Congratulations on the new software implementation

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I sure hope the new forum software can be adjusted, because the way it is now is extremely cumbersome to read or to reply to. Echoing what some others have said, the following are absolutely essential if I am to continue using what used to be my very favorite forum:

1.   Yes, a big, bold, visible line should separate messages. I get a headache trying to read them now.
2.   Every post should have a "reply" button and a "quote" button. I am not willing to scroll up and down through a thread looking for the post I want to quote, only to have to try to find my way back to the "reply" section.
3.   On the old system, when I asked for "new posts", I could always go to the first unread post, wherever it was on the page. But now, all I can do is get to the page that contains new posts, and then scroll madly up and down until I see something that looks new. There aren't even any indicators on individual posts about whether this one has been read or not. If this capability of the old system can't be provided, I will very reluctantly have to bid farewell to the forum.

I'll be checking in only about once a week instead of a few times each day. The time I save will be spent doing photography.

 

Eric

[mguertin]

Hi Folks

There are some user problems I've about read in this thread that I'll quickly address here as a tip and tricks sort of approach on how to use this new forum software.  Many o the things that people are complaining about are already there and you just need to explore a bit to find where all the new bells and whistles are in this forum software.  There are a lot of other things that aren't (easily) accomplished and we'll never be able to satisfy everyone.  I will try to make some tweaks on the colours to get the contrast better for links, etc. but it will be difficult to please everyone and we'll have to satisfy for a compromise.

Tips:
- Click on the "new" icon that sits besides any topics with new posts on it to see the latest post that you haven't yet read.
- to stay logged in permanently or for longer periods of time click on the login link in the top navigation panel and login from that page which gives you more advanced options than the "quick login" at the top right of any page.
- the top right area is very handy and gives you quick links to your private messages, unread posts, and replies to your posts
- for changing time zones and anything else related specifically to your account and/or preferences explore the "Profile" link fro the top navigation bar.  There's a lot of stuff you can tweak in there.
- to post attachments or manage subscription options click on the "additional options" link below the text box when replying to or starting a new post.

A couple of other quick things ... we can't "revert" back to the old forum software -- all the requests/complaints/whatever can't change that so filling up this thread with me too's is pointless.  As for smiley's I can look into those, but I honestly didn't think that they were a very integral part of a photography discussion forum or a deal breaker   The quick reply box suggestion is a good one, I will look into turning that on today.

Lastly there are some other things that are low level parts of the forum that are not something easily accommodated, such as changing the base behaviour of how it handles image attachments, etc.  I will look into what can be done about some of this stuff as well, but again, there's no pleasing everyone.  One person's perfect way of handling something like that is the next person's worst method of handling it.

One more request I'd like to make, for the users that are complaining that some features or parts of the forum don't work for them, it would be very helpful if you include your browser, version and OS and version to help track these things down.  Without that detailed information it's throwing darts in the dark to try and figure out the issue at hand.

[Dick Roadnight]

Hi Folks
The quick reply box suggestion is a good one, I will look into turning that on today.

It might be nice, sometimes, to be able to use the "quick reply" option... but we seem to have lost the normal "reply" option with the bigger window... please fix.

(you do get a slightly bigger window when you preview... Safari has a sizable window (for the old software), and Firefox has not)

[mguertin]

It might be nice, sometimes, to be able to use the "quick reply" option... but we seem to have lost the normal "reply" option with the bigger window... please fix.

(you do get a slightly bigger window when you preview... Safari has a sizable window (for the old software), and Firefox has not)

With the quick reply enabled by default it uses the quick reply window.  If you want the full sized reply window hitting the "Preview" button takes you to the standard interface for replies.  Unfortunately it's one or the other.  For now I'm going to turn off the quick reply globally, if you want to use quick reply you can enable it in your Profile preferences -- so for the advanced users that prefer quick reply you can enable it for yourselves, if you don't enable it you will get the standard reply page.

[Dick Roadnight]

Hi Folks

- for changing time zones and anything else related specifically to your account and/or preferences explore the "Profile" link fro the top navigation bar.  There's a lot of stuff you can tweak in there.

The profile "time offset" function does not work in safari or Firefox on Snow leopard... I have just updated firefox and flash to the latest versions.

...and alt-p does not work for preview either.

[mguertin]

The profile "time offset" function does not work in safari or Firefox on Snow leopard... I have just updated firefox and flash to the latest versions.

...and alt-p does not work for preview either.

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.

[NikoJorj]

2.   Every post should have a "reply" button and a "quote" button.

They do, though! in the upper right corner of the post (they're links actually).

3.   On the old system, when I asked for "new posts", I could always go to the first unread post, wherever it was on the page. But now, all I can do is get to the page that contains new posts, and then scroll madly up and down until I see something that looks new.

It seems that the first time you login on the new board, the machine is a bit confused about what you've read and what you've not. After the second one it worked OK for me.

[mguertin]

They do, though! in the upper right corner of the post (they're links actually).
It seems that the first time you login on the new board, the machine is a bit confused about what you've read and what you've not. After the second one it worked OK for me.

Yes, they do now ... I added the reply button a little while ago so the initial request was valid.

Also the forum will be confused the first time you log on as it's your first time on this forum software ... it doesn't really know what you read on the previous forum software that we just upgraded from (although it does try to take a wild guess which it fails at more often than not).

[NikoJorj]

Yes, they do now ... I added the reply button a little while ago so the initial request was valid.

Oooops, my mistake, and I present my humble excuses to Eric too.

I'd think also that you may have lighten a bit the link color (or is it the approaching dusk here in eastern France?) to make them more distinguishable - that helps, thanks, but what about a more classical underline for them?

[mguertin]

Oooops, my mistake, and I present my humble excuses to Eric too.

I'd think also that you may have lighten a bit the link color (or is it the approaching dusk here in eastern France?) to make them more distinguishable - that helps, thanks, but what about a more classical underline for them?

I did lighten the green for the links.  I tried the traditional underline for links as well, but it's just too ugly and there's not enough distinction between the types of links on this forum software, so I can't easily isolate just the text body links, etc.

[Fritzer]

The theme is really hard on the eyes, but maybe that's just me.

I'd seperate the sidebar from the message windows, just a thought.

[Kevin Gallagher]

Hi, using an IMAC with OSX 10.6.4 and Safari browser 5.0.1.

I have to login every day, I'm not seeing a "remember me" button or something similar.

Thanks, Kevin

[feppe]

Is there an easier way to make links than the unnecessarily complicated and cryptic code given in the help file? I loved the prior version which would popup a window for the link, and another for the text - or how I could just select a word and linkify it with a url.

[url=http://somesite/]
descriptive link
[/url]

[mguertin]

Is there an easier way to make links than the unnecessarily complicated and cryptic code given in the help file? I loved the prior version which would popup a window for the link, and another for the text - or how I could just select a word and linkify it with a url.

[url=http://somesite/]
descriptive link
[/url]

Unfortunately there's not anything like that I've found for the SMF posting interface (yet, I'll keep looking).  One thing that SMF does do though is it will auto-parse URL's in the message text, so you can even bypass the need to the BB code url tags if you want to quickly post a link, just past the URL and it will "just work".  If you want to do more advanced stuff like build a text link then you're stuck editing the code.

Example (I just pated the URL and the post system took it from there to build the link)
http://www.luminous-landscape.com

[mguertin]

Hi, using an IMAC with OSX 10.6.4 and Safari browser 5.0.1.

I have to login every day, I'm not seeing a "remember me" button or something similar.

Thanks, Kevin

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

[NikoJorj]

Is there an easier way to make links than the unnecessarily complicated and cryptic code given in the help file?

Even if it's not as smooth as in the goodol'dayz, type your link text first and select it, then hit the button. You just have to copy your URL, type = after "[url" and hit Paste.
Sounds much more complicated than it actually is.

[MarkM]

I'm sure the features of the new software will be worth the cost of getting used to it. Since the new features seem to be in the backend, I'm guessing that the design can still be tweaked to make the forums easier to read and quicker to scan.

The main problem, which has been mentioned several times, it that the posts blend together.

The division between posts is probably the most important vertical structural element in the design, but it gets the weakest design element: a line that's almost the same color as the background. This is competing with much darker lines between the post title, body, and signature. The bold, green titles and user names should also help segregate the posts but it's not as effective as it could be because they are not quite vertically aligned (at least in Safari, OSX), and the titles appear to be indented because of the little paper icon.

We tend to scan from the top left down. This makes the upper left corner the single most important place on a layout or within a section of the layout. In each post body that place is occupied by this message icon. It that really the most important thing for a reader to see first? Moving this to the other side of the title or even over by the "reply" and "quote" links will go a long way in helping visually organize the posts. If the vertical alignment between the user name and post title is fixed it will have the effect of a horizontal line which will also help separate posts.

Having quotes in dark boxes means this is what you want people to see when scanning a thread. Try it—grab the scroll bar and move the page up and down. What gets your attention? The dark boxes, right? Perhaps italicizing the text and putting it in an subtly outlined box rather than a colored one would help.

Also, there is a lot of information over in the left column that is kind of screaming at the user. The red and yellow squares under people's names are the brightest, most saturated elements on the page. Are they that important?

It's not bad, but the design really needs some adjusting with the reader and the structure of the page in mind.

Looking forward to seeing what the new DB brings in terms of features and integration.

p.s. is marqueed text really allowed?

 

[feppe]

Even if it's not as smooth as in the goodol'dayz, type your link text first and select it, then hit the button. You just have to copy your URL, type = after "[url" and hit Paste.
Sounds much more complicated than it actually is.

Lessee: Lars von Trier directs Denmark's new tourism ads. Yay, good tip, thanks!

[NikoJorj]

Lessee: Lars von Trier directs Denmark's new tourism ads.

Good ads indeed! Thanks!

[Gary Brown]

Lessee: Lars von Trier directs Denmark's new tourism ads. Yay, good tip, thanks!

Is there a way for the reader (i.e., me) to customize how messages are displayed? On my screen, there's nothing to indicate that there's a link within that sentence (unless I happen by chance to move the cursor over it and notice the change).