Whinges about the new forum

grenw

Maybe rather than this degenerating into some Facebook like popularity contest of a site the matter mentioned several times can be addressed..... recent posts in a particular section e.g. recent/new road cycling posts. An at a glance view of all the recently posted to threads of interest was a huge advantage of this site.

Surely the 'recent conversations' button can be made forum sensitive?

At the moment all I visit this site for is to view this thread to see if there are any improvements.

pinno

oli_admin said:

pinno said:

Oli Oli Oli, Ol Ol Ol................ geddit??

Anyway, you used to get topic reply notifications for a thread, now you get a notification for every new post. Can you set the preferences to the former rather than the latter?

One way you could achieve this is to bookmark the discussions you're interested in (the little star at the top right of each thread) . Then, in notification settings, you can configure the settings to 'notify when people post on my bookmarked discussions'. There is also an option to 'notify me when people comment on discussions I've participated in' which could do the same thing but in a way that isn't quite as targeted.

p.s I get it

I'll test that theory.

grenw

oli_admin said:

Okay, I think I've fixed this for you.

If you head to the top of any category you should now see an option to 'follow'

At the top of the forum home page/recent discussions, you should now be able to select to view new content from only the categories that you are following. See the screenshot below.

Works a treat. A couple of minutes to setup but actually better than the old site (!!!!!) as its customisable. Bookmarked my following categories and now instant access to new posts in forums I care about.

Thanks!

ddraver

Yeah, that's very cool!

david7m

@oli_admin Is it possible to change the subject on email notifications to identify the thread easier? Currently all i can see on my mobile email (Samsung A8 Outlook App) is "[BikeRadar]pblakeney just added a comm". I dont know which thread without opening, which will become annoying when subscribed to more threads when I am short on time. I always read the bargain one, only to find out its chat, but that is another topic

m.r.m.

Would it be possible to implement an option to having some form of "dark mode"?

Otherwise it's taken some getting used to, but I actually quite like the new forum.

dish_dash

I agree with dark mode. And otherwise seems fine after the initial adjustment.

2 Questions:
- I assume that only I can see my email address in my profile.
- Can we bring back the log-in anonymously option (i.e. hide that you're online from other users)?

chris_bass

i'm going to say it....

I kinda like it!

needs a dark mode or darker at least but other than that it's ok with me!

slowbike

dish_dash said:

I agree with dark mode. And otherwise seems fine after the initial adjustment.

2 Questions:
- I assume that only I can see my email address in my profile.
- Can we bring back the log-in anonymously option (i.e. hide that you're online from other users)?

You can hide your presence - under profile settings ....

Pretty sure email is hidden from everyone else - check someone elses

dish_dash

slowbike said:

dish_dash said:

I agree with dark mode. And otherwise seems fine after the initial adjustment.

2 Questions:
- I assume that only I can see my email address in my profile.
- Can we bring back the log-in anonymously option (i.e. hide that you're online from other users)?

You can hide your presence - under profile settings ....

Pretty sure email is hidden from everyone else - check someone elses

That's great. Thank you!

david7m

Cool !

Example (loving how easy to add pictures) -

pinno

It was easy before!

DeVlaeminck

Thumbs down for the like/dislike function. If someone disagrees with me I don't mind them making their point but an anonymous thumbs down...what does that add? I can imagine some people feeling they didn't want to post an opinion for fear of it being disliked - trolls wont be bothered of course.

imposter2.0

DeVlaeminck said:

Thumbs down for the like/dislike function. If someone disagrees with me I don't mind them making their point but an anonymous thumbs down...what does that add? I can imagine some people feeling they didn't want to post an opinion for fear of it being disliked - trolls wont be bothered of course.

like/dislike is not anonymous - if you hold the pointer over the thumb-up/thumb-down, all will be revealed

W12_Lad

Only for "Like". "Dislike" is anonymous for me.

DeVlaeminck

I still feel it's not really a welcome addition to the forum. It's a discussion forum - it just seems a bit off to offer a facility to disagree with a post without being bothered to say why.

pinno

Leave the like facility. Discard the dislike facility?
There's still the flag it up option which for all intents and purposes, is similar.

richard_t._biscuit

pinno said:

Leave the like facility. Discard the dislike facility?
There's still the flag it up option which for all intents and purposes, is similar.

Most forums seem to go that way, even if they start off with dislike as well. Personally I can't see much good coming from the dislike option. I think it'll mostly go unused except during disruptive disagreements.

As for the new forum, well... A couple of things spring to mind:
- Links to the latest unread post or specific page of a thread from the thread list seems like a very standard thing that is missing.
- Being able to change you forum name willy nilly seems to be asking for trouble and confusion. Requiring underscores instead of spaces just seems odd and retrograde.

Generally, more intangibly, I think it's a shame. The old forum (while a little dated in some respects) seemed like a good example of something that scaled well across devices without compromising either (I had used it as such). Now, in it's current state, I find it somewhat off-putting both functionally and aesthetically.

bobmcstuff

The problem with the dislike function is that posts are hidden after 5 dislikes currently - which is a bit "cancel culture" for my tastes.

DeVlaeminck

It really is hard to navigate around this forum - I appreciate that the programming may be neater or more efficient but the actual appearance and function for the user is a big step backwards. Trying to find the prorace section - it's not immediately obvious where it is - OK click on categories above but then I have to scroll through pages of other threads on other categories to find it making sure I don't scroll too fast and miss it.

This may work well on phones but on a laptop it's just awful - I've given it a week to make sure it isn't just a case of different but no I really think it's a step back. I'll compare this to the FA and their new Full-Time website they introduced a few years ago. It was so poor they kept the old Full-Time running alongside it - now even a couple of years on and with the fact that the new page is the default and you need to click to go through to the old I know nobody that uses the new one. I would hazard a guess that if you'd kept the old forum running alongside this you'd find a similar result.

Wheelspinner

oli_admin said:

bompington said:

So, one valid justification for a new platform might be better anti-spam....

The spam filter and associated flood controls should provide a real improvement over the last platform.

So, how do you think those are working today? 🤔

thistle_

Wheelspinner said:

oli_admin said:

bompington said:

So, one valid justification for a new platform might be better anti-spam....

The spam filter and associated flood controls should provide a real improvement over the last platform.

So, how do you think those are working today? 🤔

I noticed a new technique the other day - replying/quoting a previous post and inserting a link into the reply. I guess it's some sort of search engine spamming.

seajays

Please make the borders darker - for many people with varying monitor gamma, the forum borders are invisible or nearly so - that makes the whole forum look much less organised. If you just adjust the darkness of the borders/shading to a slightly darker shade of grey (e.g. #cccccc ) it starts to look much better in my opinion - e.g.:



Or full page:

joe2019

DeVlaeminck said:

It really is hard to navigate around this forum - I appreciate that the programming may be neater or more efficient but the actual appearance and function for the user is a big step backwards. Trying to find the prorace section - it's not immediately obvious where it is - OK click on categories above but then I have to scroll through pages of other threads on other categories to find it making sure I don't scroll too fast and miss it.

This may work well on phones but on a laptop it's just awful - I've given it a week to make sure it isn't just a case of different but no I really think it's a step back. I'll compare this to the FA and their new Full-Time website they introduced a few years ago. It was so poor they kept the old Full-Time running alongside it - now even a couple of years on and with the fact that the new page is the default and you need to click to go through to the old I know nobody that uses the new one. I would hazard a guess that if you'd kept the old forum running alongside this you'd find a similar result.

Totally agree, I've hardly been on here since it changed, I just can't be bothered.

imposter2.0

Wheelspinner said:

oli_admin said:

bompington said:

So, one valid justification for a new platform might be better anti-spam....

The spam filter and associated flood controls should provide a real improvement over the last platform.

So, how do you think those are working today? 🤔

There's only one thing worse than spam getting through. And that's spam getting through and then not being removed.

Does anyone actually take notice of the flagged posts? Not much point flagging something if it's never investigated or acted upon.

imposter2.0

oli_admin said:

imposter2.0 said:

Wheelspinner said:

oli_admin said:

bompington said:

So, one valid justification for a new platform might be better anti-spam....

The spam filter and associated flood controls should provide a real improvement over the last platform.

So, how do you think those are working today? 🤔

There's only one thing worse than spam getting through. And that's spam getting through and then not being removed.

Does anyone actually take notice of the flagged posts? Not much point flagging something if it's never investigated or acted upon.

The spam queue has now been cleared, apologies that it took a little while.

Not sure what spam queue you are referring to, but the road beginners forum still has at least three flagged/spam posts on the forum list.

thistle_

imposter2.0 said:

Wheelspinner said:

oli_admin said:

bompington said:

So, one valid justification for a new platform might be better anti-spam....

The spam filter and associated flood controls should provide a real improvement over the last platform.

So, how do you think those are working today? 🤔

There's only one thing worse than spam getting through. And that's spam getting through and then not being removed.

Does anyone actually take notice of the flagged posts? Not much point flagging something if it's never investigated or acted upon.

Maybe everyone needs to dislike it as well, 5 strikes and it's gone apparently?

imposter2.0

thistle_(mbnw) said:

imposter2.0 said:

Wheelspinner said:

oli_admin said:

bompington said:

So, one valid justification for a new platform might be better anti-spam....

The spam filter and associated flood controls should provide a real improvement over the last platform.

So, how do you think those are working today? 🤔

There's only one thing worse than spam getting through. And that's spam getting through and then not being removed.

Does anyone actually take notice of the flagged posts? Not much point flagging something if it's never investigated or acted upon.

Maybe everyone needs to dislike it as well, 5 strikes and it's gone apparently?

Ha - that might work, but would be a bit hit n miss, in as much as it would require five people who can be arsed..

Meanwhile - @oli_admin - all the flagged spam is still visible on the forum.

aberdeenal

I've tried to like the new layout but I just can't - it's awful and has spoiled what was a daily visit for me :-(

joe2019

Yep, it terrible.