Release Notes (Geocaching Forums)- February 24, 2021

[+Geocaching HQ]

Release Notes (Geocaching Forums)- February 24, 2021

 

Today we have upgraded the software used to power the Geocaching forums.

 

The software provider (Invision) introduced a new front-end design since our last update. We've done our best to use the available customization tools to keep the general look of the forums as consistent as possible.

 

We are not aware of any significant functionality changes. However, please provide any feedback here if you find unexpected behavior while using the forums.

 

Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Comments unrelated to the release may be removed. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!

[+Viajero Perdido]

[s]I like that there are more lines of text shown in the list-of-topics view (or preview, whatever it's called).    Thanks.  It used to be that you had a billisecond to read those extra lines before they disappeared.  This is better.[/s]

 

CANCEL above paragraph (no strikeout?!?); enabling JavaScript causes the same behavior as before: load more text, but show less of it.

 

NoScript users, note there's a new URL to whitelist, if you want to type anything.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Viajero Perdido

[+barefootjeff]

Sorry to be so negative but I haven't yet found anything that looks like an improvement. The two things that immediately struck me are:

1. Extra white space around the entries in the topic lists, which translates into more scrolling:
   
   
    
2. The statistics panel that pops up to the right of longer-running threads and reduces the width of the actual thread content:
   
   
   
   I don't know about anyone else, but when I go to a thread, what I'm interested in is the content, I don't care about how many replies they've been, who the top posters were or what days were the most popular. This would have been better done as a selected pop-up from the thread title bar so that anyone who's interested can pore over the stats without forcing it on everyone. Reducing the width of the content again means more scrolling.

[+Max and 99]

Ugh. Those annoying statistics. Make them go away.

[Rock Chalk]

1 hour ago, barefootjeff said:

The two things that immediately struck me are:

 

We cannot do anything about the white space around the entries in the topic list. That's just part of Invision's front-end design implemented since our previous update.

 

We'll see what we can do about the stats, though. I agree that's not a good experience. I believe the thread statistics are now removed.

[+barefootjeff]

57 minutes ago, Rock Chalk said:

We'll see what we can do about the stats, though. I agree that's not a good experience. I believe the thread statistics are now removed.

 

Thanks!

[+Max and 99]

1 hour ago, Rock Chalk said:

We'll see what we can do about the stats, though. I agree that's not a good experience. I believe the thread statistics are now removed.

Thanks!

[+on4bam]

Notification mails for followed content no longer contain the whole posts but just the first 2 lines.

This makes it impossible to follow threads when not at the computer. I read most threads I participate in through the e-mail notifications, coming back to the forums to reply.

 

[+thebruce0]

Strangely, I'm still seeing some threads open with the stats panel showing. 

[+searcherdog]

20 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Strangely, I'm still seeing some threads open with the stats panel showing. 

 

So am I. 

I use a laptop and find the long, narrow view is very irritating.

If this happens on tablets or other smaller screens it must really hamper reading.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I dislike the 'expand' button on pictures and quotes.

[Rock Chalk]

2 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Strangely, I'm still seeing some threads open with the stats panel showing. 

 

The setting that we changed yesterday reverted overnight. Changed it back and the stats panel seems to be gone again. Will keep an eye on it.

[+mustakorppi]

1 hour ago, Harry Dolphin said:

I dislike the 'expand' button on pictures and quotes.

I like it. Way too many people here don’t know how to use the quote selection tool and repeat walls of text.

[+dprovan]

1 hour ago, Harry Dolphin said:

I dislike the 'expand' button on pictures and quotes.

Truncating quoted text is a startling change, especially since it's easy to overlook because I'm not used to it. I suspect that I'll appreciate it in the end, so I'm not going to remain neutral about it for a while.

[+searcherdog]

1 hour ago, Rock Chalk said:

 

The setting that we changed yesterday reverted overnight. Changed it back and the stats panel seems to be gone again. Will keep an eye on it.

 

Yes, it seems to have gone again. Thank you.

[Darwin473]

As a former IT support person, I know about the "I don't like change" issues that always come up.

 

I like it, and haven't seen any functional issues so far. Good work!

[+mustakorppi]

There are some page elements, in particular the breadcrumb trail - Unread content - Mark site read nav bars (light grey on light grey) and the form page nav bars (grey on grey) that seem too low contrast.

 

Or instead of just me eyeballing it, the WAVE accessibility report of the Geocaching topics forum gives 363 low contrast warnings.

 

Not sure you can do anything about the other accessibility issues, but I understand you are in control of styling. 

[+barefootguru]

20 hours ago, Rock Chalk said:

We cannot do anything about the white space around the entries in the topic list. That's just part of Invision's front-end design implemented since our previous update.

I really dislike this 2020s trend of massive amounts of white space — it chews up screen realestate and usually goes hand-in-hand with more scrolling and hiding things under disclosure controls.

[+fbingha]

RockChalk,

 

Can you find $10 laying around and purchase the Dark Mode plugin and install it here?

 

The on Apr 1, set Dark Mode on by default. I would love to see the conniption fit that 75% of this forum would have over that. 

 

People, the best way to get used to website changes is to stop being upset about it. Accept it and move on. By some miracle you'll either get used to it, or quit using it. Either one solves the problem.

Edited February 25, 2021 by fbingha

[+thebruce0]

Raising concerns and making reasonable suggestions isn't a bad thing; but yeah, just going ape nuts over change doesn't help anything 

 

Also, I like the WAVE tool.

[Hynz]

14 hours ago, barefootguru said:

On 2/25/2021 at 2:33 AM, Rock Chalk said:

We cannot do anything about the white space around the entries in the topic list. That's just part of Invision's front-end design implemented since our previous update.

I really dislike this 2020s trend of massive amounts of white space — it chews up screen realestate and usually goes hand-in-hand with more scrolling and hiding things under disclosure controls.

So true! I never will understand this trend.

[+on4bam]

As screens are getting bigger (phone/computer) because of white space there's less content on screen. That's bad, not because users resist change but because it makes it less comfortable sites and apps.

I'm sure nothing will change because these changes have been made to different parts of the site and apps and nothing was done after (many) people reported that these changes were not for the better.

Fortunately, sometimes  some greasemonkey/tampermonkey scripts fix things.

 

 

[+thebruce0]

It's the vast divide between mobile devices and desktops for interface design. Trying to create one unified interface for both physical contexts takes way more work, so often they'll focus on mobile devices as that's the growing trend - rather than develop UIs optimized for the vastly different contexts. =/