The Forum.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

What do you think of the forum setup? Is there anything in specific you'd like to see?

The chat box is not persistent, which I kind of like. It will remove the constant chirping of the Xat box from invision which got old fast. It also removed my administration access to the box, so I can't edit it anymore. Here, the chat box sits in the main forum thread and that's it.

Secondly, the Portal has a great overview of what's going on in the forum. There's a strong chance I will be moving a chat box of some sort to the portal and removing the one from the Forum page.

Images, colors, theme requests. This is as basic as it gets. If you have a color request, image header request or anything else, please holler. The Devin Hester image is awful in my eyes, but I needed something to fill up the space temporarily. So create something yourself, or give me an idea to work with.

Forum size, right now the forum automatically adjust based on your browser window which is good an bad. It's always as big as it can be for your window, but it also means post formatting can get distorted. I'm willing to experiment with both.

I've got a twitter feed running on the sidebar, one for NCAA, one for Madden tweets. I was thinking of adding a AALoA member twitter feed that posts other members tweets (should they use it).

Thanks for any ideas in advance on the forum.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

I have created a 'Hall of Fame' Forum/Blog section. If there is anything you want to share let me or Steel Pitt know.

I plan on doing a recap of each game season, sharing records made, awards given, big games played, and the champions that were crowned.

Preview Example:
Madden Season 1 SB -- Broncos over Bears
NCAA AALoA1 Champ -- Syracuse
NCAA AALoA2 Champ -- Syracuse over Florida

Madden Season 2 SB -- Eagles over Broncos
NCAA AALoA2 Champ -- Nebraska over Utah(CPU)

Madden Season 3 SB -- Packers over Chargers
NCAA AALoA2 Champ -- Oregon(CPU) over Nebraska

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

Anyone having display issues with the forum? I use Google Chrome at home and everything renders correctly. On Internet Explorer at work, the forum renders fine, but the Portal is messsssed up with wonky column widths causing boxes not to load correctly. Let me know if you're having other issues.

[MeanMrMustardGrizzled Veteran]

EDJ -- I've been using the Tapatalk iphone app for other forums and it works really well. Apparently it's compatible with most forum sites, but the administrator has to activate it or something.

I dunno if it's free, but if it is, could you maybe register the site w/ Tapatalk? It makes browsing the forum on my phone soooooo much easier....

And, to anyone interested, the app's only like 3 bucks or something like that.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

EDJ -- I've been using the Tapatalk iphone app for other forums and it works really well. Apparently it's compatible with most forum sites, but the administrator has to activate it or something.

I dunno if it's free, but if it is, could you maybe register the site w/ Tapatalk? It makes browsing the forum on my phone soooooo much easier....

And, to anyone interested, the app's only like 3 bucks or something like that.

I looked into this today, downloaded the forum files and script needed to run tapatalk and...
I can't go any further.

Since the website is hosted by forumotion, I do not have access to the main database to store the needed files to run tapatalk. I'm searching the forum of the forum for answers to see if I can request it or what. We'll see how things shake out. Thanks for the request, it's a great idea, I'm just at a point where I can't implement it right now.

You can view a mobile version of the forum from a phone browser, but you cannot post from the mobile version for the time being.

[MeanMrMustardGrizzled Veteran]

I looked into this today, downloaded the forum files and script needed to run tapatalk and...
I can't go any further.

Since the website is hosted by forumotion, I do not have access to the main database to store the needed files to run tapatalk. I'm searching the forum of the forum for answers to see if I can request it or what. We'll see how things shake out. Thanks for the request, it's a great idea, I'm just at a point where I can't implement it right now.

You can view a mobile version of the forum from a phone browser, but you cannot post from the mobile version for the time being.

It took me a whole month to see this reply thanks to your sneaky thread moving. haha oh well. Thanks for checking on it.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

New change to forum interaction.

You can now "Thank" posts. So if you ask a question and a user provides a solid answer, give them the nod of approval they deserve. If someone writes a really nice game recap of some sort, give them a thanks as well. You have no clue how under-appreciated it can feel to put effort into building a community. I know illmatic brought this up, so he get's the thanks for this idea. The man had some hilarious posts and "interviews" that deserved some praise. Now that the system is implemented, maybe you can go back through the Sportscenter sections and thank/plus the posts you liked. This goes a long way in letting other posters know that their efforts are not in vain, and if people are enjoying things, it will only motivate others to keep doing it.


Secondly, I've included a reputation system in the forum. You can now select a Plus or Minus icon on the side of each post. So in the event of heated discussions, you can plus the comment you agree with, or minus the comment that you disagree with. If an owner is blasting someone, give it a minus to drop their rep or "Swagger" as I listed it. I'm also gonna consider calling it "TD's" since our activity meter is shows as "Yards" haha.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

A couple changes.
Contact Buttons For ease of communication, I've added the social network buttons under profiles. YOu can see them under each post. So if you find it easier to be contacted via facebook, or twitter, etc. you can link your profile there. Just go into your profile page and add the info you want to provide.

Gallery: I've added a gallery to the forum. The most immediate use is to house common avatars. If any owners join up, and choose not to use an avatar, I will use one from the gallery. If you choose your own avatar, great, I'll leave it be.

[illmatic717Madden 12, 15 Super Bowl Champ]

Sweet additions!! I just now saw your post in May about plus/minus and thanking posts. Guess I haven't been very attentive since we condensed a bit. Where is the Thank You button? I don't see it anywhere.

It's definitely a much better feeling after a recap to have a plus showing that someone else read your recap and enjoyed it!

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

Sweet additions!! I just now saw your post in May about plus/minus and thanking posts. Guess I haven't been very attentive since we condensed a bit. Where is the Thank You button? I don't see it anywhere.

It's definitely a much better feeling after a recap to have a plus showing that someone else read your recap and enjoyed it!

The thanks button is at the bottom of a post where you will find the quote/reply/etc buttons. It's white, while the others are blue.

I'm going through the forum, and my be looking into modifying the +/- system into a more visual thumbs up by such and such users similar to how it appears on Operation Sports posts. But that might take a bit of work.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

New forum update:

Persistent Chatbox
I don't think it's any secret that I don't like how the Xat chatbox operates. It's inconsistent, and just today it locked me out as the admin of the box. Thankfully, take a look at the bottom right corner and you will see the new ChatBox that is currently fully functional.

The new box works on every page of the forum, not just the Portal. The portal has also been reworked to show a bit more info. A bigger recent topics thread, twitter feed, and facebook link. I don't like how quickly the chatbox times out if you leave it open, but it's versatile. It does not have a PM feature, instead you have to send direct pm's directly to the the user's inbox on the forum. But by typing "/cmd" you will see a pop up of shortcuts to use.

Give it a try. I also need to figure out if it's "live" and will update immediately if you're chatting with others. Need a bit more forum traffic to test that.

At the worst, I can always bring the Xat box back by building a new one. :/

Update:
After some extensive chatting with Demon. The persistent chatbox is indeed live. It does cause some quirks when viewing from the PS3. A problem for Demon. Still testing other formats like phones/tablets/browsers/etc. But there's a good chance this chatbox will stick. Auto-login forces you to use your name which is great. We just miss out on our Kiper chats.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

Forum Update.

Emoticons
This update is a bit more fun, but pointless.
When posting emoticons, you now have access to different categories. The default ones in the main box, General ones I've added, NFL icons, and NFL "Big Heads" which are hilarious. Once I find a repository of NCAA icons, I will have those schools represented as well. These will definitely add to your posts I think.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

HUGE forum update.
The mobile version of the website now allows new topics, replies, etc. So using the forum from your phone just got a lot easier than trying to load the graphic intensive version for PC web browsers.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

Update.
While watching the NFL draft, I've added the notification bar at the top. It's persistent, and gives you easy access to notifications (subscribe to your scheduling threads, you'll thank me) as well as your profile.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

Added new icons. You can select NCAA Team logos now to use in your posts.

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

I was having a storage issue with the forum of some sort. I deleted a bunch of old images, and uploaded new avatars with the new space. I liberally borrowed them from the website [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which is a neat design project reimagining NFL logos as soccer team logos.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[the_EDJNCAA 11, 12, 14; Madden 15, 18 Champ]

Yay or nay on the new forum organization with the big cover art? To me, it's a bit more visually appealing, but you don't necessarily see the forum highlighted with a new post. But there is a Recent Posts widget under the portal that is always up to date.

[Steel PittNCAA 11, 13, 14 BCS Champ]

Yay or nay on the new forum organization with the big cover art? To me, it's a bit more visually appealing, but you don't necessarily see the forum highlighted with a new post. But there is a Recent Posts widget under the portal that is always up to date.

I like it.  Like you said, it is a little more eye pleasing.  Nice work.

[Sponsored content]