Comments (constructive) on the New Forum Software

[Pixel_PorpoiseParticipant @pixel_porpoise]

Will you be reinstating the category headings to break up the forum list? It’s rather hard to read as is.

The sidebar is a bit wide for comfortable reading, i’m finding myself shuffling to the side of my chair to centre myself on the text! 76%-24% is a much easier ratio to read than 70-30

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

As a temporary measure a blue tab”latest activity” is now showing at the top when you click Forums that will give you something close to the old “latest posts”. Of the two lists “active topics” is the one to go by

[Pixel_Porpoise]

On Pixel_Porpoise said

Will you be reinstating the category headings to break up the forum list? It’s rather hard to read as is.

They were divided up and I thought one of the better pages as far as looks, I had also done some thinning out of little used topics but had to be blended into one when the speed issues were causing problems. Hopefully when they are sorted the divisions can go back.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, a big thank you to all those involved with the forum up date, and I dare say it wasn’t a straight forward task. I found it very slow when I first saw it earlier, and although I knew my email address and password, I was locked out at least four times because of a password error, which I found very frustrating, turns out that the new forum doesn’t accept capitals, can’t remember if that was mentioned on the old version, but luckily I only had one capital in mine. I do agree the white space is a bit too bright, and I don’t like the big blue bar on the opening page, that doesn’t move up when scrolling down, as it makes it like looking through a letterbox. I guess there will be a few tweaks needed for a while, and suppose we’ll all get used to the change, but I’m missing the green bars already that separated each post.

Regards Nick.

[Nicholas Farr]

On Nicholas Farr said

… turns out that the new forum doesn’t accept capitals, can’t remember if that was mentioned on the old version, but luckily I only had one capital in mine…

That’s odd, I found the opposite – my password contains two capitals, but the old forum didn’t care if they were entered in upper or lower case, but the new one does??

It is very white, isn’t it? I like a pale green background as it’s easier on the eyes. I’ve found a Firefox extension called Color Changer (not the same as the one called Colour Changer) that purports to let you alter background colours on any website, but haven’t tried it yet due to (probably non-existent) security issues – it isn’t certified as safe by Mozilla.

If anyone is interested, take a look at these suggestions

Links to https://www.makeuseof.com/edge-chrome-firefox-change-website-background-color/

Rob

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

1.Finding the grey text on bright white bkgrnd is tiring to my eyes, this could use improvement and I am sure others will mention it.

2.Where can I find Google site search box?

3. The site seems to be running rather slow, over a minute of the spinning progress arrow to go from one thread to another. I know it’s the first day of the new site operations, but just mentioning it.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

As the FAQs say it is the Username that is all lower case, password can be a mix

 

Also be aware that if you change password or ask for  areset you will need to come up with something very complex to get it to a strength the forum allows, I have asked for it to be made less stringent

[DellParticipant @dell]

Site saying I don’t have permission to look at my profile so can’t re add my avatar

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

I presume that https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/ is intended to be the ‘home-page’ … in which case it does seem rather odd that there is no direct link to it from the other pages.

No, I haven’t checked them all … it’s just the impression I get when browsing the site.

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Thanks Michael I have already asked for “Home” to be added somewhere, green bar seems a reasonable place to me.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just realised that the two ‘magazine titles’ … immediately below THE MODELLING HUB perform that function.

MichaelG.

[MichaelRParticipant @michaelr]

I find myself on a learning curve with the new Forum but I will get the hang of things, apart from running a bit slow the new format seems OK, I managed to get my profile picture changed.

MichaelR

[JasonB]

On JasonB said

As the FAQs say it is the Username that is all lower case, password can be a mix

 

Also be aware that if you change password or ask for  areset you will need to come up with something very complex to get it to a strength the forum allows, I have asked for it to be made less stringent

Hi JasonB, well something must be amiss, as I say it locked me out a few times for too many password errors, and only accepted my password when I didn’t use the one letter as a capital, and my password is only eight characters long and always has been.

Regards Nick.

[websnailParticipant @websnail]

This is going to take a bit of time to get use to, but I logged in just fine, in a tad slower. Probably because it’s all new.

Now for a look around.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Nick old passwords will work if shorter, mine is only six lowercase. It is only when you change it tat it will need 10

[RainbowsParticipant @rainbows]

The “If you keep using the website that counts as consent” type of cookies policy doesn’t keep with GPDR and the like I thought? Or is there not enough cookies to warrant a tick list

[ZanParticipant @zan]

Oh dear. The new small font size on a bright background is very very difficult to read. Is there any way of changing this?  Looked all round in settings etc and can find nothing

Gosh. Had to edit this and it was difficult to find again

[Perko7Participant @perko7]

My old username and password worked fine first attempt. Page takes a little longer to load but I’m in Australia so I guess the electrons have to travel a bit further.

Don’t mind the new layout, will take a little getting used to but so far so good. I might need to adjust my screen contrast to reduce the ‘brightness’ of the background. A bolder font might help readability of the text in these forum posts.

Found the ‘Latest Activity’ forum link no problem, but the text has been expanded a lot so the list takes up more room than previously, so it may take a little longer to scroll through and find posts that interest me.

Otherwise I think a good first pass, no doubt some minor refinements as time goes on but everything is there if you hunt around a bit.

[Anonymous]

Why am I suddenly being moderated?

[JasonB]

On JasonB said

Also be aware that if you change password or ask for  areset you will need to come up with something very complex to get it to a strength the forum allows, I have asked for it to be made less stringent

In that case, may I request that you have the “visible switch” so that people can see what they are typing. Having to retype a complex password can be very difficult if doing it blind. So many sites don’t do this yet want increasingly complex passwords. (What do they think we are, monkeys on typewriters?)

 

[VicParticipant @vic]

Can you change the appearance of the forum on your device? I ask as thread title text is pale blue on white which is not so easy to read. I’m viewing this on an iPad and pale blue seems to be an odd choice.

[Anonymous]

Once again, I’m being moderated.

Why?

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

The latest activity button now works, but it only goes back 3 hours. Is that because it only got fixed 3 hours ago? On the old forum I used to just click ‘latest posts’ and then go back until I came to something I’d seen before if you see what I mean.

Also, I used to be able to set it so that latest posts were at the top rather than having to scroll down to the end.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Otherwise it looks pretty good to me</p>

[Robin GrahamParticipant @robingraham42208]

Obviously still a lot to be sorted, but thanks to all concerned for keeping the site going.

I get a screen flashing up with the ‘old style’ underlined blue file tree before arriving at the destination. Anyone else getting that? Not a deal breaker, but it’s a bit odd in this day and age.

Firefox 118.0.2 Ubuntu 20.04.6

Robin

[Robin GrahamParticipant @robingraham42208]

Ooh er – I’m a Participant! Seems a pretty low grade, but no doubt I could improve my status by posting rubbish. Or maybe there is a ‘stupid’ category. I’d be OK with that.

I’ve learned a lot from folk on this forum and I hope to learn more. The ethos always seemed to be that people helped each other out rather than vying for status. The introduction of personal ‘rankings’ seems strange in that context. It smacks of social media popularity contests. How many ‘likes’ have I had?

I hope that this forum isn’t forced down that road.

Robin.

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