Feedback on new Forum Software

In transitioning to the new server and new forums software, we had to restore from a backup of the forums that was a couple days old, so things may be a bit out-of-sync with what you remember them to be.

 

To put it mildly.

 

WELCOME BACK!
Missed you!
Good to know you are back up and running.

On the old system I had terrible trouble enlarging the pics. New system works really well.

Miss seeing the number of posts we have made.
I like to think on this excellent forum it showed who the long term people who answer regularly and accurately were...eg Ron who must have been heading for 20,000 posts...as opposed to a newbie with only 30 posts. (On other forums the number of answers is no reflection of accuracy, as many posts are just funny or silly.)

Thanks for all the behind the scenes effort.

 

I'd like to add my thanks to the staff for their work and UBC for hosting these forums. The new forum looks great, delighted with the new way pictures are managed so far.

Welcome back!

-Emery

 

I've figured out how to set that, so that's now visible.

 

Nice to see the forums up and running again. Here are my initial observations and questions:

• The site no longer has a bookmark icon.
• It would be nice at login time for 'Stay Logged In' to be the default, as before.
• The forum does not respond as quickly as before.
• There is no option in the profile to automatically switch between standard and daylight saving time. Does this mean manual adjustments are required? Also, the date and time does not appear on the forum home page so it cannot be easily verified that the proper setting is in place.
• The selection of active forums has changed. (e.g. Citrus was in the archived area before.) Is this intentional?
• Posts in Test Bed are retrieved by New Posts. Can they be removed like they were before?

May I suggest this thread title be changed to something like "Feedback on New Forum Software"?

 

Changed the thread title.

- Bookmark icon will be done as we work on styling. Worried more about restoring function first.
- Will do re: default "Stay Logged In"
- Forum speed -- hmm, well, let's give it a bit of time to have the files stored in cache etc. This is a roughly an equivalent server to the old one, a little bit less RAM but also not running some stuff that the other one did.
- Guess we'll have to see re: savings time. I'll see if I can track down a place to show server date/time.
- Yes, I reopened some inactive forums as a bit of a thank you for everyone's patience & the Garden's increased emphasis on people's relationships with food plants. May do more later. One advantage with the new setup is that moderators have a small set of permissions that they can use everywhere, so additional active forums can be monitored by more people.
- Will see what I can do about removing Test Bed stuff from New Posts.

 

Ok, did the default "Stay Logged In" and removed The Test Bed from New Posts listing.

I'll have to put the date/time on a more long-term to-do list, I think -- doesn't immediately look simple.

 

I wonder if part of that was the larger photos being displayed? Now that they're reduced in size automatically as they were before, photos come up quickly.

 

A few things I like:

Add a photo is so much better. You can do it right on the main screen, can upload more than three files at a time, and in one operation, can drag the thumbnails (recommended instead of full photos) to where the cursor is in the text.
Photo orientation seems to be correct, at least from my Android photos.
I like the Alerts indicator in the upper right, and the ability to set what you want to be alerted about.
I like the visibility of Watched Forums and Watched Threads, also New Posts.
I like the popup info when you click a user name.
I haven't tried the drafts yet, but I think I will like that.
I like that it's easy to switch from wysiwyg view to code view (either the little Y button at upper right of the entry area or clicking More Options); so far, that's the only way I've been able to move or remove a misplaced photo in the text.

 

@Junglekeeper I didn't know there was a bookmark function before. Till it's up, you can at least mark a thread as Watched.

 

I think he is referring to the favicon.ico which should be to the left of the URL in your browser URL address bar. Now it is a generic one, it used to be the Garden's logo. Browsers will store these so you can look for the icon instead of reading all the text in the bookmark menu.

 

Sorry about this, but I want to see if I can save a draft in two places. Yes I can.
I like this draft feature. In this existing thread, when I came back from doing a draft in another thread, my draft was here. In a new thread (in the Test Bed), I had to click Post New Thread in the forum to see my draft.

I'll add something else I like: the Like button, particularly if people use it as a thank-you when they have nothing else to add, so that the person supplying info doesn't get an email about a message that just says thank you. I wonder what the heavy contributors think about that - would they prefer a Like or a thank-you posting? I can feel a poll coming on.

 

@emery I've just installed an add-on that prevents full-size images from being embedded into posts (it automatically converts them to thumbnails). Does that affect how you like the way pictures are managed? This is how it used to be on the old forums, and it is a bit of a bandwidth issue (but it may or may not be necessary anymore?). It does kind of look better when full-sized images are posted...

 

Daniel, I like the thumbnails, actually. Was referring to the relative ease of uploading, and picture orientation. One thing I did notice is that on the old software the pics seemed to be uploaded and stored at reduced resolution on the server, whereas here they seem to be stored at full resolution and when you click on a thumbnail, downloaded at full resolution but displayed reduced. This makes the whole operation slower, except when you click again to open a new tab or window, it appears quite quick.

-E

 

That should be resolved now. I figured out how the image attachments should work: permit a large upload, then let the server reduce for forum display (and this is done during the upload, not when the image is clicked on to view next). I didn't have this set up yesterday / this morning, so behaviour should now be the same as the old forums.

 

Wow.Many thanks Daniel.

 

@Daniel Mosquin Thanks, as always, for the speedy response.

That may be part of the problem. I'll wait, as Daniel suggested, and see how it is after things settle down.

As Daniel surmised, I was refering to the browser's favicon.

 

@Junglekeeper Wow, you've figured out the multi-posting quote feature. I like that too. It was always a hassle to try to quote two postings.

 

@Daniel Mosquin What is the length of time that a post is open for modification? I suspect it's shorter than before. Also:

• Does this setting also apply to deletions or it is separate?
• Should deletion of posts be allowed?

 

Nicely done on the resolutions, that should make things easier for everyone.

I think it should be possible to delete posts, that way if you "accidentally" call someone an idiot (or other rudeness) it's possible to wipe the slate.

 

On an English forum several people used to post, just to repeat the first correct answer. Which was really annoying.
Then they changed the set up and had a "like" box.
It is brilliant... now people who agree with a correct answer just click "like" .....and the poster still comes in with the traditional thank you.
It works really well.

 

Preferred the green colour palette of the old forum, white, pale blue and pinkish-brown looks a bit yukky, but no doubt I'll get used to it.

 

No, don't get used to it. The official "skin" is yet to come. The garden has not been bought by xenForo.

 

I'm for not allowing users to delete posts, leaving that for moderators to do. Moderators can be careful to consider whether there are posts that reference the to-be-deleted one; users might not be mindful of the resulting chaos. Moderators can edit to remove the rudeness.