Updated look for the site.

We've made some updates based on feedback. You can find out what they are, and continue to give feedback over HERE

We’d like to introduce you to the Boards.ie new Beta Skin (This link switches the skin on for you).

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Update - Friday 29th June 2012
Just a quick edit to update you all. We'd like to thank everyone for their feedback here, both positive and negative. We want to let you all know that we've taken on board what you've been saying and will be making updates to address the concerns that have been raised. These will include (as detailed by Paddy HERE):

- An option to set the page width to 100% rather than the 1400px cap.
- An option for a "Compact" layout which will reduce padding on posts and thread lists.
- The ability to control what items are counted in your notification counter, so people can disable the notification for followed threads.
- A link to "New Posts" will be added to the Boards.ie menu.

While we already offer the option to disable the 'Sticky Header', we'll be moving the option to a much more obvious location (read the rest of this post to see how it's currently done)

We will also be adding the ability to select themes which will initially be a grey variant and black variant. These will take a bit longer to implement, but we just wanted you all to know that they are coming.

As the above updates are rolled out, we'll make sure to let you all know.

And finally, just so there is no confusion, we are not turning off the old skins. The new skin might gain some more advanced features, but the old ones will still the there for you to select if you so wish. (If you want to change back to the old look now, the last part of this post details that)

Again, Thank you all for the feedback, please keep it coming,
Tony.

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On top of all that, I'd like to introduce you all to Tony who is our new Product Manager. Tony's been with us for 5 weeks now and this has been the first project he's been involved with. His work will focus on User Interface/User Experience so this was an ideal place for him to start.

There has been a lot of hard work going on the past number of months here in Boards.ie towers to improve the experience that is had by one and all on Boards.ie. With this new Beta skin, Boards.ie has been given a bit of a face lift and some new features added. Most, if not all, of what you’re used to on Boards.ie is still present and accounted for, though some of it may have gotten repositioned to make the over all experience more consistent with current standards out there.

On top of this, we've got a new Registration process which will be going live when we've finalised this skin (which will become the default for all visitors and members alike unless you've specified a different skin). The new Registration will hopefully cut out a lot of the spam we see as it will require the person registering to go look at a random post and submit an answer to a test question based on it.

Here are some of the Feature Highlights for the Boards.ie new Beta skin:

Omni-Search-Navigation - In the header you will now see the new search box. You can use this to search for anything across the site, navigate anywhere in the site or search for members. Just start typing the forum you want to go to, the user you’re looking for or the term you want to find, and the results will start appearing as you type. For example, if you type ‘Xbox’ in the search bar you will see the Xbox Forum, followed by the ability to search the site for the term ‘Xbox’ and then any members with ‘Xbox’ in their user name. Hitting Enter after typing your search term will bring you to a search results page as normal. Pressing the down arrow on your keyboard and hitting enter when selecting the forum will navigate you to that forum. When in a forum, you can start searching and this time you will have the option to search within that forum only, or the whole of Boards.ie. The other search result options are also present.

Breadcrumbs - Just below the Boards.ie logo we’ve placed the breadcrumb trail. Here you can see exactly where you are, and the ability to navigate up levels.

"Sticky" header - the menu and omni-search and breadcrumbs will remain floating over the content as you scroll up and down the page. This can be disabled by going here, scrolling to the bottom of the page, ticking the box beside "Disable sticky header" and clicking Save.

Category Navigation - The categories are all listed along the top of the site. By default, the header is in ‘Sticky’ mode (it can be unstuck if in the User Control Panel). Move your mouse over the category and the menu will expand. Click the expand icon to show the subcategories. When you find the one you’re looking for, click the text link to navigate.

Follow Forum / Thread - This feature is now more prominent on the site. You can go to any forum and ‘Follow’ it. This will then be added to the ‘My Forums’ dropdown in the upper right of the screen. If there is new content in the forum, there will be an ‘*’ at the end of the forum title.

When you follow a thread (either by clicking the ‘Follow Thread’ Button, or replying to the thread and subscribing to it, it will be added to the ‘Followed Threads’ list in the Member Dropdown. As threads get new content you will see the number increase. So, for example, if you’re following 10 threads and 9 of the threads have had new posts (there could be multiple posts in any given thread, but it will be counted as a single update), you will see a ‘9’ in the notification counter to signify that 9 of your threads have new content.

Button Positions - The buttons around the site have been repositioned to make them more consistent. When reply, the reply button will always be on the right, and have the primary action colour (in this case blue). Everywhere on the site, when there are multiple buttons, the primary action for the group is always the button in blue.

General Design - We’ve increased the amount of padding around elements around the site to make it easier on the eye and easier to read. Because we’ve tightened up the header, the amount of content that you see on screen is generally the same as the old version of Boards.ie.

Over the next few months we’ll be tweaking the various Boards.ie product (mobile site, website and any other Boards.ie products) to create a consistent experience across all facets of Boards.ie.

We’re looking for any / all feedback on the site, good and bad. Because this is ultimately still a beta, we are particularly interested in any bugs you might find, or if there is a feature that you have found to be missing. If you would like to leave feedback, it would be a big help to us if you could submit it like this:
Type: Bug / Design / Missing Feature / Feature Suggestion / Other
Issue: insert text here, screen shots are helpful if you can manage it
Browser & OS: What browser version you're using to help us replicate and track the issue more quickly
Screen Resolution: what res your screen's running at - can be quite important in design issues.

Should you wish to revert to the old look Boards.ie, you can do that by clicking HERE.