Welcome to the All New Cheap Ass Gamer!

CheapyD

CheapyD

Head Cheap Ass
Staff member
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[preview][img-l=1]1[/img-l]A big thanks to John, Steph, and Mike for all the hard work they put into launching the new site. I'm very excited because we've got a bunch of great new features available immediately and some huge ones coming in the next few months.

This is most definitely a "soft launch", so some new features may need to be improved upon quickly. Don't freak out if things don't work they way you think they should. They will be fixed soon, I promise! We are anxiously awaiting your feedback as your opinions will have a great impact on how CAG 2.0 shapes up.

Continue reading for an overview of what's new![/preview]


New Features - Available now

All New Website
The front end of CAG has been completely redesigned and is now fully integrated with the forums and new CAG Blogs system.
The left column houses the main CAG news feed and the right column contains modules which are user customizable. You can click and drag modules up or down to rearrange their display order, remove or add them from your home page and collapse/expand them. Some modules have additional customization options as indicated by their wrench icon. Your home page preferences will be remembered.

  • Forum posts and CAG Blog entries can be easily promoted to the home page by the CAG staff. Author username and avatar will appear alongside the headline
  • Clicking on the "Cheap Ass Gamer" header logo brings up a drop down menu with quick access to information such as private messages, friends list and activity, and more
  • Easily track your friends latest forum and CAG Blog activities with the "What's New?" feature
  • New tagging system allows CAGs to find items of interest with greater ease
  • UK visitors get targeted content via Cheap Arse Gamer
  • Adjustable font size

CAG Blogs
Every registered CAG has free access to their own personal, fully featured blog.

  • Customize your CAG Blog with a title, description, and header graphic
  • Easily create fully formatted blog entries with integrated image hosting, resizing, and layout
  • Publish entries immediately, save drafts, or schedule postings for a future date and time
  • Organize your entries with categories and sub categories; tag your own entries and entries from other authors
  • Control who can view and comment on your CAG Blog. If desired, you can moderate comments on your blog
  • Subscribe to and (optionally) receive email updates on your CAG Blog and your favorite CAG Bloggers
  • CAG Blog home page shows all recent entries or only those from your friends
  • Site wide and per-blog RSS feeds
  • Trackbacks, pingbacks, and page view count information available
  • Quality entries will be featured on CAG front page

Forums
The forums have been restyled and new features have been added.

  • Thread tagging: users can add tags to threads they post or read to facilitate searching and organization of threads
  • Profile messaging: Similar to Facebook's Wall system, messages can be posted directly on another CAGs profile page and you can have public conversations
  • Photo albums: CAGs can now create albums and upload pictures
  • Social Groups: CAGs can create their own groups, which feature a simple homepage with public messaging system and the ability to add pictures to the group from photo albums
  • New Profile Pages: Profile pages have been redesigned to accommodate new features such as profile messages, CAG Blogs, photo albums, and more

Coming Soon!

Game Database with Integrated Collection, Trading, and Review System
CAGs will have access to a perpetually growing and updated game database which will be maintained and edited by members of the CAG community. Integrated along side the game database are full featured user review, game collection, and trading systems.

Deal finding and Tracking System
The ultimate video game deal finding and tracking system is coming to CAG! Stay tuned for more details.
 
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Issues / Notes / Etc (a work in progress)

This is a "soft launch" of the new CAG, so there are definitely some issues.
There will be plenty of style tweaks and other changes made...so don't fret!


Front Page & Modules

  • To add modules, you need to click on the Cheap Ass Gamer logo, select "Quick Links", and then "Modules". We will add a direct link to the modules page at the top of the right column.
  • The Latest Post module will be able to be configured to show the forums you chose or display the "classic method" on the old CAG. Neither are ready yet. Currently, you only get the 5 most recently replied threads from all the forums.
  • Search button only searches forums

CAG Blogs

  • The image uploader for your CAG Blog header isn't yet operational. It will be fixed soon.
  • The method for uploading images for your blog entries is a bit ass backward. It will be fixed soon. In the meantime, you can:
    1. Create your first album and upload a picture
    2. When you look at that picture's page in your album, you will different options for bbcode you can cut and paste in your post
    Don't fear...a much easier method will up and running soon!

Forum (General)

  • Note: to embed videos, just post the link...it will embed automatically
  • Note: you can select full width layout in your options (scroll to the bottom).
  • Friends list formatting needs improvement (and pagination)
    • A note about friends: You can "Follow" a CAG without sending a friend request. This will allow you see their activities in the "What's New" drop down from the CAG logo, or on the "What's New" module.
  • Edit post box needs a paint job
  • Arcade is gone for now...we will look into getting it back

Podcasts

  • Need to import older episodes
 
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Pretty cool, Cheapy. It's going to take a little getting used to, but it looks like it'll be worth it!
 
Wow it's the future
future_city_downtown.jpg
 
Awesome work! Looks great and contains it's familiarity (unlike Gamespy redesign...)

Could it have killed to add a "View My Posts" button at the top so we can quickly see what threads we have posted in (no forums do this...) Other then that it's great!
 
Not liking the forums at all...my resolution is 1280x800 and about 1/5 of the forums is cut off on the right side of the screen :( I'm used to (and prefer) the forums spanning the entire width of my screen.

Fixed :D Looks great!
 
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Well done. It will take a little while to get used to just because I got so used to the way everything was before but it looks nice.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']Not liking the forums at all...my resolution is 1280x800 and about 1/5 of the forums is cut off on the right side of the screen :( I'm used to (and prefer) the forums spanning the entire width of my screen.[/QUOTE]

Go to settings> edit options> scroll to the bottom where 100% widescreen is and enable it
 
Way better than I expected, nice job Cheapy & Crew.

Only suggestion I would make is that perhaps we can get a new "Bookmark Icon" setup? The old one is looking outdated now, of course that can wait until all the other stuff is taken care of.

Edit: Actually, I have another one. It's really hard to discern sticky threads from normal threads now. Is there a way to improve that?
 
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Is there any way to change the color scheme? The neon green is literally blinding me and hurting my eyes.
 
As requested, I'm posting here about the forums. Basically, with the current color of thread titles, it's a bit hard to tell the difference between read and unread threads. Perhaps doing a different thread title color or something would improve it a bit, or making some other way of making unread titles stand out?
 
I like the update so far (still getting used to it though). I can't wait for the game database, I'm not that thrilled with using IGN for my collection.

Is there anyway to have a separate section at the top of each board for the stickies like on the old message boards?

Any chance that we'll be getting new sub-forums? I would love to see a TV/Movies/DVD subforum. It would help clean up CAG Lifestyle and Off Topic forum and ensure we wouldn't get any posts about DVD releases in the DVD deals (for example the Bender's Big Score DVD deals thread had some discussion about the movie itself. I would of rather seen a seperate thread for more indepth discussions).


[quote name='SynGamer']Not liking the forums at all...my resolution is 1280x800 and about 1/5 of the forums is cut off on the right side of the screen :( I'm used to (and prefer) the forums spanning the entire width of my screen.[/quote]
I also have that problem, hopefully it will be fixed.
 
Great job on the redesign! But I also have to express some concern over the green thread titles. A little difficult to read and to discern between read and unread. Maybe it'll take some getting used to...
 
[quote name='Scrubking']Is there any way to change the color scheme? The neon green is literally blinding me and hurting my eyes.[/quote]

I was kind of a fan of the old, lower-contrast color scheme, too. I don't know if it's because it's late, or because I was just staring at the TV for a couple hours, but I find myself straining a bit to read the forums now.

User groups sound promising though, and of course I'm looking forward to seeing the collection system.
 
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