# Old forum: what do you miss most



## creativeforge (Jul 12, 2015)

Thanks to all who gave their feedback and helped me soften the colour explosion I had created, so that users can focus on the content and not be distracted. I apologize again for the inconvenience it has caused some. 

I'm still tweaking a few things and am integrating back the colours from the old forum in the content area. Hope it makes it easier on the eyes.

As expected with a different software, some terms and features are different. I'd like to have a clearer idea as to what is missing for you. This way I can better understand what needs to be done to simplify the navigation. Give me an idea of the navigation flow you usually have after you're logged in. What do you look for and where. Etc. 

Thank you!

Andre

*PLEASE RESPOND WITH WHAT YOU MISS FROM THE OLD FORUM BY REPLYING.*


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## CharlesB (Jul 13, 2015)

Without a doubt, having the post time_ clearly visible at the top of the post_ rather than hidden away at the bottom with no distinguishing marks. And speaking of the bottom, the signature area absolutely needs to be distinguished as well -- I don't know how many times now I have confused signature URLs as part of the post!

That, and the flags... 

PS: As I'm writing this reply on the separate reply page opened up by "More Options..." (the only way to access the vital preview function, it seems), I'm very much missing having the last posts visible for review.


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## EvilDragon (Jul 13, 2015)

Here's some CSS for Stylish to make the signatures more discernible:


```
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain("vi-control.net") {
 
  .message .signature {
  background-color: #aaccee !important;
  color: #666666 !important;
  border-radius: 8px !important;
  }

}
```


Looks like this:


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## R. Soul (Jul 13, 2015)

It might seem like a small thing to some, but I only ever visit one page, and that's the 'new posts' one.

The spacing is just a bit too much compared to the old forum. 
If it was reduced by 25-30% I would never have to go to page 2 with the frequency I visit here 
Plus it would just look tidier IMHO.

Also, if possible I'd like the forum in which the post is posted to be on the right, like I've shown underneath. Makes it a lot easier to see if a post is in a forum that I would never visit; Kontakt, EIS, Gigastudio etc. in my case.

This is a 5 min. photoshop jobbie, so pardon me if it's a bit imprecise.


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## semo (Jul 13, 2015)

R. Soul said:


> It might seem like a small thing to some, but I only ever visit one page, and that's the 'new posts' one.
> 
> The spacing is just a bit too much compared to the old forum.
> If it was reduced by 25-30% I would never have to go to page 2 with the frequency I visit here
> ...



+1


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## tack (Jul 13, 2015)

CharlesB said:


> Without a doubt, having the post time_ clearly visible at the top of the post_ rather than hidden away at the bottom with no distinguishing marks.


I need to +1 this too. Post time should be top left (visually differentiated by content in a non-offensive but still clearly readable way), separated by a blank line, and then the poster's content. The timestamp should be visually differentiated by the content in a non-offensive but still clearly readable way. I wouldn't mind if it included the Poster's name as well, like the current stuff at the bottom does.

Something like:

_By tack, today at 9:15 AM_

Content here.


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## creativeforge (Jul 13, 2015)

EvilDragon said:


> Here's some CSS for Stylish to make the signatures more discernible:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



Thanks for this. I tried to have it subtly where to avoid having too much colour changes. A few people found that too much. I personally prefer having it clearly define, but imagine a whole page with these, would that create too much contrast? 

Regards

Andre


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## creativeforge (Jul 13, 2015)

R. Soul said:


> It might seem like a small thing to some, but I only ever visit one page, and that's the 'new posts' one.
> 
> The spacing is just a bit too much compared to the old forum.
> If it was reduced by 25-30% I would never have to go to page 2 with the frequency I visit here
> ...



OK, can you take a look now? hope the changes match your vision... 

Regards,

Andre


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## creativeforge (Jul 13, 2015)

CharlesB said:


> Without a doubt, having the post time_ clearly visible at the top of the post_ rather than hidden away at the bottom with no distinguishing marks. And speaking of the bottom, the signature area absolutely needs to be distinguished as well -- I don't know how many times now I have confused signature URLs as part of the post!
> 
> That, and the flags...
> 
> PS: As I'm writing this reply on the separate reply page opened up by "More Options..." (the only way to access the vital preview function, it seems), I'm very much missing having the last posts visible for review.



Charles, OK, very possible I could do this. Let me look into it!


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## EvilDragon (Jul 13, 2015)

creativeforge said:


> Thanks for this. I tried to have it subtly where to avoid having too much colour changes. A few people found that too much. I personally prefer having it clearly define, but imagine a whole page with these, would that create too much contrast?



Gearslutz forum works awesome as far as signatures are concerned! Sigs are shown only for the FIRST time for each member's post on a particular thread page. So, say if I have 5 posts on this page, only the first post that I made in this thread would actually show a signature, others wouldn't.

I wish all forums worked like this.


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## R. Soul (Jul 13, 2015)

creativeforge said:


> OK, can you take a look now? hope the changes match your vision...
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Andre


Ah...that's better. Much appreciated. 
I would have liked more than 20 posts per page (maybe 30 or even 50) and forum names are still underneath and not on the right as I mentioned. Is that possible to do ?


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## mducharme (Jul 13, 2015)

The post time and post number used to appear above every message as a header (right after the forum was migrated), but it was black and divided things too much so it was switched off.

It sounds like people perhaps instead want the header back on, but simply not black?


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## Christof (Jul 13, 2015)

I miss the option to see the list of members who have read a topic/post.


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## rJames (Jul 13, 2015)

Auto log in. Being able to log in on the portal page. Log in is definitely not right yet.


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## KEnK (Jul 13, 2015)

more silly emoticons. 
that giant double thumbs down that Riff gave me was excellent!


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## lachrimae (Jul 13, 2015)

I only notice this when using smaller screens, but the persistent double toolbar at the top of the screen uses valuable vertical real-estate.
Personally I'd only make something persistent if it is constantly in use, such as a frozen title row in Excel. I very rarely use those top bars and would prefer to scroll up to them when needed.

Thanks for asking btw


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## EvilDragon (Jul 14, 2015)

Andre, noticed you change the color for the signature frame - nice choice!

All good there, except one thing - top right edge is the only one that's not rounded


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## creativeforge (Jul 14, 2015)

Great! Getting there, I'll check the radius later on.


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## Blakus (Jul 14, 2015)

Loving all the latest changes, keep up the good work. Getting closer and closer


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## Jaap (Jul 14, 2015)

I miss my stars and the pink dancing elephant emoticon!
Extremely extremely minor details  Otherwise I very pleased with the whole upgrade


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## synthpunk (Jul 14, 2015)

I would like user networking info (PM, Email, Twitter, Soundcloud, Google+, etc.) to be easily available.


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## creativeforge (Jul 14, 2015)

Blakus said:


> Loving all the latest changes, keep up the good work. Getting closer and closer



Thanks Blakus, it's team, work! Vi-Control is alive and well...


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## creativeforge (Jul 14, 2015)

Jaap said:


> I miss my stars and the pink dancing elephant emoticon!
> Extremely extremely minor details  Otherwise I very pleased with the whole upgrade



There are more emoticons coming in the near future, pink elephant not too sure though, we haven't heard back from him yet... we'll try!


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## creativeforge (Jul 14, 2015)

aesthete said:


> I would like user networking info (PM, Email, Twitter, Soundcloud, Google+, etc.) to be easily available.



Yes, this is very possible too. Have you tried entering these in your signature? I've seen a member doing this and it looks really good. I'll try it later so you can see...


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## creativeforge (Jul 14, 2015)

EvilDragon said:


> Andre, noticed you change the color for the signature frame - nice choice!
> All good there, except one thing - top right edge is the only one that's not rounded



That's thanks to you, great suggestion with accompanying CSS example...


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## EvilDragon (Jul 15, 2015)

Andre, what do you say about the Gearslutz way of showing signatures (only for the first post by a member on a particular thread page)? It's definitely good to have it as an option, I think.

(Be nice and merge your multiposts )


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## creativeforge (Jul 15, 2015)

Oops, sorry about the multiposts, I do that to give equal focus to each, but I guess you're right. When we quote someone that gets a notification too. I didn't think of it. I'll try to group them next time, thanks for the tip!



EvilDragon said:


> Andre, what do you say about the Gearslutz way of showing signatures (only for the first post by a member on a particular thread page)? It's definitely good to have it as an option, I think.



About GS - do you know what script they use for this? And so what happens if a discussion has been going for 2 years and there are more than 100 pages? Does the signature show up once on each page, or only on the first?


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## EvilDragon (Jul 15, 2015)

The sig shows on EACH page but ONCE per member. I have no idea which script they use, but I know they're on phpBB...


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## RiffWraith (Jul 15, 2015)

The thing I personally miss from the old forum, is the page #s showing. Currently, this only happens when you hover the mouse over the thread topic, making it difficult to determine how long the thread is from first sight.

Cheers.


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## creativeforge (Jul 15, 2015)

RiffWraith said:


> The thing I personally miss from the old forum, is the page #s showing. Currently, this only happens when you hover the mouse over the thread topic, making it difficult to determine how long the thread is from first sight.
> 
> Cheers.



Jeffrey, have you seen this on top left of the page?






And this?






If you click on the tiny arrow before the last page indicated (in this case 557) it will scroll forward to 5 pages further. 

What do you have in mind that's different?

Regards,

Andre


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## RiffWraith (Jul 15, 2015)

creativeforge said:


> Jeffrey, have you seen this on top left of the page?



Nope. Not there. But that's not what I meant anyway.

How do I embed pics here?


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## Reegs (Jul 15, 2015)

I also miss the membership stars and the country flags.


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## creativeforge (Jul 15, 2015)

RiffWraith said:


> Nope. Not there.



Ok, so you can't see these page numbers - that's a problem.



RiffWraith said:


> But that's not what I meant anyway.



Your problem still exists, can you be more specific then?




RiffWraith said:


> How do I embed pics here?



To post images, click on "Upload a File" red button, and upload an image, then click beside the loaded image (it will be under the text editor) to choose thumbnail or full.

Hope this helps,

Andre


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## creativeforge (Jul 15, 2015)

Reegs said:


> I also miss the membership stars and the country flags.



What did the stars represent?


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## RiffWraith (Jul 15, 2015)

creativeforge said:


> To post images, click on "Upload a File" red button,



Ah crap - it's staring at me right in the face!

Ok, in reference to your first image above, this is what I see:






- I seem to be missing something.

But that's neither here nor there. As I said, that's not what I am after.

Have a look at what the forum currently looks like:






But what I was hoping you could do is make it like the old forum (without having to hover the mouse over the thread):


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## Jaap (Jul 16, 2015)

creativeforge said:


> What did the stars represent?



The stars showed the amount of years a member was active on the forum.
Didn't expect it, but when the new forum came and my stars where gone I was like ...hmm pitty (would have gotten my 8th star otherwise yesterday!!  , but again no biggy in my personal opinion, but I liked them.


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## synthpunk (Jul 16, 2015)

I learned a little bb code today : ) Hows it look Andre ?
Will hopefully add others soon.



creativeforge said:


> Yes, this is very possible too. Have you tried entering these in your signature? I've seen a member doing this and it looks really good. I'll try it later so you can see...


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