New Forum Layout - where things have moved and all your complaints in one spot

[wxxyz]

THIS THREAD IS FOR ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND COMPLAINTS IN ONE LOCATION SO I CAN ACTUALLY KEEP TRACK AND RESPOND

Here is a brief overview of some of the things that have changed/moved and where to find them.

Active Topics - located under the 'quick links' link on the top left, and only appears once logged in

Unread Posts/New Posts/Unanswered Posts - located under the 'quick links' link on the top left

Edit Post - it's the pencil icon that appears on the top right of your post

Subscribe Topic - located under 'wrench' button at top left and bottom left of posts next to reply button and 'search this topic' bar

Bookmark Topic - located under 'wrench' button at top left and bottom left of posts next to reply button and 'search this topic' bar

[davewill]

OK, Please take these as constructive criticism.

I'd really prefer the locked menu bar be replaced with one that is just at the top of the page. Those choices all LEAVE the forum and I literally never use them. Even folks that do use them are only going to do so once, on their way out. They don't deserve the special treatment.

Conversely, it would rock if the Quick links menu didn't scroll away.

I would personally prefer the user info back on the left, but I'm sure I'll get used to it over on the right.

The edit and quote icons are just too subtle. It would be better if they were bigger and bolder.

The whole thing is a little vanilla. Wouldn't mind being able to choose between a few color combos. One of the things I didn't like about the old forum was that they all looked the same. I would sometimes lose track of whether I was on the LEAF forum or the RAV4EV forum while reading a thread. It would be nice if I could give them different color palettes once they're all upgraded.

Is there any way to limit the vertical space a signature can take up? I don't care how many characters are in it, I just don't want to give up as much vertical space as some people seem to want to use. It would be perfect if I had to expand them to see more than 3 or 4 lines.

[wxxyz]

Dave, thanks! Constructive criticism is the only kind I pay any attention to

Some great suggestions - good point about the locked toolbar at the top, and also like the idea of different colors for different forums.

I'll look into limiting the height of the signatures, but I think we only have a character count limit, so we could 'force' the height in the template but then it would chop off extra lines and would cause a flood of confused emails

[TimLee]

Main complaint is being forced into mobile interface with no means to get the regular web page. Really bad practice.

Second major shortcoming is lack of FAQ or Help selection that explains the interface.
The old interface was pretty obvious.
The new one follows the stupid icons for everything approach.
It requires a decoder ring.

[Sondy132001]

I'm good with the layout, I'm use to it now and I don't look at my phone from my mobile so I haven't even checked that out yet, so I am good there. My only problem, it took me 10 mins (swear on my life) to get to this point to post this reply, it's so slow it spins and spins or times out and I have to click twice to get it to even spin and spin in the first place. My computer is fast too ! Thanks for all you do.

[redLEAF]

Just tried to reply (although this has happened a number of times; first time I've taken the time to add a screen shot), using a 100 Mbps connection as well and we see this:



I'm used to the new format, just the very sloooow speed or these times outs are quite bad. I can see that where in the past after a few hours, etc. there may be 2 to 4 new pages of postings this has dropped to a single page as I'm sure people simply bail on the wait times. I will try the mobile version to see if perhaps that's where the improvements went ... is it perhaps more problematic with certain browsers versus others ... happen to be using Firefox on this reply?

[davewill]

Folks, There's a different thread for performance problems. This one is supposed to be limited to design and usability issues.

[GRA]

While I still find the old format far more user-friendly (better looking, too), I've adapted to the new one, with one major exception - put the damned poster's info box back on the left! This is a constant, large irritation. As it is, I've had two pmails from members starting up new forums, one LEAF specific and the other for all EVs. One has the poster's info box on the left as this site used to.

[JasonA]

OK, Please take these as constructive criticism, the thing "we" don't like is...

1. You (or the admins) blamed hacking and DDoS attacks for the reason to switch out the latest version on PhPBB.. yet this is like the WORST layout EVAR!

Finally, PHPBB updates their software which forces everyone to change the user interface, and now all I get is complaints about the new system!

That's BS... Goto their website and look at the default or the tens of thousands of FREE layouts avail. You just happen to pick the worst one.

2. you censored posts from other members..

3. You're not listening to the community. If people say its bad, then switch it back to the older layout or the stock one.

4. People on the Rav forum are complaining that they donated $$$ and never got their "gift"?? (I was also one of them)

5. Most member on the other forums DO NOT WANT THE OTHER FORUMS CHANGED TO THIS LAYOUT!

You're going to loose alot of people if you continue down this path. I'm sure you've seen the logs.

If you need help with this.. ASK! Alot of us are SysAdmins, NetworkAdmins, etc.. we do this stuff in our sleep

[LeafMuranoDriver]

Agree with others above. Please put the user info back on the left side.

Get rid of the white static tool bar at the top and replace with the dark gray bar that moves with the page.