David Ashby - Moderator Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Hi folks. Some news for you all. This site is due to have a long overdue refresh. The new site will be on a new platform although, it is hoped, the forum will be largely unchanged. Essentially this will make the site mobile friendly while allowing for straightforward future development. The process will take 1-2 months in total with a beta site being established and tested first. I'm well aware that some users have asked for certain changes and improvements over the last few years and, usually, those improvements we haven't been able to implement owing to this site's rather idiosyncratic architecture. Inevitably some things will be a bit different, that's to be expected, but if you have anything you'd like the new site to have - features and facilities - then please leave a post below and I can pass these requests on. No promises of course but I'll be talking to the developers regularly over the migration period and will keep you all posted as things progress. David. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ashby - Moderator Posted November 10, 2020 Author Share Posted November 10, 2020 Some other MyTime Media sites have already been created/migrated to the new platform and HiFinews and Totalcarp give an idea of the new look. Bear in mind that neither site has a forum and/or some of the other features we have here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymaz Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 A word search engine in a specific thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outrunner Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Make it easier to post pictures and pictures the right way up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 ... a simple Facebook-type 'like' button should make it easier for followers - to a build thread for example - to show their appreciation... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul C. Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 I would recommend selecting a few fair minded forum members to user test the beta version using some real data , this will give you good feedback and identify any issues that need to be sorted . Importantly you will have also gained some user buy in who will also help others find there way through the new system , get yourself some key forum users you will need them when you go live 👍😉. I know from experience these things can go well and everyone wonders what all the fuss was about or it can turn ugly really quickly , and don't forget to book yourself a realy nice holiday next year 👍😂 Paul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Will you be migrating all the old thread data? I'd hate to think that this mine of information will be lost! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daithi O Buitigh Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 " HiFinews and Totalcarp give an idea of the new look " Can we carp about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff S Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Until I had a quick look at those two web sites I didn't realise how cheap aeromodelling is! HiFi News features a review of a tube (aka valve in my language) amplifier at almost £10k (I have one cluttering my workshop with KT66s the new one has KT88s). Total Carp has a review of a RC bait boat at over £600. We should be delerious Will the new site have adverts on the front page in a similar vein? I think it would be excellent if there was sufficient interest in the trade for that to happen but I somehow doubt it. As long as the forum continues more or less as it is I'm all for change but beware of going over the top with bells and whistles at the expense of simplicity. KISS has a lot going for it and I know how much fun writing software can be. It was one of the things I enjoyed most when I worked for a living. Geoff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Sweeting 1 Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Do you know, or can you tell us, what platform the new forum will be running on please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyB Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Hopefully a standard template with no customisations will be the choice here. All the new functionality needed (mobile friendly, Like functionality against posts, blog posting against profiles, a decent search engine that can search via poster/keyword/date range and a far easier process to post videos and images) should be available in stock forum templates. Avoiding customisations will make it easier to maintain and upgrade in the future. Whether content can be migrated from here I don’t know, but I hope the Modelflying team don’t look to customise in order to bring that old content in. It would be better that non-editable reference copy of this site is retained than customising the template to enable the old posts to migrate into the new site. Edited By MattyB on 10/11/2020 22:27:51 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 David, Please, please, please, can we have a "Go To First Unread Post" button on each thread. It's always a right pain trying to find where you read up to particularly in a fast moving thread. Also can we update the low-lighting (greying) of the thread title to colour again when new posts have been made after last viewing or just not bother with low-lighting altogether. Thanks, Andy Stephenson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 David, One more thing, can we have a flag on each thread title that indicates when the user has made a post in that thread. Thanks, Andy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 David I do appreciate the benefit of 'picture albums' but it does make adding a new pictures to a post rather long winded when compared to the more normal 'identify' the picture on your own machine and simply add it to your post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Good news! Especially re mobile - the sizing/scaling issues drive me nuts An easy way (button/menu selection) to see all liked/subscribed posts, and an easy way to see unread posts in reverse chronological order please. I you need a beta tester, count me in. GG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Z Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 David, I would like to see a search possibility on unread posts, but with a clear distinction between threads with unread posts since my last visit and other unread posts. Thanks, Max. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 If we loose the forum and all its threads etc. it will be a disaster. People refer to these and rely on them for help, advice and clarification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Small suggestion on picture albums; our existing picture albums could be migrated to a more normal forum style quite easily; build a thread for each album, stick each picture into a separate post, this should (hopefully, depends on the forum I guess) then make a forum html to use for the regular threads to draw in the pictures from. Not sure how that plays with private albums, if anyone uses them here. However. MattyB is talking sense - an archived, read-only version of this forum would definitely be the easiest and lowest cost way to move across. Just please, please, make the new forum search function also search into the archive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Whisky Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 It would be nice to be able to post .jpg or .png photographs into a thread without having to insert them into an album first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Kremen Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Unless I'm currently missing a trick, might it be possible to add a print pages to the digital back issues? At present 'Print Screen' is not ideal. Other publishers have this e.g. FMT in Germany. Very useful when you come to build a model or use an item that was reviewed many issues ago and you (or your CEO ) has had a tidy and clear out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Harris Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 David, As suggested already adding photos and especially videos to a thread could be made easier. It would also be good if we could add drawings to our threads, ie PDF's Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 One more plea for making it simpler to add photos without the need to upload to an album. Many forums (e.g. RCGroups) have a simple drag and drop method of adding attachments. Also, the ability to bookmark or subscribe to a thread without getting hit with a dozen or more emails when a thread goes through an active phase! Again I like the RCGroups model where I can view a list of my subscribed threads that have had new postings since my last visit. Good luck with the transition! Trevor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ashby - Moderator Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 Thanks everyone, all noted, feel free to keep them coming. My understanding is that the forum will migrate across - boards, threads, posts - but we have a meeting on Monday so I'll ask for assurance then. I don't want to get drawn into platform/programming code specifics, partly because I won't pretend to understand it and partly because the developers will have their own ideas and an existing platform they use across all MTM sites.. Specifically it's the features, the end-user experience that I want to try and use this opportunity to hone. David. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fun Flyer Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Just remember that any application that is working well never works as well after its been improved!.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guvnor Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Anyone who follows Key Publishings 'Flypast' forum will understand the dangers of this process. For those that don't know, Flypast magazine had a really popular forum for histoic aviation. They decided to change platforms, in the process of which they lost much of the previous posts, lost embedded links, lost pictures etc. It's killed that forum stone dead, the mass of information has been lost and Key must have taken a big hit in the wallet. Proceed with great caution and tes, test, test... Edited By Guvnor on 11/11/2020 10:15:01 Edited By Guvnor on 11/11/2020 10:15:17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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