[TrevP]

Dear members, with the upcoming site update this weekend we will have a whole bunch of new features for you, more on that soon, but one of the things I've been thinking about is the possibility of spicing up the home page a bit by putting forums into blocks. We have control over how many wide they can be 1-6 and we can also add a color or image to the background. Don't worry, on mobile devices the page will still be in a column so you don't have to pinch and zoom!

I've attached a few *very rough* samples of what is possible (styling is NOT final and needs more work), let me know via the poll what you think and give us some feedback if you find this might help the site. We want to keep things fresh for you and make the site even better!

Thanks
Trev

 

[serpico007]

I prefer your first example because it is easier to view and follow. Blocks are wasted space and possibly harder to read in mobile. Can’t wait to see the final forums. Thanks.

 

[Needsdecaf]

FWIW every forum home page i visit seems to be a waste of space, that I look forward to clicking through as quickly as possible, so I can get to the linear style display. I'm all for new formats, but have yet to see one that works as well as the linear style.

But who knows? Give it a shot!

 

[JWardell]

I'm definitely against more wasted space and this makes it much more difficult to just scan down the page to find what you are looking for, now you have to look all over the place. Can it be a preference setting?

 

[Nom]

Design for mobile devices (phones) first and foremost.

 

[Taney71]

I prefer ease of reading so anything that has clear, simple lists of topics or what's in the next webpage to view will be nice.

 

[skygraff]

Linear but colors are nice and it would be cool if we could collapse groups we're not that interested in since that would make it easier on a mobile device.

To be honest, I have the "new posts" section bookmarked on my mobile and generally just click that link when I log in on my laptop so I don't spend much time looking at the home page unless there's an announcement at the top or an interesting picture.

 

[NR4P]

I use mobile to view the site 90% of the time and the first example will render better on mobile. Therefore I chose Linear.

 

[TrevP]

I'm definitely against more wasted space and this makes it much more difficult to just scan down the page to find what you are looking for, now you have to look all over the place. Can it be a preference setting?

Sadly no, it's global

 

[serpico007]

Excited to see the new look tomorrow 👍

 

[Bigriver]

To be honest, I have the "new posts" section bookmarked on my mobile and generally just click that link when I log in

Plus one for this. Make any format changes you like, as long as I can easily jump to the new threads and posts.

 

[TrevP]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. For now I've left it as-is but added a couple of background images in a couple of segments. Let me know if you'd like more to spice it up!

 

[FRC]

I greatly appreciate that I can now tell which alerts I have and have not read. Great improvement!

 

[Needsdecaf]

Am I the only one who can't view any twitter links in the posts now? Using Chrome browser if that helps.

Thanks.

 

[garsh]

Am I the only one who can't view any twitter links in the posts now? Using Chrome browser if that helps.

Works fine for me.
I'm using Chrome as well.

 

[tivoboy]

I can't recall if the top image on mobile (android 10 in this case) was the same, but you can see what it is doing with the settings/menu selection bars ? since they are white and the underlying TESLA on the left side of the top banner image is WHITE the visibility of the BARS is getting masked by the underlying white image.. maybe if possibly make the left tesla car RED or some other color? Just a thought.

 

[Bigriver]

@TrevP, I am desperately missing being able to create bulletized lists when I'm on the mobile site (iphone). I think in bullets, and it is hard to write without them. A few times I return to the computer site (where I am now) and see that there are oh so many more format options. Am I missing something that bullets are available on mobile, or is there any chance they could get added? They are more useful/meaningful to me than paragraph indentation and font options.

I also struggle a bit with getting reactions other than Like to appear. I understand they are buried, and I need to put just the right pressure to make them appear. Most of the time I do it wrong and get the offer to copy/look up/share. After several tries and fails, I give the post a like when I would like to call something informative, helpful, agree, or funny. Absolutely no problem with this on the computer site, just mobile.

I have also noticed when quoting a post, it is very easy to do a backspace and delete the fact that it is a quote... the words stay there but not who it came from. I end up going back up, putting it into my quote queue, and re-inserting. I probably wouldn't even mention it but I'm seeing that it is happening to a fair number of other people in their posts.

None of these things are crucial, but just thought I'd provide the feedback of things I'm finding myself working around. Thanks for all you do to make this site possible.

 

[TrevP]

@TrevP, I am desperately missing being able to create bulletized lists when I'm on the mobile site (iphone). I think in bullets, and it is hard to write without them. A few times I return to the computer site (where I am now) and see that there are oh so many more format options. Am I missing something that bullets are available on mobile, or is there any chance they could get added? They are more useful/meaningful to me than paragraph indentation and font options.

I also struggle a bit with getting reactions other than Like to appear. I understand they are buried, and I need to put just the right pressure to make them appear. Most of the time I do it wrong and get the offer to copy/look up/share. After several tries and fails, I give the post a like when I would like to call something informative, helpful, agree, or funny. Absolutely no problem with this on the computer site, just mobile.

I have also noticed when quoting a post, it is very easy to do a backspace and delete the fact that it is a quote... the words stay there but not who it came from. I end up going back up, putting it into my quote queue, and re-inserting. I probably wouldn't even mention it but I'm seeing that it is happening to a fair number of other people in their posts.

None of these things are crucial, but just thought I'd provide the feedback of things I'm finding myself working around. Thanks for all you do to make this site possible.

Thanks for the feedback. I try and stay on top of thing as best I can however we're at the mercy of the forum software developers
to improve the UI a bit. This is the first release with reactions that are built in.

Reactions unfortunately due the way it's coded is indeed harder on mobile but you just need to tap on them and hold for half a second to get them to pop up.

I have control over the placement of the icons in the editor on various screen sizes so I've made the bullet icon front and center for you so it's easier to deal with.

As for quotes I generally use the quote button more than reply as it maintains a list of quoted posts so if you make a mistake it's easier to reinsert. I wish it was perfect but again, we're still seeing improvements in the code as it matures. There's a new update I haven't applied yet but I'll get to it soon

 

[TrevP]

I can't recall if the top image on mobile (android 10 in this case) was the same, but you can see what it is doing with the settings/menu selection bars ? since they are white and the underlying TESLA on the left side of the top banner image is WHITE the visibility of the BARS is getting masked by the underlying white image.. maybe if possibly make the left tesla car RED or some other color? Just a thought.

View attachment 37046

Thanks for the feedback. I added a dark background to the hamburger icon so it stands out over the car