[Closed] Forum Update

The subscription page tells me I’m paying for:

Ah, ok.  Fair comment.

the fact that it seems to have been prioritised over giving me back the functionality I used to have

Are you missing any functionality beyond what's already been discussed (eg, the 'history' thing)?

My understanding is that the priority is to bring the forum up to a point where it's actually a maintainable platform open for development again.  Issues like the font being a little dim is somewhat secondary to that.

is pretty much telling me you don’t value me as a customer.

You said "you" just there - just for the avoidance of doubt, I don't work here.  I'm just a volunteer, you're not "my" customer.  I'm just trying to help here and my comments have no reflection on how STW values you as a customer.  Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Right, I've read the first post, randomly every so often something breaks and changes. We feedback what is broken and try and helph Given no other real method for feedback we use the forum. If the owners do not wish to hear feedback about what is working and what is pissing people off then that ti's up tot them. People on tbis have reacted to the addiction of content specifically that looks like an ad (be it for stw or not)

No it’s my own opinion / interpretation of where we are. The moderators don’t speak with any official status on behalf of the site owners and never have.

If that is the case iIwouldI  suggest from how some replies read that  you appear to be speaking on behalf of them. Perhaps this is a thread best managed and moderated by the dev guys so they can provide some official responses.

I’m on desktop and right now it’s taking up as much screen as the reply/preview box. I don’t hate that we have it but it’s redonkulously big.

Hm.  I'm on desktop, and the body text width is about the same as it always was, just offset to the left a bit.  Is that not the case for you?

The light grey quoting is more of a usability thing,

I can't imagine for a moment that this will be difficult to change.  (Though I doubt it'll be high priority.)

No toy-pram separation here.

Wasn't directed at you, Perchy old chap.  Just generally.

It's a third of the page.

It's still an advert.

Thing is with the Facebook follow us thing – why do you think you need to promote the site to people who already subscribe? You’ve already got my attention (and my money).

And that. I don't use Facebook.

I know what's on the homepage.

It's pushing content I've already read  twice - once in the mag, once on the homepage.

I've been positive about the updates so far, but along with the clickbait headlines, this is a bit much, tbh.

Wasn’t directed at you, Perchy old chap. Just generally.

Just as well.

I heard the Golf Monthly forum have an opening for a shite comedian  and I was considering jumping ship. 😉

[b]simondbarnes[/b] wrote:

Has it? Doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

"feature" of the forum update not bothering simon shocker.

It's gone for me - just need to sort out the blank space it's left and I'll issue an update...

I  suggest from how some replies read that  you appear to be speaking on behalf of them.

Hmm.  I assumed people understood that that wasn't the case, which is a failing on my part.  Thanks for letting me know.

I understand what STW is trying to achieve here, and having stared into the belly of the beast that was the old site I'm behind them 100% in wanting to have it taken out and shot.  As I said after the last update, I have no doubts that we're in a much better place than we were previously.  Beyond that though, I'm just a forum user trying to help make things better.

And I still don't have my $%^&ing "moderator" tag back... (-:

Just seen there appears to be the ability to change username in the profile edit menu - suppose I'll see if it's worked on this post!

Hated that the old forum didn't allow 'special characters' as the name tallpaul is always already taken so I'm normally 'tallpaul_s' on forums...

edit: doesn't do what I thought it would. Ah well.

and the developers are probably in bed having worked all day on Sunday.

Now what sort of a shit boss would make them work on a Sunday? 😉

What i also hope is that stw also take into account what that the users and paying subscribers are saying. Pointless developing things that piss off users. The majority of the comms are still coming from you a d Drac not the owners.

The font definitely needs some tweaking - as a heading or in quite list-like / bullet point-like copy its quite attractive. But as soon as the copy gets denser - paragraphs more than 3 lines long - it gets to be a bit of chore to read.

You said “you” just there

Sorry Cougar, didn't mean you, I understand the hard work the mods do and appreciate it. It was just a general rant to the sky - it's now over 2 weeks since the formatting buttons and the preview disappeared and I see changes to the site, but no sign of this being fixed and it's as though it's dropped off the radar in favour of new colours and the aforesaid Facebook thing.

Another oddity - I just logged out and it took me to a "page not found"; not sure if this is a new "feature" or has already been noted.

And I still don’t have my $%^&ing “moderator” tag back… (-:

I'm hoping that when it comes back it reads "$%^&ing moderator” 🙂

Hmm OK I can see the need to change, to update behind the scenes and have to say I like the new home page layout, will take me some time to adjust but it's ok.

But the forum, please come on ... say goodbye to 1/3 page to follow you (I already do where I am and don't use Facebook) and makes the forum bit of the forum tiny.

I'm another P and yes I see the stuff on here, in magazine etc but this constant need to stick stuff in my face is tbh quite wearing.

If you're going to change stuff you could always get opinions before in terms of what people want, like, desire, use etc and I appreciate you cannot please everyone.

But looking back through the passed pages of this one it has not gone well.

I had assumed advert free was advert free and that includes your own :/

James

Maybe I'm not critical enough, but the Follow Us banner doesn't present much of a problem. It's aesthetically unfortunate but I've seen a damned sight worse.

I love the font, and the relation of the quotes to the main text. I think proportions are good, and I also like the subtle ST symbol in the background.

Keep up the improvements, and this'll beat mumsnet yet.

Noted @Rio, thank you.

makes the forum bit of the forum tiny.

What platform?  It's exactly the same size for me that it always was.  (Granted, it always irritated me that it didn't scale, but still...)

The drop-down Singletrack banner at the top of the mobile page jumps up and down whenever I stop scrolling for me, really annoying.  Makes the whole page vibrate up and down slightly.

Also the text being squashed in at the sides slightly makes my eyes hurt a little. All on chrome on android.

The new style is nice enough but it has definitely lost it's identity and become very generic, taking a bit of the soul out of the place.

"Cougar

Hm. I’m on desktop, and the body text width is about the same as it always was, just offset to the left a bit. Is that not the case for you?"

It is, but "how the old forum was" isn't the target. Basically I have 3 areas of the screen right now which are roughly equal size. This one that I'm typing in, the box above with other people's posts, and the "follow us" etc box. (And quite a lot of white space). One of these things is not like the other- if you're doing a big post with photos etc like a for sale, or you're Junkyard and you're posting 30 quotes and 2 graphs, then a bigger typing box is useful. If you're reading back over other people's posts while Big Hitting,(yes some of us do read the other posts before replying) then a bigger box above of other posts is useful. Follow us? **** all use at this point but has 1/3rd of the real estate. This is a big screen but the actual working space with this forum is small., 100-150 words or so?

To be fair that's partly because of all the white borders etc, if the screen was generally more efficiently used it'd mitigate it a lot. Or if all the fluff went away when you're typing a response, so it's there when viewing?

I think the other thing is, it's fairly distracting- lots of colours and images and things on an otherwise plain page

The font is ok.

The colour of text makes it harder to read.

Deliberately done to draw your eye to the adverts? Cynical, but I'd bet it's true.

And the home page is 90% adverts as it is - staff recommendations, Fresh Goods Friday, advertorials, which bloody Saracen do I want to buy. All adverts.

The poll (which was there to gather info for advertisers) has disappeared again too. At least it was interesting.

I'm beginning to get the feeling we're being taken for a ride. And not in a good way.

@Northwind: Noted.  Desktop or mobile?

I already follow STW on FB (and premier/subscriber) - could it be set to disappear for those who already follow it on FB and see the content there?

"Cougar

@Northwind: Noted. Desktop or mobile?"

Desktop ta

[b]Northwind[/b] wrote:

It is, but “how the old forum was” isn’t the target. Basically I have 3 areas of the screen right now which are roughly equal size. This one that I’m typing in, the box above with other people’s posts, and the “follow us” etc box. (And quite a lot of white space). One of these things is not like the other- if you’re doing a big post with photos etc like a for sale, or you’re Junkyard and you’re posting 30 quotes and 2 graphs, then a bigger typing box is useful. If you’re reading back over other people’s posts while Big Hitting,(yes some of us do read the other posts before replying) then a bigger box above of other posts is useful. Follow us? **** all use at this point but has 1/3rd of the real estate. This is a big screen but the actual working space with this forum is small., 100-150 words or so?
To be fair that’s partly because of all the white borders etc, if the screen was generally more efficiently used it’d mitigate it a lot. Or if all the fluff went away when you’re typing a response, so it’s there when viewing?
I think the other thing is, it’s fairly distracting- lots of colours and images and things on an otherwise plain page

Interesting comments. I'm currently typing on a page which looks just like the old forum, with the sidebar bit gone and the posts centred on the page with white space both sides. That was my first instinct on how to style it. I have to say that just losing the sidebar is a big improvement - losing all that bright colour makes the new text colour far less of an issue (I'm actually quite liking the softer tone). Though I did wonder about making it full width, and I think I'm convinced by your arguments. Apologies - as always anything I'm doing here will only benefit people browsing with Chrome on desktop.

I agree with much of the protest over the "Follow Us" taking 1/3 of  the page. But my guess is that it is here to stay.

I subscribe, so get the articles in the mag. I usually go to the website daily, too. (Bring back the poll!!!) I don't do Facething at all, so can't "like' anything even if I wanted to. But I'm probably not the typical user.

However, my eyes are already adjusting and the "Follow Us" thing is getting tuned out!

And thanks for fixing the thread title in the browser tabs! I can now go to the tab that I want...

Hmm, well full width seems strange - but you know what, it's better.

The thing is, what I'm doing here isn't rocket science - for anybody who knows how to inject javascript/jquery into other browsers the code is:

[code]
$('.dt_sidebar').remove(); // remove sidebar
$('.dt_content').removeClass('col-md-8'); // remove width: 66.66666667%; styling
$('.dt_content').addClass('col-md-12'); // add width: 100%; styling
[/code]

(strangely the last line actually makes it slightly narrower than without that!)

Finding the new colours and font very hard to read, it's already making my eyes hurt and I've only read 3 or 4 pages. Finding the background with the tiled ST logo a bit distracting and there's a huge amount of wasted space imo, why are is the actual content constrained so much?

I know change is hard to take sometimes,  and somethings are an improvement like the new top bar, but others don't seem to add much.

Well done for managing to sort out the issues, But........but as a subscriber (since issue 1) will you please ditch that bloody annoying eye catching FOLLOW US for the Facebook advert over there --------------> , I don't have/use/need facebook and having a large advert in my line of sight when viewing the forum is very distracting.  One more thing, the bright white background is really tiresome on the eyes so change that i'll stop moaning.....for now anyway.

the whole site is slower than a slow day in a Vegan Only cafe in the Scottish Highlands

Well I found it funny...

Who do I sue for that seizure inducing Aaron's bikes advert?

Do you not screen them?

Wow, the desktop version is hard to read.  So much contrast between the white background, the 'Follow Us' sidebar ad and the text.  Strangely the text as I'm typing it is fine as it's slightly darker and more compact.

We're getting there.

WTF is the facebook thing doing taking over a third of the screen. The golden goose has surely heard its own eulogy read this time.

Ha 'CTRL +' got rid of that shite. Win 10 and Firefox.

I don't know about the browsers on Android devices but for Safari on iPad & iPhone if you double tap in the posts "column" then it expands to the full screen width. This is a feature of the browser not STW and works for any block element on a web page. Much better than trying to pinch zoom.

The only downside is that you have to do it on every new page.

Still no buttons.

I totally agree about ditching that bl00dy awful faceache book Like Us Follow Us advert

It's intrusive and whilst I'm still a subscriber and have a P I object to it's presence

The colour has changed and it's now as slow as a box mangle on my phone & at work. Zoot alors!
I find the face book ADVERT quite distracting too.

and it's just taken about 30 seconds for the reply to actually post to the forum

https://www.singletrackworld.com is serving an SSL certificate which expired at the end of 2017.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/ (non secure) is redirecting to http://singletrackworld.com and then to https://singletrackworld.com which has a valid cert so that's OK, but if you've got https://www.singletrackworld.com bookmarked for the site you get a certificate error:

[img] [/img]

@uphillcursing: CTRL + works on Chrome too.

Which is nice as now I don't feel eye raped by all the corporate whore wallpaper 😉

Hate the 'Follow Us' box. I already do. I'm on the website and have seen the content on the homepage, so why do I have to click to an external app for links to articles that are on the website I was already on in the first place?

Why is the reply box the size of a modest family car on-screen? Can't it just open up when you want to reply instead of always being there taunting and mocking you for being reply-less?

Getting back to overview is currently a pita. Little tickle scroll to bring up the header menu, click header menu, click 'Forum' option on slide in side menu..... Life's too short for this additional first World problem... 🙂

Looks ok on a mobile version of Edge.

But why do I get an advert for Facebook? Isn't that what the P is for?

Just realised that I cannot go from one area of the forum to another. I had the bikes section open and wanted to go to sales but had to click forum from the silly moving top row which then took me to bikes and chat which had the old selection at the top. Why not the ability to jump sections directly?

another fun bug (firefox).... the disappointed with the bossnut 2 thread theres a link halfway down if you right click on the link and select Open Link in New window you get the window but the original window also goes there too 🙂

As others have said, the FB thing is a P take. Please give us the option of disabling it.

I think we must be fair though. I'll not comment on the technical reason why such and such happens. We know that this forums ,main purpose has to be a promotion of the magazine plus drawing in revenue from advertising. To pretend otherwise is rather hopeful. The creators and owners of this forum would be stupid to do anything that reduces this income. If nice forum can happen without losing money then no doubt they will try but naturally profit comes first.

Of course the other issue is that computer  stuff is always done by experts who have no sodding idea that those with less technical understanding or interest don't like it. The moveable heading is a case in point. Its fashionable. Bugger the practicality.

I have all the text reply box buttons.

I love the font and colours thereof.

That double tap on the text when reading to get rid of the sidebars, is inspired !

I am loving the new clear design, it’s soooo much better.

Thanks Chaps.

I think everyone here understands the need for adverts.

But I was told if I signed up, I could turn them off. This is no longer true.

Where do I apply for a refund?

Ok, so I'm at work: FB is blocked, so all the FB side bar shows is a title and no content - which is fine.

FEATURE REQUEST: please can the FB side bar be disabled by premier users?

I'm currently zoomed to 150% to remove it, not sure what I dislike the most - wasted real estate at 100% or massive text at 150%...

Edit: Forcing a "mobile" serving of the page by changing the window ratio makes things better...

That facebook thing sucks, and premier users shouldn't have to see it (Next thing you know it'll be auto playing the videos like rubbish news sites).   It is quite hard to read with that background image...

That's my only moan about the new forum.

Facebook "Follow Us" unanimously popular then! Good job the development of the site has given us that , a lovely ST logo wallpaper and a change of font style - just like all users were crying out for!

Nobody mentioned wanting to get back the "hover over thread to see who last posted", "the forum activity link to go to the last thread you posted on" etc etc, (can't even bloody remember ... maybe that's the hope!?) - so hey, leave those bits as they are. Good stuff.

Anybody want to join my forum yet? 😆

ps. Adblock used at home to block the feed I don't want. Ta.

Dont really like the font either. Just sayin.

Not a fan of the font.

Looks pretty but not very friendly to the eye.

I get rid of the Facebook ad by reducing the window width.

And for everything else there is the usual work round solution: Pinkbike.

typeface is horrible

line spacing is horrible

colours are ridiculously muted and hard to read.

login button changed to the other side of the screen

watermarked background is horrible and blurry.

Seriously wtf is going on with this place?!

Usability down massively.... looks like we have another "southerndownhill" on our hands.

MINDBLOWN

The "hover over last posted link to see who it was who posted" might have been one of those things that got done that wasn't compatible with everything else.

The FB thing is pointless, if it must be on the page then either as a banner beneath the header bar or, better, as part of a fat footer, where there's a FB link anyway. The old version of the forum had links to STW features in the sidebar - much more relevant. Presumably these will be back once other parts of the system have been sorted out.

The old version of the forum had links to STW features in the sidebar

I wonder idly, if the sidebar had links to featured STW content elsewhere on the site rather than featured STW content on Facebook, would there be the same level of malcontent?

login button changed to the other side of the screen

Seriously?

The font is great and I like the colour - thanks!

It's harder to read, on my phone and on my desktop. Another Great Leap Backwards.

"watermarked background is horrible and blurry."

I spent about 5 minutes wondering if my monitor was dirty!

Not so much of a poster, but a reader, but this is shocking. Completely amateurish.

Yes seriously... if you know anything about UX then you know not to break strong user habits that have been long established.

Look I'm not being a jobsworth... but this is my job and this update has been handled terribly.

Also the load speed for the pages is absolutely mental now. 5+ seconds here.

I see very little positives other than the current site being less of a security risk.

When a forum is designed purely around readability and usability... then well maybe they should be taken seriously.

I'm fairly certain this site runs on Wordpress so the forum is part of one of the "themes" that you tell Wordpress to use. It's not something written in STW towers. On my work computer this is actually more readable than the old forum - there was something weird in how my graphics card handled the old version that made the text very indistinct.

@Cougar - My comment was more an observation of what was there before. I'd much rather there be on-site links than what's little more than click-bait.

I echo previous comments. Crikey the contrast between the font and background is pretty hard on the eyes. Even with the grey background on every other post its testing going on migraine inducing. You are lucky if this isn't a problem for you. Not opposed to the follow us link but maybe it should be smaller and stay up the top of the page. Will I still visit the forum if no further changes take place? Yes. Will I stay as long and read as many posts? - nope. Will I carry on my subscription? Unlikely.

Also the load speed for the pages is absolutely mental now. 5+ seconds here.

The server has had issues, they tried most of yesterday afternoon and evening to resolve this.

Looks like we have an issue with a network card on our server, which means we will have to wait until the morning to get our server provider to look at it.

Taking out the subjectivity of whether people like the new font and colouring or not, I'm not sure it meets accessibility guidelines (WCAG); I have a feeling that at the very least the contrast ratio is too small making it difficult to read for people with eyesight problems.

You should probably check that, as I'm sure you want the site to be fully accessible.

Although I appreciate it appears frustrating from our end, I wonder how many people on here are considering how it feels to have worked the weekend and attempted to do your best, only for the whole "office" to tell you how shit you are as soon as you walk in the door.

Can't be the most motivating job can it, receiving all this in between tasks.

2 minutes of tweaks isn't hard to make things readable again with no real care for design.

If the idea is to monetize this massive forum then some investment is needed.

Also running off a single hardware server is crazy. I guess money really is tight at STW towers

So when I'm posting on a thread that I've click on... do I really need to see the thread name 4 times in various sizes and shades?? What a flinking mess.

I'll chip in my thoughts just in case.

Really don't like the new font and shading. Much harder to read on all formats. I suppose it does look prettier though.

Not a fan of the Facebook advert at all. Partly because I'm paying to be ad free but also its the same content on every page. Maybe this is a placeholder to start showing other content but I'd still like the option to turn it off unless that content is well chosen

Losing the 'forum' link at the bottom of the page is a real pain. Something that used to take one click now takes three, and two of those clicks are a bit awkward

At least we have two line titles and the ability to jump to the last page.

Font is bigger and now scales on my BlackBerry. Not dared try an edit yet.

Edit and... we are go!

Look I’m not being a jobsworth… but [UX] is my job and this update has been handled terribly.

I hate to come here and agree with the negativity but I have the same job and I couldn't agree more. It's painful to watch.

[i]I hate to come here and agree with the negativity but I have the same job and I couldn’t agree more. It’s painful to watch.[/i]

Ditto.

“watermarked background is horrible and blurry.”

might has well not have bothered it's so light.

Overall, some positives: I like the new colour and size of the forum. The site itself seems more responsive, and on mobile, it looks a lot better.

negatives: the font colours are too washed out, especially on the quotes, it's very hard to pick them out particularly on the blue/grey background. With all the white, nothing stands out font wise.

Also, the site is as slow as balls. This has always been my bugbear with anything built in Wordpress. While it does a lot of the work for you, there is so much loading in the background that it makes navigating the site a chore

Certificate error is now resolved.

Losing the ‘forum’ link at the bottom of the page is a real pain.

Scroll up a bit, click the Forum link?

Scroll up a bit, click the Forum link?

Yeah, there are ways round (hit Home/Cmd-up—provided you don't have focus in a text area—or swipe your phone screen a dozen times) but it's a good example of how basic navigation workflows aren't catered for.

You get to the end of the thread and want to go back to an up-to-date forum page? You can't now, you have to go back to the top, hoping not to accidentally tap on something while repeatedly swiping, and then do it.

You want to go straight to the end of a thread? You can do it: tap a tiny number to try and get to the last page and then swipe down a dozen times again. But there's no single-tap route there, and the page numbers are so small it's eacy to end up on the wrong on. Obviously no access to the first unread item, which has been a basic feature on other forums for donkeys' years.

Even the "next" buttons have disappeared from the pagination navigation: it's now tiny numbers there, too.

There's always a way to get where you're going. It's just that a competent interaction designer will get you there quickly without having to think about it and with minimal chance of making an error along the way. Especially for really frequent tasks.

Scroll up a bit, click the Forum link?

That doesn’t appear in iOS mobile version on Safari for me.

Would be interesting to see the results of the accessibility audit STW undertook before going live with the new site design, particularly in relation to font choice/colours. They [i]did[/i] do one, didn’t they? 😀

Where's the 'my activity' function gone?

Legibility and navigation have taken a real hit for me. I'm sure it all looks very stylish with the grey font over very similar grey background (and quotes are awful) but usability has gone out the window for those of us with impaired vision.

I'd be interested to what extent the recent changes have impacted visitor numbers and participation.

More of a reader than a poster. I really like the new colours and fonts. I use Chrome on desktop, the Facebook stuff doesn't bother me that much - but I don't pay for a P.

I know it's really (I mean REALLY) minor, but I think the 'You need to be logged in to post' message at the bottom of threads used to have a hyperlink to the login page which isn't there. Sorry if I'm not remembering this correctly.

Regarding the returning to the top - as soon as I start scrolling down through a thread a small light grey 'up' button appears in the bottom left hand corner of the screen which takes me back tot the top.

RM.

Seems like coming back here is like the "big fat gypsy wedding" of the internet. For the last few days I have re-logged in just to see how bad it is getting.