Forum Upgrade

[jdc20181]

Would be nice to see the forum upgraded to be looking and feeling a bit more modern.

[Steve R Jones]

Would that really bring you back everyday to post?

What if the new look was worse?

This is one of eleven sites that the owner owns... So there's a bit more work involved. But, they did test out XenForo for several months. I never heard why they didn't move forward...

And, the sites are all long over due for a big old PURGE of old posts and inactive members etc... That in itself would be a lot of work.

[2kaud]

Would be nice to see the forum upgraded to be looking and feeling a bit more modern.

Why? What extra would all that work bring? I'm all for the saying "if it ain't broken, don't fix it"

[Shaggy Hiker]

I'm a lousy artist. What would look more modern? More ads? Well, probably not that, but perhaps you could point towards something that looks more the way you'd prefer?

[jdc2000]

My experience with the "modern" look is that it has:

Lots of white space (or dark space if you select "dark" mode).

It is hard to read, and it is also hard to tell what you can click on to get more information. Actual words are replaced with cryptic icons that resemble Egyptian Hieroglyphics or ancient Assyrian cuneiform.

The user interface is like playing Myst.


But, it "looks fabulous".

[techgnome]

As some one who has mild dyslexia, I appreciate the text-free interfaces ... Been using the new UI for IntelliJ and it's been more productive for me. I can find and recognize icons faster, easier, and more accurately than I can word buttons. That said, their interface is also clean, limiting the buttons exposed in the first place. I never got that with VS... and many Office products too ... It's like they get paid for button density or something.


-tg

[yereverluvinuncleber]

I never strive for anything 'modern' as that hope is a chimera and being transient, is already old-fashioned, just takes us a while to realise how old fashioned it really is.

I prefer the term suitable or perhaps 'good'. You all should know what I mean by 'good', and that certainly isn't modern, it is generally old-fashioned. Now, here is the thing, if you use something that I think is 'good', then in your use, it magically becomes current and therefore modern.

If enough people do the same then it becomes the trend and then captures the zetgeist. What is old becomes new again - if only for the moment.

Two questions for you:

1. Why do we not have a word in English that captures the essence of zeitgeist. I know we have zeitgeist now but what did we have before?

2. Why does this post sound like it was created by xiaoyao?

[Shaggy Hiker]

I never strive for anything 'modern' as that hope is a chimera and being transient,

Yeah, you don't count. You do beautiful work, to be sure, but modern...well, it ain't that.

[Delaney]

Simplicity is the key, I am looking for simplicity not for modernity. in my experience all the new "modern" stuff were less simple to use...

[techgnome]

Also a large vocal group here are also VB6 developers... which don't like change very much. I think there was one time (a long time ago) there was an attempt at upgrading to a newer version... it didn't go over well... Also it would mean an upgrade to the plugins that are used here ... and most, if not all, are so old, there is a good chance that they aren't maintained and supported, which means loosing capabilities we've had for decades... and well... I refer you to the VB6 developers that will cling to the old stuff until their dying breath. I joke about the Vb6 people, but yeah, changes to this forum isn't often met with open arms. More often than not it's met with torches, pitchforks, and angry villagers wielding them storming the castle gates. And to be fair... when it comes to the forums... I'm in that mob too ... there's enough other stuff changing that I'm ok with the 2002 look here.


-tg

[Steve R Jones]

Maybe someday we can add some different "Styles - Skins." People can be Blue one day and Green the next.

[fafalone]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

That said, it would be nice if the long standing bugs here were fixed without moving to a new UI. Because 90% of the time, a new UI on a fully matured product is worse. This is particularly true on the web, where there's an infuriating trend to reduce information density by adding whitespace and ad space, and increasing heading sizes. And adding fancy but half broken and hard to use things to replace features. Reddit is a textbook example. If old.reddit.com ever goes away I'm dropping it like a hot potato.

And I'm not entirely resistant to change, if what comes next is actually better. I'm sure you've all noticed my enthusiasm for twinBASIC. But I will absolutely resist change for the sake of change to an inferior newer product, even if some small parts of it represent improvements.

[taishan]

Upgrading the UI is unnecessary.
Scanning posts for 'naked' attachments (deleting the 404s) would be welcome.
It took me too much time to figure out how to mark a thread [Resolved]. Conflicting post info on the forum google search results were troublesome. Should be as obvious as creating a new post.
Why does the google search box clear your question after you cancel out of the search results? I've now made it a habit to copy my query so I don't have to type the entire string again (with mods).
Cheers

[fafalone]

Would that really bring you back everyday to post?

What if the new look was worse?

This is one of eleven sites that the owner owns... So there's a bit more work involved. But, they did test out XenForo for several months. I never heard why they didn't move forward...

And, the sites are all long over due for a big old PURGE of old posts and inactive members etc... That in itself would be a lot of work.

NONONONONONONONONONONNO

Purge inactive members, fine. But leave their posts and old posts in general.

I can't tell you how many times I've found important information on a post from the early 2000s. Remember VB6 is the biggest part of this site and it hasn't changed since 1998, so most information doesn't really get outdated. But even if it did, VB6 is a testament to how people can still care about something outdated.

[jdc20181]

Would that really bring you back everyday to post?

What if the new look was worse?

This is one of eleven sites that the owner owns... So there's a bit more work involved. But, they did test out XenForo for several months. I never heard why they didn't move forward...

And, the sites are all long over due for a big old PURGE of old posts and inactive members etc... That in itself would be a lot of work.

Never heard of that one, Discourse is fairly popular and well maintained. See if you can't look into a design look on the current forum system. As for the purge... I don't agree with purging old posts believe it or not I have found some of them use in applying the methods to some of the answers.

Dunno about my activity, I personally haven't done vb in a while just diving back into it, and use the forum from time to time if I am working on something.

[jdc20181]

Also a large vocal group here are also VB6 developers... which don't like change very much. I think there was one time (a long time ago) there was an attempt at upgrading to a newer version... it didn't go over well... Also it would mean an upgrade to the plugins that are used here ... and most, if not all, are so old, there is a good chance that they aren't maintained and supported, which means loosing capabilities we've had for decades... and well... I refer you to the VB6 developers that will cling to the old stuff until their dying breath. I joke about the Vb6 people, but yeah, changes to this forum isn't often met with open arms. More often than not it's met with torches, pitchforks, and angry villagers wielding them storming the castle gates. And to be fair... when it comes to the forums... I'm in that mob too ... there's enough other stuff changing that I'm ok with the 2002 look here.


-tg

Truth lmao. Microsoft didn't kill VB6 yet and I am surprised its outlived Windows XP

[jdc20181]

I'm a lousy artist. What would look more modern? More ads? Well, probably not that, but perhaps you could point towards something that looks more the way you'd prefer?

Take a look at Discourse some of them are set up fairly similar to this one but upgraded to look well.. less 1999. LOL (Ironic for me bc I just turned 24). I use adblocker so no ads to worry about here. Most of them are free softwares now days as well, and even though they run ads on here its fairly non commerical so barely any costs.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/discour...ic-theme/72708

^ example that would keep everyone (mostly) happy.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I can't say that I see any advantage to that. Seems a bit harder to tell where one post ends and the next begins...and it's much lighter, but that isn't of interest to me in itself.

[techgnome]

I've been on a couple of sites that used Discourse .... and I'm not a fan. What is it with sites that want to squeeze everyting into 4 inches of the cent of my screen? People have wide screens, especially those in tech.... But everything is so... empty space. Such waste... can you imagine having to look at people's code blocks on here in a 4inch width? I know it's not a democracy, not even a republic, here... but my vote would be no. I'm not saying that from an old crumudgeon pov, but just from a practical perspective. There's no need to scrunch everything down to a 4 inch width. It's rediculous.

-tg

[jdc2000]

Most web sites these days, forums included, are designed to look viewable on phone first. However, no one is coding on their phone, so coding forums should look best on a real computer monitor so that you can actually read the code.

[fafalone]

And the site as it is now looks fine on the phone anyway. I often stop by with my phone while on the bus or subway.

[techgnome]

Yeah, but that's because you're an animal. Most of the rest of us are just mere heathens.

-tg

[sapator]

Talking about upgrade. Is it possible to put any JavaScript in my signature? I want to hack the...Err I mean
I would like to implement a countdown timer on my sig. Haven't tried something yet so...