Not sure where else to ask this, but does anyone know what has happened to the Waypoint forums?
Not so long ago, they looked quite slick and sophisticated. Now the design looks like an amateurish pile of crap.
Was there any announcement of the design change…?
Yes, there was a waypoint update video on the front page a week or so ago. I like the new look a lot apart from the forums though.
Thanks for the response and info. Very much appreciated. 
I have to say though that the whole thing looks like some throwback to the 90’s, and the worst kind too. And that’s coming from someone who’s worked in commercial website design and builds for over a decade. It looks like they spent no more than probably a couple of hundred bucks on the style sheets, tbh. Terrible design for a major game developer’s site, especially at a time of a triple A title launch.
Yuck…
yea the new design is horrible…
343 really needs to take a page from Turn10 and use their forum design, it’s far smoother, easier to use, can better tell when someone replies to a post as it shows clearly who the last person was to reply, instead of just showing the creators name. This current design looks like some forum design from the late 90’s. A huge downgrade from what was.
example 1, http://puu.sh/1p9tR ← click it.
Example 2, http://puu.sh/1p2JJ ← also click that.
As you can see, this is a very streamlined forum layout, and very easy to use and understand. By far the best layout I’ve ever seen.
I actually love the forums. They’re simple, clean and provide only the essential information - post content.
The examples provided above are naff and look hideous.
I’m a little surprised at a previous poster (who has supposedly spent years in the industry) spitting tacks like a typical disgruntled client. You of all people should realise that when something looks clean and simple and ‘un-worked’ doesn’t always reflect the same in the end-cost.
The forums are trying way too hard to look good and fall short of the much simpler Bungie.net which is running on software from 2004. It’s funny, really.
©
> I actually love the forums. They’re simple, clean and provide only the essential information - post content.
>
> The examples provided above are naff and look hideous.
>
> I’m a little surprised at a previous poster (who has supposedly spent years in the industry) spitting tacks like a typical disgruntled client. You of all people should realise that when something looks clean and simple and ‘un-worked’ doesn’t always reflect the same in the end-cost.
It’s not a case of ‘spitting tacks’. I’m just baffled as to why a major game dev would choose to change their forum design from one that was quite smart and elegant and professional looking to one that looks so bland, simplistic and amateurish in concept.
This site doesn’t even balance well in its layout or font size between browsers. The previous one did. That’s one of the key things that any web site development process checks for. You test the site with all known major browsers to make sure the look and layout of the site is consistent in all aspects.
OK, I have only come on here since getting 4 (I did check this out once or twice when WP first came out just to see what it was about) and I honestly thought this was some kind of beta page they have up while finishing the proper forum layout.
Is this really the final product? 'cause its terrible. I dont forum very often but compared to other places, this is pretty sad. I first thought this was some low budget fan site haha
Are you seriously trying to imply form over functionality?
> I actually love the forums. They’re simple, clean and provide only the essential information - post content.
>
> The examples provided above are naff and look hideous.
>
> I’m a little surprised at a previous poster (who has supposedly spent years in the industry) spitting tacks like a typical disgruntled client. You of all people should realise that when something looks clean and simple and ‘un-worked’ doesn’t always reflect the same in the end-cost.
Has anyone noticed the Cynergy logo at the bottom of your stat page by clicking the information icon. Could be the answer to why everything is the way it is. http://www.cynergy.com/
There’s a “Show topic details” link on the list of posts that shows the number of replies and time of last post.
You can also see that information from the forum list by clicking “Show last posts.”
> Are you seriously trying to imply form over functionality?
Great post, A+.
No. I thought I had obviously stated that its functionality is doing its job. It’s presenting posts in a clean, uncluttered format.
OH, I WANT MY REP BARS, ALL THE SPECIAL BUTTONS AND FEATURES THAT I NEVER USE.
I’m a designer, sometimes I do appreciate form over functionality.
I mean, it must be working, right? The forum appears to be doing its job just fine! It’s clearly and coherently presenting your moans and cries about how you’re so hurt over the new layout.
Please, tell me in other ways about your self-entitlement as a spoiled gamer.
inb4 an a barrage of hate launched from orbit.
> > Are you seriously trying to imply form over functionality?
>
> Great post, A+.
>
> No. I thought I had obviously stated that its functionality is doing its job. It’s presenting posts in a clean, uncluttered format.
>
> OH, I WANT MY REP BARS, ALL THE SPECIAL BUTTONS AND FEATURES THAT I NEVER USE.
>
> I’m a designer, sometimes I do appreciate form over functionality.
>
> I mean, it must be working, right? The forum appears to be doing its job just fine! It’s clearly and coherently presenting your moans and cries about how you’re so hurt over the new layout.
>
> Please, tell me in other ways about your self-entitlement as a spoiled gamer.
>
> inb4 an a barrage of hate launched from orbit.
Ah, ok, so you’re just saying feedback on a feedback form just isn’t something that should happen.
“Amateurish and a pile of crap” along with other irrelevant opinionated critiques is not what I call feedback.
Helpful, structured comments listed with sound reasoning go a long way. Moirai made some good points.
I like the forums. They appeal to my sensibilities of simplicity and an uncluttered layout.
> > Are you seriously trying to imply form over functionality?
>
> Great post, A+.
>
> No. I thought I had obviously stated that its functionality is doing its job. It’s presenting posts in a clean, uncluttered format.
>
> OH, I WANT MY REP BARS, ALL THE SPECIAL BUTTONS AND FEATURES THAT I NEVER USE.
>
> I’m a designer, sometimes I do appreciate form over functionality.
>
> I mean, it must be working, right? The forum appears to be doing its job just fine! It’s clearly and coherently presenting your moans and cries about how you’re so hurt over the new layout.
>
> Please, tell me in other ways about your self-entitlement as a spoiled gamer.
>
> inb4 an a barrage of hate launched from orbit.
Stop playing the victim with your cute little inb4. It’s not very convincing.
The site looks atrocious. There is no way to jump to the last post in a thread which is idiotic. There is no post history which is inconvenient. The quote/edit/whatever bar is implemented very poorly. The subforum list is ugly as hell and looks like a 6th grader made it in Excel. The forum pages themselves with the topics listed is dull as hell.
They took the instruction of “BNet is simple, and simple is good.” and ran with it to the enth degree and oversimplified things to the point where, ironically, they became more complicated and unhelpful than they needed to be and the site downgraded in quality.
Also, no private groups. Which is a huge deal over at BNet. Also, no Off Topic Forum nor any initiative or motivation to make one. Which is silly and the reasons presented for it are borderline laughable.
There are far better ways of presenting reasonable suggestions.
Putting forth ideas and requesting changes from high atop your ivory tower is not one of them. Then again this demographic (gamers) have always felt a rich connection to self-entitlement and we’re always so quick to attack ANYTHING that doesn’t align with some god-tier benchmark.
I’ve yet to see some genuine feedback with change in mind instead of just venting and throwing your toys out of the cott.
But carry on as you were.
Genuine feedback: The lack of private groups at all on Waypoint makes it hard to create sub-communities, which helps gamers who play a given game to become more tightly-knit, create more friends, and have new experiences they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Their lack of inclusion is confusing as it was a key part of Bungie.net that everyone loved. Once people came over to waypoint, they could no longer use those groups and so either had to go back to BNet, or go offsite, which is incredibly inconvenient.
Genuine feedback: A lack of an Off Topic forum of any kind makes the forum atmosphere sort of dull. Yes, I do understand it’s a website meant to discuss both itself and Halo as a series, franchise, and game. But I feel the Off Topic forum can create a greater sense of community rather than “that place where you go to to ask why your Team Snipers game keeps lagging and your aiming is messed up”.
Genuine feedback: The design, in my opinion, seems to be trying way too hard and isn’t very conducive to ease of use. First of all, the box in which you type your post is in no way customized to this site and sticks out like a bit of a sore thumb on the rest of the dark, blue/grey color scheme. Next, the post menu is unnecessarily minimized. It doesn’t look cleaner to have it all condense into one button by default, it just makes it harder for a new user to find the quote button. There’s no reason they can’t just hang out below the post. I understand they’re going for a simplistic design, but function > form 6 or 7 times out of 10.
Genuine feedback: No Post History. I don’t think I really need to explain the downsides to this, as they are too numerous to list.
Is that better?
©
> Genuine feedback: No Post History. I don’t think I really need to explain the downsides to this, as they are too numerous to list.
>
> Is that better?
>
> ©
It took me a while to find this one, but it is burried in here. Once you read a post, you can click on the authors name then see the last 10 posts from that member
Okay. That’s all well and good… but it’s not helpful at all. 10 posts is next to nothing. In a reasonable conversation in the Halo 4 forum you can go through that in an hour or two.
Thanks for that (for the time being), though.
> yea the new design is horrible…
>
> 343 really needs to take a page from Turn10 and use their forum design, it’s far smoother, easier to use, can better tell when someone replies to a post as it shows clearly who the last person was to reply, instead of just showing the creators name. This current design looks like some forum design from the late 90’s. A huge downgrade from what was.
>
> example 1, http://puu.sh/1p9tR ← click it.
>
> Example 2, http://puu.sh/1p2JJ ← also click that.
>
> As you can see, this is a very streamlined forum layout, and very easy to use and understand. By far the best layout I’ve ever seen.
You seem to be on your own in terms of forum design. Most people love the new forum design. It’s by far the cleanest and most modern forum design I’ve ever seen.
And the examples your provided look like a generic, ugly, and messy forum, in my opinion. I think your examples look like something from the 70’s or 80’s, and the current forum design looks modern.
Oh, how opinions differ so much…