View New Content

[marklcfc]

Sorry but I have to say, it's horrific.

The view new posts feature on IPB2 is excellent, is used regularly on my forum for members to easilys view the latest posts in all forums. There is just something wrong, there is less info, but it's not easy on the eye, at all.

I assume this is how it's going to be as we've reached this stage.

[diannabanana]

Oh no have no fear! A user shared code with me which made view the latest posts with the same amount of information as previous versions- and it made my whole world happy! Even if the final does not have it, the code swap took a matter of seconds and has made "everything better"! Really, give them a chance to surprise you! I can't wait to see how terrific things are when its final, there are only so many hours in the day.

[bfarber]

I think he's more unhappy with the design than the data, at least with regards to his original post.

Remember that IPB is skinnable, so you can skin it to look however you want. :) We had to create a more generic interface since more types of content now show up in the search. This means it's much less "forum-specific" now, which I assume is where your dislike stems from mainly.

[Brandon D]

[quote name='bfarber' date='09 June 2009 - 10:14 AM' timestamp='1244556892' post='1808516']
We had to create a more generic interface since more types of content now show up in the search. This means it's much less "forum-specific" now, which I assume is where your dislike stems from mainly.

:blink: Each app can alter the way it's search results look in /extensions/searchDisplay.php. So couldn't search results from the forums be made to look more "forum-specific" and not affect the other apps?

I didn't like View New Content at first but it's grown on me. I like the simplicity of it.

[AtariAge]

I agree with the original poster--it's a shame that Invision appears ready to ship their updated flagship product with this new incarnation of "View New Posts". I started a long-running thread on the Preview forum regarding this, and while some improvements were made, overall the net result is that useful information was removed and it's now more difficult to parse. And don't get me started on returning "Unread" results instead of "New" results--the various tabs in this search aren't even consistent with how they work.

..Al

[Strike X]

Yeah it seem the majority of users are not happy with 'View New Content' design.

Hopefully the developers/designer will listen our feedback seriously.

[bfarber]

I really don't think it's the "majority" of users. Please remember that 5 (or 100 for that matter) users aren't the "majority" with a user-base as large as we have. :)

Nevertheless, we have been listening, and slowly improving the search from it's first incarnation. AtariAge even mentions this in his post. We've added back some of the more useful features to the search results.

@Brandon D - each app can alter the search display, yes, which is why I said it could be skinned. However, to go back to a IPB 2.3 style display we'd need to make the results tabular (in a table), and each search app can only alter the "row". Because it's wrapped as a list presently, and not a table, it's a bit more challenging to make it look exactly like it did in 2.3.

Let me ask you this, since I don't have the link to the old thread(s) on this offhand....what data is presently missing in the search results that is truly useful? Last post, view count and reply count, forum breadcrumb are all there. What is it that is missing exactly? I mean, is it really necessary to show every single bit of data that may have previously been in search results (I personally found the old 2.3 style search results a bit more confusing to sift through than the newer ui myself, but that's just an opinion) for the sake of saying it's there? Or is there something truly useful that isn't there now that would suddenly "fix" view new content?

[Michael]

Topic starter, the number of views, and a way to get to the first post in the topic are all missing, I think. I use Today's Active Content mostly, but I think the same applies to the View New Content list too.

[AtariAge]

[quote name='bfarber' date='09 June 2009 - 09:56 AM' timestamp='1244559365' post='1808529']
I really don't think it's the "majority" of users. Please remember that 5 (or 100 for that matter) users aren't the "majority" with a user-base as large as we have. :)
That old running thread on the Preview forum had quite a few posts in agreement with what I (and others) wrote, and my first post in that thread was quite upvoted. I would hazard a guess that the majority of people that regularly use the "View New Posts" function on 2.3.6 see the new "View New Content" results as a downgrade.


Some.


Yes, please do make the results tabular. Overall you guys have done a great job with 3.0, I'm quite confident that you are up to the challenge of properly remedying this issue. This is really the only major sticking point I have with 3.0 and it's a big one (the other being new topic markers, which is somewhat related).


It wasn't broken to begin with and did not need fixing at all.

1) Bring back the columnar format. It's easy to parse, and your eyes know right where to go for each bit of information once you're familiar with the format. The new format uses two "rows" of information for each "new" result and there is plenty of wasted white space. In this particular instance, adding white space for the sake of making the results appear "cleaner" simply doesn't work in my opinion. This goes against the grain "form follows function".

2) The topic title links to the first new post in the thread. Previously, the topic title linked to the first post in the thread and you used the "New Post" icon to go to the first new post. Now there is no way to go to the first post, which is useful if you want to catch up on a thread you haven't viewed in a while (among other reasons). This is completely inconsistent with how the title link works when viewing the topic list in a forum (which itself isn't consistent when viewing the forum index!!)

3) Number of "Views" was removed. Useful to see threads that are particularly active.

4) "Topic Starter" was removed. This is nice information to have, as you may be more interested in threads started by particular users than others. As a forum admin, this is also useful when you want to keep an eye on threads started by particular users (for instance, someone who may be a trouble starter).

5) You can no longer click on the number of "Replies" to get a popup showing the replies in a thread.

6) No attachments icon so you can see threads with attachments in them. This also includes the accompanying link that would give you a popup showing all the attachments (which I have used many times).

7) No means to get to the "Last Post". Currently in 2.3.6, the "Last post by" text links to the last post in the thread. Useful if you want to jump right to the end of a thread.

8) Page links were removed for threads spanning multiple pages. This includes the "Jump to page" link shown before the page links.

9) The "Get active topics for:" dropdown at the bottom of the "View New Post" results is gone. Functionality removed.

As you can see, even with the improvements you've made, there's still quite a bit missing from the original "View New Posts" results. Much of this functionality exists when viewing the topics in a forum. Link to first post in thread, topic starter, attachment link, replies link, link to last post, and number of views are all present, in a nice, columnar format. But the "View New Posts" results as it exists in 2.3, which is nearly identical in appearance, contains too much information? What?

Please bring back the functionality and appearance of the 2.3.6 "View New Posts" results.

..Al

Nevertheless, we have been listening, and slowly improving the search from it's first incarnation. AtariAge even mentions this in his post. We've added back some of the more useful features to the search results.

@Brandon D - each app can alter the search display, yes, which is why I said it could be skinned. However, to go back to a IPB 2.3 style display we'd need to make the results tabular (in a table), and each search app can only alter the "row". Because it's wrapped as a list presently, and not a table, it's a bit more challenging to make it look exactly like it did in 2.3.

Let me ask you this, since I don't have the link to the old thread(s) on this offhand....what data is presently missing in the search results that is truly useful? Last post, view count and reply count, forum breadcrumb are all there. What is it that is missing exactly? I mean, is it really necessary to show every single bit of data that may have previously been in search results (I personally found the old 2.3 style search results a bit more confusing to sift through than the newer ui myself, but that's just an opinion) for the sake of saying it's there? Or is there something truly useful that isn't there now that would suddenly "fix" view new content?

[teraßyte]

Actually view count is not shown in "View New Posts", only replies :P

The "missing" parts from the old IPB 2.3 style are: Topic Icon, Rating, Topic Starter, Views count.
Personally I would like to have back only Topic Starter and I'm not sure if the rating is actually shown or not in IPB 3 but I have never seen it yet :ermm:


EDIT: lol while I had the page open they made other 2 posts :lol:
Like Michael said also a way to go to the first post of the topic is missing and I would like to have it back together with topic starter.

Let me ask you this, since I don't have the link to the old thread(s) on this offhand....what data is presently missing in the search results that is truly useful? Last post, view count and reply count, forum breadcrumb are all there. What is it that is missing exactly? I mean, is it really necessary to show every single bit of data that may have previously been in search results (I personally found the old 2.3 style search results a bit more confusing to sift through than the newer ui myself, but that's just an opinion) for the sake of saying it's there? Or is there something truly useful that isn't there now that would suddenly "fix" view new content?

[Brandon D]

[quote name='bfarber' date='09 June 2009 - 10:56 AM' timestamp='1244559365' post='1808529']
@Brandon D - each app can alter the search display, yes, which is why I said it could be skinned. However, to go back to a IPB 2.3 style display we'd need to make the results tabular (in a table), and each search app can only alter the "row". Because it's wrapped as a list presently, and not a table, it's a bit more challenging to make it look exactly like it did in 2.3.

Ah, I see. So, to get tabular data you'd have to put a table within each list element (lol), or change the wrapping list to a table and make the necessary changes in each app's "row". The latter obviously being the ideal solution, but one I wouldn't wish upon anyone having to make this change late in IPB3 ;)

[Brett B]

I echo AtariAge's sentiments.

[Michael]

[quote name='aurorawx' date='09 June 2009 - 12:52 PM' timestamp='1244566325' post='1808567']
I echo AtariAge's sentiments.

As do I.

I think it's important for IPS to note that many people are expressing these same views, while I don't know if I've ever heard anyone say they prefer this new way of displaying the data. They shouldn't take the relatively few users who do express their displeasure with the new setup (relatively as compared to their entire user base) as meaning that everyone who isn't saying anything likes the new way. Yes, there are roadblocks to achieving both the multi-tabbed interface and displaying the data we're all used to, but these concerns we've been having have been presented for several months now.

[bfarber]

[quote name='Μichael' date='09 June 2009 - 11:08 AM' timestamp='1244560084' post='1808531']
and a way to get to the first post in the topic are all missing, I think.


[quote name='teraßyte' date='09 June 2009 - 11:30 AM' timestamp='1244561418' post='1808541']
Like Michael said also a way to go to the first post of the topic is missing and I would like to have it back together with topic starter.


The link itself always goes to the first unread post. I would think if you are using the "view new posts" feature, wouldn't you be more interested in picking up where you left off? That's kind of the whole idea behind such functionality. I want to see what's "new", so why would a user intentionally want to get taken to the beginning of the topic.


Step back for a moment and forget about how IPB 2 worked. Think about the actual flow of usage, and I think you can see what I mean there. Rest of the stuff you mentioned, AtariAge did too mainly, so I'll touch on that below.


[quote name='Brandon D' date='09 June 2009 - 11:34 AM' timestamp='1244561657' post='1808543']
Ah, I see. So, to get tabular data you'd have to put a table within each list element (lol), or change the wrapping list to a table and make the necessary changes in each app's "row". The latter obviously being the ideal solution, but one I wouldn't wish upon anyone having to make this change late in IPB3 ;)


Well, yes and no. Yes, in the respect that you're right, but I disagree that using a table for search results is necessarily "ideal". That's just my opinion though, and is neither here nor there.


[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 11:23 AM' timestamp='1244561021' post='1808536']

Yes, please do make the results tabular. Overall you guys have done a great job with 3.0, I'm quite confident that you are up to the challenge of properly remedying this issue. This is really the only major sticking point I have with 3.0 and it's a big one (the other being new topic markers, which is somewhat related).


It wasn't broken to begin with and did not need fixing at all.

1) Bring back the columnar format. It's easy to parse, and your eyes know right where to go for each bit of information once you're familiar with the format. The new format uses two "rows" of information for each "new" result and there is plenty of wasted white space. In this particular instance, adding white space for the sake of making the results appear "cleaner" simply doesn't work in my opinion. This goes against the grain "form follows function".

This is mostly opinion, however, and I'm not personally of the same opinion. Mind you, I don't do the skinning so that's irrelevant. ;) When I use searching (including view new posts, etc.) I *never* care about all that little meta data that is presented. I'm glad that the focus has been shifted appropriately. Now, when I click the link, I can easily scan the left hand column (which is much larger and cleaner to me) to see a list of the topic titles that are new. This, usually by itself, is going to determine if I want to read the topic. I don't really care who the last poster is, or how many attachments the topic has (really?) - the forum breadcrumb I find useful, as well as the icon to indicate if I've posted in the topic. I think the general layout is perfect myself.

The point here isn't to disagree with you, it's just to point out that different people have different opinions, and just because some people share your opinion doesn't mean everyone will. I'm confident that someone will post the necessary skin tweaks needed to put the search results back into a tabular format. The main problem is, as I see it, column headers - naturally the column headers for a topic search result isn't going to make any sense for gallery images, so I'm not sure the easiest way to create a centralized search application with a shared wrapper as it is now.

[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 11:23 AM' timestamp='1244561021' post='1808536']
2) The topic title links to the first new post in the thread. Previously, the topic title linked to the first post in the thread and you used the "New Post" icon to go to the first new post. Now there is no way to go to the first post, which is useful if you want to catch up on a thread you haven't viewed in a while (among other reasons). This is completely inconsistent with how the title link works when viewing the topic list in a forum (which itself isn't consistent when viewing the forum index!!)

This seems to be something a few people have brought up, but I fail to see the reason myself. Nevertheless, it would be extremely trivial to fix this in the skin, so I'm not sure why it's a huge sticking point really. I'm indifferent on the suggestion personally, as I'd still use the little box to the left of the topic title to go to the first unread post (though I do like the title doing that automatically, and actually played around with doing this within the forums themselves early on with IPB3). End result - easy change if you don't like how it is now, right?

[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 11:23 AM' timestamp='1244561021' post='1808536']
3) Number of "Views" was removed. Useful to see threads that are particularly active.

4) "Topic Starter" was removed. This is nice information to have, as you may be more interested in threads started by particular users than others. As a forum admin, this is also useful when you want to keep an eye on threads started by particular users (for instance, someone who may be a trouble starter).

5) You can no longer click on the number of "Replies" to get a popup showing the replies in a thread.

6) No attachments icon so you can see threads with attachments in them. This also includes the accompanying link that would give you a popup showing all the attachments (which I have used many times).

7) No means to get to the "Last Post". Currently in 2.3.6, the "Last post by" text links to the last post in the thread. Useful if you want to jump right to the end of a thread.

8) Page links were removed for threads spanning multiple pages. This includes the "Jump to page" link shown before the page links.

These all seem like such minor things.
Number of views: This doesn't seem like something that is necessarily that relevant in a search. What search engine do you use? Do you use Google? Look at google's search results - you basically see a title and some text, and that's it. And it works well. Because it's easy to scan down the search results without having 10,000,000 meta data pieces of information presented that usually aren't relevant as to whether the search result (including new posts) is what you want to read. To each his own. I can say that the data is available to the skin template so it would be easy adding back in.

Topic starter: I'm indifferent on this. I can see why some might find it useful, to be honest, though, so I'd be fine with adding this back in.

Replies popup: Completely unnecessary in search results if you ask me. I don't even use it in the forum listing. To each his own. It would, again, be trivial adding it back into the skin (you just add a link to the appropriate page, and then add an id on that link, in the template, and then include the right js file)

No attachments icon: This shows up for normal searches, so I would have guessed it shows for view new post as well? Shows as a link below the topic last post info. Again, I'm indifferent as I'd never use this as an indicator as to whether I wanted to read the thread, ultimately.

Get to last post link: Is this *really* useful though? Again, a lot of this just seems like you are pointing out what was removed with the statement "this could be useful because" - I don't really think it *is* useful 99% of the time. Again, I'm indifferent on this as I'd never use it, and it would be trivial to add such a link back into the template.

Page links: I wouldn't use it, but I can see why some might want this. I used to use it a lot, before I got into the habit of just going to the first unread post.


All of these, to me, just seem like a list of "here is what was there and isn't now" more-so than a reasoning as to what is wrong with the search itself. It just seems like a case of resistance to change more than anything. Most of the above I'm indifferent on personally. If they were added or not, wouldn't make much difference to me as a user. However, I do feel if they were added it would take away quite a bit in how easy it is for me to scan the results now. To each his own.

At the end of the day however, it's completely possible to add these things back into your site with only template changes, so I don't feel like the system needs a total overhaul myself. It's quite plausible that perhaps a secondary skin shipped with IPB could address all of these things quite to your liking, for instance.

[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 11:23 AM' timestamp='1244561021' post='1808536']
9) The "Get active topics for:" dropdown at the bottom of the "View New Post" results is gone. Functionality removed.

Much to my embarrassment, I'm not even sure what feature this is that you are referring to. I could probably go load up one of my old 2.3 installs to find out, but if I don't even know what the feature is or does off the top of my head, I can say with confidence I must have no real use for it. :P

[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 11:23 AM' timestamp='1244561021' post='1808536']As you can see, even with the improvements you've made, there's still quite a bit missing from the original "View New Posts" results. Much of this functionality exists when viewing the topics in a forum. Link to first post in thread, topic starter, attachment link, replies link, link to last post, and number of views are all present, in a nice, columnar format. But the "View New Posts" results as it exists in 2.3, which is nearly identical in appearance, contains too much information? What?

Please bring back the functionality and appearance of the 2.3.6 "View New Posts" results.

..Al



To summarize what I was saying above...
While I'm indifferent on many of the things you suggested (if they were added, it wouldn't really bother me), I personally feel a lot of the stuff you are talking about isn't extremely relevant to a "search". I guess view new posts can be considered a special case - perhaps some of the information is more useful there than in a generic search. It just feels more like you are used to seeing the results as they were in 2.3 and don't like the fact that they changed, more than this being a case of data is actually needed but not presented. Information can be packed onto the screen until it's completely covered, but I don't feel like that's a better UI for the majority of users (myself included), personally. If you are used to a layout, sure. If you aren't, I feel like the current search results are much easier to read than they were in 2.3.


Additionally, for something like search I would take a moment and use a real search engine and see how it displays the results. If you search google, yahoo or msn, largely the results are simplistic. If you search youtube or flickr, you see a bit more data, but it's still pushed off with the focus being on the *content* (in our case this would be topic title + post content).


(Keep in mind these are my personal opinions - I don't control the layout or the skinning, so it's not ultimately up to me)

[bfarber]

As a result of this topic, I'm curious how hard it would be to create the skin changes necessary to display the data how you want. I can't say whether any of that would be available by default with IPB (since I don't control the skinning), but perhaps if we supplied the necessary changes to make the search look the way you are used to, would that be an acceptable compromise? i.e. either through the resource site, or some other similar manner?

I think with maybe 30 minutes tonight of my own time I can come up with something that resembles the 2.x style. I wouldn't want to spend my time doing that if it's not something you'd ultimately be interested in (i.e. if you would only be happy if it is released by default in IPB). That is, just to show you that I'm not ignoring what you're saying, even if I don't agree personally. :)

[Lewis P]

Sounds great, Brandon. :)

Users on our site are freaking over not having their table layout. I've already had to hack into the code to add back the page numbers (which surprisingly wasn't able to be skinned in) and to revert the change to what type of posts are shown (unread or new) against my wishes (I feel the new way is a lot better. I don't want to see 'old' content on the view NEW content page)



As much as it adds possible useless options, for 3.1, I think the user should be able to choose what type of content to show (unread or new) and whether or not in tabular format, or the current format.

[AtariAge]

[quote name='bfarber' date='09 June 2009 - 12:02 PM' timestamp='1244566926' post='1808572']
To summarize what I was saying above...
While I'm indifferent on many of the things you suggested (if they were added, it wouldn't really bother me), I personally feel a lot of the stuff you are talking about isn't extremely relevant to a "search". I guess view new posts can be considered a special case - perhaps some of the information is more useful there than in a generic search. It just feels more like you are used to seeing the results as they were in 2.3 and don't like the fact that they changed, more than this being a case of data is actually needed but not presented. Information can be packed onto the screen until it's completely covered, but I don't feel like that's a better UI for the majority of users (myself included), personally. If you are used to a layout, sure. If you aren't, I feel like the current search results are much easier to read than they were in 2.3.
You state a few times that perhaps I am just being resistant to change. That couldn't be further from the truth. I've embraced most of what Invision has done with 3.0 and there have been considerable changes. However, "View New Content" as it pertains to posts is clearly a step backwards. The old "View New Posts" feature works well and conveys useful information in a reasonable amount of space. I'm not saying "pack information onto the screen until it's completely covered", please don't put words in my mouth. While I certainly do not use every feature and link of the "View New Posts" page every time I call it up, I can say that I have used all of the features at some time, and some of the removed elements I use quite frequently. And appearance-wise, it's just easier to parse this information when it's in a columnar format.

Have you had people complaining that the "View New Posts" results are too cumbersome to use? I've never had anyone complain about it on my forum (which has been running IP.Board for 4+ years), and as I stated before, it's very similar in appearance to how the forum view looks now (even in 3.0). This also extends to the normal Search results, which I'm also not happy about. I just haven't used them very often here since 3.0 arrived, so I forget that those are also formatted the same way.

Sure, individual forum admins can skin their forum in such a way to add some/most/all of this information back, and to skin it in a fashion more akin to 2.3. However, I visit many forums, some of which run IP.Board. If IPB 3 ships with this implementation of "View New Content", that means pretty much all IP.Boards I visit will have this retrograded "View New Content" layout. I used to use "View New Posts" all the time on your company forum--now I hardly use it at all.


I don't feel it's fair to compare forum search results to those of a generic search engine like Google. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Forums have very specific data that is returned when you search, whereas Google has to be very generic with their results. If that's the model you were going after, I don't feel that it is appropriate in this case.

I can understand your goal in wanting a more "generic" search that encompasses the Discussion, Gallery, Downloads, Blog, etc. modules of the forum, and returning those results in a somewhat consistent appearance. This is admirable, especially if you are ever able to get the master search index working and can merge all the results onto a single page (as was initially the case). But as it stands now, the results are shown independently on each tab, and as a result, I feel you should base the formatting on the data available, and not try to shoehorn that content into a particular style as is being done now.

..Al

Additionally, for something like search I would take a moment and use a real search engine and see how it displays the results. If you search google, yahoo or msn, largely the results are simplistic. If you search youtube or flickr, you see a bit more data, but it's still pushed off with the focus being on the *content* (in our case this would be topic title + post content).

[Michael]

[quote name='bfarber' date='09 June 2009 - 01:02 PM' timestamp='1244566926' post='1808572']
The link itself always goes to the first unread post. I would think if you are using the "view new posts" feature, wouldn't you be more interested in picking up where you left off? That's kind of the whole idea behind such functionality. I want to see what's "new", so why would a user intentionally want to get taken to the beginning of the topic.
It's often helpful to go back and re-read through the topic. Sure, I have read the topic at one point, but that was last week, and I've read a lot of stuff since then. I'd like to be able to refresh my memory of what all was discussed without starting at the post which is unread; that post may not even be on the same page I get taken to when I click the link to the topic.

[AtariAge]

[quote name='Putzу' date='09 June 2009 - 12:22 PM' timestamp='1244568149' post='1808579']
Users on our site are freaking over not having their table layout. I've already had to hack into the code to add back the page numbers (which surprisingly wasn't able to be skinned in) and to revert the change to what type of posts are shown (unread or new) against my wishes (I feel the new way is a lot better. I don't want to see 'old' content on the view NEW content page)
I personally feel that "View New Content" should work as it did with 2.3.6, that is, show only new posts since my last visit. This is what happens now with the other tabs, so it's not even internally consistent. I will certainly make the same change you did, although it would be nice if this was a global setting in the ACP instead so admins could set it as they wish.


Finding "New" content is one of the most important features forums provide. After all, that's often why you repeatedly visit a forum, to find out "what's new". Giving users the ability to personalize how this feature works is not useless at all in my opinion.

..Al

As much as it adds possible useless options, for 3.1, I think the user should be able to choose what type of content to show (unread or new) and whether or not in tabular format, or the current format.

[Lewis P]

I don't mean useless as not being worthwhile, I mean useless as being how many users will actually bother changing the settings. :)

[AtariAge]

[quote name='bfarber' date='09 June 2009 - 12:05 PM' timestamp='1244567128' post='1808574']
As a result of this topic, I'm curious how hard it would be to create the skin changes necessary to display the data how you want. I can't say whether any of that would be available by default with IPB (since I don't control the skinning), but perhaps if we supplied the necessary changes to make the search look the way you are used to, would that be an acceptable compromise? i.e. either through the resource site, or some other similar manner?

I think with maybe 30 minutes tonight of my own time I can come up with something that resembles the 2.x style. I wouldn't want to spend my time doing that if it's not something you'd ultimately be interested in (i.e. if you would only be happy if it is released by default in IPB). That is, just to show you that I'm not ignoring what you're saying, even if I don't agree personally. :)

I appreciate your offer to spend your own time to work on this issue, but really feel that it's important enough that this should be done on Invision time. If you make available a mod of some sort that formats the search results akin to 2.3, that's great and I'd certainly take advantage of it (so it certainly would not be a waste of your time), but ideally I'd like to see this integrated into the base software. As I stated earlier, I visit other IP.Board forums on a routine basis, and it sure would be nice to have "View New Content" be comparable to the 2.3 version whenever I visit those forums.

I'd be quite happy if an alternate search results view was made as an option, either globally (the admin sets it) or individually (users can modify it in "My Settings"). And as Michael mentioned, also having an option to determine if "New" (since your last visit) or "Unread" posts were displayed would be ideal. I'd then shut the hell up about this once and for all. ;)

..Al

[AtariAge]

[quote name='Putzу' date='09 June 2009 - 12:38 PM' timestamp='1244569088' post='1808588']
I don't mean useless as not being worthwhile, I mean useless as being how many users will actually bother changing the settings. :)

I see what you mean now. :) If a choice was made available, I would likely make the default view the columnar format. I'm sure some people would experiment to look at the "New" style, but not sure how many would stick with it.

..Al

[bfarber]

[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 01:25 PM' timestamp='1244568309' post='1808582']
I don't feel it's fair to compare forum search results to those of a generic search engine like Google. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Forums have very specific data that is returned when you search, whereas Google has to be very generic with their results. If that's the model you were going after, I don't feel that it is appropriate in this case.

I can understand your goal in wanting a more "generic" search that encompasses the Discussion, Gallery, Downloads, Blog, etc. modules of the forum, and returning those results in a somewhat consistent appearance. This is admirable, especially if you are ever able to get the master search index working and can merge all the results onto a single page (as was initially the case). But as it stands now, the results are shown independently on each tab, and as a result, I feel you should base the formatting on the data available, and not try to shoehorn that content into a particular style as is being done now.

..Al


You'll note I also did point to youtube and flickr, for a more niche-specific look. Ideally, all search results, at some point perhaps, will get merged into one page. When/if we can achieve that goal fully, it will be impossible to have a proper tabular layout as you are talking about.


[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 01:31 PM' timestamp='1244568681' post='1808585']
I personally feel that "View New Content" should work as it did with 2.3.6, that is, show only new posts since my last visit. This is what happens now with the other tabs, so it's not even internally consistent. I will certainly make the same change you did, although it would be nice if this was a global setting in the ACP instead so admins could set it as they wish.


I've toyed with the idea of adding a per-user setting for this, and likely will at some point. It shouldn't be that dramatic to do in all honesty. I've already posted the modification to revert your board to this older method on the resource site.

However, I'll tell you now that for as long as I've worked here, and before that, users have been asking us to make view new content show *unread* content. "It doesn't make sense to show me a topic I just read in 'view new content' - it's obviously not new to me". One of those -can't please everyone- scenarios, really.


[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 01:39 PM' timestamp='1244569192' post='1808589']
I appreciate your offer to spend your own time to work on this issue, but really feel that it's important enough that this should be done on Invision time. If you make available a mod of some sort that formats the search results akin to 2.3, that's great and I'd certainly take advantage of it (so it certainly would not be a waste of your time), but ideally I'd like to see this integrated into the base software. As I stated earlier, I visit other IP.Board forums on a routine basis, and it sure would be nice to have "View New Content" be comparable to the 2.3 version whenever I visit those forums.

I'd be quite happy if an alternate search results view was made as an option, either globally (the admin sets it) or individually (users can modify it in "My Settings"). And as Michael mentioned, also having an option to determine if "New" (since your last visit) or "Unread" posts were displayed would be ideal. I'd then shut the hell up about this once and for all. ;)

..Al


We are not generally in the habit of making alternate layouts be skin options. It's just too cumbersome. I can only offer to make an alternate layout for search and supply it for those that want - ultimately how IPB ships with regards to it's layout is not within my control. As well, as I've stated, I prefer the new layout myself anyways.

[dr. Jekyll]

[quote name='AtariAge' date='09 June 2009 - 07:31 PM' timestamp='1244568681' post='1808585']
Finding "New" content is one of the most important features forums provide. After all, that's often why you repeatedly visit a forum, to find out "what's new". Giving users the ability to personalize how this feature works is not useless at all in my opinion.

..Al


I totally agree with you!

Let see how easy is to read the "view new content" in vBulletin



Immediately under the "thread name" there is the "thread starter" and not the useless path as in IPB 3.0

In vBulletin is also easy to see the last post, replies, views and forum name.

Some time is necessary to be modest ad admit that vBulletin has a better "view new content" than ipb 3.0

[bfarber]

[quote name='dr. Jekyll' date='09 June 2009 - 02:17 PM' timestamp='1244571421' post='1808598']
Immediately under the "thread name" there is the "thread starter" and not the useless path as in IPB 3.0


Personally, I would prefer to keep the forum path where it is.

If the topic starter were to be listed, I'd put it in a separate column (this is how IPB 2.x displayed it).