OverClocked ReMix Design ?'s and Issues

[Liontamer]

Welcome to OverClocked ReMix's new design. It's been a long time in the making, and still isn't perfect. There are features that were left out, and I'm sure there are also bugs or problems that will come up as everyone starts using it. Please post ALL discussion related to the new design here. Liontamer will be keeping a master log of any technical problems / errors you encounter by monitoring this thread. Thanks for your patience, thanks for helping out, and I hope you enjoy the new design and other features/documentation that have been added!
Cribbed from djp's redesign on May 23, 2004, only with my handle added in, welcome to OC ReMix v4.2 (so-to-speak).

This design questions and issues thread continues where the old one left off. Please direct any and all questions and issues regarding OCR's current site design and interface here for djp to eventually attend to. Thanks for your help, and we all hope you enjoy the continuing development of OCR.

----------------------------------------------------------------

To Do:

Add Folding@Home group to sidebar
Implementation of new avatars & mascots
Revision of torrent listings (sent to aubrey)
Expanded Site History
Add publishers for Guild Wars (NCsoft), Max Payne (Gathering of Developers) and Pictionary (LJN)



Fixes:

Groups only appears in sidebar when viewing Main Page
Fix tab clicks from resetting vertical page position (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=136203&postcount=73)
Fix of special characters displaying as code on front page and preview text (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=136170&postcount=71)
DKC SPC/RSN link fixes (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=221007&postcount=165)
Word "songs" needs to be capitalized in the window title; already properly capitalized everywhere else
Clicking 50 or 100 on pagination for Songs does not change # of listings; works everywhere else
Extend GameURLs of Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Adventure, Final Fantasy Legend II, Final Fantasy Legend III, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest & Final Fantasy Tactics


Suggestions:

Chipamp extension support suggestion by OverCoat (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=134279&postcount=7)
Highlighting for "Download" tab?
More content on "Review" tab?
Judges decision tabs? (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=137660&postcount=84)


vBulletin:

(possibly unable to be changed) Newly-read topics/posts sometimes not registering as read upon refresh (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=172429&postcount=118) (was problem in phpBB, possibly browser issue instead)
(possibly unable to be changed) URL quirkiness in WYSIWYG (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=230561&postcount=178)
Changes to 10-character/5,000-character/4-image limit in posts?
Increase size of text for post previewing?
Ability to (again) access mix writeups from top of Review threads?
Implementation of auto-double post merge?
More avatars shown per page in avatar selection?
Colors/bolding of members in groups?
Add redirect to homepage in vB forums "default" style
Special character password issue? (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=192466&postcount=58) (could be old/fixed)

[watkinzez]

Can we get a list of the new mascots? I can get up to 150, but I saw another one not in those 15..

[kamoh]

Dammit, now I have to turn off Rama's OCR-R skin to see what the hell is going on...

EDIT: Better, for definitely. But not better than black.

[shpladoink]

Slightly more compact and shiny-looking. I like it. Have the banners been removed from the top for good now? I usually have them adblocked, but the white space reserved for them was still there before.

And the search box is cute, too ^__^

[Inimitable]

Broke Rama's black skin a bit! :(

Looking good, but it's still just too bright for my poor virgin eyes.

[Arek the Absolute]

So uh.....why does the forums feel...different?

[OverCoat]

2nd to last post in the old thread :( I'll just repost it:

Hey, I like the chipamp, very cool! I don't think it necessarily needed to become a TAB on the remix pages though...

Also, you forgot one thing, that I think is essential to WinAmp!

http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=132367
"Plays XM, IT, S3M, MOD, MTM, UMX and MO3 modules using BASS Sound System 2.3.0.1"

It's a solid player that will play XM and IT files properly, as well as adding UMX [The Unreal engine's music format] and MO3 [ogg-compressed module] support. I believe it's also necessary since the default winamp mod playback is horribly designed, it does not support midi macros or even the note-off command, which is DANGEROUS as it creates a wall of winamp-crashing noise :(
EDIT: OH YEAH, and... LOOP POINTS :E

If you feel that you need only UMX support, here is a plugin that will only play UMX:
http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=49627

[OverCoat]

For any future complaints: All that weird misalignment stuff? That's your old cache conflicting with the new images and formatting. Clear your cache and it should resolve all layout problems.

[Evilhead]

Any idea if/when the new avatars will be implemented?

Site looks good, by the way.

[FiremanJoe]

Any idea if/when the new avatars will be implemented?

Site looks good, by the way.

Good? It's great :D I love the tabs, and the search, and and and...-

Sorry if that sounds like sucking up, but I truly do love the new design. I'm ecstatic that the torrents are fixed, the front page looks nicer, it's all great. ...almost makes up for the travesty that is the Sidebar. :wink: :P
Can't wait to try out Chipamp and torrents. (My intnernet speed gets uncapped in another two days 8))

[Ninja-san]

Im not entirely too keen on the Goolge Ads being between sandwhiched between the Remixes and Projects. I liked it better when the ads were on top.

[Black Mage]

Wow, what a way to be greeted to the morning, new OCR.

[Gollgagh]

Kewl. I like the tabs for the store and for mixing.

I am afraid that I have to concur with Ninja-san, however.

[Shadow Wolf]

Might wanna highlight that download tab. I had to look for it for about 30 seconds.

[JoeFu]

Might wanna highlight that download tab. I had to look for it for about 30 seconds.


Same here. I thought it was going to be in the same place as before. STOP MOVING THE DOWNLOAD :P

Anyways, the words run off the side on the main site too, just fyi.

FINALLY 1500 IS OUT :D

[The Orichalcon]

Might wanna highlight that download tab. I had to look for it for about 30 seconds.


Same here. I thought it was going to be in the same place as before. STOP MOVING THE DOWNLOAD :P

Might wanna get a template ready to ctrl+v for the inevitable "WHAR TO DOWNLOAD?"

I disabled Rama's black-OCR to check out the main site properly. It all looks great except for the Site Projects being lined up next to the thread highlights and latest remixes, which I think looks a little untidy. Otherwise good.

I still prefer black-OCR, which is kinder on my little eye-bowls.

[watkinzez]

Might wanna highlight that download tab. I had to look for it for about 30 seconds.


Same here. I thought it was going to be in the same place as before. STOP MOVING THE DOWNLOAD :P

I found it straight away. You're all retarded.

[CE]

Might wanna highlight that download tab. I had to look for it for about 30 seconds.


Same here. I thought it was going to be in the same place as before. STOP MOVING THE DOWNLOAD :P

I found it straight away. You're all retarded.

Yeah, I was like "where's the download button" then remembered how everything's on tabs now and went "duh, over the write up" and there is was.

[Upthorn]

Download wasn't hard to find, but I concur with the sentiment that it would be nice if it stays where it is for a while. Some of us hadn't even had time to get used to the old new download placement.

[Shadow Wolf]

I never really saw the problem with the old download button, because it was a BIG FUCKING ORANGE BUTTON that said download on it. The new one kind of blends in. And Watkinzez: Don't make fun of people just because they're at a lower spiritual plane than you. Cheeky bugger.

[Nineko]

Any idea if/when the new avatars will be implemented?

I'm de facto in charge of quality control and accepting new avatars, but want to make it clear that AFAIK nothing is going to get added to the avatars until AFTER the vBulletin forums migration, which could be anywhere from 2 weeks from now, to God only knows when. So please don't worry about it if we get backlogged and stuff isn't added immediately.

also, there are several ones that still need to be checked

[Dunnowhathuh]

Yeh, I lost the download too, found it pretty much straight away though. Good idea using the tabs, could use a bit less camouflage maybe. Site Projects and ads look a bit out of place (especially the ads) but I'll get used to them. When I heard about design changes, I thought the site was gonna come back fluoro pink or something. Wonder what colour is in store for us in the future?

[Dhsu]

ChipAmp is cool and all, but aren't SPC and PSF sample-based formats? Seems like a bit of a misnomer.

[Jillian Aversa]

Im not entirely too keen on the Goolge Ads being between sandwhiched between the Remixes and Projects. I liked it better when the ads were on top.
QFE. Can't scroll past them now because they're right there in the middle. I think if they were moved back to the top, that would allow more space for the site projects links. As is, everything there looks a little crowded. (And having the ads in the middle of the remix writeups is kinda distracting, too.) Is there any reason why they have to be there? Does it bring in more money?

Everything else looks awesome, as to be expected. The tabs are very functional.

[JoeFu]

Stop calling me retarded :(

I was just used to the orange download link it had after the sidebar came out.

Anyways, I'm having a bit of viewing problems here like



EDIT:

OMFG i cant read :(

[Blue Magic]

Everything looks pretty good so far. I was hoping to see a different color but its cool.

But, I do have a problem with those ads. Can they be on the bottom of the screen instead? Its kind of messy.

[The Coop]

Interesting setup.


Now, about that sidebar...

;)

[OverCoat]

ChipAmp is cool and all, but aren't SPC and PSF sample-based formats? Seems like a bit of a misnomer.

This is a very debatable subject. Sites like Kohina.com's radio stream plays SNES tunes, as they are from a 16 bit system and just as oldschool and nostalgic as the Genesis, therefore they must be included in the chiptune scene.

I, however, disagree that .SPC and .PSF should be callled chiptunes for the sample-based reason, as they are not using a built-in sound chip to synthesize sounds. Sure the SNES has a built in white noise maker [If I remember right] but that was only used as SFX [Chrono Trigger, FF6].

For the sake of Chipamp though, I believe they should be included in the bundle. This pack was designed to play the source of all the arranged music on the site, and SNES/PSX accounts for quite a bit of that. And I just suggested that DJP include the BASS module plugin as well. Mods are all sample-based too, barring .s3m which can use AdLib/OPL-2.

[djpretzel]

Chipamp is a free bundle of existing plugins for Winamp that lets you play a variety of chiptune and tracker formats, including music from classic game consoles like the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, and Playstation.

I *tried* to point out in that initial description that some of the formats aren't truly "chiptunes", but ultimately this distinction is unimportant to the target audience, which is the average user who doesn't really care whether emulation or sample-playback is involved.

[The Coop]

Good to see the VGM format's included with the ChipAmp pack. As good as GYM files are, there are a lot Genesis game tunes that it can't emulate well at all, that VGM can handle just fine (like basically anything from Technosoft, or Phantasy Star IV).



Edit: I've been running into a problem when I click the word "here" after making a post (the "Click here to view your message" one). Instead of the completed page, I'm taken to a white page with all the text that makes up the code for the page. And it happened again just now making this edit.

[Souliarc]

Thank-you for removing the information under the torrents, and thus removing the scroll bar. My mouse would always get stuck there when rolling with the scroll wheel :P

Now, will more people not use the torrents because they decide not to find the information on how to use them on their own, who knows.

[watkinzez]

I'm surrounded by retards.

(Like the new design btw; uses space more efficiently)

[djpretzel]

Ugh, browsing the site at work using IE. I prefer Firefox of course, but I have no choice while I'm at work. The site looks utterly broken. Anyone else have problems using IE? I know most computer savy people use Firefox these days, but a lot of people still use IE and it might reflect badly on the site having it look like a broken mess.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3847/ocrxp5.th.png (http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ocrxp5.png)

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9858/ocr2kw0.th.png (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ocr2kw0.png)

Clear your browser cache.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :sleepdepriv: :puppyeyes:

[Souliarc]

Wow, that shopzilla ad is annoying, like those graphic design ads that take up 1/3rd of the t.v. At least this one doesn't have the chance to take up valuable captioning or some dialogue with SFX.

But whatever keeps my OCR runnin'!

[Evilhead]

Clear your browser cache.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :sleepdepriv: :puppyeyes:

Whoops, that did it. Feeling pretty dumb now.

[Dhsu]

Chipamp is a free bundle of existing plugins for Winamp that lets you play a variety of chiptune and tracker formats, including music from classic game consoles like the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, and Playstation.

I *tried* to point out in that initial description that some of the formats aren't truly "chiptunes", but ultimately this distinction is unimportant to the target audience, which is the average user who doesn't really care whether emulation or sample-playback is involved.
I realize this, but I feel a site with an actual focus on the subject should set the example by using the correct terminology. Otherwise, it'd be like Digitally Imported referring to all electronic music as "techno." :P

[Chordless]

I distinctly remember there being *two* Pilotwings 64 remixes on this site. Now there's only Midnight Altitude, and the download-links for that one are all broken. I found the missing remix (Birdman ClearSkies http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00141/) by looking around supertux.com, but no such luck with Midnight Altitude :(

[sephfire]

I like seeing more of the projects on the frontpage. Nice work on the redesign in general.

[Defend]

Always meant to bring this up, and the recent remix write-up ('The Koan of Drums') is a good example to go from.

My question is, why is the website news written in the middle of write ups?

You load OCR, and the main page never says anything to do with the site's recent events. But if you load a new remix write-up, all that unrelated news is right there. Not just on the same page.. in the same article.

Is there a reason for that? Doesn't it seem a tad.. unorganised? At least this particular remix IS djp's, so he can't be blamed for cluttering up the article on someone's work. But clutter is a good way to put it.. I see that write-up and I automatically start jumping paragraphs looking for where the related info begins. In this case, that's 5 of them. Five paragraphs that will always be off topic. In a year someone will click on that remix and will still have to see all that.

Frustrating to me anyway. Main page, news, not in write-ups. Please?



Other comments:
The tabs for download, reviews, etc are nice. Now that 'reviews' gets a whole tab/page, it would be nice to see more than 3 lines of the last reply appear on that page.

Is the 'chiptunes' tab going to have the relating chiptune, or will it always just be a plug for ChipAmp?

The write-up page definitely feels more messy than it used to. Its probably only those "Ads by Google" in the same text-space as the article that are making me notice so much. But it definitely feels more "Which part do I read" now.


Sorry for all the nitpicking, I'm like that. Good work maintaining such a site in the first place.

[djpretzel]

My question is, why is the website news written in the middle of write ups?

Valid question; currently using that space to emphasize activity on the forums, but may use it for announcements at some point. I *like* having the mix writeups read like an on-going, linear site blog of sorts, but certain announcements do warrant homepage status. Also looking at a mailing list for site news, etc. Whatever is done, I like having the gen disc. posts on the homepage & clearly visible, and don't want to get rid of them.


Other comments:
The tabs for download, reviews, etc are nice. Now that 'reviews' gets a whole tab/page, it would be nice to see more than 3 lines of the last reply appear on that page.

Is the 'chiptunes' tab going to have the relating chiptune, or will it always just be a plug for ChipAmp?

Sorry for all the nitpicking, I'm like that. Good work maintaining such a site in the first place.

Well, everybody *thinks* they're a designer, and many don't think through ALL the numerous implications of site design, ad placement, etc. when they make suggestions.

Regarding more content on the reviews tab, I agree - perhaps even the latest three reviews, instead of just one, who said them, and when they were posted. You can get that from the thread, of course, but the point of the tab is to quickly sum up recent comments, so the extra space could definitely be taken advantage of.

The chiptunes tab was supposed to have a link to download the actual chiptune, when available, as well as links to other chiptune players. It's still going to, it's just something I didn't finish in time and thought could wait.

[Dhsu]

I think what bothers me more than the name ChipAmp is the underlying mentality evident throughout the site that "chiptune" is synonymous with "source tune." In many cases this is a correct assumption, but what if the source is Redbook, or orchestrated, or an acoustic performance? It becomes less a matter of semantics and more an issue of propagating a completely erroneous notion (or what some people might refer to as "F[oul]ed Up Disinformation").

Of course, I realize that OCR is probably the sole reason the word "remix" is used interchangeably with "arrangement" these days, but there were good and valid reasons for that decision. I'm okay with the name "ChipAmp" as it's simple, memorable, and gets the basic idea across; but labeling the source tune tab as "chiptunes" is misleading, and I see no advantage in this case, since it's neither a more convenient nor more entrenched term than "source tune" (or merely "source") is. It really doesn't make sense for a game like "Beyond Good & Evil" to have a "chiptunes" tab.

[Jillian Aversa]

Bah, it's a catchy name! I think the target group here is more or less "in-the-know" already. It shouldn't cause too much confusion.

[Dhsu]

Like I said, I'm for keeping the name ChipAmp (it's definitely catchy), but I'd like to see a more accurate label substituted for the current "chiptunes" tab, and less careless usage of the term elsewhere on the site.

[DarkeSword]

Bah, it's a catchy name! I think the target group here is more or less "in-the-know" already. It shouldn't cause too much confusion.

You'd be surprised at how much people actually aren't "in-the-know."

[Txai]

I am in total agreement with Dhsu. Nor all game soundtracks are based in square waves, pink noises and so on, and i think the term "chiptunes" isn't really appropriate.

Perhaps the most accurate term should be "source tune" instead of the term "chiptunes".

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/1232/5jd4.png

by the way that universal plugin is very nice indeed.

[Xelebes]

My question is, why is the website news written in the middle of write ups?

Valid question; currently using that space to emphasize activity on the forums, but may use it for announcements at some point. I *like* having the mix writeups read like an on-going, linear site blog of sorts, but certain announcements do warrant homepage status. Also looking at a mailing list for site news, etc. Whatever is done, I like having the gen disc. posts on the homepage & clearly visible, and don't want to get rid of them.


Think more of it as a history in the telling, folks.

[Dhsu]

Haha, nice Photoshop skills, Txai. :)

[watkinzez]

Bah, it's a catchy name! I think the target group here is more or less "in-the-know" already. It shouldn't cause too much confusion.

You'd be surprised at how much people actually aren't "in-the-know."

Yep. Wasn't one of the main objectives for ChipAmp to cater for the wider, slightly confused audience in the first place?

[PriZm]

Don't know if it has been mentioned before, but I would recommend more uniformity in the Projects nomenclature.

Maybe something like
ProjectName - Description

where Description is either the name of the game, series, or composer being remixed.

Now it's more like inverted :
Blood on the Asphalt - Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Doom - The Dark Side of Phobos

Or weird:
SMProject - Relics of the Chozo CD.rar

Also, it would be cool if said projects had writeups too.

[Bigfoot]

Dunno where else this should be posted, but..



As you know we get spambots here and there. Do you think making it so when you sign up you have to enter in a keykode from an image will prevent these spambots?

[richter]

The affiliation with zzounds is an excellent choice. I bought some music soft/hardware several years ago because of OCR, and would have liked some of that $ to go into its pockets. Gotta say though, eStarland seems pretty shady (http://www.resellerratings.com/seller7935.html). OCR deserves attention and support of course, but a friend of mine had an awful experience with them and it looks like many others have as well.

This design is great. The page space is used so much more efficiently. Also: can't wait until the shirts are ready!

:nicework:

[djpretzel]

Gotta say though, eStarland seems pretty shady (http://www.resellerratings.com/seller7935.html). OCR deserves attention and support of course, but a friend of mine had an awful experience with them and it looks like many others have as well.
:nicework:

That's based off 18 reviews; keep in mind that they do trade-ins, which few online retailers are willing to do, and that that likely increases the number of folk who might be upset because they didn't get $1000 for their scratched-up old Virtual Boy.

http://www.bizrate.com/ratings_guide/cust_reviews__mid--66998.html
(http://www.bizrate.com/ratings_guide/cust_reviews__mid--66998.html)

That's based off over 2000 reviews... as opposed to 18. Plus I met with Chris Kong, the owner, personally, and know him from before they even had a website.

They'll be selling OC ReMix T-shirts soon, if things work out, and I wouldn't be supporting them and affiliating with them if I wasn't confident it made sense. When the owner's willing to meet with you for two hours, sell OCR shirts, has an open bizrate affiliation that allows reliable user ratings directly tied to actual purchases made on the site, and the totality of over 2000 such ratings come out positive, I wouldn't call that "shady".

Thanks for the comments though, and you're right to question anyone OCR affiliates with and bring any concerns to my attention - I have faith in eStarland and cite the 90% positive reviews (high for a shop that does trade-ins) as support, but appreciate the information nonetheless.

[richter]

Good enough for me :) I'll be buying shirts from them the moment they're available.

[Bummerdude]

I too had some trouble finding the download link, but it wasn't that hard to find. I like the tab design, I just have to get used clicking on them to go back to the write-up since the green arrow will only show you the same page.

Why is the website news written in the middle of write ups?
Yeah, I've missed plenty of facts because of that too, but you can always check if there are any news whenever a new remix is submited.

[djpretzel]

I am in total agreement with Dhsu. Nor all game soundtracks are based in square waves, pink noises and so on, and i think the term "chiptunes" isn't really appropriate.

Perhaps the most accurate term should be "source tune" instead of the term "chiptunes".

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/1232/5jd4.png

by the way that universal plugin is very nice indeed.

"Source Tune" or rather "Source Tune(s)" *would* be more accurate, I'll grant you both that... so would calling the entire site "OverClocked Arrangements", for that matter. The rational for keeping "Chiptune" here is similar but not identical (although imo it *is* a cool word):

:arrow: I'm (we're) trying to build awareness of chiptunes and the chiptune community
:arrow: For this reason, I want to use the word as much as possible, in as many places as possible
:arrow: "Source Tune(s)" would actually be a misnomer for mixes that arrange songs from more than one game
:arrow: There are other options ("Chiptunes/Rips", "Original Tune(s)", "OST", "Soundtrack") that all have their own respective problems/inaccuracies
:arrow: Ultimately, I'd rather promote chiptunes and be inaccurate some of the time. The pure definition of "Chiptune" was already weakened when they allowed MODs that used nothing but very short samples.

In other news, you can now download the chiptune, or whatever you want to call it, from the chiptunes tab. There's also the same links from the chipamp.org links page, for convenience (chipamp.org uses ocremix's dynamic javascript links, so they'll always be in sync).

I do appreciate the comments, I agree in part, I gave it some thought... I reached the same conclusion I did before.

[Liontamer]

Don't know if it has been mentioned before, but I would recommend more uniformity in the Projects nomenclature.

Maybe something like
ProjectName - Description

where Description is either the name of the game, series, or composer being remixed.

Now it's more like inverted :
Blood on the Asphalt - Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Doom - The Dark Side of Phobos

Or weird:
SMProject - Relics of the Chozo CD.rar

Also, it would be cool if said projects had writeups too.
We simply didn't have a standard for how Album Projects were laid out, including the torrent titling. I believe we're not changing anything because stats would be reset and links floating out in the wild encourage sharing of the torrents would 404. I believe we'll be going for something more uniform in the future though. Before Project Chaos and Summoning of Spirits come out, we'll try to have something more concrete figured out.

Project writeups would take quite a while. I'd rather the project coordinators provided something like that.

Dunno where else this should be posted, but..

As you know we get spambots here and there. Do you think making it so when you sign up you have to enter in a keykode from an image will prevent these spambots?
Very aware of it (it's really annoying). When we eventually switch to vBulletin, keycode image will indeed be a part of the signup process to eliminate bots. If I have the time, I'll be looking through the forum records trying to delete old spam accounts for a couple of days before the switchover.

[aubrey]

I believe we're not changing anything because stats would be reset and links floating out in the wild encourage sharing of the torrents would 404.

Well, the tracker could display something different for the links at least, even if the torrents themselves stayed the same. It would certainly be an improvement over what we have now.

If you are coming up with standards, make the site projects release in some CD quality format. Besides for giving the remixers a chance to shine using the best possible format, it makes the tracker stats go up faster, which is almost as important! ;-)

-Aubrey

[Jack the Ripper]

Of course, I don't spend a ton of time here, and don't have the time to spend reading this whole topic along with the previous one - but the way the Google ad banner stretches the width on the first page is just outright irritating. I'm on 1024*768, so this shouldn't be an issue.

I was already very satisfied with the previous layout, and still haven't gotten used to the new format. I understand that many people were calling for additional functionality or fixes, that it must have become apparent a redesign was in order - I still have grown accustomed to the older design, and wish you could have left out so many unnecessary changes to the layout. As a person who's a bit distanced to the site, it's easy to see how the previous format was just superior in ease-of-use.

[djpretzel]

Of course, I don't spend a ton of time here, and don't have the time to spend reading this whole topic along with the previous one - but the way the Google ad banner stretches the width on the first page is just outright irritating. I'm on 1024*768, so this shouldn't be an issue.

I was already very satisfied with the previous layout, and still haven't gotten used to the new format. I understand that many people were calling for additional functionality or fixes, that it must have become apparent a redesign was in order - I still have grown accustomed to the older design, and wish you could have left out so many unnecessary changes to the layout. As a person who's a bit distanced to the site, it's easy to see how the previous format was just superior in ease-of-use.

Sorry you feel that way; I don't think your being "distanced to the site" gives you 100% credibility in determining what is or is not superior, however. The google ad in question was there prior to this recent redesign, and only creates layout problems in Internet Explorer. The horizontal space that the other, vertical ad takes up is WELL worth the tradeoff in vertical space that the horizontal ad across the top consumed, imo, and puts far more information above the fold.

And, frankly, it's not really your place to tell me what is or isn't "necessary" in terms of modifying the site design. Regaining vertical space was in fact necessary to work better with vbulletin, for example, which chews up more header space than PHPBB. Perhaps if you spent more time here you'd be in a better position to understand the site's requirements.

[Arek the Absolute]

Chipamp is a free bundle of existing plugins for Winamp that lets you play a variety of chiptune and tracker formats, including music from classic game consoles like the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, and Playstation.

I *tried* to point out in that initial description that some of the formats aren't truly "chiptunes", but ultimately this distinction is unimportant to the target audience, which is the average user who doesn't really care whether emulation or sample-playback is involved.
I realize this, but I feel a site with an actual focus on the subject should set the example by using the correct terminology. Otherwise, it'd be like Digitally Imported referring to all electronic music as "techno." :P
needs more metroid metal


So I am guessing that there won't be a "spotlight" section anymore? I remember back in the day, djp would do a tiny write up about each project as they were released.....now the projects seem kinda lackluster.
I probably am only pointing this out because I was hoping for a write up like the "og" projects.
Bias aside, site looks good.

[Dhsu]

:arrow: I'm (we're) trying to build awareness of chiptunes and the chiptune community
:arrow: For this reason, I want to use the word as much as possible, in as many places as possible
This is an admirable goal, but I'm sure there's a way to do this *without* spreading blatant FUD (I suppose "misinformation" is a more accurate term but "FUM" just doesn't have the same ring to it).

:arrow: "Source Tune(s)" would actually be a misnomer for mixes that arrange songs from more than one game
Could you elaborate? The parenthetical 's' should cover multiple source tunes. If you mean that the page will only display the tunes from one game, I don't think it's any more of an inaccuracy than listing the mix itself under a single game, and is an understandable limitation.

:arrow: There are other options ("Chiptunes/Rips", "Original Tune(s)", "OST", "Soundtrack") that all have their own respective problems/inaccuracies
I don't see any sacrifice in accuracy or convenience associated with using "Source Tune(s)" or simply "Source(s)".

:arrow: Ultimately, I'd rather promote chiptunes and be inaccurate some of the time. The pure definition of "Chiptune" was already weakened when they allowed MODs that used nothing but very short samples.
I'm not even talking about the "pure definition"; I actually don't mind if people gloss over the technicalities and use the term to refer to SNES music, since it's still considered "oldschool." And like I already said, I think the line between "remix" and "arrangement" is fuzzy enough that using the shorter and more popular word was justified. However, the very spirit and meaning of "chiptune" is destroyed and rendered nonsensical if you start inexplicably using it to describe the music of World of WarCraft or Morrowind. At that point you aren't promoting "chiptunes" at all! How would you react if you were engaged in a conversation with someone who claimed they loved chiptunes and cited Guild Wars as an example?

I do appreciate the comments, I agree in part, I gave it some thought... I reached the same conclusion I did before.
And I will respect it, but I implore you to reconsider yet again.

Edit:The google ad in question was there prior to this recent redesign, and only creates layout problems in Internet Explorer.
Which is used by "only" 85% of Internet users. ;)

[aubrey]

Which is used by "only" 85% of Internet users. ;)

This is going to sound bad no matter what, but I'm really only meaning it to be informative.

Since my server displays tracker information that gets posted on the main page of this site, I can (and do) check out the browser stats for the several hundred thousand uniques that visit this site each month.

Internet Explorer has not been the browser of choice to view this site for quite a while now. Here is the break down for last month:

52% - firefox
39% - internet explorer
4% - opera
3% - safari
2% - other (netscape/mozilla/camino/konqueror)

Kinda neat huh?

-Aubrey

[djpretzel]

Internet Explorer has not been the browser of choice to view this site for quite a while now. Here is the break down for last month:

52% - firefox
39% - internet explorer
4% - opera
3% - safari
2% - other (netscape/mozilla/camino/konqueror)

Kinda neat huh?

-Aubrey

Confirmed - IE loses to Firefox on OCR. Thank god, frankly. IE7 may fix the ad problem @ 1024x768 or, if it supports min-width and min-height correctly, allowing me to try something else. I've got an MSDN subscription, and as soon as they give me Vista RC1, I'm doing a VMWare session for IE7 browser testing and Chipamp testing, too.

Now, on to Dhsu's continued chiptune semantic concerns. I've got some options. One option is to not display the chiptune tab at all unless a chiptune (or something like it) is available for that game. As I understand it, the objection is to having a "chiptunes" tab appear for Morrowind, etc., but it's just as inaccurate for any redbook-audio only system (e.g. Sega CD) or what not. I could implement something at the system level, and only show the chiptunes tab when the system itself supports some sort of chiptune format (or close enough), but that'd be a problem, as many modern games for the PC would display a chiptunes tab, seeing as there ARE old Adlib, etc. formats for the PC that could count.

The downside of not displaying the chiptune when there's no chiptune hosted on OCR itself is that there's rather large PSFs that we don't intend to host due to bandwidth issues, but then when viewing a game like FF9, people wouldn't see the chiptunes tab, and wouldn't have the links to Chipamp and Zophar's where they could get the PSF. Some of those same links are on the "links" tab, but if users expect files to be there...

I *could* alter the database to include a flag as to whether the chiptune is local or remote, and just include links in the case of the big chiptunes we don't want to host.

But that's all a lot of work. I'll discuss it with Larry - we're working on getting more chiptunes in more formats on the site. I've already added twenty or so, filling in the SNES gaps, in the last 48 hours.

"Source Tunes" or the too-cryptic "Sources" would be misnomers if all you could find for games lacking a local chiptune on OCR was links to chiptune resources, which would be moot for games like Morrowind or Sega CD games, etc., so I'm not sure that suggestion really makes a lot of sense.

Continued thoughts appreciated based on above info.

[Dhsu]

Thanks for the reply, djp.

Okay, so from what I've seen so far, there's already a mechanism of sorts in place for determining whether or not the game in question has a chiptune soundtrack. If it does, it provides links for downloading the appropriate file, and if not, nothing is shown at all (besides the ChipAmp propaganda ;) ).

So instead of displaying nothing, perhaps a little "catch-all" message can be shown such as "Chiptunes not available for this game, see links tab for additional resources" or something to that effect. Basically, a generic blurb that indicates that either that the term is not applicable, or that the files are simply not hosted on OCR. I think that would cover most of our bases.

[Fishy]

Just a random thing i noticed in the reviews tab. I dunno if this has been noticed before, or was around before the change but anyways; I just reviewed the latest track and i used quotation marks in my review. On the review tab it came up as "everything".

Just to let you know.

[jmr]

Uh, isn't the 'Site Projects' forum description a little... outdated?
"announcements/info/discussion of OCR-related projects, official and unofficial including OverClocked ReCollections."
1: Doesn't the announcement bit take place in either GenDisc or requests?
2: There are only official projects in that section, unnofficial projects (ie Bound Together) are in other forums.
3: Wasn't OverClocked ReCollections abandoned? Either way, it's not there anymore.

Perhaps a more fitting description would be:
"discussion of official OCR-related projects."

[djpretzel]

Thanks for the reply, djp.

So instead of displaying nothing, perhaps a little "catch-all" message can be shown such as "Chiptunes not available for this game, see links tab for additional resources" or something to that effect. Basically, a generic blurb that indicates that either that the term is not applicable, or that the files are simply not hosted on OCR. I think that would cover most of our bases.

Very doable, will implement shortly, seems like a good idea.

There are problems with escaped characters whenever we pull data from PHPBB that I need to fix, too - this includes '&' and ''' and '"' appearing on pages that pull data from the forum db but exist outside the PHPBB application. Once I fix it in one place, it'll be fixed elsewhere, but sometimes character escaping/XML/XSLT can be tricky.

[The Author]

I was surfing and the site kinda took a while to load. When it did it looked like this. I mean, it looked normal for a while and then boom, this freaky set up. Clearing the cache did nothing. This is a pretty random occurence, dunno what may have caused it, but still, I assumed it would be worth reporting it.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/7532/untitledij7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Disregard this post, as I found the reason why it went freaky. It was entirely on my computer and not due to OCR at all.

[paperCrane]

I'm all for JavaScript and the tab interface. It's a great thing. However, could you please not use a blank anchor as the href? I really don't like my pages to jump back to the top when I click a tab. When I'm really loading a new page it's ok, but when you're using JS that simply should not happen. A viable alternative: href="javascript:void()" or, if you really want an anchor, put an anchor just above the tabs and use that anchor name.

[Dhsu]

Very doable, will implement shortly, seems like a good idea.
Pleasure doing business with you, sir. ;)

[Arek the Absolute]

This may not seem like a big issue, or an issue at all to some of you, but I would really like it if you were to put ocelot back to being next to the russian remix roulette :D

[linkspast]

Yeha that be cool.

[Dhsu]

It was removed because it looks goofy with other stylesheets.

[Nineko]

What about a link to Chipamp in this page (http://ocremix.org/info/Links), in the "Game Music Emulation (NSF, SPC, etc.)" section?

another page that would fit well in that section and is currently missing is http://www.smspower.org/music/

[richter]

I'm all for JavaScript and the tab interface. However, could you please not use a blank anchor as the href? I really don't like my pages to jump back to the top when I click a tab.
Gotta second that one. I'm not gonna tell you how to do it (I know how annoying that can be), I'll just say I like my page to stay where it is when I toggle element displays.

Boy are we picky bastards.

[Ayres]

How about a better way to select pages in the forums? Useful, really for the big ones (i.e. ones that post over 100 pages). Something like a drop down, rather than only being able to progress 6 at a time like now.

[Nineko]

How about a better way to select pages in the forums? Useful, really for the big ones (i.e. ones that post over 100 pages). Something like a drop down, rather than only being able to progress 6 at a time like now.Your browser has an address bar for this reason.
Just start the "&start=xxx" section in the URL, where xxx is 15*(page number -1). For example, page 11 is "&start=150".

[Vilecat]

What about a link to Chipamp in this page (http://ocremix.org/info/Links), in the "Game Music Emulation (NSF, SPC, etc.)" section?

another page that would fit well in that section and is currently missing is http://www.smspower.org/music/http://project2612.org/ would work too, it's all Genesis games, and in a better format(vgz) than what Zophar currently has... or had, they haven't really updated in quite a while.

[Gollgagh]

Can we not look at the judge comments on remixes anymore or am I just stupid?

EDIT: NVM I was just stupid.

[Dhsu]

That reminds me...couldn't the "view decision" link be integrated as a tab as well? And if it was direct-posted, then the tab just won't show up, just like the link. Or maybe you could have both the tab and the link. Bah, I dunno. Just an idea.

[Gollgagh]

Cool, I get to witness a change in forum format as it's happening.

[Nineko]

Cool, I get to witness a change in forum format as it's happening.djp, while you are at here, you may remove Protricity from being listed as a moderator of site projects ;)

[Bigfoot]

eww subsilver

[Arek the Absolute]

I was looking for the "site projects" button on the forum list for 5 minutes. Nice covert swap.

[supremespleen]

Whoah, the forum movey aroundy business confused the hell outta me.

[PumaJones]

Since you've redesigned, whenever I click download on ANY remix, I get a 404. What gives?

[Nineko]

Another point concerning original soundtracks...

From djp's review on this remix (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01504/):Speaking of .gbs files and chiptunes in general, we've been working on getting more of them directly available here on OCR; there's a dozen new RSNs for SNES games, we've switched our Genesis files from RGM (rar'd GYM) to zipped VGM, and we've added zipped VGMs for Sega Master System titles as well, where available.
I'm really happy to read that, I've been bugging Larry about VGM files since a lot of time ago, so I must say a big "Nice Work" to you.

Now please complete the work by adding the VGM files for the Game Gear games hosted on ocremix (http://www.ocremix.org/system/gg/), being "Ecco 2: The Tides Of Time" and "Sonic The Hedgehog: Triple Trouble" ;)
Both of them are available on SMSpower VGM music archive (http://www.smspower.org/music/vgm/index.shtml), that seems to be the source also for the Master System VGMs you recently uploaded. I would post direct links here, but I don't think that the guys on SMSpower would like that ;)

Again, nice work with the SMS soundtracks, you made happy a lot of SEGA oldschool gamers. For sure, at least one ;)

Regards.

[Less Ashamed Of Self]

Three questions;

-What's gonna happen with the announcements section in the bottom drop down. Is it going to form?

-Is that competitions section coming? If so, safe bet a stickying a thread essentially saying 'pm a mod before creating a comp' would be wise. I've got a great idea for another one but I'm not gonna ever post it unless someone's willing to run it for me. Lord knows I miss enough deadlines for FunnyHaHa.

-What happened to the OCR4-Tan thread? How'd it manage to go from stickied to deleted (as far as I can tell) so fast?

[Nineko]

-What's gonna happen with the announcements section in the bottom drop down. Is it going to form?wait, can't you see it?

[Less Ashamed Of Self]

-What's gonna happen with the announcements section in the bottom drop down. Is it going to form?wait, can't you see it?

Ok, scrap that one... what about the other 2?

[Nineko]

-What's gonna happen with the announcements section in the bottom drop down. Is it going to form?wait, can't you see it?

Ok, scrap that one... what about the other 2?-What happened to the OCR4-Tan thread? How'd it manage to go from stickied to deleted (as far as I can tell) so fast?Stickies can be purged just like standard threads. No posts = death.
Only announcements and active polls aren't pruned. That's why we can't post polls in unmod.

[Dhsu]

Alpha list by game = ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━!!!!!

[Ab56 v2 aka Ash]

I posted this in Help & Newbies:

"Somtimes when I click Reply to Topic I get sent back to the front page of the forums. This is either a sign or OCR is teh broke. Someone is eventually going to say both."

Herro, this is still probrem. I need HERP!!

Any clues?

[Smoke]

I posted this in Help & Newbies:

"Somtimes when I click Reply to Topic I get sent back to the front page of the forums. This is either a sign or OCR is teh broke. Someone is eventually going to say both."

Herro, this is still probrem. I need HERP!!

Any clues?

What browser, what version, does it always happen to the same topics, is there a pattern noticeable, have you checked for viruses and spyware?

Just the basics :).

[Ab56 v2 aka Ash]

I already talked to Smoke about this. Ironically, my browser sent me back to the front page of the forum as I tried to reply to this thread ;(

This seems to be a Firefox issue. I have no problems in IE. My antivirus is off, so I don't know what the problem is.

[Czar Diego]

What's with that tacky E-starand ad in teh remix write-ups? Isn't there a less intrusive place to put that?

[Vortex]

I'm having a bit of a problem with Chipamp. It works fine and all as far as playback goes, but it seems to have screwed up winamp's supported file type recognition. Whenever I try to open a new file, the dialog box is always empty and I have to manually go to "all files" in the drag down box to see anything.

When the default "all supported types" is selected, it displays nothing, not even normal audio files like mp3 or wav. All the correct file types are set under file associations in winamp options, but I have to manually open files through an explorer window or do the previously mentioned drag down to all files every time I try to open something.

Has anyone else run into a problem like this?

[Nineko]

Has anyone else run into a problem like this?it's not because of chipamp. winamp randomly fucks up with the file types in the "open" dialog, especially if you have lots of plugins. someone found the cause some time ago, but I forgot. it has something to do either with the number of registered file types or with the lenght of the filter string. there is something too long anyway.

[Antipode]

Hey, just thought I'd mention this one:

I know there used to be an F-Zero GX remix called "Dr Stuard 'Jeff n Toad Air Team Challengers", or something like that, and I'm also aware that said remix was removed - but it appears that the category for GX, now empty, wasn't.

http://www.ocremix.org/f/
http://www.ocremix.org/game/fzerogx/

I'm sure this had to have been mentioned, but I thought I'd put it out there.

[Nineko]

I'm sure this had to have been mentioned, but I thought I'd put it out there.Nah, I already pointed out this some time ago, when I noticed that the page for Sim City (http://www.ocremix.org/game/simcity/) is still there even without remixes. I believe that Larry told me "these pages are still there to keep a trace of the website's history" or something like that.

[CHz]

The publisher page for Sage's Creation (http://www.ocremix.org/publisher/id/96/) is a bit messed up:

http://www.quiteajolt.com/ocr/sagescreation.png

EDIT: Fixed now. That was fast. =O

[Liontamer]

The publisher page for Sage's Creation (http://www.ocremix.org/publisher/id/96/) is a bit messed up
Thanks, 'Ili. Fixed.

[Nineko]

I don't know if it's just me, but all the pages in the Emulators (http://www.ocremix.org/emulators/) section are blank.

Try to click on any emulator and see what happens.

If it's just me, here's my specs: Windows XP, Firefox 1.0.7, Italy.

[Hellcom]

I don't know if it's just me, but all the pages in the Emulators (http://www.ocremix.org/emulators/) section are blank.

Try to click on any emulator and see what happens.

If it's just me, here's my specs: Windows XP, Firefox 1.0.7, Italy.

I can confirm this.

Windows XP, Firefox 2.0 - English GB

[genghisdani]

I would like to request that something be added to the forums: a "print this topic" button. Several times, I have wanted to print the material in a topic before it gets old and purged, but because of the way phpBB works, it's pretty much impossible to print right from the browser. I don't have a lot of experience in phpBB, but from what I gather, it's relatively simple to incorporate.

</my2cents>

[Arek the Absolute]

Three posts in a bot thread:

I know this post is hypocritical, but please guys, don't bump these. Just pm them to a mod *not me, though i always route those that do to the appropriate person* and they will take care of it.

The thing is, though, that mods are never on at this hour, and it's kinda a pain to search them out just to PM them something that they'll more than likely notice once they come on anyways.
I HEREBY DEMAND MORE HOURS FOR MODS AND BETTER PAY.
Or something.
But there's been a few times these threads have come up and I've "attempted" to contact mods, only to be foiled by their..lack of...onlinitude?

Well, I am practically always on since I have access to OCR at work, so I can contact mods when if needed. As for the hours, that does pose a problem. I really don't know what to do.

He does make a good point. There is a "leak" or "hole" at some point in the day where there is no mod on at all, and that is when a lot of the bots go and make threads. I am not saying to make me a mod or anything, but...ahh ya I am, I was just being humble about it * even though smoke and gray both knew how bad I wanted to be one for so long* and beating around the bush cause I know it won't happen.
Personal ambition aside, seriously, something has to be done.

[GeckoYamori]

These 'leaks' can be mostly fixed by having more mods from different parts of the world to cover all the time zones.

[genghisdani]

These 'leaks' can be mostly fixed by having more mods from different parts of the world to cover all the time zones.
Agreed... like... Israel for example.

[Smoke]

Three posts in a bot thread:

I know this post is hypocritical, but please guys, don't bump these. Just pm them to a mod *not me, though i always route those that do to the appropriate person* and they will take care of it.

The thing is, though, that mods are never on at this hour, and it's kinda a pain to search them out just to PM them something that they'll more than likely notice once they come on anyways.
I HEREBY DEMAND MORE HOURS FOR MODS AND BETTER PAY.
Or something.
But there's been a few times these threads have come up and I've "attempted" to contact mods, only to be foiled by their..lack of...onlinitude?

Well, I am practically always on since I have access to OCR at work, so I can contact mods when if needed. As for the hours, that does pose a problem. I really don't know what to do.

He does make a good point. There is a "leak" or "hole" at some point in the day where there is no mod on at all, and that is when a lot of the bots go and make threads. I am not saying to make me a mod or anything, but...ahh ya I am, I was just being humble about it * even though smoke and gray both knew how bad I wanted to be one for so long* and beating around the bush cause I know it won't happen.
Personal ambition aside, seriously, something has to be done.

Bots don't post more during the hours mods aren't around. They post just as much, it just takes longer for them to be spotted. And it doesn't help if people keep bumping their threads. We'll kill them on sight, just ignore them. They're not taking up valuable space or getting in the way of other threads. And even if they did, replying would have the exact opposite effect.

Sidenote: Contacting a mod is easy.

The profile links for all of us are listed in the Forum Rules thread thing up there, and you can also go to Community > Forums > Groups, select the Moderator group and view it there to get the same list.

[Arek the Absolute]

whatever works

[Liontamer]

whatever works
Yeah. But nice try though. You guys stop bumping the damn threads though. Bump an UnMod thread instead.

[Gollgagh]

Does it take longer to delete when it has posts in it or something?

I don't quite understand the difference between one replied to and one unreplied to.

[DarkeSword]

Does it take longer to delete when it has posts in it or something?

I don't quite understand the difference between one replied to and one unreplied to.

The difference is that when it's replied to, it's bumped, which brings it up higher on the forum, which gives it more exposure. In the case of General Discussion, the thread shows up on the front page as a recent topic. You're not helping anyone but the advertiser when you reply to a spam topic.

[Gollgagh]

Post as per LT's request:

Whenever I read a thread then go back to one of the subforums, it doesn't mark it as read. No matter how many times I click it.

The only way threads are 'marked as read' is if I force it with the 'mark all threads as read' button.

[genghisdani]

Post as per LT's request:

Whenever I read a thread then go back to one of the subforums, it doesn't mark it as read. No matter how many times I click it.

The only way threads are 'marked as read' is if I force it with the 'mark all threads as read' button.
I believe you have to look at all the pages in the topic which contain unread posts in order to mark it as a "read" topic.

[Gollgagh]

I've never had to do that before.

That is not the case either, because it happened the last time I made a new topic as well.

[OverCoat]

I just found an interesting thread about vBulletin:
http://4-ch.net/net/kareha.pl/1166832744/l50

Apparently, the vBulletin vendor checks your forum from time to time and pulls the license from you if you have "depraved content" which seems like an arbitrary thing. In Hongfire's case it was lolicon. You already moderate that stuff out but it could be any number of things, including copyright infringing materials, or other "murky stuff." This is the forum software you're switching to? Are you serious?

I'm assuming this is why you're getting rid of UnMod. lulz

Though it's been so long since you announced you'd do it that I wonder if you'll still do it at all D:

[DarkeSword]

I just found an interesting thread about vBulletin:
http://4-ch.net/net/kareha.pl/1166832744/l50

Apparently, the vBulletin vendor checks your forum from time to time and pulls the license from you if you have "depraved content" which seems like an arbitrary thing. In Hongfire's case it was lolicon. You already moderate that stuff out but it could be any number of things, including copyright infringing materials, or other "murky stuff." This is the forum software you're switching to? Are you serious?

I'm assuming this is why you're getting rid of UnMod. lulz

Though it's been so long since you announced you'd do it that I wonder if you'll still do it at all D:

Getting rid of Unmod has nothing to do with vBulletin's content monitoring.

[OverCoat]

Yeah. After looking into this issue further, it wasn't actually a violation of their TOS, which says nothing about "immoral content," just copyright infringement stuff. Their lawyer was just a little kooky.

[The Coop]

If we had functioning Topic Reply Notification system, I could see what DS said about replying as being a serious issue. But we don't, so there's no way for sender to know anyone read it just by replying to the thread.It works for me.

This is from another thread.

Basically, the Topic Reply Notification system hasn't worked for me in about... four months. The last one I got was on August 17th, and the ones I was getting back then just started up abruptly after not working for a good year or so.

Anyone know why they're so sporatic? I've made sure the box for getting them is checked, both on my posts and in my profile.

[DarkeSword]

If we had functioning Topic Reply Notification system, I could see what DS said about replying as being a serious issue. But we don't, so there's no way for sender to know anyone read it just by replying to the thread.It works for me.

This is from another thread.

Basically, the Topic Reply Notification system hasn't worked for me in about... four months. The last one I got was on August 17th, and the ones I was getting back then just started up abruptly after not working for a good year or so.

Anyone know why they're so sporatic? I've made sure the box for getting them is checked, both on my posts and in my profile.

Topic replies work for me. It may be a spam-filtering false-positive issue, if your email provider is filtering server-side.

[Bummerdude]

Topic replies work for me. It may be a spam-filtering false-positive issue, if your email provider is filtering server-side.
It works good for me, but at some times I can suddenly stop receiving replies from a specific topic, even if I've posted in it alot.

[Merk]

nice :) :)

regards, Anersterence9

Well, here's an OCR issue. Isn't there some sort of email validation or random image password (like those found on upload sites) that would deter this sort of thing?

[Xelebes]

I think djp is seriously looking at that as an option. Bots already do e-mail verification.

[FlankingLine]

Quick question. If the vb switch is really, actually coming up within a week as TO suggested, could we perhaps have an actual announcement about the fact? There are some threads that need to be backed up before the forums are wiped and it would be nice to know exactly what kind of timetable we're looking at rather than just waking up one morning and finding everything deleted.

[supremespleen]

Quick question. If the vb switch is really, actually coming up within a week as TO suggested, could we perhaps have an actual announcement about the fact? There are some threads that need to be backed up before the forums are wiped and it would be nice to know exactly what kind of timetable we're looking at rather than just waking up one morning and finding everything deleted.We also need some rumor control. Is unmod gonna be gone after the switch?

[The Damned]

One can always hope... :wink:

A minor issue, that I've mentioned before. Even though I set my account to be logged-in all the time, and always enable auto-login, I still have to log in regardless. In fact, I can come to OCR, go to UnMod or WIPs (which you need to be logged in for, and then suddenly have no access because I need to log in again. It will only be a few seconds between entering the specific board, and then BAM! I'm logged out for some reason.

I've checked cookies and security settings on my end, and nothing has changed at all. And this site is the only one I see this happening on.

[Bummerdude]

About half of my reply-messages leads to a thread that doesn't exist, even though I know that they do.

[djpretzel]

I just found an interesting thread about vBulletin:
http://4-ch.net/net/kareha.pl/1166832744/l50

Apparently, the vBulletin vendor checks your forum from time to time and pulls the license from you if you have "depraved content" which seems like an arbitrary thing. In Hongfire's case it was lolicon. You already moderate that stuff out but it could be any number of things, including copyright infringing materials, or other "murky stuff." This is the forum software you're switching to? Are you serious?

I'm assuming this is why you're getting rid of UnMod. lulz

Though it's been so long since you announced you'd do it that I wonder if you'll still do it at all D:

Interesting. Jelsoft reversed their position after the fact, but it's disturbing. However, PHPBB has been so dead in terms of feature upgrades for so long now that I really don't see any alternatives. We've stuck with them for far longer than we should have, probably, and while I like the whole OSS/free software ideology, in this case it's been years without substantive improvements.

[The Mutericator]

Is unmod gonna be gone after the switch?

[djpretzel]

Is unmod gonna be gone after the switch?

The current title of "UnModerated" is a bit inaccurate, as moderation can still occur for a number of reasons (spamming, flooding, trolling, illegal stuff, etc.), and with vbulletin certain mod's powers will be expanded to include banning; the plan is to rename the forum to "Off-Topic".

[The Mutericator]

Is unmod gonna be gone after the switch?

The current title of "UnModerated" is a bit inaccurate, as moderation can still occur for a number of reasons (spamming, flooding, trolling, illegal stuff, etc.), and with vbulletin certain mod's powers will be expanded to include banning; the plan is to rename the forum to "Off-Topic".

Awesome, I'm glad to know it will still be around. Thanks for the clarification!

[WesPip]

This isn't exactly new, but it's been slightly bothering me for a while now.
Personally, I think we should either have a sticky, in say, TechAss, or possibly put in the FAQ, about user Ranks and their respective post counts. I know the requests only come up once every couple of months, and if I'm missing a [semi]permanent list of them, it seems to follow that newbs would also fail to find it.
Not exactly an earth shattering issue, but I think it'd be nice to have around.

[Dhsu]

You know, after using the site for the past few months, I still have this nagging question: why paginate the remix lists? I don't think I'm the only user who would rather just have all the remixes for a game on one page. The same applies to the list of games for each letter.

I know you've brought up the Chrono Trigger scenario multiple times, but scrolling really isn't that much of an issue at a reasonable desktop resolution. In addition, most people don't mind a little extra scroll-time, as opposed to a potential 2 or 3 extra clicks to get to the mix or game they want.

At least set the number of remixes displayed to 50 per page, like with the games list. It's more consistent, and would save us all a lot of clicks in the long run.

[Arek the Absolute]

Hmm.....Gotta get used to the new inbox interface. Since this is a design question thread, I am finding it ok to ask this here. Is there still a save box?

[JohnderriLLL]

Is there a way to change my time over to 24 hr time?

There is a saved message box still, its in a drop down scroll bar type deal, you have to move the files over to it.

Oh yea, how do I rate threads?

[CIaude]

I just had an idea. Would it be possible to organize remixes by genre? I know it's a heavy request, but I think a lot of people would be more likely to download more quality mixes based on genre's they like. For example, I don't really care enough about Mega Man 2 to see if I'd like any of the site's remixes. But if I knew a few of them could be considered metal, I'd definitely give them a listen.

[GSlicer]

I just had an idea. Would it be possible to organize remixes by genre? I know it's a heavy request, but I think a lot of people would be more likely to download more quality mixes based on genre's they like. For example, I don't really care enough about Mega Man 2 to see if I'd like any of the site's remixes. But if I knew a few of them could be considered metal, I'd definitely give them a listen.

http://www.ocremix.org/info/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Why_aren.27t_the_ReMixe s_categorized_by_genre.2C_i.e._techno.2C_jazz.2C_o rchestral.2C_etc..3F

[Refelos]

how do i quick reply, that is, if i ever reply again without an unmod to post in?

[Gore Whore]

Here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/MiruYu-OOozora/Untitled.png

There you go.

[Doulifée]

Here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/MiruYu-OOozora/Untitled.png

There you go.

about that is it possible to have the quick reply box directly accessible? because clicking on a button before posting in it, kill the "quick reply" aspect.

[Godfoster]

This just started happening about 10 minutes ago or so: when clicking on "General Discussion" the default thread view is always set to

Sorted By: Thread Title
Sort Order: AscendingAny ideas?

[Xerol Oplan]

This just started happening about 10 minutes ago or so: when clicking on "General Discussion" the default thread view is always set to

Sorted By: Thread Title
Sort Order: AscendingAny ideas?

Either something got messed up with the forum config, or djp's trying to make some changes.

[GeckoYamori]

This has got to be a messup. There is no way any rational person would browse a forum this way. Furthermore, using the browser's back button does not work any more.

[RocketSniper]

Can link text be a different color? Without mouse-overing all the text on a page, it can be a bit difficult to notice links.

[Arek the Absolute]

Oh jeez, the new organization of where help and announcements went is down right ugly. It throws me off completely. Sure I will get used to it later, but it is down right inconvenient vs how it was before.

[EdgeCrusher]

about that is it possible to have the quick reply box directly accessible? because clicking on a button before posting in it, kill the "quick reply" aspect.

I've only used one forum where the quick reply was automatically accessible. But in terms of hitting that button, it's still a lot quicker than loading a whole new page just to reply.

[djpretzel]

I've only used one forum where the quick reply was automatically accessible. But in terms of hitting that button, it's still a lot quicker than loading a whole new page just to reply.

This is what the vbulletin admin control panel says, and why I'm keeping the click:


When Quick Reply is enabled, you may specify whether or not users must click the Quick Reply icon in order to start typing in the Quick Reply editor.

If you choose not to require a click, the system will not know to which post a user is replying, making both the threaded and hybrid display modes non-sensical.

We strongly recommend that you set the option to require a click if you use Quick Reply and have Threaded Mode available on your forums.

[Doulifée]

i just check the threaded mode. ok that give sense to the system, even if i tend to click on the lower click reply button.

[kamoh]

This is what the vbulletin admin control panel says, and why I'm keeping the click:

An honest question here, but who actually uses the threaded or hybrid modes at all? The tradition for OCR is the linear mode, and I use quick reply indiscriminately - I'll just click the QR button on the last post and make a comment on something halfway up the page sometimes...

Seems like it should be gone to avoid clutter - at least that's my preference, anyway. It's not a big issue though.

[Pyrion]

An honest question here, but who actually uses the threaded or hybrid modes at all?

I use threaded mode on all vbulletin forums I frequent, including this one.

[EdgeCrusher]

I know there are a few people here that do use threaded mode, even though it is ugly and outdated.

[Arek the Absolute]

Hybrid isn't too bad, but if you want the former feel that you had with Phpbb, stay with linear.
Threaded is just weird though. A totally new forum style that I would have to force myself to get used to, which I have no intention of doing.

I have a request.
When we get the old smilies back, can we rename :roll: to :darkesword: ? You know...to honor him and his work and such.

[The Mutericator]

Can we request username changes? If so, I'd like to be The Mutericator instead of Pzykotikfreak... No idea who to PM about it, though.

[Gollgagh]

Double post, but I have a request.
When we get the old smilies back, can we rename :roll: to :darkesword: ? You know...to honor him and his work and such.

I support this 100% despite its low chance of happening.

[TimberWolf]

I support this 100% despite its low chance of happening.

I would've had a normal reply here, but i had to click reply on the last post to use this box.

[Blue Magic]

Not really a big issue but, how come the "Judges Decisions" forum hasn't been updated recently?

[Gollgagh]

I don't know if this has been addressed, but the 404 page http://www.ocremix.org/404

Now has two broken links: Forums (because they still lead to phpbb2) and Links.

[Liontamer]

Not really a big issue but, how come the "Judges Decisions" forum hasn't been updated recently?
I've been busy.

[jmr]

The link to the Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2 RSN files (on this page (http://www.ocremix.org/d/)) are broken.
The correct links are:
http://www.ocremix.org/songs/original/Donkey%20Kong%20Country.rsn
http://www.ocremix.org/songs/original/Donkey%20Kong%20Country%202.rsn

Also, the 404 page has a few broken links, but that's already been pointed out:
I don't know if this has been addressed, but the 404 page http://www.ocremix.org/404

Now has two broken links: Forums (because they still lead to phpbb2) and Links.

[Martin Penwald]

When you check the games starting with Q and click on Q-Bert, you get a 404(click) (http://www.ocremix.org/game/q*bert/).

[djpretzel]

When you check the games starting with Q and click on Q-Bert, you get a 404(click) (http://www.ocremix.org/game/q*bert/).

Thanks - this has been fixed (http://www.ocremix.org/game/qbert/) - the asterisk in the abbreviated url name didn't match our regex, which only accepts strict alphanumeric strings.

More info than you wanted, but hey.

[supremespleen]

Would be cool to see more skin options.

[Xerol Oplan]

Minor issue, but would it be possible to see more avatars per page on the selection, or at least sort them alphabetically (Ramza was the very last avatar, I had to go through all 9 pages to find it).

[Dhsu]

:nicework: doesn't work.

UNACCEPTABLE.

[OverCoat]

So I see the spambots are back. There's really no stopping these fuckers is there?

[Effef]

So I see the spambots are back. There's really no stopping these fuckers is there?

How the hell do they get through the type the image in the box thing?

[CC Ricers]

Not all Captchas (thats what those image things are called) are fool-proof. A lot of bots are made to read through them. So at the same time, it's slowing down the real people that want to use the search feature.

We could use something that asks the user what the answer to a basic question is. Even just telling the user to type in a word during registration will stop many bots in their tracks.

You can also try using this.
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828

[The Damned]

You can also try using this.
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828
"What's the name of the Italian guy in the red plumbers suit?"

"Viagra pills for less!"

"EEEEH! Wrong."

"Uhm... Luigi?"

"Close enough."

[Hum4n After All]

'Knights Come Marching Home'(under Chrono Trigger) link doesn't seem to work.

And whatever happened to the little animated faces?

[Liontamer]

'Knights Come Marching Home'(under Chrono Trigger) link doesn't seem to work.

And whatever happened to the little animated faces?
All 3 links for that mix work fine.

The old faces will be back eventually. It's never been a high priority.

[Hum4n After All]

All 3 links for that mix work fine.

The old faces will be back eventually. It's never been a high priority.

Well when I get to where it has the song and you click on it it just takes forever then it has an error. I never get to the song with the writeup, download, review and all that. Been like that for a few days.

[G_D]

I have a few issues with the new forums. They seem like little things, but they all annoy the crap outta me. The first is that embedded URLs not only have no indication, but to my knowledge can't be formatted (i.e. you can't manually underline them). This really bugs me, as I use links a lot. The second is that when you type a word, highlight it and add a URL to it, once you start typing again it automatically includes everything following in the URL. You have to either leave a space (which I always forget to do) or write out your entire sentence before going back to add URLs.

The other two, which I'm sure have been mentioned plenty of times, are the ten-character limit (which is small, so I can deal with it), and the four-picture limit. This would be ok if it didn't include all of the Smilies...seriously, what's up with that?

Are these only annoyances to me? And is there a workaround for any of them?

[OverCoat]

embedded URLs not only have no indication, but to my knowledge can't be formatted

Yes please fix this :( takes like 3 seconds to mess with the CSS and make unvisited URLS a dark orange [or whatever color you think would be stylistically better], so I can find links.

Also yeah maybe 10 images instead of 4 that'd be nice. Also 99% of the smileys are 404ing for some reason.

[Gollgagh]

Thanks for fixing the smilies. 8)

[Dhsu]

:nicework:

[djpretzel]

Yes please fix this :( takes like 3 seconds to mess with the CSS and make unvisited URLS a dark orange [or whatever color you think would be stylistically better], so I can find links.

Done.

However, in the future, instead of telling me how painfully simple something is and how it'll only take three seconds, it'd be great if you could just tweak it yourself and let me know what the fix is.

Granted, it's my site, I'm responsible, and I'm the one who should have gotten it right in the first place, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to tell me a change would take three seconds, when it probably took longer to write your post, without just going ahead and explaining specifically what the change is.

Just a philosophical footnote.

[Decoy Octopus]

On this page: http://www.ocremix.org/mixing/

The links to ReMixing, WIP - OC ReMixes, and Judges Decisions look like they're the links to the previous forums.

[tile73paq]

Ya know how this site has a random videogame character at the top right corner? It would be nice if I could mouse over it and be able to read who the character was and from what game/series.

[Liontamer]

Ya know how this site has a random videogame character at the top right corner? It would be nice if I could mouse over it and be able to read who the character was and from what game/series.

We've got dedicated community peeps who are workin' on it. (http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3077) They're doing an excellent job so far. When it's eventually finished, it'll be more comprehensive and informative than you'd expect.

[Antelucan]

Why aren't the original songs for all the most recent remixes being listed?

[Liontamer]

Why aren't the original songs for all the most recent remixes being listed?

Songs and associations from ReMixes to songs are all handled by me and djp. I periodically send him a batch of SQL queries, and he manually runs them to add the information to the database. I just haven't sent djp the info in a while.

EDIT: Should be cool now. Added songs for Punch-Out!! as well.

[Liontamer]

***This past weekend, after djp handled the necessary coding, there is now a "Real Name" field for everyone's profile. If the feature ends up being abused, it can be changed to only allow moderators to edit the information, which merely hampers the feature for everyone else. Or we can just ban for abuse outright and thus leave the feature open to the people that will use it properly. Yeah, that's pretty much how that will be dealt with. :lol:

As OCR looks into expanding awareness of VGM arrangement among social networking sites (http://ocremix.org/info/Groups), the Real Name field is a good way, especially for ReMixers, to get one's information out there beyond your nickname. Personally, I prefer being on a fist name basis with people rather than referring to them by their internet handle, so I'm glad the feature is out there.

***Also this past weekend, for anyone who hasn't noticed yet, I also enabled ReMixers to display the title "ReMixer" in their forum profile and forum posts, something I've wanted since the old phpBB boards to give OCR's contributors increased recognition within the community.

In order to display this title if you are an existing ReMixer, go to your User Control Panel (User CP), select "Group Memberships" (in the Miscellaneous section at the bottom) and identify yourself as a member of the ReMixers group. Some recent new mixers still need to be added, and that will be taken care of soon. Please let me know if that's the case for you, and I will do what I can.

In addition, while there's no timetable, djpretzel hopes to program a feature where clicking on the "ReMixer" title on a ReMixer's forum posts can bring a user to that mixer's list of posted OC ReMixes. Having watched djp code the afformentioned forum updates, I can say that the trial-and-error aspect of coding even relatively minor changes is more time consuming that I ever realized, so please be patient. Hopefully though, that level of synergy for the ReMixers' forum profiles and music pages will be around the corner.

[Escariot]

In addition, while there's no timetable, djpretzel hopes to program a feature where clicking on the "ReMixer" title on a ReMixer's forum posts can bring a user to that mixer's list of posted OC ReMixes. Having watched djp code the afformentioned forum updates, I can say that the trial-and-error aspect of coding even relatively minor changes is more time consuming that I ever realized, so please be patient. Hopefully though, that level of synergy for the ReMixers' forum profiles and music pages will be around the corner.
I know very well how much Trial and Error is a part of coding, forum hacking, and tweaking... And if I had vBulletin, I'd offer my coding, tweaking, and hacking services... But alas, vBulletin is commercial software, and I don't have enough money to invest in a copy

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Hehe, I could have fun abusing this...

[KyleJCrb]

No Site Project Coordinator usergroup? I am filled with sadness. F'real.

[Sadorf]

No Site Project Coordinator usergroup? I am filled with sadness. F'real.

write it in your name box

[Dhsu]

Personally, I prefer being on a fist name basis
Ooo, kinky...

[Zoola]

Cooooool.
I feel special.

[ProjectSpam]

I like this. :)

[suzumebachi]

Hurrah! Nice work.

[Antipode]

Done and done. Kinda cool.

[Steben]

write it in your name box

Good idea.

[The Instrumental Light]

sounds cool.

[Tricklozen]

I haven't checked the CSS, but Firefox is having a rendering problem with regards to the BBCode tag code.

1
1
2
1
2
3
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
5
The more lines, the bigger the gap between the last line and the bottom border, increasing with 4 pixels for each added line. Note that the /code comes right after the last digit every time. There are no new lines added afterwards.

Have a look (http://home.no/tricklozen/t/OCR-vb-BBCode-code.png).

(I've seen this several times, but thought it was obvious enough to be noticed, thinking it was being looked at already, however, in case this might be a local problem with Firefox 1.*)

Firefox 1.5.0.11

[Fishy]

lol, you can see my name.

It's a weird name.

[Polo]

Why has Sexy Trunks (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01036/) been moved under Super Street Fighter II Turbo? Isn't Balrog's theme the same in The World Warrior save for the instruments used and the key change?

[Liontamer]

Why has Sexy Trunks (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01036/) been moved under Super Street Fighter II Turbo? Isn't Balrog's theme the same in The World Warrior save for the instruments used and the key change?

Back before Neostorm subbed that track, he used the WIP forums to get feedback on it. He specifically said the source tune was the Super Turbo version and hosted an MP3 of it.

Back in the day, djp just put some stuff where it was covenient. Another example, "FF7 ROBOVoice" really belonged in FF5, so I had it moved there.

That was all OCR01500 house cleaning. I'm detail-oriented about that sort of thing, so when we can, source game will always be the specific game attributed by the submitting artist, even if a source tune is used in several different games.

[DaStinka]

Donkey Kong Country 2's chiptune page has links to download DKC3's chiptune.

(I'm new here; is this where this thread belongs?)

[Dafydd]

I think this is the place, DaStinka, although you'd might have more luck PM'ing LionTamer.

It seems we could use another "how to use the forum guide". I have no buttons for editing things like bold, italics, underline, color, size etc. Were those removed for a reason or have they just not been implemented yet? Also, is it no longer possible to change a thread title? A lot of features seem to be missing from this forum when comparing with the vB forums I'm used to visiting. Is it because of safety measures taken to prevent OCR's sometimes very immature forum community from going nuts (like the 4 image limit, the 10 char limit and the 10000 char limit)?

[Liontamer]

It seems we could use another "how to use the forum guide". I have no buttons for editing things like bold, italics, underline, color, size etc. Were those removed for a reason or have they just not been implemented yet? Also, is it no longer possible to change a thread title? A lot of features seem to be missing from this forum when comparing with the vB forums I'm used to visiting. Is it because of safety measures taken to prevent OCR's sometimes very immature forum community from going nuts (like the 4 image limit, the 10 char limit and the 10000 char limit)?
To get the usual buttons, change Message Editor Interface (at the very bottom of Edit Options) from Basic to Standard.

Thread titles can't be changed except by moderators, and the other limits I believe are forum defaults. They do undermine stupidity, so I can't complain.

[Dyne]

You know, I wanted to comment on the sidebar. Now don't worry, this isn't negative. I actually like the sidebar. There are some that don't, and well, that's just too bad. But I think the sidebar actually adds usability to the site.

Think about it. You don't have to search for links to every little thing you want to access. Instead, it's just to the left. I use the sidebar every time I come to the site to jump to the forums. Makes navigation that much easier.

As a matter of fact, for those that are on older browsers, or are sadly stuck in a position that you don't have all the fancy upgrades, the sidebar is a great addition as it allows you to click actual links instead of hoping the drop menu works.

Anyway, I think the sidebar was a plus. Even if some might disagree. I just wanted to let people know where I stand on this.

[djpretzel]

Our forums were down from around midnight EST last night to 9:00 AM EST this morning; I had intended to upgrade from vBulletin 3.6.4 to 3.6.6, and was in the process of doing so, when... my power went out. It stayed out until about 6:00AM this morning, a couple hours later I groggily rolled out of bed and completed the rest of the upgrade and corresponding template tweaks.

If anything that worked before doesn't work now, please reply and describe in detail what's up. There were relatively few mandatory template tweaks involved, and 3.6.6 is the gateway to some pretty cool stuff the folks behind vb have been cooking up lately, some of which may be applicable to OCR.

[Theory of N]

I don't know if my settings have changed or anything ( I don't see it anywhere) but I'm not seeing people's post counts on their posts anymore.

[Arek the Absolute]

I also have that same issue.
The rank is visible, but the actual post count # isn't.

[DragonFireKai]

Dude, Where's my postcount?

[Liontamer]

Probably on purpose. Y'all are postwhores.

[Bahamut]

I don't even know what my post count was at :lol: .

[The Author]

Curses. I want my post count.

[Theory of N]

I don't even know what my post count was at :lol: .

OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAND!!!!!

[Doulifée]

no more postcount ! we are in a civilized world now.

[Soma]

Noooooooooo!

ahem...
My post count was only like 1500. oh wells.

[The Author]

Actually, look at your profile, you can see the post total there.

[the_bug]

I see the post counts. Maybe it has something to do with the theme you're using. I use default.

[Theory of N]

Actually, look at your profile, you can see the post total there.

well, that just makes things more difficult :(

I see the post counts. Maybe it has something to do with the theme you're using. I use default.

I've tried all three and still nothing.

[andyjayne]

I'm liking the 'ReMix Collaboration' stuff in the profiles.

[Liontamer]

Rayza
Kraid (+1200)
OverClocked ReMixer
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada

New SMB2 Mix Title

The Spanish n (not sure the actual name of the letter) in the title wrecks the validation of the RSS feed and gives errors.

---------------------
This feed does not validate.

*line 8, column 42: 'utf8' codec can't decode bytes in position 236-239: invalid data (maybe a high-bit character?) [help]

<title>Super Mario Bros. 2 'Lizardi?layer Quartet'</title>
----------------------

You can check it for yourself here:

http://feedvalidator.org/check?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ocremix.org%2ffeeds%2ft en20%2f

Not sure if either you or Dave can come up with a workaround.

Just letting you know..

Also, I just discovered yesterday that the RSS feed as used in Gmail only cycles through 4 mixes including Lizardino (which works fine there). Dunno if that's just on my end, or if it really doesn't cycle through all of the recent 10.

[Fishy]

Hey, I was just wondering if anyone thinks its worth splitting up the site projects forum into Completed and WIP Projects, because atm, the WIP projects sort of take up a lot of room on the general WIPs page.

Its also pretty annoying when project threads move, which they had been doing quiet often for whatever reason, and although its nice to see them stationary, I just think they could have their own sub-forum somewhere so as not to take up room elsewhere.

[Liontamer]

Hey, I was just wondering if anyone thinks its worth splitting up the site projects forum into Completed and WIP Projects, because atm, the WIP projects sort of take up a lot of room on the general WIPs page.

Its also pretty annoying when project threads move, which they had been doing quiet often for whatever reason, and although its nice to see them stationary, I just think they could have their own sub-forum somewhere so as not to take up room elsewhere.

I think Site Projects that aren't close to done or don't have the assurance that they'll be completed shouldn't be in Site Projects. Hence WIP is a good, singular place for 'em, as they're large-scale WIPs. Nothing's for sure, but I like where they are now, and they're gonna hang their for the time being. If project coordinators can't get their shit together now that they have a long-term spot for their project and a Sticky that ensures their stuff won't get lost in the shuffle, then they deserve to fail. :-D

[apoc]

Speaking of internationalization, it appears the reviews tab for remixes chokes on Unicode (East-Asian) characters. Assuming it's just an oversight, someone might want to fix that. ざんねんだね。

[supremespleen]

Currently on the front page in the site projects section, the thumbnail for the Duckhunt remix project takes one to the Street Fighter 2 remix project.

[Liontamer]

Currently on the front page in the site projects section, the thumbnail for the Duckhunt remix project takes one to the Street Fighter 2 remix project.

I swear to God, if you're using Rama's style...:tomatoface:

[Dhsu]

R O F L

[supremespleen]

I swear to God, if you're using Rama's style...:tomatoface:Oh yeah, heh. Screws up all of 'em.
Damn.
I thought I had found a real problem.

[Least100Seraphs]

It's a really minor thing, and someone else has probably picked up on it...
But if you go to this link...

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01588/

and on the right hand side, under "Remix Information", click the "Next" icon, you'll find it gives you a 404 page not found.

I believe it's due to the fact that the link attached to the word "next" is

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCr01589/

and as you can see, I believe the lower case r is causing all the trouble.

[djpretzel]

It's a really minor thing, and someone else has probably picked up on it...
But if you go to this link...

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01588/

and on the right hand side, under "Remix Information", click the "Next" icon, you'll find it gives you a 404 page not found.

I believe it's due to the fact that the link attached to the word "next" is

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCr01589/

and as you can see, I believe the lower case r is causing all the trouble.

No one else picked up on it and it was entered wrong in the database by yours truly; thanks for letting us know, should work correctly now.

[Dhsu]

Wow, didn't know you had to enter those links by hand. Sounds incredibly tedious...

[djpretzel]

Wow, didn't know you had to enter those links by hand. Sounds incredibly tedious...

Not the links, just the mix IDs... next and prev links are in fact dynamic, but in this case since I butterfingered the ID itself (which could have been an autoincrement but is instead manual - conscious decision on my part), the link got fudged too.

[Dhsu]

Ah, makes sense. I can understand the not using autoincrement, though.

[DarkeSword]

I only just realized that we lost this in the vB changeover:

There are no longer any "Go to remix" links for ReViews threads.

[the_bug]

Hey seriously. I can see the postcounts on every single post just fine when using the "default style". I don't know if the "problem" is on my end but anyways that's the truth.

[Liontamer]

I only just realized that we lost this in the vB changeover:

There are no longer any "Go to remix" links for ReViews threads.

Yeah, that one's in the To-Do list. Hope that happens sooner rather than later.

For anyone who cares, I managed to merge accounts for a number of community members who had to register new accounts. All merges were done to the oldest account so that the earliest Join Date was preserved, I manually updated the old account with the info from the most recent account, and then sent out a password reminder (which was likely the password to the old account). For anyone who cares, post counts were also merged. I think Dan Baranowsky had the most oldschool account, user #50. Enjoy.

[Dhsu]

This isn't really an issue, just a small preference in usability...when you search for a mix, it'd be more convenient for the ReMixes to appear in the leftmost field of the results, while the game remixed might be pushed to the right of it. It's kind of a consistency thing for me...since the mixes are always on the left when browsing the list, it's instinctive for me to click on the leftmost links, which unfortunately when using the search function instead brings me to the game. I understand if this isn't really on the list of high priorities, but it seems like something fairly easy to do if you decide to do it.

[Least100Seraphs]

Uh, I don't know if this is actually an OCR problem or if it's something external, but I think there are some problems with the 'Aplus' mirrors of the remixes. I was getting 404'ed on the new Jazz Jackrabbit 2 remix, so I checked the three mixes before that. Amanda's Tears (FF Adventure) was connecting to the Aplus mirrors fine, but the FFX and Contra mixes were 404ing.

Again, I'm not sure if this is a problem with OCR, with Aplus, or me, or just crazy internet shenanigans, but I thought I should mention it. :)

[Jaybell]

This ReMix (http://ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR00167/) doesn't appear to link to the review thread. It just says "thread not specified" when I click the link.

[Dafydd]

I think it'd be cool if you were able to hover the mouse over other users' avatars and see the avatar's name instead of "X's avatar", which isn't really that helpful anyway. Dunno how much work would be necessary to do it, but since you can already do it when browsing the avatar gallery, it should be an easy fix, I think.

[WesPip]

Or a link to that OCR Avatar Profile dealie-type thing. Course, that was for the Mascots, not the avatars.
I SUGGEST MORE WORK FOR ALL CONTRIBUTORS.
THEY LIKE TO WORK FOR FREE ANYWAYS.

[Dafydd]

Like I said, it shouldn't be much work. The line of code that says "[username]'s avatar" needs to be changed to "[avatar name]". I don't know how the site works but it shouldn't be a lot more complicated than that. The PHP script generates this page, and a piece of html code that looks like this:
alt="Dafydd's Avatar"

[WesPip]

So, I I don't think this is a redesign issue per se, but I don't think it happened BEFORE the redesign and switchover so..yeah.
Seems every time a new remix is released, I can never download from Alpus for the first few hours. Dreamhost, Supertux, and..the other one..whatever...they all work fine. Aplus never seems to work for the first while. 404'd.
Just FYI, in case you didn't already know.

[OverCoat]

Larry,

Help people understand how to reply to threads properly. Threaded/Hybrid mode good. A lot of people are replying to random posts in the middle of gigantic threads which make things really hard to follow, especially when they don't quote things. Not quoting things would be fine, if they reply to the right post though. IMO Linear mode and Hybrid/Threaded Mode cannot coexist properly. TIME TO FORCE ONE OR THE OTHER

[Dafydd]

The smileys panel on the right of this box I'm typing in right now is not very space-efficient. Most of the smileys appear twice or thrice, and one of the available spots is empty! We could fit in 7 more smileys on that panel and still keep it the same size.

[djpretzel]

This isn't really an issue, just a small preference in usability...when you search for a mix, it'd be more convenient for the ReMixes to appear in the leftmost field of the results, while the game remixed might be pushed to the right of it. It's kind of a consistency thing for me...since the mixes are always on the left when browsing the list, it's instinctive for me to click on the leftmost links, which unfortunately when using the search function instead brings me to the game. I understand if this isn't really on the list of high priorities, but it seems like something fairly easy to do if you decide to do it.

Considered it; I agree on one level but disagree on another. It's consistent for the leftmost column to be the "main" entity being listed, yes, but we're also consistently presenting ReMixes with the game first, because this most closely represents their official, complete title and also echoes ID3 tags, etc. Ultimately I feel consistency with the game-first-title-second convention outweighs the leftmost-column-is-primary-data-item-column issue, and prefer it this way. Just letting you know I considered it originally, and reconsidered it upon your feedback.

Hovering over the avatar and getting the avatar name sounds good to me, will do it when I get the time.

Aplus mirror is a case of my credit card expiring and their control panel being... less than intuitive. Should be addressed sometime this week.

Obviously, we haven't posted in over a week, so that's first priority, but I want to start checking off some of these dev items before they become unmanageable.

[Dafydd]

I usually browse mixes by game, not by remix name, so I like it the way it is. If the colums were switched, I'd probably click the game name by mistake as always anyway (yeah, I do it too, dhsu).

[Merk]

This isn't really a redesign issue, but the following ReMixes don't have 'correct' ID3 tags

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01238/# (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01238/#)
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01574/# (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01574/#)
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01140/# (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01140/#)
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01220/# (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01220/#)
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01131/# (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01131/#)
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01195/# (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01195/#)
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01139/# (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01139/#)
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01177/# (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01177/#)


Also, how hard is it to get it to to download album art from somewhere?

[WesPip]

So, I I don't think this is a redesign issue per se, but I don't think it happened BEFORE the redesign and switchover so..yeah.
Seems every time a new remix is released, I can never download from Alpus for the first few hours. Dreamhost, Supertux, and..the other one..whatever...they all work fine. Aplus never seems to work for the first while. 404'd.
Just FYI, in case you didn't already know.
In case it got lost on the last page.
I'm only really quoting it, though, because such is also the case right now.

[Shining Mirage]

Well, I'm not sure if the probem is on your end (which I'm doubting) but I've been using the Aplus for downloads and the only two that I can't download are:

http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01068
http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00158

I don't know why I'm one of the few who actually have... partial access with this mirror, but it's pretty wierd.

[Liontamer]

Well, I'm not sure if the probem is on your end (which I'm doubting) but I've been using the Aplus for downloads and the only two that I can't download are:

http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01068
http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00158

I don't know why I'm one of the few who actually have... partial access with this mirror, but it's pretty wierd.

We've had general Aplus iffyness on account of djp's credit card changing since he registered with them. I believe he said earlier that they tried to bill the old one when renewal time came, and (of course) it didn't take, so the mirror went down. He can elaborate and/or go over the extent of what's working with that mirror.

[paperCrane]

The OCRemix site has for quite a while now used DHTML to replace content on the remix pages when you click on a tab. This is all well and good but the href="#" for these links makes your browser (or at least Firefox) go back to the top of the page. I find this quite annoying as I often scroll down and then have to scroll down again after I click a tab. I asked for this to be fixed when it was first introduced but heard nothing.

Today I wrote up a simple Greasemonkey script to replace those naughty hrefs with javascript:void(0) to stop the jumping back to the top of the page. The status bar text is a bit uglier, sure, but at least it no longer jumps to the top on a click:

// ==UserScript==
// @name OCRemix # removal
// @namespace http://www.reversefold.com/
// @description Remove OCRemix's # links for tabs
// @include http://www.ocremix.org/remix/*
// ==/UserScript==

var allLinks, thisLink;
allLinks = document.evaluate('//a[@href="#"]',
document,
null,
XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE,
null);
for (var i = 0; i < allLinks.snapshotLength; ++i) {
thisLink = allLinks.snapshotItem(i);
for (var j = 0; j < thisLink.attributes.length; ++j) {
if (thisLink.attributes[j].nodeName == "onclick"
&& thisLink.attributes[j].value.substr(0, 13) == "highlightTab(") {
thisLink.href = "javascript:void(0)";
continue;
}
}
}

[Dhsu]

Larry,

Help people understand how to reply to threads properly. Threaded/Hybrid mode good. A lot of people are replying to random posts in the middle of gigantic threads which make things really hard to follow, especially when they don't quote things. Not quoting things would be fine, if they reply to the right post though. IMO Linear mode and Hybrid/Threaded Mode cannot coexist properly. TIME TO FORCE ONE OR THE OTHER
Hm, I don't see why people wouldn't quote a post in the middle of the thread...if they just randomly reply to someone, it confuses the people in linear mode too.

But if we're going to go with one or the other, I'm for getting rid of the silly threaded modes. I'll never understand what compels people to make their lives harder with extra scrolling and clicking on every post they wanna read. And some posts don't even show up in threaded mode. (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=289978&postcount=234)

[Doulifée]

Dan ice scream (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01429/#)

Kasugano bootymix (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01117/#)

Aplus mirror redirect to a broken page.