Someone's got to say it - I don't like the new website format!

[silentneko]

Similar issues here, and I know they are working hard to sort through the issues.

I am using mostly a Samsung S10+, so it's a newer android. I can't fix the tabs or anything, but I can adjust the font size.

Click the 3 line button on the bottom to get to your option screen. There you have a tab that says text size

Screenshot_20201122-090655_Samsung Internet.jpg

Increase to your liking.

Screenshot_20201122-090717_Samsung Internet.jpg

It's not a final solution, but might help with some eye strain for now.

[gstanfield]

I really like the new forum.... when I'm on my computer. When I'm on my phone it kinda sucks, but I understand that it's still being ironed out.

What I dislike about this forum over every other forum is how I have to dig through to find the last post I read on any given thread. With every other forum I frequent I can click on a thread and there may be 200 new posts, but when I click on it I'm taken to the last post that was there the last time I was in that thread. It's not a big deal since this forum doesn't get a lot of traffic, but when threads get busy you can miss a post by digging through.

Is this a setting I need to enable? (cookies?)

[Jaysen]

If you click the icon to the left of the thread (should be red) it will take you to the first unread message.

[gstanfield]

If you click the icon to the left of the thread (should be red) it will take you to the first unread message.

You rock! It puzzled me that this forum didn't have that feature, now it has it too, I just have to remember to slightly tweak my clicking process.

Thanks.

[BarraMan]

Its actually easier for me to read on my iphone than on my laptop!

[TomW1]

I think the new forum is bad. Came back from shoulder replacement surgery to find the change. I will always support good change, but there is nothing I have found that makes this update warranted. I have tried several things and they took me off site and did not return me to were I was, not sat,

Jayson not a bad effort, but a lot of areas to clean up imho. Thanks for all you effort Tom

[Netpackrat]

Forums (and other systems) that are not kept up to date have a tendency to become glitchy and are prone to being compromised. So while the upgrades are usually configurable to some extent, otherwise you're pretty much stuck with whatever changes are in the new version (like them or not), else you will have worse problems in the long run by sticking with the old.

[fallguy1000]

I think the new forum is bad. Came back from shoulder replacement surgery to find the change. I will always support good change, but there is nothing I have found that makes this update warranted. I have tried several things and they took me off site and did not return me to were I was, not sat,

Jayson not a bad effort, but a lot of areas to clean up imho. Thanks for all you effort Tom

That is a bit harsh Tom.

There were things done behind the scenery that were needed. Backups of the database which we only value when they fail, for one.

[Jaysen]

Ok... Finally back at a desk after a bit of family time over the weekend. I moved this under the "forum software topic" because that's really the right place for it. For the record I welcome the feedback. Now let me address a few points, not as a defense of anything, but an explanation of the uphill battle Jeff has had with the forum. This is a long one, but really, it should be read to understand some of the complications.

Backups: As most are aware, there has been at least one major and (by my count) 4 minor cases of data loss in the forum. Because Jeff sees the forum as a key part of the business community we need to ensure that the data is protected. Most of the solutions for this cost more than a few pennies. The solution that we have implemented is inexpensive, requires no more than a slight slow down of the forum for about 3hrs once a month, and has been tested already (I dropped the db accidentally during the upgrade and no one noticed thanks to the backup being available for reload). To implement this we had serious issues to overcome. Like...

Consolidating Domains: There were 12+ sites under various domains for BBC. We have that down to 4 and hope to get it down to 2. This consolidation allows us to have a simple, faster backup, with reduced complication in the backup configs. It also ensures that we do not have to pay to back up the same large file/db space multiple times. This offsets the cost of backup when Jeff can renegotiate hosting soon.

Undoing "bad" customization practices (this is really what we are complaining about here): One of the problems with the upgrade is that the previous forum admins did not follow phpBB methods for customizing the forum. This literally made it impossible to upgrade. Literally. It failed. Every time. To get the upgrade to work I had to rebuild portions of the DB manually. Then I had to walk through thousands of lines of code debugging various changes and move them to the correct locations as specified by phpBB guidelines. After about 200hr of this I asked Jeff "can we just start over?" and he agreed. Keep in mind, I have a 60hr/wk job and I'm not a php expert. A lot of what none of us like about the new site is 100% on the list to fix. It's just not at the top of the list yet. For example, we had to rebuild the password table to secure it from spam submissions, but that made it so NO ONE could register a new account. That impacts Jeff's business so fixing that takes priority over mobile views. Remember Jeff provides the forum for FREE to everyone and allows "not boat" things here to foster the community. I have to focus on reducing impact to the business.

Modernization: part of what Jeff needs is to keep a modern, consistent branding. This means that the look, feel and layout needed to change. Moving to a modern feel created a pile of conflicts with the previous customizations. The ones that weren't implemented correctly. Because of the level of effort that it required to untangle the previous customizations, and the issues we are having with the new branding, we are implementing function BEFORE feature. For example, the build threads tab is a HUGE resource so we fixed it before the mobile experience. The mobile experience will be fixed before removing all old links and rewriting them to the new domains (meaning some links back to the forum will open new tabs for a while). The data is all there just not accessed in an ideal manner.

And the last part of the issue for Jeff is ... Jaysen. As I mentioned before, I'm gainfully employed and have volunteered to do this for Jeff because I value the forum (and the users) as well as the BBC team. I dedicate as much time as I can to building the forum, but sometimes I have to set the forum aside to make sure the bills are paid. And sometimes I like to spend time with the family. Last week and this week, my son is home on leave (first time we have seen in 11mo) and he leaves for 18mo min overseas station almost as soon as he gets back to base. Luckily the Mrs prefers I work on the forum

Addressing some direct complaints
TomW1

I think the new forum is bad. Came back from shoulder replacement surgery to find the change. I will always support good change, but there is nothing I have found that makes this update warranted. I have tried several things and they took me off site and did not return me to were I was, not sat,

Jayson not a bad effort, but a lot of areas to clean up imho. Thanks for all you effort Tom

Tom, Thanks for the recognition. The as indicated by

Forums (and other systems) that are not kept up to date have a tendency to become glitchy and are prone to being compromised. So while the upgrades are usually configurable to some extent, otherwise you're pretty much stuck with whatever changes are in the new version (like them or not), else you will have worse problems in the long run by sticking with the old.

and

There were things done behind the scenery that were needed. Backups of the database which we only value when they fail, for one.

the forum had SIGNIFICANT security issues. We went through a 9 revision upgrade to resolve the following major PUBLISHED security issues
1. Password compromise/leak
2. Private information compromise/leak
3. SSL session security enhancement
4. PHP version upgrades
5. PHP memory leak corrections
6. Password encryption improvements
7. Binary cache protection
What is not clear in that list, is that Jeff had some potential legal exposure that we have now closed. Other companies, much larger than BBC, have been shuttered due to neglecting exposure and being hacked. I think, if we were asked, we would all prefer a little "unwanted change" over BBC being closed due to a data breech.

BarraMan

Its actually easier for me to read on my iphone than on my laptop!

Now you are just playing games with my head. The desktop version should look at the size of the browser windows and scale things to fit. We specify the start of "mobile" at 699px and I changed wording to fit all tabs at 700px. Font size should be 12pt for all normal txt and larger for all headers and menus. Can you PM me you OS and browser info so I can see if I missed something?

gstandield

If you click the icon to the left of the thread (should be red) it will take you to the first unread message.

You rock! It puzzled me that this forum didn't have that feature, now it has it too, I just have to remember to slightly tweak my clicking process.

Thanks.

That function is core phpBB from 2.1 (I think). I've always used that to "read new posts" in threads. But I think the hidden gem is the phpBB "new posts" search... /forum/search.php?search_id=newposts
That one only shows you new posts since your last visit. I have that as a bookmark. That is how I view the forums.

Please keep an eye on the forum software thread as I will be posting planned changes there. When possible I will attempt to provide "testing sites" to get feedback. Thank you all for your patience with this.

[piperdown]

I'm not typically using mobile but desktop and I don't have an issue with the layout. Then again, I'm on several different forums, have been for decades and it doesn't take too long to figure stuff out.