Forum Issues - Update Released

[R8VXF]

The problem is that the go to last unread on the What's New page takes you to a point in time of when you last visited the forum, whereas the go to last unread on the my topics page should take to where you last read which will more than likely either be newer or older than the what's new point in time. Why the system cannot handle just going to the last post you read like a normal forum is astonishing. Maybe they should migrate to proper forum software rather than this dated and hacky custom software.

[illmonkey]

R8VXF said:

The problem is that the go to last unread on the What's New page takes you to a point in time of when you last visited the forum, whereas the go to last unread on the my topics page should take to where you last read which will more than likely either be newer or older than the what's new point in time. Why the system cannot handle just going to the last post you read like a normal forum is astonishing. Maybe they should migrate to proper forum software rather than this dated and hacky custom software.

It's never working correctly, but 80% of the time it at least takes you close, rather than page 1. Then you've got to remember if you are on that page etc.

I also agree with the software, it's horrible. They'd do much better to focus their time on moving to a off the shelf product for now, that is easily customisable moving forward. Support provided by them, rather than in house, and a massive range of plug ins developed already.

They are reinventing the wheel, badly.

[RacingPete]

They here....

I can assure you that if it is as easy as all say, then it would have been done. The issue is that the way My Stuff works is not the same as all the other pages - we are working on aligning that at the moment.

[illmonkey]

RacingPete said:

They here....

I can assure you that if it is as easy as all say, then it would have been done. The issue is that the way My Stuff works is not the same as all the other pages - we are working on aligning that at the moment.

An other reason why to move on from the dated system.

[Vaud]

I think it is a valid question, but as non-paying users our views are like aholes, everyone has one.

The board functionality and pace of update seems poor compared to many commercial systems and sites. That said, I do also question if any off the shelf software could cope with the volume that PH has.

I guess there are two connected discussions:

1) The efficiency of the current development, test, QA and release cycle

2) The ability of the platform to provide both the functionality and the agility needed to build the desired capability

[R8VXF]

Vaud said:

I think it is a valid question, but as non-paying users our views are like aholes, everyone has one.

The board functionality and pace of update seems poor compared to many commercial systems and sites. That said, I do also question if any off the shelf software could cope with the volume that PH has.

I guess there are two connected discussions:

1) The efficiency of the current development, test, QA and release cycle

2) The ability of the platform to provide both the functionality and the agility needed to build the desired capability

PH has a lot less volume than a lot of forums that run on PHPBB etc.

[AW111]

Adverts still overlapping text on galaxy tab.
Sometimes have to quote a post just to read it.

I am very close to installing an ad blocker, which I have avoided so far.


Grrrrrrrr

[Craikeybaby]

Craikeybaby said:

Over the last week or so I have noticed Safari is using a lot more of my battery power than it used to on my iPhone 6, I hadn't linked it with the changes on PH, but it kind of figures. Will try not using PH on my phone for 24 hours and see what happens...

My battery usage has stayed the same over the last 24 hours, despite not using PH on my iPhone, it is doesn't seem like PH is to blame.

[RacingPete]

Craikeybaby said:

Craikeybaby said:

Over the last week or so I have noticed Safari is using a lot more of my battery power than it used to on my iPhone 6, I hadn't linked it with the changes on PH, but it kind of figures. Will try not using PH on my phone for 24 hours and see what happens...

My battery usage has stayed the same over the last 24 hours, despite not using PH on my iPhone, it is doesn't seem like PH is to blame.

Good to know... we are monitoring this though.

[RacingPete]

Vaud said:

I think it is a valid question, but as non-paying users our views are like aholes, everyone has one.

The board functionality and pace of update seems poor compared to many commercial systems and sites. That said, I do also question if any off the shelf software could cope with the volume that PH has.

I guess there are two connected discussions:

1) The efficiency of the current development, test, QA and release cycle

2) The ability of the platform to provide both the functionality and the agility needed to build the desired capability

Yep, agree on the validity of the question, so I will give a brief answer here...

Why do we not move off this forum software to something new?

The main reason is time and resource, and the cost effectiveness of changing platforms.

With 39 million posts, where the posting information stored has changed over the 14 years the forum has been going, will require some intensive analysis work to make sure that migration doesn't break anything. And with the addition of Videos, News, Polls, and Wikis this is extended to making sure the new software can interpret that content and migrate it correctly also.

There is also integrating the login information to the rest of the site
Searching across the forums
Any RSS/APIs we have for the data
Connectivity of commenting on news articles, videos, and anything else we choose to do in the future
Maintaining our SEO rankings, (especially if the URLs change and we have to create a lot of rules for these)
And then integrating the new forum software into the rest of the site, and all our analytics, ad systems, etc

As a project it is not trivial, and though the forums are a huge part of the functionality of the site, it is not as easy to monetise as the classifieds or news.

So to invest in a platform move will be a major investment for us, and one that has only indirect value back (in cash terms), and thus hard to measure the ROI in pure financial terms....

Though we may look at it in the future, but not this year, as we have other major projects ongoing to make PistonHeads brilliant.

[miniman]

RacingPete said:

So to invest in a platform move will be a major investment for us, and one that has only indirect value back (in cash terms), and thus hard to measure the ROI in pure financial terms....

That's understandable, but rather sad given that without the forums the whole thing would never have existed for Haymarket to buy. Equally, if you integrated the news and classifieds content into the community side properly, it might be a rather more compelling proposition, but I've been banging on to people at Haymarket about this long enough to know it won't happen.

RacingPete said:

Though we may look at it in the future, but not this year, as we have other major projects ongoing to make PistonHeads brilliant.

Please have a stab at testing them properly

[Super Slo Mo]

My phone is still requiring me to log into the site every time I use it. That was several times yesterday.

[illmonkey]

Can you sort the font sizes out too. Some stuff is too big, some too small.

Also, a big of margin on the table in 'what's new' please, it's all really close together.

[tog]

illmonkey said:

Can you sort the font sizes out too. Some stuff is too big, some too small.

Also, a bit of margin on the table in 'what's new' please, it's all really close together.

I would echo both of those requests. On the full site, using a Safari on a Mac, the fonts are mostly too small.

[Funk]

tog said:

illmonkey said:

Can you sort the font sizes out too. Some stuff is too big, some too small.

Also, a bit of margin on the table in 'what's new' please, it's all really close together.

I would echo both of those requests. On the full site, using a Safari on a Mac, the fonts are mostly too small.

Add another from me. The font size falls uncomfortably between the 'zoom' sizes in Chrome and either looks too small or like a kids' book.

It's been a week, still getting the borked layout on the Tab S as well...

[RacingPete]

Update from the mother ship on a Friday.

We have released a hotfix for:

• Go to last read post in My Stuff - If you click on the topic title then you will go to your last read position automatically (assumption that if it is in My Stuff then you have previously read it and thus will always want to go to the last read position)

We have fixed, but releasing early next week:

• Overlapping 5th post with advert on Tablet
• Menu navigation not working on Phone on some pages
• Can't edit favourite forums on Phone
• My Stuff - no tabs on iPad portrait view
• Galaxy Tab (and some others) showing the correct view on My Stuff

Still working on:

• Zoom on Tablets
• Icon alignments on footer bar on some phones
• Some small styling tweaks

[LordGrover]

RacingPete said:

Update from the mother ship on a Friday.

We have released a hotfix for:

• Go to last read post in My Stuff - If you click on the topic title then you will go to your last read position automatically (assumption that if it is in My Stuff then you have previously read it and thus will always want to go to the last read position)

That works on my Nexus 5 & chrome.

Eta. Ghostery browser too.

Edited by LordGrover on Friday 14th August 15:03

[RacingPete]

Funk said:

tog said:

illmonkey said:

Can you sort the font sizes out too. Some stuff is too big, some too small.

Also, a bit of margin on the table in 'what's new' please, it's all really close together.

I would echo both of those requests. On the full site, using a Safari on a Mac, the fonts are mostly too small.

Add another from me. The font size falls uncomfortably between the 'zoom' sizes in Chrome and either looks too small or like a kids' book.

It's been a week, still getting the borked layout on the Tab S as well...

Will look at the font sizing issue and spacing with the team on Monday morning.

[illmonkey]

RacingPete said:

Will look at the font sizing issue and spacing with the team on Monday morning.

Must be a friday, all off to the pub at 3pm

[RacingPete]

illmonkey said:

RacingPete said:

Will look at the font sizing issue and spacing with the team on Monday morning.

Must be a friday, all off to the pub at 3pm

Off to the pub??? We haven't left since lunchtime