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What do you think of the new Site?

What do you think of the new Site?

  • It's a great improvement

    Votes: 13 19.1%
  • I like it

    Votes: 36 52.9%
  • It's no better than the old one

    Votes: 5 7.4%
  • I prefer the old one

    Votes: 14 20.6%

  • Total voters
    68
  • Poll closed .

Jennewt

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we shall see...

I voted that I like it, but it's hard to say at this point. After we've used it for a while, we'll learn all the little tricks. I'm optimistic that it may turn out to be a big improvement. The old forum had some odd quirks, and I suspect this one may be more user-friendly. I'll let you know after I have to figure out how to move posts:rolleyes:
 

Abrahm

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I think it will take a bit to get used to, but I am optimistic. I've been on quite a few vBulletin forums so they are not unfamiliar to me. Unfortunately the layout that worked so well on the old forum looks a little cluttered here. I'm sure that will get ironed out though.

I did have a problem logging in. I couldn't use any of the log in prompts I tried. It would thank me for logging in and take me back to the page I left but I still wouldn't be logged. I eventually had to use the email that was sent out to change my password to bring me back to the forum and log me in.

I haven't posted yet, but is it going to use our old display names instead of our user names here? I'd much prefer to be known by my real name than this handle.

EDIT: My login problems seem to be related to my old cookies. It appears to be fixed.
 
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morph

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Love it!

vb is always easier to use. The layout is done beautifully and the chat works a treat. what more can i say?
 

apples

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It's great! Thanks for doing all this work on top of your normal work. :)

I liked the old-school smileys better though.
 

trincan

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the big move

I like the new look, but as everyone else has said; definitly some getting used to.
I also had problems logging in and trying to have the new password sent to me. I finally figured it out.

I have been MAD to post ever since I received my axolotl eggs! I can't wait to get cracking on posting!

Is there a spell check like the last forum? This could be a problem for me because I spell some words the french way! (that's what you get for growing up bilingual!)
 
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perrocabronus

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looks better, still have to get used to, changes makes everithing harder once youre used to something, but im sure is for the best
 

John

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Some interesting points in there. I'll respond later today on some of them. The login issue that was mentioned seems to be something to do with the domain name switch over.
 

carpy

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yes, the only thing at the moment is that noone is used to it, im sure as time passes all the benefits of this software will be reaped.
one thing i do like is the little on/offline button next to the username.
i do think though that it might be an idea to compress the live food section of the forum, say onto one forum, with subforums. or maybe just to be able to minimise it. i only say this because it takes up a massive amount of space on the main forum page. anyone lese think this?
 

Abrahm

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Thanks!

Though my last post had a bunch of complaints I just wanted to post again and say that I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into this site. It is only place I have found on the internet dealing with amphibia that is consistently full of quality content and discussion. Few other places have the scientific basis and atmosphere that Caudata.org has. In the words of many forums, the signal to noise ratio is excellent.

I also want to mention that the color scheme and whatnot of the new forum are great. I think it will help new people as most of them are familiar with vB code, while the old software was a bit more esoteric. There will be fewer posts with [ img ] tags in them.

EDIT: Carpy, you can compress the food section by clicking on the arrow on the far right of the green bar for Food. This seems to stay as you set it.
 
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michael

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I think it's going to work fine. I changed my settings a little so I don't get personal messages I have to log on to read. I think I fixed it so members can email me and not p.m. me. I think it's probably because I started out with a Commadore 64 and going on bulletin boards through a modem on my phone in the old days. Change is good but annoying.
 

carpy

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yes, i would just like to second magustrates comments, i am very thankful of all the work you have put in, it is much appreciated, and thanks, i will do that now-with regards to the live food bit
 

John

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Display Name: I hacked the templates so I think you'll find that's fixed in posts now (just look above), though I'm still working on displaying it in other users' profiles when you view them.

Smilies: I can import the old ones too, that's easy.

Spellcheck: Damn, I was hoping no one would notice that one ;(. If you use Firefox 2 browser, you have a spell checker built in, so use that. If you use Internet Explorer, download iespell (do a search on google). Unfortunately the forum doesn't allow for an efficient spell checker like discus did (swings and roundabouts anyone?).
 

kj1

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Any chance on the main forum page you can hide the sub forums, as it dont look that good not sure, what do other people think ???
 

John

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Subforums: I'll look into changing it around a bit since a few people have made comments.

Profile display of "Display Name": Hacked it and it works now. Woot!
 

mantighoul

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Well it is nice you did all that work improving. Change, is good, and improvement via change shows groth so this is a good sign. In some ways, i agree it is better, in other ways...( I have a bias against the v-board style at times, one reason why i enjoyed visiting the old forum, because it seems every forum has the same template these days). This may be long, sorry, part of my degree was in webdesign and theory.

I am not to fond that when a user posts the name, avatar, user infomation is viewed above, in a horazontal format above each post. It would be more effecitve displayed on the left side of the post in a column format. The main page is a bit of a headache with all the lists upon lists of subforums, so much scrolling down. I believe the "live and frozen food" section can be condensed a bit, such as was done with the "sepcies" section. Sad it says I joined in may 2007 and have one post, but life goes on, in the end it really is not that important.

On a + note I like the colour scheme. In the actual subforums/forums, organization is done well, a limited number of threads are displayed and to view more one has to advance to another page. It is not fun to scroll for ages, so i find this an improvement. I am sure being a v board styles the search function has also greatly improved. Also, I like how this new style incorperates displaying the member who started a thread, it is a great resources especially if one recognized a user to have information constantly worth viewing or information not so great one would like to avoid. Also glad the user image is not constricted to 100x100 or smaller.

Hey, since people mentioned smillies/emotes, maybe someone can created custom salamander ones for the forum, i have seen some on Japanese sites. Just a thought for the future.

All, in all the + more than likely outweighs the -
Is there still donor status/donor area? I remeber you said there may be changes/subscriptions and whatnot to donor, well, i be waiting for the post about that when you are ready to announce.
 
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