Upgrade Good or Bad?

Duke · 04-17-2007, 05:56 PM

I must admit that it's taking some time to get used to this new forum, layout, color scheme, navigation and pretty much everything else. Quite honestly, the forum seems to have lost some of its simplicity which I'm hoping to fix as we move forward.

I'm curious though, how many of you find this new layout confusing, cluttered or difficult to navigate?

Please be honest with your replies because everything you say here will help me to structure this new forum in a manner that everyone is comfortable with.

Thanks.

darkangelism · 04-17-2007, 09:28 PM

its different, but a lot of other sites i go to use vB so its not so different that is weird.

Duke · 04-17-2007, 09:45 PM

I'm doing all I can to make browsing here a bit better. I've made a number of changes to the theme, theme elements, layout and images today and it has made a big difference so far.

I do agree that the move is just new and a bit wierd by comparison to the old site but I'm sure we'll all begin to see the benefits sooner or later.

TKDLady · 04-17-2007, 09:46 PM

There are things I am used to seeing on the other site that aren't here like the scrolling top 20 posts and it is different as far as looking for posts. I got used to is a little however doing the site testing before. I will let you know when I come across something that is really annoying.

Well, now I did find something. I wanted to add an emoticon to this post here in the text part. Are they not available anymore?

Duke · 04-17-2007, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tkdlady

Well, now I did find something. I wanted to add an emoticon to this post here in the text part. Are they not available anymore?

They are but you either need to know the code or enable the WYSIWYG in your User CP/Edit Options/Miscellaneous Options/Message Editor Interface: Enhanced WYSIWYG Editing.

I'm guessing that the default setting is OFF when importing from an existing database that did not have a WYSIWYG Editor installed.

Meanon · 04-18-2007, 05:35 PM

I tried that and it worked

I'm beginning to get used to it - I like all the options I have when composing a message now.

The layout was too cluttered at first but I've chosen a different thingy and it's displaying messages across more of the width of the screen now

Btw I got this message: You have included 5 images in your message. You are limited to using 4 images so please go back and correct the problem and then continue again.

Duke · 04-18-2007, 06:34 PM

I have it set to only allow for 4 images at the moment. I didn't know that this setting included smilies though so I guess I'll have to change it back to a higher value.

There is a poll in the Suggestions and Feedback SubForum in regards to themes we'll be using here. I intend on having a few options available but whatever themes are chosen will also have to be created for http://www.joomla.lifesupporters.com

There's a lot of things I want to do over the next few months to take this site where it needs to go. We're approaching 4 years old now and there is no reason for us to continue growing as slow as we are. I've finally realized the main problem was the old software even though I've been denying it to myself for a few years now.

All these changes will definitely slow us down for the short term but I think by the time summer or fall comes around, we should start growing at more of a regular rate. All these changes will also help loop our info between forums/news and content pages which is what I've wanted for a long time now.

Once we're settled here and configured somewhat properly, I'll share the future plans with all of you in more detail. Suffice to say, the future looks pretty bright with some of the changes on the horizon.

Star · 04-19-2007, 11:07 PM

i absolutely love this duke! great job! i think it's amazing.

darkangelism · 04-19-2007, 11:52 PM

i think that im going to use girltalk3 lol, i like the default best.

Duke · 04-20-2007, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkangelism

i think that im going to use girltalk3 lol, i like the default best.

I think that the default (oceanzero) is the cleanest, most organized and professional looking of the bunch. Wait 'til you see the redo of the header because it will look more like the joomla.lifesupporters.com header but with rotating banner images (hopefully).