league website

[blast]

Well, I didn't look it over in detail, but I was just looking for instances of tags ending with a slash like in XHTML. Maybe there is something already if there's a "use_xhtml" function.

[Monster]

I, not liking the current league page, highly appreciate the work you put into this. I don't understand why mrapple+co. had to start their own project - pretty childish in my oppinion.

[blast]

I, not liking the current league page, highly appreciate the work you put into this. I don't understand why mrapple+co. had to start their own project - pretty childish in my oppinion.

At the time they started it, this one was closed-source and not open to peer-review or outside help.

[mana]

Design / Layout
Unfortunately all three available themes have the same problems which make them appear to be not well-thought-out.

I guess there has to be done some work on the layout(s) before it could go productive. So the layout is not so important at this stage.
The old GU league layout sets quite a high standard with it's efficiency in space usage (while still looking good) which the new layout fails so far. At the moment my favorite is "White".

Innovation
Where is the advantage of using this framework instead of the web-league? The chance of using BZFlag's weblogin doesn't justify a complete changeover.

If I understand it right the goal is to tightly couple the GU league ids and player names to the global logins. So all the hassle with player name changes and knowing who is who in a match finally is gone. This fact alone makes it worth to switch to a new league software in my eyes.

2. Make it very simple clean and nongraphical, but very loaded with information and features.

That would be my preferred approach. It's not the homepage of an art project.

like the banner now being on the left side, what i personaly dislike

Agreed. It wastes too much space there.

I haven't tested much so far. Missing features for me are:

• Team view: the possibility to list all team matches
• Team view: team opponent summary
• Match view: the general ability to list all matches (missing last menu entry "All" in the selector)

The bzids of the players should be displayed somewhere, ideally as a link to the corresponding bzbb player page. Otherwise, from a users point of view, who does not know about the internal problems, the main advantage of the new league software would have been gone.

PS: A click to the "Players" menu entry always should point to the player list as it is in the old league software and not do nothing when you are in a player detail view (requiring a redundant "overview" button now). Same for teams.

[dexter]

(I'm basing these suggestions on brad's theme, cause that's the one I liked the most for now)
- Use different colors for admins and refs (moderators) like on bzbb
- Have a "report match" option under the profile page of refs where you can then simply enter the information of the match in question
- Banner placement should be rethought
- Rename "config" to "theme" or something, because that term is usually associated with something else in GU
- I like brad's theme a lot but the "online users" and "logout" button should go somewhere else, looks a little cramped
- For me the menu bar at the top isn't obvious enough.. maybe use different colors and indicators?
- Font should be smaller under Matches
- Team pages definitely need re-organizing, look chaotic atm
- Should be indicator if player logs in regularly or not

that's all I can think about for now but I already like the site a lot in many ways, so thank you for investing time and thought into this

[ts]

I guess there has to be done some work on the layout(s) before it could go productive. So the layout is not so important at this stage.
The old GU league layout sets quite a high standard with it's efficiency in space usage (while still looking good) which the new layout fails so far. At the moment my favorite is "White".

Erm, this sounds like it should be top priority and it is the thing users see at first.

If I understand it right the goal is to tightly couple the GU league ids and player names to the global logins. So all the hassle with player name changes and knowing who is who in a match finally is gone. This fact alone makes it worth to switch to a new league software in my eyes.

Player name changes are not tracked at the moment, I gave it lower priority but it's definitely something needed.

like the banner now being on the left side, what i personaly dislike

Agreed. It wastes too much space there.

Well, displays have more pixels in width than in height, that is why I've put the logo on the side. Of course I can understand someone might want it differently and thus submissions are very welcome.

I haven't tested much so far. Missing features for me are:

• Team view: the possibility to list all team matches
• Team view: team opponent summary
• Match view: the general ability to list all matches (missing last menu entry "All" in the selector)

The bzids of the players should be displayed somewhere, ideally as a link to the corresponding bzbb player page. Otherwise, from a users point of view, who does not know about the internal problems, the main advantage of the new league software would have been gone.

I have added a link at the total number of matches to show the matches played. The maximum of 3200 matches has been chosen because of speed concerns.

An opponent summary has been added, including some basic sorting capabilities. Rather slow at the moment, though.

PS: A click to the "Players" menu entry always should point to the player list as it is in the old league software and not do nothing when you are in a player detail view (requiring a redundant "overview" button now). Same for teams.

You can now also click on the entry in the navigation directly.

(I'm basing these suggestions on brad's theme, cause that's the one I liked the most for now)
- Use different colors for admins and refs (moderators) like on bzbb

This is a problem of bzbb. There is no API. It would be very cool if blast could add one.

- Have a "report match" option under the profile page of refs where you can then simply enter the information of the match in question

I will take this into consideration.

- Rename "config" to "theme" or something, because that term is usually associated with something else in GU

There were plans to add more to this section and for some admins there is more than 1 entry on the page there only. I tend to believe people could distinguish between a website and the game itself.

- Should be indicator if player logs in regularly or not

Definitely but this isn't available on the current website, either.
I also consider to add the frequentation stats, too.

[mana]

Player name changes are not tracked at the moment

You don't need name tracking. If you can see the bzid of a league player somewhere on the players page it's completely enough. The bzid is the only thing which cannot be changed, no matter if a player is named X or Y today.

Well, displays have more pixels in width than in height

Right. But not all people use their browser in fullscreen mode.

The maximum of 3200 matches has been chosen because of speed concerns.

So there will be no way to get all matches of a team anymore?

An opponent summary has been added, including some basic sorting capabilities.

Nice. Thank you.

[ts]

You don't need name tracking. If you can see the bzid of a league player somewhere on the players page it's completely enough. The bzid is the only thing which cannot be changed, no matter if a player is named X or Y today.

That would be quite easy to do but then if both names get updated it would be quite easy to forget who was who…a direct link might be handy for searching the player's posts here, though.

Well, displays have more pixels in width than in height

Right. But not all people use their browser in fullscreen mode.

Test42 has been added with a horizontal logo as example…is that better? I'm curious if people like brighter, darker, more colourful, less colourful.

The maximum of 3200 matches has been chosen because of speed concerns.

So there will be no way to get all matches of a team anymore?

Well, there are pages implemented. Sooo.. -> "Next matches" or -> "Previous matches".
If you need all matches (of a team) at once you'd be better off by requesting an API.

Nice. Thank you.

[Zac]

presonally, i like the site, it provides much more info then the current one. i dont really like the White colour, i find it glares a bit and makes things harder to read. i think that Dark back, with light type works best.

[mana]

Test42 has been added with a horizontal logo as example…is that better?

Yes, that's better. But still too much space wasted for the logo.

I'm curious if people like brighter, darker, more colourful, less colourful.

Personally I like the "Dark" theme of the old league site more than the "Lt. Blue" one. But darker must not always be better than brighter. It depends on the used colors. Less colorful often is better to read, at least for me. Some colors are good, when they carry information. But too much colors make it only worse.

If you need all matches (of a team) at once you'd be better off by requesting an API.

Not sure if it's worth to implement an API for that. But if there will be one, even better.

[macsforme]

I can't log in any more. When I tried to log in with my BZBB account, it said I could not without upgrading my GU League account to work with my BZBB account. When I clicked the link for that, it asked for my GU League site password... which, being a third-party site, is not a legitimate credentials request in my opinion. I realize that because you have imported some data from the old site, sharing accounts can make it easier for you to allow users to test it. However, I disagree that users should be asked to provide their account passwords to test your system. For one, because your system has undergone minimal review and testing, it is probably more vulnerable to being compromised and turned into a password fishing farm.

Is there an alternative way of testing the site? Dummy accounts perhaps?

[ts]

I can't log in any more. When I tried to log in with my BZBB account, it said I could not without upgrading my GU League account to work with my BZBB account. When I clicked the link for that, it asked for my GU League site password... which, being a third-party site, is not a legitimate credentials request in my opinion.

The problem is that an account on gu.bzleague.com and an account on bzbb may not belong to the same person, meaning the bzbb user must demonstrate ownership of the gu.bzleague.com account. Otherwise someone might log in and look at another person's mails.

Do you have an alternate solution for this problem?

Is there an alternative way of testing the site? Dummy accounts perhaps?

All new accounts are tied to bzbb accounts and old users get changed to only login using the bzbb account…only a dummy bzbb account would work.

[macsforme]

I did not realize that you imported GU mail into your testing system. I hope it is secure, because personally I would not be a fan of other people reading correspondence meant for another individual.

I suppose it is reasonable for people to test the functionality of the mail on your new system. However, as you have stated, there is a security issue with that.

The problem is that an account on gu.bzleague.com and an account on bzbb may not belong to the same person

We have never allowed BZBB callsigns to vary from GU site callsigns, to my recollection. Any discrepancies are quickly resolved, and players are asked to correct their callsigns on the GU site before matching with their global callsign.

This issue mostly affects the people who jump callsigns frequently. Unfortunately, I have little pity for someone who loses control of their account because they change callsigns so much they forget to sync them.

On the other hand, account security is a valid concern. Do the old accounts really need to be accessed while this system is in testing? In addition to the unauthorized access concerns, it also creates an issue with skeptics being able to test your system.

[ts]

I did not realize that you imported GU mail into your testing system.

I announced that 18 days before I went public and and some day it would have to be tested. So far I am aware of no bzmail to user mapping problems but some users with spaces in their names could not login. The latter issue should be resolved by now.

This issue mostly affects the people who jump callsigns frequently. Unfortunately, I have little pity for someone who loses control of their account because they change callsigns so much they forget to sync them.

Sadly that would exchange one problem for another. The importer could be rewritten to automatically enable global login on the users that have a matching callsign on both gu.bzleague.com/ and my.bzflag.org/bb/ if that is a concern.

Do the old accounts really need to be accessed while this system is in testing?

Well, I thought that should be part of the test.

Of course we could delete the old bzmails and they would be only accessible at gu.bzleague.com, if you wish that.

[click click boom]

What's the cost of contracting something like this out?