My immediate thoughts...

Having experience with Invision Power Boards, VBulliten, Proboards, and obviously UBB, I have to say...whoever designed this layout needs to be fired. It is way too cluttered. There needs to be an option to turn off the entire left column, at least outside of the main page.

I don't mind all the columns for the main page, but for the posts, the post(s) should take up the whole screen as it is currently, not 3/4 with a bunch of useless links and other crap on the left side that I don't need to see 24/7.

I like the idea of bigger avatars, attachments, quick replies (please add this, its really nice... ). However, the aesthetics are HORRIBLE. I mean, yes, the functionality will be spectacular, but this layout is absolutely terrible, it hurts my eyes.

I'd look into some sort of custom layout or skin, Geoff, to get rid of some of these things. Less is better, imho, and if we can get rid of all the columns and boxes outside of the main page, I'd be 100% in favor of this switch. I really think that the pros are great, and the cons, with the aforementioned exceptions, should make for a better forum. I have to think other people have had similar problems with the UBB upgrade, so maybe there is some sort of mod/skin/hack or customization feature or add-on to fix this train wreck of a forum layout.

The changes look good to me, and I do not agree that not changing the look of the board is a "con."

It IS a little "busy". You can fix some of that, though, by changing your preference in how the screen is presented.

Go to MY STUFF.

Scroll down to MY PREFERENCES

Scroll down to YOUR PREFERRED STYLESHEET (and change it to UBBTHREADS)

Scroll down to TURN OFF RIGHT COLUMN (and answer YES)

Scroll down to SUBMIT (and hit the icon)

I find that a more pleasant view.

Yeah, once you hide the right column it is an easier read. Don't know how that would work if you want to use the shout box beings that's on the right hand side.

What is the "my watch list" under my stuff?

Where is that link to the new boards?

Crazy since I've been on them already ten minutes ago...

On Geoff's first post, towards the bottom it says "check it out".

I was just on. It seems to be working ok.

It IS a little "busy". You can fix some of that, though, by changing your preference in how the screen is presented.

Go to MY STUFF.

Scroll down to MY PREFERENCES

Scroll down to YOUR PREFERRED STYLESHEET (and change it to UBBTHREADS)

Scroll down to TURN OFF RIGHT COLUMN (and answer YES)

Scroll down to SUBMIT (and hit the icon)

I find that a more pleasant view. [/b][/quote]Yes, I've already turned that off. I'd like to be able to shut off the left column as well.

Basically, my solution would be to set the code so that these "columns" only appear on the frontpage, and then when you're at a specific forum (General Discussion, Sports, etc.) they are gone.

When I first checked out UBB.threads' Beta months ago, I was appalled at the "clutter" -- they even had a "portal" page that I found useless and of course disabled it here.

But in no time I got used to it, and actually started to like it (the columns, not the portal). Now, after playing with this for some time, I don't even notice.

GRANTED - So far the posts kinda look like shit with the header bars on each one, etc. I'd like to tighten it up a bit. I only used the same colors as the current board to reduce the "shock" value. I still like these colors, but maybe it needs to be toned down a bit.

UBB.threads 7.0 just came out. Down the line I'm sure there will be further customization hacks and such.

But the biggest problem right now isn't the sidebars -- like anything else in life, you'll get used to them and eventually won't even notice them unless you use them. The biggest problem right now is getting the colors more pleasing to the eye -- I think that is the biggest issue here at the moment. And obviously it's something I'll be working on!

I could move all the right-side stuff to the left as a default, but I like shout box where it is. When you ADD features, you gotta put them someplace, right? :p

And sure, I can turn off the left sidebar as well. But right now I don't wanna. MAYBE I'll make it a user option down the line, but I doubt it.

Try the "ubbthreads" stylesheet in preferences. I think that's more pleasing to the eye at this point. Maybe a blue like the ubb homepage. I'm still playing around.

That's why you're supposed to read the thread before going there... :p

Those of you who didn't get "every" PM of all time, did you only get 5 pages worth, exactly? Because that would reach the current 100 PM limit. Apparently Admins/Mods don't have that limit. When I do the switch, I'll increase it to 200 or 250 I guess....

Well make us all moderators for a day so we can see all our pm's. :p

Why couldn't it save the the 200 good ones?

It still seems it picked and chose which ones to keep. I have one from 2002, but am missing a good chunk after that. Did it scan them for any X-rated ones?

How long will you be in the testing phase Geoffy?

I think I'm gonna change my PW which board do I change it at and how many characters do I need?

Your current password on the new board won't work any more after the switch -- ALL info will be taken from the old board, so you can change BOTH passwords to the same thing if you want to make life easier. Don't know the character limit - it might say...

It saved my first ever PM. It was from some guy named JGeoff who was testing the new PM feature (7/24/01). That guy is still around.

The PM record is spotty, it has some really old (and useless ones) but missed many discussions I had with Plaw which I had deleted, and now in retrospect, I'd like to have back.

Geoff,

I got 8 pages, but I know some PM's are missing. Interestingly enough, the ones missing are the ones from people I've pm'd the most, both past & present.

TIS

Assuming that ALL PMs were at least imported into the database, as a test I just changed the limit from 100 to 400 -- do you see more older PMs now than you did before?

Jeoff, I like the new website. The red layout is a little annoying, so I switched to the other one.

I still have the same PM's.


TIS

Is everyone only seeing 10 Topics Per Page and 10 Replies Per Page?? It's set at 35 for both, but when I look at people's settings they're set to only 10....?

If you're only seeing 10, then you should change both to 35 in your preferences, to match the current board...

Total topics to to show per page: (default is 35)


Total posts to show on one page when viewing a post in flat mode: (default is 35)

Both of these should be 35?

Yeah... to be more like the current board... I don't know why it defaulted them all to 10

I also tweaked the look a bit - I think it's a little better

I still have the same pm's as before.

I could not log in with my old password and had to request a 'temporary' one. Did I mess up?

How do you send a pm?

Click on someone's name (when it's available as a link), or, go to their profile...

I wanted to comment on the pm notification system. I'm not sure if this can be changed through preferences but I like the way it just says "you have new messages." Just incase the title of the message is not appropriate (cough) or if it says something in there that you dont want others to read.

I'm personally torn between keeping my work email as my main one or switching it to another. Work is better because I can constantly check it and know there is a pm, the downside is that others can potentially read it too.

Just my .02

Another comment about the pm's. I liked it before you could read the pm in your email. And you knew it was from before opening the email. Can you bring that feature back?

OK I'll just change my email address

How do you know if a message has been read or not on the new board?