Community Feedback: New Forum Software Is Live!

19291 Views 252 Replies 58 Participants Last post by vs-Admin, Jul 22, 2021

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · May 31, 2021

We are excited to announce that we are live on our new forum platform!

It’s been a long time coming. Let’s face it. Sometimes older forum technology lags behind other parts of the internet. Although seeing the same format for a long time is comforting, the member experience shouldn’t include dealing with outdated, unsafe, slow software.

The transition to a new platform will never be 100% smooth but the days of dealing with out of date forum software are over. We have teams dedicated to building a world-class community for you. The development has been steady with regular software releases since May 2019. Asking members for feedback and coming up with ideas for improvement is what we want.

Speed and Reliability Are Key
No one should have to wait for information. This site has been built to be much faster and more reliable, period.

New Homepage Experience
Our algorithm will serve a personal customized feed based on your prior engagement with content on the site. If you’ve liked and or commented, or are following certain topics that are of interest to you, similar content will appear at the top of the homepage.

Search
We have introduced new search algorithms, powered by an industry-leading AI platform, to help you find information faster. We plan to roll out new features to continue improving search, and to power many additional areas of the forum.

Due to the volume of content, our search platform may take some time to complete indexing over the first few days after migrating. During this process, you may see a limited number of posts until indexing has been completed. We appreciate your patience.

Finding Your Way Around
We have made the design clean and simple to use. Near the upper right-hand corner of the community, you will see navigation icons.

The first icon is for what’s new on the site.

Clicking on it, by default, will take you to new unread posts. On that page, you can click on additional tabs as well, such as Popular, if you prefer to view active topics.

Clicking the list icon next to “NEW” will bring you to the full forum listing.

Clicking your avatar will give you a drop-down menu for all things related to your account.

You can also navigate more by clicking the 3 vertical dots.

Dark Mode
We have introduced Dark Mode. One of our favorite features allows you to access the site with a power-saving, and easier on the eyes dark mode. You can access it in the drop-down menu under the 3 vertical dots.

Save Bookmarks
Now you can save your favorite discussion threads and posts! Bookmarks are a handy way to remember and easily find great content or stuff you want to read later.

We also wanted to make it easier for new users to understand the lingo of forums. We have cleaned up various language to more commonly recognized phrases including:

Following - Thread subscriptions, and Watched are now known as Following
Conversations - Private Messages or PMs are now conversations and can be accessed from the user avatar drop-down in the main navigation
Showcase - Showcase is designed for users to "showcase" items/projects through the use of uploaded images, text descriptions and custom content categories. It’s a way to visually and textually provide detailed information on the content you wish to share. The showcase would be similar to a catalog, whereas the gallery would be like a photo album. It can be accessed from the drop-down menu with the 3 dots.

Take a tour and look around! Check out the Help section for some quick FAQs about the new platform.

Please keep all feedback, questions, concerns, requests for help, etc. regarding the new platform right here in this Feedback thread. This will help us make sure not to miss a request for help and also let us pass along your thoughts to our Product team. The Admins and I will be here to help along the way taking note of your comments.

- Community Management Team

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 1

Status: Not open for further replies.

1 - 20 of 253 Posts

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #2 · May 31, 2021

Hello!

I will be here today as we begin to unpack from the move to this new software update. You may have a lot of questions or comments, or may need help orienting yourself to some of the things that look different around here. I hope I can help you feel comfortable navigating around.

My name is Gerrit, and I have been helping people figure out this software for the past year. Orienteering through new environments has always been in my life, from the different countries, states, and cities I’ve moved between throughout my life. Orienting yourself to new software usually takes time and I’ve found that having someone there along the way can help y’all get your bearings. While we all work through the new layout, it is all of these skills that I hope to bring here to you now.

Orienteering is never an easy skill, but with me as your guide through the site I hope that we can explore this brave new look for the site together. I won’t always have an immediate answer to your question, but I will work to find you the most accurate information together.

-Gerrit

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 2

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 31, 2021

Please don't be afraid to explore and test out things to see how they work on the site. You can also see our FAQs here!

Although you can certainly use the "insert image" icon to upload an image to your post, you can also just drag and drop it to the text editor or even copy/paste it into there!

You can easily share your fave or latest videos just by adding the URL directly into the text editor!

Gif links from sites like giphy.com will display automatically just by adding the gif URL directly in the text editor. Try it while you’re looking around the site!

I am also a huge fan of the dark mode for the community, it’s much easier on the eyes. What is your favorite feature?

I will be here to answer questions and to help you navigate, as needed.

-Gerrit

See less See more

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #9 · May 31, 2021

portals999 said:
Well done to the guys for getting this up and running smoothly!

Is there and equivalent of [My Content], where I can see ALL the recent posts I have commented on?

cheers

There are a few ways to navigate to this information.
From the navigation, near the upper right-hand corner of the site, click on your avatar to open the drop-down menu and select “my profile”.

Click on the number below discussions.

You can also click your avatar near the upper right-hand corner of the site and select following.

On the following page, click on My Discussions.

You can also hover over your avatar in any thread and click on this option from there

I will warn that today it may be a tad more sluggish, since we just moved everything over and it may take time to "unpack" some of the older threads.

They're all there in the normal places you can find them, they just may take a moment to populate on your profile.

Hope that helps.

Happy to hear everyone is acclimating well, but if you have any questions or worries, please allow me to help put those to rest.

Cheers,
Gerrit

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 2

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #14 · May 31, 2021

Dingleberry said:
The new format is a nice change.

How do I unfollow (for lack of the correct term) a thread that I posted in? I no longer wish to see it bold when I check my Participated Discussions link.

That should be able to be done if you go to the thread and click the "Unfollow" button next to the title:

Like with most things, there are likely other ways to do this, like from the following page, but this has always been the most intuitive for me.

Cheers,
Gerrit

See less See more

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #15 · May 31, 2021

portals999 said:
Thanks.

OK, to get exactly the same as [My Content] showed in previous version you need to click on the your icon, select [Following] then select [Participated Discussions] link!

Is it possible to 'bookmark' this link or have it as a shortcut link somewhere on home screen for easy access to this content as we had before?

View attachment 274808

The "Following" section can be reached from the drop down menu, so to ge to Participated Discussions in 2 clicks.

The "New" bubble also has some filters that you may fit what you're trying to accomplish as well.
Have you looked through those?

Cheers,
Gerrit

See less See more

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #16 · May 31, 2021

chrisw said:
Hello Gerrit,......All looks nice, but, I do have a question.............there seem to be a few duplications in the forum sections.....eg. multiple sections for 1/32 cars, scratchbuilding etc.

Are these different or just items to still be addressed/worked out.???

Cheers
Chris Walker

Duplicates may be an issue. If you want to, please privately message me with the "Conversation" option and let me know of any you can see so I can attend to them.

Cheers,
Gerrit

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #18 · May 31, 2021

portals999 said:
One general comment, the image that has been chosen for the site banner does not sit well how it currently is, it jars as the track slots in the image clash with site navigation. Personally I would do a quick edit on the image and make the bottom right all dark grey so the navigation buttons can be easily seen. Or use an image that sits better taking in to consideration the functional layout.

I am not part of the design team, but I do know the banner does furl up as you scroll down. The navigation buttons will persist with scrolls.

I will bring this up to them though, just to see if anything can be done.

Cheers,
Gerrit

Save

Reactions: 1

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #20 · May 31, 2021

Henk said:
Hmm, I wonder why the pictures in the New Cars in 2021 tread are so small, is this the new standard? I understand that you want to site to be friendly for mobile phones but I guess that most members will use a normal computer to navigate the forum.

I also checked my profile and I was overwhelmed with all the ”notify me when …” boxes I had to unchecked, basically I use the “new post” button and feel no need to be notified on anything. But that’s just me, a GOG

There is logic behind this. Unfortunately the move considered these images as "Attachments" which means only the Thumbnails will be visible. Clicking on the image thumbnail will display it full screen, but if you link the specific location I can see what I can do.

Any new images in this thread will be inputted as images naturally, unless specifically set to be Thumbnails.

As for the notification buttons, those are mostly there to let you have whatever choices you want, happy to hear you got it set up exactly as you wish.

Cheers,
Gerrit

Save

Reactions: 1

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #58 · Jun 1, 2021

tamar.nelwan said:
So I opened Slotforum tonight and it felt like I had entered a nightmare, bit Like the Laurie Anderson song:

I came home today
And both our cars were gone.
And there were all these new pink
Flamingoes arranged in star patterns
All over the lawn.

Then I went into the kitchen
And it looked like a tornado had hit.
And then I realized I was in the wrong House

Lyrics "Talk Normal" by Laurie Anderson.

So my question is...Am I?

Its like you have a subscription on the Herald Tribune and all of a sudden the Sun gets pushed through your letterbox.
And as a reasonably frequent contributor of content.....WHTF has happend to all my older post with hundreds of images that are no longer displayed in my topics.?
(This is just one example)
This used to happen before (images not being displayed) so I reverted to posting them as attachments. It was a work around, but it worked. at least they were displayed properly.
Now all you see are thumbnails.

This might be an improvement for VS...but you're "upgrade" has just rendered hundreds of hours that I've spend posting here...completely useless.😨

With frustrated regards
Tamar

Hi Tamar,

I can say with confidence that this is part of the work I am working on. Image recovery takes time to but please keep providing me examples and I will work to recover them.

Dopamine said:
Can someone tell me how to add a user to my "ignore" list? On the old forum my account was set to hide posts from one of the forum's users, but the upgraded forum says "You are not currently ignoring any members" and I cannot find a way to add someone to my list.

From anywhere you can hover over their avatar or go to their profile and click the 3 dot menu (I have more options, but you will have the ignore option for most users)

Some members can not be ignored, but those are mostly admin or mods.

Dingleberry said:
Thank you Gerrit, for the quick response. However I was wrong with my assessment. I am not Following the thread in question, I contributed at one point and responded in the thread. I no longer wish to see those in the Participated Discussions list. Is that possible?

That is a function you can set within the settings, but I think it will remove all notifications from Participated Discussions. I believe if you work through the settings a bit you'll find a balance that works for you.

Let me know if you have further issues.
Gerrit

See less See more

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #64 · Jun 1, 2021

portals999 said:
The signature is only allowed to be 4 lines and only top 2 lines show unless you click the expand arrow.

I pasted mine from old site from old post I'd downloaded before migration but had to edit it to be only 4 lines.

Also be careful, if you paste in a YT video your signature will be HUGE and show the video....ask me how I know that...

Old Signatures will be grandfathered, so if you like it the way it is, you don't need to edit it. But once you change it you do have to follow the settings. Your signature can include up to 4 lines, a maximum of 1000 characters and one link. An image counts as a line. Anytime you hit "enter" on your keyboard, it will automatically go to a new line. Images will automatically be resized to 300 x 200 pixels. You can see more options in your settings to collapse signatures, always view full signature, or to not see signatures at all. The choice is yours.

You can also set it in your settings to have it auto-expand if you look in your settings.

beardy56 said:
Does the signature show correctly to other users? as I just see this [SIZE=24pt]Thanks for Reading[/SIZE] [SIZE=36pt]Keith[/SIZE]

This link should help with formatting:

BB codes

www.slotforum.com

Coides said:
OK, I've just done this for one of my 108 threads - thanks for the advice, Tamar.

The good news is that it works and it can be done relatively quickly if you cut "ATTACH" and paste "ATTACH type="full"" in Edit mode>Toggle BB code

That said, I agree that it's gonna take a very long time to do all my threads in this way and how many of us punters are actually up to doing this anyway? Not many I think.

The result will be that most of our older posts will have tiny pics so every reader will have to toggle each individual image to see it full sized - and if like me the thread author is constantly making text comments that refer to the images, the reader will be unable to follow this and the thread will be much less valuable.

SO, I strongly suggest that we ask the admin to do it - all a programmer needs to do is to write a simple script that searches through every post.

How about it, Gerrit?

Best wishes

Andy

PS Just discovered a new problem - the editor box doesn't like me using some text that contains some BB commands . . .

As mentioned, I am working on the fix now. I appreciate patience here.

Thanks,
Gerrit

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #67 · Jun 1, 2021

tamar.nelwan said:
Hello Gerrit (Dutch ancestry by the way?..or fully Dutch?) Thank you for your replies.

Attached Image display
And thanks for looking into this, I assume that with some patience and some clever coding by your tech department, the issue of reverting "old" attachments from thumbnail to type="full" will be sorted. As this is just a coding issue.
In the mean while, a "temporary" removal of the "edit limit" of just 10 post per week...would help a lot for those who would want to correct their own post a.s.a.p.

Image links allowing old "http://" URL's
Any word on fixing this issue, as this is both a security decision and a coding issue. For the sake of maintaining SF as a valuable Slot Race Archive it would be a very strong argument to "grandfather" http coded image links.
I mean even if I were to go trough the effort of getting my old site up to "https" standard...the code in all my older post would not change and still contain "http" links to the images posted.

With kind regards
Tamar

Hello,

I am indeed a Dutchie.

These image issues do sometimes occur, but I believe we're working on it and should see a resolution hopefully soon.

justDave said:
The Calendar seems to have completely disappeared. Granted, it has been pretty much redundant through our times of plague, but events are starting to be rescheduled. it's a very good way to ensure events don't clash. Can we have it back please?

The calendar did get removed in the move, unfortunately in effort to improve security some things had to get removed. I do not think we'll be able to restore this in the same capacity, but if you're missing some of the features I can try to work to build it out.

Thanks,
Gerrit

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #72 · Jun 1, 2021

Stavros said:
well thats me out of here as far as I am concerned it is pants goodbye as i wont be logging in ever again WHY CHANGE SOMETHING THAT WASNT BROKE....procress my ARSE

Dave

I get the "if it's not broke" logic. I use it on my home appliances, but if I think about it, my coffee machine isn't broken... but the coffee it makes isn't as strong as I'd like and it needs to simmer between cups. I've replaced parts here and there, but now I've built these inconveniences around my schedule, but it still isn't perfect. When I buy a new one, will it take time to learn it, sure. But in time I will probably enjoy my coffee more.

This site isn't a coffee maker, and luckily we're not all starting brand new. All posts and images, and the people you know are all still here. So it is good that we don't have to begin anew, but I am hear to help make the newer face-lift feel familiar in time.
Sorry to hear you're not liking the upgrade. Change is never easy, and I hope you do stick around for a bit to test and try things out. I know I took time to adjust to the new lay out.
In time, I found that as soon as things started to become more natural I could see some differences. A lot of things I had assumed that was just "part of the process" became easier and faster.

-Gerrit

Coides said:
Thanks, Gerrit. I'm sorry to be repeating requests after you've already responded to the same one previously. Like most of us on this Forum I'm a bit confused by the new setup and didn't see your earlier response. I'll get used to it soon.

By the way, I think that it is already an improvement and with a little bit of extra work it will be a big improvement!

Best wishes

Andy

No worries

I know things are new and I want to ensure I get to all questions by everyone. Let me know if I miss any.
So you all know: The image stuff may not all be resolved in an equally satisfying way. Currently missing images in posts for any reason (including the http/https issue) are being looked at to see if we can run a scripting fix. The thumbnail issue may not be altered as the old way images were attached were done so as thumbnails. We're working on seeing if those thumbnails can be converted to attachments again, but because of the way it was translated this may either take longer, or may not be perfectly possible.

If I get more information on it, I will let everyone know.

Cheers,
Gerrit

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 2

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #74 · Jun 1, 2021

GRUNZ said:
Why the bloody thing keeps forgetting my passwords? This is the second time that I have to reset the password because...I do not know.
Is there a problem with the Chrome password manager?

This may be a residual caching thing from your browser/device. Try clearing your cache so it knows to only save the password and log ins from the post-updated site.

Let me know if that helps,
Gerrit

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #82 · Jun 2, 2021

gus3049 said:
I just started up and when logging in, was asked to complete a Capcha or whatever it is.

If this is going to happen every time, my days here may be numbered.

This should only flag once, as part of our anti-spam software. If you see this happening more often, please let me know.

Transmission said:
my Ferrari thread

Hi,

This is part of our ongoing rebuild which is taking time, but I do hope to have those to your shortly.

merkit the grof said:
Calendar? It seems we can have a calendar, just needs to be set up.
View attachment 274956

Notice how that version of Xenforo looks similar to the previous incarnation of Slot Forum, really not sure why the decision was taken to remove the tabs at the top of the page.
Perhaps VS Media should consider that as a first change (keep the familiar look and feel for the users??), just a thought.

Joel

Hi Joel.

While our base software does work via Xenforo, we are not an out-of the box model so support for 3rd party widget like the physical calendar is not super possible. I may be able to dig through and enable a display of "Todays Birthdays."
Once I set that up I can work to build out the calendar more clearly, but that may take longer.

-Gerrit

Save

Reactions: 1

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #86 · Jun 3, 2021

Hi Rallyhub,

As an update, some of the older uploads are taking longer because they were stored in a separate location in the back. We're working on finding and accurately linking it in now, but this is taking time. I am sorry if it is hurting any of those older threads, but hopefully as we work to recover those you can enjoy new topics and new means to upload new photos too!

Gerrit

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #90 · Jun 3, 2021

tamar.nelwan said:
@ Gerrit
So I can understand that "relocating" older uploads to new formatted posts requires a bit more time and coding.
But what about (re) allowing images with old http:// URL's to be shown again in two decades of members post
Should be an "appeltje-eitje" right?
Oh and what about correcting the display of the BB emoticons, some of them are being cropped and some show a bit of other smileys?

With kind regards
Tamar

p.s. one more thing, did anyone notice that SF is now listed as "since 1970", which seems more like the 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970 instead of the start of SF in 2003?! Devil is in the details 😅

Hi Tamar,

In theory, I agree it does look like just "een eitje". (Both phrases meaning a saying for something that should be a simple process, or like a piece of cake for the non-Dutch speakers)
However; there are a few more moving parts so even simple fixes may be queued in a way that slows it down a tad. We do plan on resolving all image issues, these may each take their own time.

The date issue, I'll tag another tech in to see if we can fix that detail. Time is a bit timey-wimey, like Henk said... but this is an issue in translation of some threads in the old system being brought here. You should see it updated when the forum updates next.

Cheers,
Gerrit

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #101 · Jun 4, 2021

Dopamine said:
Has something changed today with the SlotForum title bar? I'm (almost) sure that until today, the title bar disappeared as I scrolled down the thread, but now it changes to a shallower version rather than the full depth one, but remains visible and wasting valuable screen space, no matter how far I scroll down the page.

The amount of screen space wasted by this new look is terrible. All style over substance, designed to appeal to who? Infants?

This is what I see when I first view a thread:

View attachment 275033

This is what I see when I scroll down the page. I know I'm on SlotForum. I don't need a bloody great banner permanently telling me so and wasting space.

View attachment 275034

Nothing has changed about this since the update.
The size of most things including the sidebar or the top bare will scale depending on how large your window is. The navigation bar is fairly handy even still being there. Clicking on the site name, will take you to the home page, and the Search bars, is well... a search bar.

The "New" icon takes you to new threads
The Forum icon takes you to a forum listing
The avatar, has some options in a drop down, but clicking can also take you to some of your preferences.
The Kebab menu take you to more options as well..
I am sure you knew most of these, or they were self explanatory, but it is always worth checking out to see what all there.

Cheers,
Gerrit

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #107 · Jun 4, 2021

Dopamine said:
Yes, it does indeed scale. The wrong damn way. With a smaller window, the top bar becomes even bigger. It's an appalling way to design a page.

Not for me it isn't. This is a case of the site admins telling its users that the users' preferences are wrong and the designers' are right.

It's ironic that VerticalScope's own website doesn't have this appalling design. No non-scrolling top bar there. One design rule for one, another for the rest, I guess.

www.verticalscope.com

Large screen - annoying but slightly smaller non-scrolling top bar
View attachment 275080

Small screen - huge non-scrolling top bar
View attachment 275081

Hi,

I don't want you to think we aren't listening. I use forums, and I have found them useful for navigating around. That's why I implied it was. I understand if that is not your preference, especially if you're browsing on mobile.

I will talk to the devs to see if there is a way to shrink it further, or allow for a setting to fully hide for mobile users. I don't know their queue or workload, so I don't know how long it will take to develop. However, I will do everything I can to try and find a resolution for you.

So I know, would the preference here be to shrink it a tad to only be a set size? If so which icons would you like to see prioritized if the bar got too small to display them all in a way that could functionally accommodate them all?
If there is a preference to allow it to fully accordion, would you want that to be a toggle, or a system setting and preference? Would you want it to be able to be pulled up if you hover a cursor near the top of the screen, or would you want it to only show if it is at the top of the screen.

If you could help me better understand these considerations, I can work to develop the right resolution.

Cheers,
Gerrit

See less See more

Save

vs-Admin

Discussion Starter · #110 · Jun 4, 2021

Thanks for the feedback! I will continue to listen for more and get it out to the devs as soon as I feel like I have reached a rough approximation of the majority want for this feature.
Also let me know if it doesn't sound necessary, all opinions are very important.

Also, also... I hope you continue to help clue me in on other feedback, issues, or features.
-Gerrit

Save

1 - 20 of 253 Posts

Status: Not open for further replies.

Top Contributors this Month