Check out the new forum nav! - Page 7

I feel your pain!

Breadcrumbs at the bottom!  When did those show up?  I just noticed them today.  That is a nice improvement.

I think I'd rather see them just above the Reply box though, instead of below the reply box.

I don't see em... EDIT: oh, there it is. Nice, but I agree it needs to be above the reply box, please!

I'm glad you guys agree.  I've already told the Huddler crew that it only makes sense for them to be above the reply box.  I completely missed the change as well...even when it was pointed out to me! 

The breadcrumbs should be above the reply box because:  when you are reading a thread and get to the last post it is THEN that you want to navigate...rather than scrolling through the reply box.  And even if you read through to the last post and want to post a reply to the thread...after you click "submit" you are put back to the new last post and still have to scroll through the reply box to get to the breadcrumbs. 

There is a new guy at Huddler (Adam Hilel) who is supposed to be taking a close look at the navigational (and other performance) issues with the forum.  There are still no promises that changes will come overnight...but I am buoyed by his enthusiasm and a recent meeting between some HTF members, HTF management and Huddler staff.  It was a pretty darn good give-and-take with the emphasis on input from the members about how things could work better.  As you might imagine, navigation issues were front & center.  I think the meeting really explained a LOT for the Huddler team about how people get around the forum.   

Some other differences have also been made already...including the uniformity of button placement in various places around the forum.  For example, the buttons on the "Advanced Search" page have been moved to places that "make sense" with the way things are in other forum pages.

Another Adam would be just too confusing.

It's Andy Hilal (username: ahilal), and he really does seem to have a good grasp of the issues that need to be addressed. Keep your fingers crossed.

Oooooops!  Sorry Andy (which also happens to be my own son's name...)!

Must've been Huddler's "Adam" phenomena which got me! 

Thanks, Michael!

I agree.. "this" close.  Brilliant that they are added.  They just need moved up a little bit (above the reply box)

I'm really encouraged that Mike is in the Focus group that Huddler is tracking.  I am not mad I wasn't asked but I was disappointed that it seemed none of the big complainers were.  If Mike's in the group then I'm sure anything I could have added will have been submitted with more clarity, precision and good humor than I would have done

Why do you need a focus group go create a forum that works?  Do we not have examples all around the net? Do the Huddler founders really not know?  I know I said this before, but the wheel was invented long ago

Just something I've been thinking about....

BTW - Maybe my perception is off but did traffic really slow down here?  I decided to participate near the level I used to and I just don't see the number of posts that were here a few months ago.  Not even as many 'hit and run' questions.

I know, I know... Bad attitude....

You're too kind, Sam.

You're too grouchy, David.  (Just kidding...)  We've all had a "bad attitude" through this process at one time or another. 

 Humbug! 

David, I've asked many times "do these guys even use forums?". If it takes getting a focus group of enthusiasts to make things right, I'm all for it. Mike, not at all, many of the improvements we've seen so far have resulted from your excellent analysis and tenacity.

Ned Ryerson: I'll walk with you. Whenever I see an opportunity now, I charge it like a bull. Ned the Bull, that's me now.

The order of the forums on the main list has changed AGAIN! This is getting REALLY old!

Doug

Doug:  Maybe a mod will pop in to address this...but they haven't changed for me.  They are (in order):

HT
HT Hardware
BD/DVD/Dig. Downloads
Entertainment
Insiders
Marketplace
Other Diversions
Feedback
Archives

That's what it's been for me for a couple of days anyway...since Wednesday night, I think. 

Quote:
For a second I thought that was the guy who fell into the ice puddle every day, but hes the guy who laughs when the Groundhogger steps in it, so oooookay!

Sam

The order of the actual forums inside the category heads changed from yesterday. Yesterday the order inside Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Downloads was:

TV on DVD and Blu-ray: Shows and TV Movies,
DVD (and Other Std-Def Software): Film and Documentary
Blu-ray (and Other Hi-Def Software): Film and Documentary.

Today it has blu-ray at the top and TV at the bottom.

Doug

If you check out the last couple of posts in THIS THREAD, you'll see that I actually recommended those very changes to Adam to provide uniformity with the sub-forum heading. 

Adam seems to indicate the changes are done for awhile. 

Ah I see...maybe the server that my connection hits was slow to update.

Doug

Did Andy morph back into Adam?  


Very nice to finally see the breadcrumbs added to the bottom though I agree they need to be somewhere between the last post shown on the page and the reply box (rather than below the reply box).  I guess for symmetry the breadcrumbs should come just below the forum nav links (but above the reply box) to mirror the top.

BTW, I forget now, but does the current list of nav issues include allowing us to mark current sub-forum read, instead of the entire forum site (on each sub-forum's thread listing page)?  The mark entire forum site read function w/in a sub-forum page never really made all that much sense to me, except on very rare occasions when you just don't care what else might still be unread at the moment *or* are newly posted elsewhere on the forum site.

And yes, good to hear about the new changes in the decision-making process for forum/site design.  Having Mike in that focus group sounds great to me.

_Man_
 

Nope.  This time I was talking about Adam...Gregorich! 


I'd have to check Post #1 of the "Consolidated Forum Feedback" thread to know for sure, Man.

And, Adam says the suggestion box forum is really the new "go to" section for ideas about improvements.  It wouldn't hurt to check to see if you put that bug in someone's ear in that part of the forum. 

And, thanks for the nice words.  Adam and the Huddler folk have me excited about an upcoming software revision that should make us long-time users happy about some of the navigation issues.  My fingers are crossed. 

This might sound like I'm picking nits...but it turns out that the breadcrumbs at the bottom of the page are not actually located below the reply box.  They are located "just above" the bottom banner ad.  (They just usually appear as if they are located below the Reply Box.) 

This means that in threads like this one--which currently have one short post in them--the bottom bread crumbs require a  fair amount of scrolling before they become useful. 

Looking a bit more closely, it would seem that Huddler had actually strictly followed their original design in the placement of the bottom breadcrumbs.  The top breadcrumbs actually look like they were/are placed in a header above the top margin of the page -- header and margin being denoted by the visible horizontal line -- so the bottom breadcrumbs have now been placed symmetrically in a footer in the bottom margin area below the bottom horizontal line.

This makes some sense in terms of the original page design, which was probably more suited to a blog-like/general-publishing format or similar, *BUT* is not really ideal for forum navigational purposes, if one wishes to use them instead of the forum nav menu, etc.

So actually, based on the apparent original design idea, the "bottom" links for the forum nav menu, etc. might be in the wrong spot and should probably be below the reply box in order to be symmetrical w/ the top links, which are above the thread title and lined up right against the top margin w/in the page.  

_Man_