vpsboard software getting even more annoying

MannDude said:

I've logged a complaint / tame rant on IPB's forums... let's see if it stays: https://community.invisionpower.com/topic/422943-community-members-dont-like-all-the-ipb-changes/


I have a feeling vpsBoard can't be the only forum feeling the hurt from all these changes.

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I didn't drive you posting that, nor to drinking in the past X months with their upgrades....


Problem I have with the editor is that it just sucks.  Literally every copy and paste turns out horrendous...  Often I am in editor and BLAMO, nothing works, can't edit any further.... so I copy the message or try to and reload the page and paste it in. 


Unsure if they fixed the quoting others bugs we saw last version, but I've scaled back on trying to even quote people, just winging it and text copying the quote and at'ing the person usual in the response.


The lack of URL re-writes / changing URLs is the cardinal sin if I had to pick one though...  I don't use such, but many do and yeah, old habits die hard.


That homepage, I almost feel the homepage of the site should be this:
https://vpsboard.com/discover/


Cause that works when not logged in and doesn't toss them into the mass of subforums to try to figure things out.  It's also more modern noise type active view or lens as I call it of the data.  Discover Content is kind of blah, it's like Recent Activity or Recent Stream or Timeline View.


Big picture I think IPB is getting pinched like more structured forum software is as more people juggle 15 seconds of time and ADHD.  The web and this Reddit + Twitter + Facebook + ahh Pinterest approach seems to be the fashion for many... It's a bad pursuit.  Reason why?  Competing for lesser use time and people that are less inclined to read or generally care.  It's very same fatal flaw that chasing 59 cent VPS income and soon to be free is.  The bottom side of folks on cash and interest are just going to exit the marketplace and go back to be the drooling couch loungers full time like their folks were.  Only so many years of that expensive cell bill and data that costs more than a mortgage people are going to stomach... Not much to show for it except they were there during some phase.. been there and done that hipster fashion of virtual.


But WTF do I know?  I still prefer to read on an actual computer with a screen bigger than my head...  and I read... and I buy books, paper ones...

drmike said:

I didn't drive you posting that, nor to drinking in the past X months with their upgrades....


Problem I have with the editor is that it just sucks.  Literally every copy and paste turns out horrendous...  Often I am in editor and BLAMO, nothing works, can't edit any further.... so I copy the message or try to and reload the page and paste it in. 


Unsure if they fixed the quoting others bugs we saw last version, but I've scaled back on trying to even quote people, just winging it and text copying the quote and at'ing the person usual in the response.


The lack of URL re-writes / changing URLs is the cardinal sin if I had to pick one though...  I don't use such, but many do and yeah, old habits die hard.


That homepage, I almost feel the homepage of the site should be this:
https://vpsboard.com/discover/


Cause that works when not logged in and doesn't toss them into the mass of subforums to try to figure things out.  It's also more modern noise type active view or lens as I call it of the data.  Discover Content is kind of blah, it's like Recent Activity or Recent Stream or Timeline View.


Big picture I think IPB is getting pinched like more structured forum software is as more people juggle 15 seconds of time and ADHD.  The web and this Reddit + Twitter + Facebook + ahh Pinterest approach seems to be the fashion for many... It's a bad pursuit.  Reason why?  Competing for lesser use time and people that are less inclined to read or generally care.  It's very same fatal flaw that chasing 59 cent VPS income and soon to be free is.  The bottom side of folks on cash and interest are just going to exit the marketplace and go back to be the drooling couch loungers full time like their folks were.  Only so many years of that expensive cell bill and data that costs more than a mortgage people are going to stomach... Not much to show for it except they were there during some phase.. been there and done that hipster fashion of virtual.


But WTF do I know?  I still prefer to read on an actual computer with a screen bigger than my head...  and I read... and I buy books, paper ones...

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WTH do any of us know? All we like is buttons with the right names and functions. Not a gear button for making links, or the link button for aligning things right. At least BB code we could understand and it wasn't all f'd up like this, but what do we know we only use this software well we used to anyways.

But you'll never get them to admit it with all of the fanbois on there trolling.


I'll have to admit this upgrade is totally disgusting and has me ready to drop the site. 

MannDude said:

https://vpsboard.com/discover should work for you when not logged in.

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Yes, it works as the implementer intended, I changed my bookmark, that's no big deal.  It just displays way too much crap.  I'd prefer something like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/new/ i.e. just show a list of threads in order of most recently updated first, so I can catch up on the threads of interest.  I don't need to see every bit of activity on each thread (posts, likes, etc) when most of them are about services that I don't use, etc.

Are you having issue with getting logged out? Any reason you're viewing the site as a guest? You and @drmike have commented about issues when viewing as a guest. Unsure if you two are not staying logged in due to personal preference, being logged out by the system for some reason or something else.

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Mostly it's just laziness.  I check VPSboard fairly often (several times a day) but post much less often, and I clear my browser cookies all the time, so I'm logged out unless I go to the trouble of logging back in.  As a general matter I'm uncomfortable with software keeping track of which posts I've read (frankly would rather just have an RSS feed with everything) but in VPSboard's case I'm not too worried.  It bugs me much more when commercial media sites do it.

When not logged in, IPB doesn't know what you have and have not... "?do-getNewComment"

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I would have expected getNewComment to just go to the thread's newest comment whether I'm logged in or not, so then I could page backward if I wanted to see older comments.  That's what I'd want anyway.  It didn't occur to me that it kept track of read vs unread comments.  Reddit is infinitely simpler and more usable IMHO.


Thanks for your post on the IPB forum and I guess I can deal with the changes but I think the developers are trying to be too clever for their own good.

MannDude said:

I've logged a complaint / tame rant on IPB's forums... let's see if it stays: https://community.invisionpower.com/topic/422943-community-members-dont-like-all-the-ipb-changes/


I have a feeling vpsBoard can't be the only forum feeling the hurt from all these changes.

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Strange response re: 'BBCode is a fossil'. Not necessarily untrue, but on the other hand it's better than nothing. If they're going to do away with it, at least replace it with something 'better'.
 

Don't be ridiculous, HTML is a programming language for developing/designing web pages. BBCode is not. BBCode is a relic of editors used by end-users for posting online content, due to the lack of WYSIWYG editor functionality.

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Kind of a silly thing to say. BBcode is only a relic to the extent that HTML is a relic in that its little more than a simple HTML interpreter. For anyone who edits websites, I don't see why they wouldn't want something like BBcode in forums software.
 

WYSIWYG, when it works properly, does not require the use of BBCode.

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Guess they have a bit of a ways to go, then.

WYSIWYG and BBcode are two different ways of formatting text in a context of forums software and HTML. Can't say I understand why they would want to remove the choice of how to edit in that context.

I read a bit more of https://community.invisionpower.com/topic/422943-community-members-dont-like-all-the-ipb-changes/ 
 

The concern about antiquated technologies like the bbcode editor . . .

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The effort to portray BBcode as a relic or 'antiquated technology' is bizarre misdirection on the part of the developers. BBcode simply formats HTML, so unless they're claiming HTML is a relic, it's like saying everything should be reduced to a GUI, or that source code shouldn't be viewable/editable. Why?

It also seems to me that the wysiwyg editor on stack exchange works really well and I think it's FOSS, so I don't see why they're trying to write yet another one.  I've seen a few other ones that work too.  And BBcode was fine with me too--I didn't realize it was gone . 


One thought (maybe over-paranoid) that I have is that Facebook is engineered to make people spend as much time on the site as possible, for the obvious evil reasons.  They sell fewer ads if people can just check on items of interest efficiently and then get on with their other stuff.  IPB then tries to make their software look like Facebook due to some cargo cult illusion, that they'll also become zillionaires like Zuckerberg if IPB forums work like Facebook, i.e. waste people's time the same way (they might not think of it like that).  I think it's best to present the info in a simple and streamlined way that lets people choose what they want to see at the topic level rather than fine grained updates in all topics.

Whatever it is, I would be curious to know what is 'not antiquated' about the new editability deficit.

For example, are there any contemporary image hosts that no longer format the share link in BBcode? Seems that imgur still does, at the very least.

Unread Content - when logged in - seems to be malfunctioning...


I use that page/link routinely.  Noticed on thread I posted, there were replies, but such was apparent to me the 20x I looked in there.  So thusly, I missed the comments...  


Could be blindness, but I doubt it.  Others experienced the same lately?

To be honest, I never liked the new message board softwares. Good old phpBB 2 with some of the newer features of vB and IPB would be enough for me

Honestly since the link changed to view the new content (a while ago now) I have been A LOT less active on here. If it sound like I'm whining, that's because I am. I know there is a like for it now but it's just not the same. The old way of listing new content was 100% better on mobile and displayed all the information right there. That's my little rant over.

trewq said:

Honestly since the link changed to view the new content (a while ago now) I have been A LOT less active on here. If it sound like I'm whining, that's because I am. I know there is a like for it now but it's just not the same. The old way of listing new content was 100% better on mobile and displayed all the information right there. That's my little rant over.

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+1 .. i rarely visit this forum now as i usually come via the unread threads link..

Come on. Let's collect some money for a Xenforo license, build a nice vanillaforums-like theme for it and finally be the better LET. Everything else is just meeeh. ;-)

@MannDude ugh  please don't go Xenforo lol.


1. Go WBB if you MUST change....$80 or so dollars and it looks like Xenforo but has IPB features you may be used to already. Perfect Mix-UP


OR


2. Do what my friend did. His community hated IPB4.1.....Use Mybb to convert VPSboard to Mybb and then convert back to IPB3.


(Takes time of course, but also saves you cash, potentially fixes the issue with dislike for IPB4 on VPSboard and gives you time to form a better game plan).


I am an IPB customer/user but we've done Xenforo and it sucks really. Granted our forums are in two totally different niches.


The usergroup setup as well as the permission sets for add-on is ridiculous. ON IPB3/4, you have Primary and Secodnary groups(which exist on Xenforo as well). Xenforo fans claim it is more sensible to have EVERYONE(including admins) in the Registered Members group. Which to an extent is true...this way when you add features, it's universal. The issue with Xenforo's method comes when you have users who are in multiple groups...you have to set up priority to make sure they accurately reflect the perms. So my default group is members, my secondary group is Admin....but if you mess up on priority it has you listed in the incorrect group. It sounds confusing and it is confusing. I get it but in all honesty, there is no reason for users to be stuck in multiple secondary groups IMO. I'm the owner, I don't need to be in the same primary group as average joe who joins.

 Trust me, the grass is not always greener...Even if the XF fanboys try to praise XF as if it is the best script, it really is not in the least. It does have some plusses but it is not anything revolutionary.


Personally, I dislike the fact that Xenforo as a software is really unattractive and they generally look the same. Also there is a high dependence on add-ons and the prices are insane/ridiculous imo. Keep in mind, you are having to pay for add-ons for things that are already features on competing platforms. If in 2016, Xenforo is a $140 software  is announcing features that free software like mybb and phpbb have had for years that is sad.


Example: Thread Tags JUST came to Xenforo in the last big update.... IPB has long since had this, Mybb has had it since 1.6 as have other FREE PRODUCTS.


https://xenforo.com/community/threads/thread-tagging.100267/

OOH...you can now 'like' comments on profiles and *GASP* delete them on Xenforo


https://xenforo.com/community/threads/profile-post-comment-improvements.99548/


Most of the features they announce are just weak, catch up or nothing special with the rare gem. Honestly not worth the hype its fans try to make.

Amitz said:

Come on. Let's collect some money for a Xenforo license, build a nice vanillaforums-like theme for it and finally be the better LET. Everything else is just meeeh. ;-)

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#FormFollowsFunction2016


I own http://lowendtalk.space and can donate it to the cause if you choose to take Amitz's advice.