Welcome to the new Forum look – give us your feedback

IvanOpinion

Everybody needs to stop being so negative the new layout has one incredibly important benefit - it would take a real bunch of amateurs to make the next incarnation worse.

First rule of user experience, ignore user feedback at your peril!

robatwork

I had hoped that the redesign would also allow us to choose how many posts per page. And hopefully save our preference. On occasion I'd like to expand a multi-page thread to scroll & search it. Unless I'm missing something, the limit is hard coded to a paltry 10 posts per page.

EnglishWelshie

One-Eye said:

After the minor improvements made over the last few days I am now quite happy with the new forum. It is readable and usable and as I get used to where everything is I find I can work almost as quickly as the old design.

"Forum View" (screen shot below):

1. Happy that the notification bell is now showing the number of new notifications you have. Notifications are now working properly according to my settings (although I don't have any set for emails which I understand is not working correctly yet)
2. I have disabled and removed the menus (using Adblock Plus) and this has made a massive difference. I think this is one of the prime annoyances for users not able or confident enough to disable them. Please make the menus active through a click rather than by hovering over them.
3. The second line - on "Competitions Time" this shows number of views (which is great) but where there are replies it only shows the "Most Recent" poster and does not show the "Started by" poster (which is poor). On other sections (such as Site Feedback) the reverse applies. Now that the text sizes have been amended, I am sure there is enough room to show "views", "Started by" AND "Most recent" - please can this be amended.
4. I like the bold text for threads you have not opened.
5. The 3 dots for threads you have started is great and the fact that they appear to the right, thus moving the "bookmark" icon makes them easier to see.

"Thread View"

Now that images work correctly and links are automatically bold and underlined the only remaining problem for me is the position of "report". It is slightly better in its new position than where it was at first, but would be even better further away. I understand it would be problematical if it was right justified, but moving it even just 5 characters to the right would help with accidental clicks. Could all the elements on that line have a few more characters space between them?

Editor

The Editor and Preview is poor, and bears no relation to the final post. I know this has been acknowledged by MSE and requires major work to solve. One aspect that has been a problem ever since the movement to Vanilla and is still relevant, is that there is no easy way to post a working email address. Experienced users know the work around, but I still come across non-working email addresses in posts.
We end up with forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
We should get forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
Both the correct and incorrect email links fail if the post is subsequently edited. This is a fault that has been around for years.

Search

Search is working just the same as it was before the change, but Search Results show only 10 per page (compared to Forum View's 20). Please can Search Results show 20 per page.

I agree with it needing to show the started by poster and also moving the report button.

I've also disabled and removed the menus and would be much better as you suggested by clicking them rather than hovering over them.

Notifications not working at all yet for me. I can confirm that emails are not working yet as I have some set to get emails but not had any for a couple of days.

Bold text is a great addition but today once I got to page 3 of competitions time they were all showing as having been read so not sure what has happened there.

Still can't find the option to check if skimlinks is on or off. Have you managed to find it @One-Eye

MikeJXE

Just noticed on my MacBook the red disc is now red rectangle in the right side bar, why can't that be so on my iPad ?

LHW99

MikeJXE said:

Just noticed on my MacBook the red disc is now red rectangle in the right side bar, why can't that be so on my iPad ?

it's like that on a desktop PC too (Firefox, Windows)

TadleyBaggie

Absolutely hate the new format, I used to quickly scan the latest posts and interact with any I wanted too, now I just look at the first page and give up.

Why is the right hand third of the screen taken up with the "Quick Links" box, which is readily available from the drop down menu bar. And what happed to the "Mark all threads read" option in the profile, can't find it anywhere.

I really can't see myself interacting in the MSE Forums much in their present state.

One-Eye

EnglishWelshie said:

Still can't find the option to check if skimlinks is on or off. Have you managed to find it @One-Eye

I have searched and can't find a skimlinks setting, but I had it "off" before the change and I think it is still off - I haven't found a link with skimlinks set so far.

MikeJXE

LHW99 said:

MikeJXE said:

Just noticed on my MacBook the red disc is now red rectangle in the right side bar, why can't that be so on my iPad ?

it's like that on a desktop PC too (Firefox, Windows)

No idea I don't have a pc it's on Apple MacBook using Safari

Troytempest

It is better now, however still feels buggy and not robust. 

MikeJXE

I was very much against it when I first saw the upgrade but now, seeing it on my MacBook I think it's better 

Thank you to the team