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Dastardly and Muttley

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First of all, I've been using OTIB since pretty much the beginning.

I have a huge appreciation and gratitude for everything that Tom and the moderators do for us and I know that none of us would be here without them.

The work of the moderation team is outstanding, but they have been seriously let down by this latest upgrade from the board suppliers.

It's not user friendly on mobile devices. It's difficult to navigate. It's incredibly slow and counterintuitive in many ways.

I've given it a couple of weeks to get used to it and I still cannot stand it.

As an exile in Bucks, this forum is my link to Bristol City. It makes me feel like I'm close to the team and I want to thank everyone involved for their work in helping me stay close to the team that I love.

However, as a direct result of this upgrade, my usage of the forum is dropping. It's so slow it's almost unusable at times and the quote function on mobile has left me endlessly frustrated.

 A few questions that I hope our suppliers can answer:

Is it going to get faster?

Is their going to be any improvement to the mobile experience?

Has the hit counter on the forum been affected since the upgrade?

I really don't like moaning, especially as I know how hard people work for this forum. Tom and the other moderators, please don't take this as a personal slight. It is not. I would be delighted and honoured to offer my own time and join your moderation team to support the forum, such is my feeling about it. This upgrade, however, has tarnished the forum for me and I hope it becomes more user friendly in the future.

Many apologies for the long post, and I'm sorry if I'm the only one who feels like this. Unfortunately, I suspect there's a few more who feel like me.

#OTIB

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What phone do you have and what browser are you using? I keep seeing posts about it not working on mobile but I don't experience these issues myself on a HTC One M7 (3 versions ago) and use the chrome mobile browser. I do still get the low speed though.

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I've just spent 3 hours trying to submit a post in the prediction league section, and then trying to lock it, so tonight I share your frustration. 

It's not just tonight though Dolly. I've debated posting this for several days. 

This forum is looking like a shell of it's former self already and the number of new topics seems to have dropped since the upgrade.

That may be a result of the transfer window ending, but I strongly suspect that numbers are down across the board.

Some action needs to be taken if at all possible, before serious damage is caused to this vital community.

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What phone do you have and what browser are you using? I keep seeing posts about it not working on mobile but I don't experience these issues myself on a HTC One M7 (3 versions ago) and use the chrome mobile browser. I do still get the low speed though.

Did you not get it crashed and "service unavailable" for significant amounts of the match tonight?

I thought everyone had, judging by the big gaps between posts.

I had to follow the game on the ******* awful PA/BBC Sport feed.

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Totally agree. Never one to knock the people who run the forum as it's generally excellent, best football forum I've seen. I really appreciate all the work they do.

Unfortunately though, since the update - it's awful on mobile. 95% of my usage is on mobile and I'm here a lot less due to how unusable it is.

Echo your whole post 100% op. 

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I manage to use an elderly PS3 to connect to my elderly iPhone via hotspot and watch Netflix over 4G with no buffering and a perfect picture (original programmes and big films). A text based forum seems a struggle and MUCH more annoyingly Player that I pay almost as much as I do per month as Netflix can't manage to send me a bloody radio stream for a few hours a week.  

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OTIB is a free service funded by the ST and subsidised by Clik. 

We have 58 supporters who've donated to this board. I'd just like to thank them all.

i appreciate there are issues. They are being worked on. We will get the board back up to speed but unfortunely I'm left waiting on the developers. Until they provide the solutions there is nothing I can really do but nurse the situation.

i personally have no issue with the mobile skin. I think it's entirely down to the device you are on.

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IPhone and Safari. It keeps telling me that replies have appeared, then takes two or three minutes to show them.

There's no automatic capitalisation for new paragraphs, the screen doesn't move down as you type, the quote function just seems to only allow you to type in the grey box to extend people's quote. The loading speeds are horrendous, for instant I've reloaded this page several times to read replies and have had to shut down and reload Safari three times before seeing replies.

 

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What phone do you have and what browser are you using? I keep seeing posts about it not working on mobile but I don't experience these issues myself on a HTC One M7 (3 versions ago) and use the chrome mobile browser. I do still get the low speed though.

Nokia Lumia Windows phone. Using chrome. Tonight was so bad I gave up after trying to post for over a hour. Non match days better but still very slow. I ain't having a go as I don't know how/what to do to make better as not a it wizz kid. Purely giving my experience of using new forum on mobile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Have to say I hate the new look and feel on mobile. It's cluttered and too graphic-heavy for the small screen; the old skin was far more effective. Overall the user experience on mobile has gone downhill.

I also find it hard on mobile (iPhone 5s) to click on the star/circle to go to the first unread post in a thread.

Also, what is the OP referring to regarding the frustrating quote function?

 

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We have 58 supporters who've donated to this board. I'd just like to thank them all.

i appreciate there are issues. They are being worked on. We will get the board back up to speed but unfortunely I'm left waiting on the developers. Until they provide the solutions there is nothing I can really do but nurse the situation.

i personally have no issue with the mobile skin. I think it's entirely down to the device you are on.

As long as you're ok then. Sod it.

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IPhone and Safari. It keeps telling me that replies have appeared, then takes two or three minutes to show them.

There's no automatic capitalisation for new paragraphs, the screen doesn't move down as you type, the quote function just seems to only allow you to type in the grey box to extend people's quote. The loading speeds are horrendous, for instant I've reloaded this page several times to read replies and have had to shut down and reload Safari three times before seeing replies.

 

That non-auto caps is possibly my main bugbear!

The forum was SO smooth on the old skin/version so these issues become more significant.

Tapatalk is more usable at the moment and that's a dreadful app.

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We have 58 supporters who've donated to this board. I'd just like to thank them all.

i appreciate there are issues. They are being worked on. We will get the board back up to speed but unfortunely I'm left waiting on the developers. Until they provide the solutions there is nothing I can really do but nurse the situation.

i personally have no issue with the mobile skin. I think it's entirely down to the device you are on.

it's player that ***** me right off, no choice being an exile though! 

 

Keep up the good work!

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OTIB is a free service funded by the ST and subsidised by Clik. 

We have 58 supporters who've donated to this board. I'd just like to thank them all.

i appreciate there are issues. They are being worked on. We will get the board back up to speed but unfortunely I'm left waiting on the developers. Until they provide the solutions there is nothing I can really do but nurse the situation.

i personally have no issue with the mobile skin. I think it's entirely down to the device you are on.

Perhaps all those whinging should put their hands in their pockets?  Seriously only 58 of us pay towards this?  C'mon guys and girls.

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Ok, Tom's post saying "I'm done" has now disappear according to my phone

Tom, no one's having a go at you, if anything it's the opposite. We appreciate your efforts and it must be hard when upgrades are thrust on you.

Please see this thread as an opportunity to show our providers how badly people feel about the upgrade.

We are all on your side and want the best forum we can get and I apologise for my "sod it" comment earlier, it was as unnecessary as your comment about the 58 supporters.

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Tom, that post "I'm done, bye" which has since gone was a bit unnecessary.

I haven't seen one person have a direct pop at you and the mods/admin in this thread. It's all really useful feedback which can go on to improve the forum.

In my opinion there are few, if any, football forums that are as tight and useable as this has been.

I don't claim to be a computer wiz so don't have any answers myself, but no one means this personally against you and the team - it's all useful stuff I think.

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It's upsetting because ultimately I'm the only person who can really do anything about it and while I continue dialogue with Invison who I've had a very good relationship with for 12 years or so I'm extremely frustrated at the situation. I'm in London and having to faff about with Remote Desktop over my phone trying to get things straight.   The biggest issue is this forum 'the football forum' as its loading all 4300 odd pages. Go click into the sell and buy forum. See? 

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I concur - the user experience now is dreadful on my iPad. It's slow and ugly and on match days it just breaks. I know for a fact my usage levels have dropped recently - it's just too much hassle on here now. I have begun to wonder if it is club orchestrated to dumb us down - a big like the Gas have done to their mob. A huge shame that 15 years in and we are currently left with the worst looking & useable forum in that time.

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We have 58 supporters who've donated to this board. I'd just like to thank them all.

i appreciate there are issues. They are being worked on. We will get the board back up to speed but unfortunely I'm left waiting on the developers. Until they provide the solutions there is nothing I can really do but nurse the situation.

i personally have no issue with the mobile skin. I think it's entirely down to the device you are on.

it worked a month ago, whose Idea was it to change it and bring the whole bloody forum to a standstill?

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Please don't let the juvenile comments of a tiny minority get to you. The vast majority on here recognise and hugely appreciate your efforts and realise the current issues are not of your making.

 

sorry for the double quote, the reply function messed up.

No one on this thread had criticised Tom's work. If it is just a minority that are unhappy about the current forum provision, then I stand  corrected. However, it looks like a lot of people feel the same as me. It's becoming harder and harder to log on and that's not because of Tom or any other user, it's because of technical issues.

As users, we have the right to express our opinion, whether the service is free or paid for. I have expressed mine and would gladly offer my time as a moderator to improve things - that was not a throwaway comment.

I really hope things improve with our providers soon.

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It's upsetting because ultimately I'm the only person who can really do anything about it and while I continue dialogue with Invison who I've had a very good relationship with for 12 years or so I'm extremely frustrated at the situation. I'm in London and having to faff about with Remote Desktop over my phone trying to get things straight.   The biggest issue is this forum 'the football forum' as its loading all 4300 odd pages. Go click into the sell and buy forum. See? 

is there anything forum users can do to assist? 

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It's upsetting because ultimately I'm the only person who can really do anything about it and while I continue dialogue with Invison who I've had a very good relationship with for 12 years or so I'm extremely frustrated at the situation. I'm in London and having to faff about with Remote Desktop over my phone trying to get things straight.   The biggest issue is this forum 'the football forum' as its loading all 4300 odd pages. Go click into the sell and buy forum. See? 

ok, so let's think outside the box a bit. Can some of the 4300 pages be binned?

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ok, so let's think outside the box a bit. Can some of the 4300 pages be binned?

I could create a new footy chat forum, move the last two pages over and archive the forum.  It's not ideal though.  The whole slowness is cause by this being the busiest forum of the 5 and having the most posts. It puts huge strain loading it up. IPS need a solution so it only loads 30 days by default which is what it used to do.. I will have another moan at them when I get in 

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The old version has an end of life just like Windows vista, 7 and so forth. 

This is just as radical as windows ten is to a windows XP user and I appreciate that. However the speed should not be an issue and that's the first thing we're trying to resolve. 

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Have to say I hate the new look and feel on mobile. It's cluttered and too graphic-heavy for the small screen; the old skin was far more effective. Overall the user experience on mobile has gone downhill.

I also find it hard on mobile (iPhone 5s) to click on the star/circle to go to the first unread post in a thread.

Also, what is the OP referring to regarding the frustrating quote function?

 

I have found that if you accidentally click in the grey box, it's virtually impossible to get out of it again on an iPhone. Probably just my clumsy thumbs, but I once ended up with a previewed post containing 6 of the same quote before I gave up!

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Don't know how many times it needs to be explained that it wasn't the choice of Tom or the mods to update the software, or to do it on Deadline Day either.

The only issue I have with it is the speed tbh, which is already known about. I tend to avoid while a match is on anyway as the matchday thread is often shambolic, especially if we're losing. Not noticed any problems on the mobile version.

 

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Just as a note about quoting issues (i.e. can only write within the quote, not underneath):

On a computer, hover over the quote and a dotted red line will appear below said quote (fig.1). If you click on the square with the arrow, it will create a paragraph below.

On a mobile/tablet, the same thing is achieved by tapping on the vacant space below the quote.

This can also be done above the quote.

Hope that helps anyone who's had these issues!

1688nf5.jpg

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To be honest, not finding the speed a problem and have got used to the new format on my phone - Sony Xperia Z1. However it is now two matches in a row now where I have not been able to get on, which is very frustrating. Just get the 'service unavailable' message. Istria also to do with all the pages loading up or that it can't handle the increase in users on matchdays? Will this improve too?

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Tomarse

Are we the only forum that uses Invision?

Are other forums having the same issue if we are not?

 

There is probably over a million forums using IPB, so no.  Most people reporting its running fine.  Despite only being one site we have a very good support service from IPS - partly because I've been with them since day one and partly because I'm actually good friends with the original developer.  They got a very long, emotional and slightly drink related rant last night and to fair I had a response within 9 minutes.  

Unfortunately they can see one issue but can't give the fix to the next update (4.1) and that's a few weeks away. There maybe beta versions before that so I might have to try that if it fixes the inital issue which is the speed loading this forum.

As a short term fix I've re-created this forum, moved the last 3 pages worth of topics into it and hidden the forum with the rest of the 1.75m topics. It should improve things while they get to the bottom of it.

As I say the quote issues and mobile experience has had some fixes as well.  Unfortunately I'm on site (London/Colchester) next couple of days so I'm having to do things remotely and before work at silly o clock like now.

Lets see how it goes today with less topics in here...

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There is probably over a million forums using IPB, so no.  Most people reporting its running fine.  Despite only being one site we have a very good support service from IPS - partly because I've been with them since day one and partly because I'm actually good friends with the original developer.  They got a very long, emotional and slightly drink related rant last night and to fair I had a response within 9 minutes.  

Unfortunately they can see one issue but can't give the fix to the next update (4.1) and that's a few weeks away. There maybe beta versions before that so I might have to try that if it fixes the inital issue which is the speed loading this forum.

As a short term fix I've re-created this forum, moved the last 3 pages worth of topics into it and hidden the forum with the rest of the 1.75m topics. It should improve things while they get to the bottom of it.

As I say the quote issues and mobile experience has had some fixes as well.  Unfortunately I'm on site (London/Colchester) next couple of days so I'm having to do things remotely and before work and silly o clock like now.

Lets see how it goes today with less topics in here...

Well done Tom. Seems to be faster already! 

#OTIB

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The old version has an end of life just like Windows vista, 7 and so forth. 

This is just as radical as windows ten is to a windows XP user and I appreciate that. However the speed should not be an issue and that's the first thing we're trying to resolve. 

is the speed issue causing the forum to crash ?  If not I would look at fixing any crash issues first - if rather the forum up but slow than not up at all

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Works fine on my iPhone. Only issue I have is new posts not starting with a capital every time.

yes I get this too, and usually have to double tap before I can write anything. I guess it's a habit I have got into now and if if gets fixed will have to unlearn again. It really bugs me when sentences don't start with capital letters but I can't be arsed to continually correct myself either.

hopefully things will improve on match days now. I did see there were over 2million posts and was going to ask Tom today if all these were needed as they could be loading and slowing things down, that from the non-techie me would be as much help as I could suggest.

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is the speed issue causing the forum to crash ?  If not I would look at fixing any crash issues first - if rather the forum up but slow than not up at all

No it's the load on the database engine that's using up all the servers capacity and then that has a knock on effect.  IPS are looking at it today and seeing what we can do. As I say, it should be better shorterm with what I've done this morning.

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It's not great on a phone (I use an iPhone) but it's better than on my work machine. I can view the forum at work but am unable to post as the reply box is just greyed out. That's probably an issue with my work though as we are forced to use Internet Explorer 8 which is ancient!

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I just typed out a reply to this thread which disappeared as soon as I hit the submit reply button, that's a new one.

edit; this seems to have worked. Maybe my first attempt was deemed as pointless anyway so I'll take the hint.

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I could create a new footy chat forum, move the last two pages over and archive the forum.  It's not ideal though.  The whole slowness is cause by this being the busiest forum of the 5 and having the most posts. It puts huge strain loading it up. IPS need a solution so it only loads 30 days by default which is what it used to do.. I will have another moan at them when I get in 

how about (a temporary?) match day sub forum for those trying to keep up with just the games. Could that be a possible workaround whilst the remaining pages get loaded? 

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There's a lot of talk on here about the OTIB supporters and the fee that's paid. 

Can someone explain to me exactly what it goes towards and how much it is?

in fairness there isn't a website I use more (maybe tubegalore - don't google it at work), so if someone gives me a reasonable answer... I'll pay. 

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There's a lot of talk on here about the OTIB supporters and the fee that's paid. 

Can someone explain to me exactly what it goes towards and how much it is?

in fairness there isn't a website I use more (maybe tubegalore - don't google it at work), so if someone gives me a reasonable answer... I'll pay. 

It's simply a £5 annual donation to help pay for the running costs of the forum. Your member title changes to reflect your donation & you get to experience a warm fuzzy feeling inside*.

 

 

* warm fuzzy feeling not guaranteed.

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There's a lot of talk on here about the OTIB supporters and the fee that's paid. 

Can someone explain to me exactly what it goes towards and how much it is?

in fairness there isn't a website I use more (maybe tubegalore - don't google it at work), so if someone gives me a reasonable answer... I'll pay. 

We (The Supporters Club and Trust) pay Clik (Who Tom works for) a monthly fee for them to do all the things they do.  This costs money.  We get some of this cost from the advertising you see on OTIB, but ultimately if that doesn't cover it, then we the SC&T have to make up the shortfall ourselves. 

I think it costs £5 a year, but I can't for the life of me find the link to how to sign up on the new forum set up.  There used to be a tab at the top.

 

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now I have a black bar down the side of the forum taking up 1/3 of my iPad with computer code stuff on it. core_members.member_id=core_sessions.member_id WHERE id='trgnilt8jo6oj1up5cb9onf5d4' SELECT forums_forums.*, core_permission_index.perm_id, core_permission_index.perm_view, core_permission_index.perm_2, core_permission_index.perm_3, core_permission_index.perm_4, core_permission_index.perm_5, core_permission_index.perm_6, core_permission_index.perm_7 FROM `ibf_forums_forums` AS `forums_forums` LEFT JOIN `ibf_core_permission_index` AS `core_permission_index` ON core_permission_index.app='forums' AND core_permission_index.p Etc, etc

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