# Something to look at.... Gamers Seeking Gamers



## Morrus (Jul 31, 2010)

It's not finished yet and needs some cleaning up and functionality tweaks, but it basically works.

Best presented without instructions, since that's the way a new member will see it. 

http://www.enworld.org/forum/gamersseekinggamers.php

It's obviously not populated yet, since it hasn't been publicized at all (the only people who know about it are those who look at this thread). So imagine it with thousands of members, events, and groups. 

Feel free to play with it - anything you add will stick, though, so try to be vaguely sensible about what you enter!


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## Jasperak (Jul 31, 2010)

I tried to go back to it and cannot find out how aside from your post. I assume you haven't put a link to it anywhere yet.

EDIT: After looking at it, I feel so alone in Richmond, VA  (just kidding, I know it's new)


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## Morrus (Jul 31, 2010)

Jasperak said:


> I tried to go back to it and cannot find out how aside from your post. I assume you haven't put a link to it anywhere yet.




Yeah - if I put a link somewhere, too many people will click on it! Sorry about that! When we launch it properly there will be a big prominent link.

You're 3699 miles away from me!


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## Jasperak (Jul 31, 2010)

I was amazed at the last map you had up. Sometimes it's hard to believe that RPGs have made it to every corner of the world, though I still believe that somewhere in Antarctica right now, some researchers are sitting down and playing Call of Cthulhu.


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## Theo R Cwithin (Jul 31, 2010)

Looks nifty!  I just added some random non-event in the middle of nowhere to test it out.  Should we be able to see points on the map other than just ourselves?  Even set to large chunks of the world, I only see myself.

Only comment at this point is that when there's an form submission error (eg, forgot to tick a box or something), one sees the error message, but no instruction what to do about it.  (This applies to all form inputs, actually.)  If possible, it might be helpful to add a simple "Use the back button to navigate back to the form and make the correction."

I'll play around with it later.


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## Morrus (Jul 31, 2010)

the_orc_within said:


> Looks nifty! I just added some random non-event in the middle of nowhere to test it out. Should we be able to see points on the map other than just ourselves? Even set to large chunks of the world, I only see myself.
> 
> Only comment at this point is that when there's an form submission error (eg, forgot to tick a box or something), one sees the error message, but no instruction what to do about it. (This applies to all form inputs, actually.) If possible, it might be helpful to add a simple "Use the back button to navigate back to the form and make the correction."
> 
> I'll play around with it later.




What did you add? I ain't seeing it!

And what form-submisison error did you get and what error message?

I'm seeing myself and Jasperak, and the couple of events we added (Gen Con, my weekly gaming group, and his made-up thing).

[BTW, please remember to delete those when it goes live, guys! ) ]


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## Theo R Cwithin (Jul 31, 2010)

Morrus said:


> What did you add? I ain't seeing it!
> 
> And what form-submisison error did you get and what error message?
> 
> ...



I couldn't find it until after I test submitted a second one, so now there are two of them, both in Texas for a few few days in early August.  You're listed as an attendee on the first one, so I guess you you found it?  I'll delete them when you confirm you can see them.  

I can now see you and Jasperak on the map, and several events.

The form submission error I saw was just a "You forgot to choose public or private", a standard required field error. I went back, ticked the box, resubmitted and it was happy.

However, I just noticed that when I click "ADD AN EVENT", I see the following on screen before anything else renders:


> *Warning*: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in *[path]/calendar.php(1828) : eval()'d code* on line *61*
> 
> *Warning*: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in *[path]/calendar.php(1828) : eval()'d code* on line *70
> *


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## Aegeri (Jul 31, 2010)

The thread title gave me the impression you were opening some kind of gaming related dating site on here.

Clearly I need more coffee and or more sleep. One of those.


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## Phaezen (Jul 31, 2010)

Yay, now everyone can see there is at least one gamer here in South Africa, with my own group and Con


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## Morrus (Jul 31, 2010)

Cool.  There are some bugs and layout issues (and some spelling/grammar issues - the coder speaks English as a second language), so please feel free to let me know when you spot them.  I hope to launch this properly next week, once the wrinkles have been ironed out.

I've already sent the coder a list of 15 bugs I've found!


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## Merkuri (Jul 31, 2010)

This looks great!  Part of my job at work is to be a quality assurance tester, and I often work with people for whom English is a second language, so I'm used to correcting improper English, making suggestions, and finding bugs.  So please interpret this list of criticisms as constructive. 

If it matters, I'm using Chrome.

*Suggestions:*

This:


> Welcome, Merkuri. You did not set a location yet, so the location is taken from the IP.




Should be (IMO):


> Welcome, Merkuri. You did not set *your* location yet, so *your *location *has been determined* from *your IP address*.




In the "Events" box you can probably change the sub-header to "Events you are attending" (the "all" is a little redundant) and the Friends box probably doesn't need a sub-header at all.

I feel that things in all caps should be used sparingly, so things like "ADD A FRIEND" or "EDIT YOUR PROFILE" can probably be capitalized, but they shouldn't be in all caps ("Add a Friend" and "Edit Your Profile").  The exception is if they're in some sort of a graphic button or in a funky font.

The "Your location" item in the key can probably just be replaced with "You" but it's not bad as it is now.  It might be nice if "Your location" was a different color, too.  I understand that I'm a member, which is why I'm green, but it would be a lot easier to pick out your own location if it was a different color.  It doesn't stand out as much when it's the same color as other things on the map, just with an asterisk on it.

After picking your location on the map it should probably give you a link to go back to the main GsG page instead of to the forums.

When creating a new event if the user has no social groups the dropdown should be filled with something like, "(you are not a member of any groups)" instead of just being empty.  Empty dropdowns look bad.

When searching on the main page it was not immediately apparent to me that it had worked.  The search area dropdown reverted to 100 and I didn't see anything new on the map.  It took me a while to realize that the search results were below the map.  You might want to either put the results above the map or include a little bit of text above the map that says something like "Found X members, Y groups, and Z events.  Jump to results" with a clickable link to jump down to the results.

If you click on a user's profile, then hit the back button, it should have your map zoomed into the same spot.  Right now it seems to reset back to your "home" location.

*Bugs/problems: *

I think someone else mentioned this already, but when I go to add a new event I see this at the top of the screen:



> Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in [path]/calendar.php(1828) : eval()'d code on line 61
> 
> Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in [path]/calendar.php(1828) : eval()'d code on line 70




When you click on a user or event on the map the name shows up in yellow text on white.  Extremely hard to read unless you mouse-over it.

*Question:*

My brain often has a problem wrapping itself around time zone changes and DST changes, so I don't know if this is just me, but I find "Maintain same time throughout the year, regardless of DST changes" a little hard to understand.  Does that mean that if I pick 5 PM Eastern and check that box that the game will always be 5 PM Eastern, regardless of whether we're in DST or not?  And if the box was unchecked then when DST changes it'll be shifted an hour (to 4 PM or 6 PM, depending on which change happened)?  It might be nice to include a little example in there for people like me who are time-zone challenged.

Is there a way to type in an address to set your location, instead of picking it from the map?  If not, this would be nice to have.  At the very least it would be nice to type in a location and get the map to center there, then you can zoom in and click the screen to set the location.


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## Morrus (Jul 31, 2010)

Merkuri said:


> *Question:*
> 
> My brain often has a problem wrapping itself around time zone changes and DST changes, so I don't know if this is just me, but I find "Maintain same time throughout the year, regardless of DST changes" a little hard to understand. Does that mean that if I pick 5 PM Eastern and check that box that the game will always be 5 PM Eastern, regardless of whether we're in DST or not? And if the box was unchecked then when DST changes it'll be shifted an hour (to 4 PM or 6 PM, depending on which change happened)? It might be nice to include a little example in there for people like me who are time-zone challenged.




It does.  When everything is working, I plan to add little "?" icons with pop-up help tips.



> Is there a way to type in an address to set your location, instead of picking it from the map? If not, this would be nice to have. At the very least it would be nice to type in a location and get the map to center there, then you can zoom in and click the screen to set the location.




Apparently that's something the Google Maps API doesn't allow.  At least according to the coder.


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## Morrus (Jul 31, 2010)

BTW, Merkuri, I'm curious about something.

You say you saw the message "Welcome, Merkuri. You did not set a location yet, so the location is taken from the IP."

That sounds like a bug - because you shouldn't be able to view the page until you've set a location.  When you first went there, did you not get confronted with a page which said "We need to ask you three quick questions first", which included your age group, games you were interested in, and your location?


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## Kris (Jul 31, 2010)

I got the same 'location is taken from IP' message when I first viewed the map.

I did however get asked the 'age group' and 'games interested in' questions before that (but I don't think I saw a location option).


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## Merkuri (Jul 31, 2010)

Morrus said:


> When you first went there, did you not get confronted with a page which said "We need to ask you three quick questions first", which included your age group, games you were interested in, and your location?




No, I did not see those questions, but I did have a lot of information like that in my profile from the old "gamers seeking gamers" system from a few years back.  Could that have anything to do with it?


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## john112364 (Jul 31, 2010)

Merkuri said:


> No, I did not see those questions, but I did have a lot of information like that in my profile from the old "gamers seeking gamers" system from a few years back. Could that have anything to do with it?




The same thing here. I clicked the link and *poof* it's telling me I didn't pick a location.


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## Morrus (Aug 1, 2010)

Merkuri said:


> No, I did not see those questions, but I did have a lot of information like that in my profile from the old "gamers seeking gamers" system from a few years back. Could that have anything to do with it?




Ah, possibly.  It's the same profile fields.  It probably just figured you'd done it and allowed you straight in, but that meant you bypassed the "Where are you?" question.


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## madwabbit (Aug 1, 2010)

Will you be able to add other game systems/titles to the "Interested in ..." list? If so, I can think of a few more worth adding. 

Looks pretty sweet so far.


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## Morrus (Aug 1, 2010)

Possibly - which did you have in mind?


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## Morrus (Aug 1, 2010)

OK, a question to folk:

Only about 5% of people are filling in the Introduction field.  I need to find out why:

Have you noticed the Alert on the right hand side of the page asking you to complete it?

Should it be a compulsory field in the initial "3 questions" bit?  

In short, are people choosing not to fill it in, or are they not realising they should?


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## madwabbit (Aug 1, 2010)

Morrus said:


> Possibly - which did you have in mind?



You have Fudge, but FATE is also big now with people playing Spirit of the Century and the Dresden Files RPG.

You have Deadlands, but a more generic "Savage Worlds" is a better category.

Might consider allowing an entry with a click on Other, so folks can add games like Dread, Fiasco, Dogs in the Vineyard, and other small press games.


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## Merkuri (Aug 1, 2010)

For some reason I got the three questions this time when I went to the page, but I did not see them when I first visited.

Suggestion: The layout for the big list of games could stand to be improved.  They look all jumbled the way they are now.  May I suggest either putting them into a table so they look lined up or changing them from radio boxes to one multi-select picklist?  (If you go with the picklist it might be a good idea to remind folks that they can shift- or control-click to pick more than one item, because a lot of people don't realize that.)

(Edit to avoid two posts in a row.)  Another suggestion.  The Alerts box should probably not be shown if there are no alerts to see.

And this message (which I got when I clicked on the "View alerts page" link) could stand some grammar improvements: "Merkuri, you have complete all the things!"  I'm not sure what it's supposed to be referring to, though, so I can't give suggestions on how to improve it right now.


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## Theo R Cwithin (Aug 1, 2010)

Morrus said:


> In short, are people choosing not to fill it in, or are they not realising they should?



I didn't realize I should.  When I click through on the alert, it says I've filled out everything-- but I'm still not clear what exactly that was, since I don't recall seeing an Intro field on my first visit.

Also, I'll second Merkuri's comments about the alerts panel.  It really shouldn't show if there's no alert, and the grammar is... interesting.  Perhaps "You've already filled out all required information" or something.


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## darjr (Aug 2, 2010)

I didn't see the questions until just now.


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## Steve Jung (Aug 2, 2010)

Morrus said:


> OK, a question to folk:
> 
> Only about 5% of people are filling in the Introduction field.  I need to find out why:
> 
> ...



I chose not too fill it in, because I'm not looking for a game right now.


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## Theo R Cwithin (Aug 2, 2010)

I was going back to remove a couple test events I'd added, but I can't find them on the geo or the calendar.  Did everything get reset or did someone scrub it for me (in which case a notice would have been nice).


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## Theo R Cwithin (Aug 2, 2010)

... dupe post! ...


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## Morrus (Aug 3, 2010)

Sorry, yeah, I removed the test events.  Should've mentioned it to you!


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## Big Mac (Aug 4, 2010)

*Typo on location screen*

Nice system. You still have a few typos in the screen that comes up first.



			
				GsG Set said:
			
		

> Welcome, Big Mac. You most set a location befor using the system. To change the location, please click at the location in the map and click Save.




That should be: "You *must* set a location *before* using the system. To change the location, please click *on* the location in the map and click Save."

I also think that some people (who have not used Google maps before) might not realise how to zoom into the map and/or drag it from side to side and up and down.

Maybe you could setup a dummy account, film the setup process and make a YouTube tutorial for how to do use Gamers Seeking Gamers.


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## Big Mac (Aug 4, 2010)

Weird. I set my location with a standalone screen, and then when I go to the main GSG screen, I've been asked to do the same thing as part of step 5.

Do you really need to ask people to do this twice, or is it a bug? (It seems like a bug.)


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## Thornir Alekeg (Aug 4, 2010)

Morrus said:


> OK, a question to folk:
> 
> Only about 5% of people are filling in the Introduction field.  I need to find out why:
> 
> ...



Any chance the field can be made larger?  It is pretty limited in length.


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## Theo R Cwithin (Aug 4, 2010)

Morrus said:


> Sorry, yeah, I removed the test events.  Should've mentioned it to you!



No problem, just glad to know it wasn't a problem with the system.  


Btw, here's a bug report:  When I click on the "Gamers seeking gamers System" link on the Gamers seeking gamers forum page,  I get this error on a blank screen:

*Parse error*:  syntax error, unexpected T_ELSE in */www/enworld.org/production/htdocs/forum/gamersseekinggamers.php* on line *1728
*
[Edit:  Ok, now it's not doing it.    Weird...  But it happened once, so it might indicate a problem of some sort.]


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## Morrus (Aug 4, 2010)

Thornir Alekeg said:


> Any chance the field can be made larger? It is pretty limited in length.




Well, we need people to keep it brief.


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## Beginning of the End (Aug 5, 2010)

Morrus said:


> Only about 5% of people are fillng in the Introduction field.  I need to find out why:




Because I don't want to broadcast information about myself into a system until I've had a chance to see how that information is going to be used. Since you made it mandatory in order to see the site (it kept crashing for me unless I filled in that field), you got garbage information from me.



madwabbit said:


> Might consider allowing an entry with a click  on Other, so folks can add games like Dread, Fiasco, Dogs in the  Vineyard, and other small press games.




If nothing else, a "Story Games" category might be a useful catch-all.


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## Morrus (Aug 5, 2010)

Beginning of the End said:


> Since you made it mandatory in order to see the site (it kept crashing for me unless I filled in that field)




Crashing?  As in a database error or similar?  Or shutting your browser down?


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## RangerWickett (Aug 5, 2010)

Morrus said:


> OK, a question to folk:
> 
> Only about 5% of people are filling in the Introduction field.  I need to find out why:
> 
> ...




Edit: Nevermind. I re-entered my information and now it seems to have taken.

I thought I filled it out the first time I went there, but now when I click on your Gamers Seeking Gamers link in your sig (or the one along the banner at the top of the page), it asks me to fill in again from the get go.

When I go to my settings, and click on Edit Details, if I scroll down far enough I see an entry for my game, and what games I'm interested in, so it looks like that original entry took. So why am I being asked to create a new game entry when I click on the link now (again, either in your sig, or on the top banner)?

Am I just following the wrong link? Was I too early an adopter, so I need to do it over again?

It doesn't make sense that the 'home page' for Gamers Seeking Gamers would always request that I create a new entry, instead of, say, listing my current game and giving a way to search for new games.


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## renau1g (Aug 6, 2010)

So I did notice one thing that was a little odd (to me at least). I added my info to the GSG area and it auto-updated the location on my posts (the one that shows up under join date). Is this supposed to happen? It prevents a funny location (i.e. Sigil or In your mind, etc)


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## Morrus (Aug 6, 2010)

It's the same field, yes. You can enter a funny one still if you want, but just be aware that's what it will say in GsG.

Asking people to enter their location multiple times in different fields is a sure-fire way to get them to press the "back" button on their browser. 

If you just want something funny under your name, we offer user titles AND status updates!


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## El Mahdi (Aug 12, 2010)

I was wondering about this also...



Merkuri said:


> ...If you click on a user's profile, then hit the back button, it should have your map zoomed into the same spot. Right now it seems to reset back to your "home" location...




Is it possible to enable right-clicking on a profile name from the map, in order to open in a different tab?  It would save having to go back to the previous page and then reset the map for where you're looking.  (I know you can look at names beneath the map, and right click on names there...but it would be infinitely more convenient to be able to do it from the map).  Is it maybe not possible with Google Maps software?



Thornir Alekeg said:


> Any chance the field can be made larger? It is pretty limited in length.






Morrus said:


> Well, we need people to keep it brief.




I understand the need to keep it brief, but it's a tad too brief right now.  Perhaps just a little bit bigger...


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## Wepwawet (Sep 2, 2010)

Maybe I'm too dumb, but I can't seem to use this gamers seeking gamers thing.
When I enter http://www.enworld.org/forum/gamersseekinggamersg.php I get this message:


> Welcome, Guest, to Gamers Seeking Gamers! Below you can see a sample of gamers, events, and groups. In order to zoom and move the map, browse and search the entire list, or to set your location, filter results, or add a group, game, or event, please log in or register!
> 
> Click here to register!



Then I click there to register and it says i'm already registered and whatever..
How can I get inside and use it?

Oh, and I'm doing all this already logged into ENWorld


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