It is so disappointing every time I come up of this new Board. The format is just so colorless and lacks any form of obvious organization. The wizard of this Board seems like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, always trying to tell the readers of the self proclaimed good points of this disappointing board.
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As a programmer I can honestly say this website is the worse layout I have ever seen.
There is no logical order, there is not way to go back to the main board with out doing so many extra steps.
As Scott mentioned, you have no idea who is responding to who and exactly how it relates to the topicā¦
Simply poor design by people who were too much in a hurry to get the old site closed downā¦
That will cost them in the end, because people want functionality over āuse on the phoneā technology.
But the new owners donāt seem to care either by responding to the request or changing the website to make it more functional.
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Well, I will only point out that it isnāt hard to get back to the main board. Just have to hit the back button once or more times depending on how deep you go.
I will also mention that I donāt think this board works as well as they think it will on mobile devices. Iām trying it now for the first time, and there are a few issues. Particularly with the display.
Russā¦ As a computer programmerā¦ it is a āCardinalā sin to have users use the back arrow to get to a webpage. The moniker āCougarFanā should take you right back to the front pageā¦
I have been doing this for 25 yearsā¦ I know what is good Web design and chaotic websiteā¦
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Every time I hit the back button it takes me completely out of the boards to the Cougarfan home page.
Why would try to defend this? He and the rest are trying to use this board and it just isnāt user friendly if people are complaining. No one was complaining about the other board because:
- It was easy to see the different topics
- It was easy to see who was posting without a list beside you telling you who the nicknames were
- It was easy to see who you were responding to
- It was easy to see who responded to you.
- It was easy to move from topic to topic and actually be in a conversation with people
- It was much easier to use on my phone than this site is
And on and on and onā¦
See, you canāt even know who Iām responding to unless I tell you, BERCK!
Floyd, Iāve been programming for many, many years on about everything you can think about except mobile stuff (languages and platforms). I also have used many, many forums besides just CougarFan. Iāve nearly always used the back button on the browser to get back. Some boards have a header that you can also jump to different sections of the website. They have that on the main pages, but not within the forums themselves. If they did something like that would be an improvement. As long as they donāt make it go all the way back to entering the discussion boards. Their setup is very odd for that IMHO.
Also, I do agree that the design is a bit chaotic.
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Wow, really? I donāt have any problem that once I step into a discussion, the first back returns me to the main board.
Well, all I did here was give a solution to how to get back to the main boards. As far as the other board, I did complain a couple of years ago about the short comings of the other board. I was pretty much shouted down about that because I was told it was far superior to any other board. The other board had some pluses, but everybody looked over the minuses. So, let me go over your points.
- Agreed. The frame approach used on the old board makes it easy to navigate between main topics, and ability to switch between topics easily. Unfortunately, this frame approach isnāt supported much anymore. They used properitary software to develop the old board that doesnāt have any current support. They canāt maintain it anymore. Youāll never get the frame view again. They did modify the main discussion forum page to help with that. I believe it to be an improvement.
- Agreed. They still need to work on that. The suggestion I made is a hokey solution, but itās all we got until they can do something else. They all thought (the maintainers) that we could all edit our usernames, but only a select few can.
- Yes, but there where many limitations. On the old board, when an active conversation was happening, it would get pushed down the list because others posted something else. When the āconversationā or thread spanned more than one page, that format started falling apart. When it got too far down the board, people would restart the conversation to keep it back on page 1. You donāt have to do that here, and if they allowed a threading view here, that would help with being able to visually tell who you are responding too. But catch a clue here, if you reply to somebody on this board, your reply includes a reference to that person in the upper right hand corner of the reply. Plus, by default, you get an email that somebody replied to you. Also, if you press the quote cloud in the respond, it will post the persons comments within your response and it will look like thisā¦
Yes i can because I got the email that you responded to me, and my icon is on your post
EDIT: Hmm, it seems that sometimes the icon disappears, not good.
4) Mostly, look back in my respond in #3, particularly the last couple of sentences.
5) Agreed, but go back to see what I said in #1
6) Completely disagree. The old site looked way too small, and I had to blow it up and move all around the page within my small view. This site is much easier to view content, but still needs some improvement.
On another note. There are some very powerful features on this board that Iām still trying to figure out. On another board I monitor with two others, we have some of these, but this one has more.
I think I figured out the problem. Iāve been doing most of my posting during lunch at work using my work computer which has an older browser. When I got home last night and tried my home computer with the current version of Internet Explorer, my back arrow worked like you explained. Today at work, Iām again being sent to the home page. Unfortunately our office computer system will not let us simply upgrade to the latest version of the browser.
Iām not sure you understand our concerns. Itās almost like a conservative trying to get Obama to understand our concerns about his policies and ideologies. There will be a few that will figure this thing out and continue. Others, they will come in once in a while and try to post things and hope people will strike up a conversation. Most will simply spend less time on CougarFan.com. And, that is what we are seeing.
Those long strings were actually really fun. And, you always knew when a subject matter was a hit by the long strings. You canāt get that same understanding the way itās set up. Why can they not build on this system the string system we had to get to this new technology where we type in? Thatās all we really wantā¦
The old boards are gone, and they arenāt coming back. Certain features of the old boards will not be replicated. If you read the message about what was happening, you would understand why certain features arenāt going to be seen again (the two frame layout for example). If you want something, try posting a suggestion to the maintainers. Iāve requested a couple, and Floyd has too. They have already implemented a few of those. They are looking into allowing threaded responses (which is very similar to the view of posts in the old thread). I just hope they make it a user choice.
Floyd: I agree with your post about the lack of logical order. See my response somewhere down the board.
Right on Grasshopper.
Grasshopper: What are the other Cougar sites that beat this dog?
As far as I know, and I donāt pretend to know everything that is out there, there are 3 other viable fan sites.
There is cougarblue, although I am not positive that it still exists, which is controlled by the Provo Daily Herald. The primary problem with that board was that there were many posters that were posting primarily to make trouble. I havenāt been back in years.
Another site is cougarcorner.com. This is a site created by a BYU fan that attracted many of the frequent posters on cougarblue. The problem I found with this site is that there are frequent posts I found offensive, including vilifying and throwing out innuendos regarding players (and coaches). I have little patience for insults to players. They do not get paid for providing good entertainment for us. The scholarships they receive do not nearly compensate for the amount of commitment on their parts. This was a too frequent theme on that site.
The third site is cougarboard. That board does not make any logical sense to me. I go to it infrequently. I generally leave irritated, not by the content, rather because I canāt figure out how to navigate the site seamlessly. When I visit the site, I feel like I have gone back a few decades to the pre-windows era. It feels like they have not updated the site in years.
As a whole, I like this board. I like the format. I would rather that we had more individuals posting; however, with minor exceptions, those that contribute appear to be genuine.
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I couldnāt get on this Board with my current email and TxCoug username. So after three tries I had to rejoin the CF.com with a new user name and a new password. This Board is more than a disappointment.