason, if I'm in a normal forum and I post something from the news face or from say, the WoW or FFXI face, the link will remember what one I was using when I submitted the post whenever I open it again from the User Posts list, BUT if the post was in one of the FFXI job forums, it ALWAYS opens up in the FFXI face. Is there a reason why those forums don't work the way the rest of the site does?

Edited, Mar 3rd 2009 11:15pm by LadyOfHolyDarkness

Fixed width is an immediate nonstarter for me. Why use a template that uses 50% of my screen?

Drive up here and borrow one of my bigger monitors, then you'll be fine. It would actually be a pain in the *** to recode the entire site just for little ole you. We do still love you however.

I'm guessing that you guys were going for a really "gamey" feel and you definitely accomplished that. It's not a bad scheme by any stretch of the imagination, but I do miss the Allakhazam.com skin. So much more elegant.

There's a lot of scripting, and it does slow down the page load over slower connections. During the day I browse over an internet connection through a tethered Blackberry, and while the old Alla site took only a few seconds to come down, this site is taking considerably longer. Nothing you can do about that though, short of cutting out about half the scripting.

I'd take another look at the posting box scripts, though. I have noscript set to allow zam.com, but if you start typing before the page "fully loads" it seems there is some part of the script that resets the box to clear if you have typed anything. It happened again as I started typing this message. So don't type within the first few seconds of page rendering. Minor nuisance.

If I didn't trust Allakhazam with my life, I'd walk away from a site this heavily scripted.

try this: http://www.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=3;mid=123604908117397677;page=1;howmany=50#m123620341794754423

The width issue is the biggest turn off for me.

The color scheme is nice, the dark blue colors are easy on the eyes. The width makes it feel off though, if it was extended to cover the full screen, it'd feel much nicer.

use tabs?

It's likely related to the bug that will delete text out of the text box if it's typed in within the first second or two of rendering. Try it yourself: Open a post and immediately hit the quote button or type in some text. In another second or two all the text will be gone.

I have time to hit the quote button AND paste the text I want to quote over my blackberry connection before it wipes the text and I have to start all over again. The code for the reply boxes needs a look.

And Darq - it's resolving to Zam.com no matter what I type in. I have been typing Allakhazam.com for so long that it's automatic at this point, but it resolves to Zam.com anyway. I clicked your link, and it took me to the zam.com skin of my post. I have tried in both Firefox and IE7. I guess there is no going back - but it would be nice to have a user preference where we could choose our skin. I know it's far too much to run three different domains, but a skin option or two would be nice. A lot of us have been using Allakhazam.com and FFXI.Allakhazam.com for years and were perfectly happy. :(


EDIT: Here's a screen shot so you don't think I'm just going batty :p

Zam.com

EDIT again - Forget the screen shot - double checked the properties in the link and it was pointing to zam.com

Changed the zam part manually and it's working with the old site so I'm very happy. So going forward looks like www.allakhazam.com/forum is gonna take me where I want to go!!! wooo!!!!

Thanks!



Edited, Mar 5th 2009 12:09pm by Terrain

The images are too small and I can't click them to re-size them.

She (harumph) EDIT - in reading the post above, yes, that's exactly what I am saying- what I noticed was that when viewing in the old skin the query returned as being www.allakhazam.com for your link and sent me to the right place, and when looking at the new skin it was www.zam.com and sent me to the wrong place. It's the oddest thing.

Photobucket is a beast - it re-sized the images without asking me :p

I tossed them on mediafire for you to just grab the images I took. What I'm wondering is why when I right-click and viewed the link properties in one skin, it was alla, and in the other, it was zam.

Zam vs Alla

Edited, Mar 5th 2009 4:53pm by Terrain

That change has been in effect for a long time now if I'm right. Whenever someone is directed to an xxxx.allakhazam page from a yyyy.allakhazam page the yyyy is retained. It's so that people clicking links from other people using different skins don't have to deal with getting their skin changed. I'm guessing they're using referrer information or something to do it, as that's why entering it in the url bar manually opens it up in the 'correct' skin.



You need to change your settings to not automatically resize pictures over a certain size. Anything I upload to photobucket won't resize automatically unless it's over two megs.

Edited, Mar 5th 2009 10:16pm by Deadgye

Right, but this is a situation where an xxx.xxx is redirecting to an xxx.yyy site. It's clearly redirecting to the zam site entirely, it's not a matter of keeping specific sub-domains within a domain. Different domains entirely.