New Boards Layout

SEPT 23 1989

Any chance of a supporters buyout to keep things as they are|were like they do with football clubs

I will contribute handsomely

kneemos

Only fits properly on my phone in landscape,like looking through a letterbox in that mode though.

12Phase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azl5jxcXCZk

Wibbs

Wonzy wrote: »

Seriously it looks completely tacky and makes the site look cheap and doesn't look professional at all, its like something from 1998. It is truly awful. I'd say someone who never used or heard of boards before would probably think it's a scam site by going onto it.

I've seen people in college in first year design css layouts a thousand times better this. The font, the whiteness, the overall layout between threads on the homepage looks like a teenager did it in his spare time

The whiteness, the font, it looks horrendous and your straining to see anything

To be fair that's more than taking it too far. The design overall is not bad. It's certainly more "modern" than vBulletin. Yes there is way too much space between various bits and bobs and yes implementation of features is beyond hit and miss in places, but it's not nearly as bad as some are painting it. It's an OK clean design fighting to get out and the fact a small band of people designers and coders were able to build this is impressive, or at least it impresses me.

TBH some of the naysaying is getting into hysterical territory and I'm saying this as someone who recoiled in horror at the idea that we'd be force into using the new site.

Web Graphic Designer

The current 96.04% No = Design (Major) Fail.

Perhaps it's not 'too bad' on mobile/tablet, who knows.
But I've a standard 1920x1080x2 of screen pixel real-estate and much much prefer the old site,
most folks run a 24" HD screen these days anyway.

Surely extra content could be loaded using basic CSS Media Queries: @Desktop.
Best advice: scrap it, and go back to the drawing board.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

OneOfThem Stumbled

I can't see the new layout. I think some sort of modernisation of the site is required, but you shouldn't lose functionality for the sake of "streamlining". Moving sticky threads to the side, showing avatars while browsing threads, and a bit less blue and grey aren't bad ideas though.

CelticRambler

In the interests of fair criticism, I visited the site using my phone from my foreign IP address. Went straight to the new version, and the mobile version isn't anywhere near as bad as the desktop version, so that's something.

Then I tried to use it. Huh. On Firefox, it's browsable but using Chrome, I couldn't even find the topics list. Switch back to the "legacy" site and both browers do the business no problem.

However, even if those bugs were fixed, the font size is HUGE ... at least, by my standards. I have my default font size set to "tiny", which means I can comfortably see about five average sized paragraphs on the screen in "legacy" view. Using the "responsive" site the font appears to be fixed. I can zoom in, but not out, and I'm getting only half the text displayed before I need to scroll. Feck that.

Not to be entirely negative about all this, I'll say "well done lads" all the same, for keeping these different versions going at the same time, allowing us to play with them. All the other forums I use that have opted for a similar "enhanced user experience" have shut down for days, or two weeks in one case, while they implemented the changes.

Canis Lupus

TBF I have now also tried it on the mobile and it was alright. I've never liked touch and this was nice and intuitive. Terrible on the desktop though and that's how I do the most of my browsing.

Wearb

I think Touch was the best thing that boards has done in recent years. Most people are using mobile devices now and Touch has helped build up users for boards.

Who are the 18 yes voters on the poll? I would love to see their profiles 😱

The flying mouse

I gone back to legacy format, at my age I don't like change.

volchitsa

I just added a question about it using the reply button on the announcement thread, and it disappeared!
Maybe that's because it's the official annoucenment but they should remove the reply button in that case...

Anyway my question was about how to click directly onto the latest post or last page in a thread, I can't find it as a separate option and when I find myself on the first page of a thread I can't see a button to click straight to the last page either. Plus the "my threads" button is harder to use on a touch screen ("new replies" to threads I've posted on is in tiny writing that is hard for anyone who has fingers instead of needle tips!)

volchitsa

Also how the heck do you edit posts? I wanted to add that I'm talking about the desktop version (I'm on a tablet) and the mobile version may well be better, it was awful before so that's quite likely)

But now I can't see how to edit, I clicked on the pencil symbol, which turned green and that s it. Nothing,

Mountainsandh

I really wanted to like it, before I clicked I thought : "ok, change is good, changes are bound to be good"...

... but I can't like it yet.

I don't know what to look at on the page, everything is the same colour, thread titles don't stand out anymore.

Everything looks like an ad, the ads look the same as thread titles.

I tried clicking on the little thing that's like Facebook with notifications, that wouldn't click for me.

There is no "Last page" short cut when looking at a thread !

It's not half as intuitive as the old home page. I understand our mind/eye will and can get used to anything, but possibly under the pretext of "airiness" and cleanliness, the front page has become harder to take in at a glance.

There are only about 10 spaced out thread titles visible to me on the laptop (on the home page), and they are so spaced out with the new layout that I have to scroll. I don't want to scroll ! I want to see the whole sample of front page, with a large sample of threads, at a glance, so I can skim or scan over. I can't do this now, meaning I will probably read less and participate less on boards.

The way current threads are displayed is the main issue for me. I like the top banner with search function, the roll out menus are fine, the notification link would be fine if it worked, maybe more distinct boxes for Latest thread/My threads/My forums (colour theme) would help.

volchitsa

Me too, I really do want to like it, and I'm prepared to spend a while getting used to it, but I can't see how to "do" lots of stuff - I managed to like Mountainsandh's post but not to quote it, and I still haven't managed to edit one of my own posts after posting.

volchitsa

(Still not managing to edit!) I haven't voted yet because I want to give it a few days to see if I can work it out, I don't think it'd be fair to vote just now because for sure I'd be in the No camp - but I'm hoping it's just because I don't know how to use it properly yet.

Mountainsandh

I've gone back to legacy.

I agree with the poster who said boards will lose users. I think a strong point of boards is its variety of topics, and that's not accessible or displayed anymore, with a smaller selection of threads visible on the front page.

It's like sabotaging your number one asset (imo). Weird.

mossie

Is it possible to mark a forum as read? I don't want to have to read all threads to achieve this.

mossie

Is it possible to edit a post? Tried to edit my last post but clicking on the pencil button has no effect. Also when I hover over the "My Forums" link it shows a list of my subscribed forums but there is no indicator to show which have unread posts.

old_aussie

First impressions count.

People who might click on boards for the first time to see what the site is all about will soon just move on.

The voters have spoken, will boards listen or just blindly continue on?

This will hasten the shrinking of boards.

Advertisers who see this poll will be taking notice of a shrinking site, and if I was an advertiser on a shrinking site it wouldn't be long before I looked for a more suitable and progressive site to advertise.

Will boards continue to hammer the nails into their own coffin.

Cleveland Hot Pocket

This change has been wholeheartedly rejected by over 95% of the site's users.
Will be interesting to see if those in control hoof ahead with it anyway.

Like the Germans shouldn't have invaded Russia in WW2, will this change be looked back on what lost boards its userbase?

RedemptionZ

I haven't got the new format on my phone or computer(s) and I'm not abroad. Feeling left out.

CelticRambler

Ah now, you can't believe everything the polls say. Sure one extra person's voted in favour since yesterday - they could be the timid voice of the silent majority.:o

Or not. :rolleyes:

Discodog

Boards are hunkered down in their bunker having planned this for years. They have been told that it's modernise or die & now the peasants have the nerve to rebel. Our Overlords won't be happy bunnies.

Pretzill

For some reason I can't see the changes at all - desktop and mobile still the same -
I also want to give a vote of confidence for the touch site - yeah it's missing a few features but it always worked and looked fine for me.

I can't vote because I haven't seen the new look - but I hope it hasn't changed it's functionality too much - boards, forums and originally newsgroups have a certain way of functioning (it may look dated but it's function outweighs it's design)

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Discodog

Boards may have more problems if they want to try & stop ad blocking.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/23/anti_ad_blockers_face_legal_challenges/

Cienciano

Christ, its poxy. For the many people who spend less and less time on boards, this could be the final nail in its coffin.

M.boards.ie 4eva

Cienciano

Cienciano wrote: »

Christ, its poxy. For the many people who spend less and less time on boards, this could be the final nail in its coffin.

The Best Joke thread on the bottom of the first page of AH, had it's last post three hours ago. That's a sure sign of how much it's slowed down.

The new layout probably going to be tantamount to self destruction.