left hand menus - will they return
I have just cited that very item as one example as to why this forum feels completely disjointed from the ISP section.
It appears that this is running on standard belletin board software or similar, so I imagine the links on the left hand side will either never appear or be a long time coming as getting the integration between the ISP section and the bulletin board section is not going to be an easy task.
One has to question exactly what was wrong with the previous boards?
This seems like the boards (and any negative comments) are just being shoved aside, just so that any pottential customers dont have the opportunity to easily access the boards and see any gripes.
Its the first stage in shutting them down for good I think. The access to the forums certainly wont be ranking as high on my list of reasons to stick with PN anymore if I consider switching again.
It appears that this is running on standard belletin board software or similar, so I imagine the links on the left hand side will either never appear or be a long time coming as getting the integration between the ISP section and the bulletin board section is not going to be an easy task.
One has to question exactly what was wrong with the previous boards?
This seems like the boards (and any negative comments) are just being shoved aside, just so that any pottential customers dont have the opportunity to easily access the boards and see any gripes.
Its the first stage in shutting them down for good I think. The access to the forums certainly wont be ranking as high on my list of reasons to stick with PN anymore if I consider switching again.
Quote from: Peter Sorry if this has been asked before...
Are we likely to see the left hand menu from the portal appear any time soon on the community site / forums. When answering Qs I often went through various portal pages to find answers which now means I have to keep another window open on the portal to access those areas. This is especially true for the help & support area.
I sometimes find myself looking at pages on the portal when answering questions and open up the portal in another Firefox (or IE) tab. This has the advantage that you can quickly switch between the two to carry on typing the post as you explore for example the path down through raising a specific type of ticket.
The way I do this is identical whether I am posting to the PUG forums, the portal forums, Thinkbroadband, Usenet or these forums.
I also welcome the fact that these forums can be up and running when the portal is down.
Sorry Peter, I totally disagree with you on this one.
Quote from: chesterfield Post counts can be transfered over quite simply by copying the relevant table from the sql database into the current one.
Or at least it would be simple if there were now not two different authentications and the fact that people may have different user names. By severing all ties with the authentication onto the portal, the job has been made infinitely more complicated than it need be, and Id wager the side menu integaration nigh on impossible alltogether.
Did you have your cynical cornflakes this morning?
A lot of the point was to remove the duplication of content in all the forums and to allow people to have different usernames to their account usernames. This objectives mean that it isn't easy.
We are going to try though!
We are working on an alternative stylesheet right now. Prototypes hopefully by end of week and we'll put them on here. (They've been delayed as we have restricted web design resource at the minute, hence the job ads on the careers site) If anyone out there wants to have a go themselves at creating a new look and feel, feel free!
A further thought - would a button to link to the portal in the top banner (which portal depending on the logged in users vISP) help?
Ive had enough on creating the site I manage 
(www.350z-uk.com).
In answer to your point, yes I have my dose of cynical corn flakes every day, most will know that.
I do think splitting the forums from the member centre is a step backward though. For example if people have different usernames on the forums than they do on their accounts with the ISP its not as easy for support staff to see immediatley what account is being complained about.
Can you imagine someone coming on here ranting that they are suffering a fault, and the first response to their thread is "can you tell me your username"... Watch the fireworks.
Also, if support have to ask the username before being able to help, then the op would then expect something to be done, an be forever chasing on the topic. Whereas before, support could simply take a look at the account before posting on the topic. Far easier and less likely to result in chased topics or enraging angry posters as they now have to start by giving their username.
If web design time is limited, why on earth was something like this rushed out that is seriously lacking in integration with the isp side?
It just appears tobe madness to me.
(www.350z-uk.com).In answer to your point, yes I have my dose of cynical corn flakes every day, most will know that.
I do think splitting the forums from the member centre is a step backward though. For example if people have different usernames on the forums than they do on their accounts with the ISP its not as easy for support staff to see immediatley what account is being complained about.
Can you imagine someone coming on here ranting that they are suffering a fault, and the first response to their thread is "can you tell me your username"... Watch the fireworks.
Also, if support have to ask the username before being able to help, then the op would then expect something to be done, an be forever chasing on the topic. Whereas before, support could simply take a look at the account before posting on the topic. Far easier and less likely to result in chased topics or enraging angry posters as they now have to start by giving their username.
If web design time is limited, why on earth was something like this rushed out that is seriously lacking in integration with the isp side?
It just appears tobe madness to me.
Quote from: chesterfield Can you imagine someone coming on here ranting that they are suffering a fault, and the first response to their thread is "can you tell me your username".
That'll be why, for the majority of users who will be signing up (the people since it went live), we will be able to track back to their account with us from their username on these forums. We can also track back based on IP address etc. so there are ways of finding these things out for the majority of users.
Quote from: chesterfield If web design time is limited, why on earth was something like this rushed out that is seriously lacking in integration with the isp side?
I'd hardly call 3 months (nearly 4) rushed out
