I have deliberately held off commenting until now because first impressions and reactions to changes of this sort are often negative, but not necessarily long lasting. This has certainly been the case for me.
I did not like the new forum format at all at first, but over the past couple of week’s use, it has grown on me significantly to the extent that I now prefer it to the old forum. In particular, the ease with which photos can be added to posts is a huge bonus. Latterly, I had stopped attempting to add photos in the old forum because it was such a pain. The process could not be more straightforward in the new forum.
Similarly to Hmack, I found the new format a little frustrating at first, but after a few days acclimatisation I now love the new forum. A few big pluses for me…
Enjoy the consistency and speed of viewing across all platforms. Even reading the forum on a small iPhone is so much easier / better than before.
Bookmarks section is a gem of a feature for building a mini reference library for info that’s personally relevant.
Like the versatility of being able to choose the overall forum appearance (mid grey here).
Really like the quick view of checking recent posts by clicking the avatar and then scrolling through.
The tracking options for the ‘Categories’ and posts within is a helpful tool when checking and marking forums read - this took the most getting used to for me, but is now a breeze to use.
I have to say I really love the new forum. The old one was fine, but there are a lot of benefits to the new.
It’s a very clean uncluttered layout, navigation takes a little getting used to but is fluid once you know how. Image upload is simple and inviting. Replies are cleverly done so as not to clutter the thread.
As a platform it’s very responsive and fast, no issues there. I like it a lot
I too prefer the new forum format, which makes the old one seem quite clunky by comparison.
The only downside for me is that when posting album covers from the web on the “what are you listening to” topic, it doesn’t seem possible to re-size the images.
I used to often post more than one cover within a response, and it was quite simple to reduce the size to accommodate two or three alongside one another.
Maybe this feature might be re-introduced at some point?
Me too, I am a member of a few forums and this is by far the best UI. I have not seen a smoother transition either, normally its a train wreck for at least 6 months. Kudos to those who did this.
I found that you can change the size by editing what looks like html or similar that is presented when you upload the saved picture – just done that with the Rickie Lee Jones “Traffic from Paradise” album cover I’ve just posted in the said thread.
actually much more straight forward than before in my view…
I’ve just discovered that when someone replies to another forum member, clicking on the “reply” symbol next to that member’s name takes one directly to the original post.
No more endless scrolling back through the “What are you listening to” thread.
