[Closed] Do you like the new forums experience?

This is my first forum post under the new regime.

I can't tell you how much I missed the site when I didn't have access to it for TWO WHOLE DAYS.

My name is Ellie, and I am an addict.

It's going to take a LOT of getting used to all the differences, so I'll hold fire on spouting any opinions yet. I did LOVE the old version though. It might have been slower, but it was simpler and less cluttered. I'm a very simple girl at heart and clearly need to be dragged kicking and screaming into this new, brighter future.

I may well grow to love it all ... and I really appreciate all the effort that has gone into it ... but a couple of things that bother me on first sight (sorry) are

1) The way that the 'Latest in the Crossdresser Heaven Forums' lists all the individual replies that people make, rather than most current topics like it used to. I worry that introductions from new members are quickly gong to get buried and lost. We risk people signing up and never getting replies, since their posts slide very quickly off the 'front page'.

2). I'm already missing the fact that if you go into an individual topic you don't see the whole thread, just the most recent activity, unless you open up additional pages. I guess that this has been done to speed everything up, but it does make scanning through a topic that little bit more arduous.

God, I sound really awful.

Basically, I fear change.

Maybe I just need to play about with the settings a bit more.

Also, I see that I'm now a 'Prominent member', which sounds bit rude. I can't wait until I graduate to Level 8 and become Noble so that I can shake that particular label.

Hugs

Ellie x

first glance at the new set up  finding my way around  

I like everything that Ellie said.  I really don't like the new format  I didn't think that it was broken so I didn't think that it needed fixing.  And before you think that I'm a Luddite, I had a good life in systems.  The past format worked well for me.  It was vital, alive, simple, fast enough and effective.  Sure it had some bugs and occasional lags but for me, it did what I wanted (pics, forums, interaction and articles).  I'm often short of time so if the format becomes Where's Waldo then I would tend to not interact regularly.  Currently I'm usually on twice a day.  I do appreciate that I have a free access and I'm not dissing the programmers.  I'm just giving my feedback.  Thanks for the opportunity to be part of this.  I have made many friends here and learned a lot.    Marg

I see the "Recent Topics" section on the new forums, but the new forum topics don't seem to have the "New", "Unread", or (jump to) "New Reply", indicator.  When you open the topic, the "NEW" indicator in the thread doesn't seem to be there either. You have to remember where you were in the post to know when you have already read something. If someone replies to another person's post in the middle you are going to miss it. I'm not sure if this is just a "work in progress" or a missing feature of the new forums. I have noticed that after reading a topic it goes from bold to normal font, so there is some indication.

Maybe the "Post" button on the top should read "New Topic" or "Post New" or something similar; it took me a bit to find out how I would create a new topic.

Overall I do like the new format, although I'm still getting used to it. But the missing pieces makes it more difficult to use.

Not sure. I liked to be able to go to the forum drop down and press to see the new posts I hadn't read as it seems I am trawling through the posts to do that.

Otherwise all is well.

I liked it the old way. I'd rather id didn't change, but I'm sure I'll get to like the new version. I struggle to see the replies to replies now. I'm sure it will all work out fine. I'm just an old fart that doesn't like change 🙂

Carys

It is certainly a fairly large change. My first impression was along the lines of 'Oh No,' but as I look around the site, I'm slowly learning how to navigate the system.

I guess that there are a few bugs in this new system that will be fixed in due course but overall, I think I'm starting to like it!

I'll get there eventually!

Hi, I sort of glanced around, but I'm a little curious about one thing. Let's say an old topic comes up, and I may have seen it and I posted my thoughts or I may not but there are over 50, maybe 100 or more replies.  I'm not sure I want to duplicate a reply (or reply just the opposite as before! not likely but hey!), or is that one of the thoughts of organizing things the way they are now? I mean before if I read the first post of a topic and took the time to reply, I would definitely thank the original poster. Now I can't really tell unless I read/scan every post which will definitely impact my available time each day to stay involved.  Just wondering, maybe I missed something.  Thanks! And Hugs!

Think I have the hang of it now, normal service resumed. 🤣 

I voted the third option, "I'm still getting the feel of things", but that's mainly because I've only been a member for a few days. What I've seen so far looks great, thank you for all your hard work in setting it up.

This may be a silly question, but is there a guide somewhere to the Member Rating Badge system? I'm assuming it's based on numbers of posts, interactions and so on, but I was curious to know a bit more about it.

It's been a few weeks of using the new forums...and I'm loving them! It was a but hard at first, not used to so much text and different font sizes, but they make sense now.

Thanks for all the hard work that went into setting up the new forums!!!!

Ok, after a few weeks of the new UI I have to weigh in... Caveat: I do 90% of my time on mobile.

I don't love it. I don't like having to spam the "load more topics button" since it only shows a handful of topics at a time. Not a big deal, really.

The biggest pain point for me is that new posts are adding to the bottom of the topic, which might be n pages away. I find that it actually deters me from revisiting a thread to see new replies because it's kind of a PITA to get to them.

Finally, the like/love feature is so limited that people don't seem to use it as much, which often makes me feel like I'm mostly just talking to myself. I get that these might just be MY issues, and maybe everyone else is in love with the new paradigm, but I'm finding myself less inclined to participate as much as I used to because I feel a sense of lost connection.

Something else I'm not mad keen on is that when you click reply to a post, the poster's user name is prefilled, rather than our actual female name. xx

I like the layout, but still getting to grips with four year old posts showing up as "new" in my feed. Makes it difficult for me to weed out those and find the actual new posts. I spend much of my daily time here just checking out the started dates of the original posts so I don't waste time on stuff I have already seen.

Why do I get notifications in two places?  One lot on the orange bell on the menu bar at the top of the main section of the page, but then also another one at the very top of the page on the same level as my profile?  Some, but not all, notifications appear in both places, and have to be cleared from both.

Also, emojis.  They're not consistent, sometimes I'm offered the small round ones, sometimes the new large ones.  But the large ones are too large to use inline in your text to show your tone in different places as you type, and to me they're just too cartoonish to see what feelings etc. someone else was trying to portray.  Is there a way I can just select to use the small ones please?  And is there a table somewhere of codes that I can type to use them? (e.g. :hugging:)  On another forum I use, when you type a : and a few letters it will automatically bring up a little sub-list of the emojis that contain those letters in their codes, and you can select the one you want with the up/down keys and Enter without having to jump from keyboard to mouse and back.