About the new layout

[Admin]

Tell us what you think of the new layout.

[Mdreiver]

Nice look. Nice features. A few growing pains getting bugs sorted out. A few growing pains adjusting to new limitations, eg not quite as easy to just browse the board.

[Steve B]

It doesn't appear to be as user friendly as the old style. It requires more effort to look around and determine what has been posted & where.

Maybe that will change as I become more familiar with the site.

[Dave986]

Love it! :cool: Very cool layout and the "New Posts" feature is the ticket. Great work and welcome to the 20th century! :p

[Kevin C. (Saratoga, CA)]

I love the rich feature set, but with the low traffic we have on the Babblers board, I think the old format which shows all the recent (and not so recent) message message titles on one page is better. With the old system it takes less work to find out if something interesting has been posted.

[Viktor]

Tell us what you think of the new layout.
The more I have used the site, the more it becomes intuitive. I wasn’t sure at first, but now I know it is an improvement. Thanks Tom! :)

[mee]

Harder to scan to find out what's going on. Also, I can't find the classifieds. The look is slick, though. At least I can register. The registration just wouldn't work on the old site.

[Tom M]

Harder to scan to find out what's going on.
The easiest thing to do is click on the "Quick View" link at the top of the page. This brings up all of the threads with new posts in the last 2 days.


Also, I can't find the classifieds.
The classifieds will be offline for a bit as an integrated version will be ready soon. This will eliminate the need to have separate registrations. If desired, I will put up a Classifieds forum in the interim.

[macsak]

the more i like it

great work, tom

mele kalikimaka and hauoli makahiki hou!

aloha

steve

[CatalogGuy]

The new site is far more advanced, feature rich and offers many other cool and spiffy things. What is missing is the obvious community. Many it's in there, but I suspect it's not. What I mean is the last board directed visitor's to the Babbler's Forum, the "main event". if one wanted to read about what was going on or connect, that was the place to go.

It took me 3 visits to the home page before I figured out what was going on and why I couldn't find the community I sought. The new site offers no clear community center. Under forums the first listings get me Announcements and suggestions, useful but not headliners as far as looking for the community. I think Boxster talk suggests itself as being closest to what we had, but it is demoted to the middle of the list and not highlighted as anything central.

The new design seems a bit sterile and lacking as far as people and community. It can work, but people need to be directed to the "main event". I don't need the topics carefully categorized, but I do want to get the feel for the goings on of the community. The rich front page is neat, but there is too much. I'd like a clear link where to go for the Babbler Community.



Tell us what you think of the new layout.

[QUICKLY]

Too sterile, over-complicated, impaired sense of community, immediacy and spontaneity. Lots of features I'll never use, because I don't need them to communicate. For example, I think smilies and icons are silly. (My sincere apologies if I've offended anyone, but I think these are dated and overly geeky).

With all due respect for your tremendous effort to maintain and improve this board, Tom, I was much more comfortable with the old format. Now that this change has been made, coinciding with selling my 2000S to get an '03 996, I find I'm spending more time on the 996 forum at www.Funcarsonline.com. I didn't care for CFG's format before, preferring the old Babblers for its intimate, local content and simple layout. Now I'm OK with it.

But change is always a challenge. I'm sure I'll get accustomed to the new surroundings, but I still feel that something good has been lost.

[Sharky]

...but I agree with a major thumbs down on the new format.

If there were some view mode options to make all the catagories transparent, in effect undo the new mode, the would be great. But having to navigate down all the various catagories and individually down all the various threads and deal with multiple view panes makes board navigation more tedious than paying bills.

The comment about it destroying the sense of community is right on target too.

I think the only ongoing issue with the previous format was that some people really didn't like the types of messages that some other people posted. If they had the "ignore poster" option, that should fix it and leave all the good points in place.

Well good luck in any case.

-Ed

[Tom M]

Thanks for the input Ed. Now for some responses :D


...but I agree with a major thumbs down on the new format. If there were some view mode options to make all the catagories transparent, in effect undo the new mode, the would be great. But having to navigate down all the various catagories and individually down all the various threads and deal with multiple view panes makes board navigation more tedious than paying bills.
Actually, there are 3 different ways to get the "at a glance" answers you are looking for ;). The first is to hit "Quick View" on the top navigation panel. This brings up a listing of all threads with new posts in the last 2 days. The second option is to click on the "New Posts" link which brings up all new posts made since the last visit. Finally, on the home page there's the list of currently active threads on the lower right-hand side.


The comment about it destroying the sense of community is right on target too.
The main thing that is missing at present is a "Threaded Forum View". Believe it or not but I'm working on resolving that. The current version does support threaded views for a single thread.


I think the only ongoing issue with the previous format was that some people really didn't like the types of messages that some other people posted.
Sadly, that can happen with almost any package.


If they had the "ignore poster" option, that should fix it and leave all the good points in place.
Ah, a point for us! You now have that option. In fact, if a really obnoxious user ever shows up the board has the ability to let him post - which they'll see, but nobody else will.

Once again, people need to be a bit patient. I'm pretty sure that the biggest shock for everbody is that it's different. There are many more advantages, not the least of which is it's easier to administer.

[wazzy35]

The easiest thing to do is click on the "Quick View" link at the top of the page. This brings up all of the threads with new posts in the last 2 days.



The classifieds will be offline for a bit as an integrated version will be ready soon. This will eliminate the need to have separate registrations. If desired, I will put up a Classifieds forum in the interim.

[wazzy35]

I'm so new to the Babblers (I just joined a few days ago) that I don't know what it was formerly; thus I can only say that I like what I see and look forward to visiting this site regularly. I'm also new to owning a Porsche (purchased last week) after dreaming about this day for over 50 years!

[Blk 2k 2.7]

I appreciate the hard work required to put this format in place and because of it I'm working hard to utilize it.
I am not yet to the point where I enjoy this format or can easily navagate it.