Test out the new discussion forum

At Roadfood.com we are constantly striving for continuous improvement of the site, and one sore spot for us has been the discussion forums. The forum software is like a trusty car that has over 150,000 miles on the odometer – it has treated you well over the years, but deep down inside you know it can fall apart with only a moment’s notice. After analyzing literally dozens of forum software packages over the past two years, we have finally settled on a solution.

Some of the notable features include: forum filters, daily & weekly digest for topic subscriptions, totally improved search engine (it works!), private messaging, integrated spell checker, WYSIWYG editor, RSS feeds, post rating, polls, searching within a topic, contact/friends book.

Stephen,
Looks great to me. When do I manage to get started posting my travels, travails, and silliness on the new, updated site?
On The Edge Of My Chair With Wonderment, Ort. Carlton in Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Athens, Georgia.

Thank you Stephen.
At first glance I can see the progress.

The new design is exactly like a couple of other sites I've participated in, so it's not a big change for me. I like it.

It looks good. Will you be able to keep a Home Page simular to the current one? I liked tracking the most active or resent topics before going to the forums listing.

Looks good...thanks for your efforts!

Looks good but, I prefer this format. Just because it's different and so much better than any other forum. And, I feel "at home" here. Like a warm pair of shearling slippers on a cold winter's night.

I can see and appreciate the improvements. It is really streamlined to good effect for the most part. I do think the streamlined logo needs a lot of work though, but that is an easy fix.

I like the stars being all the same color, but I think gold would be better than yellow as I think even the first poster to these forums deserves at least one gold star.

I think it will be a great improvement. Looking forward to the new forum. I noticed there was a cutoff date when you moved the messages over. Will the messages posted in those threads since that move be moved over as well?

What are "Reward Points", and what are they going to cost me?

Looks good. What about "Insider" features?

I like it well enough, but as in anything new, will take awhile to get used to it.I prefer our current forum outline...

I'm old school going with if it's not broken why fix it.. Either way, checked it out and liked it! Though it took me a minute to remember what my password was to log in..
But I do see it has a "status" of a member (online / offline). I remember there was problems here with a similar feature a few years back.

Looks fine. A little more information regarding posters and not too glitzy.

Stephen has all the details, so maybe he'll provide a better answer, but it is my understanding that when the "official" transfer happens, all posts will be rolled over from old to new.

Please keep in mind this new "playground" is basically a test, and anything in there will be over-written when the official roll over happens, so anything posted in the "playground" version will be lost when the official transfer occurs.

quote:

Originally posted by joerogo

What are "Reward Points", and what are they going to cost me?

Reward points will be awarded depending on how well you perform on a quiz about life, lore, and food of Brooklyn, NY.

Actually, I'm not sure what that is about.

LOOKS KIND OF CONFUSING- i LOGGED IN BUT DO NOT THINK THE MESSAGE( TEST) IB SOUPD WENT THROUGH...WIOLL THERE BE BACKROUND IN COLORS?

First place I went was to Trip reports. 99% of the photos I saw were teeny tiny and I couldn't get them to display any larger. Don't have that problem on the old (current) forum. Can you tell me why, Stephen? I like BIG photos...

Lacks color and .I agree, looks confusing...and my print didn't look crisp....it now looks like so many other sites...I'll miss the u nique look of roadfood....I'll reserve comment further 'til I see the new homepage and how the site works....but the test page didn't excite!!!

I still run my monitor at 800 X 600. The default is for another display size, so scrolling from left to right is a pain. I don't know if there is a setting that will let me change it. I have seen similar forums that automatically adjust the width for your display, unless there are pictures in the posts.

wENT AND LOOKED AGAIN....i KNOW PROB ALOT OF THOUGHT AND PLANNING HAS GONE IN TO THE NEW ONE , BUT ANY CHANCE IT COULD JUST STAY THE SAME??

HOW ABOUT A POLL ASKING MEMBERS WHICH THEY LIKE BETTER?

I do not care for it that much as it looks like too many other sites.. I really love the unique look that we have always had and wish that it could stay the same.

People are naturally resistant to change. Get past it. This is huge progress. How is this "confusing" - the forums are laid out in pretty much the same way they are here? Could the color palette use some "freshening?" Well, maybe. I don't see how that would be a dealbreaker, though - and, I suspect that these new forums will be something of a work in progress for a short period.

In my mind, the pluses far outweigh any minuses. These snitz forums are seriously old and outdated and really don't have a lot of the very basic features that you can find on some free forum software that is out there now. As Stephen mentioned - private messaging, spell checker, RSS feed digests, etc. are all great - and I am looking forward to something that I have long asked for - an ignore user feature. Who knows? Maybe a majority of people will have me on their list. I feel like Santa right now - I am making my list - and checking it twice.

Steve, you think I'm in a snitz now, just WAIT until you put me on ignore!

quote:

Originally posted by Poverty Pete

Steve, you think I'm in a snitz now, just WAIT until you put me on ignore!

Won't bother me, my wife has had me on ignore for many years now.

PP - You're the only one who's NOT going on ignore. This forum is going to be "All Poverty Pete, All The Time!"

Looking forward to the changes.

I'm old, crabby, set in my ways and don't much like change...I'll get used to it like everyone else...

That's the spirit!

I like it, but pix are small, are you discouraging photos now or is this just a kink that will work out?

quote:

Originally posted by Pwingsx

First place I went was to Trip reports. 99% of the photos I saw were teeny tiny and I couldn't get them to display any larger. Don't have that problem on the old (current) forum. Can you tell me why, Stephen? I like BIG photos...

I agree that there were teeny tiny (impossible to see) photos. I went to King T's Northwest Indiana Trip Report in the new format and found most photos were 1/2" wide, but four were 4 1/2" wide and one was 9" wide. In the present format all of his pictures were either 4 1/2" or 9" wide and easy to see. I also can't understand why there was such inconsistency in translating the photo size to the new format. (Only one of 13 photos that were 9" remained that size, four of 16 photos that were 4 1/2" remained that size and everything else went to teeny tiny. In one case of two photos that were side-by-side, one was left the original size, the other was shrunk.)

Has Buffetbuster been busted? I noticed under "Message Options" you can forward, rate post, report abuse, or flag as inappropriate. Are these intended to be publicly viewable like this?

I went to KingT's Northwest Indiana report and the pictures looked the same to me. If they are resizing does it have something to do with the browser you are using or some other kind of setting? I'm using a Mac and Firefox 3.0.4.

I'm someone that's resistant to change for the sake of it, but even though it will take me a little while to get used to, I think I like it already. The picture sizing bugs etc, and any other initial wrinkles, will get ironed out, I'm sure, and I do like some of the improved functionality. I will miss the cheerful and homely basic look the current site forums have but if it will improve the user experience to a great degree then I am all for it

I'm posting photos there now, it looks great, hopefully by Monday????? Great job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually - I use IE6, the picture thing is working fine for me - I like the fact the pics are slightly smaller. The quality is still good and I don't have to fiddle about scrolling around trying to see the whole image.

The improvement in security alone is going to be worth it. The improvements in PM, searching and filtering are icing on the cake.

Small technical issue that can hopefully be looked at - if not, I am sure that I will deal with it.

Unless I am doing something wrong, there doesn't seem to be a way to bring up an "active topics" list, like the one that we have now. That is the page that I use the most. I usually set it to list all threads since "yesterday," giving me 24 hours of active Roadfood topics. I saw the drop-down choice to post "today's new posts" or something like that - but, it lists each post individually, as opposed to just listing the threads in which new posts were made. This seems a bit cumbersome. Is there a way to view the new threads that have posts - and maybe take you to the oldest unread post in any thread? I have seen that option in some other forums and think it would be helpful here. For that matter, it may already be there and I just need a tutorial on the new joint!

Unlike the current forums it appears that editing a post has no effect on its position within a thread nor does it reposition the thread within the forum. If that's the case (certainly I could be doing something wrong) it might wind up being better to reply to one's owns posts instead of editing.

Not a complaint, merely an observation...

Brad

Will the new asp format solve the flickr problem? Flickr basically discourages the method that's recommended in the picture-posting thread here; they want you to post the link that circles back to flickr every time. And I noticed in the last batch of pictures I posted that the 20th or so picture wouldn't resolve and I eventually had to just delete it from my reply.

Will you be able to use the (Find all non-archived posts by) link to go thru all yours or someones posts by date and catagorie?...Russ

the only thing that bothers me, is that going from page to page in a thread, isn't as easy. I like the drop down option. Same is true when searching for a member.

I like the present site but remember seeing this somewhere years ago, “the only thing constant is change itself”, how true. Thanks Stephan.

Oh boy, I see trouble brewing with the "inappropriate flag" . Monitors, quit your day jobs now as you will have no time for them with all the flags flying in every forum which has two opinions or more. As Marc Antony said to his wife on the Ides of March "Sorry I'm late, things got rather out of hand at the forum today dear."

I think with the flag feature, every day will be the Ides of March on these forums. Good luck with that one.

I just don't like it. Sorry. When it's up, I'm, sure I'll get used to it, eventually, and love it like it was my own.

LOVE it.

I always thought the photos for the roadfood insiders members were a little large when posted. Will there be a better way to control the size if you still keep that feature? Just a suggestion.

Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by Greyghost

Oh boy, I see trouble brewing with the "inappropriate flag" . Monitors, quit your day jobs now as you will have no time for them with all the flags flying in every forum which has two opinions or more. As Marc Antony said to his wife on the Ides of March "Sorry I'm late, things got rather out of hand at the forum today dear."

I think with the flag feature, every day will be the Ides of March on these forums. Good luck with that one.

Kind of like a SNITCH button. When someone misses the humor and takes it too serious. I bet that doesnt stick around long...Russ

quote:

Originally posted by Greyghost

As Marc Antony said to his wife on the Ides of March "Sorry I'm late, things got rather out of hand at the forum today dear."

Well, don't leave us in suspense, woman. What did Jennifer Lopez say in response??!

quote:

Originally posted by Russ Jackson
Kind of like a SNITCH button. When someone misses the humor and takes it too serious. I bet that doesnt stick around long...Russ

Maybe we can use it to eliminate people with no sense of humor?

Can we start with mods?

quote:

Originally posted by Nancypalooza

Can we start with mods?

I guess I left that one out there to be hit. Would it have killed you to put a smiley face in there...even if you didn't mean it?

You must have mistaken me for Baah Ben. :)

quote:

Originally posted by Nancypalooza

Can we start with mods?

Paul Weller says "no."

quote:

Originally posted by i95


Paul Weller says "no."

Who?

Paul Weller. Of Gene Loves Jezebel. God, you're an idiot.

I thought he was the 'Ever Changing Moods' guy.

"All Mod Cons"- The Jam= Paul Weller
I like the new forum very much. The drop-down menus work great too.

As a newbie I don't if this counts, but I do kinda like the new format. Change is inevitable, not always comfortable, but it happens. There are some new things I like, the rest I will get used to. I read more than post. I found the info here very valuable. I am sure it will be fine tuned when it is changed over.

quote:

Originally posted by The Travelin Man

... there doesn't seem to be a way to bring up an "active topics" list, like the one that we have now. That is the page that I use the most. I usually set it to list all threads since "yesterday," giving me 24 hours of active Roadfood topics.

That's the way that I mostly view the forums, too. I guess that I'll have to type in a "since" time and date repeatedly.

The new site is not current with the latest post. I like the old forum home page which shows the most resent post without having to wade though all the forum listings. So does the new software offer a RSS feed? The RSS usually show the last 10 or so post.