New forum problems

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Dave, thanks for yours, and Jason’s work. Some of the replies may seem a little aggressive, but mine, and I’m sure many others are not meant to be, and it’s more to do with confusion or frustration. I personally think you both do sterling work to help us understand the changes we have to learn, and yes while “Patience is a virtue” not everybody can hang on for very long, and I really do think this Latest post that was on the old forum needs to be back in place sooner than later. I really do think the number of post overall has gone down quite a lot, and I haven’t seen as many posters from the “Old school” saying anything at all, although there may be many visitors, they are not all making any posts. Just had to go through four of those stupid square verifying boxes before I could log in, which is probably another off putting thing for many people.

Regards Nick.

[dhendleyKeymaster @dhendley]

Hi Nick, this is our next job. We are working on it now.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Darren, good to hear that, keep up the good work.

Regards Nick.

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Thanks Peter and Jason

I’m now using the link and whilst the latest activity thing is not perfect it is usable as far as I am concerned.

When I use (and used to use) quote, I mostly deleted images and chunks of text unless they were relevant. I did not do that in my last reply mainly as a test, the result of which just shows the full glory of the jumble of text sizes and coloured banners that the website now features.

Ian P

 

 

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

My last reply was sent after getting an email notification which took me to an earlier page, I now have seen the replies from Jason, Dave and Ady. (685597 onward) and they sum up my feelings and thoughts exactly.

Just seen Darren’s reply too, so it looks like progress is being made.

Ian P

 

 

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

I managed to log in once allowed google + in particular gstatic to run code – I guess being tracked is par for the course but I’m not sure the hassle of logging in is worthwhile as most of the attraction of the old site is lost in a welter of navel gazing

The simple requirement of a list of new posts in a format that fits on a single page, a key entry point for the old site, still does not appear to work in any reasonable way some 4weeks since the old site was dumped.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi Darren, the latest post plink is taking me to a ‘please log in to view’ page, even though I’m logged in.

Some topic links are taking me to back the list of topics (but it seems to be erratic – a second click takes me to the right place).

This may be me trying to access things mid-update…

Neil

[dhendleyKeymaster @dhendley]

Yes, just bear with it for now Neil, we are doing a bit of tinkering in the background

[Nicholas Farr]

On Nicholas Farr Said:

… Some of the replies may seem a little aggressive … yes while “Patience is a virtue” not everybody can hang on for very long, and I really do think this Latest post that was on the old forum needs to be back in place sooner than later. I really do think the number of post overall has gone down quite a lot….

Regards Nick.

I’m not offended when members express themselves.  Feedback is a vital part of the engineering process: it’s how things get fixed.  Getting technology right depends on facts.

No-one wants a gold-plated forum, but it has to be good enough.   Not far off I think, but the Latest Posts gap is painful, there an uncomfortably high number of eye-catching bugs, and various look and feel shortcomings combine to make the user experience gritty when it should be smooth.

A good experience is important.  The stats on how visitors respond to poor websites are worrying.   About 40% of visitors will abandon a site just because it load images too slowly.  90% of visitors won’t return to a site that gives them a bad experience.  That could be boring content slashed by loads of flashing adverts, or being led a merry dance due to iffy navigation and then dumped by a bug.   The look is important because visitors take less than a tenth of a second to decide if they like a website, and first impressions last.

So yes, the glitches are testing everyone’s patience.  However all the old posts are still available, members are a tough lot, and there’s no fundamental reason why this won’t work just as well for the community as the old forum did.  Just taking too long to get there.

I don’t know what the site statistics are.   People are making real posts though.  Trouble is, they’re hard to find.  ‘Latest Activity’ emphasises Topics rather than posts, so hot topics like forum faults rapidly push other posts out of sight.   Latest Posts should fix that,  and of course debugging out the other irritations will progressively reduce complaints.   Wouldn’t bet the farm on how long it takes to get back to normal, but we are on the way.

Dave

 

 

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

It can’t be that difficult to create a new website but it seems it is! I’m still having to use a VPN to log in, absolutely no idea why? It’s rubbish that the oldest posts come first and way too many adverts!!!!

 

Have a good day 🙂

Tony

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Tony, I’m not sure where you ar looking but when the blue button “latest Activity” is clicked the column on the left “active topics” puts the topic with the most recent activity at the top and then lists the others below in chronological order. Just as “latest Posts “did on the old forum

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

@jasonb,

It’s when you view an existing thread that you get taken to the most recent post, instead of the first post as the old forum did or the last post seen as it is in any decent forum software.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

What I have asked for should, depending on what you click either take you to the first post or the last. I don’t know if the software has the option for last page (as you could with old forum) or from last read

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

If the developers are trying to make a proper job of the forum software then the user should be taken to the last post read, whether its at the top of a page, bottom, or anywhere else.

Ian P

Or at least it should be on of the options. Obviously the user needs to be logged in and cookies enabled.

 

[Keith Rogers 2Participant @keithrogers2]

For two days now I have been trying to view the latest posts with no success. Even though last week I had no problem.

I come to the website, log in, click on the latest activity blue box and up comes a page telling me to log in to view the latest activity. At first I thought I had done something wrong, so I went through all the rigmarole of logging in again, clicked on blue box latest activity and guess what? it tells me I have to log in to view the latest posts.

I’m getting fed up! For all it’s faults I could at least participate in the old forum without too much agro.

Keith.

ps. I can’t even add a sad smiley!

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Keith, it’s the same for me!!

Tony

[Keith Rogers 2]

On Keith Rogers 2 Said:

…

Keith.

ps. I can’t even add a sad smiley!

🙁    Just for you. You can use the old way..:-(

[Keith Rogers 2]

On Keith Rogers 2 Said:

For two days now I have been trying to view the latest posts with no success. Even though last week I had no problem.

I come to the website, log in, click on the latest activity blue box and up comes a page telling me to log in to view the latest activity. At first I thought I had done something wrong, so I went through all the rigmarole of logging in again, clicked on blue box latest activity and guess what? it tells me I have to log in to view the latest posts.

I’m getting fed up! For all it’s faults I could at least participate in the old forum without too much agro.

Keith.

ps. I can’t even add a sad smiley!

On Tony Pratt 1 Said:

Keith, it’s the same for me!!

Tony

Gents, would you humour me and try using a different browser, but on the same device, with the same login details, but don’t click the Latest post button whilst you are logged out.
Also, maybe try a different device altogether, so if you’re on a desktop PC, try a laptop, a phone, or vice versa

This is part of a discussion I’m having elsewhere, with Dave amongst others.

Bill

[Nicholas Farr]

On Nicholas Farr Said:

Hi Dave, thanks for yours, and Jason’s work. Some of the replies may seem a little aggressive, but mine, and I’m sure many others are not meant to be, and it’s more to do with confusion or frustration. I personally think you both do sterling work to help us understand the changes we have to learn, and yes while “Patience is a virtue” not everybody can hang on for very long, and I really do think this Latest post that was on the old forum needs to be back in place sooner than later. I really do think the number of post overall has gone down quite a lot, and I haven’t seen as many posters from the “Old school” saying anything at all, although there may be many visitors, they are not all making any posts. Just had to go through four of those stupid square verifying boxes before I could log in, which is probably another off putting thing for many people.

Regards Nick.

Hi Nick,

I know of several people who are staying away. They do not like the format and complexity. I was reading your post and decided to comment. Thus I logged in, unlike the old forum which would return me to the thread I was on I had to visit “Forum Here”, open the file  topic I was originally reading from, then the thread and select the page.

Having contacted Mortons direct I do feel if they had been a bit more open with us on the forum then the site might have received a better reception. The White text screen is still a big issue with me, and I don’t think this will change.

As regards doing additional posts or starting a new thread then I do not see that happening. I regret to say I just do not get the same feel from this new site.

Darren you have my sympathy, it is not going to be easy making this into a silk purse, but please for the sake of the others stick at it.

Must go eyes are starting to complain.

Regards

Gray,

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I am using totally stock win10 and whatever browser version Microsoft have dumped on me. I have absolutely none of the glitches that people are reporting so so sorry folks it’s not the website’s fault.
Graham if you don’t like the black on white then highlighting for me turns it white on blue (like the old BBC computer) which you might find better.

[Keith Rogers 2]

On Keith Rogers 2 Said:

For two days now I have been trying to view the latest posts with no success. Even though last week I had no problem.

I come to the website, log in, click on the latest activity blue box and up comes a page telling me to log in to view the latest activity. At first I thought I had done something wrong, so I went through all the rigmarole of logging in again, clicked on blue box latest activity and guess what? it tells me I have to log in to view the latest posts.

I’m getting fed up! For all it’s faults I could at least participate in the old forum without too much agro.

Keith.

ps. I can’t even add a sad smiley!

Sorry about the nuisance.  “latest activity” and members being told to login again is a known bug.   You may not have been logged out at all – try pressing F5, which refreshes the screen.  Quite often – not always – that restores order.

It’s unusual for latest activity to fail consistently for two days.   For me it fails intermittently, up to about 20% of the time.  Sometimes works for hours with no problem, occasionally I get 3 or 4 failures in a row.  It’s annoying!!!

May be worse than normal just now because Mortons are trying to improve “Latest Activity”.  Should be similar to the way the old forum worked.

I think the login error is a different problem because other functions sometimes fail due to authorisation problems as well.  Two bugs interacting with each other are super-irritating.

The aggro isn’t deliberate so please stick with us.  If the forum’s unbearable at the moment try again next week.

Dave

[Bazyle]

On Bazyle Said:

I am using totally stock win10 and whatever browser version Microsoft have dumped on me. I have absolutely none of the glitches that people are reporting so so sorry folks it’s not the website’s fault…

If only Bazyle!   Jason and I found hundreds of issues and are still reporting new ones.  Since launch, a few members have also noticed not all is well. (British understatement!)

Many of the glitches are intermittent, so you may simply have been lucky.  Another factor is how the forum is used, my guesstimate is that 80% is OK, so it’s possible to think all is well.  Sadly, the other 20% include a few serious shortcomings, and more than a few irritations.

One thing you should notice is response times.  Pressing most buttons or clicking on a link takes several seconds to get a response; that’s not right, the old forum was 3 or 4 times faster, and it was no athlete!

Dave

 

[Bazyle]

On Bazyle Said:

I am using totally stock win10 and whatever browser version Microsoft have dumped on me. I have absolutely none of the glitches that people are reporting so so sorry folks it’s not the website’s fault.
Graham if you don’t like the black on white then highlighting for me turns it white on blue (like the old BBC computer) which you might find better.

Well that’s a post that confirms there is an exception that proves the rule!

Bazyle, you must be the only person that has not seen any problems. Dave, Jason, Bill, Colin and all the other people slaving away are surely not doing it for fun.

‘Highlighting’ to make text readable, will that work across all devices, be remembered on next visit etc. Its just a daft idea

Ian P

[Bazyle]

On Bazyle Said:

I am using totally stock win10 and whatever browser version Microsoft have dumped on me. I have absolutely none of the glitches that people are reporting so so sorry folks it’s not the website’s fault.
Graham if you don’t like the black on white then highlighting for me turns it white on blue (like the old BBC computer) which you might find better.

Sorry Baz,

I too am using Win 10, but with screen preferences, but with no effect on this site.

It is not the text on a white background that is the problem. It is the amount of white on the screen in total. My monitor is 24″ across the diagonal. I need this for my drawing work. Clicking on the Microsoft window reduction Icon gives me a window which is barely bigger than this posts box.

I have for some 20 years had a tint on my Computer glasses, as prescribed by my Optician, but even this does not tone this site back. My Reactolite everyday glasses tones the white down, probably because they are changing tint, but the varifocal element in the prescription means I am putting pressure on my neck to read the text. This was the whole point of having glasses specifically for computer work.

As regards the box above with your post in. I can barely make out the colour of this, it is that pale. If it were a more definite colour this would help to tone things down in general. Given all the colours available, is it that difficult to give us something bold? Provided it does not include Red or Green, some of us just cannot see that. A lemon colour is used earlier on when one has logged in, this is pleasant and defined.

Regards

Gray,

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

I use Firefox on Windows 11, and have spent some time fiddling in settings to try and improve things. In essence it does very little – as pretty well everything is hard-coded in the site’s HTML and will override any general browser settings.

It is difficult to get right as there are so many standards and display attributes on the huge variety of platforms now available, so there is always a degree of compromise. However, some sites seem to get a better compromise than others.

I do agree about the excessive amount of white space though – still, I suppose I can use the screen as a light source if we have power cuts this winter (at least whilst the battery lasts)

Mike

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