Suggestions

I know I made a topic about this ages ago, but it's still needed imo.

Most other pet sites I go on have some sort of alert when new items and features are added but here you can have no idea that a new gene, species, or whatever is added unless someone posts about it on the forums! I literally had no idea that two new genes were added until I looked at the forums, so someone who doesn't do that could not find out for days or weeks. And I know I could go on the main page and see, but why would I? There's nothing useful there to me but news and I don't remember to go randomly checking for new news posts.

So I think we need some sort of alert with a link to the news page or the news post that goes away when you click it, like I've seen on Subeta, Pokefarm, Reddit, Tumblr, etc, etc.

There is a huge post right on the mainpage. You access the main page every time you log in so at most it would take a day to find out if you don't come across it on the forums, mp, ah or whatever feature was changed.

So saying that people won't find out in weeks seems a bit.. over the top exaggeration ;)

[quote name="SpindleWinter" date=2017-07-16 07:19:14] I know I could go on the main page and see, but why would I? There's nothing useful there to me [b]but news[/b] [/quote] I mean sure but you also could just go to the main page like you yourself said for the news and things happening on site.

I would like it - I rarely ever log out, so my first FR page is either Crim or Baldwin. And yeah, I'm one of many that would never see updates if not for discussion threads or offsite announcements.

When I was less active on forums, I'm pretty sure I went for a year or so just being surprised by new genes in scrying shop or among my random AH buys or random never seen before items from chests... because my first FR page was always Crim (then later Baldwin).

EDIT: Honestly, even this update reached me first through offsite channels.

[quote name="Ismaiel" date=2017-07-16 07:23:46] There is a huge post right on the mainpage. You access the main page every time you log in so at most it would take a day to find out if you don't come across it on the forums, mp, ah or whatever feature was changed. So saying that people won't find out in weeks seems a bit.. over the top exaggeration ;) [/quote] Not necessarily. Someone who has their lair (or baldwin etc..) bookmarked and uses that to go to FR and doesn't go onto the forums wouldn't find out about new genes or items unless they found them or went into the marketplace. Not everyone bookmarks or goes to flightrising.com. I have the main page bookmarked for news purposes, but some people just want to go right to baldwin or a forum post or their nesting grounds etc... they don't want to have to click around the site. However, not everyone plays the coliseum everyday so updates to that wouldn't be seen unless the person just happened to go into the coli at that time. New genes are only seen in the MP if A. you happen to be lucky enough to look when they are restorcking, which tends to be dependent on B. you actually looking in the Gene MP. Most people don't look in the Gene MP unless they are actually looking for Genes. I do think this would be a good idea, just about every other site I have seen (And this includes games) has ways of letting the users know that there is news or updates no matter when or where they log in to the site/game. One simple way of doing it would be to do like they do for welcome week. Change the Flight rising logo. IE for new genes it could simply have 'New Genes!' under it and link to the announcement post. Or they could use the changing 'news' banner above the player info, make it actually useful. OR they could simply send out a simple notification that there is a news post in the announcements forum. Of the ping notification they could also (potentially if the forum allows it) allow users to 'opt in' to getting announcements by allowing players to 'subscribe' to the announcements forum. Or just create a ping list that the admins could use (maybe code it to automatically do this when an admin creates a thread in the announcements forum) to send a ping to those who want to be notified.

Oh well.. As long as I can opt out of reciving these I can go along with them. Its just really strange to me that people purposefully choose not to take the easy rout and enter through the news page and then later complain about not being informed.

Its like reciving the newspaper but not reading it and only being informed later on through peers what happened and then being angry that the newspaper doesn't scream at you that you really should look at it once in a while.

[quote name="Ismaiel" date=2017-07-16 07:39:41] Oh well.. As long as I can opt out of reciving these I can go along with them. Its just really strange to me that people purposefully choose not to take the easy rout and enter through the news page and then later complain about not being informed. Its like reciving the newspaper but not reading it and only being informed later on through peers what happened and then being angry that the newspaper doesn't scream at you that you really should look at it once in a while. [/quote] To me it is more like getting a newspaper and only going to one section. You don't see the other news because you are only interested in that one section and most of the 'news' isn't anything you are interested in (Festival updates, Welcome week. Those two account for the majority of the news posts since they are regular features now, so most people aren't interested in them and ignore them.) NOtifications are like a news channel that gives you 'up next is' blurbs to let you know, Hey! you might want to wait before you change the channel. (or perhaps more accurately, more like advertisements for the news program itself so 'Hey! go look here or Watch our news)

But what you describe Jema is exactly what we got on the first page (on here on in a newspaper) - a short overview what is up and 'linking' to the actual posts.

I'm jsut a bit afraid that this 'alert' turns out to be just as annoying as on other sites that have it and you can't turn it of. You can only make it go away by clicking through every darn alert on some of these sites. meaning you spend a few minutes just clicking away popups of news you litterally just read before you can play - and all of that because people do not bother to check news themselfs if they are interested in them.

No one forces you to read an article you don't care about (like that economy part of the paper). But having everything chewed up and spit into your mouth because you feel not like chewing today is like the tip of laziness in my oppinion. Its the reason why everyone got a newsfeed today but no one knows what happens in the world.

EDIT: Rereading it it might come of as harsh? I'm unsure.. and unsure how to change it to sound more mellow without taking the message out of it... Its just one of these days again.

[quote name="Ismaiel" date=2017-07-16 07:23:46] There is a huge post right on the mainpage. You access the main page every time you log in so at most it would take a day to find out if you don't come across it on the forums, mp, ah or whatever feature was changed. So saying that people won't find out in weeks seems a bit.. over the top exaggeration ;) [/quote] I'm auto-logged-in and use my lair as my homepage - I hop between there, the clothes MP, and the forums via the sidebar. I don't check the main page because we can go weeks between updates, so it's just down to luck whether you happen to catch an update. To continue the metaphor you raised, I've signed up to regular email new alerts from my favourite news site (naming no names). Without that, I'd forget to go out of my way to check the site or buy a paper for myself. Not because I'm lazy or need to be spoonfed, but I have other things to do that take up my time and energy. It slips my mind. And you are being kinda harsh, yeah.

They could use the scroll bar at the top right corner of the site. Something like : NEW Genes - Jaguar and Rosette. With a link to the announcement when you click it.

But then again, a lot of us have probably tuned out that scroll bar.