Site Upgrade

[Umpire in Chief]

As you can see I upgraded the software. Some things appear different and some features have not been enabled yet.

Please be patient as over the next few days I conclude updating.

Enjoy!

[Rulekeep]

This is extremely distressing and it took me a solid fifteen minutes to figure out how to reply without quoting you eight times and the banners are all screwed up please send help the mobile users are going to die out here on our own why would you do such a cruel thing this is THE most confusing mobile layout I have ever seen. *incoherent sobbing from the most tech-savvy person on the site* 

[Cav]

Mother Nature gives every living thing three choices: adapt, migrate or die. 

Old men like me don't adapt to change very well.

U-E, you're killing me out here. 

[Umpire in Chief]

I'll work on the mobile today.

[ricka56]

Upgrade ? A swing and a miss. Upgrades are supposed to improve the user experience (or maybe its about ad revenue, I dunno). The forum categories used to be nice and compact, now there is too much white space, each sub-category is like a page onto itself...page down, page down ,page down.  The profile page used to be compact with lots of info on it, now its full of white space and it takes more mouse clicks to get to the info that previously was right at hand. Now I have to widen the browser to get main forum page on the screen,,,screen real-estate is precious to me, I don't need a full screen distraction at work.

Disappointing. 4-5 years ago, ABUA had a "software upgrade" that made the site harder to use (one of the reasons I ended up on U-E). I'll give it some time, maybe it'll grow on me. Right now I can't 't find any "upgrade" to my user experience.

Edited April 27, 2015 by ricka56

[LMSANS]

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

 

There are my words of encouragement.  Now give my old brain 3 or 4 weeks to get used to the changes.

[LMSANS]

This is extremely distressing and it took me a solid fifteen minutes to figure out how to reply without quoting you eight times and the banners are all screwed up please send help the mobile users are going to die out here on our own why would you do such a cruel thing this is THE most confusing mobile layout I have ever seen. *incoherent sobbing from the most tech-savvy person on the site* 

​"Youth is wasted on the young!"

You should be happy just with the fact it's a change.

[Mick]

I hate any and every upgrade of any software everywhere and I always will.  Excuse me, I'm off to submit my reply.

[UmpJeff]

Change is good!!

 

[MikeSafari]

Love it!

[MadMax]

Folks, this is not only a layout change, but a software change. It was inevitable, because the software driving this site was getting long-in-the-tooth. Of course there will be some adjustments to make, but Warren has all of our collective interests in mind. Like Instant Replay – it's not perfect, but it's here to stay.

Nothing on the Internet remains unchanged forever. Even the Hampster Dance has to upgrade.

[Welpe]

I actually like it...except that Tapatalk isn't working but I figure you're working on that. I can already see several changes that I like quite a bit.

This reminds me of when FB changes. Everyone complains for a while and then goes along just fine until the next time it's changed and then repeats the process.

Thanks for keeping this place maintained, Warren. It is a great resource.

the most tech-savvy person on the site* 

 

If you say so. 

Edited April 27, 2015 by Welpe

[Umpire in Chief]

I actually like it...except that Tapatalk isn't working but I figure you're working on that. I can already see several changes that I like quite a bit.​

Tapatalk hasn't been installed yet. I will install the latest version tonight.

 

In the mean time, I am working on the mobile side of things here at work. But damn these people actually want me to do what they are paying me for so I'm sneaking it in here and there.  

[Umpire in Chief]

Folks, this is not only a layout change, but a software change. It was inevitable, because the software driving this site was getting long-in-the-tooth. Of course there will be some adjustments to make, but Warren has all of our collective interests in mind. Like Instant Replay – it's not perfect, but it's here to stay.

Nothing on the Internet remains unchanged forever. Even the Hampster Dance has to upgrade.

​Absolutely, the coding was out of date. And this software is much more on the leading edge. 

[kylehutson]

Aside from freaking me out first thing in the morning, I will give props on one feature... I go to read a forum, then press the "Back" button to see the forum list. I no longer have to press "Reload" to see what forums have unread posts.

...and I have to respectfully disagree with @Rulekeep about being the most tech-savvy as I run a supercomputer for my day job and moonlight as a computer consultant. 

[jkumpire]

Folks, this is not only a layout change, but a software change. It was inevitable, because the software driving this site was getting long-in-the-tooth. Of course there will be some adjustments to make, but Warren has all of our collective interests in mind. Like Instant Replay – it's not perfect, but it's here to stay.

Nothing on the Internet remains unchanged forever. Even the Hampster Dance has to upgrade.

​Absolutely, the coding was out of date. And this software is much more on the leading edge. 

​I try real hard never to comment on site changes because the owners have the right to do this and they put in the work to give us this resource. But these comments are very interesting.

1. So what if the coding is 'out of date', whatever that really means. What matters to me is ease of use because I do not spend all my time here nor am I spending cash directly on the site. It seems like it is never possible to update a web site's code without redoing the front end experience so that it becomes less convenient to use. It has happened to many sites I use recently, instead of having a simple basic, easy to read, easy to use format for threads, everything supposedly looks better but functionally it is harder to use.

2. I appreciate the fact that with different media options out there these days something have to get changed over time, but it is sad that 'leading edge' always seems to mean leaving ease of use, consistency of what a uses sees, and stability behind. 

I hope it works out well for you and the other users on the site. I'm am not sure it is worth my time to get used to it. 

 

 

[Umpire in Chief]

I'm also putting together a list of the new features. I will be making a video tutorial to help people when all is complete.

 

I had the site completely down for 3 hours last night/this morning and once I deemed it functional enough. I reopened and then will tackle the other things on a one by one basis. Please bear with me as I need to do a few more things to get things back and even better than they were. 

[Welpe]

The code being out of date means that there have been newer versions of the forum software released. The main reason this is a concern is that hackers/trouble makers will find exploits in older versions and then do bad things to the site, leaving you as a user more vulnerable.

I contend that often things aren't less intuitive or harder to use, just new and unfamiliar which is why when folks get familiar with a new interface, they stop complaining about it.

[MikeSafari]

For everyone asking about Tapatalk, the new software has a pretty nice mobile-friendly browser view that you might want to use instead.

Personally I love the new layout, colour scheme, and functionality. Finally bringing the visual design into 2015

[scrounge]

Seems perfectly fine to me...

[Tksjewelry]

I love the new look. I'll wait till the fixes are in but the layout looks great! It's much cleaner. 

I can't find everything yet but I will. ​

[kylehutson]

One other thing I've noticed. I'm getting emails almost immediately whenever somebody replies. Before the upgrade I might get an email within a few hours. So far, so good!

[Welpe]

For everyone asking about Tapatalk, the new software has a pretty nice mobile-friendly browser view that you might want to use instead.

​I use Tapatalk for several forums so I'm holding out for it but I'm willing to wait patiently.

[Rulekeep]

This is extremely distressing and it took me a solid fifteen minutes to figure out how to reply without quoting you eight times and the banners are all screwed up please send help the mobile users are going to die out here on our own why would you do such a cruel thing this is THE most confusing mobile layout I have ever seen. *incoherent sobbing from the most tech-savvy person on the site* 

​"Youth is wasted on the young!"

You should be happy just with the fact it's a change

There's no point trying to fix something that isn't broken. Not all changes are necessary. 

@kylehutson Your supercomputer doesn't scare me, come back when your YouTube videos have 30,000+ views. :b

[kylehutson]

@kylehutson Your supercomputer doesn't scare me, come back when your YouTube videos have 30,000+ views. :b

​ All in good fun.