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How do we like the updated forum?
Please give the forum a whirl, let us know its working - or not.
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jafar
762 Posts
(Offline)
1
June 16, 2021 - 10:36 am

@Reinettes , @DanielW , @sweepbjames , @Rooney , @Larry_G  and others.

Is the new format working for you?

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DanielW
Clark County, WA
519 Posts
(Offline)
2
June 16, 2021 - 2:48 pm

Thanks Jafar.

It's a nice clean looking format.  I havent been looking as much but will look around more soon.

So far, so good Smile

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Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
770 Posts
(Offline)
3
June 16, 2021 - 7:42 pm

Thanks all !!  I copy what Daniel says. I like the strings that remained in place for uploading as I explained earlier because it leaves private messaging as a private picture taking and upload teaching tool. I also like the expanding of unresponded to messages column.

Added 7:50pm :
 Changes here added another string for inserting invisible comments so that any users past posts can be latched onto and listed in the search functions of this site now. My test data characters that I used found me using Commentsxhere strings (replace the x with space, must use specific word matching in search options), and another very useful personality of this site for the more serious work of outreaching to other institutions.

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sweepbjames
NE Portland, OR Cully Neighborhood
230 Posts
(Offline)
4
June 17, 2021 - 11:09 am

The way I am first likely to use/be able to grok the search feature, the way I’m predisposed, has me going to the advanced search and checking the topic titles only box. I wonder if my selection there could be tweaked to be a default even if just for a forum session? Whereas now a new search defaults to matching a word in any post. Example, search desert king- my probable search is going to be looking for that in a topic posting.

Otherwise, I also think  it looks very clean. The size of the font is a little small for my readers and I lose the posters information when I stretch the screen (pad), which I do like to track. Default on the reply size font works for me.  

that’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for the good work. 

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jafar
762 Posts
(Offline)
5
June 17, 2021 - 7:12 pm

Thanks for the feedback you guys.  Sounds like no glaring problems.

James, maybe it would be good if the "advanced search" remembered your last choices.  Then you could just click on advanced search and type your key words if you always do the same type of search.

I'm not sure what are options are there.

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sweepbjames
NE Portland, OR Cully Neighborhood
230 Posts
(Offline)
6
June 18, 2021 - 12:19 pm

Yes, a remembered setting might be good. That’s how I do my laundry too. 
Maybe also, at the bottom of any given topics responses, a back to the top button? Getcha to the next unread or other topics title list without having to scroll. 
Possibly shrink the math required answer target box. Of course, I don’t generally think of myself as being particularly thick, but, it took me a long while to figure the target box was not a spacer, design feature. It truly escaped me as to how to get the submit reply button to become active, for A while.Embarassed I almost gave up trying to get to the post. 

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Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
770 Posts
(Offline)
7
June 18, 2021 - 7:54 pm

sweepbjames said
Yes, a remembered setting might be good. That’s how I do my laundry too. 

Maybe also, at the bottom of any given topics responses, a back to the top button? Getcha to the next unread or other topics title list without having to scroll. 

Possibly shrink the math required answer target box. Of course, I don’t generally think of myself as being particularly thick, but, it took me a long while to figure the target box was not a spacer, design feature. It truly escaped me as to how to get the submit reply button to become active, for A while.Embarassed I almost gave up trying to get to the post. 

  

That wouldn't be too great. The best option then is to silence the "new reply", relatively easy (eg. hidden=1) by changing it's property on the server side. Nothing worse than losing first time posters. 

I briefly went over things via cellphone and my tower and checked on your other ideas. They are small issues and in some are rather hard fixes because of flags residing outside of the DOM (the object model of HTML). You can end up fixing something and then breaking the convenience of the model. 

In other words what you need to know is that a keyboard that's plugged into your tower (non cellphones) can play with the DOM by invoking "page-up" and "page-down" keys.

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davem
353 Posts
(Offline)
8
June 27, 2021 - 12:19 pm

One thing that threw me off was adding a reply from my phone.  After I wrote my reply I looked for a submit button at the bottom. I didn't see one, but there is a big "Add reply" so I clicked that.  Wrong. I then looked more closely at the icons and saw the floppy disk.

If you can change the icons, I'd suggest the Google icons https://fonts.google.com/icons since they are widely used. 

Also I doubt that anyone under 25 knows what a floppy disk is ?.

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Idyllwild
Jackson County, OR (Zone 7b/8a)
37 Posts
(Offline)
9
July 12, 2021 - 5:45 pm

It's nice to hear some feedback about your experience interacting with the forums. I took the opportunity to make a few adjustments based on your feedback and I hope it helps to make your experience a little better...

First off I made the buttons for search and advanced search a bit more obvious and easy to find.

@sweepbjames When you perform an advanced search you can simply bookmark the search results page. Then every time you load that bookmark it will search with the same settings.

@davem The add reply button is now hidden when you are posting a reply. That way you will no longer be confused between the "Submit Reply" and "Add Reply" buttons. I can see how that was confusing. I think @jafar had previously commented on the two buttons being confusing as well. So hopefully this eliminates that confusion for everyone.

@davem @Rooney @sweepbjames I will make note about your suggestions regarding icons (especially floppy disk), back to top button, math required captcha shape/size and font size. These are all great suggestions. I may possibly make these improvements in the future depending on how complex that may or may not be.

Great feedback!

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