Airliners.net Site Upgrade Announcement & Discussion

denverdanny · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:02 am

Like others have said, it is very hard to read. Space is wasted, subject line is huge, while post text is very small. You have to scroll endlessly. Ugh. Coming here used to be a joy, but not so much right now. My guess is the site visits will drop for some time. i just wish designers would think before they do something, especially about how something will function. Having no contrast seems to be a spreading trend right now among designers. I edited the size of my text for others because I'm thoughtful.

jetcrazy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:05 am

New Site looks like Windows10. Just terrible! Is this just a version for beamer users? Have designers of this shit ever used a photo database before???

Does not make fun to browse around here anymore...

EA CO AS · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:07 am

CX Flyboy wrote:
Terrible "upgrade". It is enough to make me not want to come and participate as often.

Same here. I see my time here decreasing substantially as a result.

SpaceshipDC10 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:08 am

Why aren't replies numbered? I'm not talking of that #number on upper right side of each reply, I'm talking about 1,2,3,4,5 and so on that should also be visible when one member reply to another member and quotes some of his/her text.

THAT WHITE BACKGROUND IS REALLY AWFUL.

BaronG58 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:11 am

It's a real shame what happened to your site. I'll miss it.

yonahleung · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:11 am

This new site is wholly another beast, which I cannot say I like it.

The spacing is terrible and now it is only possible to see one post at a time on my screen and the white background hurts my eyes.

Not to mention with phpBB this is as generic as a forum can get. The Eurowhite epidermic has got wholly out of hand.

Plainplane · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:12 am

PanAm_DC10 wrote:
Plainplane wrote:
While I am glad about the efforts to modernize the site, as a photographer I am GREATLY distressed by the disappearance of the copyright bars from all of my shots. I need these restored NOW.

Hi there,

The copyright banner will be returned to images, the developers are working on the issue now, that said, I can't provide you with an exact date when they will reappear but it should not be too long. Thanks for your patience whilst they work on this for you.

Regards

Paul

Thank you for your quick response Paul, this is very reassuring.

Also is there a way we can choose another theme setting? This new format is extremely painful on my eyes.

KFlyer · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:14 am

Having been a web development enthusiast in a previous life, I always believed the custom forum software which A.net was using to be far superior to the open source and commercial forum software widely available. Not only did the A.net forum software had more features, it also was more user friendly. I understand that the old software could have become more difficult to maintain as it aged, but below are what I find ...

- The new font (Source Sans Pro ?) seems to have some issue - in that the simple 'i' letter appears capitalised.
- The forum post header takes far more space than it deserves to take.
- Where did the RR go? That was a feature which made A.net stand out as a unique forum. It was also a form of gamification that encouraged users to post more.
- How do I identify a Moderator without viewing their profile?

- It is true that Apple pioneered 'white' in UIs. But that does not necessarily make a website better. Specially on PCs/ laptops. Older A.net was known for its 'blue'. Can you imagine a QF without its red tone, a CX without its green hue or a Ryanair without the blue tone?
My understanding is the forum played a key role in making A.net a leading aviation site over the last two decades. If I am not mistaken, it is quite likely the majority of visitors to A.net forum still comes - and posts - from PCs and laptops. For those, the majority of whom may consist of the 18-50 age group, the white background may actually be a distraction - make it harder to use the forum - and eventually discourage them from posting. Keeping that in mind, I feel that this re-design is somewhat of a letdown for the loyal A.netters whose work has helped make this site a unique place. And I think that those A.netter forum posters certainly deserved better.

I cannot remember the users asking for a total redesign of the forum - even though responsive is the new trend - and so I wonder whether what we are seeing is a situation of fixing something that wasn't broken.

Francoflier · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:21 am

EA CO AS wrote:
I see my time here decreasing substantially as a result.

Ditto.

Painful on the eyes, endless amounts of scrolling, oceans of tiring bright white empty space and no contrast, everything is spread out over dozens of screens' worth.

Replying to a thread alone is now an exercise in patience and clicks across the screen.

And the smiley selection... Is that a joke?
:cry:

So it's only been a few minutes, and maybe I'm just venting, but I just can't see this place to ever be the same.

Aither · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:28 am

If they don't change the template back to something more readable I'm going to launch www.airlinersforum.net... classic :geek:

TriStar1845 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:35 am

Unable to upload pictures at this point.
Very disappointed by this supposed upgrade, would like the iconic old graphic designs back.

EA CO AS · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:38 am

Aither wrote:
If they don't change the template back to something more readable I'm going to launch http://www.airlinersforum.net... classic

And if it looked and worked the same, I'd even pay to be a member there.

TriStar1845 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:45 am

I wouldnt be surprised that this total update will deflect Anetters away. I'm really fearing that this upgrade will be very destructive to Anet. Why totally obliterate the old design? For almost 10 years I've been seeing the beautiful design of Anet. I can't understand why one would one day decide to change EVERYTHING, and not even keeping Sam Chui's 747 icon?! Do Anetters at least have a say in what it becomes? Words cannot describe my disappointment at this point. Please do the right thing and at least keep some old features that we really love.

N1120A · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:46 am

This is about the worst possible way you could have redesigned the site. It is clunky, cluttered, slow and looks like garbage. As a comparison, Flyertalk has a better interface, despite being a much older site of this style - and that site doesn't hold a candle to the old A.net for speed, ease of use and look. The old site worked just fine on mobile or desktop and was extremely fast, as Johan designed it to work decently with people who still had dial up connections. Seriously, this is terrible.

N1120A · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:48 am

EA CO AS wrote:
CX Flyboy wrote:
Terrible "upgrade". It is enough to make me not want to come and participate as often.

Same here. I see my time here decreasing substantially as a result.

+1 and I'm hearing a lot from friends on Facebook that they are pretty much done too.

jonwait · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:48 am

Would love to have the choice to use "desktop website" on ipad instead of mobile version.
We used to have the choice at the bottom of the page.

White background kills my eyes and is environmental unfriendly ! ( uses more power on a monitor than a dark or black background !!)

YVRLTN · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:52 am

Wow... this is terrible. This will be a gongshow if we ever get a repeat of MH370 (God forbid) or even a Delta order.

On behalf of 95% of a.net members, please can we have our forum back. Only improvement could be the search function. And at this point, we don't even need that, we will stick to google to find old posts...

erezms · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:53 am

I have a question for the team members:

In the previous version it was possible to edit information (about the aircraft, date, etc.) after uploading an image.

Now this is impossible, I understand, or am I wrong?

Also we do not see here the image.

Also, I can not find an option to delete an image from the queue.

I hope to get an answer to the above questions.

RobK · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:53 am

So not only have all the airlines of recent years gone Euro White but I guess we can now apply it to the forum as well...

wuyeah · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:53 am

And, the endless roll-down information list of a photo is such a WASTE of space and hard to read! To roll every down from the top requires a lot time and patience!

peanuts · Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:54 am

Me think a.net owners got a bit greedy and a little too smart for their own good.

And now they've probably killed the golden goose.
They don't even get us, airliners nuts. Go figure.

If they think I'm gonna keep coming back here as often and become a scrolling queen, forget it.

LatAmFlyer · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:01 am

Plainplane wrote:
The copyright banner will be returned to images, the developers are working on the issue now

I suppose we can quote multiple times, but there lies another issue. The scroll back doesn't include all the pages.[/quote]

This is no longer the community it once was. You have ruined the site. Too many issues to address. I encourage others to sign off permanently and be loyal to another site.

Maybe the

Plainplane wrote:
Thanks for your patience whilst they work on this for you.

Why don't you work on restoring the original site?

N1120A · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:04 am

Revelation wrote:
Wow, waaay too much complaining about something we aren't really paying for.

Kick back and enjoy the new look and feel.

Your eyes will adjust.

We don't have to stay in the 90s forever.

Change is good for a person!

I for one am kinda pleased about how much of the past is still retained here.

That's not an easy thing to pull off and the upgrade team did so.

Do you realize that most of us actually DID pay for this?

This PHP garbage is stuck in the 90s and is horribly done. I have over 26000 posts here over nearly 13 years. First they tossed away lots of my friends. Now this, plus the horrific invasion of privacy in the contact by email bit. I'm with EA CO AS on this.

LatAmFlyer · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:06 am

Oykie wrote:
Congratulations to all involved in todays upgrade! I generally like the layout. It seems much more modern and up to date than it have been. If Airliners.net was ever to be upgraded, this is the way to do it. Hats of to everyone!

This has to be a fake review. Are you serious?

LatAmFlyer · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:10 am

sandyb123 wrote:
Umm sorry has first class membership gone? I posted earlier about ads but if this is now the status quo then I want the balance of my membership back and I am leaving this site for good.

Me too!

winstonlegthigh · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:11 am

Big swing and miss on this "upgrade". Too bad.

EA CO AS · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:12 am

LatAmFlyer wrote:
This is no longer the community it once was. You have ruined the site. Too many issues to address. I encourage others to sign off permanently and be loyal to another site.

Tell me what other site deals primarily with civil aviation, and I'll definitely start sending my clicks their way if this site doesn't seriously improve the user experience.

Because right now, this "upgrade" is garbage, for the most part.

BAForever · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:14 am

This really is TERRIBLE! What a retrograde step.

There was nothing really wrong with the old site, why change????

Having looked through all the responses so far, they seem to be overwhelmingly negative.

Perhaps you need to listen to your customer A-net !

Boeing717200 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:17 am

June 14, 2016. The day a.net died.

Someone please advise how I can...

"Delete your account"

This is a disaster.

vishaljo · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:18 am

How do you comment on a photo?

fhrx · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:19 am

Many images seem to still possess watermarks, despite me being signed in?

N1120A · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:26 am

PanAm_DC10 wrote:
Plainplane wrote:
While I am glad about the efforts to modernize the site, as a photographer I am GREATLY distressed by the disappearance of the copyright bars from all of my shots. I need these restored NOW.

Hi there,

The copyright banner will be returned to images, the developers are working on the issue now, that said, I can't provide you with an exact date when they will reappear but it should not be too long. Thanks for your patience whilst they work on this for you.

Regards

Paul

The single, solitary thing anyone who "works" for A.net has responded to. Absurd.

borchi · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:27 am

Hallo,

where are the Copyright fotters and Watermarks? I did´n find them on my pics...

Thanks

skippy747 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:29 am

The new site is just horrible in every way.... how on earth is this an upgrade? A.net used to be my most frequented website. Clear, concisely organized and great search features and discussion forum arrangements.

Bring back the old site pls. There was nothing wrong with it whatsoever. This is just garbage.

cougar15 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:29 am

Cubsrule wrote:
Putting aside aesthetics, the two big things I want back from the old forums (fora?) are starred topics and a more focused quote option that does not require that I quote the entire post. For all of the "new and improved" hype--and there are some things, like pagination, that are better--the forums are now less functional.

Agree! People will always complain & dear A-Net Crew, I do appreciate the effort! HOWEVER, I spent most of my time lurking on the Forums and to me, they have really taken a hit! what was really wrong? I read ´site related´ once a week and appart from a few bugs the old Format bought with it, really the only Thing I thought needed Fixing was the search function. the rest we had all gotten used to & worked around! I severly miss my starred Topics button and find the Forum totally tiresome as it is now. did we really need to fix what wasnt really broken? User Ratings, user flags also added credibilty & value to discussions. I also have the issue of adds blocking part of the Forum text field on either side, so I always miss the first & last couple of words in each line. and I gladly payed my first class subsciption for that very reason... no adds! I was a heavy user addict to this site, had it on most of the day be it at work or home. the withdrawl symthoms at present are immense, I feel empty

Boeing717200 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:33 am

N1120A wrote:
PanAm_DC10 wrote:
Plainplane wrote:
While I am glad about the efforts to modernize the site, as a photographer I am GREATLY distressed by the disappearance of the copyright bars from all of my shots. I need these restored NOW.

Hi there,

The copyright banner will be returned to images, the developers are working on the issue now, that said, I can't provide you with an exact date when they will reappear but it should not be too long. Thanks for your patience whilst they work on this for you.

Regards

Paul

The single, solitary thing anyone who "works" for A.net has responded to. Absurd.

Only thing they can get sued over.

EA CO AS · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:36 am

Boeing717200 wrote:
June 14, 2016. The day a.net died.

This.

It's almost fitting that it took the total evisceration of this site for the membership to unanimously agree on something. :shock:

acmtha · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:36 am

changed uploading rules as well? (limitation)
I prefer old one that I can see when my pictures would be screened but I could not find the queues of each dates.

DCA-ROCguy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:38 am

No time to read through a barrel of postings in the new hard-to-read format.

Don't like the new site design at all. Small dark font on a Euro-White background? Hard on the eyes. Is there a way to customize the background with the old blue background and white font with a much larger point size?

Sorry, but some of us don't live our life on an iPhone and need a site that is desktop big-monitor friendly!

Jim

Group51 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:43 am

Hi

Well done moving on to a more modern platform. For those of us with Mobile devices can I please ask that you consider installing the "tapatalk" extension.

https://tapatalk.com

Ps you really really need a dark theme. :shock:

vikkyvik · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:48 am

PanAm_DC10 wrote:
The copyright banner will be returned to images, the developers are working on the issue now, that said, I can't provide you with an exact date when they will reappear but it should not be too long. Thanks for your patience whilst they work on this for you.

Hi Paul. None of my photos uploaded prior to December 13, 2015, appear to display watermarks. I've been uploading with watermarks for as long as I can remember.

Any idea what the deal there is? Combined with the missing copyright banner, it's not particularly pleasing.

atsiang · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:51 am

Sorry a.net staff, all that work you guys did last night was all for naught and a complete waste of time and resources. This new design is terrible. Like many said, difficult to read and endless scrolling. Before, a simple scroll up and down gives you a view of the running topics within the past day or so, not so anymore. The old layout was functional. This new layout is not. I could care less about the artistic layout. If I want something artistic I would go to a museum.

IADCA · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:54 am

Boeing717200 wrote:
N1120A wrote:
PanAm_DC10 wrote:

Hi there,

The copyright banner will be returned to images, the developers are working on the issue now, that said, I can't provide you with an exact date when they will reappear but it should not be too long. Thanks for your patience whilst they work on this for you.

Regards

Paul

The single, solitary thing anyone who "works" for A.net has responded to. Absurd.

Only thing they can get sued over.

No, it's really not. On the old site, what you entered in the "real name" field had text next to it indicating it would not be publicly displayed. People posted things relying on that anonymity, often involving sensitive information from their airlines. Now, I can find out the real names of several of these people, including several prominent current and no longer active members of the site (some of whose identities surprised me). Even those folks who haven't been on here in years have their names out there, and because they don't come on here any more, they have essentially no way to fight back against this. It's pretty easy to see a situation in which a breach of the previous promise not to reveal someone's name publicly could result in damage to that person, such as some of those folks getting fired from their airlines. Frankly, if that happens, DM deserves the lawsuit it would quite likely receive.

The fact that they went live with an update that reveals people's real names and doesn't provide any copyright protection for photographers tells you all you need to know about their attitude towards users' contributions to driving traffic to the site. Enjoy the 13-year-olds yelling about whether the 757 line might be restarted, folks, because that's soon all you'll have left.

26decals · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:55 am

FlyPIJets wrote:
The photo search function has lost a lot of usability. Cant search by location, can't search by year of photo, can't search by aircraft type. Can't search by airline. That is awful. I mean if you have a site that curates aircraft photos, accessing those photo is something you should be good at.

Seconded , the dropdowns were so much more user friendly.

rheinwaldner · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:57 am

Very dissapointed... Its like being punished for no reason... What did we wrong?

Miss the flags, the user ratings, the "select to quote"-feature

flipdewaf · Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:59 am

Did it need an upgrade?
1. Why do I need to be reminded what the topic was in a font 15 times the size of the users name on every post, I know what the topic is, I'm reading it (well trying to anyway.
2.why remove the collapsible posts feature?
3.why remove the quote highlighted text feature, possibly one of the most unique and useful features of the old site.
4. Isn't it well known that its easier to read light text on dark background?
5. Little pics next to people's names because, you know, if there isn't something twinkling to distract me I might turn into an adult.
6. Pages, what the actual duck! The only forum around where a thread is a thread still and you decide to break it up, not cool.
7. Not being able to post if another reply has been made? Goodbye to any nice long technical or insightful posts.

It seems to me that this update was approached by saying "what forum software could we use" and then working around itty rather than "what do we want this forum to be like, how do we make so"

Hopefully the forum software can be updated to something unique otherwise it'll be just a other website instead of something unique.

Free

cat3appr50 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:03 am

IMO the original format, presentation, and condensed, user-friendly layout was much better.
Way too much white space and seeming lack of organized content now. Obviously much more page space used for ads now, which are overwhelming, and noticeably reduced "content" per page.
Prefer the original format.

IADCA · Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:10 am

flipdewaf wrote:
Did it need an upgrade?
1. Why do I need to be reminded what the topic was in a font 15 times the size of the users name on every post, I know what the topic is, I'm reading it (well trying to anyway.
2.why remove the collapsible posts feature?
3.why remove the quote highlighted text feature, possibly one of the most unique and useful features of the old site.
4. Isn't it well known that its easier to read light text on dark background?
5. Little pics next to people's names because, you know, if there isn't something twinkling to distract me I might turn into an adult.
6. Pages, what the actual duck! The only forum around where a thread is a thread still and you decide to break it up, not cool.
7. Not being able to post if another reply has been made? Goodbye to any nice long technical or insightful posts.

It seems to me that this update was approached by saying "what forum software could we use" and then working around itty rather than "what do we want this forum to be like, how do we make so"

Hopefully the forum software can be updated to something unique otherwise it'll be just a other website instead of something unique.

Free

You really should remove your real name from your profile, just FYI. Don't shoot the messenger.

LandSweetLand · Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:10 am

As far as the appearance, not a fan of it, but they should be able to get a PHPBB skin made that mostly looks like the old forum.

PanAm_DC10 wrote:
The copyright banner will be returned to images, the developers are working on the issue now, that said, I can't provide you with an exact date when they will reappear but it should not be too long. Thanks for your patience whilst they work on this for you.
Regards
Paul

Should be fairly quick to do with ImageMagick.

IADCA wrote:
The fact that they went live with an update that reveals people's real names ...

Wait... what?

IADCA · Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:16 am

LandSweetLand wrote:
As far as the appearance, not a fan of it, but they should be able to get a PHPBB skin made that mostly looks like the old forum.

PanAm_DC10 wrote:
The copyright banner will be returned to images, the developers are working on the issue now, that said, I can't provide you with an exact date when they will reappear but it should not be too long. Thanks for your patience whilst they work on this for you.
Regards
Paul

Should be fairly quick to do with ImageMagick.

IADCA wrote:
The fact that they went live with an update that reveals people's real names ...

Wait... what?

You might want to do the same, especially with such a unique name. Again, I'm not hacking or doing anything illegal - simply typing in the address bar at the top of the page. This is absolutely ridiculous and must be fixed before someone with actual malicious intent decides to do the same.

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