New Web Site

[FineWine]

Well done, quite like it.

However there is no visual means/clues to identify new posts or posts you have not read from the Board index page and each forum page. Also I prefer to 'Mark Forums Read' from the main Board index page.

Cheers

[Alex]

The little square on the left of the forums and topics is the indicator. If it's orange it's new, dark grey and you've read it.

I'll bring back the Mark as read option then, probably in the footer.

Thanks for your feedback.

[FineWine]

Thx Alex. I thought the dark square was decoration -DOH
Look forward to more fine tuning.

Cheers

[Alex]

Ok, Mark as read is back, in the footer next to Board Index. I've implemented to (according to the documentation in phpbb):

Mark all of the topics in the forum as read.

This can be a bit misleading, but what it does is mark all the topics in a particular forum, not the whole forum, as read. So for example if I go in to, say, Feature Requests and click "Mark as Read" it will mark all the Topics within Feature Requests as read, but will not touch the other forums.

Hopefully this is what you had in mind?

[FineWine]

I do not like the placement of the "Mark as read" in the footer. If you only have one or two topics in a particular forum that are unread then you must scroll down to the very bottom of the forum list to "Mark as read", whether or not you have read them. This is not so bad on the actual Topic page as one presumes you have read to the bottom of that Topic anyway.

How I read my forums and some others I know do this as well, is, Tab select within the browser each Forum from within the main Board Index page that is unread then Tab select again each Topic within each individual Forum. After I have read/replied to a Topic I close that browser Tab and so on till all I now have left is the main Board Index page. Now I click on the "Mark All Forums as Read" which is usually placed at the top the main Board Index page or on a top sub bar on the main Board Index page. In this case you could place it at the far right under the word Bruji on the green bar. This would avoid scrolling all the way down to the bottom of the page.

So what we could have on each green sub bar is:

on the Main Board Index page: "Mark All Forums as Read"
on each Individual Forum page: = "Mark this Forum as Read"
on each Individual Topic page: "Mark this Topic as Read"

Also some forum web sites have the ability for Logged In Users to select "New Forum Posts" which brings up a list of all Topics from all the forums which are new since the User last reset "Mark All Forums as Read".

Usually in this case the entry line/column titles for the new Unread Forum post page would be:

Topic - Forum - Last Post - Number of Replies (note that the Last Post would show the Date, Time & Posters Forum Name)

I hope all this makes sense.

Cheers

[Alex]

Hmm… you bring up interesting points. Let me see what I can do with the code I have.

[Alex]

Ok, what I've done is implemented 2 dropdowns, one for Search which has a number of options for posts such as "your posts, unanswered posts, unread posts", etc.

And the second a Mark dropdown menu which has: Mark Subforums as Read and Mark Topics as Read. These were the only 2 options I could find within the phpbb code that work with marked forums.

If you see any weird styles in the submenus like a gray background or badly positioned items, etc hold down Shift while clicking on the reload icon in Safari. Safari has a nasty habit of holding on to CSS style caches.

I do hope these changes make for a better experience overall.

[FineWine]

WOW way to go Alex.

Would it not be better to list the selections in the Search menu as follows:

View New Posts
View Unread Posts
View Unanswered Posts
View Active Topics
View Your Posts

I think forum members would be more interested in 'New Posts' first as more people read posts as opposed to actually posting a Topic so 'View Your Posts' should be last.

Ok now for the aesthetics of the site - on the BOARD INDEX line keep all the writing in the same font, type face, colour and on the same line/level but just increase the size of the red drop marker chevron.

Looking good Alex

PS: to other forum members - do you have any suggestions for Alex regarding the new web site that are better than mine, please post them.

[Alex]

Can you send me a screenshot of what you're seeing please? There should be no red chevron or different font or color. I think you're seeing the old cached page. Try it in different forum topics and hold down shift while reloading the page.

If you're still seeing weirdness, try it on another browser. I see it properly with Chrome but Safari hangs on to the old styles for a while.

[FineWine]

OK - I use Firefox. Safari loaded correctly. Had to completely erase all FF browsing history to fix the problem.

Apart from the afore mentioned Search Menu order of entries, all is looking good.

Thanks Alex.

[FineWine]

More aesthetics talk. I have just discovered the very bottom of the web page. NOT good. Those links I believe should be up top and I think the Forum link is redundant.

Have sent you a support email with some screens shots regarding what the css is doing.

cheers

[Alex]

Alright, I've changed the order to what you requested. I also expired the pages manually in the hopes that that will make the styles behave properly.

Cheers.

[FineWine]

Well Alex we still have page problems for the Search & Mark menu selections. This time it is on the iPad2 AND iPhone4. I have 'Cleared History' & 'Cleared Cookies and Data' then rebooted both the iPad and the iPhone to no avail.

It does not seem to be happening in Safari or Firefox now.

The Search menu order looks great now - Thx

To all other forum members - are you having these problems as well? if so please post in this Topic

[Alex]

Yes, I see what you mean on the iPad. Well, I've done some more refreshing of styles, this time the heavy-handed kind and the forum looks good for me on the iPad. Hopefully this will (finally) fix the problem

[FineWine]

Hi Alex - yes it seems to have been fixed on the iPad but I have now discovered another glitch for my iPhone4 only. Even with 'Cleared History' & 'Cleared Cookies and Data' and reboot.

This occurs if I am logged in or not logged in and concerns the main menu bar (Apps, Support, Blog, Forum, About, Buy)

- all menu selections appear on first going to site
- if you go to the Apps, Support or About menu selected pages the Forum menu selection disappears. Blog and Buy are ok.

Also the Search and Mark problem previously mentioned still occurs intermittently on my iPhone4 and I can not pin it down to when it might or why it might occur.

Cheers