MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Is that cutting edge or bleeding edge?
And has anyone seen the cake yet?
If there is blood on the cake I don't want a slice anymore thanks.
that’s an example of bleeding edge software development technologies, right there…
You know, it's really disheartening to have people complain time and again about a lack of communication and then as soon as someone does try to explain something there's always someone else lining up to take pot shots. It's no wonder Mark isn't on here every day giving updates, I can't say as I blame him.
It wouldn't have been my choice of method either, but it took seconds to set up and it works. If they'd spent a couple of days implementing a bug tracking system or a CVS or something, there would be someone pissing and moaning that they should be fixing the forum instead.
Incidentally,
I've no idea what if anything STW uses internally for versioning, bug tracking etc. They may well already have these things. This was a method for us to report issues instead of sending multiple emails, is all. What happens after that I don't know.
It wouldn’t have been my choice of method either, but it took seconds to set up and it works. If they’d spent a couple of days implementing a bug tracking system or a CVS or something, there would be someone pissing and moaning that they should be fixing the forum instead.
Well one would hope that a VCS was in use already, and also an issue tracking system as well really.
Otherwise it is not really a surprise that this upgrade has been so messed up.
Setting up an issue tracking system wouldn't have taken that long, not withstanding that one should be in place already. And it's a classic case of a little time spent now is better than time lost later because you aren't using the right tools.
Running a test server and disabling anything with financial implications should be easy - if there are configuration issues then these should have been sorted out before the upgrade - it just sounds like the devs are flying by the seat of your pants.
I’ve no idea what if anything STW uses internally for versioning, bug tracking etc. They may well already have these things. This was a method for us to report issues instead of sending multiple emails, is all. What happens after that I don’t know.
We use Redmine.
A lot.
I wasn't having a pop at you Mark, honest 🙂 , more musing on how I do it for my personal stuff. We have heavy duty systems at work linking bugs/requests with version control and billing, but way OTT for most.
@Cougar - My misunderstanding of what you meant by the shared document. I took it to mean that was the bug tracking system, I think others did too.
Just logging in again for the fourth or fifth time today.. 😉
Scrolled back a few pages to find Mark's post. Which is a useful bit of explanation. I'll not get too much into it but regular communication is very important to maintaining good will. I would suggest that post is added to the other locked forum post that only Mark posts in, and that the title is updated to reflect the last update - E,g 'our forum - updated 14/02/18'
then people will see that an update to communication has been made and will read it.
As a note, I've been a print subscriber to both singletrack and grit.cx so done my bit to help this place along. All I and a lot of people are asking is that the mushroom principle isn't applied to us
Mark, is the "Forum -> Favourites" list being basically random a known issue?
[b]Mark[/b] wrote:
Our plan and how it has turned out has well, gone as expected.
...
Why does it look like we are developing on a live system? Well, we have a testbed server with a replica of the live site and we use that extensively. We have a sandbox server too and we use that lots too. But with all the BACS, Custom payment systems and such that are intrinsically interwoven we had a choice to make.
We could set up our testbed server and install all our financial systems including all our subscribers accounts onto it and submit it for BACS approval and some cost in order that we could test the forum and site extensively before simply switch the old one off and activating the new one or we could do what we’ve done and safely install the new forum core functions knowing there would be quite a few cosmetic issues that would frustrate many of you that we would then fix.
This is the bit I still don't understand. You had test servers you were running the new software on, but expected to have all these problems when you went live anyway? Or is the suggestion that all the problems with the user interface on the site are somehow related to integration with BACS? Why is it that you weren't able to fix those things before integrating, before going live? If the problems were related to BACS, payment or financial systems then that might make sense, but we're talking about basic forum functionality here, which should have absolutely no connection with those and should run live in just the same way as on the test servers.
If I lived a bit closer I'd take you up on the visit offer - I'd love to know why you aren't seeing these problems on the test servers. It does all work fine on the test servers doesn't it?
I suspect it is down to experience aracer. I doubt a business like STW can afford to recruit at a real hairy arse level. I remember the dev ads having a salary circa £25k which is going to get you a lot of enthusiasm but not a huge track record of having done this sort of thing before. I've been through this many times and it isn't easy so I do sympathise. Ultimately they are a publisher not a cloud company and this is probably where change is needed and hopefully is happening.
Sure, but we keep asking for them to be honest with us and Mark is still being bullish about it all being done in the best possible way.
Is there any idea when the buttons will appear for the button-less?
Member
Is there any idea when the buttons will appear for the button-less?
Buttons? Don't need them if you can BB-code.
Oooh, new things? 🙂
Buttons? Don’t need them if you can BB-code.
Perhaps a sticky How-To guide would be a good idea to help keep the forum going in this indefinite period of malaise?
Oooh, new things?
Where are you seeing that? Looks the same to me?
>Perhaps a sticky How-To guide would be a good idea to help keep the forum going in this indefinite period of malaise?
That was my suggestion also..
testing
edit: that works, happy now
badger
edit 2: happier
Where are you seeing that? Looks the same to me?
I found it via a random Google. Didn’t post the address as it looks from the links it’s in development.
search function doesn't search forum.
Ah cant search in overview, have to search each section. Better than nothing
Nope its still pants
There’s 2 Bruneep one for the site and one for the forums. The one for the forums is on the forum main page.
great when I'm doing a search I'm always looking for a post from 2009
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/search/lights/
Yup I noticed that too tweaks to it will be coming.
This update is proper shite. I'm out!
The ads are making the screen jump up and down as they load on my mobile now, resizing as they do so. Really annoying as even on a really fast 4G signal it takes about 3-4 seconds to stop. Means I go to click a thread and the screen jumps so I either click the wrong thread or click an advert!
On chrome on android.
quotes still visible from space
no editing buttons (win10, firefox)
pages v slow to load - i guess thats the ads combined with my SooperFastBroadband (clocking very nearly 5Mb today)
forum was readable from work (win7,IE), didnt try logging in tho
Working fine (better than pre update I think?) for me now. Thank you
Still not working using Firefox with Windows or Android so will keep fingers crossed it'll sort out one day.
It's only possible to type in a reply there are no others buttons available.
Is it possible to check buyers or sellers forum history now like it used to be?
I’ve stayed away since the update was rolled out.
Still no forum activity?
Still no forum activity?
Yes and no. Can now see topics started but I can’t see a list of threads I’ve replied to, which was a feature I found useful.
Edit: quotes appear to be fixed now
Discovered one of those huge smilies on Amazon Fire tablet this morning in the cat-knapping thread. Running the latest Fire OS on a Fire HD8.
Hats off to the devs, record numbers of blocked items today! 😀
Beating your own record, mind. 😉
Oooooh! Shiney.
Might be shiny, but still shitty copy and paste quoting.
Yup. I am a one trick pony.
....assume it's just a skin, and no functionality added/improved/brought back?
Edit:
Edit 2:
Edit 3: rgni45j[ginr;vowenfi234ognf45rgew;d23;djn4f32rfgrtbgtnhot4ph6htg
Its back! 😁
I don't care for the grey text, the contrast with black text is much better.
Horrendous text colour. And font choice.
Horrendous text colour. And font choice.
I like the font. Nice and easy to read. Black text would be nicer though.
edit: quoted text far too light a colour
A niche request I know, but is it possible to post an image directly from Flickr on an iPhone yet. I’ve tried a few options but none seem to work.
Looking much more handsome
there’s a few bits of statistical clutter we can do without
ahhh tried to copy and paste an example but can’t (iOS)
i think im supposed to throw a massive strop now but I’ve eaten too much to get sufficiently animated
EDIT actually I can c&p I was just being a clumsy fud
with the cleaner layout we can do without.....
Viewing 26 posts - 1,801 through 1,826 (of 1,826 total)
I like it. Well, the look anyway. No idea on the functionality yet.
There used to be a nice link at the bottom of every page that you could use to go back to the main page of new posts and threads. Now it's under the hamburger so two clicks instead of one. Or scroll back up to the top and click on forums
My trips to the bog are going to have to take longer now 🙁
Nice colour and font
way too much below the FOLLOW US banner and no buttons to go to forum overview etc.
slow as a dog as well
slow as a dog as well
Not just me, then.
Looks nice, obviously still a fair few teething problems, and the whole site is slower than a slow day in a Vegan Only cafe in the Scottish Highlands, but I think the direction of travel looks pretty good right now......
Yep, 30 second page load times. Chrome (latest) on a Chromebook.
Site links show in landscape, but not in portrait.
Android tablet, by the way.
Font isn't too bad, would prefer a little darker though. Not really seeing anything new though, apart from the aforementioned malfunctioning links.
Edit - c.50 seconds for that to post. Similar to reopen the thread to edit it. Here goes nothing....
Don't like the proportions of the font- it's a bit difficult for me to scan easily- I'm finding either the character width or spacing is forcing my eyes to move more and there's a bit of strain- it's noticeably slowing down how fast I can read the text.
Darker would be nice as well.
Really? Just awful
Liking the new skin, but something has killed the speed (has previously not been an issue for me on PC or Android).
Currently using Vivaldi on Ubuntu.
Looks good, sure it will speed up again at some point. I'd kern the font in slightly, but that's personal preference. Slow on Chrome latest build.
Nobody else seems to have commented, so am I the only one who's noticed it's all gone https? (the only reason I noticed is because the extension scripts have stopped running, so I was checking the URL to see if the format had changed).
As above, it's incredibly slow - hopefully that's just teething troubles. I also really dislike the re-appearing bar at the top which re-appears when you scroll up - I find such features make it a pain reading text for me, as when I just want to scroll up a little bit to find what's gone off the top of the screen I find I have to scroll up a lot. It's fairly small compared to the usual abominations which really wind me up, so I'll have to see if it's irritating in the long run.
edit: yep was the https breaking things - will do a new release as at the moment I'm the only one with an extension which works
Nice wallpaper in here.
Slow. So very very slow.
On IPad & PC.
aracer - I also noticed the secure site.
Its slow for me, too. But Mark says to expect it for a few hours:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/our-forum/
Very slow indeed!, chrome on android...
I cant read it properly. It's like an eye test at the opticians - now read the next line, and that is the one that seems to be moving around slightly.
The forum list of topics looks far too squashed to me - the font is wrong, then on messages, the font is larger, but again, I cannot read it comfortably.
Definite worse than before.
Nobody else seems to have commented, so am I the only one who’s noticed it’s all gone https?
Oh yeah. Well spotted, sir.
I also really dislike the re-appearing bar at the top which re-appears when you scroll up
I quite like that, actually.
I cant read it properly.
What platform? A screenshot may help?
Please, please, please can we have the 'forum overview' button back at the bottom of a thread?
Pleeeeeeeease...
Just curious as much as anything but what was wrong with the forum before Christmas , pre the last crappy update?
Just a stab in the dark, but.. I noticed the other day that searches were working but returning threads in a random order. To me, this suggests that there is a default index missing off a 'forum thread date/time' column in a table somewhere.. this would also slow down the loading of the normal forum pages.
(may have been mentioned previously but I've not waded through the whole thread)
Quoted text is way too pale.
Font is too small in landscape.
Links at the top, assuming you're on landscape, are a jumble over the page.
It's not very good, sadly.
Very Shiney! Good to see it coming along, still no buttons on iOS for the record.
By the way, I do hope this work hasn’t been done over the weekend 😉
I quite like that, actually.
Me too - you no longer have to scroll all the way to the top to get the main forum links back.
Please, please, please can we have the ‘forum overview’ button back at the bottom of a thread?
In the interim, scroll up slightly and click "forum"? Does that do the same thing?
what was wrong with the forum before Christmas
This has been discussed at great length previously. TL;DR, it was a mass of legacy code and even minor changes were high risk. Functionality improvements and new plug-ins were impossible as they require a version of the codebase that wasn't a decade old.
Links at the top, assuming you’re on landscape, are a jumble over the page.
A screenshot would help, along with what platform you're using.
you no longer have to scroll all the way to the top to get the main forum links back.
Unless you're on an android tablet in portrait mode when they vanish.
KWALITEE UPDEIGHTZ!
still got none of the reply format buttons
Looks nice, I've no big issues with the font other than it's maybe a point size too big, tiny thing though and doesn't really bother me either way.
Bit weird having a different font, colour and size when composing a new post. Again functionally not an issue just odd.
Very slow on Safari though.
what was wrong with the forum before Christmas
This has been discussed at great length previously. TL;DR, it was a mass of legacy code and even minor changes were high risk. Functionality improvements and new plug-ins were impossible as they require a version of the codebase that wasn’t a decade old.
Can’t see any other way to quote the above stuff.
I get that it’s old but still don’t get why it needed changing or any additional plugins, but will go read the other thread and see what issues people had
Still eye wateringly slow opening, and WTF is the "follow us" banner I've got on the RH side. That's more annoying than most of the adverts!
Think it's better than the post-update-but-pre-this-update version though, well done.
There's a massive advert (big ugly facebook link and advert for the magazine) on the right-hand side and I'm logged in (premier) but I can't get rid of the advert, is this a permanent addition?
I'm impressed - looks ace!
American spell checker though? neighbour neighbor -- yep, looks like it!
edit - Our Ed - that's definately a permanent social media feed. Facebook though, the kidz r dissapont. Needs snapchat for the in-crowd.
Possibly the most horrible visuals ever seen on the web. So hard to read. The weird overlapping/moving headings are appalling.
However one of my main issues has, for year, been the fact that STW has always been slower to open and react than anything else on the web. It now seems much better.
There’s a massive advert (big ugly facebook link and advert for the magazine) on the right-hand side and I’m logged in (premier) but I can’t get rid of the advert, is this a permanent addition?
Yup thats proper shit takes up a 1/3 of my page
I'm now at the bottom of the page. I cannot go back to the forum without scrolling all the way to the top. Hmmmm