Re: Forum Rejiggery

torbrex

Some forum rejiggery

Hi Folks

We've made a couple of small but significant display changes today for threads.

Essentially we've moved the Facebook and Twitter share options into the light green bar above, and removed the cumbersome and space hogging Stats box from the main posting area.

This should slightly improve loading speeds and gives users their full posting width back.

As an aside, the long fabled Wow Factor is getting closer (indeed, "coming soon" ) and these changes are a small step toward that.

Thanks all.

Posts are slower to open and when clicking on the link for the last post in the thread, the first post makes an appearance on my screen briefly before jumping to the post that I clicked on.

Otherwise good to see the back of that useless stats box.

santer_2

Not a fan of the bright orange post a reply icon, so big it is difficult to see some of the posts as it is constantly a peripheral distraction

espresso

santer wrote: »

Not a fan of the bright orange post a reply icon, so big it is difficult to see some of the posts as it is constantly a peripheral distraction

Agreed, the hideous "Post a reply" box would be fine if it was restricted to newbie accounts only and then automatically disabled along with their newbie alert label.

However it is very easily removed using Adblock Plus available here, like all of the other crap that you do not wish to be displayed on your screen.

torbrex

santer wrote: »

Not a fan of the bright orange post a reply icon, so big it is difficult to see some of the posts as it is constantly a peripheral distraction

its only there if you are not signed in.

Mandelbrot

torbrex wrote: »

its only there if you are not signed in.

In which case it's a bit pointless, as you won't be able to reply!

(Yes, I know it's intended to get you to log-on, but ... )

barnabee

Same problems here since the re-jig. Posts are very slow to open and often pause when loading - reminiscent of the old dial up days.

And whoever thought it would be a good idea to have the huge Post a Reply button showing at the bottom of each thread (when not logged in) is either an ex Easy Jet employee or a Holland supporter. It gives the website such an unprofessional look.

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

barnabee wrote: »

Same problems here since the re-jig. Posts are very slow to open and often pause when loading - reminiscent of the old dial up days.

And whoever thought it would be a good idea to have the huge Post a Reply button showing at the bottom of each thread (when not logged in) is either an ex Easy Jet employee or a Holland supporter. It gives the website such an unprofessional look.

Are people still having speed problems? It's actually been very speedy here.

Regarding the post reply button, we get a significant number of emails per week from new users who miss the small blue post reply button and ask how to do it. Since we introduced the larger version, these emails have all but stopped and we've actually had a couple of nice ones thanking us for making it easy to spot.

Sorry if it's not to everyone's taste, but from our point of view it's having the required effect. Obviously you don't see it if you're not logged in so we hope it shouldn't cause regular users much of an issue.

torbrex

Fair enough you have answered the reply button aspect that was asked but that was not why this thread was started.



Still slow to open threads, particularly when opening the last post in a thread, it still shows the first post briefly before jumping to the one that I clicked on in the first place.

espresso

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

Regarding the post reply button, we get a significant number of emails per week from new users who miss the small blue post reply button and ask how to do it. Since we introduced the larger version, these emails have all but stopped and we've actually had a couple of nice ones thanking us for making it easy to spot.

Sorry if it's not to everyone's taste, but from our point of view it's having the required effect. Obviously you don't see it if you're not logged in so we hope it shouldn't cause regular users much of an issue.

That is the problem, many regular users simply browse the forums without logging in and only actually log in when they want to post a comment.

As this post reply button is for newbies, why not link it with their newbie alert label and remove it when they are no longer newbies?

fermi

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

Are people still having speed problems? It's actually been very speedy here.

No speed problems here.

torbrex wrote: »

it still shows the first post briefly before jumping to the one that I clicked on in the first place.

Something that's happened for me for as long as I can remember. Just a split second pause before the page display focuses on the final post.

Not changed for me with the latest changes.

torbrex

fermi wrote: »

No speed problems here.



Something that's happened for me for as long as I can remember. Just a split second pause before the page display focuses on the final post.

Not changed for me with the latest changes.

It has only started happening for me since the recent changes.

and

Posting a reply seems to take just a little bit longer to appear as well