Who hit this place with the Ugly Stick?

pst88

I'm willing to give the new layout a try. It might just take some getting used to. Sorry to say the mid thread ads are too much for me. That could be the deciding factor for me to go elsewhere.

redvee

Jeff Jones wrote:

Serious question: would anyone pay for a subscription to the forum if it meant no ads? (I've no idea if we could implement this)

One of the benefits of this forum is the free access to all the knowledge/advice here. Going paid will be a backwards step unless it came as a freebie with a Future mag subscription.

Agent57

Jeff Jones wrote:

re: the ads, there's no longer a skyscraper, so the forum posts can be wider.

Serious question: would anyone pay for a subscription to the forum if it meant no ads? (I've no idea if we could implement this)

I would rather have the skyscraper, than banners every 5 posts. They really get in the way of actually reading the thread, and are an immense distraction. I don't want wide posts, anyway; I prefer posts to be readable without having to move my eyes a long way to read them; the width of an average book is about right.

As for subscriptions; not just for the forum, no. I'd more likely just find another bike-orientated forum that has less intrusive ads, or none at all.

However, perhaps anyone with a subscription to any of MBUK, CP etc. could have their forum account linked to their magazine subscription account, and enjoy an ad-free experience.

MarcBC

Still working my way through this, however, I prefer the adds in the middle rather than the right hand side. Using an iPad, I have lost count of the number of times I scrolled with the right thumb only to be linked into a site the add was promoting.

SimonAH

Jeff Jones wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

Jeff Jones wrote:

You should notice a marked increase in speed with this one.

OTOH, you may notice a marked decrease in traffic with this one

Maybe!

re: the ads, there's no longer a skyscraper, so the forum posts can be wider.

Serious question: would anyone pay for a subscription to the forum if it meant no ads? (I've no idea if we could implement this)

I know that nobody likes change Jeff, but the mid thread ads are uber annoying. They are way too intrusive and I've already seen them all on the main page. |Seeing them again and that "in your face" is liable to make me less likely rather than more likely to purchase products. Text ads...OKish, but shouty bright video ads are really too much.

I belong to a curmudgeonly class of people who whould cut off their own wedding tackle rather then purchase from "Go Compare" or "SafeStyle Windows" and the like - purely because of the horrendous ads.

If your advertisers are paying more to have the banners embedded in the text of the forum like this then they are wasting cash in a big way. The skyscraper was far better - screw the post width.

Greg T

If I can only see half the screen - the other being obscured by big blue empty blocks (IE7) do i only have to pay half of the subscription?

One a positive note I can't see any adverts though! Swings and round abouts I suppose.

A good game though is trying to fill in the blanks . .

eg

I could read

One of the benefits of this forum is the free access to all the knowledge/advice here. Going paid

Then it cut out . . .

One of the benefits of this forum is the free access to all the knowledge/advice here. Going paid -I was going to write something funny but realised that that typeing wiould be under the blue block of fog and therefore couldbn't proof read what i typed

Greg T

all the clever buttons to reply to etc are also hiding . . .

I for one think this upgrade is going really well . . . . .

MaxwellBygraves

CHANGE, BAD!!11!!1!!

The old forum looked crap, it looks a bit better now and I like it. Well done BR. Give it a few weeks and everyone will have settled down.

cjcp

I'm on IE.

Plums to this. I'm responding to Timmyflash in SCR and that's it for the day.

notsoblue

pst88 wrote:

I'm willing to give the new layout a try. It might just take some getting used to. Sorry to say the mid thread ads are too much for me. That could be the deciding factor for me to go elsewhere.

Mid-thread ads are a very bad idea. People will either leave or just take measures to make sure they don't see them.

Clever Pun

JZed wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Ha ha!! (There are no emoticons, either.)

:twisted: :roll: :roll: :roll:

I'm getting a Subaru, Kinetic turbo and magazine subscription every 5 posts.

Get an a.d.b.l.o.c.k.e.r for your browser..

oh yuck, the posting page it pretty grim

Jeff Jones

SimonAH wrote:

I know that nobody likes change Jeff, but the mid thread ads are uber annoying. They are way too intrusive and I've already seen them all on the main page. |Seeing them again and that "in your face" is liable to make me less likely rather than more likely to purchase products. Text ads...OKish, but shouty bright video ads are really too much.

I belong to a curmudgeonly class of people who whould cut off their own wedding tackle rather then purchase from "Go Compare" or "SafeStyle Windows" and the like - purely because of the horrendous ads.

If your advertisers are paying more to have the banners embedded in the text of the forum like this then they are wasting cash in a big way. The skyscraper was far better - screw the post width.

All good points - I don't have much influence over ads but I will feed back to the people who do.

Clever Pun

<---Why is the user section so bloody big?

80X80 avatars don't require 7cm of wasted space, having to scroll across to see all a post can do one. (use a smaller browser window so not to advertise sneaky surfing

jzed

Clever Pun wrote:

JZed wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Ha ha!! (There are no emoticons, either.)

:twisted: :roll: :roll: :roll:

I'm getting a Subaru, Kinetic turbo and magazine subscription every 5 posts.

Get an **Nobody likes ads but they pay for the site so please have the class not to whine about them** for your browser..

oh yuck, the posting page it pretty grim

Computers are locked down so stuck with the adverts, although pretty sure they will get on my wick enough that I give up with the forum.

The 7cm of wasted space is to display the time you joined :roll:

Agent57

Deleted as it probably breaks a forum rule. But you can remove the ads if you want to.

Clever Pun

yeah just seen, very important the full date and time... very important

noob

tailwindhome

Jeff Jones wrote:

Serious question: would anyone pay for a subscription to the forum if it meant no ads? (I've no idea if we could implement this)

Sorry to be so blunt but there is no content on this forum (or any of the other sub forums/fora) actually worth paying for......

Clever Pun

TailWindHome wrote:

Jeff Jones wrote:

Serious question: would anyone pay for a subscription to the forum if it meant no ads? (I've no idea if we could implement this)

Sorry to be so blunt but there is no content on this forum (or any of the other sub forums/fora) actually worth paying for......

it's a forum, you could offer the option of payment and have some sort of reward out of it, but I wouldn't anticipate any real revenue stream from it. there are plenty of other forums without intrusive adverts. I understand why they're there, but I can see a lot irritation coming from them

DrLex

Design request - can the page links (the numbers at top and bottom of the threads) be increased in size? Browsing on a mobile device is still painful (but not as much as a week on "cycle chat").

Gallywomack

Hmm, the place looks fine on my phone (rather nice actually), so it seems my work browser cannae handle it. Ho hum.

Pufftmw

Jeff

Screen grab below. IE8 on Win7

http://www.goorey.com/forum.jpg

Blue band continues to bottom of page and hides loads of things like "next page" etc

Wrath Rob

Adds pay for this forum. That's the unfortunate truth. I'm sure that somewhere there's (paid for by ad space sellers) research that says mid thread are more noticeable than side bars, hence the chance, plus you can get more adds to page. Personally, I think we'll get used to skipping over the adds in the same way we ignored the side bars.

On the plus side, the forum's back up and running and the editor and lead developer are on here and being responsive to the concerns raised. Being in IT myself, that's not something you always see so hats off to them for doing it.

nicklouse

Pufftmw wrote:

Jeff

Screen grab below. IE8 on Win7

http://www.goorey.com/forum.jpg

Blue band continues to bottom of page and hides loads of things like "next page" etc

press the compatibility button.

prawny

It's given me a headache, I'm going to do some work. :roll:

il_principe

Ads aside, this new look/layout actually hurts my eyes. Very hard to read, it's a really really horrible design.

thegibdog

The place looked ok until I logged in, I now have the blue box of doom! Hopefully that will be sorted though it will still leave us with a slightly more modern looking but slightly less user friendly layout.

Pufftmw

nicklouse wrote:

Pufftmw wrote:

Jeff

Screen grab below. IE8 on Win7

http://www.goorey.com/forum.jpg

Blue band continues to bottom of page and hides loads of things like "next page" etc

press the compatibility button.

Thanks Nick - disabled by Group Policy.... :?

Works ok in Firefox though

DonDaddyD

The advert in the middle of the page is about cash generation. Works on the hope that (i) people see it and (ii) people may click it by mistake.

It is (and this needs it's own seperate line), the most stupid idea ever and cheapens the experience/look of the website. Who thought of that should be greeted by the p*ncture fairy, daily.

As for the rest. I don't like it and it isn't about change and resistance to. It's is simply rubbish. It's hard to read, the color is garish and makes threads hard to scan, the typeface and posting screen look like 1990s Internet.

I'm sure all of this will be dismissed, sometimes the powers that be get so entrenched in their vision they lose sight that the website is for the users and by extension the users opinions matter.

nicklouse

Pufftmw
Post up in the BR Office with the info.

Greg T

nicklouse wrote:

Pufftmw wrote:

Jeff

Screen grab below. IE8 on Win7

http://www.goorey.com/forum.jpg

Blue band continues to bottom of page and hides loads of things like "next page" etc

press the compatibility button.

So this site won't work in IE7 then, work strictly controls versioning etc so guess I'm boned.

have to say - your UAT sucks the big one.