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Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 00:43
by Pete
It took a little longer to get this on its feet than anticipated (and there are still a couple of snags that need to be dealt with) - but didn't want to keep you waiting any longer to get back on and start posting.

Enjoy discovering the new stuff!

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 01:12
by NYLON
Congratulations! Looks fantastic (and speedy) from here!

:D

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 01:26
by tontybear
Will take a while to get used to the new lay out (lust like last time)

But the text needs to be darker please. It's just too grey and needs to be black


As an example I only found the arrow to move the month on when posting an itinerary by accident - the arrow was barely visible.

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 06:03
by DragonLady
Very slow to load for me - hopefully this is just a glitch Reminds me of the format for the original v - flyer site . Don't like the new emoticons! :o
DL

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 06:09
by DragonLady
Another thing, have the photos that were in the avatar been lost in the move . I rather liked the picture of me and Mr ( cardboard) Branson :).
DL

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 06:10
by mallin
Looks very slick, like anything new will be good to explore. Thanks Pete for all your efforts and time setting up the new site. Linda

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 06:46
by whiterose
Thanks Pete, a brilliant job, I'll enjoy exploring all the new features. I share Tonty's point that darker text would be good.

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 07:05
by Maximus
Immediate impression- a very professional looking site.

Loads very quickly for me- super fast.

I agree with DL- I preferred the previous emoticons.

Will put the site through it's paces today and report bacl later :arrow:

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 07:35
by slinky09
Huge congrats Pete and the mods - looking great!

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 07:38
by jfenney
Love the look and feel Pete many thanks for all your effort and no doubt pain at times :D

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 07:42
by dickydotcom
First attempt to post didn't work.
I was trying to say I don't really like change but I'm sure I'll find my way around, now I'm not so sure.
Dick D :oops:

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 07:48
by Luke12
Looks good Pete, thanks.

Has the Status Updates table gone or is that waiting to return? I love that feature.

Thanks :D

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 07:56
by Neil
Luke12 wrote:Looks good Pete, thanks.

Has the Status Updates table gone or is that waiting to return? I love that feature.

Thanks :D


That 'tool' wasn't part of the sites redesign, but like you, I really liked that feature and have asked if it would be possible for it to be added back in, here's hoping Pete will be able to sort at some point :ugeek:

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 08:11
by SNOMO
Looking very clean & modern but at present am struggling to find my way around ;)
Is there anyway of enlarging the font size or is that just my tablet?
Well done on getting it up n running again so quickly - ever thought of applying for a job with the VS IT Department - God knows they could use you.

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 08:32
by Maximus
Is there a way of increasing the number of posts displayed per page?

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 08:33
by clarkeysntfc
VERY smart, looking good :D

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 08:35
by NYLON
Having spent some time on the site now I think it's really great: three minor points.

1) The content text in the forums could be darker

2) Having the itineraries displayed as 'Forum posts' - part of the main Forum views (i.e. displayed in unread/new/active) might be confusing. Itineraries tend not to get replied to, and are not really discussion topics.

[edit: just thought of a third thing]

3) Might it make sense to put the "View your posts" sub-heading under the "Forum" menu?

Keep up the great work! :D

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 08:41
by Snora
I have to say that I am super impressed by all the hard work you have done to get the site to this stage. I am finding my way around and yes, as you say, there are bits that aren't quite there yet in your opinion. Others' comments will add to the finished version and it will be a fantastic resource, as always.

I also have to add that after 'browsing' from the outside for a year my conscience wouldn't let me carry on benefiting from the V-flyer Forum without subscribing - so I did - and it is such a useful source of advice and flight money saving tricks that the small subscription cost is paid back time and time again.

well done :)

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 09:08
by Maximus
Another opinion...

I see "Like" & "Dislike" buttons have been introduced.

Whilst I have no objection to "Liking" others posts, indeed I have done so already, I do not like the "Dislike" button. I feel this detracts from what is one of the friendliest forums on the internet.

Even FT doesn't have a "Dislike" button :twisted:

I propose a motion that the "Dislike" button be removed!

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 09:18
by ultreen1
Really like the overhaul, once I get used to the different layout I'm sure I'll love it.
Just one question...will the older trip reports be available to read? I've looked and there doesn't seem to be any.

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 09:23
by marshy11
I add to the other comments on type needing to be darker. I 'like' the like button, dislike the 'dislike' button. I had a shock when the 'who's online' box popped up when someone logged in….. :lol: It does look a little bloated, the number of posts being increased would be better than the current view I have in Safari.

I would like to see the REPLY box at the bottom of the thread in a different colour as I couldn't find it under the advertising.

What are with the colours on the itinerary cal?? I will go and take a look as I've just spotted it at the bottom of this page.

I had a slight lag after I posted until the page came back and I have to say the AD is rather large.

Image

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 09:59
by Pete
Thanks for your feedback thus far.

Some of the features you're after are 'supposed' to be there, but delayed due to the hiccups I had during the migration. I figured best to get the forum back in a working state rather than wait another week offline polishing up the bits that need attention.

Status updates, for instance, will be in the shiny new ticker which is the thing that currently says 'Loading feed 1 of 7' at the top of the page. That's currently throwing an error when it goes to get the data. It was working fine on the dev site, so I need to track that one down. The separate page of status updates didn't make the cut in the new site, but I note there's now at least two voices for its return.

The emoticons set were a last-minute fudge, since they also broke in the migration. I will be replacing them.

Avatars are another thing that broke during the migration, and I need to look into why.

Posts per page - sensible suggestion. I'll look into that. Sure it's just a setting somewhere.

Text colour. Ok, ok... I get it. You don't like my aesthetic. >sobs<

'View your posts' - it's under the search menu (assuming you're logged in)

'Dislike' button. Let's discuss. Maybe it's just the title? Digg, et al have Upvote and Downvote buttons that help identify the useful posts and weed out the spam.

Older trip reports are all still here - it's just the index to search them that isn't currently working.

Ad size. Struggled with this one, since the costs of running a dedicated server these days really require some ads to defray the cost. The two ad sizes are both the industry standards - MPUs and Leaderboards. What I might do, though, is look into whether it's possible to turn the banners off for subscription members.

Pete

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 10:07
by Bazz
Photo gallery not working Pete, get this error message.

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

Unknown column 's.session_album_id' in 'where clause' [1054]

An SQL error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact the Board Administrator if this problem persists.

Bazz

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 10:18
by NYLON
Pete wrote:
'View your posts' - it's under the search menu (assuming you're logged in)

'Dislike' button. Let's discuss. Maybe it's just the title? Digg, et al have Upvote and Downvote buttons that help identify the useful posts and weed out the spam.


Thank Pete!

What I meant was: isn't the "View your posts" link better positioned under Forum rather than Search?

I'm not sure you can compare this site to Digg etc. There's very little (if any?) spam on v-flyer. It's not like there are hundreds of new topics per day, many of which are spurious (apart from mine) :lol:

I do think the main Forum is cluttered by including the itineraries as 'standard' post topics. I think they should be filtered out when viewing the Forum by unread/new/active topics.

Great stuff! :D

Re: Welcome to the new look forum!

PostPosted: 25 Jun 2015, 10:35
by Pete
Bazz - Gallery should be back online. Just reinstalled it.

A lot of images in the gallery have yet to be categorised (that's a new feature of this site, so the data wasn't there to copy across from the old one).