ExtulsJoin Date: 2009-01-02
Post Count: 5557 |
Group tabs are an idea I thought of after reading a thread by Danieltck, and then talking to him a bit about his idea. The execution of this idea is different, but it serves the same purpose. That is why I was inspired to write this idea.
Group tabs serve many purposes. To start off my idea, I will explain why I think group tabs would enhance groups greatly.
Currently, groups feel very limited on what they can do. Sure, over time groups have been opened up to a grand amount of possibilities. This, in my opinion, is great, as it enhances the experience a user receives from ROBLOX if they are involved in groups. As I've seen updates go into groups, most of them benefit most groups, and some only seem to benefit war groups (clans/guilds). With that, I've taken into consideration that with group updates, ROBLOX wants most to benefit all groups, while some may only benefit these clans, since really, they seem to be the biggest type of group on ROBLOX.
All groups have their own things they do. But, all groups could benefit from group tabs. Group tabs are like a new way of organization in groups. Not only that, but they give more options and features for groups to use. I will get into the details later, but some of the things group tabs do are; Allow groups to display information in a more organized manner, share group experiences for those who are in the group who were not around to experience the moment, keep track of data, inform members of changes, etc. To round it all up, group tabs are what I - in my personal, biased opinion - think could be the best update that can come to groups.
A lot of groups have guidelines, right? As we see now, groups have to post a thread, and then link to it through their group's description. It kind of looks sloppy when a group has to do this, but it's the best they can do for now. With group tabs, this problem could be solved. What if a group wanted to keep track of data in a way that they can share it with their group, or anyone who visits the group page? This too, could be solved by group tabs. I could go on more, but I would be repeating myself way too much, so let me just explain the rest in detail.
Group tabs are like different 'pages' of your group. The tabs would either appear at a side of the page, or on top. For the sake of simplicity, I will just say they're on the side in this thread.
Group tabs are fully customizable, except your main group tab, and can only be customized by the creator of the group. Your main group tab is just a tab (page) that displays everything that your group's page currently displays. All but your main one can work differently, and you may have all but your main one appear in whatever order you wish. The names of your group tabs, including the main one, can be changed. There are different types of group tabs, as I said. Some group types are; Word tabs, graph tabs (bar graph, line graph, pie graph, etc.), picture tabs, and blog tabs. These tabs are, for the most part, self-explanatory, but I'm going to explain them anyway, after I explain how group tabs work.
On the group admin page, there would be two tabs at the top of the page. One tab containing what is currently on the group admin page, and the other one being titled "Tabs." This, obviously, is where you manage your group tabs. This page would be styled somewhat like the develop page. Your main tab will always appear at the top here too, with the rest under. To change where the other tabs appear, you just drag and drop them. Whatever order they appear in on this page is the order they appear in on the actual group page.
Like games, group tabs can be made active and inactive, and can be deleted at any time. Once deleted, they can never be brought back. To configure your tab, you must click "configure" beside the tab. Inside the configure page, you may configure the name of the tab, and what colour it appears as on your group page. Inside this page is also where you modify the contents of the tab. How you modify the content of the tab is different depending on what type of tab it is. Modification will be explained in detail when the tab type is being explained.
The first type of tab I want to explain is word tabs. Word tabs are useful for purposes like posting guidelines, rules, FAQs, requirements, etc. Word tabs are the simplest of all to modify, because they are simply modified just by typing what you want the tab to contain the same way you would type out a forum post. Word tabs would be sensitive to spaces and indents. Therefore, however many spaces or indents you have somewhere, they will also appear in the actual tab, unlike in forum posts.
Another type of tab is a picture tab. A picture tab is like a word tab, only with, well, pictures. Picture tabs are useful for sharing experiences with the group in which they weren't there for, showing examples, having picture albums, or just putting pictures in for fun. The pictures used in picture tabs can either be uploaded straight to the tab, or taken from a decal that you already have on ROBLOX. Pictures may be dragged and dropped wherever you like them. There would be a box you can check or uncheck to choose whether or not pictures can overlap each other, or if they will automatically move other pictures when dropped, to make room for itself. You can choose to lay out your picture tab as a blank area of pictures, or have a background to go with them. Pictures may be styled with borders and filters (blur, black & white, etc.). Tabs may place pictures randomly down the tab, or you can choose to use pages. Pages work in a way that they can each have their own background, and you can scroll down through the different pages. If you are using page format, then you may use preset layout styles, to lay your pictures in. If a picture is not the same size as a box you try to put the picture in, you can choose to either resize the image according to the size of the box, or drag the picture inside the box to make only part of the picture show through the box.
The third type of tab I'd like to talk about is blog tabs. A group will always have one blog tab, but it is primarily inactive to begin with. The owner of the group must go make the blog tab active. Blog tabs are useful for sharing changes in the group with the group, in which group members may look back on at any point in time (Unless the owner of the group chooses to remove the post). Blog posts may contain text, pictures, and YouTube videos, as long as the pictures are moderated. Blog posts may be as long as the creator wants them to be. Unlike the other types of tabs, blog tabs are special, because the owner of the group can choose certain ranks who may post in the blog, and certain ranks who can remove blog posts. Anyone can remove their own blog post, and anyone with the ability to remove may remove the posts of any members lower than themselves.
The fourth type of tab is leaderboard tabs. Leaderboard tabs may contain as many participants as the owner wants, and as many stats as the owner wants. These stats and participants may be removed at any time by the owner. Participants may be named whatever the owner wants. An option when making a leaderboard tab is to include every group member in the leaderboard, but nothing else. In this case, no participants may be added or removed manually. When someone joins the group, they are automatically added to the leaderboard. When someone leaves or is removed from the group, they are automatically removed from the leaderboard. If they rejoin, their stats do not return with them, as they are not saved. Stats in the leaderboard may also be named whatever the owner wishes for them to be named. All the stats of participants have to be manually updated by the owner.
The fifth type of tab is data tabs. Data tabs are more complex than the others, because there are different types of data tabs. Data tabs are pretty much just graphs. When making a data tab, you may choose what type of graph you wish to use to display your data. Obviously, a specific graph is most convenient based off of what the data being displayed is. Therefore, it is best to give a choice on what type of graph you wish to use. I'm going to go through all the different types of graphs.
The first type of graph is a bar graph. The first choice you are given is whether you want the bars to be vertical or horizontal. The next choice you get is to choose a single bar graph, double bar graph, or triple bar graph. The next thing you can edit is the graph title. You can make the title anything you want. The next two things you can edit are the x-axis label, and the y-axis label. Once again, you may make these whatever you wish for them to be. The next thing you choose is the amount of items in the graph. Now, for double bar graphs, one item would be a pair of two bars, and in a triple bar graph, an item would be a group of three bars. If you have a double bar graph or a triple bar graph, your graph will automatically have a legend. In a double bar graph, you will have two labels, one for each bar inside an item. In a triple bar graph, you'll have three labels. Each label has its own color and name of your choice, and would also appear in the legend to show what data the bar displays. You can name each item (bar, pair of bars, or group of bars) whatever you want. For each bar in an item, you may change the values of them individually. Last but not least, you may choose a minimum value and a maximum value. The minimum value is the value at the bottom of the graph (or left side), and the maximum value is the value at the top of the graph (or the right side).
The second type of graph is a line graph. The first option is the graph title. Next is the x-axis label and the y-axis label. You may name these whatever you wish. Your next choice is the amount of groups (lines) you wish to have. Each line and its points on the graph would have their own colour. If you have more than one line, your graph automatically has a legend, in which the names of each line is places beside its own colour. You can give each line its own name. The last choice you are given is the minimum value and the maximum value. Once again, the minimum value is what appears at the bottom of the graph, and the maximum value is what appears at the top of the graph. As a side option, you may choose whether or not to show the points on the graph, and whether or not to show the lines on the graph. Some people prefer line graphs without the points, and if you chose not to show the lines but just the points, it would be good for a scatter plot.
The third type of graph is an area graph. Area graphs are modified the same way as line graphs. The difference between the two is that an area graph is filled in under the quantity line. One option that an area graph would have that a line graph wouldn't is transparency. You can choose whether or not your area graph is transparent so that you can see other sets of data behind the data that overlaps the rest.
The last type of graph is a pie graph. The first thing you set in a pie graph is the graph title. Next, you choose how many slices are in the pie graph. After that, you name each slice, and choose a colour for each slice in the pie graph. A legend will appear to the side of the pie graph containing a little square of each colour in the pie graph, along with the slice's name/label. You enter a value for each slice in the pie graph, and the graph will automatically turn all the values into percentages. Once that's done, the size of each slice is changed depending on its percentage. Each slice's percentage will appear beside the slice, to show the viewer what the percentage is.
To round all of that up, we have five different types of tabs we can make. Word tabs, picture tabs, a blog tab, leaderboard tabs, and data tabs. The graphs we can choose from in data tabs are bar graphs, line graphs, area graphs, and line graphs. Any graph's data can be edited at any time by the creator/owner.
Unless I have forgotten something, that concludes my idea.
What do you guys think?
If you don't support, give reasons. Anyone who doesn't support without valid reasoning will be considered a supporter of this idea. |