New forum vs old forum

[Adam]

I've been trying to get used to this new forum too - but I'm having the same problems as others and am finding it frustrating. I have no idea what new posts have been done since my last visit. The "Latest Activity" has a 'View more' button that only works for a few clicks and then stops showing anything else. (And even if it did continue to work, it's so inefficient).

 

I appreciate Desert Fox's view on the why's - but that still doesn't stop the issues. The last 24hrs has had numerous questions and requests, met by silence (and if not silence from ED - I can't "find" their posts to say otherwise).. I'm left not knowing if these issues are even been considered or if what we have here is 'it'. I'm thinking norbot and terry have the right idea - for me at least -in that if it's frustrating the way it is now, it's probably better for me to leave and find somewhere else to join up for DCS conversations - and check back in, in a few weeks to see if issues have been addressed rather than get more frustrated trying to persist with something that in it's current form is unworkable for me.

 

I hope to be back in a few weeks. Ciao.

[Taz1004]

I remember someone saying we want ED to work on something important than optimize the game textures. Maybe this was the something important they were working on.

[71st_AH Rob]

But it isn't. Boy are we a conservative lot. The old forum was a pain to read on a mobile device. This isn't. It was a pain to maintain and secure. This one most likely isn't. It's called progress buddy. And yea, that entails change.

 

But it isn't, the old forum at least you could use Tapatalk if you didn't like the desktop forum on your mobile device, this one is impossible to navigate on my Pixel and is terrible for a desktop. I always used the desktop version on my phone and it was fine. As an example, on my phone I couldn't even vote on this forum poll because it just opens automatically to the results, I had to make a special effort to find it on the desktop version when I got home from work just so I could vote on how I felt about the change.

Edited October 22, 2020 by 71st_AH Rob

[Eldur]

While trying to read stuff here, suddenly popping up out of nowhere:

 

Error

 

Error information: " 0 error "

 

Yeah. Seems legit. But:

[Grimes]

For what its worth I liked seeing the most recent post of a given sub-forum. If I saw something odd it gave reason to see what it was about. Especially in the sections I don't read much. If it was customizable it'd be great. All I wanna see are the latest posts in the main bug section and the DCS World Topics.

 

But I guess rep is back now? So thats neat.

[Eldur]

It's not about getting the old forum back, this was a long-overdue software update, we won't be going back, sorry. We will just push through the issues and get it working as we like, thanks.

 

Totally agree that it was long overdue, especially since the old version probably had some security issues that you wanted to have fixed which is something users normally don't think of when these updates happen. Just looks like we have to go through making the experience as close to the old one as possible together. Guess the first step is making the things work again that got broken, then the next one would be to change or customize the CSS to make the look more eye-friendly and after that comes the nice-to-have things. And we'll probably have to live with some things like being unable to middle click reply buttons to open them in separate tabs.

 

BTW you're the only one so far I've seen with a working signature picture. You moderators sure are some lucky gits at the moment. BTW, while we're at it (I hope it's not too OT), I'd suggest changing a part of the rules to more modern terms:

 

2 SIGNATURE AND AVATAR RULES:

 

2.1 Signatures may include images and/or text. If using images, use the Control Panel to upload the image to the forum for hosting and make sure it does not exceed the stated limitations of 500x100x20KB. There is no linking to 3'rd party servers for signature image hosting.

 

2.2 Use the Control Panel to upload an avatar to the forum for hosting and make sure it does not exceed the stated limitations of 80x80x20KB. There is no linking to 3'rd party servers for avatar image hosting.

 

2.3 Maximum signature height is 6 text lines. Take 20 px height of a picture as one text line. So a signature with 100 px height picture can have one text line below or above the picture.

 

My point to make is the size limits do come from an era where people still were browsing the web on 56k with 800x600 or even lower screens. Any chance to have that revisited to fit more modern standards? I guess twice the sig height (or at least 150px) and twice the avatar size (especially considering the current layout around it having more than enough space for that) should be quite possible without cluttering up the visuals at all. Also, (haven't checked here yet), the old board had a pic size limit on the photo albums of 800x600 IIRC. I tried to put some settings screenshots in there (so I could always say "check my profile" instead of posting the same stuff over and over again), but that limit made it almost impossible to read off the things so I never actually did that. Being able to put screenshots of our graphics settings as well as graphics card settings and maybe even a dxdiag file somewhere sure would help bughunting. Would totally appreciate if you could consider changing this to more modern standards.

[Wrightie]

Thanks Taz

[theGozr]

New forum is not better.. not good.. confusing.. there are good options but the navigation is terrible.. we are lost/

Edited October 22, 2020 by theGozr

[some1]

I have to add my voice to the opinion that the new forum is a huge step back in usability. What I miss the most is the high level view of the new topics and unread posts like the old forum had.

 

The "Latest Activity" view is near useless, maybe good for a forum that has ten posts a day, not a huge forum like this. It doesn't even remember which topics I've already read, it doesn't bring me to the unread portion of a thread, clicking "more" every couple threads is very inefficient.

[portman]

I have to add my voice to the opinion that the new forum is a huge step back in usability. What I miss the most is the high level view of the new topics and unread posts like the old forum had.

This! And where is the "mark forums read" button??

 

 

[Worrazen]

Hmm, I can't find how to edit signatures ... even with the small font the signature is taller than it should be IMO, the space between lines is ridicolously big right now, signatures are fine if they're not too big.

Actually the font seems to visually be smaller but the borders are still big ... tho it could be browser specific, I'll do more tests, but I'm currently so busy with other stuff again, pulled the trigger on a new PC this week, but DCS for me is still months away.

 

We need to get some serious community effort into this, especially the themes, should be as if we're developing a module or something, so I would say that the staff should not rush out some fixes only for it to not be enough and milktoast so let's just sit down and do it right no need to run around in circles, I don't want to dramatize, but I want to say right now sooner rather than later that it definitely has a big effect on how much I'll be tempted to visit the site IMO, it's a huge psychological factor the way the site navigates and feels, flows and all that.

 

I would be fine taking the time helping this place get sorted out before I get back into DCS in a couple of months, probably past january 2021 because I'll wait to see how ZEN3 prices go, I didn't pull the trigger on a proper CPU just yet, if prices fall maybe I'll get a 16 core, we'll see.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Worrazen

[fatboy]

My beautiful sigpic, Gone , Wherefore art thou?

[Eldur]

Just noticed another inconvenience. When going to page 2+ on any forum that has stickies, the stickies will be listed there on every page, cluttering the page. Not 100% sure if that was the case before, but I think the regular thread count visible was bigger, like 20 or even 30 instead of just 10. Anyway it would be preferrable to hide the stickies from consecutive pages. It's good enough to have them on the first one.

[Dav IRL]

The new forum is better on mobile but a step back on desktop.

[Ramstein]

I need bigger text, I changed the Theme/Style on mine to denim (better than default IMO), but the tiny* text is very hard on my old eyes... I use Desktop. I understand about when forums need updated. Hopefully, in time with the powers that be, it will all be set right.

[Nate--IRL--]

 

Since lots of folks hate the look and feel, i thought i visualize where this most probably comes from. Again, this isn't meant to hate but help ED and everyone to qualify what's wrong and maybe how to fix it.

 

Problems here are (incomplete list):

• There's way too many lines.Way too many. No clear structure in general.
  
• Inconsistent spacing.
  
• Sub-forums column design breaking the general used line design.
  
• Lines being interrupted/crashing content, especially horizontally.
  
• Lack of visual guidelines horizontally as well as vertically which would make it easier for the eyes to stay on content.
  

If i feel like later or tomorrow, i guess i'll fire up my graphics software of choice and visualize how things could be done better maybe.

 

[ATTACH=JSON]{"alt":"Click image for larger version Name:\tNew Forum Alleys.jpg Views:\t0 Size:\t269.1 KB ID:\t7114231","data-align":"none","data-attachmentid":"7114231","data-size":"medium"}[/ATTACH]

 

That's a good analysis of the layout issues. It's incoherent at present.

 

Nate

[Mainstay]

I don’t mind the new forum I just don’t like the way it looks. If they can change that a bit more towards the old format it would be good

[Robi Hobby]

is this a Joke ? Or is it a construction site? I don't feel comfortable when I have to see this. Everything looks somehow worse, even on a 32" Monitor. ???? :(

[Kayos]

Is this a permanent change? It is horrible.

[frosen]

You got to be kidding ED! This is just a mess, don't even know where to start.... just give us the old one back.

[Eldur]

The design is really geared towards mobile use, which is okay looking at many folks in general surfing mobile these days. Reading mobile on the old forums really was a pita and is way better now. (yep, it's not all bad :D)

 

It is not okay, but just unacceptable. It is possible to detect the display device type well enough my multiple parameters and then use a dedicated stylesheet for each of those if required. It was already possible ~20 years ago when I first dived into that stuff. Not making use of that which nowadays is stone age tech, is cleary just cheaping on out. And vB is a paid proprietary software, so that makes it even more unacceptable. And if things nowadays simply are just aimed at mobile usage, it's just a bloody shame, no more no less. And I haven't even touched accessibility here...

 

Also, I checked how the forum looks on my N9. It's literally like reading a newspaper through a telescope whereas it was like reading a package insert for your pills with 20/100 vision before. Neither was or is good.

 

BTW, when posting, having that automagical "here, look at the post you've just dropped" scrolling thing is just nervous and unnecessary. Especially since we simply can't tab out the reply window anymore. I've seen better GUI programming than this in DOS times. Simply don't shackle the user up and pull him across the floor. Just do not do it.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Eldur

[Worrazen]

The new forum is better on mobile but a step back on desktop.

 

 

So much for the PC Master Race :(

Edited October 22, 2020 by Worrazen

[Eldur]

I guess vBulletin themselves literally still run a 3.8.14 for a reason...

[ben1101]

Is it possible to change the forum layout back? I absolutely hate it, it doesnt present any relevant information unlike the old layout.

 

Disappointed.

[Andrew u.k.]

Please can you add the Tapatalk plug in.

 

Thank you for contacting Tapatalk! That forum does not have a working Tapatalk plugin running, hence causing the issue. We contacted the forum owner to update their plugin. Please report the same to your forum admin as requests from members are looked into more quickly. Chris Tapatalk Support