New site format

[sb56637]

@nuemtol

(I guess you can’t even ctrl-f “q8”)

That does indeed work:

• The first time you hit Ctrl+F it uses the site search engine to search within the thread. For those 5,000 post threads this is a fast way to find what you’re looking for.
• If you hit Ctrl+F again it will use the browser search bar within the loaded context of the thread.
• If you click the search button it will by default do a search of the whole site.

@nuemtol

I’ll use the search bar, and I’ll use google site search

There is frankly no comparison between the former extremely inadequate and incomplete Google site search with the integrated site search engine that we have now. Please give it a try, it works very well and allows for extremely granular specific searches across the entire site and/or in specific threads or specific categories with a ton of other search criteria if needed here when clicking on the menu inside the magnifying glass icon.

@nuemtol

There’s no way I’m going to sit here for 10 minutes and wait for 299 posts to load, in 20-comment-clumps, (or whatever it is), and try to wring out whatever information has been discussed here, just hoping that something of value may have been said.

I agree, unless someone is planning on reading 5000 posts 1 by 1 there is always going to be a lot of scanning and searching to quickly parse the thread. But that’s precisely where this new format excels – before you had to scan 30 posts and then click next > , and then repeat. Now you just scroll down. Yes, there is a brief delay as it loads the next chunk of posts, but it’s the same or less than loading the next page in a normal forum. Going any faster than that would just be aimless scrolling.

@nuemtol

By the time I get to post 50, I’m going to want to scroll back and reread something. Then I’ll lose my place

This specific situation is elegantly handled in the current forum software:
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/new-blf-forum-engine-faqs/217457#where-are-the-pages-2

@nuemtol

if I want to catch up with what’s been going on with Nichia 219’s, or D4’s, Osram, or what someone like Virence is up to

In those cases you could look here:

• Clemence’s activity: Profile - clemence - BudgetLightForum.com
• Posts from the past 6 months about Nichia 219: Search results for 'Nichia 219 after:2022-10-01' - BudgetLightForum.com

@nuemtol

Gone are the days of multi-tab or multi-window reading. Like, having a color rendition post up in one tab, and another tab with the relevant post of an IRL picture review, etc.

You can load as many BLF tabs as you want, just like before. I usually have 4 - 6 open myself at any given moment. You can even respond to a post while navigating in the top pane of BLF to a completely different thread and even quote posts from a different thread within the same interface.

So I would strongly encourage you to read the mentioned FAQs page as well as the analysis specifically about pagination and give the new site a try before reaching hasty conclusions that it won’t work. I know it’s different in some aspects, but at the same time this forum engine is one of the most popular currently and has been successfully running many very large communities for years, and there are definitely some good reasons for that.

[Nachtfeuerzeug]

Overall, I really like the new website while viewing it on Windows and Android devices but no matter what browser I use on an up-to-date iPad, the site is not displayed correctly. There is a message at the top that says to use a compatible browser. Has anyone encountered this and found a fix?

[sb56637]

Hi there @Nachtfeuerzeug , thanks for the feedback. It sounds like it’s an older iPad running a version of iPadOS older than version 15. If it’s a slightly newer device then please try to upgrade the OS to version 15 or higher. Otherwise it’s an unfortunate case of Apple no longer supporting the device, and the developers of this forum software not wanting to support older browsers with the workarounds that would be required. (In the Apple mobile ecosystem no matter which browser is used they all run on the same web engine, which is tied to the version of the mobile OS.) Personally I don’t agree with policies of forced obsolescence, but unfortunately I have no say over it.

[Nachtfeuerzeug]

Thank you SB!

[ToyKeeper]

If you can override your browser’s user-agent string, you might be able to get the site to load by pretending to be a newer browser. It’s possible some parts of the site might not work, but it might at least be more functional than the unsupported-browser version of the site.

[Nachtfeuerzeug]

Thank you TK! I looked into user-agent string and learned something.
The iPad was actually pending an update so once I cleaned out the storage, full of the kids apps and stuff, it finally updated. I’m enjoying BLF on the iPad!

[sb56637]

Glad to hear that @Nachtfeuerzeug ! Out of curiosity, what version of Safari / iPadOS is it running now?

[Nachtfeuerzeug]

Hey SB! I’ll let you know later this evening.
@sb56637 Edit: it’s iPadOS 15.7.5