Three nice looking vb5 sites

Cough !!

http://www.premierleagueforum.co.uk

 

I personally think that the vb5 look is clean and easy to navigate

 

I don't. It's anything but.

 

Doesn't look bad. The icons are just one reason out of many I don't like VB5 though lol. You seem to have gotten yours fixed right (they do look good). VB5 to me is also just very bland.

 

I had a play with the demo here and it just left me cold, nothing to like about it or makes me think yes that's great I wish that was on my forum. The quick set up at first I thought would be good but then I thought whats the point?? I still need to tweak far more things to get a look that I would like.
The admin side looks the same as vb 4.4 & scarced me to death seeing it again and Why can you only open a admin menu on the arrow not the box the option is in, just means you have to be super fussy when choosing your option, you have all that space in the box but you can only choose the very end to click on!!! and why call forums channels or for that matter nodes(xf) ?? why not forums or boards why do some devs feel they have to try to reinvent the wheel?
The good stuff, the nav bar editor is a good item simple and easy to use as was the header editor, I tested with an open mind and as a former vb4.2 user, but I would never choose VB5 unless XF BB or IPB shut up shop over night and then I would most likely go with Wedge or the other fork from SMF (getting old can not remember what it's called).

 

I'm probably one of a few people that thinks vB5 is quite decent as far as the default style is concerned. It looks (to me at least) to have been professionally designed. On the other hand the new themes or styles (whatever you want to call them) are colouring by numbers, garbage. What were they thinking when they released those?

 

5.1.3 has another 180 fixes in it, so it could be the awaited turning point of vb5

 

I highly doubt it. There are still 430 open bugs affecting the 5.1.x series alone and 1798 bugs open for vB5 in total. Of those 1798 bugs, 22 are critical and 348 are major. They may have closed 752 bugs within the 5.1.x series releases, but there were 1055 created within that series, meaning, they produce more bugs than they can correct.

Then there is the performance issue with the general design of the software. 120+ queries to render just one page is a clear sign someone doesn't know what they are doing on the engineering side of the vB table.

So don't expect any real fireworks, until someone at IB can conclude what they are producing is actually poor quality and knows also what to do about it.

Scott

 

Went and had another look this morning and I still think the default style is horrible all the other variations whilst very basic still bring a bit of personality to the look and feel and unfortunately I still think the user experience is pants (sorry to you guys that think vb5 is great not trying to cause yet another anti vb vib just my opinion) for example what is gained by having to click on a button to open up basic posting options in a so called advanced editor? I understand trying to go for a minimalist look but if a user needs to do extra in order to post it makes a process I think we would all agree is fundamental to a successful community is easy participation in the community.
To post a YT video means open the advanced editor then open an input box via another click on the editor before you can post a video, this seams very backward in my opinion, I know that elsewhere on other platforms I just past the code straight into the post job done & same with pictures, I realize not all forums need videos and pictures posting but a lot do especial gaming communities or movie communities.
This may be a bug but if I drag a image into a post it appears in the post until I submit it then no image

 

You are being a little bit picky there:

Tell me another platform that comes with an auto embed feature for video, as far as I am aware they all require a MOD to allow that to happen, if they don't have that then yes, you need to copy the URL and paste it into the embed pop up.

VB5 is very good at manipulating images, the copy/paste function into posts works, and it works well, so don't "drag" the image, copy/paste, don't blame the platform for EBKAC problems.

Also when using the widgets, and HTML VB5 automatically resizes the image to fit the dimensions of the widget.

 

That is PEBKAC.

And I don't think cut and paste of images works in the vB5 editor either. I just tried it on vB.com. Nope. Doesn't work.

Scott

 

I can can concede the point about auto bedding not being standard out of the box for other platforms, but surely that's what a new software should be aiming for? improving on whats out there and from a users point of view copy & past is better than copy & past 3 clicks ?

EBKAC??

so they have automated this but not the video, so some good ideas just a shame other ideas have not been implemented.

 

I did state copy/paste, which I have found works with any image on the interweb, it will not work from your own PC though, perhaps that is too much to ask ?

 

Error Between Keyboard And Chair

The copy/paste function is only 3 clicks, if you want to put an image into a post on say Xenforo, how many clicks is that ?
You either have to save it, move it to photobucket, then set the URL, or upload it as an attachment, a much longer process.

There are suggestions going forward all the time, but they need votes to get included, and as Scott has pointed out, sometimes adding these features "breaks" other parts of the code, creating more bugs.

 

maybe but don't you think these sort of user friendly things should be the top of the improvements list for any developer?? after all we all know Facebook has become a bit of a success based on easy of use so that any mindless idiot can post their "thought" and or pictures with great ease

 

Just a observation, but it's great we can have a discussion about a software with out it descending into a childish slanging match pissing contest.

 

Facebooks success has nothing to do with the features it has, most of the people using it don't know how to use them anyway, and the instructions Facebook push out are not for the faint hearted.

The problem I think is that forum users have got used to using the pop up box system, and very few of them realise what any platform can and cannot do.
It's a bit like the forum rules page, how many do you think actually read that.
Members use what they know, very few explore the other possibilities.

 

Which is why I left the other place.

 

Have to disagree on the facebook success not having anything to do with its features, if it was not so easy to post picture etc do you really think it would have taken of and become so successful? say you had to go through 3-4 prepossess before you could get a picture posted you may do that once or twice but not like they do and post picture etc all over the place constantly.