I can fully understand why none of the old posters from P-net are not here.
When I went to post today. it took me ten minutes bouncing back and forth between “Community” and “message boards” and almost gave up like I have in the past
Guy
@roanguy
What are you using? Computer? Phone? Tablet?
Once you get to the message boards, just bookmark the link.
I agree that the new forums arent the best. I’m on maaany forums spanning many interests from paddling, music, particle physics, travel, paintball, computers, and more. The template that Paddling.com chose stinks, IMO. Also, the “Sign up for News letter” pop up annoys the hell out of me.
The old forum style was very antiquated and needed updating. Im a bit disappointed in the template that was chosen for the upgrade. Im young and try to accept change as a fact of life. If I were more set in my ways, I would have bailed too.
Other than the “insert picture” functionality, the new forum is a downgrade IMO. The old timers can be found on other forums if you need their expertise
I’m distinctly not young but I generally prefer the newer format. It’s much more sleek, modern and feature rich, although I will admit that it took me a little while to get used to it.
Oh, I also hate the ever present “Sign Up” popup!
It’s certainly easier to find the most recent post in the new format. That could be a real challenge in the old format.
yeah, but you don’t get to see the latest reviews in the front of the review section. I have stopped browsing the reviews to get introduced to cool new boats like the Pamlico 140.
@roanguy said:
I can fully understand why none of the old posters from P-net are not here.
Sorry, got to say, but the double negatives make it so you are saying the opposite of what you think you are saying. If none of the old posters from P-net are not here", that means that they are all here. I think you meant to say either “none of the old posters from P-net are here” or “the old posters from P-net are not here”.
I’m old and like the new format. The other format was stone age. Classifieds need different sections but it’s easy to scan it all fast.
Bookmark the list of recent discussions:
https://forums.paddling.com/discussions
It took me a while but I’m mostly for the new format. I wish the transition would have gone smoother though.
I only stop by once or twice a year. Shows how much I like it. At one time it was every day.
I try not to use my smart phone. It is not that smart when it comes to discussion boards. Use a PC and you’ll be happier.
Yeah, the review section is more tedious to me.
I have yet to figure out why some websites–including this one has a different setup for tablets and smart phones than for computers. When given the choice, I always switch to the full deal when I’m using a tablet, or phone and then everything works fine.
For folks who have trouble locating the forums when using a tablet, or phone, it’s way down the page after you log in. Beats me why they can’t make it work the same as it does for a computer where you can tap “Community” and then tap “Message Boards.”
When it comes to the Internet and web pages, one has to be flexible and adaptable, or you’re going to spend a lot of time being frustrated.
@Yanoer said:
Yeah, the review section is more tedious to me.
Tedious, bloated, and poorly designed. When I want to review a boat, I’ll Google it instead. Most of the time that will take me directly to the Pnet reviews of that boat. It’s a much quicker method to find what I’m looking for without jumping through the site’s review section hoops.
Also agree that the “sign up” popup is a major irritant. If I weren’t already signed up, I’d refuse to because it is so intrusive and repetitive. One popup per site visit is acceptable - although the coding should be smart enough to recognize those who are already subscribed. Anything more than that is harassment. TC Surfski has a nice method. Their newsletter popup has a nifty little box you can check at the bottom stating “never see this message again.” Click it and you don’t.
On the other hand, I think the message boards are great and there are plenty of recognizable names from the previous version who continue to give expert assistance.
I would Like not to have to sign back in all the time. But all sites are going that way. I rather miss the nesting of comments though. I don’t use the review section thru this site since l already have more boats than l can paddle. It is ok.
Seems like this site works differently for everyone., because I almost never have to sign in. I’ve probably signed in three times since everything got changed. I wouldn’t have clue what might lead to things being so different for different people.
I liked the nested comments of the old board too, but yes, that seems to not be a preferred feature on message boards in general anymore. What bugs me about the new system (and of course this is true for most other message boards too), is that once you start getting several replies to a quoted passage, the incredible buildup of “bulk” in the discussion makes quite a mess, especially if there was some person who decided it was necessary to post half an album of irrelevant photos in his reply, and that list of photos ends up getting posted over and over with each additional reply. I find that that disables the automatic scroll-down feature that would otherwise take you to the most-recent unread reply, adding an extra level of messiness to the whole thing. The new reply system is much less simple than just having nested replies with an automatically generated outline to guide you regarding what’s been said since your last check-in, but they say that nowadays, young adults who understand how an outline works are a small minority, so maybe that’s part of what’s driving the change.
I have to say I never liked the nested comments. It seems to have encouraged rambling tangents and self contained arguments a lot more than the more mainstream way it is now.
I like quoting to show the relevancy of a response, but agree that people need to trim down the quotation and especially remove pictures and videos. It wouldn’t be hard to do it in the forum software, but they seem to have enough issues outstanding already.
The nested comments seemed to lure people into arguments while ignoring the original poster and in my view over time they made the site unpleasant to visit.
Only sign in once in a long while
The sign-in process is probably related to software and/or OS. At my office and home Windows desktops, I always run a program that clears my browsing history, cache, cookies, etc. before I shut down. I’ve found that my systems run better when all those cobwebs are cleaned out. Need to sign in every day on those units. Don’t bother doing that with my iPad and never have to sign in - unless I go into the general settings and delete all cookies.
Both Safari and Chrome ask if you’d like them to save your user name and password, a handy feature since I use different emails, user names and passwords. Wrote them down but can’t recall where I put my cheat sheet.
Not a fan of the nested format. I like to read at Qajaq but get lost in their nests.