AtariAge

Those are really nice things to to say about all your customers who are not happy with these changes. I and others have already explained it has nothing to do with not liking change. :rolleyes: And it's not just the issue regarding which posts are shown, but also the drastic changes in the output and information that has been removed.

These threads keep popping up--is Invision really going to bury their collective heads in the sand?

http://forums.invisionpower.com/topic/287231-do-not-like-view-new-content/

..Al

Here's a recent post of mine in yet-another-thread complaining about this feature, where I detail my issues with "View New Content":



I've been beating this drum for a while, and on the old preview board there was a long running thread I started about "View New Content". My initial post in that thread was one of the highest voted posts I'd seen on the preview forum. Yet the "majority" of customers found the old "View New Content" confusing and wanted it changed? :rolleyes:

..Al

Same here, I have large site (1.6 million posts) and the "View New Content" issues are going to be a nightmare for me. I love most of what has been done with 3.0.0, but this one issue just boggles my mind as far as the changes made. I've posted extensively on this in the past, but Invision has been very resistant on making significant changes. Some improvements were made to the "View New Content" output to add in some of the information that was removed, but overall it's still a far cry from the 2.3.6 "View New Posts" feature and it's just going to aggravate the heck out of my userbase. I just want it to work like it did with 2.3.6--show me any new posts since my last visit, and show the same amount of information in a tabular format as before. I am not adverse to change by any means, but the changes that were made just seem like they were done so without being well thought out. This is such an important feature of forum software that it really has me looking at alternatives to IP.Board.


Yeah, this really dumbfounds me. I can't even imagine how the heck people would get confused about the old "View New Posts". I'd love to see some of those tickets. The old format is not too dissimilar from the Topics view. The new format is vastly different.

I understand from one perspective what Invision was trying to do with "View New Content" in that they wanted to blend search results from each of the different application modules. That's a noble goal, but when the search index feature was removed, the reason for having these dumbed-down search results was negated. Now that people are converting their 2.3.x boards to 3.0.0, I've seen many Invision customers complaining about "View New Content" for various reasons. I really hope Invision finally listens to their customer base and makes the necessary changes to fix this important feature. And by "fix" I mean at minimum at least revert it to the previous functionality.


Wholeheartedly agreed.

..Al

Working on that now, first an Admin CP setting and then a User setting:



..Al

Working on that now, first an Admin CP setting and then a User setting:



..Al

What? Seriously? How the heck can you come to such a conclusion? The people who liked the feature (as it was) never submitted tickets about it. I'd really love to see some of these tickets. Even with some people complaining about the way it works in 2.3.x, an option should have been provided to allow admins (or users) to decide how this should work. This is naivety on Invision's part if they didn't think such a change was going to net them some negative feedback. They were well within their power to make this change in such a fashion to keep everyone happy. And again, this is just one facet of the changes that were made.


I don't agree. If it's a feature many of your users use frequently, and is the primary means they use to hunt down new posts they may be interested in viewing, then it could easily sour your users to your forum with the switch to 3.0.0.

..Al

What? Seriously? How the heck can you come to such a conclusion? The people who liked the feature (as it was) never submitted tickets about it. I'd really love to see some of these tickets. Even with some people complaining about the way it works in 2.3.x, an option should have been provided to allow admins (or users) to decide how this should work. This is naivety on Invision's part if they didn't think such a change was going to net them some negative feedback. They were well within their power to make this change in such a fashion to keep everyone happy. And again, this is just one facet of the changes that were made.


I don't agree. If it's a feature many of your users use frequently, and is the primary means they use to hunt down new posts they may be interested in viewing, then it could easily sour your users to your forum with the switch to 3.0.0.

..Al

Here's a recent post of mine in yet-another-thread complaining about this feature, where I detail my issues with "View New Content":



I've been beating this drum for a while, and on the old preview board there was a long running thread I started about "View New Content". My initial post in that thread was one of the highest voted posts I'd seen on the preview forum. Yet the "majority" of customers found the old "View New Content" confusing and wanted it changed? :rolleyes:

..Al

Sorry, I have to call BS on this. I have nearly 20,000 members on my forum and nobody has EVER complained to me that "View New Posts" is confusing. Seriously, what the heck is confusing about it? It shows topics with new posts since your last visit! If someone finds that confusing, then it's amazing they were even able to create an account on your forum in the first place.


This is only one aspect of "View New Posts" that was changed, and I will certainly make the above change and test it to see how it compares to "View New Posts" in terms of the results being returned (topics with new posts since your last visit as opposed to "unread" topics). The display of the "View New Content" page (for the "Forums" tab) as well as the amount of information returned is still quite a bit different even with the above change.


Sure, things get changed over time and that's fine, when they are well thought out. Please, "not everyone is going to love these changes", talk about sugar coating it. Again, I can't believe that a majority of your customers requested this change. At the very least, the method by which results are returned should have been made an ACP (or perhaps user CP) option, and the display of the results shouldn't have been so drastically changed with less information.

..Al

Same here, I have large site (1.6 million posts) and the "View New Content" issues are going to be a nightmare for me. I love most of what has been done with 3.0.0, but this one issue just boggles my mind as far as the changes made. I've posted extensively on this in the past, but Invision has been very resistant on making significant changes. Some improvements were made to the "View New Content" output to add in some of the information that was removed, but overall it's still a far cry from the 2.3.6 "View New Posts" feature and it's just going to aggravate the heck out of my userbase. I just want it to work like it did with 2.3.6--show me any new posts since my last visit, and show the same amount of information in a tabular format as before. I am not adverse to change by any means, but the changes that were made just seem like they were done so without being well thought out. This is such an important feature of forum software that it really has me looking at alternatives to IP.Board.


Yeah, this really dumbfounds me. I can't even imagine how the heck people would get confused about the old "View New Posts". I'd love to see some of those tickets. The old format is not too dissimilar from the Topics view. The new format is vastly different.

I understand from one perspective what Invision was trying to do with "View New Content" in that they wanted to blend search results from each of the different application modules. That's a noble goal, but when the search index feature was removed, the reason for having these dumbed-down search results was negated. Now that people are converting their 2.3.x boards to 3.0.0, I've seen many Invision customers complaining about "View New Content" for various reasons. I really hope Invision finally listens to their customer base and makes the necessary changes to fix this important feature. And by "fix" I mean at minimum at least revert it to the previous functionality.


Wholeheartedly agreed.

..Al

Here's a recent post of mine in yet-another-thread complaining about this feature, where I detail my issues with "View New Content":



I've been beating this drum for a while, and on the old preview board there was a long running thread I started about "View New Content". My initial post in that thread was one of the highest voted posts I'd seen on the preview forum. Yet the "majority" of customers found the old "View New Content" confusing and wanted it changed? :rolleyes:

..Al

Sorry, I have to call BS on this. I have nearly 20,000 members on my forum and nobody has EVER complained to me that "View New Posts" is confusing. Seriously, what the heck is confusing about it? It shows topics with new posts since your last visit! If someone finds that confusing, then it's amazing they were even able to create an account on your forum in the first place.


This is only one aspect of "View New Posts" that was changed, and I will certainly make the above change and test it to see how it compares to "View New Posts" in terms of the results being returned (topics with new posts since your last visit as opposed to "unread" topics). The display of the "View New Content" page (for the "Forums" tab) as well as the amount of information returned is still quite a bit different even with the above change.


Sure, things get changed over time and that's fine, when they are well thought out. Please, "not everyone is going to love these changes", talk about sugar coating it. Again, I can't believe that a majority of your customers requested this change. At the very least, the method by which results are returned should have been made an ACP (or perhaps user CP) option, and the display of the results shouldn't have been so drastically changed with less information.

..Al

Same here, I have large site (1.6 million posts) and the "View New Content" issues are going to be a nightmare for me. I love most of what has been done with 3.0.0, but this one issue just boggles my mind as far as the changes made. I've posted extensively on this in the past, but Invision has been very resistant on making significant changes. Some improvements were made to the "View New Content" output to add in some of the information that was removed, but overall it's still a far cry from the 2.3.6 "View New Posts" feature and it's just going to aggravate the heck out of my userbase. I just want it to work like it did with 2.3.6--show me any new posts since my last visit, and show the same amount of information in a tabular format as before. I am not adverse to change by any means, but the changes that were made just seem like they were done so without being well thought out. This is such an important feature of forum software that it really has me looking at alternatives to IP.Board.


Yeah, this really dumbfounds me. I can't even imagine how the heck people would get confused about the old "View New Posts". I'd love to see some of those tickets. The old format is not too dissimilar from the Topics view. The new format is vastly different.

I understand from one perspective what Invision was trying to do with "View New Content" in that they wanted to blend search results from each of the different application modules. That's a noble goal, but when the search index feature was removed, the reason for having these dumbed-down search results was negated. Now that people are converting their 2.3.x boards to 3.0.0, I've seen many Invision customers complaining about "View New Content" for various reasons. I really hope Invision finally listens to their customer base and makes the necessary changes to fix this important feature. And by "fix" I mean at minimum at least revert it to the previous functionality.


Wholeheartedly agreed.

..Al

Oh come on, the majority. That's nonsense. This change is more about coder ego and has nothing to do with what a majority thinks.

I'm also looking for the return of the original poster. Is that part of the offer too?

I've been talking about this since the first day of IP3 previews in 2008. My hunch is now supported by feedback from my membership.

View New Posts and Today's Active Posts.

View New Content is a step down from View New Posts. Not sure what prompted it but it makes no sense. People want to follow their own threads through that feature. Was it that difficult to keep their own read posts in it? I'm trying to understand the logic for making that change.

Both of the above also need reference to the original posters in threads.

Without reverting back to those features it doesn't matter how much better the rest of the board is. They immediately detract from what should be a huge leap forward.

Came right up for me as well. Impressive given there are over 1400 people using the board (although amusingly, only 45 of those are logged in!!)

..Al

It would be nice if these errors could be viewed from the ACP--I had to look up an error yesterday while doing some testing. I was already in the ACP, but had to jump into a shell to take a look at the cgi file .

..Al

Huh, hadn't seen that before. I like it, especially if it would remember your preference (not sure if the Blog does).

..Al

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

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.

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

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

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

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