Upgrade complete

[scottjhl]

miss small pics on classified threads...

 

[Tlauden]

He shrunk the header. I still don't see a "who's on" pane. Does anyone else see it?

right there it is, very bottom of the page.

i LOVE this new forum, I just uploaded that from my iPad using safari, not TapaTalk. The old software wouldn't even think about letting me do that

 

[patracy]

miss small pics on classified threads...

As mentioned in this thread...

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?98192-Upgrade-complete&p=1257798&viewfull=1#post1257798

 

[phil2968]

The only place I find the who's on list is at the bottom of the forum screen. It used to be on the left of the page no matter where on the site I was looking.

 

[WarrenD]

Try the new threads button instead. Gives you the most recent threads that have been posted/replied to.

Ok, that looks like it would work, thanks.

 

[nf6x]

Is there a way to list more threads in the "Latest Threads Activity" box? If so, this would go a long way towards duplicating the functionality of the previous version's front page. Also, there's a large amount of wasted screen space under the left column, anyway, which might as well be filled with something useful IMHO.

This is a general complaint that I have about most web sites these days; columns on the left and/or right sides have a small amount of stuff at the top of the page, but occupy the entire height of the page with mostly blank space, leaving the actual content in a narrow band down the middle of the screen. It's especially annoying on a smaller screen like my iPad or MacBook Air. The new Steel Soldiers layout isn't too bad in this respect, and it appears to me that Patracy et.al. did a good job of minimizing this effect within the constraints of the software platform. Some sites I've seen have well under 25% of the window space filled with content, and the rest crammed full of superfluous features and ads! When I refactored my own web page from static HTML to a Wordpress-based blog, I found that nearly all of the Wordpress skins available had this problem, with no apparent way to let the main content flow into the empty space under the left/right columns. I resorted to a single-column layout, but that probably would not work well for a more complex site like this one. I still had limited success in minimizing all of the empty space that the skin wanted to wrap around my content. It would be very nice if the main content could flow into the empty space under the left column, but I wouldn't be surprised if the forum software just doesn't provide a way to do that. Please excuse my rant.

Another question about the "Latest Threads Activity" area: Is there a way to go directly to the first unread post of a listed thread with a single click that I'm missing? It seems to me that I need to click into the thread, then click again to jump to the first unread post. If it wouldn't be too hard to either add a first-unread-post link in the listing or simply make the thread title link have that effect, I think that would be very useful.

Thank you very much for all of your hard work on this site!

 

[nf6x]

Oh, one more thing: When I set up my Wordpress blog, I also found that many (most?) of the skins were fixed-width, or had a maximum width that would be rendered. This is very, very annoying on a larger screen, where enlarging the window just covers more screen without enlarging the content. Thank you very, very much for using a variable-width layout here! Fixed-width pages are a curse.

 

[RDUKW]

I find the new "what's new format" to be not very user friendly. Now you have to go thru a bunch of post on the same thread to see everything that actually happened since you last visited. Does taptalk work more like the old set up. I don't have the patents to go read everything on the whats new page to decipher what actually is new.

 

[juanprado]

Just wanted to give an update that the issue I had previously being able to upload attachments with firefox on the former site is fixed. The manage attachments button disappeared in firefox even when signed in and I had to use IE to upload previously.

No such issues with this set up. It works!

 

[RDUKW]

Dear Patracy,

I appreciate all of your hard work in upgrading the forum. i know that sometimes a little bit of change is good, but i find all of these changes overwhelming. I am not to fond of the new layout. by this i mean it just doesen't feel like Steel Soldiers anymore. I liked the old square grid layout and the goldish, dark green color combination. i find It very difficult to read on this forum now with the new colors. They don't have enough contrast. I used to be on this forum everyday and i enjoyed learning all kinds of usefull things on here. But for now i wont be on here very much because i don't like the new up(down)grades. I mean no disrespect I just wanted to voice how I feel.

Sincerely,
Max

I 100% percent agree with this. I appreciate all the work that is done to maintain this great site but I personally feel this was a down grade.

 

[3dAngus]

Yep, I'm going crazy all right.

Back to grey again from that green. We'll be in a state of flux for some time now I suppose. I'll keep my comments to myself and let Patracy have a go at it. Good job. I hope you guys got what you wanted out of it. I would love to see what's behind the curtain some day to see what you guys are seeing by way of new tools. There's gotta be some good stuff back there to make all of the hard work and financial investment worth it all. Congrats!

And as far as the new format and utilities or menu available, I'm confident it will all become second nature to most folks in just a matter of a few weeks. It'll just take some of us time to find our comfort zone. Others will just stick to what they know works best. More than one way to skin a cat. Thanks again.

 

[joeM62]

OK, so I held off for at least 12 hours now, holding back any kind of emotion in the new format. Just one comment on colors;

The colors suck. No, really, I mean it, they take the site back. It is impossible to improve upon perfection. The old site was perfect, or near perfect, where the only imperfection was in an edit mode where it was difficult to see a edit button. I wrote up a software changed request to improve it but it went unnoticed. No problem.

Colors on a new web are like an artists painting. It is a webmasters work, and not necessarily Andrews. I'm sure it was negotiated and it was agreed something different could be tried. Unfortunately, it is causing to many problems and with aging eyes, all kinds of different problems are going to pop up. We all see things differently, and we don't all see the same thing, even when looking at the same thing at the same time. I can tell you stories about changing eyes. I have a history, but fortunately, a darn good opthalmologists and optometrists as well.
In any case, an artists signs his paintings, and a webmaster changes colors and backgrounds and it becomes his heritage. It is good to try new things.

I am recommending consideration be given to change the colors back to the olive green and original layout for ease of use and comfort zone of users.

Comments based on the concept, "Change Can Be Good".

I agree with 3d it is hard on the eyes and change is good but not all good you did do a good job but a few things could be twiked, but I've seen the site change at least 5 times from it's orginal site back in the late 1998 or 1999.

 

[Bob H]

1. upgrade your browser.
2. Max out your resolution.
3. Hold down the ctrl button while you use the mouse scroll to zoom out from the page.

LOL, once I get it high enough resolution to show up halfway decent, I need a magnigier to read the words.

Steelsoldiers, always the first website I frequent to cause me to have to upgrade my stuff.........

 

[Stretch44875]

Grrr... Now my phone updated and moved everything. When I get home I am going to make sure my trucks are where I left them, and start button is where it is supposed to be.

 

[patracy]

I'm very certain Bob that a number of other sites have started forcing users to upgrade from IE 7. (IE is up to 9 officially and 10 beta) I know that Gmail won't let me use the old IE7 browser I have in a VM session box of mine.

 

[Crawdaddy]

Can we eliminate the classified ads from the Latest Threads Activity pane? The classifieds have almost entirely taken it over. Same for the Activity Stream. If we can't get the old list of latest posts back, then these things need to be filtered of the non-conversation related threads.

 

[Herzog]

I notice the ads are now on top of each other instead of side by side. Why?

On smaller screens the top ads pop under each-other in order to fit on the screen. Anything above 1044px will have them side-by-side. That area is still a work in progress.

 

[steelsoldiers]

I appreciate the constructive feedback that some of you are offering, but just saying that the upgrade is a downgrade or that the new colors suck is not constructive. In fact, it's really starting to piss me off. You guys sound like a bunch of ungrateful, petulant children. Again, we have poured countless hours and dollars into this upgrade and I am not going to put up with the trash talking. Keep it constructive or find another site to frequent.

 

[swbradley1]

In the midst of all the complaints I just wanted to again say thanks for all your hard work Drew.

We can't thank you enough and I've noticed that some people either don't remember what it was like or don't know what it was like before you took over.

 

[patracy]

No thank you needed on my behalf. I'm just happy getting over this hurdle finally.

I WOULD like to say thank you to Shane (Herzog). He's the one that has worked over the graphical design and helped tremendously with the upgrade!