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New Site Upgrade and Look Feedback Thread

41K views 166 replies 35 participants last post by  Ron380 
#1 ·
Hello Everyone,

We're proud to announce that the new site look and feel has been completed for ChargerForums.com! Our designers and software engineers have been hard at work on this for several months. It's designed to modernize the site, make it easier to use, and to make it more attractive to new members and guests that visit .

The forum software we use, vBulletin, by default is not designed to be friendly to the eyes or to look modern. We went down to the nuts and bolts of the forum software and templates, and have done a ground up approach. There are several things you will notice now that the new design is live.

1) The site should be significantly faster.

We have applied every modern technique to speed up page load and tested with all modern browsers. We want the forum to be extremely fast and easy to use.

2) The site will work much better in mobile and tablet views

We've started applying responsive design, and have designed and tested against android and iPhone devices, Android tablets, and iPads. If you are sitting at your desk or on your couch, or just on your phone, the site will work much better than it did before, and load fast. We are still working on improving the experience even further in the months to come, but we wanted to launch this as quickly as we could.

3) The homepage is bright, crisp and clean.

We wanted the first page users saw to look beautiful, so that when a new guest arrives and is debating whether to join ChargerForums.com, they see a beautiful doorway, and they walk right in.

As a forum member you can choose to use the new design (which is on by default) or you can go back to the old design. We ask that you give it a chance and see if you like it. Like anything new, it will be unfamiliar at first, but we suspect that the speed difference will make you want to use this new one. If you do decide to switch back, the link is at the bottom left of each forum page, you pull down and select the theme called "Charger Forums Legacy".

4) Garages will be featured on the site

You can show off your Charger, You can post pictures in your garage and share it with others. Make sure you post up some images to share with the community at the link below.

http://www.chargerforums.com/forums/garage.php?do=editgarage

5) Users will be able to register with Facebook, Twitter or Google+

6) The side bar can be hidden in your user options.

Click on my profile / user cp at the top right.

- click on edit your details on the left.
- Look for Show Sidebar on Forum Pages under Additional Information.
- Click disable and save.

7) Another new great feature is the @Mention user plugin. You can tag members by simply using the @ symbol.

We hope you enjoy it, and if you have any questions on the design, please let us know, feedback is appreciated.

If there are any issues you see. Post them up here and we will get them worked out.

Thanks,
-Your ChargerForums.com Team.
 
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#2 ·
Absolutely beautiful Jeff. Be sure to check the site out using your smart phone browser!

Bernie
 
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#6 ·
I don't find it faster but then I am at work right now and both my computer and internet connection here suck, so I will hold off judgement on that until I get home.

I love the new look though. Very clean.

Well done. :bigthumb:
 
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#8 ·
#13 ·
Clean, yes. But I gotta tell you, all this white space is super annoying having to scroll so much to read the next post. Is there a way to de-fluff the layout?
 
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#15 ·
Thanks, that's slightly better, but still annoying. I don't want to be limited to 25 posts/page, the space between sections of the screen (margins) is too much. Maybe I'm just in a complaining mood today.
 
#17 ·
I'm getting a print view for lack of a better term when I go to the nav bar Tools > Classifieds > Parts For Sale/Wanted.



Bernie
 
#19 ·
I think you're right Jeff. Outdated IE 9 and it's fine with Chrome.

Bernie
 
#21 ·
Haha how true! I just don't like the other ones though.

Bernie
 
#22 ·
My vehicle images aren't showing up in my Garage. I made sure to upload JPGs that weren't huge.
 
#26 · (Edited)
@AG Jeff
Bug: In old forums, uploaded high res pics where down scaled for thread view, then when clicked they could be expanded to full resolution. Pics are now trimmed to the smaller size and not click-able. I lost the ability to get screen saver pics.
 
#28 · (Edited)
@AG Jeff

Request: Ability to turn of text lines in left box where the avatar sits. I don't want to display Thanks, mentions, tagged, or quoted fields for anybody. This will significantly reduce the size of posts.
 
#31 ·
I don't know I was perfectly happy the way things were, now it seems that I have to learn all over again. I know that it will take time for us older guys to navigate this change in the forum. Lets see how it goes. Where are my Excedrin's??

Big John
 
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#32 ·
Feedback so far:
I like the interface. It seems clean and easy to read.
I am having some issues with the pages loading correctly (seems to keep wanting to load the first of a multi page thread).
Not seeing the speed difference yet on an iPad.
A little trouble quoting and ended up with a double post. Not sure if the issue is mine or the page.
I will keep playing with it and see if I still have problems.

Thanks to those who put in the hard work to update. It is appreciated.
 
#34 ·
How do I get to see my long list of topics that I created? I use to hit search, than my threads..

Big John
 
#36 · (Edited)
I'm sorry but I gave it a try of the new look and found it to be a bit cold for my taste. I'm not one for change. I am happy that you gave me the option to stay behind with the original way that I have enjoyed this site for quite a few years now. I'm sure that others may ensue the same path as I just did. Thanks for that option..

Big John
 
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#37 ·
I'm still getting emails telling me that someone quoted me. Doesn't appear to be a way in CP to turn that feature OFF.
 
#38 ·
I think that I will continue to use this new version for a bit. It is different, but not to bad to get used to.

I would like to see the usercp and search buttons at the bottom of a thread like the old version. This is something that I liked about this forum over others that I am part of. Not fun to have to scroll back to the top to hit a button to go back to the "new posts" or "usercp" or "seach".

Only thing I have to comment on so far, otherwise looks good.
 
#39 ·
Ok,

One other complaint..... :surprise:

The first gen (06-10) car is gone from the title bar.....:frown2:

Whats up with that??
 
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#40 ·
Ok,

One other complaint..... :surprise:

The first gen (06-10) car is gone from the title bar.....:frown2:

Whats up with that??
I just clicked on the "Forum Legacy" selection and found us!

Funny thing is that it's the ORIGINAL title bar that only showed the first gen car. It made me smile...:)
 
#42 ·
You're right. I guess if for those of us who like the older gen cars, we will just have to be "Legacy" people.....
 
#43 ·
Noticeably faster, cleaner look. Too much white space, but I will have to use it a bit to see how functional it is. I would like to see all the iterations of Chargers on the lead page, though.
 
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