BlueDog

Another web designer, usability person weighing in here.

The format is just plain unusable. I've been on many other forums and have never stayed with them as long as I have on AudiWorld.

Adrian, I appreciate the difficult position you are in and hope that some good will be able to be sorted out of the initial s***storm that is getting directed at IB. You are a brave soul for jumping into the middle of it.

Its not the options and add-ons that really matter. The end user doesn't care about it as much as the admins.

If you start with a stripped down Ford Escort, it doesn't matter how many options you package into it, how many bolt-ons you can get, and how many stickers you can put on it... in the end you STILL have a Ford Escort.

However, when you start with a turbo 911, you don't really need to add a single option to make the car more comfortable, usable, better looking, better performing. Its fine the way it is right off the showroom floor.

Yes, but if you look back through YEARS of posts just in the feedback forum alone, you will notice many, many posts about how much the users LOVE the format of Kawf. I have never in all my years of web development been on a site (that is non developer related) where the users are fanatical about the software! Never. I get the feeling that the powers that be at IB never did this research and took this into account in their business decision making process.

I had hoped for the best when I knew this change was coming. I'm saddened to see the old site go, as it was a model I would point to as good usability and why keeping things simple can really work. (Go check out Craigslist forums for the ultimate example of a simple format succeeding.) But I can't see in what possible way that this change will be the best for AW in the long run, unless UI changes are made to vB to emulate the Kawf format.

BSOD

I may be in the minority here, but I actually like vb. Usually. Pretty much every other forum uses it, and it works just fine. Easy to use, feature rich. Kawf was/is different, and some preferred/liked that. Personal preference IMO.

But, and this is a big but, the current implementation here is near unusable. It seems like it's tried too hard to emulate what bits of the old format it could (font type, font size, general overall "feel/look", etc), but really just ends up with the worst of both worlds. I'm trying to offer constructive criticism, and not just add to the overall mob-mentality bitchfest.

TwentyValveB5+S4

So... by such logic, a new Honda Civic with all the options, some upgrades, and add-ins is better than, say, a UrQ?

If AW users wanted those features, they'd be on AZ -- plain and simple. This new implementation is worse that the previous setup, and worse than its direct competitor.

IB Adrian

Appreciate your comments - what do you recommend we do in regards to this.

As you noted, we attempted to replicate everything we could from Audiworld as it was on kawf, but we are open to any specific suggestions/improvements that you may have.
Adrian

thomas1978

Just little stats for you
AudiWorld has 159,146 registered members

68,441 have never posted, not even once

54,599 have posted, but fewer than ten times

Add up those figures and one will see, 123,040 of AudiWorld's registered users barely ever (if ever) post.

In fact, only 3,434 of AudiWorld's registered members have posted more than one-thousand times. Of those, only 508 have posted over ten-thousand times.

QuattroWorld has already registered over 1,600 new users, mostly those leaving AudiWorld (and, that was before it even worked correctly).

s4wood

The issue is that a bunch more work should have been done on the site before launch as it pertains to usability. Like Jyoteen said, the font size and the amount of white space in places not needed greatly wastes valuable space on the screen. If you look at E90post.com you will see a more effective use of space using vBulletin.

BTW, lots of us are in web development related jobs in our professional life. I am responsible for internet banking platforms (consumer and business) at a $14B financial institution, so this is not just like we are blowing smoke at you here.

I would seriously start developing a comprehensive list of issues we raise, and then go back with the powers at be to try to encorporate the top 20 of them in the site..or you WILL lose your audience.

BTW, I have been involved in this site since 1996 when Jason first came out with Jet's A4 page.

Crapple0

I have 2 very specific suggestions/improvements -- pick any one:

A) Bring back KAWF. Use your code monkeys to improve it and give it all of those "awesome" features you love about vBulletin. You can have all of your PMs, emoticons, richtext edit boxes, "hackproofness" (LOL, btw), and management tools.

B) Get better code monkeys to enable threading on vBulletin. The amount of data here is not that large. The database I work with at work is several orders of magnitude bigger and we have no performance problems -- because our code doesn't suck. This may also require a move away from MySQL which sucks for large databases.

I doubt you'll pick either of these though -- that would require competence on the part of Internet Brands -- competence that you have yet to demonstrate.

thomas1978

lol@code monkeys, i like kwaf because its simple, easy to read and now unique. I don't need no new function, keep it simple.

BSOD

As mentioned in a previous post (probably got lost in the scroll), grid lines and/or alternate shaded rows (or columns) would make the forum pages easier to read for starters. That would help address the white space issues others have mentioned (though I'm not a web designer/etc, so I could be wrong there - but it would make it easier to read).

Sig size limits would be useful. Though there weren't any enforced in KAWF, the problem is compounded in vb (you can't skip a post by particular users). Yes, you can turn them all off in your options, but that's really not the ideal way to do it. Sort of like saying we have freeways with no limits, and just don't go on them if you're worried about the handful of yahoos erratically weaving in and out of traffic at 120+mph.

Maybe a sticky at the top of the feedback (and AWOT if you're really brave) asking this same question. That might cut down on the number of similar threads, and help with the user relations. Of course there will be a lot of general bitching in there, but you may also be able to find some genuinely useful suggestions (if willing to dig through all the crap).

Also using for new posts, and for threads you've posted in doesn't really make sense...

BlueDog

I'm sorry, but I can see NOTHING in this implementation, other than color scheme that even remotely emulates the Kawf software.

Had they actually followed through with the earlier attempt at making it work like Kawf, I think the reception would have been much different. However, this is much more closer to a basic, out-of-the-box install of vB.

For those people that like it, that's great. There are forums out there for them. But this is one of the major things why the regulars like it here, and others like it somewhere else. So are people saying there's no room in the world to be different? Sheer number of forums running the software doesn't make it the defacto best solution. By this logic, there are more Hyundai cars on the road than there are Ferrari. Therefore, the Hyundai MUST be the best car?

In all seriousness, question to IB... what would it take to bring the old format back? Enough complaint? Signed petition? Or enough money for someone to buy this forum back?

The people have spoken by the fact that they are/were here that we are not interested in all the add-ons. If that was important to us, we would have gravitated to other forums, like Audizine.