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We Are Live - Community Feedback

10K views 142 replies 30 participants last post by  Admin 
#1 ·
Dear Community Members,

We are excited to announce that we are live on our new forum platform! We’ve worked hard over the last several months with a leading design and product firm to deliver a cleaner, faster and more engaging experience for you. Our goal is to provide modern design and technology to make the site run faster, smoother and more reliably. All of the valuable content within the community is still here, even though the layout may look different.

A Consistent Experience Across All Devices
The site is optimized for all screen sizes, including mobile. All features are available and ready to use on all devices.

Speed and Reliability Are Key
No one should have to wait for information. This site has been built to be much faster and more reliable, period.

New Homepage Experience
Your home page now features the most active forums, trending discussions, featured showcases, and top contributing members. This will help keep you up to date on what’s happening in your community and eventually become a very personalized experience for our members with all the great content you love surfaced effortlessly for you.

Search
We have introduced new search algorithms, powered by an industry-leading AI platform, that will help you find information faster. We plan to roll out new features to continue improving search, and to power many additional areas of the forum.

Due to the volume of content, our search platform may take some time to complete indexing. During this process, you may see a limited number of posts until indexing has been completed. We appreciate your patience.

Easy to Use and Navigate
We have made the design clean and simple to use. Near the upper right-hand corner of the community, you will see navigation icons.

The first icon is for what’s new on the site.

Clicking on it, by default, will take you to new unread posts. On that page, you can click on additional tabs as well, such as Popular, if you prefer to view active topics.

Clicking the list icon next to “NEW” will bring you to the full forum listing.

You can also navigate by clicking the 3 vertical dots.

Clicking on your avatar will give you a drop-down menu for all things related to your account.

Dark Mode
We have introduced Dark Mode. One of our favorite features allows you to access the site with a power-saving, and easier on the eyes dark mode. You can access it in the drop-down menu under the 3 vertical dots.

Save Bookmarks
Now you can save your favorite discussion threads and posts! Bookmarks are a handy way to remember and easily find great content or stuff you want to read later.

We also wanted to make it easier for new users to understand the lingo of forums. We have cleaned up various language to more commonly recognized phrases including:
  • Following - Thread subscriptions, and Watched are now known as Following
  • Conversations – Private Messages or PMs are now conversations and can be accessed from the user avatar drop-down in the main navigation
  • Showcase – Showcase is designed for users to "showcase" items/projects through the use of uploaded images, text descriptions and custom content categories. It’s a way to visually and textually provide detailed information on the content you wish to share. The showcase would be similar to a catalog, whereas the gallery would be like a photo album. It can be accessed from the drop-down menu with the 3 dots.
These are just a few of the great new functions and features to try on the site. Take a tour and look around! If you have any questions, please check out the HELP section for some quick FAQs about the new platform - Help Section

Please let us know what you think about the new experience. Your feedback is important to us.

Thank you all for your support during this amazing journey!
 
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#2 ·
Hello!
I will be here today as we begin to unpack from the move to this new software update. You may have a lot of questions or comments, or may need help orienting yourself to some of the things that look different around here. I hope I can help with that orienteering, and I hope I can help you feel comfortable navigating around.

My name is Gerrit, and helping people orient themselves as long as I can remember. I was born in Europe, raised throughout parts of the US, and now am in Canada with the Vertical Scope HQ. Orienteering has been something I’ve done for most of my life, and was both the first merit badge earned, and the first one I taught within the Boy Scouts (yes I did that whole thing too). Quickly and accurately finding my way around is such a cornerstone of my life that my first tattoo naturally had to be a compass to help me navigate. (Though I did leave it up to the artist to make it less basic that something that looked like it’d need some sort of seasonal coffee drink) and it is all of these skills that I hope to bring here to you now.

Orienteering is never an easy skill, but with me as your guide through the site I hope that we can explore this brave new look for the site together. I won’t always have an immediate answer to your question, but I will work to find you the most accurate information together.

-Gerrit
 
#3 ·
Please don't be afraid to explore and test out things to see how they work on the site. You can also see our FAQs here!

Although you can certainly use the "insert image" icon to upload an image to your post, you can also just drag and drop it to the text editor or even copy/paste it into there!



You can easily share videos just by adding the URL directly into the text editor!



Gif links from sites like giphy.com will display automatically just by adding the gif URL directly in the text editor. Try it!



I am also a huge fan of the dark mode for the community, it’s much easier on the eyes. What is your favorite feature?

I will be here to answer questions and to help you navigate, as needed.

-Gerrit
 
#6 ·
This looks awesome! Looks like it took a lot of work. Hat's-off to all that made it happen! Of course no matter how awesome the Site looks, I will still hold strong that it is the wisdom and experience of the members that make this Site my favorite Internet place on the planet!!! :)
 
#12 ·
Hello,

According to this website I just looked up, there should be a star next to where you input the URL which should enable the bookmark function. :)


-Gerrit
 
#16 ·
Not near as easy on the eyes to read as the old site. Definitely not faster loading pages (although the old site was slow too). I'm seeing several seconds to load many pages. Longer for other links.

The faded out text of sigs is just cluttering things up. On or Off would be OK.

JMO tho
You can go into your preferences and turn off signatures by unchecking the appropriate box. Its in the same area as setting your time zone. I've shut them off to see if I like it.

I've also switched it to Dark Mode and find it much easier on the eyes.

Another thing I noticed is when I quoted you, it included your image..(I removed it from this message) I dont like that as when I am scrolling, I really dont need to see those pictures over and over if multiple people quote the same message.
 
#15 ·
Kewl. Nuff said.
 
#18 ·
several functions seem to take more steps. Multi-quote in particular but also just navigating to the last read in a thread (or jump to new) is an extra step over what it used to be (I miss the chevrons).
Some of the features like signatures seem to be someone just showing off their css but I guess I will learn to get used to that.
 
#24 ·
Alerts/Notifications

A red dot on your avatar near the upper right-hand corner of the site, indicates that you have alerts or new conversations (private messages). When you click on your avatar you will see a number next to Alerts and/or Conversations indicating how many new ones you have. Click on each to view them.

You can adjust your settings for alerts by selecting Account Settings and then Preferences from the left side navigation on the new page.

Scroll down to “Receive a notification when someone…” and set your preferences.

For email alerts, scroll down to Content options and adjust your settings.

Make sure to click Save at the bottom if you make any changes.

- Cricket
 
#21 ·
I just "liked" you so maybe you can hunt around and see what pops up.

I would also like to find out how to go straight to the first post I haven't read yet on an on going thread. In the past we could click on the chevron tied to any given thread.
 
#22 ·
How To Create A Signature

Your signature can include up to 4 lines, a maximum of 1000 characters and one link. An image counts as a line. Anytime you hit "enter" on your keyboard, it will automatically go to a new line. Images will automatically be resized to 300 x 200 pixels. You can see more options in your settings to collapse signatures, always view full signature, or to not see signatures at all. The choice is yours.

Both guests and members can view signatures.

If a user has their preferences set to the default they will see collapsed signatures as in the example below for them. (They can click to see more.)

If a user has their preferences set to always show expanded signatures it will look like the example below for them. Your image can be clicked to view full size.

If you want to adjust your preferences for signatures you can click on your avatar near the upper right-hand corner of the site and select account settings.

In the left side navigation, you will see an option for preferences. Click it.

Scroll down to content options and select your signature preferences.
 
#23 ·
Navigating Thread Listing

  • Clicking the thread title will take you to where you left off, the 1st unread post.
  • Clicking the timestamp below the title will take you to the 1st post of the thread.
  • Clicking the timestamp above the last poster user takes you to the last (newest) post.
- Cricket
 
#32 ·
The two different links (1st and last) make sense despite the example being confusing but that link at the top that takes you to 1st unread makes no sense. I understand what it does, and will use it but a new forum member is not going to find that except by accident. The older advanced editor had a lot better functionality. Is there a way to get that back or do we resort to the code function ?
 
#26 ·
Not fond of the “in thread” adverts, nor the large advert panel occupying the right-hand third of the screen, but I accept that something has to pay for the site so am not minded to use an ad blocker.

Making the ads less intrusive would be welcome, though.
 
#27 ·
Premium Members dont see the adds. I know, I know... why pay a forum your hard earned money right? It just isnt right to have to pay to eliminate the adds.

I like and choose to support forums like this because FB sucks. I've made lots of friends through this forum and supporting it with a one time fee isnt that difficult. The bonus is I dont see he adds.
 
#30 ·
I will be here during your transition to the new platform, to help with any questions, help with navigation or how to do things, and to listen to your feedback so please don't hesitate to holler at me. I want to help.

I do want to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Cricket. When I was born, my father told his friends I was the ugliest baby he had ever seen, and that I sounded just like a cricket (I was born with the hiccups.) so yes, I have been Cricket for 58 years now. I live just outside of San Antonio, Texas. I spend most of my time off out in nature and exploring the back roads. During late autumn when it starts to finally cool down, I disappear from the world for a bit for camping trips and hiking.
139376

We will be seeing weekly updates (approximately) to the site which are largely based on community feedback so we absolutely want to hear your feedback!

I have worked with VerticalScope for 5 years but I have worked with forum communities for closer to two decades. I won't always know the answers to your questions, but I can find someone who does, as needed. :)

- Cricket
 
#36 ·
- Cri


It may take a bit to catch up on the new platform, but the following should work.

Navigating Thread Listing


  • Clicking the thread title will take you to where you left off, the 1st unread post.
  • Clicking the timestamp below the title will take you to the 1st post of the thread.
  • Clicking the timestamp above the last poster user takes you to the last (newest) post.
- Cricket
 
#39 ·
In a different forum I frequent one has the ability to ignore a thread. Flag it as "Ignored" and there are three options provided:

139406

(VERY cool! Just figured out I can drag-resize inserted images!!)

Cannot find the "Ignore Thread" function here... Does it exist?

?
 
#40 ·
The new interface is very "Google looking".

And the completely white background is gonna take some getting used too - would be nice to be able to change the background color.

As others have noted, it would be nice for each thread to default to the most recent post rather than the first post when I click on it.
 
#42 ·
The new interface is very "Google looking".

And the completely white background is gonna take some getting used too - would be nice to be able to change the background color.

As others have noted, it would be nice for each thread to default to the most recent post rather than the first post when I click on it.
@WillH

You can change the background to black which is easier to look at. Look for the three ellipses in the upper right

139415
 
#45 ·
I'm sure it's it's me, but the fancier the sites become, the less I use them. I'm more into function as opposed to feature. All of these new fancy features just clutter up my page and eliminate the knowledge and help I'm looking for.There is no going back, but I've been a member of the K1200/K1600 forum since my 2002 K1200LT and in the early days, there was a lot of information and help available that has been lost, hidden or disappeared. It was replaced with fancy glitter that does not help or interest me.
 
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