What's wrong with the website?

https://www.daniweb.com/community-center/daniweb-community-feedback/threads/500635/cant-loggon-on-when-posting-using-daniweb-creddentials confirms the legacy login still works. How did you post without logging in?

What' going on with the site? I find no listings for forums, the site is cluttered with lareg things taking up too much room - and to answer your question, after the site kept blocking my log-in as it asked for my EMAIL not my handle, over and over, I finally tried it with my handle. Why does it say EMAIL if what it wants is HANDLE? Everything has become less legible here. What happened to the clear listings of posts?

And now I also don't see anywhere to log off.

I opened https://www.daniweb.com/ and off to the right are forums. "Hardware and Software" is at the top and more below.
So I click on one of those and I see posts. Then there are tags giving me more clues to the topic instead.

"logoff" is under your name in the navmenu - scroll to bottom and you'll see "log out".
Everything to do with "you" is under your username.
Finding stuff you've done (threads/forums etc) is under Finder
The forums are under the hamburger menu to the right.

Excuse me, but the word "Forum" is nowhere except in the middle. It looks like the home page has disappeared, leaving only a catch-all blank for posting in the middle.

Sorry, I fidn this all very disturbing - including the recent design trend of having to guess where to log off. Anyone with the slightest interest in privacy and security should know that you shouldn't have to search for where to log off.

If this is a new re-design, I hate it.

And it now looks like my post has disppeared. And once in the forum there's no view of others. This re-design is awful.

I agree. Although I never posted a lot, I used to visit a few times each day and now I visit once every few days, with the interval between visits getting longer all the time.

OK guys. We have a growing number of threads for this topic. At the expense of repeating myself...

DW has been haemorraging visitors since the Panda update a couple of years ago. Changes (not really including design) had only very limited success. From what I gather, the new design has stopped the rot somewhat. We have some way to go I think, but I think it's fair to say the old design was not drawing anybody in.

Can we see some suggestions then? "Reinstate the old design" will not cut it. It was not fit for purpose.

Can we see some suggestions then? "Reinstate the old design" will not cut it. It was not fit for purpose.

Design something enjoyable for ordinary folks.
Something they are familiar with, such as phpBB, vBulletin, etc.
The current one is only for geeks.

Something they are familiar with, such as phpBB, vBulletin, etc.

It was. It was built on vBulletin. It wasn't great, so Dani built it from scratch. People screamed "no fair" but after a little while, dissenters became fans. This has happened on pretty much every cycle of change here. So, as I said, "reinstating the old design..." (in that case the old old old design) "... will not cut it". Having admin'ed phpBB boards, I can assure you that they are no fun. You are at the mercy of upgrades killing your carefully crafted plugins / modules. DW is so "customized", I don't think it would be feasible (or practically feasible at least) to build it on top of bog standard forum software - I may be wrong.

Following the redesign, I have noticed a considerable upturn in new threads - ok, very subjective - but I think it would be supported by the stats.

What specific aspects would you change? Why? How would the suggested alternative work better?

What specific aspects would you change?

"Design something enjoyable for ordinary folks."

Why?

"The current one is only for geeks."

How would the suggested alternative work better?

"Something they are familiar with, such as phpBB, vBulletin, etc."

It was built on vBulletin. It wasn't great,

I believe it. It would not be great now as well, because its development's been a disaster.
There is a script, gaining popularity: XenForo.
Hundreds of add-ons(call them hacks, plug-ins) are available for it already, because it's relatively easy to modify.
Hack it for your own use and you might be able to sell the hack for other users.
It would be still a "forum" instead of the current geeks' gallery.

This is not specific, is it? So, you would have DW moved to XenForo? Probably a retrograde step and I'm going to regret asking this I'm sure, but "Why"?

This is not specific, is it?

No, it's not. It's an option.

So, you would have DW moved to XenForo... Why?

To save it from a fast death.

IPB is not an option(hard to hack).
vB is not an option(security risk),
A free script isn't an option.

I had a look at XenForo. It looks okay, but I can't seen that it offers that much above the others. Plugins are still version limited, making upgrading an issue. The price list is a little cheeky too. When you tot up the cost for this that and the other, it's not cheap. At least making it commercial should encourage continued professional development.

So further to your suggestion for XenForo, which aspect(s) of it specifically would you like to see adopted on DW that is currently missing or not implemented the XF way? You say:

To save it from a fast death

Which functions or features of XF would do that and how/why?

BTW - wasn't me that downvoted. Hoping to get an honest discussion going, without the distraction of up/down votes.

Which functions or features of XF would do that and how/why?

I recommend XF only for the base.

The price list is a little cheeky too. When you tot up the cost for this that and the other, it's not cheap.

Unfortunately it's true, many well known administrative functions from other scripts are missing from the core.
Dani and/or a team could hack it for your liking, cheaper.
A good style(skin, theme) could make it attractive to the eyes, visitors would visit repeatedly,
possibly clicking on some of the ads.

In what way does the base help? How would it differ? We have a forum-tag hybrid ATM. Are you suggesting a move back to forum subforum hell only?

Sorry misi reading my last post back I appear to sound quite obtuse. It was not my intention. I.m genuinely interested in what specific forum base could offer. Thanks.

I'm actually a fan of XenForo. As you know, DaniWeb was based on vBulletin for 10+ years, and I was incredibly involved in the vB community. When vB went downhill upon being acquired by Internet Brands, the developers jumped ship and went on to create XenForo. I know the developers personally, and when vBulletin started snowballing downhill, they were coding the initial release of XenForo at the same time as I was coding DaniWeb off of vBulletin, and we were comparing notes.

That being said, it's now 5 years later, and unfortunately I think that XenForo is a bit stuck in the past. Traditional forum software just can't compete with the modern web. I'm seeing a big shift to Discourse.org, a forum/tag hybrid software created by the guy behind StackOverflow, only designed for a community as opposed to Q&A.

I.m genuinely interested in what specific forum base could offer.

Heaven for those few who are not addicted to Facebook, WeChat, etc. :-)
It would attract members to visit again.

unfortunately I think that XenForo is a bit stuck in the past.

Yes. Keep going with your site as it is for 6 months and then have a look at them.
Any improvements on your site? Forget about them.
No improvements here but there are improvements? Grab a copy of their script.

I'm seeing a big shift to Discourse.org,

Very modern, but I wouldn't touch it.
Scrolling, scrolling....and still scrolling.

I contrast this site with a (non-tech) forum I have been using for 10+ years. That forum has not been updated in that time, but it is popular/well-supported within its target audience, and a lot easier to use than DW. I can see many topic headers on the screen at once, rather than 1 or 2 and having to scroll and scroll again to get more. I can select a particular sub-forum with a single click rather than having to type in tags into a search box. I get email notifications of new messages in the sub-forums I am interested in, whereas this feature on DW stopped with the new design. Plus all this is obvious/intuitive, without having to puzzle out whether a feature exists or where to find it. The biggest difference though is the other forum remains popular because of the content without concerning itself with constantly updating the presentation.

If on the average the new design improves visitor numbers you may view it as a success, but hidden amongst that there are probably others who, like myself, are driven away by the changes.