New website look (theme) feedback

Most browsers allow you to disable autoplay on videos.

OK @tomathy – what was happening with the weird “slogans” under the posts? Don’t think I didn’t see them, especially the one abour rather being naked than wear lycra! They reminded me of the spline text from the printed magazine.

They were/are indeed the spinelines from the last few issues.

And they’re back!

Hamburger menu does nothing except turn the screen grey on Safari Version 15.6.1 (15613.3.9.1.16, 15613) on my Mac 🙁

Hamburger menu

On Windows I don’t have a hamburger menu.

You will if you shrink the browser width below 1000px.

Safari 15.6.1 here and I’m not able to replicate that. Post it in the OP form and Tom will add it to the list

I’m running Catalina, which might be the issue. This is the most up to date update for that OS based on the recent breach.

Those Spline Texts are now ALL popping up on a screen refresh of the forum contents list. They flash up, then disappear leaving only one. As a result the screen contents are jumping around.

Android 13/Chrome

It might already have been said – but can you please make the giant “Singletrack” at the top of the page disappear when scrolling down? It’s very visible from a distance in an open office, people might realise what’s going on.

That’s a contentious one. When we launched it wasn’t fixed. There were a lot of voices asking for it back to help with navigation.

It’s been mentioned several times on this thread, probably 50:50 between people wanting it gone and others glad it’s back.

Can you have it so that it disappears when you scroll down and drops back in if you scroll up a little, perhaps? Or have it as a profile option? (FWIW I couldn’t care less either way, personally)

I just noticed that my username now has capital letters.

Cool.

EDIT: Actually scratch that. It did display it with capitals on the Starling Marmite promoted thread. But not on this one. ???????

EDIT2: Hmmm, on the forum no capitals, on an article with comments below, capitals. More Gremlins.

Never mind, doesn’t really matter anyway.

That’s presumably account name vs display name again. You can set the latter in your profile.

Cougar.

Not able to change username, it’s greyed out.

Oh yeah, so it is.

Reporting, sorry if it’s been done, but I’ve just tried to add a website link into a forum post, the Link button pops up the window but there’s no text in it. Trial and error trying to add the correct bits in the correct boxes.

iPhone running Safari on iOS 14.8.1 was OK before the update to the forum.

I think that’s a dark theme issue – the text is there, it’s just white on a white background. You can see it if you drag-highlight the background (how you do that on an iDevice I don’t know).

Light theme may be similarly affected, I haven’t checked and don’t care sufficiently to test it.

That’s a contentious one. When we launched it wasn’t fixed. There were a lot of voices asking for it back to help with navigation

I still ‘long’ for the Overview button we used to have at the bottom of the thread text.
Simple. Perfect.

I wonder why it went nearly every time I reach my right hand right across the screen I’m viewing to the top left corner to open a menu, then reach across to the bottom left to hit Forum, which is, you know, a hundred times.

I’m always confused as to why I seem to be the only one around here who finds that unnecessarily convoluted and ergonomically unsettling 🤔
Most seem to hit the back button, which doesn’t take you to a refreshed overview but a cached one, or happily scroll all the way up every time, fingers like a cartoon character starting a dash 😂

But yeah, at least there is a burger menu now, albeit in an unintuitive place. It used to be accessed on the right which at least meant that you weren’t reaching across the screen (if you hold your device in your left hand) but now it’s disappeared and gone to the left.
Funny old world.

I still ‘long’ for the Overview button we used to have at the bottom of the thread text.
Simple. Perfect.

Me too.would love to know why it went

Me too.would love to know why it went

I imagine it’s because they want you to see that there are other places to navigate to other than just the forum each time you move.
Fair enough, but still annoying 😐

The previous version forum used to let you know you had a DM on the front page, but with this new one you have to specifcally go into the your profile to see if there are any messages. Maybe the little ‘my account’ symbol at the tp could get a small red dot or something if you have unread messages??

I’m with Kayak23 on the link straght back to forum overview from the bottom of the thread. There was at one point a “back to top” button that hoverred on the thread page, but that also went.

It does feel like a deliberate attempt to make the forum harder to use.

Also, teh “Classifieds” link from teh hamburger menu is off teh bottom of teh page on my mobile – effectively hiding teh classifieds from view, so if you are not familiar/aware of them already, you’d never know they existed. Given that teh classifieds has been recently monetised (thought boosted ads), I’d have thought SWT would want to have this more obvious?

Simply putting the bold/green links in the hamburger menu at the top of teh list (rather than the bottom) would make both these situations better.

I would guess – and it is a guess – that these are customisations which get overwritten when a new theme is installed. Ie rather than something being intentionally removed it just hasn’t been reimplemented yet.

. Ie rather than something being intentionally removed it just hasn’t been reimplemented yet.

Not sure. I mean it’s been several years I think since the Overview button that used to be at the bottom of a thread went missing after an update. I’ve been moaning about it ever since! 😂

Since then we’ve only been able to navigate back to Overview by opening the floating banner hamburger menu, which opened a side banner with a speech bubble symbol which you tapped to take you to overview.
Or, clearly what a lot of people do, hit back and get a cached page or scroll all the way back to the top to get the overview button.

Feels intentional to me, but Mark or anyone else never comments on it.

Obviously it’s not the end of the world, but why not have something incredibly easy to implement that makes navigation so much easier?
Don’t know…

Nor I.

One thing I think is great on another forum I use, is a button that takes you to the last post you read on a thread. I have no idea how easy/costly this is to implement, cracking feature though. Can you even get to the last post in a thread yet on here?

Those Spline Texts are now ALL popping up on a screen refresh of the forum contents list. They flash up, then disappear leaving only one. As a result the screen contents are jumping around.

Agreed this is painful. They’re animated by some javascript that runs after the page loads. Developer needs to run the site with javascript switched off, and put some CSS on the block that makes it the same height as it would be once the script has run.

FYI I’m getting an (unobtrusive) advert – below the big white posting box I’m writing in and above the Facebook/Twitter etc links.

It’s a banner advert for <scrolls down a bit> Ezoic and ironically is suggesting how to “Increase your site revenue”. Maybe we should all click on it? 💩

That’s just the provider we use for our ad system. It’s a static image. We get a commission if anyone signs their website up to them 🙂

ahhh adds for people paying to remove the adds. great.

Dark mode only available on mobile for me. on chrome the site is definitely white?

ahhh adds for people paying to remove the adds. great.

Ahh, come on now – it’s tiny, unanimated and I’m not even sure how long it’s been there for it’s that unnoticeable. Give them a pass on this, surely 🙂

Andy doesn’t give passes. Not to us anyway

Survey thread broken. Can’t read page two.

Is there a search? I can’t seem to find it.

Andy doesn’t give passes. Not to us anyway

Yup no one gets a pass im afraid. You know those really evil grumpy old bastards, thats me 🙂

Honestly, it’s a sh1t show. It’s awful.

I get the Privacy & Transparency menu pop up on almost every new page which just makes the site unbearable.

Also, you claim to have opened up the review section to everyone… you haven’t, or at lest not me.

I find I’m spending less and less time on the site.

Is anyone else finding that? Add that to your poll section.

I get the Privacy & Transparency menu pop up on almost every new page which just makes the site unbearable.

So what are you doing differently from everyone else who doesn’t?

@Cougar. No idea. I’ll try other browsers and get back to you.