CodeWalrus

CodeWalrus Website => Site Discussion => Site Discussion & Bug Reports => Topic started by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 09:49:35 AM

Title: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 09:49:35 AM
Nobody seems to give rats about the forums anymore.If you check weekly stats I had over 44% of the entire board posts since November 20th and pretty much any attempt  by me at generating interest, either by participating or by branching out (for example, news articles about non-calculator games) have been futile.  It's not because of school because I see 65 people logged in every week and IRC is pretty active. We originally opened as a forum to hang out and have fun, while discussing our favorite technology topics, including calculators, but If wake up calls and expanding are not gonna save CW, then I don't know what will.

I know that there was drama earlier this week and I am sorry about that, but the recent activity collapse happened two weeks before that drama and the collapse was nearly instant. Has other drama occurred behind the scenes two weeks ago without any staff knowing? Or would CW simply be better off without my presence, to bring back people? When people are asked what could be improved on CW that would bring people back or what they don't like about the site, almost everytime the only answer we get is "I don't know".
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: novenary on December 05, 2015, 09:59:40 AM
I believe there's already a thread about this. Poll will be left open but I'm locking the thread.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 10:11:36 AM
Topic re-opened, as there was no link to duplicate thread given and no other explanation of lock given.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: novenary on December 05, 2015, 10:36:38 AM
Ok then, let's be constructive instead.
It's something like the 9001st time you complain about this for starters and it's getting irritating, that was part of what we had a fight just a couple days ago. Do you really want this again ?
Otherwise the site is doing much better than you think it is. You having 44% of the posts for the past month is because you're you, and the forums are not quite as active during the week as during weekends. Can't blame people for having lives. You can't force anyone to post or visit the forums. I think people enjoy it here (correct me if I'm wrong) and I like the community being small, growth would make the atmosphere less friendly.
Also keep in mind that the school trimester is ending, people are focusing on exams rather than having fun atm.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 04:17:39 PM
Quote from: Streetwalrus on December 05, 2015, 10:36:38 AM
Also keep in mind that the school trimester is ending, people are focusing on exams rather than having fun atm.

That is where I am missing something out. If exams are the reason, then why is IRC still active and why do we still have 65 logged in users every week, and why not the forums? Wouldn't exams instead result into global inactivity instead of just post-wise?

The other problem is if you check the trendline, we had like 50% more activity in 2014 during the same period, yet we only had 8 members. If exams were really the issue then last December we would have averaged at 10 posts a day.

Quote from: Streetwalrus on December 05, 2015, 10:36:38 AMI like the community being small, growth would make the atmosphere less friendly.
I would rather see CodeWalrus community not shrink month after month to the point where there's nobody left. I don't think friendly atmosphere is in danger as long as the core users are engaged. Omnimaga was much more friendly in October 2010 when it had 12K posts a month than in 2014 when it had 2K.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: novenary on December 05, 2015, 04:20:04 PM
IRC isn't that active IMO, but that might be because most of it is when I sleep. :P
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 04:25:31 PM
Most of it seemed during afternoon, but I didn't check in a few days.

Also I edited my last post with another quote
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: novenary on December 05, 2015, 04:28:32 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 04:17:39 PM
Quote from: Streetwalrus on December 05, 2015, 10:36:38 AMI like the community being small, growth would make the atmosphere less friendly.
I would rather see CodeWalrus community not shrink month after month to the point where there's nobody left. I don't think friendly atmosphere is in danger as long as the core users are engaged. Omnimaga was much more friendly in October 2010 when it had 12K posts a month than in 2014 when it had 2K.
It really doesn't look like it's what's happening to me though, the core users are still around.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 04:36:55 PM
The graph says otherwise, at least if we compare to last year:

(http://codewalr.us/statsgraph.php)

If I check the gray line correctly, on December 4 2014 we averaged at 73 per day, versus 49 this year. Activity only started to drop during the last few weeks before holidays. Does it mean that holiday this year will do this much worse than last year?
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Caleb Hansberry on December 05, 2015, 04:41:59 PM
I'm one of the offenders who is on IRC but not the forums. The reason is IRC is more casual and I just enjoy hanging out with the people who happen to be hanging out in the Codewalrus channel. That is the reason I think codewalrus should not close: the people are people not numbers, and I like them. (and hey the activity is always better than calebnet and bosaiknet anyway :>)
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: novenary on December 05, 2015, 04:55:03 PM
This is very true, I've been hanging out on more IRC channels lately because IRC is less formal than forums (even though CW isn't very formal even on the forums), and for getting help in some cases it's pretty useful. I'm always reluctant to sending an email or joining a forum for that reason when I know I don't plan to stick around.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 05:18:19 PM
I guess I am more a forum person overall. My issue with IRC is people there can be cs while on forums  they think more before typing (there's even a preview button).

Also, it's easier to find Nspire Lua or TI-84+ BASIC help on a forum than via IRC logs.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Travis on December 05, 2015, 05:58:09 PM
To be honest, I didn't even notice that the forum was "dead". Even ignoring DJ Omnimaga's posts, there's a lot more activity here than, say, the ticalc.org mailing lists/Google Groups forums, but we haven't shut those down. ;) Because every now and then, someone does post something, and in a lot of cases, someone sees it and gives some helpful responses. Same with the #ti IRC channel.

I know of at least a couple of people (https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=840.msg27167;topicseen#new) who have benefited from codewalr.us today and yesterday. That seems worth it to me.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: c4ooo on December 05, 2015, 06:28:29 PM
If it closes, where would we all go?
Even if it has little ppl now, codewalrus still has more ppl then other calculator sites. (Although it would be fun if everyone just migrated to omni overnight XD ) Anyway, as i was saying, if cw closed it might lead to a small spike of postign on othersites, but it would only break the community farther.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 06:29:41 PM
It's not about being dead, but rather diminished activity year by year, from the current trend. I agree that people can benefit from CW, though. I just hope we're not headed to something close to ghost town status next fall. Without user interaction or with a 20 hours period per day with none at all, the community vibe gets lost.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Yuki on December 05, 2015, 08:20:55 PM
Eh, I'm not calling it dead anytime soon. Ghost town status is pretty much a worst-case scenario, but I'm definitely not sure we're going to fall in there. As we said, we're one of the most popular graph calc forums out there, with TI-Planet in French. So as long as there's people posting here, I'm happy and I'm not closing CW down.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 10:37:09 PM
Except that while we are calculator-related, I wish that the more causal users would figure out that we are not just about calculators. Cumred and Brentmaas originally joined without much calculator programming intentions.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Unicorn on December 05, 2015, 11:10:17 PM
Just gonna say, it would suck to close down.
I haven't been as active because of school and studying for finals anyhow.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 12:50:33 AM
Judging by the responses, I guess CW is there to stay in the medium terms at least, but I still hope we don't reach Omnimaga/UTI levels of inactivity this Winter x.x

We had a contest beginning tomorrow lasting a month, but I'm starting to feel the deadline should be longer, because it seems like many people will be away until holidays, then most likely be busy with Christmas. That would leave them only 5 days after new year to work on their entry. Or should the contest just wait? One issue is prizes are worth $100 total in Canadian dollars, which is like 3 times what we gave last time, and it would suck if only two entries came out just because too many peopld want nothing to do with CW for the rest of the holidays.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: DarkestEx on December 06, 2015, 01:00:46 AM
As Streetwalrus already agreed to on IRC, calculator development will die out at some point.
Many schools are switching to none or not programmable ones and not many schools care if it is programmable at all.
The good thing is that CW has many off topic, pixel-art, hardware and other programming languages to talk about.
If not, I would see CW dying pretty quickly as it would be so niece with such a big competition that it wont survive.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 03:58:18 AM
Quote from: DarkestEx on December 06, 2015, 01:00:46 AM
As Streetwalrus already agreed to on IRC, calculator development will die out at some point.
Many schools are switching to none or not programmable ones and not many schools care if it is programmable at all.
The good thing is that CW has many off topic, pixel-art, hardware and other programming languages to talk about.
If not, I would see CW dying pretty quickly as it would be so niece with such a big competition that it wont survive.
I noticed in Germany most schools ditched graphing calcs altogether.

In France, there are rumors that they will be abandoned entirely in 2016, and if those rumors are false, then there comes the problem about the 2018 changes which requires all calcs to have an exam mode and an exam light.

In USA, some schools only allows the TI-Nspire, which is severely limited.

Calcs are there to stay in some areas, but we decided to not just focus on calcs on CW. Noticed how CW only had 2 calculator sub-forums until recently? That is why.

But many people still have the wrong mindset that CW is entirely a calculator website. I think what would help is if members and staff did an extra effort to give feedback or just encouragement to people's projects. Hayleia once mentioned that even if encouragement contains no criticism at times (eg "Awesome, keep it up!"), it still motivates people to continue and make them know that people care. So that is something people might want to work on. The constructive (positive/negative) project criticism will get posted at one point or another by people who have extra free time, so that would not be lost.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Adriweb on December 06, 2015, 04:16:26 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 03:58:18 AMIn France, there are rumors that they will be abandoned entirely in 2016, and if those rumors are false, then there comes the problem about the 2018 changes which requires all calcs to have an exam mode and an exam light.
Obviously false rumors, since contradictory with the several-years-in-the-making plan from the government to have special calcs for the 2018+ exams, with, as you said, a PTT mode with LED.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 07:16:45 AM
Yeah that's what I figured, although we never know with governments. It could definitively something they plan to instate past 2018, such as in 2021 or something.


I'm curious about how schools that replaced calcs with smartphones/tablets will cope with 10 phone calls every class by troublesome students and iPad theft. For countries with crippled school budgets, disaster will just be awaiting to happen.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Snektron on December 06, 2015, 10:04:06 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 10:37:09 PM
Except that while we are calculator-related, I wish that the more causal users would figure out that we are not just about calculators. Cumred and Brentmaas originally joined without much calculator programming intentions.
Well, thats not really true. I was fully aware this was intended for calculators. I did release some calculator projects too, didn't i? :P
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Unicorn on December 06, 2015, 07:34:18 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 12:50:33 AM
We had a contest beginning tomorrow lasting a month, but I'm starting to feel the deadline should be longer, because it seems like many people will be away until holidays, then most likely be busy with Christmas. That would leave them only 5 days after new year to work on their entry. Or should the contest just wait? One issue is prizes are worth $100 total in Canadian dollars, which is like 3 times what we gave last time, and it would suck if only two entries came out just because too many peopld want nothing to do with CW for the rest of the holidays.
I would totally enter, I haven't been active, as I stated before, because of school. Anyways, in my opinion, a contest would get more site traffic, and boost project related posts. And I'll be more active this winter than recently. :)
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 08:26:59 PM
Quote from: Cumred_Snektron on December 06, 2015, 10:04:06 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 10:37:09 PM
Except that while we are calculator-related, I wish that the more causal users would figure out that we are not just about calculators. Cumred and Brentmaas originally joined without much calculator programming intentions.
Well, thats not really true. I was fully aware this was intended for calculators. I did release some calculator projects too, didn't i? :P
I guess that exacerbates the problem about CW being entirely seen as a calc site then. X.x I think we'll have to do massive restructure of the forum layout
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: 123outerme on December 06, 2015, 08:35:50 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 08:26:59 PM
Quote from: Cumred_Snektron on December 06, 2015, 10:04:06 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 05, 2015, 10:37:09 PM
Except that while we are calculator-related, I wish that the more causal users would figure out that we are not just about calculators. Cumred and Brentmaas originally joined without much calculator programming intentions.
Well, thats not really true. I was fully aware this was intended for calculators. I did release some calculator projects too, didn't i? :P
I guess that exacerbates the problem about CW being entirely seen as a calc site then. X.x I think we'll have to do massive restructure of the forum layout
I would only describe it as what I use it as, which is indeed a calc forum. Maybe if the gaming and other categories were more active, I'd post more on them and change my thought of CW. This doesn't need a restructuring, but if you feel inclined to do so, make sure calculator and non-calculator sections are equally easy to access.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: novenary on December 06, 2015, 10:10:30 PM
This is indeed a problem currently, while calcs aren't the only topic here, a strong emphasis is put on the calculator sections on the forum index. This needs to be changed.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 11:09:13 PM
@123outerme you can still share your creations and start new topics in the PC/art sections as you wish. I'm sure some people will reply eventually, dependjng of the activity
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: 123outerme on December 06, 2015, 11:11:09 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 06, 2015, 11:09:13 PM
@123outerme you can still share your creations and start new topics in the PC/art sections as you wish. I'm sure some people will reply eventually, dependjng of the activity
Ok. I'll see if I have anything relevant to post :P
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: alexgt on December 18, 2015, 04:04:08 PM
Glad no one said "yes" O.O
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: DarkestEx on December 18, 2015, 04:45:15 PM
Quote from: alexgt on December 18, 2015, 04:04:08 PM
Glad no one said "yes" O.O
Actually for the sake of it I voted for yes :trollface:
But you all know that I don't mean it like this :P
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: alexgt on December 18, 2015, 08:59:37 PM
Quote from: DarkestEx on December 18, 2015, 04:45:15 PM
Quote from: alexgt on December 18, 2015, 04:04:08 PM
Glad no one said "yes" O.O
Actually for the sake of it I voted for yes :trollface:
But you all know that I don't mean it like this :P
It is not unanimous! close it down :P
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 18, 2015, 10:23:03 PM
Quote from: DarkestEx on December 18, 2015, 04:45:15 PM
Quote from: alexgt on December 18, 2015, 04:04:08 PM
Glad no one said "yes" O.O
Actually for the sake of it I voted for yes :trollface:
But you all know that I don't mean it like this :P
Actually someone else voted yes at first last week or so, so unless your vote was last week then that makes it two people and the other person changed his vote :P


Anyway I think the consensus is that there will be a sub-forum structure change to reduce focus on calcs and increase focus on programming of all sort and our other topics of interest, just so that the non-calc topics are less hidden.

Activity at the end of last month and earlier in december was quite scary, though, because it was unusual for that time of the year (since the activity drop normally happens during the second half of December). What made it scary, though, is not the lower amount of posts, but rather the drastic decrease in page views that lasted through it (went from 10K to 4K for a while).
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: alexgt on December 19, 2015, 05:31:34 AM
Yeah, I dropped a little bit (maybe allot) and since people post about other posts if one person leaves all post counts for everybody drops (not saying it was any one person's fault).

When I voted (just before my first post on the topic) no one said yes...
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 19, 2015, 07:14:15 AM
Yeah, I remember when Eiyeron became inactive, or when Mateo on Cemetech left for a while, twice. In CW's case we never hit 2K posts in a month again afterwards. It really depends how much the person is active and his contributions, though (eg notable projects). Omni often experienced activity boosts just from being slashdotted or making it to Reddit front page in the past.

As for the yes vote I saw it the day I posted this topic (1 no and 19 yes) so either the person removed his vote or a staff tampered with it. :P


EDIT: The strangest thing about recent activity is that weekly stats are basically last year's stats mirrored. O.O
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: p4nix on December 19, 2015, 10:17:00 AM
1 no and 19 yes? :O :P
Let's survive and try to boost the community again with the CW contest :D
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 19, 2015, 10:57:18 AM
Er, this was a typo. My bad. And yeah I hope the contest helps. That said, for some unknown reasons, most people who haven't yet announced their entry seems to insist on making entries that would break the forum rules, though ??? (and our rules about NSFW content are more lax than other calc sites overall).
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Max Leiter on December 19, 2015, 04:57:49 PM
I'm late to the topic, but I haven't been posting because of school, so that definitely could be playing a part (although I am logged in every once in a while lurking). Now that finals are over I can hopefully be more active. CW is definitely my favorite tech-related forum, mostly because it doesn't look like it was made in the early 2000's
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: alexgt on December 19, 2015, 04:59:50 PM
^ Great to have you back ;)
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Yuki on December 21, 2015, 12:06:45 AM
Heh, welcome back Max ^_^

Yeah, I like what we did of this forum, it doesn't look too old, it doesn't look too recent either like all the others websites that follows this design trend and at the same time it looks fine on a mobile device (thanks Street!) and the people on this site is pretty cool :3
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: alexgt on December 21, 2015, 12:49:03 AM
you can say the part about people being pretty cool again Juju :P
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Yuki on December 21, 2015, 12:56:38 AM
I can't say it enough. You guys are awesome.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: alexgt on December 21, 2015, 01:12:01 AM
You are to ;)

I can't say how thankful I am for CW because if it were't for CW I wouldn't be in the community :)
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether?
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 24, 2015, 06:44:16 AM
Quote from: Max Leiter on December 19, 2015, 04:57:49 PM
I'm late to the topic, but I haven't been posting because of school, so that definitely could be playing a part (although I am logged in every once in a while lurking). Now that finals are over I can hopefully be more active. CW is definitely my favorite tech-related forum, mostly because it doesn't look like it was made in the early 2000's
Hey we tried to make it look like it's from years ago to a certain extent D: , but again it's more that we tried to go with minimal style, such as no gradient everywhere, since that's the common thing to do nowadays. But I guess it's more modern in the way it doesn't look like Geocities or Proboards. :P

Anyway glad you guys like the site. I just kinda wish that when people don't like something they would post about it (even a new topic). On Omnimaga and Cemetech, there were often site issues topic, which can catch the attention of staff and possibly give them hints on what should be improved to keep people around. Of course, it depends how the issue is brought up (eg if the user is blatantly trying to give orders to admins) but when brought up maturely this can help, since no staff on any site is omniscient. :P

Anyway right now I guess this issue is solved, so perhaps I should rename the topic or redirect people to other topics?
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: novenary on December 24, 2015, 09:48:16 AM
Actually the current trend is to use plain colors instead of gradients. I love how CW looks, it looks modern but not too trendy, and the colors don't hurt my eyes. :P
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 24, 2015, 05:40:00 PM
Even with (https://codewalr.us/walrusirc/smileys/walrianne.gif) everywhere? :trollface:

But yeah no gradient is the trend now, as long as it's done right. Otherwise I don't really mind
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: Yuki on December 24, 2015, 08:28:19 PM
Current trend is Google's Material design, it looks pretty cool. Otherwise, anything flat does the job.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: alexgt on December 24, 2015, 10:43:36 PM
What not to use as a theme:
(http://www.topdesignmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/138-1024x584.png)
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 25, 2015, 12:35:26 AM
From which site is that?? O.O

It reminds me of http://57o9.org/ (WARNING: SEIZURES!)
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: c4ooo on December 25, 2015, 12:52:00 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 25, 2015, 12:35:26 AM
From which site is that?? O.O

It reminds me of http://57o9.org/ (WARNING: SEIZURES!)
Meh, needs more cowbell <_<
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: Yuki on December 25, 2015, 03:59:58 AM
Yvette you had one job.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 25, 2015, 04:20:07 AM
Who is Yvette? ???
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: p4nix on December 25, 2015, 08:22:51 AM
Look in the post of alexgt, the picture he posted features Yvette :)
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Snektron on December 25, 2015, 10:01:15 AM
Quote from: Juju on December 24, 2015, 08:28:19 PM
Current trend is Google's Material design, it looks pretty cool. Otherwise, anything flat does the job.

Actually, google's style of material design is called Quantum Paper.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 25, 2015, 02:44:34 PM
So their plans is to eventually make their various websites only run properly on quantum computers? :trollface:
Quote from: p4nix on December 25, 2015, 08:22:51 AM
Look in the post of alexgt, the picture he posted features Yvette :)
Ah right. My attention was too much focused on the bad design >.<
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: alexgt on December 31, 2015, 09:52:37 PM
And who the heck talks about them selves in the 3rd person xD

alexgt thinks those people are crazy :trollface:
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 31, 2015, 10:14:42 PM
Depends. Some people just wants to make it look like somebody else wrote the content for the person. In some cases I guess it can help, though, such as news articles, so that it doesn't sound like self-promotion when a program is released or biased.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Yuki on December 31, 2015, 11:34:48 PM
News articles are often written in the 3rd person because they're often written on behalf of the entire staff and/or the site itself.
Title: Re: Should CodeWalrus forums close altogether? (solved issue)
Post by: DarkestEx on January 01, 2016, 12:18:35 AM
Quote from: Juju on December 24, 2015, 08:28:19 PM
Current trend is Google's Material design, it looks pretty cool. Otherwise, anything flat does the job.
Google material design is really awesome :)
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: alexgt on January 01, 2016, 05:55:00 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 31, 2015, 10:14:42 PM
Depends. Some people just wants to make it look like somebody else wrote the content for the person. In some cases I guess it can help, though, such as news articles, so that it doesn't sound like self-promotion when a program is released or biased.
Quote from: Juju on December 31, 2015, 11:34:48 PM
News articles are often written in the 3rd person because they're often written on behalf of the entire staff and/or the site itself.
I was joking but put in context Yvette really sounds like a crazy cat lady :P
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 12, 2016, 05:09:40 AM
I think that eventually, flat designs will be phased out, though, just like clothing fashions and fads. Back in the 90's, we had plain text with color, followed by flat designs, then by 2004 or so fancy, CPU-intensive designs arrived and evolved in complexity as computers became stronger. Starcraft II website is an example, but it used to be even more complex and around that time, it was common for game-oriented forums to have such designs (even Omnimaga had one). Even today, I feel that a flat design with white background just doesn't fit at all for a Starcraft or Final Fantasy website when viewed in PC mode. I also don't like the trend of trying to make websites look as boring as possible, but of course there is a fine line between not being boring and rendering a website unusable on anything that doesn't run Crysis maxed out.

Flat designs, but more modern to take advantage of new CSS capabilities, arrived after phones did, because phones couldn't handle complex-looking websites and those websites were hard to browse on mobile. But when phones will match 2015 high end gaming machines, I bet we will see a comeback of those 2005-10 fancy websites, but with larger text.

One thing that I'm glad that didn't stick around for a while are horizontal-scrolling websites. Myspace tried that and I hated those.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 29, 2016, 03:28:09 PM
So I was wondering: Should the Latest Active topics link on desktop view be made visible in mobile view somewhere? While our menus are easier to click since the last changes, I still find it annoying to have to try to open the right menu item then click the Latest active topics option there, and I'm sure I am not alone. I know we have another link to that page under WalrusIRC on the board index, but it's not always convenient.


Also do you think it should instead be a direct navigation link like what Omnimaga had back then? That was very handy and in our case it would be even more handy since the menu is floating. I know it would clutter the menu bar a bit, but it's not like our menu bar is big anyway, and the Moderate stuff could easily be moved to the Admin tab anyway (for staff). Right now I often noticed that I find myself clicking the back button twice then scrolling down to access latest posts rather than doing a few trial and error clicks through the navbar. The option would still remain under the Forum dropdown as a duplicate.

(http://img.codewalr.us/omni.png)

I also think it should be renamed to New Posts.

What do you think?
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: aetios on March 29, 2016, 03:48:40 PM
Gets my vote.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 29, 2016, 08:37:08 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 29, 2016, 03:28:09 PM
So I was wondering: Should the Latest Active topics link on desktop view be made visible in mobile view somewhere? While our menus are easier to click since the last changes, I still find it annoying to have to try to open the right menu item then click the Latest active topics option there, and I'm sure I am not alone. I know we have another link to that page under WalrusIRC on the board index, but it's not always convenient.


Also do you think it should instead be a direct navigation link like what Omnimaga had back then? That was very handy and in our case it would be even more handy since the menu is floating. I know it would clutter the menu bar a bit, but it's not like our menu bar is big anyway, and the Moderate stuff could easily be moved to the Admin tab anyway (for staff). Right now I often noticed that I find myself clicking the back button twice then scrolling down to access latest posts rather than doing a few trial and error clicks through the navbar. The option would still remain under the Forum dropdown as a duplicate.

(http://img.codewalr.us/omni.png)

I also think it should be renamed to New Posts.

What do you think?
Sounds good, but that bar looks kind of crowded to me.  :-\
The colours make it also look old school.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 29, 2016, 08:43:05 PM
Well, I wouldn't make the bar exactly like in the screenshot above. This was just to show what I mean by having New Posts as main link. The link would be placed between IRC and Downloads, most likely.

And yeah, back in 2005-10, the site design fad was to give gaming-oriented sites as much character as possible and use special effects such as having a static star background behind div tags that contains asteroids, to give it the feel that you're in space or stuff like that. But then mobile devices got popular and people started liking simple designs again. I feel that default themes and overly simple designs are boring, though.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 29, 2016, 08:45:14 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 29, 2016, 08:43:05 PM
Well, I wouldn't make the bar exactly like in the screenshot above. This was just to show what I mean by having New Posts as main link. The link would be placed between IRC and Downloads, most likely.

And yeah, back in 2005-10, the site design fad was to give gaming-oriented sites as much character as possible and use special effects such as having a static star background behind div tags that contains asteroids, to give it the feel that you're in space or stuff like that. But then mobile devices got popular and people started liking simple designs again. I feel that default themes and overly simple designs are boring, though.
Yeah, something in-between is best. Like CodeWalrus's current theme. It's not so much on the simple side.
It has bright colours. :P
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 29, 2016, 08:47:49 PM
I don't think they're really bright, but yeah I tried to make the theme simple while still not looking too boring. It's hard with a forum, though. At least SMF 2.1 is responsive by default.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Unicorn on March 30, 2016, 05:23:27 AM
Could we maybe add a recent posts button to the bottom of the page in the same style that the Reply button is?
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 30, 2016, 05:33:46 AM
That would be misleading to have it mixed up with reply-related buttons or moderator actions. It would need to be elsewhere around there. There is the Short URL box and View topic attachment links where we could put it? or perhaps inside the gray bar where it says Jump to: [forum name] Go

Thanks for the idea, by the way. I didn't think about adding one there. It would definitively be nice.



Also, I can't stress this enough and various people mentioned it in the past few years: What keeps most project alives are replies, feedback and criticism, not to mention many authors are scared of double-posting when they have an update. I know that sometimes you don't have anything to add other than "Nice work, keep up the good work", but a lot of people gets motivated from those. In February, a lot of people participated to project topics, but this month and some other months I often found myself replying alone or having to double-post in my own topics. You don't need to own the platform the project is for in order to comment: That's what screenshots, videos and animated GIFs are for.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Caleb Hansberry on March 31, 2016, 08:00:44 AM
Yup, keep up the good work DJ!
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 31, 2016, 09:35:43 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 30, 2016, 05:33:46 AM
That would be misleading to have it mixed up with reply-related buttons or moderator actions. It would need to be elsewhere around there. There is the Short URL box and View topic attachment links where we could put it? or perhaps inside the gray bar where it says Jump to: [forum name] Go

Thanks for the idea, by the way. I didn't think about adding one there. It would definitively be nice.



Also, I can't stress this enough and various people mentioned it in the past few years: What keeps most project alives are replies, feedback and criticism, not to mention many authors are scared of double-posting when they have an update. I know that sometimes you don't have anything to add other than "Nice work, keep up the good work", but a lot of people gets motivated from those. In February, a lot of people participated to project topics, but this month and some other months I often found myself replying alone or having to double-post in my own topics. You don't need to own the platform the project is for in order to comment: That's what screenshots, videos and animated GIFs are for.
True. I tend to go back to my threads and have to double post because the topic dies at some point.
But there's plenty of people to motivate others here, I just think sometimes people don't know what to say, but also don't want to make a really short post.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Unicorn on April 01, 2016, 06:30:20 AM
DJ: maybe center it under or above the Quick Reply box?
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on April 05, 2016, 04:31:37 AM
Yeah I will probably put it in that gray bar. It would make sense next to the drop down. Basically the goal is to be able to reach the recent posts page in a single click from anywhere without always having to move your fingers or mouse pointer up :P .
Quote from: Dudeman313 on March 31, 2016, 09:35:43 PM
But there's plenty of people to motivate others here, I just think sometimes people don't know what to say, but also don't want to make a really short post.
Yeah true, but what I noticed is that most of the time it's just the two of us during quieter periods of time. When it's busier there are others who do it, though. @alexgt used to do it a lot until he disappeared and @aeTIos does it when he is around but his activity is sometimes sporadic.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Unicorn on April 05, 2016, 06:23:22 AM
I should really get back into posting in topics I don't really look at, it would probably help activity :).
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on April 05, 2016, 06:27:39 AM
^this, especially projects, art and such productive material. :P What I notice is that some people only reply to calc projects that are for their calculator model, when they could easily give feedback to other projects just from screenshots and updates.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Unicorn on April 05, 2016, 06:37:08 AM
Yeah, thats whatI do if I've been inactive for a while.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dudeman313 on April 05, 2016, 02:23:19 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on April 05, 2016, 06:27:39 AM
^this, especially projects, art and such productive material. :P What I notice is that some people only reply to calc projects that are for their calculator model, when they could easily give feedback to other projects just from screenshots and updates.
Yeah, I tend to do that...  :-\
I should take your advice, but sometimes I just don't reply because I'm either lost in the conversation and I don't like looking back on the pages, or I don't understand what is being discussed.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on April 05, 2016, 03:14:49 PM
Yeah it depends. I am talking about games, though. Often, those aren't too technical.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dudeman313 on April 05, 2016, 08:26:22 PM
Yeah, that's true(there I go again :P).
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 30, 2016, 02:57:33 AM
So I took the daily posting graph and split it by year (starting from the day the forum started running). Should we be worried about the last few months decline from last year? Because based on the only Summer data we have so far, that looks kinda bad >.<  (although the big slope starting Summer 2015 is when Eiyeron left then we lost CKH4 during Fall, and perhaps summer projections should be calculated based on 2015-16 Spring average, in which case we would only slightly be lower next year but still lower)

(https://img.ourl.ca/futureofcw.png)

The main danger is Summer when many people lose Internet access or find new hobbies, because most losses aren't recouped during the Fall months. But it also depends of how many people actually make posts (for example, there were 14 who did today, based on my timezone). One staff should try to run some SQL query to check every day how many different people made new posts then post the spreadsheet. I am curious about how it evolved over last year.


On a more positive note we still have somewhat healthy numbers during daytime, though, and we're very close to 40K posts total.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dudeman313 on June 07, 2016, 11:59:51 PM
That's true; I think we'll be okay. I got my new Nokia battery, so I might be on more in the summer if I'm not doing FreeCodeCamp or in school taking HS credit classes early.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on June 08, 2016, 07:23:07 AM
Hopefully you have more free time this Summer. It sucks when we have vacations but have too much stuff to do. It doesn't feel like vacations in such case. >.<

As for the site I think parts of the issue was that unlike last Spring, we did not do a Spring contest. However, it's not because we didn't want to, but rather couldn't, which is why we're trying to find a good solution to setup some merch store or something to help funding future contests. Unlike most other active calculator sites, we have neither an affiliation with a calculator company to provide prizes nor staff with high income.

Hopefully some of the TI-84+CE releases help, though, and maybe I will have time and motivation to work on some more advanced stuff
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: ben_g on June 08, 2016, 08:25:23 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on June 08, 2016, 07:23:07 AM
As for the site I think parts of the issue was that unlike last Spring, we did not do a Spring contest. However, it's not because we didn't want to, but rather couldn't, which is why we're trying to find a good solution to setup some merch store or something to help funding future contests. Unlike most other active calculator sites, we have neither an affiliation with a calculator company to provide prizes nor staff with high income.
How about orginizing smaller contests that are very accesible to beginners and have free prizes? For example something like the trophies that appeared under your signature on omnimaga when you had highscores in the arcade.

Maybe also something with a slightly different challenge, such as a contest that actually encourages picking up old projects again and turning them in (or similar: a contest to take an open-source/moddable project and mod that, because who wouldn't want a contest to create the best Walrii-inspired Minecraft mod :P ).
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on June 08, 2016, 05:49:22 PM
The problem with smaller contests with extremely small or lack of prizes is that most community members historically participated to contests only if there are good prizes. Sometimes those contests work for a while then die down in popularity. I have one idea for a contest that would involve optimizing very old BASIC games but it wouldn't really be a contest since there would be no winner (everyone participating would be listed in the credits section of the game re-release).

Reviving dead projects as contest theme would be a nice idea too, but there are some issues: Most dead projects are closed-source and most people have trouble reading other people's code. But it would be awesome to see some promising stuff be revived that way.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: ben_g on June 09, 2016, 04:36:58 AM
I think the main problem with previous small projects was that they occured so regularly and generally also had rather small time periods. Since many of us don't always have a lot of time, maybe those contests should also have much more generous deadlines (and no bonus/penalty for submitting your entry early or very close to the deadline).
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on June 09, 2016, 06:16:10 AM
Yeah but even back in the days before Code Golf contest were a thing, sites sometimes had non-prize contests at a much slower rate, yet it was common for people to win by default. MaxCoderz 2005 contest is one prime example, even though the site had record forum activity that year (most of which happened during the contest).

But I agree that sometimes there were too many contests before. There is also the issue that when some sites start contests, sometimes another site starts his own around the same time. It's also hard to find a theme that will please everyone, while being original and multi-platform.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on April 26, 2017, 09:38:03 PM
Hey now, I know I am less active lately but mind giving me an hand to keep a reasonable amount of life on the forums anyway? I'll be even less active next winter and spring and I'm done with calcs since December so yeah <_<
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: p2 on April 27, 2017, 12:10:33 AM
the site won't die <3
massive poster #2 is back  :)

can we get an update on that graph? https://codewalr.us/903/39376
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on April 27, 2017, 05:04:09 AM
I will try to make one at some point. Based on stats tho we should be under 1000 posts a month in June/July tho (we average around 1300-1700 right now)
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: mazhat on April 28, 2017, 10:48:41 PM
I'm optimistic that this site won't die!
I think that the plot is fairly stable.

I mean, it can't die. This is the power of the codewalr.us personified!
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on April 29, 2017, 08:20:46 PM
Quote from: mazhat on April 28, 2017, 10:48:41 PM
I'm optimistic that this site won't die!
I think that the plot is fairly stable.

I mean, it can't die. This is the power of the codewalr.us personified!
I think it's more a long term concern than short term. Also you mean walrified, not personified, right? :P
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Unicorn on May 30, 2017, 07:26:41 AM
/me begins massivly posting
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: p2 on May 30, 2017, 08:57:21 AM
admit it u're just afraid I'll one day have more posts than you ;)

also I stick to what I said a while ago:
Quote from: p2 on April 27, 2017, 12:10:33 AMthe site won't die <3
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 31, 2017, 04:29:29 AM
yeah I agree. I still think eventually the activity will be way lower than right now, though, so it's in our best interest to at least keep the shoutbox lively and perhaps consider making the chat visible to guests and zero-post users (without the ability to send text) so that they know that stuff is actually going on. While I think activity might eventually be like Omnimaga shortly after CW opened to public, I doubt it will drop as low as their current activity.
Title: Re: The future of Codewalrus
Post by: Unicorn on May 31, 2017, 04:50:37 AM
Quote from: xlibman on May 31, 2017, 04:29:29 AM
yeah I agree. I still think eventually the activity will be way lower than right now, though, so it's in our best interest to at least keep the shoutbox lively and perhaps consider making the chat visible to guests and zero-post users (without the ability to send text) so that they know that stuff is actually going on. While I think activity might eventually be like Omnimaga shortly after CW opened to public, I doubt it will drop as low as their current activity.
Nah, we will be fine :) As long as there are 5-10 posts a day for at least 5 days a week we should be all set, imo :P