[Closed] Website redesign - Update

It's actually getting worse.

Agree. For some reason multi line titles appear to be acceptable in the stickies and in the links to the different forums but not in the content that actually matters.

Jamie + 1. New mobile site is frustratingly lacking.

With limited screen space it's important to present the most pertinent information and also to ease navigation. In this case I'd suggest that the post count is irrelevant unless you use it as a link to the last post on that thread.

The icon at the left is only of use if you are viewing multiple forums, say bike and chat, at the same time, so it could be removed when viewing a single forum. Threads that are recent, less than 24hrs since last post for example, could be in bold text so you don't really need the freshness column but if you wanted that info then I'd suggest having that rather than post count. At the moment the freshness column requires two taps to actually go to the last post, the first just shows a popup with the last poster's name.

The multiple page icons as in the screenshot above are weird: [2][3][...]39]... ?? WTF?! It should be [1] ... [40]

The icon on the left [i]could[/i] also take you to the last page, last post or (most helpfully) first unread post. At least it would then have dual function.

And yes, scrap the forum description lines. I reckon we know the difference between items for sale and items wanted.

I hadn't really even noticed the forum type icons but now it's mentioned I agree they are unnecessary space takers. Perhaps more use of colour could indicate which forum the thread belongs in? Maybe the lovely green for bike, blue for chat and blood red for political?

Colours? What sort of witchcraft is this?

I did think of suggesting "themes" for each forum but it could get a little distracting and garish!

A line per thread like this for portrait mode. All elements are links: title goes to first post; pages go to relevant page; last poster goes to last post

[b]Website redesign - Update[/b] [1] ... [7] Whitestone

In landscape mode add post count

[b]Website redesign - Update[/b] [1] ... [7] 201 Whitestone

Why even bother with page count. Just have post count and make it go to the last post. Thread title to first post. Done. I only rarely go to a specific page and for those cases am happy to drop into the thread first

leffeboy may have it there - number of pages is somewhat irrelevant in a web world - posts are

Rachel

I think at some point they are going to have to resign themselves to needing multi line thread titles. There is no way they are going to get the whole title and thread starter on a single line while sticking to the kind of font sizes they appear to desire. One row for title. Second row (smaller font?) for author?

Also, why does the Posts column take up pretty much 25% of the screen width for what is most often a 2 digit number? Crazy...

I think at some point they are going to have to resign themselves to needing multi line thread titles.

subscription lapsed.

I wont be renewing till we get an idea whats happening tbh.

Hope it works out for you guys.

Would anyone mind if they just went back to the old one? Should be easy enough to do.

Would anyone mind if they just went back to the old one? Should be easy enough to do.

Maybe that was their plan all along? Make the update so bad, people would be clamouring to return to what preceded it, and never dare speak of forum upgrades ever again.

It really makes you think...

I hope not, the old site was appalling on a phone. It was bad enough on the iPad

4 days since the last update from "the authorities". I know there have been extenuating circumstances 😉 but it would be nice to have some acknowledgment that the issues being raised are being taken note of.

I'm campaigning for Brexsite.
Everything so was much better before. Let's go back to the old ways.
Freedom to zoom,freedom to go directly to the last page,freedom to see who started a post, freedom to read the whole thread title.

The redesign is oarsum on my pc with Firefox and oarsum with iPad/Safari. Loads up much quicker as well

Nice work to all concerned

4 days since the last update from "the authorities".

It's almost as if you have anything else to do, Mark...

The redesign is oarsum on my pc with Firefox and oarsum with iPad/Safari. Loads up much quicker as well

Nice work to all concerned

Looks like they got to rocketman. 🙁

It's almost as if you have anything else to do, Mark...

To be fair, if you're going to launch during the holidays....

Jamie - he said "I think it's time for lunch". It all got a bit confused...

Rachel

We didn't launch during the holidays.

Ok. You didn't launch during the holidays.

[quote=Mark ]

4 days since the last update from "the authorities".

extenuating circumstances

I assume all the feedback is worthwhile Mark? It must be hard to test the layout when there are so many variations of platform involved.

Still making change just before the holidays was always likely to be a risk.

Think Mark covered this off earlier - they knew they'd be getting issues with advertising networks so decided to launch it during a 'quiet' spell as they knew they would be getting poorer adverts so figured getting it done (and re-learned) whilst this quiet spell was on was deemed a good idea.

It is never a good time to launch a new look and functionality on a website - doing it when advertising is quiet (when the money made from advertising is emphasised often) seems like a bad thing to do. Given it is holiday time and changes are underway on the site, I'd suggest that traffic and visit numbers are going to be higher, so the advertising issues are going to affect more people.

New site has been in place for around 3 weeks now...still plenty things not right with it, but it appears that the knee-jerk fixes are not happening...so the issues that are still present, are still present - but hopefully will be fixed.

I'm still liking the new look, but the issues that many others have posted about on the mobile are now affecting me and it is infuriatingly poor. However, I'm sure it will be getting worked on and a 'fix' will be released soon that sorts many of the issues (I'm hoping so anyway).

Since the new changes my usuage of STW has decreased by about 90%. It just doesn't work effectively on my Moto G any more.

Shame.

That is good news for you as that means you will only get the high quality ads when you visit...apparently.

Not sure if it's caught but the mobile width seems fixed so it won't even show a full thread title in landscape mode (Chrome Newest Android Nexus 6P)

I saw this thread over Christmas, but didn't bother posting because I was either looking at STW on my phone where it seemed to work OK (although the cut-off titles is a bit weird & not being able to go to the last page/post means a few more pointless clicks) or I was looking full screen on my laptop.
The phone is an old Xperia T running Jelly Bean, I think. I turned on the forced zoom in the accessibility settings.

But now back at work - holy moly it doesn't seem to like being re-sized.....I normally make my viewing window quite narrow but this has the effect of the font jumping to some kind of comedy massive font size, although you do (sometimes) lose the ads.
Other times, the right hand ad column scootches over & ends up on top of the text so you can't actually read the forum without re-sizing.

holy moly it doesn't seem to like being re-sized.....I normally make my viewing window quite narrow but this has the effect of the font jumping to some kind of comedy massive font size, although you do (sometimes) lose the ads.
Other times, the right hand ad column scootches over & ends up on top of the text so you can't actually read the forum without re-sizing.

+1

Also struggling with resize.

I tend to keep window small to only see post text. When doing that after the update the size jumps all over the place and adverts compresses the text area making it a horrible user experience!

Tabbed browsing appears to have stopped working today.

At work on IE Explorer 11, neither ctrl + click or Open in New Tab from the context menu from a link launches a new tab. Ta.

4 days since the last update from "the authorities"

I see the whiners are still whining.

A bit of patience would be advisable. Launching a responsive design across multiple browsers and devices is not easy.

Opening in a new tab (from context menu) in Firefox and Chrome on Kubuntu works fine.

Not a whine, merely seeking some acknowledgment that the feedback being provided was being picked up on and trying to do so in a light-hearted manner.

I'm sure if you'd read any of my other posts on this subject to you'd see that I've been trying to help out wherever possible.
That's one of the problems with this place. Too many folk lack any sense of humour. But, you know, feel free to have a dig. Again.

Edit: Ah, what's the point. As per Onion.

I'd suggest that traffic and visit numbers are going to be higher, so the advertising issues are going to affect more people.

The exact opposite of this. Christmas is the lowest traffic period of the year by a VERY long way.

New site has been in place for around 3 weeks now.

new theme (Not site) launched on 22nd December.

You're letting facts get in the way...

You're letting facts get in the way...

...of what?

Mark as you have appeared is there a proper bug log or is it just this thread. What do you want in a report and can your turn the damm white shade down a bit on the web version that must have bright white shouldn't be allowed!

Not a whine, merely seeking some acknowledgment that the feedback being provided was being picked up on and trying to do so in a light-hearted manner.

Apologies for the humour bypass. I only come in here every now and again and just see lots of people moaning. Having lots of experience of this sort of thing at work I have a huge amount of empathy for the (small number of) people behind the scenes trying to sort it. It's bad enough trying to get a website working consistently across desktop browsers without having to consider mobile devices and tablets.

Works fine for me BTW on desktop/chrome and iphone 5s/safari. I can cope with minor quibbles about not being able to go straight to the last page etc as these are the sort of things that will probably get sorted in good time.

[quote=mikewsmith ]can your turn the damm white shade down a bit on the web version that must have bright white shouldn't be allowed!Stop whining!

[quote=dazh ]Having lots of experience of this sort of thing at work I have a huge amount of empathy for the (small number of) people behind the scenes trying to sort it.Me too!

Also struggling with resize.

I tend to keep window small to only see post text. When doing that after the update the size jumps all over the place and adverts compresses the text area making it a horrible user experience!

Plus 1 (Preview seems a bit broken) it can't display plus signs.

new theme (Not site) launched on 22nd December.

So it was launched in the holiday season then.

So the black bars have changed to white and three buttons have changed to olive green, anything else I've missed? 😀

I'd just like the "request desktop site" to work 🙂

Please can the people why pay to use this website have the facility to upload pics? It would make things much easier. Perhaps even offer a 'picture option' where you have to pay perhaps another fiver a year or something to have that facility, you might even make a profit 💡

oooh - that would be really useful! ( uploading pics )

I'm running IOS 8.4.1 on a IPad Mini and viewing on Chrome. The forum needs me to double tap every time I want to select anything or send a post. Very irritating.

Please can the people why pay to use this website have the facility to upload pics? It would make things much easier. Perhaps even offer a 'picture option' where you have to pay perhaps another fiver a year or something to have that facility, you might even make a profit

We've not even got proper quote functionality, and you think picture uploads are a possibility?

Gonna need a new site/forum* for that sort of whizzbangery.
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*Coming 2014.

I think the "Pages: << Previous 1..." bit needs to be much bigger on the iPad 😆

Not sure if its been mentioned but the 'dont-miss' sidebar does not disappear if you re-size the window into narrow optimised view, it stays and covers half the posts. It only disappears once you have navigated to (any)other page when in the narrow view.

I don't know what everyone's on about - I think it looks great!
[img] [/img]

Well, you might miss it otherwise...

The only issue i can see really is the lack of anyone saying sorry guys our bad, we'll sort it out. Or bear with us were working on it.

Stop whining

Andybrad - first post of this thread:

However, there's always bugs that only surface once you are live and it's those bugs that we are now working hard to fix. The iPad display bug is top of that list and I'll update you later when I have more to report.

So, sorry it's a bit buggy for some of you. We are working very hard to fix the new bugs.

Happy now?

yup, happy 🙂

Looks ok on my S7 running Android. Nice and clean through a VPN with filters on.

Mark

Pleeeease could you answer the question as to whether the "request desktop site" from an iPhone (5s) that does nothing other than reload the normal mobile site, is a bug, or expected functionality?

I find the forum from a laptop is quite lovely, but from my phone it's absolute gash. Please find a way for me to get away from the mobile version 🙂

Ooh has it just changed on a tablet? I can now see OP and freshness and click to the last post. Much better 🙂

[quote=andybrad ]The only issue i can see really is the lack of anyone saying sorry guys our bad, we'll sort it out. Or bear with us were working on it.

dear free[s]loader[/s] user of our website
we are very very sorry that your experience is not as you expected
The people , whose wages you don't contribute to, are working very hard so that you can get for nothing what costs us money.

Please bear with us as we value your "custom", without which this company would literally be no different.

Much love
STW

Happy?

dear freeloader user of our website
we are very very sorry that your experience is not as you expected
The people , whose wages you don't contribute to, are working very hard so that you can get for nothing what costs us money.

Please bear with us as we value your "custom", without which this company would literally be no different.

Much love
STW

Happy?

If it wasn't for us freeloaders viewing the adverts on the site, there wouldn't be a need for any adverts, STW wouldn't get any advertising revenue and there would be no benefit in upgrading to a premier subscription so that you can peer down your nose at the plebs.

Just sayin' 🙂

Lots of love from a free content provider and valuable, revenue generating viewer of external advertising content.

@bearnecessities

Mark

Pleeeease could you answer the question as to whether the "request desktop site" from an iPhone (5s) that does nothing other than reload the normal mobile site, is a bug, or expected functionality?

I find the forum from a laptop is quite lovely, but from my phone it's absolute gash. Please find a way for me to get away from the mobile version

I'll answer it, unfortunately the site is 'responsive' which isn't compatible with the 'request desktop site' function. It basically detects the size of your screen and adapts rather than serving the full desktop site, some sites do it well others don't.

Obviously, I'm not the dev on this site but if it were down to me I'd use a theme switch which allows the user to select between the old theme and this new one.

@bearnecessities - strange, I find the mobile version to be much, much better whereas the desktop is a bit garish (actually, bright would be a better word) for my liking.

Not sure if it's on this thread or one of the others from before Xmas but Mark or one of the other STW bods posted about the site being non-responsive was affecting their Google ranking and therefore their saleabilty to advertisers.

Thank both; I know now to at least stop trying 🙂

I've pretty much given up looking on the mobile now, which is probably a good thing.

Spotted another oddity. In the sidebar its News, Reviews and Blogs (as per image Alex posted above), except you dont do 'blogs', just 'columns', like STW is some sort of professional news entity 😆

dear freeloader user of our website
we are very very sorry that your experience is not as you expected
The people , whose wages you don't contribute to, are working very hard so that you can get for nothing what costs us money.

Please bear with us as we value your "custom", without which this company would literally be no different.

Much love
STW

Happy?

I was up until this point a paying subscriber of several years. Due to this (and the was in which it seems to be going, and the use of words like natch in the magazine) i am no longer. So yea i wasn't a free loader. In fact without people like myself the company would probably not exist? Are you a employee of STW to be responding on their behalf as you seem to be making out?

Shame

You have to love the freeloader argument.

Mark is very honest. As he often notes, [b]his business model involves selling access to forumites.[/b] So we are (in effect) a raw material that is monetised by STW. No harm in that, sensible business.

But it does falsify the "freeloader" argument. That relies on misunderstanding the business model.

This is a cringe fest of a topic now from oh so many angles...

For that reason I'm out... and because my posts get deleted.

Are you a employee of STW to be responding on their behalf as you seem to be making out?

No he's not*, he's just pulling your leg. Perhaps too hard it would seem.

Due to this ... and the use of words like natch in the magazine ... i am no longer (a paying customer)

Are you for realz? Plus nach is sexy**. No, seriously, language evolves and "natch" is just a modern contraction of "naturally", it's not even rude like ** or the unutterable ***-*%**

Belgium man, belgium

*And neither am I. I am employed by The Centre for the Furthering of Asterisks. I would, however, not turn down a job offer*** 😛

**And o so very desirable. In fact if I had met him only once I would want to meet him again, he's that magnetic.

***And I would use natch all the gorram time 😉

I don't believe the term 'freeloader' has been used correctly here but if it wasn't for the 'freeloaders' this forum wouldn't be anywhere near the place it is today. Everyone has their value, whether it be supplying the forum with content/keywords for google to munch on or revenue for ad clicks.

It's a shame there are paying members leaving as the site is fairly easy to put right with a revert to backup and a different path.

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE, WE'VE GOT PM'S

Are you a employee of STW to be responding on their behalf as you seem to be making out?

Yes I work here as the butler to Mark and Chipps. Its rewarding if only meagrely paid.

Mark is very honest

Certainly he is diplomatic enough to not be explicit and sensible enough to try and make money from both groups.

if it wasn't for the 'freeloaders' this forum wouldn't be anywhere near the place it is today.

it would also be considerably different if lots of folk were not financially backing it.and they could no longer pay wages

No he's not*, he's just pulling your leg. Perhaps too hard it would seem.

🙂

"Send private message"

*shudders*

you worried about all the pictures of nice shoes you will get ?

"Send private message"

*shudders*

I wondered why I had received unsolicited orthopaedic shoe fetish pictures.

Now I know.

edit: too slow!