As Peuan and I develop Discourse v2, we are opting to bring a new way of working with forums. In this thread, you can check back daily to find this original post modified with new development content, which can include sneak peaks at some of the biggest innovations ever made to a forum.
December 16th: Innovating the Header
One of the biggest goals with Discourse v2 is to create a more intuitive forum header. As of now, the header is clunky, unbalanced, and doesn't allow for easy user functionality. When developing the new header, one of the biggest concerns for me was controlling where the user places their mouse. See, it's not enough to just plop random links everywhere. The goal was to control certain actions to certain portions of the screen. For example, on Discourse v1 we have the AetherCards logo, a search bar, a speech bubble with random quotes, and a menu bar. These are all located on random portions of the screen, forcing the user to drag their mouse all over the screen to accomplish various tasks.
That's not how a forum system should work at all. We stuck with the layout provided to us by default with SMF (our forum software) for v1. For v2, it's 100% our own concept and design.
Everything user-related is now concentrated in one area. You can manage your profile, check your Fame, view your messages, and all that jazz within a few inches of your screen width. The goal is to keep users focused on their task, so that if you want to change your signature, your brain locks onto the section of the site where you know for a fact only User CP modification exists.
Then we have the search bar, relocated to its own little nesting ground at the very top of the board. To me, the search bar is its own entity on a forum. I love quick access, and knowing that it will always be reliable. Peuan's unique placement of the bar gives the feature its own space, but also adds balance to the overarching design.
Of course, the change that was hyped from the start is a revamped logo that retains the Aether branding, but brands The Discourse as its own entity first.
December 17th: Fame! How Famous are you?
The biggest, most awesome addition to The Discourse in v2 is Fame. In Discourse v1, we introduced the simple Karma feature which allows you to praise or smite members. This system was put into place to introduce you guys to the concept of Fame, but in v1, it was open to serious abuse. Peuan and I have lots of experience in creating community-voting systems. In the past, we created "Checks" whose values were based on upvotes and downvotes as well as a complex formula deriving from post counts. While ingenious in its looks and executions, our Checks suffered from being open to abuse, as well as not properly distributing points among members. They were designed in such a way that having 1,000+ points was commonplace. While in theory this may be fun, in practice it took away a reason for people to take upvotes/downvotes seriously. After all, when you have 1,000 Checks to spare, who cares if an entire community downvotes you and causes you to lose 100 of them?
With Fame, gaining it is much more difficult. Your first 25-50 Fame will be a breeze to earn, but the system is designed to put a much greater emphasis on what the community thinks of your posts. It took me a few hours to devise a system that was impervious to abuse. Sure you can still hold a Vendetta against someone with the Fame system, but in the long run that Vendetta will go nowhere.
The solution to stopping abuse was very, very simple. The more Fame you have, the more influence you have over other people's Fame. Picture this:
Jimmy is a valued member of The Discourse, with over 500 Fame to his name. He sees a post made by Jenny, who has been trolling people all day. Disgusted by Jenny's behavior, Jimmy "defames" one of her posts, and her Fame decreases not by ONE, but by FIVE due to Jimmy's influence. Jenny, who noticed that Jimmy is out to get her, decides to troll him back and lower his Fame by defaming all his posts. At first, Jimmy's Fame decreases by a few points because even Jenny should have the right to voice her opinion on someone. However, the more Jenny defames Jimmy, the more Fame she ends up losing as a result due to our automated spam tracker. The tracker noticed that Jenny has been defaming Jimmy over and over, and decreased her Fame significantly. Now, Jenny can still enjoy defaming anyone she wants, but it will not change their scores in any way.
Users no longer have to wonder why they get praise of hate. Everyone will now get notifications, Facebook style, about their upfame/downfames. Let's take a look at some of those notifications now:
"Your fame is decreasing! You lost -X fame for not posting in 10 days."
"Awesome! Your first thread has made you an additional +2 fame. You can earn more fame for continuing to make quality posts."
"You've been consistently annoying some of the members on this forum it seems. You've lost -X fame as a result. Sorry!"
"Wow, do you ever sleep? Enjoy the +1 fame!"
"Shucks, looks like people have been defaming your threads today, making you lose -X fame. Consider improving the quality of your threads next time."
"Looks like you've been posting quite a bit. You have received +X fame for your contributions today."
Of course, there are countless easter eggs that earn you +Fame as well. Who knows what activities around the forums will net you these valuable points?
I use the word "valuable" because you will be able to cash in your precious +Fame to unlock really sweet stuff in out 100% automated shop. More on that, however, in another blog entry.
For those of you curious about how post count will affect your Fame, it will be a large portion of your +Fame income, but in a way that still allows you to lose all of your +Fame if the community decides you're a terrible contribution to the boards.
SQRT(postcount) / 2 + (postcount)/100 is the formula used to determine base Fame from posts. For example, 100 posts will get you a schnazzy 6 +Fame. Likewise, 625 posts gets you a cool 18 Fame.
December 18th: The Shop.
If you have been keeping up to date with the concept of Fame, you may know by now that a forum Shop will be launching with Discourse v2. Members will be able to cash in their hard earned Fame for sweet unlockables. Let's take a look at some of those unlockables right now: (Rather than list them all, I will list one unlockable from each category of unlockables!)
10 Fame: Upgrade your influence! Your upfames/downfames are now worth more.
*Every time it is upgraded, their upfame/downfaming influence changes by +X/-.X respectively
This item is my personal favorite. For 10 of your Fame, you gain the power to really change how significantly you modify other people's Fame when you upfame or downfame them.[/color][/size]
50 Fame: Submit your quote to the TalkBubble (explicit quotes will be removed)
15 Fame: Unlock the ability to use thread descriptions
5 Fame: Change max avatar size from 100x100 to 125x125
25 Fame: Change signature character limit from 500 to 1,000
1 Fame: Enable User Content field in profiles
1 Fame: Enable ALL UBBC codes in signatures
3 Fame: Unlimited PM character limit
1 Fame: Unlimited post character limit
1 Fame: Enable attachments in posts
2 Fame: Smiley unlock! Unlock The Cardist for use in posts.
25 Fame: Three platinum stars next to your username in posts
250 Fame: Upgrade your username to have premium coloring
1 Fame: Enable the "Moods" icon feature for your threads.
25 Fame: Harlequin Preview
25 Fame: Booster pack - Your net +Fame is doubled over the next 3 hours
50 Fame: Immune to downfaming for 30 days
1,000 Fame: One free uncut sheet, chosen at random
These are just a few of over 65 unlockables. The goal was to force members to choose paths in their unlockables. Of course, everyone will drop the 20-50 Fame needed to use some of the basic, cool features like new Smileys, but what about after that? Will you max out your swagger on the forums, and get bolded and colored usernames? Will you choose the path of the ultimate Fame god, wielding the power to easily drop or increase people's Fame count by 10 for each post they make? Perhaps you will opt for the physical rewards, like decks of cards. The shop is designed to really reward veteran users. There is just no way to unlock everything in the time span of a few months. Members that have been posting for a whole year will have significantly different experiences with the forums than members that have been posting for a few weeks. Likewise, members posting for years upon years will have almost everything, if not everything unlocked.
An idea of how quickly Fame will increase, an average user who posts 10 times per day will earn about 20-50 Fame per week. Of course, this does not include the +Fame you get for accomplishing tasks around the boards, winning our revamped Fan of the Week competitions, and more.
December 21th: Subtle playing card themes
With Discourse v2, I wanted the forums to look more like an abode for playing card fanatics, because in the end that's exactly what it is. Throughout the board, you will see very subtle nods to the playing card theme. In the header, we have some Vortex court cards, and the background uses a very toned down version of the Harlequin back. On top of that, unlockable forum badges use the four pips to show off how special a user is. One of the most difficult to reach, of course, is the Golden Spade, unlocked at 10,000 posts. Other badges include things like 500 posts in the Lolaq, 25 posts in the intro boards, etc. The way to get any badge remains secret until at least one person unlocks it, wherein you could hover over the badge with your mouse and see how it was earned.
Badges are just another step to push on the community the difference between a great member, a good member and a bad member (not that we really have any of the latter at the moment).
January 9th: Want incentive?
Giving users incentive to post on a forum is a huge problem for administrators. Forum communication is almost obsolete, but any experienced webmaster will tell you that there are a few huge benefits they offer that no other form of communication can. Here they are:
1. Organized discussion.
2. Member-to-member relationships.
3. Anonymity & free speech.
4. A sense of community.
5. A creative outlet.
6. Competition.
In Discourse v1, the site you are browsing right now, we offered #1-5. As any forum out there, our discussions are organized. Via expanding out focus to beyond our main subject matter, we have enabled members to create personal relationships. It's no surprise to see people helping each other out any way they can on here, and that of course creates a sense of community among us. Anonymity and free speech are huge on The Discourse as well. We protect your right to anonymity and we refuse to disclose any personal information. On top of that, we consistently fight to protect your right to post whatever you want. Our core belief is that if a community creates its own sense of right and wrong, it doesn't need stringent rules to govern itself. This forum is proof of that (we have absolutely no rules, only etiquette guidelines that we suggest members follow to keep from being berated by their peers). Obviously, our design & development board is a creative outlet, but we also take pride in helping many projects succeed and come to life. However, one vital experience has been missing from our forum experience.
Competition is crucial when it comes to getting people excited about posting. Right now, there are two primary methods by which you can track how useful you are to the community: Post count & staff position. These are terrible indicators. Staff positions are obviously positions of use, and post count hardly shows off how much you contribute. You may have 3,000 posts, but you haven't posted in years making you a member that serves no purpose. Likewise, you may have 100 of the most brilliant posts on the board.
That's where Fame comes in, and Fame shows off how great a member is. However, you can spend your Fame and get left with a low Fame count. What then? Well, we created some fail safes:
1. Your Fame CAN be negative, which helps distinguish between the guy who has 4 Fame after buying something from the Fame Shop, and the guy who has -15 Fame because he is a nuisance to the community.
2. Fame is not only earned by post count and upvotes/downvotes. You can earn Fame by posting in specific boards often, or accomplishing certain tasks like sending your first PM. No matter how much Fame you spend, there is always a new way for you to earn it back.
3. Badges, displayed on your mini-profile in every post you make, show off some of your accomplishments on the boards. For example, if you have 3 Fame, but you have the Platinum Star badge, it becomes clear to other members that at some point you had over 100 Fame. Other badges include things like getting 1,000 posts in various boards or following AetherCards on Twitter.
Badges & Fame is a great incentive to post more and more because it is a fantastic way of showing how each member contributes to the forum.
We also added a tracker for Lolaq posts, or posts made in the spam boards. As of now, post counts are disabled in that board. In Discourse v2, that is no longer the case. The posts you make in Lolaq will be stored on your profile and displayed separately from your normal board posts.
We also included badges unlocked manually. These two badges are the "Winner" badge and the "Beta Tester" badge, unlocked only by either winning a contest or becoming a beta tester on the boards.
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