opinions on the new forum look

I just wanted to say that the thing that made me search for the "tinkering with this site" forum, was the lack of page navigation buttons at the bottom of the (old/classic) layout. It's been driving me crazy to have to scroll all the way back to the top to see the next page of posts.

I see that the beta site has the page nav at the bottom too. Yay! I'll be using the new layout from now on. (And may come back with further opinions. My initial reaction to the layout for each board is that it's really busy, but we'll see if I get used to it.)

I love the new forum look! It feels way more aligned with the permies brand.

Chris Badgett wrote:I love the new forum look! It feels way more aligned with the permies brand.

Thanks Chris! I really feel like that too!

John Hazen wrote:I just wanted to say that the thing that made me search for the "tinkering with this site" forum, was the lack of page navigation buttons at the bottom of the (old/classic) layout. It's been driving me crazy to have to scroll all the way back to the top to see the next page of posts.

I see that the beta site has the page nav at the bottom too. Yay! I'll be using the new layout from now on. (And may come back with further opinions. My initial reaction to the layout for each board is that it's really busy, but we'll see if I get used to it.)

Actually, the issue with page navigation has been my perpetual bug-bear with the site for a number of years. It is setup so that if you are logged in you see different navigation options to if you are not logged in. My problem with this is that I use lots of different devices, many of which do not save my internet settings from session to session, and some of which log me out seemingly every few minutes. I want to stay logged in and can't. I then end up scrolling over and over to get menus. In previous threads Paul has made it clear that this is his preferred arrangement. I'm hoping that will change with the new look and feel, as it just makes it harder (for me at least) to navigate the site.

My other personal preference would be to see the black bar of navigation links repeated in the footer of each page, because I use them all the time and also find myself scrolling around to get to them.

Overall the look is great though.

It is true, I like a more ... minimalist look and feel for non-logged in users.

If you are having trouble staying logged in, then I think that that might be a bug and we should mend that.

paul wheaton wrote:
If you are having trouble staying logged in, then I think that that might be a bug and we should mend that.

I wish it were just a bug on here... it is actually a major issue in the school network where I work. Sadly I'm a resident (its a boarding school) so I'm pretty much hostage to their system. The only device that stays logged in pretty consistently is my ipad, and even that drops out now and then. The system seems to forget every internet preference, bookmark and login I enter once very 24 hours or so.

I like the new look. Honestly white background forums strain my eyes and tend to force me to limit my time on them. I like that you are taking your time working the bugs out before implementing the new look. Some folks will never like any change made, just because they have gown comfortable with what they know. I am new enough here I have not gotten settled in.

I have dealt with changes in several other forums I belong to, something that seemed to work the best was actually offering choices. Not sure if you can do it here, but some of the forums I frequent let you choose the skin you see the forum with in your user control panel. This of course might just add too much complexity here. But it might be a way to smooth transition, if there were a few different styles one could choose from, including the "classic" as it is forum for those who don't like change.

Okay, I'll admit I'm warming to the new look, especially as the coderanch guys keep working their little tweeks on it, getting details down and polishing things up.

I know Paul's not a big fan of stickies but I have noticed that a few threads do have them. I have to admit that in the beta view (which I've been using for a while now) I just noticed that the stickies were now in a separate space up top with pretty small font. I don't know how it is for others but for me it didn't really register as part of the forum and my brain was kind of dismissing it.

Is this already on the massive list of things the staff is working on/planning to change? I kind of figure that there might already be some grand scheme to sticky stickies without having them be stickies to satisfy a dislike of stickies

If not then there's my 2 cents <- I've got to be up to what, around a buck-fifty by now?

I usually hate site changes and got through nearly three paragraphs about everything that was/could be considered wrong with the new format, before finally conceding that it is in fact better.


So considering you were able to impress someone who's normally a major critic towards format shifts, I must say(grudgingly)- Congrats to Paul and all the rest who managed to come up with what's actually a pretty good design.

Forgive me if this is covered on this topic already as i only skimmed. I am on an ipad and when i am in recent threads i can't move the screen side to side( which is good) but when i go into a thread if i am not careful to keep my movement strictly up and down, the site can be dragged side to side, which prevents it from scrolling up and down.
Kind of hard to explain now that i write that. If anyone has used an ipad they might have noticed on some pages you can pull side to side and they will kind of spring back to the normal position. But other pages do not move in that direction at all, and will only go up and down. It is easier if this side to side bouncing is not allowed.

The new look is great. This is really the only 'issue' i have encountered that bugs me and its not even a big deal. If i was not on a stinking i pad i dont think it would have any bearing whatsoever.

Zach Muller wrote:Forgive me if this is covered on this topic already as i only skimmed. I am on an ipad and when i am in recent threads i can't move the screen side to side( which is good) but when i go into a thread if i am not careful to keep my movement strictly up and down, the site can be dragged side to side, which prevents it from scrolling up and down.
Kind of hard to explain now that i write that. If anyone has used an ipad they might have noticed on some pages you can pull side to side and they will kind of spring back to the normal position. But other pages do not move in that direction at all, and will only go up and down. It is easier if this side to side bouncing is not allowed.

The new look is great. This is really the only 'issue' i have encountered that bugs me and its not even a big deal. If i was not on a stinking i pad i dont think it would have any bearing whatsoever.

Hmm, I think I understand what you're saying. I'll talk to our web peeps to see if this is something we'd want to address.

Thanks for the feedback Zach.

Zach, does this happen with all threads or only with some threads?

Hey devaka, i did a little test and yes it appears to be happening on all threads. It does not happen on any of the other pages though.

One other thing- is there any chance the new format will have the ability to let one stay online but inactive for longer than 45 minutes at a time? Logging in every day several times a day is honestly the greatest hassle of using this forum. No other site I've ever seen has had this before.

Guerric Kendall wrote:One other thing- is there any chance the new format will have the ability to let one stay online but inactive for longer than 45 minutes at a time? Logging in every day several times a day is honestly the greatest hassle of using this forum. No other site I've ever seen has had this before.

I log in and click on the checkbox for keeping me logged in. I stay logged in for weeks at a time.

paul wheaton wrote:

I log in and click on the checkbox for keeping me logged in. I stay logged in for weeks at a time.

Samesies.

paul wheaton wrote:

Guerric Kendall wrote:One other thing- is there any chance the new format will have the ability to let one stay online but inactive for longer than 45 minutes at a time? Logging in every day several times a day is honestly the greatest hassle of using this forum. No other site I've ever seen has had this before.

I log in and click on the checkbox for keeping me logged in. I stay logged in for weeks at a time.

Huh... That does work. I know for sure that I tried both methods a while ago and neither worked, but apparently it does now. Thank you.

My biggy problem (and I'm not computer savvy in any way, but neither are many of us, shall we say, "older" folk) is that when I've finished reading down through the thread of interest, that it is much harder, requiring almost restarting, to get back to the list of other threads.
Here's what I mean. I found this thread in growies --> urban --> "a hypothetical question on contamination". I read through it. I didn't feel any need to comment, but it reminded me of a different thread about treating/cleaning your soil that I had read before. Well! To find it, I must go back to growies --> urban --> and look a long time to find the page I had been on before which was "The abundant urban waste stream - how to go from pollution to production".

With the old system, I would've only needed to look to the top and click on the "urban" , whereupon the list of threads pops up with the ones I have read highlighted. Much easier to find what I had previously read!

i noticed that the banners are off centered. devaka, any reason why that'd be? can you fix that?

I read an article today that reminded me of the difficulties I have reading permies.com
Internet is becoming unreadable ...