Boards.ie New Site bugs and features

13-05-2016 2:41pm

Decided to have a look at the desktop site as I'd only tried the mobile one, and it's even worse. Turned off my ad blocker too for the full experience and immediately switched it back on. I understand a site has got to generate revenue and boards doesn't usually have excessive or annoying ads but my god that scrolling ad over there on the right is a travesty.

On the plus the Topics menu is better than what is currently there on the legacy site and requires no clicking until you find what you want. Skin needs a dark option though, I'm being blinded as I type this

Dav · 13-05-2016 4:13pm

Hello everyone, thanks for your patience. I can indeed confirm that taking a week off is only ever going to result in having to do 2 weeks worth of work to catch up

So where are we?

Well first things first, work continues on our bugs list - I can see I have a few more things to add to it, so thank you for that. I've updated it and you can see it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UMjefklBy6DneP2U9QsJ5Oc40ojMLvs0fLRrh6QIDiU/pubhtml

We've now got a couple of weeks of analytics data as well as your feedback and that all confirms what so many of you are saying - there are important issues that need to be addressed with the new site. "Well duh Dav" you'll say, but as I've always tried to stress, these decisions are made with numbers and facts and as little guesswork as possible. You cannot make a decision solely based on the opinions of less than a thousand people when your overall readership is over a million. Yes, that thousand odd people are the most important of the million, but they're still 0.1% of the total readership and cannot be the only part of our decision making process. Even within all the criticism we see polar opposite opinions on what's best and what's a disaster and so on. There are, for example, people who swear by touch. and those who think it's appalling. I'm not trying to single any one argument out though, I'm just using this as an example to highlight that this is a very complicated process. We have very distinct and disparate groups of members and readers all of whom want something different from the site. We also have an 18 year legacy to protect and maintain and a future to carve out with you all. I have explained several times that we have as much, if not more feedback from people who aren't contributors who's barrier to entry is the vastly confusing idea of what a forums site is and how we present our content. This might seem daft to some of more experienced heads, but to give you a personal example, I found the Facebook interface absolutely and completely mind bending, but my almost 70 year old mother flies around it without any problems. Go figure

So what does this mean? Well work on the new site isn't going to stop or anything like that, but based on your feedback we've obviously got to revisit some parts of it. This means that the Legacy Site as we've been calling it will remain on active duty as the default interface (any other old and unsupported skins will also remain usable) and we have suspended our plan to default some users who are currently using the Legacy site to the new site. This is not some sort of dastardly trick where we're saying "yea we'll keep the Legacy site" and then one day make it go away all of a sudden - it's staying for as long as it makes sense and if that's going to change, you'll get lots of notice.

I will be back to this again in two weeks to update you with our progress on not only the bugs list, but any changes to the new site we'll be embarking on. I know I speak for all of us in the office when I say that we're doing all this for you and with you and that's not some sort of empty platitude, it's how we do things here.

anothernight · 13-05-2016 4:29pm

Dav wrote: »

You cannot make a decision solely based on the opinions of less than a thousand people when your overall readership is over a million. Yes, that thousand odd people are the most important of the million, but they're still 0.1% of the total readership and cannot be the only part of our decision making process.

I'd just like to point out that without that thousand, you wouldn't have most of the content read by the million readers. Don't forget that this isn't a blog but a discussion forum. You don't feed us content. We create it for you.

The new layout goes out of its way to make content creation difficult. Your less than a thousand people shouldn't be the only part of your decision making process, but more thought should have gone into what systems they need to create content, which is the life and blood of an internet forum.

Still, thank you for keeping the legacy better site for a bit longer!

Bazzo · 13-05-2016 5:47pm

Don't see a few things I've posted about in the list, namely:

No option to delete a post when editing it.
No way to link to a specific post as you could with the old site.
Adding someone to your ignore list a bit convoluted, much more difficult than the dropdown menu on the old site.
Ignore lists still not funtioning(for me at least).

gandalf · 13-05-2016 10:28pm

So basically no real response at all. Use statistics to avoid the fact that a overwhelming portion of the sites real users who generate the content that brings in the lurkers hate the look of the new site. Without meaningful content being generated you will lose the lurkers.

No apology to the users for forcing a half baked site on them, especially to the overseas members of the site who have had serious problems reverting back to the older site.

So basically it's plough ahead and **** the lot of ye attitude we are getting. You talk about legacy Dav but in reality boards management are pissing all over it.

B00! · 13-05-2016 10:53pm

gandalf wrote: »

So basically no real response at all. Use statistics to avoid the fact that a overwhelming portion of the sites real users who generate the content that brings in the lurkers hate the look of the new site. Without meaningful content being generated you will lose the lurkers.

No apology to the users for forcing a half baked site on them, especially to the overseas members of the site who have had serious problems reverting back to the older site.

So basically it's plough ahead and **** the lot of ye attitude we are getting. You talk about legacy Dav but in reality boards management are pissing all over it.

you. have. got. to. be. kiddin'. me.
They have worked for six long years to give us all a free place to continue to share together, and still have the capacity to expand. May I remind you that Boards operated in the red for a time - all for our benefit! This new site may not be ideal for some of us, but can we not attempt to work with it as graciously as the admins have tried working with us?....or is that beneath us??? The new site has many lovely attributes with a great deal of promise and Dav has been gracious enough to open this dialogue and thoughtfully attempt to address ALL of our endless, disparate, multiplicity of concerns, comments, irritations... and for what? To be told none of it is good enough?! That's some cajones you have, sir!

13-05-2016 10:59pm

B00! wrote: »

you. have. got. to. be. kiddin'. me.
They have worked for six long years to give us all a free place to continue to share together, and still have the capacity to expand. May I remind you that Boards operated in the red for a time - all for our benefit! This new site may not be ideal for some of us, but can we not attempt to work with it as graciously as the admins have tried working with us?....or is that beneath us??? The new site has many lovely attributes with a great deal of promise and Dav has been gracious enough to open this dialogue and thoughtfully attempt to address ALL of our endless, disparate, multiplicity of concerns, comments, irritations... and for what? To be told none of it is good enough?! That's some cajones you have, sir!

Well Said Boo. Dav and the boards team are damned if they do and damned if they don't. When the guy did come and address the problem on this thread he was criticised. Before he addressed it he was criticised for not doing so.

I don't envy the position of being employed by a discussion site and trying your best to make changes and have a user friendly experience for all only to constantly come up against it.

gandalf · 13-05-2016 11:15pm

B00! wrote: »

you. have. got. to. be. kiddin'. me.
They have worked for six long years to give us all a free place to continue to share together, and still have the capacity to expand. May I remind you that Boards operated in the red for a time - all for our benefit! This new site may not be ideal for some of us, but can we not attempt to work with it as graciously as the admins have tried working with us?....or is that beneath us??? The new site has many lovely attributes with a great deal of promise and Dav has been gracious enough to open this dialogue and thoughtfully attempt to address ALL of our endless, disparate, multiplicity of concerns, comments, irritations... and for what? To be told none of it is good enough?! That's some cajones you have, sir!

Are you seriously saying the drivel that has been served up has any real merit. Seriously it has been panned, the fact it has taken them SIX YEARS to produce this is even worse. May I remind you that boards is nothing without its contributing members, now according to dav their opinions are not worth considering. Dav is gracious enough to open dialogue will you ever get a grip, he is the Community Manager HE IS SUPPOSED TO ENGAGE WITH US.

From reading Davs posts on this thread and on others it appears the future for boards is some dodgy facebook, reddit hybrid that is based on tags and not on a classic bulletin board format. If that is the case then boards is ****ed.

You have some cajones telling us to be happy with something that should never have seen the light of day. So you have to be kiddin me mate.

RDM_83 again · 13-05-2016 11:28pm

Deleted User wrote: »

B00! wrote: »

you. have. got. to. be. kiddin'. me.
They have worked for six long years to give us all a free place to continue to share together, and still have the capacity to expand. May I remind you that Boards operated in the red for a time - all for our benefit! This new site may not be ideal for some of us, but can we not attempt to work with it as graciously as the admins have tried working with us?....or is that beneath us??? The new site has many lovely attributes with a great deal of promise and Dav has been gracious enough to open this dialogue and thoughtfully attempt to address ALL of our endless, disparate, multiplicity of concerns, comments, irritations... and for what? To be told none of it is good enough?! That's some cajones you have, sir!

Well Said Boo. Dav and the boards team are damned if they do and damned if they don't. When the guy did come and address the problem on this thread he was criticised. Before he addressed it he was criticised for not doing so.

I don't envy the position of being employed by a discussion site and trying your best to make changes and have a user friendly experience for all only to constantly come up against it.

What ever about the layout is it much to ask for a site thats actually workable even if inferior to be rolled out, I would like to complain about X Y and Z in terms of "design" of the new site because there is a lot wrong with it. But at the minute its nearly completely functionally broken for me on mobile (where I used to check up on threads) and and just worse in terms of the main desktop site (I am abroad but at the minute giving the "new" site a go).
In these threads normally I would complain about moderating etc but the site is just banjaxed at the minute, look how much slower After Hours is now in terms of new respnonses

13-05-2016 11:31pm

Do some of you have no choice but to use the new site or what's the craic there? I'm using the old touch on my phone and the legacy version on my laptop. I'll continue to do so until the new site is sorted out.

13-05-2016 11:34pm

gandalf wrote: »

he is the Community Manager HE IS SUPPOSED TO ENGAGE WITH US.

From reading Davs posts on this thread and on others it appears the future for boards is some dodgy facebook, reddit hybrid that is based on tags and not on a classic bulletin board format. If that is the case then boards is ****ed.

You have some cajones telling us to be happy with something that should never have seen the light of day. So you have to be kiddin me mate.

You're right he is the Community Manager so absolutely should engage with us. He is doing that.

What is it you would like to see happen and what sort of changes if any do you recommend the site undergo?

gandalf · 13-05-2016 11:34pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Do some of you have no choice but to use the new site or what's the craic there? I'm using the old touch on my phone and the legacy version on my laptop. I'll continue to do so until the new site is sorted out.

Thankfully no I am back on legacy. I looked at the inferior site several times, each not believing the ineptitude of those who thought it was fit for release. I believe those overseas are forced onto it and some have been able to get back onto the legacy or touch sites but there have been reports of a number who haven't been able to get off it.

13-05-2016 11:42pm

gandalf wrote: »

Deleted User wrote: »

Do some of you have no choice but to use the new site or what's the craic there? I'm using the old touch on my phone and the legacy version on my laptop. I'll continue to do so until the new site is sorted out.

Thankfully no I am back on legacy. I looked at the inferior site several times, each not believing the ineptitude of those who thought it was fit for release. I believe those overseas are forced onto it and some have been able to get back onto the legacy or touch sites but there have been reports of a number who haven't been able to get off it.

I'm using it now on my phone. I've no issue with it apart from the fact that I'm so used to the touch site.

When you say tags instead of forums what do you mean exactly? In order to open a forum, say feedback for example I click on the heading. That's how it works on the legacy site as well.

gandalf · 13-05-2016 11:42pm

Deleted User wrote: »

You're right he is the Community Manager so absolutely should engage with us. He is doing that.

That post above is not engagement. It's fluff.

What is it you would like to see happen and what sort of changes if any do you recommend the site undergo?

Boards is about content. It's about being able to generate content and to read and find content. The key is feeding that content out efficiently and effectively.

The main question should be does the new site deliver this better that the existing sites and the answer is no it doesn't. Therefore it has failed on the first hurdle.

FFS they would have better spent their time sorting out the search function. That would be something else a search function on the site that actually worked properly.

The whole category re-jig has also killed the site. Simplification and streamlining the categories should be a priority as well.

There are a number of other items that people have recommended on this thread and the other that would help as well. The main one is that boards is a bulletin board based forum and anything that moves away from this is damaging its legacy.

gandalf · 13-05-2016 11:46pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm using it now on my phone. I've no issue with it apart from the fact that I'm so used to the touch site.

I use boards on a laptop, tablet and mobile.

The new site is dreadful on a laptop. On the tablet it is ok but not an improvement on touch which imho was dreadful as well. I use m.boards.ie on the tablet and the mobile because it takes up little data and delivers the content quickly and efficiently.

The new site also looks like it is VERY data heavy compared to the previous sites.

When you say tags instead of forums what do you mean exactly? In order to open a forum, say feedback for example I click on the heading. That's how it works on the legacy site as well.

Ask Dav he is the one who mentioned it first and then rolled back when people tried to find out if it is in the future road map for boards.

Esel · 13-05-2016 11:55pm

B00! wrote: »

you. have. got. to. be. kiddin'. me.
They have worked for six long years to give us all a free place to continue to share together, and still have the capacity to expand. May I remind you that Boards operated in the red for a time - all for our benefit! This new site may not be ideal for some of us, but can we not attempt to work with it as graciously as the admins have tried working with us?....or is that beneath us??? The new site has many lovely attributes with a great deal of promise and Dav has been gracious enough to open this dialogue and thoughtfully attempt to address ALL of our endless, disparate, multiplicity of concerns, comments, irritations... and for what? To be told none of it is good enough?! That's some cajones you have, sir!

My pup stuck her paw in a socket
Now she jerks around in that pocket
News flash no more cash the bank is closed
Hoodoo you hate eh? They should be hosed

anothernight · 14-05-2016 10:07am

B00! wrote: »

you. have. got. to. be. kiddin'. me.
They have worked for six long years to give us all a free place to continue to share together, and still have the capacity to expand. May I remind you that Boards operated in the red for a time - all for our benefit!

Ever heard the old adage, "if you're not paying for it, you're the product"? Boards.ie's unique angle* is the fact that it's Irish, but any user-driven website that assumes users will come because the website somehow is special will go the way of Digg.

Incidentally, Reddit, Snapchat, Twitter, etc., are also operating in the red. No, not all for our benefit either, but because they're clearly following a growth first approach. As is this site. And it might not work very well either (upvoted.com, anyone?). How to monetise social media effectively is a discussion for another day, but you sure as hell don't want to start by forcing a seemingly untested "beta" on a large section of your users, especially not right after being offline and unstable for a few days. See Digg's demise above, or boards's own reduction of traffic to many of its forums because of a badly designed "streamlined" menu. Issues with the new menu would've been avoided by simple A/B testing. The new layout doesn't seem to have undergone any testing before being released as beta (and beta versions are not meant to be the first stage of testing. Then again, neither are they meant to be forced on users! Thankfully boards backtracked on that one...)

*Bug: this is supposed to say "unique angle", but even though I can see it correctly in the textbox, it looks mangled when I preview the post.

JustMac · 18-05-2016 8:26am

Was just forced onto the new look site for a few mins. Thankfully it was just for a few mins. It looks horrible. Lots of wasted space. If the legacy view is discontinued I will no longer visit.
I am on the site for 11 years. Between the new site and an issue with MegaThreads on Bargain Alerts I am disillusioned particularly with the inability of management and mods to take on board constructive criticism or engage with discussion.

Tipperary Fairy · 18-05-2016 1:30pm

Losing connection persistently over the last hour.... Really really irritating. Not sure anybody cares though, as it's on the legacy site. Touch, chrome, in Australia.

the_barfly1 · 18-05-2016 10:24pm

I've managed to figure out that boards.ie/? will bring you to the legacy frontpage but all further links bounce me back to the "responsive site" on opera mini. Anybody out there using Opera Mini figure out how to get a useable version of the site?

Wibbs · 18-05-2016 10:45pm

Tipperary Fairy wrote: »

Losing connection persistently over the last hour.... Really really irritating. Not sure anybody cares though, as it's on the legacy site. Touch, chrome, in Australia.

I'm more local in Dublin, but today I've had the minor "log in again" screen a couple of times. Not exactly a stress. I suspect the anti DDOS Cloudflare protection in play? TBH, for me anyway, given the pain in the arse that the DDOS muppet attack was and continues to be, I can live with that. Even though I can see the heavier PITA it might be for overseas folks.

wotzgoingon · 18-05-2016 11:29pm

wotzgoingon wrote: »

I have a bug and it seems someone else has it as well as they posted in the thread reporting the same problem. Happens only while on the mobile site.

http://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2057593132#99690831

Please fix this very annoying when on phone and cannot scroll down to see which thread got a new post.

As at the minute I have to guess and go through loads of forums just to find which thread there was a post in.

Tipperary Fairy · 19-05-2016 12:31am

Wibbs wrote: »

I'm more local in Dublin, but today I've had the minor "log in again" screen a couple of times. Not exactly a stress. I suspect the anti DDOS Cloudflare protection in play? TBH, for me anyway, given the pain in the arse that the DDOS muppet attack was and continues to be, I can live with that. Even though I can see the heavier PITA it might be for overseas folks.

Minor pita but annoying when I get a limited amount of down time and then that happens. It happens a bit more during the day (middle of the night there) too.
The log in screen happens more often though, now that is annoying.

Esel · 19-05-2016 1:14am

Tipperary Fairy wrote: »

Minor pita but annoying when I get a limited amount of down time and then that happens. It happens a bit more during the day (middle of the night there) too.
The log in screen happens more often though, now that is annoying.

Have noticed repeated 522 connection errors from CloudFlare between 04:00 and 06:00 local time. Would this match your Aus time?

Tipperary Fairy · 19-05-2016 1:31am

Esel wrote: »

Have noticed repeated 522 connection errors from CloudFlare between 04:00 and 06:00 local time. Would this match your Aus time?

Yeah it would do I suppose, Can't remember the time exactly.

68 lost souls · 19-05-2016 3:42am

Overseas and ended up with the new site and it's awful. I hate it. Can't find any forums in the search, TDAR specifically. Can't scroll my followed threads. Back button brings me all the way out of boards to whatever I had open instead of back a page within boards. Awful

Too much space taken up by the banners etc. Unresponsive

The Black Oil · 19-05-2016 9:57am

The 'last post' option on the homepage seems greyed out sometimes on mobile. Chrome and Android.

jay93 · 21-05-2016 1:58am

wotzgoingon wrote: »

wotzgoingon wrote: »

I have a bug and it seems someone else has it as well as they posted in the thread reporting the same problem. Happens only while on the mobile site.

http://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2057593132#99690831

Please fix this very annoying when on phone and cannot scroll down to see which thread got a new post.

As at the minute I have to guess and go through loads of forums just to find which thread there was a post in.

This is driving me really crazy !! I have the same issue on iOS. I'm in the states since March so I'm forced to use this new mobile site. I can't even view the "talk to" forums no more in mobile view it just opens a full desktop page on my phone. Weirdly enough if I goto my followed threads and if one of those is a talk to thread it will display the new mobile version of that thread .. But if I try view the talk to thread any other way I get the desktop view .. Weird

Esel · 21-05-2016 2:01am

Try the Touch site? Might be better until something much better comes along...

http://touch.boards.ie

jay93 · 21-05-2016 2:16am

When I goto the touch site I get the new site that's the problem it's forcing me to use the new site

gandalf · 21-05-2016 8:37am

jay93 wrote: »

When I goto the touch site I get the new site that's the problem it's forcing me to use the new site

Dav is there any chance the overseas users can be spared from being forced onto that tainted site until it at least is some way fit for purpose?

I'm right in thinking it's been over a week since an official update from the office isn't it?

Tipperary Fairy · 21-05-2016 11:13am

I'm overseas also, you have the option at the end of the page to switch to the legacy site.

gandalf · 21-05-2016 11:20am

Tipperary Fairy wrote: »

I'm overseas also, you have the option at the end of the page to switch to the legacy site.

It seems that some users either can't access that or haven't seen it. I'm not overseas so thankfully don't have this issue but the new site should be opt in for every one and not forced as default on a small sub section of users.

Calina · 21-05-2016 1:08pm

To be honest folks, I don't find the new user experience to be great. I migrated back to the legacy site this morning because certain things are either not obvious or not there.

1) the reply button here, at least does nothing. Need to use what I assume is quick reply box underneath instead. Get rid of the reply button if you expect people to use the quickreply box instead.

2) instead of Preview Post and Submit Reply I have Manage Attachments and Submit Reply. Where is Preview Post? I actually used it by default.

3) clicking on my profile does not provide the functionality I expect to see. Where's my stats page? All that seems to be available in the new front end is my posts and the posts I replied to. Some of us actually did use the stats and profile page for tracking and finding stuff.

I don't particularly like the look and feel although to be fair, the look and feel of the legacy site is hardly sexy.

In answer to the question: is the new site a better user experience than the legacy site, I'd have to say no. No it isn't. It's not even the lack of familiarity but as a responsive site it looks fairly awful on a widescreen from a subjective point of view.

I'd have to wonder what exactly you're trying to achieve.

wotzgoingon · 21-05-2016 1:21pm

I am using the new site on mobile and desktop and the one frustrating bug on mobile I have told about already where the same image is generated while you scroll down on the my threads page.

One bug on desktop may be on mobile as well is when you try to post the pound symbol and euro symbol they do not post.

podgeandrodge · 22-05-2016 3:40pm

Every year the user experience of the new versions of the site worsens for me. If I was given a link to the "2006 version" (or sometime back then ) I'd click on it!

Ziycon · 23-05-2016 7:53pm

This is all on the new site theme.

The CSS and Javascript aren't working properly on the signup and login pages also when I try to post sometimes I just get a white page and can't post my thread.

Login & signup page console errors:

NetworkError: 404 Not Found - https://static.boards.ie/b/assets-built/css/legacy/fluid.css?v=d49d3036178a0672105e0d74d12bfa60
fluid.c...12bfa60
NetworkError: 404 Not Found - https://static.boards.ie/b/assets-built/css/legacy/screen.css?v=d49d3036178a0672105e0d74d12bfa60

Posting a new topic in Help Desk:

NetworkError: 500 Internal Server Error - http://www.boards.ie/b/thread/new-thread/30

Gremlinertia · 23-05-2016 9:56pm

Bunch of 522 errors again there since around 22.00

New Home · 23-05-2016 10:16pm

Me too.

J_E · 24-05-2016 5:07pm

The lack of clear separation between posts on the new theme is really bad - it's fatiguing to the eyes to not see physical divisions between posts and having to differentiate. Is the current theme really that bad? Why can't it just be a light update to vBulletin's theme rather than attempting to start over?

podgeandrodge · 24-05-2016 6:50pm

Every new site they build reminds me of the old adage of "if it ain't broke..."

wotzgoingon · 24-05-2016 7:32pm

jay93 wrote: »

wotzgoingon wrote: »

wotzgoingon wrote: »

I have a bug and it seems someone else has it as well as they posted in the thread reporting the same problem. Happens only while on the mobile site.

http://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2057593132#99690831

Please fix this very annoying when on phone and cannot scroll down to see which thread got a new post.

As at the minute I have to guess and go through loads of forums just to find which thread there was a post in.

This is driving me really crazy !! I have the same issue on iOS. I'm in the states since March so I'm forced to use this new mobile site. I can't even view the "talk to" forums no more in mobile view it just opens a full desktop page on my phone. Weirdly enough if I goto my followed threads and if one of those is a talk to thread it will display the new mobile version of that thread .. But if I try view the talk to thread any other way I get the desktop view .. Weird

Well this issue seems to be fixed today.

The Black Oil · 24-05-2016 8:11pm

I was browsing on my phone on the bus. In some threads where a poster was quoting another user, the content of quoted posts appeared twice, in the same quote - once in bold, then in plain text.

e.g.

But that has nothing to do with ________
But that has nothing to do with ________

the_barfly1 · 24-05-2016 8:52pm

cant quote the black oil because boards is completely broken on mobile, but i've seen the same thing in pretty much any thread where there's quoted text

ElBarco · 25-05-2016 8:33am

I'm getting a floating panel at the bottom of the site home page saying 1/7 which is great. The panel seems very large and when I click on it nothing happens.