New site format

[dtravis7]

No Peyton Place? I am sad! Grin

 

[MacInWin]

I seem to recall that on the old site the Forums were in bold if there was a thread in it with an unread post. That made it easy to see what forums had changed since you last looked. Now I don't see any visible difference (maybe it's subtle and I'm missing it) between forums with new posts and forums without. Anybody got a hint of what the secret signal is?

 

[pm-r]

Have you tried refreshing whatever page view you're using???

The already read or looked at page should be in un-bolded and lighter text unless the thread was updated since your last visit. Sorta I think…

 

[nancyspeed]

And here I was blaming my new Macbook Pro and Yosemite. Glad to know the changes were real.

 

[MacInWin]

Have you tried refreshing whatever page view you're using???

The already read or looked at page should be in un-bolded and lighter text unless the thread was updated since your last visit. Sorta I think…

That works within the forums and threads, but not on the page that shows all the forums. It used to be that way on the old site at that highest level, but not any more. There may be a difference, but if so, it's very subtle and I can't see it. And if it's that subtle, it's useless.

I still don't like the new site format. Not all change is good.

 

[IWT]

I don't mean this as an impertinent question, but I've always wondered what the difference was between an administrator and a moderator in hierarchical terms - and what they do. Work jolly hard, for sure and post like mad; no doubt support the Forums in many ways. If time permits and the question is not intrusive, can one of you admins/mods give me an insight into your respective roles?

Ian

 

[vansmith]

It's mostly behind the scenes stuff that has less to do with the day to day operation of the forum. I also get a fancier throne to sit on.

 

[pm-r]

It's mostly behind the scenes stuff that has less to do with the day to day operation of the forum. I also get a fancier throne to sit on.

Being a Canadian Administrator, I guess they also devalued your position by almost 30% as well, which could be quite a blow, even if you do get one of the fancier chairs.

 

[dtravis7]

Mostly my job is finding Spam posts and getting rid of them and the users spamming the forums. Also approving posts and checking on posts users report to us as being bad.

 

[macgig]

yep. its ok. just liked the previous version. Im getting OLDer, change is tough for me. but sooner or later change happens. its the one thing in life you can count on.

RTC = Resistance to change? .

 

[Rod]

Whats the old saying? "The only thing you can rely on is change." A couple of weeks ago I suggested that the "Thumbs Up" icon could be made a little more obvious, this was in response to an OP who had said she would thumbs up us as soon as she could find the button and I posted this only to find the whole page layout changed a few days later and although the thumbs up icon has moved it's still kinda small. No doubt there are still more bugs in the site but not enough to make me abandon it.(Cradom) Personally I find it refreshingly challenging to work out the new options and layout, just like a new browser or shifting from iPhoto to Photos.

 

[Slydude]

It's mostly behind the scenes stuff that has less to do with the day to day operation of the forum. I also get a fancier throne to sit on.

You neglected to mention the practice you get in techniques euphemistically referred to as "staff management".

 

[pm-r]

Whats the old saying? "The only thing you can rely on is change." A couple of weeks ago I suggested that the "Thumbs Up" icon could be made a little more obvious, this was in response to an OP who had said she would thumbs up us as soon as she could find the button and I posted this only to find the whole page layout changed a few days later and although the thumbs up icon has moved it's still kinda small. No doubt there are still more bugs in the site but not enough to make me abandon it.(Cradom) Personally I find it refreshingly challenging to work out the new options and layout, just like a new browser or shifting from iPhoto to Photos.

Just in case the website boss can't find a decent "thumbs-up" icon to use, 'cause even the new improved one is pathetic and just sucks to be polite, try these sites and they should find one that works:
Thumbs up Icons - 40 free vector icons
https://www.google.ca/search?q=thum...X&ved=0CB0QsARqFQoTCO_aw8zDrMcCFRV9iAodYokDig

 

[vansmith]

You neglected to mention the practice you get in techniques euphemistically referred to as "staff management".

That's a rather small part of my work Some staff members, though, require a little more managing.

Just in case the website boss can't find a decent "thumbs-up" icon to use, 'cause even the new improved one is pathetic and just sucks to be polite, try these sites and they should find one that works:
Thumbs up Icons - 40 free vector icons
https://www.google.ca/search?q=thum...X&ved=0CB0QsARqFQoTCO_aw8zDrMcCFRV9iAodYokDig

Maybe I'll aesthetically inept but I don't really see how those icons are leagues better than what is available here. What's wrong with the one here?

 

[Slydude]

That's a rather small part of my work Some staff members, though, require a little more managing.

I would volunteer to have a chat with the gent in question but he appears to be a rather incorrigible fellow. I doubt a chat will do much good.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Maybe I'll aesthetically inept but I don't really see how those icons are leagues better than what is available here. What's wrong with the one here?

I was thinking the same thing as pm-r here. The problem with the "thumb-up" icon is that it looks more like some unidentifiable amorphous blob. Actually this is a problem with a lot of the smaller graphical elements. Take a close look at the "bubble with quote marks" icons at the bottom of each post. They are fuzzy AND jagged even on my iPad Air 2. When you zoom in, they look even worse.

 

[MacInWin]

Having used it for a few days, here are some things that have made the site worse than it was before. (No, chscag, this is not "Resistance to Change," these are REAL steps backwards.)

1. The Forums page no longer shows which forums have new posts. It used to, now it doesn't. To see if a forum has new posts you have to open it to see if there are any bolded thread titles. Yes, I know the New Posts function is there, but that shows ALL new posts, even in threads about which I care nothing. Why did they take away functionality? It doesn't cost anything to have a signal on the Forums page like they used to have.
2. The "View First Unread" has been moved to the right side of the screen, where is used to be on the left. Why is this a backwards step? Because when you open a thread you click on the thread title, which generally is on the left. On the old (and better) website the "View First Unread" was then on the left, very nearly where the mouse pointer ended up after the click on the thread title. That proximity meant that your mouse movement to get to that prompt was very sort. Now I have to cross the screen to the other side to get to the same function. It's not a "killer" fault but it is certainly not an improvement and the change was totally unnecessary. Change for change sake is not a good thing. I was a in software design and the key to good design is to make interface changes IF and ONLY IF they improve productivity. Never, ever, make a change that makes productivity worse. Ever.

 

[vansmith]

I was thinking the same thing as pm-r here. The problem with the "thumb-up" icon is that it looks more like some unidentifiable amorphous blob. Actually this is a problem with a lot of the smaller graphical elements. Take a close look at the "bubble with quote marks" icons at the bottom of each post. They are fuzzy AND jagged even on my iPad Air 2. When you zoom in, they look even worse.

Fair enough. I suppose it's doesn't bother me (again, aesthetic ineptitude...) but I can see how that might be frustrating, especially on high-res devices.

 

[cwa107]

FWIW, the new forum design reminds me a lot of the old forum skin before they re-did it. And folks were adamant that they would never use the new skin. Now they want that look back, LOL...

 

[bobtomay]

First off, the vBulletin software was updated with the skin - many of the changes under discussion are changes in the underlying vBulletin software that runs the forum as opposed to the skin.

The Forums main page has an indicator based on the same thing it always has - whether there are read or unread posts in a forum - shown by the icon turning from blue to gray if you have read (or marked as read) all items in that forum.

I agree with some of the changes just moving stuff from the right side to the left or left side to the right being sort of change for changes sake.
I hadn't even been able to find the 'View First Unread' link anywherefrom inside a thread and had assumed it was removed altogether.
Thanks for the heads up on the location.
I had to go hunt down a forum with multiple pages that I had not seen nor marked as read to find it.
That one I sort of understand moving it to the same location as all the other "Thread" options that are available.

edit:
Does sort of look like the one from several years back. Personally, red is my favorite color, so I like it. Can see where others might find it a bit too much though. I do like that the create a new thread box has been removed from the top of every single page of the forum that was there with the last default new user skin.