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PixlBit 3.0 - Got Any Ideas?


On 11/18/2016 at 09:55 PM by Nick DiMola

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Hey guys! It's been a while since I posted much here on the site, but I wanted to let you all know that I'm in the early stages of a full rewrite of the PixlBit code. Since the last time I tossed a new coat of paint on the site, a tremendous number of advancements in technology have occurred, particularly in the web application space. These new technologies will allow me to produce something that I hope far exceeds the current version of the site. Furthermore, it will allow me to streamline some stuff that doesn't work the way it should, which will make the page load faster and generally work better for users and staff alike.

With all that being said, please, tell me your hopes and desires for an upgraded PixlBit. I'd love to incorporate as much feedback as I can to make it the best it can be. Don't be shy about what you think doesn't work right now that way I can make it better. Also, if there's something you wish existed here, throw that stuff out there too. I can't promise I'll do it all, but I'll definitely try if there's a consensus. To that point, if you don't have anything to add but just agree with something someone said, don't feel shy about replying to their comment and expressing that you feel the same way. This will make it easier to gauge what's most important!

Thanks as always everyone!


 

Comments

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/19/2016 at 09:26 AM

one idea i had a while back and I think Blake mentioned something like this too, is like a Pixlbit "wall" where you can post limited, Twitterish comments or links or maybe even images for if you want to share something but not a full blog.  I have a lot of little thoughts or observations that don't deserve full blogs but I think it would be fun to post them on a wall and have people able to comment, etc.  That's my two cents.  

Blake Turner Staff Writer

11/19/2016 at 04:10 PM

Yep, this is something I'd love. It's the main reason I actually still use Destructoid, since their wall makes for efficient interaction when you don't have time to either read or write a full blog. 

Nick DiMola Director

11/19/2016 at 07:14 PM

This sounds like a great idea and I will definitely implement it!

KnightDriver

11/21/2016 at 01:26 AM

That is interesting. I keep thinking about how to use my twitter feed a bit more but I need to upgrade my phone or ipod to do that right. A wall here would be interesting, especially if it could be accessed on a mobile version of the site. 

Joaquim Mira Media Manager

11/19/2016 at 01:05 PM

A mobile version.

Nick DiMola Director

11/19/2016 at 07:16 PM

The new layout will be using Bootstrap, which will make it responsive. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it just means that no matter what resolution screen you have, it will format well on it.

Joaquim Mira Media Manager

11/19/2016 at 08:12 PM

Cool. My cell is the only computer I can have around me at work. I'm sure I'm not the only one with such a situation.

KnightDriver

11/21/2016 at 01:24 AM

I was thinking about how cool a mobile version might be. I still need a phone or more recent ipod that can view it, but I may have one soon. 

F1r3inth3H0L3

11/19/2016 at 10:57 PM

I forgot my password for a few months (thus accounting in part for my inactivity). I must have requested my password over 10 times and never got any response. The only way I am able to login now is because Google Chrome auto-saved the password, but I still don't have it. Can we fix that? Thank you Cool

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/19/2016 at 11:50 PM

oh no!  Sorry about that man!  that's happened to me on other sites.  Nick??  

Nick DiMola Director

11/20/2016 at 12:41 AM

Not sure what's going on there, but if you go to the Edit Profile page, make sure your email is correct, as that's the place the password email will be sent. Regardless, you can actually modify your password there to whatever you'd like and hit save and then you'll know it for sure!

Captain N

11/20/2016 at 01:04 AM

That's great, I'm excited to see what's gonna happen with the new features. If I may, it's not of importance, but I'd love to see an editor thing on our Edit Profile thing. Like when you blog, you have a bunch of blogging tools, I'd love to see something like that, or at least the image editor thing for our pages so we can jazz em up a bit.

Nick DiMola Director

11/25/2016 at 11:36 AM

You'll absolutely have some more control over your profile with the new version of the site. I never went through and made the appropriate changes with the current version to support that despite having intentions to do so.

dreamclown12

11/25/2016 at 09:06 AM

How about greater connectivity with other websites like youtube, google+, twitch, etc. Allowing us to post there and here with a simple link or something. I post a lot more in the above places.

Nick DiMola Director

11/25/2016 at 11:37 AM

YouTube posting will be much easier in the new version of the site. We actually have tight YouTube integration for the staff posts to the front page, but I'll be rolling that out for everyone with the new version.

I can certainly do the same for Twitch as well!

dreamclown12

12/02/2016 at 10:09 AM

Thx!!! Cool

mothman

11/25/2016 at 01:32 PM

What about jetpacks? You promised us jetpacks. :)

Sorry about that. Too much blood in my alcohol stream I'm afraid.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/25/2016 at 01:39 PM

this site needs a hot dog dispenser

mothman

11/25/2016 at 01:46 PM

and beer, don't forget beer.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/25/2016 at 02:01 PM

and we're not talking that Miller Lite shit either!  Tongue Out

Nick DiMola Director

11/26/2016 at 10:17 AM

Nathan's and IPAs coming right up!

mothman

11/25/2016 at 01:49 PM

Seriously a way to upload pictures directly would be nice but I realize that could come with huge space requirements.

I don't like having to upload pics to photobucket and then link them from there, because lazy.

Nick DiMola Director

11/26/2016 at 10:16 AM

We currently have that capability on the staff side, but I'm actually planning on jettisoning it with the rewrite and using imgur instead. We had an incident some time back where I hot-deployed a site update and Tomcat went on a wild deleting spree and we lost loads of images. Since then I've hated the thought of keeping images on the server because I don't have any of the proper backups for that stuff to ensure their safety.

What I can do is perhaps embed some sort of upload function from an image hosting service that might make it seamless to add pics to the articles. I'll investigate that option while I'm working through the implementation.

Our Take

Chris Yarger Community Manager

11/26/2016 at 01:39 PM

I definitely agree with the mobile version, much needed!! 

 

Also could use a few pics of me on the front page 

asrealasitgets

11/27/2016 at 11:18 PM

Is there any way to float hot blog threads to the top or front page some how, like on reddit? I think 1up.com used to have a section on the homepage where the 5-10 most viewed/commented community blogs were highlighted. I used to hit these links first thing when I visited the site and add my two cents to keep the ball rolling. It was amusing to see some controversial opinion carry like 1K comments and stay on the top of the hot threads list for weeks. It was kind of funny. 

Also, is there a way to seperate blogs by size, topic or genre? Sometimes we write really long blogs with images, video, but they get buried on the front page and main community blog page by little blogs that are more like little musings. These should be seperated some how or maybe curated better. Maybe a seperate area for little quips or statements that don't necessarily require a full blog post. Destructoid has seperate pages entirely for anime, movies, toys but I don't think pixlbit 3.0 needs to go to that extreme. Maybe a chat/text wall of some kind outside of blogs. 

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/28/2016 at 06:17 AM

yeah Nick is working on a separate "wall" for little quips and smaller thoughts, which might eliminate blogs like that.... maybe!

Nick DiMola Director

11/28/2016 at 07:54 AM

Content curation is definitely one of the biggest challenges to overcome with the new version. I do think the concept of an internal comment feed a la Twitter will help, but there's more curation that also needs to get done to keep relevant stuff higher in the food chain. I haven't sorted it all out yet, but as I come up with stuff I'll be posting blogs about my progress that will hopefully spark some more discussion about the direction things are headed and I can course correct if people are finding evident flaws that continue some of our current problems.

asrealasitgets

11/28/2016 at 05:24 PM

The Miiverse website has featured user content on it's front page. I like how it has specific video game communities like for new Pokemon or Paper Mario. If a new game were to release like say 'Final Fantasy XV', we could have a community built around that game and have it featured on the homepage for a while instead of sorting through user blogs for ppl that might be playing FFXV, for example. I've missed out on a lot of new releases this year, so it would be nice to just go to that games community page on here. There are also featured discussion and drawings on the side. If you scan throught the community pages, you'll notice that it's filled with short comments called (Journal Entries) instead of long blogs, which is also kind of nice, although I also like long discussions and blogs. You should check out Miiverse website. I think specific game communites is a good idea.

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/

Also, I've noticed quite a few podcasts I listen to use Slack channels for their listeners. Maybe pixlbit should have one too. Like an ongoing livechat thingy as an experiment. Sometimes I'm up for chatting instead of writing a blog. 

NSonic79

12/07/2016 at 08:53 AM

I'd like to see if we can get a page visit/blog counter on pages to gauge reader interaction. I miss it from the old 1up.com days plus not many other VG sites have that in their blogs.

Super Step Contributing Writer

12/22/2016 at 12:36 AM

I would still like some sort of IM, just because, but if that's really hard to code it's not a necessity. 

I'd also be up for receiving notifications of reviews and staff articles, since I pretty much go straight to my inbox for who posted a blog and feel I miss out on some cool stuff.

Nick DiMola Director

12/22/2016 at 12:41 PM

I've been wanting to do some sort of embedded IM system for a while. Hopefully I can figure it out. Notifications on all article types is definitely in the mix though. I've already got a plan on how that feature will happen for anything posted to the site.

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