Hi. I mentioned this in the last couple Ask the Staff threads, but never got any reply. (Granted though, the last one was probably because I forgot the post template thing, and wasn't able to go back and edit it since the thread was never reopened while I was awake that day.)
Basicly, Gaia has some accessibility issues in terms of ease of access for those who have disabilities such as blindness.
The way Gaia's code is set up in areas makes it hard for users who can't see to use the site. This is in places such as: -> Avatar customization page -> The vast majority if not all shops--gold or GC -> Games -> Outfits (selling, saving, deleting...) Most of this(all except the games) is most likely the way the Javascript is set up. It causes the following issues to occur for somebody navigating via keyboard or means other than a mouse/mousepad: -> Multi-pose items don't respond properly when one or certain poses are clicked(with the enter key) or may not even respond at all. This can cause the wrong pose to be equipped, or potentially rendering a desired pose unselectable(that is, without a workaround of some kind. This may be possible on some screenreaders, but not all. I can't say for sure how this could be gotten around for other users if they experience this issue.) -> Shop items, when clicked, do not do anything. There is no popup, no menu, nothing. This /can/ be worked around by the user by searching the item in the marketplace, going to its page, and following the link that says what shop the item can be purchased in. This, however, won't work for all shop items, and not all things that can be purchased in shops seem to be listed in the MP.(I believe some hair styles and/or eye types might be missing... I'd need to check though.) -> Outfits can not be sold, whether the user is trying to select an outfit to sell by following the link in their store or if they're starting in the inventory to do it. The same applies for deleting outfits. If an outfit is saved with no name at all, it becomes impossible(or maybe just really really hard, its impossible for me so far though) to change its name--the editbox won't even come up for it. -> For the games, which seem to use flash rather than Java: (Note: this applies to both normal games like cards and slots, as well as event minigames like the forum battle things.) ---& Some buttons are unlabeled, which can lead to confusion as to what they do.
If these issues could be fixed, the site would be easier for some(maybe more than 'some') users to use. Overall, it'd be very helpful, potentially to more people than just blind or mouseless people, if Gaia could be used more with a keyboard. This includes stuff like keyboard shortcuts and just being able to navigate effectively and easily with the keyboard itself.
Tl;dr -- Gaia's got some issues that make it hard for disabled(or mouseless) Gaians to use the site in some areas, and user workarounds are difficult if not purely unlikely to happen.
This is something we can keep in mind, especially issues with areas of the site not reachable by keyboard. Over the years, with so many different people having worked on the site, conventions haven't always been enforced and it has resulted in such inconsistencies. Moving forward we can be better about being mindful of such conventions so the site is accessible to the majority.
Narumi Misuhara
Bella Doe
Items/Features
Would it be possible to have it so when you click to an item from a wishlist off a profile(opening in a new tab from new profiles or just straight clicking on classic ones) that it directs to the marketplace link instead of the current page that it does?
Ex page: http://www.gaiaonline.com/virtual-items/the-russian-butcher/i.8a0b420a0c53a7970c6ad388448e7a44/
This doesn't really add anything important anymore, before it used to show item previews when that wasn't a feature of marketplace, but now most items do not get previews and if they do it's only for a single pose and isn't actually helpful, nor does the item preview have the same options that the preview in the marketplace itself.
It's interesting when items were released, that much I do enjoy of the page, but overall the page just looks old and there's not too much function, especially considering most items are for both genders and so many items are being released with gaia cash and you don't need to know what store it's from.
It would speed up gifting considerably.
Sounds reasonable.
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 7:33 pm
November 3rd, 2014:
Narumi Misuhara
Bella Doe
Features Would it be possible to see an overhaul of the alerts and notification tabs in the drop-down menu for account settings? Both Alerts and Notifications relate to emails, but yet to turn off pms for site activities is in the general account settings option and to turn off marketplace pms somehow has made it's way to being located in the edit shop menu, which doesn't make sense.
Alerts could relate to notices Notifications could still relate to emails (There's already a section under notifications called alerts, so uh.. there's a weird situation there.) and mayhaps a new tab for Pms settings?
Eventually yes, over the years people just kinda threw them in wherever. X_X
Features: (bugs & fixes) So sometimes when following certain links, such as http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.94469113_9/?_gaia_t_=4896&mygntcid=544877 the gaia-modal has set an absurd position top value, such as 5317.53px for no reason. When changing pages in a thread where there are even less and/or shorter posts than the previous page, it causes the page to scroll seemingly endlessly. Also multiple modals are added to the page (all receive the same CSS top value).
Steps to recreate: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.94469113_9/?_gaia_t_=4896&mygntcid=544877 Go to page 2 scroll and scroll and scroll Please fix your JavaScript, a simple if-statement to check if the top value is larger than the height of the post_container when the PJAX event is finished would solve it. neutral Here’s a simple pure JS solution I came up with in just a few minutes
var postContainer = document.querySelector('#post_container') var modals = document.querySelectorAll('.gaia-modal-modul') Array.prototype.forEach.call(modals, function (modal) { var modalTop = parseFloat(modal.style.top.replace('px', '')) if (modalTop > postContainer.clientHeight) { modal.style.top = ((postContainer.clientHeight / 2) - (modal.clientHeight)).toString() + 'px' } })
Of course you can use whatever calculation you want to set the height, that's just what I used for this purpose.
Indeed, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
meemsalman
Astra Green
Feature: Welcoming Fairy
I posted something in the Site Feedback regarding this but...
Is there a way to update some of the messages the Welcoming Fairy gives like for Achievements and zOMG! That way newcomers don't get confused or disappointed that a feature doesn't show or no longer exists?
This is something that is currently in the works! Thanks for the suggestion! heart
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:43 pm
December 8th, 2014:
Narumi Misuhara
Nenanah
Features
Since you removed a few things from the user drop down box already, can we also add a "send gift" option, that will let us send gifts from our inventory? The "buy" option is cool but sends us straight to the CS and sometimes we already have the item in our inventory and want to quickly send it, rather than fish around for the item and copy pasta the name into the box.... May we please have both options to send gift, from CS or inventory in the user drop down box?
Question is originally by ( Pwnder ) I am using Nenanah's Ask the Staff Question Posting Service.
This is a good idea but one we probably wouldn't be able to get to for a little bit. We had removed the Send Txt option and replaced it with the View Store option, this was a quick link switch. The proposed change above will take a little more work to accomplish.
Narumi Misuhara
MeleKeli
Items
Aloha, I love that we can zoom throughout Gaia because I have bad vision. However, the Organizing Inventory is limited to what looks like 90% zoom. Is it possible that we could organize the inventory as it looks when you view your Inventory or can the Organize Inventory section be zoomed like the rest of Gaia?? (fyi... I have over 7,800+ items). Thank you for your response and action. heart
Keep your eyes peeled in SF for official updates on the inventory arranger. smile
Could we get a dropdown menu link for Loyals Bazaar, and Mecha Neko? They are specialty shops after all and we have one for Flynns Plunder, Club Verge, and the other cash shops.
Question is originally by ( Pwnder ) I am using Nenanah's Ask the Staff Question Posting Service.
Seems reasonable, I'll run this by the team.
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:24 pm
January 5th, 2015:
Narumi Misuhara
Diosu
Can you please update the footer? Clicking on the Quick Links doesn't even load most of the time.
We'll likely be replacing the whole thing with a new chat system.
Could there be an option to disable animated bits in the header for users with slower pcs that cannot handle this? This would also appeal to users who just do not appreciate them/the drain on their pc.
Likely not, but we'll keep this in mind.
Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:27 pm
January 19th, 2015:
Narumi Misuhara
karpic
Feature
Will you be able to make the Offline status shown in Private Messages as well?
This is possible, but I would not expect an update to it soon.
Narumi Misuhara
Bunai
Feature - User search
Is it possible to add colored names and forum titles to legitimate staff and npc accounts when searching for them using "Global search feature: User"?
Yeah we can see if we can squeeze this change in.
Narumi Misuhara
Corinn
Features
Will the horizontal stretching of the page for users with 1024x768 screens ever be addressed? I know it came up a lot on the original "feedback" thread for site centering, but it was never addressed, not even to say it's not something that will be addressed.
I have to side-scroll to log out and change gold shops. It's tedious. I can deal with it if I have to but the sense of screaming into a void is what bothers me most.
Likely not, simply because the % of people at that resolution is small... something on the order of about 6% However that may not be a fair comparison as that statistic is general and not Gaia specific. We can run a poll and see how many Gaian's are at that resolution and then go from there.
So when are you going to finally update the log in page?
...was there something in particular you were waiting to get updated?
Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:50 pm
March 2nd, 2015:
Narumi Misuhara
Twisted Lady
Features This might take a bit of explaining. So, you can use the search bar as a shortcut to quicky access features like games and shops. However, the shops portion of that is majorly outdated and could use an update. Newer shops like Loyal's, Bifrost, and the Treehouse were never added. Other shops can only be searched using their old names that were changed years ago; Buttercup Cafe is still listed as Barton Flowershoppe, for example. The MTV sponsorship has been over for years, but their Sunset Coture shop still comes up in the search even though you can't access it. If it's not too much trouble, could we get this updated?
Hmmm, we'll have to take a look at this. Definitely something funky going on there.
Narumi Misuhara
PlumaDeTerror
Features i remember a few years back that we were able to type in the Konami Code and our avatar would jump off the header and run off the screen did that get removed???
That Easter Egg was part of a hacka-a-thon event we had in the office. It wasn't removed but as it was not an official thing it probably never got updated as the technology evolved and stopped working for some.
Narumi Misuhara
Ranas94
Shops I'm really happy with the LQIs in Loyal's, so I check the shop every now and then because I know announcements can take some time to come out. So now my suggestion is adding Loyal's to the drop down shop menu, under Rococo. That'd be really helpful!~
Thanks! I've been looking for him! No idea what he is doing there. I'll have a word with him. (I hope he doesn't pull out that list though!)
Narumi Misuhara
...Santa's had a rough few years....
Narumi Misuhara
i wish pokemon was real
Features
I have gifs blocked on my web browser for medical reasons. Whenever I encounter a random event item (giftbox, fat cat, etc) I can still click on the floating gif (even though the actual image is blocked on my browser), but clicking on it brings up a blank pop-up box, which I assume is because the content within the pop-up is also a gif. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I had gifs enabled in the past, I remember that I had to click on another link after clicking on the floating item gif itself to actually have the item granted to my inventory.
Here's a screenshot to help illustrate; this is what happens after I click on the random event item gif:
If possible, would you consider changing the current way random event items are granted? (e.g. by making the pop-up an optional feature that we can turn off in our account settings, or maybe making it so that we only have to click on the floating item gif to have the item granted to our inventory, rather than having to click on an additional link.)
Likely not as it's own update, though we can definitely revise this should we need to make changes to it in the future
bluealaris
Throbbing Fear
Features
Are there any plans to redesign the overall user interface of Gaia?
Yes there are, we will tread carefully however because Gaia is incredibly intricate and has a huge number of features.
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 7:16 pm
April 6th, 2015:
[NPC] Gaia Staff
Hi!
Quote:
Features
Can a login option be added to the guest browsing page? If I'm planning on logging in anyway, it seems silly to go through a whole separate page just to authenticate.
We can explore that option! Thanks for the feedback.
bluealaris
miss pudding pop
Features
Similar to how Gaia has now put up a coupon link, will there be one in the future for the numerous amounts of cash-shop items that get released every week?
Hopefully when our Avatar Builder is created it will automatically update when new Cash Shop or other item releases are put out and we can find a way to communicate that without overwhelming our users.
bluealaris
Ranas94
bluealaris
Ranas94
Features
I really like it that the event's statistics refresh on its own, just like our inventories' worth, so my question is if it'd be possible for the gold and cash amounts to do the same?~
I must be confused! Would this be to track the gold in the site? or personal gold?
Oh yes, personal~
We can consider it! I worry about creating a site-wide lag issue if we had this for every user, but I can talk to our dev team!
Narumi Misuhara
Ranas94
Features
I really like it that the event's statistics refresh on its own, just like our inventories' worth, so my question is if it'd be possible for the gold and cash amounts to do the same?~
Not likely to happen soon. Due to the numerous ways a person may be granted gold on Gaia, this would actually be a fairly massive update.
bluealaris
Yumeiir
Features
Would you consider holding a contest for gaians to create a new Gaia homepage (that page we all go to when we first pull up gaia and haven't logged in yet)? Seeing as the page needs updating I think it'd be a cool idea to have the users do it!
edit: You could set it up like how the Cross Stitch events are where you have a set space for users to put their design in to prevent entries from being too small or too large.
Thats a really cute idea! Thank you for the suggestions!
Is there any way to have the top reply button be a bit further away from the When using the site in a mobile, it is far too easy to press the dislike button when trying to open the quick reply dialog, especially if one has larger fingers.
Even a slight change in the GUI (such as moving the repky button down so the bottom of it is in line with the bottom of the right side top add, or makong it centeted on the page) would make it loads easier for mobile users once we get used to it.
This is something we could consider doing, but it currently would not be a high priority.
Narumi Misuhara
Pengaana
Features (or shops? IDK)
It was mentioned at a previous ATS about adding a button for Loyal's shop in the shops tab drop-box (much like Verge, Rococo, and the Bifrost have buttons there) can this still be done (maybe it could take GoFusion's spot since GoFusion already has a tab to itself) With Loyal updating more often it'd be nice to have there as a way of easy access
Yes, thank you for bringing this request back to our attention.
Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2015 12:56 am
April 20th, 2015:
bluealaris
Pengaana
Shops
At a previous ATS I asked if Loyals could be added to the shops drop down tab could this maybe be done with Mecha Neko too? I feel this poor cash shop is forgotten about a lot
and that a lot of people still remember it as a sponsorship shop despite it being changed up
Thanks a good suggestion, thanks!
bluealaris
Salathielly
Features
I only just learned today after being a Gaian for almost eight years that we have an advanced search feature. And I'm a librarian who does searches for a living.
Is there any way we could make this button more prominent or have it show up as an option right when you click on search as opposed to only showing up as a small button on the opposite side of the screen of where I am typing my search?
As an example, when I go to the forums tab and click on search, this is what I get:
When I select something from the drop down, then the "advanced search" button shows up. Too bad it's tiny and not any place on the screen that I would normally look since my focus is on the left side of the screen where I'm typing my search.
In the recent site survey, an updated site/shop UI was more heavily requested than a fishing update, yet was not mentioned as one of your high-priority updates. Are you planning on any site/shop UI changes? Why or why not?
We do have site/shop UI updates planned, however we have a good deal more time and work to put into this kind of update so its a long, slow burn type of project as opposed to fixing/adding to a game. However it is on our to-do list for this year. 3nodding
