Forum update - comments here please

[Cruzi]

We are trying out some new ideas for the forum display based on comments from the Melbourne WWW Show. If you haven't already please read Neils's announcement "Changes to (Rearranging) the Forums Front Page", it explains whats going on.

Hmmmm, how do I put this.....

Not happy Jan, we already had the option of collapsing forums we didn't want to see, now whole forum has been collapsed with no option to expand the sections we do want to see ( the little expand/collapse button is not present)

Guys, I know its not easy, both managing and moderating a forum, but sometimes "if it ain't broke don't fix it"

[Calm]

I know it is different but hang on a minute.

Everyone says "i know its not easy" or "I dont mean to be picky" but hey lets wait a couple of days until the changes are finished and let the people who maintain this forum without COST TO US the users finish what they started.

If you dont mean to be picky then dont say it!!!!!

I'm sure the gripeing and whinging is no encouragement to anyone.

I'm in favour of have a bit different screen to look at for a couple of days then giving comment when it is asked for.

Be positive not negative Keep up the good work Neil

[ubeaut]

Click on the Forum Header for the forum you want and all will be revealed. Give us a bit of time to sort it all out, it's a really massive work in progress and will take a little time to get right.

It will only be a few days at the most. A day or two of 10 hr days will fix it. Be patient. It will all work out for the best and if not I'll put it back the way it was. The way many complained about. Might make some appreciate it, for what it was or is or could be or whatever.

Cheers - Neil

[ubeaut]

Hmmph... I gotta learn to type faster.

Good comments Calm

[Cruzi]

The comment is not a hollow platitude, have experience at running a website and helping in a forum, at I might add, very great personal expense both financial and time.

[munruben]

Munrubin - you may have been wrong before but not this timePusser

Thanks Pusser. I think we will have to reserve judgment on this one. Now I come to think of it, I don't think I have been wrong before. must have been a moment of weakness when I wrote that.

Seriously, the guys are trying to improve things here for our benefit and I guess its very disheartening to have us criticizing their efforts before we have given them a chance to trial the changes out. Keep up the good work guys, we do really appreciate what you do for us. We also appreciate the freedom of speech to voice an opinion, even though it doesn't necessarily agree with management.

[MrFixIt]

Hi

The new forum layout is NOT as easy to use as the previous layout.

The subforums being listed in "paragraph" layout, ie in a "HORIZONTAL" list, is very awkward to use.

As a GUI design it is not clear and practical. The user has to scan down the "first list" - the forums - then horizontally along the second list - the sub forums.

What this does is cause the user to literally "READ" the horizontal list. This happens partly because we are "conditioned" to READ from left to right and partly because the interaction between the human eye and the brain cannot easily differentiate between different and separate items in a horizontal list. We as users have to READ the preceeding text and the succeeding text to be ABLE to ascertain the "separate items".

In a VERTICAL list, the eye-brain interaction is different. First we are ALREADY able to distinguish the separate items as they are already delimited by white space. In addition to this after several uses of such a list the brain will, without conscious effort on the part of the user, recognise "patterns" even though these "patterns" may be text. This means of course that the user no longer has to physically and literally READ the sub forum names as they are instantly recognised as a "pattern" and when we look for our sub forums we "see" them instantly.

This instant recognition will remain even if NEW sub forums are appended to the end of the list.

If new sub forums are added to the already "difficult to process" horizontal list, any familiarity gained through repeated reading, will be lost as the user now has to re-READ the new text.

Think of it this way, imagine how difficult it would be to find files on the computer if windows explorer had its directory(folder) tree in the left pane and listed ALL the files in the selected folder, in a HORIZONTAL format. NOW imagine what would happen if you added a few documents and a few spreadsheets to that folder. How much harder would it be to find a specific file if you were "READING" a file list in "paragraph" format!

While one or two sub forums are not too hard to differentiate, when there are more items the user then has to READ the info.

I would strongly suggest that the forum revert to a VERTICAL list of sub forums.

[m2c1Iw]

The new forum layout is NOT as easy to use as the previous layout.

I would strongly suggest that the forum revert to a VERTICAL list of sub forums.

I second that

[Ron Dunn]

Fiddling with a standard installation rarely makes things easier.

This is a common forum software product. Users get used to the way it works on other sites, then get confused/irritated when it has been "improved" to work in a different way.

The package defaults are pretty good, because of the number of sites in which it is installed, and the experience of those sites reflected to the developers.

Customisation actually works against ease of use and intuition.

[weisyboy]

The new forum layout is NOT as easy to use as the previous layout.

I would strongly suggest that the forum revert to a VERTICAL list of sub forums.

[flynnsart]

First off, like to express my appreciation to all those who have a part in running this amazing forum.

I had a couple of issues in mind when I opened this thread and have just sat and read it right through (Like, where has the last hour or so gone?) so I now know that first complaint is fixable (didnt like the white background), and my second one has just been covered by the previous couple of posts, and is to do with the horizontal listing of subforums.



Donna

[silentC]

Obviously the reason for listing them horizontally is to reduce the amount of vertical space the forum listing takes up. You can collapse the whole forum section so it only takes up one line, or if it has the sub forums listed, just a couple of lines. If you are interested in a particular forum section, you can expand it and all the individual forums are listed vertically, just as they always were. It even remembers your settings so you can collapse all the ones you never look at and just leave the ones that interest you expanded.

I don't see what the problem is. How do people read a newspaper if they have trouble reading the names of forums horizontally?

Change for the better I reckon, or will be when it's finished.

I've got one site that people all over the world use and they all pay for the privilege. So many times people have complained about something, so we fix it, only to have someone else complain about the fix. These people are paying for access to the site, so I suppose we have to listen to them, but a lot of the time we just make unilateral decisions that we believe are for the greater good, despite what some paying users feel, like it or lump it.

For a free site, well I guess there's a point where you might be prepared to listen and improve, but at the end of the day, let's just say my attitude would be a bit less amenable than these guys have been to date.

[Sturdee]

I don't know why you lot are complaining about the improvements.

I like them as I use the "New Post" search facility and others on the top line and the "Currently active users" statistics. The bits in between is just stuff I have to scroll through and anything that reduces same is a great idea.

Looking great Neil.


Peter.

[DJ’s Timber]

I don't know why you lot are complaining about the improvements.

I like them as I use the "New Post" search facility and others on the top line and the "Currently active users" statistics. The bits in between is just stuff I have to scroll through and anything that reduces same is a great idea.

Looking great Neil.


Peter.

[Big Shed]

Have to agree with Peter Mainly use New Posts and iSpy, hardly ever look at the forum lists unless I am looking for a particular form to post a new thread.

Edit: Just had another look, all the whingeing seems to have resulted in the PTB going back to the old interface anyway.