Comments (constructive) on the New Forum Software

[Wink HackmanParticipant @winkhackman25989]

Contrast has improved with darker blue topic headers and less white background.  I’ve noticed a strange anomaly – the text string ‘f’,’f’, ‘i’ does not show on screen.  So the word ‘difficult’ has a gap in it. Same with ‘efficient’. RE. speed – if I login, all pages load slowly, but if I just browse the forum without logging in, the speed is much better.

[dhendleyKeymaster @dhendley]

Could you upload a screenshot Wink

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Agree with the different speeds – OK when logged out, pants when logged in.

Noticed another thing. If I’m logged in and post a reply, it shows up reasonably quickly, as I did today around 3.30 pm . I also happened to have the laptop open at the same time (not logged in) and that didn’t show my reply. After several moves in the forum to different subjects I noticed that the reply was still not showing (about 15 mins later). Shut it down, closed browser re started – still no show. Repeated actions – same result.

Almost as if I was looking at a cached image from 3 hours earlier! Weird. Logged in & hey presto everything was up to date. Hence I wonder if folk not logging in are in fact getting a true up to date forum?

Mike

[Mike Hurley]

On Mike Hurley Said:

Agree with the different speeds – OK when logged out, pants when logged in.

Noticed another thing. If I’m logged in and post a reply, it shows up reasonably quickly, as I did today around 3.30 pm . I also happened to have the laptop open at the same time (not logged in) and that didn’t show my reply. After several moves in the forum to different subjects I noticed that the reply was still not showing (about 15 mins later). Shut it down, closed browser re started – still no show. Repeated actions – same result.

Almost as if I was looking at a cached image from 3 hours earlier! Weird. Logged in & hey presto everything was up to date. Hence I wonder if folk not logging in are in fact getting a true up to date forum?

Mike

Pretty fair assessment Mike, and similar has been discussed several times
One of my contributions is HERE

Bill

[norm nortonParticipant @normnorton75434]

When I log in I see the same name in my profile, but with the addition of some numbers. My concern is that I do not see my previous messages, nor the album of images that I had. Were these not carried over from the previous forum?

Apologies if these comment are not constructive, and if they have been asked and answered elsewhere.

Norm

[Peter GreeneParticipant @petergreene36336]

A note about fonts:

Playing around here, I’ve discovered that the fonts I’m seeing and their sizes are actually being controlled by my settings in Firefox (right now I’m seeing Comic Sans MS). Presumably this applies to other browsers too.

Could I suggest that those who don’t like the fonts/sizes that they are seeing experiment with their browser settings – this might just be a case where everyone can be happy.

(Now I just hope I can get back to my standard setup).

[norm nortonParticipant @normnorton75434]

To be constructive..

This Forum works at a tolerable speed if you stay logged out. It is also now working on an old Apple Mac with out of date Safari browser, which it did not do at the beginning.

I go straight to the Latest Replies page from the browser and have now got the hang of scrolling the screen up and down to find the next ‘Latest’. You don’t use the ‘back’ ‘<‘ button which is unlike any other forum.

Norm

Edit – it is still excessively slow to post a message, or to call up an edit to that message (10 secs)

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Well Norm, on my side of the North Sea the forum pages loads quicker than before, less than 10 seconds. Was between 20 and 30s earlier this week, I hope the improvement continues.

Thor

Edit: Posting this took as long as before, approximately 25s.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

On the fonts / appearance front I have found that using Firefox reader mode gives quite a pleasant experience. It removes ads, sidebar and even the editor box if you are logged in.

The screen grab above shows the effect you can get the  small control panel which I have activated for the shot shows what you can alter including controls for background, font type & size and line & character spacing.

Does nothing for the speed unfortunately.

John

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Just called in to view latest posts to find the new green full screen width menu bar with 4 vertical link boxes, to sign in I had to remove my Bookmark links from my top menu so there was enough space below the new bar to enter a single line of the sign in info needed.
Why is it after all of the complaints and suggestions for improvement this sort of action is taken ?

Emgee

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

I doubt it’s intentional, looks like a CSS error to me. Trying to fix one thing and broke something else.

John

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Can I suggest the designers take a look at Model Engine Maker website to see how it should be done. All on one page, can see exactly where want to go to. Does not matter how small it is, it is still workable. I can see the majority of the layout at once on IPhone 14.
Colin

[Ches Green UKParticipant @chesgreenuk]

Colin,

Yes, Model Engine Maker forum has a good layout. Only difference I can see is that there are no adverts on it…I’m not sure how how that forum is funded.

What may be driving the ME forum layout is the need to place adverts, perhaps more than the old ME layout accommodated?

Ches

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

HMEM is not a lot different to MEM in layout but does allow for the placement of Adverts, easier insertion of images than MEM and it uses Xenforo

When I first got sight of what we were likely to get I sent links to HMEM, MEM and MECH as all were better

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

When I select a topic to view it opens with the oldest post at the top, and I have to scroll to see the latest one. This would be bad enough if the performance was adequate, but it isn’t. The performance is still appalling. Have I missed an option that will open a topic with the newest post visible initially?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Gary

That is just how the old system worked, although there was an option to go to last page.

What you need to do when looking at the latest replies list is click the date/time above the posters name and that will take you to the last reply.

You also now have the option to click on a page number on longer topics that have more than one page, the squares with number in them will take you to the top of that page

[Wink HackmanParticipant @winkhackman25989]

I think that the strange text string behaviour in my earlier post is down to an ad blocker extension that I have in Firefox – when I took a screenshot the missing letters reappeared! And all looks fine in Chrome, except for the ads… so not a problem after all.

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

Gary

That is just how the old system worked, although there was an option to go to last page.

What you need to do when looking at the latest replies list is click the date/time above the posters name and that will take you to the last reply.

You also now have the option to click on a page number on longer topics that have more than one page, the squares with number in them will take you to the top of that page

Referencing the old system should be irrelevant, this is supposed to be a totally new website and forum.

The designers should look at how other forums deal with the subject.

It would seem common sense to me to have the ‘Latest’ button showed a list of replies, new posts or whatever else they are called). Currently we have latest activity and latest replies and I think, another ‘recent something’

A few days ago I mentioned I had received about 400 (now its over 450) email notifications from about six subscribed topics, because we have such a thing as cookies these days, the forum should only send me one email when a topic gets the first reply and not bother sending me multiple notifications. It will know when I visit the forum and read the post it advised me about, I can then see and read all following posts and the cookie monitor will not send me another email until there is another post in that thread.

If the list is sensibly laid out without double spacing and  only one text line per entry would be needed fit on the screen Twenty With the benefit of cookies and email alerts.

Cookies should also take me to the first post I have not read in any thread with the user not be constrained to selecting first or last page options. The new feature of navigating by choosing page numbers is just a clunky fudge.

Ian P

[Ian P]

On Ian P Said:

Cookies should also take me to the first post I have not read in any thread with the user not be constrained to selecting first or last page options. The new feature of navigating by choosing page numbers is just a clunky fudge.

I had so hoped that the new version would have the facility to show threads with new entries since last visit and a facility to take you to the first unread post in a thread.  This is pretty well standard in any other forum software which I access and I had hoped that the designers of the new software would have noted this from other forum software applications.

 

Jim.

[Jim Guthrie]

On Jim Guthrie Said:

On Ian P Said:

Cookies should also take me to the first post I have not read in any thread with the user not be constrained to selecting first or last page options. The new feature of navigating by choosing page numbers is just a clunky fudge.

I had so hoped that the new version would have the facility to show threads with new entries since last visit and a facility to take you to the first unread post in a thread.  This is pretty well standard in any other forum software which I access and I had hoped that the designers of the new software would have noted this from other forum software applications.

 

Jim.

You put that better than my explanation Jim.

It would be nice if this forum did follow convention but I think the best we will ever get is a pale shadow and be quirky likes it predecessor

Ian P

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi All,

Just spent 14 minutes trying to access the Forums, logged in and out twice. Not Great!

Martin

[Pete WhiteParticipant @petewhite15172]

And so it grippes on, very sad, hard to be constructive. I don’t see why this task has been so hard?

Loads of forums out there that work, why was change necessary?

Its been going on to long  with minimal improvement, the speed is just not acceptable?

Grumpy Pete

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Have a look at my comments on this topic:

Why is it so quiet here?

Colin Bishop, Model Boats Moderator

[KEITH BEAUMONTParticipant @keithbeaumont45476]

Something is improving! I am getting a response to a posting in 4 seconds. That is almost an acceptable time,in my opinion,

Keith

[KEITH BEAUMONTParticipant @keithbeaumont45476]

It still took 21 seconds to load my post.

Keith

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