I don't see a command button/line to mark all threads as read in one go. Wouldn't be bad.
Also I don't see an indication for sub-forums with new messages when viewing the board index.

my first thoughts this morning was wtf but its growing on me by now

I have not posted a lot yet but my first impression is "I don't like it" ,, Its basically a mirror of any other forum on the internet nowadays. The old Atlas forum website was different..

How do I rate a thread? Clicking on the rating drop down does nothing for me.

Wow. It's like I came home and someone swapped out all my Victorian furniture with the Ikea catalog. Wasn't expecting this.

I can't log in using Chrome so I've had to install IE onto my PC in order to make this post. Can this please be fixed? I don't like being told what browser I'm allowed to use.

I have no wish to be negative about the new forum software and I don't have any problem with the new look and feel. But I'm not going to load up a different browser just to visit TNF.

Allen

Hi Allen,
I'm a chrome user and have been able to log in without any problems. Can't offer an explanation as to what the problem is, but pretty sure you can't blame google for this one!

Cheers
David

I'm a relative newbie & don't post much so my two cents aren't worth as much as guys who've been here a long time, but...

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Same board as another forum I use so I know where everything is. And I can upload piccies now as well.

Fundamentally, I don't think there's problem with a change of software, the layout just needs a few adjustments, so a few constructive comments:

There's definitely too many horizontal divisions. I'd start by getting rid of the gray bar at the bottom, replacing it with a gap about 1/3 of the current height. The 'top' button is superfluous, it's a navigation I imagine people make the standard way (the 'Home button', scrollbars, mousewheel, etc) . The quote/reply and report buttons can all sit in top row (the one with the date and post number.)

I do like the ability to quote multple posts by toggling the Quote button, but it strikes me the symbols are the wrong way around. It should start off as an orange button with "- quote", then become a red button with "+ quote" when activated!

I repeat my request to lose the "" graphics from quote boxes, which will in turn allow the height of the header row to be halved. Also change the text from the awkward "QUOTE (Makarias @ Apr 30 2009, 16:17)" to something more natural sounding. The old board did "Originally posted by X".

the rows in the forum thread view are also too large.,mainly because of the 'Last Action' info is spread over two rows. Change it from
"Today, 18:32 (new line) Last post by: Redorkulated"
to
"Redorkulated, Today, 18:32"
I'd be tempted to change it, so if the last post is within 24hrs, show the time (and drop the word today), and if it's older just post the sate. I'd also lose the grey boxes around the links to a thread's sub page, it looks a bit clunky.

I don't have time to investigate, but looking at RC in firefox seems to not show the sticky thread section.

Good job, about time we get an upgrade - although the old board wasn't terrible, just lacked raw performance in critical server load times. I am used to this kind of forum in other places, although it does seem like there's something a little weird with the layout, but I'll probably get used to it quick.

About time we get bigger avatars. How about some better smileys?

woah a new low... why not just sell our e-mails?

RC Bets and Games is no longer in the links drop down menu. Other than that i'll get used to it

nice. ipb's the best option.

is it just me or the fora are still not working on my.autosport?

It's taking a little while to get used to it but it's nice. I appreciate the efforts people are going to in keeping this forum going and improving it.

i just miss the little dot which showed which thread i had posted in, if we could get that back i would be a happy bunny

It's still there, it just looks like this now:

The key is the white lower-right corner of the box. It's not as distinctive as before, though, that's for sure.

And, about the mouseover thread preview, I think it's good to have, but there should be more delay before it pops up. This instant popup business is a little too intrusive.

The quoted material in a post should be indented too--not sure that's configurable though.

couple of further thoughts now.

i think the line height is too big on the forum view - ie when choosing which thread to read, you can't see enough of them at once (to be fair i zoom in a bit on firefox, but even so)

also i wonder whether the RC subforums need to be shown at the top of the page? is the RC archive really the most important thing? couldn't we move that to the bottom of the page? and does that betting one need to be there? why not add it to the main forum index, or provide a smaller ad for it - you can reduce its biog to one line easy.

then we get to see the hot topics without scrolling. and that's without moving all those stickies. for which i only actually see a need for the moderator warning one, perhaps the intro one too if we want to be polite

Except you have to notice as it sneakily defaults to "yes please".

I know the flickering and cutting off have been mentioned, but the longer member names are causing odd realignments to the entire row when moused over in Firefox 3.0.10. They don't fit the drop down they're squeezed into. Also, all the above happens only when I mouse over the name from above or below, not if I direct the pointer toward either from the left to the icon or from the right to where the drop down arrow would appear.

Edited to correct: The resizing still happens no matter how I mouse in, just no flickering. Of course, the cutoff is constant.

'Yes' normally always appears before 'No' in a drop down list or anywhere that a yes/no (oh look!) answer is required, I don't see anything sneaky about it at all.

I read a post earlier re the new usage of looking at 'first unread post' was to click on the orange box.....the black dot to say you had replied to a post was now a white box on the opposite end - and although ( since I'm not really computer literate) scared to hit on any weird buttons.....went with the white box to see what happenned....and got a toolbar thing saying did I trust this website, and I needed to download stuff to see critical messages. I guessed it was part of the update.

However - seems I've downloaded a parasite instead - I'm still not sure as I'm not a techie...but since I said yes to trusting this site and to access this new white button option ( as opposed to black dot that said you'd posted before) my machine defaults to a not available from the manufacturer site and gives an ads.uk type site as the problem.
I managed to read wiki-security and it's supposedly a parasite ( which has a very high probability of being picked up from here as the only other website I visit is pistonheads)....and you've just changed things.

I did a virus scan and nothing was found - deleted the cookies - and I'm now able to access the site...I don't know where the problem is...but just thought I'd give a head's up.

Just a quick question.

Is there a facility with this software to embed youtube videos ? While I know that this can look ungainly and for this reason a lot of website don't allow it, would there then be a further option for each user to disable embeded youtube videos. So allow them for the members who want them ?

Dang it!

Just when I get up to speed with three posts in six years they go and change the whole kit and caboodle on me.

How am I supposed to improve my posting ratio when things change all the time??

And what is this anyway, Office 2007?

I don't know whether it has anything to do with the upgrade, but earlier today at least, I was getting some really annoying Dell error pages while trying to load pages in this forum... it seemed to be linked to an advert in the top right corner failing to load and the whole page therefore being replaced with a Dell one. Seems not to be happening right now, though.

Excellent assessment of what needs to be changed/improved. . .

Yep that about sums it up, there is a general feel from some users that a lot of space is being wasted.

Kudos on the easy to quote function, it really is much simpler now and I do like the easy to find format tools.

Some users (the noisy minority opposed to change?) - not all.

I like the new board.

Neil

It is not clear you clicked on what over where (and how this should launch a toolbar), so just to be safe download and do a thorough scan with Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. It will remove most malware, adware, hijackers, crapware etc.

Also, if you are using an older version of Internet Explorer, it is time to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft recommends it for security reasons.

Well I don't like it, but then I'm not a big fan of change. Btw, what's the difference btwn 'fast reply' & 'add reply'?

Add Reply opens in a new window/tab and has slightly more WYSIWYG formatting options, like align, font type, font color, font size etc. Fast Reply allows you to type in your response right at the bottom of the same page, without going to any other window/tab, thus saving valuable seconds of your life! Official explanation.

If you do not want the 'Fast Reply' box to be expanded by default, change the "Open Fast Reply automatically when available?" to "No" in your Control Panel.

David & Hack congrats on the upgrade. I'm sure it was quite bit of work. Good luck with the refinement process in the weeks to come.

My initial take on the redesign: it's a bit more difficult to read. I didn't fully appreciate the beauty of the simple layout of Atlas until now.

Guess it's time to have a moment of silence for Atlas and pour out a 40 in remembrance.

Im starting to get used to it now! for the moment im sticking with the new skin, but i must admit im not a huge fan of the colours and style but its getting better as i adjust to its functionality.

Well done guys, thanks for your efforts.

Anyone?

I see a lot of threads are being rated in the RC forum... there must be a secret. I've even tried different browser but no luck so far.

Is that really correct? I always thought the default value for a boolean field was false. So I would have thought the default value would be "No".

A suggestion: when viewing topics that you have subscribed to, would it be possible to add links on to each one that takes you to the last (unread) post in them?

At the moment going to My Controls > View Topics there is a column for who posted the last post, but no direct link to it?

Thanks for the feedback everyone. We will of course work through it and see what we can do to implement some improvements over the coming days and weeks.

Some of the suggestions, while potentially a good idea, would require us to make major changes to the off-the-shelf forum software. We are reluctant to do so because that is precisely the reason why such a big change was required this time - the old forum software was impossible to upgrade directly due to the amount of customisation.

There is a major new version of the software due in a few weeks and we'll try to introduce it as soon as possible so you continue to see new features.

The "House Rules" have gone now

Click on the house rules link in the sticky about moderation in Racing Comments and you are taken to the main page

This would be worth restoring

Did you guys get rid of Atlas Chat? Maybe I'm just overlooking it but so far I haven't found it

www.autosport.com/chat

The rules are linked on every page in the bar above the Google ads.



I have added a link to chat next to Help, Lo-Fi Version etc at the top.

Hm,

It seems the option to download or print a topic are not working for 100% -- or maybe I haven't figured out yet how to do it...

Short topics seem to work fine, for example this topic, of only 5 pages.

If I pick options -> Print this topic I get a printable version of the whole topic.
Ditto if I go for options -> Download this topic

• Printer Friendly Version -> gives me the same result as "Print this topic"
• Download HTML Version -> saves that same result as a html file on my disk
• Download Microsoft Word Version -> save that same result as a doc file on my disk

If I try the same thing here on this 44-page topic then I don't get all the posts. The last one is from June 30, 2005, while even today replies have been added there.
I can't find a way to download or print the remaining posts.

or in other words, how can i make them to work again? I've cleaned caches and everything on 2 computers and the tabs and boxes still say the fora software is being upgraded?






And i also think there is too much space wasted

Another request. It is now not possible to go directly to the subforums from the main page - I do that often with RC's Bets & Games; any chance we can get a link for that?

Edit: I just noticed that subforums are also missing from the dropdown menu.

Indeed.

My dearest wish: please, get rid of that fishy blue background.
It looks so cheap, common, "ten/tenths".
Keep it white.

I'm working on My Autosport integration at the moment. Fixing it is not as simple as I'd hoped.

Having checked through "My Controls" I've lost all my old thread subscriptions was this expected?

Unfortunately, yes. The thread subscription data couldn't be transferred.

You don't wanna start a fight about it do ya?

Hack

Appreciate that you're listening to feedback.

Could you please bring back the "Top 50 Posters list" - it continued far past 50 (to include the entire roster of posters IIRC), and was a very useful compendium.

Could you please expand the number of posts that can be viewed for reference while composing a reply back to 40?

Will compile a more extensive list of requests that hopefully will be taken as constructive suggestions, but at the moment I'm still fighting eyepain, nausea, and a (possibly misplaced) sense of alienation...