mAgnum8

The old Audiworld site and format was one of the reasons why it made it so easy for me to become a member. Everything is hidden here. The old format was like having a bird's eye view at a glance. Maybe I'm too old but I really, really dislike this format. I know that I did not contribute as much as the other wiser and more knowledgeable listers but for what it's worth, I guess I'll be drifting off.

ricoblanco

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PPower

I'm new around here, but let me throw this out there. This new and more modern format is the direction most forums are going. You mentioned age, and the funny thing is that the forums that have the previous format tend to have older users. This may because this is what they got used to since about 1995 and never got used to this new format. I had been on a BMW/Porsche forum in the 90's like that and hadn't used it since getting on nikonians.org and dpreview. In general, I have an aversion to it like you guys have an aversion to this new vbb style.

"Old" format
+ birds eye view of the entire conversation of a topic
+ able to branch a thread in outline form (FAQ thread is a great example)
-encourages semi worthless one liner responses because:
-extremely difficult to read everything if more than the title line is used
-takes too much space to show all threads if there is too much discussion. I'm subscribed on two threads that are 950ish pages so far w/ about 20 posts/page. Can you imagine that on this format?


"new" format
+cleaner view to see more of what has happened all on one page. The number of topics that fit on one page compared to the old style. Not a big deal with little traffic, but HUGE deal with increased traffic.
+linear pattern - a thread is more like one single conversation instead of several little ones branching off of each other.
-can't view the whole conversation at a glance.
-slow to read through when there are huge signatures like on here. That needs to be cut down to maybe four lines of text of height.
Over time, I think you'll find that benefits of the new format will be worthwhile once you get used to them. There's a reason most forums are like this or are changing over to it.

brittcrowell

Being a younger user ( is 36 young? ) and being a HTML/WebSite programmer since '96 ish, I have conflicting views.

I originally thought that the old version was a mess till I learned to use it. But the ability to track threads and know when the tile is a one liner aka the (NT) No Text, (which I'm ashamed to admit I only realized in the last few months)or know when there are pics or links in the post is very useful. Most notably with the new QuattroWorld site is the ability to look at all of your tracked post regardless what forum they are in. Uber Cool!

The new style is, like has been pointed out how everyone else dose it. That doesn't make it better just more familiar to more people. Other forums that I don't frequent as much it seems to work just fine. But the most active and knowledgeable people that we need, have abandon this site mostly for the lack of familiarity and usefulness.

Maybe I should complain that neither site does a mail list like AudiFans.com and seem really old school!

I guess I'm just an Audi nut.

So I'll get my AudiFans emails, visit QuattorWorld two or three times a day and occasionally check out how dead things are here and read the news articles and reviews.

Britt

budavid

I really liked the old forum because of the wonderful members that used to post in it although I really hated the old version. The reason was that you cannot veiw all the replys to the topic in one page. You have to go and click them one by one. Now my life is much easier with the new version where you can see all the replys in one go... No sweat!