Navigating the new forum

Joe

I'm not aware of a "PM counter". 

Composing a post (Social Strata calls them topics) will become easier and faster with familiarity. It is no more difficult to learn to use the new software than it was to become familiar with the old software when you first became a member.

There are a lot more options and choices now, ways to search for new content etc. But you don't have to use them. You can choose to just use the basics, and my goal has been that the basics will mimic the previous forums as much as possible.

Did you use the big green button?

Hi George -

I think I may have the same problem as JFB.  I show that I have 1 new PM or Message in my inbox all the time.  My username (upper right) has a big red 1 in is, but I don't have any unread messages in my inbox. 

It's been going on since Monday.  A minor thing, but....

Rocky

I am also alerted of new "content" each time I log on. But when I view that new content by going to my "alerts" the big red dot with a number inside disappears.

I have reduced the number of alerts I am receiving by going to my "personal settings" and "notifications" and checking or unchecking the appropriate boxes.

That's all I know on the subject for now. I am on the same learning curve as the rest of you. Don't be afraid to explore.

my alert big red dot shows 28.   then when I expand its column, it has the same red dot at PMs.   I went through an opened all old PMs that I have available

I think I have lost older PMs as I can only see 20 from first of this year.

But my red dot stays at 28

the alert red dot does count down and goes away as I look at the new post it shows

i think the new platform reset everything as unread?

If you go to the top Navigation bar, on the far right, where your member name is displayed, hover the cursor there. A drop-down menu appears, click on private messages. That opens up your private message page, and "should" clear the alert. If it doesn't let me know.

It did not.

I have also open all 20 PMs displayed, I still have 28 in the red ball beside PMs

I have also sign off and back on...

I have even unplugged my modem and computer!

If all fails, 28 is a number I can remember to be my "zero"

Yes George opening the tab cleared the red ball

as far as old PM's, if there's nothing there you need to save just delete them, that's what i did and the red ball is gone from there also

4vandproud posted:

as far as old PM's, if there's nothing there you need to save just delete them, that's what i did and the red ball is gone from there also

That worked...ALL PMs deleted

seems like a drastic way

Is there a way to view the recent topics on a mobile device without having to turn it sideways? Can this be changed? 

Steve

Administrators are not provided tools for manipulating the HOOP.LA software responsiveness to screen size.

However, my "unskilled" HTML is in the header of every page. I'll ask if it could possibly impact your concerns. If so I'll let you & everyone know.

Hi Steve

Dave made a change to my HTML in the header, notice how the banner ads are spread apart now. Please check with a mobile device and let us know if the problem is resolved ... can you view the recent topics without having to turn it sideways?

No change detectable on iPhone. 

Steve

Thanks Steve, I've passed-on your comment to Dave. We'll keep at this.

Steve we appreciate the input you've provided, its helping us iron out the problems. Dave says he's not having anymore issues on his phone, which is an Android. So we need to attack this from a different direction.  Along that line, we would like a bit more input from you. We have 3 questions for now:

(1) Can you please tell us exactly which URL is the page that is giving you a problem?

(2) Which iphone are you using, including which IOS version (Safari?).

(3) Are all other pages fine for you?

Thanks

-G

I thought I'd try and having similar issue on an iPhone 6S (IOS 11.4.1) , the pantera.infopop.cc forums page loads but no access to the sidebar for topics, if I turn the phone in landscape it is there I can click 'All Topics' and when that loads portrait view is okay.

As Joules said iPhone 6s. IOS 12.0 I believe. All pages do not allow dragging and moving the page around in portrait mode and only scroll up and down. They do not show the recent topics in portrait mode. Only in landscape is recent topics exposed. 

Steve

Not sure if it helps to pile on, but I have the same iPhone configuration as Tsolo, and I am seeing the same symptoms.

posting this only to be helpful. 

Rocky

 I am sure I am like many  of the members in that I often keep up to date on this and other sources of information by using my cell phone.  In fact, last week I was at SEMA and my cell phone was my only viewing choice. 

 I have been playing with this new layout for the last few days and find it far from being intuitive to this non-digital native. Usually I do quite well with my online experiences but this new look is  just not working for me. 

 I just now found this experience to be additionally frustrating when I find multiple features are now visible in landscape mode that I never could view in portrait mode?????

 I am thinking I will put this forum  on a back burner for a week or three in hopes that some of the concerns and suggestions made by the members can be implemented and perhaps allow a more user-friendly layout to be established.   

Best wishes, but other than the frustration of picture size limitations with the old forum, I had no complaints with the old lay out.

As is often said-

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Larry 

even on a laptop, running firefox, I have felt lost.

the top thing that maybe is the confussion for me is the author of a post is not in the message block.  The author's location also helps me remember who is who.

and the current visitors being little circles instead of words

Julian, Steve, and Chuck

Thanks for the additional input, it is of course the type of input we need it we're to resolve the issues. The goal of course is for the forums to work trouble free.

Joe I plan to work on the "look" of the posts, specifically the transparent background where the poster's name is located. I think it should be solid.

I like having the poster's location too, I haven't run across anyway to change that, I'll ask at the appropriate time. I don't want to distract Dave while he works on the iPhone "responsiveness" issue.

jfb05177 posted:

… and the current visitors being little circles instead of words

if you hover the cursor over the round avatar their name appears

What do you think of this change in the art work (grey background)? I just figured-out how to do this this evening.

Please express your likes & dislikes, yeahs and nays, thumbs up or thumbs down.

If you like it in general, we can work from here.

There is currently some text that is DARK BLUE, they are links. I thought the color may help some folks find links, navigate, etc. Unfortunately this made the links in the header & footer blue as well. I'm hoping there is HTML code I can insert into the header & footer to make the links white again. But I'm waiting to see what the overall reception from you folks is like before I go further.

Julian, the pagination is now visible at the bottom of the pages.

I like your new color scheme better, and I like / appreciate the blue for the links. 

Personally, I would like:

1.  Less Line spacing in the posts.  One carriage return moves the next line down really far.  Note my numbering here.

2.  Smaller text

3.  Use the inch of margin on the left to put the username & info.  Expand the inch of margin on the right.

Less gap between posts.

4.  Something like this site (https://www.jaguarforum.com) IMHO maximizes space, and is pleasing on the eye...  You can't read it as well here, because the picture is compressed, (It's showing the entire width of my monitor in about 66% of the space here).

anything to throw a little more light on my keyboard is welcome, the old platform was so dark i couldn't find the keys w/o a light on in the room ... since you asked

is there a 'mark forum read' function?

Yes, near the top of the right hand (widget) column.

On the forum directory page
on the "all topics" page
on all 6 forum category pages
on all 29 individual forum pages
but not on the page for an individual topic (thread)

-G

Update

I'm not done adjusting the artwork. Just giving it a rest. There's some text colors and box borders I still need to work-out. I need to check in with Dave too.

my next question...

I can't find a box to check that will send an email when a new PM

The notifications you receive are dependent upon what you check or uncheck in two sections: in your "personal settings" and in your "notifications". 

It is not intuitive, I tried to eliminate getting an email every time someone posts to a thread I posted on and also need to uncheck the little 'follow' button to the lower left of the reply box!

OK, I think I found the pages with the boxes.    now to see how it works now.

joules posted:

It is not intuitive, I tried to eliminate getting an email every time someone posts to a thread I posted on and also need to uncheck the little 'follow' button to the lower left of the reply box!

Under personal settings are two boxes:

(1) Follow content when you create new content
(2) Follow content when you comment/reply.

Those are obviously global settings that shall be applied to everything you post. You are correct that the "posting" box also has a box you can check which gives you a choice to follow or "un-follow" a specific thread or post. That box is not "automatically" checked unless one or both of the global boxes have been checked.

In your case it seems it would be best for you to "uncheck" the global settings, allowing yourself to follow only those posts you decide to follow, which you can then select to follow on an individual basis.

The software of the new platform is neither easier nor more difficult to learn to use than the software of the old platform was. Its not even all that different, there's just many more features, and many more choices. And with those features and choices comes the necessity to learn to manage them, which is as simple as checking a box or two, or clicking a link.  Julian I have confidence you'll learn to use the new software quickly, just as you learned to use the old software, and once you do the exasperation you feel now will disappear.

Thanks George and yes it is me learning my way around, albeit I unchecked those boxes a some days ago and still get email notification of each post on a thread I have posted on.

First post in a long time. Wow how things have changed. I've visited and read the most recent posts but have otherwise been lost. I received a PM a few days ago and I'll just throw this out there in case it may be helpful to someone else. It appears the new forum software doesn't support (very well) Internet Explorer or at least not any version except the latest release which I don't own.

The big problem with IE, even when logged on, there are virtually no navigation bars/menus  displayed making it almost impossible to navigate. Online status indicators are missing etc. It finally dawned on me to have a look from another browser (MS Edge, Chrome, my mobile) and now the nav bars, menus and status icons display....so if you are trying to view from IE, forget it.

Having said that, even when viewing from the other browsers, and as a moderator & administrator of other forums and having built my own websites, I must say I still find the various navigation options on the main nav menus and the general forum structure to be quite different than most web forums and consequently quite unintuitive and difficult to use.

Is there anything equivalent to saved "favorite threads" in the previous forum? Or are those lost?

Sorry, don't mean to be negative, just keepin it real.

Best,

Kelly

from someone that hates change,

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

and don't look back. IE is the Pong of browsers

Have used them all....it's really just a matter of personal preference other than the fact the IE is targeted and exploited many, many, more times than the others.

I see there is a grey menu bar and Icon now at the top of the landing page so maybe this was addressed. Certain it wasn't there b4.

Best,

K

panterror posted:

I see there is a grey menu bar and Icon now at the top of the landing page so maybe this was addressed. Certain it wasn't there b4.

Best,

K

Hi Kelly glad your back, hope you stay.

The Nav-bar design has been there all along, since the new forums went on-line.

In terms of changes to the look or lay-out … I have not made changes to the forums in about a month. Perhaps more. My sense of passing time is not as good as it once was. Safe to say no changes since your next to last visit.

The forums look the same on IE, Chrome & Firefox on the PC & laptop I use at home, plus Debbie's phone, which is an iPhone. That's the only stuff I have to test with. I use IE on a daily basis & Debbie uses Chrome. That way we are constantly testing with the two most common search engines.

HOOP.LA has been around since 2014, it is a professionally designed and mature platform. I'm sure it looks the same on all screens of the same dimensions & orientation, regardless of the navigation software, so long as that software is compliant with all current standards. If anyone is using software that is out of date, that's a problem on THEIR end, not Social Strata's.

I must disagree that the new forum platform is odd or unintuitive, or the navigation features lacking,  in comparison to any internet venue featuring responsive programming.

I am working on a progress report.

Hi George, 

I know that this creation takes long hours for programming aso but as a lot of other members comment... If we would come back to a more user friendly version I am sure a lot of members (including myself) will be happy. I am missing the overall view for selecting my favourites.

However we had this conversation already but I am also sometimes feeling lost, that's why I limited my activity in the forum. I know sometimes you have to follow the technologies but this is not always the best. May I am a bit old fashioned but I Christmas is around the corner and who knows, may santa will fulfill my wish.

But thanks for still working on the optimization 

Regards Marc 

My comments were all directed toward the changes since the forum platform migration. I think I made a handful of posts in 2018 that were just replies to other posts. Yesterday was my first attempt to do anything accept read the new posts on my landing page which I do frequently. As far as how the forum presents on different browsers, relative level of intuition, and ease of use between the current and previous platform, good people can disagree and still be good people.

So were members favorites threads preserved and if so how are they accessed?....Or were they lost.

Are the former gallery posts of members somewhere that can be browsed as a subforum or only searched by keyword/member name?

Best,

Kelly

There is no special "archive" where certain content is set aside and stored apart from the active forums if that is what you're asking. Every single post remains exactly where it was located in the old forums.

Photo gallery posts, or photo albums, are located wherever they were previously located in the old forums.  The pictures came across jut fine, with two changes:

(1) they are no longer presented as a slide show, just a collection of attachments. The attachments are not embedded either.
(2) the picture captions were lost.

I have not come across a "favorites" or "add to favorites" feature. IF there is no current list of favorites, my guess is everyone's previous list of "favorites" was not carried over, i.e. lost in the migration. I shall ask the support group about this to make sure I'm not in error.  I have a sneaking suspicion the reply will be that you can use the "like" feature in the same way you formerly used the favorites feature. Your profile provides a couple of ways to retrieve a list of your liked posts & topics.

-G

There appears to be a new “feature” that in my opinion is not good to say the least. On my iPhone I must turn the phone sideways, landscape, to see the list of recent topics on the right side of the screen. The new feature seems to be that in landscape mode the post subject title is fixed in large font at the top of the screen which blocks a full 1/3 of the screen. That makes reading the forum very difficult. I now need to rotate the phone one way to see the recent topics and then the other to read the posts. Can you remove this feature? Please. 

Steve

tsolo posted:

... Can you remove this feature? Please. 

 

Steve

Hi Steve

No I can't remove the "feature", that was part of a software update that was implemented Monday.

But I can pass-on your comments to Social Strata, which I've already done.

Steve and all

We received this reply from Social Strata today:

Quote:

Hi, George!

We did a hotfix today to fix some issues with the new release. Now, we'll no longer show the sticky header on small or medium grids, which means it won't show up on the iPhone or the iPad, or other mobile devices.

Lori

Please let me know about any other issues you may find.

George,

I can confirm that the fix worked. It is back to the way it used to be and is much better on the small screen.

Thank you,

Steve

Hi George

I find the new feature with the post subject title very irritating it is blocking half the screen if the title is a bit longer ! Its very unnecessary to have, it must be some computer nerd with very short memory  who has designed this! when you click  a post you must remember what it  was you clicked!?

I agree and installing some CSS code to eliminate it is on my list of things to do.

I've installed the custom css code, the big fat topic headers are gone.

There remains these thick lines along the bottom borders of the forum category headers. More of a visual annoyance than any real problem. I've pointed this out to Dave (you guys remember Dave?) and let's see if he can fix that.

Please keep alerting me to problems AND annoyances. Thanks.

Thank you George for all the hard work you put in to this forum