Vanishing subforums

[SeijiSensei]

In the past day or so I've noticed that clicking the "mark this forum read" option returns me to the parent forum as always, but the parent forum listing is collapsed. I can bring the subforum list back by choosing the "show subforums" option, but I'm trying to figure out why this is no longer my default. I don't recall changing any setting that would make this happen, unless I did so inadvertently. Any ideas?

[xris]

This is something that had just been implemented in the last day or so.

We are testing the ability to "collapse" the sub-forum list within a forum (in particular, in Current Series and in Older Series but it is implemented across all the forums that have sub-forums). This is in preparation to the new forum layout we are going to implement in the New Year.

See the later posts in the New "CR" links, wouldn't it be better if... thread.

Originally Posted by GHDpro

- The subforum list now visible on pages like this (which would push the list of threads way down) can be hidden in the same way spoilers are: keep the header bar and add a "Show List" link & hide the list by default.

Originally Posted by xris

So far, I think that something along these lines would be the best compromise. I have an idea of what I would like to do but unfortunately vB doesn't quite allow it. (Edit: after reading GHDpro's post, it seems it is possible to do what I want).

This is what I would like to see

---

Unaired
Forum for discussing anime that haven't aired yet.

---

Current Series
Forums for discussing popular anime that are currently airing.

Sub-Forums:
Bakemonogatari Bleach Darker Than Black Fullmetal Alchemist
Haruhi Suzumiya Naruto One Piece To Aru...Index/Railgun
Umineko

---

Older Series
Forums for discussing popular anime that finished a while ago.

Sub-Forums:
Ah! My Goddess Clannad Claymore Code Geass
Death Note Eden of the East Fate/stay night Full Metal Panic
Gundam Gurren-Lagann Hayate no Gotoku Higurashi
K-On! Kannagi Kanon Kimi ga Nozomu Eien
Lucky Star Macross Maria-sama My HiME / My Otome
Myself; Yourself Nanoha Negima Ouran Host Club
Pumpkin Scissors Regios Rozen Maiden School Days
School Rumble Shana Shuffle! sola
Sora Kake Soul Eater Spice and Wolf Tales of...
Toradora! True Tears Utawarerumono Valkyria Chronicles
Vampire Knight Zero no Tsukaima Retired

---

So, instead of having the existing Fansubbed, Licensed, Unaired, Current Series, Older Series, we just have Unaired, Current Series, Older Series

As a note, given that we no longer are orientated around Fansubs, I would suggest that series that haven't yet been fansubbed should be located in either Current or Older instead of the current situation where they are located in Unaired.

I like the idea of moving threads from Current to Older on fixed dates (once they have finished airing of course).

[SeijiSensei]

Will this be an option we can select in our profiles?

I read the thread you cited when it was active a while back and have no issues with the reorganization of the forums. Collapsing forums with only a few subforums, like Technology, doesn't make much sense to me, but I can understand if it's an all-or-nothing option within vBulletin. If users can disable it, it would be even better.

[xris]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Will this be an option we can select in our profiles?

Currently, no. If someone writes the appropriate code to make it a profile option... but currenlty no plans to do this.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I read the thread you cited when it was active a while back and have no issues with the reorganization of the forums. Collapsing forums with only a few subforums, like Technology, doesn't make much sense to me, but I can understand if it's an all-or-nothing option within vBulletin. If users can disable it, it would be even better.

Currently it's all-or-nothing. If someone writes the appropriate code to make it a profile option... but currenlty no plans to do this either.

Bear in mind we are in the "proof-of-concept" phase here. We just want to ensure that we can collaspe sub-forums lists since without this the new layout is inpractical.

[SeijiSensei]

Our vB license has expired so I can only get a copy of 3.8.2. Assuming there's little difference between versions, I'll take a look at the code this weekend if I get a chance. It shouldn't be too hard to make this an option that applies either to users or individual forums (or both), but I won't know until I take a look.

[GHDpro]

As xris has already explained, the change is to allow Current & Older series discussion forums to hold threads, without having to scroll down a huge list of subforums.

I did however notice this new feature also applies to pages with just subforums, like this. One thing I was thinking of implementing was a way to not hide the list of subforums if the page does not contain a list of forum threads.

It may take a few days to implement this though, if it turns out to be hard to implement than I think it is.

[felix]

Originally Posted by GHDpro

As xris has already explained, the change is to allow Current & Older series discussion forums to hold threads, without having to scroll down a huge list of subforums.

Old idea, but how about you just move the subforums to the bottom, rather then hide them.

[GHDpro]

It took a few days, but the subforums should now only be hidden when a page has threads.

[SeijiSensei]

Thanks! I just marked a subforum as read and was returned to the list of subforums rather than the collapsed page.

[Ledgem]

I hate to revive old threads that haven't been touched in years, but I'm having this same issue that was described in Seiji's opening post. Even though it was supposedly fixed in 2009, I feel as if I've always had this issue, even across multiple browsers.

It doesn't just happen when marking a forum as read, either. If I click on a subforum listing to navigate, the page loads with the listing collapsed. As an example, if I'm in the Forum & Site Feedback forum and then click on "General" from the directory listing at the top of the page, the "General Chat" and "Forum & Site Feedback" forums will be collapsed.

I've tested this against another forum running vBulletin and it seems like the problem is unique to AnimeSuki. It's not a critical issue, but it would be nice if it didn't auto-collapse like that.

If others are not experiencing this problem, I'd be interested to hear it. I'm very doubtful that it's something with my browser settings, but you never know...

[SeijiSensei]

No, you're not alone, Ledgem. I've noticed that the subforums continue to collapse, too. I find it annoying, but I've just come to accept it.

Is there any evidence that this change has actually improved the usability of the forums? As I say, I find myself having to expand the subforums routinely and would prefer they just remain expanded.

Is this an all-or-nothing setting? Or can it be applied to just a couple of forums like the ones xris mentioned above?

[relentlessflame]

It wouldn't be practical to have the sub-forums not collapse in sections like "Older Series" because the list of sub-forums would exceed the amount of threads you'd normally see, and would result in excessive scrolling. The same likely applies to "Current Series", but I suppose it wouldn't be so bad in that case (because there aren't as many).

I don't know about how this was coded, but I will try to see if I can figure it out. It seems that the intention (from what was stated above) was that if the forum has threads, the sub-forum list collapses, but if the forum has no threads (and is just a parent for sub-forums) then the sub-forum list does not collapse.

(That being said, I'm just not in the habit of click on a parent forum to navigate to the sub-forums. I just use the main index and click on the sub-forums directly, and/or subscribe to the forums I normally visit. I also don't use the "Mark Forum as Read" option, so that may be part of it.)

[SeijiSensei]

The Technology forum is a good example of one where this behavior is annoying.

Unlike you, I use the "mark as read" option all the time so I can tell which of my subscribed forums has new things to read.

[relentlessflame]

I've changed it now so that it only auto-collapses the sub-forums in "Current Series" and "Older Series".

Will have to keep an eye out for other consequences/side-effects, but so far so good... Let me know if there are any problems.

[Ledgem]

That seems to have fixed it. Thank you for the quick response!

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I've changed it now so that it only auto-collapses the sub-forums in "Current Series" and "Older Series".

Will have to keep an eye out for other consequences/side-effects, but so far so good... Let me know if there are any problems.

Well for me, when I enter both current and older series, the sub-forum list is extended all the way. For current it's already quite irritating....but for older series well....seeing how many subforums that one has.... >_>

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Well for me, when I enter both current and older series, the sub-forum list is extended all the way. For current it's already quite irritating....but for older series well....seeing how many subforums that one has.... >_>

What web browser are you using? And has this always been the case, or is it something that changed recently?

(This feature relies on JavaScript being enabled in your browser, so if you have that turned off, then it won't work.)

[Cosmic Eagle]

Changed recently around since 3 days back?

I use IE 9 primarily

EDIT: Same thing happens on my FF and Chrome browsers

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

I use IE 9 primarily

You're right -- there was a bug in the original implementation when using IE. I believe it is fixed now. Tested in IE 9.0.8112.16421 (9.0.12).

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

EDIT: Same thing happens on my FF and Chrome browsers

Try again now, but if it still doesn't work I guess I'll need more information about your version and OS.

Confirmed to work for me Windows 7 SP1 x64 with:
Chrome 24.0.1312.57
Firefox 18.0.2
Opera 12.11
Safari 5.1.7 (7534.57.2)

Also tested:
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.5512 (on Windows XP SP3)
Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702 (on Windows XP SP3)

I can test more things as needed, but would prefer to have it narrowed-down a bit.

Edit: Also tested:
Both Chrome and the built-in Browser on Android 4.1
Both Safari and Chrome on iOS 6.1

Edit 2:
Internet Explorer 10.0.9200.16384 and also the "Windows App" version of IE on Windows 8 also OK.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Right, it's solved now, thanks.

Also works for FF and Chrome too