Site Issues, Updates, Changes, and Feedback Thread

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39 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Thanks for the feedback. Going from a wide screen to this is kind of tough, but nearly all readability studies suggest this is the sweet spot with respect to number of characters and line length. ...

That may be the sweet spot for a news anchor's auto-queue, but it is not at all suited for presenting technical information and audiophile arguments (which tend to be rather elaborate). I want to see as much text and information from posts as possible. This format may be good for mobile devices, but IMO it's far from optimal for browsing/searching an audio forum with a decent computer and screen.    

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Well, it all looks much better now than it did 2 days ago. Yet, I would prefer even more horizontal and vertical space for content/posts. This can be easily achieved with a slightly smaller font and/or a smaller line spacing. Also, some chunky black menu bars can be much smaller and this ugly top menu bar shouldn't be continuously visible, wasting vertical space. And please get rid of the black & white theme. Nothing wrong with blue or even purple shades, anything but black and white.. Thanks.

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1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

If anyone needs to adjust the notifications being sent from CA about new posts etc..., here's the link - https://www.computeraudiophile.com/notifications/options/

 

And if you want the same basic notification settings as the (default) settings of the old CA site, check the option: "Only send one email notification for content I follow until I revisit the community."

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One bad thing I noticed is that *pre march 18* quotations no longer link back to their original posts.

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6 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

... I think the best solution is for me to adjust the font on the username. I researched it yesterday and found that there are other items that use the same value. In other words, changing the font on the username also changes the font elsewhere. Thus, I need to do a bit more editing of the site behind the scenes to make this work. ...

 

Well, if adjusting the font of the usernames will simultaneously adjust the font of the *MENU BARS*, that will be a very good thing.  

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4 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

... This site is for the readers. I want to make it the best site possible. ...

 

More screen space for ads and less for content is not in the interest of readers.

 

And regarding this always visible big ugly black header bar, here's  a site where on the home page, not only the main menu is much better looking, the header bar only appears when (on a Windows PC) you scroll up and it disappears when you scroll down. Brilliant!

 

https://www.hifiwigwam.com/

 

Note that In the forum threads on that site, the main menu simply disappears with the scrolled content, which is also excellent.
 

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Well, IMO this CA forum software update is progressing badly. It started out with a horrible black & white theme, a font that wastes vertical content space and a ridiculously small horizontal content space. The latter has improved some, but it's still not what it should be. All other serious problems remain. The absurd always visible header bar, the CA content that still can't be found by Google, the fatiguing black & white screens, the invisible member signatures, the lost links of *pre march 18* quotations to their original posts (which is really bad), and the many gliches. And where is the promised blue theme?

 

Chris, did you even test this software before it went life and if so what exactly did you test? It  doesn't seem you know what readers of your site want. CONTENT and READABILITY should be the first priorities! CA has become an obscure, ugly and hard to read/search website. Your advertisers may notice lesser hits from CA by now. Why don't you hire a professional?

 

My 0.02..
 

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14 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

There's no accounting for taste. Out of the 1.5 million people who read CA, a few have complained about the look. I can live with that. Some like blue, some like red, some like black. I made a decision and implemented it. 

I've seen mostly complaints about the new theme and layout and only a few people seem to like it. Do you really like the black menu bar?

 

14 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

The font has nothing to do with vertical line spacing. That's a different setting.

 

The complaints about horizontal space for content are real, but not based on empirical data. Please do the research an come back to me. The original horizontal space was right in the sweet spot of what most people find pleasing to read. Based on feedback I increased this to 99% of what the old CA had for horizontal space. Some people are still mad even though I posted the comparison screenshots a few pages back. I can't help you if you are still made about something that doesn't exist. Based on your extensive research and web design experience, please let me know what you think is "still not what it should be."

 

Please keep in mind, this is what I do and I do it all day every day, 365 days per year. 

This is not some news bulletin board, this is an audio forum. No other audio forum I know of  uses such a small horizontal space for content. Why do you think that is? And indeed the vertical line spacing and/or font size should be changed, not necessarily the font itself (although I like Verdana better). You can change these things with a few mouse clicks but you just don't do it, which is disappointing.
 

14 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

"all other serious problems remain" according to you. A design decision like the navigation bar isn't a serious problem in 99% of the world's book. 

It is when it takes up unnecessary vertical space and if it is ugly and distractive.

 

14 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

The Google issue is something that was planned and we did the best we could and continue to adjust. The same thing happened when we switched from Drupal to vBulletin years ago. It's life. in time, all the links will work again. Life won't end. Cats and dogs will still live together.  Some have suggestion I just create a rule for 301 redirects and that would fix anything. Well, there isn't an expert on Earth that I was able to find that could handle the job. 

That's a 404 file not found error. I take it then that you leave it to Google to solve the problem. Why didn't the conversion software create a database table with all redirections for the old CA links?

 

14 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Invisible member signatures - I like them as background content, not the main item for which people read the forum. if you want to read a signature, you can, but they don't get in the way of reading everything else. 

I thought you were going to make them visible again, especially since all system information in user profiles is lost?

 

14 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Quotations to original posts is probably the last thing I really care about considering all the other items that had to be solved before the switch-over. To be honest, I con't care if those links don't work. It's not like you can't access your notes to land an airplane in an emergency. You simply can't click an easy link to find a post. If you want, just search the thread and find the info. Not the best, but not the end of the world. 

It's clear that you never tried to follow a particular conversation or argument in multiple posts in a 100+ page discussion. The reason this is especially bad is that the forum conversion software *should have* preserved these internal links. Now that they're gone, I guess there's no way to get them back.

 

14 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Promised blue theme - Based on your severe disappointment, this blue-based theme won't help you at all. It's a work in progress that some members have tested. 

How hard can it be?

 

14 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

... based on your comments, it seems like you have a vested interest in some items here on CA. Perhaps your business was benefiting from CA and now things ave changed. If you were just a casual reader, I don't think you'd have made some of those comments. ...

Nope, I've no "vested interest " in CA hits other than that It would be quite saddening to see this site/community go down as a result of a forum software update..
 

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38 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

Given your history here at CA and your lack of knowledge surrounding this issue, I will respectfully bow out of this discussion with you. 

 

What are you talking about? My current reputation here is +51 likes. What makes you think I have "a lack of knowledge surrounding this issue"? I've actually *build* internet/HTTP  forum software..
 

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It seems that most if not all Google references to CA content are working again.

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24 minutes ago, One and a half said:

Erm, the signature field shows up in Chrome on Windows 10, but the Android version, all signatures are missing. Is there another button to set somewhere? Thanks.

 

You must be signed in to see signatures.

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5 hours ago, mansr said:

... Speaking of the persistent menu bar, it's mostly a waste of space. I'd much rather see the bar with search, notifications, etc in its place. Those I actually click on from time to time.

 

I agree. And if a (much smaller) header menu bar *must* be shown persistently, then I would include a clickable *go to top* icon/link, so that the go to top links in each and every post can be removed..

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1 hour ago, wgscott said:

... I guess I am grateful that I have a large positive number, but I just saw the post of a perfectly reasonable member, a good citizen, etc, who has a fairly large negative number in red below his avatar.  That just doesn't seem right. ...

Which member?

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30 minutes ago, botrytis said:

My problem with this type of playing is it doesn't follow a DBT style test. What they do is, this is the track w/o MQA - play and then play the MQA file while describing the differences you should hear. This is an AUTOMATIC BIASING of the test. PERIOD. Nothing can be claimed as asounding better in this type of listening because your brain does all the biasing in this test.

 

What they should have done is: The system should be setup behind a curtain and the people setting up this testing, tell the track name (for the test of both) and this is A - play it and this is B . This should be done with all the tracks being randomized so not all MQA is B or A. This is never done as the marketing people KNOW that telling you what you are listening to (MQA or not) automatically biases you because, of course, MQA should sound better.

 

I am a scientist, by training, and really hate the non-scientific way audiophile companies use to hawk their wares.

 

Huh? I think you may have posted this in the wrong thread..

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5 hours ago, plissken said:

How does the quoting system work. Having a heckuva time taking a single quoted post and breaking it up into blocks.

Place the cursor at the position in the quoted post where you want to split it and press enter twice. After that be careful because you can remove such a block with a single backspace keystroke and you can't get it back with the undo function (right mouse click -> undo), so you may have to create and type your entire reply again. Very annoying. This can also happen when you just try to remove a newline between a quote block and your text or a newline within a block. Finally, getting text below the last block can be a PITA. Sometimes the editor simply won't let you type anything there.
 

5 hours ago, plissken said:

Also if you start a response how do you scrap it all together?

Just don't post it and refresh the page..

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 @The Computer Audiophile I used to receive only a single email notification when new content was posted in a topic I follow, until I revisited the forum, which was perfect. Since a few days however I receive email notifications for *every* new post in topics that I follow, amounting to tens or even hundreds of emails per day.  So I checked my notification settings and the option "Sent a notification when new content is posted" was selected. Moreover, the option "Only send one email notification  for content I follow until I revisit the community" has disappeared! Why? Can you please restore this notification option? Thanks.

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2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Looks like it’s still there.

 

 

Hi Chris,
I'm 100% sure that the removed option stated literally: "Only send one email notification for content I follow until I revisit the community." This is the default notification behavior of other fora I visit and it was the notification behavior I selected in my settings. It worked just like it says; you receive one notification per topic until you sign in again. I find this very useful. The option: "A notification when new content is posted," sends notifications of *all posts in all topics you follow*, whether or not you are signed in. I can't see why anyone would select this option, it's pretty useless and you will receive a lot of emails from CA..

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1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Maybe I don’t get it, but isn’t what you want available with this option from my screenshot?

 

Deleted..

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3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

Did you see the line in the screenshot that says "Only send one email notification for content I follow until I revisit the community"

 

I'm sorry. I overlooked. It is selected in my settings. I'll try again if it works (it didn't yesterday).

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So the notification preference setting "only send one email notification for content I follow until I revisit the community" is present and it is checked in my settings, but it no longer works. I still receive notifications for all new content in all topics that I follow. Also, if I select the option "Do not send me notifications," I keep receiving notifications..

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10 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Now I appear to be getting no notifications whatsoever. Are others seeing that?

Yep. I received no notifications at all since yesterday..

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On ‎28‎-‎3‎-‎2018 at 9:11 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

Search was just fixed. I'll look into notification now.

Any news yet? Notification still doesn't work here..

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2 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Hi Guys - Let’s get one specific scenario to troubleshoot. 

 

If I tell them you don’t receive notifications to this specific thread (among others) is that correct?

Yes.

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Same here. Wil the notifications that I missed still be sent after this problem is fixed? 

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Hi Chris. I just received a notification from the AC mains isolation transformer thread. But not from your last post in this thread..