The New Tegu Talk!

[Toby_H]

Location is no longer listed when a user posts... I think that's a great thing for us to use. I've connected with a couple local('ish) people because one of us noticed the other's location when posting. I've also used it to acknowledge the persons location when recommending suppliers or supply brands. It's just a handy piece of information to have. I actually wish it was required for us to fill out.


And wow do I miss the scroll bar...


Things are going great though! You've made impressive progress in almost no time at all!

 

[Orion]

I think the new format sucks. It looks amateurish at best. It also lacks the interactiveness of the old scrolling board. Please bring back the old format.

 

[frost]

i had to create an new account.wouldn't let me change my password.

 

[thomasjg23]

I'll take speed over the aesthetics. I love not having to wait for pages to load.

 

[Toby_H]

I first want to thank Josh for his hard work. I’ve worked with forums enough to know they are very complex but not enough to have made the accomplishments Josh has made especially not in the very quick timeframe he has done it in.

Although, I must admit I liked the old site much better. I understand changing hosts may have been necessary to keep up with the growth of the site of for some other practical reasoning, but I do hope that the Admin see to it to bring the assets of the old site into the new one.


I miss the scrolling bar sooo much! I can use the “View Today’s Posts” to accomplish the same goal, yet it lacks the uniqueness of the scrolling bar. It also requires an additional click (although it removes the wait time of waiting for the scroll bar to scroll).

The new site does not seem to be any faster to me, and on the contrary seems a bit slower in some regards. When I click “View Today’s Posts” I get an intermediate screen acknowledging the search is underway. Then a couple seconds later I get the list. This is a very minor inconvenience that I don’t mind, but I did not notice such lags in the old site.

The location is no longer listed with the user/poster information in each post. When someone asks about keeping their Tegu outside, location is important. When someone asks about breeders or suppliers, location is important. When someone asks about substrate, location is important (Cypress is not readily available in all areas). Not to mention, it’s really nice to be able to tell what members are in my area. I met Anthony through this site and we have split orders on frozen food saving costs as well as got to meet each other’s Tegus. I’d hate for myself or others to miss out on this opportunity over something so small as location no longer being listed.

I prefer the darker tones of the old site over the whiter tones of the new site. I accept this opinion may differ from person to person. Therefore I hope when complete there are ‘skin options’ that allow each user to select which format they use. I have seen other forums (monsterfishkeepers.com) that offered this.

The user information with each post is spread across the top of each post on the new site, as opposed to listed along the left side of each post on the old site. Again, this is personal opinion, but I like the left side format much better.

The icons and headings on the new site are not nearly as nice as the old site. This includes the headings with pics of Tegus at the top of each folder as well as the Smilies and other icons. The “Post Icons” are especially cartoonish and childlike.


I understand working with forums is a tedious and time consuming work. I am not disappointed that things aren’t “perfect’ yet, on the contrary I am impressed with the lack of downtime and the relatively ease of transition Josh has given us. Although I do hope there are a lot of further changes on their way.

Thanks Josh for your hard work and commitment. Please do not see my suggestions as criticisms, as you have done very good work!

 

[Josh]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!
I've already made some of the changes you've all requested. The "Loading" pages that say "now taking you to your search results" have been turned off. I've also added Location information to the post-bit. Each member will need to go to their profile to edit their location though for it to be displayed.
I'm working on perfecting the portal page and adding Bobby's old Tegu Info links that were so helpful to everyone. I'm also working hard to add a scrolling "recent posts" box like the old site had.
I should be able to fairly easily whip up a dark theme for those of you who liked the old colors better. I also figure that dark text is easier to read on white background - but if the people want a choice - they shall have it!
Thanks again for the kind words and informative feedback. The more feedback you all give, the more I can improve our site!

 

[frost]

can we get the other reptiles forums up again please? i want to show some pics of my lil girl.

 

[Josh]

For what it's worth, I have not deleted any subforums or topics. I simply merged some of the more similar subforums so that the main page is a bit less cluttered and disorganized.

Other Pets Subforum
Other Reptile Discussions

 

[frost]

ahh,where are they?=/ cant find em.

 

[Josh]

They're under Off-Topic Discussions near the bottom...

 

[Jefroka]

Had to change my password as well.

...Jefroka

 

[DaveDragon]

Had to change my password also.

The new forum is a bit too generic but I'm sure there will be improvements made as time goes on.

 

[Josh]

Dave, what kind of changes would you like to see that would make the site more personal again like it was before?

 

[Toby_H]

When I've viewing the list of threads within a folder... the threads with new posts since my last visit have green arrows next to them... typically I would click that arrow and it takes me right to the first post since my last visit... but on this site it takes me to the top of the page...

Fixing that so that when I/we click ont he green arrow it takes me/us to the first post since our last visit would be helpful and make browsing a bit smoother.

 

[goodtimes]

Hi Toby, thanks for the feedback on the new theme. I figure the lighter colors might be easier to read. There isn't currently a dark theme available, but I will add that to my to-do list

I agree completely.....this new look is very hard to look at and not as classy at all. PLEASE bring back the old look, it was a thousand times nicer.

 

[montana]

A start at last post would be nice ...

If there isn`t one ??

 

[montana]

Well I guess it`s just me .. I got it to do what i want !!!

 

[Toby_H]

While I do appreciate the efforts Josh gave us...

...I miss the old Tegu talk. I haven't seen any benefits in the new site and there are quite a few things I miss about the old one...

Because I don't like the look/feel fo the new site I skip over a lot of posts and generally spend much less time reading/posting on Tegu Talk...

 

[Josh]

Thanks for the feedback. Though I'm really sorry to hear that, Toby, your criticisms do give me an opportunity to improve the site.
I am working on an optional dark theme for those who prefer light text on a dark background.
As for the green arrows you mentioned and being taken to the latest post in a thread... Those elements should be within each subforum. They look like this: [attachment=2248]
Any other feedback you can provide would be much appreciated. While I can't fine tune the site to appease EVERYONE's taste, I would like to do my best to find a happy-medium.

 

[Toby_H]

^ I see the green arrows and I click them each time I check out a thread. But everytime I do it takes me to the top of the page, not to the first unviewed post...


I'm not giving up on you Josh! Just sharing my thoughts/feelings on the progress... I started a Blue Dempsey forum years ago and in that experience learned that managing forums is not easy work.