New Forum – User Feedback

Also, distinguish between read and un-read threads so I can see at a glance if any of the threads have been updated – since ‘freshness’ has replaced ‘time of last post’ I find it difficult to keep track, especially at work when I’m jumping onto threads when time allows.

If you look at your User Profile you’ll see all the threads you have replied on and whether anyone has replied since – not quite the same but still useful.

The “New” thing on the old forum never seemed to work properly for me and caused problems when the requests started getting too big which meant you had to delete your cookies every now and then to get it to work.

Agree with the link back to the forum at the bottom of the page. I usually always open threads in a new tab so I just close them when I’m done. But it would be a nice feature when using browsers without tabs (like on mobiles).

Don’t like the green bits. The font isn’t great. Maybe needs to be a bit bolder or the grey background missing

which is why a user style sheet would be good, it would allow one to specify the display style for all the elements of the various pages with great flexibility, and could even spawn a whole lot of different ‘skins’ without requiring any further input from the hard pressed STW crew 🙂

Any news on email notification particularly?

I find I’m visiting here less since the new forum, simply because I don’t get the notifications dragging me back to threads I’ve been on. This may be a good thing for my productivity but (assuming everydoby else behaves like me???) can’t be good for visitor numbers and therefore advertising revenue?

<must remember to check for a reply>

Doesn’t the new “Favourites” RSS feed pretty much handle this?

(Though granted they could maybe do with a nice explanation of what RSS is for the luddites)

Consider me a luddite.

Can the RSS feed send notification to my email address or do I have to remember to check an RSS viewer (or similar)? If I have to remember to check something I might was well remember to check here.

Preferred 1 combined forum rather than separating into chat and bike fora.
Preferred it when peterpoddy was banned
Great work otherwise.

I sit here in astonishment at the statement ‘Smileys are the internet’s greatest feature.’. I’m sure those pioneering IT types who came up with the idea of the interweb are chuffed to bits with that

higgo:

The point of an RSS Reader/Viewer is that it is one central point where you can see what is happening on ALL the websites you are subscribed to.
(I currently subscribe to 43 different RSS feeds from various sites).

These may help explain:
Getting started with Google Reader

Google reader – Quick Tour

I’m sure there are probably tools out there that let you set up email alerts for RSS, but that isn’t really the idea of it. Instead the RSS Reader is essentially “Your Inbox for the Web”.

The STW forum provides an RSS feed for “your favourites”. Anything posted on any thread that you have marked as a favourite will appear in that feed. You can add a thread to your favourites by pressing the “Add this topic to your favorites” link at the top there ^^^.

So i see there was an upgrade done in the not too distant past of this forum. I have not been around on here for a while… but have recently come back.

Now when I used to post on here 5 years ago or so it was a pretty basic forum… and so I come along and see that I have to log in again because it is a pretty basic forum… and when I get in here I find that it is still very much like it used to be.

Now I am sure there are reasons for this, but the amount of code out there to make a very functional forum for not too much work is pretty amazing these days. For instance this forum http://www.derailled.co.nz was put together by a mate of mine in about 1 hour… and it has a lot more functionality. It however does not have the number of users to make it entertaining very often.

I enjoy STW because of the witty banter that goes on. So many other sites take themselves waaaaay too seriously or are flooded with idiots. However it would be nice to be able to:
1. Quote what another poster has said with the click of a button. This makes it much easier to follow what someone is saying in response to another.
2. Have avatars on the posts. It makes identifying posters much easier when reading a forum.
3. Being able to go straight to the last unread post in a thread would be great. Having to click once to get to the thread and then again on the page of the thread you want to go to is a bit of a hassle.

Not being able to upload photos to posts (and having to link them from an external site) is ok, but it does mean that very old threads will often lose photos as people change what photos are posted where.

Not having a go at anyone… just letting you know my thoughts…

3. Being able to go straight to the last unread post in a thread would be great. Having to click once to get to the thread and then again on the page of the thread you want to go to is a bit of a hassle.

You can…just click on freshness on the main page

2. Have avatars on the posts. It makes identifying posters much easier when reading a forum.

PLease God, no

1. Quote what another poster has said with the click of a button. This makes it much easier to follow what someone is saying in response to another.

Only about 5 or 6 clicks currently?

For #3 – just click on the “Freshness” link for that thread

I think it’s generally accepted that avatars and pics are best hosted off-site as that cuts bandwidth requirements on what is, after all, a very popular forum. Actually, the general feeling amongst the masses seems to be anti-avatar.

sc-xc – Member

Only about 5 or 6 clicks currently?

I highlight and drag the text into the Post box then highlight again and use the “Quote” button.

I highlight and drag the text into the Post box then highlight again and use the “Quote” button.

I highlight and drag the text into the Post box then highlight again and use the “Quote” button.

8) 8) 8)

It however does not have the number of users to make it entertaining very often.

For me, and a lot of others its the clean simple nature of this forum that attracts me to it. Avatars, signatures and all that rollox really puts be off. The likes of Bikeradar are a **** nightmare to navigate.

another vote here for a better search engine. The old one was alot better than this one.

3. Being able to go straight to the last unread post in a thread would be great. Having to click once to get to the thread and then again on the page of the thread you want to go to is a bit of a hassle.
You can…just click on freshness on the main page

2. Have avatars on the posts. It makes identifying posters much easier when reading a forum.
PLease God, no

1. Quote what another poster has said with the click of a button. This makes it much easier to follow what someone is saying in response to another.
Only about 5 or 6 clicks currently?

ah… freshness indeed!

The quoting thing would be the nicest upgrade.

Avatars. Ok, hosting off site does save bandwidth and some people dislike them. I will just have to learn to read the username! Signatures and bollocks I can do without too. Being able to PM a user is sometimes a nice feature tho.

PM can be made easier if the member uses a mailto: tag in the “Website” part of their profile. Try clicking on my name on this thread….

I’d prefer ‘Jump to’ buttons at the bottom of the page, eg different forums, different pages etc.. just like you get on PHP BB forums…

Also when you submit a post then press back to get back to the homepage, it takes you back to your editing screen

Eh?

Of course it does. Your browser doesn’t know any better

druidh: that is a bad idea tho, because now your email address is visible to the various email harvestering bots – so you end up on more spam lists.

Inzane: I think this is a very functional forum. It is very uncluttered and there is very little to get in the way of our conversations. I definitely don’t want avatars, signatures or any other crap. (Though it might be nice if some members came with a warning label. Perhaps the mods could award a “Troll of the Week” badge which would display next to the offenders name)

Graham – I’ve seen absolutely no difference in the amount of spam since I made that change (at the start of the year).

Inzane: also before trotting out the old “my mate set up a better forum than this in a hour” do try to bear in mind that this is (apparently) the most popular mountain bike forum in the UK and may be under a little more load than your mates forum!

Druidh: that could mean the site hasn’t been harvested recently or it could mean they aren’t using the list yet, or maybe you just have good span defenses. But having your email in a link like that is like writing your phone number on the wall by a phone in a pub full of telemarketers.

I agree about the quoting issue – it might not be that much trouble, but the number of times people do it wrong shows it doesn’t work all that well – could surely be made more straightforward with a “quote this post” button. Also on the subject of quoting, nested quoting would be nice – at the moment it’s a pain to quote somebody and the context of what they were replying to, and doesn’t look good.

My other main wish (mentioned this several times, but hoping the admins might read this thread) is for links on user profile pages to go directly to the post or posts that user has actually made, rather than the start or end of a thread they’ve posted on. Not only useful for finding posts by specific other users, but also for tracking threads you’ve posted on yourself.

PMs would also be nice.

It’s fine with me as I just adapt to whatever design there is.

GrahamS

Inzane: also before trotting out the old “my mate set up a better forum than this in a hour” do try to bear in mind that this is (apparently) the most popular mountain bike forum in the UK and may be under a little more load than your mates forum!

I was not trying to be glib or anything mentioning the other site. It was just an example of the forum code that is out there which can be very quickly adapted.

As to load, that is a factor of how much money STW are willing to spend on hardware/bandwidth supporting the forum. I am guessing that having a low key forum enables them to run it at a level of advertising that is not intrusive on the forum… and so keeps members happy and STW happy.

Win win is all good.

>For #3 – just click on the “Freshness” link for that thread

Freshness just goes to the last (most recent) post in a thread, not the last unread post.

I was not trying to be glib or anything mentioning the other site. It was just an example of the forum code that is out there which can be very quickly adapted.

Indeed. And they did very quickly adopt this forum code when the old site was destroyed by a hacker at Christmas.

I think we all know that there are forums out there that do much whizzier things, like avatars, signatures, member ranks, PMs, threaded conversations, voting on posts etc etc – but those things just get in the way of a decent conversation and the lack of them is one of the reasons I keep coming back here.

Well I think the new (and the old) STW is a breath of fresh air in forums. Most are far too overcomplicated, the screen is full of clutter and crap flashing and winking away at you from all sides.

No to sigs, no to avatars, yes to simplicity 🙂 Good work all.

Ah, i had not caught up with the fact that the old site was Hacked and the new site was put up very quickly.

I agree with you on the flashing from all sides crap sites. They annoy me as well. Signatures, post ranking etc is all superfluous stuff that does get in the way of a discussion.

However I believe the ability to quote a reply easily would enhance the conversations/discussions… and it is the conversations/discussions that really make this site what it is.

However I believe the ability to quote a reply easily would enhance the conversations/discussions… and it is the conversations/discussions that really make this site what it is.

Hmm.. click-drag, Ctrl-C, click, Ctrl-V, click. Five actions. Doesn’t seem overly complex.

If I had a button that automatically quoted your entire post and I only wanted a bit of it then I’d have to perform a pretty similar set of actions anyway. (Click button then delete all the bits I don’t want).

Hmm.. click-drag, Ctrl-C, click, Ctrl-V, click. Five actions. Doesn’t seem overly complex

So how come so many people get it wrong?

GrahamS

If I had a button that automatically quoted your entire post and I only wanted a bit of it then I’d have to perform a pretty similar set of actions anyway. (Click button then delete all the bits I don’t want).

it would be very useful to be able to put the name of the person who posted a comment in the quote as well… which I guess I can just paste the name in as well. 😐

The current way of quoting ensures that only well versed forum users and people who have been around long enough to learn how will quote. New users and others just wont bother… same goes for the posting of pictures. Which i guess is fine…

You go ride your rigid single speed… 😛 I can still ride a rigid single speed and have fun doing it, but my geared full suss goes more places more easily. 😉

New users and others just wont bother… same goes for the posting of pictures.

How exactly do you suggest making posting pictures any easier?

aracer – Member
How exactly do you suggest making posting pictures any easier?

For this setup (i.e. a forum that uses very little bandwidth or storage space) there probably is not an easier way. However many sites allow you to attach the picture straight from your computer to the forum, rather than having to post the photo on another site and then link to the other site.

There is no way we would allow the unmoderated ability to post pictures directly to the forum and end up with those images stored on our server. That’s a total minefield! 🙂

Oh yeh… I forgot about moderators… most of those other sites have someone sitting there and cleaning up the porn etc that spammers post to forums!

Since Vorb (the nz equivilent of this) went through an upgrade at the start of the year there seems to be a bit more spam turning up on the boards…

The upgrade over there did not run as smoothly as it possibly could have either… but all the regulars are still there.