Introducing Infinite Scroll - Please Share Your Feedback!
 

We are currently testing a new, simpler way to read S2KI: Infinite Scroll! Now, instead of needing to click "Next" in a thread to keep reading its posts, half of you will see a layout that automatically loads the next page of a thread as you scroll. We've also updated a few other parts of the layout so they remain easily accessible while you read, including access to thread search, a button to jump to the first unread post, and a Quick Reply box that lets you type a reply while scrolling through the thread. Here's a sample screenshot:

https://staticssl.ibsrv.net/autocomm...rollsample.png

As mentioned above, Infinite Scroll is still in its testing phase. As such, you currently have 50/50 odds of seeing this design change. If you do, we'd love your feedback! Be it positive or negative, please don't hesitate to leave us your thoughts below. Likewise, we're happy to answer any questions you may have about the new functionality.

Thank you!

Im not seeing a 'quick reply' button anywhere, even in this thread. Also, not seeing the 'reply box' at the bottom (last post) in any threads.

Just to add, I had to click the 'quote' button to even reply to this previous post and the one above.

My quick reply is on bottom right.
Levi

Quick Reply can be found in two spots. As was the case before Infinite Scroll, you can trigger Quick Reply by clicking the https://www.s2ki.com/forums/images/s...quickreply.gif button in the cluster of buttons along the bottom right of any individual post (where quote, thanks, etc. are listed). Alternatively, our new sticky bottom bar also includes a Quick Reply button to the far left side. In either case, when you click one of these Quick Reply buttons, it'll open the reply box that previously existed at the bottom of the thread. The box now overlays along the lower portion of the screen, allowing you to continue to scroll through the thread as you type your reply. This can be useful if you're looking to reference a specific comment as you type out your response. You can also hide the box by clicking "Quick Reply" a second time.

Hope that helps! :)

Looks like I got it and I like it!! I had my settings show 50 posts per pages, now this is even better!

Can the infinite scroll be a feature that we can turn off if we so choose? I find it really annoying. Much more so than clicking to a next page when looking through a thread.

You can opt out of the infinite scroll test by going to your User CP's Edit Options page and changing the Forum Skin setting from "Classic Next Gen 2.0" to "Classic Next Gen." But if you don't mind me asking, what specifically do you find annoying about it? We're using this test to collect feedback and improve the functionality, so the more detail you can provide, the better.

Seems to take forever for stuff to load (i.e., youtube links, etc.). As for the new features, I probably would not use or need any of them.

:iagree: Noticeably slower.

Bring back the quick reply box

The site looks more Geocities-era ugly than it did previously. I like clicking through pages, if I look through a long build thread I get a stopping off point.

Thank you. I just switched mine back and all is back to normal. Quick reply box is in place and everything.

I have it switched the 'old' setup & everything still looks really weird/geocities ish.

Thanks for the continuing feedback, everyone.

For those of you who mentioned slow loading, are you noticing this across the site or only in specific threads? If it's in a particular thread or two, can you please pass along a link?

Regarding the comments about the design reminding you of GeoCities, if you were to pinpoint specific elements, what would you say those are? The font size? The design of the buttons? We of course prefer the site not be reminiscent of 2002, so anything specific you can provide will be of great help. :)

May I ask what you dislike about the Quick Reply box in its new form? If you weren't aware, you can still access the Quick Reply box at any time via the https://www.s2ki.com/forums/images/s...quickreply.gif button at the bottom-right of any individual post or via the blue "Quick Reply" button on the left of the bottom bar. Both bring up the same box as before, but now it hovers over the page so you scroll around as you type without losing your place.

Did the fonts change? It looks really weird now, to big and bloaty. At first I thought I had accidentally hit ctrl+scroll wheel (zoom).
I tried switching back to the other skin but everything looks the same except the infinite scroll things which I'm not sure I would need.

I use the hover over menus (top left) to jump around to the normal forums I check daily..
It now seems these are smaller and a little harder to hover without picking the wrong or losing the menu before clicking.
Even switching to the old style doesn't change this functionality.
Just a small issue really but maybe others see it this way?

The font looks very random. Too big & bloated looking IMO. I also really dislike the new thanks button.

It wasn't there yesterday but it's back today. Agree with others the site is very slow now.

this scroll is making me dizzy. i'm trying to skip some pages of a 200 page thread and this isn't doing it well or quickly.

Thanks for the font feedback. It is in fact a bit different than before, but we just made an adjustment that should further help with readability. Please let me know your thoughts!

We made some tweaks to our menus, but if additional changes are needed, we're happy to do so. What device are you primarily using the menus from (a desktop computer, a tablet, etc.)?

Do you find it to be slow overall, or are there a few specific threads where it's perhaps been slowing down for you? If it's the latter, can you please share links to those threads? Thanks!

If you haven't already done so, try using the pagination buttons along the right side of the bottom bar. You can either navigate page by page ("< Prev" and "Next >"), jump to the first or last page, or type in a specific page number via the text box then click 'Go' to head directly to the page of your choosing. Any of these options will start the scroll at that specific point.

Infinite scroll = whatever. I'm not a fan but can still read the site.

Waiting forever and a day for threads to load because of infinite scroll = getting angrier.

Related thread = bumping a 12 year old dead thread on accident. Make it stop. Make it ****ing stop. Just stop right ****ing now.

No quick reply box at the bottom of the thread when I'm done reading the thread = **** it, time to Facebook and bury this forum in the land of dead geocity sites.

I am not currently a fan but might be able to get used to it. I have been used to navigating similar forum boards on ATV's, dirtbikes, etc. since my teen years over a decade ago and may just be completely used to it. Given the age of this board and the wealth of knowledge that comes along with that, I usually find myself exploring a fair number of long threads. They may be build threads, a technical question, or car setup stuff. I find it nice to be able to scroll through a vast number of posts/time quickly to attempt to find what I'd like. With infinite scroll, this takes a lot more time. If you are sticking with it, I would at least prefer a "load all posts" and/or "go to most recent post(i.e. bottom)" button on the frozen navigation pane at the top. Though I'm not sure the usability of that option would be great if there are 200+ posts (arbitrary number). I think pagination still has its place aside from fixing performance issues.

Currently not one of the selected half to see the infinite scroll. I do have a question about the font. Did the font for the site change with the infinite scroll change?

This new system sucks.... please tell me how these two items are related, yet it said they were and took me to the second item.

It won't let me even post the joke but it was about a Hillbilly and the "Hind Lick Maneuver"......... so then it takes me to the following Related Post:

Ford Focus RS vs BMW M2 on trackI got a chance to drive a 16 Focus RS (OEM MPSS) on track this past weekend at a local track day and compare it against my 2017 M2 (OEM contis). Starting with the Focus RS...the car is fantastic and honestly made me smile a lot more while driving it on track. I was underwhelmed when I test drove the RS on the street but on the track it was incredible, I could not stop laughing at how entertaining it was. It's pretty loose on turn in and takes a lot of steering input but it will slide and then claw for grip to rocket out of the corner. It's a car you can drive with the throttle as much as the steering wheel and the thing pivots when you throw it in the corner and lift on the throttle to aim the nose. I owned a R35 GT-R and 2016 STI never honestly felt the AWD working the way it did in the Focus. You could feel the power being shifted around from wheel to wheel to help the car rotate and shove it out of the corner. The rear drive unit setup AWD is pretty cool.

The acceleration felt pretty similar to the M2 but it had a lot more corner exit grip especially on tight corners. The Focus also felt stiffer to me in track mode, you can see how much my helmet go pro mount is bouncing.

The M2 was really great to drive as well even on the sub par Continental street tires that came on it. I would say the M2 is more precise, less dramatic and sadly less entertaining overall. If ,you like a tidy driving style on track you'd love the M2, the turn in is the best I've ever felt on a stock BMW M car, no push unless you really over cooked corner entry but overall just a bit too clinical with no oh sh*t moments. The torque coming out of corners was good as well but the car did not have the raw grip of the Focus RS in the tight hairpins. The seats do not hold you in that well compared to the Focus stock Recaros but I prefer the shifter and clutch in the M2. The M2 could definitely use an exhaust on the track, it's hard to hear the engine while heel toe downshifting. The RS pops and burbles and you can hear the engine more prominently stock.

For a daily driver I'd pick the M2 (unless you need the space) but for a track car the RS was honestly more fun (but not necessarily better). I did NOT expect that at all. Two very different cars that achieve similar things in different ways.

Here's some footage of both. Enjoy

Looks a bit better now but still too big for my liking, before it looked like 120% zoom and now it's on ~110%.
Edit: site is randomly really slow now as well, I keep getting Error 502 Bad gateway messages from Cloudflare.

Just going to a page, I'm hit with popup ads, and the content in these ads causes my machine to freeze up for a few seconds. Also, the forum login popup seems to appear in the middle of a page. When I went to log in, it appeared in the middle of a thread that was rather long because of some large image posts. Took me a while of going back and forth with my machine stuttering because of the ads to just find the login popup.

For me, its the quick reply buttons at the bottom that stay persistent. Feels like old pages made circa 2000 using frames for navigation. Maybe this design looks better on mobile, but it does not look good on a desktop.



I like to read all the unread posts in a thread, then when I get to the end, there is the quick reply box waiting for me to add to the thread. Clicking a button to reply when the box was already there seems unnecessary. I have no issues scrolling to the bottom of the thread to reply, but again, maybe this is a feature that is better realized on mobile.

The related threads that appear with the infinite scroll seem to be very random. Not really related to what I'm looking at. I'm glad this is a feature that can be turned off, as some exuberant scrolling from the slow loading suddenly brought me into a different thread.

I changed mine back to the old style. Why? The short answer is I hated everything about the new style.

PC, chrome

Where do you turn this feature off? I've hated it since the infinite scroll appeared on the mobile interface, you keep running into some random section of the forum when you flick scroll on the phone to get to the end of thread.

Absolute crap why do you piss ball about with things when i've just got used to the other crap changes you made you are making changes just for the sake of it, why not ask what we want seeing as we pay for the privilege of being messed about you really are beginning to grate , many of my friends are drifting away form this site and using face ache

Thank you again for the comments, and please keep them coming. We're taking all your suggestions and feedback into consideration, so while I may not have immediate answers to everything, please be aware that we do hear you. This includes all your thoughts on the Related Threads feature. We plan to introduce a User CP option in the future that will let you fully disable Related Threads, and we're looking into improving which threads are currently displayed as related.

The font size was adjusted to improve readability across both infinite scroll and non-infinite scroll. Do you find the change to be good or bad?

Thanks for the additional font feedback.

Regarding the error message, please let me know if you see it pop up again. If you could also include a link to the specific page you were trying to access when Cloudflare's error appears, that'd be much appreciated!

Thanks for your further feedback. We'll take these points into consideration.

For the ad issues you're describing, we do our best with our partners to ensure their ads load efficiently. I'll see if there's anything else we can do, but in the interim, you can avoid all those ads by staying logged in to S2KI. Next time you're asked to log in, please click the "Remember Me?" option on the login box that appears and you should be all set.

Appreciate the additional details. As I mentioned earlier, the changes were intentional, but I'll pass along your comments to our designers.

You can opt out of the infinite scroll test via your User CP's Edit Options page. Please scroll down to the Forum Skin section, change the option from "Classic Next Gen 2.0" to "Classic Next Gen," and then hit Save.

Changed back to <classic next>..what a relief !!!!
done it 2x one in above link, also one bottom of page on left

Changed back, still hate the new too big fonts
Levi

Hey guys, I personally in my internet surfing dislike infinite scroll, I find it very annoying. I came here to figure out how to turn off the "related topics" auto loading because I can't figure out where the end of a thread I'm subscribed to is, and all of a sudden I have tons more threads and I have to compare dates to figure what ends where. it's super annoying and there's no reason to show me a 'related thread' from 2 years ago that has nothing to do with what I'm reading. This is also another form of infinite scroll that is trying to suck me into reading but it's annoying and unnecessary.

Continue to give us the option to toggle this on or off. I tend to stop using sites that force never ending scroll (I don't do the Facebook or Twitter for specifically these reasons, too stupid and unfortunatly most of the AZ forum is there now, so meh). I don't read books or magazines or other materials in one long 100ft paper scroll either for that matter...and I don't want to deal with a previous 12 page thread and try and find information and have it load on me either. I need to see where the end is, and be able to make that distinction, I'm not here to surf all day and most people aren't either. It's like a marketing trick websites are trying to play to keep people on here longer then is necessary and you turn into jerks by making us look at more ads. It then becomes easier to stuff in junky ads, bigger boxes and less content. It's a formula everyone is going to, big clunky chunky boxes, infinite scroll stuffed with many ads but you get less and less content over time. I know you guys view this as a revenue generating business and that's probably where the disconnect is with all the S2000 car owners vs. you website owners.

Not a comment on infinte scroll but the classified forum is all screwed up for me now: https://www.s2ki.com/forums/site-inf.../#post24310624

I just hopped into your thread to help out. Thanks for the heads up.

I instantly noticed it and honestly it taken me longer to get used to it. The longer I browse it starts to fatigue my eyes quicker.

I absolutely and without reservation hate infinite scroll. It is an abomination.

Unable to view any post in the classifieds. If I scroll towards the bottom of the page I get a gimps of a pic on the very right of my screen ?

Can you please share a screenshot of what you're seeing? Also, please let me know what browser you're using as this will help us isolate the issue faster.

Thanks!

Not a fan
 

I don't have anything positive to say about the new features. If I was a contributing member, I'd really be upset. All I've invested here is some of my time, I'd probably be better off not spending so much time on forums such as this one anyway so I suppose in that light there's a positive, lol. Glad to find out these features can be turned off although it sounds like that still doesn't return things to "normal". Hopefully that will be a possibility at some point.

If you don't mind me asking, are there are specific dislikes of the new features that you can share?

Of course. Simply put, I find the seemingly endless scrolling irritating. Scrolling into a totally different thread is also weird and frustrating, especially if I wasn't paying close attention to what was happening in my browser. Generally speaking, I like the user experience typically offered by traditional internet forums (enough so that I've been managing one myself for over four years now). If I wanted an experience that was more similar to other forms of online social interaction I simply wouldn't spend time on forums such as this one. Personally, I like being able to work my way through "chunks of posts" as opposed to scrolling and scrolling. In addition, quite often I prefer to use the regular site interface in my iPhone's Safari browser (as opposed to the mobile version)— doing so, I'll zoom the screen in on things that I want to take a closer look at. This isn't possible any longer with the infinite scroll as the ads cover everything up under those circumstances. I'm not complaining about the ads, but rather the way that they now behave with the new feature activated.

The above comments are only intended as constructive feedback. As mentioned, I run a forum myself. I understand and appreciate the time and effort that goes into keeping this place up and running (while trying to juggle your needs with those of your site's members). Thanks for asking.

Thanks for the detailed feedback! We'll take this into consideration as we further iterate on the feature. For the related threads, we plan to roll out an option in the near future that will let you disable them entirely.

Regarding the ads you mentioned you see on mobile, please try logging in if you haven't already. This should decrease the number of ads you see per page and allow you to use the site as you have previously. If not, can you send me a screenshot of what you see on your iPhone even after logging in?

I am having a hard time getting use to this new setup.
I have already posted in the wrong threads twice when I was clearly in the right thread it jumped me to the next when I clicked reply.
So far I dislike the new layout.

Where do I turn the features off?

You can disable infinite scroll on your User CP's Edit Options page. Just change the Forum Skin option at the bottom of the page to "Classic Next Gen," click Save, and you'll be all set.

This is all cool and good stuff guys, but you need to concentrate 99% of your energy on how you messed up the PM threading system and fix it. It's junk now.

It's getting harder and harder to stay here. It seems to me people are leaving in droves. These changes aren't helping in my opinion.

Who was asking for "Infinite Scroll"? Seems to be a resource hog as well and load times are longer.

When you're in a PM, you can view past parts of the conversation via the Message History bar, located under the Quick Reply box. Simply click "View History" on the right side of the bar, and it'll expand to show the previous messages in your PM chain. We're also working on a more long-term solution that closer mimics the old conversation style.

Ditto!! Hate this feature, I am constantly scrolling in to unrelated shit (especially on my phone), very confusing!

Thank you again for all the feedback regarding infinite scroll. We heard you loud and clear regarding the functionality of related threads, ranging from the relevancy of those threads to how they're presented to you. While we work to improve this, we have decided to disable related threads for desktop infinite scroll. As long as you're logged in, you shouldn't see any thread beyond the one you explicitly chose to read. We have other adjustments coming down the pipe as well, including the return of the reply box at the end of a thread. Stay tuned!

Infinite scrolling is an abomination. Took me ages to get to the bottom which fuelled my venom. I truly hate it with a passion.

It's something IB is putting on all their properties. I'm on another, "FlyerTalk" where it gets lots of complaints, too. And like here, it's being foist on the membership by opt-out, not opt-in.

Oh, and just like Flyertalk's implementation, the initial opt-out methods aren't working. Setting to "Classic Next Gen" does NOT disable Infinite Scroll. It's still active for me with that skin set selected.

What do I find annoying? I didn't ask for it, and it's being forced on to me. The functionality is not the issue, it's the removal of options.

UGH! Esp those threads which have many, many, many, really lots of pages.

:banghead:

Sorry about that. It looks like your choice to disable infinite scroll didn't properly save on your profile. I went ahead and made the adjustment for you. If you're still seeing infinite scroll, please let me know.

Thanks!

Still enabled.

Disabled this morning, but I'm on a different computer. Will check on my home computer this morning. If still enabled on that one, there may be a stale cookie that is not being cleared out by the skin switch.

Yes, that's my theory as well. I recommend clearing your cookies and cache on the initial computer. If the change doesn't kick in after that point, please let me know.

Thanks!

It was the 3933_style_switcher cookie.

Killing that one killed infinite scroll on my home computer.

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear the issue's now resolved for you. :)

This is very nice feature. I would definitely use this.

Except when you scroll to fast, you have to scroll back up so the page would catch up

Not a fan. I changed mine back as well. Please don't get rid of the classic next gen. With infinite scroll, when initially going into a thread that I've viewed before, if I click on last page it takes me to one post. Sometimes I want to scroll up a couple of posts that I may have read before, and when I do that the infinite scroll kicks in and I end up losing my place where I wanted to be on the thread.

Appreciate the feedback. The issue you're describing is likely due to images taking longer to load and pushing down the page as they do, but I'm happy to look into this a bit further. What browser are you using?

You are probably correct about the pictures loading. I'm using Firefox. Haven't tried other browsers on my laptop but the same happens on Safari on iPhone 7.

Is here a plan to disable related threads on the mobile site? I still see them.

+1 :thumbup:

Thanks, it unfortunately sounds like an issue that's dependent on other image hosts' load times. We'll investigate further to confirm.

We don't currently have plans to disable related threads on the mobile site, but I'll pass along the suggestion. We're also looking at ways to improve how related threads work on mobile as a whole.

Why is the icon for smilies missing from Quick Reply and the Advanced reply box?

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/new-york...ilies-1177795/

Sorry, that was by mistake. The icon and all the smilies that come with it are back now.

^^^Thanks for the fix.
Levi

Thanks Jason :thumbup:

Love it!! Keep it.