CAG 4.0 Announcement & Feature List

CheapyD

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I'm very happy to reveal the feature set for next version of CAG. It's been a long time since CAG has gotten a proper update, and that's partly due to the large scope of the project and a reliance on waiting for XenForo (our new forum software) to advance to where we needed it to be.  I apologize for CAG being stagnant for so long.

Super Programmer John has been hard at work on this absolutely HUGE update, as you can see by this giant wall of text below.  Work is well underway and we hope to share a release date with you soon.

Desktop site & Main features

  • We’re switching from Invision Power Board over to XenForo 2 for our forum software. XenForo is the latest and greatest forum software by the developers behind the original vBulletin. This switch should keep us running smoothly for the foreseeable future.
     
  • New CheapyD-less logo + new site design with the option of using our classic colors or a new modern style.
     
  • Super unified search: one big search bar to return results across all areas of the site in one place.
     
  • Content game tagging: Categorize threads and posts by games, making it easier to find content (e.g. deals and posts) in the forums associated with the games you’re interested in.
     
  • All new user profiles: The place to see everything a user is doing on CAG. (At least, everything they want to share.) See a user’s marketplace activity, reviews, threads/posts, likes, friends, blog posts, Twitch broadcasts, and more.
     
  • CAG messenger: You don’t just have to rely on PMs to communicate with other CAGs, now you can send live instant messages to other site users, Facebook Messenger-style.
     
  • Event driven UI with live notifications: As well as being notified as soon as you’ve received a message through CAG messenger, site notifications also update the UI the instant they occur on the server. Subscribed to a thread? Your notification tracker updates in the UI the second another CAG replies.
     
  • IGDB game database syncing: Instead of maintaining our own standalone database of game titles, we’ll be keeping in sync with IGDB.com’s game catalog to make sure that the data we use is as up-to-date and accurate as possible.
     
  • Price tracker: Our all new price tracker is both an overhaul of the way we scan price data from retailers, as well as the way we present it in the front end. New filtering tools, display modes and notification features make the price tracker easier to find what you’re looking for - and with a broader range of retailers being scanned, you’re far more likely to find a deal.
     
  • Podcast player with asynchronous chat: As well as being able to listen to new and old CAGcasts, you can comment on episodes while you listen - your comments will be associated to the point in the show you’re listening to, and become visible to other CAGs when they listen to the same point in that episode. The result is an ongoing commentary from users that can be played back along with the show, like an asynchronous chat room.
     
  • Product hubs: With site-wide product tagging, product pages are now central hubs where you can find everything related to a game in a single place. Product hubs are the place to go for threads, posts, deals, prices, reviews, screenshots, videos, marketplace offerings, blog posts, profile updates and even Twitch broadcasts from CAGs, all associated with a single game.
     
  • Content subscription: Subscribe to more than threads, any piece of content on the site (e.g. reviews, games, blogs, etc.) can be subscribed to - you’ll receive a notification when that content gets updated.
     
  • Game finder: This handy tool lets you discover games you might like based on a whole bunch of different criteria. For example, using our review and pricing data, it'll be possible for a user to search for a first person shooter for Xbox One, currently available for under $20, with a great story and a ton of content.
     
  • Wishlist with price predictions and alerts: Wishlists are coming back, but with a supercharged system for analysing prices and alerting you when a game is available for a price you’re happy with. Based on price movements in retail scans and marketplace data, the new wishlist system lets you know when a game is likely to be available for the price you want, not just when it happens.
     
  • Deal notification triggering: Sometimes you want to know about the best deals and you don’t care what they are - subscribe to different levels of deal notifications, and the super high traffic deals will get pushed out as notifications.
     
  • Browser based notifications: You know those browser based push notifications you get on Youtube? Think that, but for game deals.
     
  • Super fast page loads: An overhauled server configuration along with an optimized front end and AMP support for editorial content means faster page loads on both desktop and mobile.
     
  • User trophies and points: XenForo already has a trophy system to encourage users to explore all the features of the software, and we’ll be taking advantage of this to do the same.
     
  • Contests and code giveaways: As well as some back end changes to make contests easier to manage (and therefore more likely to happen!), we’ll be adding a lot of new criteria to increase the number of ways that users can participate in contests and giveaways. In raffle ticket based contests, a user’s points/trophies can be used in exchange for opportunities to win, along with all the usual methods (e.g. length of CAG membership, Twitter participation, referrals, etc.)
     
  • Wiki posts: Along with changes to make wiki post comparison more efficient with large posts, we’ll be adding subscription support so you can be notified when a change to a post has been made.
     
  • Site-wide responsive support: Our current forum software doesn’t support responsive styles, but XenForo 2 is made with mobile in mind, as will all custom CAG functionality.

Mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone:

While we know the CAG app is a long running joke at this point, this time we’re developing it to work hand in hand with the main site - and with new CAG’s persistent UI features, messaging and live notifications, now there’s actually a reason for it to exist beyond just having a mobile style for the site.

  • Full in-app forum implementation: A snappier way to browse the forums, optimized for mobile data connections.
     
  • CAG messenger: Full support for messenger functionality from within the app.
     
  • Notifications: Everything that supports notifications on the site can be set to push notify to your mobile devices, through the app.
     
  • Collections and lists: For cataloging your collection, it's much easier to bring your phone to your collection rather than bringing your collection to your PC.
     
  • Barcode scanning support: Add games to your collections, lists, wishlist, or just compare prices by scanning the barcode.
     
  • Marketplace integration: Manage your trades, inventory and offers in the marketplace direct from the app.
     
  • Podcast player with asynchronous chat: Includes the same commenting system as the desktop site, but with background audio listening and all the usual features you’d expect from a mobile podcast player.
     
  • Wishlists with price predictions and alerts: Just like on the desktop site, but designed for mobile. Add a game, set your price, and read the advice! Maybe the current lowest retail price is a good buy, maybe you can expect a big price drop soon, maybe it’s already available for less than you’re willing to pay.
     
  • Product info and price comparison: See all the relevant data for a product like price history, stats, graphs and more.


Marketplace

The old marketplace was a system built with one purpose in mind - to facilitate the trading of physical goods. Nowadays digital codes are more of a thing, and the new marketplace is designed to make selling, buying and trading them a lot easier, while improving on all the old functionality and adding some crucial new features.

  • Offers and requests: The new marketplace brings a lot more data to the surface to let users make the best decisions. Want to find out what people are willing to pay for a game you have? We’ll show you the people who have it in their wishlist, and what they’re willing to pay. (With their permission, of course.) Want to see what people are selling their copies for? We’ll list all the marketplace offerings, and offer you to set a price alert if there’s nothing you’re interested in.
     
  • Automated trade matching: While we’re giving users more data to help them make the best decisions, we still want to automatically suggest the best possible trades when we can. If the system finds a good match, it’ll send you a notification.
     
  • Moderation support/reporting integration: Sometimes a trade can go bad, and when it does you’re only one click away from having a moderator intervene.
     
  • CAG messenger support: Trying to agree on the intricacies of a trade over private messaging can take a while. Trading in the marketplace supports the CAG messenger system for instant messages between the parties - as well as logging to keep a record of everything that’s been said.
     
  • Automated collection addition: Just bought a game? One-click to add it to your collection.
     
  • A user focused front page: The new marketplace front page is focused on the games you’re looking for, not just whatever happens to be available in the greatest numbers.

Blogs and Profiles

Profiles are changing in that they’ll become a one-stop shop for everything related to a user on CAG. That includes blogs, where a long blog post is essentially a long profile update, merged into a stream of activity that represents everything a user does on the site.

  • Activity stream: Everything a user does on the site appears in the activity stream, which forms the backbone of a user’s profile. For example, when a user streams on Twitch, when a new archived video appears on their YouTube channel, marketplace activity, reviews posted, threads posted, feedback sent and received, etc. By default, only significant actions are displayed. (I.e. actions such as liking a post aren't included unless the user specifies.)
     
  • User customization options: Tweak colors and customize images in your profile to make
    things look the way you want.
     
  • Twitch and live stream integration: Promote your live streams automatically on your profile page once you go live, as well as automatically preserving links to your archived broadcasts.
     
  • Large post support for blog style profile updates: Sometimes 140 characters isn’t enough to share what you’re thinking about a game.
     
  • Product tagging for profile updates: Once you’ve written down your thoughts, tag it with the appropriate game, flag it if it contains spoilers, and post! Everyone’s collective profile updates for that game will be visible on the product hub, not just your own personal profile.

Collections

The collection system has also had a rethink - adding some new power user features, and redesigning the existing system to make it easier to use.

  • Standard collection functionality, refined: Multiple viewing modes with a set of universal filters and sorting methods make it easier to manage and view your collection.
     
  • Site-wide quick-add tools: Seen a piece of content tagged with a product? One-click to add it to your collection.
     
  • Event based logging: As well as making it easier to see the changes you’re making to your collection over time, it also makes it possible to keep an eye on what your friends are doing, as well as CAGs as a whole. See the top 5 most common acquisitions this month from everyone in your friends list, or the game CAGs are offloading the fastest.
     
  • Expanded custom metadata options: Do you organize your games in numbered boxes? Shelves? Add custom fields to your collection to allow you to log data that’s only important to you, like game location, loan status, who you’ve loaned out to, etc.
     
  • Spreadsheet mode: Sometimes you don’t want to deal with slowly editing records one by one, you want a spreadsheet! See your entire collection in a huge editable table, for maximum efficiency.
 
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  • New CheapyD-less logo + new site design with the option of using our classic colors or a new modern style.
are you telling me my Forza car will now be outdated:

2ErWB79l.jpg


 
This almost feels like a late April Fool's joke. But there was way to much effort put into that post by Cheapy to be fake. Woo excited for the igdb.com integration!

 
Here's a crazy thought: Post a question on a forum without being a condescending ass?

Yes, the search is completely re-done.
Good to hear that search is re-done. It's been something touched on multiple times in the past, so it's encouraging to hear that it'll be taken care of.

 
Sweet.  Just curious if there are any plans to do email/text alerts like slickdeals?  It's a pretty nice feature for those deals that dont last long.

 
Sweet. Just curious if there are any plans to do email/text alerts like slickdeals? It's a pretty nice feature for those deals that dont last long.
Yes, and also push notifications direct to the iPhone/Android/Windows Phone app.

 
For CAG Messenger, will it support group chats? Or only between 2 CAGs?

I'm excited for a good mobile app. Looking forward to these changes!
 
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Wow, this looks to be a fantastic update Cheapy! Looking forward to it and appreciate the effort put into this massive update!

A little suggestion since you were asking for any in the AWD thread. Is it possible to give a little shoutout to the user who originally posts the deal in the forums when you tweet out a deal? There's a couple of deals on the front page I think are taken from the forums, which is perfectly fine and helps to spread the word, but would be great if the user gets some credit as well. It's a minor detail though, and if it winds up taking too much time, or if the system automatically takes links without tracking it and becomes too much of a hassle, then just forget about it.

Same for the AWD Feed you mentioned, would be nice if they had the username and maybe even post when it shows the deal.

Keep up the hard work!

 
Wow, this looks to be a fantastic update Cheapy! Looking forward to it and appreciate the effort put into this massive update!

A little suggestion since you were asking for any in the AWD thread. Is it possible to give a little shoutout to the user who originally posts the deal in the forums when you tweet out a deal? There's a couple of deals on the front page I think are taken from the forums, which is perfectly fine and helps to spread the word, but would be great if the user gets some credit as well. It's a minor detail though, and if it winds up taking too much time, or if the system automatically takes links without tracking it and becomes too much of a hassle, then just forget about it.

Same for the AWD Feed you mentioned, would be nice if they had the username and maybe even post when it shows the deal.

Keep up the hard work!
Yea this is a good point. Specific members post a lot of good deals more so than other members and contributions from any member are appreciated. However everything gets vacuumed on the twitter as if from one entity. No one gets credit where credit is due. If there's nothing to do about it than there's nothing to do about it, but adding a plus one to Blackrock's suggestion.

 
Yea this is a good point. Specific members post a lot of good deals more so than other members and contributions from any member are appreciated. However everything gets vacuumed on the twitter as if from one entity. No one gets credit where credit is due. If there's nothing to do about it than there's nothing to do about it, but adding a plus one to Blackrock's suggestion.
Do people really care that much about internet cool points?

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Do people really care that much about internet cool points?

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I hope my suggestion doesn't come across like that. As I said earlier, if it's too much of a hassle, then it's not a big deal. Just a suggestion to give credit to the people who dedicate their time to helping others with really no reward of their own. I think most people don't care if people see their names or not, but it's kind of like putting the staff, film crew, and casts' names in the credits after a movie. Most people probably skip that part, but it's nice knowing the recognition is there.

This relates to the AWD situation with DS2U a bit. After DS2U was banned, everyone went bonkers saying the thread was dead and there was no deals. But people like Flash15, Ritchardf, Zankuten all contributed to that thread too, maybe not to the extent of DS2U, but they put a lot of time and effort for no reward. Everyone assumed all the deals were due to DS2U, and everyone forgot about the others.

Black Friday 2017, people said the best deal was the Jet.com 30% off. Some said it saved Black Friday. Who posted the deal? It wasn't me, even though I made the thread, I actually got the idea from another CAGer, Fredyyy, who I gave credit to in the title. Everyone thanked Fredyyy, which was nice. Isn't it a good thing to give thanks to those who help you?

How many of the most helpful CAG posters get the thanks and credit they deserve? CAG front page tweets out the weekly Best Buy and Target ads. But how many people know it's Beatles and Litepink who do the work of getting them early and posting them every week? Same for Draekon's PSN posts in the Niche thread. FriskyTanuki's PSN deals. BlackBeard's spreadsheets.

 
I hope my suggestion doesn't come across like that. As I said earlier, if it's too much of a hassle, then it's not a big deal. Just a suggestion to give credit to the people who dedicate their time to helping others with really no reward of their own. I think most people don't care if people see their names or not, but it's kind of like putting the staff, film crew, and casts' names in the credits after a movie. Most people probably skip that part, but it's nice knowing the recognition is there.

This relates to the AWD situation with DS2U a bit. After DS2U was banned, everyone went bonkers saying the thread was dead and there was no deals. But people like Flash15, Ritchardf, Zankuten all contributed to that thread too, maybe not to the extent of DS2U, but they put a lot of time and effort for no reward. Everyone assumed all the deals were due to DS2U, and everyone forgot about the others.

Black Friday 2017, people said the best deal was the Jet.com 30% off. Some said it saved Black Friday. Who posted the deal? It wasn't me, even though I made the thread, I actually got the idea from another CAGer, Fredyyy, who I gave credit to in the title. Everyone thanked Fredyyy, which was nice. Isn't it a good thing to give thanks to those who help you?

How many of the most helpful CAG posters get the thanks and credit they deserve? CAG front page tweets out the weekly Best Buy and Target ads. But how many people know it's Beatles and Litepink who do the work of getting them early and posting them every week? Same for Draekon's PSN posts in the Niche thread. FriskyTanuki's PSN deals. BlackBeard's spreadsheets.
I don't really know it was that big of a deal. That's why I asked. If it really is then I don't care if it's added. I usually thank the OP directly in the threads they post if I find it useful anyways

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I don't really know it was that big of a deal. That's why I asked. If it really is then I don't care if it's added. I usually thank the OP directly in the threads they post if I find it useful anyways

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No its not a huge deal, the system can work as it does now and it'll still run great. Most people probably don't care, but it's still a nice thing to do. A lot of the deals in the bigger threads usually aren't posted by the OP as well. I also assume a bunch of people take their deals from the front page directly or on Twitter and never actually read the threads.

This guy hasnt grown out of the high school mentality but you put in the effort to break it down for him. My hats off to you Blackrock.
Nah, I wouldn't say that. I think he's just trying to weed out the less important suggestions so the more important ones don't get hindered, which I understand. Thank you for the support though!

 
How many of the most helpful CAG posters get the thanks and credit they deserve? CAG front page tweets out the weekly Best Buy and Target ads. But how many people know it's Beatles and Litepink who do the work of getting them early and posting them every week? Same for Draekon's PSN posts in the Niche thread. FriskyTanuki's PSN deals. BlackBeard's spreadsheets.
Definitely a valid point. When Throbahn tweets out the weekly ads, he links directly to the forum threads so credit shouldn't be an issue there. Let me think about how it could work best.

 
Definitely a valid point. When Throbahn tweets out the weekly ads, he links directly to the forum threads so credit shouldn't be an issue there. Let me think about how it could work best.
Great job on the updates!

For the user credit, Xenforo might have a user rank or rep add in that could be integrated...no idea though.

Off topic, do you just play Overwatch on PC/X1 or PS4 as well?
 
Wow, I'm excited for several different parts of what is to come!

  • App - It looks like we'll have the best part of the blu-ray.com app (collections) with the added benefit of being able to read forums and messages.  If this works well, I might abandon Tapatalk altogether because this site is pretty much the only site I use on it.
  • Notifications - If I can keep Chrome working at the office (= SHITTY NETWORK) this will be fantastic.  Or would it work for Edge too?
A few questions to those who know:

  • Will the current private messaging system be a model for the new system?  This is single-handedly the best upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0 for me.  Any time someone from another site sends me a PM I ask them if they have an account at CAG so I can use the messaging system here instead. :)
  • Since it isn't hard for a code-trade to go sour with either party saying that the other party sent them a bum code, is it possible to incorporate some sort of arbitration, something that would validate all codes involved?  I can't even think of the best way to implement something like this, so I'm just hoping to get the creative juices flowing. :)
  • Is it possible to implement a per-post ignore/block instead of a per-account ignore/block?  Sometimes someone posts inflammatory drivel on occasion but usually they are useful and helpful to the community, or sometimes someone posts a ani-gif of some dude gyrating his crotch in an exercise class and sometimes you just can't un-see things like that.  homerbleach.gif
  • Will the wishlist support monitoring of both physical and digital versions of games?  How customizable and flexible will this be?
Thanks in advance for any answers and all the hard work that is put into the site!

 
  • Notifications - If I can keep Chrome working at the office (= SHITTY NETWORK) this will be fantastic. Or would it work for Edge too?
Yep, it works with any modern browser.

  • Will the current private messaging system be a model for the new system? This is single-handedly the best upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0 for me. Any time someone from another site sends me a PM I ask them if they have an account at CAG so I can use the messaging system here instead. :)
What specifically about the 3.0 system are you keen on?

  • Since it isn't hard for a code-trade to go sour with either party saying that the other party sent them a bum code, is it possible to incorporate some sort of arbitration, something that would validate all codes involved? I can't even think of the best way to implement something like this, so I'm just hoping to get the creative juices flowing. :)
Sadly as far as I know there's no way reliably validate codes.

  • Is it possible to implement a per-post ignore/block instead of a per-account ignore/block? Sometimes someone posts inflammatory drivel on occasion but usually they are useful and helpful to the community, or sometimes someone posts a ani-gif of some dude gyrating his crotch in an exercise class and sometimes you just can't un-see things like that. homerbleach.gif
It's possible, but we have no plans for it at this time unless there's a big call from users for us to implement it.

  • Will the wishlist support monitoring of both physical and digital versions of games? How customizable and flexible will this be?
Yep, it'll support differentiating between physical and digital versions. A big part of the new system is how you can add custom fields to your records for sorting/filtering/displaying/searching, which lets you build custom functionality into your collections. (For example, if you wanted to see a list of all the Xbox 360 games in box 3 in your basement, you can do that.)
 
Yep, it works with any modern browser.
Awesome. Now I just need to get Google to rework how they implement their notifications in Chrome and then I'll be set. :)

What specifically about the 3.0 system are you keen on?
I like how the conversation is viewable on one page (or series of pages) so you can keep track of everything that was said without having to resort to quoting everything that was said in the past just to see it all in one message.

Sadly as far as I know there's no way reliably validate codes.
Understandable, thanks.

It's possible, but we have no plans for it at this time unless there's a big call from users for us to implement it.
And there is a good chance that the feature wouldn't be needed, because usually such mind-bending posts get buried within a few days (if not hours).

Yep, it'll support differentiating between physical and digital versions. A big part of the new system is how you can add custom fields to your records for sorting/filtering/displaying/searching, which lets you build custom functionality into your collections. (For example, if you wanted to see a list of all the Xbox 360 games in box 3 in your basement, you can do that.)
Sorry, I read back what I typed and I don't think I was clear enough. I was wondering about monitoring the price of a game that you are interested in purchasing once it hits a certain price, either physically or digitally. For example - a game might be for sale on disc at www.bestbuy.com or www.walmart.com and it would be on sale as a digital license purchase at www.xbox.com and it would be on sale as a digital code purchase from www.amazon.com or www.microsoftstore.com or www.cdkeys.com. Would it be flexible enough to handle that?

What you described though, I can't wait to see that in action. :)

 
It would be great if there was a feature where a thread creator could block guests from reading it.

It's been requested by a few people in the Gamestop Trade In thread.

 
It would be great if there was a feature where a thread creator could block guests from reading it.

It's been requested by a few people in the Gamestop Trade In thread.
I don't have a problem with this. Maybe we can implement in a way so that it's something that a thread creator requests and then it's approved by a mod.
 
I'm glad this concentration of lucrative information all you guys encounter can evolve into a system/forum that works as best intended for the loyal .
 
Is it going to properly handle smartphone photo uploads? I'm kinda tired of seeing sideways or upside down images on the forums.
 
Will there be a way to 'future-publish' a post or even keep a 'draft' going for a few days before you hit the Post button?

(For example, I do a weekly game release post every Sunday for my brethren in the XBL thread. It would be cool to work on this post throughout the week.)

Regardless of your answer, thanks Cheapy, John and crew.  :grouphug:

 
As I was reading the update, I wondered if there would be an app and there it was. As much as I love CAG, it has never been truly useful to me outside a community forum. I'm very interested in the analytical side the update has to offer. It would be great to have a price tracker other than CCC at my fingertips for historical data and alerts on the go.

Oh and obligatory I miss CAG 2.0 goes here. ;)

 
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