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Author Topic: Congratulations on the new software implementation  (Read 43161 times)

Dick Roadnight

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #100 on: August 11, 2010, 05:04:26 pm »

The time offset just worked fine for me in Safari on Snow Leopard, not sure why it's not working for you.  Do you have anything that might be blocking javascript from running?

What "preview" are you talking about?  I'm not familiar with that.
Time offset is now working.

I think it was in Safari, it said there was a keyboard short cut to get to show the preview screen from the post reply page. The option is not shown here (Firefox), but ctrl-p shows the preview screen
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mguertin

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #101 on: August 11, 2010, 05:20:15 pm »

Time offset is now working.

I think it was in Safari, it said there was a keyboard short cut to get to show the preview screen from the post reply page. The option is not shown here (Firefox), but ctrl-p shows the preview screen

I've removed the text that says how to do the keyboard shortcuts ... they don't work properly across different browsers and platforms -- it's very hit and miss.  I found what you were talking about shortly after the fact.  Best bet is to actually click the preview button if you want to preview, it will work in all browser on all OSes :)
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Dustbak

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #102 on: August 11, 2010, 05:27:37 pm »

I won't say too much about the design and layout besides it needs improvement to get it even close to before.

One thing I would really like and I have seen someone else make a reference to it as well. I like to have a 'next & previous' button on the left that allows me to scroll through the different pages within one thread. Now I need to click on the numbers and constantly aim at a different place. This might sound silly but it would be an improvement in how to read a longer thread.

This thread already had 6 pages I needed to read before getting to the last post.
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Kevin Gallagher

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #103 on: August 11, 2010, 05:35:32 pm »

Please read the New Forum Tips post (or the info previously in this thread), it tells you how to find that.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=45410.0

 Got it Mark, thanks!!
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michael

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #104 on: August 11, 2010, 05:39:03 pm »

The Next and Previous buttons are at the bottom right of the page.

Michael
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Dustbak

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #105 on: August 11, 2010, 05:41:28 pm »

Yes, but these take you from one thread to another and not from one page to the next in the same thread. The next & previous on the right simply don't make sense to me since I never browse from one thread to another.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 05:43:07 pm by Dustbak »
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MarkM

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #106 on: August 11, 2010, 05:50:11 pm »

The next & previous on the right simply don't make sense to me since I never browse from one thread to another.

Yes. In fact I clicked on those trying to go to the next page and was really confused because the conversation seemed to go totally off topic on the next page.
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mguertin

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #107 on: August 11, 2010, 06:56:12 pm »

Yes. In fact I clicked on those trying to go to the next page and was really confused because the conversation seemed to go totally off topic on the next page.

At the bottom left and top left are the links to jump directly to the thread pages:  Pages: 1 ... 4 5 [6]
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Bob Peterson

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #108 on: August 11, 2010, 08:22:49 pm »

I browse the Forum using both a large desktop display and on my phone.  My phone lacks a keyboard, meaning that all navigation and selection is by touch.  The devices I use obviously influence some of my comments.

If you don't mind, what minimum screen size do you expect and/or design for?  Some of my expectations might well violate your design parameters, in which case I'll adjust my expectations.  The layout looks like it was designed for a screen with a minimum width of 1024 pixels.

Major issue, previously mentioned.
  • On the "Personal Messages Index" page I can display the actual email addresses for some members by hovering over the envelope icon present next to some messages.  I checked a couple of the members' profiles, and their profile shows "hidden" for their email address. (I incorrectly postulated that the members' whose email addresses showed up might have elected to allow them to be seen.) I assume displaying an email address is not the intended behavior.

Minor issues, some previously mentioned but now with additional detail:
  • If the browser is narrow (happens in Firefox if I make the window narrow, and always on my HTC EVO phone with a screen 800 pixels wide) the banner image at the top of the screen covers the status text in the upper right corner.  (I previously mischaracterized the problem as the text wrapping incorrectly or appropriately.)
  • Did the private area for Antarctic workshop participants get left behind, or did I simply lose access to it?  Since my posts from that board don't show up in the list of my posts, I expect that board wasn't migrated to the new system.
  • The "Go Up" link (in Firefox, at least) doesn't actually move to the top of the page, which might be intentional.  Instead it places the path to the current board at the top of the browser page.  This means I can't see the status text next to my avatar image.

Suggestions:
  • I find useful a "next page" navigation link that remains in the same place on the screen from one page to the next, assuming the top of the page is at the top of the browser window.  The page numbers work, but require carefully choosing a specific link.  I suggest a left arrow (previous page) and right arrow (next page) link to the left of the page numbers.  This change makes navigation easier on (small) touch devices.
  • I initially thought the "Go Up" link at the bottom of the page would take me back to the list of topics.  "Top of Page" and "Bottom of Page" would be much less ambiguous, IMHO.
  • The "previous" and "next" links waste a line.  I suggest moving them to the left end of the topic jump line, just below the list of page numbers.  Also, there should be plenty of room to say "Previous Topic" and "Next Topic" to clearly indicate their function and distinguish their function from the page numbers.
  • I suggest making the "Jump to:" dropdown field narrower.  There's a lot of space between the widest board name and the "go" button.  This will improve usability on narrow (phone) screens, as well as provide room for implementing the previous suggestion.
  • I suggesting changing the link text, "Return to main site" to something like "LL Home Page".  I find "main site" ambiguous (LL Home page versus the Forum home page).

Thank you for patiently paying attention to our concerns.  I'm confident that with time we'll all get much more comfortable with the new software.  And I'm now very curious what new features are in store for us.

Bob
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #109 on: August 11, 2010, 08:58:35 pm »

Some questions:

- How to switch to threaded/indented view? This is the most important function for me as it is next to impossible to follow a thread with one post after another,
- Is there a way to increase significantly the space between posts? The current 1 pixel white line makes the whole thing very very hard to read

Thank you.

Cheers,
Bernard

K.C.

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #110 on: August 11, 2010, 10:43:25 pm »

Free forum software like this always needs countless tweaks.

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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #111 on: August 11, 2010, 11:39:40 pm »

Most of my major gripes have been taken care of, thank you very much.
Knowing that the "new" button is in fact a link to the position I want to go to is a big help.
Knowing that "prev" and "next" are useless (i.e., take you to the next or previous topic, not page) is helpful.
Making a visible line separating posts would make me deliriously happy.

I think Bob's (rwzeitgeist) suggestions are excellent.

So I think I'll be able to stay here a while.
Now if I can only figure out something useful to do with marqueed text...   (Thank you, MarkM!)
Eric
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Dustbak

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #112 on: August 12, 2010, 01:08:50 am »

Mark,

That is exactly what is so bothersome. There is no possibility to simply click on 'next' or 'previous' page within a thread. Having to select pagenumbers is IMO very user unfriendly and unpleasant, especially with threads with a lot of pages.
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mguertin

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #113 on: August 12, 2010, 01:39:15 am »

I browse the Forum using both a large desktop display and on my phone.  My phone lacks a keyboard, meaning that all navigation and selection is by touch.  The devices I use obviously influence some of my comments.

If you don't mind, what minimum screen size do you expect and/or design for?  Some of my expectations might well violate your design parameters, in which case I'll adjust my expectations.  The layout looks like it was designed for a screen with a minimum width of 1024 pixels.

Major issue, previously mentioned.
  • On the "Personal Messages Index" page I can display the actual email addresses for some members by hovering over the envelope icon present next to some messages.  I checked a couple of the members' profiles, and their profile shows "hidden" for their email address. (I incorrectly postulated that the members' whose email addresses showed up might have elected to allow them to be seen.) I assume displaying an email address is not the intended behavior.

Minor issues, some previously mentioned but now with additional detail:
  • If the browser is narrow (happens in Firefox if I make the window narrow, and always on my HTC EVO phone with a screen 800 pixels wide) the banner image at the top of the screen covers the status text in the upper right corner.  (I previously mischaracterized the problem as the text wrapping incorrectly or appropriately.)
  • Did the private area for Antarctic workshop participants get left behind, or did I simply lose access to it?  Since my posts from that board don't show up in the list of my posts, I expect that board wasn't migrated to the new system.
  • The "Go Up" link (in Firefox, at least) doesn't actually move to the top of the page, which might be intentional.  Instead it places the path to the current board at the top of the browser page.  This means I can't see the status text next to my avatar image.

Suggestions:
  • I find useful a "next page" navigation link that remains in the same place on the screen from one page to the next, assuming the top of the page is at the top of the browser window.  The page numbers work, but require carefully choosing a specific link.  I suggest a left arrow (previous page) and right arrow (next page) link to the left of the page numbers.  This change makes navigation easier on (small) touch devices.
  • I initially thought the "Go Up" link at the bottom of the page would take me back to the list of topics.  "Top of Page" and "Bottom of Page" would be much less ambiguous, IMHO.
  • The "previous" and "next" links waste a line.  I suggest moving them to the left end of the topic jump line, just below the list of page numbers.  Also, there should be plenty of room to say "Previous Topic" and "Next Topic" to clearly indicate their function and distinguish their function from the page numbers.
  • I suggest making the "Jump to:" dropdown field narrower.  There's a lot of space between the widest board name and the "go" button.  This will improve usability on narrow (phone) screens, as well as provide room for implementing the previous suggestion.
  • I suggesting changing the link text, "Return to main site" to something like "LL Home Page".  I find "main site" ambiguous (LL Home page versus the Forum home page).

Thank you for patiently paying attention to our concerns.  I'm confident that with time we'll all get much more comfortable with the new software.  And I'm now very curious what new features are in store for us.

Bob

Thanks Bob, all good comments.

Issues:
I've fixed the personal message index.  The default of SMF forum software is to show email addresses to other members and they only give you the ability to hide them from guests.  I've manually been hiding the email addresses in the appropriate templates as we find them.  I'll adjust this one right now.  If you find any others, or anyone else does, please let me know and I will fix these.

For the 800px wide issue, the layout is setup to require at least 900-950px wide and is not easily changeable, sorry.  The Antarctic forum is still there, it's likely a permissions issue as it shows that it's not a public forum.  Will look into this.  Lastly the "Go Up" does indeed by design only go to the breadcrumbs links, not the top of the header (not my design, the forum's design).

Suggestions:
The page numbers is not my choice unfortunately, it's the way the forum software works and is surprisingly a lot of work to change -- not to mention a bad idea to make those kinds of low level changes if they are avoidable (thinking of forum software updates and the problems this would cause).  If I can find a mod that takes care of this I'll give it a shot as I agree with you, but it's one of those "that's the way it works" answers that you get stuck with sometimes with software you don't write for yourself :(

The previous and next links are also not my cup of tea, but some people really like them as well.

The Jump To field is actually the width of the longest forum name, being "Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography" or at least it is on my setup.

I agree with the return to main site link and I will change that right now.
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mguertin

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #114 on: August 12, 2010, 02:01:40 am »

Some more tweaks have been made.  There are next page/prev page arrows for the topics pages (there was a mod for this that works).  Link names have changed and I made the Previous/Next post links go away.  If people complain enough for it it can come back with better wording.  Also some small stylesheet tweaks -- quotes, code blocks, links in posts and lines separating the posts.

I will at some point figure out how to kill that marquee text too Marquee is officially dead :P
« Last Edit: August 12, 2010, 02:36:12 am by Mark Guertin »
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MarkM

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #115 on: August 12, 2010, 02:36:46 am »

Mark Guertin, you've had a busy day (or couple of days). The changes since this morning make a big difference. Thanks for taking all the time to wade through all our advice.
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mguertin

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #116 on: August 12, 2010, 02:38:33 am »

Mark Guertin, you've had a busy day (or couple of days). The changes since this morning make a big difference. Thanks for taking all the time to wade through all our advice.

Thanks Mark.  I'm glad to tweak things and get it running well for (most) everyone where I can.
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Dustbak

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #117 on: August 12, 2010, 03:27:39 am »

yes, Thx!. This is further improvement.
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Dick Roadnight

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #118 on: August 12, 2010, 04:39:22 am »

I've removed the text that says how to do the keyboard shortcuts ... they don't work properly across different browsers and platforms -- it's very hit and miss.  I found what you were talking about shortly after the fact.  Best bet is to actually click the preview button if you want to preview, it will work in all browser on all OSes :)

In Safari (which I have given up using again) with the expandable edit box, the preview button is often not on the screen... so the shortcut is useful - but each user has to work out what works on their machine - perhaps you could add this to the tips and tricks?

ctrl-p works on Mac/Firefox as well!
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Ronny Nilsen

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Re: Congratulations on the new software implementation
« Reply #119 on: August 12, 2010, 04:52:24 am »

After all the work done I think the new forum now works just fine for my use.
I'm impressed with how smooth this have gone, and that migration of users and
old content have gone so well!

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