New Style Forum Layout

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Now everyone without an avatar has one, the same generic one. On the plus side it actually looks like me.

Amazing what happened to my avatar.. It didn't used to have the frame around it, but it magically appeared, and in the right color too..

May be due to the transparent background that I have been using because I got tired of updating hte background color every time the board theme background color changed slightly. (Various shades of very light blue in the past)

[IMA_FARANG]

Now everyone without an avatar has one, the same generic one. On the plus side it actually looks like me.

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Well, I HAD one.....but NOW I don't.

So how do I get it back in this new format?

[smokie36]

Now everyone without an avatar has one, the same generic one. On the plus side it actually looks like me.

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Well, I HAD one.....but NOW I don't.

So how do I get it back in this new format?

There was a post a few pages back about reloading it if its from a third party.

[StreetCowboy]

WIth the mangling of the "Streetcowboy's Content" page - I nearly wasn't, when I saw that - I was sorely tempted to resurrect some long-dead threads (no - I mean forum posting chains, not like my bell-bottoms) - then I remembered Boris Karloff, and let sleeping dogs lie.

I'm hoping that the recent content lists will be successfully recompiled and brought up to date, as I use that as my principal entry page to Thai Visa; to see which conversations I'm involved in that are still live...

SC

[Chivas]

Pattaya Addicts and Pattayatalk have adopted the same style, and I have to be honest and say its awful....

They changed their format months ago and its still utter carp-sorry...

Edited December 22, 2011 by Chivas

[sfokevin]

In the Thread Summary Page I wish the second headline in a thread would be on the second line and not just start right after the first bold headline and then wordwrap to the second line...

And in the top right the view new content & teardrop seems to overlap something else?...

Love all those ads...

[monkfish]

Wow great to see there is now a real code editor!

Is there documentation on coding standards ? Does it support full HTML?

New look isn't too bad and just needs polishing up a bit, sure it will offer a lot more functionality than before and help users make nicer looking posts.

[thaibeachlovers]

My content has lost everything since early November, so far as I can tell. Very frustrating as I use that to know what is worth looking at- I'm not going to check anything without new replies since I last looked.

So what do I do now? start again?

[threedot]

total garbage. too much white space. too much padding. too many ads. it doesn't use relative widths so i have a large RH margin. poor navigation. have you ever considered beta testing before you deploy live?

[Jingthing]

Mixed reaction. Look and feel pretty good.

However:

I really don't like that the subheadlines are no longer visible.

Often they are VITAL to understanding what the post is about, so you end up clicking on topics you would have filtered out before when you had the fuller information.

I also feel blocking those is a major DUMBING DOWN of the forum. Like style over substance. I feel it is actually an insult to our intelligence and posting efforts to even still offer the subhead field when you are blocking it.

Here is an example of how seriously BAD this blocking change really is.

A recent topic called

Request Info shows ONLY Request info.

The subhead which is HIDDEN says

Personal website space & domain name

Think how many people who have NO INTEREST in this topic will look at it, wasting their time, when if they had been able to read the subheading, most wouldn't have.

Spacing, margin issues, etc.

I have a wide screen. On the old design when I loaded slingplayer to view right hand side of my screen, the forum would adjust automatically. Now it doesn't.

Edited December 22, 2011 by Jingthing

[Lizard2010]

I thought it was me with the PM area.

Hope to see it soon.

I will have to look into changing my Avatar too it looks weird!

It will take a while to get used to the new format.

Ahh well this is progress on the Internet.

Edited December 22, 2011 by Lizard2010

[uptheos]

Sunglasses at 0630....hmm.

[janverbeem]

We actually have a goto top arrow, bottom of all pages in the middle.

I looked all over for it and finally found it. It's nearly invisible on my screen so maybe tweak the contrast up a bit?

Top image - not selected, bottom image mouse hover over

That works nicely to get you back to the top immediately then can select the Forum choice window.

But it means that if you're in the middle of the page,you first have to scroll to the bottom to click on the button , to get to the top. Useless.

Strange response. If you're in the middle of the page you have to scroll 50% of the way either direction to get to the top. My response was to the issue of the previous location of the Forum scroll bar being at the bottom of the page, which I suspect most of the time we will be at due to reading to the end of the topic and an easy way to get to the new Forum list location.

In the previous version of the forum there was a "go to top" button below every post,which make it easier to go back to top instead of needing to scroll unneccessary through sometimes a very long page of posts you don't want to read.

[jackr]

As it wasn't broken why fix it? Some IT nerds believe they have to change sh1t just for the sake of it.

Unlikely just for the change; more likely saving bandwidth, security, and making ads more visible.

I am sure its great for other small forums to be able to run an ad free forum but Thaivisa is rather expensive to run and is free for you to use.

Too right it's free. The only reason TV is where it is is because of the user. It seems many a mod overlook this fundamental thing. No user, no content, no content to censor, no site.

[longball53098]

when will the control at the bottom reapper so you can move between forums easier?

It's available now as a popup window by clicking on the tear drop top right side. Much cleaner and easier to navigate IMO.

I'm thinking the "teardrop" thingy needs to be at the bottom near the end of the topic list,,,,,,,,when i finished reading a topic no need to scroll back up to the top,,,,,,,,or can there be a second one at the bottom?

[Tywais]

when will the control at the bottom reapper so you can move between forums easier?

It's available now as a popup window by clicking on the tear drop top right side. Much cleaner and easier to navigate IMO.

I'm thinking the "teardrop" thingy needs to be at the bottom near the end of the topic list,,,,,,,,when i finished reading a topic no need to scroll back up to the top,,,,,,,,or can there be a second one at the bottom?

George is looking into doing that. In the meantime when you are at the bottom you can click on the Goto Top arrow (Just under Site Search box) to reach the 'teardrop' thingy.

[sceadugenga]

My first reaction was quite positive.

Needs a little tweak here and there though.

[flying]

It's easy to add that to the bottom as well. I'll talk to webmaster.

Cheers

That would be great !

As others have mentioned....The bottom of any page is where you usually are when you want to jump to another sub-section of the forum.

Other than that the new version seems quite trouble free IMHO

Some of the flash items are nice too...

Like just pointing to a users name & seeing the info without clicking on it.

The only other small complaint is the contrast of the topic titles on any gven sub-section.

Could me my eyes but it seems it could be a bit bolder in contrast?

Maybe it is the dark blue on light blue?

Other than that small complaint the new system seems to be working well.

Thanks

[isanbirder]

Two comments:-

To open a thread through Latest post, I find myself clicking on the name, and getting the poster's profile. It's not really clear which bit you should click.

My avatar (that again!) has been cropped on both sides. The key feature of this bird (which has just had a thread opened about it in Pets etc) is the knob on the end of the beak! I checked with my profile, and it's OK there.

[smokie36]

Two comments:-

To open a thread through Latest post, I find myself clicking on the name, and getting the poster's profile. It's not really clear which bit you should click.

My avatar (that again!) has been cropped on both sides. The key feature of this bird (which has just had a thread opened about it in Pets etc) is the knob on the end of the beak! I checked with my profile, and it's OK there.

Yes the Admin team have no idea the limits of our vanity!

Get my hammock swinging again pronto!!

[whybother]

In the previous version of the forum there was a "go to top" button below every post,which make it easier to go back to top instead of needing to scroll unneccessary through sometimes a very long page of posts you don't want to read.

The <Home> and <End> keys take me to the top and bottom of the page. No need for mouse clicking.

Edited December 23, 2011 by whybother

[whybother]

Two comments:-

To open a thread through Latest post, I find myself clicking on the name, and getting the poster's profile. It's not really clear which bit you should click.

My avatar (that again!) has been cropped on both sides. The key feature of this bird (which has just had a thread opened about it in Pets etc) is the knob on the end of the beak! I checked with my profile, and it's OK there.

That was the same in the previous version. Once you've looked at a couple of profiles, you'll learn not to click on the name. If you don't learn, well ....

[xthAi76s]

Can this be pinned up everywhere so people see it? People are starting other topics related to the upgrade/changes, and even threatening to leave TV in some cases!!

[smokie36]

The emoticons are back to front. Can this small thing be rectified as well please?

[Travel2003]

Is it not normal to launch a test first, before launching the final product?

[whybother]

Is it not normal to launch a test first, before launching the final product?

It's the final product. There are always going to be minor glitches in a major software release.

None of the issues have stopped people from using the forum.

[whybother]

Bug: When quoting more than 4 nested quotes, the message (or along the lines of) "Quote mismatch" is displayed. It used to be "You can not have more than 4 nested quotes".

[george]

My content has lost everything since early November, so far as I can tell. Very frustrating as I use that to know what is worth looking at- I'm not going to check anything without new replies since I last looked.

So what do I do now? start again?

No content is lost. All is in the database. We are currently re-indexing the search database with more than 15GB of data, so it will take a while. Please be patient as we work as fast as we can.

Cheers

[george]

The emoticons are back to front. Can this small thing be rectified as well please?

We will be looking into the sorting order of the emoticons.

Thanks.

[AleG]

I think the overall look is good, but there are some points that I think need addressing.

-The page header is badly organized, there's a lot of wasted space there, I think the top black bar, the blue bar with the ThaiVisa logo and the menu bar bellow that could be condensed into a single element using up half or less the vertical space.

-The area under the header is also too spread out, the thread title is too large, the large blue bar with the post number for the thread is large and quite frankly useless, again that area could be condensed to half or less the space it takes up now.

-The smileys, ugh, very very awkward to use, now you have to click on the icon to open the bar under the text input field, that shakes up the layout and you lose focus on where you were writing, then the show all button opens a separate pop up, bad, very bad!. It was much better before with the scrolling list on the side.

-Embedded images, I've been asking for this since the previous upgrade, please allow images to be opened in a new tab. I actually quit visiting and participating in the photography forum because of this, it's incredibly annoying when trying to discuss an image to have to open and close it all the time. Before I could open an image on a separate browser tab, and I could easily switch between the image and the text on the thread, now the only way to open an image obscures the rest of the thread and only one image can be opened at a time.

-The quick navigation icon is very hard to notice or to know what it does, it should be either a button with text, dunno, like... "Quick Navigation" or a much more descriptive icon be used.

-The user names on posts should be bolded, now it's a thin blue font over a blue background and it's difficult to see.

-On the main forum page, the subforum list is way too spread out, I don't think its necessary to display the user avatars there, the separation between sub forums is almost invisible and some of the forum descriptions are excessively long. All adds up to a LOT of scrolling needed to navigate that page.

-The thread preview button must die, bring back the short text from the first post when hovering over the thread title, as it is now it's just the same to simply open the thread in a new tab, takes about the same amount of time and effort than opening the preview panel and then having to close it again.