When the Portal was originally made, submissions were viewed on the same page as their credits. Basically, you would load up a page where the Flash movie came first, then underneath was information about the author, voting panel, etc.

At one time, we switched the site to frames. We realized that a lot of Flash movies didn't fit within the middle frameset, so we decided to open Flash movies in a new window.

We have since switched back from frames, but we decided to keep Flash movies in their own window. It allowed us to better showcase the credits, reviews, and score.

Recently, we started talking about switching back to the old format. Here are some of the pros and cons we have discussed:

PROS:
1) You can instantly see the submission you are looking for. No need to wait for a new window to open.
2) Some users may never even click the link to open the window.
3) Doesn't require javascript support.
4) Servers would serve out OVER 1 MILLION LESS pageviews per day, which should improve performance.
5) Database would also be hit OVER 1 MILLION LESS times per day, which should improve DB performance.

CONS:
1) Users might not scroll down as much to view the credits, vote, and read reviews.
2) If a movie spawns lots of windows or some crap, users will have no warning before it happens. Might make it harder to flag as well.
3) It COULD result in more bandwidth from every submission being viewed, but we don't think that will be a big difference.

So we open the floor to debate, and an eventual poll. What does everyone think? Should the view page open Flash in its own window (like it does currently), or should the Flash be integrated into that same page?

I'd prefer the old style... its just my personal opinion/feeling tho, i couldnt throw in some facts...

Actually, I like it the way it is with the flash opening in the new window. If something else pops up, I can always move the window to keep on watching the movie. If it is incorporated in the one screen, I won't be able to do that. Plus, I do agree with you on the fact that people are lazy and probably won't scroll down to vote on the movie, therefore letting more crappy movies into the Portal. Just my opinion.

i like the old stye more

On a lot of occasions, the window isn't big enough to see the entire flash. I either have to scroll constantly or go full-screen. If going back to the old format will fix this problem, then I support it.

it looks nice the way it is now. those are some big cons to be considered too...

...but I guess easing up on the bandwidth would be better...whatever you want Tom.

At 7/30/03 12:53 PM, TomFulp wrote: 2) Some users may never even click the link to open the window.

You mean voting without viewing? We actually have to view the submission now before we can vote. You're confusing me.

I like it the way it is now. I saw some of these pages you are talking about while discovering old NG pages.

It looks more professional now.

I can't always see the whole flash movie,but i like the style at the moment so it's your choice

id like it to be all in the one page instead of opening in a new window.basically because it sounds more benificial to the site.

looks like the pros=god and the cons=a rabbit.

show the credits, reviews and so on at first and the flash at the bottom

I think the change would be good, it would add an interesting event to our day... no, seriously, I think the change would be better than what we use now.

i like the old style it has more pro than cons

BIG HUGE PRO HERE:

When playing shooting games, you wont accidentall click off screen and lose!!! This would definitley help in the shooting scenes in my game.

that might be a cool idea, but I don't know what to think. maybe you could add a play pause button, so if my 6 year old brother came in the room and i was watching, say, stick suicide, I could stop the video without a commotion, also, it would take longer to load probably, so now that I think about it, stick to this way.

One million is a lot, right? I mean, enough to make a difference..right?

Well... maybe you could make it so that for every "under judgement submission", you have to press a "play button" to make the actual submission play. That would solve the malicious stuff a bit and it would enable people to not watch the movie if the author's comment is suspicious...
Or to just be able to blam the brains out of a 5k piece of crap with "asdasdfsfasf" in the comments without having to take any risks.

But it sounds good. I like the way it is now, but if it will improve the site performance at no cost, it sounds like a good idea to me.

I like it the way it is now. People are going to abuse it to auto redirect and stuff like that. Newgrounds does already have a billion pop ups, so i guess this will lessen THAT amount. I guess, give it a shot, see how it goes, and change back if it sucks. I am sure i'll work just fine, and people will like it. I guess i dont know how i personally feel about it though.

Well, it seems to me that the PRO's Outweigh the CON's, so I say go for it.

Sorry Tom. I normaly always like your ideas but I don't like this one. As it is the portal is just fine. Everything is well done and easy to use. But if it will save NG a ton of load I'll at the very least live with it.

Personally, I like to read what a movie is about before I decide if I want to view it or not. But I guess I could always cancel it before it loads if I decide not to view the movie.

As a comment, I think this may lead to more bandwidth consumption, but less page views, I'm not really sure, though, so you might want to just experiment with this system for a week or two(if its not too hard to implement).

hmmm maybe have the movie below the credits so people have to scroll down for the movie .....

I say keep it the way it is.

The biggest detterent to that is the Million less page views for the servers and database.

As inticing as that sounds, improved database performance will only last as long as it takes everyone to figure out that newgrounds is running faster, and then your load will increase.

Then we'll have servers with the saem performance that we have now, except we'll lose a little bit of that NewGroundesque style of professionalism and artistic guire when viewing flash movies.

Go for it. Change is good and in this case, real good.

I prefer the flashmovie being opened in an extra window, I wouldn't like the movie to be inside a frame.

I say leave it as its own pop up. I like being able to read the authors comments and or some reviews before seeing the movie. If someone decides to autospawn extra windows it would be almost impossible to vote on. It would also be easier for people to include their own scripts to vote themselves a higher mark.

Don't fix it if it isn't broken.

I understand that it would decrease database hits and the like, but didn't you guys just get a bigger and beefier database server? So does it matter that much?

At 7/30/03 02:13 PM, ImportRacer666 wrote: If someone decides to autospawn extra windows it would be almost impossible to vote on.

Ahh... thats a good point... because NOW, if it autospawns, you can close the window, then come back to the page and vote, without having to open the movie. But if it appeared on the PAGE, you can't open the page again to vote, because the same thing would happen.

I like it how it is, please don't change it. The last thing I want is to be forced to watch some movie or game. How would you feel if Tricky the Clown or some annoying audio blasted out? You can easily close the window and vote zero. With what your talking about i'd have to reach higher up to close the window.

Okay put yourself in the place of a 12 year old kid. He goes to the dress up games and the page loads with ohh ohh yeah, make me... then his mom or someone walks heres it and starts to walk in and he gets caught because the mouse arrow hand to travel a bit further to reach that close button. You just cost that kid a week off the computer and further more a week off NG. Think about it.

I say we give it a go everything is worth a try and during the period we could have a poll if it doesnt work out it doesnt work out then but we could always change it back. You never know. and also i wonder if its possible to make a choice in the user settings

At 7/30/03 12:56 PM, MrPayDay wrote: I'd prefer the old style... its just my personal opinion/feeling tho, i couldnt throw in some facts...

the old style was better