Horological Meandering

Hi,

Right now when I click on the brand links at the top of the page I get transported to a 'Homepage' for the brands. I would then have to click on another "Display in standard format" link to go to the forums. Is there a way to change my settings so that I get to view the old thread views by default?

thanks

So you can get the new and the old format...But first the new.

The new format allwos you to see what happened since your last visit, and offers you, in a glance, to see what are the topics posted during your absence.

After a while, I think you will get used too.

Best,

Nicolas

But I don't think I can get used to it because it's additional clicks to get to the discussions.

Right now the website is more professional and structured so visitors can be guided to the correct content(maybe also for advertisers). I never found the need to be shown where the stuff were as I frequent the site daily and the search function was more relevant than most watch forums.

Please just keep us old timers in mind when you have an update next time(to enable us to skip straight to the forums)

Having said that thanks again for all the upgrades. Some of them were quite useful.

perhaps my monitor isn't big enough, the new format seem to have smaller font than the old

i too find that extra click uncomfortable

cheers,\
Ed~

I had no issues knowing where I left off reading the prior posts on the forums, so I find this change to simply add another click to get where I want to be.  If I could somehow set my preferences to eliminate the front page, that would be ideal.

Cheers, Al

I would be the only one.

Not all changes are improvements, it was great the way it was.

Do not make the mistake 'the other watch forum' made, that used to look superb
and became unreadable after the changes.
GEO

I must confess that I click the 'FORUM - Original view' within 0.05 seconds

 

its very easy with the old format to a post a couple of days old and therefore still relevant to disappear onto page 2 and unseen, but the new format allows us to see the title of more posts. i believe i will get used to it and might not miss stuff if i miss a day, which i rarely do as its my firefox home page.
i'm a computer dinosaur so dont listen to my opinion

Graham

The inconvenience  is 0.05  of a second and you have the familiar view.  We are very aware when we make changes that change is always not unanimously accepted and that is why we never eliminate what was there and incrementally add new items.

Now for the benefits - should you choose to accept this mission (change)

A the highest level the new overview provides a chance to the contributors (you all included in this thread and we thank you) and the moderator a chance for their post to live a life a little longer; the post that is.  What happens all to often, you will agree, important post can get pushed of the page very quickly with a post that has many responses.  Which again can be croweded out by  a few sticky post at the top of the page.  Granted the next page will show the balance but that is also in extra click.  I know we all measure things in clicks but there are always gives and takes.

The latest view - left hand panel gives you a wealth of information dynamically.  You have a view across the last 30 top level threads posted by the contributors together with the number of replies and the last person that replied to the thread.  At a glance you can see post that may have taken three or four clicks of the next page and this is still just the new threads.

Most Viewed.  This again give you a glance into posts you may have missed that where popular with the reader that covered subjects of interest.  Again a few more clicks and maybe a search.

The blog story Features.  - The frontpage allowed these to be featured but with twenty forums all running at once an depth report that may have taken weeks to prepare could easily be pushed down or off the page.  In the individual forum front page these blog reports can be featured for a much longer time and are more pleasantly displayed .  Again simply featuring the work of the mods and the contributors.

We have not disrupted or taken away any key featurs all we did was put them in a dashboard view to help you navigate the vast amount of information presented in these great forums.

We are always looking for ideas comments and features you would like to see on the site and we are very responsive.  You can see this from the site re-look post.  All the ideas provided have been incorporated.  One gentleman (he can identify himself if he chooses) brought up the issue of RSS feed as he like that method for staying up-to-date and you can check with him we developed and deployed a solution with in days.  This happened last week. 

We are open and will take any and all the time it takes to provide the best platform for all the users.  PM any thoughts for improvements should  or add your thoughts here.

Thanks

Bill

if the 'switch option 'could be made permanent under CUSTOMIZE.
GEO

Hi Geo,

The idea has been presented and we are evaluating how to implement the option elegantly.

Bill

...of the different views that a user could select.

If you gave choice to the people, they might think that they are allowed to think!

Personally, I have no preference about choice.....

 

Regards,

MTF

nt

I say that choice wins. So allowing us to customize the window is the best. Those who like the new format can enjoy it. Those who don't, like me, can stick to what used to be status quo.

Right now I have found a solution, the following: I go on the tab brand forums and choose the forum I want to read. That way I don't get into the new layout.

Sorry, the new format may have a lot of plusses, but I prefer the original format and would like to be able to have it as default.

I find myself spending less time on this site lately because of the new format and the hassle of having to do all those extra clicks at all the brand forums I like to visit. One click per forum, multiply that by a few forums visited and it adds up.

Hope you can have the option available soon.

Another thing is;
in the old format I could read an article ride away,
while in the new format I have to click on the article and again click to read the rest of the article.
I find it irritating, not an improvement and not helping me.
GEO

If this view i.e. the new start page this thread would have most likely fallen from view yet we continue to discuss this subject.

The new front Page really does offer a wealth of information that would have otherwise been lost.

One click more is all we ask for you troubles against the advantages of the new design to keep a many users and mods post alive when they would have gone cold in the old view.

Please hang in there.  We are looking at option for those who do not want this extra click in the way.

HAGWE

Bill

to force people to see other parts of the site (and I mean that in a good way), but for those of us who have these bookmarked so that we can go straight to the forums...

This is not in any way a "Marketing" ploy.  Unless marketing good threads to a higher level and keeping  them in view is marketing; then yes we are marketing threads.  We are trying to keep threads alive a little longer than we previously could using the standard display. 

 We consider highly all the efforts everyone puts into creating interesting and compelling content on this site and the new design's main intent is to feature that hard work / contribution for just that little while longer. 

Please give it a little more time and you will find that the number of response to threads that would otherwise have died on the vine will grow and with it the contribution of the community.

For the very few who truly do not enjoy the new start page for its merits we will be adding away for you to by pass this page.

Look at this thread it is at the the list  of active threads because you have kept it alive and hence give the great content / discussion one two or even three more bites at the apple.  On the old view this thread is already on the bottom of the 2nd page soon to be on page three.  While you and are alerted to others response our discussion continues but without the re-look no one would see and or participate in this thread any longer.

HAGWE

Bill

The biggest reason for losing participants on topics:

1) Threads that have the most recent posts should always show up at the top. This will keep a topic active much longer.
Timezone has the same problem with theirs.

2) the threads should be easily collapsed, and then individually expanded so you can see a full topic list on one page.

One the reasons I use VBulletin, but I also see that this one seems to have been custom built and vastly tweaked over time. Trickier (and expensive) to modify.

Good luck!

1) Threads that have the most recent posts should always show up at the top.

2) the threads should be easily collapsed

Just Updated >>> () the link lives right next to my view.
home.watchprosite.com

In addition to seeing the most recently discussed thread in the forum, you can click across all the forums as see their activity also in this view.

The software running this forum is an industrial grade, proprietary "Content Management" system.  This is not off the shelf bulletin board software and as such when can do anything we like with it  hence all the different views.

We could also easily change the order of the standard view to be most recent but the worry is that this kind of change would confuse users and as such we have all the other views so you can pick and choose for all the views.

Did you know that you can easily post and respond to threads via email?  Many users are not aware.  This is a very deep platform.

Best

Bill

It's currently a very complex forum to figure out for the general user.
Most users are used to VBulletin, phpbb, and others. This one took me a little getting used to.

Sorry, all the things you just told me are not intuitive or easy to find.

Defaults should be set for the lowest common denominator, with "bells and whistles" being options.

Threads with the most recent posts go to the top being the most important. This is where you lose participation on the thread. This message has been edited by mrsnak on 2010-03-14 16:32:35

We are happy to bring you new feature.

For those users that wish to customize the links to their start page of choice simply click on the "Customize" tab which is on the tab selections across the top of the screen.  There you have three choices.

1- New consolidated version - i.e. dashboard view for each brand
2 - Most recent activity.  This give a compact look at the most recent 30 threads with links to the latest post on each.  Great way to stay on top.
3- Threads by date - Open view this is the simplest  / standard version

We hope you enjoy the new look.

Bill