RDS Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Thank you Hornby for apparently listening to our comments regarding the new Forum Design. The old forum was regularly used and a pleasure to visit and contribute. The new forum is none of these and the only positive comment I personally have seen is that it is faster. The old forum was only really criticised because of the lack of an edit facility and possibly the odd request to be able to add pictures, etc. There was always a way around the adding pictures requirement because they could be loaded elsewhere and linked. This leaves the main criticism of not being able to edit your own comments. Please give us back our old forum in exactly the same format, with exactly the same historical posts and give some consideration to the ability to edit our own postings. (Even if this is limited to say within 1 hour, because most of the time the only editing that is required is the correcting of a spelling mistake, that has been noticed as soon as the 'post reply' button has been pressed). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buz Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 The new set up is absalute rubish.This is the only thread I can find none of the other catagories show up.I don't want comercial pages up first with no propper link to the forumsI want the home page with a proper link that takes me to the forums not just this thread.Well I don't know what your IT department has done but what they did not do was think before they did anything this site is no longer user friendlyI can't acsess a very helpfull post put up for my benefit.Why still no spell checker or abilaty to post pictures is that because there will be items Hornby don't produce in the pictures if that is so then it's pretty poor reasoning because you can't build a model railway with only Hornby productWorst case scenario bring back the old forum at least it will be a thousand percent improvement over this now rubish web siteregards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelrow Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 HORNBY, its not some of us that were disappointed, its all of us. The only posative comment was the speed. Many of us are in direct contact with each other, and i can assure you that some of these expert advisors, and real hornby supporters, are very unhappy. A lot of questions that would otherwise come to your customer services, and technical people, are brilliantly fielded and answered, by these guys. please do nothing to lose this support. We did not ask for thes changes, and are very upset by the manner in which they have come about. Please restore the old system, john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jailor Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 As a complete novice I posted a number of questions only a few days ago before I buy my first setup. Now I can not see a link to any answers, very annoyed and not a good start to my possibly new Hornby hobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJ_model_trains Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Sorry Hornby This new set up is terrible. Entering the forum, there are too many links, using the forum even worse. Very frustrating you have certainly taken a dozen steps back. I hope you have not paid for this, it is the worst forum I have ever used. It needs sorting, improving, correcting, there are dead links, etc, etc. It is ten times worse than your last forum. It needs sorting quickly or revert back to the last one. Sorting it, I would be questioning man hours and cost. Surely it would be better to set up a new forum and run it and test it before going live, normally Hornby are careful and do this. PJ_model_trains Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old gezzer Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Hi HornbyJust sign into the hornby site as normal and hell whats happen where's everything gone don't like this at all please bring back the old way at least i knew whatI was doing on that.very unhappy model railway personRegardsMichael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetmanUK Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 The new forum design made 2 basic errors.Firstly, far to much white space. By that I mean empty, wasted screen. On a PC its very annoying but on a tablet or smartphone its criminal.Secondly, because space, especially vertical space, is at a premium, the Forum Rules etc on the main page should not be there. Every time I go to that page I have to scroll down - I do not want to do that! There is some misguided thinking that you can make people read something by giving it exagerated prominence - trust me (as someone who has designed screens for 30+ years), you can't. Therefore move it out of the way. By all means provide an obvious link, but that is all.What I need is to be able to see as much 'forum stuff' as possible on one screen with minimal and clever use of blank/coloured screen to provide clarity.MetmanUK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Nice to see Hornby has pulled the new forum for now pending revision and is listening to user comment.Whilst I like the overall new site with its fresh look, the forum is still lacking much needed functionality, as requested by the users and the odd link doesn't work as expected - acceptable teething troubles that occur with any new web site update, unless meticulous attention is paid to site integrity or the build software has a decent self checker - the one I use does.The forum rules and regs bit could be handled like cookies - i.e. once you have accepted the rules they stay hidden.Do I need to be led to my user account pages each time I login, when all I want to do is post to the forum. Again this could be handled on an as required basis from a logged in user account link at top of the page.I stand by what I said in a post on the disappeared new forum, that you should look at what a commercial forum product provides and emulate that functionality in your corporate bespoke forum - e.g. Rocrail, RM Web, New Railway Modellers, etc. RM Web in particular has most every functionality that anyone could want.Keep at it guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJ_model_trains Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 @RAF96 Agree 100% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJ_model_trains Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 @MetmanUKI agree totally.I think the same person(s) who ceated this forum created RailMaster. The emphasis is on the wrong thinksIn RM it is smaller icons, more working track areaIn this forum it is as you say to much white space.RAF96 and others have covered what we need, what we hoped for, and given good examples.Thank goodness they have pulled it back. We wait patiently and hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nictor Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Have to agree with everything that has been said. Clearly the revamp of the website was to focus on direct selling which was not what most people visited the website for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted June 6, 2014 Author Share Posted June 6, 2014 HiI can understand your disappointment. I can assure you that this forum is normally very good at helping new starters. There are a lot of very knowledgeable members who normally provide an excellent service. However, as you may have gathered, Hornby decided to change the forum format completely and this change has not been well received at all. Lots of the original features are missing and a number of the threads are missing.As a result, the forum has been taken off completely by Hornby and we are hoping that it will return in its old format.Please be patient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VESPA Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Sadly it seems that many regulars have not bothered with the new site. A shame really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCDR Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 I have looked at it and was completely confused by the navigation to the forum from the main site. The link to the forum is invisible (it is a small entry in a list at the foot of the website, and when I click on it it takes me to my personal details.) I agree with everyone else who say it is not fit for use. I hope that you can get it sorted out quickly because it will die from disuse, which will be a pity.I will leave it a week and try again, and if it cannot be sorted out in that time I regret I may not bother in future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Had terrible trouble with the new site. My laptop has a 15" screen and you can only see the left hand side of the website! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Postman Prat Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Hi Vespa I'm still here (at the moment) !!! However, unless they get their 'act together' in fairly short order I'll be another 'missing person'. It's a shame since, in the main, it was a good site, even with its shortcomings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry DSB Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Hello Hornby. I appreciate that you have tried to make it simple for smartphone users like me which in many ways you have but the down side is that it does not work on my phone, I cannot post replies like I used to. In fact I wasn't able to do anything at all apart from view what one can buy online which wasn't the main reason I like to go onto the site. I found this a great shame so I emailed customer care who were very kind and helpful but have only managed to solve some of my problems since. The final point is that as I am typing this if I want to move back onto a word it goes and so I start typing but it does not show. This I hope to be a glitch that isn't permanent or I will become slightly annoyed. Also at this current time of writing (17:32 Friday 5th June 2014) there aren't any of the forums apart from this. I will be happy if you can just get this up and running as it should. My final request is can the forum use or have its own emoticons like an email does. I would very much like it of we could have pjotos of our hornby things so that when one is asking other forum users about a technical fault one can aid the description visually. That is all from me. My rant is over. Regards Lorrydsb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Oh deary me... "Posted by..." blank... fill in the missing spaces! The above was posted by AugustusCaesar or AC in short.Once posted though I was instantly logged out... marvellous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Or was I timed out and the post still got accepted? Security issue or what? Hmmm.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 @ACIf you pull up the page source view you will see they are calling AJAX which is a Javascript and XML combo. Further down the page you will see it is licenced from New-Relic.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buz Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 Hi vespaI am the same I will give it till friday WA time and if its not sorted it is unlikly I will be back.regards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
man4805star Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 Hornby please being back the old site this new one will Turn people away in droves its usless. I will give it two weeks to see if it improves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gitter Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 Totally agree . Change for the sake of change rarely is for the better. Give us back the forum we liked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 Hi budYou're right... I didn't go too deeply into the code to see what was doing etc and missed the relic bit...Wow... take a look at their site and see why the new Hornby one is so pathetic. Most sites based on this type of design are awful. Poorly written, poorly designed, poorly coded and just a white space with a load of junk thrown into it to try and make it look 'good'!These flat graphics (Metro design) are the worst thing I have EVER seen on a web site or PC. Hopefully the fad will last only a short while with these marketing pillocks and someone will see sense and go back to traditional design.Whoever wrote WordPress and the likes wants their brains examining... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Had the same experience AC. It seems to log you out while you are writing a long post, then accepts it anyway but anonymously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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