The RPS Feedback Thread

[Rossignol]

Tell me what you like or dislike about RPS. You don't have to be nice, but you don't have to be rude, either.

[tomeoftom]

The words are good! Very good, actually.

[mlaskus]

It would be nice if the RPS logo lead to the website's homepage, like at the old forum.

[Spectre-7]

The good:
Excellent writing
Sharp wit
Regular, timely updates
Focus on PC gaming, which is clearly the only thing that matters.

The bad:
If I allowed 1/10th the number of typos you gents produce on a daily basis to slip through in my own work, I'd be literally (and by that, I mean <em>figuratively</em>) crucified. So... jealousy, basically. I'm jealous of you, and that makes your site slightly worse. Maybe I'll be fixed in an upcoming patch.

[Jams O'Donnell]

<blockquote>It would be nice if the RPS logo lead to the website's homepage, like at the old forum.</blockquote>
Yes, I hate it when forums make it hard to get to the parent site. Your command is my wish.

@Spectre-7 I'll wager RPS has fewer typos than the bally BBC.

[Batolemaeus]

Is this the correct thread to kindly request that my postcount is decreased to -1, so I can feel special in a world of 0-post dudes and dudettes?

[Spectre-7]

As long as we're making requests, I'd like a second 0 by my post count. Just always wanted to be a double-0.

[mlaskus]

Yay! Logo points where it should already. Thanks Jon!

[Ezhar]

Firstly, thanks for replacing that horrid old forum with a proper one. BUT! Why did I just have to register again when I already had a RPS username and login? Surely it must be possible to hook up the vBulletin authentication to the Wordpest accounts all of us already had? That'd also be quite convenient for having the same login names on comments and forum (you know, in case one of us needs to be reprimanded or so).

[TheApologist]

I second praise for the words. The words are indeed good. Also, it seems to me that you guys have been engaging in the comments more recently, and I enjoy that too.

So my niggle is only really a request for MORE WORDS or rather more of a particular type of collection of words. Specifically, the conversations you guys occasionally have among yourselves about a game and type up. I find the disputations and agreements interesting, and they are often really funny to read. I know it must require a big investment of time to all play the same game, and then all spend time contributing to what will be just one post, so I totally understand they might just not be practicable to do more of. But as a reader I do especially value them.

'fanks!

Also, more Horace the Endless Bear lest he become vengeful.

[Ezhar]

Also, links (http://www.google.com) are broken. If you're not allowing them, fine, but then why is there a little make-a-link icon in the rich text editor? That's just teasing.

The post count not working is probably a running gag now.

[Tei]

Theres nothing I dislike. That don't mean I like everything,.. I am neutral to a lot of things.

I am neutral to the website (seems) using ajax to load comments. If thats means comments will not be indexed by google ... I am neutral to that. But if some day I forget the name of a game, but only remember some comment, and try to find that comment, and since are not indexed in google, I can't find that game. Then it will not like that. But I have to admit that is a rare occurence, and I can stilll ask about such game in this forum. All in all, I suppose is a tradeoff.

[Spectre-7]

@Ezhar

BBCode (http://www.phpbb.com/community/faq.php) links don't work, but good old <a href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-html-markup-20110525/a.html#a'>HTML anchors</a> work just fine.

[Rii]

I prefer the old forum. Change is bad, bad I say!

More productively, I'm not sure that RPS has the volume to sustain discussions divided in this fashion, although I appreciate that you've hardly gone nuts with the sub-fora.

[Spacewalk]

Teething problems aside I quite like the colours.

[Kadayi]

Never been a fan of post counts, but if we aren't having them lets lose the 'Posts'

[moth bones]

So has the old forum simply vanished? Quite a lot of good, and ongoing, threads there, and nary an announcement that this migration (is that the right word?) was taking place.

Also, I can't get at the comments on any of the articles. This isn't good.

[Rii]

So has the old forum simply vanished? Quite a lot of good, and ongoing, threads there, and nary an announcement that this migration (is that the right word?) was taking place.

There was an announcement, but I agree it's a shame that the old forum is simply gone.

[Jams O'Donnell]

Old forum is here, for those who need to see it: <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rpsforum">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rpsforum</a>

[moth bones]

Was there? I was looking at the site yesterday and was given no inkling that this was about to happen.

I'm uncomfortably aware that this sounds like griping, so I'll make a positive comment - the colours are very relaxing, and I'm sure the reorganisation with subforums will be an improvement once it's settled down.

EDIT - Ah, thanks Jonathan, and more fool me for not noticing a big sodding sticky at the top of the page!

[thegooseking]

This new forum is a bit of a Gears of War rip-off.

[egg651]

So has the old forum simply vanished? Quite a lot of good, and ongoing, threads there, and nary an announcement that this migration (is that the right word?) was taking place.

You can find the old forum at <a>http://rockpapershotgun.com/rpsforum/</a>

I have a couple of issues with the forum:
<ul><li> No BBCode. Why!? Many people know how to use BBCode as it's used in pretty much every forum ever, and not allowing them to use it can only cause confusion. In my opinion, the choice should be between either BBCode and HTML, or just BBCode on its own. In fact, BBCode being off means quoting, as can bee seen above in this post, doesn't work.

<li> No WYSIWYG editor. This goes hand in hand with my previous point shouldn't be that hard to implement, given that there's undoubtedly umpteen mods for it anyway.

<li> No avatars. What was wrong with gravatars? There's even <a href = "http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=262196&highlight=gravatar">a mod for VBulletin</a> to make it happen.

<li> The comments not working. But I know you're on to that already.</ul>
Apart from that... Pretty damned good! Should be a much nicer board in the long term than the old one. Good job!

[Athena]

I love the site and its articles so I thought I might as well join the forums. It's good to see a site focussed on PC gaming, you give attention to less well known indie games as well as AAA titles. Keep up the good work!

[pakoito]

No BBCode, HTML is on which is very unsafe, and I miss the old general view instead of going subforum by subforum :(

[thegooseking]

<blockquote>No BBCode, HTML is on which is very unsafe, and I miss the old general view instead of going subforum by subforum :(</blockquote>
You can see the general view by clicking the "What's New" button at the top.

[Nullkigan]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/profile.php?do=editoptions to enable a WYSIWYG editor.

For general view, click "new posts" or "what's new" at the top of the page.

My remaining concern would be that we have a fixed width forum. Again. There's more blank space on my page than actual useful content :(

[Spectre-7]

<blockquote>There's more blank space on my page than actual useful content :(</blockquote>

You're supposed to fill that space... <em>with your dreams.</em>

[El_MUERkO]

gutten morgan bitchen tits!

[Alex Bakke]

I would also like the option to add an avatar.

[[HP]]

Good, good. I even registered a username this time around, lurk no more.

Only cos your dx1 fans tho! :P

[Auspex]

I like the subscriber emails!

I would like to receive one more than twice a year.

Edit: I also preferred having 5 posts than 0.

[Ashkin]

I don't have any criticism other than saying that RPS is lovely and amazing and I thank you wonderful people for making it <3

[soupeh]

The good: I only listen to you now regarding what PC games I buy and play.

The bad: I only listen to you now regarding what PC games I buy and play.

[Ian]

Can we get the BB code? (Assuming that's a forum-level setting.)

[Rossignol]

BB Code should be on now.

[Wizlah]

Hey jim, you have a fancy prisoner avatar. can we have 'em now?

Well, not fancy prisoner avatars.

[Auspex]

Do avatars work now?

EDIT: not working for me :(

[sonofsanta]

I like: long-form thinkathons written in the author's own voice, the kind of article where John rattles off a load of reasoning on Why This Thing Is Bollocks or Quinns runs around like an idiot inside a game world, where you don't need to read the byline to know who it is. Thinks about games past and gaming present, actual opinions and ideas as opposed to the web disease of PR-regurgitation.

I don't like: the web disease of PR-regurgitation. This is pretty contextual though, it's only a dislike in comparison to everything else RPS because at the end of the day it's all still written with that British Magazine Sensibility, with a healthy dollop of cynicism and piss-taking, so it's still good. If you didn't do it I'd probably complain there wasn't enough content being posted, so clearly you shouldn't listen to me. Do your own thing, and we'll all just keep reading it I reckons.


It's safe to say that the last 3-4 years of reading RPS have rescued me from console land and turned me back into a proper gamer. I grew up on Amiga Power and Digitiser and so when RPS appeared, I was initially reading it just because I liked the words, not because I was particularly invested in PCs at the time. Thankfully though, a gradual process of osmosis filled me anew with enthusiasm for the One True Platform, and now I know far too much about Sandy Bridges and Northern Islands and what have you. So, er, tah very much.

[Shakermaker]

Being able to add spoiler tags would come in handy.

[Mr. Icarus]

The Good - See sonofsanta's entire post above. Quintin's story escapades and John's ramblings and Jim's reminiscing and play reviews, and Alec's... well, Alec doing whatever exactly it is he keeps doing so very well are what keep me coming back to RPS and off certain, lesser sites. Even the PR regurgitations have some personal panache. Oh and the headlines. Props for the headlines.

What I'd like to see - I love it when you point us at people who you think are writing good stuff about games. Being as I have developed no small degree of respect for what you all write, it is lovely to have trusted advice and not sort through the chaff myself.
The flip-side of that - and perhaps I just have missed that it exists - but it would be quite cool to see a user-submitted article be published by you guys once in a while if you (the official writers) feel it presents something special or is of a particularly high caliber. Much in the way you showed us roBurky. Some of the comments and discussions that the RPS community produces are extremely well considered and written (unlike some other games sites...) and it would be fantastic to see some of our more talented members get some official attention.

[Daiv]

Actually I think RPS is just about fine as it is. Unlike some people I actually don't mind the press-release news posts - I wouldn't see them otherwise, and it's always nice to have somewhere to discuss them. The only way I can think of to improve the site would be to increase the voltage on the cranial stimulators for the writers, and frankly I think we're pushing the limits of what they can tolerate; I can smell burning brain.

[JiminyJickers]

My favourite site. I first discovered RPS though either Ars Technica or Slashdot where they linked to an article here in their gaming sections. I occasionally read more and now this is the first place I come. Very good writing, good humour, and good community. Keep up the good work.

[thomwong]

This forum won't be as good as Forum 2.

[lhzr]

clicking edit comment on the first page removes all line breaks.

[BobsLawnService]

Two little suggestions for an already great site:

1. A smartphone friendly version of the main site and forums.
2. Keeping all the posts on the current day on the front page. Sometimes stories disappear pretty quickly

[aego]

2. Keeping all the posts on the current day on the front page. Sometimes stories disappear pretty quickly
+1

Also, it'd be nice if there was some way to flag or mark some posts for later reading. That would be useful for when I don't have the time to read an entire post, but I'd like to keep track of it instead of having to search for it or wade through several pages until I find it later.

[Delusibeta]

2. Keeping all the posts on the current day on the front page. Sometimes stories disappear pretty quickly

I'd like to see that too, although I imagine that server load may be a concern. And some people will probably complain about it.

Better yet, the ability to change the number of posts on the front page, but that would probably require extensive modding of WordPress and beefier servers.

[KillahMate]

Like the title says, when I'm flipping through several pages in a row, they never load fast enough. If the 'older'/'newer' buttons were also on top, those would load much more quickly and I could move on to the next page immediately. Also they would be handy so I can click them immediately if I'm near the top.

[KillahMate]

A smartphone friendly version of the main site and forums.
Oh! Oh! This too! Forgot this one.

[Ian]

I like the ability to block a certain users comments on main page articles. Means when some "IF U NOT AGREE WIF ME DEN U JUS CANT HANDEL ME TELLIN IT LYKE IT IZ" cuntflap insists on taking over a comments thread you can just zap them rather than want to knife out your own eyes. :)

[Tom OBedlam]

1. A smartphone friendly version of the main site and forums.


This please.

And more wireless shows!

[SMiD]

Throwing my hat in with the others here for the mobile sites. Would absolutely love a smartphone-optimized version of the site and forums.

[Maykael]

Real-time comments on the articles. It would be nice to not refresh to see if someone has responded to my inane ramblings. I also add my support for the mobile site.

[EndelNurk]

More podcasts. It is much easier to have a more free-form discussion of themes and ideas verbally than it is in writing. Your podcasts are fascinating for this very reason. They allow rambling around different topics that I would otherwise not have even considered [Jim's occasional mentions of architecture in particular stick out for me]. I know they're tricky to organise and I know you are all exceptionally busy but they are a really great treat.

[DarkNoghri]

Bug report: Certain articles (Jagged Alliance right now) are showing two pages of comments on the main page, but only actually have one page of comments.

If I had to guess as to why, it's because replies put it over a certain threshold for marking a page two, but they don't actually get split onto a second page.

[baboonanza]

I'd like to see that too, although I imagine that server load may be a concern. And some people will probably complain about it.

Better yet, the ability to change the number of posts on the front page, but that would probably require extensive modding of WordPress and beefier servers.
My suggestion would be new button 'show all today's posts' to go with the newer/older buttons.

[TheApologist]

Another plus for a smart mobile phone-y friendly site from me.

Seems I'm the only one who particularly values reading the RPS writers in interaction with each other, so perhaps more regular podcasts would be a way of doing this? Others may disagree, but I am fine with skyped podcasts.

[Web Cole]

Could you get that Karen Gillan person to stop by every so often? Maybe for a podcast or something. (Also more podcasts.)

[swapmeat]

Hey, guys

Love the site! It's my source for PC gaming...

But, this is a complaint thread, so here it goes...lol

If there's one thing that bugs me, it's the buttons at the bottom of the page (the « Older Entries and Newer Entries » buttons). You all do a lot of advertising now, and the background is always changing, but the fixed JPEG black stays mute, and it drives me crazy.

I'm now the winner of weakest RPS complaint award.

Anyways, as a web designer, here's a quick fix if you know how to edit your CSS file:

Remove the previous .alignright a (line 262) and .alignright a (line 263) sections and replace with this:

.alignleft a, .alignright a {
-webkit-border-radius: 20px;
-moz-border-radius: 20px;
border-radius: 20px;
background: #fefefe;
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #fefefe 0%, #d5cfcf 88%);
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#fefefe), color-stop(88%,#d5cfcf));
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #fefefe 0%,#d5cfcf 88%);
background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #fefefe 0%,#d5cfcf 88%);
background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #fefefe 0%,#d5cfcf 88%);
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#fefefe', endColorstr='#d5cfcf',GradientType=0 );
background: linear-gradient(top, #fefefe 0%,#d5cfcf 88%);
border-bottom:1px solid #e5e2e2;
border-top:1px solid #e5e2e2;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #a5a5a5;
-moz-box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #a5a5a5;
box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #a5a5a5;
display: block;
float: left;
margin-bottom:20px;
padding:10px 23px 10px 23px;
font-size:12px;
}

.alignright a {
float: right !important;
}


It's now a more standards compliant way of doing it, PLUS a transparent background, PLUS it will expand in case the user has their font-size turned up.

Just thought it might make the place a little nicer. Anyways, love the site!

[measurements]

Here's an observation: I got an email from RPS, clearly automated, that said 'thanks for joining the forum'. I didn't get one for subscribing to support the site. Despite their being no human interaction in either case, it strikes me as something of an oversight. Alternatively it could be RPS encouraging me to feel that my subscription is an entirely altruistic action and that the lack of acknowledgement is actually more fulfilling. In which case, I feel super. Except now anyone who reads this knows I just subscribed, so I better go and cancel it now to avoid any potential public recognition of the initial act.

Just go to sleep, man.

[Bonzrat]

Hmm, there is supposed to be a response when people subscribe - something must have broken. Will look into it. Sorry about that, but seriously: thanks very much for subscribing!

[Flint]

Is that big Alice backdrop crashing everyone else's Flash plugin whenever it appears on the main site or is it just me? Using Firefox 4.

[Alex Bakke]

Yesterday, I must have reported 10, 15 maybe even 20 threads that either contained spam, or were just single-post threads by the spammer. I don't mind doing this obviously - But I had to wait 60 seconds between each report, which is incredibly boring; is there a point to delaying reports?

[Jockie]

Is that big Alice backdrop crashing everyone else's Flash plugin whenever it appears on the main site or is it just me? Using Firefox 4.

Yeah, it doesn't crash it, but causes it to freeze for 3-4 minutes.

[Schaulustiger]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for the new site search function. The autocomplete on tags is the greatest thing that RPS ever added to the site, and I'm not kidding here.

[hal_trut]

The Alice flash adverts seem to be causing an unreasonably high processor load, I think it's just that there are too many.

Is there something you can say to sponsors along the lines of: "Please don't throw so many adverts at us that it makes the front page unbrowseable"?

[Alex Bakke]

Argh, so much spam. My offer to reup as a mod still stands.

[Acorino]

Just wanted to point out: The comments on the seventh page of this thread (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/24/eve-clothes-defense/#comment-page-7) don't show up. Posted a comment myself that failed to materialize to confirm the problem.

[HuevosVerdes]

I love this site! I used to be a primarily PC gamer when I was young (Doom and SimCity ate up nice chunks of my childhood) but was distracted by consoles for many years. Over the past couple of years I've had to get creative with my gaming habits as my income has pushed out the feasibility of buying one of the newer consoles but its brought me back to where I should have been in the first place.

I'm still new to RPS but it has become a must visit everyday. Thanks for the great articles and continuing to remind me that PC>Consoles.

[Donjonson]

The main site has gone mental for me, all the text appears on the left with the images appearing more to the right... Just in Chrome though, it's fine in IE and Opera...

[Odessa]

RPS is SIMPLE. It feels so much more like a blog with fancy advertising rather than an actual website, something I dig. The interviews are the second best thing, with the articles (both updates and in-depth ones) also being rather well written.

Keep the casual style guys, it's why I'm here!

[cypressgroove]

Love pretty much everything about RPS since discovering it nearly a year ago.

My single and only gripe is that with the proliferation of all the social networking gizmos on every post now the main page can take up to 2 minutes to load sometimes whilst it pings off to twitter, reddit and facebook etc. Perhaps moving them to *inside* the articles instead of having all of them on the main page would be a quick fix for that?...

[sinister agent]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for the new site search function. The autocomplete on tags is the greatest thing that RPS ever added to the site, and I'm not kidding here.

I only recently noticed this, but yes, me too - a very handy feature and seems to work well. Cheers.

[Snowclone]

Dear Sirs,

It appears recent tagged stories aren't turning up under their designated tags e.g the bioware tag (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/bioware/) doesn't contain the latest bioware related story (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/07/27/commanding-shepard-jennifer-hale-speaks/). I noticed this when linking to stories related to the superlative VVVVVV (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/bioware/) (missing at least update & Humble Bundle stories).

Yours Faithfully,
Snowclone

P.S. Apologies if this is a known issue, I was too lazy to search the forums but obviously not laziness enough to write this.

[Phinor]

Just a random observation but the frontpage has intkeys.com ad which is rather weird actually. I haven't made my mind about these cd-key selling sites but still, weird to see such ad on RPS. What makes it slightly worse is the fact that they are advertising Deus Ex: HR on the ad. You can't actually activate Eastern European Deus Ex: HR cd-key on your EU/UK/US account - you have to give your account details to Intkeys so that they can activate it locally in their region.

On the plus side Intkeys.com seem to be one of the good guys in the cd-key selling business based on what I've read at various forums.

[dwl]

Is there any way RPS could force individuals to declare whether they have a vested interest in what they are commenting/posting on. For example; An employee of Company A commenting on a review of a product by Company A.

[Tikey]

I don't think you could "force" neither enforce that kind of stuff. But in a related theme. I'd like (I don't know if it'd be a good thing) that comments from developers were somehow highlighted in a similar fashion of those from the hivemind.
Given that there are several devs occasionally commenting (like Cliffsky or Derek Smart for example) it'd be nice not to miss their posts as they usually have some very interesting thoughts.

[sinister agent]

Might have been discussed already, but alas, I am lazy: The "RPS Feature" tab thing at the top of some updates: I've noticed that maybe twice, ever. I don't know if it's a big thing you want to draw attention to or not, but if it is, you should probably try another way to do it, because it's almost invisible where it is.

Perhaps you could have those updates use a bright pink background. And flashing gifs. And links to a 'webring' with 10,000 dead sites.

[dsi1]

The ad for RO2:HoS makes me want a permanent 'light' option for RPS.

[ZamFear]

190
Are the main page header links borked for anyone else? It looks like there's text in the AoE:Online ad that's interfering with them.

[Gerbick]

190
Are the main page header links borked for anyone else? It looks like there's text in the AoE:Online ad that's interfering with them.
Same thing is happening to me using Firefox 6.

[aego]

Sorry if this was discussed somewhere else (though I couldn't find anything on the forum) and I didn't want to start a new thread just for this.

Is Adam Smith a new full-time editor, the replacement for Quintin, or is he just a contributor like others? I noticed he's got a lot of posts lately and he has his own color in the comments, but I figure there should have been an announcement or something to introduce him as a new member of the staff. I read the site everyday, but perhaps I just missed that announcement (and the search function is just as non-helpful as always). Or maybe it was never there in the first place?

[sinister agent]

Adam Smith is a world famous economist and one of the architects of modern society. Of course he has his own colour in the comments. Can you imagine how RPS would work without the division of labour? Jim would have to write whole articles instead of getting Alec to do the introduction and John to add all the punctuation. It'd be chaos.

[Bilbo]

*EDIT* Turns out I wasn't banned after all, just the thread with all the swearing deleted, which is entirely fair and judicious. Comment cheerily withdrawn.

I still think there are community members who are a bit too quick to make an insulting one-liner at other commenters, or even worse repeat an existing one with minor formatting changes, and then piss off without bothering to read their victim's response, but that's more "general internet feedback" really and thus unfair to lay at RPS Towers' door.

[mlaskus]

Have you ever considered that the problem lies with the way you express yourself and not with the community?

[apa]

I want to use Pulse ( http://market.android.com/details?id=com.alphonso.pulse) to read RPS on my phone but the application wont play nice with the site :'( Zooming does not work smoothly. I'll try complaining to them too..

[SoggySilicon]

Tell me what you like or dislike about RPS. You don't have to be nice, but you don't have to be rude, either.

I have been visiting the site for at-the-least a year now, easily the best PC biased webby on the interwebs... by far! So good in fact that other than wanting to add a comment from time to time, I felt I had nothing to add that had not been already said. So not only is the RPS webby the best online, it's community is excellent as well... which is amazing considering the amount of people signed up on the thing.

[m3metix]

Was reading RPS just now and felt the need to provide some "Jolly good work!" and "Keep it up, chaps!" encouragement. Adam Smith is an excellent addition to the crew and has just the right RPS-y flavour to him. I also really enjoy the sim articles from Tim Stone. While sims may not be the face of PC gaming as they once were, they are still an integral component and there are always interesting things going on. I'm also very glad to see the return of more regular mod coverage. RPS has been my go to PC gaming site for nearly three years, and I see no sign of it slowing down.

[Rossignol]

Yes, I am really pleased with Stone's stuff. I hope it will become a long term fixture.

[jezcentral]

Ooh, site feedback? I don't know how hard this would be to implement, but I would love to be able to block stories by tags. (For example, I don't want to learn anything about Bioshock: Infinities. Nothing, nada, zilch. I'm already going to buy it no matter what). I don't want to go to the RPS front page and see a story about it. Or maybe I could block articles involving Bobby Kotick.

I don't know if this mixes well with your advertising model, though. Mind you, I wouldn't click on these stories anyway, so you wouldn't lose any clicks.

[Wooly Wugga Wugga]

Edit : Desnarkified :

Hi RPS. Please can you do something about this comment. I don't see RPS as a good venue for casual racism like this :

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/11/crafty-warcraft-sneaks-in-realpretend-money-trading/#comment-822227

[kirrus]

Wool, you need to email the guys about spam comments and the suchlike :) contact@rockpapershotgun.com is best.

[mcnostril]

I'm not sure where else to post this, but I hate that auto-scroll thing so much.
So, so much.
It is slow and annoying and I am certain it eats babies.

[TheApologist]

I just want to quickly post in support of the deletion policy. I am glad it is pretty aggressively pursued. The recent Project Zomboid thing is a good example of the way it reduces the human costs of abusive internet behaviour, and at the same time protects RPS comments threads as a space for actual discussion and debate a lot of the time. Please keep it up.

[Ezhar]

This may be highly inflammatory, but I feel that someone needs to say it:
Please stop covering hardware.

You've recently been posting some things of the "build/upgrade your PC" sort. They feel desperate and aren't very good, especially compared to your usual quality content. You yourself admit you aren't too knowledgeable about the subject. I get that RPS wants to grow and expand and I do hope you suceed in that, but please don't try too hard. Consider that hardware stuff maybe isn't your strong suit, and focus on what made you great: Covering PC gaming in an honest, funny and just plain superb way. Don't try to expand into covering everything gaming related with a web comic and maybe even some console stuff and lose your focus in the process. The stuff you've been writing about hardware wasn't very good and there's plenty of better places for that. It's not what people go to RPS for.

If you're really desperate to get more hits for making ad money (you greedy bastards), may I suggest more Onion Bog (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/09/23/dwarf-fortress-the-song-of-onionbog-pt-1/) sort of stuff. Unlike the 30th "Skyrim released another pixel, it's green with a blueish tinge" update, these will still draw clicks years after they've been written.

Thanks for considering :)

[DigitalSignalX]

Can you guys enable strike-through for the forums? Or if you have, can you share what the tags are for it?

[squareking]

...may I suggest more Onion Bog (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/09/23/dwarf-fortress-the-song-of-onionbog-pt-1/) sort of stuff.

I came in here to suggest this. It's why I really stuck with RPS way back when and I'd love to see more regular installments. Aside: I'm jumping with joy with every Lonely as a Mushroom Cloud update and I know RPS is capable of doing similar stuff.

Oh, and more Electronic Wireless Shows would be grand.

Regarding the hardware articles: I fully embrace them. I don't care if the guys don't know much about the bits and bobs. It makes for a more lively and public discussion than what's generally found in the forums. Tapping into the hivemind's knowledge is ideal and those posts always get people talking.

[Ian]

Clearly The Worst Ninja is game-o-diary-o-thing of choice.

I too would like to see more of those but then I possibly love them a bit too much.

[torgen]

Just a note that the Eurogamer ad server is severely bogging the site down today. I thought I'd lost my internet connection at one point, and opened another site in a new tab to test whether I had or not.

[aerozol]

Hmm, just wondering, we're having a lot of Skyrim stuff, could we have a round-up (maybe top of the next Skyrim post) of what all the useful controls/ abilities for that game actually are?
Not to sound like a total moron (too late?), but I found out you could sprint with alt at level 35, and a fiend is at 40 and didn't now you could move things with shift + E. Maybe RPS can do the job for Bethesda, and help the readers out on that front. Assuming there's more. Goddamn, sprint makes the game so much better T__T
Edit: Right click in the map will allow you to rotate your view? Thanks, RPS comments!

[Estel]

What happened to John's promised series (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/20/hands-on-the-old-republic-part-one/) of Old Republic articles? :(

[captainfailsauce]

I just pledged $2 a month for RPS. That's more than I did for Wikipedia, most likely because I can't read -you guys have a better picture/article ratio.

[hamster]

Damn it, a thread i made got locked. I assume it's accidental. What do I do?

[Jams O'Donnell]

Damn it, a thread i made got locked. I assume it's accidental. What do I do?
Sadly that thread descended into excessive trolling and/or throwing of faeces at one another.

[hamster]

Scarcely anyone even discussed the point I raised focusing solely on the effects of piracy instead! Perhaps a mod could list a few guidelines and unlock the thread? Who are the mods and how do I contact them? Are you a mod?

[L1ghtn1ngZA]

Ive just created this profile to sing songs of praise for RPS. In this day and age of sites like Kotaku and endless flamebaits, its truly fantastic to have such a beacon of light such as RPS and in particular this friendly community.

From deapest darkest africa
L1ghtn1ngZA

[thegammaray]

I'm not sure if Horace reads this thread, but I've noticed that his latest two Games of Xmas selections (5 and 6 as of now) don't show up under the "the-amazing-rps-advent-calendar-2011" tag, even when clicking the tag from within posts 5 and 6.

Somebody should probably notify His Endlessness. Is this the proper place for that?

(Also, post 5 has an apostrophe before the 11, while the others don't. I'm not sure if that's related.)

[tenseiga]

feedback? okay... is this thing on? hello? okay. Yea, RPS is super awesome, the writing is great the articles are refreshing the love for pc gaming is admirable, even the comments are interesting and its non cluttered with adverts. Keep up the superb work and if you guys are ever in trouble just give a holler to your audience.

[ZamFear]

190
Are the main page header links borked for anyone else? It looks like there's text in the AoE:Online ad that's interfering with them.
The King Arthur 2 ad has borked the header links again.

[Sheng-ji]

You've lost my subscription. I'll explain why - Some months ago, I was repeatedly called a cripple after revealing that I was in a wheelchair. I tried not to take offence, even though it was being used purely as an insult. Today, I told someone they were acting like they had ADHD and my comments were removed.

Now I don't care about what is and is not acceptable behaviour - you guys have every right to set that and if you choose that ADHD is a moderatable issue and loss of use of limbs is not, that's absolutely your right.

However I cannot support your double standards. Feel free to have them, but I will not pay for them.

[Wizardry]

You've lost my subscription. I'll explain why - Some months ago, I was repeatedly called a cripple after revealing that I was in a wheelchair. I tried not to take offence, even though it was being used purely as an insult. Today, I told someone they were acting like they had ADHD and my comments were removed.

Now I don't care about what is and is not acceptable behaviour - you guys have every right to set that and if you choose that ADHD is a moderatable issue and loss of use of limbs is not, that's absolutely your right.

However I cannot support your double standards. Feel free to have them, but I will not pay for them.
Do you remember which article you were called a cripple in? Do you have a link to it? I'd like to see it.

[Alex Bakke]

He might have been insulted in the post about Jason Rohrer's Minecraft-on-a-USB-stick project. That's where I recognise 'Sheng-ji', anyway.

[Auspex]

I don't think RPS have a consistent process when it comes to moderation Sheng-ji, as far as I can tell it's mostly just the author of that particular post who keeps an eye on the comments and in many cases it seems clear that the comments aren't read at all. Without seeing the comments you refer to it's difficult to know if this was likely the case with you or if your comment was just significantly more offensive.

I once had a comment deleted for saying incest was a bad thing so who knows the method behind RPS's madness?

[Bonzrat]

You've lost my subscription. I'll explain why - Some months ago, I was repeatedly called a cripple after revealing that I was in a wheelchair. I tried not to take offence, even though it was being used purely as an insult. Today, I told someone they were acting like they had ADHD and my comments were removed.

Now I don't care about what is and is not acceptable behaviour - you guys have every right to set that and if you choose that ADHD is a moderatable issue and loss of use of limbs is not, that's absolutely your right.

However I cannot support your double standards. Feel free to have them, but I will not pay for them.

Sorry that you're cancelling Sheng-ji, but doubly sorry that we didn't spot the unacceptable insults levelled at you. No double standards - we just didn't see it, as we're not always able to monitor all comments cos we're busy writing posts or playing games to write about. It would certainly have been deleted if we'd seen it, and I'm pretty sickened members of our community did that.

As regards the ADHD stuff, the deletion was because a potentially nasty argument was breaking out (you'll notice every comment in that conversation was wiped, not just yours) and that's something we try to limit when we see it happening because we don't want our threads to become the warzones common on other sites.

[Grizzly]

On the "ESA Member's stance on SOPA" list, NVIDIA is listed as 'Contacted', though I recall that they spoke out against the bill a while ago.

[Kadayi]

As regards the ADHD stuff, the deletion was because a potentially nasty argument was breaking out (you'll notice every comment in that conversation was wiped, not just yours) and that's something we try to limit when we see it happening because we don't want our threads to become the warzones common on other sites.

There's a real problem with this slash and burn policy though Alec because you're often throwing out the baby with the bath water. I've seen quite a lot of articulate posts disappear at times (stuff other people have written) all because one AIM has gone off on one. Plain truth of the matter is it kind of puts you off posting after a while. Personally I'm not the worlds fastest typist so if I'm going to spend 15 minutes typing a response to someone I'd rather like it if it didn't get erased because someone AIM loses his rag a couple of posts further down.

[Nalano]

There's a real problem with this slash and burn policy though Alec because you're often throwing out the baby with the bath water. I've seen quite a lot of articulate posts disappear at times (stuff other people have written) all because one AIM has gone off on one. Plain truth of the matter is it kind of puts you off posting after a while. Personally I'm not the worlds fastest typist so if I'm going to spend 15 minutes typing a response to someone I'd rather like it if it didn't get erased because someone AIM loses his rag a couple of posts further down.

You're not exactly non-prolific, either, and by all rights it's probably easier (and better) to repost an interesting post than to allow dreck to derail every discussion.

[Roufuss]

On the "ESA Member's stance on SOPA" list, NVIDIA is listed as 'Contacted', though I recall that they spoke out against the bill a while ago.

There have been more than a few changes to that list, but it seems RPS have largely just forgotten about updating that page.

[Bonzrat]

Sorry for slowness there! We'd not forgotten, just got swamped by stuff.

[John Walker]

I updated the list yesterday, after the weekend. No one had forgotten about anything, and I'm working extremely hard on that campaign.

[squirrelfanatic]

A small remark: The frontpage header entry "Judged: Dustforce" links to an article on "Jagged Alliance - Back in action".

[ShEsHy]

I assume this has already been suggested, but have you considered widening both the site and the forum? I'm pretty sure most of us have widescreen monitors by now (or at least 19 inch 4:3 monitors), so widening them to 1200 pixels shouldn't be a problem.

[The Tupper]

I assume this has already been suggested, but have you considred widening both the site and the forum? I'm pretty sure most of us have widescreen monitors by now (or at least 19 inch 4:3 monitors), so widening them to 1200 pixels shouldn't be a problem.

Oi! I don't and I also read the site on the bog with my horizontally-challenged tablet PC. Mess with my defecation at your peril.

[ShEsHy]

Oi! I don't and I also read the site on the bog with my horizontally-challenged tablet PC. Mess with my defecation at your peril.
Oh yea, forgot about those tablet/pad thingies. Now I'm torn between my undying hate for anything non-PC and reading RPS on the can.

[Nullkigan]

You're talking about fixed with, but there are also variable width content containers. You can have the best of BOTH worlds!

Though the ads are one of the reasons why the site is so narrow.

[Rii]

Oi! I don't and I also read the site on the bog with my horizontally-challenged tablet PC. Mess with my defecation at your peril.

Rumour is the iPad 3 has a (much) higher resolution display...

[Jacques]

Oh yea, forgot about those tablet/pad thingies. Now I'm torn between my undying hate for anything non-PC and reading RPS on the can.

That's what Media Queries were invented for.

http://mediaqueri.es/

[roryok]

1. When I'm reading an article, and I log in, it dumps me out to the RPS front page, and I have to scroll down and find the article again.

2. I'd love a reply link on reply comments. Scrolling up to the top of a comment to reply to one of the answers is a pain. I'm not suggesting you allow replies within replies, but a bit of hacking of the comments template would allow you to add @username to the top of a new comment.

That said, with the addition of the 'request deletion' thing on my own comments, the comments box is getting a bit cramped down there.

727

Since I'm not going to block or report my own comment, and I'm not going to edit or delete someone elses, couldn't these buttons be in the same place, and shown based on login?

UPDATE:

Here's a mockup of what I mean:

728

[Unaco]

For the Attention of Craig Pearson: I think your images are broken. Each of your articles has a clickable main image, which dims/darkens the page, and then tries to load the image on top of it. Unfortunately, for myself (on Chrome and IE) and a few other people who checked, the images don't load. The page dims, and the 3 blocks pop up, but the image never loads. Clicking the page again (to cancel/go back from the image) does un-dim the page, but the 3 blocks don't go away.

[passingtramp]

I do not think this will be a widely shared opinion, but I have difficulty enjoying the activist journalism (I don't know if this is the right term) the site has increasingly featured. I understand that John feels strongly about these topics, which is admirable, but his posts can sometimes seem shrill, and unacknowledging of other opinions. I've been a subscriber for several years, and have no intention of stopping, as RPS is generally a site I really very much enjoy (very much including John's other writings I should add). Just thought I would add my feedback.

[Flint]

Those Kingdoms of Amalur video adverts seem to really slow down the site to slogging crawl. I know it's nothing RPS themselves can really do anything about (I'm mainly just griping rather than demanding correction and whatnot) but I really do wonder why advertisers seem to think a video overload is a good tactic.

[Auspex]

@Flint
You're talking about their game on a videogame forum; PR count that as a win.

(I'm finding those videos annoying and slow too.)

[Schadenfreude]

Yup, they're absolutely destroying performance, both here and on Eurogamer.net. Won't even scroll properly for me.

[Vexing Vision]

Kingdom of Amalur ad is just as annoying as that SWTOR one a few weeks ago. Ugh. Back to adblocking....

[Zealuu]

The uppermost Mass Effect 3 ad breaks the page in Opera. Won't load anything past the most recent post unless I switch browsers or block the ad.

[TuesdayExpress]

Is there a way for you guys to nix auto-playing video ads? There's one for Virgin broadband showing for me between the 'Respond' and 'Play' sidebars on the Escape! post. It's flash, so I can't pause or disable it, and it continually loops. Extraordinarily distracting when trying to read John's word-thoughts. I like the site & so don't block ads here, but this one actively distracts from the content.

[Deckarderin]

I second the praise for words. Words are really good. I also think that in the comments, most recently involved, and I also enjoy.

So my criticism is really a demand for more words or a little more than a certainamount of words. Above all, the conversations you have during a game on it andsailed away. I think the interesting differences and similarities, and they are oftenfunny read. I know this has to do an excellent investment in time to play all the same game, and then all spending time to contribute, what a post, so I understand very wellthat they could not only be useful for more. But as a reader, I really appreciate.
Newegg Promo Code (http://www.forexdice.com/newegg-promo-code/654758/)

[MiniMatt]

Just a quickie to say I've loved the Day-Z coverage and I harbour a craving for more matched only by my hunger for braaaiiins.

[darko drako]

What has happened to Cardboard Children? we have not had one for ages and it is one of my favourite features on the site.

If Rab is too busy why not get Agent Smith to cover for him again?

[mr.ioes]

Short feedback: I really enjoy the podcasts! It's great that you tend to do them "when you feel like it", but it's not so great that those are so rare. I now there's some kind of dilemma, but I can't change that.

[SCdF]

So the current full-page add is for-- oh wait nevermind, it *just* changed.

Anyway, when it was Max Payne 3, clicking on it actually directed you to purchase the Xbox360 version...

[Nalano]

So the current full-page add is for-- oh wait nevermind, it *just* changed.

Anyway, when it was Max Payne 3, clicking on it actually directed you to purchase the Xbox360 version...

Money is money.

[ColOfNature]

The reddit widget has been getting more and more annoying. How about delaying it, or loading it in the background, or something. I know this has been brought up before but it's only affected me in the last couple of weeks so really: isn't it about time you did something about it?

[reapy]

Just wanted to comment how sometimes on my ipad I can't view the embeded videos. For example this morning I was not able to get the vid on
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/13/storm-in-a-beta-cup-shootmania-storm/#more-115714 to load up. But was able to view http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/12/introversions-rezzed-session-explanations-demos/#more-115549

Not sure if there is some difference in the code being used to embed it, and not really sure on what safari does/doesnt support, but just thought that this could perhaps be something that is standardized across articles.

[cederic]

Overall, site content is excellent, layout is approachable, focus on PC gaming is appreciated and control over comments understandable. So all good there.

I have however got a small annoyance. When I click on an article to read it, my browser puts two entries in its history. Both for the same page. I have to hit 'back' twice to return to the main page.

This second entry is so that a Facebook 'like' panel can be added. I'm grossly offended by this.

I don't use Facebook. I don't want to use Facebook. I've never facebook "Like"d something in my life and I have no intention of ever doing so. I don't want Facebook tracking my web usage. I don't trust Facebook. I'm not browsing Facebook. I'm browsing Rock, Paper, Shotgun and really just can't understand why Facebook are even involved.

Now I've resolved this through aggressive use of AdBlock, but thought I might feed back that this just isn't a nice way to treat your readers.

On the whole though, great site! :)

[cederic]

The reddit widget has been getting more and more annoying.

Yeah, I nuked that with AdBlock at the same time :)

[Rii]

How long have those links down the bottom of the page been there? I don't like them. No I don't.

[squareking]

How long have those links down the bottom of the page been there? I don't like them. No I don't.

I was just thinking this. Just a tad out of place.

[Danny252]

Though equally, I don't really want them cluttering up the top of the page.

On a positive note - the channels are a nice addition, especially as the topics are pretty much exactly what I want to divide RPS into.

[Rossignol]

I have to hit 'back' twice to return to the main page.



That's odd. I was sure we'd stopped that.

[hal9000]

That "Nintendo Life" link... it's an eyebrow riser.

[Rossignol]

Nintendo Life - like VG247, GI and EG - are friends and comrades of RPS. They link back to us, too.

[PoLLeNSKi]

Why no quakecon coverage?
:(

EDIT: Just saw the bottom of Triad article - waiting on Mr Grayson I guess :)

[Velko]

That's odd. I was sure we'd stopped that.

It has stopped now, hooray!

[cptgone]

a few suggestions:

- back when i used to read Future Music, i loved how their reviews would always have an Alternatives box, listing comparable products and briefly summing up pro's and cons. which is esp. useful for the ever changing world of games, where some games age badly, patches and mods turn older reviews obsolete, new games pop up left and right...
- RPS' titles are entertaining, but they don't always make it clear what the article is about. is it a preview, an interview, a general piece of journalism? does it concern a game that has been announced / is in alpha / etc.? is it about a free game / a f2p game / does it require a subscription fee? what genre is the game in?
a few icons could make all that clear at a glance, which is nice when one doesn't have time to read all new articles.

[JohnnyK]

For a few days now the main page has been giving me a popup dialogue that http://images.eurogamer.net:8080 requires a usernamen and pw; it's definitely an ad as turning on ABP solves the problem - but I do not want to browse RPS with and adblocker enabled.

[DeadOfKnight]

Rock, Paper, Cats!

http://cat.www.rockpapershotgun.com.meowbify.com/

[mizzu]

Hello!

Please stop changing the layout of the header with the images about the latest articles. There was never anything wrong with them. Also Opera displays them wrong since the latest change.

Thank you!

e: Seems to have been fixed.

[elephant god]

I like the new background on the main site. it's soothing. not even an ad. It's good to have a breather.

[Diogo_Ribeiro]

I dislike that I cannot start new threads without knowing why ;_;

[Bobtree]

I dislike that I cannot start new threads without knowing why ;_;

Too many spam accounts is why.

[Diogo_Ribeiro]

How nice of you to assume that, considering I only ever had two - one in the old forums, another on the new one.

[Jams O'Donnell]

How nice of you to assume that, considering I only ever had two - one in the old forums, another on the new one.I think he means that there are too many spammers, not that he's accusing you of having spam accounts :)

To give RPS a chance to catch spammers before they flood the board with nonsense topics there's a minimum post count (ten-ish) you need to reach before you can start creating threads.

[Diogo_Ribeiro]

Well ok, sorry if that came off as confrontational; reading it again, his response could have gone either way.

I can get behind the post count, though it feels like having to spam in order to go "legit" :/

[Ezhar]

I remember there being a Flattr button on articles. Do I remember wrongly or did something happen to it?

[cairbre]

What about having a mobile version of the site. Because I often read articles on the site on my fart phone when I am commuting (couch......taking a shite).

[cairbre]

Oh yes and I love your 'monthly' shoutcasts I love how I have a new one to listen to every month. PLease maybe do them weekly. Its me, my dog and RPS on the walk normally in the rain cos I live on the west coast of Ireland and we take the pain for you London folk and your south of france style weather. End rant.

[BillButNotBen]

I don't like that it's a pain to read on my smartphone. There are a couple of ways to do it, but none of them is as nice as having the actual site formated for mobile devices. I'm sure there are a lot of wordpress themes/plugins that'll do it for you. Please look into it and I'll give you all big hugs..

[guitarxe]

I don't like that I can't make a topic? Seems like I can only reply to topics, but not make a new one.

[Splynter]

I don't like that I can't make a topic? Seems like I can only reply to topics, but not make a new one.

You need to reach a certain post threshold before you'll be allowed to make a new topic. I believe the number to aim for is 10. This was implemented to help stop spam and junk threads filling up the boards.

I am, however, getting pretty tired of all the posts from new members wondering why they can't create threads (no offense meant to you guitarxe). Perhaps an addendum to the Forum Rules post letting people know about the minimum post requirement could help, though I sometimes wonder if anyone actually reads Rules or FAQs.

[guitarxe]

So RPS is enforcing the same kind of draconian restrictions that Publishers do when including DRM in their games? Talk about hypocracy. Why do legitimate "customers" of RPS have to suffer because of some spammers, when those spammers will simply circumvent anything that's set up anyway?

And what am I supposed to do for 10 posts? It just encourages me to go and spam nonsense for 10 posts before I'm given permission to talk about what I want to talk.

[ColOfNature]

Your analogy is flawed. No-one's stopping you from taking part. Maybe try to join in some conversations - ten posts will just fly by.

[Jams O'Donnell]

... when those spammers will simply circumvent anything that's set up anyway?
Spammers are welcome to make ten posts to try to circumvent the restriction. It gives us ten posts in which to catch them, which is almost always enough.

If you'd been on these forums about six months ago, before this restriction was put in place, you'd see straight away why it was needed -- the forums were completely infested with spam.

[Jesus_Phish]

To anyone who comes on the site and starts complaining about not being able to make a thread right away because "Omg I need ten posts??" think about this.

If you come to a forum and you can't contribute to at least ten topics or make at least ten posts, perhaps you don't belong on the forum? There's plenty of topics for people to get their first ten posts in.

Introduce yourself, What are you playing/reading/watching on tv and movies/listening to. There's different topics already. If you can't find four more, then you must not have much interest in discussion and I would wager as we have seen this already, that the sole reason you have come here is to try promote your game on Steam Greenlight (which also has it's own thread).

The forum has enough 1 post spam bots in established threads, we don't need threads being made by spam bots clogging up the board.

[Jabronie]

Hello, when articles are published is there a way to be alerted if any "tags" i'm interested in are in a new article? I'd like to follow a specific tag associated with articles and be alerted when new ones are posted. Thanks!

[Krathor]

Alas, I just* posted in this (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?6756-Walking-Dead-The-Aftermath) thread but the post went for moderator approval! It's not even too much of a wordy post (just some hundred words or so I think? but still requires someone to approve it.

But I have a fair amount of posts now, surely this sort of system should not be in place unless I'm posting too excessively or explicitly!?

Regardless, this is my simple way of saying 'pretty please can someone review and approve my post?'.

*OK, about three hours ago.

[TheXand]

Spammers are welcome to make ten posts to try to circumvent the restriction. It gives us ten posts in which to catch them, which is almost always enough.

If you'd been on these forums about six months ago, before this restriction was put in place, you'd see straight away why it was needed -- the forums were completely infested with spam.

Currently we have a similar problem over on the PCG forums right now. There's been quite a bit of spammer activity of late and tempers and patience are wearing thin to the point that we're automatically suspicious of new people with only a few posts to their name, waiting for the spamhammer to drop.

[Rovac]

To anyone who comes on the site and starts complaining about not being able to make a thread right away because "Omg I need ten posts??" think about this.

If you come to a forum and you can't contribute to at least ten topics or make at least ten posts, perhaps you don't belong on the forum? There's plenty of topics for people to get their first ten posts in.

Agreed, 10 post is really not that much

[tomeoftom]

Logging in to post a comment (for some reason RPS always forgets my login prematurely - it's not exactly a high-risk site) always sends me back to the home screen, which is infuriatingly stupid. Why don't you use Disqus or something? Wordpress really, really shits me.

[Eukatheude]

What about having a mobile version of the site. Because I often read articles on the site on my fart phone when I am commuting (couch......taking a shite).

Yes please. I did some googling and found this: http://www.wordpressintegration.com/blog/creating-mobile-version-of-a-wordpress-website/

[Vegard Pompey]

I just tried something like four times to comment on an RPS article. Each time it said my comment had been posted but even after waiting a while I do not see any of the comments I made. Is it normal for comments to take a long time to show up sometimes?

[mr.black]

Does anyone know what's up with Kickstarter Katchup? Another Saturday without it. It was great feature!

[Xora]

I don't like that I joined the forums specifically to post about how I had to make a new username for the site after my password somehow got changed on my first one, only to not be able to comment on news articles with my new name, only to find that after joining the forums I can't even post a new thread about my grievances, and I doubt anybody's paying much attention here.

WHY ISN'T THERE A SUPPORT PAGE? Literally every other website with any kind of account has a support page if something weird is happening with your account, and it's pretty annoying that I seem to have been completely blocked from posting comments for no reason at all.

[Rossignol]

Can you explain a bit more clearly what the issue is, Xora?

[Bobtree]

Xora, the RPS forums were completely replaced in 2011, so if you had an account on the old forum it's defunct. News comments are on a completely separate account system that you need to sign up for. New forum accounts are restricted from creating topics to prevent forum spam, though I recently saw that a bot with 4 posts made a topic, so maybe it's not a 10 post requirement anymore.

[Nalano]

Xora, the RPS forums were completely replaced in 2011, so if you had an account on the old forum it's defunct. News comments are on a completely separate account system that you need to sign up for. New forum accounts are restricted from creating topics to prevent forum spam, though I recently saw that a bot with 4 posts made a topic, so maybe it's not a 10 post requirement anymore.

I think that the requirement still holds for every subforum except the one explicitly made to allow people to hawk their games in development.

[Xora]

Sorry, for clarification: I'm exclusively talking about the name you use to post comments on articles. I only signed up for the forums after I had problems so I could post here about it.

My original username was Shralla, and I had the same password since I made it, and I never changed it. Suddenly one day I just wasn't able to log in, not with my original password or any of my other passwords that I use for websites. I spent a couple weeks occasionally trying to sign in to comment only to be told that my password was wrong. So eventually I got fed up and made a new name, Xora, before I made this forum account. But when I sign in that name and post comments, none of them actually get posted at all. For some reason it says that I posted them but they're not there. And that's when I decided to come here.

[Berzee]

Whoa, when did the parchment error page get updated? It was probably forever ago but I only just noticed.

[alms]

Can we get a PM inbox expansion?

pretty please?

[Nalano]

Can we get a PM inbox expansion?

pretty please?

This must be why all my sweet nothings have been rebuffed.

[somini]

Can we not have that big quote in the articles? I can create a script to remove it, but why is it there in the first place?

[LTK]

Can we not have that big quote in the articles? I can create a script to remove it, but why is it there in the first place?
I don't like it either. Why would you put a big box of text in the middle of the article when the same text is already in there, with context? It's nothing but a distraction.

[guitarxe]

Please stop using those big red block-quotes that have started cropping up in the latest articles. It adds zero value to the article (since it's just a copy of something already written in the article), but at the same time distracts me from the reading and annoys the piss out of me.
What is the purpose of them anyway?

[somini]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfThree, so RPS must respond to this now.

[lordcooper]

I would also like to register my dislike of the pointless and obnoxiously large repeated text. It adds nothing and detracts from your sweet wordsmithery.

[QuantaCat]

I dont see whatever you guys are referring to.

[Kaira-]

I could see the point in the big red text if it were outside the "Read More"-section, but since it's inside I have no bloody idea what's the point of all this.

[Rossignol]

They're called pull quotes, and have been used in standard editorial formats for many years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull_quote

[Barnox]

I, too, am not really feeling the pull quotes.

They are distracting from the main body of the article, and if I'm already reading the article in question (as I am, they only appear under the Read More jump), I'm going to be reading them words anyway. Making them big and red (which makes me think they are hyperlinks) isn't really adding much.

[MOKKA]

What I realised when reading the articles with those 'pull quotes' is that it makes me more likely to just skim through the article instead of reading it carefully, would be interesting to know if other people had the same experience as I.

Are there any reasons as to why you decided to use them? Not that you're obliged to share them with us, I just think that it might be interesting to now.

[ColOfNature]

They're particularly off-putting on a mobile, they take up a huge chunk of screen space to no particular benefit.

[CMaster]

They make sense in print media, where you might otherwise skip over the page if there wasn't a quote that grabbed your attention like that.

It makes much, much less sense for a web format like RPS, where we've already clicked "Read the rest of this entry".

[LowKey]

They're particularly off-putting on a mobile, they take up a huge chunk of screen space to no particular benefit.

Second this.

[somini]

Are there any reasons as to why you decided to use them? Not that you're obliged to share them with us, I just think that it might be interesting to now.
Someone has been skimming over the wordpress plugins, I guess.
If only the pull quotes were all like the EVE article...

[L_No]

What I realised when reading the articles with those 'pull quotes' is that it makes me more likely to just skim through the article instead of reading it carefully, would be interesting to know if other people had the same experience as I.


I know what you mean, a pull quote somehow distracts me from the main body of text, as if my eyes are pulled towards the pull quote while reading or something (hope that makes sense). I'd rather not have them in the articles please.

[pepper]

I cannot post in threads anymore on the main page:

Access has been blocked.

You are trying to beat the system.

Protected by: AVH First Defense Against Spam

Started since yesterday. Tried posting the following message in the flare path:

I agree with you on the locomotive, I just looked through all the early locomotives wikipedia lists and this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancashire_Witch

Comes in closest by the way the boiler/wheels look.

Wild geuss on the engine, a Merlin?

EDIT: it appears its blocking on IP, should I start using proxy's for RPS?

[Lambchops]

Can't say I'm loving the pull quotes either. As others have pointed out I'm already interested in reading the article so they are somewhat redundant and just a bit of a distraction.

[Gnarl]

I just thought I chime in on the pull quote dislike, for the same reasons as others.

[LTK]

They're called pull quotes, and have been used in standard editorial formats for many years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull_quote
Well, given that they are widely used in editorial formats, we know what they are; it would be nice to know why they are here. Are you taking our feedback into consideration, or are the pull quotes here to stay regardless?

[Fumarole]

They're particularly off-putting on a mobile, they take up a huge chunk of screen space to no particular benefit.I third this.

It is just about enough to discourage me from reading the articles at all.

[Vander]

Yeah, same here, i don't see the advantage of putting pull quotes in your texts,and its distracting.

And it look bad.

[waltc]

I was about to start a thread in that direction until I discovered that although I had joined the forum I could not start new threads...pretty much a first in my experience. However, even that strange policy is not wholly outside the realm of logic, so I suppose I can post what I had intended here...(I just revisited my spam bucket--see below--to discover yet more automated correspondence from RPS--Jim, to be precise--explaining the ten-post, anti-spam measure. As I suspected: logical.)

This site stands out for me because of the quality of its writing! Not only the writing by the RPS editorial staff, but also, I'm glad to say, the writing of many (if not all) of the people who post here. I like the wit and I enjoy the turn of phrase, especially since these commodities are so difficult to find in the Internet at large. RPS is refreshing, frankly. This way I can read and not write so much, or write a lot, as the case may be...;) You may find me hovering around the technical threads to give whatever meager advice I may, but in other places, too!

Signing into the forums was not quite as easy as it should be, though, because Google kept routing my initial password email from RPS into my spam bucket, with the proviso that "We find that most of the mail emanating from horace.positive-dedicated.net is spam," or something like that. When it finally dawned on me to peek into my spam bucket I was able to actually sign into RPS properly. The native Google spam filter is odd as for instance it had shunted two items from Newegg as spam while not even burping on the 99% of Newegg posts it posts directly to my inbox. However, I note the filter was probably right in that case as it wanted me to respond to "e.newegg.com" instead of "newegg.com." If there's any of my mail that should not be shunted to spam it is RPS mail! I have changed my rule for RPS, so we shall see what will happen. (That e.newegg.com thing just might be the first phishing email I've ever seen directed at one of my addresses!)

Anyway, just wanted to say that I am very appreciative of the site and thought it very much worth the small trouble of signing in. RPS is now in my list of daily visitation links! Thanks again!

[Barberetti]

I, too, am not really feeling the pull quotes.

They are distracting from the main body of the article, and if I'm already reading the article in question (as I am, they only appear under the Read More jump), I'm going to be reading them words anyway. Making them big and red (which makes me think they are hyperlinks) isn't really adding much.

This. Putting pull-quotes in the main body of the article is completely redundant, and only serves to annoy the people who are already going to be reading the whole thing anyway, as happened with me while reading the Witcher article today. If they're here to stay, then I hope someone creates a script to remove them as soon as possible.

Pull-quotes are for other, lesser, formats.

[mizzu]

I don't have anything against pull quotes per se, but the narrow RPS article layout doesn't work with them at all. My favorite piece of journalism, the swiss magazine "Das Magazin", does them very well (at least in their paper version, in the digital one (http://www.dasmagazin.ch/dasMagazin/viewer.html?contentId=dasMagazin.2013.9.e5#article =7) that uses a layout similar to RPS, you can't find them):
example 1 (http://www.dentist-zurich.com/uploads/media/Das-Magazin-2.jpg) (pull quote is on top, but it's not actually a quote from an interviewee (though sometimes it is), it's just a sentence from the article, so there are no "")

example 2 (http://www.gabivogt.ch/content/2.clients/88.dasmagazin/1.dasmagazin/19.gabivogt-magazin.jpg) (again, just a sentence out of the article, but embedded into the text in a nice way)

In both of those two examples the pull quote doesn't actually say something extremely relevant, it either gives off the mood of the article or is a funny/interesting/weird anecdote that is designed to make you read the whole thing. It makes sense on its own, but most of the time it won't tell you anything substantial.

[Velko]

Hey, the back-button problem is back (no pun intended, honestly). Once again, I have to click back twice to get back from an article.

It's been fixed at least twice during the last six months or so?

[LTK]

In the comment thread for the Space Hulk interview, Sparkasaurusmex says to block http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/##.simplePullQuote to get rid of the pull quotes. I don't know how or if that works in Chrome, but if I right-click on a pullquote on the page then my AdBlock plugin gives me an option to block them nonetheless. That was easy. Might be a good solution for others as well.

[Vercinger]

Please remove the mid-article quote boxes. They make the articles harder to read.

[guitarxe]

Wow, looks like they've changed the pullquotes. They now cannot be blocked with adblock. WTF RPS??

[LTK]

Wow, looks like they've changed the pullquotes. They now cannot be blocked with adblock. WTF RPS??
They're still gone for me. What browser/adblock are you using?

[Mana_Garmr]

I put this


.simplePullQuote
{
height: 0px;
width: 0px;
visibility: hidden;
}

in a style using the Stylish add-on for Firefox and it got rid of them. I assume there's a similar option for style-sheet alteration for Chrome too.

[alms]

in a style using the Stylish add-on for Firefox and it got rid of them. I assume there's a similar option for style-sheet alteration for Chrome too.

Stylish is available for Chrome as well. Any chance you have a dark RPS style to share ?

[Barberetti]

I put this


.simplePullQuote
{
height: 0px;
width: 0px;
visibility: hidden;
}

in a style using the Stylish add-on for Firefox and it got rid of them. I assume there's a similar option for style-sheet alteration for Chrome too.

This worked for me. Thank you!

[Kaira-]

Not sure if it's happening with other browsers than Chrome, but when I change the page of the comments in article the browser remains at the bottom of the page instead of going to the top of the comments-section like it used to.

Also, get rid of the pullquotes.

[Unaco]

Better moderation, and rules that are enforced would probably not go amiss. The "Women vs Tropes vs Vidya Games" thread is toxic already, after four days. Personal insults and ad hom attacks... Any meaningful discussion lost in a sea of egos and posturing. I know I reported the worst of them. And nothing. The guilty parties are still here, still stinking this place up. Or, is calling someone a "fucking douchebag" now acceptable?

[Nalano]

Or, is calling someone a "fucking douchebag" now acceptable?

Sure, when it's self-inflicted.

[MrUnimport]

Is it possible at all to implement "replies to your post" on the article comments? I suppose every thread must eventually die but it's difficult to go sifting back through them.

[somini]

Is it possible at all to implement "replies to your post" on the article comments? I suppose every thread must eventually die but it's difficult to go sifting back through them.
Major overhaul. Probably there's a Wordpress plugin somewhere.
IMHO, the best solution was creating a new thread in the forums, á lá Ars Technica. Still a major overhaul.

[edifyingheresy]

Why no Facebook share button?

[somini]

Why no Facebook share button?
Why Facebook share button?

[dsch]

I imagine chances of better moderation are slim. I doubt TPTB want to moderate this place themselves, and they can't appoint volunteers since they're never here.

[Ayam]

Is Nathan Grayson on holiday? Much prefer his playful style for daily news-type posts, it's a lot easier to digest than the overload style of the writer that I presume has stepped into his shoes for now.

[somini]

Is Nathan Grayson on holiday? Much prefer his playful style for daily news-type posts, it's a lot easier to digest than the overload style of the writer that I presume has stepped into his shoes for now.
Yeah, Cara writes well but it's a bit too effusive for my tastes. I guess I'm getting old (not even in the 30's, OH GOD).

[Hanban]

I suggest that they be fused together into one contributor. That way we can all be happy.

[edifyingheresy]

Why Facebook share button?

It's more socially friendly than a like button and just as easy to implement.

[oceanclub]

Pardon me if this is already discussed in another thread, but why so many "$x per hour"- style spam in the comments? Is the account creation process too easy? Even if so, can filters be added (most of the spam has uses similar wording so they could at least be moderated). Reading these constantly is really getting on my nerves.

P.

[Anthile]

When can we expect a Bioshock Infinite review? I heard the embargo is lifted on Monday but that might just be hearsay. Well, except for IGN because they are special, I guess.

[Perry Groves]

Can we please have fewer SimCity V articles? I know that EA cocked this up big style, that the game itself is borked beyond all repair, but it's starting to get a teeny bit tedious.

[Jesus_Phish]

I noticed today with Nathan Grayson's Dragon Age 3 interview piece that he's using bubble quote boxes. These things are ugly. They're ugly on Eurogamer, DToid, VG247 and every other news site that use's them.

It's be great if they went away.

[Unaco]

It's be great if they went away.

They're not going away. One of the Hivemind confirmed that... they're hear to stay. But don't worry, they'll be "tweaking" them.

Edit: Link to Alec's comment...

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/28/dragon-age-iiis-gaider-on-the-impracticality-of-sexism/#comment-1235309

"We will be tweaking them, but we don’t have dedicated tech staff so these things take time. They’re not going away, but they will be improved."

[LTK]

Not sure if it's happening with other browsers than Chrome, but when I change the page of the comments in article the browser remains at the bottom of the page instead of going to the top of the comments-section like it used to.

Also, get rid of the pullquotes.
I've started noticing this happening to me as well, also on Chrome. It's rather inconvenient.

[Jesus_Phish]

I saw Alec's response.

It's a shame that they're just going to tweak them and not remove them. I don't think they add anything and they're just a distraction. As someone mentioned in the comments on the article, pull quotes have their places in printed medium because you'll flick through a magazine or newspaper and see one, get interested in the article and read it.

If I've already clicked the link to a review with someone, there's no need for pull quotes to try interest me, I'm already interested. All it's going to do is draw my eyes away from the interview and on more than one occasion I end up skipping the rest of the interview.

[alms]

As someone mentioned in the comments on the article, pull quotes have their places in printed medium because you'll flick through a magazine or newspaper and see one, get interested in the article and read it.

Then again, many pull quotes only work because the article starts with a bunch of filler paragraphs, so they slap an interesting-looking sentence in your face hoping you will read the filler while really you are barely skimming through it and try to find find what the pull quote was about in the first place.

[SubparFiddle]

Oh wow, just noticed these "MORE FROM THE WEB" ads above the comment section... These things are kind of sleazy, really.

Also, my thoughts on the pull quotes:
Due to a rise in comment posts from people who barely skimmed the articles, entire hot topic articles will be in pull quotes with the main body just repeated to fill space.

[Vicious]

The article on the gender pay gap was just downright bad. Lazily written, completely uninformed and zero research done on it. Should be ashamed.

"Hey I saw this tweet so now RANT RANT OH MY GOSH RANT #reasonswhy".

[Sarigs]

Oh wow, just noticed these "MORE FROM THE WEB" ads above the comment section... These things are kind of sleazy, really.



I literally just noticed these, I'm sure they weren't there when I checked during my lunch break. Really not a fan, really break up the flow into the comments and look out of place and kinda cheesy :-/

Not classy RPS :-/

[Vicious]

If you want to get rid of the horrible quotes (and they truly are horrible, ugly and insipid things):

Install AdBlock for Chrome/Firefox
Right click the quote and click Adblock > Block This Ad.
Adjust the slider until the quotes disappear (Blocked element:<DIV
class="simplePullQuote" >)

Et Voila!

[arathain]

I literally just noticed these, I'm sure they weren't there when I checked during my lunch break. Really not a fan, really break up the flow into the comments and look out of place and kinda cheesy :-/

Not classy RPS :-/

I avoid using an ad-blocker because I know RPS gets more money if I see the ads, but if these things hang around I shall install one.

[FurryLippedSquid]

Really not bothered. This is the only site I totally unblock, to give them money to make sure they're well funded. Even make a point of clicking on most of the links/ads.

To be so concerned about such a small thing seems petty.

[Sarigs]

Really not bothered. This is the only site I totally unblock, to give them money to make sure they're well funded. Even make a point of clicking on most of the links/ads.

To be so concerned about such a small thing seems petty.

The ads have never bothered me and they are not a bone of contention, the new things are different, crowbared in between the articles and the comments section and they're not about game or site related stuff, instead about random cr*p from across the net. They've not had them before and I personally find them really irritating. Not install a Ad-blocker irritating but still pretty close....colour me petty I guess.

[Nalano]

The ads have never bothered me and they are not a bone of contention, the new things are different, crowbared in between the articles and the comments section and they're not about game or site related stuff, instead about random cr*p from across the net. They've not had them before and I personally find them really irritating. Not install a Ad-blocker irritating but still pretty close....colour me petty I guess.

I imagine petty to be a pale pinkish tone.