Forum Issues Since Relaunch (Jan 20, 2010)

[Peepers]

What's the point of the "Rate This Thread" option? Threads are already rated - by their popularity and the quality of the ideas they express. The yellow stars give disproportionate play to a minor function and add visual clutter to a forum that is increasingly layered. They could be ditched along with those distracting links to peoples' blogs, pet causes, and political slogans at the bottom of their posts.

I agree that the "rate this thread" option does not serve much of a purpose since this is already obvious from the number of replies and views. What I would like to have seen instead (and I suggested it when new ideas were be solicited) is a THUMBS UP and THUMBS DOWN option for each post. I think it would make it more intesesting to see how many people agree or disagree with our comments.

 

[nfitz]

nfitz - that is happening to me as well. I have figured out that if you hit GO TO FIRST NEW POST for the forums, you are at the top of the page of the entry. Along the bar at the top of the thread is a link that says VIEW FIRST UNREAD. Click on that and it will take you to the first post. It is a two step process, but at least it works.

Ah ... yeah, I guess that works ... though I'm not sure why the go to first new post icon wouldn't take you all the way ... now you have to press extra buttons.

 

[casaguy]

Remember guys that some of the design issues mentioned above are things that we just haven't looked at yet. We will be looking at them over the next few weeks.

Sorry. A re-launch indicates that everything has been looked at and perfected in order to, well, re-launch. Wasn't clear that this was still very much a work in progress. Either way, I am noticing some improvements. I also want to re-iterate Urban Shocker's complaint about signatures. Let skyscrapercity have those space-wasters. If a member wants to personalize and give character to his or her presence here, they can do that via the avatar and sub-heading.

 

[khris]

I like the idea of thumbs up and thumbs down, although I doubt I'd ever use it.
Getting rid of signatures I would understand, if people were abusing it and having massive signatures, but that doesn't seem to be a problem here. However, you can turn them off yourself, so that tends to be what admins will tell people when this gets requested.
Also, the star ratings... they should definitely go. I see no need for them here.
I also do not see the need for the blogs.

 

[Edward Skira]

A re-launch indicates that everything has been looked at and perfected in order to, well, re-launch. Wasn't clear that this was still very much a work in progress.

Are you just trying to be difficult? We just did a major upgrade. Would you have preferred that we shut down for a few weeks, rather than 3 days, so that everything was "perfect"? Because that's what it would have taken. We're getting some great comments here and I agree with most. Fixes will be coming this week.

 

[casaguy]

Umm... I was just apologizing for offering my opinions on the "re-launched" site. It was not clear that it was still a work in progress.

 

[Team Me]

Are you just trying to be difficult? We just did a major upgrade. Would you have preferred that we shut down for a few weeks, rather than 3 days, so that everything was "perfect"? Because that's what it would have taken. We're getting some great comments here and I agree with most. Fixes will be coming this week.

Ed, the quick relaunch and "work in progress" is much appreciated. And although this thread is where people are airing their greivances so to speak, definitely know that so much of the work done so far is great.

 

[junctionist]

For some reason, attached images in threads don't load for me. I get the loading symbol, and then just a dimmed version of the page, without the photo in the middle.

 

[Ramako]

nfitz - that is happening to me as well. I have figured out that if you hit GO TO FIRST NEW POST for the forums, you are at the top of the page of the entry. Along the bar at the top of the thread is a link that says VIEW FIRST UNREAD. Click on that and it will take you to the first post. It is a two step process, but at least it works.

Ed, is this two stage process to find the newest post permanent or will it be changed? I find it really irritating.

Also, when you click on the button next to someone's name in a quote to go back to the original post, it just takes you to the start of the thread.

 

[M II A II R II K]

I posted a blog entry, my Vimeo videos embedded properly but the Youtube videos didn't, they just appear as links.

 

[nfitz]

I just noticed this. Previously, when you read a post that quoted a previous post, you could click on the "View Post" icon at the end of the first line of the quote, and it would take you to the quoted post. Now it just takes you to the top of the first post, on the first page of the thread. Not so useful on a 100-page thread, when someone has replied to what looks like quite an old post!

 

[Edward Skira]

I posted a blog entry, my Vimeo videos embedded properly but the Youtube videos didn't, they just appear as links.

It seems you need to have the www in the youtube url. It works now.

 

[Edward Skira]

Ed, is this two stage process to find the newest post permanent or will it be changed? I find it really irritating.

Also, when you click on the button next to someone's name in a quote to go back to the original post, it just takes you to the start of the thread.

I hope it isn't permanent. Will be looking into it.

 

[nfitz]

Is it me, or the is the search function more limited:

The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search:
next, bus

I know it didn't use to like 3-letter words. But now 4-letter words?

 

[nfitz]

Hmm, some other searching quirks:

A) It doesn't seem to find any results that are more than a few days old.

B) You can't "Show Posts" in a general search, only in a forum search

C) When you display posts, instead of threads, you can't see any text in each post ... though oddly if you move the cursor on top of the title, up pops the text ... would be easier if it displayed it all on the screen!