NexopiaIdeas - 20, Male, Edmonton
NexopiaIdeas's Blog9,740 Hits
New Shouts and Sidebar Changes
Hey, we're looking at making some improvements to the sidebar, as well as adding Shouts. The Shouts feature is still in the rough design stage and we're trying to figure out exactly what it's going to be. It allows you to quickly post what you're doing, thinking, or checking out, and keep your friends informed.

The sidebar changes clear up some of the clutter in the sidebar, and gives you more control to see what you're interested in by collapsing and expanding different sections. The search and moderator box are not shown in the image below, but will stay in the sidebar for the final release.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

-- The Nex Team


 

COMMENTS
~mr.handsome - 64, Male, World
07:02pm | Mar 13, '09
Freakin sick!
-CARLOS.
01:15am | Apr 27, '09
-CARLOS.
i can't wait for this
opel101 - 18, Male, Drayton
07:07pm | Mar 13, '09
ii liike it!
,reaL.naatiive
06:14am | Apr 08, '09
,reaL.naatiive
nicce
primal;scream - 20, Female, Red Deer
07:36pm | Mar 13, '09
looks amazing
btw,SMiLE.
07:42pm | Mar 13, '09
btw,SMiLE.
aawsomme !
iDori
07:47pm | Mar 13, '09
iDori
Amazing.. now we dont have to scroll down alot to see it all LOL.. I love it
savestheday* - 19, Male, Calgary
08:00pm | Mar 13, '09
Change status updates to shouts, nice lmao.
white~nerd - 18, Male, Edmonton
08:26pm | Mar 13, '09
awesome.
;;GrEG;; - 17, Male, Calgary
08:47pm | Mar 13, '09
CRAZY AS HELL
stonesgurl - 49, Female, Edmonton
10:24pm | Mar 13, '09
I like all those ideas.
[C]hanty™
10:31pm | Mar 13, '09
[C]hanty™
Likke it =)
trippingEYES - 19, Female, Canada
10:38pm | Mar 13, '09
I love that.
stalker[b]itch
10:43pm | Mar 13, '09
stalker[b]itch
Looks good.
Disoriented. - 20, Male, Vancouver
11:09pm | Mar 13, '09
Uh.
Shout is the only problem. It reminds me too such of status update on FB.
Everything else is supa.
babii*killa
01:59am | Mar 14, '09
babii*killa
lol like everyone else says, its like facecrack !
lol, but itss pretty good , i can say that ( :
MichaelR - 21, Male, United States
02:30am | Mar 14, '09
I'm guessing the current forum subscription updates going to go under the "FORUM THREADS" updates instead?
NexopiaIdeas - 20, Male, Edmonton
07:24am | Mar 14, '09
Yes, the forum subscriptions will be moved up there.
-ox.laayouts - 17, Female, California Hot Springs
05:49am | Mar 14, '09
it reminds me of facebook ,
But i likee it xD
trustnoevil - 24, Female, Canada
05:41am | Mar 15, '09
I like the idea of this.

However, like someone mentioned above, it is rather bland looking - and how would this look in older skins? Will the side navigation still have the same look they currently have but just the text has changed, or will all of the layouts have this very boxy look?

I also am against the CAPITALIZING of the titles. I think having them bold and/or underlined is enough. The capitalization just makes it look too loud and not exactly aesthetically pleasing. At least in my opinion.

I love the Recent Visitors idea there. That's definitely a big plus for this new side navigation bar. Being able to collapse and expand things is also nice - so we're not scrolling through things we'd rather not.

The one thing I disagree with completely is the 'Shout' thing. When I saw the word Shout, I automatically thought of a Shoutboard/Shoutbox - which is something I've seen work well on other websites. But when I read the description further, I was dissapointed to find out that it's just another 'status update' thing. I know it's hard to come up with something new, but really, taking the same idea as MS and FB and just calling it 'Shouts' is kind of on the lame side.

I'm not saying everyone is going to hate this Shout thing, but a LOT of people are going to complain that it's too much like Facebook (even though there are many other sites that use status update things). I think Nexopia could come up with something better than this.

Just my two cents.
Kevin - 32, Male, Edmonton
04:50am | Mar 16, '09
The idea behind Shouts is not just to update what you are doing, but will create a public stream of thoughts, gripes or opinions. Think of it as a micro-blogging tool.
trustnoevil - 24, Female, Canada
02:12am | Mar 17, '09
I still think it's much like FB. I use the status update on there to write what I'm doing/thinking/going to do and to say things I want to say/my opinion on something/etc. In essence, the Shout thing sounds the same. The status update on FB lets you say whatever you want. It just has your name starting the sentence/thought/opinion/whatever.

I don't mean to be a pessimist, but I still think a lot of Nexopia users are going to see the similarities this has with status updates on FB and MS.
Kevin - 32, Male, Edmonton
10:27pm | Mar 19, '09
If it is something that you like to use on FB and MS, then wouldn't you want to use it on Nex too?

There are a few extra things that we are going to do with Shouts that will be very different to other sites that I think Nexopia users are going to love.
CLOVERFIELD. - 19, Male, Vancouver
03:21am | Mar 18, '09
haha, remember that these are all just one person's opinions, and 30 comments on something that affects 1,409,029 users, isn't going to do much. Might as well point out the good things!

I personally like the Shout Box, Im not sure why everyone is angry that its like facebook. IT IS LIKE FACEBOOK, but now it's on nex. Also, a twitter feed would be cool, but maybe as a profile add on, not your actual Shout title. Instead of putting a free-from box you could add a twitter widget. That would complete my life, btw.

Also, loving the new side bar. Personally, it would eliminate the use for the top navigation bar for me.

One question though, where would the Shout's appear? Would there be a list? Would this be on your profile? Would this change profiles? Etc?

Also, is it going to be optional, or will it be on all profiles automatically?

nex rocks, keep the updates, it just keeps getting better!
cl14 - 28, Male, Edmonton
05:48pm | Mar 18, '09
Thanks for the feedback.

Right now we are looking at possibly integrating with twitter (e.g. having shouts show up on your twitter), however we are still trying to figure out how that would work.

Shouts would appear in a "friends shouts" section where you can see what your friends have been shouting. Also we are looking at having a public shouts section where people will be able to see what people all over Nex are talking about.

We are planning on having a profile block, this will be optional for people to display or not.
CLOVERFIELD. - 19, Male, Vancouver
01:25am | Mar 19, '09
sounds great!

looking forward to the update! Any time projections?
cl14 - 28, Male, Edmonton
03:24am | Mar 19, '09
It's being worked on right now and should move over into development fairly soon. Right now we are looking at it coming out in the next few months.
CLOVERFIELD. - 19, Male, Vancouver
03:30am | Mar 19, '09
sounds great! thanks for letting me know
CHCIAO4NOW - 19, Male, Edmonton
01:30am | Mar 19, '09
how 'customizable' will this be?
like for me i don't need the "comments" part
nor do i need the "recent visitors"

and for messages i'd always have it expanded
so would there be anyway to hide the [+] and the [-]

but this was already said in earlier comments
cl14 - 28, Male, Edmonton
03:38am | Mar 19, '09
Right now the plan for the [+] and [-] sections is that they will stay to what you have selected them as. So if you have it expanded it will stay expanded even when you change pages.

Likely the recent visitors block will be a preference so you can have that section on or off.
ILU**Diana - 19, Female, Calgary
12:06am | Mar 21, '09
i love itt thatnka
~*lilbrat~ - 16, Female, Canada
07:44pm | Mar 21, '09
its awsome i like the expanded one
WEINERJUICE.
11:36pm | Mar 21, '09
WEINERJUICE.
YEYEYE
Thats sicccckkkk
I like it
Rockstar-to-Be - 20, Female, Medicine Hat
01:31am | Mar 23, '09
eeexxxpppaaannndddeeeddd
<3
--.gorgeous?
10:13pm | Mar 23, '09
--.gorgeous?
this is rad !
love the shouts idea too .
<3

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