sorry Bike radar but this sucks!

digdug

supersonic wrote:

There are other threads you can voice your concerns in, and I believe another poll too! Say why you don't like it etc and put forward suggestions to the team.

OK,
I don't like this forum, becuase the majority of the regulars who seemed to make this forum an enjoyable place to be, have left. It feels empty, and what used to be a community has been ruined.
I don't like the white background, because it's sore on the eyes after any length of time.
I don't like the fact that all 4 magazines have been clumped together in one forum, becuase there is now way too many forums on the one page.

So, what to do then
well for a start the background colour could be changed. The background colours for replies could alternate, much like the snitz layout.
Their should be a quick reply function.
Member names shouldn't be in Caps, it looks tacky.
TBH their small changes, but it helps take the forum out of the beta stages.
In short, all the functions that were previously available in the old forums, should remain.

Also, can someone ( mod/admin) answer these q's please.
First off, why was the forum host changed? What was wrong with Snitz.
secondly, why have half of the mod's had their powers removed? They all helped keep the forum free of n00bs.

Yorkshireman

Gavin Weeks wrote:

Well i'm gonna try anyway!!

Oy! ... Weeksy ... Aintcher got some er that there Designing/Developing stuff ter be doing ... sted er playing on here (or are you 'testing the software')

Big Red S

DigDug wrote:

supersonic wrote:

There are other threads you can voice your concerns in, and I believe another poll too! Say why you don't like it etc and put forward suggestions to the team.

OK,
I don't like this forum, becuase the majority of the regulars who seemed to make this forum an enjoyable place to be, have left. It feels empty, and what used to be a community has been ruined.

That's not something I think we can get the developers to fix.

I don't like the fact that all 4 magazines have been clumped together in one forum, becuase there is now way too many forums on the one page.

Use the 'newposts' page? Much the same as the Active Topics of Snitz, but with less scrolling.

So, what to do then
well for a start the background colour could be changed. The background colours for replies could alternate, much like the snitz layout.

They do.

Their should be a quick reply function.

Apparently that's coming.

Member names shouldn't be in Caps, it looks tacky.

This is, it has been alleged, the subject of some dspute in MBUK towers. I know, I don't understand either why anyone wants them in all caps.

First off, why was the forum host changed? What was wrong with Snitz.

What's wrong with PHPBB?
I'd have presumed it's ASP vs. PHP, but netcraft reckons they're still running Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 with MS IIS, so I'm not so sure.
Or maybe the new net guys know PHPBB better, or it's easier to extend and tweak.
Could be that the new CMS is PHP based, and it's easier to integrate PHP with PHP than with ASP.

secondly, why have half of the mod's had their powers removed? They all helped keep the forum free of n00bs.

I haven't. Nick hasn't. Well, we're not as powerful as we were on MBUK, but can still moderate.
This forum is obviously going to need moderating in a different way to MBUK. Presumably they'd rather have few mods who can cover road and MtB rather than a few who do one and a few who do the other.
I know they are currently working out how the moderating's going to work.

supersonic

"So, what to do then
well for a start the background colour could be changed. The background colours for replies could alternate, much like the snitz layout.
Their should be a quick reply function.
Member names shouldn't be in Caps, it looks tacky.
TBH their small changes, but it helps take the forum out of the beta stages.
In short, all the functions that were previously available in the old forums, should remain. "

All that I completely agree with, and hopefully it will be changed. It seems to be the main problem for many, the 'clinical' look to the place. Reason to leave? Not for me anyway. I also agree that the forum sections could be condensed somewhat, and perhaps more identy given to the mags that Future sell within the forum section as a whole. But I have not seen any of this WMB vs MBUK vs C+ etc nonsense that people were thinking was going to happen, it all pretty harmonious, with the Sandbox catering for people that way inclined, which is no bad thing.

As for noobs, lol, we all start somewhere, flaming them aint gonna do much for new members! Though searching threads wouldn't go amiss, many questions are replicated. Some mods were removed because (I think) of comments some may have made on alternative forums. Possibly... ;-)

In the end I don't see what you can't do here that you can do on other forums. Everything seems in place - just needs a bit of gloss adding.

digdug

supersonic wrote:

Some mods were removed because (I think) of comments some may have made on alternative forums. Possibly... ;-)

I didn't know that when you became a mod, you accepted terms, that meant you would not talk about the forum elsewhere.
Pretty stupid reason to remove their powers if you ask me, it's not as if they were being abused...



Edit: I agree Supersonic, that after a while everything will work fine etc. but that's not much use when half of the regular forumites have left.

supersonic

I did say it was a possibility, who knows?! As BigRedS says, changes are underfoot.

But if you ask me, making an alternative forum, slagging the other off and spamming it is probably not the best way forward!

digdug

There are rules imposed on the alternative forums, that prevents forumites from spamming, unless they want to be banned from said forum.
All this alternative forum is, is a new place where the old communities can stay together.
Theres more people on this alternative forum ( if you put forum size into perspective ) that their is on bikeradar just now. Maybe when Bikeradar is finally fixed, people will start drifting back over, but until then, I reckon it will stay dead.

Big Red S

DigDug wrote:

supersonic wrote:

Some mods were removed because (I think) of comments some may have made on alternative forums. Possibly... ;-)

I didn't know that when you became a mod, you accepted terms, that meant you would not talk about the forum elsewhere.

No, you don't. Not on paper anyway. But I don't think it's going too far to expect mods and admins to support the forum?
I don't think that was the reason all these mods lost their powers. I think it's more that there were more mods than was needed.



Edit: I agree Supersonic, that after a while everything will work fine etc. but that's not much use when half of the regular forumites have left.

supersonic

New uptake here seems quite good, though I have nothing really to compare it against as I don't know old figures. But I can say that BR gained more members over the last 2 days than one of the forums has gained in total... I think that a new 'community' will form, but it is a pity that many left through the transition from old to new. I do use one of the alternatives, its very good, but I don't have a reason to put all my eggs in one basket.

Yorkshireman

It is getting better, it's nearly there. We have alternating backgrounds in replies.
If any one wants a quick reply facility try clicking on "quote" and clearing the quote (might work ). I don't use the "New Posts" button as it seems to show all new posts from across all the fora. Once I'm in Road (usually) I can see at a glance by the colour of the symbol on the left, and the date of the post on the right where the recent posts are. Pressing Refresh (i'm using IE) updates all sections. I also use <Back, Forward> to navigate around ie Post, press Submit, wait for acknowledgement, and press <Back about 3 times quickly and you're back in the section (if you don't see your post press refresh ... and it's there. Hope this might help.

Steve Austin

A serious question yorkshireman: How can you say its getting better when there have been four posts in soapbox all day?

I agree the functionality of the forum is getting better, but its deserted.

and the only folk posting are the (in the road section) race crew and mods from MBUK, and lots of very suspiciously new folk.
It may get better over time, but currently its a shadow of the previous forum, and i don't give a stuff about the rest of the site. Better resources out there anyway

St.D1ckie

Steve Austin wrote:

A serious question yorkshireman: How can you say its getting better when there have been four posts in soapbox all day?

I agree the functionality of the forum is getting better, but its deserted.

and the only folk posting are the (in the road section) race crew and mods from MBUK, and lots of very suspiciously new folk.
It may get better over time, but currently its a shadow of the previous forum, and i don't give a stuff about the rest of the site. Better resources out there anyway

not anymore.. BR made sure of that one !

Big Red S

Yorkshireman wrote:

IIf any one wants a quick reply facility try clicking on "quote" and clearing the quote (might work ).

It does work, but it's not really a quick reply. The thing I loved about Snitz was that you could scroll down and just enter your reply, without having to hit any buttons and change pages.
I've decided against joining other forums in the past purely because they don't have that, and so it's a right pain to respond to anything.

Yorkshireman

Steve, I was meaning the functional aspect. It is empty in Road , mainly due to the fact that most of the C+ crowd have gone 'elsewhere' and appear to have settled in there (though there are a significant number of us who still post here as well). I can't understand why so many 'upped sticks' so rapidly. I know it was a bit of a mess here to start with but it was quite a big change, and a bit of a shock to the system but what the hell I've had far worse upheavals in real life and I would think others have too. As far as the quantity of posts are concerned - I notice that there has been a bit of action in Beginners, Cakestop and Gear & Know how, but as you point out the rest has been a bit dismal (I wouldn't know about the Race sections as I only look in there occasionally as I did on C+). I have tried to point out at CC that its a bit pointless carping on and sniping at other fora from within a different forum (plus I don't think that forum 'wars' solve any problems). All I can hope for is that more people gradually start/return to post here and get a bit of action going even if it's only a bit of daftness and light hearted backchat to begin with. I can see the increased opportunities here and I intend to make as much use of them as I can.

schmako

I used to be able to spend ages on the old (MBUK) forum. This one doesn't even keep me interested for 5 minutes as there actually nothing of interest happening. Its just a clinical place for talking about bikes to me now. It used to be banter, but that dissapeared with the forum change. Oh well.