New forum Style

[quote:3496ace15f="Peter Bargh"]So if you've had the same experience before, i.e. changed something thats fine to something thats poor, then sorted it out so its great, why oh why have we just not gone straight to great then?

[quote:3496ace15f="Unlocker]Tip.

Post new thread in Announcements.

Job done.[/quote]George, a message was posted in Announcements asking for Beta Testers. It said:

"Hi everyone,

For the past month we have been working on a major upgrade to the Pentax User website. We have now completed the upgrade and are looking for beta testers to go through the new site and help find any bugs/errors that there may be.

If you are interested in beta testing, please email us at [email protected] with an email of the following:

- Your name
- Username
- Why you would be a good beta tester

If your application is accepted we will send your information regarding the beta site so you can start testing.

Please note, you MUST email us your application.
Replies to this topic will not be considered a request to be a beta tester.

Thank You "


I'm really tempted to say something really sarcastic about how the good old forum would surely have alerted you to this post, but I really, really don't think it would be a good idea.

This change over has obviously not gone down well with some, perhaps many, people, but it's also been pretty well recieved by others. Personally I like it as much as the other one, bearing in mind it will take a bit of time to get used to.

There does seem to be a problem with the 'remember me' option when logging in, and the forum remembering which posts have been read. I would hope that the team will address this asap, as this is one of the main problems with regard navigation, I would imagine.

Dan

Because these are different issues, but similar responses.

I never expected you all to be such a bunch of luddites. Give the guys a break! Try the forum out, submit your problems - they will solve them if they can - with admirable speed! I submitted a problem with the remember me box - it is now solved.
As for thinking magezine was a typo - did you never visit the PU pages on the old forum?

What's going on?
Where am I?
I'm soooo confused.
This is like that time I came home from work and went into the neighbors house by mistake.
javascript:;

I really don't like this at all. I find the colour combination is a strain on the eyes and the browsing experience has suddenly become more difficult and far less enjoyable. A big step backward in my opinion, which will probably result in me spending less time browsing the forum.

Steve

George, a message was posted in Announcements asking for Beta Testers. It said:

"Hi everyone,

For the past month we have been working on a major upgrade to the Pentax User website........Dan[/quote]I remember. But the forum was a separate, bought-in program, and I thought they were talking about the non-forum part of the site.

There were a couple of problems with the old site. Logging in has recently been very flakey, I suspect because of anti-spam measures, and the inability to post pictures directly was a pain.

In every other respect, it was fine, and I have to say that I think it unlikely that, even with a lot more work, it will be possible for a made-from-scratch message board to work as well as the old one.

However, we shall see. Just wish they could have said: "Hey chaps, tomorrow we're moving to a new site design. Here's the reasons why, and sorry for the inconvenience."

G

Hi everyone,

As you can see we have brought back to post counts and user levels on your comments. I want to concentrate on the other major bug, the new post indicator.

If you guys can help describe how this worked it would be very helpful.

Thanks,
David

Okay, it did seem a bit "right, we're doing this tomorrow", albeit after a week or so's testing. But, the beat testers could have been doing it for another fortnight, and not found the problems, or come up with the suggestions, that have been made, and actioned (notice total posts and little medals for the forum veterans everyone ) this afternoon.

Undoubtedly it will take some getting used to, and there will be times when people think 'how the hell do I do that?', but hopefully it will be for the best. We shall see...

Main sticking points seem to be the fixed size, and the small pictures. I'm still hoping we can reach a compromise with the gallery images being bigger by removing the ads from there. I'm hoping if I mention it enough, it will happen.

Dan

What, again?!? Obviously I didn't do it well enough during beta.

Ooh, hang on, got to make a cup of tea for the wife... Back in a bit.

Dan

Doh! I'll not get the chance to become a 'forum veteran' now!

Oh, what's this - a silver medal! That is much better.

Chris

OK then, suggestion, please do not remove features we have been used to for several years, please put them ALL back.

We'd rather not waste time adding features that are never used. Please let us know what you used that's now missing.

Have to disagree on the latter point Dan. I moderate on another photography forum, we get three distinct groups of members
1) Those who post exclusively in the forum section
2) Those who post exclusively in the gallery section
3) Those who do a bit of both (probably the smallest group of the three)

At the moment, because the gallery is a new feature, the established membership here is probably going to fall into category 1) with a migration to group 3) as the gallery becomes more established. New members may well be die-hard group 2) users, we have PLENTY of members who never even look at messages, but leave lots of comments on gallery images.

We do agree on the 550px max dimension for gallery posts, and I see that this applies to images linked into posts too now. This is really pants. I find the old max of 800px overly restrictive for landscape format, though it was fine for portrait format. 550px is ludicrously small for a landscape format picture. If we were all running screens set to 800x600 then I could understand, but not these days, please.

Can I suggest max pixels 1024 wide or 800 high be adopted?

Duncan

Just a question about the 'new posts' feature that appears to be missing. We have implemented the bright green icon and bolding of the topic for this...is it missing something somewhere. As far as we can tell it works the same.