Site redesign - 2016 Update #1

[seba1337]

In response to post #34780125.

falconfetus8 wrote: Nix the comic sans.

+1 to this. No comic sans please, there are tons of other fonts...

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34852575. #34856290, #34856355, #34872080, #34875210 are all replies on the same post.

I2edShift wrote: Robin... Phill... If either of you read this, that second mockup looks amazing.

BlindJudge wrote: Hey, what about me! :)

starfis wrote: And you are?

I2edShift wrote: You?! ... Nobody cares about you!

Dark0ne wrote: I like these guys...

Sad face :(

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34856625.

Gruntin wrote: Absolutely love it!

Thank you Gruntin, I'm really happy with how it is going so far.

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34851675.

Ludaus wrote: I absolutely LOVE the second image layout.

Awesome, it took us a while to come to that design with a lot of discussion. But yep, I'm happy with how it is going :)

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34839895. #34854770, #34868145 are all replies on the same post.

benyanoo wrote: Search filter based on body type (UNP, CBBE, etc.)

Elianora wrote: You can already do this. Use tag based search.

LupusVir wrote: Hey, Eli! Love your mods. But about the tag based search: It is kind of confusing.

There are a *lot* of features that are already implemented on the site but are confusing to use. Be assured that the new version is incredibly user friendly and will also have FAQ's / Help and Support pages to let you know how to do pretty much anything on it.

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34839860.

benyanoo wrote: Make the search work. I see a phrase in a post. I search on it. Not found ?!

I have high hopes with the new 'search'. It should be both easy to use, powerful and feature packed :)

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34831615. #34835110 is also a reply to the same post.

gigabitemon wrote: site works fine for me for now, so at least there's a place to go back to if all goes to hell.

but a new design sounds cool. eager to see what happens as y'all go along.

to be honest, the old design could use some reworking, now that i look closer at it.

Sulhir wrote: *gets bugnet out* I'M READY FOR DEPLOYMENT!

The sites will run concurrently on the same database when it goes public, give people a chance to get used to it and also submit bugs they find to us.

@Sulhir - Would be awesome if you could submit any bugs you find to us.

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34807265. #34809035, #34815305, #34840105, #34843550 are all replies on the same post.

Xander9009 wrote: This is partly a response to another comment, but more importantly, it brings up a different point, so it's being posted as a new comment rather than a reply. However, in response to the idea that the sides of the screen shouldn't be filled in with content is... strange to me. One of the arguments given was ad space, but I just checked with AdBlock disabled and that space is currently not taken up by ads, so there's no ad space being removed by allowing wider content. Another argument given was that the various displays would be difficult to handle while keeping responsive. While I can't say much about how difficult this would be since I'm not a web designer, I can say with relative certainty that it's possible. I've seen various websites that have multiple blocks and panes of data that remain responsive. FB is an incredibly easy, albeit not necessarily /good/ example. However, it doesn't need to be dynamic content, even. It just needs to be /used/ in a /useful/ way. A navigation panel for when you're no longer at the top of the screen to easily navigate would be a good choice. I find it ridiculous and dumb that /literally/ the /majority/ of my browser space is completely blank and devoid of any content. However, while I really dislike the unused space, I won't harp on it.

The reason I made this a new response, though, is related to something I brought up that. AdBlock. I mentioned that I use it because I wanted to explain /why/ I use it so hopefully it can be addressed. I've tried greenlighting the Nexus multiple times, but it always results in the same thing. The ads that the page loads, over time and with more than only a very small number of tabs (of the Nexus) open, begin eating ram like crazy until the Nexus tabs all crash or become unusable. I have a lot of ram. I have a very nice laptop easily capable of running Skyrim, handling lots of open programs and CPU intensive tasks, lots of ram heavy applications.

See, when I browse the Nexus, I see a mod I like in a list, but I'm not done browsing the list. In order to remember to look at the mod while not losing my place in the list or whatever I've currently doing, I'll open it in a new tab and continue down the list. This often results in many tabs, and that doesn't have good results regarding site usability, since all of those tabs take all my ram due to ads. It doesn't just make the site unusable, though. Since it's taking up the ram, it makes the entire laptop incredibly sluggish.

I know it's the ads, because when I enable AdBlock on the site, the problem vanishes immediately. I cannot afford to pay to have the ads removed the proper way (I literally do not have enough for that at the moment, because I live on /very/ little money, and I shouldn't need to pay to use the site in a reasonable manner I like). I cannot run the site effectively with ads, though. So, AdBlock is the only real solution for me. I can't imagine no one else has this issue.

I just compared the ram taken by the same page (homepage of Skyrim) with and without AdBlock. With AdBlock, it got up to about 37 MB and 44 MB (two tests). Without AdBlock, it got up to 157 MB and 132 MB. That's a ridiculous and unacceptable ratio. However, I can think of two different approaches to solving this.
1: Either limit the amount of memory the ads can use by making sure that when an ad loads, it's smaller than a given filesize, otherwise, request another ad and discard the first. (I think most webpages should do this to convince ad makers to be more reasonable with their ad's footprints to be more likely for them to be displayed.)
2: Create a tool for use on the site that lets you bookmark a mod for later viewing. See a mod you want to look at later? Queue it up. Mind you, this would need to be available also for text mod links, specifically on the New Today and New Recently pages). When you're ready to run through the mods, go to your queue. For best results, when you load a mod page from within your queue, add a button to remove it and another to go to the next mod.

The first would allow multiple tabs to be open without eating GBs of RAM. The second wouldn't affect the ads themelves at all, but would help reduce the need for multiple tabs in the first place, meaning only a much smaller number of Nexus tabs would be open at a given time, making the impact of the massive ad sizes much less strenuous.

I realize this would also be solved by paying $2. The problem is that it shouldn't be required to have the Nexus not slow my computer to a crawl. I'm willing to whitelist NexusMods (I have before, in fact).

BTW, as I was typing this, I went back to the tab to close it here at the end, and it had catapulted to 1.25 GB. The page itself was at about 225 MB, with shockwave taking up 1 GB (which disappeared when I closed that tab).

If you guys are currently redesigning the site, please address this.

dspeare wrote: Xander9009, to create a queue for later viewing, have you considered the browser plugin "Pocket"? It does essentially what you described (except it works for ALL web pages, not just mod pages here). The queue is maintained between browser sessions and it will even synchronize your queue between multiple browsers or multiple machines. It's available (free) for most of the popular browsers. I have been using it since before they renamed it "Pocket" (it used to be Read It Later) and, so far, it seems to work as advertised.

whismerhill wrote: to my knowledge ads using a lot of computer resources is a general whole worldwideweb problem, & not an issue localized on nexusmods only.

@dspeare, another plugin which stores information from you on an online account yeah ! more tracking please ? ... (that is ironic)

Xander9009 wrote: I have TooManyTabs which partially already does the same thing. The problem with this approach is that it's using a third party tool to fix a resource hogging website. The website needs to deal with this, not me. The moment they do, they'll be whitelisted and will started getting ad revenue from my visits. They're not required to, but if I'm forced to do something to make the site usable, I'm just going to continue using AdBlock.

llihP wrote: As as ex-ad creator ( boooo! ) it's usually the lack of decent ad creation guidelines that lead to resource hogging ads. For example, some ad publishers have requirements such as "the ad must never use more than 5% of the CPU".

..what CPU? My watch CPU or my 5930k? It's arbitrary requirements such as this that lead to a lot of feral ads being let into the wild.

It's been pretty bad for over a decade now, but it's definitely getting better, especially in the past 12 months or so with the shift from Flash driven ads to CSS based ads.

Hey Xander9009,

We don't have control over which ads are displayed to a user, but are working on ways in which a rogue ad can be flagged to us and we can take it to the provider.

Unfortunately, we *need* to have ads on the site as without them the Nexus simply could not survive. We don't require users to pay money, or even register with us to use the site so revenue from ads is our lifeline.

Going Supporter for $2 removes ads in their entirety for life and really helps support the site.

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34805075.

Numbnumb wrote: It just really struck me at what a fabulous job Nexus folks and all the mod makers out there do with all of the things that help to make games like Fallout 4 and many to numerous to name such a greater experience playing all the vanilla games. I have been using Nexus Mods for years on a number of games and it has enhanced my experience a thousand fold. Fifty years ago (yes I am old) I could never have conceived of such wow factor!
I have been playing computer games since the first Alien? The one where you moved the cursor from side to side and shot down the invaders as they came down the screen.
The games today are so far ahead and so much more enjoyable because of the people on this site and the folks who run this site and the good folks who design these games.
What a wonderful partnership! THANK YOU ALL!!!!!

Wow Numbnumb, thank you very much for your kind words. Comments like this help drive us along and are very much appreciated.

[TheTokenGeek]

In response to post #34795495. #34829255, #34830585, #34839700, #34889770 are all replies on the same post.

makutamon wrote: You know What I would like to see? The Website using your download history to create a "recommended for you" page, which selects mods that you might like based on your download history.

BlueGunk wrote: I like that idea! +1 from me!

Jeir wrote: From our 'Endorsements' might be better.
There are several mods I've downloaded just to check something, or simply didn't like and thus deleted and didn't give an endorsement.
In any case, such a thing would probably have to rely on the tagging system, with is rather flawed even when it is used, due to user interpretation of the tags.

cleggmasta wrote: yea, thirded, but from the endorsed mods as Jeir said

seba1337 wrote: Endorsements sounds better, it's a great idea this one :D

The trouble with this is who decides what mods should be chosen to be displayed, I sometimes look at my Steam recommended list and think to myself - Why on earth are they recommending me X game.

There is something in the works which can work similar, but will let you all know details a bit later when it's ironed out. :)