Forum Redesign Announcement

meher

some sites don't need registration if you have a facebook or tweetie account, i think

i like to see the option of being able to have the frequently used smilies on the default list, which means having a personalised list of 10

please may i have :easter::cheesy::grinheart:kisses3::iloveyou::xmassmile :snow_grin thanks

re clutter, as a start some of the repetitive content should probably be identified and taken out

the drop downs on top have ceased to interest me, but it seems to be the in thing;i'd have prefered the colour changing on the topic when you place your cursor there and then really click and go, instead

On the money saving part of the forum, probably there should be an option for the op to select the answer they like or that helped them, this would detract those who are not posting really to help but to jackboot and bully others. I cannot stress how important it is to end bullying, there should be no excuses, even if it might be provoked. The selected response should probably be higlighted as well because it might help those who are loking for information. If someone gives x number of useful answers/advice/solution on money saving pressing issues probably they should have a new little badge.

as for looks, be fearless if your instinct says something works, go for it, even if it means the changes would be radically different to what it is now

Some things however, apart from the money saving, the ethos and consumer empowerment focus, font in the formating should be userfriendly - if the font is bad, it would a real turn off. The font should not have those ticks and tails so the best is always sans serif fonts. i think the forum is ok but i'm not sure about the email letters or the main page. The main page continues to be overwhelming. i'm not so sure about the moving images on the main page anymore. One of the best sites i've come across recently is the energyshop - its opening page tells you what the site is about and then you gently step in and explore further.

Old_Wrinkly

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

Old Wrinkly, one of our biggest new user drop out points is registration. They either can't find it, find it too heavy going or are so maddened by the CAPTCHA system that they give up. We've got some fairly strong data in this area so it seems logical that we can make that better. It's probably one of the things we get emailed about the most.

Make it better without letting the bots through?
Sure CAPTCHA is a chore, and a serious problem for some humans with visual/audio difficulties, but it is there for a purpose (as its full name identifies).

...

Clutter : I suspect most of you never notice the top, right hand side or various other elements on the page. I probably don't myself and yet it all pushes content down the page and at thread level is can be distracting. At this point we don't know specifically what we might change, but those are the type of things. Likewise, are heavy green bars and multiple boxes everywhere the best approach? Maybe/maybe not - but my inkling is that a lot of the forum look ultimately hides content unnecessarily.

IIRC, that's the sort of thing that a lot of users were saying on the last big redesign (or the one before that).

...

Acute accented letters : Sorry just remind me what this is - I've spent quite a long time building this redesign project up, this has slipped under my radar.

The filter won't allow lower-case acute-accented letters, but allows pretty much any other sorts of accents/diacritics e.g.
Ç ü !(that was acute-e) â ä à å ç ê ë è ï î ì Ä Å É(it allows the capitals) ô ö ò û ù ÿ Ö Ü ø Ø !(that was acute-a) !(acute-i) !(acute-o) !(acute-u) ñ Ñ Á(again, capital OK) Â À ã Ã Ê Ë È etc etc

I can't think of any sensible reason for singling out this particular accent, given what is allowed through, and it stops me spelling certain foreign words and names correctly. Not a big deal you might think (and I could probably live with things if no diacritics were allowed), but filtering-out just one accent (the most common one?), and then only for lowercase, makes no sense to me.

JimmyTheWig

dtaylor84 wrote: »

It's a forum, not facebook or twitter. Please just bear that in mind...

There's some interesting discussion on this here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/55764319#Comment_55764319

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

Old_Wrinkly wrote: »

The filter won't allow lower-case acute-accented letters, but allows pretty much any other sorts of accents/diacritics e.g.
Ç ü !(that was acute-e) â ä à å ç ê ë è ï î ì Ä Å É(it allows the capitals) ô ö ò û ù ÿ Ö Ü ø Ø !(that was acute-a) !(acute-i) !(acute-o) !(acute-u) ñ Ñ Á(again, capital OK) Â À ã Ã Ê Ë È etc etc

I can't think of any sensible reason for singling out this particular accent, given what is allowed through, and it stops me spelling certain foreign words and names correctly. Not a big deal you might think (and I could probably live with things if no diacritics were allowed), but filtering-out just one accent (the most common one?), and then only for lowercase, makes no sense to me.

Spoken to the development team. The reason we did it is we found that the acute accent e was by far and away the most typical cause of working around the spam filter (I'm guessing as most people know how to get it and it's a common letter). Their advice is not to remove it as for the amount of words it affects across an English language forum, it simply isn't worth the spam risk.

I'm happy to add all the other letter you've listed in, if that helps, but at this point I can't run the risk of opening us up to further spam attacks.

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

dtaylor84 wrote: »

This, OTOH, sounds terrifying. It's a forum, not facebook or twitter. Please just bear that in mind...

In my reply to Old Wrinkly above :

Social Media : We're not trying to be Facebook as such. However a lot of social media sites do certain things in certain ways because they work. It's important that my team always remember we are a Forum first and foremost, but this is a huge, fantastic community of people and people chat, interact and conduct part of their lives on here. It's a fine balance but one I feel we can all benefit from.

meher

that tiny trail, navigation bar or bread crumb as some say needs to come down

if it is ok to ask the team to look into that little box that appears on top of each thread with quick links, somehow it idoesnt quite right; it clutters the place, also it needs a different format and shouldn't be inbetween the title and the thread, imo

Wywth

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

Spoken to the development team. The reason we did it is we found that the acute accent e was by far and away the most typical cause of working around the spam filter (I'm guessing as most people know how to get it and it's a common letter). Their advice is not to remove it as for the amount of words it affects across an English language forum, it simply isn't worth the spam risk.

I'm happy to add all the other letter you've listed in, if that helps, but at this point I can't run the risk of opening us up to further spam attacks.

Good decision

This was discussed here too:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4341683

My solution was that people should write in English.

Zenophobic? Moi?

Old_Wrinkly

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

Spoken to the development team. The reason we did it is we found that the acute accent e was by far and away the most typical cause of working around the spam filter (I'm guessing as most people know how to get it and it's a common letter). Their advice is not to remove it as for the amount of words it affects across an English language forum, it simply isn't worth the spam risk.

I'm happy to add all the other letter you've listed in, if that helps, but at this point I can't run the risk of opening us up to further spam attacks.

I'm sorry, but I don't think you or the development team have understood what I am saying, (or I have consistently misunderstood what MSE have been saying over many years).

How exactly is removing lowercase acute a, e, i o & u - but leaving all the other combinations in my post, including 'capital' versions - helping to block spam?
You do realise I could just as easily type an ê, ë, or è rather than an acute-e, to replace a standard e - if that is what you are saying 'spammers' are doing, though surely this is more useful as a swear filter?

I know someone decided that it was seen to be useful to have this 'filtering' at some point years and years ago (though I still doubt it made sense then) but anyone who really wants to can get round filters with virtually no effort. (You do know this, don't you?)

Still, your site ... your rules.
My intention is always to try to improve things where they can be improved without undue side-effects.
I've managed for years - I suppose I can get by for a bit longer.

Old_Wrinkly

Wywth wrote: »

My solution was that people should write in English.

I do write in English (though others don't always).
I want to give British/Irish people with Irish forenames (& possibly Irish companies) the respect of writing their names correctly.

Zenophobic?

Was that deliberate?

warehouse

Early last year I migrated a very popular forum from VB3 to VB4. The one outstanding lesson I learned above all others was...

Don't ever listen to the users suggestions or you'll never change anything. Go in tippy toes a bit at a time and they'll hate it, change everything at once and they'll hate it.

Bite the bullet, shut the forum until done completely, make all the changes you want, re-open and wait for the moans to begin. Two weeks later they'll all love it. Carry on as usual.