How do we like the NEW Forum

Since this seems to be the most appropriate thread for commenting on the new forum format, I'll put my 2 cents in. My only criticism right now is the narrowness of the text area due to the various blocks (sponsors, recent posts, online now) on the right. Why not just go with the sponsor blocks as before (alternating at the top of the forum page display), and reposition the other stuff so the forum text can extend all the way across the screen. Also less scrolling involved when the replies take up less vertical space.   

Actually, a consideration in publication design--online or elsewhere--is what is known as "optimum line length," which impacts readability and the ability of a reader's eyes to transition from one line to the next.  That optimum line length is largely based on font selection and size.  If lines stretched all the way across the screen area, they likely would be harder to read and follow, especially in paragraph form.  Seems to me that what we have now is just about the max as far as these readability factors are concerned.

it's getting better each day as I use it am finding my way around again.

with the help from a few here have found ways to get back to top of page 

so a learning curve.

posting photos hands down a pleasant experience even from my Iphone!

only change and this is on hoop.la the app for iphone is missing features if 1 or more pages of posts not shown or to jump to last post. am sure theres more so I usually view at work via safari on iphone.

lastly today I made it onto the members online showing my photo alas no brass band LOL!

a big thank you to Rich and beta folks for getting this up and running now if only our problem riddled at times layouts could be fixed\ remodeled with a mouse click!

have a great day all,

$oo

Now I know why I seldom went on the other magazines forum

Will premium members pay or will they just need to subscribe to OGR? It might give people an extra nudge to subscribe either electronically or to the snail mail version.

Jerry, if you do not have your browser window maximized (filling the whole screen) try that. If you are not running it maximized and prefer not to run it that way, click and drag the side of the browser window to make it larger horizontally. The text area will enlarge with your window, thus making it wider.

If neither one of those solutions helps, it may be related to monitor size and your display resolution settings. Look around page 11 in the "Questions? Problems?" thread. There was a discussion about this problem there.

When we are ready to launch the Premium Memberships, we'll give you all the details about it. It is a ways off yet and we're not ready for to launch it now. I have a lot of work to do in-house before we'll be ready to launch. We still have some decisions to make about what we can include in the Premium Membership.

We are thinking of calling it the "First Class Pass." What do you think about that name? Got something better?

$oo Line

Is this what you are asking about?  On the iPhone app there is a little gear looking icon in the very upper right corner just below where the battery level icon is when you are in the OGR iPhone App.  If you click that you get this screen

The third option down is jump to last reply.

I'm sure that you know this but the new forum doesn't work as well as it did in the iPhone browser. Now I know I can download an app but apps require switching from my browser surfing of other pages and forums. If I have to have an app for every website forum it gets a little ridiculous.  Now I can read posts in the browser, it just isn't as good as the old forum in the normal browser mode. Yes - I know what your going to say - why would I need to surf anywhere but OGR forum

It's not going to change, but the more I see of it the less I like it.

I'm getting used to it.  This weekend's photo fun has to be the largest ever, likely due to the ease of uploading photos now.

Curt

My first post via my new iMac, and the forum looks just fine! 

So, I see you got everything hooked up ok.  

Curt

Took a bit of time to get everything going and I still have some software to load (I've been away from the Mac environment for about eight years or so), but I do LOVE this new toy!

Not a big fan of this new Forum. The ease of flow through posts and searches for post of certain people etc. The ocular congestion is yet another topic. I was on the old Forum for almost 10 years, it was fine for me.

I guess i'll struggle along and adapt or just be here a little less.

SAM 

the forum is getting better, they are listening and improving!! thank you webmaster. the search function to find a members post is doable if you can figure it out, it could be a lot better, definitely room for improvement keep up the good work.

Rich,

I am a dairy farmer in WNY. When our spreader breaks down, (it never breaks when it's empty), that's annoying. It might even be difficult. If it's so cold the loader won't start so we can feed cows, that's irritating. White space and scrolling on a free forum? I think I can handle that. I use Firefox and Thunderbird and I got all your emails. I logged on the first day with no problem and I get no spam, period. I look forward to all posts from you and Allan because I know they will make sense. Keep up the good work and thanks for it all.

John

Thank you, John. You sound like a very pragmatic guy. Firefox and Thunderbird...hard to go wrong there. I use them both every day.

Glad you are enjoying the new forum.

Rich,

I just had a chance to get on the new site yesterday, and you have done some nice work getting it to where it is.  It says a lot that you have already made updates with respect to feedback that has been provided.  Overall it's a great step forward and clearly a change for the better.  I like the previous postings regarding the "Who Moved My Cheese" book, one of my favorites.  Nice job. . keep up the good work.

Jim

Still gives me a headache. Costing me more in asprin already. Just don't like the layout and color. Way too much white wasted space.

GG1GUYY

Rod:

In the upper right hand corner of the posts you make, there are several small icons two of which allow you to either trash the post (a small garbage can) or to edit it (a pencil and a piece of paper).  You have to move your cursor over the upper right hand corner before these will appear, however.

Curt

Overall the new format is just fine and bound to get better. Three things I notice that I'd personally love to see tweaked or improved, though.

One is the dropdown menus that appear at the slightest touch of the mouse pointer. Is it possible to make them highlight the item in the menu bar on rollover, but expand only when it's clicked. Right now, the "rollover" behavior activates too easily. (Honestly, this is an old, old web design beef of mine; I've always disliked it on other sites.)

There are fewer posts on a single page, which means more scrolling and clicking, in part because the row height for each post heading is bigger; don't know if this can be tweaked, but it might be better if it was just a touch more "dense" to enable quick visual scanning of the page.

The last is readability. I can't put my finger on why, though. May be it's a typeface thing, maybe the gray shading isn't quite right -- I really can't put my finger on it. But it's much harder on my eyes than the old forum. If there were a user option to select some basic typeface/background options, it might help.

One excellent feature, turned on by default, is the option to strip information embedded in uploaded photos. Modern cameras, especially cellphone cameras, capture a lot of information in hidden meta-data embedded in photos, and most folks don't even know it's there. It's nice for photo organizer software, but not always good to go leaking out onto the internet. Taking that information out is a great feature in the forum software.

Rich,

I've not found an equivalent "printer friendly" format function - or is that a function of my browser?  I found that function handy in saving threads to a pdf format.

Thank you for all your efforts.

Dave

In Firefox the Print function works fine as-is on these pages.

Wish it were faster than the old forum rather than slower.

I can't imagine the work and effort it must take to keep any forum up, much less get a new platform established. Most people; especially older ones are a creature of habit. I am the worst one of all, and God only knows how mad I get when someone messes with my cheese. But eventually, I learn the new course and feast on the prize at the end.

I've grown to enjoy the OGR rail forum more so than I do Facebook. And even better is that I get it all for free!

To each of you who make this forum possible, I tip my glass to you!

Kenny

Thank you very much, Kenny.

Tom, I think the Hoopla tech guys are still tweaking the server setup for this forum. We surprised them a bit with the level of activity here. When they get things fine-tuned a bit more, I think you'll see the speed pick up a bit more. This is a LOT faster than it was the first night. The server actually crashed for a few minutes that first night!

Try downloading "Google Chrome" for your web browser.  For me it runs about 3 times faster than FireFox or Internet Explorer.  It's more simplistic and takes a little getting used to.  Definitely worth a try.

https://www.google.com/chrome?&brand=CHMB&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk&utm_medium=ha

That is something that kind of bugs me, too.  I prefer, and am less distracted by, menu bars that require a click to view the drop downs.

I do not think it is the browser. I have an IMac G4 about 8 years old. Works the same on Safari or Firefox. Problem is the animated ads that have to be loaded and reloaded ,every time the page is changed. With this computer it is 5 to 10 seconds on every reload. This was not a problem on the old Forum. I will now have to install more software to block the animation. I already have software that disables Flash unless it is clicked on but the ads are some other format. On my wife's new Apple the pages load instantly with the Firefox browser. Not every viewer has the most up to date computer and browser so I think a lot of them will be left behind and Forum participation will wane.

The flash ads on the side (not the top) are very distracting as they are seen out of the corner of the eye when posts are read.

The drop down menu is like a gunfighter in a western with a hair trigger,annoying but no big deal. Probably a kid used to video games could outdraw it. 

Dale H 

Forum is still getting better all the time.  Only a couple things I would recommend enhancing...

- When you click a topic from the "Recent Posts" column on the right, it should take you to that specific post, instead of the beginning of the thread. Especially on multi-page threads

- Allow pictures to display their natural resolution.  Especially linked images.  I do really like the idea of the "quoted" pictures being reduced in size though.  This makes quotes more obvious.

- If we cannot display images in their natural resolution, perhaps add the option to click on linked images and expand them (just like uploaded images).  You'll notice all the members with professional photographs of items (especially the 2rl forum) use linked images from places like photobucket.  It's a shame everyone is missing out on the full image.

I agree that the "Recent Topics" links should take you to the last page in the thread. This has been suggested to the Tech people at Hoopla. I cannot change this.

There is no way to allow images to appear full size within the thread. They have to be re-sized down to fit the posting area. If images are uploaded via this site, then the re-sized image appears within the thread and the full-sized image can be seen by clicking on it.

If the images posted here are images linked from another site, there is no way to bring them in at full size. Because the image file is stored elsewhere and not on this server, we have no way to alter the file to change the size.

The solution is to encourage everyone to post their images directly on this server and not use linked images any more. The people that are posting linked images are using a process that is much more difficult than using the process built in to this forum. And since they are linked images and not hosted here, they cannot take advantage of all the features this forum has to offer.

That's odd.  The file is being altered as it's being displayed.  If you right click on any of these images and view them in a new browser tab, they still display at full resolution (ie: 1024x768).

When the same image is displayed here, Hoopla re-sizes it to the old narrow post width of 600x450.  I would think this has to be some setting within Hoopla about how images are displayed. 

I'm sorry to say I agree 100% with Bill Pierce's (the original poster) assessment. I find the new format much harder to navigate, and, like Bill, I also am visiting less because the Forum now has become much more cumbersome to use.

There's far less information presented on each page, which necessitates a lot more time spent scrolling and moving around, and makes gathering information far more confusing.

Besides this large problem, there are many smaller things that irritate, such as not having sellers' names posted with the Buy-Sell ads anymore. I would be pleased to see a return to the old format, with the exception of the improvements in posting pictures. That was the single biggest problem with the old format.

One poster here said "change is good." Such a blanket statement is terribly erroneous. Many times change is anything but good.

If I post my photos from Photobucket, as I have been so far, they do not expand, open in another tab.

I think that's what Rich was saying, they have no control over that, because the pictures are only 640x480, they don't get any bigger.

Your photos are being resized from 640x480 down to 600x450 when you post them here.  For you the size difference is not that obvious, but for other peoples images it can be substantial.  If you right-click on the image and select "open in new tab" (an option on firefox and chrome), the image will come up in original resolution of 640x480.

Here try it with one of mine.  It's photobucket size is 1024x768, but Hoopla is displaying it as 600x450.  Notice it's the exact same as the quote width above.  Now right click on this image and select "Open image in new tab" (if your browser has that feature):

I'm telling ya, it's not a Photobucket issue, it's just how Hooplah is still trying to make SOME things still fit in the original "narrow" post width. 

What I was saying was, the photos I post from Photobucket are 640x480. I use Photobucket to post on forums, that is the norm on most forums. So those pics would not get substantially larger. But I do sort of see what you're saying. Maybe Hoopla has no "control" because the photos are links and not the actual upload.

Of course they could copy all those pics and repost them for us.

You really should think about switching your pics to be 1024x768.  Especially with your legendary modeling and photography skills.  In fact, I would say that 1024 will be obsolete soon for internet images with even current monitor technology. My 2 year old work monitors are 1920x1200 and I have two of them making a 3840x1200 desktop  (which I understand is kinda crazy big compared to the norm).  The pictures on this site look like tiny post cards sometimes... 

It's definitely Hoopla that re-sizes the images.  And I'm pretty sure it has to do with them fitting everything into that original narrow format.  Perhaps the web designers are just not aware of it yet. 

My pics are 3072x2304, that's just not what I post on forums.

I haven't taken any new pics since the changeover.

All this trouble with photos could be eliminated if you would upload your pictures DIRECTLY HERE instead of linking them from other photo hosting sites. Then all the features this forum has to offer will be available when viewing the images.