Thanks for the feedback. Can you give us a bit more detail about what you don’t like? Background color and font color combination? Font type? Font size? Colors?
Let us know and we can take that back to the design team. Thanks!
Not in any realistic or meaningful way. People can still see it.
That brings me back to saying that you’re doing no more than pretending to conceal something while actually drawing attention to it.
You haven’t answered my concern at all.
Hiding the content without having a link that says, effectively “Click here to see what we’ve hidden” would answer it completely, and that’s how other forum admininstrators use that kind of feature.
It comes down to a very simple question: which works better, having that link there or not having it there. It’s a tiny, simple thing, but makes an enormous difference to the result. At the moment what you say you’re trying to do is being completely confounded by the way you’re trying to do it, and it would be really easy to change that.
This is where I’m going to disagree with you. It is hidden. You can’t see it unless you act and click it. You’re making that decision. Don’t click, it stays hidden. Click it, it becomes visible. You understand that hidden content has been hidden for a particular reason, most likely because it is low value or spam or off-topic.
As I mentioned previously, we are looking at what other communities are doing with the exact text/notification.
It’s exactly the same thing as the sales copywriters’ trick of using headlines “The information they didn’t want you to know”.
It’s a way of making something more prominent, and drawing attention to it.
Copywriters are still using that time-honoured technique because it works. And that’s the outcome (whether intended or not) of what you’re doing. As I said, you’re only pretending to hide the spam whilst actually drawing attention to it.
Thanks for replying, but nowhere in this conversation have you attempted to answer my simple question: do you think it’s more hidden by having a link there saying “Click to read what we removed” or by not having a link there saying that?
I think we can all see why you won’t answer that.
It only has one answer, doesn’t it?
The answer is, yes, we’re happy with the implementation of the hidden post feature and accompanying link text. We completely understand your sales copywriter comparison. But we also know that not everybody responds to copy like you do. Some users are drawn to it and feel the need to click it, others are not and will continue down the stream of posts and conversation, ignoring it completely. You’re one of two people to bring this to our attention since launch. If the feeling becomes more widespread and more users feel the same, we’ll be more inclined to make a change.
But we’re receptive to your feedback, so we will look at what other communities and websites are doing in similar situations and take that into account.
But not receptive enough actually to answer Quickly’s question.
You’ve made it clear that it matters that such content is hidden.
Do you think it’s better hidden WITH a link saying “Click here to see the content” or WITHOUT such a link?
It’s a simple, binary question, Mr. Pipstradamus. Is it more effectively hidden WITH that link or WITHOUT it?
What’s the answer?
I enjoy white, like Steve Jobs and his Mac, yet the font is not sufficiently thick to compliment the beauty of a pure backdrop. The words seemingly fades and make folks like me squint with reading glasses. Surely no size fits all, so a suggestion for the developer to introduce a limited number of options for readers to choose their individual preference? Perhaps just a white or gray background, and the size of fonts. A simple job.
Both questions were answered. Yes, we’re happy with the feature, and yes, we’re happy with the link text.
We’re testing different font colors and sizes as we speak. “Themes”, a way to change background and site colors, are something that won’t be possible until we upgrade to the next version of the platform. That will require considerable testing on our part because the update is a major release, and updates several different areas and systems that run within the forums, while also including changes to mobile design and function. Thanks for the feedback.
He won’t answer that, Charlie.
He’ll say “Both questions were answered” but he won’t answer that.
He can’t admit “It would be more effectively hidden without the link” because that would unravel his entire argument and expose it for what it is.
It’s his forum, and if he invites feedback but then won’t answer a totally legitimate and obvious question, there’s nothing you can do about it, and everyone can see why he won’t. I suggest you drop it, now. I will, also.
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It’s not a question about hiding effectively. We’re offering options, not trying to make the content disappear. We can argue this point forever, but if you don’t take my comments as an answer, I can’t do anything more than I’ve done. But that’s the last we’ll chat about this feature beyond what I’ve already stated.
I am not suggesting “themes”, just some buttons which could limitedly change color and size. Irregardless, may this not be the decline of a once inspiring website. All the best.
Sure, we’re talking about the same thing. What we’ve seen in other forums is a drop-down menu with different color themes, usually one light and one dark, that changes more than just background color. If you have an example implementation at another website you’d like us to look at, please share a link and we can take a look. We’ll be testing out this type of feature in the next version update of our forums software. We’re also still testing font color and size internally and hope to have some changes very soon. Thanks for your patience.
I would like to mention (for what it is worth!) that I really like the ability to drag/drop or copy/paste graphics and pics, etc direct into the dialog box! It saves a lot of time and effort. You can even drop them direct from another web page without even having to save them first! 
Maybe I use this more than the average poster, but it is so easy and effortless compared with the old version!
Also, I really like the side by side preview, I am terrible at typos and it is so easy to quickly read through and adjust/amend a post before posting.
The site also seems a lot more stable and I don’t lose my writings before I manage to post them like I used to (which was probably an anti-waffle filter anyway! 
)
But in my opinion the site has still lost a sense of belonging, community and status that we were used to. It seems the proportion of posts from brokers, commercial interests and Newbies now far outweighs the input from seasoned, experienced and useful traders. I wonder why that is?
Previously it was possible to see immediately from a post whether the poster was a long term poster or a newbie and one soon got to know who was worth listening to and who was a waste of time in spite of numerous posts. But that is not so clear any more. The miniscule avatars, lack of titles and lack of joining date/post numbers, means every poster is in the same class. OK, I know all these stats are available if one digs for them, but why should one have to? Previously , if I saw an avatar that was familiar and immediately saw the poster had been here for xxx years with xxxx posts, then it was certainly worthy of attention, even if it (rarely) turned out to be a fake or “social” trader.
I still don’t like the impersonal, sterile layout and feel of this site, but it functions in a very impressive way and I really do like that
Yep, hopefully it’s getting read.
The ‘feel’ aspect comes with use.
There has been an improvement in the tool tip. Next is the simple stuff, the navigation.
We operate in seconds, a web designer lives within his/her own mind, everything is laid out in how that designer thinks, it seems so simple.
I just posted in a thread, so now back to an index… there is an array of menu items at the bottom which are of no meaning like flag, share, invite etc… all I want is to go back
Instinct is to look to the top of the page for navigation, but it is infinite
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Hello peterma. To get back to the index/forums homepage, click on the Forums logo at the top of the page. The logo can be green or white, depending on how far down the page you are.
Green logo:
White logo:
Also take note, in the second image labelled White logo, everything you see is clickable.
- You can click on the logo to go back to the forums homepage,
- You can click on the topic/thread title (in this example, “Website feedback”) to go to the first post in the thread
- You can click on either of the breadcrumb elements to go to the Community category index or the Community Feedback sub-category index.
I hope those tips help you get around easier.
Yeah, I was talking out loud using the thoughts of a new reader, as a designer of layout and content I want not to lose his interest.
As you know interest can wane very quickly, the logo is simple, but it really should be shaped as a little house to make it intuitive.
I haven’t been back the Babypips since June 2017.
I had saved a thread to which I wanted to contribute, and this week I got back to it from that saved URL.
After making two posts to that thread this week, I closed the browser, and just now I have attempted to go back to that thread.
I can’t find it.
I can’t find anything to do with trading systems, strategies or ideas.
There are certainly the latest posts, but without being able to read the OP of each thread like we could before, I am certainly NOT going to click on EVERY new post to see if the substance is likeable.
What a disorganised rabble anyone who comes here must find.
I am very disappointed in how Babypips has gone, and I think the person responsible for the change should be booted. Sacked, pensioned off or similar.
Anyway, I do wish you all well but for the life of me I can not work out how hiding everything from view is going to promote the place.
Clue: “If it’s not broken, please don’t attempt to fix it.”
Best of luck. I don’t have time for this.
What possesses people to destroy things ??
Thanks for the feedback. Very often, site visitors and members aren’t privy to what’s going on behind the scenes, And behind the scenes, things were very much broken, and more importantly, potentially insecure. I won’t share too much about what happened with vBulletin, our former platform, as the drama of it’s development (or lack thereof) by its owner is well documented elsewhere, by many website administrators and former staff. Short version, the platform and a major plugin that we used lapsed in development and timely security fixes. The company behind the platform basically tried to push existing customers to its newer and supposedly better version. It was not better, and was actually worse. As we couldn’t rely on the platform developers to continue support for or even commit to developing new features for our version of the platform, we had to make the major decision of switching platforms. We actually debated that decision for years, but there were no alternatives worthy of moving to. It took well over a year of planning the move, backing up 10+ years of data, testing and retesting data restorations, all while introducing a brand new platform. And that work was specific only to the Forums, and doesn’t include the work related to 10+ years of daily posts to our content management platform. We did unfortunately lose some forum data, but overall, we’re happy with how the move went.
As for your issues, perhaps some small changes in how you view the Forums homepage will help you find specific topics. It sounds like your homepage is defaulting to the Latest view. Have you tried changing the view to show the Category view instead?
To change your default home page view, do the following:
- Click your avatar in the top right corner,
- Click on the gear icon,
- Go to Preferences | Interface
- Change the drop-down setting for Default Home Page to Categories
- Save your changes
From now on, whenever you visit the Forums home page, you will be presented with the Category view.
With the Category view, you get easy access to all of the main categories and subcategories, including Trading Systems, which is what you’re after.
Regarding any topics or posts that you make, you can see a historical record of that activity under your Profile.
To see your Activity, do the following:
- Click on your avatar
- Click on your username
- Go to the Activity section
- Select either Topics or Replies from the left-hand navigation to review your activity
As you come back to topics/threads that you’ve read in the past, the new system will remember where you left off, instead of just dropping you off at the beginning or at the end of the discussion. This way, you can get up to speed on the discussion without missing anything.
And as you track, watch or engage in discussion, the Unread view (another option you can set for your default home page) will show you what topics have been updated since your last visit. So discussions most important to you are all in one place. No need to go searching. Again, this feature only works if you’re logged in, and if you track, watch or reply to a topic.
Regardless of your default homepage choice, you can get to any of these views at any time from the Forums home page.
If you need more information on what a view provides, simply mouse-over the view icon and a tooltip will appear with that information.
The new version of the Forums really does offer more in content discovery and tracking than vBulletin ever did. It takes a bit getting used to it, but once you know where to look, you’ll be better off.
Let me know if you have any questions.
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Thank you Pipstradamus - your help was really appreciated.
I am going to follow through on your suggestions.
It used to be great to log in and then research “Daily Systems” or “4H Systems” and see it all in a nice big list in front of your eyes. The problem currently with that, is that people coming to the forum have no idea at all that these threads even exist.
Before, you would look at something, and say: “That looks interesting” and go ahead and click on the thread.
But as you say:
I’ll have a play with it to see how the new features function, and hopefully I’ll get that “aha!” moment and all will be well.
I hope others are finding it easier now than earlier, and have not abandoned the site.
There used to be some good posts here on Babypips. maybe there still are.