..::LvL BETA - UPDATED
Locked, Started by Tig
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Tig Rep. 1662
#1   06 Dec 2012
A beta version of the new site is up at lvlworld.com/ - I strongly encourage people to use the beta site.

Not all videos have been converted, so some are in HTML5 format but the oldest ones are still in either Quicktime or Flash format.

Javascript is NOT required except for the Advance search, Voting and the Panorama. The basic search works better with Javascript (dynamic results) but will work without it (click to view results).

Quick overview of the reputation system:

  • +1 Rep for each vote you cast
  • +10 Rep each time someone up votes your comment
  • -10 Rep for each down vote for your comments
  • You can only down vote a comment if you have a positive rep.
The only things missing now are the forum (a big job), "top maps" and the misc pages like "About..." and "Contact form"

Feedback and issues welcome.
Edited 3.89 days after the original posting.

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GuitarMan Rep. 468
#2   22 Dec 2012
Hey Tig,

Just tried the beta site and the 1st thing I tried was to change something in my member profile, and I couldn't do it. Whenever I tried to change/edit my profile, the site sent me to the home page.
Browser is Firefox 17.0.1 w/Adblock running under Ubuntu 12.04.1

I'll be trying it again soon to provide more feedback.

Thanks

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Tig Rep. 1662
#3   23 Dec 2012
I found the broken link, but I'm out all day today, so it will not be fixed until tomorrow at the earliest.

Thanks heaps for the error report!

Edit: The missing page has been added.
Edited 1.57 days after the original posting.

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Incognito Rep. 156
#4   25 Dec 2012
Very nice job Tig....your new LvL beta site looks slick....:)
Keep up the good work.
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CZghost Rep. 1681
#5   31 Dec 2012
Nice design... My jaw has fallen on the floor as I have seen the contact forms. It's no longer one form used for submitting a map or sending a review. Map queue has now separated fields with zip filenames. It's all clearlier than before. And the links. It's no longer on a javascript hang, links to the pages are visibly changing when clicked on any link... The heading texts, I like the font used, can you please tell me the name of font? I'd like to download it for some levelshots :) I like the members order by reputation. Maybe I'd find any good comments to raise reputation someone ;)) HTML5 video, ooh :) Some extra info called Miscellaneous: Date of build and websites of author... Top members votes: Great idea to display votes from members with highest reputation :) Then I can decide to agree with that vote... It's more like the compact version of ..::LvL, like you're browsing on a mobile phone :D - but it's realy nicely designed and I like the new features. Also like the voting system based on 5 "excellent" flags (it should cast as 5 stars?)... You have done great job Tig and I like it. Hurry up, upload it over the old design ;)
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Tig Rep. 1662
#6   31 Dec 2012
Glad you like it :]

The heading font is called "Trade Winds" and the site is using the Google Font API / Webfonts - more details here: www.google.com/webfonts

There is still a lot of work to be done on the new site until it is ready to replace the current one, but is great to hear you are keen to use the new site.

By all means, feel welcome to only use the beta site - I do, except for the forums.

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CZghost Rep. 1681
#7   31 Dec 2012
Thanks :)
I have added also some reputation to few members, just to be ready :)

P.S. - How it's possible to get reputation 12 instead of 10? Some more activities give positive reputation itself or how?
Edited 2.27 minutes after the original posting.

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themuffinator Rep. 1044
#8   31 Dec 2012
Things are looking go thus far. Everything seems to run quite smoothly.

I'd separate by headings the entries in the submission screen by status (reviewed/not reviewed etc.). It'll make it much easier to follow, with that tiled layout etc.

Had another crazy idea while fiddling with the panoramas - add a map loader! Here's one that uses WebGL: media.tojicode.com/q3bsp/
It runs quite nicely, and it's open source ( github.com/toji/webgl-quake3 ). There are a couple problems I noticed though: for some or other reason he felt compelled to try to add player physics and collision detection but ended up with a glitchy bunch of code that gets you stuck on stairways etc. And it's awkward to navigate. Don't know how feasible it is, but hey it's just another idea I'm throwing out there.

Good job!

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themuffinator Rep. 1044
#9   31 Dec 2012
Ah, another idea. Just an aesthetic one though. I like the blurred map backgrounds - really adds a nice, somewhat Windows Vista/7 feel about it. But it's missing that something about it... Depending on the resolution of the source images, I think it may look damn good if the sides aren't blurred, sort of like a stained glass over the background kind of design and highlighted edges around the blurred part.
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themuffinator Rep. 1044
#10   31 Dec 2012
The search bar doesn't seem to give a drop down box of results while typing. Is it meant to be that way? Also I feel like the top bar should be static like it is on this old design (doesn't move when scrolling).
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CZghost Rep. 1681
#11   01 Jan 2013
Great joke, TheMuffinMan

Recent reputation cast:
...
-1 to CZghost on Threewave - q3wpak4.
lvlworld.com/comments/id:2227

What's to not agree with the comment... It's by the old voting system by 10 points and judging by overall look, item placement and playability it's great pack... I've calculated rating the whole pack by simple average of rating maps alone... I think it's great choice of rating whole pack...

I cannot accept your down vote as it's just of a joke or you're angry I had 12 reputation because Tig likes my comment on Beyond Reality II: lvlworld.com/comments/id:1670

If you want to disagree any of my comments, choose my older comments, even before I have been registered on ..::LvL
If you want to downgrade my reputation just for a sick of Tig has agreed my comment on BR2, find another reason...

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Tig Rep. 1662
#12   01 Jan 2013
@themuffinator:
re: The map queue. Yes, it needs to be clearer for sure.

re: WebGL BSP viewer: Great idea, but heavy on bandwidth and server. Will look into it however as an "experimental" viewer for registered members only. No promises however, but it would be a good thing to have for sure.

re: Backgrounds. Once you have any kind of hard edge or detail on a background, the text becomes much harder to read. Then, the only solutions are much larger text or a solid colour under text and I was not happy with my test with either solution.

re: Dynamic search bar. The "search page" does produce dynamic (as you type) results, but you are correct, the "search bar" does not. You can hit the "search icon" to jump to the search page and get dynamic results. Maybe the search bar should work more like Googles main page. As soon as you start to type in the search, you are redirected to the search page?

@CZghost:
re: how to get "12" rep instead of "10". You get +1 rep for each vote you make (on the new site only). So, you got 2 rep from votes and 10 from an up-vote.

re: Down votes. Sadly, the downside of a rep system has already emerged :[ Down votes are just part of life. Not everyone is going to like what you have to say, or how you say it. As English is a second language for you, my guess is your comment was down voted due to gramma errors within that post. Here is a short sample from that post which makes no sense at all:

Industrial theme is my rest of like while I'm an industrial child

It is next to impossible to know what you are really saying here. Comments with errors like this will almost always be down voted.
Edited 1.46 hours after the original posting.

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themuffinator Rep. 1044
#13   01 Jan 2013
I'm glad you like jokes CZGhost, I have more where that came from! Your post reads like some kind of drunk wedding speech of the worst kind, talking about moon reliefs and god knows what else. While I read it I felt my down-thumb senses tingling, which never-the-less at that stage when such a motivation took a hold I had no idea who wrote that legendary wall-of-text so the rating certainly wasn't aimed at you... if that makes it any better for you.

@Tig:
Map viewer: yeah I suppose it could be a resource hog of sorts, plus the legality behind loading Id's assets (textures, music, etc.) is probably illegal! Ah well, it was worth a thought though.

Backgrounds: my idea was to keep the blurred background where there's text, but remove the blur around the sides where there is no text. This will create a bit of a contrast which, I think, could give it that finishing touch. Although the review pages don't give much room for that.

Search bar: this old site design already does that drop-down thing, that's why I was confused as to why the new one didn't do it. But the Google idea seems good too.

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CZghost Rep. 1681
#14   06 Jan 2013
@themuffinator: It sounds like drunk or autistic because of some english knownledge issues... For example I don't know some phrases of british english, nor american... If I don't know mean of any word, I can use online dictionary: slovnik.seznam.cz/ - I don't recommend to visit this link. It's completely czech, Seznam hasn't installed support for english lang... I can also use Google Translate, which you exactly know: translate.google.com/ - for sestences and phrases... I learn english at pre-intermediate or intermediate level (I don't know what ever now)... You cannot want to read something at advacend level from an intermediate english user...
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GuitarMan Rep. 468
#15   11 Jan 2013
I've been browsing around the beta site and it looks great.

Regarding reputation points: situations will arise, I hope noone gets cocky because of having high rep. As long as the system lets me download maps and post comments from time to time, I'm OK.

BTW, thanks Tig for fixing it earlier.
Edited 49 seconds after the original posting.

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Kyall Rep. 417
#16   12 Jan 2013
I love the look of the site. I can't explain how much I like the design :D It'll take a while to get used to navigating it though :P A few questions about the beta...

  • Will you be able to up/down vote comments made in the forum?
  • How do you find out who has up/down voted your comment?
  • By the "+1 Rep for each vote you cast", is that for votes on maps, or votes on comments (and if it is maps, will you be updating everyones Rep to match their map votes)?
  • Can you go in the minuses for Rep? I could of sworn I saw someone with a generally negative Rep, but there Rep was 0? I thought it would be easier to just ask than to do heaps of research lol.
  • With the Recent Reputation Received section: Say theoretically that one comment that you made was up-voted by 5 different people. Would you get 5 notifications say that it has been up-voted once, or would you get one notification say that it has been up-voted 5 times? Not exactly sure how it works yet.
  • In the Reputation Cast History section: Which way are you supposed to read it in order from recent to oldest? Is it across ways, or is it downwards?
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Tig Rep. 1662
#17   12 Jan 2013
  • Will you be able to up/down vote comments made in the forum?
Not at this stage. I see little reason on such a low volume forum.

  • How do you find out who has up/down voted your comment?
You can't (well, you can, but it takes time). I don't want to encourage "tit for tat" Rep voting (for both up and down votes), so the Rep votes you receive are anonymous. What you can do is search the "Recent reputation cast" section of the member pages until you find someone who has voted for you.

  • By the "+1 Rep for each vote you cast"
It is for map votes only. There will not be any Rep updates for existing votes, but if you change (update) your vote for a map you have already voted for, you will get the +1 Rep.

  • Can you go in the minuses for Rep?
Yes, you can go negative for the Rep. The Rep system is simply to encourage people to post constructive, non-offensive comments.

  • With the Recent Reputation Received section: Say theoretically...
You only get the one entry. Also, if you have commented more than once a map and both comments receive a Rep vote, you still only get the single notice.

  • In the Reputation Cast History section: Which way are you supposed...
To make the code easy, you need to read across. If I get the time I may change this however.
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Kyall Rep. 417
#18   12 Jan 2013
@Tig: Thanks :D
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raspatan Rep. 4518
#19   23 Mar 2021
Self-question: Is it possible to know which is the map of the background image?
Self-answer: yes, in the source code, under the code
<div class="bg"><img class="bgImg" src="HERE" alt="" onmousedown="return false"></div>

@Tig Suggestion: perhaps could it be highlighted when hovering the background image?
Edited 1.17 minutes after the original posting.
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Tig Rep. 1662
#20   23 Mar 2021
@raspatan The background image on a map page is always a blurred image of the main graphic for that map.

On every other page, it is a random map image. I'll have a look at an option to show information about the background.

A bigger question is, how did you manage to post in a thread that had been locked :) I guess I'll have to fix that first.

Update: Locked thread bug is fixed :)

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