Comments (constructive) on the New Forum Software

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

In reply to Dave’s personal view:-

I think not helped by a poor choice of software. WordPress isn’t a bulletin board (forum) software. To make it work as such needs 3rd party add-ons. Whilst it is free to use it is evident that you get what you pay for. WordPress is a number one target for hackers, spambots and all manner of other problems due to it’s wide use.

I fear though things will not change much it will now be impossible to revert to the old software and ‘proper’ bulletin board software is unlikely to be implemented any time soon due in no small part to the costs. This is a ‘big’ site so any changes are complicated and costly. We will have to make do with what we have and hope that all the gremlins can be kicked out but don’t hold your breath.

John

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

We have seen several instances of this, but I’m not sure if it counts as a ‘bug’

I have just used the text formatting feature on the iPad, to embolden some text, but the post simply presents the coding, not the emboldening.

Thus:

<b>P.S.</b>

instead of

P.S. [which the ‘button’ produces]

It looks fine in the preview, but not in the post

MichaelG.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

Hi Peter, (Greene),

I tried the profile tab earlier, but it only lists those items that I have posted on this new forum. Thus this is of little use to me, but I thank you for trying to ease the frustration.

Regards

Gray,

Dave, (SOD),

I have oodles of patience, I needed it working for the NHS, Nothing Happens Swiftly. I for one am not knocking anyone, given the enormity of the task I think you have done well. However I cannot sit for long looking at this page without it triggering a headache. Clearly my headache is nothing like the one the Moderators have.

Regards

Gray,

Peak 4,

Thank you for your sterling attempt to find things. It is however nothing like as simple as clicking an image and going straight to the topic. As a hobby we will be losing out as regards this simple pathway. People searching off forum could read and view the original post. This is not the case now, hence the loss.

Once again thanks for your efforts,

Regards

Gray,

Regards

Gray,

[Ady1]

On Ady1 said

…with adverts …

So, at least the Customer’s primary objective is being fulfilled !

MichaelG.

[JasonB]

On JasonB said

Peak4

FAQs state 30mins editing time. Not found a way to remove the list of edits from the bottom of the reply as you could before.

Rest of your points Admin can deal with.

Many Thanks, that was the intention, as most are to do with the functionality of how buttons and search boxes work, as well as the formatting of the way the forum displays.
I’m amazed you find the hours to do this work in your spare time, as I know how long it took be to try and compile that list.
Thanks for all your efforts, and also due to the rest of the development team.

Bill

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Every time that I post on here I get an email, how can I stop this?

Roy

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

[Hopefully ] … Deselect the option:

 

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan said

On Roy Vaughn said

MichaelG and Nick

Yes, I’ve done search by name with success.  However, with this post I had moved on to more general search.  Maybe familiarity will help, or an “advanced” search facility will be implemented to make life easier?  I’m old and prefer to avoid change, especially when new is worse.  Thanks to mods for all the work you have put in to get it this far though.

Roy

.

I shall be astonished, Roy, if anyone sees fit to implement an “advanced” search facility hereabouts.

Shortly before we lost the old forum, I commended a modestly priced ‘engine’ which demonstrably works on many other sites … but I was pretty-much ridiculed for so doing.

MichaelG.

Michael

That’s very disappointing, I would expect modern forum software to have such a facility as standard, just waiting to be activated.  Given the state of the rest of the system, this could have been a relatively workable fallback.

For me, the new posts display is the key facility, as it seems to be for many others, you never know where an interesting topic might turn up.  The old ME forum used to be my favourite, the new posts being my way in, as with HMEM.  The Barton site uses active thread flags instead which works well for me but of course there’s less traffic there.   How a free-to-use web site fits Morton’s business model I don’t know, but an off-putting web site can’t be of benefit.

Roy

[Stuart Smith 5Participant @stuartsmith5]

Jason/Dave

I know it’s unlikely, but could an archived copy of the old forum be made available?

I for one, used the site for information as much on old posts as new ones.

I can’t even find my own posts from the old site or posts I bookmarked as useful.

Thanks for your efforts though – I had similar issues when working and user testing new software and trying to tell management that there were issues, but not being listened to.

 

Stuart

[Roy Vaughn]

On Roy Vaughn said

… How a free-to-use web site fits Morton’s business model I don’t know, but an off-putting web site can’t be of benefit

So far as I can tell, Roy … the forum is primarily a ‘channel’ for Mortons to display

1. self promotion, and
2. paid-for advertising

Hence my cynical response to Ady1

 

You are right, of course, it will only ‘fit’ if continues to attract visitors

MichaelG.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

You can find the old website on The Way Back Machine website although I don’t know when the last copy was made.

John

[Journeyman]

On Journeyman said

In reply to Dave’s personal view:-

I think not helped by a poor choice of software. WordPress isn’t a bulletin board (forum) software. To make it work as such needs 3rd party add-ons. Whilst it is free to use it is evident that you get what you pay for. WordPress is a number one target for hackers, spambots and all manner of other problems due to it’s wide use.

I fear though things will not change much it will now be impossible to revert to the old software and ‘proper’ bulletin board software is unlikely to be implemented any time soon due in no small part to the costs. This is a ‘big’ site so any changes are complicated and costly. We will have to make do with what we have and hope that all the gremlins can be kicked out but don’t hold your breath.

John

This explains a lot.

[Journeyman]

On Journeyman said

You can find the old website on The Way Back Machine website although I don’t know when the last copy was made.

John

Thanks, John … Well done Sir !

.

Looks like it was 13-July-2023

https://web.archive.org/web/20230713103351/https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ but after opening that link, there were some later pages also available

… don’t understand how that works, but I’m impressed.

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

I can see this is common feedback but just to add my voice to the count:

View Latest Posts  – the current ‘soliton’ is pants. Sorry. Most important feature for me.

Speed – noticeably slower … to the point of being slow. Maybe just today.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan said

………………Looks like it was 13-July-2023

https://web.archive.org/web/20230713103351/https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ but after opening that link, there were some later pages also available

… don’t understand how that works, but I’m impressed.

I think it’s because the last time the header/main page was archived was 13th July, but some individual pages may have been grabbed by the archive site at a later date.
Similarly many pages from earlier dates won’t have been archived at all.
The site often suggests that some non-archived pages are available on the web as live pages, but some of the ones I tried then arrive at the Lego page.

Bill

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Latest posts – There is a blue button at the top left under the banner ad. labelled “latest Activity”.

[Bazyle]

On Bazyle said

Latest posts – There is a blue button at the top left under the banner ad. labelled “latest Activity”.

and it isn’t as effective as the previous, simple, interface.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Is it me?

Have just tried to send a PM

In “The Old Days” a list of members (Participants” would have appeared.

Now it won’t even recognise a “participant’s” name.

Had to find a way by latching onto the proposed recipient’s name and sending a private message that way.

Or is that now the way to do it, by finding the recipient via a Forum post, and then sending the PM?

Howard

Typos!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Not you Howard it’s another step backwards that was picked up during testing but worth airing again as Admin may have overlooked it.

Have also asked for a list of members like you get on a lot of other forums, usually with an option of the alphabet to jump to the first letter of their name.

Moderators get a near useless list that we can’t get beyond the first page as the squares with page numbers don’t actually have any numbers in them

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan said

On Journeyman said

You can find the old website on The Way Back Machine website although I don’t know when the last copy was made.

John

Thanks, John … Well done Sir !

.

Looks like it was 13-July-2023

https://web.archive.org/web/20230713103351/https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ but after opening that link, there were some later pages also available

… don’t understand how that works, but I’m impressed.

I used that site to get me through the interregnum. Some interesting parts that I don’t usually visit. Note that (as expected – nay demanded), personal logins don’t work.

(I was surprised when it let me open the login page and looked as if it would accept my login, but no, it just recycled the login page when I did so. It would have been highly questionable if it had been able to copy our login data with the rest of the site).

They seem to be roughly yearly full-site snapshots with interim individual page additions/updates.

[S KParticipant @sk20060]

I very much dislike the new software.

First, and most obnoxious, the very aggressive new “security” practices:

• Visitors MUST have cookies enabled even to view any pages (it’s expected in order to log-in, of course, but just to view too!?). Some may shrug, but I don’t like web sites planting code on “my” computer so I can be tracked, etc. I run with cookies disabled except if I actually log in to contribute, and my practice is to NEVER RETURN to sites that require cookies for merely visiting.
• Next, CAPTCHAS! Freaking google captchas! HATE, HATE, HATE!!!

Also:

• It’s become slow as molasses.
• I feel that the visuals have become too large and bloated.

Sadly, I’m not so sure I’ll remain a frequent visitor or participant.

[Jim Young 2Participant @jimyoung2]

Sorry but I’m not impressed. It took a week to take a very usable site back to the dark ages. During my time in IT someone would be worried about their job in such an instance. Captchur for everything. I doubt I will visit often.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Why do the Model Engineer / Model Engineering Workshop adverts have to appear on every page 3 or 4 times (4 or 5 times if Latest Issues is included).  We all know what we are looking at and do not need reminding all the time.  They waste an awful lot of page which could have useful content.  It would not be quite so bad if they were adverts for different suppliers.

Up to now I have been very disappointed in the changes and would go back tomorrow to the previous system (with all is foibles).  The speed is appalling.  Cloudflare checking I am on a secure site is a real pain.

Colin

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

They will be different adverts if Mortons manages to sell the space, just filled with their stuff for now and yes there are still too many whatever they may be selling.

[Peter GreeneParticipant @petergreene36336]

I’m frequently finding that I can’t link to a thread via the <Latest Activity> page. The thread opens but it’s empty.

I have to open the thread by going in <Forums> and selecting it there.

(It’s an intermittent problem.)

[Author]

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