N4G V2 Open Beta

It’s been a while now since we last had a major update to the site, 5 years to be exact. We are finally ready to push the next site update and we are aiming for a launch mid December. Before that we need some help with breaking stuff so we are opening up beta versions of all 5 newsboiler sites today so that we can do some stress testing and sort out the last bugs. So for those interested in helping out, or just want to see how the new site is turning out you can access the beta at

http://beta.n4g.com
Login: You current N4G account

The new site works a bit differently from today's site. Here are some of the changes and improvements that the new site will have.

- Front page and its algorithm is completely redone. The default front page is now similar to today's tabloid mode. Instead of having a “stale” top list and a stream of latest news the front page is now much more dynamic. This makes it feel more fresh and up to date and will make it easier to get to the interesting stuff right away. The new algorithm focuses on the stories that has the most momentum. The story cards are dynamic and will change size according the live activity in the story. When a story gets less activity they will go back to normal size. Since the algorithm in the beta pulls its data from the current site that uses a different layout it won't work properly until we switch all traffic over to the new site.

- Content navigation is much easier and on articles pages we have added fully native navigation of related articles under the story.

- Pending stories are now featured around the site to help with the flow of approved articles.

- Content from the other NB sites is better featured and has more powerful navigation

- Submitting process is now a lot faster and with better UX

- Site search is finally useful

- User blogs and reviews are now featured in the main news feed. Temp to these will be added soon. We are also working on a new submission form for these so that one can make a blog post look much better than today.

- Better looking improved public profiles for users.

- Improved PM system

- The sites are finally mobile friendly. It’s not the best user experience at the moment but updates will be pushed soon to improve that.

With this beta build we are testing the core loop. There are a lot of new features that are still in development that will be roled out in coming weeks and months. We are now moving to continues delivery instead of pushing big updates like we have done in the past. Colors and graphics will be updated before launch to make the sites shine a bit more.

Here are some of the stuff we are working on that will be added to the site in the near future.

- Dynamic PopUp Cards: On the home page there will be cards that pops up when a big game is getting a lot of reviews showing the current meta score, number of reviews and they will expand in size according to how many reviews are submitted. These cards can be used for anything really. Under E3 they could show all available live streams, or be a news ticker showing all incoming E3 news. They will help make the site feel more alive and dynamic. These will be automatically triggered when a certain tag gets a high amount of heat in a short period.

- Improving the algorithm of the front page. We will work on balancing the algo to get a good mix of news, media, articles and user content.

- Real time temp signs, updating without having to reload page.

- The ability to “boost” the temp of articles and comments. A limited number of boosts will be available each day for each user to give this feature some real value.

- The approval process will be improved but we are still working on how this should be done. So we are keeping it as it is for now. We will go over all guidelines and site rules to update these to make things a bit easier for everybody.

- Choose between grid and list view for the news feed. The grid will still be default but users who prefer a list view can save this so it becomes their default rendering. You will be able to set hottest or latest instead of featured as default, this also goes for story types.

- At the moment the beta still pulls data from the backend of the current sites. This will affect the content that is displayed when navigation around the site, like a lot less stories will show up from the archive when browsing content for a specific tag than we have in the database. When we move to the new backend all stories will be easily accessible (all 2 000 000! )

You might wonder how we managed to spend 5 years on this update. I can reveal there is one really big feature (and that is an understatement) to the new newsboiler platform that can take most of the blame for the big delay. We will reveal more about this when we do the full launch next month :)

Oh, and all data in the beta is live data. So all your actions will be reflected on N4G.com. If you find bugs please use the feedback label on the right side of the screen. Thanks!

[WildArmed]

Looking forward to testing out the new site!

Can't seem to click on any news without being re-routed to the beta login page (or login anymore, so can't report via feedback).

[TFJWM]

Weird, its working fine for me. It is an interesting redesign for sure, def has more pop. Will take some time to see the navigation is better thou

Edit: Is the bubble system gone then or just hidden? I see no way to down vote someone other than SPAM or Inappropriate

[WildArmed]

Bubble system is going to be removed in the upcoming update.

[cl1983]

Wild breaking things already

[WildArmed]

No framework can contain this wildness.

Lol, my submit button still won't work x_x

I'll try again tomorrow.

[Christopher]

WildArmed is why we can't have nice things.

[blackblades]

Disagree needs to be removed.

[Spenok]

Reply regardless of where you are at on the comment thread needs to be added before anything else is changed IMO. Or at least some kind of tagging system so people can be notified you responded to them.

[GribbleGrunger]

For the love of God, don't change it to this. You're going to lose hundreds of viewers. The current layout is perfect for browsing and that's what you should be concentrating on.

edit I've just seen that you're going to have a list option too so I'm a little happier. Can you perhaps give us an idea of how this list will look? Will it be the same as it is now?

[OB1Biker]

Great to get rid of bubble system but its important for me to see many posts at the same time and be able to scroll quickly the ones that interest me or not. I prefer the old lay out a lot better and on phone the new one is a pain.

[SegaGamer]

I'm not really a fan of the bubble system but i can see comments really going downhill without it. Think how many troll comments 1 user can make without a bubble system. It's bad enough as it is, i can see things getting 100x worse with no limitations in place.

[GribbleGrunger]

Ignore. The Bubbles system has a bug at the moment.

[HammadTheBeast]

I'm curious as to how the comment system has or will change. The bubble system aside, will comments still be sorted by Time, as in the people who post first always remain at the top? It seems a bit counter-intuitive, as dozens of worthwhile comments are buried at the bottom or on the second page onwards, while a very large comment thread goes on to the point where you can't even reply to the comments anymore and have to resort to replying to yourself.

[Christopher]

If you look in the upper right of the comment section, you will see you can filter comments by Oldest, Newest, and Top.

[UserNameIsNotTaken]

About your reply to me about the (today,week, etc) filters.. Sorry but i wanted to reply to you directly.

Would love to see the *Now* filter again. Thanks. :)

[kingdom18]

I like the style of it so far, one thing though. It should be a requirement to submit articles with higher resolution thumbnails, the lower res ones look god awful in the new layout.

One thing I really like with it is the comment system, no bubbles and being able to sort comments based on age/rating is nice.

[DarkOcelet]

" - The sites are finally mobile friendly. It’s not the best user experience at the moment but updates will be pushed soon to improve that. "

I think that is a bit of an issue here, it seems you fellas focused more on Mobile users than PC users.

Maybe it will grow on me later on but for now, i have to say i like this one more.

And are you getting rid of the bubble system with the new update?

[UserNameIsNotTaken]

The bubble system is great to stop trolls from... Trolling. I had 2 bubbles myself and it was still fine imo.
And it's really not that great on mobile. I hope that the improvements fix this.
And the [Today] [week] [Now] is gone and I liked it a lot :/

[Christopher]

Actually, the sorting hottest by day, week, etc. is still there.

http://beta.n4g.com/?tag=&a...

See the filters at the top? Those are the same thing. But, those are only valid filters for 'hottest' stories, so you have to select that primary filter first.

[Christopher]

In reply to below, "Featured" = the old "Now"

[UserNameIsNotTaken]

Ohhhh okay

[WildArmed]

Bubble system is going to be removed.

It's one of the bigger features of the next update.

[UserNameIsNotTaken]

DAMN IT!

Well, it's kinda of a positive because I can comment more.

[fenome]

Personally, I like the bubble system, it could improve, but I don't think they should remove it entirely.

I also like a list of things to view, it's much easier for for me to scan..I always have N4G on the Classic view, because that's definitely my preference, it's much easier for me to navigate. I've never liked tile formats, they're too random and scattered and it's hard to see something I might be interested in because it just gets lost in the mess..

That's just me though, I love this site regardless, this is the only place I go for news. Happy Holidays everybody!

Edit:

Just saw, that they're going to keep the option to have a list view, so I'm a happy camper :)

[UserNameIsNotTaken]

I like this one better. I'm a mobile user myself and that site dosent work for me :/
Plus, the current one is easier to navigate through. :)

[gyggyg]

Can we have a feature where we can have greater choice over refining stories based on degree level?

I find 250 to be too refined, but 100 including too many stories. Can't we input the range?

Thank you

[ajax17]

"The default front page is now similar to today's tabloid mode"... damn, I hate tabloid mode.

[UserNameIsNotTaken]

Same here. I like the classic one.

[ajax17]

Hopefully they will have an option to switch back to classic mode. Or at least something similar.

[Christopher]

There will be an alternative 'list' view option. They are merely testing this version right now.

[ARESWARLORD]

I tried it I like the current site better as well

[kbozz71]

Any way to switch back to classic mode?

[Dusty]

We appreciate the candid feedback. Trust us, we will listen to all the feedback. This is a beta and we will do continues updates form now on. As stated in the post we will give the option to use a list view instead of a grid view, so you can choose to use whatever layout you want. But for the beta we wanted to test this new concept. It is different but if you give it a chance it has many advantages over the list view. But we will bring back the list view soon as an option for those who prefer that.

[DarkOcelet]

Hopefully you leave the 'Classic mode' available. Tabloid mode kinda sucks tbh.

[coolbeans]

What do you think this is...Uncharted 3? :P

Edit: Seriously, that is a good suggestion.

[bradleejones]

What are the advantages?

[Sarick]

Yes please bring back the list view, add a darker background and please add a privacy option(show public) to Birthday etc. It's not cool to be like facebook. The tabloid option is definitely horrid, it should be coded as default only to tablet devices. Having to log on to see the other list option shouldn't be needed.

Plus the birthday month needs modified it has a bug in it 1-31. There are only 12 months in a year. I've altered my date of birth because I don't want that posted for the world (public) to know. It should be our option to have some anonymity when we use this site.

[Null]

Is this the fabled N4G update told in the days of yore? Is this the long-winded update That would fix the broken commenting/news system and have a new look? I've been hearing about this update for years now but to actually see it, I'm in disbelief.

[coolbeans]

It is indeed, Brother Null.

A New Dawn for N4G approacheth. :P

[Null]

lol

[JasonKCK]

Hopefully this works better on my phone. Used to take forever to load.

Edit: yeah it's working better on my phone.

[noxeven]

It needs a little blue some where I feel. Since that's been n4g staple color for as long as I can remember. I also wish there was a requirement for the imagines used in articles since it just looks weird with so much black space.

[JasonKCK]

I agree some more color would be great. I would imagine some of those blank spaces are reserved for ads, but that's just a guess.

[Godmars290]

Could use a "Add Comment" option on the top of comments of course. And thinking about it are not going to be able to submit personal blogs and reviews and such?

[annoyedgamer]

Can I still troll the comment boards? Troll-friendly features are at the top of my list.

[WildArmed]

No Open Zone if that's what you are asking ;)

[annoyedgamer]

Actually the best trolling was done prior to the open zone. Open zone is for amateurs ;)

[Immorals]

I'm on a 4.7inch mobile screen or a 10.1 tablet screen, the tile system doesn't look nice, nor is it practical.

Being able to see loads of articles listed at once in classic is great. Much better for a quick glance between matches!

[tanukisuit]

I'm not going to lie... sorry, but I don't like the new layout. There's just too much thrown at you, and a lot of screen space isn't being used (everything is too centered).

I think practical changes that N4G could use is, integrating the forum with the main website, and overhauling the comments system would be "better". Too many alt accounts are bubbling up persistent trolling accounts.

[PSN_ZeroOnyx]

This will take some getting use to. Most of my N4G viewing is done on my PS4 and new 50" LED TV (upgraded from 37" last night).

[BLaZooKa_Boi]

I try to login but its not working for me ?

[TheUpbringer]

I much prefer the list system, rather than the varying box system. too distracting to focus on one thing.

[jtsventor]

I like the layout, not having to click those arrows make the site more intuitive although for someone who doesn't know what N4G is, they might think the site resembles that of a Facebook-esque article clickbait/spam site.

I also think that using white for the title backgrounds doesn't sit well with the bright background, I think it would look better if the background was a lighter shade of the gray used for the header menu.

Otherwise, looking forward to seeing this roll out!

[jay2]

NO NO NO NO NO I WANT MY STORIES IN TIME ORDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! I WANT TO READ WHAT NEW NOT WHAT I READ 11 HRS AGO! Edit, oh good, just read so I can have my stories in new time order nice good.

[Blackcanary]

I don't like how the news is all in one places. There's no section for just news todo with the PS4. Don't wanna have to scroll through stuff about xb1 to find stuff about the PS4.

[Giru017]

Why would you ruin a perfectly good design? The bets looks terrible, like one of those generic buzzfeed sites

[Imalwaysright]

Just visited and the only thing that is better is that the bubble system was removed. Everything else is absolute crap compared to what we have now. Seriously, so much time and you guys come up with that crap? After 8 years it seems that I have to find a new place to get my gaming news.

[Spenok]

I sure hope you guys are reading these comments.

The current design is definitely more comfortable, but this new design is still nice. Personally I think the best part about the new design is the comments. It appears they got rid of the bubble system, which is super nice, although I saw a comment where someone said they just uped the count to 10... which I see no evidence of. I never dropped below the standard 5, but it's annoying when you're having a good conversation. I wish you would add a button to respond to people regardless of where they were at on the comments section. It's annoying there's no way to notify them you've responded without some kind of tag or something. MANY other sites allow you to so you know when a conversation has continued without having to physically look at the thread to see if someone has responded. That is honestly my most requested feature.

[-Foxtrot]

Like I've said you should look into making a colour scheme for people because the pages are too white and nothing stands out. Most of it is just text floating in the air.

Least on this one we have our comments in a grey box which stand out from the white background.

Comments look like a huge list...not even a line underneath them to separate new comments from replies.

Off Topic question but why is it people who had 10 bubbles have went down to 6 while everyone else has went up. I know you are getting rid of them but we still don't know when that will be.

[BitbyDeath]

Verdict is in, tabloid view is trash, it should at least aim for 3x3 mapping so 9 articles can appear at once on a PC or mobile.

[caseh]

Can't say I like the new layout, it's reminiscent of those sites that have articles like "OMG, you will freak OUT when you spot it..."

Kind of reminds me of the recent eBay mobile app update. It worked great before, then they update it and make things more difficult to read or navigate and the torrent of 1* reviews highlights it quite nicely.

[eddvdm]

Yes, now that you mentioned it.. it really looks like those bait sites with hundreads of randomly scattered articles, when you click > 3 new tabs open.

I'm a web developer myself and they're really going to the *most* directions more modern sites are today - but TBH I love the unique N4G feel, the new one looks very bland with no personality.

More functional, but that's it.

[steve30x]

Can we please have a black or Grey theme. I mean the site background black or grey and text area a slightly darker area.

[Sarick]

I don't like it. It feels like it's gotten fat and such. All the new are bulky and it takes a lot longer to sift through things holding down on the page down. The difference is like having a small weekly add that has a bunch of items on one page to having the same items on 4-8 times the pages. I liked the old short and sweet, Where most of the stories fite on about one page. Now very bright and very boring for a gaming sate. The short and sweet plus the theme are what made n4g interesting. On the original N4G there is an option to use the box system or the smaller list system. I never could stand the box system (tabloid mode) so I kept it off.

If this is the future of N4G I'm sorry, it doesn't look appealing anymore.

[thugtrio]

Looking forward to it.

[Gazondaily]

Sorry but the new look is utter cack. N4G is fine the way it is. But hey, I'm sure we'll get used to it. Now about that open zone...

[Asuka]

i quite like the new layout. Its clean and modern like how most web apps are approaching these days, and finally being mobile friendly is a big plus. Mind you most traffic these days are coming from a mobile device of sorts and not your typically desktop/pc configuration. Also, search engine like Google prioritize websites/web apps that are mobile friendly and/or responsive.

The internet and we viewed it was quite different 5 or so years ago when the last update happened to n4g.com, and so these changes are a warm welcome.

[kingdom18]

The text box where you type your comment needs to be fixed, I've had it drop all the way down to the end of the page while creating a small comment forcing me to scroll through the equivalent of several pages to click on "Add comment"