Welcome to the new LB site!

Yeah, it’s a bit odd that there’s no apparent way to change the email address to which notifications get sent, but I’ve had so many it’s actually quite nice they’re going to one I largely ignore.

Jay, is there a particular thread you’d like these suggestions in, or just one per issue? Can we see what the beta testers asked for? :slight_smile:

Ah Sam, you had a pre-existing access issue then. This is a recovery scenario. I’m happy to help. Email [email protected] with your new address and your full name please and I’ll take care of it.

Big Red S, editing profile info is coming. I’ll add it to the upcoming feature list. For now please use this thread for suggestions until we come up with something better:
https://londonbikers.com/forums/posts/1044433/upcoming-feature-list

Just one question, which none probably dare to ask, and I’m already !popular enough.

Why author software which obviously will need a loot of work and involvement (to the level of wearing you down probably) instead of working all around solutions?

R

The Jetstreams did ask (here: https://londonbikers.com/forums/posts/1044433/upcoming-feature-list); it sounds like the contract was up on the old forum’s hosting and the choice was therefore between trying to migrate that or switching to new.

I imagine lots of people with little knowledge of what the old one looked like under the bonnet (besides the problems that shone through the UI) will suggest the migration would’ve been fine.

Blade, we appraised our options and it wasn’t an easy decision to come to. We’d have liked to have used some out-of-the-box software that did what we want and fit into our list of core competencies in terms of support and maintenance and then factored in content migration. The results were, there wasn’t anything. We could have spun up a new forum site on a platform we’re not totally familiar with and tried to work out how to migrate the content but there were too many unknowns in that for it to be something we could gamble LB on.

Not migrating the content (over a million posts, ten years of content, thousands upon thousands of news articles, features and tens of thousands of gallery photos) simply would not have been an option, it would be like losing your legacy. It’s part of who we are, part of the core value of LB. We’ve managed to migrate the content to a new platform we’re in full control of.

Also, any software we’d have switched over to would just be forum software. Something that hasn’t changed for years and doesn’t look like it will. We want something that still has the functionality of a forum but can evolve to offer much more, a more modern communication platform. We’re working on that, i.e. better way to show photo gallery posts, push back to other networks and other integrations, i.e. a ride-out planner, a better classifieds system, the stolen vehicle database, etc. There’s a lot of scope that we just wouldn’t have with anything we’d have acquired.

I appreciate that right now we have some features missing that we want, but we have the basics and we’ll add the rest in asap and before long this will be a distant memory :slight_smile:

Was wondering what that fresh smell was! :slight_smile:

It looks basic (MVP? :wink: ) but I am sure we can all give the team some time to add functionality in the coming weeks!
So thanks for the hard work already thrown into this!

Thanks Jay, I was just curious.

**R

Jay, all looking good, well done!! I know its been a lot of work. what’s the forum for making suggestions for improvement? should those beta testers still use the agreed previous method or is a new thread on here your preferred course?

Looks great guys. Love the “Popular” and “Latest” lists. Gives a nice view over sections you might not delve into as often.

KTM D, I suggest using this Upcoming Features List thread for suggestions at the moment:
https://londonbikers.com/forums/posts/1044433/upcoming-feature-list

Beta testers should continue to use the beta site for test new features as everything will get tested there before it hits the site.

Thanks!

Can you remind me the beta url as this what I have not working :frowning:

R

Email us for it Blade - [email protected]

Just to be clear I like the new site and have no knowledge of inner working of websites. There seems to have been a lot of hard work put into this new site. I like the way sections that I’ve not noticed before are now very apparent and the whole site is a lot easier to navigate. :smirk:

I just feel it may have launched a little early, having a few more of the features such as pictures PM’s and signatures would have kept everybody happier.:sunglasses:

Anyway thanks a lot for the hard work and I look forward to the new features. :smiley:

i thought you handed the reins over on LB, jay?
did you miss it that much?

Yep, I did step away for a couple of years. I needed to.

But of course I missed it, how could I not? LB is in my heart, biking is in my heart. Over a decade of LB now, that’s amazing. I couldn’t let it slide into obsolescence. I’m back to push LB to the front again.

Jay is there a way to stop notifications from the whole site, I’ve tried doing each post but it keeps ticking the box when I look at a thread again.
I for one thank you for putting so much of your time and energy into the site, I certainly couldn’t do it, without someone like you forums wouldn’t exist.
Many thanks
Chris

Thanks Chris.

If you toggle the “Following topic” button underneath the topic subject it’ll stop notifications.

When you post a reply, you can choose not to get notifications by un-ticking the “Get notifications” option next to the Submit Reply button. I think for now I’ll make this opt-in, not opt-out.

Hmm… I appreciate the work you’ve put into it but being a web developer myself l I’ll be honest and harsh and say I don’t really like it. The forum looks pretty bad on a 27" wide-screen monitor. Creates the impression that it’s loading a mobile-optimised site instead of a full desktop one (especially with the hamburger icon in the top left, which is in 99% of cases only displayed for mobile websites). Everything is too white, avatars that I used to tell people apart are gone and content is hard to distinguish (wall of text when reading threads with no clear visual separation apart from the time).

Is there a specific reason why you didn’t use an existing blogging system but instead reinvented a wheel? There are tonnes of them out there that you could’ve used that have all the core features available out of the box. I personally don’t really see the point of doing something that others have done already numerous times.

Also, I don’t think you should’ve launched it with so many basic features missing. I suppose you wanted to get it out there for everyone to see but so far it feels like a beta test.

I know someone will probably say “make your own forum if you don’t like this one” but that’s not the point, is it? I know people find it difficult to accept change but in this case I don’t consider this an improvement but more of a different approach. Yes, the old site didn’t work well on mobile but that could’ve been easily fixed with some improved stylesheets. It didn’t need such a radical overhaul like it is now. That’s just me though…

P.S.
Changing the class on the div from “container-fluid” to “container” makes it a bit more usable but still too big and pale for my liking.

Cypher, reason for custom development on previous page. Do read up. There’s been lots of discussion regarding this being an early piece of work in progress. Also remember that your 27" monitor is not that common and in fact in the opposite direction of the trend for how the site is accessed. That said there’s lot’s to come to fill it out so stick around.

Sensible suggestions for improvement welcome in the Upcoming Features List thread in the Announcements forum.

Even better there’s a thread asking if we have any developers onboard. Might be worth posting in there if you have skills.

Found your post. Going custom makes sense in that case, I agree.

Regarding my monitor - size doesn’t matter. It’s the fact that it’s a fluid layout, which is meant to fill up the whole width of the page and it doesn’t really work on widescreen monitors. I personally can’t remember the last time when I saw someone use a 4:3 monitor.

I don’t mind this mobile view being there as long as it’s mobile only but when the main website looks like a desktop stylesheet hasn’t loaded then it sucks :slight_smile: