Coming Soon: New Message Board Layout

Jumper K. Balls said:

My first thoughts are that it looks kind of like the connection with the server was reset and the page half loaded in my browser.  Kind of broken and incomplete.

Yeah, whatever variation of Times Roman they're using seems very...default.  Definitely not a fan, but at least I see they fixed the inset text being a different typeface.

Brett_Murphy said:

Is there any way at all to change the dang font to something that is sans serif? Seriously, serif fonts are for actual printed medium, not computer screens.

SUPERDITTO

sleepyhead said:

I've noticed another thing which is a little annoying to me... 

 ... it seems
that emoji are forcing line breaks that aren't in the original

 

post 

even if that line is only one word and one emoji

 

so that they're isolated on their own line.  I wonder how two emoji in a row are treated?  

In the previous format the software did that any time you edited a post with emoji in it.  They would be fine at first, but saving an edit would force linebreaks in.  I learned to triple-proofread my posts if they had emoji.

Marathon scrolling when searching for a specific Thread.

What's the difference between the "New Post" and the "Latest Comment" buttons on the top of the page?

I hate to nitpick, but can there be a smidge more white space against the left hand side?  It looks crowded against the edge of the screen.  I'm looking at it on a desktop.  

EDIT:  Maybe double or 1.5x the spacing from the left edge?

EDIT 2: I'm on 1920x1080 BTW.

Using chrome, I just got in the habit of hitting CTRL - a few times right after I type grassrootsmotorsports.com.  75% seems to be a nice zoom level.

Regarding "if you leave so easily then we don't miss you" comments:  for me forum reading is a luxury activity, done in free time or as a break from work.  If the reading experience sucks, it doesn't matter how good the content is, consumption of that content will decrease.  It becomes "GRM has some great stuff, I guess I'll go suffer through reading some of it" once a week, rather than "hey I have a few minutes free, let me take a look at GRM" 5 times a day.

The white is seriously painful.  Maybe I spend most of my time on non-typical websites?  It's just SO WHITE.  WHITE EVERYWHERE.  Hit reply.  See the off-white grey around the comment entry field that encompasses the 'your comment' and 'save' button?  If the whole background of the site were that color, it'd still register in the brain as 'white' but wouldn't be so stark and blinding.

The functional updates are great.  Thank you sincearly.

But, you knew this was coming didn't you?  But the format has managed to go backwards.  It looks like it was designed to be viewed exclusively on an original 10 year old iPhone 3.5" screen.

Also, for berks sake please loose the click bait style headlines.  'You Need This: Drop-Top, Slope-Nose Gemballa Porsche 911' , 'New From the SCCA: Solo Spec Coupe Autocross Class', 'Hang With Us...., sorry I just can't go on.   Really?  You even went full click bait and are capitalizing every freeking word.  

Doing some checking, on my work computer screen (where, sad to say, I do most of my reading here...) 80-85% seems to be the best point for zoom- any smaller than that and I have a hard time reading the text clearly. A better font might help things, as has been suggested. I like the idea of a different default background color (or letting us customize that to whatever suits us best- I would agree with RedGT that a light grey would look better, at least to my eyes.

And I agree that the 'Save' button should be changed to 'Post'- it would be less confusing.

Hi guys. Just a morning update. A couple more adjustments are in the works. Stay tuned.

Ed Higginbotham said:

Hi guys. Just a morning update. A couple more adjustments are in the works. Stay tuned.

Please let it be less space and not a wall of white.Please let it be less space and not a wall of white.Please let it be less space and not a wall of white.Please let it be less space and not a wall of white.Please let it be less space and not a wall of white.

Keep up the good work Ed.   It's much improved since yesterday mornin.

Adrian_Thompson said:

The functional updates are great.  Thank you sincearly.

But, you knew this was coming didn't you?  But the format has managed to go backwards.  It looks like it was designed to be viewed exclusively on an original 10 year old iPhone 3.5" screen.

 

Also, for berks sake please loose the click bait style headlines.  'You Need This: Drop-Top, Slope-Nose Gemballa Porsche 911' , 'New From the SCCA: Solo Spec Coupe Autocross Class', 'Hang With Us...., sorry I just can't go on.   Really?  You even went full click bait and are capitalizing every freeking word.  

'New From the SCCA: Solo Spec Coupe Autocross Class'

How is that a click bait title? 'The SCCA made a new decision, and you'll never believe what it is' sounds clickbaity to me.

In reply to z31maniac :

Agreed.  The SCCA title is definitely not clickbait.  It's attention getting, but actually informative (unlike clickbait).  It tells enough to make me think "do I care to read this?" before I click.  

Yeah, Im not getting a click-baity vibe. The "you need this" cars are cool to read about, and are actually engaging us to start conversations. Theyre not there to generate sales or garner cash for clicks. I also like the "
your project" articles too.

4cylndrfury said:

The content and people portion of the signal:noise ratio of this board is BY FAR the reason I visit.

Sure, but if you make it a pain in the ass to consume or add content, the reason to visit goes away.  This is the #1 reason I don't use Facebook.

Not sure if it has been said already, but it seems that the Quote and Reply buttons weren't working right. 

Quote didn't do anything, and reply opened a box, but I couldn't type in it. (Windows 10, Google Chrome)

Why is there still not a way to go to the newest unread post in a thread?  I thought for sure the little red dot would do that, like it does on many other forums, but unfortunately no.  Has this been added and I am just too stupid to find it?

I have to admit... I've tried to use it as I normally do for two days now and only complain semi-constructively in this thread but as it stands - it's just terrible. No change has made it better as far as I can see. It was archaic but digestible before, now it's just archaic. If I were the boss I'd roll it back until it was ready for prime time rather than use the users as guinea pigs but I'm only into this for like $10 a year so ... pretty far from calling shots.

I'm going to log out and come back in a week or two to see if it's usability has returned because I come here for amusement and I am more irritated by the interface than I am entertained by the content. Call it fickle but ain't nobody got time for this E36 M3.

Also, the biggest item as noted by Ian F earlier is that the page needs to be vertically condensed.   Reading through a thread there is way too much space from the last line of a post, to the first line of a post in the next one.  It's often more than 1/3 of a page.  It's way too much scrolling.  

I understand it's a work in progress, and I thank you for the work done so far.  

The new font is nice. Same vertical dead space still tho...

4cylndrfury said:

The new font is nice. Same vertical dead space still tho...

Agree- easier to read.  

camaroz1985 said:

Why is there still not a way to go to the newest unread post in a thread?  I thought for sure the little red dot would do that, like it does on many other forums, but unfortunately no.  Has this been added and I am just too stupid to find it?

I think Ed said that feature is still being worked on, but it's coming at some point.  

Ed Higginbotham said:

Hi guys. Just a morning update. A couple more adjustments are in the works. Stay tuned.

HUGE THANK YOU for changing the typeface in the body text.  It's so much more readable and modern looking now.

rslifkin said:

camaroz1985 said:

Why is there still not a way to go to the newest unread post in a thread?  I thought for sure the little red dot would do that, like it does on many other forums, but unfortunately no.  Has this been added and I am just too stupid to find it?

I think Ed said that feature is still being worked on, but it's coming at some point.  

You are correct. Coming soon.

whoa. the new layout is very clean. 

my only complaint is that its so big and bold, how am I supposed to discreetly scroll the forums at work? :P

For now I am just changing the scaling in google chrome to 70 or 80% which tightens things up.