The STW forum still sucks « Singletrack Forum

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The STW forum still sucks

130 posts & 47 voices | Started 6 months ago by aracer | Latest reply from MrK mkII

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aracer - Member

Is it just me who finds it irritating that the STW forum still has the following issues:
- it's impossible to nest quotes
- the line spacing is all wrong when using quotes
- there's no PM facility
- it's far from straightforward to check what posts somebody has made (just which threads they've posted on, which is really helpful with 500 post threads)
- you can't go direct to the first new post in a thread since you last read it

I'm sure there must be more. All trivial things, but all things which you can do on other forums I use, which use industry standard forum software. Can somebody explain to me again why it is it's impossible for STW to use this and it has to have it's own custom software with much worse functionality?

Posted 6 months ago #
don simon - Member

That's all? I thought it was going to be about cockwarbling level of content.

Posted 6 months ago #
crispedwheel - Member

have it's own custom

Hmm, I'm not sure those are big problems myself. Why do you want a PM facility? It's two clicks to find a user's email address if they want to give it. The lack of a spelling and grammar checker before posting though...

EDIT - which is a trivial thing too, I see the irony of that:)

Posted 6 months ago #
druidh - Member

Is it just me who finds it irritating that the STW forum still has the following issues:
- it's impossible to nest quotes
Good. I hate these forums where a post is toooo looong because it's a quote of a quote of a quote
- the line spacing is all wrong when using quotes
hadn't noticed
- there's no PM facility
but those that wish to be contacted include their email address in their profile
- it's far from straightforward to check what posts somebody has made (just which threads they've posted on, which is really helpful with 500 post threads)
Agreed - this can be a bit irritating
- you can't go direct to the first new post in a thread since you last read it
Aye - again a bit irritating sometimes.

Posted 6 months ago #
Rorschach - Member

Me too DonS....... I feel cheated and used

Posted 6 months ago #
CharlieMungus - Member

Hey! Love it or leave it buddy!

Posted 6 months ago #
druidh - Member

Perhaps if everyone was forced to pay for using the forum there would be more money to pay for developments? Maybe the new "Premier only" mobile site will encourage a few more subscriptions.

Posted 6 months ago #
CharlieMungus - Member

Perhaps if everyone was forced to pay for using the forum there would be more money to pay for developments? Maybe the new "Premier only" mobile site will encourage a few more subscriptions.

or maybe the forum generates revenue for the magazine and through advertising and the forum software is free anyway and requires very little maintenance and asking for subscriptions is a bit cheeky as most fora are run for free.

Posted 6 months ago #
deadlydarcy - Member

Perhaps if everyone was forced to pay for using the forum

Not gonna happen. Don't be silly.

Posted 6 months ago #
druidh - Member

Aye - we get what we pay for.

Posted 6 months ago #
user-removed - Member

Premier only mobile site? Have I missed something?

Posted 6 months ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

Don't see the issue myself

Posted 6 months ago #
aracer - Member

"the line spacing is all wrong when using quotes"
hadn't noticed

Yeah, but how much trouble did you have to go to to get it neat like that, rather than just typing normally (note my use of a quote of a quote which isn't that long, but essential to get the point of what I'm quoting)?

but those that wish to be contacted include their email address in their profile

So the set of those people who don't like publishing their e-mail address doesn't have any members who are also in the set who'd like people to be able to contact them privately? Or the set of those people who just haven't bothered to set up their profile?

Posted 6 months ago #
molgrips - Member

Have you seen the amount of visual spam on other forums? This place is a blessing.

Posted 6 months ago #
CharlieMungus - Member

So the set of those people who don't like publishing their e-mail address doesn't have any members who are also in the set who'd like people to be able to contact them privately? Or the set of those people who just haven't bothered to set up their profile?

Nah venn, no need for That!

Posted 6 months ago #
CountZero - Member

From what I've seen of other fora this is a paragon of simplicity and clarity. When you have to click on boxes to reveal replies then I rapidly lose interest. I want to follow the thread just like one continuous conversation, and having to constantly reveal hidden replies sucks.
And nested quotes gets pretty cumbersome too, I just put quote marks in, and it's easy to italicise or bolden to get the emphasis across.
Sorry, but of all the forums I've looked at or contributed to, this is the best by far for clarity and ease of use.

Posted 6 months ago #
shaxi - Blocked

but of all the forums I've looked at or contributed to, this is the best by far for clarity and ease of use.

agree with you !

Posted 6 months ago #
Pook - Member

if you click on the minutes after the thread title rather than the thread title itself takes you to the latest post.

sounds like you're experiencing U53R errors.

Posted 5 months ago #
michaelmcc - Member

I'll add a few...

No avatars... they may be pointless but can be fun!

No user post count to tell if its someone thats been on here a while or possibly a troll / messer.

No rep power like on the mtbr forums.. quite cool I think!

Posted 5 months ago #
sc-xc - Member

No avatars... they may be pointless but can be fun!

No user post count to tell if its someone thats been on here a while or possibly a troll / messer.

No rep power like on the mtbr forums.. quite cool I think!

Absolutely. And while we're at it I would like to see wacky signatures, more sub groups (I'm sick of opening a thread about a stem and realising it's about O/S when I want standard - this is why you need sub categories...people), more stickys (at least the top half of each sub section), customisable colours etc....

Or we could just leave it alone.

Posted 5 months ago #
GrahamS - Member

Not much that needs fixed IMO.

The old 40 post bug lives on though.

Posted 5 months ago #
Garry_Lager - Member

It's nice that it doesn't look like every other vbulletin forum everywhere, laden down with pointless bollox features. The lack of a quote function is irritating though.

Posted 5 months ago #
richiethesilverfish - Member

The only thing that sucks about STW forum are the threads complaining about it . . .

Posted 5 months ago #
Drac - Moderator

I can tell you 2 things you won't see in this list ever.

Avatars on the forum never ever, they will remain in the profile.

PM the database and bandwidth drain would be huge, now before you say other forums have it take a look up there and see how many posts there is here.

There is busy bodies at the minute doing more IT related stuff so they are doing behind the scenes stuff. No I don't know any details.

As mentioned if you click on the time of last post it'll take you to it.

Posted 5 months ago #
thebikechain - Member

RichieTS is right.

It's free. Dinnae moan when something is good and free.

Posted 5 months ago #
neilsonwheels - Member

The only thing I miss is being able to switch views. IIRC the "old" forum allowed you to view the latest post or the latest topic. Other than that the forum is spot on.

And the hamsters seem to be running ok as well.

Posted 5 months ago #
emsz - Member

Nested quotes really spoil loads of forums. They're awful. Avatars are shit. Theres enough spam in my inbox already without getting more from you lot.

Posted 5 months ago #
jota180 - Member

it's impossible to nest quotes

An long may it remain like that

Posted 5 months ago #
GrahamS - Member

> it's impossible to nest quotes.
An long may it remain like that

Agreed.

Posted 5 months ago #
bruneep - Member

user-removed - Member

Premier only mobile site? Have I missed something?

Oh are you not part of the niche test group.

Posted 5 months ago #
wwaswas - Member

> > it's impossible to nest quotes.
>An long may it remain like that

Agreed.

plus 2

Posted 5 months ago #
GrahamS - Member

As mentioned if you click on the time of last post it'll take you to it.

But that takes you to the last post in the thread, not the more personal touch of taking you to the first new post since you read on the thread.

I seem to remember that the old forum had a "new" badge on threads with new posts since last time you read them. But I also seem to remember it was buggy as hell and a drain on the database, which is presumably why we don't have it now.

Posted 5 months ago #
Cougar - Member

I quite like avatars when they're small and unobtrusive.

It's banner signatures that do my head in. Trying to read a conversation where there's one line of text, a banner; a line of text in reply quoting the previous line and banner; a third line of text containing the previous two posts and banners as nested quotes; and oh, we've filled the page.

If I could change one thing about the forum, it'd be the way it hotlinks to images on other sites. Getting other people to pay for your bandwidth is bad form. Next after that would probably be stickies, or some other mechanism by which we didn't get the same questions asked every fortnight.

Posted 5 months ago #
The Southern Yeti - Member

not the more personal touch of taking you to the first new post since you read on the thread.

Just spend all your time on here and stop complaining FFS some people want everything done for them...

Like me, I actually want the forum to actually suck.

Posted 5 months ago #
bikebouy - Member

It is a bit clunky.. But so what?

It's the content I enjoy not the format of it.

Posted 5 months ago #