GMC Status Update

 Post Counts:

For the first time in a long time ever (?) the GMC staff have enabled post counts on the board. At first they reset and started everyone at zero posts. However, after further consideration (and most likley a couple of complaints), they decided it would be best to re-build the post count to reflect the actual number of posts users have made since the start of the forum in ’03.

Note that the ‘Top posters’ lists are also now enabled, see here.

 Logo Placement

If you read our last article, you would know that the YoYo Games staff has decided (almost to complete certainty) that the logo placement will not be changed back to it’s original layout (with the GMC logo appearing in the top left corner of the forums). However there is still hope for the 87% of you who want it switched back to the old way. Using greasemonkey (a Firefox browser extension), in combination with our user script (authored by Ari_aaron), it is possible to switch the logos on the GMC.

Profile Layout

If you are not aware, when the GMC first switched over to the new IPB version, the profile layout was a blog-like style. It featured many sections including friends, latest visitors, personal statements, summaries of a user’s posts, topics, the ability to comment a profile etc. However the staff decided to revert the profile layout back to it’s original basic look which offers no interactive features.

 Domain / DNS

The DNS settings for the GMC have finally resolved properly for just about all users (it is dependent on your ISP). This means any login problems users experienced should now be fixed, and it also means all previous links should now be working again. A small number of users still indicate there are some DNS issues, unfortunately there is not much that can be done about this but wait. Most ISPs update their DNS records at least once every 24 hours (some in 15 minutes or less), but others are (as Mark Overmars puts it) ‘lazy’ and update only after day(s).

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GMC: The logo chaos

Ever since the new GMC has come to light, many users have started complaining about the fact that the YoYo Games logo now dominates the forum, appearing very large and on the top-left of the page layout. It is essentially the first thing users see and it makes some users feel the board is becoming the ‘YYGC’ rather than the GMC.

Apart from the ‘YoYo Dominates & Own’s this place’ effect that this strategic image placement is causing, the image itself is linked to the YoYo Games website, and not the GMC. This has become quite the issue for many users as the GMC Logo which used to be positioned there was linked to the board index of the community. This means the majority of users are used to clicking the graphic to return to the board index, but instead are unexpectedly redirected to the YoYo Games homepage. Even staff members have complained about this.

After some community discussion, Chronic (an administrator of the forums) decided to make a formal poll to see just how many members want to switch back the logo placement. As of the time this article was written 87% of users want to have the logo placement switched back to the ‘norm.’

So the question is, who is it that decided to switch the logos in the first place? As far as we can see only about 1 in 10 users were willing to accept the new logo placement, and staff members have also pointed out the awkwardness of the new layout. After further investigation, it has come to our attention that correspondence between certain user(s) and the GMC staff shows that Sandy Duncan did not only insist that the YoYo Games logo be placed on the left,

I’ve had word back from the YYG Staff and Sandy likes your header but is insistent about having the YYG logo on the left, and the GMC logo on the right.

but also insisted that the logo be made much larger so it was clearly visible.

Sandy was wondering if its possible you could make a larger version of the YYG logo image.