It's time to make the second post for Gamejolt update ideas!

Make sure you read the first one if you haven't! Most of those I wrote there are still some that I would love to see happen, so they are still relevant!

This is even longer than the first one holy molly...

1. Communities

Communities are new, and there are plenty of new cool things that should be added! Here are some ideas.

1.1. Kicking member

It is currently possible to kick people, but only if you go to the blocks tab and enter their usernames. It can be nice as a small addition if we could kick members by simply going to the members list and there find a button next to their name like this:

1.2. Finalizing game communities

I know a lot of people who would like to make a community for their own games, so I'm just encouraging the Dev team to make it a public feature!

Also, by joining a game community, you'll automatically follow that specific game.

1.3. Mute communities

For those who like to keep their feed clean, or don't necessarily want their feed to be filled with featured posts, there should be a community mute feature. I've seen that some people would love to have these features, and even talked with some friends about this.

I know that the simple thing to ask would be "why don't you leave the community then?". Pff keep reading...

1.3.1. Hide posts

• Community moderators who are here to feature work but might not be interested in the featured content.

• A lot of featured posts in certain communities might be really hard to keep up with (a lot of posts in your feed), but the user would still like to support the place and want to get notified (small white dot) if something new is posted.

  => Hiding posts from your feed

1.3.1. Mute notifications

• The feeling when huge communities that you've joined get posted in every minute, and you want to get rid of that small dot on the side. Kinda like on Discord, you can simply mute the place.

• For perfectionists, it's there, and it's bugging you if you can't get the dot removed...

• Featured posts would still appear in your feed.

  => Notifications mute, remove the white dot

These two settings could be accessible from the community menu, would work as radio buttons:

Hide posts from your feed / Show posts from your feed

Notifications (On) / Notifications (Off)

1.4. A shout box/comment section

A shout box for communities to ask questions simply (to both members and moderators), random talk/threads.

When someone posts in the shout box, the whole moderator team gets a notification. Just as comments on the site, you'll be able to subscribe to a thread.

This comment section could be under the community description (and moderators list), under the channels...

... or even in a new page dedicated to comments, and maybe some other perks I'll be presenting in this post.

1.5. Forums in communities

I will admit, this may sound a bit useless, because we have posts. However, I see a few good reasons why adding something like this (shown on the picture above) may be something that should be thought of twice.

With this, it will fix the infamous "I want to post in the community but not on my profile" problem. People might be willing to post more things, including questions, get closer to the community itself and maybe even discuss bigger threads before having to think whether they should post this thing on their profiles.

Will make users spend more time on the community itself, rather than posting from your profile.

It would not replace the "Overview" tab with all the posts, and communities would be working as they are now.

I personally haven't used the forums much, but I know many people do, and they would probably love to have the same systems in communities: it would definitely make the transition smoother if the Dev team wants to focus more on communities these days.

It might take some extra time to code and create, and I'm not sure if you would re-use the forums script or completely re-write it, but as an extra thing in communities, I think this would be the perfect bigger addition!

1.6. Ranking

Creating a ranking list of the users in a community. Users will get a "hidden" score based on their posts and comments on posts count, featured posts, (activity level) and for example the top 10 most active users will be displayed under the moderators list.

If you create a XP/scoring system, you'll need to find a simple and relatively fair way to handle it. I've got a few ideas on how much does something score, I could go into that in more details.

(For example giving points to a user or a post post only once per day)

This would be an optional feature for communities.

There could even be a leveling system, again, based on that ranking score.

If not, then badges/medals that would represent the user's activity level (bronze/silver/gold/platinum medal).

I'm not sure how it would be displayed (on posts? in the users list?). One possibility could be to completely redesign the members tab, and instead of displaying users the same way as followers, it could be shown as a one-column list with a whole line dedicated to each user. It could display info such as:

• User posts count

• Portion of their bio

• (Forum entries count)

• For moderators: user actions (block, kick, ...)

• Their level (and maybe score)

This could be optional inside a community, and the owners can turn it on or off.

1.7. Member dashboard

I've created a small user dashboard that you will see if you are a member. You'll get access to some stats, your role (custom roles?), score, awards.

1.8. Awards

Awards would work like trophies for games. Moderators will be able to upload awards on a separate moderation page, and they will be manually assigned to users as a little reward (active users, role model user). These could have infinitely many purpose and could be customized and used for literally anything.

They could give a description to the awards that would be displayed in a tooltip above the award icon.

The default art for awards would be medals. But community moderators will be able to upload their own art.

1.9. Moderator custom tags

It would be epic to be able to have dogtaging features for the community moderators. Intsteaf of only having the owner one, you would be able to name your moderators as you want:

You will be able to set these up in the moderators menu

(Also since we are here, you should also add the user's icon when you're selecting collaborators and moderators for both games and communities)

These dogtags/role names will be displayed on posts (when reading them inside the specific community)

1.10. Posting as "group staff"

Being able to make posts as the "community". Staff would be able to post from their accounts, or as the community. This would be super helpful for announcements (contests, important notices).

It would work like the game collaboration system, where you can select if you want to post as the project owner.

How would it work in the back-end? I have no clue. It would probably mess up the system since the post will not be owned by a user. But I'm sure the devs can find a way around! :)

And to make it stand out, it would have the community header at the top, blending with the posts light (or dark for dark theme) background.

1.11. Posting without displaying on profile

Probably one of the most requested features among users. When posting something in a community, it would be nice to be able to choose if we want the post to appear on our profiles too, or not.

I guarantee you that with this feature more people will post in communities!

1.12. Community searcher

Welp, probably another widely requested thing, but I'm sure you'll be doing something for this, or you already have something in mind. But I could also come up with some designs, I've got a few ideas in mind!

1.13. Reporting communities

I saw that this was still not in place, it would be safer to have it ready before making the communities reachable by everyone!

1.14. Ad revenue for communities

Displaying ads in communities and sharing revenue with their owners as a rewards for running the place. If the there are moderators, revenue will be split between them equally (or only community collaborators, if not then the owners).

2. Profiles

2.1 User blacklisting

Working like a block button. Blacklisting someone from your profile would mean the following:

• Block them from commenting on your posts/shouts

• Block them from adding you to their follow list

• Block them from following your playlists

• Remove them from your friendlist and they won't be able to send you friend requests anymore

• You will unfollow the user

• No mention notifications

• As an extension to the entire website: unable to follow and comment on your gamepages (only if you're the owner), your devlogs.

• However they will be able to see your profile (as that can be bypassed easily by logging out)

Blacklisted people can be added in your profile settings:

When blacklisiting someone, you will be asked if you want to block or block AND report the user, as it will probably encourage users to report them.

This feature might also bring about a few issues, for example people starting to abuse this new feature. One of the main issues might be that someone blocks a user because said user doesn't want to face criticism. I've got a user in mind who constantly deletes comments on their posts that go against their opinion, and the whole thing feels completely made up.

Blocking someone might also fuel some form of revenge, as it will be obvious for the blacklisted user to see that they've been banned from a profile.

On the other hand, it would help to target spammers more easily. Users usually react to spammers and harassment with messages, but we know that it will make things worse. This would be a quick and effective tool for the users themselves to use in case of an emergency, until moderators take care of the situation.

I think it would be a good feature, but I will leave that to the Dev team to think about.

2.2 Re-posting

Post a post from someone else on your profile, like a retweet. This was brought up by someone a long time ago, I'm not sure by who, but it was a Dev team memeber.

A button on the post to re-post the post.

Re-post name ideas:

• Grab

• Repost

• Annex post

• Reshare

• Forward

• Blargh (@KniteBlargh yo dude)

• Re-serve

• Re-feed

I like refeed, let's call it that way from now on.

It would appear on the refeeder's profile this way:

This is just a simple re-publish function. Other possible extensions would be being able to refeed with an additional message from the refeeder.

2.3. Followed by user1, user2 and 14 others you follow

Hah, you wanna keep your secrets GJ? Not for long...

Pretty self-descriptive I think

Clicking on the # others you follow will bring up the full list of the users who follow someone. Same goes for games.

2.4. Disabling comments on posts

Also widely requested, it would be a nice optional addition for the users!

Holy cow I've got so much more coming...

2.5. Turning published posts back to draft/hidden posts

In case we decide to unpublish a post, or want to hide it but still keeping it.

It shouldn't be too hard to make. Comments would be also inaccessible and hidden, but as soon as the publisher publishes it again, they will reappear. Same goes with likes.

2.6. This

A wild white space decided to make its way in there. You need to help us! Do something!

3. General GJ stuff

3.1. Sorting followers

On profile pages or game pages, being able to sort followers by:

• User follows count

• Date (oldest and newest)

• Search by typing

3.2 Removing base comments

This might have its back-draws, most likely not something that GJ would do, but Imma still put it here.

If someone deletes a comment thread "base" message (first message), marking it as deleted instead of removing the whole thread.

Sometimes when people are talking in a comment thread, sometimes explaining things to the original commentor, and then the original commentor decides to remove the whole thread with one single click, because they don't agree with someone.

Of course, the one who starts the conversation has the rights to close it, but some people are taking advantage of this feature.

I think thread base comments should not be completely remove. There should rather be a message saying This comment was removed, the author will keep its anonymity.

I'm both for and against this feature, but I thought I would bring it up.

3.3. Animated profile pictures

Yes.

If not for everyone, then for this Blargh

Ooor..... this dancing for as my profile picture:

Come on hehe, it's just 22kb!

Oh yeah also @Truddy got no Fox tag :(

3.4. Save post without closing

When I'm writing long stuff, I tend to save my posts a lot. There should be a button that saves the post, but doesn't close the editor.

3.5. Gamejolt update feed

Creating a separate page (or a section of a page, or an official account) for logging each smaller updates (design, new features, fixes). Something similar to those announcements thing, but for all changes. A very detailed GJ devlog.

I would love to see what's being made, and what has been published, even if it's small! I'm sure some other active users would love to see what's happening!

4. GJ's unique look

Over the past few year Gamejolt has become a clean, simplistic website. That's what you'd expect from a good quality social media platform.

But I think Gamejolt is more than that. With the old pixelated version (from what I remember) GJ had its own signature, you knew that you were on Gamejolt. And one thing I can only encourage is for Gamejolt to work more on their signature!

Gamejolt already has its many memorable and good features, so it's covered within the "content" domain. I want to see Gamejolt mix these cool content with a unique aspect, that tells GJ and other websites apart! Branding, and most importantly design.

What elements make you feel that you're on an indie game website? Certainly, the games, the content. But what else could bring uniqueness?

Take a look at newgrounds.com: it's a whole world built around a specific design that makes you feel completely immersed. I find that one of the best examples!

Another great one, someone decided to make a website for themselves to post their web-comic project: demainjarrete.stpo.fr. I found it wonderful, simple, yet you know what page you are on, and what's its purpose!

In my opinion, this is what clean and minimalist sites lost: their initial identity. They melt together, they are less memorable.

I personally think that GJ going towards something less minimalist with more graphical elements wouldn't hurt.

With the talented @KniteBlargh who was initially here to help forging the GJ style, with all the artists and designers, heck the entire gamejolt team, I'm sure it will be in good hands!

I'm really counting on you! Unless your goal is to stick to a clean and professional design, I would think about this whole thing. After all, it's for indie developers, right? Most of us are here because we share the same interest: making games for fun, for free, as a hobby, as a safe place to land and express our creativity!

If you ask me, I'd say the initial steps would be to start including site art. Start it simple, bringing back the mascots, maybe even creating new ones! Scatter them around pages (setting pages, page sections like comments, headers)... Ask for feedback, and people's opinion as much as you can!

I would love to see more of that! I know it would take an incredibly huge amount of time, but in my opinion, it's 100% worth it.

Instead of the dark/light backgrounds, clean looks, I would like to see something that makes you say "That's not a random social media website, THAT'S Gamejolt!"

And if you need help or anything, I'm here! We're all here!

5. Post notifications

5.1. New games

Getting a notification if a followed user created and publishes a new game.

It could be:

• An automated message in your feed

  

• A notification

  

• After clicking Publish, a message asking if you want to tell your followers about the new game pops up. If the creator clicks yes, the game gets published and they will be sent to their profile page, the post editor opened with a default message that can be changed:

  Hey I've just published a new game called A hard day's night (Part 1)! You should check it out!

  Along with the game's thumbnail (or header) as a post image.

6. Login page game

On the login page, there should be a button saying check out game that if clicked opens the game that has it's image displayed in the background.

Sometimes I see interesting stuff, but only to realize that I will probably not be able to find that game.

7. Comments

7.1. Tell if owner replied

This is something I saw on Youtube. It would be interesting if we could see without clicking on the Replies button if the owner of the post/game/shout actually commented on it:

It could also maybe have a greater score too, and if clicking on the "top" category, it would be display higher.

7.2. Owner replied category

Another category (or instead of the You category) called Owner's Replied:

It would filter out comments and only show those where the owner of the post replied.

7.3 Comment count glitch

This usually happens when someone comments, then other people reply on that comment, and then the main comment gets deleted. The counter freaks out...

7.4. Double notification

For some reason people love to tag users in their own shouts. We get 2 separate notifications if that happens:

8. Profile reporting system

We definitely need more options for reporting users (maybe even an "other" choice where the users can write a limited amount of characters)

Alright, that's it for now! The text editor started glitching, I think I will stop here. I'm dead and have been writing this for about 7 hours now...

I've got some other ideas, but I will put them in another post, maybe some time.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed, make sure you let me know which one you like and which one you'd like to see!

Same goes with the Gamejolt Team! I hope you like the ideas! @cros @nilllzz @YLivay @thoro @NathanAuckett @KniteBlargh @nik @gamejolt