AnandTech Forums - XenForo Feedback

[TridenT]

Oh man, wtf. It's back to 25.

 

[jpishgar]

100 posts per page (for literally everyone) is brutalizing load time. We're going to back to 25 per until we can figure out why this is happening, or make it an individual user option, whichever comes first.
-JP

Edit: Yeah, we were staring some downtime in the eyeball if that had kept up. Putting post count per page on the to-do for first items post-launch, on a per user basis. Should be an add-on, if not an option built-in. Sorry for the false start on this.

 

[Kiska]

One thing with the old forum software is we could post more than 10k characters in a post, now we can't, so for someone doing stats in the distributed computing sub-forum we have to potentially make 2-3 post to get statistics out.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

None of the XenForo forums I use seem to have the option to change posts per page. I hope you guys can figure it out.

 

[lupi]

Hope the post per page can get fixed, that's my #2 issue with the switch. #1 being the sun glare from the theme appearance.

 

[jpishgar]

Side note, revenue is not a consideration on the posts-per-page front - performance and stability are, exclusively. Going to keep the dissertation on this subject to a low roar in the interest of expediency and off-topicness, but suffice to say, your community team (my staff, the mods and admins) fight the good fight on this front and serves as your direct advocate with all teams. We tried the 100, it started to break stuff, so we're back to 25 for a scoash. We'll figure this posts per page matter out, just give us a tidbit to triage.

-JP

 

[jpishgar]

Coalesced feedback on the transition so far.

Bugs:
• Outstanding 403 errors with editing a reply (reproducable?)
• Hover over a thread title waiting for a preview, the right pane jumps up and locks in place, no longer scrolls in sync with the page
• Embedding of YouTube links with a time offset does not work. Video is loaded from the start instead.

Requested Tweaks/Changes:
• Customize posts per thread on a user level OR set global Registered, Confirmed users at 100, all else less than or equal to 20/25.
• Re-add the old smilies
• Dark Theme option
• Make right column collapsible
• Remove the radar ping animation from the online indicator
• Reduce white space margin above thread title and below date in thread listing
• Add a static quick category navigation to the right-hand side (reminiscent of the old forum left-hand navigation menu) for comfort
• Increase character limit of posts beyond 10k characters (for statistics posts) for Registered, Confirmed users

Did I miss anything?

-JP

 

[ViRGE]

Did I miss anything?

-JP

The ability to go Safe For Work would be nice. Either a setting to disable inline images, videos, and avatars, or a skin that doesn't render those.

 

[imported_bman]

On forum pages it would be nice if the thread index would be displayed without needing to mouse over thread.

 

[Mike64]

I dunno if this is something that can be relatively easily addressed (I suspect not), but the fonts are a little screwy - italics always seem to run into subsequent non-italic text in a way that didn't happen with the old software. Not the end of the world, but it does look pretty bad and seems like kind of a fundamental flaw at this stage of web design....

 

[Red Squirrel]

25 posts per page seems fine to me. I could live with 50. 100 seemed a bit much, either way not a huge deal, I could get used to either. Just keep in mind picture related threads may be brutal to load on slower connections if you do 100.

 

[Suigeneris81]

My actual account name is "Carfax83," but ever since they uploaded the new forum, I haven't been able to log in with my old account.

The actual error created is 403 Forbidden. Can a mod or community manager look into this please?

 

[harobikes333]

Is it possible to change "themes" ? This white theme is harsh on the eyes in the evenings & I prefer something grey, etc.

 

[cez4r]

@jpishgar
"Did I miss anything?"

Yes: the request of moving line w/ post # and post time to the top of posts for better readability.

Plus, could we have normal Quote button back? I cannot quote now...

 

[zinfamous]

@jpishgar
"Did I miss anything?"

Yes: the request of moving line w/ post # and post time to the top of posts for better readability.

Plus, could we have normal Quote button back? I cannot quote now...

It's in the drop-down "+" button at the top of your edit window (between the film icon and the floppy icon)

 

[Dahak]

Coalesced feedback on the transition so far.

Bugs:
• Outstanding 403 errors with editing a reply (reproducable?)
• Hover over a thread title waiting for a preview, the right pane jumps up and locks in place, no longer scrolls in sync with the page
• Embedding of YouTube links with a time offset does not work. Video is loaded from the start instead.

Requested Tweaks/Changes:
• Customize posts per thread on a user level OR set global Registered, Confirmed users at 100, all else less than or equal to 20/25.
• Re-add the old smilies
• Dark Theme option
• Make right column collapsible
• Remove the radar ping animation from the online indicator
• Reduce white space margin above thread title and below date in thread listing
• Add a static quick category navigation to the right-hand side (reminiscent of the old forum left-hand navigation menu) for comfort
• Increase character limit of posts beyond 10k characters (for statistics posts) for Registered, Confirmed users

Did I miss anything?

-JP

In addition to make the right column collapsible, that would mean that either the main part would shift / expand to fill the open space

hitting the first unread post button was always broken for me in VB

It always worked for me in Firefox across multiple platforms, but I am now getting used to the jumping to the first new post in a thread, but still liked the doing the old way.

 

[JujuFish]

Did I miss anything?

-JP

Likes/trophies/points all need to go. It doesn't matter that "the kids like them". This is a tech site, not a site for kids/teenagers.
Disabling the arrows on the bottom right, at least for desktop views.
Disabling the absolutely useless floating bar on the top. At least make it one line instead of the current orange AND black bars.
There's soooooo much more wasted white space besides the thread view.

 

[flexy]

I actually like the new forum!

The underlying stuff, security, performance etc. is fixed/top....but layout etc...secondary things are equally important. For *users* actually most important since this is what they *see* and experience, obviously.

Coalesced feedback on the transition so far.

Bugs:
• Outstanding 403 errors with editing a reply (reproducable?)
• Hover over a thread title waiting for a preview, the right pane jumps up and locks in place, no longer scrolls in sync with the page
• Embedding of YouTube links with a time offset does not work. Video is loaded from the start instead.

Requested Tweaks/Changes:
• Customize posts per thread on a user level OR set global Registered, Confirmed users at 100, all else less than or equal to 20/25.
• Re-add the old smilies
• Dark Theme option
• Make right column collapsible
• Remove the radar ping animation from the online indicator
• Reduce white space margin above thread title and below date in thread listing
• Add a static quick category navigation to the right-hand side (reminiscent of the old forum left-hand navigation menu) for comfort
• Increase character limit of posts beyond 10k characters (for statistics posts) for Registered, Confirmed users

Did I miss anything?

-JP

It's amazing what I personally tested and tweaked with the layout in the last days, even if I don't have any relationship to you guys

* is a static navigation on the LEFT possible? This is something which bugs me, more subjective than anything but just wondering
* side bars (whether left or right) need to be SMALLER
* the entire column with the user avatar and info to the left, also smaller
* not necessarily "dark theme", but the original colors of this one more in line to what it was to increase readability
* I know that many layout choices/decisions are based on requirements for ads etc...but the "Anandtech" logo is way too big.
*** optional: "Like system", as some proposed, either ditch it entirely or make it reasonable. I have seen a Xenforo addon for this.
*** optional: I understand (again) that themes may be chosen for good reasons and some themes may even be tweaked so they accomodate certain ads and/or have hard-coded ad spaces. But I understand that Xenforo by default should offer the choice for user themes and if themes don't interfere with ad placement etc...the more options there the better....not just one alternate dark theme....

 

[Ken g6]

Outstanding 403 errors with editing a reply (reproducable?)

I have a consistent way to reproduce a 403 error. Though it may not be the only mechanism. Take the code at http://pastebin.com/dc9nG3vQ, paste it into a [ code ] block, and try to post it on any thread here. Bam, instant 403.

 

[Joepublic2]

This is way better than that old vBulletin junk. Y'all did a good job on the transition. Why the circular avatars, though? Screens are square and rectangular so it makes much more sense to have square avatars IMO. The throbbing green logged in indicator is very annoying and visually distracting as well.

 

[cez4r]

It's in the drop-down "+" button at the top of your edit window (between the film icon and the floppy icon)

Thanks, but it doesn't work - I highligt some text, click on "+Quote" tip, click on this "+" button and it always put this in the Edit windows: "[ QUOTE ] [ / QUOTE]" - only this !!!

But I've found that when I click on "Reply" button I have the old "Quote" style, LOL

EDIT: I've found how to Multi-Quote:
1) Highligt some text, click on "+Quote" tip - do it in as many posts as you want.
2) Click on "Insert Quotes..." button under the Edit Window.

 

[Jaskalas]

Looking at the forums on my phone... looks great, the default theme is well suited for mobile. It might be a bright white theme, but I find I can tolerate it on a small screen.

Large 27" monitor though, is another story. It's for larger resolutions that alternatives are needed. Maybe keep that in mind if you go for a new default.

 

[IlllI]

• Reduce white space margin above thread title and below date in thread listing

there is so much more wasted space on this forum than just that which you mentioned.
This is how much unnecessary junk is on the forum, and how it looks like on my computer
http://i.imgur.com/5M5foKL.jpg that has to be at least 60% of the layout not dedicated to the actual forum section.

I really like nothing about this forum. not the color, not the layout, not the overly-huge avatars, or all the white space around each and every post, or forum, or sub forums. Nothing that was changed in the layout was for the better, it just added extra stuff, in my opinion detracts from the actual reading part of the forum. Maybe you could have an option for the 'legacy' layout/style/design, although I doubt that would be possible, since I doubt there would be anything resembling a copy/replacement/close approximation of the old forum after switching to xenforo

 

[jpishgar]

Per request, the pulsing online user indicator has been disabled.
-JP

 

[amenx]

Yeah, thats probably the most annoying thing in the new layout. Wasted white space between posts which only allows you to see 2 or 3 posts per page, so have to do a lot of scrolling. Old forum things were nicely compacted, also with convenient links to forum sections on left.