TechExams is getting a facelift — we want your input!

[Deleted User]

Hey TechExams Members!

I’m Megan, Client Community Manager at InfoSec Institute. Thanks to contributions from dedicated members like you, TechExams has long been one of the best certification preparation resources on the web.

You may have noticed the InfoSec Institute ads around the forum — that’s because we acquired the community from Johan Hiemstra (Webmaster) in 2016. We’ve been pretty quiet hosts these past few years. The existing admins, mods and senior members have done a fantastic job managing the forum during this time — we cannot thank them enough!

Today, I’m excited to share TechExams is getting a facelift in the coming months. We are migrating the platform from VBulletin to Vanilla Forums. Vanilla powers many well-known communities, including:

• Star Wars BattleFront Forums
• Acer Community
• Oculus Discussion Forums

All of your threads, profiles and posting history will be moved to the new platform. We’ll also receive an SSL certificate and new (tech-related) categories to help us grow and build the community.

The migration will complete at the end of August/beginning of September. In the meantime, we’d love your feedback on a few key topics:

• What you love about TechExams now
• What you’d like to see improved
• Your feedback on new category ideas

If you have other questions about the migration, please drop them here or directly message me (admin) on the forum.

Looking forward to getting to know you!

-Megan

NavyMooseCCNA

How are things going with the migration?

shochan

inquiring minds want to know!

PC509

The migration will complete at the end of August/beginning of September.

Yup. This is definitely an IT project!

How are things progressing? Did you get the info you needed for moving things over, new forum categories, etc..?

cyberguypr

Well, I see no year listed up there, so technically we are still good

TechGromit

I have no idea who ran the site before, but looking up Johan Hiemstra's LinkedIn profile, he still lists himself as the owner of the site.

UsualSuspect7

I would like to see a more define forum for certification exams:
- Comptia boards needs be cleaned up to dedicate it's board for CYSA+, PENTEST+, ETC ..
- Cisco boards also needs to be cleaned up:
- I would also like to add a board for application delivery technology such as F5, which I don't see.

Thanks.

Meggo

Hey everyone! So sorry I missed these posts! As you can see...the migration is complete! 

We'll continue to work on refining forum categories in the coming weeks. We are also in the process of hiring a full-time community manager, which will be a big help in getting these changes done quickly. 

Thanks for all your patience!

chrisone

Looking good so far! great work! 

I just have a couple ideas about signatures. Under our "signature settings" there doesn't seem to be a signature preview. I also noticed the options to select font color is not around but you can use bbcode as stated beneath the input box. Its not a big deal but just throwing it out there just in case it was a simple check box in your web editor thing-a-ma-bob.  Awesome job on the new interface!

mikey88

Good work, and welcome to the 21st century everyone. So, are signatures the new way to brag about what certs you have?

tstrip007

Dang. Going to miss the old look, been coming here for years.

Meggo

I'll check out signature options tomorrow and get back to you. 

infosec_darren

@mikey88 We'll take bragging however you want. Signatures are default for now though. Other ideas?

@tstrip007 yea...it was comfy like an old shoe. Hopefully this will grow on you. Hopefully there's something for everyone besides just the interface. Many things are easier, https, sso, emotes etc. 

Please do bring all ideas, this isn't going to be a one-and-done kind of improvement. Just getting to this point was more monumental than we thought, but now we can build on it, so let her rip! 

chrisone

mikey88 said:

Good work, and welcome to the 21st century everyone. So, are signatures the new way to brag about what certs you have?

No, that was located by your avatar in the old version. Signatures was to show people what certs/goals you were working on, your progress, or to place a famous quote. 

-edit: ah I see you were asking due to the certs not showing by the avatar. I guess we just have to visit peoples profiles to see certs.

DatabaseHead

Typo up top......

Meggo

Fixed! (Thank you!)

DZA_

Out of curiosity, will there be any further refinement to theme or will it be as is? Will there be an option to select a dark theme? 

Cheers, 

LeBroke

Is there a way to make the UI more dense like it used to be?

As it stands, this feels much like the new Reddit, where random UI rectangles take up much of screen real estate for no reason, while posts are restricted to a tiny box taking up maybe 40% of available area.

Makes it much less user-friendly.  Case in point:  This is an entire page in my browser.

So much wasted space and so much more scrolling to do.

infosec_darren

@LeBroke I'll check with our devs and see how flexible it is right now and if we can not fix it at that width.  

Levithan

New UI is absolutely Terrible IMO, the old interface was much better and more useful! As the old IT adage goes, If it aint broke don't fix it!

DatabaseHead

I can't believe people are having trouble navigating this new site.

It's like a bunch of old geezers are complaining that taco Tuesday has been moved to Friday.

Swift6

UsualSuspect7 said:

I would like to see a more define forum for certification exams:
- Comptia boards needs be cleaned up to dedicate it's board for CYSA+, PENTEST+, ETC ..
- Cisco boards also needs to be cleaned up:
- I would also like to add a board for application delivery technology such as F5, which I don't see.

Thanks.

@Meggo @infosec_darren
Do we know when new categories for exams will be added?

TheFORCE

DatabaseHead said:

I can't believe people are having trouble navigating this new site.

It's like a bunch of old geezers are complaining that taco Tuesday has been moved to Friday.

For those of us who have been here for 15 years I can see why getting used to will be hard. 

We just need more options on the themes available,  this seriously is hurting my eyes, the lighy theme is not very good

ally_uk

I have just logged on after a period. What the hell has happened to tech exams? This new look is ghastly....

cyberguypr

Oh my! I thought we were done with this.

JDMurray

Oh, this revelation will be going on for years...

PC509

JDMurray said:

Oh, this revelation will be going on for years...

I think the revelation of looking at your avatar icon is going to haunt me for years. One was enough, now there are 9 of them!? 

I think it looks and works great. The changes since the switch over have been great and I really have no complaints anymore (the ones I did were extremely minor and were easily fixed by the devs... good work on that!). It's just different. You get used to it and really appreciate the changes. 

IndyLoveless

Man this new design is awful

Meggo

The best place to post suggestions for improvement is in the TechExams Support category here: https://community.infosecinstitute.com/categories/tech-exams-support

(Closing this thread to consolidate support-related threads and ensure we don't miss feedback.)