IMPORTANT: The forum is (not) closing down!

CHERUBboy

For many years I was involved with a successful forum for fans of my books. It is now closed, as the Facebook generation didn't really engage with it in the way kids used to and popularity dwindled.

We used the free Proboards platform. At it's peak we regularly had hundreds of members online at a time, with no service issues. Obviously Proboards kept the ad revenue, but there were never any major issues with downtime. Server problems etc were all handled by Proboards and their support board was slow, but basically competent.

You wouldn't be able to transfer any existing content, but if you're looking for a simple, cost neutral way to run a forum linked to brickset that you can set up in a couple of hours and never think about again, I'd definately give Proboards a think.

A few times, I considered setting up a VBulletin forum but the fact Proboards was so robust and hassle free meant I never bothered, and I never came to regret it.

www.proboards.com

durazno33

brickedin said:

Maybe lego themselves could sponsor the forum seeing as it generates so much income for them.

I like this idea in principle but then it's like walking around with a rope around your neck.  Lego would ultimately decide the life and purpose of the forum.

bea

I could deal with advertisements but I would not pay for any subscription. If the forum moved to subscription model, I would leave. Not a huge fan of sponsorship because it makes me mistrust the content but I suppose I would have to see what form that takes before commenting further.

Cam_n_Stu

First up, the forum is essential for return traffic and I for one would be far less likely to come back after long breaks...as I just have, if it wasn't for the forum!

As I've said before I love the clean page design here, and some Ads are hideous. I'm talking about the the ones that shake or strobe pink or whatever other ugly designs they can come up with to get your attention! Those make me close the browser window because I find it impossible to read content with that going on elsewhere on the screen. The ones that open up as you scroll over the text are also a pain and I've stopped using some sites because they introduced those. So Ads only if there is no other way for me!

As a casual user I wouldn't pay subs and I suspect many others are in the same category.

I'd suggest either cross-subsidising the forums from the main site income, getting someone suitable to sponsor the forums with subtle branding and links, ask for contributions or preferably just host somewhere else that is cheaper as the best options. 

Given just how cheap hosted compute is getting you can find a cheaper way to do it with the same open source software. Some of the cloud providers have Vanilla as a standard marketplace offering anyway, go shopping: https://marketplace.rackspace.com/apps/613#!features

papluh

1. You have the numbers, in any case do market research and see if some other company can offer better terms.
2. Fight back (using the data from competition), be it manufacturing or services, when ordering bulk the cost per unit goes down. Increasing the unit volume by a factor and the cost by the same factor works for monopoly, proprietary and high demand / low supply areas, webhosting is definitely not one of them.
3. In short term I'd suggest with donations and be transparent, set the goal and show the progress

Regarding ads, I use adblocker, I give a chance to any site I use regularly and turn it off, 9 out of 10 times it's back on after the first animated ads to by found on common ad platforms. 

thebrickgeek

I think you should go with the ads

Huw

The future of the forum has been secured for at least another year, and changes are afoot.

If you're not logged in you'll see adverts top and bottom of the page.

The mobile theme has been updated 

The javascript on the main site for turning set numbers into links etc, should work on the mobile site although I haven't tested this.

Any problems, observations, let me know.

Huw

#6876 Blacktron Alienator. Let's see f it works...

Dedgecko

that menu bar at the bottom... Blech!

Huw

It's a bit of a nuisance but I think the pros of the new skin outweigh the cons.

magri

Huw said:

#6876 Blacktron Alienator. Let's see f it works...

Works for me!

Huw

On mobile?

magri

Huw said:

On mobile?

Yes. Sorry, I should have been clearer.

mmozzano

Fairly horrible general look via mobile and I'm seeing ads even though I'm logged in? 

On plus note the set linking seems to work fine so thanks  for that . 

LostInTranslation

Not gonna lie,  I'm really not loving the new mobile look.  And it's soooo annoying that clicking the back button at the top takes you back to the category not the list of all discussions. 

It's going to take some getting used to.  

LostInTranslation

Why under Notifications am I only seeing messages from May and June and not ones I have received more recently? I need to reply to some of them.  Is there a more comprehensive inbox some where ? 

MattsWhat

^use your browser back button and not the back button on the page.

It's got quite a lot going on (the mobile site) compared to the old version.  It's going to take some getting used to.  Still if it keeps the forum up and running I ain't complainin!

LostInTranslation

Just realised the envelope on the bottom menu bar is inbox.  OK.  
This is definitely going to take some getting used to! 

CCC

New forum skin is horrible

SumoLego

It's a bit jarring.  But if it keeps everything the same, I'm happy.

Huw

Horrible or just unfamiliar and different?

If the consensus is the former I can change it back but it does seem far more functional and usable to me at least.

LostInTranslation

Horrible. It has no personality.

Dedgecko

The mobile browser skin is awful.  As I reach the bottom of a page I suddenly lose 10% of real estate at the bottom and another 10% at the top with the Brickset header pop-in.

Shib

Also not fond of the new mobile layout, it's really not ovbvious when threads have new posts and highlights the OP rather than latest poster.

eggshen

I think the new mobile layout looks great! Much more modern, the previous mobile forum site always felt a bit archaic.

@Shib, the threads that have new posts say "new" next to the little icons, so I think that works pretty well. Perhaps you weren't logged in?

@Huw, do you have a choice between showing the OP or the latest poster on a thread? I think if you asked to community about half of us would say they want the OP and half would say they want the latest poster. I could argue either.

I think the routing of the back button probably needs to be addressed. Going from the main forum page (with the latest 5 discussions/category) into a post, then back into a topic main page (with all the discussions of a particular category) doesn't make sense from a development standpoint. Maybe if that button can get hidden if the routing can't be fixed would make sense. That way everyone will have to use their browser's back button instead.

Just my 2 cents.

Shib

@eggshen - was logged in, but at a glance and scrolling through i find coloured backgrounds far more obvious than a new tag. 

To be fair i spent about 10 minutes on it then switched to desktop view, a little more of a strain on the eyes on a mobile, but much easier to navigate.

Legoboy

I don't think I've ever used the mobile view.  I think I stumbled across it back in 2011 but I can't even find away to switch temporarily to check it out now.  The desktop view I'm currently using doesn't look any different than it did yesterday.  I am grateful.

drdavewatford

What am I missing...? To me the mobile view looks fine.

Legoboy

How do you get onto the mobile view?

cheshirecat

I'm hating the new mobile view. The old one was fine. As @Shib said, the picture of the op is confusing ( also distracting and pointless), it's less clear which threads have new posts, the fonts are a mess often overlapping, the back button action is crazy. It may be better for those (odd) people that dont use the category view but I'd you do its awful. And not just in a 'i don't like change' old man kind of way but a 'this is genuinely a step backwards' way.

cheshirecat

Once you're in a thread it's OK, other than the annoying pop in header and footer. Although that search bar is going to annoy me as well, I just searched the forum for this text rather than posting it!

Dedgecko

I'm switching back to desktop, someone flag me when there's an update to the formatting.

Legoboy

Where is the switch?

CCC

Pretty much the same for me. New posts are hard to see. Sure they say new, but they aren't highlighted, so text saying new is lost in lots of text. Avatars next to titles waste space on an already small screen. Mixture of fonts is messy, top and bottom banners are useless but take up space when you scroll. Sometimes they appear when the on screen keyboard is present, leaving about a third if the screen. I use the forum quite a bit on a mobile and the old style was OK with flaws, but this is just plain awful.

MattsWhat

Yeah, so I'm going to fall in line with popular opinion and say it's not that great. It went from a nice obvious text based layout, where you could see plenty of thread titles with obvious new post signage. Now it doesn't fit as much on the screen, has loads of unnecessary pictures. It's isn't particularly obvious when it has been read or not, e.g. In bold or a different colour, and has weird back button functionality. Once you are in a thread it is OK.
What does it actually give us the old one didn't have? 

MattsWhat

Oh and how can I go back to a refreshed homepage now? If I use back, then I go to wrong place and if I use browser back, I then have to refresh where before I could hit home at the top and it would do it all for me. 
Edit. Oh right, the massive brickset button. 

khmellymel

Hmm, I dont seem to hate it as much as some people. In fact, I love it if only for the fact that I do not have to request desktop view in order to use the back button. On the old view, if I used the back button it would take me to the top of the page regardless of where in the list I was before I clicked into the thread.

 While I do also like the fresher look to the forum, the things that I would miss are the highlighted threads with new posts (rather than having "new" beside them, I too don't find it as obvious), and the simpler format, ie, no pics next to the posts and different fonts. In fact, I think if those two things were reverted I think it would be easy for me to get used to the new layout.

 I'm pretty neutral on the pop up bar at the bottom when you scroll down. The HUKD app implemented something similar to add a new deal and I hated it at first, but I've gotten used to it, so I'm sure I could get used to that too.

[Edit] Interestingly I just made the post above in three paras, but when I posted the response became one large paragraph instead. I had to edit so the spacing would work. So if that's intended behaviour I dislike it :)

MattsWhat

Ok, 5 minutes more browsing. There seems to be a lack of thread navigation unless you scroll right to bottom of the page which is kind of annoying but I might have issued it so far. Also when there, clicking last actually only takes you to the next page rather than the last. Which is also annoying. Giving up and going desktop view now :(

SumoLego

I like it.

kiki180703

Legoboy said:

Where is the switch?

It is at the bottom of the page. Scroll all the way down and you'll see it.

Btw, I like the new look to the forum, I think it looks pretty and modern.

Legoboy

Thanks, although it's not there for me.

Matthew

Have you got 'request desktop view' enabled in your browser settings?

xwingpilot

I'd love to comment on the mobile view (I use it a lot), but I dropped my mobile today and it didn't survive :(

Legoboy

Matthew said:

Have you got 'request desktop view' enabled in your browser settings?

I've tried it in both Matthew.  Doesn't bother me as I can't stand watered down versions of any web page, but just curious to know why the option's missing for me.

theLEGOman

Push the menu button top left, then scroll down, one from the bottom should be something like classic site or desktop site.

Stvoyager04

Just a couple of things on mobile;

•Its not obvious enough when new postings have been made on previously read threads (previously they were highlighted)

•There needs to be a space between the 'More Discussions' buttons and the various different topic - they look squashed together at the moment

•The menu bars at the top and bottom take up too much space, they are probably OK on tablets but on a phone they are intrusive

Those are my initial thoughts anyway.

Huw

The 'mobile/desktop' switching link is only shown on small screens, I believe, so unless you're using on a phone with a small screen which probably discounts yours, James, you won't see it.

Huw

I'm happy to go with the consensus particularly given I don't read the forum much on a mobile device so please vote on this poll and if there's an overwhelming desire to revert I'll do so.

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/21808/should-we-revert-to-the-old-mobile-template#latest

TarDomo

The forum looks odd with my iPad...

plasmodium

On my Android tablet it looks fine. Just the standard desktop view. And I didn't set it to do that or anything. That was the default.