Website suggestions.

[Fraudulent]

My apologies @Vreg, I understand if I'm a constant annoyance to you with these in the chat-box, but I think that making a post with all of my forum suggestions would be the best thing to do so we can come back to them in the future.

We have hundred's of users who register every week, and most of them don't bother staying for multiple reasons. I'd like to assume that one of the reasons is because they don't find the website and forum appealing.
Here we go.

Improved shoutbox.

Sure the shoutbox is neat and functioning now, but why stop there? I think we can all agree that improving the visuals and mechanics of the shoutbox for easier navigation will only be a positive for us.
For instance:

Having a small icon preview before a user's username.
I'm personally not too fond of having this, but for some it could be an improvement and I'm not too fussed about it.
My suggestion is; having a miniature version (around the same size as the animated gifs Sennin donator's have. 25x25) of the user's profile avatar before their username. Not really a big change, literally just a preview.

Something like this: (blame the admins for the ugly shoutbox, it was the only forum I found that had one).


Basic profile preview upon user selection in the shoutbox.
I think that having a basic preview of a user's profile upon clicking their username in the shoutbox would be quick and easy, instead of having to see their full profile just to find something small like; date account was created, PM/their website/add to friends list etc. The preview will also include an enlarged version of the user's avatar.
The preview would pop-up on your screen and the rest of the website would dim out.

Take a look:


Shoutbox theme
I'm not too bothered about the theme, but maybe you can get one of your artists to design an SLO themed shoutbox. Right now it just looks plain and simple.

Website improvements.

Alerts
One thing that I think we should improve on is the alert system for threads, mentions and messages.
It would be such a reward to have a decent alert system instead of having to always refresh the page to see if a thread has been replied to.
Take a look:

Whenever a thread you've commented on gets replied to, there would be a red tag that pops up from 'Alerts' with the number of notifications you have.
To the left of it we see an 'Inbox' tag, it works exactly the same as the alerts - all of this happens in real-time, unlike the current notification system.

Your own profile

Why is it just randomly hovering to the left of the website? (Don't abuse me please).
Instead of having such a weird self profile previewer, I suggest we have a tab for it located to the right (or left) side of the navigator.
Something like this:

In my opinion, it makes the entire layout of the website look appealing and neat.

Congratulations if you've read through all this. Leave a comment.

[Leebz]

Not to put down your suggestions at all, they're well thought out. However, I believe the community like the simplicity the shoutbox has. If I remember rightly, it was something people asked Vreg not to change when he said he was changing the site (Before you got here)

But who knows, maybe they'll take it on board but I like the SB how it is rn, personal opinion of course

[Fraudulent]

Not to put down your suggestions at all, they're well thought out. However, I believe the community like the simplicity the shoutbox has. If I remember rightly, it was something people asked Vreg not to change when he said he was changing the site (Before you got here)

But who knows, maybe they'll take it on board but I like the SB how it is rn, personal opinion of course

I appreciate the feedback. It's fine if the community at the time wanted a simplistic shoutbox, but with a now much more grown community I believe opinions could change.

[Manuster]

What about a permanent chat box in the bottom left of the screen, similar to the one we currently have in deathmatch? It would enable much easier conversing as opposed to the keeping the Forum page open or creating a new window.


It could also be modifiable with options to increase and decrease size as well as minimize.


If not in use, it could fade into a transparent screen.

[Dragon6624]

"...My apologies @Vreg, I understand if I'm a constant annoyance to you with these in the chat-box..."

Seems ironic given your organization title -- but as previously stated, the forum members liked the chatbox simple. By "...a much more grown..." community, I'm assuming you mean the average rate of growth that the forum has been seeing for -- quite some time now, oddly enough. However, as for that general change of opinion on the chatbox, please consider the following:

A. What people originally joined SLO for
B. Who voted on the chatbox and the site
C. The general attention span of your average forum-drifter

If you still believe in that opinion change after thinking that over, might it be better to rally a significant amount of support among the 'current' members? Change within this context will only occur once there's a proper multitude of voices asking for it.
A simple topic on the subject is practically the equivalent of hurling a message in a bottle out to sea.

Best of luck on your quest however; who knows, you might be right in the end.

[Mars]

I like the simplicity, many others share the same opinion.

[Vreg]

"...My apologies @Vreg, I understand if I'm a constant annoyance to you with these in the chat-box..."

Seems ironic given your organization title -- but as previously stated, the forum members liked the chatbox simple. By "...a much more grown..." community, I'm assuming you mean the average rate of growth that the forum has been seeing for -- quite some time now, oddly enough. However, as for that general change of opinion on the chatbox, please consider the following:

A. What people originally joined SLO for
B. Who voted on the chatbox and the site
C. The general attention span of your average forum-drifter

If you still believe in that opinion change after thinking that over, might it be better to rally a significant amount of support among the 'current' members? Change within this context will only occur once there's a proper multitude of voices asking for it.
A simple topic on the subject is practically the equivalent of hurling a message in a bottle out to sea.

Best of luck on your quest however; who knows, you might be right in the end.

What he said.

I like the simplicity, many others share the same opinion.

And what he said.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, many others including myself prefer it. I'm not saying our website as it currently stands is the final version of it, more features will undoubtedly get added, some of which may align with your suggestions, but at its core it's staying the same.

I still appreciate the effort you put into making this suggestion as I can tell it comes from good willingness.