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Author Topic: Congratulations on the new software implementation  (Read 43150 times)

wolfnowl

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #40 on: August 11, 2010, 02:22:41 am »

Michael:  I appreciate your efforts to improve the site.  Three things that I'd like to see changed, though.  One, as many have said already, I like to come into the forums and see what messages are new since I last logged in.  That facility IS available in the upper right, but...

1) The word 'New' is over the subject of every new thread (see attachment)
2) In the old forums there was an icon that would take me to the 'last unread' post in a thread.  The new forums only take you to the first or last post.
3) I don't see a way to upload images into a message as there was before.  There's an 'add image' icon for images on the web already, and there is an attachment feature, but no way (that I can see) to insert images into the body of a post as before.

Mike.
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HiltonP

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #41 on: August 11, 2010, 03:30:33 am »

I'd like to support Wolfnowl's comment . . . I always pressed the show new messages button before, it allowed me to quickly view all the latest and topical threads. It no longer appears to work since when I clicked on it this morning it told me there were no new messages, which is clearly incorrect. I have no problem with the changes, although I think the new look is somewhat kitsch. Good luck with the implementations.
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Morris Taub

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #42 on: August 11, 2010, 03:55:16 am »

I haven't read all the messages so forgive if already mentioned :

I visited early this morning and when I came back, had to log in again...logged in, went off and visited a few sites and when i came back here had to log in, again...



Rob C

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #43 on: August 11, 2010, 04:01:35 am »

This is terrible: no soul and utterly ugly, or a Fred might say, hugly. ;-)

The last arrangement was a delight to use - with this one, I feel disconnected and totally without identity; why did anyone want to fix what wasn't broken?

Rob C
« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 04:05:56 am by Rob C »
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stamper

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #44 on: August 11, 2010, 04:07:47 am »

Some sites such as

http://nikonuktalk.com/index.php

allow you to change the default colour. I haven't had time to properly search this site to see if it is possible. Can it be done?

yaya

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #45 on: August 11, 2010, 05:21:22 am »

Does anyone know how to change the local time settings? I mean it is NOT 04:19 In London right now:-)
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yaya

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #46 on: August 11, 2010, 05:24:15 am »

Found it
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HiltonP

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #47 on: August 11, 2010, 06:00:45 am »

I visited early this morning and when I came back, had to log in again...logged in, went off and visited a few sites and when i came back here had to log in, again...
Yup, same here.
Just refreshing the page prompts a new login.
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Graham Mitchell

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #48 on: August 11, 2010, 06:04:19 am »

I understand why the back end software was changed, but the old GUI was great. The new GUI is really poor. It's cluttered looking and there are strange aspects of the layout. Example: you have to scroll to the top of the page every time to get to the 'reply' button.
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John R Smith

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #49 on: August 11, 2010, 06:48:52 am »

Well, Michael and the Team

I am sorry, but this is not an improvement. The old Forum was simple and elegant, and facilitated the purpose of the software in an unobtrusive way. This new interface looks cheap and ugly, and is clunky to use. Like Rob C, I feel alienated by it. I do not understand how you, Michael, as a fine photographer with a developed sense of aesthetic and design values, could have preferred something that looked like this. I think that most of us here probably did not wish for more features (or gimmicks), we simply wanted to be able to talk to each other, exchange ideas, and post pictures.

I have been on the LuLa Forum for some years now, and always loved it. Now I feel like I don't want to come here anymore. Sorry, but that's how it is.

John
« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 06:51:21 am by John R Smith »
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NikoJorj

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #50 on: August 11, 2010, 06:59:27 am »

A suggestion: I liked the ability to move to top of page from any post, saved scrolling for me. I see you have a go up / go down at bottom and top of pages, helpful, but to do at least go to top from any post would be better, at least IMO.
Don't know if that works on all browser but with FF ctrl-home (top of page) or ctrl-end (bottom of page) should do the trick (and avoid to have too many nav links cluttering the space around messages).


After the first puzzling moment of "what's where", I'm amazed that such a major change did go with so few glitches.

I didn't see any, connecting now... apart from the things that google still links old post adresses, which are not compatible with the new board giving only 404 - is there a way to make a redirect?
Google may re-index the forum, but there are a fair bunch of links here and there, eg in other forums (so that people may know what is a good one like).

For the GUI side of things, I'd like too some more delimitation (a frame would be good, or a black title box as in the "topic summary" presentation I see right now in the post reply page)*.
To look at good things, I particularly like the way photo thumbnails expand in the page on clicking, rather that opening a new window/tab.

Edit 1 : Another little suggestion : in another SMF forum, I can hover on the title of a post in post listings to see the beginning of the message - very practical to decypher a not-so-well-chosen post title. Could this be implemented here, please?

*Edit 2 : the windowbg2 css object might control the frame, and there might be a postsep object too between posts? Just some quick'n'dirty guess based on css inspection and another SMF site, so this should be taken with a truckload of salt but I wish it might help.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 07:16:50 am by NikoJorj »
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Nicolas from Grenoble
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Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #51 on: August 11, 2010, 07:14:20 am »

I like the new background and find it more pleasing on the eyes.  It took me a minute to figure out that the <<next>> & <<previous>> buttons at the bottom right moved you between threads rather than pages within the same thread (which is what I thought would happen).  Other than that and the initial "strangeness" of a new format, I'm liking it.

alan
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John R Smith

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #52 on: August 11, 2010, 07:23:29 am »

Alright, then, some examples.

* The smileys are small and horrible.

* The fact that a thumbnail image opened in a new window was good thing, because you could keep that open and refer to it while you made a reply in the user critique section.

* The quotes in a post look horrible and cramped, whereas the old ones looked elegant.

* I went to all the trouble of writing an interesting potted biography in my old user profile, which has now vanished.

* I am 64 years old, and an English gentleman. I do not want someone shouting at me "Hey, John R Smith" at the top of the screen - that might sit well with twenty-year olds and their i-pods or whatever, but not with me. The salutation on the old board was appropriate.

* Whoever it was that designed the old bulletin board understood the basics of good typography, layout and design - something which is just as important on a PC screen as it is in print. This new one was obviously designed by a software engineer.

John
« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 08:29:22 am by John R Smith »
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Guillermo Luijk

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I already knew the SMF bulletin engine from other forums and I think it's OK, like most of them. However there are two things I think could be improved here:

  • A MUST: Links don't have a recognisable colour, underline or whatever to make them distinguishable. In fact in this post there is a link to a picture of my dog, try to find it.
  • A MATTER OF PERSONAL TASTE: the font size is a bit large, on a laptop it wastes space.

Regards
« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 07:29:16 am by Guillermo Luijk »
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NikoJorj

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Re: Guillermo and John R Smith
« Reply #54 on: August 11, 2010, 07:33:32 am »

A MUST: Links don't have a recognisable colour, underline or wathever to make them distinguishable.
They're dark green, actually... Yes, I too find not very easy to see what's a link and what's not.
Nice dog!

* The fact that a thumbnail image opened in a new window was good thing, because you could keep that open and refer to it while you made a reply in the user critique section.
You still could by clicking on the link under the thumbnail... However there is a small bug in that my browser (FF) doesn't recognize it first as an image and wants to pass it to my image viewer ; I'd guess the link misses an ";image" at the end.

Edit :
* I went to all the trouble of writing an interesting potted biography in my user profile, which has now vanished.
Bitten too. You have to hit the "change profile" button on the bottom of that page to save edits.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 07:38:33 am by NikoJorj »
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Nicolas from Grenoble
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Guillermo Luijk

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They're dark green, actually... Yes, I too find not very easy to see what's a link and what's not.
Nice dog!

Wow! it's true. That dark green is a fantastic camouflage on my screen, I needed to zoom 800% to see any difference.
Thanks, even if Coco looks like a homeless dog, he belongs to a very rare race from the Mediterranean Spanish coast called something like "Mouse catcher".

Regards

NikoJorj

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Re: Automatic/permanent login
« Reply #56 on: August 11, 2010, 07:41:30 am »

A last thing : I too would appreciate a way not to have to login at each visit...
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Nicolas from Grenoble
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Bob Peterson

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #57 on: August 11, 2010, 08:01:24 am »

I like the new look.  It feels much cleaner.

On a relatively narrow screen, e.g., my HTC EVO phone, in the top right corner of the page the text next my avatar doesn't seem to have enough space to wrap properly.  The result is pretty much incomprehensible.

I notice the private Antarctica section is missing.  Or can I simply not see it?  I can still see the messages I posted there in "My Messages".

Another leak of actual email addresses: If I hover over the envelope icon shown in a message in the "Personal Messages Index" page (reached via "My Messages") I can see the user's actual email address. Not all the messages display the envelope icon, I suspect because not all users entered an email address in their profile.

Bob
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JohnKoerner

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #58 on: August 11, 2010, 08:45:03 am »

Well, I for one did not have to login again from last night, so no complaint there. And what I really like is the fact I can control my own posts (as threads), even removing them if I so choose.

What I don't like is the color scheme---I find myself squinting due to the brightness and the letters are too large. I feel the previous iteration of this board was easier on the eyes by far.

However, I find the responsiveness of this board better, and I do see its potential. If the color scheme could be dimmed-down a bit, and (as mentioned) maybe more separation between posts, it would be perfecto IMO. (Edit: oh yeah, and the smiley faces do suck, sorry to say).

Still, either way, this forum is much appreciated as I have learned A LOT of valuable information here, and am glad to have it as a resource whichever way it comes.

Jack



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« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 08:54:04 am by JohnKoerner »
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michael

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #59 on: August 11, 2010, 08:53:39 am »

Thanks to those that like the new software. Regrets to those that don't.

But, I'll repeat here (for the last time) that the change wasn't made to fix something that wasn't (for most people) broken. The reason for us using this new forum software has nothing to do with the user interface of the forum itself. I too was used to the old one and regret its passing.

The reason why we're using this forum software is because its database structure allows us to implement new features  which we are developing that relate to the main site itself and have little to do with the discussion forum. I'm pretty sure most people will like these features once they're introduced in the months ahead, but the price to be paid is this new forum software. The old software simply couldn't handle what we are trying to do as we move the site forward.

Please continue to mention those aspects of the forum software that you don't like and Mark G will do what he can to accommodate requests.

Also, please take the time to learn the new software. It won't take long and many of the things that people are complaining about as missing, are there, just in different places.

Michael
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