Trust me, I'm as surprised as you are. I had not been informed about these changes and it seems as if I can't change it back either...

Maybe it's because I was familiar with the old look, but there are some changes I don't like, such as the thread index's double rows of each post (subject title on one row and author on the next), the "hot thread" symbol and the centered message texts. There are some new useful features though - at least the possibility to search by author is a welcome addition.

The avatar feature is optional. Do you want to use it or not? And generally, what do you think about the new look and features?

The centered text REALLY SUCKS!

I'm not sure what you mean by "centered text". I think it'll take a while to get used to, but it's not so bad!

It also seems some changes have been the addition of bb code instead of html. And what is that "Website" icon at the bottom of each post?

For a moment, I thought the forum had login features and profiles, and I would have LOVED that.

As for avatars, I wouldn't be opposed to them, but I can't quite see how they're relevant yet (help?) so it's no big deal either way.

And now it's displaying the messages in an order that isn't chronological for me. The fun continues!

First impressions

Not good:
1 - The layout is pretty ugly, if you'd ask me ...
2 - Now you can reply to each post individually, displaying your reply right underneath it. I really liked the threads to be chronological, but it seems less easy to keep that in place now
3 - I don't like the hot thread icon either
4 - I don't see a use for the avatars (yet)

Good:
1 - There are a lot of smilies now to choose from
2 - You have 10 minutes to still edit your post
3 - You even have 10 minutes to still delete your post
4 - I like that you can see who did the last post in the thread and when that was.

I replied to Andre's message, and then he edited it, and now I can't find my prior message.... so that goes in the bad column.

People always complain when sites re-design (see also: Facebook) but tend to get used to the changes later. Nevertheless, my initial impression is still: this is just awful, at least for our purposes.

-The centered text looks bad (and makes lists, of which we tend to post a lot, look REALLY bad).

-Text coding is different. I can't figure out how to link text (anyone?), and cutting and pasting from Word is a disaster. (What, you thought I composed the eligibles list in these text boxes?)

-I can see the advantage of replying to individual messages, but re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: is going to get old very fast.

-This may have been my error, but the first time I tried to post the 1990 voting thread, it didn't take (which I just noticed).

And I don't use smileys. Bah.

I'm hoping some of this will be mitigated as we get used to the new format, but, as you can tell, I ain't happy.

BTW, I think I know what you mean by centered message text, Henrik. It only does that in Internet Explorer, in Firefox (my and probably Moonbeam's default browser) do not show it centered.

Anybody else having a problem with it taking forever to load? Every time I open a new thread I have to wait at least 5 seconds watching the "loading please wait" spin.

That's not half as bad as how long it took to post that. 10 seconds while submitting and another 10 seconds to reload the thread. This is not good.

I'm not seeing the centered text though. It looks the same to me.

Maybe not 5 seconds, but yes, it is slow, John.

Schwah, your avatar does not display. Links to static RYM pictures don't work.

Yeah, I'm using Firefox.

Let's see if this avatar works ...

And schleuse, you're right, these "Re: Re: Re:"'s are getting pretty annoying.

I can't view this shit on my blackberry.

Yuck.

We have avatars now? Nice.

How do I change it now?

Page about BBcode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bb_code#BBCode_tags

I think I need to close my page and re-open it to change your avatar. Seems like everything would be easier with registration so the forum could remember everything.

The 'email' link at the bottom of my posts goes to my old old email address I only use when I want to fill out a registration form without getting my email in junkmail databases.

I don't even remember entering it at this website, so I don't know why it's even there.

I don't even see an e-mail link!

For the moment it looks really bad (especially on IE)
But maybe it's like when your girlfriend has a new haircut
You get used to it afterwards

"start a new thread"... right button? i hope this lands in the right place...

i always liked the lack of avatars in theis forum. i guess it's not too bad, but i really hope the forum doesn't get too "flashy".

i do like how you can quote people though, and i find this layout easier to read. i'll get used to it and end up liking it better i think.

alright! it worked. edit feature is good :)

Wow, I go away for a bit, forget to submit a 1971 list (it was just too damn hard)and it's gone all white here.

I felt that something had to be done to make the forum easier to read. Other suggestions than the white background are most welcome.

I'm still looking how to reply to topics without having the post I'm supposed to be replying too at the bottom of the page.

I see that we can sort the topics in various folders.
Might be quite helpful, would be great if all our lists were sorted in categories such as "critic list", "forum polls", "hall of acclaim", "useless trolls involving at a moment or another a debate about the Beatles" etc.

any colour other than white. i think my screen is too bright. my eyes are going to start hurting...

maybe a dark background with light text?

The old forum links don't work anymore (or at least some of them don't work).
Old forum polls
I can help finding the original threads and posts.

I like that we have categories now. How about another one for AM polls?

Damn. In my opinion the changes on the appearance of the forum are simply tragic. Especially the problems about pasting text from a Word file. I ALWAYS write first in Word because of the orthographic corrector. I don't usually write in English and the help from the corrector is essential for me. I'm afraid that this fact alone could reduce drastically my participation in the forum.
I even used to keep all my posts in Word files, for instance I got a file named HOA where I copy and paste the year before and overwrite the new votes and You Tube links for the current “year”.
And please, someone can explain to me how can I include now photographs, you tube videos and links to other pages with that bb code? In my new votes for the backstage wing for HOA I've already included many pictures that now I don't know how to attach.
Moreover I don't like at all the now look. I used to hate many other forums with flashy looks and colours and used to love the simple but elegant look of our forum. And the centred text is absurd. Must I download Firefox in order to avoid it? And, yes, it takes longer to display it. Grrrr...
Henrik, I wish you could change it back and keep the old familiar (but friendly) format. But if you can't (and I'm afraid so) please help me with that damn bb code posting.

woohooo... AMF has become fresh and ordinary!




i can haz banna opshan pleez?

And, argh, the links I kept for the previous threads don't work anymore... Please, Henrik, send me the adress of Bravenet, I'm going to send them a bomb by mail

I have started to like the new forum a bit more but still have mixed feelings. Somewhere inbetween Honorio and Netjade...

I really hope that the centered text in IE is just a child disease. And the thing that worries me a bit is that there will be a lot of replies to previous posts that will "disappear" in the middle of the threads. For example VanillaFire1000's newly added list of albums and songs from 1972.

It looks a lot better than it did yesterday. I like bbcode a lot more than html just because I know it and it's easy.

The only thing I don't really like is when you quote somebody it shows up right below that post (at least it did yesterday). Any way to change that in the settings?

I think the white is too bright. Grey was nice. (Also, I will have to learn BB code. I only know html.) Otherwise, I will embrace change.

The only thing I don't really like is when you quote somebody it shows up right below that post (at least it did yesterday). Any way to change that in the settings?

John, that's the concern I tried to express as well. There's no way to change this now, but let's hope that some of these new features will be optional in the future.

bbcode is really, really easy.

Thanks for the bb code chart!

The editing feature is a big plus.

Heh, one bug, on the listing of each different section, it says the last post was 39 years ago.

39 years ago, by the way, is 0 Unix time. So when it is looking for the time of the last post made in each section, something is obviously returning 0.

It seems like they have actually fixed so that quote-replies show up at the bottom of the page.

Inbetween post.

What's that about the number of replies with the new format? For instance I only count 7 replies in the popelton thread about new links to our polls while in the main page this thread is marked with 13 replies. Are there other 6 replies missing? Or is it a question about editing and deleting replies?

I wonder if copying/pasting from Word works because from Excel it's ok

Well, it seems to work

Well, Nicolas, not completely. If you made the previews in Excel you avoid the problems with the apostrophe (') and with the quotation mark ("). If I write in Word instead using the apostrophe the program uses by default right single quotation marks. For instance if I write "you're right" normally I obtain you’re right. Same with quotation marks. And I've been always using quotation marks for my lists!! They always went like this: THE BAND "The Last Waltz".
But there is another problem (that I don't know how to solve) about the accents, not a problem in English but in Spanish. I'm a snob, I know, but I've always hated when the people writes with orthographic mistakes (in my own language, of course, I would like not to commit mistakes when I write in English). And this damn bb code format forces me to write in Spanish without the accents!! For instance, if I write correctly America it will show as América. You know, in Spanish we put an acute accent on the "e", just like that

Hey, what happened? Let's try again: América

Well, forget it. I don't know why but if I write with an accent it will show incorrectly in the "preview message" but not in the definitive message.
América, América, América, América, América. I feel like I've just discovered América.

Henrik, there's a problem with the link from the Home page to the forum page.
When clicking on "Forum", I am asked my login and password as if I was the site administrator

Same here. I posted on this yesterday in the off-topic forum but no one goes there, apparently.
I can only access the forum via the link at the bottom of the homepage.

The problem appears to have been resolved

One and a half month away from here, and what a surprise do I have when coming to the site again! Now we may find some things strange, but in some months we will wonder how could we like those old features in the past!

Hey, so many interesting threads to catch up with!!! It looks like the activity here is being strong!

Proving avatar

Otis Redding

Proving BBcode

Seventh attempt