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Forum Upgrade - New Features


Paul

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

As promised, here's a quick rundown of some of the new features on the forum since the update earlier this week. 

Fluid View
Firstly, there's a new layout option. Known as a fluid view it changes the forum homepage. Instead of viewing everything via sections and forums, it simply lists the topics with the latest posts. You can also tailor it to change the ordering, and list posts only from certain parts of the forum. It's a great way to discover topics and posts which you may have otherwise missed, and personally I find it a better way to use the forums than the old school view.

You can select fluid or traditional view from near the top of the forum homepage:
forumlayout.png

The fluid view itself looks like this
fluidview.png

Reactions
The like/reputation system has had an update, with the option to react to posts in different ways - currently there's like, thank you, laugh, confused and sad as options. But we can add to these.
forum-likes.png

Gallery improvements
The gallery has been made much nicer to upload images and albums to. On top of this, embedding your gallery photos and albums into posts has become much simpler. So for instance, to embed this image into the post, all I have done is copy the url of the page with the image on it:

 

 You can do the same with albums  as well.

As before, you also can embed posts and topics from the forum in the same way. And it works in the same way from other sites and social networks - such as facebook, twitter, youtube, instagram etc, just copy and pasete the url of the page into your post. 

Promoted topics and content
There is now also the option for us to promote particular topics, posts and gallery albums on the forum index, and potentially across other parts of the site. We'll be able to use this to show topics which may be of interest, great, informative posts, amazing photos, hidden gems which many may have missed & so on. 

Clubs
This functionality hasn't been switched on yet, as it's brand new and we need to work out the best way to use it. But there is now a club option, so people can create groups and clubs based around certain topics and interested. For instance we could have a UK storm chasers club that those who are interested in chasing storms can join, share favourite chase locations (and add them to a map), arrange chases, share experiences and so on. This is one possibility, and as we understand the system more, I'm sure we'll develop other ideas. 

There are numerous other improvements and updates behind the scenes, along with new options for us to expand the functionality in the future, so I'll try to keep this thread updated.

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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby

i hate the new reactions... they are childish and are already being used incorrectly or as a weapon... the laugh being used when theres nothing funny going on, no joke, its just a weapon to put someones post down. the post (by cheese in ramps/moans) was a perfectly normal post. ive seen this before on other forums. imho they add nothing to the site, but dumb it down to a modern hipster teenage image.

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
9 minutes ago, mushymanrob said:

i hate the new reactions... they are childish and are already being used incorrectly or as a weapon... the laugh being used when theres nothing funny going on, no joke, its just a weapon to put someones post down. the post (by cheese in ramps/moans) was a perfectly normal post. ive seen this before on other forums. imho they add nothing to the site, but dumb it down to a modern hipster teenage image.

I tend to agree, mushy. But, I bet one Donald J. Trump would like it!:D

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

As ever with these things, it's open to interpretation - you aren't ever going to know why someone has reacted as they have, unless they tell you. From what I've seen so far, the reactions have primarily been used normally and certainly not just to beat up on people's posts at all. So, while I see what you're saying, it's probably best to reserve judgement until they've been about a bit longer than 48 hours.

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Posted
  • Location: Barton on Sea, Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winter, warm/hot summer with the odd storm thrown in
  • Location: Barton on Sea, Hampshire

Is there any way to see locations on each post on the mobile site as currently it only shows the username? 

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

This should be added back in next week, it's something we modified manually on the old version, so we'll have to do that again on the new one. 

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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby
23 hours ago, Paul said:

As ever with these things, it's open to interpretation - you aren't ever going to know why someone has reacted as they have, unless they tell you. From what I've seen so far, the reactions have primarily been used normally and certainly not just to beat up on people's posts at all. So, while I see what you're saying, it's probably best to reserve judgement until they've been about a bit longer than 48 hours.

fair enough, and i shouldnt really suggest a direct comparison to the 'other site' as the people on there (digital spy) arent generally as reasonable as the membership here.

i dont expect them to be changed either, but i just dont like them personally as i find them childish, its confetti for adolescent teens, not a useful tool for adults. anyway, thats just my pov, im not arguing, lol.

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Posted
  • Location: Bedfordshire 33m above mean sea level
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy and thundery.
  • Location: Bedfordshire 33m above mean sea level

I like the new reactions, lifes too short. I don't see any problem with it, and I don't have a particular thick skin. It's just some light hardheartedness  on a forum many consider should be serious at all times. 

Edited by Dami
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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore
5 hours ago, mushymanrob said:

fair enough, and i shouldnt really suggest a direct comparison to the 'other site' as the people on there (digital spy) arent generally as reasonable as the membership here.

i dont expect them to be changed either, but i just dont like them personally as i find them childish, its confetti for adolescent teens, not a useful tool for adults. anyway, thats just my pov, im not arguing, lol.

I didn't have you down as a digital spyer MMR, like a bit of Big Brother and Love Island chat do you? :D 

But yep, it's horses for courses really. Maybe we can  look at making all this stuff customisable, so users can decide what features they do and don't want to see/use in the future.

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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby
17 hours ago, Paul said:

I didn't have you down as a digital spyer MMR, like a bit of Big Brother and Love Island chat do you? :D 

But yep, it's horses for courses really. Maybe we can  look at making all this stuff customisable, so users can decide what features they do and don't want to see/use in the future.

not at all.... its the music forum i frequented mostly, where i ran a thread on rare 60's classics.

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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby
16 hours ago, CreweCold said:

I personally love the new reactions.

you prove my point sonny :D

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
3 minutes ago, Summer Sun said:

The new button which takes you to the top of the page seems slower than the old one to me

Yep, way too slow. On desktop you're quicker scrolling to the top yourself.

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Posted
  • Location: Darlington
  • Weather Preferences: Warm dry summers
  • Location: Darlington

What's happened to the quick access 7-day forecast radar and models boxes they were on the home page of the forum yesterday

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Posted
  • Location: Barnehurst nr Bexleyheath, Kent
  • Location: Barnehurst nr Bexleyheath, Kent
On 28/07/2017 at 12:03, Paul said:

Yep, was a bit different to this one! 

August 2003:

screenshot-web.archive.org 2017-07-28 12-02-33.png

https://web.archive.org/web/20030824115127/http://www.net-weather.co.uk:80/forum/

Blimey,  that's a trip down memory lane!  :shok: :laugh:

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Posted
  • Location: Gosport
  • Location: Gosport

Not finding anyway to see latest posts as we had on the old forum, just unread content, but that knocks out the regular forum I look at. So having to go forums link each time and find it.

Is there anyway to turn off that top background title graphic and just have it as a couple of text lines, its just wasting half the browser screen space.

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

I don't think there's been a change to the unread posts / latest posts system between the 2 versions. 

If you go to unread posts and change the filters (change the one highlighted to everything to get it to show latest posts), then you should have what you're looking for I think.

screenshot-www.netweather.tv 2017-08-02 13-28-54.png

The fluid view option is a new option which may suit you also - see the top post in this thread for details on that, that also shows the latest posts and can be filtered to only show particular forums etc. 

In terms of the graphic, it's not possible to switch it off, but we will be providing one or two alternate skins for people to use soon. 

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

There's a new theme to use if anyone wants to now - it's available from the theme list at the bottom of the page, and is called 'simple theme'

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Posted
  • Location: Darlington
  • Weather Preferences: Warm dry summers
  • Location: Darlington
On 31/07/2017 at 13:11, Summer Sun said:

The new button which takes you to the top of the page seems slower than the old one to me

Looks like the old button is back much quicker again now

:)

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

Noticed the ignored users isn't working at all today. It says you have chosen to ignore this post but shows all the message.

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