Site Issues, Updates, Changes, and Feedback Thread

[darkmass]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Tweaks are certainly possible, but I'm going to try this width for a little while. It's what almost all readability experts think is about right.

I take it the readability experts are using Twitter to publish their results.

On a laptop with a standard HD screen, due to the vast amount of whitespace to the left and right of the text and the very low number of postings in the vertical direction, forum posts have now become a visual chore to read through.

While I have the floor, and even though there's a risk I'm coming across as hyper-negative, let me also point out that from my perspective, the extreme amount of whitespace together with the light pink text boxes are triggering eye-strain.

This has become a less than fun site to actually look at.

[mansr]

16 minutes ago, lmitche said:

Thanks, but it still has dupes.

I'm not seeing any dupes.

[semente]

2 hours 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. 

I'm looking into the font size.

I suspect that only a small percentage of the readability studies is to be trusted...

You've bet on the wrong horse.

 

R

[bixby]

Ok, I did not read all 6 pages of comments.  Aren't you glad you took on this project Chris?

I have not spent much time on the new site, but did spend some time reading cached versions on some stuff I was researching.

For me I would like to re-iterate the comments about white space.  A full 1/3 of my browser window width is now white space.  And reading the forum content is painful.  A few words across and paragraphs down and scroll.  It looks like a mobile app.  Also probably already mentioned but the line spacing seems a bit too excessive.

Thanks for listening!  Cheers Chris.

[Kal Rubinson]

I tend to hate change so take that into consideration.

Off the top, there is too much white space at the expense of information density on the screen.  Also, the font is too fine and small for comfort.

OK.  I don't know how I got here when I was attempting to make a new reply to this thread but...............................How can I mark everything read so that I never see anything old when I return to the site again?

Never mind.  Found it.

[The Computer Audiophile]

19 minutes ago, semente said:

I suspect that only a small percentage of the readability studies is to be trusted...

You've bet on the wrong horse.

 

R

Please show me another horse to bet on. 

[tmtomh]

First off, Chris, thank you for the massive effort you have put into this. It's very nice and despite the inevitable kinks, I think a baseline improvement over the previous design.

So far I have three comments about possible changes:

1. I find the new, narrower text width to be highly readable. But I think a modest widening - say 20 or 25% maybe - would retain most of the benefits of the readability while also reducing the wasted white space and reducing the need for vertical scrolling
2. There does seem to be a slight imbalance of contrast, with the very heavy black elements on the one hand, and the very light grey elements (hard to distinguish from the background white sometimes) on the other.
3. I think the feature where two comments made in quick succession automatically get merged is going to have to go - it's already causing confusion.

Otherwise, I think it's terrific! Thanks again.

[firedog]

I've defined and saved my activity stream so content appears how I prefer. Why does the site not save my preferences? Every time I come back to the site I have to define how the content is displayed again- even though my previous "saved" preferences are listed under "activity".

Once I define my display preferences, shouldn't the site use those, unless I change them?

Thanks. The new site looks nice. 

Still thinking about the width issue. Will see how I respond to it over time.

[gmgraves]

Chris. What is this "Reputation" number mean and more importantly, what is the criteria for assigning a number to a member and who decides? 

[The Computer Audiophile]

11 minutes ago, firedog said:

I've defined and saved my activity stream so content appears how I prefer. Why does the site not save my preferences? Every time I come back to the site I have to define how the content is displayed again- even though my previous "saved" preferences are listed under "activity".

Once I define my display preferences, shouldn't the site use those, unless I change them?

Thanks. The new site looks nice. 

Still thinking about the width issue. Will see how I respond to it over time.

Did you create a new stream on this page and save it? Did you set the stream you want as your default

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/discover/?do=create

11 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

Chris. What is this "Reputation" number mean and more importantly, what is the criteria for assigning a number to a member and who decides? 

That's something I still have to look into. When I imported all the users the site assigned reputation points to them based on something. 

[thotdoc]

Does the Cash List still exist?

[The Computer Audiophile]

22 minutes ago, tmtomh said:

First off, Chris, thank you for the massive effort you have put into this. It's very nice and despite the inevitable kinks, I think a baseline improvement over the previous design.

So far I have three comments about possible changes:

1. I find the new, narrower text width to be highly readable. But I think a modest widening - say 20 or 25% maybe - would retain most of the benefits of the readability while also reducing the wasted white space and reducing the need for vertical scrolling
2. There does seem to be a slight imbalance of contrast, with the very heavy black elements on the one hand, and the very light grey elements (hard to distinguish from the background white sometimes) on the other.
3. I think the feature where two comments made in quick succession automatically get merged is going to have to go - it's already causing confusion.

Otherwise, I think it's terrific! Thanks again.

Thanks for the kind words and the thoughtful points. I increased it about 20%. What say you?

[jhwalker]

1 minute ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Thanks for the kind words and the thoughtful points. I increased it about 20%. What say you?

It's a step in the right direction

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, thotdoc said:

Does the Cash List still exist?

Yes.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 minutes ago, jhwalker said:

It's a step in the right direction

old ca and new ca within a few characters of each other with respect to width, yet you're still unhappy?

[firedog]

17 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Did you create a new stream on this page and save it? Did you set the stream you want as your default

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/discover/?do=create

That's something I still have to look into. When I imported all the users the site assigned reputation points to them based on something. 

I've created a new stream and saved it several times. When I exit the site and then come back, my preference doesn't display. I have to ask for it again each time.

[jhwalker]

1 minute ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

old ca and new ca within a few characters of each other with respect to width, yet you're still unhappy?

Chris, sorry - not meaning to sound "unhappy".  Just that, as you're giving us the opportunity to comment, I thought I'd contribute.

FWIW, here's what it looks like on my screen - an *awful* lot of white space.  Won't mention it again, though:

 

 

[Jud]

2 hours ago, mansr said:

I suspect it does that if you make multiple posts with nobody posting in between.

Yes.  The problems are:

- Several people may have posted to the thread in between the first and second original comment to which you replied, though no one posted between your two replies (see how potentially confusing this is to think about?)

- The comments to which you replied may have had two (or more) totally different subjects.

Putting these all together makes these time and subject matter differences feel nonexistent to a reader, potentially leading to confusion; and creates a multi-quoted post the writer may well not have intended.

[jjraffin]

5 hours ago, ecwl said:

I'm reading this on my iPhone and looks great. Still figuring the site out. The iOS app doesn't seem to work anymore. Will need more time to get used to the change but I love positive change. The website really looks great. And I even clicked on the Musica Pristina ad which looked interesting but pricey. 

So IOS app is dead. Does that also mean Tapatalk is also not going to work?

[tmtomh]

24 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Thanks for the kind words and the thoughtful points. I increased it about 20%. What say you?

Looks great to me! It seems like others want it even wider, but I'm happy with it, FWIW.

[The Computer Audiophile]

18 minutes ago, jhwalker said:

Chris, sorry - not meaning to sound "unhappy".  Just that, as you're giving us the opportunity to comment, I thought I'd contribute.

FWIW, here's what it looks like on my screen - an *awful* lot of white space.  Won't mention it again, though:

 

 

Please reload the page.

17 minutes ago, jjraffin said:

So IOS app is dead. Does that also mean Tapatalk is also not going to work?

Correct.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I turned off post merge for now. It was bugging me too.

It's great when you followup one of your own posts with another comment, but after that it's kind of strange,

[gmgraves]

59 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Did you create a new stream on this page and save it? Did you set the stream you want as your default

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/discover/?do=create

That's something I still have to look into. When I imported all the users the site assigned reputation points to them based on something. 

You should probably delete it, especially if you don't know what it means. Without context, it's prejudicial (and it's really prejudicial ANYWAY! It makes other responders think that people with low numbers are somehow not worthy to respond to or to even take heed of.). It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the number of posts one has made. Is it the number of "likes" or "arrow-ups" at the bottom of each post? do they average out between up-arrows and down arrows? Is it an arbitrary number? Who knows?  I think it is inappropriate to this forum. 

[STC]

I like the design. Nice work, Chris. Hoping to see it on Tapatalk soon.

 

Cheers!

[PeterSt]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

That's something I still have to look into. When I imported all the users the site assigned reputation points to them based on something. 

Chris, this is about the thumbs up (and down) thing.

My reputation is obviously low because I hardly have posted since the "like" feature was introduced in the old forum.