Coming Soon: A Completely New HTF (1 Viewer)

[Dave Upton]

Our saga over the past three years has been a very interesting one, and it has had its share of challenges. Many of you will recall the week long period while HTF was offline as we struggled to move to this new platform from Huddler.

Last year, the owners began discussing the future of HTF's platform, since the manufacturer Invision Power was about to release the brand new version "4" of this forum software. After a great deal of discussion, we determined that Invision Power Board or IPB, just isn't the right platform for HTF going forward.


As a result of that decision we have invested a great deal of time and energy in redesigning HTF on the forum software that is now the de facto standard on the web: XenForo. XenForo is written by the guys who originally created vBulletin, so it has a lot of great user friendly features. We have also moved our front page to WordPress, so that the reviews and articles we post are more enjoyable to read.


Here are some of the ways we hope these changes will improve your experience:

1. HTF will be fully responsive to the device you are using, so whether it is a tablet, phone or PC, the content will fit your screen without any scrolling side to side.
2. XenForo is very lightweight and fast, which should greatly increase the speed at which pages load on the site.
3. Better layout/design: We have totally changed the way we lay out the various forum areas on the index page to make navigation easier and more logical.
4. News Coverage: Our new front page is designed to be easy to read, and have content posted far more frequently. All your reviews and HT related news will be there in a great, easy to read format.

We are currently planning on moving to the new software on the weekend of January 29th and expect to be offline for about 12 hours as we get this done. Please feel free to ask any questions in this thread. If you are interested in being a beta tester in the next 2-3 weeks, please also post in this thread to let us know.


Thanks again for your patience as we work to make HTF better!


Here are some preview images of the new site:


New Homepage:

New Blu-ray review format:

View attachment blu-ray_desktop.pdf


New Forum Index:

New Thread View:

Fully responsive, so it works on all your devices:

 

[Mike Frezon]

Nice! Those images look great!


I think there are a lot of members, Dave, who are looking forward to some updates--both in terms of functionality and appearance.


Exciting times!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Oh yeah!

 

[Charles Smith]

Great news, guys!


You may enlist me for beta testing if you'd like.


I was a tester last time, and the testing period was unexpectedly short-lived. Just as we were getting into discovering how to do this and that, we suddenly went live -- after, like, a day or two! Let's hope this move will happen a lot more comfortably. It sounds great, and the screen shots look fine. Congrats to all!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Lately the forum has become much more difficult when used under Win10/Edge. It's problemattic when I try to post a text quote or a photo whether or not the post will be successful. Often I have to type in some "dummy characters" like asdfasdf before the location of the quote or photo for it to "take". I'm happy to see a change of platform now in the works.

 

[Walter Kittel]

It seems like the thread view (assuming that is the final form) is a step backwards.


- Posts are already separated by title bars, I'm not sure why the addition of blank space between posts is a good idea. (??)


- The total number of posts is lost in the post X of Y count in each post's header. Not a big deal but still it is less information.


- The time of the post is missing which is definitely a step backwards in terms of function. It is helpful to know when

something is posted so that replies can take that in to account.


There may be some compelling reasons to adopt these changes based on the functions supported in the software platform. I have no idea. But it seems like a less capable view vs. the current HTF.


- Walter.

 

[Robin9]

Lately the forum has become much more difficult . . . . It's problemattic when I try to post a text quote or a photo whether or not the post will be successful.

That's been my experience too. I hope the new format etc. will improve things.

 

[Rick Thompson]

I've never had a problem with the current format, which I found compact and logical. I'll withhold judgment until I see the new format, though most new site formats I've seen just make things more involved and harder to use in exchange for some eye candy.

 

[Dave Upton]

It seems like the thread view (assuming that is the final form) is a step backwards.


- Posts are already separated by title bars, I'm not sure why the addition of blank space between posts is a good idea. (??)


- The total number of posts is lost in the post X of Y count in each post's header. Not a big deal but still it is less information.


- The time of the post is missing which is definitely a step backwards in terms of function. It is helpful to know when

something is posted so that replies can take that in to account.


There may be some compelling reasons to adopt these changes based on the functions supported in the software platform. I have no idea. But it seems like a less capable view vs. the current HTF.


- Walter.

Walter,


The visual separation between posts is really just something we think helps visually distinguish posts. If it's not working, it's very easy to change.


Regarding missing info like time and post number, we can add these and will plan to as part of the feedback we gather during testing.


Dave

 

[David_B_K]

I am not concerned so much with look and format as with compatibility on tablets. I spend a lot less time keeping up with the forum due to the constant page reload/crashes on my iPad 1 and iPad mini.

 

[Dave Upton]

We share your pain, and that is one of the major reasons we are doing this. Everything works much better on a mobile device now.

 

[Scott-S]

All I ask is we keep the ability to only have the forum categories that we want to display. I have turned off (minimized) a lot sections so I do not have to scroll down a mile to get to the section I want. Currently, you can collapse the categories which is nice. I only have the 2 section I used not minimized so I can quickly see what I want without scrolling a mile down.


Oh, and please keep in mind that some of us do not have access to super fast internet. A lot of other places I visit that have changed over to a "new" format to please mobile users, have made everything all picture based and without a high speed connection, the pages take forever to finish loading all the pictures. Take http://www.nerdist.com as an example. The front page takes forever to load with my 3MB internet.

 

[Dave Upton]

Scott - we have actually reduced the page load not increased it, I promise!


On the front of minimizing sections, whole segments can now be minimized, but due to the redesign, the total forum index is only about a page and a half, so scrolling is less of an issue in general. I'll try to make a video to show you , or you can beta test and give us feedback.

 

[t2smith]

The design looks good. I agree with Walter about keeping the time of the posts and the total number of posts after the post count. I definitely have no problem distinguishing posts under the current setup. I would probably prefer no space between posts, but can't say for sure without seeing what the new setup would look like with no space. The current setup looks great with no space.


The two links that I click on most that I would like you to keep are View New Content to the right of Support HTF which brings up all the forum posts since my last visit and Content I Follow which appears on a drop down menu after I click on my username on the top right.

 

[David Weicker]

One thing I hope to see is the exact same content on both mobile (app/tap-a-talk) and website.

I inadvertently created a thread-lock because the mobile version suppressed some images. An innocent question (that would have been unnecessary if I had access to the images) lead to a lot of issues.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It appears that the drop down forum navigation is being kept intact, which is a surprisingly important feature for me.


While the IP.Board software has been significantly superior to Huddler in a lot of ways, there's definitely room for improvement. I look forward to experiencing the site on the new platform!

 

[Steve...O]

Congrats! The previews above look great. Past experience shows that if a key feature is missing post conversion the owners are very quick to address it.

Looking forward to the new HTF.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Scott - we have actually reduced the page load not increased it, I promise!


On the front of minimizing sections, whole segments can now be minimized, but due to the redesign, the total forum index is only about a page and a half, so scrolling is less of an issue in general. I'll try to make a video to show you , or you can beta test and give us feedback.

Dave:

Will HTF be retaining its Tapatalk interface?

 

[atfree]

Dave:
Will HTF be retaining its Tapatalk interface?

I hope so...makes life much easier[emoji3]

 

[Dave Upton]

One thing I hope to see is the exact same content on both mobile (app/tap-a-talk) and website.

I inadvertently created a thread-lock because the mobile version suppressed some images. An innocent question (that would have been unnecessary if I had access to the images) lead to a lot of issues.

That is the intent. We won't have a mobile app until we can deliver on that, but the new mobile app is coming along nicely.