So you’ve logged on to the new TSL boards and don’t know what the heck you’re looking at. Old threads are at the top of the board, the posts are all the same color (so you can’t tell what you’ve read and not read), and there are menus and buttons all over the place.
These new vBulletin boards stink, right?
No, they don’t. They’re just different. And we tried to configure them as much like the old boards as we could, but given that vBulletin is third-party software and not our own proprietary code, there was only so much we could do.
So let me teach you how to use them.
vBulletin’s default mode is a “topic” or “linear” board. But we’re not here to talk about that today. We’ll address that later. We’re here to teach you the differences between our new board’s threaded mode, and the old threaded boards we used to have. They’re similar, but not the same.
The home (index) page of a board
When you go to one of our boards, like the Football board, it looks like this (click for a larger, clearer image):
That’s a lot like our old boards, right? Yes, it is, with two big exceptions:
The most recently updated thread now moves to the top of the board.
So yes, there HAVE been new threads posted since the last time you visited the board, even though the start time of the thread at the top of the board might be two or three days ago. The reason an “old” thread is at the top of the board is because someone just put a new post in that thread, right before you came to the board.
You can change that. More on that later.
The posts you have read and the posts you haven’t read are the same color (mostly).
On our old boards, if you hadn’t read a post, its subject line was shown in maroon. If you had read it, it was gray.
On the new boards, almost all of them are maroon, even though you could swear you have read a lot of them.
Why is that? Here’s the thing: You can’t tell, from looking at the home/index page of one of the new boards, whether or not you have read a post. Read on to find out how you can tell.
Drilling down into a thread
When you open up a thread, you see something that looks like this — ironically, I did a screen capture of a thread in which people are talking about the new format (click for a larger, clearer image):
There are a couple of major points to be made about viewing a thread like this:
When you click on a subject line within the scroll-bar area (labeled “Threaded View” in the image above), it immediately loads the body of the post into the message area.
In our new system, threaded view doesn’t load a whole new page each time you click a post. It just sticks the body of the post in the message area.
In the image above (click it), I’m looking at Brown Water’s post. Its subject line is bold maroon, and is highlighted in very light blue in the “Threaded View” area. The body of his post is ” That’s a stretch.”
Watch what happens when I click on Hubman’s post two lines above Brown Water’s post (click for a larger, clearer image):
Nothing changes, except Hubman’s information and the body of his post (“It was a 24-7 aimless conversation…..it had no real “format”…. “) are loaded into the message area instantaneously, without a whole new page load.
You can click-click-click through a whole thread in a hurry. You can view dozens of posts with just a single page load. It slaughters our ad revenue, but it makes reading a thread go VERY quickly.
Posts you haven’t read are highlighted with a blue icon next to their subject lines.
If you go back to either one of the two previous images above, you’ll note that most of the posts in the image have a little white rectangular icon to the left of the poster’s name, in “Threaded View.” But others have a little light blue icon: posts by HokieForever, avhokie, Nova Hokie 95, etc. Here’s a closer look (click for a larger version):
Here’s how it works: The previous time I accessed the thread, the posts with the white icons were there, but the posts with the light blue icons were not present. Now that I have returned to the thread, the posts that are marked with a light blue icons are the only ones I need to click on and read.
(One exception: The first time you look at a thread, all the icons are white.)
Note that I didn’t necessarily read all the ones with the white icons the last time I visited the thread, but they were there, available for me to read. I may or may not have clicked on them.
So each time you open a thread, it’s your responsibility to click on all the subject lines with blue icons next to them.
Summing It All Up
So, to read the board in threaded format:
1.) Go to the board of interest — Football Board, Basketball Board, etc.
2.) Scan the board for threads you’re interested in. The most recently updated threads will be closer to the top. Remember, when viewing a board, there’s no gray/maroon to help you delineate what posts you have read and haven’t read. (It’s impossible for us to format it that way, for reasons I don’t want to get into here.)
3.) Click on threads you’re interested in — anywhere in the thread will do — and after the page loads, look for the subject lines with the little blue icons. If this is the first time you’ve opened the thread, all the icons are white.
Once you’ve got the trick, you can go into threads you like, and with a “click-click-click” buzz through them in a hurry and bring yourself up on all the latest posts.
If You Really Don’t Like the Recently-Update Threads Bumping to the Top…
… you can change that. At the bottom of a board’s index/home page, scroll down, and you’ll see a list box labeled “Sort threads by:” — change it to “Thread Start Time,” select the radio button labeled “Descending Order,” click the “Show Threads” button to the right, and you’ll have a message board sorted like our old one used to be.
To be honest, I’m not sure if you have to do that every time you visit the board, or if it’s supposed to save your setting from session to session. Our new system has been a little buggy with saving users’ preferences, and we’re working on it.
I hope this tutorial has helped. In addition to what I’ve told you here, vBulletin has a killer FAQ link that you can access at the top of every message board page.
Questions? Fire away.
Will, thanks for the tutorial. I still have several issues with the new format, most of which have already been mentioned, but I’ll list them anyway. I’ll apologize in advance for the length, but I didn’t want to clutter one of the forums with a bunch of posts about this.
1) In threaded view, when you click a post, the message body appears below the thread, and my browser doesn’t always seem to load with all of the text in view. This is minor, but I would prefer the message body to load at the top of the page and have the thread shown below. I’m guessing this is probably part of the vBulletin code, though, so I doubt anything can be changed in this regard.
2) I use the “old” forum format of Threaded View with the “Thread Post Time” priority of thread ordering. When I click on a post, the order of the posts within the thread seems to change from the order shown in the main forum. Again, this is minor, but is there a setting I can change to adjust this? Also, in the main forum view, the user names and timestamps appear to the right side of the message subject lines, but inside a thread, the user names are shown to the left of the subject line. This isn’t really a complaint, but I was just wondering if there is a reason for this.
3) I don’t like having to log in to the site in order to view a link posted within a message body.
4) MOST of my issues are with the way the new site functions on mobile devices. I don’t work in an office setting, so about 90% of the time I spend on TSL is via a mobile phone. I have a Droid 3, and while the “old” format wasn’t exactly fast-loading, it was very easy to navigate on my phone. The forum quicklinks were all fixed, so I could quickly jump from one forum to the other. With the new format, I have to physically “click” on the “Forums” link, wait for it to load the list of all the forums, and then select the one that I want to view. I can’t get the forums “hover over” menu to work like it does on a computer.
Also, I have trouble logging in on my mobile device. If I click the “login” link, the page I’m viewing simply reloads and nothing happens. The only way I can log in is to try clicking on a hyperlink posted within someone’s message body, which then brings up the prompt to log in to the site.
Furthermore, I can’t get my forum settings to save. I really really dislike vBulletin forums, so I much prefer to view the forums in the “old” Threaded View style, with the posts ordered by thread start time. However, I tried to save these settings via my mobile phone, and they don’t seem to take. Whenever I load a forum, the page defaults to the classic vBulletin “Topic View”, and if I change the setting, it reverts to “Topic View” after I view a post and reload the main forum or refresh the page.
These issues on my mobile phone are really driving me away from the site. I usually browse the page on my phone multiple times during the work day, particularly at lunch. However, I am finding myself doing this much less frequently because it is such a hassle to navigate the new site. I know I’m not a subscriber, but I also know that a good portion of TSL’s revenue comes from advertising that depends on page hits. I don’t want to stop frequenting TSL, but I am only willing to deal with so much annoyance before I just give up.
Are these issues with the Android web browser being experienced by other users? If so, is there any chance we could get an Android TSL app that would scale down the site to work smoothly on mobile devices?
I don’t mean to sound like a whiner. I appreciate the fact that this site launch is a huge undertaking, and that I am in the minority in my opinion of the new format. While I don’t like the change, I can deal with it as long as I can get the settings to save and I can load the forums in Threaded View/Thread Post Time style without having to change settings every time I open my browser. Change happens and we have to deal with it. However, I will say that if the option to view the forums in Threaded View goes away altogether as some have rumored, I will definitely stop frequenting TSL. I don’t mean that as a threat. I just mean that I visit TSL because it is enjoyable to me, and I do not get any enjoyment out of navigating the forums in Topic View. In my opinion, that view is typical of every other online message board I have ever visited and it totally takes away from the uniqueness that the original TSL format that I appreciated so much.
Thanks for your time and your hard work Will and Chris. I appreciate your willingness to listen to feedback, even if you’re not able to address any of these things.
Good thing we have a top flight Engineering school, if employers saw these threads, we would never be hired…….SMH
Also, I do realize there are some nuances that everyone needs to get used to, but the basic structure is fairly simple. I am a big fan of the upgrade, thanks guys and I can’t wait to figure out all the cool new details.
What is the color difference on the main page in topic view. Why are some icons on the left red envelopes and some blue?
burgrugby: when viewing an index in topic view, scroll down and look to the left for a guide to what the icons mean.
Starting to get used to the new site and really loving the fact that you zoom through all posts in a single thread. A beautifult thing. I am sure that I will discover many other things that are great.
Question — is there is a way to change the number of threads per page? Looks like the default is 20 but I didn’t see a way to change.
Keep the faith with the change. I work in software and change management is always the hardest part but the most often over-looked. You have a faithful fan base…so it will all work out.
Cheers
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Question — is there is a way to change the number of threads per page? Looks like the default is 20 but I didn’t see a way to change.
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You can’t change that setting — the number of threads on the index page of a board. The only parameter you can change is the number of posts you see per page when you open a thread. Of course, if you’re viewing in threaded format, then you see the full thread. But if you’re in linear format (within a thread) you can change the number of posts per page.
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Keep the faith with the change. I work in software and change management is always the hardest part but the most often over-looked. You have a faithful fan base…so it will all work out.
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Thanks for the encouraging words! We’re already seeing a little of a bounce back after an initial dip, but it will take time.
Will,
This info is very helpful. However, is there anyway for the blue and white boxes to display on the main view of the message board, rather than having to open the thread to see what you have previously read.
That would give the viewer an instantaneous view of all the unread threads on the entire first page of each message board. Apologies if this is a repetitive question.
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This info is very helpful. However, is there anyway for the blue and white boxes to display on the main view of the message board, rather than having to open the thread to see what you have previously read.
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Good suggestion, but like vBulletin itself being off-the-shelf software, the threaded view on the index page of a board is rendered by a third-party plug-in, not something we did ourselves. So we don’t have that kind of control over it.
We *could* go in and edit the source file for that plug-in (I think … I’m not sure). It’s a suggestion I’ll put in the queue. We have to work on some other high-priority things, but down the road, we might have the opportunity to tinker with things.
Thank you. TSL is an every day read for me. The new format takes a little getting use to,but I think I can manage that.
133884Hokie
Will,
Thanks for the primer. I rarely post, and I do prefer threading – I actually think I’m using the hybrid format most now. I’ve been following the threaded vs. linear discussions on the boards. For me, threading is more intuitive and provides valuable context to a conversation. I do have experience with other (non-VT) linear forums, but I’ve always thought threading gives me a better user experience. I appreciate the effort TSL has made to accommodate “threaders” like me, and I won’t be leaving TSL if the threaded format goes away. I know that day may come.
As a possible solution/compromise, is there anyway the format on the boards could be like the format of the response/comments section in the articles, like this one? The posts still appear altogether one after the other with no extra clicking required, and the indents and shading provide the thread context. I think this could satisfy both “linears” and “threaders.” I would gladly switch to a linear format if there was some kind of simple (easy for me to say) thread indicator with the posts. The indents and shading provide that.
Slightly unrelated, I also like the cleanness of the response/comment format – user name and date/time only. I’ve never been a fan of the user stats with posts (good call on the “no avatars” policy). For those that do like it, maybe a mouse-over effect on the user name to display users stats would suffice.
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As a possible solution/compromise, is there anyway the format on the boards could be like the format of the response/comments section in the articles, like this one?
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Interesting thought, but the vBulletin boards are off-the-shelf software. They are what they are, with the exception of some configuration options. What you’re describing would require altering the core files of vBulletin, so the next time vBulletin upgraded … the changes would get wiped out. Or would have to be redone.
And vBulletin requires frequent upgrades….
I just really cannot understand how people don’t understand the standard topic and linear views. Yes, the conversation is not directly shown like the old threaded format, but seriously people between “Reply with Quote” and a fourth grade reading comprehension level, it’s not that hard to follow the flow of a conversation.
Use simple context clues in the messages and everything will be better. Additionally, lose the typing in a thread title deal. Just type your reply in the body of the message and you won’t get the 2 character error.
It is very funny and quite ironic that fans of a school who’s motto is, ” Invent the Future” have such a hard time figuring out SIMPLE vB that they will quit visiting this site. Are these people non-alums? Click links, follow the conversations, and enjoy the fact that you don’t have to load 30-40 pages to read one stinking well discussed conversation.
What is REALLY funny is people ridiculing those who do not like, or are struggling with, a new message board format..All this talk of “an engineering school”, blah, blah, blah……
Not so nice to see that the hoos are not the only ones with an undeserved “superiority complex”…
The fact that there are those who don’t like, or are struggling with, this new format, does not speak to their intelligence; or lack thereof…The fact that they are ridiculed for same speaks volumes to the “if you don’t think the way I do, you are stupid” mentality that has grown exponentially on this board (new format or not)…It’s not very becoming IMO, regardless the topic!
I assume the view above is threaded. My question is, how do I make it when I go to a board I see it as topic view, but when I click on the post it switches me to threaded? Is that possible?
Nevermind. Just figured it out.
Nice article, Will. On the whole, I like the new format and have found the site and boards intuitive and easy to use. One question- is the default option of having threads shown by last post, rather than start time, a vBulletin standard? Or is that something you guys chose for TSL’s implementation? Personally, I find that the first thing I do now any time I go to one of the boards is to change that option to thread start time. I wonder if the TSL community as a whole might prefer thread start time over last post time as the default?
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One question- is the default option of having threads shown by last post, rather than start time, a vBulletin standard? Or is that something you guys chose for TSL’s implementation? Personally, I find that the first thing I do now any time I go to one of the boards is to change that option to thread start time. I wonder if the TSL community as a whole might prefer thread start time over last post time as the default?
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It is a vBulletin standard to sort by last post — that’s what traditional vBulletin users who use topic/linear view are used to.
If I globally set it to “Thread Start Time”, it will mess up what the topic/linear users like to see and are accustomed to … but it will be what our long-time threaded users are used to seeing.
The programmer and I were discussing this in a phone call this morning. If I could do it over again, I would launch with “Thread Start Time” as the global setting, which would pacify the traditional TSL threaded users. Then it would be the responsibility of the topic/linear users to set it to “Last Post Time”.
I may yet do that — go in and toggle the global setting so it creates less confusion for our traditional threaded users. I have to think that through all the way, though.
I don’t know how the majority feels but I agree with Hokiedon about topic view. If most people are using threaded view and liking that better because it reminds them of the old tsl… they should continue. But for those that are disliking it, they should try Topic View. The first day, I hated the new setup… then I switched to topic view, and displayed the thread in “hybrid mode”, and I feel like its a perfect mix between the old and new.
Great format…we were all masters of the old format,….anyone who could master that format and read through the posts will eventually find this much easier to use.
Just for the record, Will. I didn’t like the new board at first, but it’s growing on me, especially since I discovered how to use Thread view with Thread Start Time. That’s got my board looking a lot like the old board which has given me the opportunity to experiment with the classic vBulletin view. While I still don’t like that view more, I’m getting the hang of it. I do like the “number of views info there. It seems like the old grassy board used to have that info.
As for the rest of the board, I think it’s fabulous. The potential to expand and grow the site is evident.
So while I miss my comfortable shoes, they were getting a little smelly and worn out. My new shoes need some breaking-in, but they are dapper. I think I’ll keep them.
Sorry Will, no matter how you spin it these boards are a mess. Yank out and dump vBulletin. You just can’t get into the flow and spirit of the moment and it’s too much work to find anything worth hanging around for.
Give it the old college try. It’s really not that bad. Yes it’s a significant change but it’s an improvement. These suggestions help.
Very frustrating. I have laready given up trying to buy/sell tickets. This is not user friendly
difficult to follow
I’m not sure what else I can say to help. This is an in-depth article, with lots of great tips and pictures.
Will – the term “willful ignorance” comes to mind. You’ve done an excellent job of explaining.
Agree with HptHokie. I REALLY don’t understand why this is difficult. And it’s not THAT different. I’d offer you need to get everyone over to the topic view, tutor there. I picked that up in 15 minutes, and it really DOES keep up on the ‘flow of things’.
You did what is a “nice in-depth article”. I’ll give you credit for at least trying, and you asked for feedback. You must have thought it was pretty good because you seem surprised that some still don’t get it. The feedback is, “thanks but it doesn’t take me to the head of the class.” Did you really think it would fix everybody or did you already have the “don’t know what else to say” refrain already queue up? I don’t like to think about the TIME spent here just trying to get into a comfort zone like I enjoyed the old board. A little irritated actually. Who among us likes to flail around and dare I say it, waste time trying to gain all this message board technology knowledge. If CFB is a subscriber, do you think he took a break from the recruiting season so he could read through all these tutorials and settings options, comparing views, etc to get bang from his buck? I read these boards for the interesting content and perspective of Hokie fans but the technology escalation is not something I want to spend any more time to learn. Maybe it will become more clear as time goes on but it will cause me pause before re-upping next time.
I do hope it works out as being good for TSL in the long run and I hope I can continue as a consumer of the subscriber boards but if it becomes a point of frustration every time I log on, I’ll do so less often. Some of your customers are glad to see us old farts moved onto the ‘retired’ rolls. Just send the $ & shut up. I’m not threatening, just trying to explain, after all, “I don’t know what else to say either” (TIC).
this is ridiculous!! Did we all go to the same school???? Virginia POLYTECHNIC Institute??? This couldn’t be any easier. There is hardly anything to learn. If this is hard to you then I dare ask how you possibly made it through college. Honestly.
Well, this old gray hair is no techie and I am getting used to it and enjoying the process. My first post was tentative and one of those “I don’t know what I am doing or where this will end up” post, but I figured I would give it a shot. I have a lot to learn and I expect to make some mistakes – I did that on the prior TSL version. I think what we have here is a common reaction: “change is here and I am not gonna change’. Now that attitude will get you far in life, won’t it?
Check out my user name “hokietechie”. To show you how clueless I was in starting on the “earlier version”, I tried a lot of user names and kept getting the message that the name was already taken. So, since I am a mental giant in technology (NOT) I just typed hokietechie to simply see how many characters I could use. Who what have thought I just made my user name? I was pretty surprised but who could I blame? Better to just go with the flow. Guys and gals, hang in there. I bet most will be okay shortly and besides the lower university down near C’Ville and still using Le Butterknife is back in the stone age. Enjoy the ride. I have never seen a group of host try so hard to help, remain open minded and UNDERSTANDING of our reactions and more importantly being willing to be patient in the the processing of fielding construction ideas from users and not reacting to the negative flame throwers.
And yes, I drive in the “passing” lane on the highway. GoooooooooooooooHokies!
I would like to correct the record from my post of Jan 18.
I have come to grips with the new board. It wasn’t pretty and it took me way too long but I repent of nasty comments made and think in the long run, the new board will be good for TSL as well as me personally. Did I mention that it took way too long? It was probably my own fault for not being sufficiently savy and I am not claiming expert status but at least I can now enjoy the board almost daily and encourage others who are still struggling to keep trying. Yes, it helped to read the tutorials. I didn’t want to read them because I’d rather read about hokie sports but it did pay off for me. The features & functions are pretty well documented if you look long enough to find them. In defense of TSL leadership, I don’t know how it could have been done much better. Out