It actually appeared between reading one post, and then click on the next page, sometime this afternoon, abtou two hours ago. I like it.

A good feature, but on my screen it now uses two or sometimes three (edit - even Five!) lines for the subject, which increases the scrolling distance considerably for 50 topics.

There is spare turquoise space to the left of Topic Subject and to the Right of Last Post By.

Is there a way to change settings to stretch things horizontally?

What's wrong can't be altered from the end user's side, well not easily anyway. If you're using one of the later versions of Microsoft's browsers click on View at the very top of your browser then Source (similar for other browsers) and you'll see what "code" generates these forum pages. A nightmare of gobbledygook HTML and JavaScripting that my pal Allan Flavell over in CIWAH would have a heart attack over if he saw it.

It beats me why every company has to try to reinvent the wheel when far better forum software is available for free or low cost and instead try to do it themselves. Well, actually not surprised. Way back in the 70's the company I was working for insisted that their in-house programmers develop their accounting and inventory control systems. Cost us millions. Never mind it took years and we could have had top of the line prepacked software then just modify it for a fraction the price plus it would have been oh so much better. Of course the excuse was, well, our problems are unique. Yea right.

Is there a way to change it? Sure. Start over instead of trying to patch it. Anyone looking at the source of these forum pages understanding even just basic HTML and simpler scripting knows what I'm talking about. Of course a BIG PART of the problem is Sony needing to spam their product line at the top, which really has no business on a forum page.

If your browser can zoom (like Opera) you may go to 110% or more. That will reduce the coloured spaces on each side. It will not give you fewer lines, but with the greater size you can afford to set your preferences to a smaller point size and then you may get what yoy want. The scrolling distance should be more or less the same though. Set your wheel to roll more lines per step.
Tor

>but on my screen it now uses two or sometimes three (edit - even Five!) lines for the subject

Yeah, I don't like the new changes. There is way too much horizontal space in the columns of new, not-too-important information. I see no need for high accuracy posting time -- just the date was fine with me. There is information about relative time on a day just by where the post is in the day's list. If we must keep the last poster column, make it narrow and let it wrap occasionally.

So I'll summarize by saying I liked the old layout better. If we must keep this version, at least try to find a way to give the subject column a lot more room.

My opinion.... something more along the lines what Matrox (video cards) uses. See link below for example of better use of space, notice full screen width, no advertising. What's rather unusual here is roughly half the space on the width isn't used at all on some forum pages. Click on one or two forums and view a couple threads to get the feel.

http://forum.matrox.com/mga/

Also, what I find very useful is Matrox allows embedding of graphics which if you follow the below thread clearly shows how much easier it is to see the problem. That would be a nice feature as well to have here since video is such a "visual" topic, for posters to have problems and try to explain it in words seems to 80ish.

http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewtopic.php?t=7115

Matox uses phpBB, which is a good BB system (and free) but requires php & mysql (also free, but we are running IIS & SqlServer here).

The name of the game at the moment for us is integration; one login for all things MediaSoftware, forums, history (MyAccount), etc. With that same goal in mind, we keep the forums in the same style as the rest of the website. We even have our customer service (done by RightNow) modified to look like the website for a more seemless web presence.

Having said that, we agreed with the "squishing" effect that the most recent change (Last Post By) added. So we changed a few elements around to make it better.

Also, as to the embedding of images; even Matrox wasn't hosting images. In the thread you linked, the user was hosting them and simply linking to them. While we don't allow inline images, there isn't anything stopping someone from linking to images they are hosting to give a more thorough post.

But please keep the suggestions coming!
-Ryan

But please keep the suggestions coming!

I was going to suggest what you already did, shrink down the size of the last post and increase the size of the subject title.

I happen to prefer the way this forum looks to any of the other's I've seen. Nice job.

<But please keep the suggestions coming!>

I know someone mentioned it elsewhere, but if you are collating suggestions in this thread...

...I would really love the time to be displayed in my local time zone.

Since you're now displaying the name of the "Last post" member, why not make it a hyperlink (similar to the "Posted by" member name).

...and the hyperlink could lead you to the last post directly.

Thanks for the revised new layout... it works for me.

Also thanks to whoever restored my products list (problem mentioned in other thread.)

All three suggestions are now in place:

Clicking on the "Date" in the last post will jump you to the last post in the thread.
Clicking on the "Name" in the last post will take you to their profile page.
The boards should be in Local Time to each user (but it depends on the broswer, which in turn depends on your system time so that needs to be correct as well).

-Ryan