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Introvertebrate

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Dec 18, 2010
Messages
1,199
Maybe not the right place to post this, but I love the new look and feel. The site, in general, seems to perform faster too.
 

MrDeranged

He Who Rules
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2002
Messages
2,000
Glad that you're liking it. The newer software is built to utilize the newer back end more efficiently, so there will hopefully be performance improvements all around.
 

Pyroxian

Arachnophobophiliac
Joined
Aug 31, 2019
Messages
187
There are a couple of things I actually dislike about the update. @MrDeranged is there a more "official" avenue for discussing such, or is this thread appropriate?
 

MrDeranged

He Who Rules
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2002
Messages
2,000
There are a couple of things I actually dislike about the update. @MrDeranged is there a more "official" avenue for discussing such, or is this thread appropriate?
You can always start a conversation with me if you'd like to keep it private.
 

Pyroxian

Arachnophobophiliac
Joined
Aug 31, 2019
Messages
187
You can always start a conversation with me if you'd like to keep it private.
No need for privacy, just didn't want to derail this thread if you have a preferred other avenue. The issues are rather minor and are certainly not "sensitive", so I'll just mention them here, if you prefer to split it to a different thread, please do.

1st is the fact that in the "what's new" view (lightning bolt icon in top bar), the threads with new replies and those without are both shown, only differentiated by bold font in the title for those with new replies. The old behavior of only showing threads with new activity was much easier to use on mobile.

2nd is the absence of a "mark forums read" in said top menu bar. As far as I can tell, the only way to mark all as read is to pull out the side menu, open the forums sub menu and then mark as read.

These are 2 small but annoying changes combine to make keeping current much less intuitive and makes what used to be a very simple workflow feel clunky.

3rd, the editor when replying on mobile keeps jumping around hiding itself behind my keyboard such that I can't see what I've already typed without repeatedly dragging the window back into view.

To be clear, I like much of the revamp, and performance does seem better, but useability seems to have suffered.
 
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Ungoliant

Malleus Aranearum
Staff member
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
4,096
1st is the fact that in the "what's new" view (lightning bolt icon in top bar), the threads with new replies and those without are both shown, only differentiated by bold font in the title for those with new replies. The old behavior of only showing threads with new activity was much easier to use on mobile.
Even on the desktop version, the threads with new posts are not as conspicuous as they were before.
 

MrDeranged

He Who Rules
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2002
Messages
2,000
Instead of using the "lightning bolt", have you tried using the "New posts"? I don't believe that they're quite the same.

1580505521453.png

Also, when you use "New posts" you should see the following:

1580505641916.png

As for the editor issue, this is the first that I'm hearing of it, but I will try to look into it further.
 

Pyroxian

Arachnophobophiliac
Joined
Aug 31, 2019
Messages
187
I'll add also that the change to post reactions, both the fact that the icon for a given reaction changed (informative is now a star for example) and that the text version of said post reaction not being shown are going to at least take some getting used to. (Probably the least significant, but worth mentioning)

Instead of using the "lightning bolt", have you tried using the "New posts"? I don't believe that they're quite the same.

View attachment 332562

Also, when you use "New posts" you should see the following:

View attachment 332563

As for the editor issue, this is the first that I'm hearing of it, but I will try to look into it further.
That new posts vs what's new is much closer to the old behavior, but still lacks the immediate single-click simplicity of the lightning bolt simply because it isn't present in the persistent menu bar. Thanks for the tip, I'll use that view instead, but would love if the persistent menu had it available (or if the persistent menu lightning bolt defaulted to "new posts" instead of "what's new".

Edited to add - after further use of the "new posts" view, my concern about the persistent menu lightning bolt being more convenient is greatly reduced as I see that there is indeed a link to "new posts" in the second from top menu bar for the forum view. It'll just be a change of habit for me to click that vs going straight to the lightning bolt.
 

MrDeranged

He Who Rules
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2002
Messages
2,000
There's going to be a small learning curve for everyone I think. Like with any new OS, once you get used to the new quirks, you'll hopefully forget all about the "old" way of doing things. :D
 

Pyroxian

Arachnophobophiliac
Joined
Aug 31, 2019
Messages
187
There's going to be a small learning curve for everyone I think. Like with any new OS, once you get used to the new quirks, you'll hopefully forget all about the "old" way of doing things. :D
How dare you sir. How dare you bring logic into an internet discussion forum. ;)
The bouncing editor (which I suspect is from the draft saving and notification of new messages in thread processes) is about the only one of my niggles that I don't think I can just get used to. I will do some further testing with different mobile browsers to see if it behaves differently and if I can find a browser which doesn't exhibit that behavior.
 

MrDeranged

He Who Rules
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2002
Messages
2,000
How dare you sir. How dare you bring logic into an internet discussion forum. ;)
The bouncing editor (which I suspect is from the draft saving and notification of new messages in thread processes) is about the only one of my niggles that I don't think I can just get used to. I will do some further testing with different mobile browsers to see if it behaves differently and if I can find a browser which doesn't exhibit that behavior.
Please let me know if you figure anything out. :) It's a learning curve for us as well. We can only test so much before we have to let you guys use it and then really find out all the things that we didn't notice were issues ;)
 

Arthroverts

Arachnoking
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
2,462
Hello all, as a serious invertebrate enthusiast I am very happy to see Arachnoboards, the premier place for connecting with other hobbyists, is back up. However, I have some (hopefully) constructive criticism.

First, let me start out by saying the new buttons and pages at the top (What's new, Reviews, Media, et. al) are excellent. Really like how the images are larger than in the previous version, and how easy it is to access what you need to. Also find the new (or maybe they are old, and just easier to change now) styles interesting; I personally don't mess with them, but I can see how others would appreciate it.

That said, hmm, how do I put this.
The Arachnoboards style has been compromised. In my opinion, the new format has taken away all the uniqueness that was this forum. It now looks like every single other online board out there; it's been "Facebook-ified" if you take my meaning. The way the ratings look...let's just say I really appreciated the un-conformity that were the prior rating symbols, as opposed to the ubiquitous Facebook symbols we have now. The Private Messages and Alerts buttons don't pop up when the mouse is hovered over them; the gallery photos on the main page are waaay too small and their info doesn't pop up when the mouse is hovered over them; related threads don't pop up when you go to create a new one; the site just seems stretched out overall with wasted space; and so on.
Granted these are all little things, but taken together they make the use of the forums less aesthetic, more time-consuming, and overall less enjoyable to use.

Please don't take this as an attack moderators and staff. I am merely expressing my concerns, which I know at least a few other users share as well. I super appreciate all of the time and effort all y'all have invested into making this an awesome place to discuss the hobby. I am at issue with the format, not the content nor people.

I do not have a solution to these problems, as I am unfamiliar with the way the site is updated. I will say however that if we could just get even a few of these things returned to the way they were before, if that is even possible, myself and perhaps other's would greatly appreciate it.

Many thanks,

Arthroverts
 

chanda

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 27, 2010
Messages
2,229
So glad to see the site back up, and for the most part it looks great - but I do miss some of the information that was previously available.

When I click into my profile, it tells me my message count for the last 45 days - but no longer provides the message count for the last 15 days or last month, both of which were useful numbers because it let me keep an eye on when my "active user" status might expire, rather than it simply being unexpectedly over when those messages dropped out of the 45 day window.

Is it possible to get that information added back in? Or is it already available, but I'm just not looking for it in the right spot, or need to change a setting or something?

Thank you!
 

MrDeranged

He Who Rules
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2002
Messages
2,000
First, let me start out by saying the new buttons and pages at the top (What's new, Reviews, Media, et. al) are excellent. Really like how the images are larger than in the previous version, and how easy it is to access what you need to. Also find the new (or maybe they are old, and just easier to change now) styles interesting; I personally don't mess with them, but I can see how others would appreciate it.
Glad that you like them. The styles are the same as they have been since our first "major" upgrade back in 2011, updated for different software of course.

That said, hmm, how do I put this.
The Arachnoboards style has been compromised. In my opinion, the new format has taken away all the uniqueness that was this forum. It now looks like every single other online board out there; it's been "Facebook-ified" if you take my meaning. The way the ratings look...let's just say I really appreciated the un-conformity that were the prior rating symbols, as opposed to the ubiquitous Facebook symbols we have now.
I'll have to agree to disagree with you here. IMO, the reactions are just one small element of the website as a whole and have very little bearing on the "uniqueness" of the forum. In the old version, we were using old, lo res versions of smilies for the reactions. The forum software now comes with hi res emoji's for reaction use. While they may look "Facebook-ified" I don't think that makes them any less valid or better looking than what we had.. It's all down to personal taste.

The Private Messages and Alerts buttons don't pop up when the mouse is hovered over them;
This comes down to uniformity of interaction. In the interest of using the same actions across desktop or mobile, the "popping up" was removed as there is really no way to "hover" on a mobile device. Since you had to click to get a pop up on mobile, they made the software have to click to get a pop up on desktop. Users don't want to use one action on mobile and then have to remember to use a different action on desktop. It's called evolving web standards :) As with any new software, things change, you get used to them and forget the old way of doing them.


related threads don't pop up when you go to create a new one;
That was an old add-on that was removed due to performance issues and the fact that, from the amount of "duplicate threads", no one ever seemed to use it.

the gallery photos on the main page are waaay too small and their info doesn't pop up when the mouse is hovered over them; the site just seems stretched out overall with wasted space; and so on.
I'm not sure exactly what you're saying here.

Site as of December 31st:

1580584314385.png

Site as of Today:

1580584368091.png

On the old version, the only information that popped up when you hovered over the photo was the name of the photo (hardly important information) and the thumbnails are clearly larger on the current iteration. I'm also not sure what you mean by wasted space? Unless you're talking about the "slimline" option? (which you don't have to use).

1580584504342.png

Overall, we're not going back though, just forward. Sorry if this impacts your enjoyment of the site.

Regards,
MrD
 

MrDeranged

He Who Rules
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2002
Messages
2,000
So glad to see the site back up, and for the most part it looks great - but I do miss some of the information that was previously available.

When I click into my profile, it tells me my message count for the last 45 days - but no longer provides the message count for the last 15 days or last month, both of which were useful numbers because it let me keep an eye on when my "active user" status might expire, rather than it simply being unexpectedly over when those messages dropped out of the 45 day window.

Is it possible to get that information added back in? Or is it already available, but I'm just not looking for it in the right spot, or need to change a setting or something?

Thank you!
At this time it is not possible to get the other information added back in. The addon that we were using for that functionality is no longer being supported and we had to get one custom developed to have what we now do. I will however look into seeing if we might be able to get something done. Not promising anything though. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Regards,
MrD
 
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Thekla

Arachnoprince
Joined
Oct 13, 2017
Messages
1,878
First of all, I'm really glad downtime wasn't as long as I feared. ;)

The new style needs a bit getting used to, I guess, but I'm sure I'll manage ... even at my age. ;)

There's just one thing that bothers me right now:
When someone posts a media item I'm no longer informed (when I click on "alerts") in which category/gallery they posted said media. Sometimes I get quite a few alerts and don't have the time or fancy opening every single one of them. So, with the old style, it was nice to know which one of those I really was interested in and which ones I could skip. ;)
 

PanzoN88

Arachnodemon
Joined
Sep 15, 2014
Messages
713
First of all, I'm really glad downtime wasn't as long as I feared. ;)

The new style needs a bit getting used to, I guess, but I'm sure I'll manage ... even at my age. ;)

There's just one thing that bothers me right now:
When someone posts a media item I'm no longer informed (when I click on "alerts") in which category/gallery they posted said media. Sometimes I get quite a few alerts and don't have the time or fancy opening every single one of them. So, with the old style, it was nice to know which one of those I really was interested in and which ones I could skip. ;)
I saw that as an option in the push notification preferences.

On a similar note, you should've been here during the migration when the forum was changing servers.
 

Thekla

Arachnoprince
Joined
Oct 13, 2017
Messages
1,878
I saw that as an option in the push notification preferences.
It's not that I don't get alerts at all, because I do, but it's not longer showing in which gallery they posted. And if they didn't change the image number to an informative title, I have to click on the picture to see what they posted instead of just leaving it if I'm not interested in that particular category at that moment.

Before it was "user xyz added an image to your watched category abc", now it's just "user xyz added the media item 'name/image number'".

Also, the titles of the posted media are no longer showing on the front page. IMO it was always really neat seeing what kind of content people post before clicking on the image. ;)

On a similar note, you should've been here during the migration when the forum was changing servers.
Well, when the forum went down for a week last year when they did maintenance was already more than I could bear. :p :rofl:
 

Arthroverts

Arachnoking
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
2,462
Glad that you like them. The styles are the same as they have been since our first "major" upgrade back in 2011, updated for different software of course.



I'll have to agree to disagree with you here. IMO, the reactions are just one small element of the website as a whole and have very little bearing on the "uniqueness" of the forum. In the old version, we were using old, lo res versions of smilies for the reactions. The forum software now comes with hi res emoji's for reaction use. While they may look "Facebook-ified" I don't think that makes them any less valid or better looking than what we had.. It's all down to personal taste.



This comes down to uniformity of interaction. In the interest of using the same actions across desktop or mobile, the "popping up" was removed as there is really no way to "hover" on a mobile device. Since you had to click to get a pop up on mobile, they made the software have to click to get a pop up on desktop. Users don't want to use one action on mobile and then have to remember to use a different action on desktop. It's called evolving web standards :) As with any new software, things change, you get used to them and forget the old way of doing them.




That was an old add-on that was removed due to performance issues and the fact that, from the amount of "duplicate threads", no one ever seemed to use it.



I'm not sure exactly what you're saying here.

Site as of December 31st:

View attachment 332697

Site as of Today:

View attachment 332698

On the old version, the only information that popped up when you hovered over the photo was the name of the photo (hardly important information) and the thumbnails are clearly larger on the current iteration. I'm also not sure what you mean by wasted space? Unless you're talking about the "slimline" option? (which you don't have to use).

View attachment 332699

Overall, we're not going back though, just forward. Sorry if this impacts your enjoyment of the site.

Regards,
MrD
Ah well, I can accept that. I did use the "Related Threads" function however, but I guess I must have been in the minority. Still miss the old style though...

Just one point of contention: I would not say the name of the photo is "hardly important". On my computer/browser the images are still quite a bit smaller (not sure why), so seeing the contents of said photos is made more difficult. I don't want to have to click through each photo to see what it is, so the name would definitely be useful to see without having to click on the image.

Anyway, thanks for hearing me out. I'm already getting used to the new style, but it won't be the same vicarious thrill to use the new emoticons when cracking an arachno-joke...

Thanks,

Arthroverts
 

Kitara

Arachnodemon
Joined
Jun 21, 2019
Messages
761
3rd, the editor when replying on mobile keeps jumping around hiding itself behind my keyboard such that I can't see what I've already typed without repeatedly dragging the window back into view.
This is obnoxious! It's really the only thing that I can't get used to. I thought maybe it was just my phone or my browser so it is nice to know that is is not just me. I use my desktop 99% of the time so I can live with it.
 
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