I hate the forum

f.e's icon

Sorry for that, unconstructive ranting, but really, really, i hate the forum. I miss half of the topics, i don't have a clear view of what's going on, answering to a topic is like writing in the dark (at this very moment, i wouldn't be able to see the whole messages below my text-reply box, and i have a 1920x1200 30" Dell display...), no really it's not working at all. I don't have any pleasure reading my mails, rss feeds do not equal mail layout, and i only go to the forum when i'm forced to...

f.e

Luis Marques's icon

totally agree... The old forum was much better...

Luis Marques

oivindi's icon

Works fine here.

ComfortableInClouds's icon

the forum doesn't look any different for me.

PhiDjee's icon

f.e wrote on Thu, 19 March 2009 12:25rss feeds do not equal mail layout

My only complaint is that I don't receive all posts in RSS feeds.
A lot of them are only [Re:] without getting the original post, and I don't receive all replies, just some of them.

Mach'O 10.5.6 / Mail.app

yair reshef's icon

ye, its very frustrating working with this clunky interface.
there is tons of unnecessary options and information. am advanced "skin" for people how don't need every single thingy on screen would certainly help. and the forum rendering on my 1024x768 firefox3 is very bad.current viewing modethis is enough

for me, the list used to be a integrated with my work flow so efficiently i hardly noticed i was using it. the forum is a mental block.

for example, see this attempt at writing a replay, 80% of the screen is not necessary. only SEARCH, POST and some formatting is necessary. almost 15% of the screen is dedicated to emoticons. do you want emoticons in your forum? you have to scroll to even write a post. bad design. bad human machine interfacing.

there were a couple of suggestions on working with rss but they where lost in the heavy weeping. it would help if someone in the flow with rss(+gmail?) compose a tutorial.

but editing IS nice

f.e's icon

And the worst thing is the topic hierarchy. You only see (with big efforts) 30 or 40 of the last active topics, but topics without answers disappear in a blink, which means sometimes talking alone in the desert...

As an alternative to the forum, Trond's list, unfortunately is not very active.

Please c74, if it's a matter of money, add 10$ to MaxMSP price, or charge us 10$ a year, but give us the list back.

f.e

Bas van der Graaff's icon

I agree the button interface isn't the best evar (i don't understand why the buttons can't be aligned either), but i definitely want to see who made a post, and i don't mind seeing how many messages this user has...

With some small modifications, i think the forum is good enough as it is. Topics die when nobody answers, that's kind of logical too.

So maybe:
- get rid of the ability to change title in a reply, it has no purpose and only creates a mess.
- let us turn off all formatting and emoticons, the majority here doesn't use those anyway.
- let us turn off all user icons.
- get rid of 2 bars above each post, it should be 1 bar. Make icons for 'add to buddy list' and 'ignore all messages by this user' and everything will fit easily. The 'report message to moderator' should not be in the message body!
- align all the buttons (and arrows).

One other forum i visit, which i think looks nice 'n basic:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=89986
Maybe something like that? I still believe in the forum...

Roald Baudoux's icon

Accessing the list through the website is OK but through an RSS aggregator it's not as good especially to organize messages by topics. It's not good either to follow topics with messages sent on a large timespan.

The most impacted by this situation are newbies I guess. I wouldn't have learned as much as I have during the last 10 years without the list.

Roald Baudoux

Mike S's icon
Bas van der Graaff's icon

Haha, it's awesome. And a lot more practical than the current Max forum layout. But think what you want.

Peter Castine's icon

And while we're at it, don't forget that the new Facebook layout sucks.

Seriously, though... although in any ways I'd prefer a good old-fashioned mail list, I'm showing my age when I say that. Web fora (or, if you insist, 'forums') are the present.

It would be a big help if the RSS Aggregator would sort by threads properly. I don't know to what extent there's anything Wally & Co. can do to make this happen, or to what extent that's a limitation in RSS.

The other Wish at this end would be an option for a more mobile-friendly output.

-- P.

Roman Thilenius's icon

i dont understand how people could use the mailinglist during the last 2-3 years, wasnt it unreable anyway due to all the forum posts without thread title?

swieser1's icon
ongo73's icon

looks the same to me too !

Peter Castine's icon

RabidRaja wrote on Mon, 23 March 2009 21:13hehehe, you both have a point: gamers always have the cheesiest design sense(too stuck on some old-Europe vision of reality)

More like a Tekkno vision of reality, which has little or nothing to do with 'old Europe' in the sense that the reality-challenged American ex-Secretary of Defense used it. But never mind.

Rui Caldas's icon

Hi

I would like to customize my avatar!

...to my ugly face!

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp55/RFCaldas/rfc_icon.jpg

thanks!

Tj Shredder's icon

f.e wrote on Mon, 23 March 2009 04:10

Please c74, if it's a matter of money, add 10$ to MaxMSP price, or charge us 10$ a year, but give us the list back.

f.e

give them some time, 'till they realise that the list payed off, and the forum doesn't in the same amount.
A forum is for people who don't want to read all posts, list are for people who want to read all posts. The latter keep a community alive...
Those who need advice post here, and I can only get to it occasionally...
The rss feed I receive are not coming in chronological order and seem to miss posts.
Obviously the amount of valuable answers even from the cycling stuff went down significantly...
This is much more a problem for those who seek answers than for me. I don't know how many trials don't make it to a purchase because of the general loss of quality...

(still didn't find out how to create my signature...)

FP's icon

yep, i second this.i noticed it's now harder to get an answer to some questions. i don't know if it's relating to the lack of the list but i really feel it.

jvkr's icon

Quote:(still didn't find out how to create my signature...)

Once directed to https://cycling74.com/forums, in the top of your browser window, there's the blue colored word Control Panel.

Quote:fp: yep, i second this.i noticed it's now harder to get an answer to some questions. i don't know if it's relating to the lack of the list but i really feel it.

Most of the topics you started this month generated an answer within 10 minutes, a few within the hour. More ore less similar to what it was say in december. Feelings can be deceiving.

_
johan

f.e's icon

Johan, i think you're wrong.

You seem comfortable with the forum (in fact i don't remember reading you as much as these days, and it's cool), but a lot of people actually don't feel good with the forum.

For example, Stefan and i didn't answered as much as we have done by the past. Same for a bunch of old timers.

I've personnally asked two things (one is about multichannel buffers in Max, one about adding a cursor mode to waveform~) since 2 weeks which are still without answers. It wouldn't have happend with the list, believe me.

best

f.e

ps: Sorry for speaking english like a spanish cow today ;-/

FP's icon

yes i know but just i noticed some people doesn't post anymore...

f.e's icon

Good example : i don't know who you're answering to, fp...

Roman Thilenius's icon

f.e wrote on Sun, 29 March 2009 16:26Good example : i don't know who you're answering to, fp...

and if he wrote you an email without
quoting, and without title, you would
know who he was answering to?

in the forum, you only have to scroll up
to re-read the previous posts, even if the
title has been changed, dont know how to
do that in an email client.

if you really want to see some weird tree view,
you can have tree view here, too, and it almost
looks like the synthesisters site.