I certainly did not like the state of the forum right now but I believe that sam could fix those problems. 
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Armchair cyclist
Moderator
We seem to have lost some useful features:
indication by the contributor's name of whether they are currently on-line (yes: I do see the list at the bottom of the page)
Web link button on edit screen
direct link to most recent post in a thread (I thought that the excellent link to the first message since last visit in each thread had gone: I'm very relieved that it is still there, just cunningly disguised)
link to the cited post: these are often from much earlier in the thread, and needs to be read in its own context to understand it (problem somewhat, but not totally, mitigated by multiple depths of quote now facilitated)
New oddities:
If size of print is considered an indication of priority, the most important information about a message is apparently believed to be the number of times it has been edited, and the message that is being cited and responded to is the least important. The outsize edit notifications have been removed, but quoted text still uncomfortably small. Later edit: outsize edit notification is back again, at least on Archibald's 03:15 edit of his 02:51 message (GMT)
All messages in my sent messages folder were apparently sent to someone anonymous.
Do we really want to encourage centred and right aligned messages by having that as an easily accessed option on the edit screen?
Thankfully:
I think we now have accents and diacritics back
US date format not forced upon us
Missed opportunity:
Same limited size of message box
No thumb up/thumb down review of posts (or some analogous indication)
Still no csv tables
Overall effect
I understand that some change might eventually have been necessary, and it may have technical advantages that are invisible to the user, but what advantages do the developers see in this over the previous forum as a user experience?
indication by the contributor's name of whether they are currently on-line (yes: I do see the list at the bottom of the page)
Web link button on edit screen
direct link to most recent post in a thread (I thought that the excellent link to the first message since last visit in each thread had gone: I'm very relieved that it is still there, just cunningly disguised)
link to the cited post: these are often from much earlier in the thread, and needs to be read in its own context to understand it (problem somewhat, but not totally, mitigated by multiple depths of quote now facilitated)
New oddities:
All messages in my sent messages folder were apparently sent to someone anonymous.
Do we really want to encourage centred and right aligned messages by having that as an easily accessed option on the edit screen?
Thankfully:
I think we now have accents and diacritics back
US date format not forced upon us
Missed opportunity:
Same limited size of message box
No thumb up/thumb down review of posts (or some analogous indication)
Still no csv tables
Overall effect
I understand that some change might eventually have been necessary, and it may have technical advantages that are invisible to the user, but what advantages do the developers see in this over the previous forum as a user experience?
Re:
That would be a good start. Something that has been tested on Billions of people on Twitter
Twitter Bootstrap's global default font-size is 14px, with a line-height of 1.428. This is applied to the <body> and all paragraphs. In addition, <p> (paragraphs) receive a bottom margin of half their computed line-height (10px by default).
TheGame said:
That would be a good start. Something that has been tested on Billions of people on Twitter
Twitter Bootstrap's global default font-size is 14px, with a line-height of 1.428. This is applied to the <body> and all paragraphs. In addition, <p> (paragraphs) receive a bottom margin of half their computed line-height (10px by default).
Re: Re:
I don't remember creating it, but I guess I did...
Anyway, when I sent an email regarding not being able to login, the email I received from cyclingnews had this user name in it, and gave instructions to change my password...guess I get to start over again?...
Netserk said:
I don't remember creating it, but I guess I did...
Anyway, when I sent an email regarding not being able to login, the email I received from cyclingnews had this user name in it, and gave instructions to change my password...guess I get to start over again?...
Re:
far be it for me to ever stick up for devs, but...
The version of vBulletin they were using was pretty archaic, dating back to 2011. They could not directly upgraded to the latest vBulletin but would have had to first upgrade to v4, then upgrade to v5 (and a vBulletin 5 licence is about $200-$400 depending on which they bought, but then they would have been faced with the problem that vB 5 is an utter pile of cack. There are countless major forums that have lost serious visitors and members by upgrading to it (the original vb dev team left several years ago after a dispute to create xenforo).
So..
Do they stick with VB3 which was ridden with bugs and a problem
Spend money upgradig to vb4, and then vb5 which in turn is awful
Or do what theyve done which is switch (i think xenforo would have been a better switch but makes sense they have gone to phpbb which is free, and bikeradar uses it as well)
that said, it may have paid to set up a test forum and send some regular members over to sort out the requests, missing features etc before hand
Armchair cyclist said:
far be it for me to ever stick up for devs, but...
The version of vBulletin they were using was pretty archaic, dating back to 2011. They could not directly upgraded to the latest vBulletin but would have had to first upgrade to v4, then upgrade to v5 (and a vBulletin 5 licence is about $200-$400 depending on which they bought, but then they would have been faced with the problem that vB 5 is an utter pile of cack. There are countless major forums that have lost serious visitors and members by upgrading to it (the original vb dev team left several years ago after a dispute to create xenforo).
So..
Do they stick with VB3 which was ridden with bugs and a problem
Spend money upgradig to vb4, and then vb5 which in turn is awful
Or do what theyve done which is switch (i think xenforo would have been a better switch but makes sense they have gone to phpbb which is free, and bikeradar uses it as well)
that said, it may have paid to set up a test forum and send some regular members over to sort out the requests, missing features etc before hand
if you have a browser of plugin that supports custom css, this fixes the text size, until they fix it tomorrow
Re:
Yes, I've gone in there to try to sort it, cannot see how to link to the individual post, not to mention once I can I'm going to have to spend what will probably genuinely take hours working through the whole thread to fix those library posts.Netserk said:
Re: Re:
Just looking at bikeradar as theres is the same software.
they have a title above each post date that is linkable, so that just needs turning on.
bikeradar on quotes theres no link to the original quote either
Libertine Seguros said:
Just looking at bikeradar as theres is the same software.
they have a title above each post date that is linkable, so that just needs turning on.
bikeradar on quotes theres no link to the original quote either
finding it very hard to see what has and hasnt been read, and there doesnt appear to be a "mark forum" or "mark board" read button
I can't make urls clickable. Had to reset my password and became a junior member again. Is linking blocked for "new" users? (To ruin the fun for spambot operators or something)
Re: Re:
Just a shame that once it is turned on it will require a point at which I have both the time and the inclination to go through the newly hard-to-read thread from start to finish to isolate each and every library post, since I can't seem to get the search function to work either, and fix the first post to do that. With over 3000 posts in the thread over three and a half years, librarying everything was already a cumbersome and time-consuming task on vB, so I can't say I'm looking forward to it...TheGame said:
Re: What has happwned to the forum????
Can we increase a bit the limit image size? whatever it is now it seems too small as a profile from PCS is too big to be posted and needs to be resized.
Can we increase a bit the limit image size? whatever it is now it seems too small as a profile from PCS is too big to be posted and needs to be resized.
Why can I not log out? I only logged in because I was told I had to and now I it won't log me out!
first thoughts;
- very sterile...
- no avatars and "private message" sits louder and prouder than the poster's name on the right,
- from menu, it shows last poster on a thread but no longer has the button to that last post, only the last page number,
- blackcat's signature has "" bookending the "We're the Armstrongs",
- post number missing but I think that's been mentioned here already,
- navagation from page to page has moved - took a bit to find it
- quotes include quotes within quotes within quotes - this will get well messy!!
- no indiciation of sticky's and regular posts, read or unread, new or not,
- multi post reply function no more
and other stuff mentioned previously by other users
- very sterile...
- no avatars and "private message" sits louder and prouder than the poster's name on the right,
- from menu, it shows last poster on a thread but no longer has the button to that last post, only the last page number,
- blackcat's signature has "" bookending the "We're the Armstrongs",
- post number missing but I think that's been mentioned here already,
- navagation from page to page has moved - took a bit to find it
- quotes include quotes within quotes within quotes - this will get well messy!!
- no indiciation of sticky's and regular posts, read or unread, new or not,
- multi post reply function no more
and other stuff mentioned previously by other users
As others noted the "new posts" button is gone -can we please have that back?
Another thing, once I'am in the forum it is about the posts.
Do we really need the huge Cyclingnews bar at the top within the forum?
In combination with the format that seems to be bigger you can only see the top 4 threads in a section.
For example if I go to the Clinic there is one new thread on whole my laptop display.
This is really not optimal.
Anyway I see youv'e been working hard to help Sam.. Thanks for that.
edit: also you can see the exact time users signed up. That should not be important "looking at posters" should be as simple as possible with no unnecessary info.. And as Ahrchibald says -maybe change the size of username and private message..
Another thing, once I'am in the forum it is about the posts.
Do we really need the huge Cyclingnews bar at the top within the forum?
In combination with the format that seems to be bigger you can only see the top 4 threads in a section.
For example if I go to the Clinic there is one new thread on whole my laptop display.
This is really not optimal.
Anyway I see youv'e been working hard to help Sam.. Thanks for that.
edit: also you can see the exact time users signed up. That should not be important "looking at posters" should be as simple as possible with no unnecessary info.. And as Ahrchibald says -maybe change the size of username and private message..
Armchair cyclist
Moderator
Re: Re:
All of which was covered by the first part of the cited sentence which you excised: "I understand that some change might eventually have been necessary, and it may have technical advantages that are invisible to the user, ...". My key question was about advantages over previous advantages as a user experience. In other words, given that change was necessary for the technicians, how have they used that opportunity to make in a positive change for users. I can only see three ways (multiple quote depth, restoration of diacritics, options re date format) weighed up against several disadvantages.
TheGame said:Armchair cyclist said:
far be it for me to ever stick up for devs, but...
The version of vBulletin they were using was pretty archaic, dating back to 2011. They could not directly upgraded to the latest vBulletin but would have had to first upgrade to v4, then upgrade to v5 (and a vBulletin 5 licence is about $200-$400 depending on which they bought, but then they would have been faced with the problem that vB 5 is an utter pile of cack. There are countless major forums that have lost serious visitors and members by upgrading to it (the original vb dev team left several years ago after a dispute to create xenforo).
So..
Do they stick with VB3 which was ridden with bugs and a problem
Spend money upgradig to vb4, and then vb5 which in turn is awful
Or do what theyve done which is switch (i think xenforo would have been a better switch but makes sense they have gone to phpbb which is free, and bikeradar uses it as well)
that said, it may have paid to set up a test forum and send some regular members over to sort out the requests, missing features etc before hand
All of which was covered by the first part of the cited sentence which you excised: "I understand that some change might eventually have been necessary, and it may have technical advantages that are invisible to the user, ...". My key question was about advantages over previous advantages as a user experience. In other words, given that change was necessary for the technicians, how have they used that opportunity to make in a positive change for users. I can only see three ways (multiple quote depth, restoration of diacritics, options re date format) weighed up against several disadvantages.
Armchair cyclist
Moderator
Re: Re:
Pretty much that ^^
The options were, pay for something that wouldn't keep anybody happy - move to OpenSource that is that same as BikeRadar - then have all the opportunity to improve EVERYTHING and not be limited to a licence - and we can then share fixes and functions between two forums....
So the user experience, we have a dedicated UX (BonnyCH) who is in our team and we are from now, will be making improvements taking suggestions, responding to feedback (like now) and implementing fixes to things that users request (started, now on going).
TheGame said:Armchair cyclist said:
far be it for me to ever stick up for devs, but...
The version of vBulletin they were using was pretty archaic, dating back to 2011. They could not directly upgraded to the latest vBulletin but would have had to first upgrade to v4, then upgrade to v5 (and a vBulletin 5 licence is about $200-$400 depending on which they bought, but then they would have been faced with the problem that vB 5 is an utter pile of cack. There are countless major forums that have lost serious visitors and members by upgrading to it (the original vb dev team left several years ago after a dispute to create xenforo).
So..
Do they stick with VB3 which was ridden with bugs and a problem
Spend money upgradig to vb4, and then vb5 which in turn is awful
Or do what theyve done which is switch (i think xenforo would have been a better switch but makes sense they have gone to phpbb which is free, and bikeradar uses it as well)
that said, it may have paid to set up a test forum and send some regular members over to sort out the requests, missing features etc before hand
Pretty much that ^^
The options were, pay for something that wouldn't keep anybody happy - move to OpenSource that is that same as BikeRadar - then have all the opportunity to improve EVERYTHING and not be limited to a licence - and we can then share fixes and functions between two forums....
So the user experience, we have a dedicated UX (BonnyCH) who is in our team and we are from now, will be making improvements taking suggestions, responding to feedback (like now) and implementing fixes to things that users request (started, now on going).
Eshnar
Moderator
Eshnar
Moderator
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