Feedback On NewForum Software

[rrausch]

I like the looks of everything, but I really am having a problem with the performance. For me this morning, it is WAY slower than the old vBulletin, and something annoying--the TDR logo and top advertising slot is flashing 5,6,8 times while each page is loading. I'm running OSX 10. 3. 4 on a flat panel iMac.



Anothing thing is after I get to the "today's posts" page, I can't seem to open each thread in a new window, which means it takes time for the "today's posts" to load again. So far I like the old software better just because of it's performance. Perhaps this is only a bug or two, or perhaps I just haven't gotten used to it yet. I'll keep trying on my end.

 

[sbrennan007]

I like it! And performance for me has been great. Looks Great! :-laf

 

[SRadke]

It's working well for me. I do miss the "unread PM's" link on the homepage though.



-Scott

 

[TGaines]

feedback

I too am having performance issues. I don't mind the change in appearance but the forums are not working for me at all. I too am using OSX on a Mac laptop and that may be one of the problems. When I click on a page it takes forever to load and I end up quitting because I can't tolerate the wait. Earlier my icons were not working and the links seemed to be out of place from where I had the cursor. I guess these are just growing pains. Hopefully they will get worked out so I can continue to get my daily dose of TDR.



Travis

 

[GIT-R-DONE]

Did we lose the spell check when replying to a post or did I just miss it on the screen? thanks BTW, I like the new site and performance here is great.

 

[rrausch]

Anyway, Thanks Steve for doing all the work it took to get this on. I hope all the bugs will get worked out. Hopefully some more Mac users will chime in and we can see if there are any Mac-specific problems. I do miss being able to open each thread in a new window so that I don't have to hit the back button and wait for the search page to re-load again. And the top TDR icon and advertising slot is still flashing--it flashed a half-dozen times while I was waiting for this page to load.

 

[KEarnest]

I'm running Mozilla on Windows 2000 and am having pretty bad performance issues with the new software. I'd say the new software is about 7-8 times slower loading pages for me. Also miss the handy menu buttons on the old software.

 

[KEarnest]

well I read another thread where I found out the generation of the search index is killing the speed. still miss the menu buttons though

 

[rrausch]

Yeah, I started this thread before I discovered the other one. Kudo's to Steve for all the work it took.



But I miss the buttons that were on the old site also. It is harder to get the new posts in this version.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Do you guys ever bother to read the announcements that I put up big and bold at the top of every forum page to make you aware of things? I REALLY do try to inform you. I had an announcement up for a week along with a sticky post at the top of every forum asking you to go to the test site that I had set up with the software running on it to try to find potential issues before it went online. Not one Mac user reported back problems of any kind. I even specifically requested Mac users to test the software in the sticky note that I put up when I wasn't getting much response to the big flashing announcement/request. In that post ( https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107946&page=1 ) I also said:

Right now there is no spell check - I will add that after it's been up and running in production for a while to be sure that the spell check isn't causing problems.

and

I need you guys/gals to take a look at the new software - go ahead and try to break it . Give us your input on what you like/what you don't like. Make a bunch of posts, do some searches, fiddle around with your settings. I really want to give this a workout before I convert all the current data to it - there will be no going back at that point. Not moving to the new version isn't an option, btw - for reasons I'll reveal later.



Keep in mind that the software is running on this same server with the regular software right now - so it's doing double duty. I did this to make sure to work it out. Also, there is a cache that will take a week or two for it to be fully functioning - so things will speed up once it's in production after a week or so.

I have an anouncement up there now about the conversion ( https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108538 ) where I let you know:

The server will be building the search index over the next week or so. This means that when you do searches you will NOT be getting all the information until it's done (approximately 1 week from now - it's a LONG intensive process with the amount of data we have on here). Current posts will be added to the search index as they are made - it's all the old posts that will take time to build in. It also means the server will be slower than normal while it goes through this process. There is also a post cache that will take about a week to fill out which will increase performance as it builds.

15 minutes ago the server load hit 3. 5 - fully loaded is 2. 0 and if it goes over 2 it means that requests are coming in faster than the server can get to them and that they are going into a queue that the server will get to when it catches up. The server load has been over 1. 5 since 9:30 this morning and it hasn't been over 1. 5 in months. At this point we won't be able to know if the performance issues you Mac users are having is due to the software or the server loads until after the search index is finished being rebuilt because we missed the opportunity for you to test it on the test site . That is going to take about a week.



PLEASE take a look at the top of the forums when you come to the site and if you see an announcement read it. If I'm requesting you to test something, PLEASE do so. Especially for those of you that are not running common setups (like Mac users, Linux users, uncommon browsers, etc). You will make my job a LOT easier.



-Steve St. Laurent

Webmaster

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

rrausch - what's happening when you try to open a post in a new window? There shouldn't be any reason that wouldn't work - it's just an html link like any other.



We went to the pull down menu for a couple of reasons. As we add more features to the site we have to keep adding to the buttons at the top - taking up more and more real estate on the screen. We tried moving the menus to the front page alone other than the forum buttons to save space on the forum page but got a ton of complaints on that. Having the pull down menus allows us to have a lot more options in a much smaller space. It also allows for having the forum list built into that so that you can move from anywhere on the site quickly to any forum. When you say that the view new posts is harder to get to, you are pulling down the discussion forums menu to view new posts correct? I thought that was a lot easier to be honest since you can get to it from anywhere on the site and you don't have to be on the forum home page.

 

[rrausch]

Sorry Steve! I actually DID click on that announcement several days ago, and did go to the test page but I didn't like it so I left.



I tried to navigate around a little bit, but had some trouble, and it didn't occur to me that my feedback might be helpful.



I hate it when I screw up!

 

[Yo Hoot]

I'm running Netscape 7. 1 on win xp 1. 6 processor



Looks to be running fine. Had one time editing a post that would not connect. I figure you guys are playing with the software still?



Anyway, netscape is Mozzilla is it not? I'm not having any performance issues... . this site was slow before the change... not terribly but noticably. And with less features than other forums I wonder why. It's laborious posting good stuff WITH pictures.



Anyway... . good on this end. I love the new format.



Great job Steve of putting it up and everything falling into place nicely.





Mike



PS... . I like having the smilies close by but would rather the advanced reply be the default.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Just click on "Post Reply" in the upper left or lower right and you'll be taken straight to the advanced reply screen. The search causing the high server loads is what caused your edit post problem. Pictures can now be 112,000 bytes uploaded straight into the forums now, btw - so that should be easier (max size of 560x800 though because of formatting issues).

 

[Yo Hoot]

Just click on "Post Reply" in the upper left or lower right and you'll be taken straight to the advanced reply screen. The search causing the high server loads is what caused your edit post problem. Pictures can now be 112,000 bytes uploaded straight into the forums now, btw - so that should be easier (max size of 560x800 though because of formatting issues).

Thanks Steve..... larger picture file size is a big plus, 560 is plenty on witdth as I

i typically use 500 and they seem fine.



#ad

 

[Yo Hoot]

Steve...



Here's a thought.



The post listing displays are vertical intensive now which really spreads the page vertically as opposed to before. Possibly change cell widths or Forum discription lengths so they don't wrap and "thicken" the entry?



Looks like the post title cell could be much narrower and might stop the wrap ant the end.

 

[Hawkeye 04]

Don't particularly care for the new setup but I'm sure it's a good thing and I'm sure I'll get used to it soon enough. It's proly just me, but it hurts my eyes! :{

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Have you tried the different color styles? There's 11 of em.

 

[Mishkaya]

I do have one comment about something I hadn't noticed when testing the software. I like to use the view new posts feature, and before all I would need to do is hit the refresh button afterwards and any new posts would be listed. That does not happen anymore, now I have to do the view new posts again, but the drawback is that I only see the new posts since my last request, which isn't very practical. I hope that wasn't too confusing. I am sure I am not the only one using this though. Maybe there is a workaround I am not aware of???

Mishkaya

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I know exactly what you mean. It seems that's the way vB3 works. I did (and noticed) the same thing. The answer I've found is to read everything in the search you've done first and then once your all done do another view new posts and catch the newest ones.