Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Behold! Fresh Website Splendor

By RPS on September 16th, 2009 at 3:41 pm.

Sorry about the current lack of forum integration. But look, the site loads!

Ooh, it changed. There may be bugs. Yes, we’ve updated the site. We’re going to be doing all kinds of new stuff, including more special VIP treatment for subscribers, more events, more interviews, more reviews, more cleverthinks, and so on. All the things that make RPS fun will be staying the same, but there will be more of it, and it will be prettier. This redesign is about making things tidier, cleaner, less broken, but also about introducing some more things that we couldn’t do before, like those site skin adverts you see around the web. Yes, boo hiss adverts. Making sure we don’t go bankrupt has become an issue, so we’re concentrating on making RPS a bit more of a business and a bit less of a charity, because after two years of working pretty hard on this we can safely say we love writing about PC games, and want to do more of this sort of thing.

More about the redesign, including an important message from our designer, below.

James Willock, designer in chief, says:

Greetings readers

I write to you now by licence of the Hivemind. I will keep this message brief as it may be largely boring to those of you only interested in electronic video games.

First off, why the change? There is a large contingent who bemoan any sort of change, but the old site had a good run. This incarnation has been in the pipeline for some time now with the primary goal of improving the overall browsing experience. A lot of time and effort has been expended researching the appropriate fonts, line heights and other text legibility factors. Upshot? Words should be easier on the eyes to read now.

The site is also a bit shinier and more colourful. What’s with the nebulae? Well, space is the most common fictional location for games, so it seemed fitting. Future RPS redesigns may take place in sewers or abandoned Miami warehouses.

We also have new technologies. The old forum is dead. It was a horrible Frankenstein’s monster of a beast, and no one will lament its loss. In its place we have new, shiny, actually working forum software which is cleverly synchronized with the main site. When an article is posted on the site, it gets automatically posted on the forum. Comments on the post and posts in the forum thread are synchronized to finally bridge the gap between the warring factions. [If you're mourning the loss of all your old posts, a read-only version of the old forum can be found here, incidentally.]

By popular request, threaded comments are now enabled. Okay, only to one depth, but now when your bulky totem is pulsing with rage you can at least point the verbal abuse in the right direction. Some time has also been spent re-imagining some of the old site pages. Check out the About page for a barbershop tribute.

As always your kind comments and bug-splatting is graciously appreciated.

Oh, and you might need to delete your RPS cookies to get into the forum, but you’ve already registered with the site, you’ll already be signed up. (In Firefox go to Tools, Options, Privacy, and click Show Cookies, then search for “rockpapershotgun” and delete any associated with this site. In IE, God knows. It seems you have to faff around inside Documents and Settings\”Administrator”\Cookies to find them. But seriously, isn’t it time to switch to Firefox or Chrome?)

Finally, in the spirit of newness, our lovely subscribers will be receiving a regular RPS Newsletter, which will contain all sorts of TOP SECRET INFORMATION. If you don’t subscribe, for example, you’ll have no idea about the awesome competition for free games we had this morning! Man! Join the cool kids here.

__________________

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452 Comments »

  2. 16/09/2009 at 15:42 Da'Jobat says:

    I quite like it so far. Not a massive change to the original, but still very nice. Aced it guys!

  3. 16/09/2009 at 15:42 Seniath says:

    Crap, that last comment totally lost my <Neo> tag.

  4. 16/09/2009 at 15:44 Ben Abraham says:

    I should have KNOWN seeing that website guy – James or whatever his name is. He only ever turns up in comments when RPS gets a facelift.

  5. 16/09/2009 at 15:45 Yargh says:

    it’s full of stars!

  6. 16/09/2009 at 15:45 LewieP says:

    It is not exactly the same as the previous site. Ergo, I dislike it.

    Jesting of course, initial impressions are that is is pretty, and good forums is a good thing.

  7. 16/09/2009 at 15:47 TheBlackBandit says:

    Yes, very yes. Thumbs up from me… glad we’ve not lost the tf2-esque grey and brown, which I always liked. Not sure about the Nebulae, but it’ll grow on me.

    And speaking from inside the shining subscriber camp, yeah, yeah, you don’t know what you’re missing.

  8. 16/09/2009 at 15:48 ChampionHyena says:

    I was just reading the Wot I Think on Champions Online when suddenly an alert popped up in Steam.

    I refreshed the page to look, when suddenly–

    THE REJIGGENING

    MY GOD

    IT’S FULL OF STARS

    Also loading kinda slow. But I bet that’s just shaking the cobwebs off for all the novelty, yeah?

  9. 16/09/2009 at 15:50 James says:

    Please try and break stuff. This has been shockingly smooth for an RPS change-over.

  10. 16/09/2009 at 15:51 ysbreker says:

    the “Read the rest of this entry ยป”-link in the article doesn’t work :( (And I presume it isn’t needed anymore because of the fanvy read button).

    The error page for not filling in your email/website/nickname is deviod of any markup. Perhaps some fancy javascript form validation would help with this?

  11. 16/09/2009 at 15:51 Lu-Tze says:

    The forums appear to be empty, oh woe, our words have been destroyed ;_;

  12. 16/09/2009 at 15:53 Lambchops says:

    2 minutes ago it looked the old way and now it looks new. Ooh shiny.

    I actually quite like this redesign; it looks pretty sleek and is very easy on the eyes. Although pages seem to be taking some time to load at the moment – don’t know if anyone else is experiencing this.

    I also feel a warm glow for subscribing just before “more special treatment” was announced . . . .I’m not just in it for potential free stuff!

  13. 16/09/2009 at 15:55 ChampionHyena says:

    God dammit!

    I posted that “It’s full of stars” crack WAY before Yargh did! It just took an excruciatingly long time to go through.

    JAMES THE SITE IS TOO SLOW

    IT IS INJURIOUS TO MY FABULOUS WITTICISMS

    PLEASE ADVISE

  14. 16/09/2009 at 15:55 Andrew Dunn says:

    Yeah, I like this. I think font sizes are maybe slightly too large but the look is great.

  15. 16/09/2009 at 15:56 ChaosSmurf says:

    Pretty!

    Site is dodgy in Chrome/XP/1024*768 though. Leaves space at the left and right edges instead of fitting to the window.

  16. 16/09/2009 at 15:58 irama says:

    Love it. Keep up the good work!

  17. 16/09/2009 at 15:58 Nero68 says:

    Oooh, well as always with something new it takes a while to adjust. A new forum sounds lovely.

  18. 16/09/2009 at 15:58 ChaosSmurf says:

    Also in Opera, same specs >.>

  19. 16/09/2009 at 15:59 nabeel says:

    Congrats! Looks spiffy.

  20. 16/09/2009 at 15:59 Mike says:

    It’s so beautiful! It’s even better than the All Aspect Warfare site!

  21. 16/09/2009 at 16:02 Schmung says:

    This seems nice. A properly synchronized forum is a good thing as well. Not entirely sure about the main header image thing – it needs more horizontal and less vertical.

  22. 16/09/2009 at 16:05 James says:

    Okay, you broke it by USING IT TOO MUCH. Please go read other sites while the server recovers. I hear IGN is good.

  23. 16/09/2009 at 16:06 gryffinp says:

    Eh… I don’t think I like this new layout as much as the old one. I feel like the smooth borders and rounded corners kind of clash with the feel of the site. The overall effect is to make it feel more open and airy- And as a PC gamer open and airy is not a comfortable environment for me. What would be nice is one of those dealies where you can click a button and change the site layout. That would be cool.

  24. 16/09/2009 at 16:06 brog says:

    Change is bad, etc.
    I don’t like how when I load the site, the first thing I see is not the latest post. It’s not even on the screen! I have to scroll down! What is this BATMAN rubbish I see instead?

    Apart from that.. ooh, shiny. If slow.

  25. 16/09/2009 at 16:09 Clovis says:

    I’m outraged! And when I’m outraged….

    So, it looks like my browser at RPS and then threw it up. My browser is forced to be IE6 at work though, so I don’t think you should actually try to remedy the situation.

    Here’s a real complaint though. I really liked not having “pages” in the comments. Otherwise, I can’t wait to get home and see what this looks like with a proper browser.

    And here’s a really long word, just to see how it gets handled (per request to break things):

    lkjal;vjc89vjn2i3j0c-v09cad90sd90fui03j2kj3-09d0ac0jaklj30r1jr0fj#@%#%$EJefos0-uf0sdlacjvopcnpqoj3r5@#$R#@$%#@%@#JdFDF)(FU)jr34%#@%RWJFDEJFJD)J)(D)TUI)#$JTOIJFD)G(UD*U#ONKJ#@;5j23%235345jt2309f8d0fioj23r023fjdslkgjdf-892opihtklgy0d897vhvowiru3-7g-sddhpaogkj0-we8urf-98uf92htf-89sdugf98u-2e90rufh-fh9-sdafh!!!!111!!!!!111!!!!

    • 16/09/2009 at 16:16 Lambchops says:

      I agree with the comments on one page thing – that’s about the only thing I don’t really like about the redesign. Pretty minor though and comes down to scrolling the mouse wheel being oh so marginally quicker than pressing a button to move page.

    • 16/09/2009 at 16:22 Mike says:

      I’ll see your attempt to break the forum, and I’ll raise you a reply with a long word in. lkjal;vjc89vjn2i3j0cv09cad90sd90fui03j2kj3-09d0ac0jaklj30r1jr0fj#@%#%$EJefos0uf0sdlacjvopcnpqoj3r5@#$R#@$%#@%@#JdFDF)(FU)jr3%#@%RWJFDEJFJD)J(D)TUI)#$JTOIJFD)G(UD*U#ONKJ#@;5j23%235345jt2309f8d0fioj23r023fjdslkgjdf-892opihtklgy0d897vhvowiru3-7g-sddhpaogkj0-we8urf-98uf92htf-89sdugf98u-2e90rufhfh9sdafh!!!!111!!!!!111!!!!

  26. 16/09/2009 at 16:15 LewieP says:

    Hold the phone!

    From the homepage “Batman: The Review”

    What blasphemy is this? Where am I, IGN?

  27. 16/09/2009 at 16:16 MrBejeebus says:

    hmm, writing is too big for my liking, i preffered the old way, aside from that looks noice

  28. 16/09/2009 at 16:19 Sporknight says:

    The site doesn’t fit when I’m browsing in 1024 x 768. (in Firefox, on Windows 7, if that proves relevant). There’s room to scroll to the left and right. I can read everything in the main column just fine, but not having it properly fit is kind of silly…

    • 16/09/2009 at 16:31 Yargh says:

      That said, on this 15″ 1920×1200 display it’s pretty nice being able to make out the text without having to zoom the page.

    • 16/09/2009 at 17:51 Jad says:

      It looks nice enough. Problem for me is that I tend to view the site in a narrow, shrunk-down browser window off to the side of my screen while working, which makes the new wideness annoying. Particularly on the left side of the screen. I’ll get used to it though … I always have to scroll right for basically every other site, anyway. It was nice that the old RPS always lined up completely on the left if you had a narrow browser size. Is this fixable? There’s nothing to the left anyway… its just space.

      I also throw in my desire for one-page comments.

      Other than those two complaints the site seems fine.

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:15 Jad says:

      I’m going to have to get used to the way threading works.

      I clicked on “Reply” to Sporknight’s comment, but then nothing seemed to happen. No “you are replying to Sporknight” or anything. So I scrolled down to the bottom, and wrote post that was a more general reply to the whole article. Click “Opinion, Away!”, get an error message (something about the database did not reply, probably due to the hammering your servers are getting), clicked submit again, seemed to go through, check the last page of the posts, didn’t see my comment, clicked submit a third time, and then it told me “Duplicate Post, you’ve already said that”. Then I went back to Sporknight’s post and saw my reply below.

      Not to hard, but you should make the reply-in-thread process a little clearer. Like center your post after you reply in thread. And when you click the “Reply” button next to someone’s post, immediately send the browser down to the bottom and note that you’re replying to a specific post.

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:17 Jad says:

      And now after all that, it seems like you already do what I mentioned, as my comment popped up in the middle of my browser. Maybe my browser is just crapping out, or its due to server problems or something. Anyway, good stuff.

  29. 16/09/2009 at 16:19 KikiJiki says:

    Excellent redesign, subtle yet clearly different.

    I actually got off my lazy arse and subbed now as well, $2 a month is pittance and well worth it for this site :)

  30. 16/09/2009 at 16:21 Clovis says:

    It looks like the forum/story crossover stuff isn’t working perfectly. In the story James made the comment, “Please try and break stuff. This has been shockingly smooth for an RPS change-over.” That doesn’t appear in the version of the comments in the forum. I tried out the reply feature with, “I’m trying to break things by replying…” That comment does appear in the forum, but it doesn’t look like a reply so it sounds sort of stupid.

  31. 16/09/2009 at 16:28 mujadaddy says:

    It’s verrrrrrrrrry slow to load here in ‘Merka. Taking like 60 seconds. Before the page loaded with “redesign Madness”, I thought the site was down.

  32. 16/09/2009 at 16:30 Sp4rkR4t says:

    Overall it’s better but spoilt by two major issues;

    1/ The only time a font this large should be used is when writing a children’s book for pre-school kids. I am neither blind nor retarded.

    2/ Splitting comments into pages is a very bad idea, good website layout should ensure you have the least amount of unnecessary clicks to read everything you want. This is taking a step backwards.

  33. 16/09/2009 at 16:30 Richard Beer says:

    I get loads of ‘WordPress error’ messages down the right hand column on the shiny new homepage, and my office’s Trend Micro Alert thing goes crazy about widgets or something. Possibly related?

    Otherwise, I largely concur with John Walker’s one-word review of the new design: ‘prettier’.

  34. 16/09/2009 at 16:33 Stoffig says:

    My Dear LORD!

    Scrolling down I find under the information tab THIS:
    Children eaten by DRM today: 9529

    No fake moustaches or stick-on moles can fix these wrong doings!

    Boycotted.

  35. 16/09/2009 at 16:34 Leeks! says:

    Anything that will eventually lead to my spending even more of my billable hours reading clever Englishmen go on about videogames is fine by me. I say “huzzah!” to the re-design, and “extra-huzzah!” to a greater focus on developing RPS’ revenue streams.

    Capitalism wins, friends. Even on the Internet, capitalism will always win.

  36. 16/09/2009 at 16:34 jsutcliffe says:

    Nice work. There are things I dislike, but I won’t bother detailing them because nobody likes a whining bastard other than to ask one thing: is there a way to increase the number of comments displayed on a page? I quite liked having everything in one long page to scroll through.

    I like the new text weighting very much, the footer area is swell with the RPS four’s various websites and whatnot easily available. I love Myriad as a typeface, and I’m glad you’re using CSS3 for the corners rather than faffing about with images. Leave those ‘orrible IE folks out in the cold with their spiky edges, I say.

    Not sure how I feel about the nebula yet. I don’t like it, but it’s probably just because it’s different and unfamiliar.

    Nicely done, Mr. Willock. All hail RPS.

  37. 16/09/2009 at 16:39 jsutcliffe says:

    Nice work. There are things I dislike, but I won’t bother detailing them because nobody likes a whining bastard other than to ask one thing: is there a way to increase the number of comments displayed on a page? I quite liked having everything in one long page to scroll through.

    I like the new text weighting very much, the footer area is swell with the RPS four’s various websites and whatnot easily available. I love Myriad as a typeface, and I’m glad you’re using CSS3 for the corners rather than faffing about with images. Leave those ‘orrible IE folks out in the cold with their spiky edges, I say.

    Not sure how I feel about the nebula yet. I don’t like it, but it’s probably just because it’s different and unfamiliar.

    Nicely done, Mr. Willock. All hail RPS.

    [after my praise, the comments system on the new post keeps eating my comment or timing out, so I'll try it here]

  38. 16/09/2009 at 16:44 Javier-de-Ass says:

    Well this looks a lot worse. Apart from the lovely bugs. Keep up the great work.

  39. 16/09/2009 at 16:44 Ginger Yellow says:

    Not a fan of the new comments style (please have a single page version), but at least I can use the forum from work now. It used to be that as soon as I clicked on a thread it would forget I was logged in.

  40. 16/09/2009 at 16:47 Tei says:

    Very nice work. It work ok in Linux, with epiphany.

    I like the round corners, the love for good fonts, the style and attidude. Congratulations!.

    Also, I am happy that the new version continue the traditions…

    # Children eaten by DRM today: 9529
    # Statistical chance of typo-free post: 1.289%

  41. 16/09/2009 at 17:00 Lewis says:

    Oi, Willock. Hello, old chum. Nice redesign.

    Quick nitpicky problem: the icons next to the Hivemind’s names aren’t aligned properly in the footer.

    Splendid, though!

    • 16/09/2009 at 17:21 Stuk says:

      I love the new look. Glad it doesn’t have the bloat of all those other game sites.

      But I second this problem with the name icons not lining up. I’m using FF3.0 on Ubuntu. A quick experiment says that the names should be float:left, and the li’s float:left’ed and width set.

      Also, shouldn’t it be “Rock, Paper, Shotgun is”, rather than “Rock, Paper, Shotgun was”. Unless…. the hivemind has been created from the souls of our hosts!

      (Also it would be nice to have some Javascript magic make the reply button instant)

      Keep up the good work though! To the future!

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:19 James says:

      Site is tested across IE6, IE8, FF 3.5, Chrome, Safari, etc. It’s probably a rendering error in FF 3.0, but I’ll check it out.

  42. 16/09/2009 at 17:11 Surgeon says:

    I really like the redesign overall.
    It is a lot cleaner and easier to look at now.

    But I too prefer the one page of comments approach.
    I reckon the comments would also look better with alternating colours.

  43. 16/09/2009 at 17:14 Golden says:

    Nice, I’ve often said to the wife that RPS needs a touch of class.
    Generally she igniores me, but you don’t.
    Thank you. Looks Fab

  44. 16/09/2009 at 17:15 Vanguard says:

    Extremely slow for me (in Opera and FF), it took me 2 minutes to load this article and 4 min for the complete page (stuff on the right side).

    Besides I also prefer the one page comments.

  45. 16/09/2009 at 17:17 jokermatt999 says:

    Looks pretty good overall, but I dislike the lack of images in the RSS feed, and the breaking up of comments into multiple pages. It also seems slower than before. I do like the overall look of it though.

  46. 16/09/2009 at 17:17 Schaulustiger says:

    I think I’ll get used to it, though i generally like websites with a smaller font.

    But +1 for comments on a single page. Or at least an option to make it that way.

  47. 16/09/2009 at 17:17 yummy says:

    Look much better very clean and modern! Jolly good show!

  48. 16/09/2009 at 17:21 SAeN says:

    Love the new look, not too different, not too unfamiliar. Only issues I am suffering are occasional failures to load the site, and when I manage to it takes far too long. (I’m used to it being up instantly)

    Also, hugs will be sent if all comments are allowed onto the one page.

  49. 16/09/2009 at 17:24 harbour master says:

    Much easier to read on the crackberry.

    Thank you fine peoples.

  50. 16/09/2009 at 17:31 dbdkmezz says:

    Ooooh, RPS is all shiny and new! Nice clean, modern look, I like it :)
    Also it now loads on Linux browser Konqueror (it didn’t at all before), so that’s good.

    However, like many others, I’m really not a fan of multi-page comments, if my wireless is in a bad mood then going through each page of comments will get annoying very quickly :(. Having a little threadedness is for comments is good though :)

  51. 16/09/2009 at 17:32 Helm says:

    Site took a couple of minutes to load.

  52. 16/09/2009 at 17:35 FunkyLlama says:

    Yay for clutter and needlessly large font sizes. :/
    The old one was elegant and compact and did the job perfectly. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

  53. 16/09/2009 at 17:38 jsutcliffe says:

    I’m pretty sure the “Rock Paper Shotgun was” is past tense because it’s like the credits after a TV show. “You have been watching” and all that.

  54. 16/09/2009 at 17:39 Frools says:

    really slow at the moment
    by the way you’re also pulling in jquery twice and it might be an idea to consolidate the various js and css files into 1 so there are fewer http requests for each page load :)

  55. 16/09/2009 at 17:41 CMaster says:

    Site needs a scrollbar (side-to-side) in IE7 on a 1024 x768 screen.
    This seems really, really silly and annoying as the main content (blog + sidebar) actually fit within those limits once I scroll across far enough to see them all.

    Also, yet another voice for one-page comments.

  56. 16/09/2009 at 17:41 Alexander Norris says:

    Shame that all the lovely people who browse RPS are reducing Positive Internet’s servers to a fine paste, however! I sort of miss the blockiness of the old design, as this one reminds me a little (a lot) of GOG for some reason. Oh, well; ‘sall good.

    I dig the footer, though, especially the new bit with all your twitters and the like. If there’s one thing I’d like to request, it’s that comments all be on a single page. Multiple pages of comments are always bad.

  57. 16/09/2009 at 17:43 Ozzie says:

    Yep, takes an eternity to load this site.
    And since that’s the case it’s anoying that the comments are split up over multiple pages. I liked to have them on one, even if it’s a huge one then!
    Otherwise, nice look, nothing else to complain. The only feature that needed to be added from my point of view was an editing function for unregistered users, so I didn’t see the need for a redesign.
    Oh, and it’s trial and error to post a message here atm.

  58. 16/09/2009 at 17:44 Lukasz says:

    stuff i don’t like
    comments section has pages… i liked it when everything was on one page.
    :)

    and wow. so much empty space on the left
    and wow, even more empty space on the right!! RPS doesn’t like widescreen?

    and i am using adblock and gog’s advertisement is the only one i can see. am i a bad person?

  59. 16/09/2009 at 17:45 Muddy Water says:

    Nooooo, multi-page comments.
    Nooooo, site-skin adverts (nothing against adverts, they’re a necessary evil, but site skin ones are just too … loud).
    And the subscriber page is taking forever to load.

    These are the only problems I have though. So, overall, well done.

  60. 16/09/2009 at 17:46 Octaeder says:

    I like it. More importantly it works better on my shitty IE6 work browser, meaning my work productivity will plummet. Which is nice.

  61. 16/09/2009 at 17:46 shiggz says:

    The words in the new design seem bigger. Will they shrink after they first get washed?

  62. 16/09/2009 at 17:53 Jugglenaut says:

    Really enjoy the site redesign, but yet one more +1 to one page comments.

  63. 16/09/2009 at 17:55 the_procrastinator says:

    Like the redesign. I’ve been forced into action for once and have finally subscribed and actually got around to commenting. Another vote for single page comments though.

    Now, time for a nice cup of tea and a sit down…

  64. 16/09/2009 at 17:58 Droniac says:

    Pretty new layout, featured items on the frontpage, post comment and forum integration, nice, nice…. nebulae…. err… wait a second. Space is the most common fictional location for games!? I thought space sims were dead!? Gimme your secret stash!

  65. 16/09/2009 at 18:00 Vinraith says:

    I can only add to the chorus asking that comments be restored to a single page or, failing that, that the display limit for a single page be raised massively.

    As others have said, it’s also intolerably slow right now under FF. I’m assuming that’s just a product of the switch-over, though, and should be readily solvable.

  66. 16/09/2009 at 18:01 Alex says:

    This looks very nice! It is understandably slow right now, and one of the flash ads is looking funny. That could be my problem, though, I’m using Firefox 3 in Ubuntu.

  67. 16/09/2009 at 18:02 ChampionHyena says:

    I’m now forced to temper my enthusiasm for the new design. Maybe it’s because of my not-Brit-adjacent locale, but trying to load any part of this site is like trying to wring molasses out of steel wool. Is this slowdown a temporary thing, or shall my favorite squad of PC-centric journalists never load snappily again?

  68. 16/09/2009 at 18:05 Walter says:

    Headlines are too big in comparison to the text. Site is very slow. Don’t like the red. Single page comments.

    Otherwise thumbs up.

  69. 16/09/2009 at 18:07 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:

    Aside from multi-page comment threads, I think it’s fantabulous!

  70. 16/09/2009 at 18:08 Metal_Circus says:

    This is all quite nice. Not so bothered about more ads, just so long as RPS doesn’t mutate into a huge corperate behemoth made out of coins and CRUSHED SOULS, i’ll be alright. Keep it up, chaps!

  71. 16/09/2009 at 18:10 Anthony Damiani says:

    Not a fan of the changes.. I recognize that you want to run this more as a business, but part of why I like RPS is that it doesn’t FEEL like one, in the way, say, Gamespot does. It felt like a really cool blog. The new aesthetics rob the site of a lot of its charm.

    Now, you’ve made your decisions and invested your resources, it’s hardly subject to change. But is there any chance we can get back a nice single-page comments-thread?

  72. 16/09/2009 at 18:11 Anthony Damiani says:

    Also… doublespaced text is only easier to read on the printed page; on the screen it actually makes it more difficult.

  73. 16/09/2009 at 18:11 James says:

    Site is recovering a bit now.

  74. 16/09/2009 at 18:12 alset says:

    Gratz on the new redesign. But +1 to single page comment threads.

  75. 16/09/2009 at 18:14 Ben says:

    Looks very swish and a bit less dated so thumbs up for that.

    +1 for one page comments and also I miss the post navigation thing – click left for previous RPS post right for the next newest one, whatever its proper name is.

  76. 16/09/2009 at 18:14 Ragnar says:

    I like the general new look of things, but some things I don’t like:

    * There should be one page of comments
    * There should be a little less space between each row in the text.
    * There seem to be some unaligned text and icons and stuff here and there.

  77. 16/09/2009 at 18:14 Vinraith says:

    There’s been a significant speed improvement in the last few minutes, glad to see the kinks are getting worked out.

    As far as the aesthetics, I like the nebula, but wish the text boxes were a little less bright.

  78. 16/09/2009 at 18:15 VPeric says:

    Yeah, the old stuff used to be… unique. Simple, but that’s what made it so good. The new site is just like every other site out there, complete with the huge-looking letters.

    Perhaps, as a special bonus to subscribers you could let them see the old site if they want. Would make me subscribe, and I doubt I’m the only one.

  79. 16/09/2009 at 18:16 Tim James says:

    Forum integration? WELL DONE, SIRS. It’s no vBulletin (for all its flaws) but it’ll make me actually check that place out occasionally.

  80. 16/09/2009 at 18:16 Butler` says:

    Don’t like multi-page comment threads :(

  81. 16/09/2009 at 18:17 Knight Of Cydonia says:

    New forum tech – DADDY LIKE

    New rest of site – DADDY NOT LIKE SO MUCH.

  82. 16/09/2009 at 18:19 Fergus says:

    I really like it, I would agree with the one page comments thing, but overall two massive thumbs up!

  83. 16/09/2009 at 18:19 Alexander says:

    Good, very sleeck, but few things bother. Border on the opinion button, multiple comment pages, THE FONT SIZE IS HUGE, please, please my screen resolution isn’t 3409 x 2590.

  84. 16/09/2009 at 18:20 Theory says:

    Seems that replying to blog post threads in the forum is broken. I’m showing up in “last reply”, but my reply isn’t visible in the forum or blog.

    The lost reply:

    So if I post on this forum thread, it appears as a comment on the main site? Truly marvellous if so. Not sure about the new text size, and the gradient effect behind each post is just corny, but I’m sure I’ll adjust with time.

    FYI James W, body has background-color:transparent in the forums. Should be #1D1D1D. :)

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:24 James says:

      Thanks, Theory, the inline styles were overwriting the stylesheet. I wouldn’t normally do anything hack and slash but the forum was a last-minute deal.

  85. 16/09/2009 at 18:20 Jonas says:

    Love, gentlemen! Well done, says I. Loving the new graphics and I got no beef with the layout.

  86. 16/09/2009 at 18:23 Stense says:

    On the whole I’d say the new look is rather nifty. Spadoinkle even. Bravo on a nice, smooth redesign.

  87. 16/09/2009 at 18:23 Ozzie says:

    Forum integration sounds like an awesome feature, actually!
    Speed is great now.

  88. 16/09/2009 at 18:24 Bobsy says:

    Definately don’t like the comments appearing on seperate pages. I far preferred the long, long lists. Can we have them back pweeease?

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:27 Stense says:

      If I were to nitpick, I’d have to say I prefered the long list. I’m not opposed to the pages, but it would be nice if the comments pages started with the first, instead of the most recent (in this case on page 5) comment. Minor nitpick to an otherwise good redesign in my opinion.

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:31 DSX says:

      Great page design! Agree however that one long sheet for comments is better – scrolling is faster then clicking and waiting for new page + advert loads. Oh wait. New advert loads. Sigh.

  89. 16/09/2009 at 18:28 jimmy poobum says:

    i must commend the excellent line spacing/font size, much good.

  90. 16/09/2009 at 18:29 Tom-INH says:

    I actually prefer having the comments split up, but it would be nice to have the option to have them all on one page. Also could we have the page selection thingy at the top as well as at the bottom?

  91. 16/09/2009 at 18:29 lonkero says:

    One more vote for single page comments,or at least a LOT more of them on one page. The font size is fine(perhaps a bit big but not disturbingly so) but the double line spacing is too much. Also why still fixed width? Half the screen space is wasted…
    Apart from that its pretty nice and thus approved. And if you feel obliged to throw in more ads there’s plenty of space on the right column and skin ads are a bit too much.

  92. 16/09/2009 at 18:30 autarch says:

    I’ll chime in with the people who are less then happy about the new comments layout. One of my favorite things about RPS articles was that the reading the comments that followed felt like a natural part of the discussion, starting with the oldest comments and continuing down. I hate how most websites default to showing comments as ‘Most Recent First’ since it’s like reading a conversation starting at the end: you get to see people reply to comments before you’ve even read the comment they are replying to. And now RPS comments are no longer a single page and start at the back… If you can’t put the comments back on a single page for technical/bandwidth reasons, at least have the comments page start at the beginning rather then the end.

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:50 Clovus says:

      This. Yes, please put the comments back into “oldest first” order. After RPS has grown big enough to devolve into KotakuPC and the comments are filled with AIMs you can switch it back. But the commenters (even in L4D2 / DRM stories) are a major asset to the site and I think we all like it to be in order so that it is more like a conversation.

  93. 16/09/2009 at 18:30 Psychopomp says:

    WHAT IS THIS I’M CONFUS

  94. 16/09/2009 at 18:31 faelnor says:

    Loveley !

    I, however, liked the huge comments dump better on one page.

  95. 16/09/2009 at 18:31 Psychopomp says:

    “I can only add to the chorus asking that comments be restored to a single page or, failing that, that the display limit for a single page be raised massively.”

    Ditto

    Sorry for the double post

  96. 16/09/2009 at 18:32 Janek says:

    I like it, for the most part. Although one minor quibble would be the disappearance of the “Recently updated topics in the forum” box, which was fairly handy.

    Although I guess the synchro would screw that slightly, unless you can get it to ignore topics from the blogposts.

    Still, something easier than a tiny link on the top bar would be nice.

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:37 Vinraith says:

      I agree that the lack of a forum presence on the front page is distressing. I’m not sure how to work around the technical issues involved, but I fear without some indication of forum activity on the front page it simply won’t get used.

  97. 16/09/2009 at 18:35 Markoff Chaney says:

    Meet the new site. Intrinsically different from the old site. RPS as we knew it is dead. Long Live RPS! Who cares about skins as long as I have my content? Double plus if you have a Kane and Lynch joke skin. Y’all have always delivered in the content category and, to answer a query posited by Jim earlier this morning via electronic mail, the only thing I would change about the site at all is stability, as it seems you had outgrown your britches. I would also enjoy more content, but not at the expense of any quality of content that you fine gentlemen currently deliver to us.

    I Love My RPS. I Love Your RPS. I miss some old forum topics and hope they aren’t completely tossed to the ether. I also echo the desire to have all comments on a singular page, but maybe that was part of the stability issue.

  98. 16/09/2009 at 18:35 Psychopomp says:

    Appears to have broken my not-logged-in avatar

    This is a test.

  99. 16/09/2009 at 18:35 James G says:

    Mode speedy now, hopefully you can get the forum integration up and running again soon.

    Another in favour of single page comments, clicking through can be an arse, especially if things aren’t behaving themselves.

    Did have a minor issue with the display of the feature box panel, but this appears to have corrected itself, so was probably just Opera playing silly buggers.

  100. 16/09/2009 at 18:39 Christian says:

    Nice job there, really. I quite like the new design, even the ads do fit in more nicely (yes, RPS, I’ve disabled my ad-blocker just for you, that’s how much I like it here).

    What I don’t like:

    - large font. Much too large. Sort of un-stylish (and stylishness is a nice thing mostly, right?..), maybe just a little smaller?
    - multi-page-comments. Really don’t like, I guess (but would be bearable with a smaller font).

    But being able to reply to a comment: great.

    So: never stop changing to be able to stay the same I guess (and hope).

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:44 Christian says:

      Hey, replying is fun :)

      Small bug:
      If you click on the numbers to change comment-pages, Firefox sets the page’s focus to the center of that page instead of to the last comment. Although focusing the top would also be good. Hmm, I see…this might be on purpose to not feel that confusion? ;)

  101. 16/09/2009 at 18:43 Noc says:

    A new redesign, so soon after the old one? Admissions of shameless profiteering by the site’s bloggers? Blatant lack of support of the old forum?

    A nice try, but you’ve forced our hand, RPS. We are BOYCOTTING your website.

    . . .

    (In more seriousness, though, I like the new look. But I’d like to echo the previous posts about the multipage comments thread; at the very least, it makes it more difficult to scan through the previous comments and ascertain whether someone’s already made your Witty And Original Joke.)

  102. 16/09/2009 at 18:44 jsutcliffe says:

    I am saddened by the people complaining about the larger text. Larger text on the web is a good thing. It boosts readability and accessibility. I suspect many of the large-text haters are simply used to smaller text. Live a little, chaps. Try something new!

    • 16/09/2009 at 18:54 Christian says:

      But new things are scary. I don’t like to be scared. You should see me trembling right now because of this new ‘reply’-thing.

      Nah, I guess you’re right, we’ll get used to it (of course..).
      Also, there’s a fine line between complaining and suggesting.

      But maybe you just need glasses? :p

      (p.s.: I usually don’t really like using emoticons, because comments like the above should really be understood as a joke, but seeing that the kids these days take everything too seriously: no offense meant).

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:15 Anthony Damiani says:

      I do not believe this to be true.

      The larger size — and especially the oversized line-spacing– makes text take up more space, which makes it harder to skim, and requires more scrolling. Also, because text takes up more space, it more easily forms an impenetrable wall of text instead of being broken up by pretty pictures and heading which give the eye a convenient landmark to navigate around.

  103. 16/09/2009 at 18:46 Ian says:

    New RPS? On my RPS?

  104. 16/09/2009 at 18:47 Ian says:

    Oh, also looking forward to subscriber content. :)

  105. 16/09/2009 at 18:49 Hodge says:

    I’ve already forgotten what the old site looked like.

    +1 to keeping the comments on one page (or at least giving people the choice).

    Otherwise I like, including the slightly embiggened font and decision to keep the actual text to a small-ish column in the middle. It’s all about the readability, people! Besides, I’m sure that all the spare space on the sides will be filled with shiny new trinkets in due course.

    @dbdkmezz
    The new site works in Konqueror? I’m going to try it RIGHT NOW.

  106. 16/09/2009 at 18:51 Sunjammer says:

    Wait what, this site is about PC games!?! I thought it was just about general unhappiness with things that are normal, and joyous celebration of things that are sort of socially awkward to talk about in public

  107. 16/09/2009 at 18:51 Sunjammer says:

    Briliant looking though ;) Cheers!

  108. 16/09/2009 at 18:52 the affront says:

    I think it’s ugly. Liked the old one much better… and yeah, single page comments are superior.
    Also, the text. While not necessarily too large (although borderline, I guess) itself, the spacing between lines is HUGE and really needs to be reduced. Or I need to get a larger resolution than 1680 and/or browse in fullscreen which both…. totally suck.

    Also.. “Larger text on the web is a good thing. It boosts readability and accessibility. ”
    Just no. All it does is make you scroll a fuckton. Especially with such a narrow space for the text (640 pixels wide or whatever it looks like).

  109. 16/09/2009 at 18:52 James says:

    I’ve increased the comments per-page to 50. Better?

  110. 16/09/2009 at 18:53 Poindexter says:

    In the forum, around the RPS logo in the upper left, there is a purplish box surrounding it. Perhaps and issue witht the anchor?

  111. 16/09/2009 at 18:55 Alez says:

    This is my favourite gaming site by far, not console whores like 99% of the other gaming sites. But i’m not gonna change from my 1034/768 rezolution just for this site. Hope it’s a bug or something because i don’t wanna lose a cool site and rare site like this.

    And yeah, the comments with pages is caca.

  113. 16/09/2009 at 18:58 Sunjammer says:

    I think the comments currently read kind of bad. Before i could roll through arguments easily, now i feel like i actually have to dig to find threads. Single-page comments with smaller margins are in order methinks.

  114. 16/09/2009 at 18:59 Phinor says:

    Comment limit per page is very understandable in terms of bandwidth usage (though it’s not like text comments waste that much bandwidth..) and ads. The new look seems very anti-widescreen but that’s the problem with most web pages so I’m not going to complain about that. What I don’t like is the font.. the font. It’s hard to read, much harder than the previous one. There’s too much dead white space between the letters and it’s causing me a headache. Whether it’s smaller or stays the same, I don’t really mind, but in it’s current form it really is hard to read. Maybe I’m just different.

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:13 Lukasz says:

      heh. You are doing it wrong :)

      the reading that is. You should never read letters and spaces between them should never be a problem. You should read words or even better sentences as a whole! A single glance, nothing more!

  115. 16/09/2009 at 19:00 Hmm-Hmm. says:

    Looks rather good. I’m not entirely certain I prefer the new way comments are shown, especially the way one is immediately directed to the last page of comments. I’d rather prefer to read the first comments first.. but that may be me.

  116. 16/09/2009 at 19:01 nakke says:

    LINE HEIGHT
    IS FAR TOO MUCH
    EYES MINE
    THEY BLEED

  117. 16/09/2009 at 19:03 Jim Rossignol says:

    Pagination of the comments is absolutely necessary one the 100+ comment threads we’ve been getting. We’ve upped the count to fifty, which means day to day threads should only be one or two pages.

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:19 Persus-9 says:

      Why? What’s the problem with long easy to read pages? Is it that you don’t want people chewing through your bandwidth downloading comments that they don’t read?

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:02 ysbreker says:

      only showing 50 comments at a time means the pages are easier to show for the server. Showing all 200+ comments in one go for every visitor is no fun. Even for a big & powerful webserver.

  118. 16/09/2009 at 19:04 Dead Fish says:

    Word, bro. Nice redesign.

  119. 16/09/2009 at 19:04 pierec says:

    Frankly, I thought that this nebulae at the top was a blood splatter. Or explosion. Now I’m slightly disappointed.

    (New, shiny RPS looks great, good job!)

  120. 16/09/2009 at 19:07 Web Cole says:

    Looks purty. Archive thingy is a welcome addition.

  121. 16/09/2009 at 19:07 John Walker says:

    If you want it to be a blood splatter, it’s a blood splatter. (I want it to be a blood splatter.)

  122. 16/09/2009 at 19:09 Noc says:

    @James: Much, I think. Though in the interest of tweaking, I might advise bumping it up just a bit more, to 60 or so?

    A quick scan over the last couple of pages shows that many articles tend to peak about just about 50 comments, while those that get more tend to rise to at least 100. (7 out of the past 22 articles had between 40 and 60 comments. 4 had over 90, but none had between 60 and 90.) So bumping the comments-per-page up to 60 should keep most of the comments from smaller articles on one page (while comments at 50 stands a very good chance of spilling one or two over) while still splitting monster threads up into more readable chunks.

    Thanks either way!

  123. 16/09/2009 at 19:09 morte says:

    hmm not struck by the new design or font thing, or comments, but good forum improvement and I look forward to the subs content and appreciate the newsletter.
    I guess it’ll grow on me.
    Good work, grats \o/

  124. 16/09/2009 at 19:10 Ziv says:

    the new look is ok, a bit too bright to my taste (hurts my eyes when I try to read w/o glasses) and I REALLY hate comments that go on several pages especially if switching between comment pages means reloading the entire page! go AJAX! go completely web 2, don’t make me download an entire page!! it’s a real bugger when reading from my cellphone too

  125. 16/09/2009 at 19:12 LewieP says:

    You guys need to get your orange comments back too, how am I supposed to know to pay extra attention without looking at the names now?

  126. 16/09/2009 at 19:12 Dead Fish says:

    Like some other people, I’m having trouble with the site’s horizontal resolution. (Does that sound like a horrible pun? Anyways… ) My middle mouse button scrolling is severly disturbed by the resulting left/right meandering.

    A proper editor for the comments field would be glorious, btw. (I prefer one page comments, too.)

    Uh, this should have been in my post above, oh well. ;)

  127. 16/09/2009 at 19:13 Persus-9 says:

    I’m sure history will look back at this moment and see it as a great step forward in RPS web design but right now I think it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

    Like: –

    Forum intergration, that’s really good and I think both the forum and the comments will benefit for it.

    The Reply button, that should be useful for getting proper conversations going.

    Not too keen on: –

    The new rounded more modern look but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

    Don’t like: -

    The new font size and spacing. I don’t find the new font anywhere near as easy to read as the old font. I think it’s just too big and spread out. I’m using a 22″ at 1680×1050 and my eyes are having to move too far between words and switch lines too often. I find it more readable if I zoom out one increment on Firefox 3 (10%?) but that makes the whole site even more of a skinny column down the center of my screen then it was already.

    There’s also far too much scrolling required now thanks to both the font size and the huge amounts of padding arround everything. Only getting four short comments to a page on my decent size monitor is rubbish and if the comments get long like in yesterdays red faction discussion then some of them (admittedly only mine) were getting to be over one screen tall on my monitor.

    The smaller gravatars. Say I wanted to scan through and just read what Bobsy has to say on a topic, it’s not nearly so easy to scan through the list and spot his gravatar when it’s so tiny.

    HATE!: –

    Multiple comments pages. Like so many other people I hate these and I really don’t see the point. It’s made even worse by the fact it defaults to the most recent page and the page numbers are only at the bottom of the page. It means that if I carry on reading directly from the comments I’ll be reading the comment at the top of page five first, why would I ever want to do that? So if I want to read all the comments in order then I have to scroll to the bottom and click another link, that’s just rubbish.

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:36 Persus-9 says:

      Of course I could stop being an idiot and check the box that says zoom text only so as too maintain the column widths but reduce the font size but where’s the fun in that!

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:41 dbdkmezz says:

      Hmmm, where is this zoom text tick box? I am annoyed by how little space the site now takes up on my widescreen monitor.

      There’s probably no reply notification, so could you email me?
      Actually, if there is no reply notification then you probably won’t even realise that I sent this. Ah well :(

    • 16/09/2009 at 20:10 Persus-9 says:

      Well in Firefox 3 it’s view -> zoom -> zoom text only, right there in the menu, there isn’t actually a box but I called it that because a tick in a box apears once you’ve selected it. The site actually looks pretty good with just the text reduced one size. I’m getting used to it already.

    • 16/09/2009 at 20:20 Jad says:

      Persus-9, that is a highly useful Firefox tip. I award you a gold star!

    • 16/09/2009 at 20:22 Christian says:

      Yes! Thank you sir. That is exactly what it should be like. Tick ‘Zoom text only’ and then zoom out one (except that the surrounding gray boxes are too large now and a waste of space, but whatever..the text is a joy to read again).

      Reading for people with normal vision and real computers :)

  128. 16/09/2009 at 19:14 Sam says:

    In general, I like it. Two issues though.
    One: I do a lot of my browsing on an Eee PC. The screen width is 1024px, the actual browser width is ~1000px (what with the scroll bar and all). The minimum width of the website seems to be set to something about ~1100px without any good reason, because the *content* fits snugly within a ~1000px window. I’d much rather have very little border on either side than have to scroll horizontally to view the whole page. This is not a browser-specific issue.
    Two: The grey thingy on the bottom is left-aligned and doesn’t extend for the whole width of the page. This is only an issue in Google Chrome 3 beta. (I’ve also tested the current versions Firefox/Safari–they work fine.)

  129. 16/09/2009 at 19:15 RiptoR says:

    Any way to subscribe without paypal?

  130. 16/09/2009 at 19:15 Vic says:

    While there is all sort of ad-blockers… would it be possible perk for subscribers to get the site ad-free when logged? I do love the site, and getting it advertisement free when subscribing would be tempting.

  131. 16/09/2009 at 19:16 JonFitt says:

    Very nice. Finally we can integrate the comment surfers with the forum ghetto. Or something.

    I think pagination is also helpful when combined with reply comments as people have a tendency to reply to the first post OT just to get their comment high on the list. This way, the first post is not as important as the last post.

    It does mean that when comment threads go over one page, I’m going to have to really want to go back and read older comments. Before I would read everything, but refreshing the page is such a pain. :(

    On the IT”S TOO LARGE. MOAAR LARGE PLZ topic: Try Ctrl&- or Ctrl&+. I’ve found I have the skills to make the text whatever size I like!

  132. 16/09/2009 at 19:16 pilouuuu says:

    I definitely like it! Renovation is good! And I don’t mind a different aspect as long as the soul of RPS remains as wonderfully unique as it ever been.

    I don’t know about the ads. I have the same amount as i did before. Some annoying Google ads, but nothing too bad or distracting.

    I’ll have to agree with the one page comments though.

  133. 16/09/2009 at 19:16 Derf says:

    These changes are a fail in my eyes.

  134. 16/09/2009 at 19:18 Brian says:

    You guys have magically become ~23% more compelling now that I can view silly pictures of you in the about section.

    Oh, and screw these naysayers, I think the site looks much better.

  135. 16/09/2009 at 19:19 solipsistnation says:

    I mentioned this in the forums, but I’ll post here too for maximum coverage… The redesign looks great, but it doesn’t handle zooming in very well– as it is, i get to choose between a teensy little font I can hardly read and a page design I have to scroll horizontally to see all of. The text columns don’t resize when I resize the window, either, so if I zoom in so I can actually read it from a decent distance away from the screen the right side of the text column (article, forum post, whatever) isn’t visible without horizontal scrolling.

  136. 16/09/2009 at 19:20 Mr. Sinister says:

    I like the new design–congrats, gents!

    I only have one complaint, and that is that the site no longer fits snugly on my 1024 X 768 resolution display. I have one of those horribly ugly little horizontal scroll bars at the bottom of my browser now at all times that I’m on the site. (I know: what kind of gamer uses anything below 1600 X 1200? Well, uh, that would be me.)

    Now, if Mr. Willock could just conjure up some web-wizardry that detects the user’s display settings and adjusts the site for small-monitor-havers like myself, that would be fantastic.

  137. 16/09/2009 at 19:21 Blather Blob says:

    I like the new site, now that it’s loading! The line height looks a little weird right now, but I’m sure that’s just a matter of it looking different from how it did and I’ll get used to it. Reading the Wot I Think on Champions Online, it was very easy on the eyes. The one-level of replies is interesting, though I imagine anyone replying to something on the first page of comments should assume nobody’s ever going to notice, unless that moves the whole “thread” back to the end of the comments again?

    I don’t much care about which of first page/last page is the default comments page, one is better for the first read through a post the other is better for returning to a comment thread (unless it’s big enough that you last looked at page 2 of 3 or something), I suppose.

    But could you please add the page selection links up at the top of the comment section too? The first time you read through a post, arriving at the comments area means scrolling down to the bottom, selecting page 1, and then having to scroll back up to the middle somewhere.

  138. 16/09/2009 at 19:22 LewieP says:

    Oh another idea that would be nice, but is certainly not urgent:

    Have you considered making a cut down mobile version of the site for browsing on mobiles? It’s nice to see what is going on in the fantastic world of PC videogaming, but both the old and the new site are a bit unwieldy to browse on my phone.

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:26 Noc says:

      Oh, if we’re compiling a non-urgent wishlist, could you put in an option to autoformat comments as haiku?

      And I could really go for a sandwich about now as well. Maybe with some soup, and a nice fresh roll for dunking. But no rush, no rush!

      I can wait.

    • 16/09/2009 at 20:09 JonFitt says:

      I often browse the RRS feed on my iPhone which then uses poxy Safari to open the full article. Mobile formatting would please me.

      But that’s big website stuff, and obviously a non-necessity.

  139. 16/09/2009 at 19:23 jsutcliffe says:

    I’m in the middle of making a quick Greasemonkey script to give the new design a fluid width. Would anyone have any interest in such a thing if I figured out how to publish it? Any suggestions or requests?

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:25 Vinraith says:

      I was just thinking that a feature like that would be nice, so if you’re willing to share I’d certainly take you up on it. I don’t know enough about the way these things are written to make meaningful feature suggestions, unfortunately. I was thinking it’d be nice to have a color highlight for my own posts to be able to quickly find spin-off discussions in which I’m involved, but I don’t know if that’s possible without more access than you have.

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:29 jsutcliffe says:

      I’m pretty much just tweaking display, really. I could probably do stuff like make the Gravatars pull a larger version, but highlighting an individual’s post is beyond my ken, if it’s even possible with Greasemonkey. I suspect at the very least the script would need to be customised per user, as it’d probably need to be hard-coded.

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:41 Vinraith says:

      I figured that probably wasn’t possible, but it didn’t hurt to mention. Anyway, a column resize would be quite welcome. :)

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:50 Blather Blob says:

      How about pulling the ALT text for an image (if it exists) and displaying it as caption under the image?

      (replying to jsutcliffe’s greasemonkey plans — this threaded reply could really do with some indication that the reply is actually going to end up where you want it)

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:09 ysbreker says:

      I don’t think you want greasemonkey but stylish (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108) It’s only the stylesheet you need to change after all.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:31 jsutcliffe says:

      Okay, buried way back here on page 3 so it’s at least presented in context is the first attempt at Greasemonkeying the site to a liquid layout. It’s obviously not 100% great (the slideshow slidey thing needs some love) but it’ll do for now.

      http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/57887

      I like the image captions idea — should be doable. I just can’t write proper javascript anymore since I’m so used to the crutch of jQuery that it might take me a little while.

      The CSS-only Firefox plugin won’t permit me to fiddle with things like Gravatar sizes or image captions, so I’ll stick with Greasemonkey.

  140. 16/09/2009 at 19:25 zak canard says:

    Love the new look.

    One question though chaps, I subscribed back in August yet other than a thank you mail from Jim on the day and an email from Paypal about this month’s subs being paid I’ve not heard a thing. I take it this will change once the subscriber newsletters start going out?

  141. 16/09/2009 at 19:25 Tei says:

    I like the new site. It looks better to my tastes. Pagination is not my tea cup, and as a old internet user.. I have no problem with long lines of text, but I suppose the current very short lines are better for people that are new on the internet, and need short lines, like on the books and press. It has been described to me that 160 is the optimum for this .. now seems theres like 80 characters. Like a MS-DOS screen!.
    Cut the comments column in half, and I will feel like in my C-64 again :-)

    Is a gigantic enhancement from the old site :-)

  142. 16/09/2009 at 19:27 scundoo says:

    Does the edit function work finally?

  143. 16/09/2009 at 19:27 scundoo says:

    nope, it doesn’t

  144. 16/09/2009 at 19:27 Gassalasca says:

    I hate the new look. :sobs inconsolably:

  145. 16/09/2009 at 19:39 Alexander Norris says:

    You people should be posting more often on the forums, instead of complaining about the new layout. My e-metabolism is adapted to SomethingAwful’s posting volume, and the RPS forums are desolate in comparison. :(

  146. 16/09/2009 at 19:40 Stijn says:

    Is it possible to bring back the SPECIAL COLOURS for the RPS staff (you know, the yellow background)?

  147. 16/09/2009 at 19:42 Marcin says:

    Slightly larger gravatars would be nice, too. It’s almost impossible to make them out now, and they do make commenter identification somewhat faster.

  148. 16/09/2009 at 19:43 SteveHatesYou says:

    The new look is slick. I like it.

    The new forum is a lot better too.

  149. 16/09/2009 at 19:44 Rei Onryou says:

    Just as I was thinking about what funky updates could happen to the site, James had to go and make them happen. Hooray! Thanks, James! Thames!

    I have a page request. Specifically, a page devoted to Horace the Endless Bear. Featuring the wonderful Horace and his endlessness. Make it so!

  150. 16/09/2009 at 19:45 EyeMessiah says:

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! CHANGE!!! AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

  151. 16/09/2009 at 19:46 James G says:

    While the 50 comments per page is working out a lot better, would it be possible to duplicate the page selector at the top of the comments section. This way, when coming later to a +50 comments post you don’t have to scroll all the way to the bottom before electing to start from page 1. This change will also be useful even if you do choose to show page 1 first (which I’d prefer) as it’ll make it quicker to jump to where you left off.

    Oh, and something AJAXy for the comments update would be neat, although I realise that things are becoming somewhat more fiddly then. However not having to refresh the entire page on clicking to comments page 2 looks nicer, feels faster, and doesn’t involve having to send all the hiveminds lovely intelligent words again for each page of comments read.

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:55 Jad says:

      Actually I would kind of prefer not to have anything AJAXy for the comments page links. This way I can middle-click on each page number and open all the pages at once in separate tabs in Firefox. I dislike how AJAX has slowly taken away the functionality of tabbed browsing.

    • 16/09/2009 at 19:56 Jad says:

      (I do agree with you on having the comment page numbers at the top of the page though)

      This new commenting system seems to trigger some kind of “don’t think too hard about each post, just make a follow up post directly after” mentality in me. I’ve got to control that =)

    • 16/09/2009 at 20:02 Blather Blob says:

      Yes, links up above the comments would be nice.

      AJAXiness would be nice someday too, but only if it’s “unobtrusive” so it doesn’t remove the ability to middle-click, etc. like Jad says. And since there’s a non-ajax method already implemented, adding AJAX unobtrusively should be the same amount of work as adding it at all. Though that would still presumably be quite a bit of work. But the links up at the top should be pretty easy to add.

  152. 16/09/2009 at 19:47 Casimir's Blake says:

    Those that are complaining about 1024×768 resolution and NOT using netbooks: get a new monitor, for the love of all things sane!

    The new look is an improvement; good one, chaps.

    • 16/09/2009 at 20:33 solipsistnation says:

      Erm, I HAVE a new monitor. I just like to have other windows up and visible at the same time as my browser, and not to have a single gigantic window taking over my whole screen. It’s not that I browse at 1024×768, it’s just that the site is now fixed-width in general and that’s a usability loss.

  153. 16/09/2009 at 19:47 Mad Doc MacRae says:

    WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

  154. 16/09/2009 at 19:50 Melloj says:

    AHH – loud voice ads about laundry detergent scared me!

    But other than that it looks nice. I feel like I’m going where no man has gone before….

  155. 16/09/2009 at 19:51 St4ud3 says:

    pff, PayPal requires a credit card for subscribing to RPS. I don’t have one and getting one is probably more expensive than subscribing to you guys :D

    Would love to subscribe, but a credit card is pretty much no go, since I don’t need it anywhere else.

  156. 16/09/2009 at 19:54 Meat Circus says:

    My god. It’s SO BIG.

    I can read the Hive Mind’s wordthinks without squinting.

    It’s symptomatic of the death of narrative Internet.

  157. 16/09/2009 at 19:55 abhishek says:

    Yea the page system for comments has to go. And that Share button which opens up a popup for 50 social networking websites for no reason… that needn’t be there either.

  158. 16/09/2009 at 19:55 Schaulustiger says:

    What St4ud3 said!
    I don’t know what the problem is, Paypal gets the money directly from my bank account and it worked with many online shops.
    Please RPS, could you have a look at it? I’d *love* to subscribe and feel almost guilty for not doing so, but Paypal won’t let me because “it requires instant payment” (and therefore a credit card) for a subscription.

  159. 16/09/2009 at 19:55 Heliocentric says:

    The mobile theme is greatly appreciated. Excellent.

  160. 16/09/2009 at 19:59 Railick says:

    Agreed that the pages thing in comments needs to go but may not be possible since it is linked to the forum now. My only real complaint is that there is no forum tracker on the right side of the page any more. I used to watch that daily to see what posts were updated so I could see when someone new was brutally bashing my literal tastes in the Dark Fantasy Book thread or maybe seen when a new Blood Bowl post was made ^_^

  161. 16/09/2009 at 20:00 El_MUERkO says:

    options for the number of comments per page as well as a less space wasting design would be nice

  162. 16/09/2009 at 20:01 Web Cole says:

    Woo, over 200 comments. Its like some kind of RPS partay :D

  163. 16/09/2009 at 20:01 Po0py says:

    Excellent. I was just thinking the other day that this site was long overdue a redesign. Well done. I like it. Well done Mr Willock.

  164. 16/09/2009 at 20:02 St4ud3 says:

    Maybe it’s a problem with German Paypal accounts (Schaulustiger is probably German :P). I linked my bank account to PayPal years ago and I’m still paying with it regularly, but it insists that I enter my credit card details when subscribing to RPS.

  165. 16/09/2009 at 20:02 Dreamhacker says:

    Woah, is this web 3.0?

  166. 16/09/2009 at 20:04 Sarble says:

    Solid!

  167. 16/09/2009 at 20:05 Dreamhacker says:

    Not so sure about the ads though, because there is this thing called Adblock around nowadays.

  168. 16/09/2009 at 20:06 Martin Edelius says:

    Of course you don’t need to rummage about in cryptic folders to delete cookies in IE; Tools -> Internet Options -> Browsing History -> Delete cookies.

    IE8 is a great browser so take your FireFox and Chrome and stick it where the sun don’t shine.

    Bashing IE8 is as fashionable and hip as DNF jokes…

  169. 16/09/2009 at 20:07 eyemessiah says:

    That’s going to be the one and only time I get caught out by the reply button…

  170. 16/09/2009 at 20:09 St4ud3 says:

    btw, I just disabled my AdBlock and now there’s an ad for some fat loss product o_0

    Maybe you should focus on gaming related ads ^^

  171. 16/09/2009 at 20:10 Martin Edelius says:

    And having the comments numbers restart for every page must be a bug. If not then you should change it anyhow to fixed number so that replying is less confusing than needed. :)

  172. 16/09/2009 at 20:13 Psychopomp says:

    May I ask why you didn’t opt for HORACE over a nebulae?

    Maybe even both.

  173. 16/09/2009 at 20:14 El_MUERkO says:

    test

  174. 16/09/2009 at 20:15 Haroshi says:

    they new layout looks nice and shiny

    i like

  175. 16/09/2009 at 20:17 sinister agent says:

    WILL RPS REDESIGN GIVE BRITAIN’S SWANS CANCER?

  176. 16/09/2009 at 20:21 ZIGS says:

    Bring back the old one kthxbai

    No, srsly, do it

  177. 16/09/2009 at 20:21 Ozzie says:

    I have the PayPal problem with the Telltale Games website, too.
    It won’t take the money from the bank account.
    Oh, and with Steam. Otherwise, it works with every website and online shop on the web, so, those are curious exceptions.

  178. 16/09/2009 at 20:21 Kadayi says:

    Nice, but will the Gravatars carry across to the forums eventually?

  179. 16/09/2009 at 20:35 Finn says:

    Wot, pay to read? I’ll go get a magazine then, pshaw…

  180. 16/09/2009 at 20:41 Nimic says:

    There definitely need to be a page switching thingy at the top of the comments as well as on the bottom. Personally I quite liked it the way it was before, but if you need to do it this way it’s a good idea to not have to scroll all the way down ;)

    I’m considering subscribing. RPS has been my main source of gaming news for a while now.

  181. 16/09/2009 at 20:43 Stu says:

    Ooh, the iPhone looky-likey mobile theme is LUSH.

  182. 16/09/2009 at 20:48 jonfitt says:

    I’m waiting to see if my forum posts show up. What’s the time delay at the moment?

  183. 16/09/2009 at 20:49 ManaTree says:

    This is quite nice, I must say! Especially with Persus-9′s text tip.

    Unfortunately, not all features will be accepted by everyone, so thus I must post.

    - One page comments. It’s nice to look at all of them. Perhaps you could make a user-specific options to either (by default) show no comments, all comments or paginated comments? Something of the sort.
    - Replies. Can’t say I love them because I like things being in chronological order, as in the old RPS. However, I do have to agree that it is sort of better form for communication, because they are clearly marked as replies. But again, choronological order. Sorry. Personally, I was okay with the old way of doing replies, which was usually quoting the original post and then replying to it. Ideally, I’d like to see the old system but with editing and quoting, as in phpBB. Deletes? I don’t know. Maybe not.
    - EVERYTHING ELSE is fantastic, IMO, especially forum integration (not that I used it much, but hey, things change). You’ve just got another subscriber, for sure. It’s high time I did.

  184. 16/09/2009 at 20:53 St4ud3 says:

    I tried a few things with PayPal, but it only accepts Mastercard, VISA and American Express (at least in Germany). Seems like there is no way around it :/

  185. 16/09/2009 at 21:01 Heliocentric says:

    Not sure i like the non chronological posts/replies. Now i can’t just read from where i was last. Thats kinda annoying.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:08 Vinraith says:

      I have to agree. It sounded like a good idea, but in practice I’m finding it almost impossible to follow conversations as a result.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:15 Heliocentric says:

      I can reply to myself, but not to people who replied to me… How narsacistic.

      But i think the mobile site is purely chronological, not sure, can’t get back to it.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:30 Clovis says:

      Ya, I prefer chrono. I usually update comment threads several times, and now I will have to carefully glance through them to miss something. OTH, if there are only a couple of pages this shouldn’t be too hard.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:37 Nimic says:

      Yes, I completely agree here. I used to know roughly where it ended the previous time I read the comments in a post, and then just continue from there. Now it looks like I’ll have to read everything again, and change pages as well (that’s another thing I’d prefer to be reverted, or made into an option, all the comments on the same page).

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:49 pauleyc says:

      Plus one; the new nested reply style is seriously irritating. It disturbs the flow and it’s not possible to go back after a refresh/break and quickly resume reading. Other than that – the Gravatars are smaller, page layout looks empty, horizontal scrolling required on a netbook screen, RPS staff comments are not colour-coded…

      No! Change is bad! I FEAR CHANGE!
      Please bring back the old style. /sniff

  186. 16/09/2009 at 21:02 Subjective Effect says:

    Nah, it’s poor.

    The main stuff is fine, if a bit slow, but the comments being on separate pages and having to load each one with a full page refresh? Awful. Really, really awful.

    This site used to be cool. I’m not kidding. I’m much less inclined to use it with the terrible comments bit. Why revamp it? If it ain’t borked…

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:09 jsutcliffe says:

      I get the impression it’s to conserve bandwidth. Why serve all the comments to a user every time when they’re perhaps only interested in new comments, for example?

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:13 Vinraith says:

      Of course, with the reply system, new posts may not necessarily BE on the newest page.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:14 jsutcliffe says:

      Indeed — that’s a good argument for unthreading the comments.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:16 Alexander Norris says:

      Yeah, I’m not sure threaded comments are at all called for. I mean, they’re nice, but if they break flow like they do, reading long comment threads is going to be impossible.

      It’d make more sense if hitting the reply button just automatically inserted a link to the comment you’re replying to (probably in the form of a hyperlinked @username).

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:17 Railick says:

      Alexander is a chan user yes ? :P

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:20 Psychopomp says:

      Well, it works Railick.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:22 Vinraith says:

      Yeah, some kind of link-back or auto-quote system in lieu of threading would probably work better.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:27 James says:

      If you read the comments thread in its entirety you’ll see the given reasons by Jim for the comments change. The other options were to move it to a separate page or make them collapsable a la Slashdot, neither were particularly attractive options.

      I will be investigating the possibility of AJAX-loaded comments to alleviate the page refresh issue.

      The site itself should be much quicker in theory – we had some issues this afternoon while the site got hammered, but hopefully now and in the future you should see the benefits of the re-write and extra hardware, which the donators and subscribers have helped pay for.

      Is there anything else that leads you to the conclusion of “awful”?

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:55 Railick says:

      I actually like the reply feature,t hanks for it :)

    • 16/09/2009 at 22:26 Vinraith says:

      If the reply feature is going to stay, it’d be beneficial to have some way of getting back to threads you’ve replied to to see if they update. Something akin to a forum thread subscription system. Otherwise I, at least, am forever going to be starting conversations and then losing them.

    • 17/09/2009 at 01:27 Subjective Effect says:

      I say its awful James because it has made comments harder to track (how do I remember which page the last comment I read was on when I want to come back to see the follow ups?) and its slow because of the page reload thing.

      I reminds me of those hardware reviews that could be 1 or 2 pages long but are split into 10 pages of a few paragraphs so more ads get served.

      If it was AJAXed and loaded quickly it would be less problematic but the losing your place bit would stay and unless we all get log-ins that remember the last comment posted on our last visit I can’t see you paged comments issue will ever be satisfactory.

    • 17/09/2009 at 01:28 Subjective Effect says:

      And what happened to the limited time comment editing? I might make a speeling msitake.

  187. 16/09/2009 at 21:06 Heliocentric says:

    Crap! I just clicked out of the mobile view and now i can’t go back.

    Eh, might need to flush my cookies. :)

  188. 16/09/2009 at 21:06 jsutcliffe says:

    Eek! The line height has changed. Mob rule wins again!

  189. 16/09/2009 at 21:07 KindredPhantom says:

    I actually like the new design. It reminds me of PCgamers recent magazine redesign.

    I assume that the features from the old site are going to be re-added eventually. I particularly miss the links to the previous and next articles.

  190. 16/09/2009 at 21:16 Jeremy says:

    I’m really liking the new site, it looks a lot more clear, everything is really solid. If your desire is smaller font, I suggest this: Hold down the CTRL key, and scroll down until you’re eyes are squinting just as you like :) I do kinda miss the chronological posting, but I also like that you can specifically respond to a particular person. Does the Reply send a message to the original poster? That could be handy at any rate.

  191. 16/09/2009 at 21:18 James says:

    Line height is a reduced 1.5em from 1.8em as requested by the mob. Should’ve gone to Specsavers.

  192. 16/09/2009 at 21:21 James says:

    Also the About page is updated with new photographs and information. Check out your favourite RPS heroes!

  193. 16/09/2009 at 21:26 AlexW says:

    Donations don’t get any love?

  194. 16/09/2009 at 21:28 Heliocentric says:

    Okay, i just flushed my cookies and i remained logged in? Wtf.

  195. 16/09/2009 at 21:30 Schaulustiger says:

    Tried paying the subscription being logged into Paypal before clicking the link and afterwards. It still says ‘You need to have a credit card’. It seems to be a problem for Germans only or maybe non-UK people in general?
    So, could someone from the staff look into this? I mean, it looks like there are some people who *want* to pay you, but *can’t*. It would be like flushing money down the toilet, right? :P

  196. 16/09/2009 at 21:31 nutterguy says:

    To delete specific cookies in IE8:
    Tools -> Internet Options -> Browsing History -> [Settings] -> View Files
    Then search for rockpapershotgun and delete anything starting with cookie.

    Not too hard now is it! Tut tut.

    As far as the website goes I personally LOVE the new design but do have a few reservations…

    1. The box on the front page with 3 tabs is too tall and the scroll bars need to be gone, also when I click one of the three tabs it jumps the box to the top of the page, this acts and looks poor (Frames = BAD!)

    2.Down the bottom, “All our stuff” needs icons and the icons for “Rock, Paper, Shotgun was” are aligned wrong for me.

    3. As far as comments go I think this is a regression, I understand you don’t want a whole page of a million comments loading at once but this is not a good way to do that.
    IMO the BEST way to do it would be like some other Ajax pages (BING image search) that do an infinite scroll, they load more content when you scroll to the bottom of the page.
    Would really love to see this as it means fast loading times, only data that is needed is transferred, but most importantly it’s all there on the one page!

    4. Personally I like the share button, I tend to be careful where I stick my mouse! :-P

    5. REALLY think that RPS staff need a bright pink highlight! (failing that at least some highlight)

    6. Maybe long term there should be a commenter reputation system, buttons for the comment box rather than just “use these tags” all this would be brilliant.

    7. Adverts won’t bother me because I’m about to subscribe and (sorry, but also not) Adblock.

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:33 nutterguy says:

      Also. Congrats to the whole RPS crew!

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:40 James says:

      Hi nutterguy

      1. Can you tell me what browser you’re using? If you’re using IE6, the feature box shouldn’t display at all. IE7 (which I have installed on this laptop) won’t give you the swishy animation, but you won’t see any scrollbars. IE8 should display the site the same as any standards-compliant browser minus the rounded corners (I’ve tested this on my main machine).

      2. Again, this is a rendering issue. I can try to fix it with your browser information (I am told it displays dodgily in FF 3.0).

      3. Comments are the new piracy.

      4. Share button was a request of Jim. Sorry if you don’t like them, but obviously it helps drive some traffic here.

      5. As mentioned in a previous comment, this will come very, very soon.

      6. Not sure what you mean? Thumbs up and down, a la Digg and Slashdot? I’m not sure if this is a site where you need crowd-controlled comment hiding. The Hivemind crushes the weak pretty easily.

      7. I think that’s morally justified, but the Hivemind is probably contractually obliged by the suits to discourage such.

      8. Thanks!

    • 16/09/2009 at 21:59 nutterguy says:

      1. IE8 displays fine (still does the jumping) but I was using Firefox 3.5, this only happening to me?

      2. FF 3.5 and IE8 both.

      3. “Comments are the new piracy.” Sure seems that way.

      4. You misunderstood, I like it. Go Jim! Spread RPS far and wide!

      5. Good! Make it pink it will undermine all their authority!

      6. I was thinking more of a permanent reputation system just so people who comment regular, useful stuff can more easily be identified. Gravatar works great for helping identify the regulars (helpful and unhelpful) but this would be a step up I think. Would make skimming the comments much easier for new and old alike.

      7. Yes, well I am subscribed now so no more horrid ad’s about fat people and anythingbutgoodgames! Yea. Sorry suits.

      8. Thank you Mr. RPS Site Designer Wonder Guy.

    • 16/09/2009 at 22:29 James says:

      Perchance do you have some sort of Javascript blocking going on?

  197. 16/09/2009 at 21:34 MrBejeebus says:

    I decided it was high time i subbed.

    Done.

  198. 16/09/2009 at 21:36 Sartoris says:

    I like the new design well enough, but I prefer comments to be on one page like some of the other posters have already mentioned.

  199. 16/09/2009 at 21:37 Alaric says:

    Ugly. I don’t like.

  200. 16/09/2009 at 21:40 Joe says:

    Oooh. Like the new font, size, subscriber support etc. Have to say though that the top of the site is now a bit bulky for my tastes. I don’t really want to have to scroll down that much just to scan the top three stories. Just my two cents.

  201. 16/09/2009 at 21:42 Tei says:

    It takes times to scroll to the botton to see the “pages” stuff. A archor here could help, the name can be “archor to the bottom of the page” or “bottom” or “down”, “end” or “last message”. Or stuff. I am really bad at naming archors.

  202. 16/09/2009 at 21:45 Some Guy says:

    Just out of curiosity, how many other people have subscribed after the new sigh, i know i’m one.

  203. 16/09/2009 at 21:45 Fergas says:

    Am liking the new design much more clearer i love the new smell its got as well :)

  204. 16/09/2009 at 21:49 Feet says:

    Naturally I haven’t read the preceding 300 comments, so I’m certain this will already have been mentioned.

    First impression: oooooooh, puuuurdy
    Second impression: WTF is that font on the “featured articles” bar?!?
    Third impression: Why doesn’t it change which feature is active when I roll over the shitty font? Why do I have to click? My poor mouse. :(
    Fourth impression: oooooooh purdy
    Fifth impression: New forum! And it’s not rubbish on first impression!

    So there you go. Good work chaps keep it up. I must remember to donate soon, it’s past time for me to give you some dough for all the entertainment you’ve provided me over the last two years. :)

  205. 16/09/2009 at 21:49 Nimic says:

    That’s strange.. I could have sworn I had registered on the forum as “Nimic” some time in the past. I’m sure I posted a few times as well. When I request the password, though, it doesn’t show up in my inbox. And if I try to create a new account, it only says that my username is taken, not my email. I tried the other few usernames I could have possibly used if Nimic was taken, but they weren’t taken.

    Perplexing.

  206. 16/09/2009 at 21:59 Cutman says:

    What website is this and why is it in my bookmarks?

  207. 16/09/2009 at 22:16 HolyShitMatt says:

    I like the design but I don’t see any RPS soul in it. What does that mean? You figure it out, it’s just my instinct.

  208. 16/09/2009 at 22:25 Kenny says:

    I have subscribed. The halo and harp arrive in the post, yeah?

  209. 16/09/2009 at 22:35 teo says:

    You still didn’t make the picture a link to the article =/

  210. 16/09/2009 at 22:36 Frans Coehoorn says:

    Consider me happy with the new design. Some tweaks would be nice perhaps, but still, good work James (and the RPS chaps, obviously).

  211. 16/09/2009 at 22:36 Martin Edelius says:

    Aaaaaand after being subjected to a reply to my comment that I in turn can’t reply to I say begone with this silly almost threaded nonsense. It is crap.

    To whomever it was that thought that rounded corners is reason enough to switch browsers; enjoying your ignorance in stupidityland, then?

    @Alec: Sorry, didn’t read before posting. That will also delete all your porn related cookies as well, true.

  212. 16/09/2009 at 22:39 Muzman says:

    Nesting comments! Noooooo!
    Ok it’s not that bad, it actually might work well. I’ve just never liked the things (before anyone gets all “AIM!” -picture Invasion of the Bodysnatchers here- I really don’t care that much, I’m just self absorbed ok? Right then)
    Looks cool. Loads fast. Renders nice and smooth so far.
    Good work.

  213. 16/09/2009 at 22:43 cannon fodder says:

    Glory to the hivemind, for the redesign works smoothly in Opera and praise be unto the endless bear also (just to be on the safe side).

  214. 16/09/2009 at 22:47 Tom says:

    v.nice.
    like the stats at the bottom.
    bulky totem *chortle*

    • 16/09/2009 at 22:52 jsutcliffe says:

      I can’t help but suspect that those two stats have been displaying useful information to those who know the code. What is the code!?

    • 16/09/2009 at 23:43 kirrus says:

      Nope, they really don’t say anything useful… at least, nothing interesting about the server anyway.. now if you want fancy graphs on the server, they’re hidden somewhere nice and safe ;)

  215. 16/09/2009 at 22:50 jsutcliffe says:

    Well, here’s a bit of Greasemonkeying. I feel like I am being rude to James for doing this though. If that’s the case let me know and I’ll desist: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/57887

    @Martin Edelius

    The rounded corners comment was meant in jest. However, more seriously, being able to use CSS3 would make my job much easier, and IE’s continued shunning of it makes me sad. It’s only just able to handle CSS2 for cripes sake. I can’t really offer any other reasoned criticism of IE8 though as I don’t use it. I dislike it because it’s one more browser to test, and another browser that requires a virtual machine all to itself too.

    • 16/09/2009 at 23:00 James says:

      No skin off my nose, if it solves a problem for some people then super! I just design to a spec for the hivemind – if I come along and make truly drastic changes, I get mobbed by the readership. Ironically, I’m getting mobbed this time for decisions out of my hands, but the end result is the same.

      Well done, anyway, looks good!

    • 16/09/2009 at 23:40 Railick says:

      You probably shouldn’t come around at all until after the mobbing is over :P (‘I’m not saying you’re not welcome or anything just messing with ya) I think it looks great though does have a smacking of WoW gayness to mine eyes as far as how bright it is now. But I’ll adjust to it.

  216. 16/09/2009 at 22:53 We Fly Spitfires says:

    Awesome stuff. No more errors trying to submit a comment! I think I downloaded your comment PHP file about a dozen times :)

  217. 16/09/2009 at 22:53 We Fly Spitfires says:

    Spoke to soon. Still happening :)

  218. 16/09/2009 at 22:53 Lambchops says:

    Good to see that the page is loading at a good speed now – I guess a few teething troubles as happened earlier were to be expected.

  219. 16/09/2009 at 23:00 Ozzie says:

    Thinking about it, I’m also not a fan of the threaded comments. I’m reading threads chronologically, I don’t want to jump back and forth. A quote function might be a nice compromise, with name and time, but I don’t know how it could be done without it eating any more bandwidth.
    Oh yeah, and the idea of more comments loading the more you scroll down sounds awesome, too. Saves bandwidth and is less annoying than comments split over multiple pages. It wouldn’t be annoying at all!
    Last point last: Please let automatically load the first page of the comments, not the last. Otherwise I have to get accustomed of the annoying habit to load the first page myself. I’ll waste more of your bandwidth then you want me to, believe me! :-/

    • 16/09/2009 at 23:04 James says:

      Whether the first page or the last page loads first is a button press, so it’s a simple change. You’ll need to get the ear of the hivemind first, though (I agree in principle).

  220. 16/09/2009 at 23:05 ChaosSmurf says:

    I used every browser I have (FF, Chrome, Opera) and I *think* the site is broken in 1024*768 – you are able to scroll to the right, and little bits of the very right bar are cut off. If the no-content edges weren’t there, it would fit perfectly.

    Sorry for running a resolution from 2002 >.>

    • 16/09/2009 at 23:10 ChaosSmurf says:

      Er, to clarify, they’re cut off if you don’t scroll.

    • 16/09/2009 at 23:24 kirrus says:

      Web developer toolbar FTW, can confirm this one. You don’t loose much, but it’s annoying. Not caused by the desktop background… the method you’ve used to center the content going a little wrong perhaps?

      (Yes, American spelling intended. Grrr.. coding… Americanisms.. gray… grr..)

  221. 16/09/2009 at 23:10 Amir says:

    I see you guys are trying to make more money off ads. :-D

  222. 16/09/2009 at 23:22 cowthief skank says:

    Looks fine really.

    Like others would prefer comments page one to load by default, I think. And also another vote for having numbers at the top of the comments. And maybe losing the reply stuff, but not so bothered about that I guess.

    Oh yeah and would like the comment number to maybe be the overall comment number and not the number on the page.

    But I am moaning ungratefully and rather ridiculously. Am sure I will keep on reading.

  223. 16/09/2009 at 23:24 bryce says:

    The CSS as it is is too wide for my web browser (viewport is 1067px wide, browser is newest Safari on Mac), but it looks right if I set the div#main width to 100% instead of 10000px or whatever it is.

  224. 16/09/2009 at 23:26 RodeoClown says:

    Can we have an option for single page comments please?
    I just got thrown to page 5 when I loaded this page and so I started in the dregs of the conversation missing everything up top, but I didn’t even realise that I was on the (at the time) last page until I got to the bottom where it said “Page 5 of 5″.

    And threads make it real hard to come back and see what new has been said as it’s not in one nice easy location.

    Site looks real pretty though :)

  225. 16/09/2009 at 23:32 jalf says:

    Er, not to ruin anyone’s fun, but you couldn’t default to a less awful font than Arial?

    I mean, I’m glad you Mac users get to see nice fonts, but it’s kinda missing the point in a website, isn’t it, if you’re relying on a font which is only available if you’re 1) a web developer, or 2) a Mac user.

    Here’s a list of *mostly* web-safe fonts: http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html

    Feel free to use Myriad when available, but it’d be nice if you could make it fall back to something tolerable if it’s not available. :p

  226. 16/09/2009 at 23:43 Pace says:

    Sorry, we love you too James.

  227. 16/09/2009 at 23:48 TCM says:

    Woah, different-ness and stuff.

    I’m the sort of person who irrationally hates all forms of change, so I will withhold comment.

  228. 17/09/2009 at 00:30 Gap Gen says:

    It’s good. But yeah, like people have said the top of the page is a little sparse. It’d be nice to have more content immediately visible when you first enter the site.

  229. 17/09/2009 at 00:42 Y3k-Bug says:

    The redesign is excellent. I really don’t have anything else to add.

    Also, thanks for breaking up the comments into pages now, makes it much less daunting to read through a post with a pile of them since I can more easily work my way through them now.

    Hate to be a jerk, but any chance of the edit function making a triumphant return?

  230. 17/09/2009 at 00:44 mickiscoole says:

    Gah the font is too big and clear. Like a console. Real PC Gamers don’t have rounded corners. They have sharp corners, as they can take the pain. as they’re EXTREMEEEEEEE.

    Ahem.
    I spose I will have to get used to it though.

    Also, ads. Bleugh. I have nothing against advertising, I watch the ads for the most part on TV, and read them in magazines. The thing is that internet ads are too out of place. I blame google. If I was reading PG Gamer, for example, it would look really ugly if a square image advertising a console only game (ODST if anyone cared) was smack bang in the middle of a page.

  231. 17/09/2009 at 00:47 Dom2D says:

    Good work. Clearer, happier. :)

  232. 17/09/2009 at 00:49 Clippit says:

    i think it looked FINE BEFORE and WAS NOT HARD TO READ OR TO NAVIGATE
    however, it still looks nice now, so James has done a good job :)
    new forum software was needed, I could tell that even though I hardly used it. good work on that too :)
    i like how you’ve kept the “rock paper shotgun” title image thing at the top the same; please don’t jazz this up.
    I also like how it’s still a list – i get annoyed (not very annoyed, i just avoid them) with those sites that put a billion different shaped banners and logos and pictures of shit (click here! no here! click here too!) all over the first bit you see, so you can’t just have a look to see what’s new, or find something you read yesterday, because it’s all crowded in like a harvey norman catalogue.

  233. 17/09/2009 at 01:20 St4ud3 says:

    Could you use Georgia as an alternative font, so users don’t have to install the dreadfull Acrobat Reader to get Myriad? :D

    • 17/09/2009 at 03:18 Blather Blob says:

      A way to get the fonts without having to install Acrobat is to get the easily extracted Linux version and pull the fonts out of it. Download Adobe Reader 8.1 for Linux (.tar.gz format) and find the fonts in AdobeReader/common.tar (this has to be extracted too)/Adobe/Reader8/Resource/Font/. WinRar opens all the .tar and .tar.gzs just fine, and the fonts are in .otf format which works just fine in Windows. Copy them to C:\Windows\Fonts. I just did this, hit refresh on the front page, and the site looks so much nicer.

      Not that a larger list of alternative fonts would hurt, I suppose. Oh! Do that cool thing where you point at a (freeware) .ttf and then everything except IE uses it as the font. And then punish the IE users by making them look at Arial :P

    • 17/09/2009 at 12:26 St4ud3 says:

      Ahh, thank you. Looks much better now :D It’s a bit complicated, but at least I didn’t have to install this Adobe bloatware :)

  234. 17/09/2009 at 01:21 MeestaNob! says:

    Site looks great, I dont have a problem with the ads as long as the clever words keep appearing daily.

    One feature I do want to request is a way of ‘logging in’ to the site so that it remembers where I was up to in comments threads after the article, otherwise I’m kind of forced to leave a page open in a tab and keep reloading all of them each time I open the browser so that it scrolls to where I was last reading.

    Looks good though!

  235. 17/09/2009 at 01:37 sportingtimes says:

    Not bad, not bad! Rounded edges, sexy and functional font, crisp style, clear and responsive buttons. Haven’t checked out if it all works properly, but I’m sure it’ll work quite well, quite well!

    I feel like subscribing. Yes, yes!

  236. 17/09/2009 at 02:00 futage says:

    I agree with jalf about the fonts, the primary font being one most people will not have (I, of course, haven’t checked this but would be surprised were it not so) is just simply bad design.

    Not a huge fan of the new aesthetics. Not in an “omg, change” way. The previous design was a bit scratchy but had a nice, idiosyncratic feel. Now it’s all rounded corners and greys with red highlights and as a result feels like every wordpress based site from several years ago. A bit generic, y’know.

    In terms of layout and functionality it’s fine, a bit of an improvement over before definitely. But aesthetically it seems… I dunno, a bit insipid, a bit “me too”, which to my mind kinda goes against the ethos of the site.

    I should stress, I don’t see this as a big deal. I would happily read the words I often find here if they were scrawled in tree sap on the underside of a starfish. Just a bit of a shame/a missed opportunity to make the (aesthetic) design a function of the site.

  237. 17/09/2009 at 02:01 futage says:

    I agree with jalf about the fonts, the primary font being one most people will not have (I, of course, haven’t checked this but would be surprised were it not so) is just simply bad design.

    Not a huge fan of the new aesthetics. Not in an “omg, change” way. The previous design was a bit scratchy but had a nice, idiosyncratic feel. Now it’s all rounded corners and greys with red highlights and as a result feels like every wordpress based site from several years ago. A bit generic, y’know.

    In terms of layout and functionality it’s fine, a bit of an improvement over before definitely. But aesthetically it seems… I dunno, a bit insipid, a bit “me too”, which to my mind kinda goes against the ethos of the site.

    I should stress, I don’t see this as a big deal. I would happily read the words I often find here if they were scrawled in tree sap on the underside of a starfish. Just a bit of a shame/a missed opportunity to make the (aesthetic) design a function of the site.

  238. 17/09/2009 at 02:01 futage says:

    I agree with jalf about the fonts, the primary font being one most people will not have (I, of course, haven’t checked this but would be surprised were it not so) is just simply bad design.

    Not a huge fan of the new aesthetics. Not in an “omg, change” way. The previous design was a bit scratchy but had a nice, idiosyncratic feel. Now it’s all rounded corners and greys with red highlights and as a result feels like every wordpress based site from several years ago. A bit generic, y’know.

    In terms of layout and functionality it’s fine, a bit of an improvement over before definitely. But aesthetically it seems… I dunno, a bit insipid, a bit “me too”, which to my mind kinda goes against the ethos of the site.

    I should stress, I don’t see this as a big deal. I would happily read the words I often find here if they were scrawled in tree sap on the underside of a starfish. Just a bit of a shame/a missed opportunity to make the (aesthetic) design a function of the site.

  239. 17/09/2009 at 02:05 futage says:

    Oh man I’m really really sorry about that.

    The post button did nothing. I even kept refreshing the comments to double check I hadn’t posted. I had to delete cache for the comment to show up (in triplicate). Caching might be a bit on the aggressive side for a comments page.

  240. 17/09/2009 at 02:12 luminosity says:

    I love the new redesign, but i need to add to the complaints about the comments style: 1 page was so much better. If I had time I could scroll down and read it all, if not it was easy to scan for different coloured RPS comments. also, starting on the last page of comments is super wrong.

    I do love the fonts now though.

  241. 17/09/2009 at 02:12 Pijama says:

    First, as a long time insane rambler and great fan, I must say – EXPLODEY BACKGROUND ADDS AWESOMENESS.

    Second, man, it is better. I am considering subscription now, and has nothing to do with those five beautiful ladies I saw Kieron and Alec walking around in Soho last night with “RPS Exclusive” shirts on…

  242. 17/09/2009 at 02:21 Lh'owon says:

    I made a comment!

    Sorry, had to – think of it as breaking a bottle on a brand-new ship, only without the champagne or ship.

  243. 17/09/2009 at 02:44 clovis says:

    um using firefox 3.5.3 and to get the site not having useless black space either side of it i have to deal with a horizontal scroll bar. could have something to do with the footer that seems to like being as far left as possible. though it centers again when the page is maximized

  244. 17/09/2009 at 02:46 postx says:

    futage put it nicely.
    I like the old one, it wasn’t exotic but it had a unique feel. Like I’m dusting off my old PC game magazines and flipping through. Now it looks just boring.

    The forum looks fine though.

  245. 17/09/2009 at 03:11 Jayt says:

    Ooooh, shiny. The only thing I don’t want to see are the massive backgrounds and skin adverts. Those things are UGLY as hell.

  246. 17/09/2009 at 03:13 Buzzkiel says:

    Looks great; good job.

  247. 17/09/2009 at 04:00 Saul says:

    The first time I loaded the front page, it came up as some generic plain-ass blog with two-lines of text under each header and no images. I saw the story about the redesign and was like “what have they done!?”, but thankfully as soon as I went to a new page it was all sorted out. I guess the CSS failed to load or something.

    Anyway, looking good! I agree that first page of comments should load by default– that’s what we’re all used to, and it works better for me than cutting into a discussion midway. Other than that– good work!

  248. 17/09/2009 at 04:49 Diji says:

    Future RPS redesigns may take place in sewers or abandoned Miami warehouses.

    What about the beaches of Normandy?

  249. 17/09/2009 at 05:05 Hybrid says:

    Pretty awesome redesign. I like it.

  250. 17/09/2009 at 05:45 Rost says:

    Please, let us choose between new and old skins. Because new one sucks loudly!

  251. 17/09/2009 at 05:51 IanAetch says:

    Ah! Where are the Previous story next story buttons! They are essential to the way in which I read RPS! I fear CHANGE!
    Seriously, though, where did they go, because they’re essential to the way in which I read RPS.

  252. 17/09/2009 at 05:56 the affront says:

    Is it me or did the text/line spacing get miraculously smaller and much, much more readable over night?
    Seems pretty usable, now.
    Except that I’d put the reply button under the avatar picture or at the top of the post so as to not waste 2 whole lines just for that one button.

  253. 17/09/2009 at 07:23 Fashigady says:

    Looks good, though it’ll take some getting used to

  254. 17/09/2009 at 07:57 Paul S says:

    I wrote some nonsense and then the caffeine kicked in and sanity prevailed.

    Briefly:

    1. Have finally subscribed, and still adblocking (since 1873).

    2. James; good job on the redesign implementation, especially with the changes politely requested by the mob. See below.

    3. NGJ Overlords; please allow James to add comment page selection at the top of the comment block, display of initial chronological set of comments, etc. As politely requested by the mob.

    4. Dammit, Jim, I’m an engineer, etc. Old layout was efficient, compact and very functional. Adding excessive padding, whitespace and line spacing makes caffeine a prerequisite; it’s all too big and scary first thing in the morning.

    It’s not that I don’t appreciate the desire and probable need for a visual upgrade for the masses; this will assist in your rise to global domination, but… it’s new and strange and I prefered the old design. It provoked me to subscribe, so, win.

  255. 17/09/2009 at 08:12 Thiefsie says:

    When you click on a tag… lets say “Retro” then you get the list of articles… the read button on the bottom right doesn’t work.

  256. 17/09/2009 at 08:19 Monkeybreadman says:

    ‘A lot of time and effort has been expended researching the appropriate fonts, line heights and other text legibility factors.’ – or simply, chose a different template.

    Jokes aside i like it, although you raise an interesting question. Are most computer games set in space? Perhaps you need a post apocolyptic background too

    Anyways RPS in the 24th century! Well done

  257. 17/09/2009 at 08:44 Ian says:

    Man, nearly 400 comments. I had a dream that these numbers would only be reached by the wonderful efforts of AIMs bitching about Diablo 3 or Oblivion.

  258. 17/09/2009 at 08:52 The Sombrero Kid says:

    all good stuff

  259. 17/09/2009 at 09:02 WeirdRussian says:

    Hello! First post, although a long time reader here. Awesome site you got going here, I will probably subscribe shortly, because I like super secret stuff! I actually started to re-read everything that I missed (yeah, right from the beginning) and it took me months to catch up with you (currently I’m at the early August of 2009). Don’t give me that look, it took you YEARS to write it!

    Well anyway, it’s really weird getting to the next article now, something that would take on simple click before, makes me go to the jjjj/mm/dd overview and choose the next article from there. Why was this removed in first place? Would it be possible, to readd the links to the previous and next articles? That’s the way I read stuff on here and I really really miss it now, it’s like you cut my hands off and forced me to make a cheese sandwich: delicious, but really really awkward.

  260. 17/09/2009 at 09:05 sfury says:

    I’m shocked.

  261. 17/09/2009 at 09:05 phil says:

    This site is moving closer and closer to being the onion avclub but for PC games – this is unambigiously a good thing.

  262. 17/09/2009 at 09:21 Ian says:

    @ WeirdRussian: Crikey, that’s dedication!

    • 17/09/2009 at 09:26 sfury says:

      @Ian: we’ve got threaded replies now

      so i’m checking them out :)

    • 17/09/2009 at 09:42 WeirdRussian says:

      Yay for threaded replies!

      Yeah that’s alot of time I spent here, it’s just because I only found out about this site after the first L4D previews (not L4D2, mind you), so I really missed a lot and what makes RPS great it’s that they aren’t just a gaming news site but also cover everything else about gaming.

      Well, less writing, more reading (at least until I catch up with the site completely).

      So… “previous article” + “next article” pretty please? :D

    • 17/09/2009 at 10:58 Tei says:

      I nominate WeirdRussian for reader of the year :-)

  263. 17/09/2009 at 09:37 mouj says:

    Woo, shiny ones !

  264. 17/09/2009 at 09:45 Diosjenin says:

    Can we maybe get a font size adjustment mechanism somewhere on here? I prefer a smaller font size, and I’d rather not have to either a) switch the font size back and forth every time I come here or b) install a Firefox extension to permanently adjust the font size only for this site.

  265. 17/09/2009 at 09:50 ManaTree says:

    Another possible option for the changes is to have another guy write a GM script/FF extension to change back/modify new stuff.

  266. 17/09/2009 at 10:11 Nahkatakkimies says:

    It’s ugly. :(

    Internet raeg! >%E~~

  267. 17/09/2009 at 10:19 TooNu says:

    Nice changes :) It seems change CAN be good.

  268. 17/09/2009 at 10:36 Thrawny says:

    Omg i didn’t agree to these changes, i am boycotting RPS!

  269. 17/09/2009 at 10:53 Tei says:

    I have write 11 greasemonkey scripts. And I am open to suggestions.

    Here my scripts:
    http://userscripts.org/users/101339/scripts

    Anyway, since the owners of the site are open to suggestions, maybe could be a good idea to ask then directly for changes.

    For once… font size. Some sites have a icon “[a A]” to change that size to fit any taste, and the change can be stored in a cokie and restored so is always the favorite size for all.

  270. 17/09/2009 at 10:56 ophois says:

    Review:
    Generally shiny, definitely a little cleaner and easier on the eye.

    Comment/Problem/Bug like thing:
    Doesn’t work right on screens only 1024 pixels wide. Who would have such a screen you ask. Well me. I use a 1024×1280 portrait layout at work because its better for reading long articles and documents. The main page is too wide now (annoyingly only due to some fixed width borders on the left and right hand side).

    Also lots of netbook users have low resolution screens and may want to look at the page without the pain of horizontal scroll bars.

    • 17/09/2009 at 11:02 ophois says:

      Just in case its a browser compatibility issue I should add I’m using Firefox 3.0.13 and I’ve also noted that while the main content sits with a large border left and right that stops it working in 1024 res the footer is correctly aligned to the left but does not stretch all the way to the right.

      Think you’ve got some css issues here :)

    • 17/09/2009 at 11:43 Theory says:

      You know about Fx 3.5, right?

    • 17/09/2009 at 14:36 ophois says:

      I do know about it. I even have it installed at home (I do not know if the problem occurs there or not yet). At work I have this version.

      Not everyone has the latest and greatest versions or likes to upgrade too quickly, the early 3.5 releases were somewhat unstable. I’d like to think the general goal is for as broad compatibility as possibly.

  271. 17/09/2009 at 11:41 Wrestlevania says:

    On the homepage, the line height’s definitely too big, verging on each line looking like a separate paragraph almost. Needs tightening up for the eye to flow over it more comfortably I think. In the articles the line height’s perfect, however.

    But it’s looking really good.

  272. 17/09/2009 at 12:39 WeirdRussian says:

    Also what annoys me greatly is how you end up at the first comment of the last comment page? What is the point of this? It’s not the “newest post first” sorting, it’s some kind of “oldest post of the newest page first” sorting, which doesn’t make any sense at all. To jump to the first page you also have to scroll past all of the comments on that page first – up to 50, which can take a while.

    Would be nice if it would be switched to oldest post first, so people wouldn’t post stuff without reading the X pages of comments that are already there. Also maybe put the comment page navigations BEFORE the comments, so you can jump around without having to scroll down through the current site (or push END once… admittedly).

  273. 17/09/2009 at 12:43 Matt says:

    Quite like.

    First thing I notice is it’s fixed a problem I had with the old site, in which when using it with the Internet Explorer only computers at work, the main panel showing the posts would appear below the stuff on the right hand side, so I’d have to scroll all the way down every time. But now it’s all flush at the top, woo yay!

    The main font doesn’t want to change size though… On these Windows 2000 ‘puters without the option for ClearType, the letters look a bit jagged at the larger size.

    Other than that though, all is well.

  274. 17/09/2009 at 12:59 lonkero says:

    The almighty greasemonkey script is working!! Thanks, my 1920×1200 screen appreciates this.

  275. 17/09/2009 at 13:05 I am beginning to understand this comment system says:

    The front page is pretty slow to load now and has 67 requests on it. You guys might want to look into putting the site interface images into a sprite sheet and combining your javascript and css files into fewer files to reduce the number of requests.

    You also might want to let Google host your jQuery library.

  276. 17/09/2009 at 13:39 mrrobsa says:

    Wow shiny! Not sure if I prefer it to the old colour scheme, but the reply ability is cool.
    I’d really like to have one-page comments though. Half the reason I love RPS is all the lovely commenters and I just won’t get so much sweetness because now I have to click through multiple pages which is a bit of a chore.
    Banner ‘splode is also ace.

  277. 17/09/2009 at 13:42 Comment system, what comment system? says:

    You guys may also want to put the javascript stuff at the bottom of your html.

    Check out, http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

    Sorry if this comes off as condescending, I’m sure your designer knows what he/she is doing, I’m just throwing out a few suggestions.

  278. 17/09/2009 at 14:45 Geoff says:

    I’m running Chrome, and everything looks quite lovely. Hooray for comment threading.
    My first reaction to the “special VIP treatment for subscribers” and “making RPS a bit more of a business and a bit less of a charity” was to recoil a bit, but after only a minute or two of thinking about it I reversed completely.

    Go for it. You’ve created a wonderful site which you clearly put a lot of care and effort into, and do a great job with it. Clearly it also costs money to run, and plenty of people either complain about the ads or run AdBlock, so subscribing offers a great way to avoid the ads and also avoid being a leech. I like the new site design, and I love the site in general.

    Congrats, and thanks.

  279. 17/09/2009 at 15:50 Chaz says:

    Well this is nice.

  280. 17/09/2009 at 17:24 SH4RKY says:

    Awesome. Nice and clean. Good upgrade.

  281. 17/09/2009 at 19:27 Jerry says:

    So as the the last page of comments is now the first page, how are we meant to read the comments now? I have a few suggestions, assuming theres 6 pages of comments as there is currently here:

    1) You just read the last page of comments and then post without caring that your post might have been said in the previous 5 pages.
    2) You read the last page first, then the 5th, then 4th, 3rd, 2nd and first and pretend youre a time traveller.
    3) You read the last page first then the first page, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th again incase youve forgotten what it said in all that page clicking.
    4) You let out a huge sigh at the need to click page 1 in order to start reading the comments and write a concerned letter to your local web admin.
    5) Stop reading the comments because youre far too lazy to click on page 1 in order to start.

    Maybe we should have a poll to see what the preferred option is. Personally im going with option #5.

    Also, comment pages? Really? Now how am I meant to scan the comments quickly to see if anyone has written what im about to? (like im sure this post has been previously said many a time but im far too lazy (see #5 above) to click 5 times to see if it has been said.

    • 17/09/2009 at 19:50 jsutcliffe says:

      You’d only need to click once — I think it’s been mentioned on every page ;)

      That said, although I’d prefer all comments on one page I understand the reasons for not doing that.

  282. 17/09/2009 at 19:45 Vinraith says:

    One little thing that should be easy to fix, but probably only bothers me:

    I miss the time stamps. It’s nice to know when an article was posted, it makes keeping track of read/unread material somewhat easier and allows me to chide RPSers about their sleeping habits as well.

  283. 17/09/2009 at 19:56 The Apologist says:

    So, I think the site is great because the writing is good, but generally this is easier on the eye and actually works with Internet Explorer. So, tops.

    Bit worried the new comments system might mean I read less in the comments as it starts me at the end of the discussion. Tonnes of people have probably already said that though(!)

    Re subs, cool. A John Walker sound board for download might sell me. I love him on the RPS EWS

  284. 17/09/2009 at 22:56 Subjective Effect says:

    Ye Gods this site is slower than it was.

    And I still haven’t seen anything to sooth my rage over this insane comments “hi, want to continue reading where you left off? search through all these pages IN SLOW MOTION k tnx bye” system.

  285. 18/09/2009 at 02:08 Lh'owon says:

    I’m enjoying the new layout a lot now, with the exception of the nonsensical comments ordering.

    I’d just like to point out the Rock Paper Shotgun graphic up the top is in need of some anti-aliasing. You just hit escape, click on options, go to the video setting, the choose about 4X or 8X from the drop-down menu. Anything higher will likely cause lag without a significant visual improvement.

  286. 18/09/2009 at 07:37 WeirdRussian says:

    On the upside the “next/last article”. Thank you very much! I can continue with my time travel towards the most recent articles. ;)

    Now pleeeease, send us to the top of the first comment page per default and possibly put the comment page navigation on top of the comments instead of the bottom (or better even, on both “sides”), so we can navigate the comment section more quickly and I’m happy.

    I promise to subscribe then and heal you in TF2, should we ever meet.

  287. 18/09/2009 at 10:54 Theory says:

    It’s really frustrating that you don’t know what page of the comments you’re on until you reach the end of the list. The navbar needs to be at the top as well.

  288. 18/09/2009 at 22:21 jsutcliffe says:

    Possibly the final version of my RPS Greasemonkey script (major purpose: flexible width, minor purposes: avatar size increase, RPS four comment highlights) is now available.
    http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/57887

  289. 19/09/2009 at 03:39 j says:

    any chance of a stylish version also?

  290. 19/09/2009 at 15:38 Catmacey says:

    Overall I like the new site design, but I think you need to look at your layout for the home page.
    You’re using a fixed width element of 1640px then centering the content inside it; with inline styles as well as in the css .

    This means that when you open up the site in a browser window that isn’t maximized you don’t actually see much of the site and you have to scroll horizontally to be able to view the site. And you don’t see the advert either because it’s a huge image that’s centered with a black bit in the middle.

    That’s bad. Horizontal centering is fine as long as it allows the left had margin to collapse to a minimum, and a minimum width, if chosen carefully, say around 950px is fine too these days.

    I know the reason your doing this is to have a background advert on the left had side, but I have to say that generally speaking this is a really bad idea as far a web design goes. And in reality just doesn’t work well.

  291. 19/09/2009 at 15:42 Optimaximal says:

    ARGH! RESIDENT EVIL BROKE MY RPS!!!

    (seriously, if you’re going to do full page ads, test them on non-widescreen monitors :))

  292. 19/09/2009 at 19:50 Smurfy says:

    THERE ARE BIG FUNNY ADVERTS ON THE SIDES OF MY SCREEN THAT LOOK AWESOME

  293. 19/09/2009 at 23:04 CreativeShadows says:

    Hmm the Res Evil % background means i have to scroll sideways on your site now…..

    So now is the sit optimised for wider than 1280 displays?

    Just my observations

    P.S.
    Content is as awesome as ever

  294. 19/09/2009 at 23:11 VLADIMIRPUTIN says:

    Incidentally, this website now works in IE8 without running compatibility mode.

  295. 20/09/2009 at 19:39 Torgen says:

    Dear God, is that left skyscraper ad wide enough???

    I want you lads to get your ad revenue, but meet me halfway here, eh?

  296. 21/09/2009 at 16:42 mda says:

    I wrote a huge rant on how I dislike the new design, then decided it didn't matter that much and that my rant was pretty ridiculous.

    I do stick to one thing though, and someone else has already mentioned it – the new font sizes are too big to be enjoyable IMO. The font size up the top of the page with all the links is the only one I like, all the others are too big and too curvy and thus aren't easily readable – this is on a 22" widescreen @ 1680×1050. Bring back the old font+size! Thanks.

    If you would still like to hear my crazy rant that is mostly quite pointless, I might share it. It includes over-the-top phrases such as "It's like <i>Quake II</i> has just become <i>Quake 2.0 – the Facebook Twitter!/i> and it's so wrong." (lolols)

  297. 21/09/2009 at 21:32 MacQ says:

    I basically like the new design, but:

    - the fonts and basically the whole design is too big – you could just change the design without changing the size, ’cause i don’t see a reason for it
    - the site was on my job monitor (800×600 resolution) very nice to read – now it’s not, ’cause i have to scroll horizontally
    - the RE5 ad is horrendous – it streches over my 1280×1024 resolution at home – just crazy

  298. 21/09/2009 at 21:37 Railick says:

    Just want to say on my work computer which is a nice wide screen with 1600 by 900 this website looks GREAT. The ads fit perfectly and frame the webpage no scrolling horizontally or anything everything seems perfect. On my home PC which is like 15 inch monitor I have to scroll a lot but don't mind it lol.

  299. 01/10/2009 at 14:41 MacQ says:

    One more thing that bothers me.

    The comments system is kinda strange. You have comments sorted in pages, but you show the lastest comment on the bottom of the last page. Would’nt it be better to have the latest comment on top?

    It’s kinda awkward when you finish reading the article and begin to read the comments. When you come to the bottom of the page, you come to realize that there are older comments and if you wanted to read them from first to last, you screwed yourself a little.

  300. 19/10/2009 at 14:04 WeirdRussian says:

    Well.. the way I currently read it (patiently waiting for a possible fix) is: as soon as I’m finished with an article, If there are over 50 comments, I push the END key once, which takes me to the comment page selector. There I klick on “First” – great success. If it’s less than 50 comments, I just read on.

    Still mighty weird, as I see no advantages to the current sorting of comments at all. Dividing comments in several pages, I can understand, those are lengthy at times and can take a very long time to read/scroll (and probably also strain the server quite a lot). But please take us to the first comment of the oldest comment page per default.

    Pretty much the last thing for me to be fixed, before I subscribe, as I love the content (I might subscribe anyway, as soon as I catch up with the current news).

    • 19/10/2009 at 15:16 WeirdRussian says:

      And to reply myself (because I forgot to click it on my previous post…): apparently, having over 50 comments doesn’t mean there is more than one page, as replies add to the count, but a new page will only be created if there are 50 “root” posts (replies don’t count here). So I actually have to check on the bottom of the page if there are multiple pages and if they aren’t I have to go back up again.

      I just can’t cope. :(

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