Not cool, guys!!

Okay, I thought I was done, but I'm not. The main forum list is way too "squished" in the middle so you have to scroll down forever to see all the option (the width before was much nicer) and I hate the little green bar denoting post counts. Placing an emphasis on number of posts seems like it will only encourage people to post to up their count instead of posting when they have something to say. I would love to see the green bars removed, keeping only the count number.

Cita bear with me, but how is a green bar more likely to incite posting for count than BEST IN SHOW or PUPPY, printed under your name? I find the bar less intrusive than the words...you don't even know what the bar is for unless you hover over it...the text was always there.

 i could care less if there is a green bar or best in show or nothing at all. i am a little peeved though about the shut down without any real notice. more peeved about the address change. like cita i spent a good bit of time checking the old address to see if the site was back up.

Hmm I wonder if maybe they didn't update the link thru dog.com right away or forward because they'd rather have had a steady trickle of folks back than a mass onslaught? Might've been easier to address issues 10 people were having at once than 100's, sneaky...but possible. I agree that Joel's note in Technical could've been earlier and in a more prominent place.

I just emailed Jaime and got the link...and apparently some other people already had the link and were beta testing the new forum style (btw did these issues exist in the Beta testing? If so were they reported then?). IMO anything new is going to seem fine with 10 people on it and like a big mess with 100's....that's new vaccines, procedures, forums...anything.

I am just hoping people out there are getting answers and posts aren't languishing because no one ever leaves this area....lol.

Wow, I am completely lost with this new forum... is dog.com trying to imitate myspace?

I love exploring new software and seeing what works and what does not.  And, I am a typical guy who loves doing things without instructions.  I have passed my main hurdle where I can post but post at work and not at home.  Hopefully that will be a priority to fix or resolve.   I think it best if we don't nickpick now and get the things that are suppose to work, to work. 

 

 

btw did these issues exist in the Beta testing? If so were they reported then?

yes and yes. i know emails and pm's were sent, and threads were started in the beta location. the address of the beta site was not the same as the new live site's address. at least not the site i was asked to critique.
 

Ditto!!!  I did the exact same thing, kept checking in to see what was going on.  They know our email addresses, why didn't we get notified.  As for the new look and feel, we would have gotten over it once the bugs were worked out and it became familiar.  But he shut down with no notification, or redirection was a BIG mistake.  Are we, the members, important?  I beleive this cost idog serveral members -- it is apparent.

rwbeagles

Hmm I wonder if maybe they didn't update the link thru dog.com right away

Nope.  I tried that for a couple of days...the link at top of page finally worked yesterday, the one in side bar was still coming up as "cannot find page."  Until yesterday, both links on dog.com were coming up with "cannot find page" due to opening page with the old forum address.

I found the new forum by periodically checking the dog.com site.  Then found the posted Forum Update thread last night.

That's what I mean Tao...they DIDN'T update links and notify on purpose to keep the flow of people back to a trickle rather than a flood.

 

The rest of this post is just general....not in response to yours Tao

As for notifying us...esp by email? Are you serious? The forum has what 20THOUSAND members some of which do not post at all! That's asking a bit much. This is not a club where we pay dues...it's a free forum. ALL admin and tech people here run the dog.com pet supply site FIRST then this free forum SECOND.

Perhaps because I've never ordered anything from dog.com...but this doesn't affect my decisions on that business site. IMO given all the complaints here...they probably should have shut the forum down COMPLETELY. Would have been a lot less trouble for them.

Yeah...there's my grump for the day.

DPU - IMO the most important piece missing here is the lack of communication to the members. You weren't trying to get on the forum for two days, like everyone else?  Did you know in advnace what was going on?  If yes, how?  Who informed you and not me?

It is not the change, although that can be a pain in the neck.  It's the disrepect to the members who were left not knowing what was going on.  You are a member who is "always" on - were you trying to figure out what was happening?  Did you waste any of your precious time for two days?  Rumor has it, the mod's weren't even made aware of the URL changes. 

 Sugar coat it anyway you want, put any spin on it as defense of this very unorginized and unprofessional boad but for me, this is "not cool" and I know that idog knows members are upset, I still haven't read a thread from any idog reps appologizing or explaining why this happened and how they can do better next time.  I have been a member here for two years and this is the second time this has happened.

 

My siggy is completely screwed up now, because the format of the forum has changed... EDIT: Got the image to work but still can't bold anything... Ok, got it to work... but for some reason, my edited post is not showing up!!! *Beats controls a few times to get them working...*

Luvmyswissy says: 

DPU - IMO the most important piece missing here is the lack of communication to the members. You weren't trying to get on the forum for two days, like everyone else?  Did you know in advnace what was going on?  If yes, how?  Who informed you and not me?

Hi Luvmyswissy,

I saw Joel (Admin) post in the technical question section about the forum going down.  It stated there were going to be new features that he was sure we would all like.  It also stated it was going to be down for a couple of hours but based on Joel's experience, it would probably be for a day.  I checked in every now and then and then after two and half days, I email Amstaffy and Admin asking when the forum would be up.  Amstaffy replied and gave me the link.  As I said, I think we should keep our cool until the big bugs are worked.  There will be plenty of time to make modification that all like.

So far, I think the new site is cool.

 

i returned to this site a few days ago because i loved it when i was active on it. i will say that having been a very active member on many different forums that all had different layouts, different styles and different manners of admin, as well as being an admin on a couple of forums and now having one of my own, this is one of the most poorly designed, poorly laid out, poorly adminned forums i have seen. the downtime and change of addy should have been a much more prominent announcement. i don't even know where the technical section of the forum is yet. an announcement section at the top of the board would be a better place if global announces are not an option. my first day back here, i did an extensive search for rules, and the best i could come up with is that they were being rewritten. every forum i have been on has had rules and they have been easy to find. yea, the common courtesy (bold?)should(bold?) go without saying, but stuff like can i post pictures? can i put a link in my sig? can i put a link in a post? do i need a minimum number of posts in order to send PM's? all these vary from site to site, and it would be nice to have it laid out somewhere, and somewhere easily found by newbies. IME, announcements and rules should be at the top of the board, above the hello's. i still can't post separate paragraphs, i have no idea how to format bold, italics, etc. there is some great information to be found here and i'll be sticking around for that, but i am very unhappy.