I HATE the new forum (More each day)

I think the forum is a leap forward and a huge improvement. People instinctively hate any kind of change, myself included, but the new tools to police each other and just generally more options for users are a great step in BA’s evolution. Well done BA!!!

Hey, you’ve made the categories aligned. Good step forward!

For those thinking Discourse is bad software, a decent chunk of it could be that Bart is still working on what the site will look like and how it will function. On top of that, Discourse should be pretty robust compared to a number of other options out there (such as upgrading to the newest version of Vbulletin, which a number of people on the Unreal forums regard as a disaster when Epic decided to use it).

Then there’s the fact it is open source, which was seen as a positive point considering that many of us try to use Open Source software when possible.

Well it is what it is. The main points of criticism are the lack of pagination and the reliance on JavaScript instead of server generated static pages. Both are deliberate design choices by the authors of Discourse and they’re not going away with a little bit of configuration.

To me it results in a forum that’s completely non-functional on my iPad (as in empty page no matter what), barely usable on my iPhone and odd on the Desktop. I believe that the pros and cons of Discourse specifically and general design choices line endless scrolling, on-demand loading and heavy JS apps have been discussed more than enough elsewhere and don’t need to be reiterated again.any concern raised about that is not likely to get addressed anyway, as Discourse is what it is and I’m not expecting the forum maintainers to switch away from it again after having invested so much work in it.

TBH, i didn’t give one cent to the campaign since discourse was announced as the forum software but also i didn’t cryed foul about it since i believed at the time at least there was somebody in charge of keep things sane. In the end they just used vanilla discourse and IMHO, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig . (well time will tell.)

Of course, everyone is entitled their own opinion, but good alternatives there are out there: phpBB, bbpress, Simple Machines Forum, to name some. Oh well.

I do agree that it could only be a good thing if pages came back (or at least the option to have pages).

Now with getting accustomed to really using the new forum software, I found this new place does some pretty interesting things with links (something which I’ve never seen before on a community board). It would be nice to have the option to place just a plain link, but I think the new features here can be put to good use.

Now I also think it would be nice to have the ability to underline text back as well as bringing back signatures, but Bart and Fweeb already seem to have a clear position on the second, but I’m not sure what Discourse’s rational for not allowing underlined text is.

After all the problems with discourse way to manage a forum, a way that make really hard to see new threads (at least with default theme) I tested some nodeBB forums. It’s really sad that BA doesn’t use it, I think that is really better from a classic user.

I think I’m joining the haters league (well, maybe just with one foot on this dark side), but it’s merely because of some “cosmetic” inconvenience : the new forum looks plainly childish and ugly (which seems the current trend in webdesign anyway) on a 27" desktop monitor, and it seems I’m missing some unimportant features.
Now the thing is, if the new forum is helping, in any way, all the people greatly involved with blenderartists.org, then I would still gladly have it without a second thought. I’m more of a “casual BA reader” myself anyway, and I’m not that involved either. So … Great Job BA ! Long life to the new forum I will casually love to hate ^^.

@anon80875028 What is hard about it? https://blenderartists.org/new
Replace new with: Categories, Latest, Unread, Top, Unanswered, for other view options. All are clickable at the top.

Edit: Can bring these up by pressing =
Other shortcuts display by pressing ? (not / use Shift if needed)

If I’m telling you the truth, I still don’t understand what the colors of the themes mean. Why are some of them in gray? why others have a little circle? a bookmark? why the last visit is not really the last visit? On the other hand, by trying nodeBBB (see thedailywtf) I understand the whole system the first time, clearly it won’t change, but the difference is surprising.

I’m not saying that the forum doesn’t have positive things, it’s more modern, but finding anything is much more complicated than the old forum. In the old forum the topics you had already read were not highlighted, even the categories you could review from the home page without anything else, you moved through the pages perfectly,… here it is hard to find even the controls. You enter a category and there are pins constantly bothering you, you can’t tell them from the normal topics, or if they are read or not.

Mostly it reads awful discourse on a large screen, as I said earlier on an iPad it reads very well. Maybe it’s a matter of retouching the template.

I still don’t like the way the timeline works, I would give anything to get back to the pages, and the idea itself of discourse is very strange. If it’s so modern it would be nice if you could hide sections that don’t interest you, for example, or ignore users. I basically just visit News, General and Addons. And I don’t see how I can find out anything as simple as before, see if there are any new messages, see who the last user who has written is. This used to be automatic, F5, you watched and you knew it. Now I have to go to the cover, go into categories, review the topics one by one because I clearly don’t remember what minute it was the last time I looked at it…

Then it has some weird details, if you edit a message it gets the history of changes…

That’s what pins are about there. Blue dot (highlight) with/out a number indicates new / unread. There is some other weighting to it though, as some unread threads aren’t pinned.

Can do this here: https://blenderartists.org/u/your_username/preferences/categories and prioritise stuff that interests you while there.

I agree about the lack of pages. This infinite scrolling thing can be best summed up with an analogy.

Books. Real ones, printed on paper. Yes, they are old tech, but they work. They’re easy to handle, and easy to read.

Now, imagine instead that you couldn’t grab a book, conveniently laid out in pages, and had to use the ancient scroll format. So if you had a book of any reasonable length, instead of it being easy to handle with two hands, and fast to flip between pages, you’d have to deal with fifty feet of continuous scroll.

This is why books were invented in the first place. They’re much more convenient than scrolls. Pagination on websites is similar. It’s convenient and it works. You can jump to any point in a long topic without having to load all the preceding content. You can find things by page, which is often very helpful (“Oh yeah, that was on page 11” click).

You can even background load the next page in another tab while you finish reading the current page, which can be handy at times, and you can have both tabs open at the same time if you wish to conveniently reference specific content on both pages.

Unfortunately, Discourse have completely forgotten or ignored all of these factors in the attempt to be “cool”.

Little dirty detail: Discourse knows about pages and provides the links that give paginated content… but then hides all when presenting to users. Try loading with one old browser, disabling JS or looking at source. Look for ‘rel=“next”’ or ‘?page=’. Discourse “supports” pages, but forces users into infinite scroll.

First impressions - not good.

Very confused and fussy layout. Looks ameturish and childish - like Mumsnet.

I really dont like the infinite scroll function - much prefer paginated forums. The majority of popular forums out in the world look and work a certain way because it’s a formula that works.

Also seems sluggish compared to the old forum and navigation on mobile devices is very hit and miss. I’m viewing this on my iPhone and the posts keep jumping down the page making it very difficult to use.

This feels like a backwards step and a change for changes sake. The old forum had it’s issues - but i’m sure they could have been fixed without a total redesign.

Good catch. I wonder if some custom js (GreaseMonkey or similar) could make the bastard behave in a civilised manner. Disabling all js certainly works, but is a bit drastic for overall functionality.

ETA: By the way, a lot of the notifications and badges seem to be designed to appeal to three year old toddlers. What adult with a functioning brain really wants badges and crap for first use of an emoji, or first use of quote, or umpteen other trivial thing?

Just found a bug: you can;t edit a post normally. You can put in one edit, but if you then go to make an additional edit it apparently forgets about your first one. Brilliant.

Anyway, re pagination: https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-markdown-completely/48727/14

So, like everything, it can be done if you throw enough code at it, but it looks like it would be a right PITA to implement on top of Discourse’s standard codebase…

I can’t reproduce the problems you are describing with the infinite scroll. When I click or drag the timeline slider, the post is loaded instantly. I even get a preview on mobile before releasing. This is exactly the advantage of books, but more precise.
But as different people complain about it not loading quickly, I wonder in which situations this happens.

By the way, I think the concept of infinite scrolling (when working correctly) cannot be compared to real paper that easily. Infinite scroll let’s the reader just continue reading without turning a page once, while still fitting everything on the screen. And new content gets added to the bottom without requesting a newer copy (reloading).

You should find out what exactly is wrong with the layout and describe it in a suitable topic. In the best case, also find out how you would improve it, so people can think about both solutions or test them. But make sure that things are not bad only because they changed from what you are used to.

When I first started using BA I didn’t know what orange colored categories mean, but I found it out eventually. Now there is a counter showing how many new or unread topics are in this category.
I didn’t understand the process of uploading and then inserting pictures into a post, but got used to it. Here I can drag it or add it with one click.

There are many problems we’ve just learned to ignore or avoid, but this software is designed to solve them. You might have new problems here, but you should tell the admins what exactly is broken or too complicated so they can work on it. Also, don’t only say it is different than it was before. The goal of this project is having a better, more convenient forum. So tell them precisely what’s wrong and how you would try to improve it.

Alright, I am also going to have to say that I do not like this new design. The site is a step backwards from the old, in many regards. Yes, people often have an aversion to new things. But I’ll be specific with the following points:

Negative points.

• All the white space. Too much space everywhere, little content.

• Endless scrolling. Ahh!!! First, I cannot jump to a place in a long discussion that I remember, eg.: “oh yeah, that was on page 54”. Second, the browser has to load a LOT more content for each and every user. This slows both the users and probably the server as well. Third, and most frustrating: getting to the top or bottom of the page is … simply impossible. Just when you see the top or the bottom, it disappears, and the browser loads another load of comments.

• Less information is presented:
  – For example, the topics with new posts since my last visit isn’t shown.
  – The Date and TIme of a post isn’t shown (why?)
  – Basic infos on poster isn’t shown in the discussion (join date, number of posts).

• Half of the front page is used up with the “Latest” posts. Who cares about this in such a varied forum like blenderartists?? People are interested in specific topics.

• Ans simply the general loss of content and structure.

• Maybe a bug: the scroll-timline on the right side sometimes disappears.

This is obviously going to be a personal preference thing, but I still think infinite scrolling is a PITA, even as implemented here. I figured out how the slider works in the first few seconds of frigging around with the new layout, but I would still prefer standard pagination. I find it faster, cleaner, more intuitive, and all-round more convenient.

Which is not to say that I can’t use Discourse. I’m adaptable enough to use pretty much any GUI if I really have to. It’s just that some result in considerably more swearing than others.

There are no pages. What are you looking for at the top of a page? Posts were always written without pages in mind, as a continuous conversation.

Pretty sure this is implemented somewhere. If you need to see all posts since your last visit, this is shown at the homepage, I think. If you are looking for topics you’ve read or answered to, that have new replies, this is shown in the unread section. Is one of those what you’re looking for?

Found that strange, too, but what would that be needed for? Most of the time, this info is used to calculate a relative amount to the current time, or am I mistaken?

This is usually not important for every user, but only for some that are especially interesting for you. I think that’s personal preference, too. I’m fine with it missing, so it doesn’t take up space.

Nothing is lost. The content is preserved (mostly, some of it still on the way), the structure stayed the same. It’s just some extra panels with new features distracting from the bare structure, but the admins are apparently working on many issues currently, so some of them may be resolved soon. If you are missing specific elements that didn’t make it into your list, they would probably like to hear about those.

I think this thread has some very useful feedback, but it’s all packed inside this thread of negativity, which begins at the very unprofessional title. Most posts here would be more valuable with less aggression and sarcasm but more focus on feedback and questions. Zsolt’s post was very easy to read and extract issues from, as it’s just a bunch of structured information after a short introduction.