@Allen said:
The only reasonable way I've found to view posts I have not seen is use "Recent Discussions". I only monitor the Support forums. I keep reloading the page to see any "new" posts. After all "new" are read I click "Mark All Viewed" at top of page.
One problem, there is no indicator what threads I've posted in on any category page. Only if I started the thread, now that you enabled that. That means I probably will never see a reply.
I would like to see that, because I do the same thing. I don't subscribe to any threads either.
@Ferguson said:
I'll offer the observation that such notifications should EITHER:
1) Show you the reply text, i.e. so you can see and ignore or log in to respond, or
2) NOT send repeated emails for each response if they are going to just say "there is a response".
I've asked Vanilla if it's possible to include the text of the reply in the email, and also if it can bundle responses so we don't get an email every time.
@ChancyRat said:
Another quick question: where is Advanced Search?
I've also asked Vanilla if there's a way to get to it without having to first search for a blank term or bookmark the link to the advanced search. Perhaps we can put a link there ourselves.
@ChancyRat said:
Maybe a separate thread could be started regarding the advanced search function. I searched for the word "bulk", and it took about 20 seconds to populate an answer, which makes sense to me given the term, but, it took 15 seconds to go to page 2 of the results (3 tries, same timing). That's odd, right?
Yet again, I've asked Vanilla why search results take so long. We'll see what they say soon!
Whoa! You guys have been busy while I was sleeping!
Since no good deed goes unpunished, IMO the discussions index page is way too busy now, though I do appreciate having the OP showing. I wonder whether we really need that right sidebar with all the categories. I certainly don't expect to use it. If we nuked it, there would be more breathing room for the rest.
I agree with Richard and would also make the suggestion of nixing the profile photos on the Discussions page - this would also help with the busy-ness aspect. (I'm not a fan of those little orange "new" buttons either.)
I also think the profile photos can / should be removed on the Discussions page. They are good within the discussion but on the top level page I think it makes it too busy. I'm also not sure about including the last poster. I think seeing the OP is helpful though.
Also, I think the number of views can be removed from that page. Show it on hover, but use the real estate to show a wider title column.
@denisegoldberg said:
I'm also not sure about including the last poster. I think seeing the OP is helpful though.
I actually always like seeing (the name of) the last poster. And in the new forum I have discovered that if you click on the timestamp you go directly to the last post in the thread - very handy.
Clicking on the thread discussion itself takes me to the last post.
I don't mind seeing one avatar, but I don't like seeing two. I'd opt for showing the the OP's avatar, but I could also accept the last poster's. Just not both.
@denisegoldberg said:
I'm also not sure about including the last poster. I think seeing the OP is helpful though.
I actually always like seeing (the name of) the last poster. And in the new forum I have discovered that if you click on the timestamp you go directly to the last post in the thread - very handy.
Yeah, otherwise you might not realize the latest post is your own. I'm still struggling to find a good mode to say "just show me things that are new since I was here".
I haven't chimed in on all the changes, but I have been reading (with interest) all the comments in this thread. I do appreciate that much of what others previously noted or requested has already been implemented. I think the Forum does look better visually today than it did yesterday. I still have a very hard time with that bright, bold white on the black background. Maybe it's just the font...I really don't know. I didn't have a big issue with the old style, but I seem to be having difficulty reading the comments in the new style. I can't look at it very long...it's just very irritating to my eyes, plus--I already have a headache just from the time it took me to read through the last couple of pages on this thread. Ugh.
I do have one little comment/question that really isn't urgent or anything. On the old style, there would be 'random' thumbnails of images at the top of the page. When I saw any that I really liked or when one drew my attention, I enjoying clicking on it to go to the gallery where that image 'lived'. I enjoyed seeing who took the photo and other images from that photographer. I notice that the new page has these random images down the right side, but one cannot click on them to go to the source. I kind of miss being able to look at the image larger and see whose work I am enjoying. Not a biggie, but just something I miss.
Thanks for all the work you are doing to make improvements.
@Richard said:
Clicking on the thread discussion itself takes me to the last post.
I don't mind seeing one avatar, but I don't like seeing two. I'd opt for showing the the OP's avatar, but I could also accept the last poster's. Just not both.
I think it's VERY important that clicking a "Discussion" thread/post title takes you to the 1st unread post and not the last post. Another problem is when someone edits a post, how would we ever know? I wounder if edits ever show up on "Recent Discussion" page?
I agree, the "Recent Discussion" page is way too cluttered.
In the discussion column I think the category needs a separate column.
Replies, Views and Category columns could disappear. Why are sizes shown in category column?
What is the typical "12...657658" number anyway? Extra non-needed stuff not relevant.
I'm getting a ton of email from folks who've commented on posts I'm following - but there is no text of the message, only the "click this link to read it". That's not how old forum worked. Can the text body of the responder's comments please be added to email?
@ChancyRat said:
I'm getting a ton of email from folks who've commented on posts I'm following - but there is no text of the message, only the "click this link to read it". That's not how old forum worked. Can the text body of the responder's comments please be added to email?
Yeah, we're looking into getting that content into the email. Not sure if that is possible. In the meantime, I turned off the emails as a default setting. You can control your own choices here.
@ChancyRat said:
I'm getting a ton of email from folks who've commented on posts I'm following - but there is no text of the message, only the "click this link to read it". That's not how old forum worked. Can the text body of the responder's comments please be added to email?
Yeah, we're looking into getting that content into the email. Not sure if that is possible. In the meantime, I turned off the emails as a default setting. You can control your own choices here.
@Ben, @ChancyRat thanks you. Err, why in the world would an upgrade to a new forum software exclude improvements in email?
@ChancyRat said:
I'm getting a ton of email from folks who've commented on posts I'm following - but there is no text of the message, only the "click this link to read it". That's not how old forum worked. Can the text body of the responder's comments please be added to email?
Yeah, we're looking into getting that content into the email. Not sure if that is possible. In the meantime, I turned off the emails as a default setting. You can control your own choices here.
@Ben, @ChancyRat thanks you. Err, why in the world would an upgrade to a new forum software exclude improvements in email?
This is an entirely different platform, built from the ground up with different choices. Over all, I think it's a huge improvement over vBulletin- especially the version of vB we were using. But that doesn't mean every single feature is going to be better than what we had. Some are simply different, and require adjusting to. But some are simply inferior. I think the content of the email message is one of those clearly inferior aspects. I don't like notifications without being able to actually read the content.
What is the name of the new font for posts, and where can it be found? I really like it and it'd be nice if I could tell Chrome to use it as a default.
@Ben said:
Nothing's change (as far as I can tell, or am aware) for the latest stuff. If you hover over a post link, you'll see it say #latest at the end of the link. That should take you to the last new post, and seems to be doing that for me.
It may not be perfect, I'm not sure. But it seems to still be working for me.
But at least for a while, when you clicked the thread link, it took you to the first unread post rather than the latest one, just as you described here last night.
That's what I am saying I am seeing with #latest right now. Unfortunately, I am out of unread threads at the moment... but I'll keep investigating. It seems to be working exactly that way for me though, as of the last unread thread I checked.
I think I identified what happened last night. If you click on the forum title in the home category list, and then on a given thread, you indeed go to the first unread post. Just as advertised.
What I did last night was to use the notification dropdown by my user name at the top right to navigate to the forum and thread in one step. The links up there go is to thread associated with the individual notification -- nice shortcut -- but to the post associated with the notification -- not unreasonable but not how I want to enter a forum where I'm facing a series of unread posts. I'm still thinking about how I want to use notifications, but I'll probably not use them for navigation.
This means that it is all the more important for the home category list to flag which forums have unread posts, just as the forum lists have flags to show threads with new entries. Right now, the only way on the home category list to identify forums with unread posts now is to remember when you last caught up and compare that against the date of the most recent post. That's not really usable in the long run. Please find a way to implement an "all read / some unread" flag.
I'd like to see the forums in a column of their own in the discussions page--just like it used to be. I miss the ability to quickly scan that column to pick out new stuff in the forums I follow most often.
You know, having survived previous transitions to Vanilla, it's funny watching the same goofy factory defaults become an issue over and over. You would think customer outcry would get them to change those defaults.
@dberthia said:
What is the name of the new font for posts, and where can it be found? I really like it and it'd be nice if I could tell Chrome to use it as a default.
We are using Gotham as the font here. We've bought a license to use on our pages, and host it for Dgrin as well to use.
We've updated the discussions page- Took out the sidebar that was wasting space. Hid the view count to reduce clutter. Changed the orange 3 new badge to a more consistent green.
@dberthia said:
What is the name of the new font for posts, and where can it be found? I really like it and it'd be nice if I could tell Chrome to use it as a default.
When I inspect the CSS for this page, it says it's Gotham SSm A. Unfortunately it's not Google font.
Wait. Do we really need a page selector on the index page? If the default behavior of clicking on the discussion is to take you to the first unread post, won't that satisfy most of what people want? Never read anything?--starts at the beginning; been here before?--picks up where you left off; read it all?--goes to the end. The missing options are going to the end of a thread without viewing some of it, or picking a page in the middle somewhere, but one can do that from the page selector within the discussion itself. It would be cleaner without sacrificing much functionality.
@Richard said:
Wait. Do we really need a page selector on the index page? If the default behavior of clicking on the discussion is to take you to the first unread post, won't that satisfy most of what people want? Never read anything?--starts at the beginning; been here before?--picks up where you left off; read it all?--goes to the end. The missing options are going to the end of a thread without viewing some of it, or picking a page in the middle somewhere, but one can do that from the page selector within the discussion itself. It would be cleaner without sacrificing much functionality.
We're poking at that very idea. I kind of like an indication of how many pages there are, but the actual page indicator isn't the most helpful. We'll see what's reasonable to make it do.
Now here's something I personally find completely useless. Page numbers on the "Recent Discussions" page.
12...657658
Above code means pages 1 and 2 ... pages 657 and 658
Would be much more useful if it was "1st unread ... last post"
@Allen said:
Now here's something I personally find completely useless. Page numbers on the "Recent Discussions" page.
12...657658
Above code means pages 1 and 2 ... pages 657 and 658
Would be much more useful if it was "1st unread ... last post"
Yeah, the three comments right above yours are discussing this exact thing. The page counts are going to change. We don't need a link to 1st unread or to last post in my opinion, because both of those links already exist. Thread title takes you to 1st unread, and the "last post" on the right takes you to that. I want a page indicator, that would take you to the last page so you can see context. But we'll see how easy it is to make that happen.
@Ben said:
We're poking at that very idea. I kind of like an indication of how many pages there are, but the actual page indicator isn't the most helpful. We'll see what's reasonable to make it do.
We're showing the post count. I think most people can do the mental arithmetic from there.
@Ben said:
We're poking at that very idea. I kind of like an indication of how many pages there are, but the actual page indicator isn't the most helpful. We'll see what's reasonable to make it do.
We're showing the post count. I think most people can do the mental arithmetic from there.
Comments
I would like to see that, because I do the same thing. I don't subscribe to any threads either.
Images in the Backcountry
My SmugMug Customizations | Adding CSS to Your Site | SEO for the Photographer | Locate Your Page/Widget Number | SmugMug Help Desk
I've asked Vanilla if it's possible to include the text of the reply in the email, and also if it can bundle responses so we don't get an email every time.
I've also asked Vanilla if there's a way to get to it without having to first search for a blank term or bookmark the link to the advanced search. Perhaps we can put a link there ourselves.
Yet again, I've asked Vanilla why search results take so long. We'll see what they say soon!
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
Whoa! You guys have been busy while I was sleeping!
Since no good deed goes unpunished, IMO the discussions index page is way too busy now, though I do appreciate having the OP showing. I wonder whether we really need that right sidebar with all the categories. I certainly don't expect to use it. If we nuked it, there would be more breathing room for the rest.
I agree with Richard and would also make the suggestion of nixing the profile photos on the Discussions page - this would also help with the busy-ness aspect. (I'm not a fan of those little orange "new" buttons either.)
I also think the profile photos can / should be removed on the Discussions page. They are good within the discussion but on the top level page I think it makes it too busy. I'm also not sure about including the last poster. I think seeing the OP is helpful though.
Also, I think the number of views can be removed from that page. Show it on hover, but use the real estate to show a wider title column.
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
I actually always like seeing (the name of) the last poster. And in the new forum I have discovered that if you click on the timestamp you go directly to the last post in the thread - very handy.
Clicking on the thread discussion itself takes me to the last post.
I don't mind seeing one avatar, but I don't like seeing two. I'd opt for showing the the OP's avatar, but I could also accept the last poster's. Just not both.
Yeah, otherwise you might not realize the latest post is your own. I'm still struggling to find a good mode to say "just show me things that are new since I was here".
I haven't chimed in on all the changes, but I have been reading (with interest) all the comments in this thread. I do appreciate that much of what others previously noted or requested has already been implemented. I think the Forum does look better visually today than it did yesterday. I still have a very hard time with that bright, bold white on the black background. Maybe it's just the font...I really don't know. I didn't have a big issue with the old style, but I seem to be having difficulty reading the comments in the new style. I can't look at it very long...it's just very irritating to my eyes, plus--I already have a headache just from the time it took me to read through the last couple of pages on this thread. Ugh.
I do have one little comment/question that really isn't urgent or anything. On the old style, there would be 'random' thumbnails of images at the top of the page. When I saw any that I really liked or when one drew my attention, I enjoying clicking on it to go to the gallery where that image 'lived'. I enjoyed seeing who took the photo and other images from that photographer. I notice that the new page has these random images down the right side, but one cannot click on them to go to the source. I kind of miss being able to look at the image larger and see whose work I am enjoying. Not a biggie, but just something I miss.
Thanks for all the work you are doing to make improvements.
Sherry P.
I think it's VERY important that clicking a "Discussion" thread/post title takes you to the 1st unread post and not the last post. Another problem is when someone edits a post, how would we ever know? I wounder if edits ever show up on "Recent Discussion" page?
I agree, the "Recent Discussion" page is way too cluttered.
In the discussion column I think the category needs a separate column.
Replies, Views and Category columns could disappear. Why are sizes shown in category column?
What is the typical "12...657658" number anyway? Extra non-needed stuff not relevant.
My Website index | My Blog
I'm getting a ton of email from folks who've commented on posts I'm following - but there is no text of the message, only the "click this link to read it". That's not how old forum worked. Can the text body of the responder's comments please be added to email?
Yeah, we're looking into getting that content into the email. Not sure if that is possible. In the meantime, I turned off the emails as a default setting. You can control your own choices here.
@Ben, @ChancyRat thanks you. Err, why in the world would an upgrade to a new forum software exclude improvements in email?
This is an entirely different platform, built from the ground up with different choices. Over all, I think it's a huge improvement over vBulletin- especially the version of vB we were using. But that doesn't mean every single feature is going to be better than what we had. Some are simply different, and require adjusting to. But some are simply inferior. I think the content of the email message is one of those clearly inferior aspects. I don't like notifications without being able to actually read the content.
What is the name of the new font for posts, and where can it be found? I really like it and it'd be nice if I could tell Chrome to use it as a default.
I think I identified what happened last night. If you click on the forum title in the home category list, and then on a given thread, you indeed go to the first unread post. Just as advertised.
What I did last night was to use the notification dropdown by my user name at the top right to navigate to the forum and thread in one step. The links up there go is to thread associated with the individual notification -- nice shortcut -- but to the post associated with the notification -- not unreasonable but not how I want to enter a forum where I'm facing a series of unread posts. I'm still thinking about how I want to use notifications, but I'll probably not use them for navigation.
This means that it is all the more important for the home category list to flag which forums have unread posts, just as the forum lists have flags to show threads with new entries. Right now, the only way on the home category list to identify forums with unread posts now is to remember when you last caught up and compare that against the date of the most recent post. That's not really usable in the long run. Please find a way to implement an "all read / some unread" flag.
I'd like to see the forums in a column of their own in the discussions page--just like it used to be. I miss the ability to quickly scan that column to pick out new stuff in the forums I follow most often.
We are using Gotham as the font here. We've bought a license to use on our pages, and host it for Dgrin as well to use.
Some more changes!
We've updated the discussions page- Took out the sidebar that was wasting space. Hid the view count to reduce clutter. Changed the orange
3 newbadge to a more consistent green.Getting better all the time...
Page selector is wonky.
When I inspect the CSS for this page, it says it's Gotham SSm A. Unfortunately it's not Google font.
That's what I am working on right now!!
Wait. Do we really need a page selector on the index page? If the default behavior of clicking on the discussion is to take you to the first unread post, won't that satisfy most of what people want? Never read anything?--starts at the beginning; been here before?--picks up where you left off; read it all?--goes to the end. The missing options are going to the end of a thread without viewing some of it, or picking a page in the middle somewhere, but one can do that from the page selector within the discussion itself. It would be cleaner without sacrificing much functionality.
We're poking at that very idea. I kind of like an indication of how many pages there are, but the actual page indicator isn't the most helpful. We'll see what's reasonable to make it do.
Now here's something I personally find completely useless. Page numbers on the "Recent Discussions" page.
12...657658
Above code means pages 1 and 2 ... pages 657 and 658
Would be much more useful if it was "1st unread ... last post"
My Website index | My Blog
Yeah, the three comments right above yours are discussing this exact thing. The page counts are going to change. We don't need a link to 1st unread or to last post in my opinion, because both of those links already exist. Thread title takes you to 1st unread, and the "last post" on the right takes you to that. I want a page indicator, that would take you to the last page so you can see context. But we'll see how easy it is to make that happen.
That is how confusing this whole thing is, I didn't realize those were the same.
My Website index | My Blog
We're showing the post count. I think most people can do the mental arithmetic from there.