Our FamilyForum

[Ken.]

Thanks for catching the issue.  :up:
It seems to be showing up in most browsers, I'll see what can be done about it.

No problem.  I wasn't sure you'd seen those two problems.

I did register on your site Ken, but that was before I read who's allowed to join.  :embarrassed:  I wanted to take a sneaky peek at your arcade, lol..

Thanks for reading our 'terms' lurkalot. 
Yes, we do have fairly tight membership requirements.

As for the Arcade... all of our arcade files come from SMFArcade, including the skin that we use, but if you're looking for new and different games you may wish to check out this site:
http://askusaquestion.net/index.php

The site's owner, Underdog, is a good guy to deal with and he has a great Arcade with lots and lots of games that you can d/l... you'll need to register and post at least two times before you can d/l anything, but it's well worth that small effort.  :coolsmiley:

[lurkalot]

No probs Ken, thanks for the info re: the arcade. 

I'm not really in need of more games just yet as I already have 360 of them installed currently.  I have bookmarked that site you mentioned though.

Jeza has helped me out a few times over at SMFArcade, in fact I'm running a modded (with his help) version of one of his skins on my old version 2.16 arcade at the moment. 

[lurkalot]

Also, when in the forums etc, the forum button doesn't remain highlighted,  Instead the home button is  highlighted.

Ken, I noticed you've fixed that login panel now.    You still have the menu highlight problem though as mentioned in my earlier post.  If it doesn't worry you then please ignore this post. 

I had a similar problem with one of my themes when I used the wrong tab code, it bugged me after a while and just had to fix it. lol.. 

[Ken.]

We fixed the login panel with help from Les. 

[Ken.]

Well now!
It has been a little over four years, so I guess it's about time for an update on this Showcase topic for my site.   

We are still using TinyPortal after all these years because it remains the best SMF portal Mod that is available... and, we are still partial to themes designed by Bloc. 

Over the past couple of years my activity and engagement have decreased somewhat, but we are determined to stay open and to keep using TP.
You can see the latest spec's in the OP of this Topic.

[bloc]

Thanks, Ken, for sticking with TP. Always happy to get feedback on themes too. As of now I have been coding more on the extra features of the themes, than the actual themes..but I see the need for a few improvements to the CSS too.

[Ken.]

Thanks to you for spending the time on your themes Bloc.Over the years we don't (have not) voiced our appreciation nearly enough for all of the work you have devoted to TP and to your themes.

[bloc]

Thank you.

Its not required for me to work on themes of course.. but it is always nice with feedback. Unfortunately it seems several people are now regarding me and my work as "untrustworthy"..so I guess all thats left is my own joy of creating them in the first place. That will alter how much I bother to make it usable for other people, and more usable/interesting for myself. That balance have always been important..but now I feel its not anymore.

I am only mentioning this because TP is also very much such a product(userfriendliness paired with trying to be fresh and innovative) and the interest is dwindling on it. It may very well be the last TP made like this(or more likely, that TP stays like it is now). I don't think I will be inspired enough to create something for people who don't trust what I create anymore(present company excluded maybe?). Sad - but no point pretending otherwise. And while some users DO make me want to make it better, create better themes etc. it only strengthens my conviction that those who want use them WILL seek them out on my site - but I won't be "hunting them down" on other sites anymore.

[Ken.]

... and the interest is dwindling on it.

That could be a very true statement Bloc and while I do agree with that point of view there are points that should be added... IMO
TinyPortal has been downloaded thousands (10's of thousands?) of times down through the years and if only half that number made it into an active site then that's a lot of TP's out there... a lot of TP's!

It has long been my opinion that we as a TP support site only see well under 1% of those users coming here for help, actually under 0.1% and we can naturally expect that while most of the users that we do see like TP and appreciate the help that they receive there will be a very small percentage who will be unhappy. And, we can expect that those users who are unhappy will go ahead and move on to other options at some point.
Meanwhile, all those other TP users just keep rocking on, never thinking about coming here to TP because they are busy enjoying their SMF/TP site and not breaking it and so they don't need our help.

As for the dwindling part, we can look to a number of factors that may affect that concern.
Early on when you first began to develop TP you were the only game in town unless you count the full blown CMS's that were available and to me, as someone just starting off at that point in time, TinyPortal was the only option that provided the desired result. I think that it's obvious from history of the downloads over time as well as the topic history here and over on SMF that we saw a great deal of growth early on but then, in time, several things began to happen.
Others began to develop portal mods, some even going so far as to outright copy big chunks of TP code.
SMF went through a period of great turmoil, causing many to lose interest and having a lasting effect on all of us who remain.
RL happens to all of us and sometimes that means that we don't have the time or energy to invest in online stuff and so that sharp edge of desire and creativity looses a little of it's sting.

And then, there's Facebook!!! 
It is my strongly held belief that "social media" sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.. have had a profound effect on sites that have message boards as their main communication device. We have reduced our on-line interaction to 140-character messages and pictures of our ham and egg breakfast plate , leaving little time for topics where we have to actually reply and engage in an ongoing conversation that might keep going on for a full page or more of posts and replies.

So, are we dead and dying? I don't really think so, somewhat less than we may have once been? Yes, of course we are, but I think that lots of folks still use and have faith in the great qualities of TP and will continue to do so for a long time to come.

As for the naysayers, the Trolls and the haters, as the old saying goes... "If they can't take a joke..."   

[/soapbox]

[Freddy]

I agree about the Facebook thing - it's a really poor way of communicating with people long term. I really tire of it.