One thing that's definitely a must on the second go at Bungie.next is changing the Thread Status Indicator. The way it is now -- very small, plain, a single-image, out-of-the-way -- makes it much harder to find out the status of the thread and is just plain less fun.
Before there were several indicators. The yellow septagon, the webmaster and the plus sign, the webmaster and the flaming background, nothing, and the grey archived webmaster. It was unique to this site and each one was very distinctive from any other. While the little Septagon shield is certainly unique to this site, it's a very cookie-cutter, textbook "indicator". If you looked up indicator in Merriam-Webster's Forum Dictionary, that would be cited as an example of a very linear forum-type image that indicates the status of a thread. When there were different pictures, once one took the 30 seconds it took to find out what each one meant (or the week or two it takes to learn it through osmosis), you knew what it meant and you could easily recognize each thread as having a specific status. I guess I could understand wanting to streamline things for new members once Destiny is release and announced, but even then, just do what you didn't do in Bungie.past: have a legend to let people know what each symbol does. It worked alright for BBCode before it was button-ized, didn't it?
Also, it's incredibly small now. Almost like the intent was to make it as unobtrusive as possible when nobody was even calling for it to be less obtrusive. Again, I understand, simplicity seems to be a major trend on Bungie.next (despite the over-complication of the "forum" system), but this takes away something unique about Bungie.past that I personally thought was really cool when I came here. It's not like any other forum. No other gaming company has forums where they use their mascot drawn in different ways so as to indicate the status of that thread. Y'know what they've got? Little shieldy icons like Bungie.next.
I think Bungie.next and the Web Team in general are suffering from the same disorder that the folks at Halo Waypoint are suffering from, but to a lesser degree, and that's Futurization Syndrome (made it up just now; patent pending). Many companies want their image to be all futurey and spacey now. They want everything sleek, polished, with no rough edges, and, when possible, shiny and a bit translucent (fact: everything in the future is shiny and a bit translucent). Just look at the site now. The box that encompasses the forums has very slightly rounded edges. The spacey background has been space-ified tenfold. The big "FORUM" at the top is lacking shine but very much translucent. And, as I've mentioned a lot by now in this thread, the thread status indicators are now very small, non-cartoonish, and button-like. Like a light on a spaceship that would light up different colors when your fuel is running low.
Please, bring back the classic, cartoony, bigger, web-master-themed thread status indicators. Please put them back on the left-hand side; I care much more about the status of the thread than which picture the maker of the thread chooses to associate themselves with. And please don't let Futurization Syndrome totally encompass your way of thinking. It's fine the way it is (minus its affect on thread status indicators). You haven't gone too far. At least the whole forum isn't shiny and a bit translucent (lookin' at you, Waypoint). But nip it in the bud. Or at least put a twist-tie around the bud to limit its growth.
Please and thank you, your friend,
Z
e: woops, forgot stupid tags
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Agreed with this. Status indicators were straightforward and understandable previously, but now don't seem to make much sense. They are one of the things that need to be addressed.