Just one little request. This may be my own issue with settings or my browser but it would be nice to have a lateral scroll ability particularly for the photo threads. If a thread is posted with slightly oversized photos I have to go to the bottom of the post to scroll over to see the other half of the photo, then scroll back up to see the remainder of the picture; kind of a pain. I don't have the issue when visiting SSP which has a similar set up but does include a lateral scroll. Does that make sense?

 

I don't know whether you're running a Mac or a Windows machine; I have no useful knowledge of Mac. I'm running IE8 on a Windows platform, and when I'm browsing a photo thread I can press <Ctrl+> to enlarge the display, or <Ctrl-> to shrink it, to make the photos fit without lateral scrolling. If the gap between preset increments is too great, I can left-click the down arrow in the lower right corner of the browser screen and then select Custom and define my own display size.

 

Yes I'm running IE8 and thanks for the tips everyone. Wasn't aware of all my options which is why I was suggesting the skyscraperpage format. No worries carry on.

Please make the forum easier to read on mobile devices.  Urbanplanet, though I don't post there much anymore loads a separate forum for mobile devices.  Try it, it's great.

 

I have tons of ideas for the website portion, that I'll post later.

^ plus one on good for mobile....the forum anyway

I also think a mobile version of the forum would be great. 

And yeah I have many ideas for the site.  I just need to organize them haha.  I love the site how it is right now but there is always room for improvement wherever you go.

This page describes an idea I'm thinking:

 

http://buildingsofdetroit.com/

 

UO needs to be better branded.  You will see in the above example they went with a vintage art deco feel.  Not saying UO has to do this, but there's a clear style and consistency across their website. 

 

There also needs to be better navigation on the UO places page.  There shouldn't be a new page load everytime you make a selection.  I need to find the example I'm thinking of that works well. 

Yeah a mobile version would be great because it's pretty difficult to use on iPhone...but on iPad it only has a few issues.

This page describes an idea I'm thinking:

 

http://buildingsofdetroit.com/

 

UO needs to be better branded. You will see in the above example they went with a vintage art deco feel. Not saying UO has to do this, but there's a clear style and consistency across their website.

 

There also needs to be better navigation on the UO places page. There shouldn't be a new page load everytime you make a selection. I need to find the example I'm thinking of that works well.

 

Great idea. Agreed!

There are 2 mobile versions of the forum:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?wap2

or

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?imode

There are 2 mobile versions of the forum:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?wap2

or

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?imode

 

Thanks Rich...maybe those could be linked more prominently or automatically pop up on mobile devices so dunces like me don't miss them in the future.

When we update the forum, the links will show up on the bottom of the page.  Also, try m.urbanohio.com  That should work too.

When we update the forum, the links will show up on the bottom of the page. Also, try m.urbanohio.com   That should work too.

Thanks! I've never used m.urbanohio.com before...for some reason on my iphone it shows up very small in the upper left so I have to zoom into it. 

 

###

 

Here's an idea that I had while reading a book about Ohio before 1850:

 

Add a history board to UO. Maybe break up the Architectural, Environmental and Preservation board into 4 child boards with History being the 4th child board.  Maybe think of a term that those 4 would fit under.  Heritage came to mind but Environmental doesn't really fit with that. IDK

 

I'd really like a History board though.

m.urbanohio.com is pretty convenient. I`m checking it out now. I like it. I have unlimited data so I think Ill be using this a lot. Pages load fast and the site still looks great on a small screen. As if I didn`t spend enough time on this site... Ha!

Looks like we'll be moving the forum to vbulletin software sometime soon.  SMF isn't cutting it anymore. 

Amen to that!

:(

 

What's been going wrong with SMF?  It seems to me like the site's been great since the upgrade about a month ago.

We're SMHing and SMFing.  Rich is getting tired of it and I never liked this SMF to begin with so we figured it's about time to switch to vbulletin.

vBulletin has always seemed like a hot mess to me, but maybe that's just the way the people set it up for the few forums I've been on that used it.

What's nice about it is that you can customize it in a way to make it very user-friendly (and no silly scrolling with photos).  Check out SkyscraperCity for an example.

Interesting, I see that when a wide photo is posted, it pushes only that posts width out.  Also, the whole page scrolls rather than just the content of the post.  I'm not sure I like that part of it, but I do like that the other posts are unaffected.

 

I use the default skin on SMF, but I hope there's some nicer ones for vBulletin.  SkyscraperCity reminds me of City Data, which just feels cheap and sloppy.  But maybe I'm just not used to the look and feel.

Perhaps, but you will be ;).

It's time for change yet again.  SMF, has not been updated in about a year and appears to have become stagnant.  That being said, I think we might try out https://invisioncommunity.com/  This software comes at a cost, but is highly customizable and responsive which means only one site no matter if you're on a computer or your mobile device. 

 

Thoughts? Concerns?

Please allow us to see post history!  I can't keep track of the threads I post in in my head so would be nice to follow along :D

Also,

[*]auto summarizing links to articles would be huge

[*]ability to add images without manually resizing each time

[*]mobile access without having to download app (most modern forums do this now)

this: 2.ability to add images without manually resizing each time

I would love to be able to more easily quote things across threads.

When I click on "unread new replies to your posts" I would love to be able to unsubscribe to topics so they don't show up there anymore. I made the mistake of posting a few topics that I didn't care that much about, and now I have to view the responses to clear them out of that queue. There's a button to unfollow or something, but it doesn't do anything (or it does something else, and I haven't figured out what).

Agreed:

this: 2.ability to add images without manually resizing each time

 

Creating a "theme" would be great. I like to use darker high contrast themes as it is easier on the old eyes

Rich, is there a way for UO members to help create the new site at all? I cant guarantee a time commitment, but maybe if there was a git repo some of the programmers on here could help out by donating their free time?

Rich, is there a way for UO members to help create the new site at all? I cant guarantee a time commitment, but maybe if there was a git repo some of the programmers on here could help out by donating their free time?

 

I've never thought of doing this before, but is a good idea.

Creating a "theme" would be great. I like to use darker high contrast themes as it is easier on the old eyes

 

Speak for yourself, ya ol coot. Oh, wait, we're the same age.....

my suggestion is one to help us folks who make photo threads. please make the preview match what is actually posted. i like to use different photo sizes sometimes and the photos can get pushed around when you actually post them. i think the preview doesnt account well for the width of the sidebar/avatar, but not sure.

 

otherwise, outside of perhaps modernizing the look, font, etc. a bit, i think the site and forum all look and work well on our user end.

 

thanks very much for your work!

It would be nice to be able to pin/bookmark threads to a "favorites list".

UrbanOhio Chat room.

Just as a heads up, the forum will be offline this Saturday (October 6th) for a few hours. I will be migrating to our new forum software. All user accounts will be transferred over and the only thing you’ll need to do it sign in. It would also be a good time to update your profiles and take a look around the new forum to become more familiar with it.

 

where is new forum?

where is new forum?

It’s at forum.urbanohio.com, but isn’t ready just yet. I will set up redirects from this forum once it is.

I was having some issues with uploading my images to my profile picture and my cover photo, Once I initially cropped my profile pic, it stretched it out. On to the cover photo, whenever you go to readjust the picture to your liking, the photo just wouldn't budge rather a ghost image just followed my cursor, but I eventually got it to work with some finesse. Althought I would like to openly suggest some debug on that part, and if we could have a bigger cover image that stretches down a little further that would be great helping with some aesthetics.

I would like to even go as far as suggesting a dark theme, or css customization for our profiles, but maybe that could be a subscription thing that I would be willing to pay for. I know it takes up server space and i'm not sure how much this new layout that was just put in place takes up, but there are still some tweaks to be made. As of right now since this new layout was put in place, things have gotten a little user unfriendly, but exploration can help with that.

Thank you for taking people's input. This new layout is quite refreshing.

Edited October 6, 20186 yr by tastybunns

I love that Twitter links now show the full tweet, including photos when applicable.

But the navigation loads pages much more slowly than the old forum.

LOL ok, so whenever someone replies on the forum you get pinged with a sound. And it's really choppy atm. @KJP you scared the living spooks out of me.

12 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

But the navigation loads pages much more slowly than the old forum.

This is only temporary.  The forum is running a ton of processes in the background for the initial setup of everything.  I could have waited until it finished fully to open it up but decided not to.  In short, the speed will improve greatly.

One thing I noticed is that when I "like" a post, it doesn't show me who likes the posts automatically, I have to click on the heart to see who else liked it. 

17 minutes ago, richNcincy said:

This is only temporary.  The forum is running a ton of processes in the background for the initial setup of everything.  I could have waited until it finished fully to open it up but decided not to.  In short, the speed will improve greatly.

Thanks. It loads quickly on my desktop PC but not so much on my phone.

Edited October 6, 20186 yr by KJP

Really not liking the ping either.

40 minutes ago, tastybunns said:

Really not liking the ping either.

You can turn that off in your notification settings.

I usually participate here through my phone, and on the old software I would force my phone to load the desktop version of the webpage because the phone version was so bare bones. This one seems much better on mobile so far,  I have to get used to everything being different. 

One other think I noticed:  it’s more difficult, especially on mobile to tell where the quoted post ends and the new comment begins if one is quoting a previous post to respond. There are light outlines creating boxes to separate quoted posts and a very light shade of gray,  but the varying shades of blue in the previous format provided a quicker visual que as to the newest comment especially if one is trying to read quickly  

Can we move to different shades or is everything basically going to be white?

Are there going to be different theme options?  I find these washed-out, sea-of-white, flat themes to be really hard on the eyes.

33 minutes ago, X said:

Are there going to be different theme options?  I find these washed-out, sea-of-white, flat themes to be really hard on the eyes.

Yes, there will be different theme options.  At the very least, this theme and  a "dark" theme.

Awesome, I appreciate that!

FYI pages are loading quickly on my phone now. 

Edited October 7, 20186 yr by KJP

What is the quickest way to see "unread replies" as I used to click on in the old forum?  I'm playing with "activity streams" but it doesn't seem to have one-click functionality?