Evil Genius

So, its been a year and the forums has grown, shrinked, enhanced been through 3 face lifts.

Through it all, I've gathered some stats that I think you all might care about. I think this gives me a better idea as to what I can and how far I can push, which meshes well with of course voting on changes.

So, here they are:

Connection:
Cable/DSL 81.19%
Dialup 7.92%
Unknown 7.84%
Corporate 3.06%

Languages:
en-us 68.19%
en 5.36%
fr 4.79%
sv 4.28%

Screen Colors:
32-bit 91.55%
16-bit 6.45%

Screen Resolution:
1024x768 44.90%
1280x1024 30.70%
1152x864 6%
1280x800 5.31%
800x600 3.59%
1600x1200 2.93%

Platform:
Windows 96.11%
OSX 2.28%
Linux 1.49%
Other 0.11%

Browsers:
Firefox 54.90%
IE 36.48%
Opera 5.3%
Safari 1.85%

What this means to me is that I can safely expand the 'width' of the header at the top to beyond that of 800x600 screen to 1024x768 and still hit great than 90% of the target audience without horizonal scrolling (which is good).

I was also planning on reduing the menu system up top to be... well, more usefull.

What do you guys think?

Good idea cause i hate horizonal scrolling i always think my screen settings are wrong.

Reduing the menu at top is something i expect to get better .

psi29a wrote: I was also planning on reduing the menu system up top to be... well, more usefull. :P

DHTML! Thankfully Firefox has a majority, but IE still has a significant share, so I'm curious about the breakdown of versions.

Useful menu? Yes, please.

we shall await the changes with eager anticipation

The big issue is: What menu items at the top do you all use the most and the least.

Do people really read the "FAQ", or should that be more Mindwerks centric and not phpBB cetnric, do people care about Usergroups, if you are already a member, should you even see the Register link? What about memberlist?

Do people really care or like or use the Calendar?

I just found two cents, better share it. Useful links (imo) include chatroom, donate, faq, memberlist, and search. Maybe register shouldn't be up there for members. I've never checked out the usergroups option, and I have used profile maybe twice. The member list could probably be put somewhere else. Anyone else with ideas?

the only link up there i ever use is profile....

personally, links to:
messages
profile
avatar
signature
search

are the only ones i will use.
yes the must redundant is the calendar and i see two of them.

Delete the calendar ... until now I didn't even knew there was a calendar.
Perhaps you should make a poll on what should stay and what not...

So, here is what I think should be up top. Let me know if you think and if you have a better idea!

Calendar, Chat Room, Downloads, Donate, Search, Profile, Messages( if you have any), Login/Logout


Calendar is up in the air as to how useful it is or is not, but I'm keeping it around because it lets people know who's b-day is coming up, what people have plans for. Basically more useful for mods/admins than regular users.

Chat Room is a java based IRC client, in case anyone wants a quick chat or is bored.

Downloads gives you a list of torrents being hosted by Mindwerks which just so happens to host EG's manga releases.

Donate, you all know this one

Search, more of hte same.

Profile, give you configuration options (extensive).

Messages will take you to your PM section in Profile, it will list how many PMs you have and I will make it less wordy.

Login/Logout (you know the drill).



You guys have any other ideas? I'm trying ot keep it clean, simple, and more importantly withen 1024x768 space without causing horizontal scrolling or wrap-around.

Also, does anyone use the Calandar javascript button on the top right hand side? All that does is hide/show the current week's events. The whole calendar thing probably be more usefull if we had more events going on.

it wouldn't hurt to have a memberlist too

i don't see why the Downloads link has to stay because that very link is posted several times on the board already plus there also is the EG site itself that also sports the link

psi29a,

a download link sounds good to me cos i am relatively new and how no idea what that really is.
=P

why dont you just implement the changes you think is appropriate right away and wait for the backlash and complaints to come?
i think it is much more efficient this way.

Quest wrote:psi29a,

a download link sounds good to me cos i am relatively new and how no idea what that really is.
=P

why dont you just implement the changes you think is appropriate right away and wait for the backlash and complaints to come?
i think it is much more efficient this way.

I would if I could, I don't have time do any hacking at the moment, other more pressing priorities exist for me.

So, I think it is good for people to discuss it so that when I am ready, I can have a feel for what would be best for you all.

Downloads == http://bt.evil-genius.us

Not to bump this but is there a way of seeing other board statistics?

Like what?

Most posted in thread, most active section ect ect.

Uh, you can probably find that out yourself, most active forum is Off The Wall, followed by Berserk.

Berserk's Stupid Theories thread happens to be #1 in terms of posts (1392 replies).

#1 most read thread happens to be the Berserk Fan art thread (35349), which is more than 3 times that of the Direct Download thread.

The stats i posted at the top happen to be from logs and info gathered that you can't find from looking at the forum.

Anything else?

Can you say who are logged on most often of the regulars users meaning aside from guys like you and others who take care of the forums behind the scenes.

I'll see what I can come up with, but I don't think I log that information.

However, I can tell you who uses the most bandwidth *grin*. Actually, I know who they are, and have talked to them. Up to them if they want to confess.

I dont even know how you use more bandwidth so im geussing im not one of the guilty ones

psi29a wrote:However, I can tell you who uses the most bandwidth *grin*. Actually, I know who they are, and have talked to them. Up to them if they want to confess.

Guilty as charged, I believe. Can't remember exactly how much strain I put on teh servAr though.

How the hell do you "strain" a forum?

Do you hit F5 every half second?

Or download each chapter a gazillion times?

Freakin' weirdo.