- Cryptic
- |
- Elder Mythic Member
Hi. My name is Sean. I've been a Bungie fan since Halo launched. Some of my interests include games, exercising, laser tag, martial arts, movies, music, sports, and technology. Feel free to contact me at any time.
cryptic@me.com | Facebook | Twitter | Xbox LIVE
Below are some ideas I'd like to discuss with the community. What do you like? What don't you like? Please share your input to help improve Bungie.net. Thanks.
BUNGIE.NET SEARCH 2.0 :Would you like to search for content in private group forums? Would you like to find the content you're looking for with a more advanced search feature? The Bungie.net/Search page is great for finding the most recent posts made by a user (Forums - Author). The other fields (News, Games, Support, Forums - All) don't always give you the results that you are looking for. Updating this would be beneficial for Bungie.net members and this is how I would do it.
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=56330523
MESSAGE CENTER :Would you like to view your sent messages? Would you like to view a conversation between you and another user on one page as a private thread? Would you like to message multiple users?
Let's remove the subject column (on the left side) and allow you to sort private threads by Username or Last Reply. The right side would display the messages between you and the user(s), which would look exactly like posts in a thread. You could delete any of the sent or received messages, but it would only affect your conversation thread, not theirs.
Instead of having buttons after each message, there would be just one area above to submit a message (similar to the comments of file share items). The order of messages could be changed in the profile settings (oldest first, newest first).
PROFILE :Under the About Me section, there should be a comments section (just like there are for file share items). The user could delete comments or simply disable the option for others to leave comments on their profile page.
Your gamertag next to your username should be replaced with your Xbox LIVE gamercard (displayed on the right side below your Bungie Pro information). Displaying Twitter updates and other widgets below the gamercard could also be implemented.
Lastly, I think adding a blog page (in addition to Overview and Groups) would be cool. There would be a tags and history on one side and news stories on the other. Each news story would have a comments section.
EDIT DISPLAY NAME :Allow one name change (every X number of months) for users who have not been warned or suspended for one year. A small icon would be displayed on their profile page indicating that the user changed their name.
FORUM TITLE BAR COLORS & TITLES :Title bar colors would be determined by join date only, excluding moderators and employees.
< 1 Year Or Blacklisted: Black
1-3 Years: Dark Gray
3-5 Years: Gray
5-7 Years: Light Gray
> 7 Years: Blue
Moderator: Orange
Employee: Yellow
The forum titles would be like a reward system. Let's say you are actively posting for X number of days, you can pick a specific title that describes you as a contributor. If you don't get banned for X number of years, you can pick a title that describes you as a trustworthy person. Maybe, you unlock achievements in a Bungie game, you get to pick a title that describes how awesome you are as a sniper or assisting your team. These are a few examples, but with Bungie's creativity, I'm sure they could have hundreds of cool titles to choose from.
The elitism that some members whine about wouldn't be there because nobody could tell if you just like a different title or if you don't have a title because you can't unlock it (haven't met the requirements or currently/recently blacklisted). With a hierarchy, it becomes a popularity issue. The system would still promote good behavior because getting banned would have the same consequence as it does now; you'd lose your title.
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=31750847
BUNGIE POINTS :How can you make Bungie.net more fun? The titles have served as a rewards system. You play nice, you earn a better title. What if you could earn Bungie Points and use those points as render minutes or as credit to buy something in the Bungie Store? Let's say 1 Render Minute equals 1 Bungie Point.
50 Render Minutes = $5.00
1 Render Minute = $0.10
1 Bungie Point = $0.10
Be A Hero Shirt = $20.00
Be A Hero Shirt = 200 Bungie Points
How can you get Bungie Points?
1. Buy Bungie Points
2. Win A Contest Hosted By Bungie
3. Sign Into Bungie.net For X Number Of Days In A Row
4. Get An Achievement In A Bungie Game
5. Buy Something At The Bungie Store
What can you use your Bungie Points for?
1. Buying Items In The Bungie Store
2. Render Minutes
3. Using Them To Buy A Forum Title You're Eligible For
4. ?
5. Profit
FORUMS & POST FORMAT :Combine Bungie forums to make the Bungie.net Community forum more community-oriented.
Combine the Halo: Combat Evolved forum with the Halo 2 forum. Rename it Halo 1 & 2 for Xbox.
When viewing the forum index, the "Forum Topics" button should be replaced with a "Back to Community Home" button.
When viewing a thread, there should be a "Back to top" at the bottom of the page. The forum index looks good, but I'd rather have the top forum topics and action buttons on the left side. The pinned stickies and topics should be displayed on the right.
The title bar should say the date and time (as a hyperlink of the post) on the right side replacing the "more" text.
When you click the arrow button, you would see "Groups" and "Homepage" on the left. You would see "Last Active" and "Last Post" on the right. Last post would link to more posts.
At the bottom of the post (below content), you would see the date and time the post was edited on the left. Message, Edit, and Reply would be the three buttons on the right. Unleash Ninjas would be displayed as a link under the avatar.
GROUPS :Allow a user to remove their request to join a group with restricted membership. Allow group names to start with a number. Allow groups to be accessed at bungie.net/group/[quick linkname]. Add a "Closed" group membership option that prevents users from joining.
Allow Founder to be linked to an account. If founder account is deleted, make current owner the founder. Display current administrators on the group homepage. Let groups have an owner. The owner would be a super administrator and therefore, could not be removed by other administrators. Ownership could be transferred.
Fix the Edit Security permission so you cannot promote a user to a role that has permissions you do not have. Fix the Kick Members permission so you cannot remove a user who has permissions you do not have or a user who has the kick members permission.
Split the Edit News permission into Edit My News, Edit Other's News, Delete My News, and Delete Other's News. Split Edit Other's Posts into Edit My Posts and Edit Other's Posts. Split Delete Posts into Delete My Posts and Delete Other's Posts. Split Moderate Forum into Reveal Banned Posts, Pin/Unpin Threads, and Lock/Unlock Threads. Split Post to Forums into View Forum, Create New Topic, Post In Unlocked Threads, and Post In Locked Threads. Split Create Resource Entry into Create Resource Entry and Submit Contact Information. Split Edit Any Resource Entry into Edit My Resource Entries, Delete My Resource Entries, Edit Other's Resource Entries, and Delete Other's Resource Entries.
Add unlimited custom titles for group members, which would be different than their security role. Add a system for automatic promoting/demoting (changing security roles and/or custom titles) determined by rules set by group owner.
When a NonMember, blacklisted from a group, joins that particular group, he or she should be put into the member queue, even if the group membership is open.
Group notifications/bulletins, different forum layout, different page layouts, polls, additional forums, filtering, searching group news/posts, and more customization would be a plus.
MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT :Bungie is most likely going to change their login system (maybe add their own) in the future because they are going multi-platform. I would like to be able to change the Windows Live ID associated to my Bungie.net profile. Having linked accounts (Windows Live ID, Open ID, ect) that you could add/remove would make that possible.
An option to browse Bungie.net on a secure connection (https) whenever possible would be great.
Listing the users currently viewing a forum at the bottom of the page could be interesting to some people. Being able to IM chat with them on that same page would be interesting as well.
Implementing a friends system and online status may not be keeping it simple or part of the Bungie way, but I'll go ahead and throw it out there for discussion.
A community page similar to the old Seventh Column page or Tru7h and Reconciliation page would be cool. This page could display statistics as well as the most recent Classifieds, a group spotlight, a member spotlight, upcoming events that Bungie will be at (Comic-Con, PAX, ect), online get togethers (community carnage, tournaments, ect), and more.
[Edited on 06.07.2011 1:33 AM PDT]