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Try out the new version of EuroGA

We’re nearly ready to deploy a new version of the software behind EuroGA. There are various changes, including:

  • Image uploading within posts – you just drag and drop your image on to the page and it’s inserted in your post. You can even upload multiple images at once.
  • Bookmarks – click the bookmark button next to each post to mark you place, then when you go back to the thread you’ll jump straight to that post
  • Related posts – at the bottom of a thread a list of posts which are (hopefully) related to the one you’re currently reading
  • Improved search – faster, more flexible and more reliable, with nicer looking results
  • Fresh new look – a more modern typeface (which is hopefully easy on the eye), a greater focus on the important parts of the content and less on buttons, labels, etc, nicer looking editor (which also has some fixes)

It’s also faster, particularly for certain functions like Recent Threads and there are some behind the scenes changes which should help us run in an even better forum.

It would be great if you could try it out and give your feedback. What we’ve done is take a snapshot of the current EuroGA site as it was last night and put it on a different server, with the new software. You can login there using your existing user name and password. Any posts made there will be deleted very soon, so please please please don’t try having proper conversations there, keep them here. You’ll be able to tell you’re on the test site because it has “Test” in nasty pink letters emblazoned over the EuroGA title.

Here’s the link: Test Site

I’d love to hear from anyone who tries, particularly whether the new layout works ok for you in your particular browser and/or on your particular device. There will certainly be bugs, so if something weird happens do let me know (on this thread, ideally). And remember, anything at all you do there will not be reflected here on the live site.

I thank you.

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom

Hullo David,

First and above all: thanks for your efforts! It is nice to be in an environment that is lovingly cared for. You’ll surely have your own motivation – likely using us as a guinea pig to test and validate your new versions – but I have no issue there, not at all.

The new “look” does not please me: I see bigger character fonts, which means less useful content on the same screen surface real estate – and, yes, we may be a bunch of old men here, mostly, with only a handful of youngsters around and even fewer women, but my eyesight is as yet more than strong enough for the existing screen layout. Also I see mixing of colours, which looks like cheapo advertising without adding useful info; and I see simplification of terminology (“active” iso “recent threads”) which makes me feel treated for a dumbo. The icons added to the labels only add to that feeling.

I have not tested the added functionality but am rather more enthusiastic there: adding images wasn’t easy, as yet; I learned to find the way, eventually, but had to find it again and again at each occasion. The “bookmark” facility looks like it might be nice, and ditto for the “related threads” though your reserve (“hopefully”) creates some reserve here ;)

Don’t be put back, you asked for comments and here they are. And oh yes, no browser issues here on Ubuntu 14.1.0 LTS neither with Firefox nor with Chromium.

Last minute: I see user ’’’blueline’’’ just posted a picture on the test site, notwithstanding your dear warnings, and just above the image there’s a mysterious icon, perhaps meant to be clickable but it isn’t for me.

Again, thanks for your efforts!

(the Antwerp Daredevil)

Last Edited by at 13 Sep 13:16
EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Just gave it a quick try on the iPad with Safari, works fine. The easier uploading of images is a great improvement.

Some thoughts:

- the “related threads” function has some issues, eg. what has “My next aircraft” to do with “Xavion app”?
- clicking “order” in the sub-forum overview doesn’t change the display of posts
- some pictures in older posts are not displayed, only their URL (eg. in thread “fantasy flying”)
- does this forum, which is rightly praised for its constructive conversations, really need such a prominent “report to moderators” button?
- personally, I prefer the darker shade of blue you have been using until now to the new colour of headlines
- what’s the difference between “watched” and “bookmarked” threads?

Thank you for all the effort!

Last Edited by blueline at 13 Sep 12:43
LOAN Wiener Neustadt Ost, Austria

As an afterthought, here’s a facility that I have found useful on other forums but is as yet absent here:

In any overview of threads, such as “recent” or “mine”, threads that would show in more than one screen show a clickable list of possible pages/screens, so that one can go directly to the most recent one.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Thanks for the feedback Jan.

The new “look” does not please me: I see bigger character fonts, which means less useful content on the same screen surface real estate

Certainly intentional but also certainly up for discussion. Anybody else with views?

I see simplification of terminology (“active” iso “recent threads”) which makes me feel treated for a dumbo. The icons added to the labels only add to that feeling.

Interesting comment. They are most certainly not meant to imply dumbing down. If anything, it’s the opposite; there is an assumption that people will understand the shorter versions. Overall it’s an effort to make the navigational elements less prominent whilst bringing the real meat of the page, the posts, the thread titles, etc. to the fore.

I see user ’’’blueline’’’ just posted a picture on the test site, notwithstanding your dear warnings, and just above the image there’s a mysterious icon, perhaps meant to be clickable but it isn’t for me.

The warning was about not posting anything you expect to keep really – feel free to do test posts of text and/or images. The icon was a missing image, I think inserted in error. I’ve removed it. Give posting an image a try.

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom

Thanks Blueline. And congratulations for being the first tester of the new image posting…

- the “related threads” function has some issues, eg. what has “My next aircraft” to do with “Xavion app”?

It’s a tricky thing. I’m not going to look in to that one right now and will just say that the system (and of course it is a computer, not a human) thought they had something in common! We’ll keep an eye on it and see if the relevance factors need tweaking.

- clicking “order” in the sub-forum overview doesn’t change the display of posts

Sounds like a bug; we’ll check that out.

- some pictures in older posts are not displayed, only their URL (eg. in thread “fantasy flying”)

Yes that’s true, we’re aware of that and will fix it before the software goes live.

- does this forum, which is rightly praised for its constructive conversations, really need such a prominent “report to moderators” button?

I think so. Posts do get reported very occasionally. There is some subtle legal stuff at play here too. If it is really too prominent, which you’re right it may be, we could dial it down a bit by changing the colour perhaps. Anyone else have thoughts?

- what’s the difference between “watched” and “bookmarked” threads?

I wrestled with that one a bit myself. They do have different functionality – one way of looking at it is that watching a thread just puts the thread on a list whilst bookmarking means bookmarking a specific post on a thread. Most people find bookmarking more useful. However, the most important difference is that you will get email notifications of updates to watched threads.

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom

Jan:

In any overview of threads, such as “recent” or “mine”, threads that would show in more than one screen show a clickable list of possible pages/screens, so that one can go directly to the most recent one.

We consider this but am not keen. Firstly it makes for more clutter on those lists. We have three alternatives that should work well:

  1. Bookmark the last post you read and then when you click the link to the thread in future you’ll jump straight back to that post. This is particularly useful if you view a page with lots of posts but don’t get as far as reading to the end before leaving. Just bookmark as far as you got.
  2. Click the tick/check mark next to the post count – this will take you to any posts that have been posted since the time at which you last viewed the thread (but see above – if you didn’t read to the end then you might miss something, in which case bookmark is better)
  3. Reverse the order of posts so that most recent is at the top (which you can set in your preferences)

Let me know how it goes.

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom

Hi David, I have to second the above critique of the fonts. While I agree that Arial looks a bit too heavy on the screen (as opposed to paper, where it still remains one of the best fonts for the European eye), Pragmatica is definitely too light (actually, it’s only true of Latin letters, Cyrillic ones are noticeably better – and it’s understandable, since Pragmatica is a Russian design). For a modern font with excellent screen readability, I’d rather suggest Calibri or Segoe UI.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

getting “We’re sorry, but something went wrong” message on smart phone device.

United States

Thanks Ultranomad, I’ll definitely check out Calibri and Segoe UI.

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom
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