new format - a thumbs-down

[Marty Feldman]

Personal opinion: Another example of confusion between oh-how-clever and the genuine enhancement of usefulness. I vote for ditching the whole useless effort and going back to what we had.

Normally I would not comment on this, but the thing that pushed me over the edge was a series of four "Alerts" (the bell symbol, top right) informing me that "You have been awarded a trophy". This is typical of the juvenile, ignorant programming mentality that has made the internet and social media the potent force that it is. It's about as far as you can get from the reason I joined PM.

-Marty-

 

[coffeetek]

I don't care about trophy crap either, but biggest issue is that whole forum is less readable. And for the medium where reading is the only way you access it, making it less readable is shooting yourself in the foot.

Concrete example, the narrow font selection for the forum titles. Narrow font is never as readable as full size font.

Edit: Actually changing the Style under Preferences to Default Style makes the titles much more readable!

 

[IninefingersI]

I like them. They help cultivate the illusion of self-importance.

 

[FredC]

I would not go that far. Just got here this morning, but my first impression is the posts are spread out too far, there might be an option to compress it a little on my screen or maybe I will get used to it and like it.

 

[crazygoat]

Very hard on the eyes for us old folks. I would have to give it a thumbs down. Change just for change sake is never a good idea.

 

[Mtndew]

Personal opinion: Another example of confusion between oh-how-clever and the genuine enhancement of usefulness. I vote for ditching the whole useless effort and going back to what we had.

Normally I would not comment on this, but the thing that pushed me over the edge was a series of four "Alerts" (the bell symbol, top right) informing me that "You have been awarded a trophy". This is typical of the juvenile, ignorant programming mentality that has made the internet and social media the potent force that it is. It's about as far as you can get from the reason I joined PM.

-Marty-

If you're that triggered by notifications, then turn them off. You have that option.
Do you need a safe space and a hug now?

 

[dcsipo]

Meh, Could be worse, but I liked the old format better.

 

[JohnEvans]

When I log on in the evening I use the froum search for posts from yesterday and newer ,that way I do not miss something that I may be interested it. If the current NEW button only shows from my last visit I will end up missing a lot if I just log on to check on something. And YES hard on my old eyes. And the similar threads at the bottom USLESS !! The most recent post on that is close to 2 years ago and then 8!!

 

[dkmc]

Anyone thats truly unhappy with the new format should demand a full refund including all shipping and handling charges.

 

[Scottl]

This new format reminds of so many other websites that used to be quite user friendly before they were changed to "improved visuals".

I had to shrink the page in my browser just to find the login box.
Too spread out.
Posts tiny compared to the avatars (typical of the selfie generation).
And worst of all, the "mystery meat" buttons for edit, etc. where you have to mouse over the ghostly pale buttons for the text to become readable.

 

[reggie_obe]

New software is missing the "Dislike" or F.U. icon for a post.

 

[Booze Daily]

 

[DDoug]

 

[Arc-On]

I'm not surprised by the general amount of grumbling on this forum about the recent changes, seems to fit in with the general vibe here lol.

Some other forums I'm on have been migrating away from Vbulletin to Xenforo, and from what I understand it is primarily a back end thing. I guess Vbulletin is a much larger pain in the ass than Xenforo, and the amount of extra work it takes to keep spammers and whatnot at bay is much harder on Vbulletin.

I frankly hated the old Vbulletin layout. It was never as well laid out as I would have liked, and it was in NO way mobile friendly for photos or stuff like that. I think this is a positive move, and with some general tweaks and cosmetic massaging y'all will be back to complaining about the usual stuff in no time. It'll take some getting used to, but hopefully this helps attract and retain some more members as forums generally aren't the thriving medium they were 10 or 15 years ago.

 

[bhigdog]

I don't care one way or the other. Both seemed to work OK. My eyes are 988 moons old I can read what's here just fine......Bob

 

[rons]

I like the large print and wide spacing format. But I have to sit back away from the screen before I can see all my awards.

 

[DanASM]

This is definitely hard on the eyes. Looks too much like the reason I stopped using social media.

Once something stops serving a purpose for me I slowly cut it out of my life. I hate to say it but the last 6 months or so here has me wondering why I keep coming back.

Its not what it was when I first joined. Cant say Ill be around much here much anymore.

 

[redlee]

I look at this way, if this was the original format and they changed it to the original format the grumbling would be similar. Most people get used to something and dont like to change for better or worse.

Pretty soon everybody will be used to it and will forget about the new changes and it will be business as usual.
I do miss being able to see how many posts one has had though.

 

[IninefingersI]

CTRL+scroll adjusts the size of the screen to whatever you prefer.

I've got a burr under my saddle because I had to remember my login and password before I could post. I'm not a man who relishes being inconvenienced. If it had been more than once, I might have been on a water tower with a deer rifle.

 

[wheels17]

After a bit of use, I believe this update suffers from a common design concept on the web today. There is WAY too much whitespace. It makes the main page much more difficult to read quickly.

Will there be more styles available in the future? Perhaps more like the old design? Less whitespace and serif fonts.