After about 3 weeks of operation ...

[Smiles]

Or at least I think it's 3 weeks ... maybe a month.

Sorry guys. I know you've put in a lot of work, and most appreciated, which goes without saying.

But ... this vBulletin board is just too fussy by a number of furlongs, too overloaded with features which seem to me just plain unnecessary.
I'm still not able to log in without being tossed into my PM feature first [no matter that I attempted to follow Moses' convoluted instructions] ... a feature I do not use frequently.
Ten different icons to tell me what I've seen, looked at, shaken my head at, fondled lately -- I exaggerate but you get the drift.
The million-photo entrance page screams out for some reasonable sense of minimalism, as frankly, does the rest of the board. The PM feature has weirdly worded 'things-going-on'. The 'Like' feature is simply creepy without it's missing partner 'Not Like' ... why would I give a tinker's damn whether someone else 'likes' - or 'not likes' - what I/we write anyway. A 'Gay Cambodia' Forum ... huh, huh.
What is 'What's New'. What is the 'Main Page'. What is the 'Gallery'. Why would members 'Rate This Thread' ... isn't 'Liking' it good enough.

[My brain is exploding, although that could easily be that I just finished watching the entire 2 hours of the so-called Republican Fox News debate.]

Bottom line; the joint is just really hard to navigate man ... on a whole number of levels.

Sorry folks, there ain't no 'Not Like' button ...

[cdnmatt]

Smiles, it's a message forum. It's not like we're "NASA control center" complex here. Here, do this.

Next time you login, click that "Remember me" checkbox. That way you're simply always logged in, and don't have to worry about where you get redirected upon logging in.

Then bookmark the URL: http://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/activity.php

Check out that page once in a while, and it'll let you know any new activity. That's all you need to carry on conversations. Then for the rest of the bells & whistles, just pretend they don't exist.

Or you could always get some duct tape, and cover up the portions of your monitor that are causing you grief.

[Moses]

Smiles, I can understand your frustrations, but we can't to stop progress. At past phones had only one rotating disc with 10 holes for finger and button for to hang microphone tube, now smartphones drive me crazy with their complicated menu. The same with forum - we moved from outdated software to more modern - it is question of forum's security. We all should adopt it.

"What's new" - it is integrated page where all events are posted (for now only from forum and from event-calendar, late - from forum, calendar, gallery, news and members blogs if members will want to have one here).

"Gallery" is... forum's gallery. I'm working with it now - it will show photos from forum's history: they are now under thousands of topics and nobody can find them and watch what members have been posted here years ago: pictures of Thaialnd, photos from travels, photos of boys. It is locked now while I'm making design and coding.

[goji]

The login works fine. I go straight to the forum, with everything remembered.

What I've not managed to do is set the Bookmark to go directly to a window showing all the new posts. Which is the only way I prefer to view forums.

[Smiles]

I expected the very same posts as above. Perhaps we need an I-Anticipated-That-Response button.
No denigration of the 'security' upgrades necessity was meant ... I get that. No ignorance of a "It's A New World babe" from my end ... I get that as well.
My criticism is purely about simplicity and what the real deal is all about on this kind of message board. Just look at Gaybutton: it's horribly moderated (as Sawatdee is not, arguably why Sawatdee has always outdone Gaybutton on volume and edginess), but that aside, it's just plain simple in terms of starting topics or answering posts. It's clean, it's uncluttered, it knows what it wants to be, it does not throw in the kitchen sink when addressing the only thing a member really wants to do is read, respond, go home.
One can, I guess, do that here as well here, but it's wildly top heavy in my opinion.

[Surfcrest]

I think as we turn things on and load more into the site it is going to get clunky and so there will be an opportunity to move some things around or to redesign to keep the look and functionality streamlined, in combination with member's personal settings.

The key though, is the feedback. We need specifics to what aspects could use adjusting. You mentioned edit time in another post. How long do you think it should be set at?

If we tackle the issues one by one, as we did when we were getting people over here...we'll be a lot more sucessful in building this to be what the members expect of technology today.

Surfcrest

[bkkguy]

Smiles, it's a message forum. It's not like we're "NASA control center" complex here. Here, do this......

it is I think very telling that the only two users to "Like" this post (which does not really address any of Smiles' issues) were the two board owners!

The same with forum - we moved from outdated software to more modern - it is question of forum's security. We all should adopt it.

rubbish, all you have done is swap one set of security issues for another - or haven't you read the vbulletin security patches?

it is interesting to note that you claim on the main site home page that you still need to maintain different login and passwords for the main site and for the forum - for security reasons! no, you just don't know how to implement it

web sites can be "modern" and they can be "secure" but it takes skill and good software and good design and vbulletin is not a universal panacea even if you are committed to it because Surfcrest purchased it a few years ago - and this site is not a shining example of a good implementation of vbulletin as part of web site so stop trying to pass it off as we the end users needing to suck it up and adopt to "modern" web sites!

My criticism is purely about simplicity and what the real deal is all about on this kind of message board. Just look at Gaybutton: ... it's just plain simple in terms of starting topics or answering posts. It's clean, it's uncluttered, it knows what it wants to be, it does not throw in the kitchen sink when addressing the only thing a member really wants to do is read, respond, go home.One can, I guess, do that here as well here, but it's wildly top heavy in my opinion.

I would add "needlessly" to throwing in the kitchen sink, but also it does not throw out the baby with the bathwater ... yes the site owners here need to attract new site visitors but there is no reason why you need to alienate existing users, particularly regular and power users

however you don't seem to understand how to do this and instead are just obsessed with adding features, with making the site look more "social networking", more "newsy", more "modern" but you don't understand how to attract and keep new visitors so you don't know how to present and organize third party news content so you don't understand how to structure the site and hence structure the navigation, you don't understand page design for responsive templates so you page layouts don't work well, you don't understand how to evaluate forum features to select ones that will add most benefit for both new and existing users so you clutter up the interface and confuse people ... etc, etc, etc

as much as I disagree with some of the editorial and moderation policies here, like Smiles I find it more acceptable than some of the other gay thailand forums, unlike Smiles I have years of experience in navigating badly implemented vbulletin and other forum software on various sites so I find it fairly easy to do basic navigation and just ignore all the obstacles you seem determined to put in my way but other visitors, both new and existing, may not be as forgiving

bkkguy

[Moses]

Oh, yes... tell me... teach me... it is so easy to issue advises... sure, for me now is most valuable and priceless advise is what color should be painted door's knob while I'm still buildup walls and make base stronger... don't stop please: "your call is very important to us"...

[cdnmatt]

lol, exactly. I sure love people who complain, but never offer solutions, don't you?

[bkkguy]

"your call is very important to us"...

where is Smiles' I-Anticipated-That-Response button when you need it?

bkkguy