Am I the only one that struggle to read topics in this forum?
is there the possibility for users to choose from the threaded layout to the forum classic “quote layout”?
Thanks for your input! I’ll talk to Joe and see if there’s something that can be done to tweak the readability.
-Eric
Please activate a search function… email or alert notices, too.
ore move to another forum platform (like xenforo?)
Thanks for the suggestions. We agree those are important!
I’m enabling features for the forum (and other parts of the site), as I get them tested and figure out how they interact with other parts of the site. Drupal has a million modules, and a huge number of them are a mess. Some are good. So, I’m trying to sort the crap from the good stuff before committing to it on the site.
I’ve enabled subscriptions using the notifications and notifications_forum module. It’s needlessly complex, but seems the most popular option and it does seem to work. The complexity is on the Notifications tab in the Account page, where it’s a bit ornery to figure out how to manage your own subscriptions. But, it does work, so it’s what we’re rolling with, as I think forum notifications are among the most important things a forum can do! So you can subscribe to a forum, or a thread. This will likely improve a little when I’ve had more time to work with it.
Search was enabled when we first launched but then I realized it led to an ugly bar across the top of the page for some browsers (search was at the top of the page). I’ll figure out what’s going on with that soon. In the mean time, I’ve added a search link to the menu at the bottom of every page. The search box on every page will return, as soon as I fix the CSS.
We can’t realistically adopt another forum package. Whatever we use really needs to be well-integrated with Drupal. The new Drupal forums are an improvement over the old version, at least, if not ideal. My favorite forum packages are simple ones like Vanilla or BBpress, or modern re-imaginings of forums like Discourse (and I considered moving into Discourse, but the cost of not being well-integrated into Drupal was just too high), and they were considered, but without the deep integration (of everything, not just users; it needs to integrate notifications management, search, etc.) it’s a non-starter.
What do you find unreadable about the threaded discussions? I mean, in what way does it make it more confusing or difficult to read? I’m trying to figure out if there’s something I could add to the styling to make it more readable for you.
About the forum platform… understood! 
What do you find unreadable about the threaded discussions? I mean, in what way does it make it more confusing or difficult to read? I'm trying to figure out if there's something I could add to the styling to make it more readable for you.
When I reading a thread with multiple new messages I need to search up and down the new messages. Maybe is there a feature that can highlight new messages so are more visible. For example changing the not read/new messages’ background color with a different light or darker color?
p.s. opssss I just noticed the little red “NEW” square 
Simply can’t find what I am looking for!
Maybe exposing this link more visible will help people to track their messages and reply to them:
https://www.virtualmin.com/user/71401/track (71401 is my user ID off course!)
p.s. opssss I just noticed the little red “NEW” square
It was always there, but it used to be dark grey. Not nearly as visible. I noticed the problem with scanability of the threads, as well, and that was a thing that would help me, so I was working on it at the same time I was replying to your comment.
What would be the ideal workflow for finding what you’re looking for?
By that, I mean:
Do you need a search for the forums? Click “Site Search” at the bottom of the page, and choose “Forums” in the advanced search section; I’ll get this exposed on the front page of the forums, as well, if possible.
Or, do you need to find posts you’re involved in? Click “Track” in your Account page.
Or, do you need to find the latest changes on the site in general, including forums? Visit http://www.virtualmin.com/tracker (this is not linked from anywhere obvious; I’ll add it somewhere soon)
Or, is there some other tool you need to be able to find things?