New look

[Sean Clark]

Is this new look permanent or part of the upgrade?

Not finding it very easy to navigate at the moment.

[martin goddard]

It is a bit rude of me to say so (sorry ), but the new layout for me is not as good as the old one.
Can the old layout be used??


martin

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Sadly, me too. It took me 5 mins to find the login, but then I am a sad old git with dodgy eyesight

Neil

[Moggy]

Hate to say it but having the same problem with the new look.  I am sure, with time, it will feel better.

Derek

[Sean Clark]

Logged on on my laptop. The black look on the frontpage is similar to the mobile view, but it does turn white when viewing messages.

Most upsetting for me is there is no 'unread posts' button! I know you can scroll down to recent posts, but I'm afraid it's just not the same experience.

Blimey. Who knew a group of old men could be so riled up over a forum       

[Colonel Kilgore]

Interesting - the landing page is now always white for me on my Windows 11 PC. Everything is black on my (Android) mobile.

Simon

[Panzer21]

I get enough of this at work!
Just as I'm able to navigate and work an IT system, some bright young IT department people change it or replace it altogether!

You first realise you are old when instead of embracing or tolerating an IT change, instead you spend ages ranting at PC screen about being able to find the submit button or something similar......

It took me five minutes to work out I couldn't reply because I wasn't signed in!

Neil

[Administrator]

but the new layout for me is not as good as the old one. Can the old layout be used??

The old theme stopped being supported in 2014. So we have held on for as long as we can. This was only driven out in that the PHP version has got such that the old forum could not be supported.

Logged on on my laptop. The black look on the frontpage is similar to the mobile view, but it does turn white when viewing messages.

This is one on main differences with the upgrade. That is, the forum is 'responsive' so it will detect what device you are using and adjust accordingly. The main thing this does is make it scale for easier navigation between mobile and tradition devices. So, the black / white thing using your device settings. For example you may have dark/light mode set in your windows setting - depending on time for instance.

Most upsetting for me is there is no 'unread posts' button!

this works exactly the same - except the graphic has changed.

There are other 'themes' we can try - but they will all be similar to this - as this is the latest version of the software.

It would be helpful by being really specific about what you don't like - and maybe we can adjust it. But most modern UI will look like this.

[Noggin]

It is just like going to the supermarket and finding that all the shelving has been rearranged. Initially very annoying but you get used to it after a while it is just that everything takes longer to do until familiarisation is achieved.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Simon,

Thanks for the explanations below. 2 things that I will try to make specific:

1. The 2-column "Recent posts" at the foot of the home page. These seem to read left to right and then up to down. Would it be possible to revert to a single, chronological column?

2. The mobile "responsiveness". The font size and amount of detail provided means it all takes up more screens than I would like to scroll through currently. Is it possible to limit the information shown on a mobile e.g. if we removed the description of each tops as well as who posted last? We would then just have a list of topics with their adjacent speech bubbles that should be much easier to navigate.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Regarding Sean's "unread posts button" point: I believe that on the previous version it was possible to filter on the bar at the top of each of the high-level "Discussion" and "Rules" sections to show (just) unread posts. This doesn't seem to be possible now.

Simon

[martin goddard]

Maybe it reflects a modern social media world of prioritisation  of the person and not the post?

martin

[Administrator]

1. The 2-column "Recent posts" at the foot of the home page. These seem to read left to right and then up to down. Would it be possible to revert to a single, chronological column?

You are correct in your assumption. The two columns will be because you have more screen real estate to fill. If you view on mobile then it most likely will be a single column (device dependant)

2. The mobile "responsiveness". The font size and amount of detail provided means it all takes up more screens than I would like to scroll through currently. Is it possible to limit the information shown on a mobile e.g. if we removed the description of each tops as well as who posted last? We would then just have a list of topics with their adjacent speech bubbles that should be much easier to navigate.

It does cut down on info already - so supporter badges are not displayed. It all really about display with a legible size font

I have turned off the 'auto detect' light/dark mode. Its permanently light now.

[Administrator]

as a note - if you press the 'recent posts' it does show you them all in chronological order

[Administrator]

I've had a look at some of the other template - there is on that has the 'unread' only option and recent posts in a single list (albeit to the side)