Coming Soon: New Message Board Layout

Oh, wait, I've got it- it's designed just to function in a half width window right?  Looks pretty much perfect that way 

 

Must be the responsonsive layout... the post width is quite a bit wider when I use 1/2 width vs. full.  ~650px @ full width and ~720 at half width.  Your post shows 1 more word on the first line @ half vs. full

In comparsion to another board I'm on (vbulletin), other board shows 19 topics on my monitor.  GRM shows... 5.5.  Thread in list on other board is 49px high, GRM is 142px high

hmmm...will be spending much less time here with this new layout. I am another that will add to the question of why an off-the-shelf forum package isn't a viable option. This new layout is simply too information sparse. And yes, I cleared my cache.

I cleared my cache and everything seems huge with gigantic margins, Click on the image to really see how much blank space there is. It's pretty much unreadable. 

Not a fan. Sorry.

I have a windows phone, so don't adjust on my behalf. I'll try it when I get home and maybe in a couple of months I'll be in a newer phone.

On my phone all I get is thread titles and when the last post was made, and who made the post, but that is it.

I hate to pile on, but I'm not a fan. I'll give a shot, but right now it feels like a form over function change to me.

I just tried it on my phone and it has the same problems. The text is so huge that you have to scroll down one full screen just to get to the first post. The header takes up the whole screen with a big "Jump To" button in the middle.

Lots and lots of screen space wasted in the padding around everything.  Plus, once a thread page gets past a handful of posts, the right side links run out and there is just acres of wasted screen space there.  Speaking of which, those could all be made a lot smaller, both the headings and the images, and that space donated to the post side of the screen.

Overall the information density just seems way too low.

That being said, I really do appreciate the effort and the intent to keep the site fresh.

[edit] This is purely a personal preference, but I'm not a fan of the serif typeface used in the post body text.  It seems... dated, maybe?  It also clashes with the rest of the Futura or whatever it is in the headings.

I'm hoping I'll grow to like it, but so far there's a LOT of scrolling going on.  Like my foreign customer's emails that get more and more spaces with every reply.

I almost feel like it needs a night mode or something. 

Haven't tried on my laptop yet, but really not digging it on my phone or tablet.

The new editing options are nice, the share and embeds, if they work I haven't tried yet, are nice. 

Just a lot of white space and a lot of scrolling. It definitely woke me up when I checked in first thing this morning though. 

Lots and lots of screen space wasted in the padding around everything.  Plus, once a thread page gets past a handful of posts, the right side links run out and there is just acres of wasted screen space there.  Speaking of which, those could all be made a lot smaller, both the headings and the images, and that space donated to the post side of the screen.

Overall the information density just seems way too low.

That being said, I really do appreciate the effort and the intent to keep the site fresh.

Today's US government is the direct result of voting for the lesser of 2 evils for generations.

Just to drive this point home... this is what it looks like at full screen reading Duke's post.

I'm using Safari on an IPhone 7 and am having an issue with the reply text boxes not being recognized; the keyboard won't pull up. Also, when the reply button is hit, the "Your comment" box disappears from the bottom (which is recognized as a text box). 

Edit: That now seems to be fixed

Oh, wait, I've got it- it's designed just to function in a half width window right?  Looks pretty much perfect that way 

 

Must be the responsonsive layout... the post width is quite a bit wider when I use 1/2 width vs. full.  ~650px @ full width and ~720 at half width.  Your post shows 1 more word on the first line @ half vs. full

 

In comparsion to another board I'm on (vbulletin), other board shows 19 topics on my monitor.  GRM shows... 5.5.  Thread in list on other board is 49px high, GRM is 142px high

I'm sure it'll get sorted but I agree with this. I usually browse on my 27" monitor at 90% zoom. I have four inches of margin on either side of the screen with the right info pane and somethink like 7 inches when it runs out. Unfortunately I can also only see one or two posts at a time which decreases the readability.

The white space is disconcertingly distracting. That might be an issue with the way I function though.

Edit: I also don't think spell check works in text the box (at least not in edit mode) this is going to make me look like an even larger doofus than I already do.

1. The new forum appears to be optimized for mobile devices. I don't use a mobile device for web surfing, because these old eyes can't do that any more.

2. I don't run this forum. I don't pay for this forum. Therefore I have no say in this forum.

3. I find it virtually unusable. Therefore, I can't use it. I will miss the camraderie, but that's my loss, not yours.

Best of luck.

In reply to Huckleberry :

Did you upload that to GRM, or is it still external hosting only?  because all I see under the image button is a complicated linking system, with no place to browse to a local file for upload.  I may be missing it, of course.

I have a huge phone (Galaxy S8+) and can barely see two replies.

Ok i know what it is for me anyway.  The lack of contrast is murdering my eyes.  The old software had that perfect.  

So Much White Space.  

So Much Scrolling.  

In reply to Duke :

I linked it from smugmug in the same old way as always. I don't see any way to upload anything. And I'm sure I would see it because it would be 3x the size it needs to be :)

Uploading photos straight to the forum is a feature that will be released soon. Not in production yet.

I agree that it's way too white. I should wear my sunglasses. That being said I'm sure the powers that be will sort it out.

In reply to Ed Higginbotham :

Got it, thanks.  That's not a problem at all; I was just curious if I had overlooked something.

If I hit the special character button there's no cancel or go buttons. Cringe seeing the effing f-book logo but that's just me

I'm sure it'll get sorted but I agree with this. I usually browse on my 27" monitor at 90% zoom. I have four inches of margin on either side of the screen with the right info pane and somethink like 7 inches when it runs out. Unfortunately I can also only see one or two posts at a time which decreases the readability.

The white space is disconcertingly distracting. That might be an issue with the way I function though.

Edit: I also don't think spell check works in text the box (at least not in edit mode) this is going to make me look like an even larger doofus than I already do.

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now. -Zaphod-Beeblebrox

Also, I don't know if this is intentional or not, but user sigs show up in the quoted post as part of the body text.

Sooo, I'm not going to leave the forum like a petulent child (seriously folks, give them a chance to tweak it, its a freshly installed MegaSquirt ECU: The engine is idling but there's a lot of tuning left to do), but I will say that whomever Beta Tested this forum update and said that it was a good idea, probably need to get their eyes checked. 

Its not formatted well for reading on modern browsers or screens.  The fact that I can read this just fine from across the cubicle farm, is not a desireable feature, IMO.

I know from previous updates and changes, things will eventually get better, but I really hope you get your developers on it very quickly.

It was asked earlier by someone (in this thread or another) about why off the shelf forum software isn't used, its because it doesn't allow the flexibility that GRM desires, its also more prone to security issues and you don't have control over the updates or changes.