Comments (constructive) on the New Forum Software

[Ady1]

On Ady1 said

Profile pictures are weird too, I can upload one, but there’s no save-it option so it gets rejected

Jasons picture is suddenly upside-down in his third? post on this page

lol

There is some fettling to be done before this place is running smoothly

edit: I posted in here and the thread completely disappeared, had to go hunting for it from the forums link

You need to crop it otherwise you won’t get any further

The upside down one is what I’m using when logged in a sa basic participant along withmy full name

If your reply happens to be a multiple of 25 and therfore ends up at the bottom of the page when you hit submit it takes you to th etop of the next page ready to post so you have to go back to the previous page which is not easy as not enough boxe swith page numbers to click.

This last item is another one for admin to pick up on though it has previously been reported along with other page numbering issues

[Vic]

On Vic said

The forum is very slow at the moment and the pop-up advert at the bottom of the page is extremely irritating!

On Craig Brown said

On Jason Ballamy said

X seems to work for me as mod and member

Android mobile, Chrome browser? I have just updated the browser but still the same. The X to get rid of the pop up ads at the bottom of the screen works fine

Sorry missed that you were using the phone

 

Another one for Admin to deal with

 

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

Comments (constructive)? OK. Dump this awful mess and go back to the old layout.

I can’t be bothered to spend my time looking at a large white expanse trying to find my way around.

I’ll pop back in a few weeks to see if there are any improvements, if not, I will give up on what used to be a very good forum.

[DaggersParticipant @daggers]

Hate the new layout, its like viewing text in a snow storm.
Will call back in a couple of weeks, if its still the same, wont be back.

 

[HowiParticipant @howi]

A major change like this is not going to please many ‘old forum’ users.

We have groiwn used to the general layout and site inadequaties.

NOBODY likes change, I think we need to give it a while so that we can get used to where things are now so they become second nature.

Yes! there are lots of issues, but I am sure these will be resolved in time.

A major change like this is never going to be straight forward and we should look to the experts to get things sorted.

There really is no point moaning about it, there is no way they will go back to the old forum, there is too much time and money invested.

give it time.

[Roy VaughnParticipant @royvaughn26060]

Thanks for that tip Nick.  Fat chance I could remember the topic originally posted under several years ago, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday!  If you think you can, you then have the task of mapping onto the new list of topics.  Maybe the only one I can be sure of was the electronic lead screw discussions which surely map to electronics in the workshop in new parlance.  First tried using search term “els” showed a list of 1,882  entries starting today so to tried to abbreviate it by adding “2021”.  Cut it own to 1,773.  The selection list or whatever it’s called only presents the first and last entries to select, no way to try nearer the middle by entering a specific page number, so I gave up.  The lack of any structure in the search, e.g. to allow searching within categories is a great shame.  Maybe the underlying forum engine has something better which will be implemented in due course, it’s early days yet.  When people were grouching about the old forum facilities I said be careful what you wish for…..

Roy

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

At the risk of stating the obvious, Roy

You could try a search for roy vaughn

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/search/roy+vaughn/

… a quick scroll down those results includes posts by you about els

MichaelG.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

The ‘New Forum’ is based on WordPress so a lot of functionality may be added by using the built in ‘Widgets’ in the side bar. The standard ones include Search, Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Archives, Categories and Tags amongst others there are also hundreds of 3rd party widgets to choose from.

At the moment these have been removed from the side bar whilst the Admin are sorting some of the problems. As things settle down these will hopefully be added back in to improve site usability and friendliness.

John

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Sorry but the terms Silk purse and sows ear springs to mind. Multi digit # Nos a pain, Post numbers far more useful, Not sure the ‘Participant’ title is user friendly.

Must try harder.

Ian.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

I for one am not against change, we need it to progress. Change though usually brings about improvements. I don’t doubt for one minute those who have been working on this new Forum have been working tirelessly. Unfortunately I see no improvement or enhancements with the new site.

Further the experience of this new site is not a good one. There have been several comments about the brightness of the new site. It may suit the younger generations but it is something that us older folk do not want.

Regards

Gray,

[Circlip]

On Circlip said

… Not sure the ‘Participant’ title is user friendly.

 

Ian.

Not sure I like being called a ‘member’ either!

🤭

Dave

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I’ve twigged on the cloudflare thing

Because of AI and spambots if we want only real people in here then it’s the future

Other stuff I do has huge issues if there’s no human verification

————————————-

Re: “Don’t like this forum” posts

Our old-guy brains are tuned into the old system but after a while it will all come together.

Just post a few bits each day and surf about a bit and your brain will reconfigure

Some of us will have OCD issues etc, which makes it even harder

Old dogs being taught new tricks was never going to be an easy process

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Roy Vaughn, I did say you need to have a good memory, but if you posted photos and have a record of when the photo was taken or uploaded, it is a good clue as to which page to look in around that date. However, I put in the search box “electronic leadscrew” which took me to https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/topic/latest-me-els-article/page/2/#post-659987 and then to your post https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/topic/latest-me-els-article/#post-659855

Regards Nick.

[Circlip]

On Circlip said

Sorry but the terms Silk purse and sows ear springs to mind. Multi digit # Nos a pain, Post numbers far more useful, Not sure the ‘Participant’ title is user friendly.

Must try harder.

Ian.

The multi digit # No. is the post number. Identifies each post precisely.
Agree with the ‘Participant’ label should be some sort of ranking label as used on other forums, perhaps Apprentice, Journeyman and Master. I also liked the ‘number of posts’ for each member.

John

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

How do I stop notifications for this thread?

[ZanParticipant @zan]

Log in then untick the blue box after the last posting

i just did this, but after log in it took perhaps 4 or 5 slow loading pages to get back to here including selecting the last page

to get here

this so called improvement is terrible. The old system fir me had zero faults and worked flawlessly not like the current iteration. Hard to find stuff, too bright, font too small annoying hang ups

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

We DEFFO need the “latest posts” page to be improved

Latest Activity

It needs to be laid out in a single line tabular format with a description and each thread link

This page on its own feeds the entire forum with users and contributors, it’s the first call for regulars and the only e-ff-icient way to handle queries, which are the backbone and main driver of this place

(Efficient has it’s ff missing?)

[lee webster]

On lee webster said

How do I stop notifications for this thread?

Might need to click the blue ‘Follow’ button to activate ‘Unfollow’.  It’s in the Topic header, right of Create New Topic, and under the big red “Forum Help/FAQ” landmark:

 

Dave

 

 

 

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, yes I agree, a latest post list like it was before would be much better, the way it is now is too confusing.

Regards Nick.

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Yes, multi digit # Nos do indicate precisely but a posterior pain on separate post headings. At least we have a reasonable spline chunk again.

Regards  Ian.

[Circlip]

On Circlip said

Yes, multi digit # Nos do indicate precisely but a posterior pain on separate post headings. […]

I don’t understand your objection [although I do, of course, respect your right to express it]

… The post numbering seems, to me, one of the few features that is both logical and and inoffensive.

Why is it painful to you ?

MichaelG.

[VicParticipant @vic]

The forum software is very inconsistent. I use my iPad in landscape mode and see this first image. If I rotate my device the advert disappears as in the second image.  The software seems a long way away from being a viable platform, especially when you add in the long delay loading pages.

Edit: Forum won’t allow me to upload JPEG or PNG files of 3mb. I get this:

 

”The image could not be uploaded. Please check that it is a valid JPEG, PNG, or GIF file and that the file size is no larger than 8 MB.”

Although the dialogue specifically states JPEG, sometimes forums will not accept .JPEG as a file extension. It needs to be .JPG. This can normally be changed by an administrator though if they choose to do so.

 

 

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

I have been away recently and was accessing the forum via mobile phone.  I find the new layout very unfriendly for mobile device view.  Logged on this morning to look at the full size screen display and it is a lot better.  Still way to much white space I think.  Landscape is far better than portrait, but spend a lot of time scrolling around to look at stuff.  The old layout was way better on a mobile device.  Longer term there needs to be some tailoring for mobile/tablet devices.

Colin

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Reposted from another thread, mainly in response to John – Journeymans earlier post:

Hi Dave (SOD) and John – Journeyman,

I am going to stick my neck out now in making the following comments:

Until reading John – Journeymans comment #678351 on the other related thread, I was not aware that this new forum was based on WordPress. Now that I am aware of that, many of the issues raised make more sense.

Per my understanding, WordPress is one of the most popular bits of kit out there for building sites. As it is very popular, it attracts more spam/bots trying to get in.

To the best of my knowledge, WP has been used to build this site only. Other sites such as RCME do not appear to be using WP.. but I may be wrong.

As WP is popular and prone to higher level of spam/bot traffic, perhaps this site developers suddenly found themselves overwhelmed (as they did not see this with the other sites they manage which do not use WP), resulting in their implementing the use of CF, which is a fair approach.

However, per my understanding:

a. If the latest version of WP is used and regularly updated along with a certain level of security, then the level of exposure to spam/bots is reduced.

b. John-Journeyman, as well as Dave – SOD referred to plug-ins. Most of WP is based on Pugins. So here is a quote, which is in line with what I am also aware: ‘So you might pickup a plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory, find out you need a special feature that is only available in the paid version and pay for it from the third party market, where the full featured plugin has more security holes than Swiss cheese.’ source: https://www.keepsecure.ca/blog/5-important-reasons-why-you-should-not-use-wordpress-for-your website/#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20spam%20comments,websites%20are%20hacked%20by%20bots.

I am not saying that WP should or should not have been used.

c. If you are working with latest version of WP, is the Plugin you are using up to date with the latest version?

So, debugging with CF in place is likely to add to the instability.

Ketan at ARC

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

If this is the best layout they can come up with, heaven help us.

Compared to the old forum it’s absolute c**p

Roy

I’ll try again later, if it doesn’t improve, I’ll stick to my other hobbies.

[Author]

Posts