New format, dislike.....


Your thoughts?
ptss
If our friends at Audiogon are tuning in, to be clear, right now in
Recent Activity, there is:
"New Discussions in the past 48 hours"
followed by:
"Forum contributions in the past 48 hours"

This is redundant. The same threads will appear in both, if active within 48 hours.
Under the previous format, "Old Threads," were threads which were no longer in Recent Activity. A good name for this section would be "Forum contributions to Old Threads."
Some of these threads could be years old and if somebody added a comment, the thread was updated and moved into this section.

As it stands now, we have to look thru each topic,  Amp/Preamp, Digital, Speakers, etc. to find an old thread and may never find it because we're in the wrong topic.

FYI, Justin, et al, some of these old threads would stay active for years. We now have a great new "Follow this Thread" feature, but I would like to have the "Old Threads" reinstalled, and then use "Follow this Thread."

Does this make sense?
Hi Lowrider,

My perception of the issues you are referring to has been somewhat different.  If I'm not mistaken, under "Recent Activity/12/24/48 hours/Forum Contributions in the Past 12/24/48 Hours," old threads having recent posts ARE being included, BUT:

1)The three sets of listings for those three time periods are all identical.  I had called attention to this earlier in this thread.

2)Usually those listings do not go back even 12 hours, the cutoff perhaps depending on how many posts have been made during that period.

3)As has been said, those listings differ from the "Old Threads" listings of the previous format in that newly created threads are also being included in them, as soon as a response is posted.  In itself I see nothing wrong with that, but see no. 4 just below, which if addressed would make the redundancy you mentioned moot, as I see it.

4)As I mentioned earlier, the constant re-sorting of the "New Discussions in the Past xx Hours" part of that page makes it difficult to identify which threads have been created since one's last visit.

As it stands now, we have to look thru each topic, Amp/Preamp, Digital, Speakers, etc. to find an old thread and may never find it because we're in the wrong topic.

So I don't think this was the intent, and it is only true to the extent that the "Forum Contributions in the Past 12/24/48 Hours" listings do not truly go back 12/24/48 hours as it stands now.

Best regards,
--Al
Al, you are correct in that "Forum Contributions in the Past 12/24/48 Hours," old threads having recent posts ARE being included.
It's just that many of those threads included active threads.

As I look at the forum today it seems to be working properly. Perhaps, your comments from earlier in this thread alerted Audiogon to make this update.

 Anyway, I don't know who to thank for this fix, but well done.

I like it, but there seems to be a few bugs in it that need to be ironed out.

1:Like the "quoting" which is  hard to use and can go nutz when trying to copy and paste underneath this quote.

2:And when you've copied and pasted then written something underneath then tried to past something else as well, it only pastes the previous copy not the new one you want to paste.

3:And the "Insert URL" can sometimes play up depending on where and when your trying to do it.


Cheers George 

I like it, as the old format was like using Windows 3.0.

But its a bit too "vertical". With wide aspect screens and monitors, why don't they spread the text out horizontally more? Then there is less scrolling to see responses. And I hope this format is not designed to place a myriad of "dancing bears" automated adds in the margins. Those drive me nuts.
Well, call me a complainer, but there are still duplicate threads in
"New Discussions in the past 48 hours" and "Forum contributions in the past 48 hours." It takes up real estate which can be used for older threads.

IMO, "Forum contributions in the past 48 hours" is a poor concept. There should be a section for threads that are OLDER than 48 hours as there was in the old format. Yes, this section contains older threads, but it also gets filled with current threads (as I write this at 3AM there are many).

It wouldn't be too difficult to look at the old format and copy that.
OK, I'm done.
I absolutely hate the screen. The white is giving me eyestrain. Others won't be far behind. We're all human.
I would love to know the rational for the change; usually change is made to save money. This white screen is dreadful. I hope everyone can agree on this one thing...
I hate complaining,but what option is there?;; other than cut way back on activity
Hidden so we need to ""waste"" keystrokes and time. I'm not impressed.......
I miss the yellow backscreen as well- it made the 'Gon unique.

Unfortunately, all forums are getting this type of "overhaul". We all should question why?
ptss- You seem very upset about the whole change. My suggestion is that you might have more influence on effecting changes to the new format if you made constructive comments, rather than snarky ones. The snarky ones will probably be ignored. How about "I would like to see a logout button on the top of the screen, rather than having to select it from a pull down menu." They may not do that, but at least then you have a fighting chance. As to color, how about a suggestion for an option to change the background color or color scheme. That might be doable.

Honestly, doing a pull down to logoff is not all that difficult. But a single button might be nice but I doubt it is a game changer for most.

I would like to see a Contact Us button on the top also. There is one the bottom, but you have to think to go there. But, that is true on lots of websites.
Its growing on me, but how come one can't upload a picture, that should have been included with the "update"  a pictures worth 1000 Words, don't you know :-)


Good Listening


Peter
I preferred the old format by a mile.

"Main" problem with the new format is eye strain (I can only read for a few minutes, or so, before the type gets blurry).

how come one can't upload a picture, that should have been included with the "update"  a pictures worth 1000 Words, don't you know :-)
Peter, I would like that as well, if anybody out there is listening...
Audio Circle, Audio Asylum, among others can include pics within their posts.

(unless they don't have the storage capacity of maintaining hundreds, if not thousands of images. I belong to "Classical Music Forum" and every so often, the Admin. has to purge the system of  the jpg's).
Count me among those who would like to post pictures....they can really enhance a thread if folks can share images of what they are discussing, plus...cloud storage is relatively cheap.
Also count me among those who would like a background other than white, and perhaps bolder print than the thin, greyish looking print I see while typing here.
I tend to like the Calibri font that I see while typing a post better than the Georgia font that is displayed  once it is posted...not sure why they would be different.
I can live with the format of the overall changes but don't really count it as a quantum leap forward, yet.
(unless they don’t have the storage capacity of maintaining hundreds, if not thousands of images.

The way I see sites getting around that is to have the poster post the image  to a sharing site and just link to that. No need to store it then. It is more work for the poster, but takes much less disk space. I can’t see them purging files on a regular basis. That said, they are somehow maintaining a lot of pictures in the Virtual Systems section. Maybe they could use the same mechanism.
they are somehow maintaining a lot of pictures in the Virtual Systems section. Maybe they could use the same mechanism.
Very true, I forgot about that.
As for posting to a sharing site, I've been on forums where they ask members to do that, and let's face it, posters are lazy or don't have the time, so the photo gets uploaded.
But, that is certainly an option.

Hey, if Audio Asylum can do it, Audiogon should be able to add this feature.



Hey, if Audio Asylum can do it, Audiogon should be able to add this feature.
It was a while ago, but last time I tried it there it did not work :(
For those of you who use Firefox, there is an add on called Color That Site! that allows you to change the color scheme for a particular site. You load it down, change the colors and then every time you go to that site it uses your defined color scheme. Just change the background to a different color and you can get rid of the white if you wish. Not sure, but my guess is other browsers have a similar capability. It takes a little playing around, but it might be something to try.
I like it.  A bit faster and I love looking at the virtual systems.  Good job audiogone!
Really digging the snowflakes and pines trees on the home page.
Putting me in a good mood. Where I am in Ontario still has no snow and the grass is all green.   
I like this format more and more, as I learn to appreciate the new features.  Keep it.
Been playing around on this new version  for a week or so now.
So long as we do not lose any of the previous functions...

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
@audiogon

Never saw any reply to the question posted on page 1 of the thread:

When viewing recent discussions, how do I change the view so that I only see the thread titles and not also see the first line of all the recent posts? The way it is now, it takes more than double the scrolling to browse the recent activity and much screen space is wasted on updates of threads that aren’t of interest.

Thanks for trying. Cheers,
Spencer
As a suggestion, I think the user interface of Gmail on an iPhone is the most natural and intuitive.  If you pull down the scroll and there is no more messages, it uses that tug as a signal to go get more messages if there are any.  I find the transition on AudioGon from Recent to All to be awkward.  Why not detect that the user is trying to look beyond what is currently displayed on the thread and go get the previous 12 hours of the thread if there's more to be seen?  That way there is no awkward buttons to click, that then dumps everything and you have to reposition.  For example, I originally ask for the last 24 hours, then start reading a thread. I see that the oldest entry is referring to an earlier entry that I'm curious about, so I do the tug (pull down) and the next (older) block is fetched and displayed.
Likes
1. Sort by newest/oldest
2. Expand/Collapse all posts
3. Popular recently/all-time

Dislikes
1. No bold/italics for emphasis

I really like the last response date/time they added on the My Discussions page.  I don't have to look at every discussion to see if there's anything new.

Thanks Audiogon!
Sorry.  I find that the new format is so off-putting that I no longer check in regularly.  My loss, maybe, but it is too much bother.
kr4 - What exactly do you find so off-putting. Lots of people seem to be OK with it. If you go away it will be a loss for both you and for the rest of us.
Kal, I agree with dtc.  Your departure would be a huge loss for all of us.  I'm one of those "old farts" that doesn't like change.  That said, I've found myself adapting to the new format and it's beginning to grow on me.  I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing you'd stick around though.  Dick

I appreciate how Audiogon/Justin has pretty much hung with us, listened to the comments and continued to make changes that have been suggested and that Audiogon has believed to be improvements or enhancements.  Even though they haven't, or cannot, incorporate all the suggestions, you don't get that level of service very often (e.g., hardly ever/never) on an internet forum.

kr4, if you don't like it, that is unfortunate.  Rather than simply staying away and saying you don't like the "Navigation and display," which is pretty much the whole thing, maybe you could make specific suggestions that, if incorporated, would enhance things for all and help you like it better.  I know you made some specific suggestions earlier, which I mostly agreed with, but keep trying and maybe they will listen.  As others have said, we enjoy/appreciate your input to these forums. 

OK.  It is a holiday and I have time. I like information-rich pages.
1. Print is small and, if I make it bigger, I see less because.......
2. There is too much wasted white space on the screen on the sides and between posts, so I see less.
3. The screen with recent posts seems too cluttered as I am distracted by the use of color.
4.  The excess space makes for more scrolling than before.

Now, there may be work-arounds for these things but I have not been motivated to investigate.  
Kr, but excess format can be compensated with ability to sort and collide responses. 
This design is substantially better than used to be. It had glitches of work in progress -- lots of them when appeared, but with my and perhaps other members help who communicated with Justin, the forum media of audiogon now near perfect.

I have no idea what "sort and collide" means and I do not want to manage anything. I have always come here and scanned the posts of the last 12/24 hours, dealt with the ones of interest and left. It is simply more difficult to do that now.  

FWIW, I am not gone but my visits will be much less frequent.
kr4,
Agree with you about old 12/24 hours post page being the best.

Recently found that the new equivalent of that page is found by clicking browse at top left and selecting "All Recent".  Again, like old format better.   
I guess change is hard for some, but I view the new format as an improvement which will likely get even better with time. I also appreciated that Justin was responsive to many excellent suggestions during the beta phase.
I begin to get used to it,but honestly if it went back to the original format I wouldn't mind either.
George
At first I was quite negative about the forum changes, but as time goes by the problems are being corrected and I am getting more comfortable with it.  I am perhaps most impressed by the quick responses to complaints and questions.  Somebody is actually listening!
sometimes i like some comments of people and I would like to mark them like in youtube:)
in terms of clean performance and least number of production bugs the new system supersedes the old by zillion miles far. the old system had lots of unhandled login, listing and profile bugs. 
the only bug i noticed is member ebm does not use exclamations anymore for some reason:-)
I like the new format.  The old one was so tube-like in terms of age and technology but not smoothness . . . :)
How is everyone viewing system pages now?  Before, I could go straight to a system page by clicking on "system" from anyone's post, now it seems like I have to remember the posters name, leave the forum and go to a whole new area.  I'm guessing there has to be a better way?