HQ Forums Upgrade - July 2010

[Herb Scoresheet]

It's probably right in front of me, but is there a place to adjust the font size? The type appears to be about 50% bigger than on the old forum pages.

[Patioboater]

I'm still only seeing the titles for three of the top 25 threads in my "Subscribed Threads" queue. (FWIW, these three are "HQFML 2010 Trash-Talkin'", "New Forum format", and "Tigers 2010 in-season thread". I have no idea what makes them different. This happens to me on both of my computers (work and home) both of which are running IE 8.0.

Also worth mentioning -- one thing I've really come to like is the "Baseball HQ Tools" list at the top. That's really handy.

[Astros34]

When I use the "New Posts" button, the posts are listed with date and time they were started, but only the date for the latest post. It helps to have the time so you know when you are done sifting through them all.

[RAY@HQ]

Weird. We changed the font, seems possibly related to that. I'll pass on.

[Patioboater]

Here's a bit of weirdness I'm seeing today: thread titles don't seem to be appearing for about 75% of the threads in my "Subscribed Threads" list. Strange.

[Patioboater]

Coupla questions ... I used to be able to ...
1. Adjust font size and
2. Use different fonts

Are these features still available ?

I don't recall if those were on the "Quick Reply" screen before, but you can still get to them and the other more advanced features by clicking the "Go Advanced" button on a reply. However, I think there used to be a button to take you to the advanced features directly, and I know the "Quote" function took you there first, whereas it now drops you into a "Quick Reply" screen.

All in all, I think I preferred getting dropped into the Advanced Reply screen directly. I have a tendency to use some of the functions in there, and I like the bigger size.

[TMac]

Coupla questions ... I used to be able to ...
1. Adjust font size and
2. Use different fonts

Are these features still available ?

Additional comment ... the emoticons are undistinguishable. They looked better, before. Keep tweekin fellas. I'll be patient.
Your continual efforts to improve all parts of the site ... even the Forums function, is appreciated.

[Lefty]

Howie,

We're obviously sorry for any inconvenience here, but really I think the negative impact has been minimal. Couple of things you need to understand:

- vBulletin is a 3rd-party product, and we can't always just "leave well enough alone" as someone suggested, as there is a need to stay somewhat current with their newly-released versions to maintain our support, to pick up security fixes, etc.

- the upgrade we applied was "broken" in the sense that they didn't tell us that it was going to force us to change the look and feel that we had already configured. That was an "undocumented feature" of this upgrade. That will happen from time to time, but it wasn't expected. If we knew fully what we were getting into here, we may very well have chosen to do it at a different time.

My best technical explanation for you is that this isn't like rolling out an upgrade to MACK or Playerlink: we write those things ourselves, we test them, we support them, we know them inside and out. The forum software isn't homegrown. We pay someone for it... and as such, one of the things we're theoretically paying them for is that when we do an upgrade, "it's just supposed to work". We don't have a test forum to try an upgrade in first. We shouldn't need one. We've done many forum upgrades in the past, and you guys have never noticed. That's how it's supposed to go. Unfortunately, this time was a bit different.


All that said, are you missing any trade deadline information as a result of this upgrade? The forum works the same way as it used to. It just looks a little different. We'll get the search function straightened out, that's obviously a big deal. The other items, like the indicator of where you were in the new posts string when you last visited, aren't as critical as the search, but we'll get those taken care of too.

I can't imagine buying a third-party software upgrade for my business without testing it first. There is no way that a business would install a general ledger, inventory, email, or any other software upgrade without testing the hell out of it first. Granted, a forum software does not have the criticality as those other examples do...unless one of your business' selling points is the sharing of information and ideas via your forums as is the case with HQ.

[RAY@HQ]

Guys, above all, this is a question of tone. So, on both sides! Knock off the sniping.

[Beano]

Because obviously there is no difference between stating one's opinion and petulantly whining over and over after HQ attempts to address the criticisms.

No one is petulantly whining here. We have an absolute right to state our objections to changes we don't like if we, indeed, don't like them. If you think they're fine -- that's okay too. I think HQ's decision to make this change at this time is worth discussing. I am not condeming you for taking pot shots and behaving like a addled cheerleader -- that's your choice. But I'd like you to stop complaining about other members - including me - voicing our opinion. Go look up "forum" and see if you can learn anything.

[Patioboater]

Search looks as if it might still need some work. I just did a search on "Vargas" and the most recent post that came up was from May 2009.

[Patioboater]

Crossposting patioboater's comment from the other thread, so tech sees it:

Thanks!

[RAY@HQ]

Crossposting patioboater's comment from the other thread, so tech sees it:

It might be nice if the "Subscribed Threads" link, which is currently on the list under "Quick Links" had its own button on that toolbar. That's the button I use most often when I finish reading a thread.

[RAY@HQ]

"New posts" has been there all along, Howie. The only thing missing is the "break" between ones that have been updated since you last visited, and ones that haven't. Tech is looking at that.

Note that the "What's new" tab also seems to do the same thing as "new posts".

[Howie M]

Agreed.
Mainly I go to "new posts since last visit," which I assume is coming back soon.
And "search" just if I don't see anything on that player in the new threads.

And I'll stick to constructive criticism as opposed to condescending insults about other posters; seems like the best way to go.