New forum problems

[dhendleyKeymaster @dhendley]

Morning everyone,

Thanks for bearing with us during this transition. We know it’s not ideal.

We are looking at what we can do and I’ll be back with an update later.

We’ve been a bit let down by the developer who did this work, so appreciate all of your frustrations.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thank You, Darren … for putting your head above the parapet !

MichaelG.

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

+1

Ian P

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

going backwards and forwards is still soooo slow.

[dhendleyKeymaster @dhendley]

Yes, we are aware of that Bernard – this is being looked at now

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Darren

I’m a mere forum user or ‘Participant’ as we are now called. I just had an email notification to this thread and it set me thinking…..

I am not sure how I came across this thread you started but probably it was clicking on Michael Gilligan’s name on some other page of the forum and seeing that he had replied to your post.

As your post (which is important and relevant) has only gathered replies from three users it is obvious to me that there are very few people viewing/using the forum or, even more likely, those that are viewing will not even know you have posted!

Of all the things wrong here (hundreds probably) I think the one item that should be fixed above all others is to have a list on the home page that shows the most recent posts in actual time order.

As I’m writing its just occurred to me to ask, how you thought people would find your post? (that not intended as a trick question) I’m just curious.

Ian P

Speed or slowness is annoying, but tolerable (Ref Bernard’s post)

 

[Ian P]

on Ian P Said:

Darren

 

Of all the things wrong here (hundreds probably) I think the one item that should be fixed above all others is to have a list on the home page that shows the most recent posts in actual time order.

Isn’t that what the “Latest Activity” link does?

[Peter Greene]

On Peter Greene Said:

on Ian P Said:

Darren

 

Of all the things wrong here (hundreds probably) I think the one item that should be fixed above all others is to have a list on the home page that shows the most recent posts in actual time order.

Isn’t that what the “Latest Activity” link does?

Not on my computer!

Latest activity gives me a list (in somewhat random time order) of ‘Forums’ not posts. I cannot see any way of easily finding the most recent post.

Ian P

[Ian P]

On Ian P Said:

On Peter Greene Said:

on Ian P Said:

Darren

 

Of all the things wrong here (hundreds probably) I think the one item that should be fixed above all others is to have a list on the home page that shows the most recent posts in actual time order.

Isn’t that what the “Latest Activity” link does?

Not on my computer!

Latest activity gives me a list (in somewhat random time order) of ‘Forums’ not posts. I cannot see any way of easily finding the most recent post.

Ian P

You have to click on the Topic, and then scroll down to the end.  Or click on the username and find it from his Profile.  Pretty clunky, but remember this version of “Latest Activity” is a only a temporary workaround.

The original “Latest Posts” sprayed the forum’s innards with glue just after launch and had to be withdrawn.  A replacement is being worked on. The intent is that it should work more like the old forum, and I hope it arrives soon.

Dave

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

How does one know which topic (to click on and scroll down) to find the most recent post?

Of all the items on the bug list I think this one is the most important.

Ian P

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

IanP

When latest Activity is clicked it brings up two columns

The one on the left are recent replies (posts) in chronological order much like the old “latest posts”

The one on the right is a list of the most recently started Topics (threads) the time on these may look random but it shows when a reply was last made in that Topic. I don’t find this one so much use and it may well go so that the other list can be made wider and therefor only take up two lines, something like this.

As you can see apart from the number of replies & Views it has the same info as the old system

[Ian P]

On Ian P Said:

How does one know which topic (to click on and scroll down) to find the most recent post?

Of all the items on the bug list I think this one is the most important.

Ian P

From the Forums Page, click on the Freshness time:

 

From Latest Activity, click the topic title.

 

Or click the username, and look in the Profile list, which should be newest post first.

Spoiler alert, I don’t believe any of these are working properly.  When I started typing IanP was top of the pops, but now replaced Jason.  IanP isn’t No 2 – he’s disappeared from Latest Activity completely.   A bug!

On second thoughts not a bug.  Latest Activity shows the latest active Topic, so when Jason posted, Ian ceased being that topics latest activity.   Essentially Latest Activity isn’t the same as Latest Posts, or is it?.  Makes my head hurt!

Dave

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

That is because I posted while you were typing Dave. He will disappear a as he is no longer the most recent poster in the most recently active topic. Not a Bug

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Jason, I understand what you are saying about anyone who makes a new post, is shown to be the most recent poster, but that is in the Forum heading, and the latest poster isn’t always in the same topic within the heading, unlike the old forum, you could see the latest poster in the thread and which Topic it was in, so you could keep track of the topic you were interest in easier. Even I’ve clicked on the latest post time, only to find it is a different topic in the same Forum heading, and then you have to go back and find the topic you what, by which time it could be a few places down on the Forum list.

Regards Nick.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Nick I’m talking of the Active Topics which come sup on the left when you click Latest Activity.

If you look where I have put 1, 2, 3, 4 in green you can see it now shows the same basic data as the old system and what I want the layout altered to.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Jason, I can see what you mean, but when I click on Latest Activity I get this sort of thing.

Regards Nick.

[Jason BallamyParticipant @jasonballamy]

Nick, which “Latest Activity” are you clicking?

If I click “Forums” on the green bar I get what you show.

If I then click the “Latest Activity” blue rectangle I get this, both a sa Moderator and participant

 

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Jason, yes I’ve just seen that by different ways at accessing it, and this could be where confusion is setting in. At the start of this new forum, I like many others didn’t see what the latest activity had to gain, so I’ve seldom used it, that could be the trouble with the same button doing different things, and have always reverted back to the Forum one in the green bar. Still a bit of a learning cure I guess, but there again, why have a Forum button in the blue bar and the green bar, and one or two other things repeating in close proximity. Perhaps we’ll all get there in the end.

Regards Nick.

 

 

[Jason Ballamy]

On Jason Ballamy Said:

Nick, which “Latest Activity” are you clicking?

If I click “Forums” on the green bar I get what you show.

If I then click the “Latest Activity” blue rectangle I get this, both a sa Moderator and participant

 

Jason. The first line of your reply to Nick sums up the whole problem (well one of the problems) There are just too many repetitions of buttons with apparently the same purpose (like ‘SUBCRIBE’, LATEST POST, FORUMS) I cannot believe its beyond the skill of whoever creates the web pages to remove duplicates.

Ian P

P.S. I ‘Quoted’ to do this reply and its brought the screenshot along with the text, which I suppose it should do, but its all out of proportion and make reading threads tiesome.

 

[Ian P]

On Ian P Said:

On Peter Greene Said:

on Ian P Said:

Darren

 

Of all the things wrong here (hundreds probably) I think the one item that should be fixed above all others is to have a list on the home page that shows the most recent posts in actual time order.

Isn’t that what the “Latest Activity” link does?

Not on my computer!

Latest activity gives me a list (in somewhat random time order) of ‘Forums’ not posts. I cannot see any way of easily finding the most recent post.

Sorry Ian. Admittedly I don’t use that link. Once I found the Latest Activity page, I bookmarked the link and use it to go directly there. Since that’s the place I usually want to go first (or at all) I always start from there on the site. Saves a lot of faffing around (I did exactly the same on the old site).

If it helps, the link I am using is:

link

(If I type the link in clear text, the too-smart-by-half editor insists on replacing it with the page reference. Gah! as Dilbert would say.

Also: can’t delete multiple edit notifications

[Peter GreeneParticipant @petergreene36336]

 

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Ignore me a moment, I’m just testing something

Link from Chain Icon

Below is the auto converted URL to hyperlink shortcut

Latest Activity

I thought so, the above shortcut actually has three different hyperlinks within it.

Top one takes you to actual Latest Activity

The line at the bottom,

Takes you to the very top level of the site

Whereas This

Displays like so

Peter,

You can’t delete these when they’ve already been posted as above, unlike on the old forum, but you can prevent them being posted in the first place by unchecking this box.

Personally I prefer to show at least one edit notification, but uncheck the box for just correcting typos etc.

Bill

p.s. please forgive me for posting this quoted reply in this topic; I was thinking I was still in the constructive suggestions one.
I assume that this topic should really be for Admin for commenting on “New Forum Problems”, rather than members like me adding comments about “New Forum Problems” as in further new problems on this new forum if you see what I mean.

[Ian P]

On Ian P Said:

Jason. The first line of your reply to Nick sums up the whole problem (well one of the problems) There are just too many repetitions of buttons with apparently the same purpose (like ‘SUBCRIBE’, LATEST POST, FORUMS) I cannot believe its beyond the skill of whoever creates the web pages to remove duplicates.Ian P

P.S. I ‘Quoted’ to do this reply and its brought the screenshot along with the text, which I suppose it should do, but its all out of proportion and make reading threads tiesome.

 

Ian, too many options to get to the same thing was raised by me early on, they have been reduced a bit but as you say there are far more than needed particularly if the ones at the bottom of pages are included which just gives a cluttered site.

PS I also quoted your whole reply which included my screen shot but just deleted out what was not needed. I could always be done that way on the old forum but a lot of people did not so you get get a whole post with multiple images repeated just for a comment such as “Nice Job”

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

On Ian P Said:

Jason. The first line of your reply to Nick sums up the whole problem (well one of the problems) There are just too many repetitions of buttons with apparently the same purpose (like ‘SUBCRIBE’, LATEST POST, FORUMS) I cannot believe its beyond the skill of whoever creates the web pages to remove duplicates.Ian P

P.S. I ‘Quoted’ to do this reply and its brought the screenshot along with the text, which I suppose it should do, but its all out of proportion and make reading threads tiesome.

 

Ian, too many options to get to the same thing was raised by me early on, they have been reduced a bit but as you say there are far more than needed particularly if the ones at the bottom of pages are included which just gives a cluttered site.

…

Jason raised this as a problem almost immediately during testing, and repeated the point several times up to and after go-live.  Me too!

Since go-live, I have expanded our concern noting that:

1. The large pages being sent to users are probably contributing to the performance problem.  (Compared with old forum 4x bytes)
2. The extra gizmos are causing ‘Website Flicker’, aka ‘Flash of unstyled content (FOUC)’:  FOUC becomes visible when a browser is sent lots of stuff, (scripts, stylesheets, icons, ads etc) that take longer than the blink of an eye to load and display.
3. Adverts that annoy users are counter-productive!  Too many, and especially flashing.   I’ve asked Mortons to look at their  Advertising policy suggesting the priority is to make visitors happy.  Obviously ads are to be expected, and I buy stuff because of them, but in my opinion ads are too intrusive at the moment.
4. It might isolate whatever is hitting performance if all the bells and whistles were temporarily switched off, and then turned back on one at a time.   Ideally anything that doesn’t materially add to the user experience should be discarded permanently.

Ideally, all this would have been fixed before launch, but circumstances conspired.  Now there’s lots going on behind the scenes, progress is being made, but there’s no shortage of hard work!

Dave

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

The number one issue, ahead of everything, priority one, is the latest posts and activity page

Turn it into a single line for each post and list them

Number two is the huge volume of leading banner spam which makes a page view look like we’re all looking through a letterbox

There’s only about 5% viewable lol, which is seriously silly

There must be SOMEONE who can tweak these bits and get more sensible viewing for users, just cut the viewing height by 50%

this part is the easy peasy web stuff and it’s still not done yet lol

[Author]

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