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    So they finally changed the style of the forum I mostly visit. I supect it's not the only forum that has a new look to it.

    Anyway, I've gathered a list of flaws I've stumbled upon so far (10 minutes of browsing around.) Trying not to be too subjective.

    • Fixed width forum, no benefit from a wider screen (scrollbars on pieces of code etc.) (At least the old version had a max-width of +400 px compared to this.)
    • Huge waste of vertical space everywhere.
    • No difference with normal, <em>italic</em> or <strong>bold</strong> text in posts. (You can still add text like this to your post and it will show up in the editor, it just won't make any difference on the final product.) Note that this forum has not been updated with the new layout so you'll probably see these styles now.
    • No difference in appearance with read threads, unread threads (used to be bold) and threads with unread posts (used to be italic.)
    • Thread icons (question, discussion, etc.) are not distinct enough. I guess the design team ran out of shapes and colours.
      The alert and sticky icons are not on the list but you can guess the colour. That's right. Gray.
    • Marked answers barely dishtinguishable from other replies. (It's even worse if "Always Show Answers First On Thread Page" is not checked on the Settings page.)

    Not all change is bad, only bad change is bad.

    Edit: Couldn't start a discussion without changing the type after asking a question. This feature DOES WORK with the new layout.

    • Changed type sipla Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:10 AM
    • Edited by sipla Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:11 AM
    Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:07 AM

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    Looks like I'm not the only one unhappy about some of the changes..

    I'm sure there are other threads like this elsewhere (not in Suggestions or Forum Issues)  in the forums...

    • Edited by sipla Wednesday, August 29, 2012 9:20 AM
    Friday, August 17, 2012 9:09 AM
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    Agreed.  It's hideous.  The TFS Version Control forum (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsversioncontrol/threads) has been damaged in the same way.
    Friday, August 17, 2012 3:37 PM
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    Agreed.  It's hideous.  

    +2

    - Wayne

    Friday, August 17, 2012 5:29 PM
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    I strongly agree with your point about the fixed width!

    Who does NOT have a high resolution screen in the new format? How could the designers waste all that space and make us scroll endlessly while reviewing threads?

    Friday, August 17, 2012 8:26 PM
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    The fixed width issue is extremely annoying.

    The old forum I could view at 125% zoom in IE9 to get the best compromise between real estate usage and legibility in both listing and detail view.   The new style I have to view the listing at 100% to get about the same legibility, but that wastes about 20% of the screen real estate in both listing and details view, and the details view is much less legible than it was.  I can set the new forums to 125% and continually scroll up and down in the listing view, but why is so much screen being wasted?  If I set the new forums at 100% to be legible, it's wrong when I go back to an old-style layout (and why are they running different formats anyway?).

    Saturday, August 18, 2012 12:41 AM
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    I noticed that if you change the locale from the forum address from en-US to something different, for example en-GB, you get the old layout version.

    http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/csharpgeneral

    vs.

    http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/csharpgeneral

    ...Probably a very temporary "solution."

    Wednesday, August 22, 2012 9:16 AM
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    sipla,

    thanks for that hint ;-)

    Hannes

    If you have got questions about this, just ask.

    In a perfect world,
    users would never enter data in the wrong form,
    files they choose to open would always exist
    and code would never have bugs.

    C# to VB.NET: http://www.developerfusion.com/tools/convert/csharp-to-vb/

    Wednesday, August 22, 2012 10:01 AM
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    Just wanted to add that I agree with all your points. Better to be a "me too" & be counted, than allow MS to be able to say "only a few people complained".

    Yann - LightSwitch Central - Click here for FREE Themes, Controls, Types and Commands
     
    If you find a reply helpful, please click "Vote as Helpful", if a reply answers your question, please click "Mark as Answer"
     
    By doing this you'll help people find answers faster.

    Wednesday, August 22, 2012 11:47 AM
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    Have the people responsible for this been informed?  Have they even acknowledged that there are problems?
    Tuesday, April 30, 2013 4:37 PM
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    Have the people responsible for this been informed?  Have they even acknowledged that there are problems?

    hi John

    if you follow the forum regularly you know the answer already yourself.

    they're informed about the bugs, in some rare cases the confirmed it but in most cases there's a big silence and many complains are simply ignored with the argumentation that the Microsoft forums are not  support forums.

    Tuesday, April 30, 2013 8:46 PM
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    There is a bug database for the forum's software. The bugs keep piling up in that database. I think few of them get eventually resolved. Say, the problem with marking answers for people with big number of points seemed to be resolved (not the unmarking, though, I still get 'Unexpected error' when I try to unmark an answer in this case).

    But most of the problems are not acknowledged. Say, I posted a thread called 'Bugs and issues' about month or so ago. None of the people responsible for the forum's software replied and apart from the fix I mentioned all other bugs listed in that thread are still present.

    For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Becker's Law


    My blog


    • Edited by Naomi N Tuesday, April 30, 2013 11:05 PM
    Tuesday, April 30, 2013 11:02 PM
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    There have been some minor improvements (italics & bold have been returned), but the overall "look & feel" have not been modified to reflect all the things people don't like about it. My theory is that "higher powers" have decreed how things are going to look, no matter what we (the users) say we want.

    From what I hear, someone new has fairly recently taken over the position responsible for all MSDN forums, so it'll be interesting to see what that brings.

    Yann Duran
         - Co-Author of Pro Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011
         - Author of the  LightSwitch Central Blog

    FREE Download: Luminous Tools for LightSwitch
    (a Visual Studio productivity extension for LightSwitch)
     
    Click Mark as Answer, if someone's reply answers your question
    Click  Vote as Helpful, if someone's reply is helpful
     
    By doing this you'll help everyone find answers faster.

    Wednesday, May 1, 2013 8:10 AM