OK folks, it's time to tell us what you like and/or what you don't like about P2L, and what you think we're missing and should be added. This can be anything and everything, ranging from how the tutorial search works to how the forum is run and moderated. Feel free to suggest new features or categories you think we should carry, whether you think we need more or less graphics etc... anything and everything is welcomed and it can be good or bad.

I would really appreciate your honesty here folks, so please send me whatever you got, even if it's negative. If you wish your identity to remain anonymous, simply use the contact form at http://www.pixel2life.com/contact/ and select the applicable topic and use bogus information for the name and return email. Just remember if you use a bogus email, I won't be able to contact you back. Otherwise, you can PM or email me directly at info (at symbol) pixel2life dot com.

Thanks in advance!
Dan

I love P2L the way it is, I think sometimes the forums a bit strict but thats just enforcing rules, some staff have left but the remaining ones are the best!

Good job Faken =]

Yeah i agree, forums are too strict. Its good that they are well moderated but sometimes ..

Also a CSS'ed version of P2L would be good. But i don't want to see it become too minimalistic, as good use of images make the P2L site look ace!

These are the only faults i find! P2L is doing an amazing job! So much is right with it.

I like it, but I have a usefull addition : A showcase, just watch this:

http://www.sitemasters.be/?pagina=showcase...e&cat=8&id=1580

I dont know if you understand everything, because it is in Dutch (is there a Dutch moderator here???)

Ill shortly explain the idea:

You can show your work, like in the artwork gallery, but now you can give a rating and there are many categories you can place it in.
Maybe this doesnt sound very different then the artwork gallery, but i would really appreciate such a showcase! I think it is very usefull.

Do I have to send this to the contact form too ?

Xfader

I would like to see the option of saving tutorials in my profile.

I often browse the tutorials and see several i wanna try but before i get round to them, they have moved further down the list. But if i could click to add them to a list, that i can go to and check which tutorials i was interested at a later date then that would be a cool improvement.

I think i have emailed you before about this one Faken, but i think there needs to be more of a dedicated area on the forums and tutorials for photography. There are photography tutorials, but i feel they should have their own bit and not under Adobe Photoshop. There is like a dedicated signature bit, a place to show off you site, so why not one for photographs people have taken?

I think a few others would agree with me, but thats the only bit for me, apart from that your doing a great job!

And if you need someone to help moderate the photography area

Matt

Four annoyances really:
1. This finally happens after I leave, the asking and listening to of opinions about the way the forums are moderated and ran.

2. The fact that this comment will more than likely be moderated out of this topic before anyone has even read it. Just like several of my posts, and other ex-staff members posts have been since we stopped working here. One particular admin is responsible for this, and i've recieved at least 20 other complaints from veterans on this forum complaining about just this. All of which have left and not came back as result of these actions.

3. Shao is still an admin, but several staff members that contributed more to the site such as myself and Jaymz (both of worked at the site just under 2 years...) where demoted within an hour of 'handing in our notices' and recieved no such respect.

4. That i'm probably going to get a large use of capital letters in messages sent to me after posting this reply up. Instead of it being read and used as constructive critism to better this site.

Jay, you and Stu can keep coming on the forums and complaining about the same things over and over again with the same chips on your shoulders and posting the same irrelevant comments and they will continued to be moderated. Don't like it? Don't come.

The fact that Shao has admin is quit frankly none of your business and I can assure you that when you quit in any IT company, you are escorted immediately from the building and priveledges removed... end of story. And finally, perhaps you should go through the news postings of the last 2+ years where I have asked for opinions and feedback from users time and time again. Spare me your rhetoric... nothing in your post was constructive. I can also assure you your departure would have been a lot more respectable had you not completely lied and stabbed me in the back. But as you say... keep the faith!

Dan

I'm new here, so don't know if I'll get as much credibility, but how about this idea:

A section where you can see the status of your submitted tutorials? tutorialized.com has one and it is really simple as well as useful. Prevents people from submitting multiple times. Don't know if you have this feature and I just can't find it, but it is extremely useful and wouldn't be hard to impliment.

Just an idea. Other than that, everything else seems in tip-top shape.

I'm pretty much sure you can check on the Homepage, but if after a few weeks you can't find your tutorial it has probably been rejected.

Some great suggestions here

Shortkid - You currently can see the status of your submissions from your Source Site page (you can go here http://www.pixel2life.com/sourcesite_search/ to look up a site) as well as additional stats relevant to your site We may expand on this though, but just in case you didn't know about that functionality, it's there

Deadly - Definitely agree and I'm working on that.

Donkeymusic - Great idea and a system like that has been asked for a few times. We shall see

Xfader - That's pretty cool... maybe a rating system built into the critiquing forums?

haha... I KNEW the first suggestion would be a CSS conversion

keep em coming

Dan

sweet thanks, i had an idea for a tutorial for there anyway so am gunna work on that.

Great idea! Well handy if this option was added. Not sure how it would be implemented though, shouldn't be too hard, setting up a MYsql with each users tutorial ID's saved. Seems simple enough.

Only a few things I see need to be improved or moved into a more prominent place are:
Site Navigation:
Forums - they are not easily found and even members have stated on joining they never knew the forum existed.

FAQ's - needs to be at top of page and not in the forum itself, just general observation and the questions that get asked.

Guidelines - another unread, maybe because it's inside the forum.

Apart from that, tutorial submitters to have their accounts linked with a forum account when submitting tutorials, would make it so much easier to contact them if the need arises as many of them have no contact details on their sites. Or even a place where they can add a email (invis to public)

I just have to say i dont agree with the over the top forum moderation.

Achually, scratch that. I am in position to talk. I have never experienced it anyway or seen it.

As for suggestions, i will get back to you and post some

layout wise i dont hate the layout, nor do i love it. I think it needs slight updating.

Ummm, useful suggestions i dont have right now. Put i'll be sure to edit the post or post again when i do

Long time P2L user, but not a frequent forum user.

I saw an opportunity to put in my 2 cents so I figured I would.

I only have 2 suggestions:

1. Update the Site of the week and Picture of the week... well, weekly. SOTW and POTW both inspire me greatly so I am sad when I don't get new ones to stare at for awhile.

2. More audio tutorials! Sure we have fruity loops (blah) and soudforge, but how about some Acid, Pro Tools or maybe even Sonar tutorials? Sound is good stuff, tutorials would be sweet. Does anyone else agree?

Other then that this is a top notch site and I would probably be lost without it.

Ok thanks, and yes, SOTW/POTW is something we will be addressing to ensure they are updated and relevant to the community on a regular basis I'l look into some additional audio programs as well

Thanks!

Dan

its really disappointing Dan that it has came to you and Jay being enemies when you two were like my goal friendship online, I always looked up to you and him, more so him because i was closer friends with him. I believe Jay has made some pretty good points, I do not deny you are a good guy and that you try hard on P2L and ill be damned to deny saying you dont listen to opinions but it does seem to me that P2L has and specially when i was staff, Been a bit chaotic with the moderation of users, the warnings, the bans, and the posts being edited/deleted/mysteriously gone.

I am not trying to take sides or go at you so please do not feel like i am your enemy. Its just sad seeing to great minds who once were working as one split.

I hope you can get a rating system working I would really appreciate it!

And since Adam123, Jay and Jaymz left, are you searching for new moderators?
Some people might be interested in that

Xfader

Hmm, I wonder if your hinting something ther

And I personally think that Faken and Jay could sort this dispute out sooner or later as it hurts my feelings :'(

Got another idea for you Faken...

With the POTW/SOTW, maybe make it so that there are say 4 or 5 picked from all the entries and then have the community vote for the winner?

That way people who submit work can have their work seen by more people and it brings a bit more competition to it

You have no need to take sides bud and I agree, it's a shame that things had to go down the way they did... could have been handled completely differently, but that's the way things go. Time to move on, whether other people involved want to or not We have a huge site and community to keep running, so I don't really have time to get into pointless drama.

Large forums will always be a difficult thing to maintain and it's impossible to keep everyone happy and you'll always piss people off. People seem to lose sight of the fact that there are thousands of members here from all walks of life, not simply a couple dozen. Arguements are natural, but the "bravery behind the keyboard" syndrome turns them into flame wars every time and it's pointless.

I'll be having a meeting with the Donna and the moderators soon and we'll have a round table on how things are done etc, but it's tough to correct anything when no one complains aside from a lot of swearing and name calling with a vague reference to some post that can't be found (we don't delete the posts... they are moved to a junk bin). Give me real examples and I will investigate them... and believe me I do. Ask D.. I'm always snooping around, looking at stuff that got locked and asking why if I don't see why they were etc.

It's always in my best interest and the best interest of this site to try and make most of the community happy. I do this with experience, discussing it with staff, but most of all listening to you. But I can't take action or look into things if no one tells me until things come to a head, and rest assured I can be objective if your inquiry is worth reading. Cussing someone out is a waste of time and makes it rather hard to be objective when you're already going overboard. Hey, I get frustrated too, but nothing gets accomplished until you calm down and do the research and take the appropriate action... coming out with the guns blazing doesn't get us anywhere.

So, if you have a problem with the mods, tell me. I'm not going to ban you for it and I'll find out what's what... actually a great example of this in action just happened recently. I won't get into it, but I basically found out about a reason that topics were getting moved to junk and I didn't think it was necessary so I got together with D and took care of it.

Capish?

Dan

Well typed, I agree with that. I'm sure I used to be a lot of work for the moderators I wasn't as mature as I am now and I have great respect for the administrators and moderators and all of Pixel2Life and I hope to see it improve so much. The potential of this site is astranomical and hopefully will be acted upon like the suggestions given in this thread, Faken unlike many forum owners gives a chance for people to discuss and make some input on the actual thread instead of doing it through PM etc which is cool.

Hope all goes well man!

A suggestion for P2L: A sort of script / snippet library where you can post scripts or snippets ready for use with only minimal explanation.

Example: I want a PHP script that shows some information about the visitor and I just want the script so I search for it in the script-library.

I know there are probably tutorials for most things but I think a lot people just want a script without pasting snippets together from a tutorial.

So you mean something along the lines of hotscripts.com? Maybe not quite so advanced?

Dan

I'm not that active on the P2Lforums, but as co-admin of 13dots, D points me to all the funny posts, and I come in and snoop around every now and then. The P2L community is pretty different from the 13dots one, if I might say so. It looks like one fun rollercoaster ride, with a bump every now and then.

I love the idea on the first page, saving your favorite tutorials to your profile. It would be very useful, and it would seperate P2L from the rest... even more. Great suggestion!

Next to that I think P2L should stick to its core activity, bringing tutorials to the people. Rating systems, SOTW, POTW, are all cool items, but I see these as complementary. Especially the rating system will be for community people only, and I think the power of P2L is that if someone needs a hint or a clue how to do an effect, or work out an idea he's been having, he just visits P2L and uses the search form to get what he needs, and exploit his/her talents even further.

Which brings me to a new suggestion: the search form

This form might be extended to an advanced search form, where you can select multiple categories, use boolean terms like AND, OR (or are they implemented already..? never tested it), or even fill in the post date of the tutorial!

The search form is the only thing that annoys me, as it rarely brings up the results I want to see the first time. Maybe it is therefore important for tutorial submitters to fill in keywords, that match the subject. That way not only the title is important.

Keep doing the things you do, I know the P2L team is working extremely hard to deliver all members a pleasant stay. Next to putting up suggestions, which is good, a thank you would be appropriate as well!

Thanks!

i once remade P2L in pure css...im sure i have a copy laying around.

Nicely said i don't know its like i never saw this coming so i never thought what it would be like.

A good suggestion to P2L would be to cut back some the forums, theres too many and not all are used. things were much cleaner/smoother back when there were a few forums and P2L was on IPB 1.3.1

Nothing is deleted from the forums as Dan states it's moved to a junk forum for review, either by myself or Dan and trust me Dan does check everything I do he asks me daily. If he forgets I point them out to him.

The only topics/replies that get deleted completely are from members themselves as you all have the option to delete your posts and those actions are all shown inside the ACP and easily checked by Dan to show you removed yourself.

Majority that does get removed is advertizing to join forums/tut sites, affiliate url's, off topic replies and trolling and just simply not following the pinned guidelines we have in each forum.

We can easily keep your topics/posts in the forum but you'll still find it edited out and locked as to why, Dan wrote the rules on Pixel2Life not any of the staff here we just enforce them the best we can, we do message you as to why unless your just too lazy to read we won't message you in the pinned topics.

========

And back on topic re: suggestions
after quickly speaking with Dan, I agree we go back to the old system and keep all posts in the forum good and bad and simply edit the topics/posts and lock them.

Ahh...good stuff here. For the person wayyyy back on the first page, that wanted to know if his tutorials were added. You can set up a email verification, where when you activate/delete the tutorial from the quene area, they creator will be emailed.

RedDragon - The search form supports full Boolean search terms An advanced search is something definitely worth looking into, thanks

Dan

lmao @ at the un-suttle hint.

Yeah, its going off topic but i was a bit *whaaaa??* when i read that from you Jay. But as ever i am ignorant as to the story from both parties which is why i shan't say anything

Not that i use it much but when i do, i would really like to see the sub categories be available without changing page by clicking the category (if thats even in english?!)

*smells ajax*, ok, not needed. But it would be handy to allow quicker access.

I am rarely on the forums as I spend my time on school work and at 13dots so I can't comment on the forums and all this "over-moderating" that is supposedly happening but It would be nice to see a new version of P2L even if its only a facelift and no extra features are added!

I love the web 2.0 look, despite how much I dislike people who think having a valid site is the be-all and end-all of the world I won't deny that the look that comes with it (the "web 2.0" look) is extremely pleasing to the eye and If you can get it all validated then you would please even more people! although I, like many would be happy with a fresh design!

In terms of catagorys, I can't really think of any programs I use that don't have their own catagory on P2L, I guess it would be nice to have a catagory for all the tutorials that don't fit anywhere else.

Yeah, just index them like you do with tutorials so people can search in the library.

I don't submit tutorials anymore but I used to regularly. I'm quite sure it wouldn't be that hard to add an email field to submissions (can't remember, been about a year since I last submitted).

Then when a tutorial is accepted or denied an email can be sent. Maybe even have a list of reasons to be chosen from and then add that to the email.

Thats a great idea and automatic email notification would be good but reasons why is just plain crazy. I know myself that Donna and Dan read and accept / dont accept tonnes of tutorials each day and typing an email like that for everyone would be a huge time waster.

Thats why you have canned answears

(drop down box of reasons)

A working homepage is definately in need right now.

www.pixel2life.com

Strange, blank page....ha.

he he ....look a couple post up just put that

Wierd, i noticed that too. My site has done that before aswell. I think it is when the server is put under too much load at once, and it needs a little bit of time to correct its self. Not sure though.

I think a easy to implement but nice feature would be to have a system that emails you to confirm if your tutorial is accepted or declined, becasue I along with many other im sure, get tired of ch4ecking thesource site seach, and you cant see which tutorials are in the que.

Ive been here about 6months or maybe a year. I have never started many problems as i admin a forum with 1,500 members and know what these mods and admins are going through.

I think a great thing on this forum would give people the option on which forums they want to be open when they visit everytime. Like the minimize option on the forum but a page in the "My Controls" area that allows them too. That option may come around in IPB 2.2 but were not sure.

Also the images as links at the top right such as the twodded link need words i remember the first time i was here for like a month i thought they were just images in the header.

The main page needs to be a little more spazzy than the 3 colum thing now too. Maybe a ajax one where you can move the boxes around and change if its 2 colums or 3. Something like MSN.com.

Also we really need a better way to organize the tutorials and get to them. Not so much more categories just better organization of the tutorials in the subcategoies. Also the tutorials that are duplicates should be combined into one big tutorial with all different ways to do something. Also there are times when you get the tutorials in parts where you have to find all the parts. I think when you open a tutorial it should come to a page that has a description about the tutorial and links to the other tutorials that member has submitted. Now some of these ideas may not be needed but im sure if you could make everything more user friendly your visits and useage would jump.

A noticable skin update would help people comeing back too.

Zack

On a another note. I think the "General" forums should be moved farther down in forum organization. It may be bringing the most post but you need the things that help members out up top.

Maybe even a FireFox and IE toolbar to search the site and quick links the the site.

I think it would be kinda cool if on the sites pages you made them expandable like the forums catagories. its nothing major some people may like it.

Another selecting how many "latest tutorials" are displayed. say 5, 10, 15, 20 instead of just 20.

Hoot

Just an FYI we already have Firefox extension in the resource area http://www.pixel2life.com/resource_center/

Dan

Oh my bad. I didnt know if it was this site i saw it on. I know i saw one somewhere.

dangit faken i was going to tell him.

WOah wtf, its astatic... talk about LOONG TIME!

when i saw this title, i thought 'ill steer clear of this', and then you go and bring up my name in an *argument* that has sweet fa to do with me... why? as for the chip on my shoulder, it was placed there by certain things and people, and i carry it proudly. and the backstabbing... i wont go there as it is none of my business.

well now ive posted i may aswell add my piece.

i dont really have any problems with the site itself, but all the ideas on the previous pages seem quite nice, it is mainly the forum where i see problems.

the hypocricy needs to be sorted out. one perfect example was your reply to jay in this thread dan, slightly off topic as it seemed like more of a personal attack on jay (and possibly me with my big bag of potato chips i apparently where) than anything else... whereas a couple of days ago my reply, where i asked a few questions, and was not rude at all, was deleted from a thread which my name was bought up where it wasnt really off topic at all (you mustve known i would bring that up ). and you talk about off topic, but how many times have you turned a thread about a computer (for example) into a parachute pants thread? i know jay and jaymz and donna are guilty of this along with you aswell. it sometimes seems like staff have the run of the forums, choosing to abide by certain rules and not others, while us members have to stick to the rules like glue.

it also seem that from my time in the staff room that one or two people have thier favourites and people they dislike, fair enough, human nature, but its not ok when they seem to target them just for the sake of it (i cant remember exact instances but even if i could i wouldnt name them).

there you go, and ill probably be back to try give some more.