A new look Talk forum: Coming Fri 6th June

[Craig]

Looking good so far guys. My minor thoughts are:

* The background of posts seems to be a lighter colour (almost white) than the current forum. As someone who surfs in the dark a lot I'm not a fan of white backgrounds for text. The shade(s) on the current forum are fine though, not sure if it's easy to change this or if it's part of the template?

* Is there any way to rename "like" back to "thanks"? Just to avoid being too facebooky.

Other than that, it looks good to me!

Oh, quick thought, will there still be a mobile version of the site? And if so, is there any way to make the all important thanks button work on it?

There is colour striping to the posts, and one of the colours is brighter than what we had previously (not white, but definitely brighter). We'll see how it goes with current colours, and possibly tweak if feedback from others warrants it.

As for the mobile side of things, Tapatalk will work with the new forum, there'll be a bit more on other mobile features shortly.

Finally, thanks/likes wise. Changing from likes to thanks would result in a change to the forum software which we're trying to avoid as much as possible, so we'll be sticking with likes. We're sure everyone will get used to it though .

DiogoJ42 apparently thanks this post

 

[DiogoJ42]

I'd thank your post, Craig, but...

 

[Craig]

I'd thank your post, Craig, but...

There ya go

 

[josht]

Would like to say good luck

 

[Amy]

I personally like the fact that it is now 'like' rather than 'thanks'. Sometimes thanks seemed a bit odd, and didn't really fit what you were trying to say. To me, like seems more appropriate, more of the time.

 

[James]

I agree with Amy. Likes seems more suited over thanks. Sure it's a bit 'facebooky' but I think it is generally be more suitable when it comes to posts on this forum.

Looking forward to the new forum. Great work as always TS team!

 

[Mike]

It looks very neat - in my view, having given it a thorough test - it's a fantastic upgrade to the forum

Must admit for me the standout features are the return of the 'likes' and the drafts - they're both really well implemented... in fact everything is! Huge thanks to the team, who've put a lot of work into getting it into top shape!

 

[BarryZola]

I like the look of the new forum, good work people. It's good to have a thanks/like function back too. Onwards and upwards

 

[Burbs]

Loving our new banners!

[/offtopic]

 

[_nemesis_]

Ooooh, very nice! One thing I am concerned about though is the loss of the user profile box in the top right corner, that used to be on every page of the website. It used to be kinda handy whenever I'm looking through other pages and I get a notification.

Other than that though, its fab!

Yeah, we did mention in our previous maintenance topic that it was unfortunately our intention to withdraw it even with the current forum software - the load it puts on the server to display that information on every page was unfortunately ridiculous, and it was effectively loading the whole forum in the background (on the server) in order just to show you that bit of information.

- Site wide alerts/messages to be removed
Again evaluating the usage and performance of this feature has led to its removal, and you will now only see 'alerts' and 'message counts' when you are browsing the forum pages within the /talk/ section of the site. You should continue to see your sign-in information and avatar on other pages, but we will not feature alerts or message notifications any longer.

Most of our analytics show that it isn't really used - those that are logged into the site stay mostly within the forum itself, so it effectively wasn't worth the performance hit for so little it got used. (And just to clarify, even if someone wasn't logged in and was a 'Guest', it was still loading the whole forum in the background of each page viewed!).

We are investigating at least a way to show if you're logged in on the site with the new forum software, but it wouldn't show message information unfortunately at this time.

Thank you for clearing that up! If it means the site will be faster, then I'm all for it!

 

[Dar]

Yeah, I have to say that everything seems to move a lot quicker on the new forum. Whether that's down to not having many active posters and topics, I'm not sure but it definitely feels faster to use!

 

[Joel]

Tapatalk & Responsive Design

So to follow on with our tour of the new forum series, we bring you a look that fits all, across mobile, tablet and desktop.

On mobiles, the page is much easier to read than our current forum! Our header and footer are going to go through some design changes in the next few weeks hopefully to bring them inline with the rest of the responsive forum.

Of course, if the responsive design isn't your thing, we're keeping the ever awesome (and free!) Tapatalk for you to use on our new forum - so now have a choice!

Good news too - Tapatalk users can also see likes on posts, and like posts too now from the app!

We hope you love these new features, and we'll be back soon with some more to share

Thanks all!

 

[Jonathan]

'Likes' available on Tapatalk? Excellent!

 

[Scott]

I've got to say that I am a massive fan of the responsive mobile site. I usually use Tapatalk for all my mobile forum use but it's seriously easy to use all the full features of the forum now that it shrinks to fit your screen

 

[MattyH]

Looking good so far, what are the trophy points I noticed?

 

[Craig]

Looking good so far, what are the trophy points I noticed?

It's a default feature within the forum. Not 100% sure one where we'll be going with that at the moment (if anything!) but we'll reveal in due course

 

[Poisson]

Like the new look of everything still. Dislike Likes, Thanks is much better but ah well

 

[Joel]

Hi all,

We've got a list of important FAQ's for you to note about our upcoming move, and we've tried our best to explain everything that is changing for you below.

Please have a read through, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to drop us a post/question below

Things You Need to Note...

We've really tried to minimise the impact of change, but there is a few things we have not been able to change, unfortunately.

• Avatars will not be transferred over to the new forum
  Unfortunately due to the way the new software operates and does not allow 'remote' avatars, you'll need to change and upload your avatar to our server when the new board launches. We recommend you save it somewhere safe on your computer now for uploading on Friday.
  
  
• 'Unread Posts' function does not exist on the new forum
  If you use the 'unread posts' search to show replies in threads you have participated in, please note that unfortunately this feature doesn't exist in our new software, and thus any topics you have participated in will unfortunately not show. We recommend that you are caught up on all of your unread posts by 11am Friday so as not to lose track of any posts you may want to see. We do have an alternative method for seeing replies to posts you have participated in, which we will post about shortly to explain to you.
  
  
• Every topic will be unread and new
  Again, due to massive incompatibilities between the way the software handles this function, you'll find every topic and post will be marked unread for you, and you may need to click 'Mark forums read' to
  clear down that unread list. Again we recommend you're all caught up on everything you want to read by Friday 11am so you can happily mark everything as read and start afresh!
  
  
• Thanks information on posts currently will be lost
  Unfortunately again due to the way the system was coded on our current forum, it is not possible for us to restore any previous thanks for posts you may have made before the system broke. This does also give a slight advantage as everyone begins at 0 thanks count again (although the current system didn't count total thanks either!) for the new forum, which does track who and how many times you've been thanked again.
  

Things that are Good to Know...

A few gotchas! you might want to look out for on our new forum.

• There's some new lingo in town...
  Some of the names of functions are slightly different, but pretty much the same otherwise:
  Private Messages (PMs) are now Conversations
  Posts are now Messages
  Topics are now Threads
  Buddies are now People You Follow
  Ignore List is now People You Ignore
  
  
  
• Signature guidelines are more accurately enforced
  Our new forum system has better control inbuilt for signature sizes, which is set to our current guidelines of a maximum 650px wide by 150px tall.
  
  If you currently have a signature bigger than this (and some obvious ones did stand out on our test) you will find that the additional height/width is hidden, and you may need to adjust your signature size to be seen in full once again!
  
  
• Use Facebook to login? You'll need a password reset
  If you currently solely use Facebook to login and do not have an account password set, you'll need to request a new password via the 'forgot password' link to be able to sign in. Once you've signed in normally, you'll be able to relink your Facebook account to your forum profile again - and we now offer Twitter and Google+ sign in too! You can aid the move by setting a password now for your account under 'Profile' however, and you'll be able to use that to sign in on Friday.

Things you don't need to worry about...

Thankfully, there's a big long list of things you don't need to worry about. Phew!

• Your username and most profile data will be carried across
• Your encrypted password will be carried across
• Your signature will be carried across (although check your size as above!)
• Your personal messages (now Conversations) will be carried across
• Your posts and topics (messages and threads) will be carried across
• Your buddy list and ignore list will be carried across
• You'll still be able to sign into the Wiki to edit using your forum account
• You'll still be able to sign into ridecount using your forum account

There's probably a little more I need to add to this, so I will update if anyone reminds me in due course

Thanks all!

 

[DiogoJ42]

All sounds great to me, except the lack of "new / unread posts". But I shall wait and see what you have planned for that department.

 

[Joel]

Hi all,

It's been a busy week and we're rapidly approaching Friday full steam on, so here's a bit more info before I get lost in a pile of to-do's about the whole 'unread posts' situation...

Unread Posts ... and Watched Threads

As we mentioned previously, our new forum software unfortunately does not support the same feature on our current forum for 'unread posts', a function that allows you to see any replies made to threads where you have posted previously.

The good news is, there is a 'work around' that offers the same functionality, just in a different way - and perhaps even better, it allows more control over what threads you wish to continue receiving replies for.

The new forum has a feature called Watched Threads, which allows you to mark a thread (topic) as 'watched', and track it from a few quick links. This will also generate an alert whenever someone replies (although only 1 alert for any number of new replies, unless you look at the thread, and then you'll get an alert for the next new reply...etc!) so you can see replies in a topic you're watching.

The forum software allows you to select topics to watch, and to unselect topics to watch too, so you can pick and choose about topics you want to see any new posts in (even if you've not replied in it), or you can stop watching a topic if you don't want to know of every new post (handy for something like the 'What are you listening to?' topic).

The forum software also allows you to automatically begin watching a topic when you create it, or when you reply to it - and thus you'd be notified of any new replies, and see them in the 'Watched Threads' search button.

Unfortunately, by default, the new forum does not turn this on for you, however we have 'forced' it to be switched on during the conversion, so that you will find all replies and new topics are automatically watched, and you do not miss out on this function.

You can control several aspects of the watched topics features too, including disabling 'Alerts' for watched topics from your alert settings, and instead just tracking them through the search option:

You can also disable topic watching completely in your profile, or control it on a reply/thread basis on the reply/new thread form:

Forum preferences

Thread/reply control

So, as you can hopefully see, the feature isn't gone, just implemented a little differently. Plus, this new method has the added bonus of watching topics you're not posting in anyway, and removing watched topics when you're bored of watching them or receiving notifications for them.

As we said, this will be turned on by default when we move so people don't miss out on replies rather than opting in, however as we noted before, any topics you previously took part in will not be converted by the system, so you may wish to find threads you've took part in (from your profile page) and re-watch any threads you don't want to miss out on.

Hopefully this explains a little better for those concerned with using 'unread posts' on the current forum, and we hope you find it a little more improved with better control of what threads now unlike our current forum.

Just as a little bit more info too, the forum does show some nifty little bits to help you manage threads you've taken part in and watched threads, as shown in the image below:

Your avatar appears over the original posters avatar indicating you have replied in this topic, and hovering over also informs you how many times.

The small pair of glasses icon to the right of the topic name indicate that you are watching the thread too, and will receive notifications for it/show up in the replies search.

Thanks all!