Help Us Trial Our New Forum

We have a slightly newer version of the OM forum that’s nearly ready to roll out, and we’d love you to have a play around with it first.

It’s not meant as a big functionality upgrade; we've mainly just moved to a more up-to-date programming language (.NET) and taken the opportunity to address a few easy wins for now, such as better Chrome and mobile compatibility, tidier layouts, and some better moderation functionality - you'll all be glad to know. 

You'll also notice that there's a new 'followed threads' page in the navigation bar, which lets you see all the threads you are following, with the most recently updated ones at the top. You can now also follow any thread, not just ones you've posted to.

The changes will also make it much easier for us to make changes in the future, eg a full mobile version and heavy-duty spam filtering.

You can try the new forum here: www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/default.aspx. It’s running alongside the existing forum, so any posts you make on the new preview will be seen on the old forum. You can revert back to the old forum at any time by clicking the main Forum tab.

We’d love to know what you think. Please leave your feedback in this thread and we’ll make sure all of it gets passed on to our tech team.

So, have a go and post back here and let us know what you think. 

OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

Yeah, it's okay. Not sure about the look of the posts, but I'd get used to it - dreadful thing change! At least it doesn't look childlike the way Trail went when they did an update.

Oh yes, .net isn't a language it's a framework.

Speech bubbles!

I'd have thought it'll bring fewer squawks than previous changes did, provided those dialogue boxes get all the editing features that the current one has.

Looks ok at a glance.

Well the Javascript issues with Chrome seem to be resolved....?

Happy?

Thought not

Seems to be doing its stuff with formatting okay using Firefox on a Mac

 and it doesn't park pictures spuriously at the top whenever I add them, so a case of so far, so good...

Pete.

AT (http://AyrshireTiger.wordpress.com/) wrote (see)

Looks good other than threads seems to start with first post even though I have Thread Starting Page set as "default to last" in settings.

Well spotted - now logged as job MPS-1887

That Blonde Woman....... wrote (see)

Are there going to be the formatting and emoticons on mobile as we have on desktop version?

Yes, later in summer I think. They were just a bit flaky on some devices, so we've played it safe for now. A fully mobile-optimised view of the forum should be along by the end of the year

Metric Kate wrote (see)

It's a tad worrying when something changes on OM and there aren't howls of protest

ah, plenty of time yet

Picture above didn't resize until I pressed submit.

No edit facility yet?.

Using Firefox on a Mac, no issues with old version (except pic placement awkward to contro)l but glad to hear this upgrade likely to resolve problems for some.

Sorry but speech bubbles are for cartoons.

I don't want to be a snowflake anymore

'Create New Thread', prominent, at the top: well done...

Spacing of threads is larger than previously, which seems a waste of space & scrolling.

Some threads don't have 'folder' icons.

Our network is shot away at the moment, so some of the issues such as missing icons may be down to the slow network...

Firefox 10.0, XP SP3

There's a 'Next Page' link at the top of the list, in magenta, on XP.  It's not there on an iPad (iOS 5.1.1)

Looks nicer on the iPad (Safari, obviously), than FF/XP.

Ah! the speech bubbles on threads.  That's a negatory; unnecessary visual clutter, IMHO.

I'm assuming the message options will re-appear at some point (message member, quote, ignore member, send to friend).

Looks bright and airy. Not too sure about the speech bubbles but I suppose it will grow on me. Tried the followed threads - good idea, but when I used the page navigation to go from P2 back to P1 I got this:-

The page cannot be displayed because an internal server error has occurred.

Not so sure about the "onmouseover" appearance of the quote button or the same appearance of the 'member card?'. It's a bit intrusive for very little information given or do you have other as yet secret functions to fill the space?

Metric Kate wrote (see)

It's a tad worrying when something changes on OM and there aren't howls of protest 

Ooooowwwwoooohhhh!

Seriously, it seems to work OK (Firefox 11.0).

On the downside, I think the new 'airy' layout wastes space (not a big deal) and the 'speech bubble' effect is a bit naff.

I clicked 'Latest posts' and got the list as normal. But when clicking through to the most recent post in Bennachie - Today 16:40 by Flaf - it jumped to a listing of all 114,454 messages from where I couldn't get to the thread. However, the second time I tried it behaved as it should and took me to Flaf's post.

Not yet tried placing an image or using 'followed threads' - maybe later this evening.

I don't know if Vangore Kate is related to anyone we know, but she's going mental on the TGO magazine thread.

Fair play to you for keeping that on the new forum, by the way.  

"It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw."