Can one Buy Trust Level Two?

[Moderator_1]

@SaddleFitterVA

This is awful on my phone.

This is awful on the computer.

The badges on poster’s who are active is a ridiculous waste of screen real estate.

By badges, do you mean the avatar circles that indicate the first, most recent and most frequent posters in a thread, when you’re looking at the list of threads in a forum? Or do you mean the avatar circles indicating participants in the thread that are listed after the first post in the thread?

I appreciate that you may not be interested in learning more about the new site right now, but if you give some specifics about what is awful for you, we may be able to give some navigation tips that will help you get your bearings. Or, it may give us ideas for some ways to improve the experience for everyone.

Thanks!

[MHM]

@trubandloki

I suppose next time we have to update the forum needs to cover their bases and ask all the users for input on what platform they should pick, with reasons why, etc. Maybe then the users will not be so grumpy about the change (because they had a say, but did not bother to say anything).

Are you saying we had a chance to give input this time around? If so, I completely missed it.

On behalf of plenty of other users, I will also object to being called grumpy about all the changes.

The fact that many users have had a lot of trouble with a lot of the new features does not make us grumpy. Grumpy and dissatisfied are not at all the same things. And being called grumpy is probably not going to encourage many people to keep trying to make things work on a BB that is supposed to be fun.

[trubandloki]

@MHM

Are you saying we had a chance to give input this time around? If so, I completely missed it.

Not that I know of.

I was simply saying that people are acting like they should have had a say in what platform they picked. So maybe next they should open it up so the members can do (what I assume was very extensive) research to pick a new platform.

@MHM

On behalf of plenty of other users, I will also object to being called grumpy about all the changes.

The fact that many users have had a lot of trouble with a lot of the new features does not make us grumpy. Grumpy and dissatisfied are not at all the same things. And being called grumpy is probably not going to encourage many people to keep trying to make things work on a BB that is supposed to be fun.

Sorry, I won’t take it back.
We (general forum users) are being grumpy about this change. Stomping our feet and insisting they go back and insisting there was nothing wrong with the old forum and how dare they do this to us. Now, thankfully most posters are learning quickly that this new set up has a ton to offer so the grumpiness goes away.
If this description does not fit you then I was probably not talking about you. And if one poster (me) using the word grumpy in a post is enough to make someone leave then there was clearly more problems than just the new format.

[Bluey]

@trubandloki

Sorry, I won’t take it back.
We (general forum users) are being grumpy about this change. Stomping our feet and insisting they go back and insisting there was nothing wrong with the old forum and how dare they do this to us. Now, thankfully most posters are learning quickly that this new set up has a ton to offer so the grumpiness goes away.
If this description does not fit you then I was probably not talking about you. And if one poster (me) using the word grumpy in a post is enough to make someone leave then there was clearly more problems than just the new format.

One definition of grumpy would be to be looking for something to be offended over.

I will admit, I get grumpy at myself when, for the umpteen time, I want to change threads and still first scroll up, then realize that doesn’t work here, that is what that dark green top is for.

I wish, below the thread title, the forum name to click on to navigate back to it was a little bigger, to be easier to see and hit to change to the main menu.

[trubandloki]

@Bluey

I will admit, I get grumpy at myself when, for the umpteen time, I want to change threads and still first scroll up, then realize that doesn’t work here, that is what that dark green top is for.

I still find myself doing that sometimes too.

Laugh.

It will all be natural soon… I hope.

[Moderator_1]

If it’s any consolation, I still catch myself doing that too!

[MHM]

To clarify, I’m not offended.

I’m simply pointing out that it is unnecessary to use language that casts anyone in an unflattering light when they are just looking for help with the new format. Are we trying to encourage or discourage people from coming back?

[TheMoo]

@MHM Thank you for this. I am shocked at the tone of some of the responses with people asking for help. Not everyone has time to learn this platform quickly and honestly this is the BIGGEST change yet.

Many responses to questions are discouraging because of tone. @trubandloki I don’t think your use of the word “grumpy” would keep people away, but add that to the tone of many posts by some and it is a little discouraging.

I’ll admit I am getting used to this new platform and I’ll be a slow learner. Call me grumpy because I get frustrated that it’s so different, but quite frankly I don’t have the time to become proficient so quickly as some. A lot of people don’t.

[MHM]

@TheMoo

I’ll admit I am getting used to this new platform and I’ll be a slow learner. Call me grumpy because I get frustrated that it’s so different, but quite frankly I don’t have the time to become proficient so quickly as some. A lot of people don’t.

I concur.

There are actually people, especially horse people, who don’t spend that much time on a computer. So that makes it more of a challenge to learn the ropes after a big change.

[Moderator_1]

It’s totally understandable to not feel comfortable right off the bat and to not want to devote a huge amount of time right away to learning the site. All I think we’d ask of anyone is that you give it a fair shake before writing it off as huge mistake and a bonehead move without giving yourself some time to get used to it, ask some questions if necessary and learn how things work. (Not saying you’ve said this, but others have come close! )

Are you still having trouble with being logged out of your account?

[MHM]

Yes, I still get booted off all the time. Sometimes it logs me back in automatically, and sometimes it doesn’t. All on the desktop view.

But as my father used to say, if that’s the worst thing that happens to me today, that’s not a terrible day.

I will add that Mod 1 is always very polite and helpful.

[SaddleFitterVA]

Mod -

Yes, I do think that I am calling the avatar circles badges, because they look like badges that Fitbit software and DuoLingo and other gamification/behavior modification apps use.

The things that are awful, on the computer, too many windows with scroll-ability. If my mouse is in the wrong place, I’m scrolling some info window. Although that does look like the most obnoxious one was a notification and could be closed, if it stays closed, that is one less irritant.

The avatar circles are awful, visual distraction to be ignored. The thing is, I want to get to the words. This seems to make the words hard to find, the inline pictures are probably great if it was a horse, but if it is to be posting grinch tshirts, it is just more to scan through.

The Google search integration appears to be broken, but that looks like a known issue. There were decades of useful threads, some of them simply good for memory lane, and now finding them and reading them (depending on the formatting) is a distraction.

When I come to any horses “forum”, I am not coming for whizbang technology. I’m here for the content, not the smiley faces, not the avatars, not the colors. The more visual distraction there is that takes away from the content, the less likely I am to attempt to read.

If this makes it easier for you to block the trolls/bots, then maybe it will work out well.

I’ve been here since 1999, although I ended up keeping this username, after attempting to switch back to mvoght and realizing that I was SFVA here for good.

After a 12+ year vacation from the hunter ring (dressage and jumper rings instead), I’m headed back, and I was checking here to scan topics, and it doesn’t pull me in.

What it boils down to, I have very limited computer time for surfing. I’m a boring adult with a boring, full time+ job, a barn full of horses to ride and manage, and often I’m taking a 5 minute work break, and if I have to fuss with a bunch of new formats, that puts it outside of a quick break and into a “dedicate a chunk of horse/husband/relaxing time to learning a new forum software for a forum that I only check sporadically”.

I will say, just typing this reply, on the computer, not the phone (I was on the phone earlier), I am seeing ways to close a few things, like the preview.

[trubandloki]

@SaddleFitterVA

now finding them and reading them (depending on the formatting) is a distraction.

I have not tried it yet but I understand the search feature here is far better than it was before so finding old threads should be pretty easy using that.

[MHM]

@trubandloki

@SaddleFitterVA

now finding them and reading them (depending on the formatting) is a distraction.

I have not tried it yet but I understand the search feature here is far better than it was before so finding old threads should be pretty easy using that.

I have tried it, and I found it to be much less useful than the previous version. Before this change, you could narrow the advanced search to threads that were started by a specific poster, which narrowed the field by a lot. No longer, it seems.

[JB]

@MHM

I have tried it, and I found it to be much less useful than the previous version. Before this change, you could narrow the advanced search to threads that were started by a specific poster, which narrowed the field by a lot. No longer, it seems.

Click the magnifying glass, then click options

And you get all these options, including some we didn’t have before