Feedback for New Forum Design

Two main complaints - 1) too monochromatic. Everything blends in together and nothing really stands out. The word "new" should be red or a bright color to be more noticeable. 2) I understand that Jacob needs/wants to make money from the forum but the ads are now overtaking the pages. I tried to opt out but many companies will not let you.

Edited for typo, Sorry Jacob for the confusion. Amazing how one little letter can change the whole meaning of a sentence!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2015 05:49PM by Sybil2.

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I liked it last week. Today on my desktop computer I'm seeing a whole new layout and I don't like it. Maybe it's just the old browser on this computer that makes it so difficult. I guess, like Mary, I'll adapt, but I liked the old a lot better.

The new format truly sucks for more reasons than I have the patience to enumerate right now. (:
(the PM area is THE worst ~ the main forum ain't much better)

I don't care to adapt to things this aggravating, either.

Practitioner of the Nerdly Arts.

I like it. It is organized and uncluttered!

@StormCloud -- sarcasm? Hopefully.

@purpleicee -- thank you!

@Jay C -- The design shifts/changes around depending on the size of the browser window, or the screen. But, maybe there are bugs caused by your old browser. Maybe I can fix them. What browser version are you using on your old computer?

@Sybil2 -- Thank you for the feedback! I like your idea of changing the 'new' to be a little more noticeable. I just added that to the 'to-do' list. I don't understand what you mean by the ads "not overtaking the pages." Can you elaborate? Thank you!!

@MDavisnowell -- Sorry! I was very reluctant to do this design change at all. Change is hard. I plan on continuing to update the new design. I'm going make the "new" buttons brighter. More like the old version. Hopefully it will grow on you.

@sandyf -- The updates tab is still there! It was just shifted over a little. I think, perhaps, that I should make it more prominent. It is important to me too!

@scanman1 -- I updated the design so that the messages are now ~80 characters wide on a 1920x1080 monitor. Maybe you're not seeing those changes? They get as small as ~67 characters wide, but only with a few screen widths.

Thank you everybody!

Please keep the feedback coming.

The typeface is alrger and easier to read, but I prefer the old format please.
Can you creat a "Classic Look " option as done by many mscs please??

Roxie,

The report function is now an exclamation point that you can barely see (it's very tiny)

@Roxie wrote:

It's really nice! I am viewing on an iPad and I don't see a link to report a problem post. I like the "new member" highlight, but I miss seeing how many posts an author has previously written. How long does the "new member" tag stay on?

Edited to add: When I hold the iPad vertically, there is no ad and the text spans the width of the screen. When I turn it horizontally, there is one ad at the top right, and all of the space under it is blank, so as you scroll down you are seeing the empty part the other members have mentioned.

Kim

Never mind. You changed it

Kim

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2015 04:48PM by kimmiemae.

I'm seeing the new format today on the computer (I don't use a smart phone). I'm not seeing a good identification for the Report button. I agree with those who comment about everything sort of running together. And would it be possible to not identify all the posts to the Job Board as 'Recent Discussions'? Job Board postings quickly push the 'meat' of the forum right off that list.

@JacobJ wrote:

@Sybil2 -- Thank you for the feedback! I like your idea of changing the 'new' to be a little more noticeable. I just added that to the 'to-do' list. I don't understand what you mean by the ads "not overtaking the pages." Can you elaborate? Thank you!!.

Jacob, typo. "Not" should be "now." I have more suggestions but I don't have the time right now. I will get back to you later. Thanks for all your hard work. You will not be able to please everyone but kudos for including us in the feedback.

P.S. I use the latest version of Goggle Chrome and when the ads are not overtaking the screen, there are A LOT of blank white spaces. And I have no problem with change. Life is ever-changing and it prevents boredom.

@Jacob, the auto name feature seems to be gone. Meaning when you start to type @ and the person's forum name, it used to automatically bring up choices. Did you remove that feature? Is the orange "no replies" box replacing the "sticky" permanent threads? It is a bit confusing. Once all the forum changes have been made, we should have a "guide" listing what certain terms mean in forum-speak.

Why don't you move the second Google adsence ad to the bottom of the page and place it in the footer file instead of having the ad take up the right side of the screen for the first post and then have dead white space for the entire length of the post below it. You can place the info boxes in between the first post and the replies as was done with the old theme and not have a crazy amount of white space to the right of the posts.

Then you can allow the width to be the full screen width instead of limiting it to now 83 characters max for one banner ad. This was a very small improvement from the 63 characters.

If I could edit the .css layout by hand for 10 minutes, I could clean it up so you would have your ads placed above and below the posts and the whitespace would be gone.
You have double the whitespace needed on the outside borders as well.

I am lost and I am on my PC. There are just too many white spaces and hard to follow up when on the run. Things seem all mixed in. Could be good with wireless but I never go to the Forum except on my PC. I may just go back to lurking for a while until I get used to the changes.

Could the Forum List along the top be a dropdown instead of having to open a page and then find each section title with an explanation and then click on that to switch back and forth between mystery shop discussion forum and mystery shop company discussion forum. I expect a lot of us regularly use these two forums. One of the drop down choices could be the whole list with explanations of each for those who need that.

@sandyf -- having a dropdown forum list is a great idea, and it is on the to-do list! Thank you!

@risinghorizon -- I'm sorry you're finding it difficult! I wish I could "look over your shoulder" to see how you're using the new design. Hopefully it will become easy over the next few days. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

@scanman1 -- I'm just not convinced by what you're saying. The 83 character width is identical to the old forum design. Feel free to keep trying. Maybe I'm missing something.

@Sybil2 -- the autoname feature is still here. Is it not working for you? What browser are you using?

Thank you everybody!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2015 08:25PM by JacobJ.

@Sybil2 wrote:

@Jacob, the auto name feature seems to be gone.

I just clicked on a members name who had a reply to a thread in the forum so that I could privately PM them. It took me to the PM page but the forum members name was not listed on the To in order to send a message. I was not sure of the spelling so I started typing what I remembered and nothing came up with suggestions. I did get the exact name correct on the first try but if it had been someone whose forum name was not a memorable word I would have been lost. Not sure this is what Sybil is referring to or if I am trying to PM incorrectly but I seem to remember you could click on someones screen name and it would take you to a message box with the name filled in.

The section that used to have all the threads in chronological order as they were started seems to be gone. At this moment, the third thread in "recent discussions" is a post about Sentry that was written on June 22 and has not had a reply.

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