gregf83 

Make this:


Look like this:

gregf83 

Provide the option to remove the thread preview from the 'new post' screen.

gregf83 

Post a list of known bugs or problems being worked on as a sticky. That way people won't have to read through 600 messages to determine if the problem they are reporting has already been noted and is being worked on.

RedC

It has been said making the fonts larger would help us old folks. The other problem I'm having is probably my ignorance but I used to get to the bottom of the thread and choose to continue with that group, ie fifty plus or clydesdale by clicking on the button but that doesn't seem to be as easy as before what am I doing wrong?

RedC

Quick Navigation! that's what I was trying to make work. So maybe it's not just me

pacificaslim

GregF's "make this look like this post," very clearly shows one of the major problems people keep complaining about: too much white space! Thanks for posting that example. (heck, it could even be smaller since there is still wasted space between Tom's name and the title of site administrator. It doesn't need all that space for some stars and that "more info" down arrow: that wraps to another line because tom's name is long, but there are better solutions than that).

Tom, please get someone who knows what they are doing to go in and fix the style sheets and move things around to be more efficient.

kendall

Sorry, to me it looks like the scheme we used in the k-4 section of the special ed wing.
contains everything I disliked about Xp when it came out. The whole fisher price/preschool layout has to go.

Sorry, but I get offended when I am presented with something that uses all the visual cues that are recommended for low IQ subjects.

Ken.

jur

Compare these 2 screenshots which I had left over in my Opera start screen: Guess which one is using screen real estate better with the same elements displayed.
Attachment 126912

Can the new one be fixed? This is important especially with netbooks with limited screen real estate and many widescreens which are wide but not that tall.

gtofan

I cannot post new threads, get a screen with the yellow banner....can someone PM me to get more details....started after switch to new version, thanks.

This is what I get:

Bearonabike

I find myself visiting less and liking that more. I understand the stability issues but frankly, that concern subjugated the user interface and that affected the traffic levels that make BF a success. I can't help but notice the traffic is down, to correspond with the minuscule font size my 40+ eyes have a hard time seeing. My recommendation is to develop format options for those if us who:

1) Want to see more threads per page. The current software makes me page through too much. We all know that a thread relegated to page 2 is dead. I work for a living and find topics I am interested in have few responses because, while they were new at 8:00 AM, by 6:00 PM they are page 3 news.

2) Kill the white space. It looks like it may have been reduced some, but it needs to be reduced another 50%.

3) Enlarge the font. Reading BF now hurts after 10 minutes, making me, and likely others, want to go elsewhere.

4) Enhance the contrast.

5) Avoid Beta anything. No better way to go from the first to the worst than to pick software that hasn't been beaten a bit. BF doesn't need any new bells and whistles to establish itself, it is (or at least was) out front. If change is necessary (an I know it was) then move from strength to strength. What I've seen has convinced me NOT to subscribe. Right now, it simply isn't worth the money.

koffee brown

People complaining, whether annoying or not, have valid concerns. Rather than admonishing and scolding, it should be an opportunity to listen and learn.

I have 20/20 vision, and I can't read bikeforums that well. The white space is a bit much for me. My rods and cones (joke) are not stimulated very well by the baby blues and pinks. I don't think the font size works very well. Can there be a way for members to choose what font they'd like to see, click on it, and be able to read it better? Half the time, I feel like I'm squinting and I have a headache when I'm done.

Why isn't there some kind of handy guide to how to use all these new features? I don't really spend much time on bikeforums, but I'm not finding that I have a lot of time trying to figure out what everything means. In any forum I've ever frequented, I've always found them easy to read and easy to navigate. I'm not finding it as easy to figure out what all the bells and whistles are.

Finally, why stick with the vBulletin? If you're paying for a service, and they can't provide it, rather than just get some new crap beta junk they've thrown together, can't you take the time to shop around and try out different software programs that might work better for you? I'm sure vBulletin isn't the only software program on the planet.

If you plan to stay with vBulletin, at least give some kind of guide as to what everything means, consider changing the colors, and enlarging the font. Well, at least before I go blind.

koffee

randya

+1 on bigger font sizes - especially in the text entry boxes - and on less bright white background and pastel colors.

also +1 on more threads per page, I can't find anywhere in the user controls to change the settings for this.

maybe consider hiring a person with some actual graphic design experience to help make things look better?

also, we're still waiting for a 'go to last post' by thread link like the old format had, not having this makes navigation to the last post of any thread considerably more difficult

thanks!

randya

this is not true. clicking on the time of the last post only takes you to the top of the last page, not to the actual last post

bmclaughlin807

May be different for different browsers.... works fine for me.

randya

I'm using Safari

bmclaughlin807

Chrome here. I know there are some issues with IE (who uses that, anyway?)

gtofan

Anybody know a moderator who is online frequently that can help me with my prob in the earlier post?

Been visiting this board for 6 years and I feel we need to go back to the other version with larger fonts...all that we needed.

tntyz

Assuming you mean the ability to start a new thread . . . When you get the screen that you see in post #84, try hitting the TAB key a few times. You should eventually see the boxes you need for entering the subject and content.

It's not so obvious, but that page (on IE 8 at least) is coming in as really wide and the input boxes are centered on it, so you have to scroll to get to it. Though it is actually faster to TAB as noted above. Thanks to the crew at BF for this suggestion.

gtofan

Thanks....that't the ticket.....try to scroll and it goes by in a blink..missed it everytime.

nekohime

First lemme just say great job on fixing the white space problem! There still is too much white, but at least now it's tolerable compared to before when I would want to run around tearing my eyes out after visiting BF.

So now onto the problems/suggestions:

1) Can we change the color of the light gray headers to each post? Something dark colored, rather than light colored, would work better in distinguishing posts from each other and would also help alleviate the problem of too much eye strain due to too much white and washed out colors. I suggest using some shade of blue; I kinda like the blue that is used for the +Reply to Thread button, but I understand that if you use that shade there will be problems distinguishing elements. Maybe a darker gray, perhaps? Ok, I will stop rambling. Bottomline: change the light gray headers, it is icky.

2) I'm using firefox 3.5.5, and I cannot, for the life of me, see the buttons that used to be there in the posting box. Cannot see smiley box, cannot see quote, link, insert pic, buttons etc. It is driving me nuts to have to type in stuff like the [whatever tag codes] instead of being able to just click a button and have the code inserted for you.

randya

here's another problem I'm noticing repeatedly:

when you use 'reply with quote', the cursor in the text screen should ideally open below the quote you are replying to, but if the quote you are replying to is more than a sentence or two, the cursor in the text box opens somewhere in the middle of the quote itself.

Roody

Along with the lack of a Forum Jump button that actually works, the small font and low contrast is very close to driving me away from Bikeforums after several years of use.

Also, the avatars are too small. Since member upgrades are supposed to include larger avatars, this is a breach of contract, IMO.

dendawg

You used to be able to go directly to the last page of a thread directly from the thread header. Now I have to open a thread before I can navigate to the last page.

pacificaslim

That isn't exactly true, it's just that the way to do it is not very obvious. When you look at a thread in the index, you will see the name of the last person to post and the time they did so. If you click on that time, you'll be taken to that post on the last page.

Alternatively, to the left of the thread title words themselves you'll see a circle with two downward facing arrows in it. That link will take you to the first unread post in the thread, i.e. if you finished after the second post on page three, and then come back to the forum later and the thread is ten pages long, clicking on that arrow thing will take you the third post on page three and you can read from there all the new posts.

The fact those two things aren't obvious to us means the site is poorly designed. Period.

randya

this doesn't work in all browsers, in Safari clicking on the time of last post only takes you to the top of the last page