New Forum Design

[doug]

I'm sure Admin know this, but for anyone else like me that had/has external website, social media, or bookmarks to forums, threads or posts on TMC, you need to manually correct them to avoid broken links, e.g.

Previous: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/56163-90D-Range-slowly
-declining/page33?p=1289330&viewfull=1#post1289330
Current: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/1289330/

External search engines will catch-up on their own over time, but without automated redirects to avoid broken links, proactively correcting your own external references is necessary. It appears post numbers have been retained across the site migration -- at least for the links I was using -- so that may speed up your work ahead.

Did you actually try that link and have it fail, or are you just guessing? Again as I've said at least a few times, I spent a lot of careful effort making redirects that work. And at least on my browser, that old link works. Please confirm. All the most important links should be able to find the correct content.

The only thing missing right now is Blogs. I imported and converted those to threads for now. They have redirects as well, but I don't have them in a public place yet since there were a lot of spammy blogs (that were invisible to normal users) I want to clear out first.

@BertL @hcsharp

 

[danny]

There's zero contract between headings and between items, which makes it harder to scan.

We can work on increasing contrast between headings and sub headings, etc., however content text is pure black on pure white, so not sure how much more contrast we can provide for that.

 

[BertL]

Did you actually try that link and have it fail, or are you just guessing? Again as I've said at least a few times, I spent a lot of careful effort making redirects that work. And at least on my browser, that old link works. Please confirm. All the most important links should be able to find the correct content...

@BertL @hcsharp

My WordPress website found the link failures yesterday. I tried the links directly via Safari 9.0.3 and they failed last night. Started investigating it again early this morning before 6AM PT and found the same failures after having shutdown my Mac, cleared cache, etc in an attempt to make sure it wasn't me. Researched the links on the new DB, made the link changes to my site, and didn't have any more problems, so decided to make the post just in case it would help someone else.

A while after making my post here this morning, the old http://www.teslamotorsclub... link would go to a page but ask for a password -- I figured you had the old site staged somewhere and were doing work on it, closed the tab and went on with my business.

Now, after your post a few minutes ago, I just tried the original http://www.teslamotorsclub... link again, and it appears your redirects are working.

...all I can say is THANK YOU. It appears your work has caught up with my reality. We can chalk it up to the time it took changes to propagate through various servers and the WWW. In any case, it's made it's way to me now.

Thx again for all you're doing through this transition.

 

[Blastphemy]

Testing the problem in Google Chrome (both PC and Mac) where trying to post a reply would instead open up a Save dialog as if a file was being saved to my hard disk instead of a reply being posted to the forum:

1) Typing a message and clicking on "Post Reply" works in Google Chrome.

2) Typing a message and clicking on "More Options..." then "Reply to Thread" doesn't work in Google Chrome.

3) Typing a message and clicking on "More Options..." then "Preview..." then "Reply to Thread" doesn't work in Google Chrome.

 

[Blastphemy]

I tested in Internet Explorer and Firefox, and selecting "More Options..." and "Preview..." before replying did not result in a Save dialog opening up instead of posting. So this seems to be a Google Chrome issue.

 

[JRP3]

Perspective on where the bar sits completely depends on whether you're the one trying to lift the bar up or knock it off the pegs.

I've looked after a couple of forums all by my lonesome and can tell you it's impossible to please everyone, all the time. Even when they're getting the service for free. It's also very painful to rebuild a forum that's been hacked... upgrades for security can't be ignored.

Those running this forum do a really good job IMHO. They also seem to be tireless perfectionists. It'll get better, I have no doubt about that. Like waiting for new models and new features, patience is the name of the game.

I don't disagree with any of that, and I'm sure they felt they needed to do this upgrade, and I'm not questioning their reasoning. I just didn't agree with your initial assessment of the situation. There are legitimate issues with the new format and they should be addressed, and fixed if possible.

 

[ggies07]

Thanks for changing the main page back to the older look.

No thumbs up icon with this new platform though!?!

 

[ajay]

Oh, a new layout. Hm.

Admittedly, I'm slow to embrace certain changes and easily annoyed by perceived change for the sake of change. However, I also realize that some folks must have put a lot of work into the new site and I'm guessing there were reasons. So I'll play with it a bit to get a feel for the new UI. There are, however, a few design elements that set my teeth on edge right off the bat:

- I normally love white space, but the current format seems to have too much of a good thing in that regard. It's got the Black Key's "Tighten Up" running through my head all afternoon. [esp: front page header, individual post headers (time stamp) and footers (report/quote/reply options)]

- On the main page, third level subsections (e.g. under Tesla Motors Forum -> Model S ->
Model S: Ordering, Production, Delivery
Model S: Driving Dynamics
Model S: Battery & Charging, etc.

The subsection labels have big grey bullets *and* they are highlighted in a darker grey than background. It's too much. Please just give them the same background field as the secondary topic field. I'd ask to make the bullets smaller, too. Maybe you can harvest some pixels out of the oversized grey bullets and use them to plump up the blue "unread message" bullets?*

I also don't like the wraparound nature of the subsection labels. The current layout seems to rely on plenty o' scrolling, so embrace it. Line those bullets up in vertical fashion and make us scroll. Which we'd be doing less of overall if there wasn't so much lovely white space...

Finally, I'd like to offer my thanks and gratitude to everyone who keeps this site running, from the moderators I see to the folks I don't even know about. The community here can be incredibly informative, helpful, and entertaining. The folks who keep it running behind the scenes help me waste countless hours here. Hm. Wait a sec... I hope you're proud of yourselves!


*[For reference: I'm using one of those big clunky desktop computers with screens that don't respond to touch or fit well in a briefcase or bag. I am not a fan of tiles because while they look pretty, they layout of the information tends to be less intuitive than, say, an alpha ordered list. Also, getoffmylawn.]

 

[David29]

What does the blue dot mean? The way I read some of the posts above, it is supposed to mean there are unread posts. But when I look at some threads I have participated in, and I see a blue dot, in several cases I was the last person to post, sometimes days ago. So what exactly does it mean?

 

[Ryan H]

What does the blue dot mean? The way I read some of the posts above, it is supposed to mean there are unread posts. But when I look at some threads I have participated in, and I see a blue dot, in several cases I was the last person to post, sometimes days ago. So what exactly does it mean?

If you haven't read those posts since the changeover, you will have to read them or mark them as read. I was confused by it too, but then I realized the forum assumed I hadn't read anything. Once I viewed the post, it no longer showed up as unread.

 

[ohmman]

If you haven't read those posts since the changeover, you will have to read them or mark them as read. I was confused by it too, but then I realized the forum assumed I hadn't read anything. Once I viewed the post, it no longer showed up as unread.

And this is why a good lot of us just took the plunge and marked the entire forum as read. There are downsides, but it's a quick-fix and makes things work "as expected".

 

[AustinPowers]

This is probably an unfair summary of what you're trying to say, but what I hear is (not an actual quote): ...

Yes, the summary is, well, not really unfair, but not fitting at all.
I will gladly whitlist TMC so there is no problem with the reply function. Actually I have just done that and now there is no problem with that any more.
My concerns are of a different nature. They stem from the fact that I have a very hard time to find what I am looking for, plus I find the new style used extremely hard to read. It really, and I don't joke or exaggerate, give me a headache after a couple of minutes - every time. And the most annoying thing is all the wasted space. There is white/light gray everywhere. Sometimes my whole 19'' screen is displaying say two replies with just four or five sentences. The rest is empty white space. Perhaps this somehow works well on mobile devices, but on a standard PC monitor it's just an awful waste of screen real estate.
I used to be webmaster of a couple of sites myself years ago, and in those days efficient use of available space was considered a value added.

 

[JRP3]

New Thanks for changing the main page back to the older look.

Why am I not seeing that, in Chrome or Firefox? Cleared my browser cache too.

 

[AustinPowers]

While appreciating the efforts for the new format, my initial reaction still stands after a few days of use. I still see no appreciable advantage of the new forum. For me, nothing is better so far. What am I missing? Why all the effort to change something that was working well?

+1000
Same here.
I'd give you rep points for that, but hey, that functionality has been lost as well.

 

[wk057]

We can work on increasing contrast between headings and sub headings, etc., however content text is pure black on pure white, so not sure how much more contrast we can provide for that.

I guess that's just something that bothers me. Links aren't supposed to be black... heh. It's very ambiguous. As for contrast, I was mainly referring to the divisions. There used to be subtle, but useful, divisions between categories, and vertical listing of everything. Now there's some vertical listing of categories, some horizontally spread out, and there's no way to differentiate between the links, descriptions, and other text on the page.

Long story short, the original layout was pretty much as good as it gets. Good contrast, usable layout, good content density, links were defined (blue). No offense, but the current front page looks like something I would have whipped up to just spit out a flat list from a database.... not a final UI.

Just noticed that links show up grey in the editor? That's pretty annoying...

Also looks like the earlier switch back to a more vertical front page theme has been reverted... *shrugs* Edit: and now it's back...

Edit: Was the time limit to edit posts changed? Seems much less than the original 24 hour limit...

 

[ABCCBA]

Attn: Admin/Designers. When I use the search function from my Andriod device, the background for the search box is black and the text I am typing is in a Navy Blue. Almost impossible to read what I am typing in the search box. From my Windows desktop, it is all white background with black text.

 

[AustinPowers]

One of the things that I liked about the old style (this goes for all forums) is the amount of information I have in one screen. I am able to quickly select the categories or sub forums I want without having to scroll very far. The over all layout of this new design really does not work well for me.

+1000 again.
Seeing those screenshots by wk057 just strengthen the point I was trying to make. I just didn't keep any screenshots of the old layout.

 

[ohmman]

Yes, the summary is, well, not really unfair, but not fitting at all.

I think they're tightening down the padding. It's getting better. We'll see. Thanks for not calling me out too bad on that paraphrase.

I'd give you rep points for that, but hey, that functionality has been lost as well.

I believe they're planning to enable the "Like" function, which will work similarly. Whether or not they'll reinstate previous rep by translating it to some amount of "likes".. who knows?

 

[AustinPowers]

I think they're tightening down the padding. It's getting better. We'll see. Thanks for not calling me out too bad on that paraphrase.

No hard feelings.
I guess I'll get used to the new look someday. Then again, I still hate the empty space in the Model S where the center console is "supposed" to be. Seems a lot of people did, why else would the Model X include a center console as standard again

 

[danny]

Hi all. We are getting a lot of repeat suggestions. If a suggestion has already been made, please know that we are aware of it.