Updated look for the site.

Dav

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.

Ken.

Looking good dav. Liking it so far.

smash

It's so shiny :cool:

Tallon

I'm liking it... It's very much like the Touch site

Avatars are tiny and pixelated however (teething problems)

edit: the Adverts.ie drop down is a nice touch (See what I did there )

ash23

It's very masculine. But I like it.

GastroBoy

Looks good!!

Davidth88

Nice ! i prefer it

Mint Sauce

Looks cool. Although is there an 'new posts' tab? Dont see one.

the groutch

if it aint broke

Nervous Wreck

No drop-down tab for subbed forums?

Max Power1

So it doesnt work on IE7 I see... seeing as the majority of boards surfing is (id imagine) office workers, thats unfortunate!

Spear

I don't like how it's so much narrower and a lot of screen space is wasted.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I assume it comes in minimalist?

ynul31f47k6b59

Love it! Can't wait to play with it.

Ken.

One quick thing. On smash's post i notice if i hover my mouse over quote,multi quote,quick reply it tells me what it is. But not on the thanks button. Might save a lot of newbies starting threads asking "what's that for" if it said "thanks when you hover your mouse. Disregard this if its only me.

Modzilla firefox. Windows 7 home premium. screen res. 1280*720

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

oh sweet ****, how do I change back

Matthewthebig

Does it come in Cloud?

Ludo

Don't like that sub categories in the menu do not auto expand when you hover over them...you gotta click to expand. Old beta menu seemed better.

It is the touch interface made bigger...off to find how to get back to old beta :-)

cornbb

Looks great! Very fresh. Good work.

mike65

Where are the user preferences for colour schemes etc?

There is a huge amount of wasted space below the post comments.

Morag

It looks clean and I can understand how it makes the site easier to use for those not accustomed to it but, it's too bright/white.
And the lack of buttons on posts to quote or thank is horrid. I don't understand why functionality is being taken away
or why someone tought more mouse clicks to do the same action was a good thing.


To change back to go your control panel, edit option and scroll down to the section which lets you set skin preference.

The Lovely Muffin

I love it

sheesh

Bug:
Issue: number next my username in the header is the number of threads I follow previously it was new pm
Browser & OS: windows 7 firefox 13.01

smash

Actually, I don't really like the chunky buttons for quote, reply etc.

Tallon, I'm not seeing tiny avatars here.

Boards.ie: Tony

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

No drop-down tab for subbed forums?

The My Forums is in the header now, to the right of the screen (beside your username)

Monotype

To be honest, it looks like a forum from the nineties!

The size of the bar at the top feels a bit suffocating too.

the groutch

how do I put it back?

(btw, I'll be closing my account if it ends up like that)

s_carnage

Type: Design
Issue: When clicking on the Rec header the whole menu doesn't fit on the screen.
Browser & OS: Chrome & XP
Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768

ash23

I dislike the lack of an obvious user CP button to view followed threads and boards in one go. You can do it but you've to add an extra step from what I can see.

Tallon

smash wrote: »

Actually, I don't really like the chunky buttons for quote, reply etc.

Tallon, I'm not seeing tiny avatars here.

At the top, profile avatar

azezil

It's not bad, only gripe is with my subscribed forums, I prefer the scrolly option I have on the default skin, which I've now reverted to.

hdowney

Hmmmm. I am hmmm about it. I like shiney new things, but it is a smidgin confusing. Perhaps whence I have been using it a wee while all will be normal. Also Herro to the new Boards worker o/

Boards.ie: Danny

the groutch wrote: »

how do I put it back?

(btw, I'll be closing my account if it ends up like that)

The link is right at the bottom of Dav's post

smash

Boards.ie: Tony wrote: »

The My Forums is in the header now, to the left of the screen (beside your username)

You mean right?

Blowfish

Dav wrote: »

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.

It's on the left for threads

As for the rest, it'll probably take a few days to get used to, but there's some stuff I know I'll like already, particularly the 'My Forums' quick link.

[edit] Actually, where it shows my username and the number of notifications, why does the link go to my profile? I would have thought it would make much more sense to link to the notifications instead, I don't think I ever need to look at my own profile directly.

Bug: My Forums dropdown does not show upon mouseover.

Mac OSX Lion & Firefox 13.0.1

mike65

The lack of "new posts" link is a no-no (unless its there but I can't see it)

_blank_

Very nice

s_carnage

Totally agree about it being too bright too. Just switched back to the old layout and it's just so much nicer.

CodyJarrett

the groutch wrote: »

if it aint broke

That's always been my motto.

Which is why I still have my damn sexy mullet and my living room is as it has always been, since I bought the place back in '81.

Stuxnet

Ill be sticking to my trusted "Blue" skin for as long as I can,

sorry I dont like it at all, too white and has a gnome 3 feel about it

Tallon

Few things more I notice:

-There is no visible Subscribed threads link
-I can no longer click the thread title at the top to bring me back to the start of the thread (Or to right click and copy link to send to someone)
-Sitting back and taking a second look, it looks massive, like as if I'm browsing the Touch forum on my Desktop (Just so used to the touch but don't like it for desktop)
-when you are editing a post, I usually hit TAB then Enter to post it, but now submit post has been replaced with Preview, so it means if I Tab and Enter, then close the tab, that post will never actually be posted

JP Liz V1

Sorry no likey

The Recliner

mike65 wrote: »

The lack of "new posts" link is a no-no (unless its there but I can't see it)

Same

I like the new layout and all but I would really really miss the new post link, plus it helps to spot spammers and general stuff I wouldn't probably never think of clicking on

But if there is a different way of doing it I am sure I would get used to it

Mint Sauce

Type: Missing feature
Issue: Dont see the 'new posts' tab
Browser & OS: Vista. Firefox
Screen Resolution: 1280x800

Andrew76

s_carnage wrote: »

Totally agree about it being too bright too. Just switched back to the old layout and it's just so much nicer.

Same, I like the new layout but the white backgrounds are way too bright. If I could darken those backgrounds then I'd stick with it. Going back to previous.

awec

I like it.

Only issue is that the auto-scroll when you open a previously read thread isn't perfect. By that I mean it scrolls you to the first unread post, but I've found that it tends to scroll a bit too far and part of the first unread post is covered by the floating header.

SnowDrifts

Looks great. The only thing I would like to change is that the "Followed Threads" section would have it's own designated link button rather than having to use the drop down. (like the old "user cp" link)

hdowney

I agree everything is TOO BIG. Clunky like. The old skin was more streamlined. Make things smaller and it might look nice but at the mo nope.

Frank Spencer

One small thing. In the old beta when you hover over the categories at the top it gave you the full list of forums and their sub-forums. Now when you hover over the categories you only get the main forums and you have to click down to get to the sub-forums. Can this be changed to how it was previously?

Nuno

The 'Tech' category is missing from the header at the top of the site..