The new forums are FINE! (with the following changes)

[Tickner]

posted by StevieG in another thread on this forum:

[ QUOTE ]

The new forum introduced several bits of behavior that significantly impacted usability:

* Spurious white space in posts reduced ease of reading
* Quoting display used scrollbars needlessly
* Annoying format possibilities for posts
* Search term strikelist includes "re:" rendering useless one of the few ways to improve search results
* Visited links the same color as unvisited links
* Font size made site illegible for some
* Indications of unread posts or new threads far tougher to see than previously


For that we did get some new cool features, including
* Quick quote
* Quotebox with variable header
* Fast link to "My Posts"

And useful layout changes:
* Logical forum reorginzation
* Replacement of the silly green left hand menu

On balance, the new features didn't immediately make up for the losses in usability.

In addition to addressing the speed performance, 2+2 should address the usability concerns before bring the new forum software back online.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this. The new software is awesome, and 2p2 needs the update. The old forums are just so outdated its shocking. Awesome new features were added in the new one.

All you have to do twoplustwo, is keep the upgrade, but change it to suit the problems that were faced. Mostly:

- add a whole bunch of new themes/skins with bigger fonts...
- make it clear which posts youve read and which you havent (this is huge)
- get rid of some of the crappy white space