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Proposed changes to site look

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    #32
    Gits_bone
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Gits_bone


    challengemaster wrote: »
    That's all I'm seeing a lot of in either option. It seems like these changes just keep trying to make things harder and less intuitive to use the website, whilst increasing the number of clicks to get to content.

    Wonder why.

    At first I liked the revamp...but now I'm wondering why it's being done. It works perfectly as it is imo. Maybe take post count away from under a posters username.

    The ads are also massive. 50% of the screen must be taken by ads. This is only driving people to use adblocker.


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    #33
    Gits_bone
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Gits_bone


    Also don't see any followed threads notifcations.


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    #34
    Sad Professor
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,671 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    I assume the lack of "last unread post" button is because clicking into the thread will automatically take you to the last unread post, similar to how it does on the touch site.


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    #35
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Hollister11


    yipeeeee wrote: »
    How come when I googled a hotel when I came onto boards that hotel was Advertised halfway down my page?

    Google know what you have searched and may want to buy, so they target specific adds to you.


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    #36
    Star Lord
    Registered Users Posts: 30,123 ✭✭✭✭Star Lord


    Sad Professor wrote: »
    I assume the lack of "last unread post" button is because clicking into the thread will automatically take you to the last unread post, similar to how it does on the touch site.

    Sadly that breaks half the time on touch, particularly if a thread hasn't been updated on two weeks and then gets new posts, brings you to the start of the thread again, so I wouldn't be a fan of that.


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    #37
    Welshprince
    Registered Users Posts: 59 ✭✭Welshprince


    I don't see any Internet Advertising I use Ad-Block.
    Don't we get enough Advertising on TV and from other sources?


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    #38
    Loughc
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    Posy wrote: »
    I like both versions, but both are very white.

    I wouldn't be a fan of no time/date for each post (not comment!!!) though- that would drive me mad.
    I also don't like round avatars- they're just weird.

    I love the idea of 'tidying away' the forum charter in the sidebar. Makes things look neater. :)


    This is pretty much where I stand on this as well.

    No time/date will surely cause issues as in having someone reply to someone who last replied 2 weeks ago, etc,etc.

    And I really don't like the idea of the round avatars, reminds me too much of Facebook messenger. Shudder.


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    #39
    Neyite
    Administrators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,947 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Neyite


    Welshprince wrote: »
    I don't see any Internet Advertising I use Ad-Block.
    Don't we get enough Advertising on TV and from other sources?

    How are Boards supposed to raise operating costs then?


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    #40
    Loughc
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    Neyite wrote: »
    How are Boards supposed to raise operating costs then?

    Simples...

    Step 1: Create Discussion Forum
    Step 2: ???
    Step 3: Profit


    :pac:


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    #41
    28064212
    Registered Users Posts: 10,494 ✭✭✭✭28064212


    Why, why, why are UI designers obsessed with removing functionality in every redesign? The absolute minimum requirement for any redesign should be that it doesn't reduce functionality.
    Sad Professor wrote: »
    I assume the lack of "last unread post" button is because clicking into the thread will automatically take you to the last unread post
    At the moment, I have the ability to open a thread at the first post, last post, or last unread post, all of which I use regularly, depending on the thread. This redesign removes at least one of those options, possibly two, depending on what clicking on the last poster's username does
    Hollister11 wrote: »
    I think the time and date of each post should be there. Also V2
    More functionality removed. Time of posting can be very important information when following a thread. It's not like there isn't space for it, just put it on the same line as the poster's name, e.g.:
    Stuchyg 17/02/2015, 10:00
    Anyone else having issues...
    Same story with user's "Posts" totals and "Join Date". Very useful information that is being thrown away, despite there being unused space under the user avatar.

    [EDIT]Oh and post number, also useful information providing context within the thread, should be on the same line as poster name[/EDIT]
    _____________________________

    It's not clear if it's possible to (easily) multi-quote. Currently, it's one click to instantly bring you to a reply page, or one click to add a post to your multi-quote selection. The redesign looks like it will take at least two clicks per multi-quote, again, despite the fact that the rest of the space on the "Thanks | Reply | Report" line is totally unused.
    _____________________________

    Will it be possible to link directly to a post (as opposed to a thread) like it is now? e.g. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=94321976#post94321976.
    _____________________________
    Star Lord wrote: »
    Sadly that breaks half the time on touch, particularly if a thread hasn't been updated on two weeks and then gets new posts, brings you to the start of the thread again, so I wouldn't be a fan of that.
    This is an absolutely critical issue. It's been raised a couple of times on Site Dev for both Touch and the Talk to Forums.
    _____________________________

    Not a fan of the thread pages being stuck with a column on the right. I click into a thread, I want to read the posts in the thread. If I want to see Forum Announcements/Charters/Stickies, I look at the forum page. Are users really going to use any of those links from the thread page on any sort of regular basis? To the degree that it takes up ~25% of the entire page?
    _____________________________

    Oh and this:
    339173.jpg

    No. Just no. We've already had this argument the last time the homepage was redesigned, and it was changed back. Being able to simply and easily glance down the homepage and see instantly what forum the post was made in is important. You can't do that if you have to keep jumping left and right across the page. Forum names belong in a fixed width column
    _____________________________

    ...ok, I'm done. I realise that was all pretty negative, so I'm adding that I do like the overall look of the redesign, much better than the current boxy vBulletin set-up. But I'm guessing you don't really need to be told what you're doing right

    Boardsie Enhancement Suite - a browser extension to make using Boards on desktop a better experience (includes full-width display, keyboard shortcuts, dark mode, and more). Now available through your browser's extension store.

    Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/boardsie-enhancement-suite/

    Chrome/Edge/Opera: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/boardsie-enhancement-suit/bbgnmnfagihoohjkofdnofcfmkpdmmce



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    #42
    Lovely Bloke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,748 ✭✭✭✭Lovely Bloke


    Why are these things being considered?
    • Round avatars
    • less information on the posts (time, post number missing)
    • no jump to last post button when it's missing on touch, and the alternative doesn't work correctly

    It's all very well saying - here's the changes, pick one, but without telling the reasoning behind the changes then they just look like pointless annoyances for the sake of keeping a designer busy.

    WHY does it need to change, WHO is it better for?

    If it's to attract new users, do you not think the established users are worth considering, or is it a case of "got 'em now, treat 'em like crap".

    Rhetorical.


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    #43
    Sideshow Mark
    Registered Users Posts: 1,155 ✭✭✭Sideshow Mark


    The forum names must keep their own column on the homepage.

    Does clicking on the post on the homepage bring you to the first post of the thread, or the last thread? Needs to clearly defined. In new threads I go to the first post, in the big megathreads I go the last post. Need to keep that functionality.

    V2 is better than v1. V2 looks like Reddit, I dont mind the look of that site, so I'm not too bothered if boards wants to lose its uniqueness and copy them. I spend more time there now anyways.

    Doing away with post counts and join dates is a great idea. There's no need to even make them viewable when highlighting/hovering over a name/avatar. Keeping all that on the members profile page is enough. Seen too many posters get mauled for having too high or too low a post count.


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    #44
    K-9
    Registered Users Posts: 43,311 ✭✭✭✭K-9


    Prefer V1, just to be different!

    Mad Men's Don Draper : What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.



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    #45
    mrmorgan
    Registered Users Posts: 805 ✭✭✭mrmorgan


    i presume you can still leave a quick reply at the end of each page (like i just did now. looks like by the photo you can just reply to a post


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    #46
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    Like the offerings in V2 - at least the general look. But I'd have to qualify this:
    • There must be a dark theme or we'll all need shades.
    • Must at least have the option to display posts from oldest to newest going down (I'm guessing this is what the arrow does). Newest posts at the top totally goes against the norm of any forum I've used.
    • Same with a sticky OP. The option has to be there to turn this off.
    • Post date/time is a must. For regular users, but also especially anyone doing any moderating. Madness to remove it.
    • I really, really hate the idea of a superfluous column on the right-hand side. All this means is more scrolling. The vast majority of your time on Boards is spend reading or replying, and this just takes up valuable real estate, especially on tablets and whatnot. Also, stuff pinned to the right is just wrong.
    • Don't mind either way about round avatars and post counts. The latter could be a good leveler.

    Other than all that... exciting!


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    #47
    Dav
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,840 ✭✭✭Dav


    Just a few of my own comments on this since we're all here...
    • Dark theme will 100% happen, it's just too much work to generate 2 sets of samples at this stage especially when it's more layout we're concerned with atm.
    • Sticky OP - I think should be a user-configurable option
    • I don't get the New post first either, but I'm told several places do it. Needless to say I'll be making sure that if it's included, it'll be a user-configurable option too.
    • I've already said Time/Date has to go in and that's being worked on.
    • The plan was for the default behaviour to bring you to last unread post when you click a link. Now that I'm thinking about it, that's not the right way to do it, I'll ask for a re-jig that includes a "last unread" specific button or link or something.
    • My Forums in the new Menu is probably something we should include too.

    Just some brief thoughts, I'll have more tomorrow. I'm also going to be showing you the re-jigged Categories which will appear when you click that "Browse" button. It's time to move on from things like Rec and Soc which just don't make sense anymore :)


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    #48
    Star Lord
    Registered Users Posts: 30,123 ✭✭✭✭Star Lord


    The more I look at them, the more I think that the blue-ish background of V1, with with the general look of V2 otherwise, but square avatars seems like it'd be best appearance wise. The background helps break things up a little, and avoids that all-white glare look.


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    #49
    The_Morrigan
    Moderators Posts: 9,368 ✭✭✭The_Morrigan


    Could the shape of the O from the Boards logo be used for the avatars? Rounded squares or squared circles....whichever way ya look at it!


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    #50
    Posy
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 27,534 Mod ✭✭✭✭Posy


    The_Morrigan wrote: »
    Could the shape of the O from the Boards logo be used for the avatars? Rounded squares or squared circles....whichever way ya look at it!
    Oooh, I like that idea. :)


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    #51
    Neyite
    Administrators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,947 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Neyite


    Could we have a button on the bottom of a page to auto-scroll us back to the top. Seen that on another forum and its so handy.


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    #52
    mohawk
    Registered Users Posts: 1,781 ✭✭✭mohawk


    version 2 would get my vote.


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    #53
    gerrybbadd
    Registered Users Posts: 10,301 ✭✭✭✭gerrybbadd


    I'm liking Ver. 2 more. Seems more modern or something. I could see it being easier to use / navigate on mobile devices or tablets also


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    #54
    Rubecula
    Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    Are you saying that the current format is failing and losing you business?

    If not, why change it?

    So saying, of the two I prefer the first one, but I like the current one best.


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    #55
    Zaph
    Registered Users, Subscribers Posts: 47,282 ✭✭✭✭Zaph


    Rubecula wrote: »
    Are you saying that the current format is failing and losing you business?

    If not, why change it?

    Boards is built on vBulletin, which is old and creaky, and the plan is to move away from it to a custom built platform. This is part of that plan.


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    #56
    nesf
    Registered Users Posts: 27,645 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    Rubecula wrote: »
    Are you saying that the current format is failing and losing you business?

    If not, why change it?

    So saying, of the two I prefer the first one, but I like the current one best.

    While I agree with you, people more and more are using tablets for browsing the web, sites that do not adapt to people using a different device will lose traffic. Most of the changes to how forums are presented have this very much in mind. See Disqus for example, personally I hate it but it works really well on touch devices. It's similar to the problem a few years back of people using phones and eschewing sites that don't have mobile versions or apps. We're going to have to get used to websites no longer being designed with just a computer monitor and a mouse and keyboard in mind. I'm mostly willing to accept these changes because I don't think we can afford to have the site fall behind in this.
    Zaph wrote: »
    Boards is built on vBulletin, which is old and creaky, and the plan is to move away from it to a custom built platform. This is part of that plan.

    As far as I know they are not forced to make format changes because they're moving away from vBulletin.


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    #57
    Toots
    Administrators, Business & Finance Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,905 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Toots


    I'm going to go against the grain here and say I much prefer V.1, there's just something very bland and clinical looking about v2 IMO. And I'd be a bit sad to say goodbye to the Boards blue :o

    A few thoughts I have are:

    ~ Keep post count and join date. I know some people think it's not necessary, but from a mod point of view it makes it a lot easier for me to see at a glance whether someone's a shill etc. rather than having to click into their profile to view their user info.

    ~ Post date and time is a must have.

    ~ Newest first seems a bit weird, could it be set that it defaults to oldest first and then you can change it in the drop down? I'd say the number of people who would view threads in order from newest post to oldest would be in the minority.

    ~ I like the idea of the sticky OP but maybe instead of showing the full post, it's just the first two or three lines, with an option to expand the post if you want, so if the OP is huge it won't cause problems. I think the suggestion of mods being able to enable or disable this for their forum is a good idea, particularly for the likes of the Cool Vids forum.

    ~ The 'more posts' thing just seems a bit pointless to me. I think the current system, where the user selects how many posts they see per page, works fine. Personally I've got it set as high as possible so I can scroll down without having to click to load a new page every 20 posts. Also a thought, would this have a negative effect on people with slower internet speeds? Would they experience a delay waiting for the 'more posts' to load?

    ~ A clearer divider between posts would be helpful, and would probably make it easier to follow threads, too.

    ~ Browse tab would probably work better being labelled All Forums or something similar, it'd be easier for new users.

    ~ Square avatars seem nicer to me, the round ones look more like those chat head yokes on FB messenger. Somebody further up the thread suggested making the avatar the same shape as the Boards logo, which gets a +1 from me! It'd be something unique to Boards.

    ~ I like the charter and stickies in the side bar! Makes it a lot harder for people to miss.

    One last question, what's the craic with user sigs? Will they get the heave ho?


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    #58
    Gits_bone
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Gits_bone


    Where's the followed threads link?

    Right now there's a notification beside my username telling me there's no posts in a thread and clicking it will list all threads with new posts that I've posted in.

    Is this gone??


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    #59
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,118 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    I don't understand the icons on the left, Strength and Music?

    Prefer to keep the 'my forums' dropdown

    Prefer oldest to newest option

    Would not like stickied first post on each page

    Think mods should be called Moderator and not something creative :-)

    I am happy with the way the current site works, but I do not like the look of it, and I hate the default shade of blue! I have never figured out why there is a 'quick reply' and a 'go advanced', I can't see that one is quicker than the other?


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    #60
    Gits_bone
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Gits_bone


    looksee wrote: »

    Think mods should be called Moderator and not something creative :-)

    What is proposed?


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    #61
    Star Lord
    Registered Users Posts: 30,123 ✭✭✭✭Star Lord


    looksee wrote: »
    I have never figured out why there is a 'quick reply' and a 'go advanced', I can't see that one is quicker than the other?

    Quick reply is on the same page, so loading another page to write the reply is not required. "Go advanced" brings it to the standard reply screen, where there are more buttons in the WYSIWYG editor, to make formatting easier for those that don't know all the BB code for the functions.


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