01-22-2012, 05:57 PM

Hey guys, i know my account name doesn't have a lot of posts on it and it is rather new but i've been coming to mac-forums for a few years now for general mac questions and id like to say off topic thank you very much for all the help i have received, and back on topic id love to say that i absolutely love the new design.

01-22-2012, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by Razormac

How about setting up the Buy/Sell/Trade Forum as invisible until a member meets the criteria? Is this feasible or desirable?

I think thats a pretty good idea actually, it would keep down the number of "Why can't I post in B/S/T???!"

However… right now anybody can post in a thread already started and buy or trade something, right?
So unless we want to keep new joiners from buying or trading from the regulars, it wouldn't work.

01-22-2012, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by McYukon

I think thats a pretty good idea actually, it would keep down the number of "Why can't I post in B/S/T???!"

However… right now anybody can post in a thread already started and buy or trade something, right?
So unless we want to keep new joiners from buying or trading from the regulars, it wouldn't work.

I think it is a good idea, and should be mandatory on any forum. I wouldn't want to buy or sell to a member with zero reputation. eBay reps don't mean much to me either simply due to how horribly the eBay and Paypal system is set up. It's easy to get pushed around if you're the seller, as there are hardly any safeguards set up for them. Whereas the buyer can basically steal anything they want more or less.

I always try and buy from someone close to me if possible, so that I can meet them in person. Otherwise, I only trust their reputation based upon previous transaction history. On some forums, there is a separate section setup for just this sort of thing. The buyer/seller sets up the transaction, and the whole thing gets logged in a forum post. After the sale is finished, both members have an opportunity to give their account of the transaction. This way, other members can see what they should expect.

Doug

01-22-2012, 10:01 PM

Likes:
-The modern look and “bubbly” look
-New “new posts” icons
-New logo

Dislikes:
-The position of “User CP” under the “Forums” tab, I think it should be above “Log in”
-If an image has been attached, and resized by the forum, the post still has the large image under the part of the post that says “attached images”

01-22-2012, 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by McYukon

I think thats a pretty good idea actually, it would keep down the number of "Why can't I post in B/S/T???!"

However… right now anybody can post in a thread already started and buy or trade something, right?
So unless we want to keep new joiners from buying or trading from the regulars, it wouldn't work.

No. The rules have been updated, and the same criteria apply for new thread creators as they do to replies to existing threads.

01-23-2012, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by DrEwTiMe42o

I belong to tons of forums and one feature that i love when they have it is when they mark( some small smiley size icon or check mark or something) what threads you post in.

Thanks for the input.

This actually exists already! Currently on M-F, threads you have participated in are marked with this icon to the left of the thread title, and if you hover over it there you will be told how many posts you have in the thread:
Old layout:

The new forum layout has this feature as well, but it is more easily readable/noticeable!

To help you and people like you further, here's some further advice:
1. Set your default thread subscription mode option to "no email notification" (if you actually want email notices, then choose one of those options): http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/pro...do=editoptions
2. Check for newly updated threads here (this is the first place I go to every day when I want to check for new stuff, to see which of my threads have gotten responses): http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/usercp.php
3. Find all threads you have been part of here: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sub...ewsubscription

Hope that helps - I was using forums for about 5 years before I realized you could subscribe to threads to make my own participation easier to follow up on. Before I figured out subscribing wasn't going to spam me with email, I was constantly searching for my own posts to see if my threads had been active.

01-23-2012, 09:34 AM

Regarding Font Size concerns:

All major browsers have a font size setting. The forum will respect your browser settings - you can set your preference in your browser to smallest, smaller, normal, larger, or largest typically. This will help improve the text size across all sites for you.

While this could be implemented in the site, recreating functionality in the site that already exists in your browser may not be the best investment of developer time. I hope this is helpful, and we appreciate the feedback - it is noted.

01-23-2012, 09:45 AM

Originally Posted by Doug b

I'm going to chime in but with a different issue from aesthetics. At least for now anyway... This has more to do with functionality. I feel like the order in which the fora are laid out, needs a bit of revision.

I kind of understand having the "switcher" forums near the top, but the rest of it makes less sense to me. The way I'd reorder the forum structure would be something like:

Community
General
Hardware
OS X Software
iPhone, iPad, iPod
Dev Playground

I realize this may seem like nitpicking at first, but the logic behind this applies to when you think about posting a new topic. And in my experience, I'm more likely to want or need to post a new topic in hardware, Software or iOS before the others.

Opinions?

Doug

Originally Posted by cwa107

I agree - and that's something we can change pretty easily, given consensus amongst the staff.

Can you guys earmark this to follow up separately from the redesign? As cwa107 mentioned, pretty easily changed now or later (changes now will be preserved on the redesign launch), and this does not have to be part of the redesign. Once changed however, we should do so in a "final" sort of approach. Changing homepage organization can be sort of a big deal to the search bots and can impact traffic - that is fine, just not something we want to be finicky with changing on a regular basis. We can tune this up though, I agree.

01-24-2012, 06:28 PM

Could the red color be darkened just a little bit. I find myself squinting at the new print because of so much of the red fonts

01-25-2012, 02:05 PM

I like the new look, everything looks very clean. The only thing that bugged me when using it was the user control panel. My issues is I was trying to find it I eventually did, but not the way I thought it would be. In the navagation bar, it reads "User CP", to be clear it should read "User Control Panel" Other than that it looks very good.

01-26-2012, 02:28 AM

I don't like all the space wasted because of the join the conversation... Although I could see an ad going there.

When you click to type in where you search, is it possible to have a drop down option of an advanced search? Kind of like our current search.

I agree with Doug about the order of subsections.

It's looking good.

01-26-2012, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by I.M.O.G.

Regarding Font Size concerns:

All major browsers have a font size setting. The forum will respect your browser settings - you can set your preference in your browser to smallest, smaller, normal, larger, or largest typically. This will help improve the text size across all sites for you.

Also worth noting is the ability for most browsers to control font colour as well. If you don't like the colour, you can generally change a setting or use custom stylesheets to control the font. I can post an example and instructions if anyone is interested.

01-26-2012, 11:28 AM

FYI, the new style will be coming next week!

Thank you for all the testing and feedback, we're making some last minute tweaks and making sure its ready now!

01-26-2012, 12:10 PM

Thanks Matt. I'm sure I speak for many of us in saying that we appreciate all the hard work you guys have done.

01-26-2012, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by vansmith

Thanks Matt. I'm sure I speak for many of us in saying that we appreciate all the hard work you guys have done.

+1 on that