The New Layout

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Member for

4 years 5 months

Posts: 40

That's another thing missing in the new format, the 'views' count. I don't mind starting a thread (as I've done in this new era of the Forum) and getting no replies just so long as I know its been seen by 5 or 200.

Getting no replies to a thread and not knowing if anyone even bothered to look is very depressing.

Member for

8 years 1 month

Posts: 1

Hi all;

I have no idea what's going on here but when I try to search the historic aviation forum for a topic (Oesau) I get just under a thousand replies, mostly to do with modern jets and Air-to-Air missiles.

Am I doing something wrong?  I remember some time ago finding some good stuff here but it seems those days are gone. 

Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 823

Oh yes, that's the way it works now.  Never mind, we are assured that all these problems will be fixed.  Ho ho, ha ha, what AM I saying :)

Member for

18 years 1 month

Posts: 2,123

Search and you will find, but what you find will tend to be a paying subscription to Key for something you dont want. I have tried simply Googling the title of the thread I want: that sometimes works for a shortish thread, but it's not what you can call a search function. That went out the window a month ago along with all the other missing functions.

Laurence

Member for

4 years 6 months

Posts: 59

Hi all,

From what I now know there is going to be a big update in the next couple of weeks which will cover all of what you have raised. When I am able to, I'll write up a large post detailing what will happen in the update, what's new etc...

At risk of echoing my previous posts, we have listened to your feedback and changes are being made.

Happy Monday everyone,

I'll be back when I know the substance of the next update.

Kind regards,

Khalem

Member for

16 years 3 months

Posts: 1,813

Khalem.........  

Nothing personal but you are beginning to sound like a cracked record.....!!    This just is more........""  jam tomorrow !! "".     

Nothing seen to date is going to give us back a functioning forum which most of us will be happy with. 

I reiterate my challenge to the management/hierarchy of KEY. Please come on to this forum and explain the reasons for these changes. 

Planemike

   

Member for

13 years 1 month

Posts: 145

THe old adage " Why mend something that isnt broken" comes to mind.

Go back to the original format Flypast. I am afraid you have shot yourselves in the foot with this one.

Member for

11 years 11 months

Posts: 641

I wouldn't be surprised if Key pulls the plug on this forum soon. We will come onto the site and find it vanished, as all they are getting from it now is bad publicity.

Have been over to UKAR,  it's great, just like this forum used to be, and with a lot of the old familiar names on board.

 

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 360

I wouldn't be surprised if Key pulls the plug on this forum soon.

Wouldn't be the worst scenario, would it?

Member for

18 years

Posts: 367

Yes, Christer, because all the invaluable (previously easily accessed) archived information extending over many years would be lost for ever.

Member for

11 years 4 months

Posts: 936

Agreed Lyffe. Seven years of forensic research into a WW2 crash site in France (said to have been the only one conducted via the internet) extending over 64 pages with a photographic record of items found would simply disappear.

 

Khalem, I note your latest comments. My trawl through this thread has indicated the following items giving concern which I presume have been passed on to the development team. I may have missed some. I quite understand that some things will be quick fixes and others will take longer. I hope you will therefore be able to update us all on what is being actioned now and what will take further time.

 

PAGE LAYOUT

Widen [Improved, but still too much wasted space]                                                                         

Widening of format has stretched embedded images

Forum Search facility [Improved]

Subject headers in bold font – use black for text

Change of font: more visible – grey is too light

Headline Banner: should be static not variable

Mirror page numbers on top and bottom of page (to avoid scrolling down)

Scrolling to bottom of page briefly jams the page (cursor locks)

Remove ‘Privacy settings’ tag when use of Cookies approved

 

TRANSITION ISSUES

Migration of Duxford Diary thread (and others) - lost

Moderators controls

 

FUNCTIONALITY: FORUM

Private Messages (member to member) – now no facility

Content of My Account (historic private messages) lost

Loss of photos in My Account

Details of own previous posts

Where are ‘subscribed’ threads?

Restitution of e-mail message for new post on subscribed threads

Read first few lines of latest post by moving mouse to thread title

Distinguish read and unread posts (previously marked as read)

Lack of Stay Logged in facility

Reinstitute ‘Currently Logged in’

Post count and years of membership not updated

 

FUNCTIONALITY: THREADS

Click from Forum page to latest posting on thread

New comments on thread: ‘Post’ not ‘Save’ button [Done]

Posts: Quotes missing (appear as if part of new text)

Spellcheck doesn’t work

Functionality of hyperlinks (no longer work)

Open hyperlinks in new window

Restitution of numbering of posts to facilitate cross-referencing

Restitution of number of views of thread

Restitution of number of views of photos/images

Restitution of photo image thumbnails instead of bar link

Embedded pictures in body of text have disappeared

Application to allow video playback

‘Quote’ and ‘Like’ buttons and emojis

 

Member for

20 years 6 months

Posts: 7,025

Khalem  , i really think there now needs to be a timetable of what is going to happen and when,this does seem to be dragging on and a case of it'll happen soon.

 

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 8,464

Khalem - you had, as was suggested, a narrow timeframe in which to retain the membership of the forum - and much like the government with Brexit, the time has been used poorly.

Members have upped and left, and it will take a great deal to bring them back. Favourite threads that people used the forum specifically for have migrated elsewhere. As I said when the new forum began, if this is an attempt to close down a troublesome product for Key, then it has worked rather well. 

I have stopped looking at the forum very much - there is so little that I can do as a moderator, it is barely worth it, and the number of new posts has dwindled considerably.

Bruce

Member for

18 years

Posts: 367

To summarise BobKat's comprehensive post - "Return to the old format please" (me being polite).

Member for

10 years 7 months

Posts: 188

I have spent a little while pottering through the rest of the Key fora, and can report with more than a bit of irony that this thread is by a long way the busiest on the entire site. 

 

Enter tumbleweed, rolling in from stage left.

Member for

14 years 10 months

Posts: 480

If this layout/colour scheme was an attempt to get the younger (under 30s) into the site that it isn't appealing even to us. 

The Black and yellow scheme is attractive on a car or sports teams uniform (Brachnell Bees Ice Hockey club springs to mind). For a forum that people would spend a long time reading the colours jar. I dont know what the other forums such as Mil aviation were averaging number wise but i bet its down aswell. 

Member for

14 years 5 months

Posts: 3,447

I am finding it annoying and there simply isn't the rewarding 'user experience' there used to be. Now that people are not bothering to come here, including people who's input was always interesting and often valuable, I expect I won't be coming back myself any time soon.

Please pass this on to Key Publishing if you are in  position to do so:

You can instantly regain your credibility and goodwill by announcing the death of the forums, admitting your mistake, and offering the entire content on an archiving website with a decent index/search in perpetuity so that the accumulated knowledge is not lost.

Thanks for everything over the years, this forum has taken me from newbie with a passion to someone who gets paid to write about historic aviation (just not by Key - your loss ;-) ).

Member for

20 years

Posts: 278

I think Key publishing had good intensions when they decided to renew the forum, which is sometimes necessary because software get obselet. But it seems they met the wrong ICT dude who tried to reinvent the wheel, as these guys useual try to do. Why did they not use something like vBulletin? I have an aviation forum and use vBulletin which has many features we are missing here as standard and so far works fine. 

 

 

 

Member for

20 years 4 months

Posts: 1,713

I started out with a pretty positive attitude, reminding myself that I couldn't dictate how Key should run a facility that they pay for and provide at no extra cost. I have now reached a point where I'm losing interest in this forum (problem 1) due to the various issues mentioned before but also due to the exodus of members. I'm also starting to think about all the effort that I have put into this forum, from various bits of research to impromptu searches in various books and spots of translating, to complete photographic tours of museums at times. Multiply that by the huge number of knowledgable contributors to these forums and we have provided to Key, over the many years that this forum has been online, a wealth of information both in text and photographs, all contributed without any renumeration and mostly in our spare time. By crippling this forum as Key has done, I feel that they are throwing all our hard work away, and that is getting harder to swallow as time moves on (let's call that problem 2). In contributing to this forum we have trusted Key with the fruits of our labours, both large and small, and although noone here has signed a contract, other than agreeing to the terms of membership for these forums, I feel that Key is betraying that trust by not looking after this treasure trove of information that we have provided. As I stated, Key has no contractual obligations here but surely they could have given some more thought to the moral obligations of looking after the digital data that we have provided to them? Just my two cents....

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 360

Yes, Christer, because all the invaluable (previously easily accessed) archived information extending over many years would be lost for ever.

I agree that losing information is bad but it has happened before. I don't remember when it was, some 10-15 years ago, that I had several discussions with a guy who actually had hands-on experience with the Bristol sleeve-valve engines. On a more recent date I looked for those old threads but couldn't find any of them and nor could I find him as a member. It seems to me that the forum gets chopped at the old end to minimize the size and no longer active members get "retired".

You mention "archived information", was there more than the "active" forum itself to search for old threads?