NOT a site issue, but maybe worth some thought

[jaclaz]

7 minutes ago, xper said:

Tested with Opera 36. Everything works perfect.

Well, that is not really surprising, it's just Chromium (or more exactly Webkit or Blink) by any other name....

With the Opera I use, version 12.15 (as said Presto engine) though not as "old" as the versions used by ihateusernames, there are a number of strange quirks, particularly (but not only) in the editor (which is "queer" as - as said elsewhere - the "plain" CK editor works fine in it).

jaclaz
 

[xper]

1 hour ago, jaclaz said:

With the Opera I use, version 12.15 (as said Presto engine) though not as "old"

More than 3 years old. I'm writing this from Opera 12.15 and I can see some differences. In a technology world we live today
people can't expect at todays forum software works perfect with browsers old as 3-5-7 years.
 

2 hours ago, ihateusernames said:

This forum now causes Opera 9.25 to crash instantly

Opera 9.25 release date 19 Dec 2007. Sure it's not working as intended with forum software released 2016.
 

[jaclaz]

2 hours ago, xper said:

More than 3 years old. I'm writing this from Opera 12.15 and I can see some differences. In a technology world we live today
people can't expect at todays forum software works perfect with browsers old as 3-5-7 years.

Opera 9.25 release date 19 Dec 2007. Sure it's not working as intended with forum software released 2016.

I don't think people expect it, I believe people expect that it works (somewhat).
The level at which it works (or fails to work) is in the eye of the beholder, but one thing is some quirks in the interface (when editing/replying/etc. even if seemingly unmotivated), another is crashing the browser on access or preventing from logging in (though this latter has less relevance if after the login an old browser would not be capable of replying to a post or making a new thread).

jaclaz

[xper]

2 minutes ago, jaclaz said:

another is crashing the browser on access or preventing from logging in

I tried Opera 12.15 for one hour and didn't have any issue with crashing or logging in/out.
No problem with posting, editing etc.
Main top menu doesn't work as intended. Not showing scroll menu.
Will try 9.25 and see what can I do about it.

[jaclaz]

Sure, as said I use Opera 12.15 "normally" (with a few quirks, particularly in the editor), it was ihateusernames that attempted to access the board with two older version the oldest one crashing.

jaclaz
 

[xper]

Right, just tried Opera 9.25 and it crashed right away every single time i tried. 

[submix8c]

Not OT (surely), but (as I have stated before) older OS will only support older Browser, hence the loss of some (many) Win9x Members. UNLESS they upgrade to (Win2k? or) XP (and maybe even higher). Kind of reminescent of MS' "upgrades" that clobber Windows Updates (yes, they moved to a different server platform).

The only choice is to do battle with what we have, work around, tweak, upgrade as necessary (both HW and SW), hack a little, and pray for the best.

< /NotOT >

[Tommy]

14 hours ago, xper said:

More than 3 years old. I'm writing this from Opera 12.15 and I can see some differences. In a technology world we live today
people can't expect at todays forum software works perfect with browsers old as 3-5-7 years.
 

Opera 9.25 release date 19 Dec 2007. Sure it's not working as intended with forum software released 2016.
 

However my question is, and it's not questioning your decision to upgrade whatsoever, but what on the regular user's side has changed so drastically that it requires a browser upgrade? There are a few little flashier things (on our side) like when we get notifications that pop up down on the bottom of the screen...but as far as functionality goes, why does the forum software require such a new browser when it basically works just about the same way as it did many years ago. I've checked out the same IPS version we're using as a demo and I honestly think the way they've changed stuff is absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary. But we live in a time where flashy is more important than functionality. (The admin panel is a disaster as far as I'm concerned) All it is is to keep getting people to move up and up to newer things. And most of the time instead of improving the original coding, they rewrite it and just create new holes and exploits. Kinda like Microsoft in a way!

As far as older browsers go though, this site works almost flawlessly on Firefox 9.0.1 on Windows 98. Just a few very minor quirks that don't effect usability at all.

[nostaglic98]

2 hours ago, Tommy said:

However my question is, and it's not questioning your decision to upgrade whatsoever, but what on the regular user's side has changed so drastically that it requires a browser upgrade? There are a few little flashier things (on our side) like when we get notifications that pop up down on the bottom of the screen...but as far as functionality goes, why does the forum software require such a new browser when it basically works just about the same way as it did many years ago. I've checked out the same IPS version we're using as a demo and I honestly think the way they've changed stuff is absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary. But we live in a time where flashy is more important than functionality. (The admin panel is a disaster as far as I'm concerned) All it is is to keep getting people to move up and up to newer things. And most of the time instead of improving the original coding, they rewrite it and just create new holes and exploits. Kinda like Microsoft in a way!

As far as older browsers go though, this site works almost flawlessly on Firefox 9.0.1 on Windows 98. Just a few very minor quirks that don't effect usability at all.

I completely agree. A lot of modern software, websites and such are all style, and no substance.

The few that are left with a simplistic interface that works with nearly any browser are becoming increasingly fewer and farther between.

[buyerninety]

nostaglic98 said;

"and very small areas where the actual information you want is displayed"

The worst standout example of this is a members messages.

PREVIOUS board layout - (in a approx 1/2 page size right side panel;)

You could view one page with a scroll bar (something like 15+ messages

without scrolling), of message headings and part message, that's about

50 messages with scrolling, if I remember correctly. The remaining

messages accessible and viewable as previously described, simply by

clicking on a page '2' button.

NOW Inbox (in a smaller left side panel;)

You can view 5 messages, with only about a 6 to 8 words of the message

beginning, with a scroll bar to reach all the remaining messages, which

are loaded dynamically to the bottom of the scrollable area BUT you

can only see 5 messages at a time. This is not helpful if you are trying to

find a message by remembering (relating) when it was in relation to

other messages you received.

(Also, I can't remember if there was previously a 'Sent' box for 'sent'

messages, but there doesn't seem to be one (NOW) that I can see.) 

Sigh. Is there no way the old format/layout of the board can be accessed,

perhaps by a 'legacy theme'?

[bphlpt]

9 hours ago, buyerninety said:

...

(Also, I can't remember if there was previously a 'Sent' box for 'sent'

messages, but there doesn't seem to be one (NOW) that I can see.) 

Sigh. Is there no way the old format/layout of the board can be accessed,

perhaps by a 'legacy theme'?

Yes, there used to be a "Sent" box until very, very recently. Now, all conversations that are not drafts are put in the "Inbox", whether they have been responded to or not, In a way I guess that's actually more convenient.  But now the name "Inbox" is no longer valid. Progress?

As to why there are no longer pages 2, 3, etc, but just dynamically loaded "more", the pages are still there, which you will see if you let "more" load and then scroll through what is loaded.  The "Page 2", etc, headings are still there.  For the majority of folks this will not be an issue, but if you have a lot of messages, (such as xper?), I think this will be inconvenient. There is no reason I can think of why the ability to go directly to "Page 4" or whatever was removed. I think they tried to change the forum threads to this same navigation method , which would be totally unworkable for longer threads, so maybe the "Page" ability is still there and could be reinstated?

Overall, it seems the IPB folks thought that the "Facebook" type model is appropriate for all forums? (I don't think that it is.)

Cheers and Regards

Edited July 4, 2016 by bphlpt

[Tarun]

Invision is actually doing what is very common. Here, look at these screenshots of Office 2007.

[nostaglic98]

On 4/7/2016 at 2:03 AM, buyerninety said:

Sigh. Is there no way the old format/layout of the board can be accessed,

perhaps by a 'legacy theme'?

I wish... The PHP boards I've been on do include a "legacy" theme. Don't understand why the IPB folks find that so difficult to do.

[CamTron]

It's also about hardware. Trying to browse this forum on a Raspberry Pi, low-end smartphone, or netbook is just dog-slow. A forum site should not require a 2 GHz processor for a decent viewing experience. Disabling Javascript helps a bit, but I think most of IP Board's bloat comes from CSS. There seems to be some expensive blending effect going on to make the site display the user's theme color.