Is it the topics, people, or both? Considering location & signatures

The new forums emphasize the discussion I feel. The old boat balanced discussion with the people, or at least their online personas I feel. More personal to see signature statements and location, even when location was made up.

The "feel" so far is fine about topics, and more distant re people. Understanding the clutter argument, but also seeing quite a bit of blank space, particularly the avatar picture/ username area at the top.

Perhaps there is a desire for a different "feel"? Worry that the change may affect use.
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Comments

  • sabinesabine Shipmate
    I liked signatures and avatar captions because they added more personality to the experience. I know we can put them in our profiles, but that's a bit like putting them behind a veil...a different feel altogether.
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    sabine wrote: »
    I liked signatures and avatar captions because they added more personality to the experience. I know we can put them in our profiles, but that's a bit like putting them behind a veil...a different feel altogether.

    Totally agree. This new ship is a slightly chillier place, somehow.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    sabine wrote: »
    I liked signatures and avatar captions because they added more personality to the experience. I know we can put them in our profiles, but that's a bit like putting them behind a veil...a different feel altogether.

    I agree. I don't have as good a sense of the people here as I did. (And I wish that the people who changed their Shipboard monikers would put the old ones into their posts for a few more weeks!)


  • You can put them in your profiles? How?
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    But that may mean looking up a whole string of profiles on any thread unless you can quickly remember a poster.
  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    mousethief wrote: »
    You can put them in your profiles? How?
    If you open your profile there are both "about" and "from" fields. I'm not sure how long they are, but brief experimentation suggests "quite".
    Gee D wrote: »
    But that may mean looking up a whole string of profiles on any thread unless you can quickly remember a poster.
    I think you have to balance that against all the people saying how much easier the New Ship is to use on a mobile device, which pretty much requires it to use up less real estate on secondary content. I personally rarely use the Ship that way, but I think it's the future.

  • RooKRooK Admin Emeritus
    mousethief wrote: »
    You can put them in your profiles? How?

    Go to your profile. The gear at the top right should have the option to Edit. Two of the editable fields are "About you" and "From".
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    I was going to edit my profile following this to move information from my ‘About’ field to my ‘From’ field, but on my phone when I go to edit profile I can only see part of the information in my about field, and it doesn’t seem to scroll at all (iPhone 5s running iOS 11)
  • I could get into it on my Windows phone - I've just checked. Not that I've been helpful.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    I can get into it, but I can only see the first half dozen or so words
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    edited March 2018
    [Oops! Repeated myself]
  • TukaiTukai Shipmate
    edited March 2018
    I think you have to balance that against all the people saying how much easier the New Ship is to use on a mobile device, which pretty much requires it to use up less real estate on secondary content. I personally rarely use the Ship that way, but I think it's the future.

    Is that (ease of use on a mobile phone) the main reason for this change of feel of the Ship? Personally, I barely use my phone to look at the Ship (or any other website for that matter), so find the change unnecessary, and I miss my old avatar (which actually looked not unlike me IRL) not to mention the ability to display a sig. Other people's sigs often said a lot a about them, also.

    [fixed code]
  • It's a small edit box for changing your "About you" and "From" information. On a computer you can scroll left/right using the arrow keys. I can see that that's probably impossible on a phone. You should be able to fill in that field on a phone, but editing it later will be effectively impossible.
  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    Tukai wrote: »
    Is that (ease of use on a mobile phone) the main reason for this change of feel of the Ship?
    AFAIK the main reason is that the old software was obsolete, dangerously so, to the point of breaking at a moment's notice.

    Mobile device compatiblity is one factor in any new software because that's the world we live in, even if neither you nor I particularly favour it.

    Any change brings with it a share of tradeoffs.

  • I miss the feel of a poster we got from sigs. But as one who almost always boards the Ship on my phone or iPad, I find the new Ship to be much easier to navigate and read.

    We’ll find ways to compensate for the loss of sigs, I trust.
  • roybartroybart Shipmate
    edited March 2018
    In agreement with the OP. For me, the new system makes it more difficult to get a fast and easy idea of what a new topic is like.

    Unfortunately this has resulted in a reduction in my reading and following discussions. That is NOT something I anticipated or wanted. But somehow it has happened. (I would have posted a "sad" face at this point, but could not easily find one under the strange new system for smilies.)
  • edited March 2018
    Is the balance right? Could we have a little more personalization re users. I'm posting on new and old about 3/4 of the time on a phone. Would one more line in the username/avatar area hurt the platform? Would it enhance the user feel? I think it would. Otherwise it may be just another forum. Losing the personal relationship aspect.

    I've no doubt they're discussing at the captain's table and being a discerning group of officers and marines, they probably have some of own concerns. Looking forward to when they review the rigging and tell us how they think she sails.
  • I agree - the loss of the last thread preview in Today's Active Threads means I don't know what I want to read! Not quite so bothered about sigs and titles. I miss the old post counts also, as it gave you an idea of how experienced a poster was on the Ship, even if you didn't recognise thier name or avatar. But on the plus side I LOVE being able to easily read it n my phone!!
  • We did seriously consider options that would allow UBB!Ship profiles to be shifted over here, retaining all that information about when someone registered for the UBB!Ship, how many posts they had etc. But, there was no option that would also give us what we also wanted - a stable platform, more accessible, easier to maintain etc.

    So, we all start over. Not for the first time, those of us who were on the Neoworks boards will remember there being a fresh start over when we moved to the UBB platform. I'm sure those you remember with high post counts will soon re-emerge with big numbers next to their names.
  • That's not the issue for this topic Alan. Not nostalgia for the Old Boat, Not notoriety because of a long history of posting. Rather that the new forums read topically fine and well. What's not present is personalization for those posting and commenting. I recognize some of them, and do not others, and some I recognize there's nothing to humanize them, to make them persons in the context of their expressed opinion and discussion. If this is fine and well with the ship's staff, so be it. But I didn't think it responsible to notice this issue and to discuss possible effects.
  • What we discussed was the practicality of porting entire profiles from one platform to another, so (for example) the post count recorded here is the cumulative total of posts on both old and new boards.

    We discussed sigs in relation to aesthetics of the boards - the amount of space occupied etc. We didn't consider the options for visible "from" fields or personal titles. We have heard what has been said about "humanising" posts, and will see what options are available to us. Though that will require technical input, and the tech guys are hard at work on the rest of the Ship so we can't give any timescale for possible revisions to the look of the Ship.
  • adampateradampater Shipmate Posts: 15
    edited March 2018
    I miss the list of recent posts in a profile - at least, I haven't found it here. It was a means of catching up on someone, or understanding their perspective a little better.
    Never mind... found it :blush:
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    adampater wrote: »
    I miss the list of recent posts in a profile - at least, I haven't found it here. It was a means of catching up on someone, or understanding their perspective a little better.
    Never mind... found it :blush:

    Great! For those of us a bit slower on the uptake, please share . . .
  • Go to someones profile (click their name or avatar), then select the "comments" button.
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host, Epiphanies Host
    Given there was a budget of about £5K raised by crowdfunding, and the limitations of vanilla to cope with, the tekkies worked very hard and have done very well to provide the features we do have.

    I miss some of the features mentioned here. They do not matter so much to me as the knowledge that without the move the Ship would probably have died in the very near future through system collapse. Here we have a more certain future.

    There are some changes for Hosts to get used to on top of the changes for Shipmates. I think we will make this place a good new home. I'm currently enjoying the adjusting!

  • It's swings and roundabouts. I like that:
    • when I click on a thread it takes me to the point I last read, whatever device I'm using (unless I'm impatient and don't let the gizmo do its thing, when I get the start of the thread).
    • The new features that tell me how many posts since I last read that thread - I use that to choose which thread to click on when, particularly when travelling, as I can plan how long it's going to take me to read something.
    • The auto saving of drafts - that's magic, because I can save a draft on the phone, move to the tablet and continue composing an answer, with extra added links or coding - that got lost in the past;
    • increased functionality on tablets and phones (which is what I'm using most of the time)
    The missing locations, strap lines, signature quotations and other personalised features are small losses against these gains. Because we get to know the other posters. I recognised some people who have changed their names before they posted on a name change thread from their style and interests. Particularly as I don't give a useful location, haven't for years. It's not advised under internet safety guidelines when posting on a public board.

    I have font changer set up, so I can change the font to a sans serif font, should I wish to.

  • Gill HGill H Shipmate
    I am on another forum which has a choice of mobile view or desktop view. In desktop you can see sigs, avatars etc but in mobile view you don’t.

    Possible compromise?
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host, Epiphanies Host
    A good question for a tekkie. Possibly too much for the software and budget?
  • The missing locations, strap lines, signature quotations and other personalised features are small losses against these gains.
    But those are not losses against gains, both could exist on the Ship. Much of the ease of use of the new site is the new software.* Those others are choices made to achieve a user experience. The Ship doesn't sail faster for the throwing sigs overboard, the decision was apparently made because they would take up too much space on a mobile screen. It did not appear that way to me, however only a few people had implemented sigs before the option was very quickly switched off.
    The sigs on the old Ship never seemed intrusive, but here they were more distinct. Perhaps that might make them more intrusive to some people.

    *Not downplaying the effort put into implementing the software.
  • The new forums emphasize the discussion I feel. The old boat balanced discussion with the people, or at least their online personas I feel. More personal to see signature statements and location, even when location was made up.

    The "feel" so far is fine about topics, and more distant re people. Understanding the clutter argument, but also seeing quite a bit of blank space, particularly the avatar picture/ username area at the top.

    Perhaps there is a desire for a different "feel"? Worry that the change may affect use.
    I am not a big fan of change. The new Ship is lovely in comparison to the Old and one can see the choices made which create a continuity between the two. Still, there is an instant relief when I go aboard the old barge. So, I am trying to make every effort I can to eliminate that quirk of mine when evaluating the New Ship.
    That in mind, I do think that sigs add a personalisation that is a positive when interacting with Shipmates.
    Words do not exist outside of who created them, not in the context of understanding their meaning and import. However, given how often posters ignored others' histories even with that personalisation, maybe it is just me.
  • AmyAmy Shipmate
    Tukai wrote: »
    Is that (ease of use on a mobile phone) the main reason for this change of feel of the Ship? Personally, I barely use my phone to look at the Ship (or any other website for that matter), so find the change unnecessary

    I'm reading and posting a lot more now, purely because it's mobile device friendly! I can read while on my commute without having to get a laptop out…
  • I'm reading and posting a lot less. I'm finding the Ship more awkward to navigate, but I guess I'll eventually get used to the new way of doing things. (I use my desktop unless I'm traveling, when I use my tablet. I don't have or want a "smart" phone, so most of the improvements make no difference to me.)

    But I really miss the locations, strap lines, signature quotations, and other personalized features. They made other Shipmates seem more like real-life people, and they often added humor to the boards. And I miss our old smileys.

    I do understand the need for upgrades before the old Ship sank, and I really, really appreciate all the hours of hard work that went into the new Ship. I'm just not as delighted as some people seem to be with the results.


  • Drifting StarDrifting Star Shipmate Posts: 22
    Barnabas62 wrote: »
    A good question for a tekkie. Possibly too much for the software and budget?

    I don't know anything specifically about Vanilla, but it is fairly standard for open source forum software to have the facility to omit signatures on mobile devices.

    It is also usual for members to have the option to block signatures on any device if they find they get in the way.
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host, Epiphanies Host
    I wouldn't know. These days I'm one of yer typical 'dumb users'.
  • anoesisanoesis Shipmate
    Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    I'm reading and posting a lot less. I'm finding the Ship more awkward to navigate, but I guess I'll eventually get used to the new way of doing things. (I use my desktop unless I'm traveling, when I use my tablet. I don't have or want a "smart" phone, so most of the improvements make no difference to me.)

    But I really miss the locations, strap lines, signature quotations, and other personalized features. They made other Shipmates seem more like real-life people, and they often added humor to the boards. And I miss our old smileys.

    I do understand the need for upgrades before the old Ship sank, and I really, really appreciate all the hours of hard work that went into the new Ship. I'm just not as delighted as some people seem to be with the results.


    This is about how I feel. I've been a daily reader for about ten years, although my posting was obviously quite a bit more infrequent than that, but I'm feeling little pull toward this place, with the result I'm checking in maybe twice a week, and that's probably not enough to properly follow any discussions that are going on. I suspect I'll probably drift away slowly - which is sad, because SOF has kept me engaged with things Christian despite my faith having mostly bled itself out.
  • I haven't been on board much in a while. And I thought perhaps the New Ship would draw me back in. And it still might. But I'm another that would very much like to see signatures and such. They're important to me.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I don’t miss signatures. However mordant or witty or sincere or whatever, it’s still the same bit of text over and over. Perhaps I bore easily, but I tended to blank them.

    Locations, if they were actual places, were OK. But cryptic ones were irritating, like crossword clues you can’t ever solve.
  • I'm another one who doesn't really miss the signatures or locations. I skimmed over them (and if you looked at mine on the old Ship, my sig had links to the Floating Fund and Merchandise - nothing about me).
  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    I've been wondering about a "signatures" thread or similar.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I don’t miss the signatures at all, some were far too long. I do miss the quirky locations ‘tho. I like quirky :)
  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    There is space in your profile specifically for your location.

    Or just make a "signatures and quirky locations" thread?
  • I get the "work around" suggestions.

    Those who joined the new forums from the old are advantaged and might go and look at a sig and locations thread. Have we had new users yet? It would be interesting to know from their perspective if this new forum appears to be a discussion forum or a community of users, and in what proportion for each.
  • Have we had new users yet?
    We haven't positively cross-checked registrations here with the old boards directory. We have had a few people who had been banned come back, and they're welcome as long as they post within the broad restrictions of our Commandments (but, we expect everyone to do that). There have been some people who haven't posted on the old boards for a long time. And, some who identified themselves as lurkers on the old boards. But, I don't know if we've had any totally new registrations.
  • Eutychus wrote: »
    There is space in your profile specifically for your location.

    Or just make a "signatures and quirky locations" thread?

    It was so much easier when they were right there with every post. Clicking on a poster's profile each time gets a bit tiresome (if they've even bothered to fill it in).

    Sorry to keep complaining -- I'm just seeing more minuses and fewer plusses (except the major plus that the Ship is no longer held together with chewing gum and duct tape).
  • New Ship seems like a easy, clean, floating machine and many thanks for saving us all from sinking, but it does seem less personal. Perhaps it is just the name changes and such but I miss the signatures.
  • The Crosseyed BearThe Crosseyed Bear Shipmate Posts: 3
    It is also possible to save lines as a signature in a text file, and paste them to the end of each message. Instant signature!

    Gladly

    **********************************************
    fixed bearlytone
    from the east end of the desolation of Smog
    May Percy, Mace and Grease go with you!
  • On this new ship, I can use the down cursor going from post to post and, because there are no sigs and other info, the voice only has a few words to say before coming to the text of the next post. In fact I'm reading more threads here because it is so easy to do.
  • Pine MartenPine Marten Shipmate Posts: 42
    Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    I'm reading and posting a lot less. I'm finding the Ship more awkward to navigate, but I guess I'll eventually get used to the new way of doing things. (I use my desktop unless I'm traveling, when I use my tablet. I don't have or want a "smart" phone, so most of the improvements make no difference to me.)

    But I really miss the locations, strap lines, signature quotations, and other personalized features. They made other Shipmates seem more like real-life people, and they often added humor to the boards. And I miss our old smileys.

    I do understand the need for upgrades before the old Ship sank, and I really, really appreciate all the hours of hard work that went into the new Ship. I'm just not as delighted as some people seem to be with the results.


    This is how I'm feeling too (and I don't use my phone for websites much so that doesn't apply to me). I've only just seen this thread because I don't come aboard so often. It *does* feel chillier and more remote, but I suppose we will get used to it in time... Sorry for whinging.
  • I've noticed that I find those few sigs that are being added to posts very intrusive, having got used to no sigs. So much so that I'm avoiding those posters.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I've noticed that I find those few sigs that are being added to posts very intrusive, having got used to no sigs. So much so that I'm avoiding those posters.

    I find some of them annoying, because I know they are pasted there as SIGNATURES rather than the old signatures which took no effort once they were there. These feel rather like advertising or evangelising. Yuk.

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