new site = very difficult to work with!

first of all, what is with the default color scheme and

HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE COLOR SCHEME

black text on dark grey just isn't very useful!

and don't you realize that color blindness "phases" grey and red as being the same?

ugh

I searched around but could not find a selection to change the very useless default color scheme

SECOND

what is with the gi-normus fonts? you are just wasting so much space with it, go back to "font size 1" please

all in all, this site revision is a BIG NEGATIVE for me

yuck

but, do tell me how to change the color scheme, without this ability this site is very difficult to use!

I have to admit, I do not like the new format. Very user unfriendly and hard to navigate.

Gents -

As has been posted elsewhere, please understand that this is a work in progress with numerous things being "tweaked" behind the scenes. What you see currently is absolutely NOT the final version. Our programmer has been working virtually all hours of this weekend to make ongoing changes behind the scenes and continues to do so as this is typed (midnight on a Sunday).

The site software needed updating due to security issues and simple patches had run their course. Unfortunately, the latest and greatest version of the forum software adversely affected several other associated programs we utilize on the site. as well as the "skin" that has been our default for some time. In a nutshell: That skin was designed for the older versions of vBulletin and is not compatible with the newest versions. We scrambled to come up with a temporary fix and bought a new skin with the same basic color scheme as the previous version of the forums. Alas, it didn't cover all the font colors and so more coding needs to be done to fix it.

The bottom line is that nobody is more aware of the problems with this version than the club itself. Our programmer is having to rewrite pages and pages of coding to get it where it is more "user friendly" (including searches), while still retaining the security and upgraded features of the software itself. Rest assured we are pushing this poor man to the extreme however there is only so much he can do at any one time. The transition isn't perfect, but the end results will be very close.

Please have a little patience as we work through these issues. You will be very pleased with the final look and feel of the forums - not to mention how they interact with your mobile devices.

New Owner section constantly refreshes to the point you have to navigate to another site. FYI

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I miss the User CP which showed all threads I was currently following.

Regards,
Aaron

i don;t think no one likes it i hate it!

I'm all for progress, but to make changes that end up being less user friendly than the original....to me that's not progress. Look is okay, though colors are a bit dark...just a personal taste thing, I suppose. But, why rearrange things, and change funtionality that everyone is used to? I don't see where it makes the site work any better and, in fact, from the user's standpoint, it feels like more work.

Any chance you did Usability Testing of the Beta site before launching....might have learned a few things. In my company changes to a website, certainly of this magnitude would never be introduced without testing it for usability. Now, I understand this is a club not a corporation, but still, the site is for end-users.......

My vote, keep the colors and layout if you like, but bring back the functionality back from the last version.

Y2K5SRT said:

The bottom line is that nobody is more aware of the problems with this version than the club itself. Our programmer is having to rewrite pages and pages of coding to get it where it is more "user friendly" (including searches), while still retaining the security and upgraded features of the software itself. Rest assured we are pushing this poor man to the extreme however there is only so much he can do at any one time. The transition isn't perfect, but the end results will be very close.

Please have a little patience as we work through these issues. You will be very pleased with the final look and feel of the forums - not to mention how they interact with your mobile devices.

Click to expand...

You guys should have developed a change management plan before throwing this indecipherable excuse for a club website at its members. Have you ever heard of running a separate site to iron the kinks out first? Geezzz, be somewhat professional about it!!

Anyone tried doing a search lately? A search for "injector" turned up 10 results with the NEWEST post in 2002.

Where is the preview window? Now we have to search for the hot topics? This *****.

(first off, I'm not affiliated with the sysadmins of this site, and everything I state below is speculative at best!)

* The "followed threads" are under 'Settings' in the upper right.

* They're painfully aware of the color schemes and working to recreate them on the new version of vBulletin

* Speculation is that the search tables are currently being re-indexed either throttled or off-hours so as not to bring this site to its knees (and result in more complaints)

I'm an IT Guy in a *very large* *very regulated* enterprise environment, and I understand and agree with Change Management, UAT testing, Functional Requirements, etc, but at the end of the day, this is an enthusiast forum with many like-minded people out to have a good time. The admins are trying to add functionality, fix vulnerabilities, and generally keep the site from going stagnant. As you're probably aware, running a dev environment isn't free or cheap, especially not one of this size!

I would recommend giving them a week or so to finalize the kinks.

-mb

When things are working, Best to leave it alone!!!!

MB I understand what you're saying, especially about this being a club site, so even more a reason not to spring something so dramatically changed on the members. It is very expensive to develop, implement and maintain a site of this size but, for me, I would have recommended a series of smaller changes implemented over a set time period. Or better yet, possibly setting up a parallel Beta site and link for members to go evaluate and comment. Obviously, you can't use everyone's comments, but take the key comments and incorporate them along with whatever technical changes are needed.

I would have gone for the technical/security changes first without making such a change in the look and structure of the pages.

Just my opinion...I'm a Marketing (IT user) not an IT person.

Thanks!

And dont forget that VENDOR PAID BANNERS have gone away........for now at least.

Thanks DonB for working that into your long to-doo list.

JonB~~~~:<~

Jon, I will be comping' time for all vendors, once I get it back up. The problem is, the old method we used to display banners is no longer valid in vBulletin 4.x

Yet another unseen complication which was piled on the list.

Vipuronr said:

I would have gone for the technical/security changes first without making such a change in the look and structure of the pages.

Just my opinion...I'm a Marketing (IT user) not an IT person.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Ya, we tried that.... we didn't know that our theme from 3.x would not work in the latest 4.1.3. That's why I'm going through this **** storm. Believe me, I had no intention of having to re-do the ENTIRE forums, but our hand was forced.

Your patience is appreciated.

You are as good as it gets -RUNNR, hang in there!!

Please also address the fact that when you hit the 'Post Reply' button it jumps to the 'Quick Reply' below it instead of opening a new window with all its features and options.
Thanks

Agree Black, and now system won't keep me logged in and I'm having difficulty with it staying logged in!

A suggestion for the site people, set up a poll and have members, in a more constuctive and organized manner, make comments/suggestions...as is done with Beta test sites.

I thought the staying logged in problem was my computer and not the site. Glad it's not another computer problem.

Vipuronr said:

Agree Black, and now system won't keep me logged in and I'm having difficulty with it staying logged in!

Click to expand...

Black Moon said:

I thought the staying logged in problem was my computer and not the site. Glad it's not another computer problem.

Click to expand...

i am having the same problem, but it seems to happen more often when i log in with Google Chrome than when i log in with Internet Explorer. ???

And......as mentioned above the site now does not retain my sign in info....I have to re-sign in each time I enter the site....is that a pain or what!!!

Just a FYI to the admins working on the site. I did a search yesterday and the highlighted search term was black with a dark gray box around it; it was difficult to see what the word(s) where.

To the above post about nothing newer then 2002; my search did return stuff from 2010 and 2011. Again just FYI.

Several other forums have been upgrading over the last few months because several of the ones I goto no longer have the 'User CP'. I would say this is out of the control of the Site admins and a change in the software.
Ray

Vipuronr said:

And......as mentioned above the site now does not retain my sign in info....I have to re-sign in each time I enter the site....is that a pain or what!!!

Click to expand...

I don't, it retains my log-in info every time.

Okay VJ, must not like my computer....and it does the same thing on my Droid X, which it didn't do with the earlier site. A minor point, but a pain nonetheless.

-RUNNR said:

Jon, I will be comping' time for all vendors, once I get it back up. The problem is, the old method we used to display banners is no longer valid in vBulletin 4.x

Yet another unseen complication which was piled on the list.

Click to expand...

Thanks Don...... it seems you are improving the site by the day........ thanks. I was not worried about a few-days credits....Send me an invoice so I dont lapse!

relax, -RUNNR knows what he is doing. he will get to it all.