What do you think of the new forums?

[richfiles]

On December 9, 2015 11:02:40 AM, aramil said:

yesh but thats easily changed (edited screenshot for da kiddies)

I Repped the Sh▓▓ out of that pic! LOL! 

[War Eagle 1]

I think it is dying or everyone is taking exams

[Red Iron Crown]

1 minute ago, War Eagle 1 said:

I think it is dying or everyone is taking exams

Predictions of the impending death of the forum have been coming in every couple of months or so since I joined. It ebbs and flows but never dies, so far at least.

[War Eagle 1]

10 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

Predictions of the impending death of the forum have been coming in every couple of months or so since I joined. It ebbs and flows but never dies, so far at least.

True but I've never seen the forums this quiet even during finals week(s)

[stibbons]

At least the hyperbole is still alive and well.

[richfiles]

On December 10, 2015 at 4:50 PM, War Eagle 1 said:

I think it is dying or everyone is taking exams

I'm a FREQUENT visitor to these forums... Then Fallout 4 happened! 
I didn't even KNOW the forums were getting changed, or that they had even gone down... I'd have backed up my thread subs if I'd have known.

To "think" the forum is "dying" due to the normal rise and fall of use in relation to various events is just ca-raaaayzee! 
I might have been gone for most of a month, but most of that month was spent groaning at how little I got done on my hardware Kerbal Controller cause of Fallout 4! 

 

Edited December 21, 2015 by richfiles

[Flymetothemun]

I've avoided Facebook for privacy reasons all this time. Little did I know I'd be caught in an amateurish, 4th-grade programming project-esque copy of it. Squad wasted their money. Every day this forum software is active I inch ever closer to the point where I put in my resignation. It's already written, all I need to do is pull the proverbial trigger.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Flymetothemun

[Majorjim!]

15 hours ago, Red Iron Crown said:

Predictions of the impending death of the forum have been coming in every couple of months or so since I joined. It ebbs and flows but never dies, so far at least.

If it does die it will not be due to community action. We want it to live.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I've already expressed my disdain for the forum's visual style and layout elsewhere, and I expect a lot of the same concerns that I have have already been expressed here so I need not repeat them.

I would however like to point out that newer and bigger is frequently not necessarily better. The most comfortable, most stable, most all-round-pleasant-to-be-on-and-post-in forum of those I frequent - the Bay 12 Games forum - runs on SMF 2.0.10, and has none of the myriad useless bells and whistles that this forum software boasts. And is moderated by all of two people, roleplaying and all, despite still being a sizeable forum (45k users to this board's 150k).

There is a point when extra features just become bloatware. A lot of the time, the more basic and straightforward things end up also being the better ones.

[Bill Phil]

On 12/11/2015, 12:49:41, Flymetothemun said:

I've avoided Facebook for privacy reasons all this time. Little did I know I'd be caught in an amateurish, 4th-grade programming project-esque copy of it. Squad wasted their money. Every day this forum software is active I inch ever closer to the point where I put in my resignation. It's already written, all I need to do is pull the proverbial trigger.

Welcome to the new age.

And also, the privacy on this forum is good. Better than FB, at least.

[Virtualgenius]

I will be very interested to see what happens with the forums  when Kasper returns. It would be interesting to see user numbers from last year and numbers from this year from when the forum software changed 

Edited December 12, 2015 by Virtualgenius

[Red Iron Crown]

@Virtualgenius Wouldn't be a valid comparison, this time last year the HypeTrain was running for the 0.90 release, now we're between patches afaict. Though I wouldn't be surprised if this years numbers are higher despite that, we gained a ton of new members after 1.0 dropped.

[Tex_NL]

We just had a so called 'forum update'.
The editor still can't toggle WYSIWYG on/off. The search function still barely functions. And the colour scheme is still an eyesore.

So what has been changed? Are you guys even thinking about fixing things or are you just playing?

Edited December 19, 2015 by Tex_NL

[KasperVld]

10 minutes ago, Tex_NL said:

We just had a so called 'forum update'.
The editor still can't toggle WYSIWYG on/off. The search function still barely functions. And the colour scheme is still an eyesore.

So what has been changed? Are you guys even thinking about fixing things or are you just playing?

It was a software update to address some issues related to various areas, including search. I've returned to work today after two weeks of study leave, so I'm catching up on all  the developments and compiling a list of things I can address in the next few days.

[Starhawk]

Thanks @KasperVld!  I very much appreciate the software update.

I hope you achieved all your goals during your study leave.

Happy landings!

[Nibb31]

Give me good old bbcode anyday over a broken implementation of WYSIWIG that just makes our lives more complicated.

The quoting system is broken to a degree that makes it unusable. You can't even delete quote blocks and it frequently brings up the wrong quote or a quote that I replied to several posts beforehand. Reply twice in the same thread and it just loses it. It's a damn mess.

Just give us bbcode, even if it's as an "advanced" option. It just worked and it was obvious to use. This editor is just unusable and broken.

[Randazzo]

6 hours ago, Nibb31 said:

Give me good old bbcode anyday over a broken implementation of WYSIWIG that just makes our lives more complicated.

The quoting system is broken to a degree that makes it unusable. You can't even delete quote blocks and it frequently brings up the wrong quote or a quote that I replied to several posts beforehand. Reply twice in the same thread and it just loses it. It's a damn mess.

Just give us bbcode, even if it's as an "advanced" option. It just worked and it was obvious to use. This editor is just unusable and broken.

ctrl+right click, delete quote. Just for future reference.

Edited December 22, 2015 by Randazzo

[Nibb31]

Oh yeah. And we are supposed to guess that how? Are we like supposed to read the mind of the dummy developer who decided that a good user interface is one that hides essential features behind key combos that are never used on web sites or any other forum software?

Sorry, that's a broken UI, and I work in software development, so I think I know a thing or two about UI design. Any developer who came up with that sort of user experience needs to be sacked. And anyone at Squad who evaluated IPS 4 and thought it was good forum software needs to be sacked too.

What about fixing the" reply-that-brings-up-my-previous-reply-and-doesn't-let-me-quote-the-post-I-actually-wanted-to-reply-to" bug? Or is that another feature that has to be activated by a magic key combo and secret gesture?

Can you tell I'm krakened? Good, cuz I am.

[DuoDex]

Merged into the "what do you think of the new forums thread".

[Tex_NL]

On 22-12-2015 at 3:09 PM, Nibb31 said:

Give me good old bbcode anyday over a broken implementation of WYSIWIG that just makes our lives more complicated.

The quoting system is broken to a degree that makes it unusable. You can't even delete quote blocks and it frequently brings up the wrong quote or a quote that I replied to several posts beforehand. Reply twice in the same thread and it just loses it. It's a damn mess.

Just give us bbcode, even if it's as an "advanced" option. It just worked and it was obvious to use. This editor is just unusable and broken.

 

17 hours ago, Nibb31 said:

Oh yeah. And we are supposed to guess that how? Are we like supposed to read the mind of the dummy developer who decided that a good user interface is one that hides essential features behind key combos that are never used on web sites or any other forum software?

Sorry, that's a broken UI, and I work in software development, so I think I know a thing or two about UI design. Any developer who came up with that sort of user experience needs to be sacked. And anyone at Squad who evaluated IPS 4 and thought it was good forum software needs to be sacked too.

What about fixing the" reply-that-brings-up-my-previous-reply-and-doesn't-let-me-quote-the-post-I-actually-wanted-to-reply-to" bug? Or is that another feature that has to be activated by a magic key combo and secret gesture?

Can you tell I'm krakened? Good, cuz I am.

You're preaching to the choir.
We have been venting our discontent for nearly a month now. The only official reply was Kaspers last Saturday. But he only replied but didn't say anything. If even if you're planning not to change anything just say it. Ignoring the issues is down right insulting.

[DuoDex]

A couple of words to the people with problems with the new editor. It is neither "unusable", nor "broken", as I have seen suggested repeatedly and across multiple threads. The editor, while not having the functionality that you think it should have, remains perfectly usable. Besides, you seem to be posting quite well .

Again, we are well aware that issues in the new forum software exist-such as the funny editor behavior on mobile, but the same was true of vBulletin-such as the lack of worthwhile mobile support. There are also things that IPS4 does much better than vBulletin could ever do (notifications, anyone?), while not doing things that vB did do. The fact remains that vBulletin 4 was going lose support and a forum switch was going to have to happen. This was the option that was chosen, and no number of petitions can change that.

The best thing that can be done now is to accept that IPS4 is the new forum software and change whatever workflows you have to accommodate the bugs that you notice, as people did when vBulletin was introduced. We'll be trying to fix the bugs that come up in addition to the ones that have already been reported. Remember that features you do not like are not bugs and will not be treated as such, this is especially true in the case of editor functions that don't function like you think they should.

IPS4 is what it is. We can only change so much.

[adsii1970]

On 12/19/2015 at 5:40 AM, KasperVld said:

It was a software update to address some issues related to various areas, including search. I've returned to work today after two weeks of study leave, so I'm catching up on all  the developments and compiling a list of things I can address in the next few days.

I'm not upset, and I think I can safely speak for a few of us who thank you for what you do for the forum. When migrating to any new software there are always periods of adjustment, of learning what the new system is capable of handling, and getting over hurt feelings. There's also the learning curve to deal with because this software platform, like several I use, are constantly being updated by the company that sells it.  With that said, don't let the negativity get to you - keep doing the great job you've always done...

On another note, how did the exams go?

[sgt_flyer]

i'm wondering about one thing though - did the key combos idea came straight from IPS ? because for a forum software supposed to be mobile friendly, i don't see how i'll be able to use ctrl + rightclick or alt + rightclick on my phone... and yes, when writing a post on my phone, i sometimes want to be able to manage quotes and hyperlinks.

these kinds of usage should have a button to activate the corresponding function on mobiles (even on desktop, while also keeping the key combos) - simply a matter of adding a note when hovering over the button that informs you of the corresponding key combo so people can learn them and put them to use.)

BTW, even if VBulletin was not meant for mobiles, i find it was still much more mobile friendly than what we have in IPS.

 

Edited December 24, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[stibbons]

6 hours ago, DuoDex said:

Again, we are well aware that issues in the new forum software exist-such as the funny editor behavior on mobile,

 

4 hours ago, sgt_flyer said:

i'm wondering about one thing though - did the key combos idea came straight from IPS ? because for a forum software supposed to be mobile friendly, i don't see how i'll be able to use ctrl + rightclick or alt + rightclick on my phone...

...awkward. 

(written on my phone) 

[Nibb31]

I just clicked Reply, and again, the editor auto-filled with some old post from several days ago. If that's not "broken", then I don't know what is.

Mandatory key combos are a big no-no for any accessibility testing. Besides the obfuscation and unpredictability, they are simply not accessible to users on mobile devices, keyboardless devices (consoles), or physically impaired users. Right-click menus are typically associated with the browser, not the web site that's running inside it. It's a limitation that simply doesn't need to exist.

Most software UI guidelines require that any keyboard shortcuts must be accessible by some other means. The obvious way to design it would be to add a visual indicator like a menu button or a quote toolbar. There was absolutely no reason for a software developer to invent a whole new paradigm of forum user interfaces just because he wasn't arsed to add a freaking button.

And the old forum worked in a perfectly predictable manner on mobile devices. It would have worked even better if it used Tapatalk like pretty much every other forum these days, but that's another story...

Edited December 24, 2015 by Nibb31