RaceDepartment New Website Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

RaceDepartment.com will be down on Wednesday 30th October, as we look to bring a fresh new image to the largest sim racing website in the world.

Having undergone considerable growth and change in the last decade and a bit, we feel the time is right to take our website to the next level of presentation and functionality. On the evening of Wednesday 30th October (approx 22:00 UTC) we will close access to www.racedepartment.com for much of the night, as we upload and launch our brand new website!

We anticipate access will be restricted for around 12 hours, but if you still need that essential sim racing fix, take the opportunity to check us out on our various Social Media platforms, which can be accessed via the below links.

See you all on the other side!

 

[Jivesauce]

Anyone paying to be premium is a customer. And running this website as a source of income is NOT volunteer work.

Yes and, as I said in my original post, the person I was addressing is not a premium member, nor are you.

Regarding your second sentence, also as addressed in my post, it is volunteer work if you don't make any significant income beyond the cost of running it, right? Obviously I don't know Bram's financials so it's possible I am mistaken on this one, and I'm not really interested in debating that aspect of it. If you're not happy with the service you are getting here maybe you can ask for a refund for the money you have spent

Edit: Saw Bram's post asking us to stop discussing this after making my post. Fair enough, I will stop responding to people.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I posted this previously but this is with an actual image. Is there a way we can get this at the top or near the top of the mobile thread list? It's a pain to have to scroll down the entire first page just to be able to get to the last page. So if we can have this also be up top as well as at the bottom like the desktop layout that would be the last thing I can think of that drives me crazy since the first redesign.
View attachment 350642

Unfortunately that is not longer supported in the current version of our forum software. Adding that would require additional coding.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Increasing the font size to "large" didn't help as I thought it would be a scaling effect.

Hi @DrRob, via the preferences page you can adjust the font to various sizes. Medium is the current default but large and extra large are available as well is small.

 

[Stereo]

Since minor changes still seem to be happening would it be possible to bring back the page counts on threads? Especially on long threads that have been around for 5 years I want to start at the last page even if it's been a couple weeks since I read it. Right now behaviour seems to be that the thread title goes to last page if I've seen the thread recently and it has new posts, first page if there are no new posts or I haven't opened the thread in the last couple days, and there's no link to let me always go to first or last.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Since minor changes still seem to be happening would it be possible to bring back the page counts on threads? Especially on long threads that have been around for 5 years I want to start at the last page even if it's been a couple weeks since I read it. Right now behaviour seems to be that the thread title goes to last page if I've seen the thread recently and it has new posts, first page if there are no new posts or I haven't opened the thread in the last couple days, and there's no link to let me always go to first or last.

Will check that tomorrow Stereo. Way past my bed time already

 

[DrRob]

Hi @DrRob, via the preferences page you can adjust the font to various sizes. Medium is the current default but large and extra large are available as well is small.

Thanks Bram, I found that already. But the problem is still there. The BOLD topics, aka topics with new answers since my last visit, can hardly be differentiated from topics with no new answers, aka non-bold.
This does not change with overall font size.

I would advise to use one font-size bigger and bold for new answers-topics compared to the non-bold, older topics OR use a separate symbol for these bold topics.

Kind of strange I am the only one having trouble distinguishing to be honest...

Cheers, Rob

 

[shadow118]

I don't really read the forums here, but wanted to see what the fuss is about, and yeah, I mean can you even tell which post I opened? My suggestion would be using a slightly different color bacground for unread posts (like when you hover over, just not as dark)

 

[Fat-Alfie]

I agree, there is room for improvement with regard to colours and legibility. Dark Theme's black stars don't really work for me, nor the 'highlighted' selection in the left-hand-menu.

 

[shadow118]

I agree, there is room for improvement with regard to colours and legibility. Dark Theme's black stars don't really work for me, nor the 'highlighted' selection in the left-hand-menu.

View attachment 350697

Imho, the dark stars should be the empty ones and filled ones should just be white

 

[krissboo]

I agree, there is room for improvement with regard to colours and legibility. Dark Theme's black stars don't really work for me, nor the 'highlighted' selection in the left-hand-menu.

View attachment 350697

I was wondering what the dark highlighted bit on the menu was for - thought it was a bug lol. And yeah the dark stars don't look good in my opinion either...surely gold stars are better than dark ones

 

[Ghoults]

I have some feedback. I have not used the site a lot recently but I have couple of things that could be improved. First of all I like the sidebar. What I don't like is that the site now has a side bar and top bar which both have a lot of the same info. If possible give users the option to have one, the other or both. Also I'd add that search to the side bar as well so both have the same functionality. But having both as default is a bit wasteful for screenspace.

Also the sidebar scrolls up behind the top bar when you scroll down to the bottom of the page (to write a message for example). I think both bars would work better if they stay in the same place on the screen. This is a bug tho I think..

I'd also hope you'd make the read and unread thread titles a bit more distinctive. Here is an example pic that shows the issue:

https://imgur.com/QhqqP2S

I mean if you really read every thread title one by one you can spot the difference that one is bolded and the other ones are not but it is really small difference. It would be just much better if the difference was clearer so you could just glance a page and after looking at it for 1s you could see if there are new posts in threads or not. In the pic on the right I just highlighted the read threads but that is not really a proposal how I'd want it. I'd just want them be more distinct and that could be done with different shade of colors, stronger bolding, italics, text background darker shade, darker background color... etc.

I'm on pc, vivaldi, 1920x1080 screen.

 

[Majuh]

If people knew the true intention of adblocking companies they would not use them. They are not here for a better or saver internet, they are only active to scam website owners asking ridiculous monthly fees to unblock ads on their sites.

Unfortunately, blocking ads is an essential part of web security nowadays.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I have some feedback. I have not used the site a lot recently but I have couple of things that could be improved. First of all I like the sidebar. What I don't like is that the site now has a side bar and top bar which both have a lot of the same info. If possible give users the option to have one, the other or both. Also I'd add that search to the side bar as well so both have the same functionality. But having both as default is a bit wasteful for screenspace.

Also the sidebar scrolls up behind the top bar when you scroll down to the bottom of the page (to write a message for example). I think both bars would work better if they stay in the same place on the screen. This is a bug tho I think..

I'd also hope you'd make the read and unread thread titles a bit more distinctive. Here is an example pic that shows the issue:

https://imgur.com/QhqqP2S

I mean if you really read every thread title one by one you can spot the difference that one is bolded and the other ones are not but it is really small difference. It would be just much better if the difference was clearer so you could just glance a page and after looking at it for 1s you could see if there are new posts in threads or not. In the pic on the right I just highlighted the read threads but that is not really a proposal how I'd want it. I'd just want them be more distinct and that could be done with different shade of colors, stronger bolding, italics, text background darker shade, darker background color... etc.

I'm on pc, vivaldi, 1920x1080 screen.

The previous dark theme was created as a bonus. The current one is a quick mock up and needs improving on a lot of areas (colors for example) but I don't have the time for it right now as other things have a much higher priority at the moment unfortunately. A new one will arrive at some point and we will take all the feedback and tips on board.

 

[maelstrom]

I like the new format (using Opera) - everything clear for me with no unusual spaces and nothing compressed! However, although I know how to mark all the forums as read, I'm lazy and wondered if it was possible to put a "Mark forums read" button on the forums home page?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Dark Theme's black stars don't really work for me,

Bug and fixed. Changed to "gold"

 

[shadow118]

Bug and fixed. Changed to "gold"

Much better now

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

My suggestion would be using a slightly different color bacground for unread posts

Fixed this as well on dark style

 

[krissboo]

Bug and fixed. Changed to "gold"

Thank you. I can see my gold stars now

 

[Deleted member 6919]

Tried wide screen view then toggled back to full screen but it doesn't hold, everytime open the browser again it's gone back to wide screen??

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Tried wide screen view then toggled back to full screen but it doesn't hold, everytime open the browser again it's gone back to wide screen??

Which browser is that?