Well this is funny, the OS browser combo that I found to work the best for the new Appleinsider is with my Chromebook. The site is still buggy as all hell but I'm sure it will be fixed soon. Until then please consider having an option in the users profile to use the classic Appleinsider. It wasn't fancy but it was fast and it worked. I thought Apple users were into the philosophy less is more, this new site is kind of a sensory overload.
My biggest complaint is that the rows aren't full width. I understand you guys need a column for adds but it is such a waste of space and very frustrating. Also why does the site show me logged in but when I click on reply I have to login, weird. I can't express to you guys enough as to how much I dislike the look and functionality of this new site. You really should have had a beta site setup so people could have made comments and test the functionality before releasing.
The new design is wasting so much screen space it makes it a lot harder to read AI Forums.
Not liking this at all. I am seriously considering not reading the forums anymore.
This whole shift in column width - within every thread - due to the new side panel is particularly annoying, and especially so when reading it on an iPad.
One is constantly forced to zoom in and out on every page depending on whether reading the first few items or later ones.
How frustrating...
Picture says more than 1000 words:
What's with this whole wasted side space and all around?
Presumably for more ads in the future...
Great! Not.
Here is a before / after comparison of exactly the same page which clearly shows how wasteful the new design is. The actual content starts much further below and is shrunk into a tiny area - as if it's the least important part...
Very bad for forums IMHO where it is all about the content.
There is so much more stuff on these pages now that the very same page suddenly needs a large scrollbar as it all doesn't even fit anymore. Or in other words: this page turned into a massive scrollfest.
It might be a admin thing, or someone might have revealed that they have some ad-block or flash blocking plug-in's running. I haven't dealt with either for a while but this redesign might make it worth it if I can get the right three inches of the screen back.
It might be a admin thing, or someone might have revealed that they have some ad-block or flash blocking plug-in's running. I haven't dealt with either for a while but this redesign might make it worth it if I can get the right three inches of the screen back.
Does changing your settings to what I have here help?
I did two things. First I changed my default editor back to BBCode. It stops the page from hiccuping past the editor as I scroll down. Second, I had the same issue as hobBIT but had already changed the preference you mentioned. It is specifically caused by the large and obtrusive flash ads that take up three inches of space approximately on the far right of my screen. As I said, I hope I'm not getting you in trouble but the ads are conspicuously absent on your screen and all I'll add is after about a minute search and a plug-in install, my screen now resembles yours with no problems. I can add that with this "adjustment" the forum runs beautifully although the spacing is a still too large. but at least now when you do all the scrolling to deal with the fact that all the spacing is massive, the browser isn't hiccuping past the four or so flash ads on each page.
So the transition has been pretty painless in terms of legacy data it appears. If they can tighten up the design a bit, relocate and improve the ads and those of us who care can change the editor, it seems like all would be good.
EDIT: Tried a flash blocker and the bad spacing is still there with flash symbol allowing unblock. The one non-flash ad was viewable but blocked or viewable, the spacing stinks.
I hope this shows what I am talking about. You can see who's viewing, the space for the flash ad and then the transition from the narrowed columns to the full screen width columns.
Once installed, you can right-click a page, choose 'Manage User CSS' and then fill in the details with the domain being http://forums.appleinsider.com*
Make sure the CSS filter is enabled, hit save and reload the forum page. This sort of thing should be possible on iOS too using a bookmarklet that appends CSS to the page but you probably have to execute that for every page you visit.
At least the BBCode editor lets you post on iOS and you can also set the forum options to keep the thread view at a fixed width so on the iPad, you just zoom into the left.
Comments
My biggest complaint is that the rows aren't full width. I understand you guys need a column for adds but it is such a waste of space and very frustrating. Also why does the site show me logged in but when I click on reply I have to login, weird. I can't express to you guys enough as to how much I dislike the look and functionality of this new site. You really should have had a beta site setup so people could have made comments and test the functionality before releasing.
The new design is wasting so much screen space it makes it a lot harder to read AI Forums.
Not liking this at all. I am seriously considering not reading the forums anymore.
This whole shift in column width - within every thread - due to the new side panel is particularly annoying, and especially so when reading it on an iPad.
One is constantly forced to zoom in and out on every page depending on whether reading the first few items or later ones.
How frustrating...
Picture says more than 1000 words:
What's with this whole wasted side space and all around?
Presumably for more ads in the future...
Great! Not.
Here is a before / after comparison of exactly the same page which clearly shows how wasteful the new design is. The actual content starts much further below and is shrunk into a tiny area - as if it's the least important part...
Very bad for forums IMHO where it is all about the content.
There is so much more stuff on these pages now that the very same page suddenly needs a large scrollbar as it all doesn't even fit anymore. Or in other words: this page turned into a massive scrollfest.
No longer fun. Really.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hobBIT
The new design is wasting so much screen space it makes it a lot harder to read AI Forums.
Not liking this at all. I am seriously considering not reading the forums anymore.
Huh. I don't have that.
Quote:
No longer fun. Really.
Yes, and vBulletin was a basket of roses when we first switched to it. I'm certain there will be improvements over time.
It might be a admin thing, or someone might have revealed that they have some ad-block or flash blocking plug-in's running. I haven't dealt with either for a while but this redesign might make it worth it if I can get the right three inches of the screen back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by trumptman
It might be a admin thing, or someone might have revealed that they have some ad-block or flash blocking plug-in's running. I haven't dealt with either for a while but this redesign might make it worth it if I can get the right three inches of the screen back.
Does changing your settings to what I have here help?
So the transition has been pretty painless in terms of legacy data it appears. If they can tighten up the design a bit, relocate and improve the ads and those of us who care can change the editor, it seems like all would be good.
EDIT: Tried a flash blocker and the bad spacing is still there with flash symbol allowing unblock. The one non-flash ad was viewable but blocked or viewable, the spacing stinks.
[URL=http://forums.appleinsider.com/image/id/161236/width/600/height/375][IMG]http://forums.appleinsider.com/image/id/161236/width/600/height/375[/IMG][/URL]
I hope this shows what I am talking about. You can see who's viewing, the space for the flash ad and then the transition from the narrowed columns to the full screen width columns.
http://code.grid.in.th/
Once installed, you can right-click a page, choose 'Manage User CSS' and then fill in the details with the domain being http://forums.appleinsider.com*
You can try the following CSS code for example:
#sidebar{
display:none;
}
#header-area{
height:50px !important;
overflow:hidden !important;
max-height:50px !important;
min-height:50px !important;
}
.ad{
display:none !important;
}
.forum-post-tools{
margin-top:0px !important;
}
.sig_buffer{
height:50px;
}
#forum-navbar-top{
display:none !important;
}
.post-sig{
padding-left:10px !important;
padding-right:10px !important;
}
.logo{
position:absolute;
top:-55px;
}
#footer-content{
display:none;
}
#forum-navbar-btm{
display:none;
}
Make sure the CSS filter is enabled, hit save and reload the forum page. This sort of thing should be possible on iOS too using a bookmarklet that appends CSS to the page but you probably have to execute that for every page you visit.
At least the BBCode editor lets you post on iOS and you can also set the forum options to keep the thread view at a fixed width so on the iPad, you just zoom into the left.
Overall I don't like the look. There are some nice features in the reply box (the WYSIWYG editor) but there are other issues:
HTML tags don't work
There doesn't seem to be a way to reply-quote and parse the the post with the [/quote] tag (break it into multiple quotes for point-by-point replies)
Screen real estate is not used efficiently. It looks very cluttered.
Thanks guys for all the help so far.
So maybe there is hope.
@Tallest Ski:
I tried those settings, but as with trumptman this does not help. ;-(
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
You can customise the forum view to look however you want. There is a site-specific CSS Safari extension:
http://code.grid.in.th/
How does this work on an iPad?
(These days I do most of my forum browsing on my iPad...)
Perhaps getting good usability back could be solved on AI's side - not via users customizing their browsers with special plugins and settings.
Especially as iOS device browsers are not as customizable yet.