Some comments about the new forum layout

klaus

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
After having used the new forum for some days now, after a time of adaptation, I have following comments:

1) The sorting of the posts in a thread in reverse order, most recent on top, is a MUST !
When I look at 'New posts' it's anoying to always need to scroll up to the top to display the next 'New post'.

2) Copy the URL of a given post is necessary, at least for me, to reference a given post in an answer and not only the given thread.

3) At the bottom of a tread screen, when answering, I'm missing a 'Preview...' button.
Currently, to preview an answer you need to click on the 'More options...' button.
This is one click more and makes your original answer already as 'edited'.

4) Having a more contrasted separation line between posts would be apreciated.
The current line color is too light or the width too small, the separation is not that evident between the post content and the signature in long posts.

Perhaps I missed some functions.
Of course some comments look like minor 'problems' but even these become boring with time.

Best regards.
 
Last edited:

thedesolatesoul

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Longtime User

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
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Longtime User
Your feedback is very important. Not everything can be easily fixed as this is a different software.

1) When you press on the thread title it takes you to the first unread post. I find it quite useful. You do not need to scroll.

2) As written above there is the small post number for that.

3) Need to check about this one.

4) I've changed the color of the horizontal line. Should be more clear now. Style changes are quite easy to apply. So suggestions will be welcomed.

Overall I think that the new forum is MUCH better than the previous one. There are all kinds of small features that make it easier to work with.
Though there are still some things that need improvement.
 

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
Licensed User
Longtime User
In the long run there was no other choice except of changing the forum software. The forum was based on vBulletin 3.6. It was released in 2006/7.

Since then vBulletin has only gotten worse. It was bought by another company and the original developers left (and started XenForo). vBulletin 4 was an unstable platform without any significant improvements over vB 3. So I waited for vB 5. However vB 5 is a complete disaster.

So we were stuck with a software that was not maintained and relied on old (=End Of Life) versions of PHP / MySQL.

When vB5 was released I decided that we will move to XenForo.
 

barx

Well-Known Member
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Longtime User
I agree the it was the right choice erel. as originally stated, change doesn't always come easy, but is the right path. I'm not up on the new software scripts, are they editable? or child themes possible? in a way that won't break on updates. I agree that a few tweaks would help, but a lot is just cosmetic stuff.
 

latch

Active Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
I'm a member of several forums that use vBulletin and I dislike it greatly. This new one has a nice look and feel and I'm much happier about the change than the one Google Play just made.
 

CidTek

Active Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
One thing I really like about the new forum is the much improved thumbnail viewing experience.
 

klaus

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Hi Erel.

1) When I open the forum I click on New Posts
Then I click on one post in the list and I get the directly the first not read post, which is very useful !
But, when I want to read the next 'New Post' I need to to scroll up to the top to click on the New Posts button.
For me three solutions:
1.1) sort the posts in reverse mode, that was the original request.
1.2) add a 'New Posts' button at the bottom of the screen
1.3) my current workaround is clicking on the back button of the browser to go back to the previous screen.

2) OK for me !

4) the new line is OK for me the contrast is much better.

Thank's and best regards.
 

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
Licensed User
Longtime User
I've added a "New Posts" link at the bottom of each page (the other options are currently not possible):

SS-2013-07-23_08.36.27.png
 

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
Licensed User
Longtime User
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