Hua Hin Forum software/server upgrades

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Big Boy
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Big Boy »

AFAIK, the only additional information is:
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Pleng »

The icons never used to scroll; and they weren't half as ugly on the old site.

The new site, functionally, is unquestionably a great improvement. The responsive layout, is great. The fact that the title now starts with the name of the topic/forum, rather than just saying "Hua Hin Forum" is also great.

But aesthetically it's a headache. The forum/topic icons are the ugliest I've seen on any forum - then the fact that some of them are animated is extremely off putting, especially when there's several of them rolling around on a page [also, I still have no idea *why* some of them are animated and some not??], and the inconsistent round/square corners really look out of place. I'm also not sure about the poster's details being on the right-hand side as opposed to the left where they usually are; but maybe that's just a personal thing.

Like I say, the new functionality is great, but the layout issues really overshadow it. They're easy enough issues to resolve though - bring back the old topic icons, and sort out the corners and it'll look a whole lot better.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by margaretcarnes »

Big Boy wrote:But they've been there for years :? Why are they suddenly a problem? Have you extended your view to full width?
Erm - full width? No - nothing has changed screen wise BB. It's those little circles to the left of the posts with the script scrolling up in them all the time. I must admit that if they were there before they went un-noticed. Now they seem to dominate and distract.
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Lev
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Lev »

Lev wrote:The new software has two display options which should alleviate MOST display problems:
maxwidth.jpg
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Lev wrote:Using the view new posts link alleviates the need to pay attention to the post icons.
Its seems we have a small hardcore group of moaners and fault-pickers that will not be satisfied whatever we do. There are ways to avoid the minor niggles they have addressed and we have suggested them. The icons are part of the software package as your desktop Windows ones are part of the operating system, yes they can be changed but it is not a job that will be undertaken to please one or two posters. As already mentioned we are considering toning the colours down a little however if the majority are not bothered about them the exercise will be futile.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by richard »

Personally I like it and of course you are never going to please everyone. A few friends who use it but don't post have told me it has confused them but it's the same old story. Something new scares many people. After a few pointers it is acceptable to them.

Maybe for those who are struggling to master it a thread explaining the differences and icon meanings etc could be put together. I'm sure you've some mods out there twiddling their thumbs.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Pleng »

Lev wrote: Its seems we have a small hardcore group of moaners and fault-pickers that will not be satisfied whatever we do. There are ways to avoid the minor niggles they have addressed and we have suggested them. The icons are part of the software package as your desktop Windows ones are part of the operating system, yes they can be changed but it is not a job that will be undertaken to please one or two posters. As already mentioned we are considering toning the colours down a little however if the majority are not bothered about them the exercise will be futile.
I haven't seen anyone moaning. All I have seen are questions, and feedback. Which, and sorry if I got this wrong, is what I thought the point of the thread was?

What I do see, as always (and why I very nearly didn't bother responding in the first place...), is constructive criticism being taken personally rather than objectively.

I personally have pointed out a couple faults with the site, and suggested ways you could, should you wish, overcome them. This is not a moan, it is feedback and an attempt to help improve things. If I'd just said 'the site looks butt ugly' then you could class that as a moan. But I didn't...
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Lev »

Pleng wrote: I personally have pointed out a couple faults with the site, and suggested ways you could, should you wish, overcome them. This is not a moan, it is feedback and an attempt to help improve things. If I'd just said 'the site looks butt ugly' then you could class that as a moan. But I didn't...
Faults in YOUR eyes are not faults in the eyes of others - some people are just are overly critical and negative by nature, others just accept that with updates come changes. YOUR problem with the aesthetics do not affect the functionality or purpose of this website. Live with it.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Pleng »

Lev wrote: Live with it.
This is exactly the kind of response I was expecting, unfortunately.

Let me make one thing clear - The impact to my life of changes made to this site are really, very limited. Really, what changes you do or don't decide to make to this site will not affect me in any way, shape or form. With that out of the way can we not just chill out a bit and think that maybe, just maybe I am just trying to be helpful and provide the feedback that you asked for.

As far as I can see through this thread, there are essentially four issues which have been raised (barring the tapatalk problems which I gather have been resolved). Two with layout and two with the icons.

The layout issues are firstly colour scheme, and secondly the mixture of square-round corners.
The colour scheme is, of course, subjective. I actually happen to like it.
The issue of the mixed-styles for corners pretty much a fundamental rule of design - don't do it!

Take a look at the two screen shots below. The first is from a topic - where the layout sticks to one type (apart from the sidebar which I have left out for the sake of this comparison). The design is fluid and unconfused. The second one is the topics list; and this also applies to the thread list inside a topic. The boxy corners inside the rounded corners look awkward; it looks like they've been cut out of somewhere else and pasted on.
View Topic
View Topic
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Forum/Topic list
Forum/Topic list
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The two issues raised with the icons again fit into two types... there's the aesthetics... personally I think they're ugly but, as I'm the only person who's raised this, perhaps it's just me.

The second issue is the fact that many of the topic icons, for whatever reason, are animated. Again this is a fundamental UX rule - don't overload your display with unnecessary animations.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I am *not* complaining, I am simply giving my time over to provide feedback which can be used to improve the site, if you so choose. If nothing happens after giving this advise, then my life will continue on as normal. There's no need to get defensive though. That you have a great site here, and it really is a brilliant resource for all its users, goes without saying. The fluid layout is great, the forum fits onto all size screens now without any issues. The re-organising of the page title is also positive, and will probably move you even higher up the search rankings. But as with anything, there's always room for improvement. If you don't like, or disagree with, the feedback provided then fine, but there's no need to class any feedback other than received as 'negative' and 'nitpicking'.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by buksida »

Don't think there are many site owners that would like being persistently told how to design their websites. Most of what we see here is out-of-box phpBB standard software with a few colour tweaks and a sidebar. I personally see no problem whatsoever with it aside from on a really small mobile screen, but there I use Tapatalk which does the job perfectly.

Maybe you should write to phpBB and tell them how to develop their code and change their layouts that millions of forums are using across the globe.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Bristolian »

Now that the fixes have been completed for iPad and RSS feeds I'm a happy bunny and the overall appearance, in my opinion, is better than the previous version. Thanks for completing the fixes.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Frank Hovis »

Big Boy wrote:
margaretcarnes wrote:
Frank Hovis wrote:I find the 'New Posts' screen a little bit busy and tightly packed, maybe a bit more spacing between posts would help.
I also find the 'unread posts' icon to be very small and not instantly obvious that there are unread posts.
Also... those scrolling icons are quite distracting.

Just my tuppence...

Apart from that everything seems OK.
Agreed Frank.
So what would you like removed?
It's not so much as 'removed' as just tweaked a little bit. A little bit of spacing in the list of posts, in my opinion, makes the main page easier to read quickly.

Here's a slightly spaced out version compared to the current version
spaced.jpg
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squashed.jpg
It's not much but to my eyes the spaced out version is much easier to read. I also think it would be a little better if the 'section/forum' name for each post was either the second line, or the third line, and not at the end of the "by POSTER >> Thu Mar 19, 2015 8:18pm >> in SECTION NAME" line, something like the LPGA thread that just happens to have squashed 'Sports Fans' onto the third line.

I don't remember the icons on the left being so intrusive, maybe it's the colour change, I don't find the grey/blue animated icon quite a distracting as the red one oddly enough.

And 'the view first unread posts' icon, which is the one I always use to get to the right part of the thread seems to be very small to hit (again that could be my eyes and my skills with a mouse) but for me that is the only 'button' on the 'new posts' page I ever press and it's the smallest target on the whole page. But now I'm looking at it does that tiny little icon do exactly the same thing as the animated icon? If it does then that's OK and perhaps the tiny icon could be removed.

I'm not against the new site design, but there's a couple of things that I feel would just make it a little easier (for me at least) to use the site.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Big Boy »

I ask again, "Are you using the full width version?" It has to be set yourself. I've stated how to do it once, and Lev has stated it at least 3 times.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Big Boy »

Mine looks like this using full width, which is not unlike your request.
Wide.png
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by Frank Hovis »

Big Boy wrote:I ask again, "Are you using the full width version?" It has to be set yourself. I've stated how to do it once, and Lev has stated it at least 3 times.
I've switched to full width but don't see any difference, possibly because my screen is quite small full-width and not-full-width are about the same size.
fullwidth.jpg
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I'm not really complaining as such, it's just all a bit tight for me. I can just run it at 125% where there's a bit more definition to the post titles.
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Re: Hua Hin Forum software upgrade

Post by pharvey »

I'm obviously missing something, but with regards to posting photographs: -

I can see where you can post a photo by using the "Img" function and provide the web link, but how do you post/load a picture from file?

Ta muchly in advance.....

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