(UPDATED) ANNOUNCEMENT: New Forum Software and what to expect. Old layout will be back soon.

[GolfNuts4]

Should I be playing blades? Seriously, thanks for all the hard work on this, it will take time and all will be good. I love this place and spend  way to much time on this site, but it does give me great joy. Again, thanks for all the effort, we will work through this and it will be a great site.

[The General]

ANNOUNCEMENT:

DON'T BE A JERK. Please have patience. It's going to get much better. 

 

[Hawkeye77]

But I don’t want to be barefoot!

 

Just kidding and thanks for the update!

I was mostly disappointed because I’m at a conference and rely on this site to override the dull speakers. However, just noticed a local course is open so won’t need the site today at all and _______ the seminar, lol. First 9 of the season AND with my daughter!

Door closed - window opened!

[CheckJV]

Best of luck with the rollout.  I primarily used the unsupported app and fully understand the need to migrate to a new platform.  My hopes are to have all the features of the app integrated into the mobile platform. Again best of luck!

[jmck]

thorens said:

But. While heatmaps and analytics and other such doohickeys are obviously useful for those working behind the scenes to provide this forum and while for some reason badges seem nowadays to be a fashionable 'must have', a regular user is much more interested in the plain old boring concept of readability. IMO the new design is a huge step back due to issues in both presentation hierarchy and information density. Low contrast and lots of wasted white space may be the 'modern' look but it just leads to lots of scrolling and user having to expend more effort for actually understanding the structure of the presented information on the screen.

jj9000 said:

tgoodspe1991 said:

I know you aren’t changing for the sake of changing, but also don’t add stuff for the sake of adding stuff. I don’t remember any posts where the community was polled about what they want on the website before this change, yet I see a lot of stuff being added that seems very unnecessary. Badges, heat maps, social media widgets. Don’t remember anyone asking for those. So don’t be surprised or get defensive when you make a poll asking the community which site they like best and they 100% choose the old one. A lot of these navigational and UI/UX changes seem like they are in the wrong direction. I use GoldWRX hourly and it’s as good as being down right now it’s that unenjoyable to use to me. There are some things you are adding that will be for the better though too, especially where underlying performance and reliability are concerned. I’m loyal to the site and eager to see the upcoming changes. But just frankly guys, this is really not good at all. 

Spot on.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the lion share of core members here don't give a **** about social media widgets and freaking heat maps.  We come to this site to get away from Facebook/Instagram/Twitter...etc.  It's not the widgets, and cool integration elements that people are  balking at.  It's the interface!!  No matter how many kick @ss widgets you add to MySpace...users aren't going back there.  It's the interface!!  I hear you Richard, when you say to please be patient, I just have a hard time seeing how you're going to overhaul this thing.  Add-Ons and features are nice, but, the fundamental user interface is the issue.  Please don't take this as me just b*tching, as I'm trying to give honest feedback.  I really do hope you guys get things worked out.

 

 

...aaaand it took me several minutes to type this post because the new typing interface seems like it's on a 7 second delay...autocorrect in the interface takes precedence over real words and corrects them into jumbled [email protected] I get to fight with the  new "enhancement" of "Draft Saved" getting in the way of my sentence.

All of this ^^^^ is what needs to be at the top of the fix-it list.  That and as I type this right here I can't see anything I've typed past the "is" at the start of the first sentence.  That's on a blazing fast computer with zero other things running in this browser or in the background.  I know it was a needed update, and it's a work in progress, but right now as a whole it's pretty much unusable.  Interface, display, navigation, composition....these are the basics and together they're SOOOOOOO much more important than widgets, social media, plugins or any of that other nonsense.  PLEASE prioritize the basics as you work through this.  Reading, navigating, and posting are all very painful right now, to the point where it's not worth the bother.  All the snapbooks and instafaces in the world aren't going to make up for that.

 

Good luck as you all work through it, fingers crossed for major UX/UI improvement in the coming days.

[tiderider]

i have kentwool socks ... you damn sure better not be knocking those off ... they are $$$ ...  :/

[JAMH03]

Thanks for the heads up on this and thanks for all of the work that's unseen to make this a thriving community. Though I am incredibly grateful that this work has benefited me at the same for 2 days I couldn't wait to log in on the third day the feeling is not nearly same. 

[Skaffa77]

Thanks for the update Richard!  That announcement was definitely needed.  Glad to know we'll have a more "polished" product coming soon.  As much as this current format sucks...I know quite a few of us were having our GolfWRX withdrawls.  A group of avid golfers in my area were venting on a group text about not having their daily dose of WRX!  

[johnnythunders]

I retired after 46 years in IT as a programmer, architect, user interface designer, programming manager, implementation manager and senior IT manager.  I understand how difficult it is to install and especially convert large scale systems as I’ve had experience with systems in the 2,000-26,000 user range. 

All implementations have issues and yours is no different. But yours has a fatal design flaw that unless fixed will cause mass defection of even your loyalist user such as myself.  All the bells and whistles are nice but....

 

If you can’t make the site readable with easy navigation you have a failed implementation. 

This all white modern background quite frankly SUCKS for readability. 

Your front page is great but when you switch to the forums it’s like your in a blizzard. 

It is unusable by me  so I’ll go away for a few weeks then come back, if nothing changed then there are plenty of other sites to go to, none as good from a content perspective but at least I can read them. 

[ExTrumpet]

PZero said:

Thank god this is just the bones, but please ditch the "disagree" "agree" and "LOL" buttons. I liked the old like button and the placement of it. It was noticeable, large, and had nice placement in the post box.

I just Lol'd your post.

[byrne092]

Here's to hoping you get it figured out, needs some serious work atm. At least it will keep me off BST for awhile...

[PorscheFan]

It's the visuals to me that are hurting the most, and I'm sure it's being worked on.  I find the site very hard to read right now... I get snowblind with all of the white and little visual differentiation.

It's like the Wampa Beast scene in Empire Strikes Back... I like it, but it's really hard to work out what's going on.

 

[augustgolf]

What a great anniversary present! Two years here, and I have a new site being built just for me!

For the record, I am experiencing zero lag typing, other than my fat fingers - so, it looks like that issue is being dealt with.

Nothing that ya'll are doing will unstick my "T" and "Y" keys, so....nothing to look at here....

I know that you will continue to make this better and better - so looking forward to it!

If I could help you I would - but, you're trying to avoid the problems of running a website, you don't need my consul!

 

[nsxguy]

bladehunter said:

@nsxguy 

 

saw the @ symbol mentioned. Decided to see how that works.  Hmmm don’t know what I just did. Lol 

You created a "notification" which caused me to click on it and find this post.

Kind of like the "quoted" notification used to work but no longer does.

Oh, @bladehunter (so YOU should get the same notification) LOL

[radiman]

I am already adjusting to the new layout after a day.  Definitely needs some tuning to the navigation.  I miss the navigation options at the top and hope they get added.  Could use a darker theme too.  But, overall, I see this being just fine.

[Dinosaur]

I am sure it will be fine. Its all starting to make sense and if this old man can cope with change, anybody can. Looking forward to see how to add links, images easier. 

[wmblake2000]

lawsonman said:

Thanks for the update Richard. I'm sure it will be fine. It took the company I work for 3 years to recover from making the switch to SAP. Now THAT sucked!

@lawsonman Haha. I used to work for Deloitte - we did a ton of SAP installations. My job was to try to convince a company that the transition wasn’t all that bad (which tells you all you need to know!)

[CaddiesFault]

my biggest issue is the font is too big. i can only see a few posts at a time, and used to see like 15-20 without having to scroll.

 

Also blinded by the posting setup. Its hard to tell the difference between posts within a thread. everything was much cleaner & more concise before.

 

Good luck with the transition.

[wmblake2000]

I can’t tell which threads I have posted in. Is there some indication that I’m missing? Having zero short term memory left means I need help to know where I have sown my pearls of wisdom.

[wmblake2000]

bladehunter said:

@nsxguy 

 

saw the @ symbol mentioned. Decided to see how that works.  Hmmm don’t know what I just did. Lol 

 @bladehunter this means guys like monte and dan are gonna be swamped with requests!

[GreensideGuru]

Where do I find the ads that have been posted most recently? It seems like every time I go to the classified forums I see the same stuff with a new comment on it that automatically moves it up the list. This can't be good for those who pay money for their ad to just get pushed down the pages by others that have more engagement on the original posting. A good way to move your post back to the top tho, just comment something! I do not envy the position you've put yourselves in, hope you get it figured out soon!

[radiman]

Gnomesteel said:

Man, you guys really fumbled this rollout. I hope you didn't pay much for it because you got robbed. 

Very constructive post. ?  

It has been less than 24 hours on a completely different platform.  Be patient.  

[TinkerGolfMan]

Totally understand! Can't wait! 

[orangebang]

this is by far the best golf site on the internet.   I didn't realize how much I was on here until it went down   lol

 

 

 

[davo32683]

I'm sure I'm going to chime in with what everyone else has said.

1. Color scheme is painful
2. BLOATED appearance. Thread title fonts are too large.
3. Hard to differentiate one thread or post from another. They all seem to kind of blend together.
4. No BST feedback
5. Messages format is difficult to navigate and can't delete a thread unless you go into the specific thread and leave the conversation.
6. No app functionality
7. Mobile site has popup overlap issues and leaves you unable to navigate when windows pop up
8. Unable to edit your own BST threads
9. Unable to look at member's topics or posts from their profile

[Gnomesteel]

radiman said:

Gnomesteel said:

Man, you guys really fumbled this rollout. I hope you didn't pay much for it because you got robbed. 

Very constructive post. ?  

It has been less than 24 hours on a completely different platform.  Be patient.  

Roll your eyes all you want. They blew this big time. I work in web development, and heads would roll if this happened most places. It's fine to upgrade, and I can understand why, but they clearly got in over their heads. I'm guessing someone sold them a lie. "Oh yeah, we can migrate that over, no big deal, it'll be great!" 

 

[gioguy21]

Thanks for the hardwork guys -- *raises glass*

 

...will wait for the final 'we're done' before giving a full review -- and of course, will include pics, launch monitor data, video, comparisons and playability observations. 

[Z1ggy16]

gioguy21 said:

Thanks for the hardwork guys -- *raises glass*

 

...will wait for the final 'we're done' before giving a full review -- and of course, will include pics, launch monitor data, video, comparisons and playability observations. 

So would you say the initial launch conditions left a little bit to be desired still?

[gioguy21]

Z1ggy16 said:

gioguy21 said:

Thanks for the hardwork guys -- *raises glass*

 

...will wait for the final 'we're done' before giving a full review -- and of course, will include pics, launch monitor data, video, comparisons and playability observations. 

So would you say the initial launch conditions left a little bit to be desired still?

too early to tell but, my expectations were a bit higher than what i'm seeing. i won't rule this out just yet -- right now it's buckshot on a white canvas -- hopefully we can get this tightened up a bit. 

[easyyy]

bladehunter said:

easyyy said:

@bladehunter isn't that cool. So mush more than this. Wait till you see what the **** we roll out in the coming days, weeks, months. So good.

Im on board...  and if youve read my ramblings you know im not easy to change.. Hearing that you guys are optimistic and not close to completion is all it took .. cant wait to see where it goes !We couldn't do anything we wanted with that old platform. It was an old school setup. We can now capture traffic trends and present content that you want to see. Hottest content by views in the last x hours or days or months. Trending content based on replies, rankings, likes, dislikes, etc. 

 

We have so many people posting and reading here. So much content being added both in classifieds and in the normal forums how does anyone know what is hot and what is really popular? The only way to know int he past is to drive around and poke your head into 10 different rooms to see if there is a party. Now you will be able to see where the heat is. We will be rolling out these more advance tools to increase our productivity here.

Using these algorithms and historical data to create propensity models. Propensity models will then start making predictions and suggestions that will allow us to head to the hottest content faster. 

 

That and the simplest things such as adding pics via mobile and having the freakin pic show up in the right orientation. That would be nice.

 

Ever watch a newbie try to join and post here? We think it is easy but the average Joe struggles to do the simplest things here. Not what we want to grow.

 

This new platform is going to allow us to build a much more advance and modern forum. Forums 2.0. We are excited and know you will be as well. Remember I am a forum rat. My passion is here in the forums and making this the best community in the world. For 14 years we have proven that and these changes are the foundation for the next 10 years of awesomeness. Have faith.