I'm still bothered by the new formatting, because it is less efficient to read. Yes, it's still possible to read threads, but it takes more work for the eyes to scan the front page of the forum and the threads. As T-Mar mentions, it's more difficult to identify threads responded to (the green arrow is very small), and it's harder to see threads already read (the bold for unread threads is not very bold). I simply find my eyes need to do more work, and the extra space and busy format require them to wander more.

I'm not so convinced this is poor design. I think this format makes advertisements more visible, because the eyes are not so easily trained on the text any longer. (This is not to say IB doesn't have a right to make advertising sales.)

No green arrow here, Firefox 3.5.5


Script errors:
Error: skimlinks is not defined
Source File: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...5#post10071775
Line: 3929

There are dozens of script warnings, I won't even bother listing them

Just tried BikeForums on IE.. What a mess! Firefox is usable, at least.

I got the little green arrows AND using the same browser as Chipcom.

I and other paid members don't even see the ads...the interface sucks bad enough without them, I would probably tear my eyes out if I had to live with ads too. Good incentive to pays your dough.

I don't see them either, but what I mean is that I think this format lends itself to making advertising more noticeable, by it's very design. Even without ads, my eyes wander all over the page, where as with the previous version, it was less difficult to zero in on the text I wanted to read.

Also, I logged out, and noticed the first post in each thread has an advertisement inside the text box of the original post. Is this new? Is it possible this new version enables new advertising options? Again, I'm not opposed to IB making advertising revenue, just asking.

I have no problems as it would be related to IE but there are problens non-the-less. I persue the forum on 3 different computers, my Vista home system with a 19" wdiescreen monitor, an XP system at work with a standard 17" monitor and a windows 98 system at work with a 15" monitor. Bikeforums, by far, looks the best with my home system and 19" wide monitor. My work computer with Windows '98 and 15" monitor....forget it, the pages dont load correctly.

My thoughts are that people with older computers and small monitors are going to have issues. I'm going to venture a guess and say this 8 font thats being typed. WTF?

Even though this was the "enough whining" thread, I thank you all for your continued reports of problems and not shooting the messenger(s) too much. I'm keeping a list of issues to relay to Tom and will report back to ya'll as soon as I can on when some of these issues are going to be resolved. I know the tech team is working on getting them fixed, but they are taking some time to thoroughly test the changes so that they do not break other things. Regression testing something as complex as this forum has to be a nightmare.

I have to admit that I haven't read the entire post, so I may be repeating another's comments, but I am getting a lot of time out error messages. I never got these before and I don't get them often with other web pages. Here they are constant. I am using the latest version of firefox. Some of the buttons also seem to reset things such that I have to log in again. Like a few others, I find the font size a bit small and things a bit crowded, but I can live with these issues and with the color scheme.

Ctrl + scroll can fix the font size right up... at least in Firefox 3.5.5.

+1 on that tip USAZorro....I'm amazed more folks don't know about that trick.


All I can say is that anyone who claims to be at all knowledgeable about anything computer related and also claims to be a satisfied Internet Explorer user has contradicted themselves.

If you know anything you should know IE is the worst possible choice of browser out of the myriad choices available for free. This is a fact.

Pretty darn arrogant attitude, if I might say so. The vast majority of internet users are ignorant unwashed uneducated goons like myself who own PCs, use Windows and browse with IE. We are the ones who pay the freight and keep things going, not you elite geniuses who have all the answers. I visit dozens of websites using IE with very little if any problems, and don't have to go through all sorts of contortions to do so. I'm not interested in using the internet as some sort of intellectual challenge, just as a useful tool to get information and manage my life efficiently. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

'Tricks' shouldnt be needed. Your fact is your opinion.

Your little trick doesnt change font size. It just magnifies everything. OK, so now I'm typing in magnified 8 font.....and now I only have like 8 threads on the 19" widescreen monitor.

BTW...firefox blows.

this too, is an opinion ;)
and there are many other options besides Firefox if you want an alternative to IE


@ TajanoTrackie - call it arrogant or call it informed, or call it both.
Which doesn't make it correct, safe, or particularly good. If you want to be less 'uneducated' start with a better browser - Anything but IE.

for the record its a slim majority still using IE. Just under 60% as of the end of October

this I simply cannot understand. You PAY for IE???

Perhaps we should take this discussion to Foo if we aren't finished. This is hardly C&V.




...unless we're talking about IE 5.0 ;)

And if you know anything about implementation in a production environment, you know that rolling out an untested beta version of any s/w is (at best) foolish. Especially if it doesn't work well with the browser the majority of your user base is working with. No matter what your opinion is, IE is still the most-used browser, and running an application that does not work well with it is neither best practice nor smart business.

Any idea on when they'll fix the "Quick" Navigation button? Or have as many threads visible on the page as there used to be? Or increase the contrast so the page doesn't look so washed out? Or increase the font in the reply window so one doesn't need a microscope in order to see what's being typed?

At home, life is bearable with OS X and Safari but at work, BF looks atrocious on whatever locked-down version of IE we're saddled with.

I really would appreciate it if the designer who really thinks this new version looks better than the old one would come here and explain why.

It's my guess, bigbossman, that Bike Forums was selected as the beta test site. We either don't have enough paying members or ad revenues are low for such a large membership. Once they get everything fixed, they'll roll this out to the other IB forums.

Have you seen the cost of the forum software on the vBulletin site? The cheesiness of the interface makes a lot more sense to me now. LINK

I'm going to say one more word about IE, and then let's drop this train of thought and focus either on C&V or on particular issues with vB4 that we are having. And that word is, as much as it sucks, it is still used by much more than 60% of users in a corporate environment outside of the tech department. But we are not a corporate environment and the cross section of users that access this site range from some of the most basic of computer users all the way up to tech geeks.

There is little use in speculating in the causes for many of the problems we're having. Differences in browsers, updates, add-ons and such on our browsers can make even the simplest of sites act and display vastly differently. I'm still working on getting VeloBase.com to display correctly on all pages in some browsers (specifically Chrome / Safari) after developing it primarily in IE7. I've had different browsers treat the same page controls very differently and have been caught off guard when what I thought was a small simple change end up breaking something 99.9% unrelated. That is the fact of web development for anything more than the most trivial of applications. Obviously something (or many somethings) went horribly wrong somewhere along the line between the time development started on vB4 and when it was pushed out to our servers. Hopefully when the dust settles that all of you will still be around so we can continue to discuss our love of cycling and old bicycles. :beer:

OK, I've been hitting this enough since the change to form an opinion. Overall, it's a shock, but I can adjust. My biggest gripe is that the various threads are limited to 20 to a page. Now, I don't get to check in on a daily basis, and of course my first reaction upon logging in is to check the threads I've responded to so I can follow the discussion (if any). Only then do I go to new threads.

Under the old system, I never had to go further back to the second page of subject titles to have caught up with everything I've missed in my absence (usually not more than 36-48 hours). Here, I find myself paging back 7-8-9 pages just to cover the same number of topics. Annoying.

IB is looking into the number of threads shown on main forum. I think this is secondary to the font they've chosen (but I could be wrong as I'm making
this us anyhow).
we (mods/admins) are forwarding on reports to IB to have them looked into.

as for browsers, one word CHROME.

marty

Click "log out" in the upper right hand corner.

I do not like the new interface at all. I will be spending much less time here for sure. It's a shame, I used to enjoy the forums, now its just feel laborious.

I don't like the new look very much either. What I like less is the number of members who have chosen to spend less time here. I feel like I lost my best friends. :(

Well, I would do this if I could actually search for his posts. I get like 5 and that's it.
GRRR

Where does Safari rank in the myriad of free choices?