Hi All,
We are planning to upgrade the forum software at 10am (UK time) tomorrow morning.
We are anticiptaing this will take around 2 hours, during which time the forum will be unavailable.
Thank you for your understanding,
Webmaster
Printable View
Hi All,
We are planning to upgrade the forum software at 10am (UK time) tomorrow morning.
We are anticiptaing this will take around 2 hours, during which time the forum will be unavailable.
Thank you for your understanding,
Webmaster
Excellent news =D>
Should be good! Will remember not to try logging in....
Hi All,
Just a reminder that the forum upgrade is happening at 10am (UK time) this morning.
It would be helpful if everyone could finish any posts they're working on and log out 5 minutes before then.
Thanks,
Webmaster
Hi All,
The upgrade was completed slightly ahead of schedule, with the forums open again around 11:20 UK time.
There is currently an issue with how flash files are being displayed (not showing 'inline' correctly) which we are working on.
Thanks,
Webmaster
I am missing the GO button at the bottom for the quick navigation that would take me back to the forum that I left to read a particular topic. I would like it if we could have that back please.
Eric
Hi Eric, the JumpMenu in version 4 has no need for the GO button so vBulletin left it out - it will automatically jump to the selection once you click it.
Isn't it time to remove/merge some of the sticky topics in the main forum?
http://diniel.com/forums/tg-loads-of-sticky-topics.png
The moderators who were too precious of their sticky threads to consolidate them in the past have moved on, so please save us all the scrolling.
PS: the nasty thumbnailing and high JPEG compression of uploaded PNGs should be retired too.
Ah, such finesse. :rolleyes:Quote:
The moderators who were too precious of their sticky threads to consolidate them in the past have moved on, so please save us all the scrolling.
PS: the nasty thumbnailing and high JPEG compression of uploaded PNGs should be retired too.
Please can we have the 'New Posts' option back on the menu.
Christine
Click "What's New" or "New posts" at top left :thx
It's not there on the Talkgraphics.com main page.
Christine
They are both there for me :thx
That's because you're not a moderator ;))
There was also a very useful option in the previous version Unanswered Posts. This was a really quick way to make sure that each post was responded to promptly.
Am I missing this (always likely)? And if not can we add that link back?
Hehehe, mods can't see the "New posts" button. rotflmao
Why do they keep moving things! I know I will get used to it, but the "view first unread" went from the left to the right. The new colours looked washed out to me, so I find it more difficult to see what messages are new.
Maybe I just don't know how to navigate properly. If I use the "new posts" button I get mixed up messages from all the forums - not just the ones I want to see. I prefer to cycle through one forum at a time - is there a fast way to do that.
Hmmm...ironic that most Xara users preferred the darker user interface and now the forums get whiter and brighter. :-O
It's much too bright; can we please have an option to change it?
I think it would be nice to be able to have a choice of themes. Many forums allow the user to change themes. We could organise a competition to create the most interesting/attractive/popular whatever theme for the forum! Seasonal themes! Get your crayons out and start designing a Christmas theme for the forum!!
:D
There is one thing missing from the banner at the top, that would be very nice to have back. Parahandy's car. For those who are new Parahandy was a member here who touched many with his spirit and his art. Sadly he passed away some time ago and the car was added to the banner as a tribute. Could we have it back?
At first glance, the new appearance is very fresh and nice. Love the overall color scheme. However, I agree with Grace. There are serious problems with visual hierarchy, especially on the forum index page. The less important elements are the ones that stand out. For example...
a) Thread topics may be the most important element on the page. In the new design, they're overwhelmed. It's hard to visually grab the topic names because they're in the same size type as the secondary info ("started by" string, number of replies, number of views). (Thumbs up for using smaller type for the last post date & time.)
b) Because the subjects are links, they're shown in the lovely teal color which recedes in comparison to the black type of the secondary info. As a result, the less important info takes precedence. It should be the other way around.
c) It's hard to make out which threads have new posts because there isn't enough difference between the bold on the unread subjects and the regular type on the read ones. (This item might be less of an issue if a) and b) are resolved.)
d) The large icons on the left overwhelm nearly everything except the bold type of the forum name at the top of the page.
e) Even the small icons beside the thread subjects are more visible than the subjects themselves.
f) How can the number of replies and number of views be more important than Last Post By and especially the quick link to the last post? AFAIC, replies and views aren't even secondary info. They're tertiary. (That means they should be way down on the totem pole, or, in this case, farthest to the right.)
g) One result of moving the Last Post column to the far right is that the quick link is now in the next county. It's less visually connected to the thread subject than it used to be, and those of us with large monitors can have a long way to go to get to it. For me, the most important items on the index page are the thread topic and the link to the last post.
So far, I have only two issues on the thread pages.
1) The cookie crumb navbar at the top of the page suffers from the same lack of visual organization as the thread topics on the forum index page. I'm not a fan of underlining on screen, but I have to admit that the underlined links in the old forum made it easier to read that navbar. Currently, the thing that stands out is the icon for the home page, and that may be the least important component of the navbar. Everything else has the same visual weight so it's really hard to parse.
2) We've lost the list of versions and products in the post header. Since it's hard to get users to include the version of the software they're using, that info was helpful in responding to questions. In addition, having it in the post header instead of the subject line meant that it was accessible but out of the way.
OTW, good work on the new forum display. It's very promising.
Allison
I think we should all be patient, this has been a major change and this is most likely a default theme used I'm guessing to get the forum back up and running quickly. While it is a good thing to make suggestions we should all keep in mind that TG is going through many changes right now and those behind the scenes are doing their best.
I hope getting the search facility back up and running properly is on the list - at the moment it seems impossible to search pre-update unless you have a tag [unless I'm missing something again]
vBulletin 4 is a completely different architecture. That means lots of stuff, including the overall 'look', can't be imported. A lot of aesthetic stuff can be tweaked in due course.
Physically things not working are more important. Like by handrawn's statement it sounds like the search isn't working... which means the search index probably needs to be rebuilt (which we can do).
Thanks Antony
I have repaired some stuff... will do search tomorrow. It requires my computer being on, and I'm off to bed. So will do it, or get a Xara guy to do it, tomorrow.
Hi,
Not sure I like the new color scheme on the forum hard for my old eyes to read..and it doesn't 'Remember' me everytime I visit I have to log-in even tho' I tick 'remember me" and I have cookies enabled.
JimM
haha! Thought I was on the wrong forums. :)
I'm completely lost with this new look, I can't find and see things as easy as before, I DO NOT LIKE HOW IT LOOKS/WORKS LIKE, it's a mess for my eyes.
Changes are not always good, it feels like a beta version, many things are weird....., before I can easily see what threads I've already visited, now it is impossible or at least it's not intuitive for me, it brings to my memory the UNIX HELP MANUAL or java help.
I'm sorry if somebody feels touched with my comments, I know that people works so hard to make changes, but changes are for people and I think it is a step backward.
Best regards
I changed my default browser link to TG to this John:
► http://www.talkgraphics.com/search.p...e=vBForum_Post
Takes me directly to New Posts.
But it's at the top left of every page anyway ;)
I can find it Steve [not that doolally yet :D] but when I get there I can't see at a glance or quickly - as I could before - where the list of new threads ends and where those threads that "have not changed since last visit" begin. A minor point perhaps but it irritated me from the start because of the way I browse TG :o
Hi All,
Just a quick comment about the look and feel of the site....
At present we are using the default vbulletin 4 'skin'.
It is our intention to run a poll at some point in the near future, giving users the option to vote for and choose a new skin. For example, there are a number of skins available at http://www.completevb.com/vbulletin-skins/
We will announce details in due course.
For the time being we're going to concentrate on fixing any functional problems, such as the search facility.
Thanks,
Webmaster
New forum layout looks good, though a bit confusing to me. I agree with most points brought up by Allison here. Navigation has become a bit of a puzzle now.
For me, functionality of the forum is more important than aesthetics. And while I agree that the new look makes it harder to see e.g. if a thread has new replies, I think we'll get used to the overall color and layout. Remember when TG was a UBB forum and how the colors looked back then? And when we moved on to vB, people (including me, probably) were outraged at the new and ugly colors. But they quickly got used to it.
And now we see the same kind of objections ;))
Still, I'm sure there are different vB skins available that can be downloaded & implemented for those with different tastes. It just takes time. Be patient, people :)
BTW, I didn't know AntonyF was back again as admin. Welcome back!
Whoaaa....I just had a déja vu! :eek:
[edit]Ahhh. I see the webmaster replied on some of the issues while I was still typing this[/edit]
Hi All,
We need to rebuild the search indexes on the forum to get the search functionality working properly again.
This is a server intensive operation, and it could take several hours to complete, so it's possible there may be some slow-down for the next few hours (hopefully nothing more serious!) while we complete this.
Thanks in advance for your patience,
Webmaster
great job on the update!!