Ars forum updates are now here!
- Thread starter alexj-12
- Start date
I'm not seeing any way to sort comments by (upvote-downvote) total; is that part of the search functionality that will come later? Or am I just missing something obvious?
Thanks!
Thanks!
I seem to be showing up as a subscriptor, but I don't have an active subscription with Ars at the moment.
If you have unread content and click the thread name, you should be taken to the latest content. Is this not what you're seeing?
Not everyone has that comment link... I only see Like and Reply... Wonder why.@Andrewcw said in a comment to my post above "I'm being annoying as possible so they turn it off. Sorry."
No worries! It perfectly demonstrates what I meant. I saw the notification. I clicked on it, which brought me back to this thread, but the very beginning. Then I had to decide which of the several posts I've made in this thread might have the comment (which, granted, wasn't difficult in this particular case). Then go the page with that comment (again, not difficult THIS particular time). And then see the comment but not really be able to make any use of it.
I wholeheartedly agree that this is a feature they should turn off. It just doesn't seem particularly useful, and will be more of an annoyance than a feature for us. IMHO.
You can see them by going to Forums > Threads with your posts or by clicking here https://meincmagazine.com/civis/find-threads/contributed
I'm seeing
messages in my browser console when doing Quick Reply from Edge Beta on Windows 11, and the inline post editor as well.
Edit Test
Edit #2: It's not happening on the release version. All extensions disabled in Edge Beta.
Edit #3: Let's see what happens when I disable experiments.
Edit #4: OK, it's an experimental flag. Probably not worth tracking down.
Code:
Form submission failed, as the <TEXTAREA> element named 'message' was implicitly closed by reaching the end of the file. Please add an explicit end tag ('</TEXTAREA>')Edit Test
Edit #2: It's not happening on the release version. All extensions disabled in Edge Beta.
Edit #3: Let's see what happens when I disable experiments.
Edit #4: OK, it's an experimental flag. Probably not worth tracking down.
This currently is disabled while we're working on a fix. It should be fixed soon!
Not sure if this would be considered a bug, but I usually read Ars on mobile (iPhone 12 Pro) and the comments within the main site have a much larger font, lots of extra screen real estate being taken up everywhere.
I never really used the forum system directly before, but have browsed it, but now there is a bar on the bottom which sucks up even more space.
The comments on Ars, besides the content of course, was a big reason I visited
Edit: also the upvote/downvote is unclear, hit it by accident. Maybe this is just habit, but I always enjoyed the fact that it was at the bottom of the comment so I could vote after reading the comment, but now it’s at the top of the comment.
I never really used the forum system directly before, but have browsed it, but now there is a bar on the bottom which sucks up even more space.
The comments on Ars, besides the content of course, was a big reason I visited
Edit: also the upvote/downvote is unclear, hit it by accident. Maybe this is just habit, but I always enjoyed the fact that it was at the bottom of the comment so I could vote after reading the comment, but now it’s at the top of the comment.
Thank you, the quick changes are awesome to see!
One more thing that is really quite minor/niggling, but I always liked how the front page comments blended in nicely with the no-clutter style of the articles. Just removing the CSS background brings them much more in line. Very subjective, I know. The one thing that might be more universal is that the link for the user post count happens to be in the same location as the old quote button, using the same symbol.
It also seems like heavily downvoted comments (>-30) are not being hidden by default anymore. In fact, it would be great to be able to set that limit stricter so that anything below a few downvotes is hidden - the Ars front page is already the only online comment section worth reading, that would make it perfect.
Attachments
a minor issue: when dark mode is enabled, the page scrollbar in Safari turns a horrific bright orange colour - i imagine this wasn't intentional!
Does post metadata have to be so big? On mobile at least, it feels like a post is 50% header/footer, 50% content. Feels a bit chonky. I'm gonna play some more with font sizes and zoom levels, but I haven't had much success yet.
I hate the new look of the forums page. It was better before. Can you change it back? Or is there a setting to make it look like it used to look?
Is there any way to switch back to desktop view after clicking "view mobile site" on the front page? The link disappears when on mobile and I can't find anything in settings.
Also I agree with others that the footer on mobile is way too big.
Also I agree with others that the footer on mobile is way too big.
I'm quoting your post just to see how the new interface works out.
Overall, the density of information is much, much lower in general. If there's any way to shrink the icons, headers / footers, etc. please let me know. On desktop I used to be able to see many reasonable-length posts at once. Now I can see 2 maybe 3.
Edit: Also, after I posted this reply the page select buttons at the bottom still indicated that I was on page 3 (where the comment I was replying to was) even though my post went to page 10.
That weird icon that used to show me I was on the forums is gone, its now the orange ARS badge with text 'Ars forums'. The magazine icon looks the same.
So, It's going to take some time to get used to, but I do have one question - it looks like there's no way to quick-jump to another forum from the current one, and you have to back out to the main forum list, and then scroll to select your destination - or am I missing something?
Okay, I’d like to revise my earlier comment which said voting was above the comment. It appears it’s still the old way in the articles, but bad UX.
There is a solid border above voting and nothing below which made me think the voting was for the comment below. Very confusing.
There is a solid border above voting and nothing below which made me think the voting was for the comment below. Very confusing.
I think you're looking for the networking icon on the top right? When I click it I see a list of forums to go to
Is there supposed to be a -1, dislike, disagree, etc. button? I'm not seeing one (Chrome, Windows, Dark Mode).
Following up on my previous comment: I was reading page 4 when I posted this post. I'm sure it's on page 10, but the page indicator says page 4. But I can see my post as if it lives on page 4.
Edit 2: and I see voting is currently disabled.
Following up on my previous comment: I was reading page 4 when I posted this post. I'm sure it's on page 10, but the page indicator says page 4. But I can see my post as if it lives on page 4.
Edit 2: and I see voting is currently disabled.
Last edited:
is there a consensus on the best way to replace the old ego search ('My Threads') functionality? i see that in the 'Threads' view i can filter by 'Watched Threads', and in user preferences there's an option to watch threads by default when posting in them. i assume this is the right way to do it, since i don't see any obvious way to just filter by threads i posted in.
another minor related issue: this functionality is called "Watching", but the button at the top of the thread that lets you watch it is labelled "Follow". i imagine that should say "Watch" instead.
edit: i also wasn't able to log in without doing a password reset. that's obviously fixed but i thought i would mention it since it apparently wasn't intentional (or perhaps i just missed it in the announcement).
another minor related issue: this functionality is called "Watching", but the button at the top of the thread that lets you watch it is labelled "Follow". i imagine that should say "Watch" instead.
edit: i also wasn't able to log in without doing a password reset. that's obviously fixed but i thought i would mention it since it apparently wasn't intentional (or perhaps i just missed it in the announcement).
Page switching on the front page view is working now, thanks
[Edit:] bring back the old thumbs up smiley
IMHO Everything is too big. I want a compact version, make it subscriber only if you need to fund it.
Well, not really. The dark background is compromised by the bright orange visual queue steering attention away from all the right places. There is a block of orange is permanently displayed at the bottom of the screen and usually a similar block at the page top. The orange lines around the comment boxes draw visual attention from the content. The current page is orange but the previous and next links are grey (really? Grey on dark grey on black for an active control?). The names of forum users are all in bright green as is the pointless person symbol next to tenure. The palette design is functionally poor in terms of contributing to navigation and directing attention. That problem is amplified when fast scrolling through comments trying to focus on the text due to blocks of high contrast drawing the eye. Including the expanded junk around the header on the post which occupies twice the vertical screen space it should and this all looks like it was designed for ADHD sufferers who need extra UI content and contrast to stay engaged. Objectively a poor update just considering the palette and colour usage. (Plus my first car was vermillion in colour and it was a god awful option forty years ago as well.)
That was my primary way of interacting with the forum. Is there a replacement?Hmm on the Ars frontpage you used to be able to click up top and it would give you a list of the last few articles you posted on and if there happened to be any replies. I don't use the forums much but do sometimes post comments in articles and that was suuuuuuuuuper handy.
Is that just gone now?
