New BigSoccer (Baobab) Feedback & Suggestions Thread

Re: Kicks

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12319905&postcount=65

If you guys want to have a Digg-esque system, that's fine. Just keep it separate from the forums.

Also, bring back the buttons rather than just having text links for every action. This isn't the web circa 1996.

 

Not user-friendly. I don't like it. Take me back to the old BigSoccer!...

 

I can't freaking win on these forums recently. I spent 15 posts making detailed analysis one thread and am told "I'm providing nothing useful to the thread". Then, on this thread, I complement the implementation after criticizing the product for two good sized posts and get complaints that I shouldn't be praising it.
Jebus.

 

I'm using the old familiar MLSNet skin because I get my widescreen and clear thread separators. I HATE kicks, as most people do. It works on a site like Digg which is a news site first and a discussion board second. BigSoccer is a discussion board and implementing new features for the sake of implementing new features is just annoying.

VBulletin is cool because all the forums that use it work and look similar. This new version SEVERELY breaks that familiarity and automatically makes it less intuitive. Yes i know everything is all there, but it looks completely different now.

I loved the old skin and it's functionality and ignored the kicks feature because I thought it was out of place on a discussion board.

If bugs are being worked on for the other skins, I might mention that the MLSNet skin is missing a "last page" button on the page skip thingy.

 

Yuck. Busy, busy, busy.

Plus, either there is no news links thread where you said it would be, or it's not stickied and on page 65, or I need to put on my sunglasses and look all over the page to find a link somewhere.

 

The new format is awful and far less user friendly than the old one, in my opinion. The only skin i can come even close to tolerating is the soccer365 one, but even then i no longer have my subscibed forums on the left side pane. seems that what i used be be able to do with one click has now become two or three and the pages take a bit of time to load.

Also it would be nice to have an earthquakes team board out of the expansion sub forum and back in the MLS Teams forum where it belongs.

Also would suggest that an option be added to select BigSoccer Home Page when you first type in the URL. I spend > 95% of my time on here at the Quakes forum and wish i could just go straight there without having to make it my default browser home page too.

 

Bingo.

At some point a while back Huss clearly got it into his head that this place should be a hybrid between a discussion board and a Digg style soccer news site. The result is the new BigSoccer. The problem is this new BigSoccer totally fails in both regards: it's now a lousy discussion board and everyone hates the Digg style Kick feature.

I've been around here a long time. I've seen lots of changes and redesigns. I don't think I've ever seen a redesign as poorly received as this one.

 

I really like the new look. A couple of complaints... the new MLS: Clubs forum homepage is terrible, the kicks feature is ludicrous, and I really miss the newest posts list on the old homepage.

 

I must say I am not at all happy with the new format they have in place since the upgrade. I was really getting kind of used to the yellow background and thought it had a distinct look to it. I also liked the MY BIGSOCCER on the left hand side which has now been moved to the bottom. I still do not like it. Is there something that can be done about this to change and/or improve it to the way it was or a similar format? Please help!

 

Oh! Just noticed how it works at YanksAbroad.

Gracias!

 

I'd like function back as well. It helps you see which forums are "hot" rather than just traditional browsing around. (I hope it's just gone while the search function is disabled. ) I used a button in the top center of every screen which said something like "most recent posts" -- that button's completely gone. I'd love to know how to continue to get that information, if it's possible.

I'm using a more traditional skin (the Dynamo skin), and I like that I can now see rep and post counts again; however, the absense of the Club is upsetting. Knowing which club(s) a poster supports gives huge context for posters you don't know. Why would I care more about a poster's location, post count or reputation than their club loyalties -- aren't we here to talk football?

Have to agree with general consensus on the kicks. I don't see the point; but they don't seem to be a huge factor in this more old-school skin, so that's nice.

 

I usually used the gray skin so as to be able to slack off at work discretely. My boss thanks you for the "update".

 

If kicks MUST be implemented, can we at least have a "bury it" link right under the "kick it" link on the homepage? The Kicks system actually is great for the homepage, but not for forum threads.

 

Overall, I don't like the new look, mostly for reasons which have already been stated. There are some nice features, though, and I got used to the last two changes, so I guess I'll get used to this one too...

Pros:
-The forum navigation to the left is great
-I like the new colors and design of the logo at the top and bottom of the page

Neutral:
-The alternating white-gray background in the forum view is helpful in following posts over (though the old version accomplished this just as effectively with thin lines)
-It's nice to see some of the text of posts on the front page, but as others have mentioned, what about spoilers?

Cons:
-WAY too little delineation between posts
-Too much white, it is strenuous even on my young eyes (I also liked that posts filled the window)
-I never used the kicks, and don't plan to
-There seems to be confusions as to whether "Bigsoccer Live" still exists...that's pretty much all I ever used, so I would be heartbroken if it's gone. If choosing "Sorted By: Date" mimics this, that's okay (though I think it should be the default, given the majority opinion). However, it seemed like someone said that the only posts that are shown there are from forums that are selected to the left. I think that's a bad idea if it's true. Can someone clarify?
-The kicks icon is too prominent in the forum view


Suggested Solutions:
-Simply enclosing the thread title, time of post, and post number in a horizontal semi-transparent red color bar would alleviate most, if not all the issues with post delineation. This would fit with the new skin, but keep the functionality of the old one.
-Similarly, putting a box around the main text of the post would help draw attention to the important thing--the actual content of the post. It would be nice if the above two suggestions apply to posts displayed on the main page, as well those in threads.
-How about switching the kick icon to the right side on the forum view? That way, people who care can look at it, and those who don't can basically ignore it. Perhaps simply making the icon smaller would do the trick, but as it stands, it feels like I'm looking at the middle of the page before I see actual content.
-Perhaps a good compromise between preview text on the main page and spoilers is simply showing the first few lines of text. This would clean up the front page as well. The OCD in me hates that each post takes up a different amount of space (vertically).


I really hope most of these problems are fixed, because Bigsoccer is really the best place to go for broad-spectrum soccer news. On another note, for those of you who want the old skin back, I really like the DCUnited one. It's not exactly the same, but it's nice.

 

Graphically speaking, I find the old version bolder, more dramatic and generally more enthusiastic. To begin with, the choice of colors and print type alone are disappointing. Hard to believe a professional designer couldn't come up with better than this. Of course, we'll all get accustomed to the new look. Suffice to say, sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone. Like a multiple choice answer, your first hunch tends to be the best choice. What was the reasoning behind the change anyway?

The new look is way too antiseptic. Same old story: by subscribing to the utilitarian motto of trying to please the most people you've only succeeded in diluting the product and the unique personality of the original.

PS "Kick it" right back where it came from

 

Hi, one thing that just bugs me, is if you are on the last page of a thread, there is the option to go to the next page. Why? There are no more pages. If you click it, it goes back to the first page. Also, where did the 'First' page button go?

When you are on the first or last page, it still has the option to go both ways, next or previous. I don't like that.

I know thats a small kind of thing but it just bugs me

 

There you go. I don't visit Bigsoccer for news. Message boards are fine, we don't need "User Generated Communities."

 

Thumbs down to the mandatory kicks.

Please take some time to run a poll. I would be interested to see if others hate that "feature" as much as I do.

The board seems very plain now, almost too much white. Looks like some boards I was on in the mid to late 90's when forums started to spring up.

 

Im getting used to it pretty quickly, it's really not that different...the only thing that really bothers me (and only just a little at this stage) is the type size/font/something is different, posts are both harder to read and harded to tell apart. I dont really use many features and those I do use (post search) are often down for me anyway.

 

No more "Quick Links" or "My Latest Posts" under "My Profile"? Or am I looking in the wrong place?

 

Now we can have "Kickoffs" instead of polls. Kick a post to agree with the posting or Bury it if you don't.

Fark has a voting system that is unobtrusive and out of the way. I think it would be better if you could only kick something and see the kick box if you were reading the thread itself. That way you don't have fifty Kick It boxes on screen at one time.

 

Some polls have more than 2 options.

or just use "thread rating" with the stars like we used to, which worked fine.

 

Oh I was kidding on the kickoff thing, though I guess that would also be an easy way to abuse its purpose since it would get polls as top news stories.

 

Since you're using the Dynamo skin too, are you having a problem with all of the page fitting in the screen? The header is to the side of where the posts start and the post runs past the header.

 

The design makeover is less than tolerable, but the load times compared to those pre-upgrade are just unacceptable. Very difficult to have conversations in the in-game threads.