Big changes!! - Page 6 - About the Forums

I'm very confused by this, even having read Chuck's explanation.

I also run a vBulletin version 4 forum. Granted, my forum is smaller and has less traffic than 2+2, but that isn't really relevant here.

I'm not thrilled that vBulletin is no longer supported with security/PHP version updates, but I see no reason to switch. The software is stable, and there aren't any known major security flaws at the moment.

Also, they have a version 5 of vBulletin, which IS supported. Why not buy that instead? I'm not doing it because it will clobber my custom mods, but I would 100% do that upgrade over switching to this Vanilla garbage.

You guys should really reconsider. Seems like the new software is universally hated.

We need a GoFundMe to save 2+2!

Quote

03-26-2020 , 09:29 PM

#127

Bobo Fett

Carpe Diem

Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 56,895

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregorio

ETA: I mean even an old guy like Bobo who's used a VIC-20 display most of his life wants a wider view.

10 PRINT "FU Gregorio!"
20 GOTO 10

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregorio

This is what the people will want:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiera

Done and ty

I guess people (like me) who preferred the fixed width can resize.

So. Much. Better.

TY both!!

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03-26-2020 , 09:30 PM

#128

SrslySirius

Animated Character

Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 4,357

please don't

Quote

03-26-2020 , 09:31 PM

#129

Ten5x

journeyman

Join Date: Sep 2016 Posts: 359

Before you go live, or if there's some reason there's a deadline, shortly after you go live, I'd seriously consider hiring someone, making a contest, or figuring out how to make it better or more similar in appearance to this forum. Most importantly, it needs more separation between posts and a slightly different color scheme as all grayish black is not that easy on the eyes. Looking at the examples, it's certainly possible: https://forums.xamarin.com/categories/xamarin-forms https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussions https://community.acer.com/en

Quote

03-26-2020 , 09:34 PM

#130

RoundGuy

banned

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 10,247

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ten5x

Before you go live, I'd seriously consider hiring someone, making a contest, or figuring out how to make it better or more similar in appearance to this forum. Most importantly, it needs more separation between posts and a slightly different color scheme as all grayish black is not that easy on the eyes. Looking at the examples, it's certainly possible: https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussions https://community.acer.com/en

Dude, it's happening Monday (I think), so that ship has long sailed.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 09:35 PM

#131

NoAccessToEmail

enthusiast

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 52

Looks absolute dogshit, shouldn't have to install all this custom stuff just to make it look half decent. Don't understand how you've sat down looked at that and said yep this is how 2+2 is gonna look now! ��

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03-26-2020 , 09:37 PM

#132

gregorio

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 39,313

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilowatt

I also run a vBulletin version 4 forum. Granted, my forum is smaller and has less traffic than 2+2, but that isn't really relevant here.

I thought we were still on v3 here

Quote

03-26-2020 , 09:52 PM

#133

Kilowatt

banned

Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1,101

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregorio

I thought we were still on v3 here

Maybe. I assumed version 4, and that indeed became unsupported fairly recently.

Either way, I don't know why they can't upgrade to v5 instead of that horrible Vanilla stuff.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 09:58 PM

#134

RoundGuy

banned

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 10,247

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoAccessToEmail

Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 35

Can we get an IP check up in here, please?

Quote

03-26-2020 , 10:16 PM

#135

gregorio

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 39,313

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiera

Done and ty

I guess people (like me) who preferred the fixed width can resize.

Actually I think this breaks the ad myfloatingbox2 below 992px so it should be something like this, and I added a margin between the sidebar and main content b/c it was looking too smooshed

Code:

.Container {
    margin: 0 auto;
    max-width: 1750px;
}
.Frame-contentWrap {
    width: 95%
}
.MainContent.Content {
    width: calc(98% - 400px);                                        
	margin-left: 80px;
}
@media screen and (min-width: 1600px) {
	.MainContent.Content {
   	    width:73%; 
            margin-right: 0px;
	}
}
@media screen and (max-width: 991px) {
    .MainContent.Content {
         width:100%;
    	 margin-right: 120px;
         margin-left: auto;
    }
    .myfloatingbox2 {
         right: -5px;
    }
}
@media screen and (max-width: 575px) {
    .MainContent.Content {
        width:70%;
    }
}

But of course every time I look at it I change it. That's the problem with the responsive design. It's hard to know when to stop adjusting for different widths

Last edited by gregorio; 03-26-2020 at 10:40 PM.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 10:21 PM

#136

EastCoastBalla

banned

Join Date: Apr 2016 Posts: 1,765

I agree with Kilowatt. This is absurd that you guys let us know last minute with literally zero input from the regs on here. That new version is terrible.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 10:25 PM

#137

JohnFR

veteran

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 3,365

Morph, legit loled multiple times, just perfect.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 10:43 PM

#138

blacklab

adept

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 1,083

wow. That looks like ass.

I run a pretty big forum and we moved from vbulletin to invision community. Built by engineers that left VB, it took the best stuff from VB and added on layers of better stuff. Looks great and there are tons of themes out there for it. Biggest upgrade is in performance, went from 5 servers to 2 servers to handle the site. I spent days on google looking for a solution and have never even heard of vanilla.

Are you guys self hosting or moving over to a hosted solution?

Quote

03-26-2020 , 10:47 PM

#139

whatthejish

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 9,972

Quote:

Originally Posted by EastCoastBalla

I agree with Kilowatt. This is absurd that you guys let us know last minute with literally zero input from the regs on here. That new version is terrible.

Imagine owning something entirely based on community input, then abruptly changing the entire format without any community input.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 10:52 PM

#140

CBorders

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 16,505

I don't mind the new look. I added the following filters to uBlock Origin:

twoplustwo.vanillacommunities.com##.Box.BoxCategor ies
twoplustwo.vanillacommunities.com##.DismissMessage .InfoMessage
twoplustwo.vanillacommunities.com##.Panel.Panel-main

These combined with my browser configuration ensure I see only the content of the forums themselves, and I never see ads:

Last edited by CBorders; 03-26-2020 at 11:16 PM.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 11:10 PM

#141

RoundGuy

banned

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 10,247

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatthejish

Imagine owning something entirely based on community input, then abruptly changing the entire format without any community input.

Really? Really. You think 2+2 is "entirely based" on "community input"?

Really.

Wow.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 11:26 PM

#142

Ryanb9

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 7,459

Quote:

Originally Posted by MinusEV

I think 2+2 has the best looking forums on the internet today so this is really bad news.

I agree. I cant stand reddit, it looks likes its made for children. So do most forum designs on the internet these days >.<

Quote

03-26-2020 , 11:27 PM

#143

Ryanb9

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 7,459

I think 2+2 looks much better than eevblog https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/ and eevblog looks much better than reddit or any other dumbed down fourm layout

Quote

03-26-2020 , 11:28 PM

#144

Wilbury Twist

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 6,153

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.mmmKay

Vanilla has a showcase of sites using their product:

https://vanillaforums.com/en/showcase/

It seems like there's a wide array of configurations.

I like the Battlefront one:

https://battlefront-forums.ea.com/

This post is why I'll reserve judgment until the migration is complete. If the new site looks like that Battlefront forum, I can live with it just fine. But yeah, the default look is pretty rough.

Quote

03-26-2020 , 11:48 PM

#145

the pleasure

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 6,093

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilowatt

Maybe. I assumed version 4, and that indeed became unsupported fairly recently.

Either way, I don't know why they can't upgrade to v5 instead of that horrible Vanilla stuff.

damn.

is it a money issue?

Quote

03-26-2020 , 11:52 PM

#146

chopstick

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 9,158

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiera

I just changed the layout from what Vanilla calls "Table" to "Modern".

I can also make CSS changes to improve the look and feel ... but want a consensus on the layout first.

The Vanilla website specifically says that you can "Override Vanilla's CSS to make it look exactly like your website."

Why don't we just do that? No one cares what is under the hood. What is stopping that solution from keeping things looking exactly the same? Make Oreo do it.

pls let's not end up in this scenario:

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregorio

You're going to need to change the widths for .Container and .Frame-contentWrap o/w for sure. People do not like large whitespace margins, and with the sidebar and ads on the right there's lots to fit on the screen anyway.

I have our forum set to 1800px width and still had a complaint

The large whitespace margins are godawful and all the zoomer designers pushing them need to be sent to the farm upstate.

That said, your forum looks like garbage:

so I'm not sure how much I trust you to do right by us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomHimself

i also miss the twoplustwo iphone app that went away years ago. that was really good, imo

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilowatt

Also, they have a version 5 of vBulletin, which IS supported. Why not buy that instead? I'm not doing it because it will clobber my custom mods, but I would 100% do that upgrade over switching to this Vanilla garbage.

You guys should really reconsider. Seems like the new software is universally hated.

This.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chopstick

on Vanilla's "vBulletin vs Vanilla" marketing page, they say that you can:

"Override Vanilla's CSS to make it look exactly like your website. "

what do we need to do to make that happen? No one cares what the back end looks like if the UI and front end stays the same.

but please for the love of all that is holy in this life and the next do not change to what that preview link displays. We are all going to be in a weakened state soon enough from coronavirus, we don't need this monstrosity finishing us off.

listen to this guy pls

Quote

03-26-2020 , 11:54 PM

#147

fashi0n

stranger

Join Date: Nov 2019 Posts: 12

How come you guys dont do mybb?

Quote

03-26-2020 , 11:58 PM

#148

BradleyT

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 9,480

The cost savings by doing IT/web in house has surely been dwarfed by the lost revenue by keeping everything so "amateur hour" on this site for 15+ years.

Quote

03-27-2020 , 12:05 AM

#149

Kilowatt

banned

Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1,101

You guys wanna laugh?

https://vanillaforums.com/en/plans/

"Flexible pricing from $689 to $10,000 per month"

It's cloud-hosted, you see. So Vanilla hosts it for you, taking away both your control of your own data and your reasonable cost.

Vanilla is perhaps the right solution for huge companies such as EA which don't feel like getting into the forum business. They just want to pay a company to run it for them, and that's that, even if it's overpriced.

They're a horrible solution for a company which is best known for BEING a forum.

Pretty shocked that Mason signed off on this.