Hi Guys and Gals It’s nice to know that we suffer the same response that Facebook does when it updates .. I seem to recall an update to Facebook just a couple of weeks ago that outraged almost the entire userbase. Strangely enough I’ve not heard a single complaint about it recently, and everyone’s just getting on with using it's better functionality. Dare I say it, it seems to have turned out to be a positive change Now I’d never be stupid enough to directly compare Driftworks to Facebook, but you have to see there are some amusing similarities, so please keep that in mind with what I’ve written below: Regarding our update to the Driftworks forum software: The usability - This is an update to the VBB forum software, it's been long overdue here to solve usability issues with the old software, security, and a whole host of other positive changes that need to happen with the growth of a forum that now supports 42,000 users (free of charge ) This has not been an impulse update. We have held off from updating until we were happy with VBB's newest version - There are a few things that we're working on to perfect it, but bear with us and we'll have it sorted in no time. It's worth me mentioning that EVERY TIME we have updated the forum over the years the old duffers have a huge whinge because essentially they don't like change, and don't understand the need to roll with the times – Give it a couple of days of use and you’ll forget all about the change and move back to moaning about the weather or whatever else ‘really ticks you off’ Regarding the Browsers you are using: We will accommodate all current browsers, and as many older versions as we can. But please remember that it's a huge amount of work for us to change the forum on our end, and VERY little work for you to update your browser. Get the latest version of whatever browser you want and it will work. To those of you using IE6- How the hell you can do anything on the internet at all using that browser I have no idea. VIRTUALLY NO ONE SUPPORTS IE6 ANY MORE. The visual change - Again we're working on a few final tweeks, but I have to say I'm a bit confused about the minority who “REALLY HATE IT”, as it's really not very different at all! The colour palettes the same, and we specifically made it look very close to the old forum, it just has some slight layout changes due to VBB (not our choice), and some rounded edges etc. We will continue to take any constructive advice on board to make it as good as possible. Ads - We have had adverts within the forum for ages, they were not automatically subject generated before. But they were bigger, and appeared much more frequently than what we have now. The fact that no one seems to recall the old ads is proof that they weren’t working. As already mentioned we get huge amounts of people using the Driftworks forum for months and months without ever knowing we have a shop. We have put a lot of thought into making these adverts so they are not too in your face, and for the best part are relevent to the thread, and again, I’m sure they will not effect your use of the forum after a couple of days of getting used to them. Please try to think about the bigger picture here! The vast majority of people here could not even begin to comprehend how much this forum costs to run! So to summarise: We'll continue to try and improve the forum with your constructive advice, and at the same time your brains will relax and forget about the upset of 'change' in no time Lastly I’d like to thank James and Flikstrr for doing what I think is an absolute bang on job of an extremely challenging update
I think its absolutely fantastic, the look, feel and usability has definitely improved and I can appreciate the work that has gone into it being a web developer myself!
I like the new forum. Only two things that are annoying: - I have a 24" monitor, and only half of the screen is being used by the forum, 2 large grey slabs on either side. Can it be programmed so the forum automatically sizes to full screen? - The "what's new" and "Private Message" buttons overlap, so it takes some very precise mousing over to select one of the two But looks-wise, the forum looks good!
1: As far as I was aware, there's been no change to the dimensions. Was the old forum the same? Or are you saying it's got smaller? 2: What browser are you using? I can't replicate it on my machine.
its an IE issue 7/8 issue raised on the other thread Phil. It's on the list to be sorted. width issue is an odd one. the fixed with is the same as the old one 100% But im not sure if the old one allowed full width. o,0
I would say two things. afted the last update we could choose the forum skin and i never used the black as it's not a personal favourite. The old adds weee visible but not intrusive. the new add placement is an eyesore to me. I appreciate you can't please evrryone and that change was needed but a choice of forum skin would help as the other stuff i can live with.
Most things don't show properly for me but I'm at work and we have.... IE6!! Haha. So I don't mind that, but the mid-topic adverts are the gayest thing since Gok Wan. Could you not just put them as a side bar? Then my old eyes can read the thread and keep the adverts on the side where I can see them without them being intrusive. Every time I scroll down through replies I see the advert and become enraged. I 100% agree the top banners are useless though apart from the homepage. I dare say most people get onto DW through google or a forum shortcut anyway though, I see the home page once a month tops I'd say, so even that top banner is pretty useless. Sorry if I posted this in a "neat" topic but I think my feedback there is pretty constructive
Only takes a bit of a look and a few goes to get used to the new layout so no worries there. If the only thing I can say is that I'm not a fan of is the newer smilies, then in my opinion it's been a great success. Thanks for all the hard graft fellas
im using IE8 and i dont have the overlapping issue, havent had it and i didnt have any issues with the text color people were on about ???
Righto. That's the bit we were missing Daft as it sounds, we believed that this was set up aaaaages so it wasn't possible to select that If you've been using the old old skin from before it went black then I can fully understand your reaction to this forced change. We've got some other skin options in the pipeline, but for now, we'll knock something that's a cross between this and the blog style, where the text fields are dark text on a light background but the rest's the same and I'll enable the style chooser. Shouldn't take too long
we have ie9 in office and no issues here either.. perhaps its specific to IE7 or less OR its people not clearing cache.. not updating in general etc. Either way I will investigate IE soon as we set in stone current design.
You mean so that you can ignore them, rendering them useless? I'd relax buddy, surely its better to see some shiny products than read some of the crap written by Chapman? You mean the banner that allows those people that have found DW via Google to be made aware that we have a shop that sells products that they might well be interested in (and are likely researching, as our Analytics demonstrates), and a rather good blog as well as the forum? I appreciate all the constructive criticism, and if ever it comes across that this is not the case it is never intended, however everyone needs to realise that in a tough economic climate all businesses need to utilise their best performing advertising options.
the new layout is fine for me but im just posting this again as it was almost that last thing posted on the old thread James (iirc that comment on the Adds are for people who dont know there is a shop?) maybe if you have brought something from the shop - Hence showing you know its there, Or like my self. Spent Hundereds and Thousands of pounds. then to be honest, i think the Adds especially the ones that don't work (as per Pm) should Jog on. Or at least if there is a drifworks elite (as per poll a while back) we should get automatic entry. Everything is Great - As for not being to notice the old adds, i could they were at the bottom, on my phone when using 1G here in The sticks of wales it takes a few mins to load each page. when i clicked next or "(2) for the next page, if i accidently got the add id be waiting mins for it to load up the shop!! For this reason i went to tapatalk - Which seems to be great and works good on the new forum to. Thumbs up for the new forum as a whole but just the above annoys me. of course i know where the shop is, most my disposable income over the last 3 years has gone in it.
my name still does not appear to allow me to cause terror on fags on this forum!!! go on phil, u know even if its for just a day, you kinda want to see what i would get up to!!! anyway new forum mint, and i suck at computers!!!