Яusso-Soviэt Forum
Russian or Soviet vehicles/armor modeling forum.
Please consider posting in the new forum
Kevlar06
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Posted: Monday, October 26, 2020 - 11:59 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Looks like I am the Dinosaur that's not going to survive the astroid!



No, you’re not the only one Michael. I’m having the same feelings, and frankly think I’m going to step away from Kitmaker for a while. I had the same feelings when Hyperscale and Missing Lynx went to this same “new” “Facebook like” format. Now I have to “like” something or “bookmark it” to access it, or run through endless “new” comments before I find an interesting post. I suppose the “new system” is better for loading photos, but frankly, I really liked the idea of seeing all the postings at a glance, together for all the Kitmaker sites. So, as a fellow “Dinosaur”, it’s just too complicated to deal with for me. You know, I have a similar problem when I walk into my LHS and stare at a floor to ceiling display of model kits when they’re just jumbled together— it causes me to go blank for a while. It’s much easier and less chaotic when things are organized into nice groups. Perhaps I’ll check in once in a while.
VR, Russ
drabslab
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Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 - 12:11 AM UTC

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To those "electronic architects" who lament the current archaic programming of the current website I'm not saying not to improve or change or upgrade the system at will.

However to come this far down a path and to then present us with such a "final solution" that basically throws out the "baby AND the bath water" is simply unacceptable.

As I said elsewhere: when the powers that be reached the point in the process where they realized the new solution would bring about the burning of the library they should have stopped right there and looked for a different course of action!

(To their credit; I am sure those in power thought long and hard about this issue before proceeding. However IMHO they simply made the WRONG decision. That plus they never put the question before the actual users probably because they knew their proposal would be rejected.)

Of course no one ever said this site was a Democracy or even a Republic.



Well, expecting that you are referring to me when talking about those "electronic architects" ...

I totally agree with what you write above; in fact, I offered a helping hand several times during the last 10 years or so ... but never got any feedback from those in power.

But indeed, this is not a democracy and who onws the site... decides.

It makes no sense to continue reflecting on what could have been done, should have been done. We can only conclude that the consequences of a x-years standstill are dire, and hard measures must be taken.

But I would definitively have preferred another approach.
varanusk
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Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 - 01:08 AM UTC
Hey, don't be so negative... you don't have to like posts, earn badges or use smilies! Just ask and reply as you have always done.

New forum is not that hard for that, and within a week or two you will be used. You may not like the look, or where the buttons are but.. well, we have to live with it.

As for old content, it will be archived. That's not perfect but better than seen it gone -Military Modelling forums disappeared and all that knowledge is lost, like old Geocities sites and many more. Fortunately this will not be the case here.

Within a couple of months I trust we will be all using the new forums as we have done here for years.

And should you need any help, just ask!
165thspc
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Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 - 01:37 AM UTC
Bah - Humbug

Though I appalude your "jump on the new band wagon"-ness!
TankManNick
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Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 - 03:40 AM UTC

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Looks like I am the Dinosaur that's not going to survive the astroid!



No, you’re not the only one Michael. I’m having the same feelings, and frankly think I’m going to step away from Kitmaker for a while. I had the same feelings when Hyperscale and Missing Lynx went to this same “new” “Facebook like” format. Now I have to “like” something or “bookmark it” to access it, or run through endless “new” comments before I find an interesting post. I suppose the “new system” is better for loading photos, but frankly, I really liked the idea of seeing all the postings at a glance, together for all the Kitmaker sites. So, as a fellow “Dinosaur”, it’s just too complicated to deal with for me. You know, I have a similar problem when I walk into my LHS and stare at a floor to ceiling display of model kits when they’re just jumbled together— it causes me to go blank for a while. It’s much easier and less chaotic when things are organized into nice groups. Perhaps I’ll check in once in a while.
VR, Russ



THIS POST NEED FACT CHECKING! ('cos I don't see none of this!)
Kevlar06
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Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 - 11:36 AM UTC

Quoted Text


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Looks like I am the Dinosaur that's not going to survive the astroid!



No, you’re not the only one Michael. I’m having the same feelings, and frankly think I’m going to step away from Kitmaker for a while. I had the same feelings when Hyperscale and Missing Lynx went to this same “new” “Facebook like” format. Now I have to “like” something or “bookmark it” to access it, or run through endless “new” comments before I find an interesting post. I suppose the “new system” is better for loading photos, but frankly, I really liked the idea of seeing all the postings at a glance, together for all the Kitmaker sites. So, as a fellow “Dinosaur”, it’s just too complicated to deal with for me. You know, I have a similar problem when I walk into my LHS and stare at a floor to ceiling display of model kits when they’re just jumbled together— it causes me to go blank for a while. It’s much easier and less chaotic when things are organized into nice groups. Perhaps I’ll check in once in a while.
VR, Russ



THIS POST NEED FACT CHECKING! ('cos I don't see none of this!)



Well, how about this— I went back again and had a serous look at the new forums. I still feel it’s not as easy or clear to look at as the old forums, nor is it easy to retrieve previously archived material. As I looked at the new forums, I realized what it is that bothers me about them:
1) There is no color coding to differentiate between Armorama, Aeroscale, Model Shipwrights, Historica Forma or the other Kitmaker sites. Part of the reason I liked the old site was I could see at a glance what area the topic was in. That’s a checked fact.
2) There were more topics available on a single page, especially the first page of the site, including New items, Features, Reviews, etc. that’s a fact. Now you have to “dig” for them by going to that area.

It’s not that the new forums are bad, it’s just me. I don’t feel I want to spool through the site to find what I need. Perhaps if the topics where color coded like the old site, or if there was a “title page” with announcements, reviews or features” I’d feel differently. I feel for now it’s best to step away, and maybe come back later and see how things are progressing. I feel the same way about Hyperscale/Missing Lynx, which went to the same type of programming a couple of years ago. I still hit the announcement/features page of Hyperscale, which kept the same format for its title page, with a link to the forums. But I seldom even look at the forums anymore, as their usefulness is a running list of topics, forcing me to dig around to find anything of interest. To me, the greatest utility of the old site was the ability to ask and answer questions, and find topics again if you needed them.
VR, Russ
RobinNilsson
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Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 - 12:22 PM UTC

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Looks like I am the Dinosaur that's not going to survive the astroid!



No, you’re not the only one Michael. I’m having the same feelings, and frankly think I’m going to step away from Kitmaker for a while. I had the same feelings when Hyperscale and Missing Lynx went to this same “new” “Facebook like” format. Now I have to “like” something or “bookmark it” to access it, or run through endless “new” comments before I find an interesting post. I suppose the “new system” is better for loading photos, but frankly, I really liked the idea of seeing all the postings at a glance, together for all the Kitmaker sites. So, as a fellow “Dinosaur”, it’s just too complicated to deal with for me. You know, I have a similar problem when I walk into my LHS and stare at a floor to ceiling display of model kits when they’re just jumbled together— it causes me to go blank for a while. It’s much easier and less chaotic when things are organized into nice groups. Perhaps I’ll check in once in a while.
VR, Russ



THIS POST NEED FACT CHECKING! ('cos I don't see none of this!)



Well, how about this— I went back again and had a serous look at the new forums. I still feel it’s not as easy or clear to look at as the old forums, nor is it easy to retrieve previously archived material. As I looked at the new forums, I realized what it is that bothers me about them:
1) There is no color coding to differentiate between Armorama, Aeroscale, Model Shipwrights, Historica Forma or the other Kitmaker sites. Part of the reason I liked the old site was I could see at a glance what area the topic was in. That’s a checked fact.
2) There were more topics available on a single page, especially the first page of the site, including New items, Features, Reviews, etc. that’s a fact. Now you have to “dig” for them by going to that area.

It’s not that the new forums are bad, it’s just me. I don’t feel I want to spool through the site to find what I need. Perhaps if the topics where color coded like the old site, or if there was a “title page” with announcements, reviews or features” I’d feel differently. I feel for now it’s best to step away, and maybe come back later and see how things are progressing. I feel the same way about Hyperscale/Missing Lynx, which went to the same type of programming a couple of years ago. I still hit the announcement/features page of Hyperscale, which kept the same format for its title page, with a link to the forums. But I seldom even look at the forums anymore, as their usefulness is a running list of topics, forcing me to dig around to find anything of interest. To me, the greatest utility of the old site was the ability to ask and answer questions, and find topics again if you needed them.
VR, Russ



Colour coded like this?

Little colour blips by each topic

In a forum such as Armorama


or like this sub-category of Armorama


New posts since my last visit are above the red line. Posts I have read are slightly grey.
Those that I have taken more interest in show how many new posts have been added since I checked the last time. If I want to I can get notifications when something happens in a topic I have been involved in.
If someone gives me a like (childish, I know) I get a notification. We can give each other a thumbs-up without actually adding a post to a topic.
It is possible to reply to a specific post in a topic and the author of the replied to post gets a notification (I am now replying specifically to Patrick) and I can reply to whole topic (as we do in the old forums). Private messages are just as easy as before.
I can view a whole forum or ask for the latest posts in all of Kitmaker (like today), in a forum (Armorama) or a subcategory (WWII Armour)
Kevlar06
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 04:36 AM UTC
Robin,
I’m talking about the color coding of the actual topic entries by forum members. Under the old system, the topic was color coded to match whatever Kitmaker category it was entered in, green for Armorama, blue for Aeroscale, etc. It made it much easier to find a topic or subject in a specific subject area, rather than just a running list of posts. The iconography associated in the old system also told you wether or not is was of interest. I suppose it exists in the new system too, someplace. I’m frankly confused by the long list of icons next to the posters topic entry and name too—it just seems to take up space. It’s all very overwhelming when you look at it, whereas the old system was simple, with a color, icon and topic title. I’m sure it’s just me, I suppose there are lots of folks out there that want more stuff to look at on the screen, but the reason I go to a modeling site is to look at and discuss models and techniques, not the various code configurations of computer technology. Maybe if I distance myself from the old site and come back to the new one later, I’ll feel better about it, but right now it just feels complicated, unwieldy, visually distracting, and difficult to navigate. Again it’s probably just me, not you guys.
VR, Russ
RobinNilsson
Staff MemberTOS Moderator
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 05:07 AM UTC
I'm not quite sure I follow you on the relative amount of clutter in the two forums





Scrolling down makes the old forum less cluttered, no change to the new. Ads will probably apppear in the new forum too, someone has to pay for the "lunch" ....

The little 1 in a green circle on my avatar tells me that I have an unread notification (message, followed thread or maybe a like)

agincajun
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 05:37 AM UTC
I guess I joined KitMaker/Armorama at the right time, a week after I joined I saw the post for a new forum and went ahead and logged in on that one and have even posted a few comments and a photo or two. It took a few minutes to get it all squared away but nothing insurmountable. For those of you that hate change I get it I hate change too but the new site for me is less archaic. The heart of my message here is don't bail, there are some really talented modelers on these sites and I appreciate your experience and skill. There are viewers that are either new to the hobby, or returning to the hobby and we learn from your presentations or they just give inspiration or serve as a benchmark to work toward. Resisting change just brings self inflicted agony, just look at the hobby itself, I absolutely despise using CA glue but it's on all our work tables now, PE parts that are so infuriating you want to kick the cat, but man there's some awesome completed kits on this site. I've been building models since 1968 off and on just like most of y'all on this forum and I thought I was fairly decent at it but some of the stuff I've seen on here puts me to shame, the new forum is different but isn't hard to figure out, it's actually more streamlined to your particular intrests, if you logout it'll send you an email for any comments you may have missed on a specific post. Some of you dudes are pretty damn smart and I learn a lot from you so don't quit, not I yet, I still got a lot to learn.
Scarred
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 07:54 AM UTC

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You can really tell kids from the adults. A kid gets all excited about some "badge" for posting. An adult wants to read about what others are doing, what new kits are on the horizon, tools and paints and other advances. This site is going the way of a gamer site. Totally useless. I have a feeling some of us aren't going to be sticking around.



And what is an adult getting excited about???

A new colourfull box containing some grey plastic, an odourless glue, the ...

We are all children too some extend, ain't we?



Getting excited about some virtual sticker that you earn by posting is what kids get excited about. That sticker, badge or whatever it's called isn't real. It's virtual, fake. You get it for fake accomplishments in a fake world. It means nothing, has no value other than to show you spend way too much time away from reality. You can't show it to anyone, you can't display it for all to see and when the site eventually goes down there is no evidence it ever existed.

Now getting excited about something physical like a kit, that you can touch, smell or taste (if you're into that sorta thing) is completely different than a few colorful pixels. You can build them how you want, put them on the shelf, display your models, you can put them in a diorama that you build. You can build them with your kids or friends, I don't know how you can earn a virtual badge for posting with your friends or children unless you take turns typing words. Your creations will last until you decide they shouldn't. Days, months, years, decades. When the house burned down I had kits destroyed that I had displayed for more than 20 years. Do that with a virtual badge you get by posting or reading posts.

Virtual rewards are empty. You can't talk about them to other people but I had many people see what I had built, ask questions which led me asking questions which led to this thing that humanity doesn't do much of any more, a conversation.
RobinNilsson
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 09:13 AM UTC
The SW that Jim is using has user levels and for the fun of it you get the awards/badges. The reality beneath all these childish things is simply to make life just a little bit more difficult for spammers. Reporting spammers is easier (more fun for me except that spammers will have a hard time, oh well, win some lose some).
Some attach their self esteem to the number of topics they have started and how many views and replies those topics have earned. Some find joy in the ribbons they got for completing a campaign (should I spell those things b, a, d, g, e, s instead??)

The support for conversation, the stuff this is all about, is actually slightly better.
Posting images is a helluva lot easier.
Yes, there are a few hoops to jump through while learning how it all works.
I consider these inconveniences minor compared to the benefits of the new forum but that is my personal opinion.

Those virtual stickers are a side effect, ignore them if you want. Some have earned a good reputation here in the old forums, some are know for caustic remarks mixed with valuable information, some ask silly questions and refuse to accept answers that go against their preconceived opinion, some keep a low profile, some are all over the place.
The same will happen in the new forum too, the conversations will continue, on the other side.

Kevlar06
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 05:05 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I'm not quite sure I follow you on the relative amount of clutter in the two forums





Scrolling down makes the old forum less cluttered, no change to the new. Ads will probably apppear in the new forum too, someone has to pay for the "lunch" ....

The little 1 in a green circle on my avatar tells me that I have an unread notification (message, followed thread or maybe a like)




Robin,
I’m referring to the old Armorama format page which has the Features, news, reviews, etc. all on one page. When you go to the “Forums” section and click on “latest posts” it comes up with each post color coded and iconographed by wherever its supposed to be —Armorama, Aeroscale, Model Shipwrights. That is if you have your settings on “entire network. For me, that was the greatest feature of the site. I could tell at a glance what was there, without digging through the clutter that appears on the new site. I get it, the new site is “Facebook-like” friendly, Is better suited to photos, but by the same account, it’s harder to look at visually (at least for me) and is a mass of confusion, requiring me to click on multiple areas to find new items, news, reviews, features, etc. it’s just to much to keep up with. For many reasons, I don’t do Facebook, or any other social media, the closest I came was Kitmaker. The old site allowed me to see everything at a glance, on one or two pages. Scrolling down endless pages for topics I might be interested in isn’t something I want to do at my age. But I’ll check in on occasion and see if it gets easier.
VR, Russ
PanzerNL
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 06:44 PM UTC
I thought it was only the forum that is going to be moved to the new site, the rest of Armorama stays as it is or do I misunderstand?

I like the new forum, once used to it, it works very well. You just have to spend some time on it. It is just a petty I have to have 2 tabs open all the time, one for the new forum and one for this site, but if that is all I am an happy user of the new forum.

One problem I saw is people posting in the same thread on both the old and the new forum making it a little bit of a hassle to follow a thread. I think the old forum should be closed for adding/editing as soon as possible.
RobinNilsson
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 06:57 PM UTC
I think Jim is trying to do a soft transition and many posters are doing the same which leads to posts on both sides.
Scarred
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 09:18 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

I'm not quite sure I follow you on the relative amount of clutter in the two forums





Scrolling down makes the old forum less cluttered, no change to the new. Ads will probably apppear in the new forum too, someone has to pay for the "lunch" ....

The little 1 in a green circle on my avatar tells me that I have an unread notification (message, followed thread or maybe a like)




Robin,
I’m referring to the old Armorama format page which has the Features, news, reviews, etc. all on one page. When you go to the “Forums” section and click on “latest posts” it comes up with each post color coded and iconographed by wherever its supposed to be —Armorama, Aeroscale, Model Shipwrights. That is if you have your settings on “entire network. For me, that was the greatest feature of the site. I could tell at a glance what was there, without digging through the clutter that appears on the new site. I get it, the new site is “Facebook-like” friendly, Is better suited to photos, but by the same account, it’s harder to look at visually (at least for me) and is a mass of confusion, requiring me to click on multiple areas to find new items, news, reviews, features, etc. it’s just to much to keep up with. For many reasons, I don’t do Facebook, or any other social media, the closest I came was Kitmaker. The old site allowed me to see everything at a glance, on one or two pages. Scrolling down endless pages for topics I might be interested in isn’t something I want to do at my age. But I’ll check in on occasion and see if it gets easier.
VR, Russ



Russ, agree completely. The homepage of Armorama told you what was new in kits, reviews, forum activity, breaking down that activity by genre. You didn't have to hunt around for what was active or new. Now it's like facebook, it is total chaos which is one reason I don't go there for model news/announcements or for modeling groups. As I said before facebook is for the here and now not an archive or library for older posts, builds or news. Unless you have your nose constantly in facebook you'll miss something, maybe something you're interested in or important. I don't see this new setup being any different. Confusion, chaos, mayhem. I have no doubt that Discourse is nothing more than an ad feeding machine just like facebook. It is designed to keep you on the site, clicking on different areas, feeding you more and more ads. Setting idiotic 'advancements' just keep you clicking and seeing more ads.
Maki
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 09:57 PM UTC

Quoted Text

The homepage of Armorama told you what was new in kits, reviews, forum activity, breaking down that activity by genre. You didn't have to hunt around for what was active or new.



Guys, I'm not sure if you're aware of the fact that https://forums.kitmaker.net/ are just the forums of the new Kitmaker?

You can see the new homepage of Model Shipwrights:

https://modelshipwrights.com/

This kind of homepage will be available soon for all the other Kitmaker sites, including Armorama.

Mario
AussieReg
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 10:02 PM UTC
Russ, Patrick, I honestly don't see the "chaos" that you are referring to. You don't need to click from page to page to find things in your area of interest, the drop down menus narrow down the fields quickly and simply and give all of the same information that these "Latest Posts" lists do.

I can go straight to the Latest Posts list which details the category, initial poster, plus all activity.


If I just want to browse I can go to the Categories page which shows the Forums and Categories on the LHS and latest activity on the RHS, all colour-coded.


From there I can use the drop-down menu to go to Armorama.


Then a further drop down to narrow the field (to WWII Axis for example)


Which brings me to this narrow list and shows any activity since my last visit above the red line.


This does not involve navigating from page to page, and it is easier to go from one forum to another (Armorama to Aeroscale for instance) in the Latest Posts lists than it is here on this site, where you need to go to the "Browse Sites" function to change forums.

I am finding it a lot more user-friendly each time I visit, and definitely easier to navigate and post (especially images) as well.

I really hope that you will at least give it a good try before you decide to abandon it.

Cheers, D

PanzerNL
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 10:51 PM UTC
New homepage of Model Shipwrights is looking very nice!
drabslab
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Posted: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 10:52 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

The homepage of Armorama told you what was new in kits, reviews, forum activity, breaking down that activity by genre. You didn't have to hunt around for what was active or new.



Guys, I'm not sure if you're aware of the fact that https://forums.kitmaker.net/ are just the forums of the new Kitmaker?

You can see the new homepage of Model Shipwrights:

https://modelshipwrights.com/

This kind of homepage will be available soon for all the other Kitmaker sites, including Armorama.

Mario



Thanks for the info Mario and it looks very interesting indeed.

I have become such an irregular visitor here on kitmaker that I may have missed this info but it also makes me fear that at least one bad "old site" habit may move to the new environment: "poor communication from the site management".

staff_Jim
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Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2020 - 02:26 AM UTC
My apologies for not replying to all this earlier. As you can probably imagine with 5-6 sites to move over to the new content platforms I pretty busy these days. I have a longer pre-written out article to put up later, but for now I will only say this...

This site has been changing since day 1. The forum is not the forum we launched with. This is just a lot bigger change and quite frankly not an option. Building a new forum from scratch (which is what would have been required otherwise) was not an option. No site I am currently aware of with perhaps the exception of ScaleMates has it own personally coded discussion software other than this one. I realize for some people simple is best. Heck there are still sites that have essentially 1998 levels of forums (Steel Navy I am looking at you - https://members.boardhost.com/Warship/) and they never change. That's not going to be us I'm afraid. I chose Discourse because it's simple enough (to navigate and find topics) but complex enough to do the job right. It's NOT Facebook. Anyone who thinks that software is Facebook needs to look again. It's traditional forum all the way. There was an option I was considering that was like Facebook, but we didn't go down that road far.

I will try to get the email situation improved if I can. Sadly paying for a dedicated email IP is the only way to fix it on our current provider and that costs $90 a month to start. We may eventually need a plan that covers that many emails a month so that's why I have been waiting to see how many emails the forum is generating. Currently we are at a 88% delivered ratio so you can see most of our emails are going through. If you are in the 12% that aren't I am sorry for the trouble but I can only promise that Robin and our staff will help get you up and running if given time and a nudge. I will also mention that most of these email providers we are having issues with (hotmail, msn, mac.com, etc) are defunct providers. Meaning they no longer are accepting any new users and basically just want to hang on to you as customers for the marketing benefits. They really aren't interested in email delivery so trust me it's more than just our emails that are getting blocked from your inbox. Our server is not sending the email, SendGrid is and they are a huge provider for a lot of companies: https://sendgrid.com/customers/

Lastly I would say that this is still early days for this transition. Nothing is set in stone beyond the selection of the platforms so we will be making changes as the community provides more constructive input.

Thanks,
Jim
Kevlar06
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Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2020 - 02:33 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Russ, Patrick, I honestly don't see the "chaos" that you are referring to. You don't need to click from page to page to find things in your area of interest, the drop down menus narrow down the fields quickly and simply and give all of the same information that these "Latest Posts" lists do.

I can go straight to the Latest Posts list which details the category, initial poster, plus all activity.


If I just want to browse I can go to the Categories page which shows the Forums and Categories on the LHS and latest activity on the RHS, all colour-coded.


From there I can use the drop-down menu to go to Armorama.


Then a further drop down to narrow the field (to WWII Axis for example)


Which brings me to this narrow list and shows any activity since my last visit above the red line.


This does not involve navigating from page to page, and it is easier to go from one forum to another (Armorama to Aeroscale for instance) in the Latest Posts lists than it is here on this site, where you need to go to the "Browse Sites" function to change forums.

I am finding it a lot more user-friendly each time I visit, and definitely easier to navigate and post (especially images) as well.

I really hope that you will at least give it a good try before you decide to abandon it.

Cheers, D




Damian,
I’m sure it’s just me, not you guys, but your screen shots have just proved my point. You went through five separate steps to get to a screen that you’ll still have to scroll through to find what you’re interested in. With the old system, I could do it in two steps—Armorama home page, followed Forum Posts— if I had my page set to “View entire network”, every forum post in Kitmaker would come up in chronological order. I agree, posting photos might be easier with the new system, but the assorted “other stuff” with the new site just isn’t for me. I firmly believe in the military KISS system (Keep It Simple SIR!— [the original variation of this military “acronym” probably applies to me in this case— Keep It Simple—Stupid]). All the buttons, icons and “do-dads“ in this new system seem like wasted effort. I’d rather spend my time modeling than navigating a through a web site to find info, or topics that interest me. One reason I feel this way about the site is that I’m a modeler across all genres, not just Military Vehicles. Before, I could see everything new in all the Forums at a glance. Can’t do that now.
VR, Russ
staff_Jim
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Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2020 - 03:17 AM UTC
Hi Russ,
Yes... you can. You simply go to the main forum page and either look to the right for the most recent topics (in all sites/categories) or if you want to only see those topics you click "Latest" up at the top. It's the same view you are asking for unless I am misunderstanding your request. Damian was showing you different views starting with the link to the Armorama latest posts page. The main forum page shows this:



Again... all site recent topics on the right. Bigger list of them by clicking LATEST.

This software is so far advanced from my code it's not funny. And clearly I should know. It IS easier to use, navigate and find things on. You just have to give yourself the time to learn it. Just like you did when you first started using this forum.

Cheers,
Jim
RobinNilsson
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Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2020 - 03:17 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Russ, Patrick, I honestly don't see the "chaos" that you are referring to. You don't need to click from page to page to find things in your area of interest, the drop down menus narrow down the fields quickly and simply and give all of the same information that these "Latest Posts" lists do.

I can go straight to the Latest Posts list which details the category, initial poster, plus all activity.


If I just want to browse I can go to the Categories page which shows the Forums and Categories on the LHS and latest activity on the RHS, all colour-coded.


From there I can use the drop-down menu to go to Armorama.


Then a further drop down to narrow the field (to WWII Axis for example)


Which brings me to this narrow list and shows any activity since my last visit above the red line.


This does not involve navigating from page to page, and it is easier to go from one forum to another (Armorama to Aeroscale for instance) in the Latest Posts lists than it is here on this site, where you need to go to the "Browse Sites" function to change forums.

I am finding it a lot more user-friendly each time I visit, and definitely easier to navigate and post (especially images) as well.

I really hope that you will at least give it a good try before you decide to abandon it.

Cheers, D




Damian,
I’m sure it’s just me, not you guys, but your screen shots have just proved my point. You went through five separate steps to get to a screen that you’ll still have to scroll through to find what you’re interested in. With the old system, I could do it in two steps—Armorama home page, followed Forum Posts— if I had my page set to “View entire network”, every forum post in Kitmaker would come up in chronological order. I agree, posting photos might be easier with the new system, but the assorted “other stuff” with the new site just isn’t for me. I firmly believe in the military KISS system (Keep It Simple SIR!— [the original variation of this military “acronym” probably applies to me in this case— Keep It Simple—Stupid]). All the buttons, icons and “do-dads“ in this new system seem like wasted effort. I’d rather spend my time modeling than navigating a through a web site to find info, or topics that interest me. One reason I feel this way about the site is that I’m a modeler across all genres, not just Military Vehicles. Before, I could see everything new in all the Forums at a glance. Can’t do that now.
VR, Russ



First click is on 'Scale Modeling Forums'
The next click is on 'latest'
and the screen shows all the latest posts across all forums. They are sorted by time, not by subforum, and
some way down there is a read line marking your last visit. Small coloured marks indicate which subforum it is. Selecting on categories can narrow it down to subforums.



If/When I feel like checking other forums than Armorama this new setup is a lot easier for me.
staff_Jim
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Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2020 - 03:19 AM UTC
Lol... we sorta duplicated that post.