You have anything you don't like about the new forums?

[Ken Leung]

I am just wondering if anyone have anything they don't like about the new forum...

Ever since the launch of this new forum, everyone is saying how good it is. Not that's a bad thing, but I think there got to be something that people don't feel so comfortable about.

Now, I told Brandon before hand to make sure he knows the purpose of this post is to collect Constructive criticism so he can make this place even better.

So, please don't misunderstand me... I don't mean any offense to this place. In face, I really like how the new forum turns out. I am just hoping we can share something we might not want to talk about because it's negative comments to this place.

Can anyone think of something?

[Joe Johnson]

I don't like that there is one thread and then all replies in one list below.

I liked the old forum style better, where replies were nested to allow "replies to replies."

I may grow used to the new format, but not just yet.

Joe J.

[Justin Ridley]

I'm with Joe on being able to reply to replys, or having threads within threads so to speak. I also liked being able to see everyone who replied, and pick who's reply I wanted to read.
Also, I kinda liked just having General, Rumor, and Tech. . . now I'll just have to spend more time here sifting through the different forums

After using the old forum for years it'll just take some time to get used to this one (a little overwhelming at first), which all and all I'm sure I'll like.

Justin

[Brandon Martus]

Originally posted by Joe Johnson
I don't like that there is one thread and then all replies in one list below.

I liked the old forum style better, where replies were nested to allow "replies to replies."

I may grow used to the new format, but not just yet.

Joe J.

This is the only way to really reply to a reply.
Hitting the 'quote' button in the bottom right quotes the reply-author's text.

[Brandon Martus]

Originally posted by Justin Ridley
I'll just have to spend more time here sifting through the different forums

I've found using the 'View New Posts' link very useful to get up to speed with what I've missed. And then if you want to go browsing, or whatever, I go into the forums via the main page.

[Jay Lundy]

For some reason it doesn't mark the forums as read once I read all the posts in them. I can't really figure out why, but it's not much of a problem. Once I know I've read everything I just hit the mark all forums as read button.

I also found the new forums to be overwhelming when I first used them because I had never used a vBulletin forum before. But once I got used to it I realized how much better it is. Right now my favorite function is the subscribe to forums. I love getting emails whenever someone replies to one of my posts.

[Joel J]

Originally posted by Jay Lundy
For some reason it doesn't mark the forums as read once I read all the posts in them. I can't really figure out why, but it's not much of a problem. Once I know I've read everything I just hit the mark all forums as read button.

A user's cookies don't time out until 5 - 15 minutes after they read a new post. Not sure about the exact time, as this information is specified by the admin.

[Brandon Martus]

Right,
After 15 minutes of inactivity, the yellow indicator will go away.

[Ken Leung]

I guess there IS one thing I miss from the old threads, is that we used to be able to see all the message title and posters' names right away.

To me, the threads in the old forum told me what kind of discussion people are having at the first glance, and I can almost guess what people are talking about just by reading the titles.

Now, I am forced to read through the whole thread in order to see what people are talking about, and sometimes I don't have enough time for that.

The old threads used to be the outline of every discussion, and we used to be able to see how long was each discussion, what's going on in it, and who are the people posting about it.

Is it possible to still display an outline like that in the new forum? It doesn't have to be too fancy, but just a box on top to display all the titles of each message and who posted them...

I guess the bigger thing I don't like about this is that the new forum take longer time to look around, because discussions are speeded out a lot more, and I have no idea what's going on...

[Matt Leese]

Well, one thing that particularly bugs me about the forums right now is that in IE the scroll bar colors are changed. Now, that wouldn't be too bad (I dislike it for the most part) but it changes it to black with orange highlights. Now, I may be an Orioles fan (even if they suck), but that color combination just doesn't work. It pretty much clashes with the entire site. There's too much black compared with the rest of the site and the orange is the wrong shade. At worst, it should be orange with black highlights but my vote would go to removing it altogether.

Matt

[Adrian Wong]

The linear conversation format does take a while to get used to. After being on several of these types of forums, I find that conversation flows much more nicely.

All the replies are aggregated into one thread, no chance of accidental duplication on a forked thread. Conversation flow usually stays on topic. And if anything is really that far astray from the original point, someone usually branches off a whole new topic thread for that subject.

One thing I don't like is the amount of boards there are. There just appear to be so many. I think I'll get used to it, though. (E.g. once the competition starts, most conversation will be under Rules/Strategy, then progressing to Regional, and finally to National)

I dislike the fact that in each thread, I do not know what I have read and what i have not read. It's one big list of posts which i have to scroll and find the spot I have left off which may be hard to find and may not may hard at times.

Jeff Wong

[Brandon Martus]

Look for this graphic:

It will link you to the first post you have not read (assuming you are browsing the board with cookies). This graphic shows up in most of the forum listings, and search results. Also -- at the top left area of each thread, there is a link that says something to the effect of 'go to first unread post'. That will take you down to the first post you have not read.

And, if all else fails, scroll down, looking for this graphic: That graphic shows up next to each person's post, under their name. If it is there, it means that you haven't read that post, otherwise you will see:

[Ameya]

Originally posted by Ken Leung

Is it possible to still display an outline like that in the new forum? It doesn't have to be too fancy, but just a box on top to display all the titles of each message and who posted them...

I guess the bigger thing I don't like about this is that the new forum take longer time to look around, because discussions are speeded out a lot more, and I have no idea what's going on...

If you click on that little image of an envelope next to the thread's title, a window pops up with exactly what you want: a list of replies and the names of the people who posted them.

[Ken Leung]

Originally posted by Ameya


If you click on that little image of an envelope next to the thread's title, a window pops up with exactly what you want: a list of replies and the names of the people who posted them.

I was quite happy when that little window popped up... Although the people aren't putting enough thoughts behind the titles to fully take advantage of this feature... Just like the old threads. Guess there's nothing I can do about that.

By the way, guess who ask Brandon to make that feature work, and guess who first tested it out?

Hopefully people will realize how useful it can be, and eventually make use of it. Now all it need is a little name on top of the thread titles inside each forum to tell people that they can click the icon to look at thread titles...