New Forum Software & SparkPilots.com Change

[clackey]

Hey all! We upgraded the forum software today so you'll see some minor changes to the design. We are still tweaking things a bit but let us know if you see any major issues.

Also, later today we'll finally be switching the site to the SparkPilots.com domain then redirecting the old .zone domain to the .com. It took a long time to get the .com as someone registered it before us but now we are golden. This change will require you to log in again.

C.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

New smileys - woot woot! Okay, I am having a slow day at work.....

 

[Dronason]

How to know what has been read or not in alerts (https://sparkpilots.zone/account/alerts) ???
How to know what alerts are new and what are old ones?

Having no more threads in alerts grouped by day and not knowing easily what has been already read or new is a no go for me. It is as bad as in DJI forum.

Maybe I miss a way to do it the same a before?
Hope it will not be the same for the other xxxPilots forums.

 

[clackey]

The alert settings are the same on this as the previous version of the software. The only difference is that the date/time is displayed with the alert vs grouped by day on the alerts page. This is the first time I've dug into it this deep but as far as I can tell, there is no visual indicator of a viewed vs unviewed alert on any of our forums.

C.

 

[AirCam]

On the old one, threads with new posts since I had last visited were BOLD text. Old, already viewed threads, with no new posts were normal text. That saved a lot of time checking for new posts.

I usually don't like change, but, overall, I really like the new look. Good work!!!

And a huge bonus, the popup screen wanting me to subscribe to the newsletter has not been annoying me with 5 or 6 pops per visit. Thanks again.

 

[clackey]

On the old one, threads with new posts since I had last visited were BOLD text. Old, already viewed threads, with no new posts were normal text. That saved a lot of time checking for new posts.

I think this is fixed. Let me know if not.

 

[Dronason]

What I am totally lacking is these orange stars that tell you what has changed since last check.
Without them it is a pain to know what to read and is a waste of time.



Is there a hope to get them back?

Format or visual effect are not bad, what I lack is the new way of drag and drop image directly.

 

[clackey]

Ok I'll see what I can find on that. I don't see it in the basic xenforo 2 software but maybe there is an addon. It seems they are moving much of that logic to the What's New section of the site where users can view everything that has changed since they last visited. I'm still working on configuring it but here are some of the views - Latest activity

 

[clackey]

Also, click the image icon in the editor to popup the option to drag/drop images.

 

[Dronason]

Ok I'll see what I can find on that. I don't see it in the basic xenforo 2 software but maybe there is an addon. It seems they are moving much of that logic to the What's New section of the site where users can view everything that has changed since they last visited. I'm still working on configuring it but here are some of the views - Latest activity

Thanks for checking it.

 

[Spark 317]

Hi there clackey.

So far so good with the new design.

Something from the old design would be nice to the new...rather than the pencil pop up for making a comment on a thread, I preferred the instant scroll icon that would pop up, making it easier to navigate to the top of a thread instantly versus scrolling to the top.

Maybe have both? "Thread pencil" on the left and the "back to top" on the right?

 

[graywoulf]

I wish that the text in the member's information box and signature as well as any of the other lighter colored text on the page was a bit bolder and a darker color. So many websites are using a lighter and harder to read text. Its not good for old farts like me.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Okay, so now I am seeing a big delay when I push post.... i see a stripe zipping across the top of the browser window as the forum accepts the post, it can take 7 or 8 seconds. I am on a very fast network... we have Gigabit internet at the office. It seems to have started today.... But its not consistent... and editing a post seems to save instantly. I guess its because thats not creating a new database entry.

 

[clackey]

Okay, so now I am seeing a big delay when I push post.... i see a stripe zipping across the top of the browser window as the forum accepts the post, it can take 7 or 8 seconds. I am on a very fast network... we have Gigabit internet at the office. It seems to have started today.... But its not consistent... and editing a post seems to save instantly. I guess its because thats not creating a new database entry.

Thanks. Looking into this now.

 

[Spark 317]

but let us know if you see any major issues.

I tried the search engine on this site on two different Android devices (Samsung, Motorola) and it does not work.

I tap the magnifying glass, the window pops up, and the keyboard quickly appears to enter a query and the whole thing closes.

The screen closes so quickly that by the time I try to tap it, I end up tapping the ad space underneath and going to the the ads site.

Good for ad revenue I suppose.

 

[clackey]

I tried the search engine on this site on two different Android devices (Samsung, Motorola) and it does not work.

I tap the magnifying glass, the window pops up, and the keyboard quickly appears to enter a query and the whole thing closes.

The screen closes so quickly that by the time I try to tap it, I end up tapping the ad space underneath and going to the the ads site.

Good for ad revenue I suppose.

Ok thanks. I don’t see this on iOS but I’ll test it on a couple android tablets have to.

 

[Spark 317]

Ok thanks. I don’t see this on iOS but I’ll test it on a couple android tablets have to.

I was messing around with the search field and found a work around.
If I long press the magnifying glass, I get a prompt to open link in a new window and Ta-Da, I'm able to search from my Android devices.

Btw, I use Chrome, but tried Firefox and both did not work by tapping the field either in mobile friendly or Desktop mode.

Long pressing and opening in a new window does.

Hope this helps troubleshoot the problem.

 

[clackey]

What I am totally lacking is these orange stars that tell you what has changed since last check.
Without them it is a pain to know what to read and is a waste of time.

Is there a hope to get them back?

Format or visual effect are not bad, what I lack is the new way of drag and drop image directly.

Ok, installed an addon for additional alert functionality. It should group them but still check on the unread "badge". There are some additional alert preferences here - https://sparkpilots.com/account/preferences

 

[Dronason]

Ok, installed an addon for additional alert functionality. It should group them but still check on the unread "badge". There are some additional alert preferences here - https://sparkpilots.com/account/preferences

Thanks for the effort. If I got it well, the clear yellow start is now replaced by the fact that there is no message "Mark as unread". Such message in some purple color that my old eyes cannot really distinguish from the normal dark grey of the text font without full concentration. That requires to me each time I refresh the page to read each message summary to see where is the first "Mark as unread".
Just my opinion but I don't see that point as a progress for people having a setting of alerts that deliver them a large set range of alerts. I cross the fingers that this new way will not be applied to PhantomPilot and MavicPilot or my addiction to drone forums will be solved in a more easier way I would have expected (and my wife too). Again it is my point of view where in general I don't need that much direct help and I try to share experience. That makes probably my settings of alerts not really same as average users and the number of alerts I got is probably over average, that where my problem start with the change of layout.
On the positive side, now when there is new alerts, Chrome shows it in the tab selector of the page, as PhantomPilot do but not as MavicPilot do.

 

[Dronason]

Ok, installed an addon for additional alert functionality. It should group them but still check on the unread "badge". There are some additional alert preferences here - https://sparkpilots.com/account/preferences

Sorry, forget to thanks you for all your work and efforts on these forums that are really helpful when you start this hobby and fare the best over the other ones I tried.