New forum layout suuuucks

[Thurston9]

:lol:

[cruisinon2]

The real question is, is it as bad as the tuner? oops...

[homegrownbuddy]

1 hour ago, cruisinon2 said:

The real question is, is it as bad as the tuner? oops...

:p Yeah my beats headphones sound super poopy straight from the helix jack....

[spikey]

4 hours ago, cruisinon2 said:

The real question is, is it as bad as the tuner? oops...

 

If you mean the one in the editor, then yes...

[Ka5par]

I is a bit busy and not as clear as the old one, but I like the post contents preview.

[Dshow]

Yeah it would be good if they add some space betweeen the elements and a bit more colors.

The new functions are coolt though

[bobthedog]

It totally confuses me, I can't tell easily if I have read a thread, if it is new, if I have been involved with it. 

 

I can tell no one has placed a vote though!

 

Many years a go I worked in an R&D department for GUI development, it is good to know that all the things we thought were important are now being totally ignored by the newer generations.

[funkyou86]

Actually, custom skins in the account settings would be welcome, also the possibility to hide the dozen of pinned posts would be appreciated. 

[arislaf]

Agree qith op

[Rewolf48]

Missing the option for going to first unread post. This one seems much more oriented to Questions rather than chat.

[cruisinon2]

2 hours ago, Rewolf48 said:

Missing the option for going to first unread post. This one seems much more oriented to Questions rather than chat.

 

Less user friendly, ugly as sin, everything looks the same, visual "noise" everywhere, and chronology often non-existent...I don't need 75 "key words" under every thread title, and I definitely don't need to scroll past the same thread more than once. But now  we have to wade through the "questions with no answers", as well as the "popular" ones,  only to encounter the same friggin' topic a few threads below. Redundancy is forever useless....

[Dshow]

Actually a bit of padding and reduce the opacity on the read threads would help already:

 

[silverhead]

3 hours ago, Rewolf48 said:

Missing the option for going to first unread post. This one seems much more oriented to Questions rather than chat.

 

You can arrange for this. Under the Activity tab at the top of this page select Unread Content. YOu will see a row of customizable items. Under the Read Status item tick the box that says 'Unread Item Links Take Me to the First Unread Item'. You can also choose whether you want to see all threads or just those that have unread (by you) content. Then you have to save the changes as a New Stream which subsequently appears under the My Streams section under the Activity tab.

 

Convoluted, but it works. Things will now behave like the old forum (at least with respect to navigation). You see one listing per topic/thread and clicking on the thread brings you to the first unread post.

 

EDIT: I sort of stumbled upon this configuration just before posting about it. Turns out it's a huge improvement for me. In the few minutes I have used it I think I actually prefer it to the old forum. Using the Condensed view (top right of the Items list) I can see only the threads containing unread content, organized by Last Hour, Today, Yesterday, etc. and clicking on a topic takes me to my first unread post in the topic. Works for me. I have set it to my default stream, but of course can easily click other options in the Activity section at any time then return to my default view.

 

EDIT#2: Or, you can use the much simpler method described by jbuhajla below that I didn't know about. (insert unavailable emoticon)

[jbuhajla]

3 hours ago, Rewolf48 said:

Missing the option for going to first unread post. This one seems much more oriented to Questions rather than chat.

No, it's there. Click on the dot/star next to the post's Title. 

[FlyingsCool]

I don't like how you can't see who created the last post either anymore.

[HonestOpinion]

I hate to be critical about the new forum because I feel I haven't used it enough yet but something about the new look and methods of navigation have vastly decreased the amount of time I spend on the forum - some might say that is a good thing. The new font and the way it shows up in various browsers makes it more difficult to differentiate between the bolded unread topics and the already read ones. The new look does not seem to be as condensed as the old one and IMHO seems somehow too busy and crowded. I find it more difficult to scan quickly through the list of topics. I also agree that the pinned topics and posts are chewing up too much real-estate now and would benefit from an expand/collapse function.

 

I can tell someone put in a lot of time and effort designing the new look and functions and it deserves to be given a chance but so far it feels like they improved it until they broke it. If I were Line6 I would keep an eye on metrics like how many posts and views there are on the redesigned forum versus the old format. My guess is that other than the increase from new HX FX users the forum usage is going to lower substantially. Hope I am wrong but I am just finding the new design to be sub-optimal. I think one simple improvement would be to change the font being used. It is much less readable than the old one and has this issue where some letters look bolded even when they are not. That is part of what is causing the difficulty with quickly scanning the topics for unread ones. With the old font unread topics seemed to jump out visually. As previously mentioned it would be great to see the last poster and page numbers restored under the topic headings.

 

And where are the emoticons? Having a smiley face available isn't just for brightening up a post, it is for conveying humor, irony, sarcasm, or jest in a written format where your expression and tone can't be seen/heard and hence someone might otherwise get offended. The emoticons really need to be restored.

 

I think some of the new forum functionality should be combined with some of the things that worked so well, particularly the topic view, in the old forum.

[cruisinon2]

1 hour ago, FlyingsCool said:

I don't like how you can't see who created the last post either anymore.

 

Imho, WHEN the last post appeared is more useful than whomever is responsible for it... but we don't have that anymore either. Underneath the thread title all we get is when the OP  originally appeared. Who cares? There are threads that go on for weeks or months...to say nothing of the zombie threads that get resurrected after years, sometimes. At a glance it should be obvious if there's anything new...it's useless like this. 

 

If I may be permitted a condensed,  "Reader's Digest assessment": The new version rots...

[Lachdanan0121]

I would not call what they did to the forums an improvement. It was a lateral move at best, and a step backwards in some areas.

[Thurston9]

4 hours ago, silverhead said:

 

You can arrange for this. Under the Activity tab at the top of this page select Unread Content. YOu will see a row of customizable items. Under the Read Status item tick the box that says 'Unread Item Links Take Me to the First Unread Item'. You can also choose whether you want to see all threads or just those that have unread (by you) content. Then you have to save the changes as a New Stream which subsequently appears under the My Streams section under the Activity tab.

 

Convoluted, but it works. Things will now behave like the old forum (at least with respect to navigation). You see one listing per topic/thread and clicking on the thread brings you to the first unread post.

 

EDIT: I sort of stumbled upon this configuration just before posting about it. Turns out it's a huge improvement for me. In the few minutes I have used it I think I actually prefer it to the old forum. Using the Condensed view (top right of the Items list) I can see only the threads containing unread content, organized by Last Hour, Today, Yesterday, etc. and clicking on a topic takes me to my first unread post in the topic. Works for me. I have set it to my default stream, but of course can easily click other options in the Activity section at any time then return to my default view.

 

EDIT#2: Or, you can use the much simpler method described by jbuhajla below that I didn't know about. (insert unavailable emoticon)

Definitely too much effort to read, let alone do just to use a forum.  New users won't go to the trouble and neither will I.

[Lachdanan0121]

Another thing I noticed, and don't like... When you click on a thread you have already read, but has new posts, it no longer takes you to the newest post. You have to manually scroll to it.

[requietus666]

it is possible to remove "popular posts" sticky thing at the top ?
what have you done, really

[cruzfolmli]

It needs to also show when the last post in the thread was made...

[jbuhajla]

Needs more gluten free bacon...

[soundog]

It seems like this burned a lot of Line 6 effort and expense, to fix something that wasn't broken. And as a result of trying to fix something that wasn't broken .... it broke!

 

[insert non-existent emoji here]

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[hideout]

On 3/24/2018 at 1:29 PM, cruisinon2 said:

The real question is, is it as bad as the tuner? oops...

 

Heh heheh. 

One thing I don’t like is that you can’t tell who posted last at a glance anymore. 

[phil_m]

On 3/27/2018 at 12:46 PM, soundog said:

It seems like this burned a lot of Line 6 effort and expense, to fix something that wasn't broken. And as a result of trying to fix something that wasn't broken .... it broke!

 

[insert non-existent emoji here]

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

It was broken... Don't you remember the two weeks or so of sporadic outages? The company the makes the forum software stopped supporting the version Line 6 was using, so it wasn't offering them any support in fixing those access problems because of it. That's why Line 6 had to update the forum software. Now, I suppose they could have gone with someone else, but that would have been a lot more disruptive as it would have meant losing access to older posts.

[cruisinon2]

39 minutes ago, hideout said:

 

Heh heheh. 

One thing I don’t like is that you can’t tell who posted last at a glance anymore. 

 

You can, but you have to choose "sort by date" at the top when you open a thread. Every time. Every thread... lol

 

If I had to guess, I'd say that the task of designing this forum software was given to an engineer who's never been on a forum... it absolutely reeks of "They asked for features x,y, and z... so here they are: Thud". With little to no regard for how one function interacts with the next, or how folks actually utilize things in the wild.

 

I've seen it before... by day I work in medical imaging (CT, MR, nuclear medicine), and there is a certain company which shall remain nameless, that builds equipment that produces stunning images, and has every function you'd ever need or want... but you can't find them, because every menu and display looks the same, much like this forum's layout. And when you do manage to locate whatever it is your looking for after combing through 42 sub-menus, what should be easily accomplished with a mouse click,  instead requires 3 focus groups and a Congressional inquiry before it lets you proceed. It almost seems intentionally counterintuitive.... and that's what this forum is now. First time I saw it, I thought I was at work, lol. ;)

[hideout]

37 minutes ago, cruisinon2 said:

 

You can, but you have to choose "sort by date" at the top when you open a thread. Every time. Every thread... lol

 

If I had to guess, I'd say that the task of designing this forum software was given to an engineer who's never been on a forum... it absolutely reeks of "They asked for features x,y, and z... so here they are: Thud". With little to no regard for how one function interacts with the next, or how folks actually utilize things in the wild.

 

I've seen it before... by day I work in medical imaging (CT, MR, nuclear medicine), and there is a certain company which shall remain nameless, that builds equipment that produces stunning images, and has every function you'd ever need or want... but you can't find them, because every menu and display looks the same, much like this forum's layout. And when you do manage to locate whatever it is your looking for after combing through 42 sub-menus, what should be easily accomplished with a mouse click,  instead requires 3 focus groups and a Congressional inquiry before it lets you proceed. It almost seems intentionally counterintuitive.... and that's what this forum is now. First time I saw it, I thought I was at work, lol. ;)

Ugh. That’s horrid. 

Makes me think of a certain company’s account activation process. Really super confusing and very poorly thought out. 

[bobthedog]

They seem to have sorted it out a bit though, looking OKish now.

[hideout]

On 3/26/2018 at 1:08 PM, Lachdanan0121 said:

Another thing I noticed, and don't like... When you click on a thread you have already read, but has new posts, it no longer takes you to the newest post. You have to manually scroll to it.

This drove me nuts too but thankfully, they seem to have fixed it. 

[zooey]

So today, on my phone at least, when I'm reading a thread, there's this black thingy on the right, offering Common FAQs and Basic Information. It covers up the right-hand side of the posts I'm trying to read, and can't be closed.

 

Ugh. A little user testing maybe?

[cruisinon2]

15 hours ago, zooey said:

So today, on my phone at least, when I'm reading a thread, there's this black thingy on the right, offering Common FAQs and Basic Information. It covers up the right-hand side of the posts I'm trying to read, and can't be closed.

 

Ugh. A little user testing maybe?

 

Yeah that's delightful, isn't it? Just keep piling on the redundancy...do we really need to be smacked in the crotch with the FAQ list on EVERY page of the forum? It's getting comical now. One step forward, two steps back...

 

I'm not delusional enough to think that it's of any significance to the powers that be, but if that doesn't go away post-haste, then I'm done trying to navigate this craptastic new layout. I draw the line at having to guess at words someone has written. Half the time you need the Rosetta Stone to decipher what somebody is attempting to say anyway, and that's when you can actually see the entire sentence. This is officially a joke now...

[Lachdanan0121]

1 hour ago, cruisinon2 said:

 

Yeah that's delightful, isn't it? Just keep piling on the redundancy...do we really need to be smacked in the crotch with the FAQ list on EVERY page of the forum? It's getting comical now. One step forward, two steps back...

 

I'm not delusional enough to think that it's of any significance to the powers that be, but if that doesn't go away post-haste, then I'm done trying to navigate this craptastic new layout. I draw the line at having to guess at words someone has written. Half the time you need the Rosetta Stone to decipher what somebody is attempting to say anyway, and that's when you can actually see the entire sentence. This is officially a joke now...

Yep, and it seems like there is overall less presence in these forums now after the "upgrade."

Less people are willing to navigate this mess. AT this point I am basically just checking it to see if there are any announcements that I want to know about like firmware releases, or other plans.

[hideout]

That black bar off to the right on my phone is highly annoying!  I can’t make it go away! WTF?!

[rayttk]

I Just Don’t Like It!

[MrViv]

What's that black bar??

 

Serisouly, this time i'm done.

[cruisinon2]

I'm starting to think the goal is to drive everybody over to TGP... most of the L6 guys seem to live there already, anyway... lol

 

I do have one request though... if there is to be an obtrusive and useless bar on the left side of the screen too, I'd like it to be hot pink. ;)

[Flotsam71]

The black bar thing sucks!!! Get rid of it now!!!!!

[pilottes]

Black stripe a bad idea. Been on the forum for 3 years. I don't need FAQS or basic info. I want my full screen back! 

[zooey]

Or at least put it the to or the bottom, not in tho if the text you're trying to read. Not that I want MORE useless stuff I've seen a million times and don't care about, but for the love of g o d, don't cover up the text. Why does this even need to be said???