New forums are now ONLINE!!!

[Sammy]

Hi Chris.

I really appreciate the work you've put in over the past few days to upgrade our system - it's brilliant []

However: one thing I'd like changed (if poss on the new forum) is there to be a different icon for the main forum title if there's a new post - if that made any sense?

For example:

is the "new" icon

with the no, new posts being:

If it's changeable, it'd be great, as it just means I need to use my logic (have I visited since XYZ time / date) a little less []

Cheers again for the work, and I hope you managed to sneak in a midnight toast to TC and some champagne!

Sam(my)

[netsmithUK]

I'm not quite sure I understand...

If you are looking at the all the forums , there are two icons the one with document indicates posts have been made to that forum

If you are in a forum, there are a few icons; the star means its a popular post, the flower means there is a post you haven't read, if there is just a document it means there is nothing new about it.

Its possible that might take a while to filter through though, as this new system won't have any concept of what you viewed on the old system.

Chris

 

[Martin71RS]

Well "admonkey"....  I must say I found the old one easier to read too... but maybe I've spend so much time on it and don't know any better....

I'll just live with it I guess......oh...think of a pulling up shoulder and shaking head smiley (room for improvement here) ;-)

Martin

edit: does my real post count appear automatically?

[Sammy]

Chris.

In that case then....

Could you pleas explain the difference between the icons at my end, as they look... the same [8-)]

[supergreg]

Chris, I have to add to my previous posts that I really appreciate your work and all effort you put into this community. You make web a better place!

Nevertherless I have to put in some negative points about the new forum. I know you are rather busy at the moment and I'm sure you are already working on various things, but maybe there are things you simply arn't aware of and so here it comes:

1. Link interpreter

Weblinks are not automatically translated into clickable links as I mentioned earlier. Ok, with the WYSIWYG editor it's easy to do, but not so easy if your browser does not display the toolbar in "design mode". Into the bargain the new forum does not display old links from old forum posts as hyperlinks, but just as plain text. Maybe this can be corrected in future.

2. Active topics

It's not that my life depends on it, but the way active topics are displayed is much less comfortable to read than in the past. In the old forum the search result (that's what it is) was seperated into categories reflecting the existing forum categories. Now there is a bunch of threads shown and each has the corresponding category below. I find the old way much more easier to read and to find interesting topics for me.

3. Search function

Similar to the above. The way the search results are displayed is no where near comfortable as the old system. Why are they sorted by date, not by category? For research it would be a lot more helpful to have the results sorted by category. Ok, you can do it by using "more search options -> search in forums -> uncheck all -> check forum you want to be searched", but I find this a little long winded.

4. smilies

how complicated is that?? Are standard emoticons displayed correctly? test... test... ;-) :-) 8D

Again, if I read my post again I find myself sound much too negative, but that's what life is for an adminstrator: You will always get negative feedback but wait hundreds of years for one positive ;-) I just would like to keep TC (and its forum) one of the best places on the web!

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

i'm still missing about 1cm of the page on the right hand side of the screen. anyone else experiencing this problem?

i can see the dark grey borders ok, but they appear to be overlapping part of the forum pages on my pc at least. i've never had a problem like that before on any sites, so i'm guessing its just something to be fixed?

again top work on the forums, the new features are great and i'm sure everyone will get used to it after a while and once all the little bugs are sorted out

[netsmithUK]

No-one should worry about posting bugs and niggles - i expected lots. [] and if I can get them all sorted then it all goes to making the place even better.

Active Topics in particular is one that bugs me a lot. I also liked to see several posts when replying (although I guess the workaround for that is using the quick reply link)

I think there is already a fix out for the smilies which I'm trying to get a hold of.

the search function again, I find frustrating and will try and sort it out. I guess their argument for the way it works is that it gives you links to the actual post with the keyword in, as opposed to throwing you into a thread which could span lots of pages and contain hundreds of posts, so you only option would be to page through. That said I think the system should give you the option.

I'm taking notes of all the points raised, and will be working through. Its going to take some time to get them all, I just ask no-one rights the forum off on day one of release. We used the other for 3 or 4 years (and it was quite different how it ended up to how it started, and by the sounds of it lots of people grew to love that one over time as it was improved) so this one is going to take so time to get used to but it is configurable - i just can't make all the changes right away.

Cheers

Chris

 

[netsmithUK]

Ed. - can you post a screen shot and give me some details about your browser and OS etc

Sammy - I think those icons are telling you there are new post in those forums as opposed to the Rules Forum which looks different (no doument) as no new posts. Like I said it make take a while for them to settle down after the move.

cheers

chris

[terry.sc]

terry.sc - what drop down box? I just type the url into the page?

Tried putting a link in manually like in the old forum and couldn't get

it to work so I tried using the 'create link' button in the edit

toolbar (circled here in red)

When I clicked on it Firefox gives a dialog box to put the URL in.

When you click OK the box closes and nothing happens.

Anyone got any ideas what the 'content selector' (last one on the toolbar) button is for?

[terry.sc]

Quick test

www.tamiyaclub.com

http://www.tamiyaclub.com

www.tamiyaclub.com

http://www.tamiyaclub.com

[Petrolhead]

If you are in a forum, there are a few icons; the star means its a popular post, the flower means there is a post you haven't read, if there is just a document it means there is nothing new about it.

 

I found the way it was done in the old forums to be much more pratical.

There, when you were on the main overview of all the forum categories, ie Modified Monster Strucks, Meetings and Events etc, the categories that contained topics with new posts since one's last viewing would have the icon of  a folder with a flower next to it. Categories that didn't contain topics with a new post since one's last viewing just had the icon of a folder, no flower.

It was the same when you clicked on a category, ie Modified Monster Strucks, the topics with new posts had a flower next to the folder, the ones without new posts didn't have a flower next to the folder.

At the moment, there is no way of telling if a certain topic has had a new post, unless you memorise the number of replies. The way it was done in the old forums was simply and would still work very well... in my opinion.

 

Chris, I'm definately not writing this Forum off, I'm just trying to be a bit helpful and suggest some things that could be changed to improve things slightly?

Even in the past few hours, I've grown to like the look of the forum a considerable amount more []

[netsmithUK]

Theres a few huge sections of the new forums I've not released yet, namely blogs, files and photo galleries. I've got to work out how these will fit in with the main site and how to manage them. The option you mention allows you to select media you may have uploaded to one of these sections (if they were live)

When you post the links are you in design more or html mode? I've posted loads of links to night exactly the same way as I used to in the old forum and they have all automatically become clickable links? So far I've only used the design view though, not the html view.

[netsmithUK]

I'm still confused about the icon thing. Its late and I'm off to bed but heres a couple of screen shots from my machine. The first shows the forums and you can see the ones with the file in folder means it contains new post, the one without the file means no new post.

The second screen shows the same thing for topics in a particular forum.

If you want to know what any icon means just move you mouse over it.

[netsmithUK]

this is the screen shot i refered to as the "first one" in the previous post

[terry.sc]

When I tried posting using the toolbar button it is in design view, the toolbar is greyed out in html view.

Tried putting the links in manually in the design view with the [ url ]

before and after and they now fine. Just typing the links as I used to

(no url quotes) and they don't become clickable links any more.

Strangely Firefox is the only Mac browser I have that has the editing toolbar.

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

chris, heres a screenshot of what i'm seeing on the right hand side of the forum pages.

the green bit on the far right is my scroll bar.

ends of buttons and text are being cut off by the dark background of the forum pages.

i'm using windows ME and Internet explorer 5.5.

i've got flashplayer 8 installed if that makes any difference.

i've had no other problems with any other webpages latley, so i'm guessing my pc is ok? lol

hope that helps []

[XanderP]

How do I post links on these new forums? Why is it that some peoples links work and others don't? When I post a link it will not have the option to click on it, instead you have to cut and paste.

[jesterdude]

Looks brilliant Chris well done on your hard work.

Happy new year everyone!!

[backtomyroots]

New forums look great , but am I the only one who can no longer get the Tamiya Club Homepage ?

 

[larbut]

No, the homepage is "half way" down for me to....

Only the menu displaying, but not working.

Lars

[akemag]

Allways nice to meet an updated site when logging in. The old worked fine, but it´s allways nice to change the "looks" of things once i a while. I´m certain in time most here will adjust to the differences from the old style forum and appreciate them.

[supergreg]

chris, heres a screenshot of what i'm seeing on the right hand side of the forum pages.

the green bit on the far right is my scroll bar.

ends of buttons and text are being cut off by the dark background of the forum pages.

i'm using windows ME and Internet explorer 5.5.

i've got flashplayer 8 installed if that makes any difference.

i've had no other problems with any other webpages latley, so i'm guessing my pc is ok? lol

hope that helps []

@MMBIB: Could it have something to do with your screen resolution being too low?

[spikey]

chris, heres a screenshot of what i'm seeing on the right hand side of the forum pages.

ends of buttons and text are being cut off by the dark background of the forum pages.

@MMBIB: Could it have something to do with your screen resolution being too low?

Something to do with Mymonsterbeetleisbroken's long name??

[Tipsy]

Chris,

Just 1 thing I can think of. When I viewed the forums on the old site, after I had viewed the items I wanted, then came out of the forum . If I went back in it would show no threads to read (red indicator)

Now on the new forum, all the threads have the red asterisk on that I have not read, no matter whether I close and re open the main forum page.

Not a major biggy, but I will always have red asterisks on the pages unless I open every single thread in the forums??. There are pages and pages of them!

Maybe a button could perhaps mark all unread items as read?

EDIT.

Just found the dropdown to change to views since last login. Is there anyway to have this permanent under user profile?, or have this for each thread, and not just on forum homepage?

Cheers

 

[netsmithUK]

I'll be looking into all these issues over the next few days/weeks.

(Its hard to get support over the new year and bank holiday, as not everyone works 24/7 like me []