Site Updated

[Rob Williams]

Hi all,

Over the weekend, we updated the main website with a refreshed template and a few new features:

1) Categories have been added! Now it's easier than ever to find what you are looking for.
2) Refreshed news section... looks better and easy on the eyes.
3) Fixed template... easier to edit content now that we know it will look the same on everyones monitor ;-)

There have been other trivial changes as well, but overall it's mainly a fixed width template with category support. Hopefully now the site will be even easier to navigate. The forums have retained the old non-fixed-width template for the time being, as forums tend to work better when using such a template.

As always, if you have any comments/suggestions/flames, please feel free to express them here.

Thanks all!

[Rory Buszka]

I called all my friends...I couldn't wait to tell them about the new look! :p

[madstork91]

so um...

Home is below articles... and forums is is below a lot.

Id talk to you about this rob but... you are MIA.

[GeekGirl]

;)
Can't wait for the forums to follow suit!

[Kougar]

Since it is appropriate I'll just post here instead of making a new thread.

I noticed there isn't an inline search box or any direct means of searching the Techgage website. Even a basic google-box would be great I think, especially considering the wide range of reviews here. Just a suggestion! :)

[Kougar]

Another suggestion... forum members that are signed in shouldn't need to wait 30 seconds between every search.

For example, clicking "new posts" counts as a search, and I must then wait half a minute before I can use the search box to find an older thread. Or when the first search word returns nothing, as well. ;)

[Rob Williams]

Since it is appropriate I'll just post here instead of making a new thread.

I noticed there isn't an inline search box or any direct means of searching the Techgage website. Even a basic google-box would be great I think, especially considering the wide range of reviews here. Just a suggestion!

I have no idea how I missed this post, sorry about that. We do need a search box, but I was going to save it until we had a site revamp. I have two problems... I don't care much for Google and I also care about a search box looking good on the site. I'll take a look at our options in the coming days and see what we can do, since you are right... we do need one.

Another suggestion... forum members that are signed in shouldn't need to wait 30 seconds between every search.

For example, clicking "new posts" counts as a search, and I must then wait half a minute before I can use the search box to find an older thread. Or when the first search word returns nothing, as well.

That's a vBulletin default that I never caught before. For some reason, I never had those errors, but I guess it might be due to the Administrator usergroup. I've changed it to 5, which seems fair. If the forums ever get large (which I hope they do at some point) constant searches would bog the server, so we might bump it up to 10 if it ever becomes a problem.

It's too bad that vBulletin doesn't allow altering searching on a permissions basis. If it were easy, I'd remove the limit and CAPTCHA entirely for users with a certain amount of posts.

[Kougar]

Hmm, isn't any captcha required if you are logged in... going by one of your PMs I thought you'd seen the first post! Thanks for changing the search timings, that was beginning to get annoying after a bit. :)

I'm not that picky about searches, any in-site search will run into issues such as searching BOTH the site and the forums, which can make finding topics on only the site a pain, for one example. Still it's quicker than typing in the addy directly into your favorite engine ;)

[Rob Williams]

Hmm, isn't any captcha required if you are logged in... going by one of your PMs I thought you'd seen the first post! Thanks for changing the search timings, that was beginning to get annoying after a bit. :)

I'm not that picky about searches, any in-site search will run into issues such as searching BOTH the site and the forums, which can make finding topics on only the site a pain, for one example. Still it's quicker than typing in the addy directly into your favorite engine ;)

Oh I guess I did see it then. I knew I recognized it, but was confused as to why I didn't respond inline here. *slaps head* As for the Captcha, that's good then. I just tested as an unregistered user and assumed that's how it was.

I've added a search. It can be found on the right-hand side, right underneath the Gaming News section on the front page, or under the skyscraper ad inside of an article.

Comments are welcomed. I am not able to filter out the forums for some reason, but I'm looking into seeing if there is a workaround.

For the time-being, to omit forum and full-view image results, use a string like this:

Intel -forums.techgage.com -viewimg

[Kougar]

Looks good! I don't often think to try - signs when searching, as they usually don't help at all with how I do searches... but in this case that should be all that's needed. :)