New "update" is broken.

13

Comments

  • Reply 41 of 62
    Don't know if I'm in the minority here, but I used to open AI articles using the "comments" link from the AI home page and read the article in the forum post rather than clicking on the article title. I usually want to scroll through the comments on most articles, so that just became my habit. In the new forums, the articles are not formatted into paragraphs, which makes them harder to read.
  • Reply 42 of 62
    Yeah, this needs a lot of work. The way the forums render in Mobile Safari is pretty sub-optimal. It don't like that the comment window is tiny, and tapping one of the style buttons makes the cursor disappear from the from the input field. Has anyone tried to use the forums on the iPhone? My guess is: no.
    It's quite honestly not ready for prime time.
  • Reply 43 of 62
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Reply 44 of 62
    benjer said:
    Don't know if I'm in the minority here, but I used to open AI articles using the "comments" link from the AI home page and read the article in the forum post rather than clicking on the article title. I usually want to scroll through the comments on most articles, so that just became my habit. In the new forums, the articles are not formatted into paragraphs, which makes them harder to read.
    Exactly.

    I, too, always clicked on the "comments" link to get to an article.  I preferred the forum version of the article rather than the regular AI article. And then I was already in the forum to view and make comments.

    Also... I could click the "Forum" link from the homepage and then there was a little red indicator on "Subscriptions" to tell me if I had any activity on my subscribed threads.

    Is that function still there?  I'm not completely sure what this new activity thing does.

    Sidenote:  Is it a coincidence that many websites are transitioning to new platforms around the same time? Recently Engadget got updated (and completely ruined, in my opinion)... Neowin updated their forum software (with plenty o' bugs)... and now AppleInsider.

    Is December "make crazy changes" month?
    edited December 2015 SpamSandwich
  • Reply 45 of 62
    I, too, always clicked on the "comments" link to get to an article.  I preferred the forum version of the article rather than the regular AI article. And then I was already in the forum to view and make comments.
    Exactly. I don’t ever go to the home page.
    SpamSandwich
  • Reply 46 of 62
    jSnivelyjSnively Posts: 429administrator

    Update #2


    Hey guys. Let's rap. *props foot up on basketball*

    Usability Updates:
    You should have seen some style changes across the desktop and mobile version of the site today. These are mostly meant to address legibility and are not part of the redesign i mentioned in the previous update. I think what we're going to end up doing is an interim redesign between the one I previously mentioned and what's here right now so that it feels (visually) more like a classic forum to all of you. We are by no means done tweaking and updating things, so please keep your issues coming in.

    Behind the Scenes:
    We're working behind the scenes on a number of things including the fix for name cases I said would be up today (whoops. tomorrow. probably.) as well as the issue with old images from Huddler posts not showing up. We have the data and it's on our servers, we just need to do some not-so-petite SQL queries to retroactively update the posts.

    Spam:
    We have fixed the glitch that was allowing unverified users to post, so this should help a lot with the problem. I'm hesitant to go back to a time where we had to manually approve posts for a new users before they could post on their own because I think that really discourages new users. If we have to, we will, but It makes me :'(

    Infractions:
    Clean slate, boys. Don't waste it. When a post of yours is flagged, it goes into the moderator forum so we will see it. In the words of Bill S. Preston, Esquire, "be excellent to each other".

    Do You Love Loving Things?
    Because now you can. Well... you can like them anyway. Or dislike them. Those are now things that you can do. We'll work on trying to port over some of the reputation from Huddler, but I don't have an ETA on that one.

    Smooshed Posts
    Fixed the bug where the publisher was spitting out improperly formatted posts to the forums, as noted by @benjer - Good lookin' out. You may have noticed if you looked at his profile, we awarded him a little somethin' somethin' for his troubles (sorry for the programmer art). Which leads me to...

    Would you like a meaningless virtual trinket?
    Of course you would! Who wouldn't! We now have 'badges' that are triggered by various actions on the site, or can be awarded manually. The editors are hard at work brainstorming up some great ones, but expect acknowledgement for things like total posts, age of account, giving and receiving lots of likes, etc.

    As always we continue to listen to your feedback and take it to heart, so please continue posting. Together we will whip these forums and this new platform into shape!

    SpamSandwichtallest skiljasenj1
  • Reply 47 of 62
    ^^^ These updates are very helpful. Thanks.
  • Reply 48 of 62
    jSnively said:

    We'll work on trying to port over some of the reputation from Huddler, but I don't have an ETA on that one. 


    Huddler had a system by which you could visually see (in the left sidebar, under the name, avatar, post count, and location) the state of a user’s reputation, displayed either in bars or in customizable user titles (sort of like MacRumors’ titles, except not post count) for each level of reputation. I tried to turn it on once, but it would apparently have required a site restart (and, you know, that doesn’t happen save for backend fixes), so reputation went unseen all that time.

    Will this new software, when finished, have a similar system by which reputation can be seen? It’d be nice to tag trolls/shills like that. Otherwise why bother?

    Oh, and does the “Dislike” button hide posts/put a user into coventry after a certain number of dislikes? If so, I think we’d want that turned that off. 
    edited December 2015
  • Reply 49 of 62
    Cross posted from one of my comments on another article:

    Ok, off topic.
    I like the new Comment system, but there seems to be a few things that need to be fixed.
    1. This comment is showing up in a quote format/box because I originally did what I always do, selected a quote for replying to, then (usually) continue reading through to see what other comments I would like to reply to. This also helps if someone else said exactly what I was going to say, and I don't have to be redundant. However, it seems there is no longer a multi-quote option. Please bring this back.
    2. No way to edit your comments once they are submitted.
    3. Numbered Lists like this are all or nothing if you use the button in the format bar. So I did this one manually. Not every line is part of the list, so we shouldn't be forced to have everything as part of it.
    4. There is no feature to "Cancel" or Delete your comment all together (hence this post). The options are Preview, Save Draft and Post Comment.
    Minor things, and things I am assuming you are working on, but it would be great to get these features back.


  • Reply 50 of 62

    Cross posted from one of my comments on another article:

    Ok, off topic.
    I like the new Comment system, but there seems to be a few things that need to be fixed.
    1. This comment is showing up in a quote format/box because I originally did what I always do, selected a quote for replying to, then (usually) continue reading through to see what other comments I would like to reply to. This also helps if someone else said exactly what I was going to say, and I don't have to be redundant. However, it seems there is no longer a multi-quote option. Please bring this back.
    2. No way to edit your comments once they are submitted.
    3. Numbered Lists like this are all or nothing if you use the button in the format bar. So I did this one manually. Not every line is part of the list, so we shouldn't be forced to have everything as part of it.
    4. There is no feature to "Cancel" or Delete your comment all together (hence this post). The options are Preview, Save Draft and Post Comment.
    Minor things, and things I am assuming you are working on, but it would be great to get these features back.


    Ok, found perhaps the solution to a couple of them.
    1. If I click the ¶ button, I can change the quote format. Good to know, but not intuitive. I still have to delete all the quote text as opposed to cancelling the quote.

    2. Found the gear which gives you the option to edit.  Good to know, but not intuitive.

    3. This still appears to be an issue.

    4. This still appears to be an issue.
  • Reply 51 of 62
    4. This still appears to be an issue.

    We’ve never had cancellation or deletion of posts.
  • Reply 52 of 62
    Is it just me?  Or is there a lot of "clutter" now?

    This is a partial screenshot of the desktop version... there's just so much "stuff" crammed into a small space:


  • Reply 53 of 62
    Is it just me?  Or is there a lot of "clutter" now?

    I’d thumb you up, but that would increase the clutter.

    The unofficial CSS editing that someone did has pushed the Quote and Like buttons to the bottom right where they used to be, and that looks nice. I’m going to play with it some more, myself.



    I don’t much care who voted on what or why; the numbers are more important, I think.
    edited December 2015
  • Reply 54 of 62
    Is it just me?  Or is there a lot of "clutter" now?

    I’d thumb you up, but that would increase the clutter.

    The unofficial CSS editing that someone did has pushed the Quote and Like buttons to the bottom right where they used to be, and that looks nice. I’m going to play with it some more, myself.

    I don’t much care who voted on what or why; the numbers are more important, I think.
    Yep... I don't think we need the tiny avatars of who upvoted or downvoted... just the number is OK.  If they have to stay... I don't want them touching the bottom of the comment text.

    I'm usually against a lot of whitespace... but there needs to be some whitespace.

    And why is the "Quote & Reply" button BIGGER than the users avatar? That's a big ol' thing to see repeated over and over down the page.

    BTW... I love your mockup.  Is that something we can implement ourselves?
  • Reply 55 of 62
    michael scrip said:
    And why is the "Quote & Reply" button BIGGER than the users avatar? That's a big ol' thing to see repeated over and over down the page.

    Yeah, I really liked the left sidebar setup better.
    BTW... I love your mockup.  Is that something we can implement ourselves?
    Oh, sure; I got the code from someone else on here already. I use… geez, what is it. Ah, it’s a CSS override extension for Safari. It’s only on my laptop (on my desktop now), so I don’t remember what it is. Just make a rule, paste it in, point it to AppleInsider, and boom. Let me see if I can find the early edit…

    Ah, it’s post #28 in this very thread. I don’t know how to directly link to individual posts anymore.
    michael scrip
  • Reply 56 of 62
    jasenj1jasenj1 Posts: 923member
    Since we're giving design opinions, I don't think we need the "Like" and "Dislike" text. The icons - which act as buttons and have title text is good enough.
    edited December 2015
  • Reply 57 of 62
    jSnivelyjSnively Posts: 429administrator

    Update #3


    I'm knee-deep in the redesign right now (it's going to look a whole lot more like a traditional forum). We're hoping to have it up in the next couple days.

    Some things I saw in this thread that have already been addressed in the redesign:
    1. thumbs down/up avatars are hidden by default.
    2. Linking directly to a post has been made much more clear (currently it's the date on the post.)
    3. Button sizes have been normalized and restyled.
    4. Comments are in a much more traditional 'box' style layout.
    5. We have pretty much completely removed the sidebar except on a few select pages.
    6. Categories and Discussions pages got a complete format overhaul.
    7. Image alignment in posts will be centered by default.
    8. Over aggressive draft saving has been squelched. You will actually have to hit 'save draft' to save a draft now.
    Keep your feedback coming, I am periodically checking this thread and using it to inform what we're doing going forward. We want to replace what is here pretty much as fast as possible. If we start to drag at all, i will start back porting some of the fixes to the current layout. Right now we're all-hands-on-deck.
    tallest skilSpamSandwich
  • Reply 58 of 62
    I like everything in that list, and I like that changes are being made after the fact. I’ll go ahead and take back what I said initially and keep it in my left front pocket in case I need it again (probably won’t, at this rate).
    SpamSandwich
  • Reply 59 of 62
    damonfdamonf Posts: 229member
    jSnively said:

    Update #3


    I'm knee-deep in the redesign right now (it's going to look a whole lot more like a traditional forum). We're hoping to have it up in the next couple days.

    Some things I saw in this thread that have already been addressed in the redesign:
    1. thumbs down/up avatars are hidden by default.
    2. Linking directly to a post has been made much more clear (currently it's the date on the post.)
    3. Button sizes have been normalized and restyled.
    4. Comments are in a much more traditional 'box' style layout.
    5. We have pretty much completely removed the sidebar except on a few select pages.
    6. Categories and Discussions pages got a complete format overhaul.
    7. Image alignment in posts will be centered by default.
    8. Over aggressive draft saving has been squelched. You will actually have to hit 'save draft' to save a draft now.
    Keep your feedback coming, I am periodically checking this thread and using it to inform what we're doing going forward. We want to replace what is here pretty much as fast as possible. If we start to drag at all, i will start back porting some of the fixes to the current layout. Right now we're all-hands-on-deck.


    FYI, I'm on Internet Explorer 11 at work (not by choice, so yeah, feel sorry for me.  Haha).  When I go from the main article into the comments, I'm taken to the bottom of the first page.  I have to scroll all the way back up the page to start reading the first comment.  Can we have the page open to the top, or alternatively to the first user comment below the article? 

    I know some people may prefer to start with the latest comments, it would be nice if there was an account profile option to "open to most recent comment" which would take the reader to the newest comment on the last page (if multiple pages).

    Thank you for your time in considering our suggestions.  Much appreciated!

    edited December 2015
  • Reply 60 of 62
    jSnivelyjSnively Posts: 429administrator

    Update #4


    We are internally testing the new forums right now. Looking like a weekend or Monday launch. Will keep all of you informed as the process continues.
This discussion has been closed.