Home Page Redesign

keith16

Thanks Danny. One more point needs addressing. Why oh why only 12 threads and the need to page?

Scrolling > Paging

Have the best algorithm in the world for all we care, but why limit it?

Cookie_Monster

Clicking on the number of posts:
Home page - brings you to last read post
Forum page - opens a list of posters and post count for the thread

That being different is just monumentally stupid.

Boards.ie: Danny

keith16 wrote: »

Thanks Danny. One more point needs addressing. Why oh why only 12 threads and the need to page?

Scrolling > Paging

Have the best algorithm in the world for all we care, but why limit it?

Hi keith,

Rest assured all eyes are on this thread as far as HQ is concerned. There's a few things I didn't address on purpose, because I simply don't know what the outcome will be or when it will arrive. The number of posts per page is one of them, sorry.

Danny

Passenger

As a long time Boards user I have to admit that the new look homepage is far inferior in its layout to the previous design and I feel as it's almost counter-intuitive with so little thread information. It's quite simply a lot harder on the eyes, making you have to really concentrate on what you're looking at.

I appreciate that changes had to be made to the layout but this is a downgrade imo and the unanimous feedback from users speaks for itself. Hopefully the powers that be will take our feedback on board and implement some big changes to the homepage.

Thanks.

Boards.ie: Danny

Passenger wrote: »

As a long time Boards user I have to admit that the new look homepage is far inferior in its layout to the previous design and I feel as it's almost counter-intuitive with so little thread information. It's quite simply a lot harder on the eyes, making you have to really concentrate on what you're looking at.

I appreciate that changes had to be made to the layout but this is a downgrade imo and the unanimous feedback from users speaks for itself. Hopefully the powers that be will take our feedback on board and implement some big changes to the homepage.

Thanks.

So it's the feedback thread and keep in mind that we were asking for specifics back in April so I'll ask you now - what would you change, specifically? And "go back to the old one" isn't a valid answer

So far the most consternation has been over only having 12 posts per page, down from 50. So we can leave that one out - what else would you like to see?

Danny

P_1

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

Hi keith,

Rest assured all eyes are on this thread as far as HQ is concerned. There's a few things I didn't address on purpose, because I simply don't know what the outcome will be or when it will arrive. The number of posts per page is one of them, sorry.

Danny

Is there a technical limit to the ammout of threads that can be displayed?

jack presley

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

So it's the feedback thread and keep in mind that we were asking for specifics back in April so I'll ask you now - what would you change, specifically? And "go back to the old one" isn't a valid answer

So far the most consternation has been over only having 12 posts per page, down from 50. So we can leave that one out - what else would you like to see?

Danny

Lose the Thanks and Trending tabs for starters

Boards.ie: Danny

P_1 wrote: »

Is there a technical limit to the ammout of threads that can be displayed?

No, there isn't. We pull 60 threads down and store them in the browser which is why changing pages is so snappy and is also why you don't get page 1's threads on page 2 when you wait a few seconds between changing pages.

Danny

LizT

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

So it's the feedback thread and keep in mind that we were asking for specifics back in April so I'll ask you now - what would you change, specifically? And "go back to the old one" isn't a valid answer

So far the most consternation has been over only having 12 posts per page, down from 50. So we can leave that one out - what else would you like to see?

Danny

It's really hard to put into words but it looks - jumbled or something. When you click into the homepage now, it just looks like a big wall of text. Nothing grabs your eye, you have to specifically read each thread title.

I don't know why, it was just easier to skim and scan over the last homepage.

Witcher

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

So it's the feedback thread and keep in mind that we were asking for specifics back in April so I'll ask you now - what would you change, specifically? And "go back to the old one" isn't a valid answer

So far the most consternation has been over only having 12 posts per page, down from 50. So we can leave that one out - what else would you like to see?

Danny

Don't mean to speak for the poster but personally I'd like to see;

-Forum names back in their own column as they were
-Thanks count column removed
-Time stamp for posts rather than 'moment/minute ago' etc. not too important really but if possible I'd change it
-Clicking on thread title brings you to latest post

At the moment you have to look and click all over the place to get anywhere..pain in the h0le:pac:

Black Swan

First of all, I would like to express a sincere appreciation to the development team for the exemplary work they do to keep us one of the best discussion boards in Ireland and the world.

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

Let me outright clarify this situation for anybody who is confused. What Chucken is talking about is a dedicated tab for threads that have not received any replies - virgin threads. These threads may be new or they may be old - they are virgin threads because they have not received any replies. This Virgin tab had 1,980 views out of a total 3.3 million. The virgin tab was barely used at all.

Chucken wrote: »

What about spammers that are caught by ordinary members by checking the virgin threads??

This virgin tab has been used by members and mods to ID spammers when their OPs first hit our site, helping Admins to eliminate spammers in a timely fashion before they can propagate across forums, or flood a single forum. The views may be relatively low, but the benefits are high.

I have used the dedicated tab for "Virgin" threads daily, sometimes several times a day, and to find them now will be labour intensive. Please consider restoring that tab.

Sparky

LizT wrote: »

It's really hard to put into words but it looks - jumbled or something. When you click into the homepage now, it just looks like a big wall of text. Nothing grabs your eye, you have to specifically read each thread title.

I don't know why, it was just easier to skim and scan over the last homepage.

Yup I feel the same.

I'd rather the forum was back in it's own column as it was prior to the change.
Just seems too much to read through now.
Possibly make the text under the thread title smaller or something

Kylo Ren

What is the purpose of the thanks tab? Do people avoid certain threads because of an inadequate amount of thanks?

"Aww man, I was just about to click into that thread that looks of interest to me but it only has 13 thanks in it so far. I'll wait until it meets my usual level of thanks."

LizT

Keno 92 wrote: »

What is the purpose of the thanks tab? Do people avoid certain threads because of an inadequate amount of thanks?

"Aww man, I was just about to click into that thread that looks of interest to me but it only has 13 thanks in it so far. I'll wait until it meets my usual level of thanks."

<David Mitchell gif>

Thanked just for that gif

damned_junkie

When I scroll to the end of the thread list and hit next page I have to scroll back up to see the start of thread list. Which is kinda frustrating.

That's on 1440 x 900 resolution with sticky header and normal padding mode (i.e. not Cosy mode)

wnolan1992

Danny,

I don't think anyone here would argue against moving away from vBulletin, that's not the issue here and, frankly, I think continually trotting out that line is a pretty lame justification.

What I, and I'm sure others as well going by this thread, would damn sure argue is that changing the style (the style, layout, NOT infrastructure) of the homepage just for the sake of it (or to "freshen it up") is a bad idea, especially when that change is going to fundamentally change how people interact with the site for the worse.

Part of what I loved about the old homepage was that I could see an interesting topic in a forum that I usually don't read. I could randomly hop around the site, reading, learning and posting in a vast amount of different places.

That's effectively gone for me (and judging by the feedback a lot of others) with this update. The new homepage is ugly, too padded and awkward to navigate. Frankly, it's just not nice to use. The "excel style" which (I think) Dav criticised earlier in the thread may not have been pretty, but damn it it was functional, easy to read and easy to use. You could scan down the list of forums on the left, read thread titles, you had post count, latest user and timestamp all in one condensed line.

Just because the site is moving away from vBulletin does not mean the option cannot be given to people to use the older style. Recreate the older style in Boards' own APIs. Set the new style as the default, give people an option in CP similar to Dark Theme, Cosy Mode, Full Width Mode, etc.

I should also point out that this new homepage totally flouts the cosy mode that was introduced shortly after the new skin was launched.


I'm sorry to be so negative. I'm sure a lot of hours went into designing and implementing this, and I've said earlier that there are some nice features, but really this is a terrible move IMO.

P_1

I'm slightly curious about the 'Trending' tab to be honest. What is its purpose and how does a thread 'trend'?

Kylo Ren

You are really hurting the more 'obscure' forums that I used to see pop up on the old site. Forums I would never be arsed going into/was oblivious to their existence would pop up now and again and peak my interest. You have effectively killed that with the 12 posts a page.

Now you have to scroll down, click the arrow, scroll up a bit to catch the first few posts, scroll back down to go the next page and repeat this 5 times. This is 21st century Internet we're talking here. We have the attention span of things with very low attention spans. Before it was scroll town a tad to see the whole page. Nobody is going to go through all of that hassle to see the front page with the new system.

nesf

Black Swan wrote: »

This virgin tab has been used by members and mods to ID spammers when their OPs first hit our site, helping Admins to eliminate spammers in a timely fashion before they can propagate across forums, or flood a single forum. The views may be relatively low, but the benefits are high.

Yeah this would be why one finds out who uses something before removing it. If it's mainly of interest to Admins and CMods it's not going to have many views but it's going to be kinda important.

Boards.ie: Danny

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Danny,

I don't think anyone here would argue against moving away from vBulletin, that's not the issue here and, frankly, I think continually trotting out that line is a pretty lame justification.

It really isn't a lame justification. By leaving vBulletin we're leaving behind the old styles. What you have right now on the new style is themes - these are just colour changes, the layout of the site is the same. We are going for a consolidated, single style site with the option of themes for those who dislike our colour choices. We also have user options such as cosy mode, fixed header and full width. These change things minimally.

We're not building a skin/style system for the new Boards UI I'm afraid.

wnolan1992 wrote: »

I should also point out that this new homepage totally flouts the cosy mode that was introduced shortly after the new skin was launched.

Alvis spent time generating cosy mode stylesheet changes for the homepage two days ago, so it wasn't forgotten about and if it's not working please file a bug report in Site Development and we'll look in to it.

Danny

Ken.

Black Swan wrote: »

First of all, I would like to express a sincere appreciation to the development team for the exemplary work they do to keep us one of the best discussion boards in Ireland and the world.


This virgin tab has been used by members and mods to ID spammers when their OPs first hit our site, helping Admins to eliminate spammers in a timely fashion before they can propagate across forums, or flood a single forum. The views may be relatively low, but the benefits are high.

I have used the dedicated tab for "Virgin" threads daily, sometimes several times a day, and to find them now will be labour intensive. Please consider restoring that tab.

Thank's Black Swan, You put into words what I was thinking and trying to find a way to articulate.

I'll be putting another few forums on my 'My Forums' list and avoiding the cluster fück that is the new home page.

Typed by ken a few moments ago.

bizmark

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

It really isn't a lame justification. By leaving vBulletin we're leaving behind the old styles. What you have right now on the new style is themes - these are just colour changes, the layout of the site is the same. We are going for a consolidated, single style site with the option of themes for those who dislike our colour choices. We also have user options such as cosy mode, fixed header and full width. These change things minimally.

We're not building a skin/style system for the new Boards UI I'm afraid.



Alvis spent time generating cosy mode stylesheet changes for the homepage two days ago, so it wasn't forgotten about and if it's not working please file a bug report in Site Development and we'll look in to it.

Danny

Its awful danny its hard on the eyes its not easy to describe but its almost like my eye just refuse to focus on the non informative single line of blue on white that is the 1/3rd of the center of my screen this site now bothers to use and theres no obvious way to navigate the site at all now on the home screen

You really shouldn't be defending this the overwhelmingly negative response to this redesign isnt something you can explain away with tech reasoning no one cares if your moveing away from one system to another we care about being able to use the site with out eye strain and being able to easily navigate the site

Boards.ie: Danny

bizmark wrote: »

You really shouldn't be defending this the overwhelmingly negative response to this redesign isnt something you can explain away with tech reasoning no one cares if your moveing away from one system to another we care about being able to use the site with out eye strain and being able to easily navigate the site

In a previous post I explained that due to technical changes we couldn't keep the old home page. wnolan1992 believes it's a lame excuse so I elaborated by explaining why sticking with vBulletin styles or even offering more than one style on the new platform is not a runner. This isn't me defending the current iteration of the homepage design, not in the slightest.

Danny

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

eqwjewoiujqorj

Could a separate page / link be created for the latest posts?

Then you can do what you want with the home page.

FreshCoffee

Really dislike the new front page. I have always scanned the front page of threads (50?) every time I visited and always found some interesting threads/ forums to look at that I normally would never see. It has to be quick and easy, couldn't be bothered with the new look so if you can't go back I will just maintain a bookmark for the few forums I regularly visit.

nesf

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

In a previous post I explained that due to technical changes we couldn't keep the old home page. wnolan1992 believes it's a lame excuse so I elaborated by explaining why sticking with vBulletin styles or even offering more than one style on the new platform is not a runner. This isn't me defending the current iteration of the homepage design, not in the slightest.

Danny

So your new API is incapable of delivering the data necessary to recreate the old homepage in a new style?

scoobydoobie

I would also like the old home page instead, or at least something similar, 5 pages is about 4 pages to many, i used to be able to bounce into threads and press back and the home page had not changed/updated, now when i press back it has kept moving while i was viewing something.

0ph0rce0

It's the future :rolleyes:

The website is now gone to shíté

cursai

Its horrible! Too spaced out and inaccessible. its like the touch version only now on desktop and mandatory!