NeoRequest

[JMann Veteran]

Neowin,

Over the past few months, myself (JMann) and Chorpeac have been working on a new graphics request system for Neowin, called Neorequest. This system has been designed to provide a lot more organised and simplier system to request graphics. My job on Neorequest was to provide the skins and to make the graphics on Neorequest look very good and also to make the system simple so users dont get confused or stuck when using it. Chorpeac was the guy who codes the whole thing together and makes all work together and has done a brilliant job bringing it all together and it has worked perfectly, so without further talk, myself and Chorpeac present Neorequest Graphics Request System. Enjoy the system and drop us a comment or question in the Neorequest Official Neowin Forum, all linked below.

Neorequest Graphics Request System

Neorequest Official Neowin Forum

Enjoy it, as it was made for all of you and Neowin.

Best Regards,

JMann and Chorpeac.

Neorequest Creators

Edited September 10, 2008 by JMann

[JMann Veteran]

I must say Maxthon is not a browser we have tested, hmm. We might have to somehow have I look into this I am too busy at the moment but if I get a moment to do it I will give it a shot along with Chorpeac.

~JMann

[SamIAm]

Noticed two trends over the last few months:

1. This forum has become full of requests, many with payments.

2. NeoRequest has fallen out of favor and is in fact being bashed (https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=463142)

I'm just wondering what could be done to improve the usability of NeoRequest so that these request threads can be moved out of this forum leaving it open for what it was originally intended?

Wondering what your thoughts are on this?

[JMann Veteran]

Noticed two trends over the last few months:

1. This forum has become full of requests, many with payments.

2. NeoRequest has fallen out of favor and is in fact being bashed (https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=463142)

I'm just wondering what could be done to improve the usability of NeoRequest so that these request threads can be moved out of this forum leaving it open for what it was originally intended?

Wondering what your thoughts are on this?

Thanks Sam for your concern and believe me, personally it's starting to worry me a little and makes me (Chorpeac will most likely be different) wonder if all the work was even worth it after all the stuff we did with hardly any feedback or extra progress.

A while back I PM'd Neobond and asked him about NeoRequest and Neowin as he was the one who first gave us all the support and creditenials to make this system and I asked if we could have some more *publicity* over Neowin, no reply was ever recieved. You Sam are a massive artist when I comes to NeoRequest but no-one ever seems to do anything on there or the system is just absued and never was made for as which it was intended. I will just pull a quote of Tom, staff helper who is also dedicated to NeoRequest when we first released it (1st page of this thread):

The other threads that were pinned have been de-pinned; please use the new system for all requests.

It just makes me wonder, why hasn't the bit in bold being adhered to or used when in Web and Graphics Designers Corner. Not sure, either we should ask the staff about this or get some member feedback. I will see if I can get in touch with a few people or keep checking here for more feedback. Would be nice to hear some more input from you Sam.

Thanks again and for all the work you do,

JMann :)

[SamIAm]

Thanks for the kind words JMann!

As for input, here it is (don't say I didn't warn you and in no particular order):

• There should have been better visibility for NeoRequest in this forum. I always thought having a "NeoRequest" notifier at the top that maybe showed # new requests, latest posted graphics, something would have helped keep it in the forefront.
  
• I know some of us tried to champion NeoRequest but maybe something a little more formal from the mods to "strongly suggest" that requests should go through NeoRequest would have helped. People often posted in both places as they really weren't sure where they should post and fear of being overlooked drove them to the forums.
  
• I think it's a shame that the board has gone from one where someone could ask for help or a logo and people would do it for fun or because they wanted to contribute to a board where the first response is "How much"? I can see that this will end with help only offered to and received by those willing and able to pay for it.
  
• On the flip side, there are some who choose to take advantage of the system by continously asking for images, sigs, etc. I have personally been hounded via IM, etc. by members who want graphics and won't accept the fact that I am too busy and don't always have the time to devote to them!
  
• On going technical issues. I have asked many folks to use the system to only have them reply that it didn't work for them. Not sure where the issue lies but this is one of the bigger hurdles to general acceptance.
  
• I think the UI does have some room for improvement, just to make it easier for everyone to use.
  
• Maybe we should ask the folks in this forum, "what changes would it take for them to use NeoRequest?".
  

That's just some quick thoughts (sorry it isn't very cohesive).

Sam.

[Fanatical]

Its all about publicity i hdnt even heard of NeoRequest until i saw this thread!

Looks great i was looking for a system like this to practise graphics stuff after my exams :) Few weeks yet and then my rusty (yet still poor probably) will come to the light! :p

GET SOME PUBLICITY ON HERE!

[fuBar.]

Thanks for the kind words JMann!

As for input, here it is (don't say I didn't warn you and in no particular order):

[*]There should have been better visibility for NeoRequest in this forum. I always thought having a "NeoRequest" notifier at the top that maybe showed # new requests, latest posted graphics, something would have helped keep it in the forefront.

Sam.

Great Idea Sam!

I can see it now. If you check auto-patcher section you quickly notice the attractive logo of AutoPatcher - https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showforum=89 and if you do that, with all that necessary info needed on the forum notification for Web Design & Graphics Corner up top with all the # of requests and last posted graphics and all that jazz, which redirects to neorequest, that would make everything fast and efficient. Not only that, but you should someone make the neorequest login thing correlate with the neowin login, so people don't have to login twice. the first time i went to neorequest, i got frustrated weither i needed to create a new account or when i did login with my neowin account, it did not allow me to go in... so yes maybe there is an issue there as well. Nevertheless, it's very tedious for people who are guests and have to register to go to neowin then go to neorequest. Let the non registed members see what is on display, if you look at this website, 3/4 of the people who go here are guests... if you don't let the guest see what is up on neorequest, they don't bother. First impression is everything my friend.

Edited May 22, 2006 by fuBar.

[SamIAm]

Yes, first impressions are the most important!

More input:

1. Determine if people see value in having a central resource for all graphics requests.
   
2. If yes, then maybe have a thread like "What you would want to add/fix in NeoRequest"?
   
3. Then, have a competition for members to come up with some designs for the UI taht incorporate the additions/fixes that have been determined as necessary by the powers that be.
   

I personally always enjoyed being able to check NeoRequest and if there was something that sparked my imagination or I needed a break I could contribute. Payment was the exception but not the rule.

[JMann Veteran]

:woot: Whoa, nice lists. ;) Tommorow when I have some spare time I will have a look around and a think and see what we can do regards advertising NeoRequest I will send some PM's and hope for responses. (Y)

I will do the rest tommorow,

Thanks everyone!

JMann

[Kraftman]

I just find NeoRequest too slow to even begin to think of the idea of the thought of partially using it for a test amount of limited time.

[SamIAm]

JMann - thanks! let me know if there's anything I can do (I've invested a fair amount of time in NeoRequest and don't want to see it go).

bobp - have to agree, the server has seemed flaky, but the latest post over there talks about re-hosting, maybe that'll help stabilize and speed it up!

[JMann Veteran]

Yes the host change should be happening soon, the reason why Chorpeac wants to move is mainly because of the speed so hopefully we should be seeing a vast or improved speed when surfing throughtout NeoRequest.

JMann

[fuBar.]

JMann - thanks! let me know if there's anything I can do (I've invested a fair amount of time in NeoRequest and don't want to see it go).

bobp - have to agree, the server has seemed flaky, but the latest post over there talks about re-hosting, maybe that'll help stabilize and speed it up!

Count me in, I don't mind if you folks @ NeoRequest need any assistance. I am farily concious on what is good and bad with navigation and graphical user interfaces of websites.

After reading the recently pinned thread in WD Corner, I do agree at some extent to posts made by members in this board. NeoRequest's graphical user interfaces does need some work, though I am well informed of the amount of hard work in coding and designing NeoRequest staff has done. But some aspects needs to be considered during the progress in making NeoRequest popular, such as lazy proof and navigation friendly.

Edited May 22, 2006 by fuBar.

[DaveLegg Developer]

Just my $0.02

I went over to NeoRequest the other day after all the threads sprang up that I then advised people to refer to NeoRequest for, and I have a few comments.

-Users who are not logged in can basically do nothing on the site

-Users are not told of the above

My suggestion to you would be, allow users who are not logged in to browse the list of open requests, and the galleries etc. This will allow them to get a greater feel for the site without being put off thinking that the navigation just isn't working (honestly, thats how I felt for a while). If they then see a request they wish to help with, or they wish to post their own request, they can then login and perform those actions.

[+chorpeac MVC]

I wanted to cross post this because I felt it was important and in another area that is mainly viewed.

Ok so this is a suprise. I don't know why you guys don't want to post Neorequest concerns in the neorequest folder where they will be more monitored by someone who will react to your concerns. Jmann and I have put some time into this system, and it has been successful. Any bugs that were found have been quickly fixed. The only thing out of my hand has been the host speed. I've recently switched to godaddy, instead of hostonce.com, and I am waiting for the domain transfer to be completed. I am hoping this is going to settle our performance issues. If you feel the system is worthless, impractical, or wrong then please post in an intelligent manner why it is that way. There are lots of people out there who use it and it will help us all out if you post about it. Please do it in the Neorequest forum so it can be documented properly.

There was a bug that surfaced a month or so ago where it would not post your request after an error was displayed, but that was fixed as soon as I was alerted to it.

Here are a list of things mentioned to change.

1. Allow guests the ability to look at the site, just not submit anything.

2. Next/previous navigation while viewing a request.

What else would make this system better? I am totally open to your ideas!

[unequivocal]

Since you told us to post these here...

Lose the JavaScript interface, plain and simple. I don't know if you guys had a thread about this or something, but whoever decided it was a good idea to make it impossible to browse more than one request at once easily or be able to use the back button really should be kicked in the pants.

I know when I browse sites like NeoRequest, I like to pop open 5-10 things and look at them after I've gone through the whole list rather than clicking one, not liking it, going back, going to the next page, pulling one more up, not liking it, pulling another up, entering it, and then trying to find my way back to the page I was on before (except on NeoRequest you can't anywhere near easily because it's all JS).

Adding a next/previous will not fix the problem since I don't care about 60% of the things on there. For that to be usable for me and lot of other people, we need to be able to pull up a number of requests at once and evaluate them in order rather than this shuffling game we have to play now.

I don't mean to be harsh, but you asked. :)

[JMann Veteran]

I'm still keeping up with this, when I get a moment I will send a PM to Staff/Administrators about maybe getting something like the top of AutoPatchers forum where we can set up some information boxes and maybe a little code with some Stats in and a nifty little logo maybe. (Y)

[+chorpeac MVC]

Since you told us to post these here...

Lose the JavaScript interface, plain and simple. I don't know if you guys had a thread about this or something, but whoever decided it was a good idea to make it impossible to browse more than one request at once easily or be able to use the back button really should be kicked in the pants.

I know when I browse sites like NeoRequest, I like to pop open 5-10 things and look at them after I've gone through the whole list rather than clicking one, not liking it, going back, going to the next page, pulling one more up, not liking it, pulling another up, entering it, and then trying to find my way back to the page I was on before (except on NeoRequest you can't anywhere near easily because it's all JS).

Adding a next/previous will not fix the problem since I don't care about 60% of the things on there. For that to be usable for me and lot of other people, we need to be able to pull up a number of requests at once and evaluate them in order rather than this shuffling game we have to play now.

I don't mean to be harsh, but you asked. :)

Ok...so you would like to be able to open multiple requests at a time? I see what you are saying. There can be two ways I can think of at the moment to allow this.

1. Add a button to each request in the request listing to open the request. This would be in addition to the javascript row click. This button would allow you to right click and open in a new window the request, while at the same time keeping the listing visible behind the new spawned window.

2. Killing the nice request listing feature we have now and go back to the ugly grid display.

Personally I like #1. If you can point me into a direction other than Neowin, where you use this idea I would appreciate seeing it.

[SamIAm]

Don't kill me... but shouldn't this (https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=463605) thread be posted in this forum?

I know it belongs in the NeoRequest forum but the majority of the users (current and potential) are right here and not visiting the other forum (for many reasons).

I think this would help by getting some awareness around the application as well as getting some more feedback from the people who we want in NeoRequest.

[+chorpeac MVC]

Can a mod move it here?

[JMann Veteran]

Right, I have PM'd Redmak about NeoRequest and the publising NeoRequet features we would like to add here if possible and I have also asked if the thread can be moved to this forum. Chorpeac you should recieve a CC of it as well, awaiting response.

~JMann :)

[fuBar.]

Hey JMann, if you need some inspiration for a straight forward template. Check out http://www.cssreboot.com and http://www.cssremix.com.

[JMann Veteran]

See well, I am not sure if we are going for a complete re-design as Version 3 was a complete arse to design and code and well I think that would just be a kick in the man area lol. I think I would just prefer to change the Navigation (still horizontal, but different) and maybe the gallery and how the images are displayed taking an 80x80px block out of the image each time instead of resizing it. I think those put together could for one make fast improvements. (Y)

Still awaiting a PM reply, also if anyone wants to have ago at some kind of Design for the navigation or of different bits they would like to change have a go, post it here and I will see what I can whip up in CSS. Also FuBar, nice websites, bookmarked. (Y)

[JoeC]

J, if you want some help with redoing it, I'd be happy to help out. I'm good with XHTML, CSS, PHP, JS and a little AJAX. I think the main problem I find with NR atm though is the javascript navigation, as uneq said at the top of this page. It's intensely frustrating not being able to tab a few requests at once. Another thing would be increase the pagination from 5 per page to at least 10, make it easier to browser.

[JMann Veteran]

I am waiting for a response from an Administrator before we start anything really, thanks for the offer JoeC I will keep it in the mind when we are in the progress of doing whatever. :) You never know, if we keep going on we might get a response from an Administrator soon. :p

[DaveLegg Developer]

if we keep going on we might get a response from an Administrator soon. :p

If you PMed or emailed Neobond, remember he's away with some of the other staff at WinHEC this week. Just hold on, don't pester him :p and he'll get back to you when he can I'm sure.