Forum changes

[Bread]

As a mobile user, the most recent change is confusing.

I can't speak for PC just yet.

That's curious, the change is meant to make it easier for mobile users. What's confusing about it (other than being different)?

Maybe it is due to the confusion of two sections. Started going from threads to threads, and it's not so bad. Confusing at first for sure though, but it's easy to settle into.

[DinoToyForum]

As a mobile user, the most recent change is confusing.

I can't speak for PC just yet.

That's curious, the change is meant to make it easier for mobile users. What's confusing about it (other than being different)?

Maybe it is due to the confusion of two sections. Started going from threads to threads, and it's not so bad. Confusing at first for sure though, but it's easy to settle into.

By two sections do you men to two columns of recent posts?

I made it two columns because users on large monitor screens noted that having only one column resulted in a lot of wasted empty space. One column looked fine on my small laptop screen.

[Bread]

As a mobile user, the most recent change is confusing.

I can't speak for PC just yet.

That's curious, the change is meant to make it easier for mobile users. What's confusing about it (other than being different)?

Maybe it is due to the confusion of two sections. Started going from threads to threads, and it's not so bad. Confusing at first for sure though, but it's easy to settle into.

By two sections do you men to two columns of recent posts?

I made it two columns because users on large monitor screens noted that having only one column resulted in a lot of wasted empty space. One column looked fine on my small laptop screen.

Then it is for sure just the downside to using mobile. I prefer using my computer anyways, so I'll be trying to use the site later when I am home.

[DinoToyForum]

As a mobile user, the most recent change is confusing.

I can't speak for PC just yet.

That's curious, the change is meant to make it easier for mobile users. What's confusing about it (other than being different)?

Maybe it is due to the confusion of two sections. Started going from threads to threads, and it's not so bad. Confusing at first for sure though, but it's easy to settle into.

By two sections do you men to two columns of recent posts?

I made it two columns because users on large monitor screens noted that having only one column resulted in a lot of wasted empty space. One column looked fine on my small laptop screen.

Then it is for sure just the downside to using mobile. I prefer using my computer anyways, so I'll be trying to use the site later when I am home.

On a mobile screen the two columns should become one column. Is this the case for you, or are you seeing two columns squeezed in?

[Bread]

This is what it looks like (apple iphone).

[DinoToyForum]

I can see why you were miffed, it's not meant to look like that! It doesn't on my iphone but I have the smallest screen possible. I'll see if I can change the width settings.

[Sim]

Having just one column which covers all categories was better in my opinion.  The two-column system is confusing to me and requires extra work to keep track of new posts.  I'm going to ignore the two columns now and just use the unread posts section.

[ceratopsian]

I see two columns on my iPhone and it looks very busy and crowded.

[DinoToyForum]

I've reverted to one column for all categories. Two columns wasn't working well for mobiles.

[Concavenator]

I've reverted to one column for all categories. Two columns wasn't working well for mobiles.

Thank you, looks much better now.

[Lynx]

Much less crowded now! May I suggest, however, reducing the number of posts shown just a bit? Or at least a small test as to how it would look with 10 or 5, if that is not too little.

[DinoToyForum]

Much less crowded now! May I suggest, however, reducing the number of posts shown just a bit? Or at least a small test as to how it would look with 10 or 5, if that is not too little.

It's set to 12 now, but I don't want too few or the list won't be doing the job I want it to do. Basically, I want members and visitors to immediately see all the active posts on the forum over the past day or two. The board index, recent posts page, and unread posts page, are all fine for experienced members who know what they're doing, but I expect most visitors (many who have never used a forum before) will find the 'old' front page of the forum a bit overwhelming. That's how I feel, for example, when I go to STS Forum now, and I'm au fait with the technology. It's difficult to know where to begin, so I'm hoping the recent posts list will make the forum more inviting.

[Lynx]

Much less crowded now! May I suggest, however, reducing the number of posts shown just a bit? Or at least a small test as to how it would look with 10 or 5, if that is not too little.

It's set to 12 now, but I don't want too few or the list won't be doing the job I want it to do. Basically, I want members and visitors to immediately see all the active posts on the forum over the past day or two. The board index, recent posts page, and unread posts page, are all fine for experienced members who know what they're doing, but I expect most visitors (many who have never used a forum before) will find the 'old' front page of the forum a bit overwhelming. That's how I feel, for example, when I go to STS Forum now, and I'm au fait with the technology. It's difficult to know where to begin, so I'm hoping the recent posts list will make the forum more inviting.

Alright, gotcha.

When I first joined, the most confusing thing for me was the sidebars, and to this day I am still not exactly sure how to use them. The main difference however is that they were out of the way, and thus weren't as confusing.

The top bar (with recent posts, calendar, etc) was the fastest thing I caught onto and was easy to figure out. I found the main page very helpful and it was easy to get to wherever you needed.
With this more recent change, though, it is rather far down and while not confusing, felt unnecessary as the top bar (for PC users, at least. for mobile, I find the change quite helpful) was already easy to navigate.

I can try asking a friend or my sibling to try out the forum and see if they have any trouble/confusion if that could help. Maybe it varies depending on the person, I dunno

[DinoToyForum]

Much less crowded now! May I suggest, however, reducing the number of posts shown just a bit? Or at least a small test as to how it would look with 10 or 5, if that is not too little.

It's set to 12 now, but I don't want too few or the list won't be doing the job I want it to do. Basically, I want members and visitors to immediately see all the active posts on the forum over the past day or two. The board index, recent posts page, and unread posts page, are all fine for experienced members who know what they're doing, but I expect most visitors (many who have never used a forum before) will find the 'old' front page of the forum a bit overwhelming. That's how I feel, for example, when I go to STS Forum now, and I'm au fait with the technology. It's difficult to know where to begin, so I'm hoping the recent posts list will make the forum more inviting.

Alright, gotcha.

When I first joined, the most confusing thing for me was the sidebars, and to this day I am still not exactly sure how to use them. The main difference however is that they were out of the way, and thus weren't as confusing.

The top bar (with recent posts, calendar, etc) was the fastest thing I caught onto and was easy to figure out. I found the main page very helpful and it was easy to get to wherever you needed.
With this more recent change, though, it is rather far down and while not confusing, felt unnecessary as the top bar (for PC users, at least. for mobile, I find the change quite helpful) was already easy to navigate.

I can try asking a friend or my sibling to try out the forum and see if they have any trouble/confusion if that could help. Maybe it varies depending on the person, I dunno

It definitely varies from person to person and from device to device, but I'd certainly welcome input from 'outsiders'. What you could do is ask them to compare the DTF and the ATF (which I have not changed) and see which they prefer.

The content in the side bars is basically all add-ons, it isn't crucial, so as part of this trial I've removed some of the side bar features, combined them all in the left side bar, and removed the right side bar completely.

[Sim]

I think it would be better if the side bar was moved back to the right, currently the left looks too heavy.  Also, I don't like the new number of recent threads being shown.  It's too few.

Basically, I want members and visitors to immediately see all the active posts on the forum over the past day or two.

I think for that you need to change it back to 20 threads being shown.  I don't see a problem with that number, the amount you need to scroll down to reach the main forum is basically the same as with 15 threads.  While limiting the threads shown to 15 cuts off useful information by reducing the number of new posts shown.  I've experienced that tonight where I didn't have time to look at all the unread posts earlier and now that I'm back on the forum it counts as a new session and "unread posts" only shows posts from this evening.  I can't use the recent posts column to pick off from where I left from since it cuts off new posts from earlier because of the lower number of them being shown.

[Halichoeres]

Sim, maybe I'm not understanding correctly, but are you saying you can't see unread topics if you don't get to them all and then sign in again later? Do you not have this "all unread topics" button?

[DinoToyForum]

I've increased it to 20.

Has anyone's opinion changed, one way or the other, now that we've had a few days to get used to the recent topics being at the top?

[Ikessauro]

I particularly don't like the new layout, since I was very used to the way it was before, but I'm not sure if that matters. I am a bit resistant to change, so might be just me. My brain had adjusted to the different Boards and Sub-boards separation. In the Recent topics they are all mixed together, from different categories. I am forced to read the full title of every recent topic to know what is being discussed, can't skip to the category I am mostly interested on. For that I'd have to scrool down quite a bit. I would not include more than 5 recent topics in the top if It were up to me.

[EmperorDinobot]

I kind of like that list of recent posts at the top.

[Halichoeres]

I'm fine with the general layout, but 20 recent posts feels really excessive to me. But that's easy for me to say since most days I log in multiple times.