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30 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

You get what you pay for.

I am a member on a number of other forums (who all use VBulletin)

 

 

 

I am not referring to ’small’ forums with little action, but, as an example, one forum has:

457,588 Threads

3,979,868 Posts

101,552 Members

5,093 ActiveMembers

 

As a comparison this forum has:

23,481 Members

????Active Members (I would suggest probably under 1000)

89,226 Threads

2,037,325 Posts

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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13 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

????Active Members (I would suggest probably under 1000)

 

I'd estimate less than 100 members who have actually posted in say the last week, if that is what's meant by 'active member'. 

A lot of non-posting members still regularly visit, I suspect. But only the forum administrators have any way of knowing the numbers. 

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1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I'd estimate less than 100 members who have actually posted in say the last week, if that is what's meant by 'active member'. 

A lot of non-posting members still regularly visit, I suspect. But only the forum administrators have any way of knowing the numbers. 

(I actually edited my numbers from a ’few 100’ to ‘under 1000’ – I am not sure that the forum is as representative of ‘boaters’ as we / some would like to think).

It would be interesting (to me) to know that stuff -

How many members visited in the last 7 days

How many members posted in the last 7 days

How many posts were made in the last 7 days

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1 hour ago, MJG said:

It's because its a 'question' thread. People seemingly can vote answers up and somebody gets a green cup for giving the 'best' answer voted by members. I discovered this the other day accidentally when a green 'cup' suddenly appeared next to an answer I had given in another thread, (ed - but looking at the zero nobody actually seems to have voted for it - wierd).

n9fL9PJh.png

What a mess. Your post (No.53) has become the second one in the thread, taking it completely out of context. Who's bright idea is that, and who decide it was a question post? I post questions regularly, but they have never been afforded the status of a "Question Thread" I cannot see the point of it.

I have also noticed that Jan's original post seems to appear at the top of each page, what is the point of that?

 

Edited by David Schweizer
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12 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I'd estimate less than 100 members who have actually posted in say the last week, if that is what's meant by 'active member'. 

A lot of non-posting members still regularly visit, I suspect. But only the forum administrators have any way of knowing the numbers. 

Yes I have noticed that as well, I also get the impression that there is now far less activity on the site since the last software cock-up. In fact if we removed the handfull of serial posters, activity would be very low.

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10 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

What a mess. Your post (No.53) has become the second one in the thread

It is a bit of a mess - one of my posts is showing (to me) as post #53

 

Edit to ad :

Now this post is showing as #52, and your post before this one is #51, but my post prior to yours is #53.

2nd Edit:

This post is now #56

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

It is a bit of a mess - one of my posts is showing (to me) as post #53

Yes, it is doing that on my computer now, and MJG's reply to my point is now showing as No.2

 

Edited by David Schweizer
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1 hour ago, David Schweizer said:

I had an enormous number of problems when the software was updated, and with help from memmers managed to get the forum into some sort of readable semblence, then Firefox decided it was no longer going to support Windows Vista, exceopt in a very basic form, and canal world effectively stopped working. 

I was already in the process of getting a new computer, and when that arrived using Windows 10, everything worked well and has done so ever since. Except for this thread, which has something odd - every post has an arrow in the left hand column with the number 0 below it, if I right click on the arrow, a box comes up saying "vote this answer up" What is that all about? none of the other threads have this oddity.

Microsoft as well as Firefox don't support Vista anymore, but this old Toshiba machine I'm writing this with is still both and still working perfik. Even juggling with this forum too. My other W10 notebook is much slower and I only use it when buying or dealing with monies online because it is supported and therefore should be more secure. Otherwise I use this old machine all the time. I have to do regular maintenance to keep it sweei though.

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13 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

What a mess. Your post (No.53) has become the second one in the thread, taking it completely out of context. Who's bright idea is that, and who decide it was a question post? I post questions regularly, but they have never been afforded the status of a "Question Thread" I cannot see the point of it.

I have also noticed that Jan's original post seems to appear at the top of each page, what is the point of that?

 

It looks like the ability to vote an answer 'up' on the left hand side (rather than using the reaction arrow bottom right) only applies to questions posted in the 'Technical and account support' section.

I've also noticed the thread seems completely jumbled and out of sync. now and have no idea what is going on re that.

Edited by MJG
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1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Oooh look, a forum member who found the new software actually worked straight from the box. How rare! 

I would say it more or less did for me as well.  I agree though I have adapted to the new look rather than try to emulate the old.  If I hadn't it would be like saying I am going to continue using my BBC computer because I can't get used to new software.

I doubt any forumites are still using BBCs they have adapted.

19 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Microsoft as well as Firefox don't support Vista anymore, but this old Toshiba machine I'm writing this with is still both and still working perfik.

I have the same situation an old desktop with Vista and Firefox is working fine for me.  However I generally use Chrome.

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20 minutes ago, MJG said:

It looks like the ability to vote an answer 'up' on the left hand side (rather than using the reaction arrow bottom right) only applies to questions posted in the 'Technical and account support' section.

I've also noticed the thread seems completely jumbled and out of sync. now and have no idea what is going on re that.

Could it be that voting it up changes its position in the thread i.e. an attempt to move the best answer to the top.

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23 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

Yes, it is doing that on my computer now, and MJG's reply to my point is now showing as No.2

 

Somebody appears to have voted my post 'up' using the  button on the left. So far it appears to be the only post in this thread that has had such a vote. As a result it seems that it makes it appear immediately after the initial question, even though it doesn't actually deal with C~R's question but your subsequent point. Bizarre.

1 minute ago, Jerra said:

Could it be that voting it up changes its position in the thread i.e. an attempt to move the best answer to the top.

Yes I think so, I've just posted the same. Though my post doesn't actually answer the original question.

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28 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

(I actually edited my numbers from a ’few 100’ to ‘under 1000’ – I am not sure that the forum is as representative of ‘boaters’ as we / some would like to think).

It would be interesting (to me) to know that stuff -

How many members visited in the last 7 days

How many members posted in the last 7 days

How many posts were made in the last 7 days

I suspect I am fairly typical of many members, although of course I have no way of knowing.

I visit the site at least every day - frequently more than once - because of the variety of postings, which are usually interesting and initially sometimes informative, and also because of the depth of knowledge of many of the members who willingly pass on their wisdom and expertise.

I haven't posted in the last 7 days, because I don't think I can add to any of the posts. I seldom ask questions, but on the odd occasion I have done, I have always had positive and helpful responses. I may be representative of many of the "infrequent posting members" because I find that very frequently what starts off as an interesting post inevitably and quickly lapses into a debate among some members about some erudite point which has nothing to do with the original post but is more taken as a chance to score points over one another, and this leaves me cold. I fully understand that if members wish to follow this line that is their prerogative, and indeed many people enjoy this aspect of the forum,  but I wonder if this may be the reason why many members don't post as much as some would wish? 

Cheers

Howard

 

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1 minute ago, howardang said:

I haven't posted in the last 7 days, because I don't think I can add to any of the posts. I seldom ask questions, but on the odd occasion I have done, I have always had positive and helpful responses. I may be representative of many of the "infrequent posting members" because I find that very frequently what starts off as an interesting post inevitably and quickly lapses into a debate among some members about some erudite point which has nothing to do with the original post but is more taken as a chance to score points over one another, and this leaves me cold. I fully understand that if members wish to follow this line that is their prerogative, and indeed many people enjoy this aspect of the forum,  but I wonder if this may be the reason why many members don't post as much as some would wish? 

Cheers

Howard

 

What he said ^

The glitch that I had which has now been fixed actually stopped me wanting to log in very often because what I was seeing was a list of post after post in that point scoring exercise rather than the odd thread that might have been interesting but lasted only half a dozen posts.

I think I will now log in more frequently but whether I actually post more frequently ..... this thread has reminded me that the forum has it's fair share of characters who have a glass that is often never even close to half full and for an optimist like me I find it wearing.

Of course others might read that as me being naive and wishing to bury my head in the sand but it's our differences that make the world go around

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19 hours ago, RichM said:

I had a look - you had a custom stream set as default which I understand you set up following the update as you alluded to. I have now made it so the "View New Content" stream appears by default on your forum account. We configured this to replicate the old VNC as best as we could. Hopefully it will work better for you. Other members should have this as default too unless they have set up custom streams at any point. 

Cheers

RichM

 That's really helpful.  I have similar views to the OP.

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Another thing odd about this thread is that Cheshire Rose's OP appears at the top of every page.  This threw me at first because when I clicked to go on to the next page I thought it was taking me back to Page 1.    And it has a different number each time - #1 on Page 1, #26 on Page 2, #51 on Page 3 What on earth is this all about?  

Edited by Mac of Cygnet
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3 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

Another thing odd about this thread is that Cheshire Rose's OP appears at the top of every page.  This threw me at first because when I clicked to go on to the next page I thought it was taking me back to Page 1.    What on earth is this all about?  

I wondered about that too - that is something that happens on other forums so I thought I was just imagining that it didn't used to be that way. 

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3 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

Another thing odd about this thread is that Cheshire Rose's OP appears at the top of every page.  This threw me at first because when I clicked to go on to the next page I thought it was taking me back to Page 1.    What on earth is this all about?  

I am not saying my guess is correct but it seems to be like some sites I have visited try to solve a problem. You ask a question and people answer the question and the answers deemed best by those that read them slowly rise to the top (by clicks on the up arrow). On a forum like this where there isn't an almost endless page the software probably "feels" (OK the writer of the software thinks) the question needs repeated on every page.

That is how it seems to work to me and I would say totally unsuitable for a forum such as this.

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It's getting late so I won't be able to answer everything right now.

12 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

You get what you pay for.

I am a member on a number of other forums (who all use VBulletin)

In all of the years I have been a member on those forums security up dates have never impacted on the users operation of the forum, or the visual lay-out.

I have asked the questions before as to why we do not use the VBulletin software here to be told it is too expensive.

I know that the forum Technical staff would prefer to change to VBulletin

 

12 hours ago, cheshire~rose said:

Can anyone define "expensive" and it is an ongoing expense or is it a one off payment?

Maybe a whip round would help?

Invision charge separately for different core features that we make use of so when taking this into account, the cost difference between the two is negligible. They both have pros and cons. Sure, vBulletin is my personal preference but that aside, we cannot ignore the fact that such a change would have a number of implications:

- It is highly likely some members would not approve of such a change due to significant differences between the two. It would likely take some time for members to adjust to it
- Increased initial cost due to additional server resources required during the transition 
- Many hours would need to be spent performing the work and on testing before deployment
- We would lose some of the advantages IPBoard has to offer

IPBoard works, for the most part at least otherwise we would not be here writing this. While it's one of the most popular & established forum platforms available, it's not perfect by any means and we listen to feedback and make changes where we can within the constraints we have as a non-profit entity staffed entirely by volunteers who also have commitments outside Canal World.

12 hours ago, MartinC said:

Screenshots on Firefox:

Screenshot1.png

Screenshot2.png

At the top left of CWDF where you see the chat bubbles to the right where you see your name "MartinC" with the default avatar, there should be a paintbrush button which you can click on to set the forum colours to those of your preferences. I see the paintbrush does not appear for you but I've checked and can see it's not an issue with your account, so likely a browser issue. Can you clear your Firefox cache and delete the cookies for Canal World? Pretty sure this should fix that issue for you. 

1 hour ago, Jerra said:

I am not saying my guess is correct but it seems to be like some sites I have visited try to solve a problem. You ask a question and people answer the question and the answers deemed best by those that read them slowly rise to the top (by clicks on the up arrow). On a forum like this where there isn't an almost endless page the software probably "feels" (OK the writer of the software thinks) the question needs repeated on every page.

That is how it seems to work to me and I would say totally unsuitable for a forum such as this.

What you're referring to is known as "Best answers" and it's only enabled for the Technical & Account support forum where most topic replies are factual rather than subjective such as this one. While the topic title of this topic is somewhat open ended, the original post was more around the functionality of VNC, which has since been addressed for the OP. (Cheshire Rose). However, this topic has since drifted into a debate or discussion around old vs. new along with suggestions based on user preferences. While the opinions are valued, the vast majority of posts in this topic belong in the "Feedback & Suggestions" forum, a forum which does not make use of the Best Answers feature.  But I would agree that Best Answers is not suitable for a topic like this but then it could be argued that much of the content in this topic does not belong in the Technical & Account support forum...

The feature has actually been enabled for months and it was only initially intended to be trialed but until now I've not seen any complaints. For the vast majority of topics in the Technical & Account forum, it can be useful in that it makes it easy to identify whether or not a question has been answered, this is also useful to staff for tracking purposes. If people really don't like it feel free to create a constructively worded opinion poll.

RichM

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There was a golden opportunity to ditch Invision and migrate to vBulletin when the big update was done. But that's now passed. But there is still the possibility to do so. It comes down to, are the long term benefits from what is arguably a better system, worth another round of "changes". The change itself is a non-issue. Yes, there's some features in Invision which aren't in vBulletin but they're on the fringe and not really important. And the change itself, can be outsourced to one of a number of firms which specialise in this thing (and its a one-off payment so long term, the money is a non-issue). The ongoing cost(s) of Invision vs vBulletin are comparable so that's a non-issue too.

The amount of crap now present in the Invision v4 forum software is incredulous. Yes it can be explained away, or technically understood eventually but the bigger picture is that they've lost the plot and are relying on customer loyalty (or fear of migration issues/costs) to keep customers, its no longer a good product. But there has opened up a market for tech firms who specialise in (forum software) migration to flourish.

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11 minutes ago, RichM said:

What you're referring to is known as "Best answers" and it's only enabled for the Technical & Account support forum where most topic replies are factual rather than subjective such as this one. While the topic title of this topic is somewhat open ended, the original post was more around the functionality of VNC, which has since been addressed for the OP. (Cheshire Rose). However, this topic has since drifted into a debate or discussion around old vs. new along with suggestions based on user preferences. While the opinions are valued, the vast majority of posts in this topic belong in the "Feedback & Suggestions" forum, a forum which does not make use of the Best Answers feature.  But I would agree that Best Answers is not suitable for a topic like this but then it could be argued that much of the content in this topic does not belong in the Technical & Account support forum...

The feature has actually been enabled for months and it was only initially intended to be trialed but until now I've not seen any complaints. For the vast majority of topics in the Technical & Account forum, it can be useful in that it makes it easy to identify whether or not a question has been answered, this is also useful to staff for tracking purposes. If people really don't like it feel free to create a constructively worded opinion poll.

RichM

Thank you for such a rapid and detailed reply.  I should make clear I was referring to thread such as this which as you point out are not really what this part of the forum is about.

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46 minutes ago, Paul C said:

There was a golden opportunity to ditch Invision and migrate to vBulletin when the big update was done. But that's now passed. But there is still the possibility to do so. It comes down to, are the long term benefits from what is arguably a better system, worth another round of "changes". The change itself is a non-issue. Yes, there's some features in Invision which aren't in vBulletin but they're on the fringe and not really important. And the change itself, can be outsourced to one of a number of firms which specialise in this thing (and its a one-off payment so long term, the money is a non-issue). The ongoing cost(s) of Invision vs vBulletin are comparable so that's a non-issue too.

The amount of crap now present in the Invision v4 forum software is incredulous. Yes it can be explained away, or technically understood eventually but the bigger picture is that they've lost the plot and are relying on customer loyalty (or fear of migration issues/costs) to keep customers, its no longer a good product. But there has opened up a market for tech firms who specialise in (forum software) migration to flourish.

As usual you make some good points though realistically speaking and if Daniel decided to do that, it's something I could undertake though that's not to imply I don't have any reservations about it as I still think there's many pros and cons. In any case, feedback is always welcome. It can be hard to obtain a consensus when gathering feedback, I guess that's why I often encourage the use of opinion polls but even those are not without their flaws...

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