Forum changes: preview and your feedback wanted

Hi all,

We have a slightly newer version of the forum that’s nearly ready to roll out, and we’d love you to have a play around with it first.

It’s not meant as a big functionality upgrade; we have mainly just moved to a more up-to-date programming language (.NET) and taken the opportunity to address a few easy wins for now, such as better Chrome and mobile compatibility, tidier layouts, and some better moderation functionality.

But it will also make it much easier for us to make changes in the future, eg a full mobile version and heavy-duty spam filtering.

You can try the new forum here: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/default.aspx. It’s running alongside the existing forum, so any posts you make on the new preview will be seen on the old forum. You can revert back to the old forum at any time by clicking the main Forum tab.

We’d love to know what you think. Please leave your feedback in this thread and we’ll make sure all of it gets passed on to our tech team.

Many thanks for your help,

Best,

Dominique RW

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Comments

  • probably early days yet but the top tab bar on the new site is actually the old bar off this one - still has VLM tab not the newer Spring Marathon tab.

    and clicking on them takes you back to this site, and you don't remain on the new preview one which is a pain
  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭
    I think the biggest issue with the forum at the moment has to be the recent snowballing of Chinese spambot spam, so if that can be addressed it will be a good start!
  • what? no more cheap handbags?? pah...image
  • just to let you know dominque - it doesnt appear to be working with opera
  • M.r Zuvai wrote (see)
    just to let you know dominque - it doesnt appear to be working with opera

    Hello, pls could you let me know which version of Opera you're using, and what it is (or isn't...) doing? (It's fine at this end in version 11.60). If it's looking wonky, you might clear your cache, though that shouldn't be needed.

  • i found the same FB........

    but i like that i can quote and do smilies now.......but not sure of the forum page where the different catergories tend to blend a bit into each other

  • IE9- latest posts and then select a thread to read.  The page presented is roughly half way through the thread rather than the last page (which is what my default should be set to).
  • just about to say that FF...........i skipped into christmas dinner 2008 on the thread i went on......i was a bit confused for a moment

  • Hello. Looks good... But... there are still no smileys for chrome user.
    Not only that but Editing font buttons and ability to add link and image have also disappeared..
  • Same as Ferret and Seren, I was transported back to 2007 and it wasnt pretty  image
  • In Firefox, when you're looking at a set of threads, e.g. in 'General running', the individual threads are no longer seperated in grey boxes. The whole page (apart from text) looks white to me, which is much less easy on the eye.

    Once you go into an individual thread, it's working fine.

  • Dissenting voice - I hate it!

  • Thanks all, I've added your points - esp the 'latest posts' link and the reduced contrast between rows on the main channel page and topic page - to our roundup of jobs

    Jeepers - can you be more specific?

  • Sean Fishpool wrote (see)

    Jeepers - can you be more specific?

    Yes.

  • Sean Fishpool wrote (see)
    M.r Zuvai wrote (see)
    just to let you know dominque - it doesnt appear to be working with opera

    Hello, pls could you let me know which version of Opera you're using, and what it is (or isn't...) doing? (It's fine at this end in version 11.60). If it's looking wonky, you might clear your cache, though that shouldn't be needed.

    it appears to be working today - could only get 404 error yesterday - sorry!
  • compo 1compo 1 ✭✭✭
    better even with smilys on google chrome
  • Dominique RW wrote (see)

    Hi all,

    We have a slightly newer version of the forum that’s nearly ready to roll out, and we’d love you to have a play around with it first.

    It’s not meant as a big functionality upgrade; we have mainly just moved to a more up-to-date programming language (.NET) and taken the opportunity to address a few easy wins for now, such as better Chrome and mobile compatibility, tidier layouts, and some better moderation functionality.

    But it will also make it much easier for us to make changes in the future, eg a full mobile version and heavy-duty spam filtering.

    You can try the new forum here: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/default.aspx. It’s running alongside the existing forum, so any posts you make on the new preview will be seen on the old forum. You can revert back to the old forum at any time by clicking the main Forum tab.

    We’d love to know what you think. Please leave your feedback in this thread and we’ll make sure all of it gets passed on to our tech team.

    Many thanks for your help,

    Best,

    Dominique RW

    There are moderators on this forum? Do they not come on much to see the frequent trolling and spam?
  • When I click the "go to last post" link on a forum, it actually takes me to a page half-way through the thread (e.g. the Middle Ground thread - on the old forums if I click the "last post" link it goes to end, which is page 826; if I click the same link on the new forum it goes to page 413).

    More general feedback - individual posts in a thread are easier to distinguish now which is good, but the fact the avatars sit to the left of the post means the post itself has shrunk in width which isn't good.  I know the overall width of the main column and the ad-bar on the right are identical to the old version, but it *appears* that the ad bar is wider in the new layout because the main content - the posts themselves - are much narrower.  It also leads to more scrolling, which is a PITA on mobile devices...

  • Kip Keino's Knobbly Knees wrote (see)

    More general feedback - individual posts in a thread are easier to distinguish now which is good,

    I don't agree and I don't see how.  Individual posts are currently divided by the blue / grey line, so IMHO, are clearer.
  • Now that I've spent a while back with the usual forum, I have to say that I think the 'speech bubble' effect is rather naff, and I agree the current system is clearer / more comfortable for the eye.
  • Mr BoatMr Boat ✭✭✭
    Is the site likely to be more rigorously moderated in the future so we don't keep ending up with 65 separate threads on running jackets every time it rains.
  • I think this update is much better - I'm a Chrome user.

    Looks good on my computer and I now have all the functionality I couldn't find on the current version! (And I tried!!) image

  • Just doing a test message here.  I'm fine with this new format.  imageimage

  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    Looks good to me (IE8, Windows 7)
  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭

    Don't like it - I use Chrome so to that extent it's a bit more functional but in terms of aesthetics not quite as nice - imo it looks a bit amateurish.

    Can't see the value in user stats showing everytime you accidentally roll the cursor over an avatar - that's just annoying.  The name above each post is unnecessarily distracting too.  

  • mitiogmitiog ✭✭✭
    I use Chrome and I still can't quote posts or insert hyperlinks. The only smileys I get are done by text so I'm not sure if it's me or the forum! Don't really like the bubbles - they sort of make sense when there's an avatar next to them but if there isn't there's just a left-pointing arrow to nothing. But I do have a sans-serif font as I type instead of courier image
  • TimeaJTimeaJ ✭✭✭
    My first thought is why you have a topic called "Spring Marathons"? -
    this could a) be covered in Training or b) You could perhaps just call it Marathons because that would extend the discussion a bit more.
  • Chrome user here.

    Prefer the old format, much easier to read threads, and I think it looks more modern than the 'new' version
  • Radicchio wrote (see)
    Now that I've spent a while back with the usual forum, I have to say that I think the 'speech bubble' effect is rather naff, and I agree the current system is clearer / more comfortable for the eye.


    Ditto... don't like the speech bubbles and the old system is clearer... it takes up less space and you can read through a lot quicker.

    Also just switched back to old system because the new version is incredibly slow and on Explorer gives an error message - something about a script causing something to run slow and do you want to stop it.  Looks the the ads take much longer to load in the new system.

  • I really like it - seems to work fine in Firefox image

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