Airliners.net Site Upgrade Announcement & Discussion

ricox · Sun Jun 26, 2016 8:14 pm

Seems that this site has less visit... Usually I had a certain number of view on some photos, last time in three days I had half number visit of a single day ... Sob sob you have broken my toy :-(

IslandRob · Sun Jun 26, 2016 8:58 pm

ricox wrote:
Seems that this site has less visit... Usually I had a certain number of view on some photos, last time in three days I had half number visit of a single day ... Sob sob you have broken my toy

Well, speaking for myself, I come here a LOT less often than before. And, it seems that many members who used to post prolifically are now silent. The site keeps logging me out (for no good reason), and the low contrast font/background scheme has begun to hurt my eyes. Both of these issues are very easy to fix (especially the autologout annoyance) - I don't understand the sloth in addressing them. -ir

PeterB · Sun Jun 26, 2016 9:35 pm

I have visited the website only occasionally the last two weeks because I couldn't read "It is on the fix list" anymore.

The "upgrade" is online for nearly two weeks, but only minor (on my personal priority list) changes have been performed. Does changing the color theme or fixing the photographers corner really take two weeks? Seriously? Where is the upload queue? And more important: NEW PICTURES STILL DO NOT CONTAIN THE COPYRIGHT BAR.

I still don't get why the new website was released as an alpha version.

PS: Please don't tell me that there is an interim color theme available. I know that it is available.

canyonblue17 · Sun Jun 26, 2016 10:43 pm

No copyright bar on my last two uploads. This is a serious issue. I thought it had already been addressed. Please help.

fortytwoeyes · Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:10 am

RobertS975 wrote:
Dare I say the name, but what is wrong with the board model used by FlyerTalk. That platform is also used by pprune.org as well.

They are using old, and possibly soon unsupported versions of vBulletin. It would have been nonsensical to migrate the site to one of those, and then have to do another major upgrade in the near future. Using the current vBulletin 5 would have been an option, but that comes with its own set of problems, many of which are worse than what we are seeing here.

alberchico · Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:05 am

IslandRob wrote:
ricox wrote:
Seems that this site has less visit... Usually I had a certain number of view on some photos, last time in three days I had half number visit of a single day ... Sob sob you have broken my toy

Well, speaking for myself, I come here a LOT less often than before. And, it seems that many members who used to post prolifically are now silent. The site keeps logging me out (for no good reason), and the low contrast font/background scheme has begun to hurt my eyes. Both of these issues are very easy to fix (especially the autologout annoyance) - I don't understand the sloth in addressing them. -ir

I can't still believe such a flawed site riddled with glitches was allowed to go live. Honestly no matter what the apologists here say, that was a total failure on Demand Media's part. :evil:

Viscount724 · Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:23 am

Scorpio wrote:
Oh happy happy joy joy! Just lost an entire post because when I pressed send I got redirected to the login screen. And instead of letting me post the reply after logging in for the umpteenth time, I was redirected to the homepage and my entire post was gone.

Fantastic! I refuse to believe it takes nearly two weeks to resolve an issue as simple as members not staying logged in.

Fix it already!

I've been kicked out had had to log in again about 4 times in the past hour. First time I've had that problem with the new site. Apart from the readability issues, I actually was fairly pleased with the reliability of the new site. However, after losing several forum replies and having to start over, I hope this problem can be fixed soon.

Viscount724 · Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:38 am

DIRECTFLT wrote:
Viscount724 wrote:

One other comment is that it's unfortunate the site permits "signatures". I've noted that many members now have signatures (the lines of text below the horizontal line below their forum posts) with often several lines of text. I don't know what purpose that serves except to require even more scrolling which is a problem with the new site even without the signatures.

Signatures are absolutely no problem at all... You simply turn them "Off" from displaying.

Log In, Go To FORUMS, Select the "Welcome, Your User Name Area" in the upper right hand area of the page, then:
Choose User Control Panel/Board Preferences/Edit Display Options/Display Signature - Select "No" - Then Scroll to the bottom of the Page and Press "Submit", and you're done !

Thanks. I didn't know those options existed. It would probably help reduce the number of questions if there was a decent "Help" section you could go to first to cover all these issues that have changed from the old site.

Another question: Why can we no longer access other member's profile data such as age and whatever other info they may have included re their jobs etc? I always found that interesting and often useful.

enilria · Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:41 am

ricox wrote:
Seems that this site has less visit... Usually I had a certain number of view on some photos, last time in three days I had half number visit of a single day ... Sob sob you have broken my toy

I agree. Visitors are way down. I'm going to evaluate what other sites there are. The quoting system is nearly unusable and that's the lifeblood of this type of site.

enilria · Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:43 am

Viscount724 wrote:
Scorpio wrote:

Fix it already!

I've been kicked out had had to log in again about 4 times in the past hour.

Yes, that also sucks horribly. It signs you out between every post and then doesn't return you to where you were. What exactly is better about this software vs the old site? I'm not aware of anything core that is better.

mariner · Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:05 am

Viscount724 wrote:
I've been kicked out had had to log in again about 4 times in the past hour. First time I've had that problem with the new site. Apart from the readability issues, I actually was fairly pleased with the reliability of the new site. However, after losing several forum replies and having to start over, I hope this problem can be fixed soon.

I agree it's been erratic, but this morning I logged in as my first port of call, then whizzed around the internet and each time I came back to a.net I was still logged in.

At one point, I had to restart my computer (a problem on another web-site) when I came back to a.net I was still logged in. So I was mildly surprised when - eventually, after about five hours - a.net logged me out.

mariner

RottenRay · Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:45 am

scbriml wrote:
jumbojim747 wrote:
Ill keep it plain and simple.
Bring back the old site thank you .

I'll keep it plain and simple.

The old site ain't coming back. We have a new site, it's far from perfect just now, but it will get better. Embrace it and move on.

Well, a lot of folks have taken your 2nd nugget of advice.

Having installed phpBB about 20 times over the last 6 years, I find it amazing that DM can't scoop up an intern to fix the rather simple problems like persistent login, a style sheet that fails differently on each major platform, and menu items that don't work because of newbie javascript errors.

I get the feeling that the $17 dollars they paid for this amateur skin is about the limit they're willing to spend on this site.

alberchico · Mon Jun 27, 2016 4:03 am

Can they at least tweak the site so the words appear a bit darker like on other websites making it a bit easier on the eyes ? Seriously I am not an old man and you're killing me here...... :evil:

Ytraveller · Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:52 am

HGL wrote:
Among all the compliant and to a certain extent justifiable criticism, I would like to extend some words of thanks to airkas1 and Revelation for the efforts they have made to assist those with questions.

It is also interesting to see the contrast in the reactions to the changes. On the one hand you have those who spit the dummy and on the other those who are willing to make an effort to learn how to use the new site.

I can think of one member in particular, an older on compared to many of us, who you might think would give up. Yet he has shown a spirit of enquiry, tried things out, clicking here and clicking there, asking for help and learned things along the way. In contrast younger members are the ones most loudly complaining.

In an aviation forum I would have expected that spirit of enquiry and adventure to be more commonplace but for the most part people appear not to like change - any change despite it being so necessary. The old site may have "looked nice" but in many ways it simply didn't work, with constant error messages and outages.

Yes there are problems with the present site (and clearly it was launched before it was ready) but those issues are being addressed. They might even be solved quicker if the same points weren't raised again and again without posters having not read previous replies.

Great post.

kulverstukas · Mon Jun 27, 2016 8:41 am

Steady...

ricox · Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:31 pm

Ytraveller wrote:
HGL wrote:
Among all the compliant and to a certain extent justifiable criticism, I would like to extend some words of thanks to airkas1 and Revelation for the efforts they have made to assist those with questions.

It is also interesting to see the contrast in the reactions to the changes. On the one hand you have those who spit the dummy and on the other those who are willing to make an effort to learn how to use the new site.

I can think of one member in particular, an older on compared to many of us, who you might think would give up. Yet he has shown a spirit of enquiry, tried things out, clicking here and clicking there, asking for help and learned things along the way. In contrast younger members are the ones most loudly complaining.

In an aviation forum I would have expected that spirit of enquiry and adventure to be more commonplace but for the most part people appear not to like change - any change despite it being so necessary. The old site may have "looked nice" but in many ways it simply didn't work, with constant error messages and outages.

Yes there are problems with the present site (and clearly it was launched before it was ready) but those issues are being addressed. They might even be solved quicker if the same points weren't raised again and again without posters having not read previous replies.

Great post.

Don't forget that someone make money behind this site.... and no one of us is payed as beta tester... instead we let our pictures for free ... for me is a game... now no more funny :evil:

Anyway thanks to airkas1 and company... it seems that also they are in difficulties...

enilria · Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:40 pm

kulverstukas wrote:

Steady...

Steady? Looks like steadily down...

DennisK · Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:00 pm

Hi,

following problem : front page - airliners headlines - click on the Italy air force 767 picture - error 404 https://www.airliners.net/photo-details/2834143

All other pictures works fine.

With best regards

flymia · Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:03 pm

ricox wrote:
Seems that this site has less visit... Usually I had a certain number of view on some photos, last time in three days I had half number visit of a single day ... Sob sob you have broken my toy

Certainly. Forum is not as active. I visit a few times a week, instead of a few times a day. The current forum is just not conducive for worldwide 24 hours 365 days a year news anymore.

I don't know whats its good for. Maybe silly Airbus vs. Boeing debates. The old format was perfect for the type of site it was. Informative. I am sorry but I much rather have Part 2-10 of a thread than click and scroll and click and scroll and click and scroll through 15 pages. That is not a good way to gather information.

komuszny · Mon Jun 27, 2016 4:32 pm

Old Airliners website for me was like home. For many years, every day I spent a lot of time on looking to the photos. When about 5 years ago my first photo was accepted, I was really happy!
Since this time, I have more than 1000 photos accepted and now I'm really confused about new design of this site. It is nor clear for me, It's like a toy for children or facebook for youngsters. If I want to use facebook, I log in to that site. Here I want to have the best (and the best quality photos) website all over the world. And It was the best, but now it isn't.
Most of the features are no longer available (eg. photo statistics, upload queue statistics. Viewing of photos and photo search engine are worse than in the old site.
I don't want to upload my photos here anymore if this site will look like now. I agree to other users to bring back old site.
Kind regards.

flynlr · Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:46 pm

getting tired of having to login almost every visit. something that simple should be addressed before going live. yes I have clicked the keep me logged in button. there is a lot to like with the new forum and just about as much not to like.

airkas1 · Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:13 pm

komuszny wrote:
Here I want to have the best (and the best quality photos) website all over the world.

You still have. It's just wrapped in a different jacket.

Most of the features are no longer available (eg. photo statistics, upload queue statistics.

However all of those will be coming back.

Viewing of photos and photo search engine are worse than in the old site.

Viewing of photos will improve too (registration and remark with the thumbnail). And why do you say the search engine is worse? If you give an example or can't find something, I'm happy to explain to you (or anyone else) how to achieve the desired result.

I agree to other users to bring back old site.

Sorry for bursting the bubble for you all, but there is no going back to the old site.

diverted · Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:32 pm

Just logged in again after a week...noticed now there's ads in between people's replies...currently getting a video ad in between OP and reply #1 in the smoking on planes thread posted by AlitaliaA346.

Also, I thought the blue was supposed to come back by the end of last week. :roll:

Anyways, I figured I'd just take a break and hold out hope. Appears that that was a waste of time.

Anyways, this was a great place back in the day, and I very much enjoyed hearing what people had to say, news, rumours, gaining knowledge from long time users, and getting to share my knowledge.

Cheers folks. It was good while it lasted

silverjub · Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:45 pm

Hurrah I thought now the last 24 hours pics which I always liked. (or maybe I just didn't see the not so obvious links. ) Problem is I have now had the same photos for past three days !!

airkas1 · Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:54 pm

silverjub wrote:
Hurrah I thought now the last 24 hours pics which I always liked. (or maybe I just didn't see the not so obvious links. ) Problem is I have now had the same photos for past three days !!

If you're talking about the featured photographers, this is on the fix list. If you're not, please clarify?

sbworcs · Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:12 pm

Have posted about this and emailed a query but nithing back. I can't change my email address as every time I click the link to verify i get an error messsge . Can this be sorted please as I need my correct one to be used.

airkas1 · Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:15 pm

sbworcs wrote:
Have posted about this and emailed a query but nithing back. I can't change my email address as every time I click the link to verify i get an error messsge . Can this be sorted please as I need my correct one to be used.

It's on the list as high priority. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

sbworcs · Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:23 pm

airkas1 wrote:
sbworcs wrote:
Have posted about this and emailed a query but nithing back. I can't change my email address as every time I click the link to verify i get an error messsge . Can this be sorted please as I need my correct one to be used.

It's on the list as high priority. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

Thanks. Did not see it on the list

airkas1 · Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:30 pm

sbworcs wrote:
airkas1 wrote:
sbworcs wrote:
Have posted about this and emailed a query but nithing back. I can't change my email address as every time I click the link to verify i get an error messsge . Can this be sorted please as I need my correct one to be used.

It's on the list as high priority. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

Thanks. Did not see it on the list

The list is not public. What I post in the other thread (issues FAQ) are the resolved issues.

Alex22 · Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:43 pm

Please get rid of the video adds - I haven't been complaining for now as I don't feel like kicking a dying dog but this is just too much
Demand Media has NO excuse about it - it's distracting as hell, annoying sound - No other aviation site has them, what did the people at Demand Media been thinking ???? Oh yeah, just another hint of what really matters for them...

Volunteer crew, I feel really bad for you guys :-(

Alex

jetjeanes · Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:02 pm

didnt airliners have a second site similar to this before all the crazy changes took place,,, im totally lost, i used to scan for a topic of interest , but i dont know whats going on anymore :twisted:

airkas1 · Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:04 pm

jetjeanes wrote:
didnt airliners have a second site similar to this before all the crazy changes took place,,, im totally lost, i used to scan for a topic of interest , but i dont know whats going on anymore

That would be myaviation. But that no longer exists I think?

I can imagine you might feel a bit lost at first, but once you get used to it it's fine. I notice I'm already getting more and more settled by the day. Plus some changes will still be made to the layour for easier viewing.

EC135C · Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:25 pm

I have changed my home page to another aviation forum. The "new" Airliners.net format does not work for me.

HPRamper · Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:27 pm

I'm slowly getting used to the new details, but one item sorely needed is a persistent login. No matter how many times I've visited, logged in and clicked "remember me", with every visit I'm required to log in again. At least a two-week login window would be nice again, if not a permanent one.

alberchico · Tue Jun 28, 2016 2:01 am

HPRamper wrote:
I'm slowly getting used to the new details, but one item sorely needed is a persistent login.

A tweak to the site to display some darker colored text on this white background wouldn't hurt either....

AA737-823 · Tue Jun 28, 2016 3:47 am

I think I speak for many of us, though I have a bit more positive attitude, when I say the following:
I GET that the old forum needed to be updated. I UNDERSTAND that it was outdated- please, no one waste breath explaining that any further.
What is NOT acceptable is that this site was launched with so many BLATANT problems. It's quite clear that those who implemented it had, perhaps, never spent and hour or two using the old site.
Further, if the site is unable to reliably attach COPYRIGHT info to the photos, you need to shut down the photos section. Because if a photog's photo gets stolen in that time period, you're going to get your asses sued off. And you'll lose that lawsuit.

The REAL problem is that you guys (not you, AirKas1, you've obviously been given the responsibility of the only accountable crew member) have had TWO WEEKS to fix this stuff, and there is NO visible progress. Yeah, I keep reading that list of resolved issues... but I'm not impressed. We still have a forum that borders on illegible (seriously, five clicks of a developer's mouse to fix that? Five clicks, anyone???), and logging in is STILL not persistent, and takes me to the a.net homepage (again, how many clicks to fix that problem?? Six?)

I've asked the same question in TWO threads, and have been completely ignored. WHERE is the "view photos since last visit" option? THAT is what I come here for, several times a day. It's the whole gist of the photo database!

So, what we have here is a great lesson on how NOT to implement an update.

I'm not asking for hundreds of hours of beta testing. I'm asking for, "Gee guys, does this website offer the stuff that people come here for?"
Because this implementation doesn't.
I'm sure I'm not "leaving the site forever," because that's kinda silly. But I gotta tell you, Jetphotos.net is looking more and more like what I want, forums or not.

DocLightning · Tue Jun 28, 2016 3:55 am

I am still getting kicked off the site multiple times per day, often while I'm trying to write a reply.

The color of the site is still not changed.

There is still no way to edit the number of replies shown per page.

ManagerJosh · Tue Jun 28, 2016 5:01 am

So I know my registration information is brand new, but I have been a long time lurker since the 2000s and I am a webmaster.

From my own personal experience, phpBB is a nightmare to administer and maintain. So much of a problem that I am not surprised Demand Media is having issues trying to port over functionality, sustain it, and scale it properly.

I suspect the free price tag was too good to pass up only and Demand Media rushed to adopt such a platform only to realize they lack the support they need to sustain a website property of this magnitude.

I have watched the roll out the last couple of weeks and I can not in good conscious sit idlely by knowing that I have some skills that can help the community out. Plus watching Demand Media going all squirrelly on A.nutters here committing to timelines they are unable to keep. (I am still waiting for that dark coloured theme to be released according to several posts last week)

To that end, I will be building a competing site and I intend to go live in 72 hours. I will be emulating as much functionality I can muster in that timeline and I will continue to add functionality as fast as I reasonably can.

airkas1 · Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:02 am

DocLightning wrote:
I am still getting kicked off the site multiple times per day, often while I'm trying to write a reply.

The sign in issue hasn't been resolved yet, but the below quote should be solved now:

- "Oh happy happy joy joy! Just lost an entire post because when I pressed send I got redirected to the login screen. And instead of letting me post the reply after logging in for the umpteenth time, I was redirected to the homepage and my entire post was gone."

This was the status as of last night 21:05 UTC. Could you please confirm if you got kicked off during the reply and subsequently losing the reply since that time?
Goes for you and anyone else. So I'm not asking about the log in issues, but losing the post etc.

ricox · Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:02 am

If I remember well, in the old site, when I was logged in, clicking on a photo, it was automatically opened in a new tab of my browser, now no ...
this functionality was very comfortable, every morning I clicked on all top 5 and I had 5 new tab with pic in hi res ... now I have to right click and choose "open in a new tab" ....
Thanks

airkas1 · Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:28 am

ricox wrote:
If I remember well, in the old site, when I was logged in, clicking on a photo, it was automatically opened in a new tab of my browser, now no ...
this functionality was very comfortable, every morning I clicked on all top 5 and I had 5 new tab with pic in hi res ... now I have to right click and choose "open in a new tab" .... Thanks

I agree, so I put it on the list a while ago. But realtively low priority compared to other more pressing issues.

texas80 · Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:36 am

I guess a positive about the new site is that I "waste" much less time out of my day looking at planes. Since the new site is painful to navigate, I visit it much less than before.

kulverstukas · Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:44 am

airkas1 wrote:

I can imagine you might feel a bit lost at first, but once you get used to it it's fine. I notice I'm already getting more and more settled by the day. Plus some changes will still be made to the layour for easier viewing.

"They cut my left leg and right arm off, and in the beginning it was very difficult to live. But now I getting more and more settled by the day. Plus they promise me new walking stick and pirates hook. I even found some improvements in my current state - at least I can spend a half on boots and gloves now!"

I also want to note that even with photo engine problem for public pages solved (including firs page?) photos still looks different from what I used to at the old site. May be it's white background, but them looks washed out and low contrast at all resolutions, plus soft at middle size and oversharpened at small ones.

ricox · Tue Jun 28, 2016 10:02 am

When I scroll my Accepted photos in Photo corner, I notice that, for the photos accepted before the site "upgrade", is reported a strange Upload date ... in my case today these photos have an Upload Date "Date Uploaded: 2016-06-28 03:01 AM" but seems changing whit the time ....

FYODOR · Tue Jun 28, 2016 10:17 am

https://www.airliners.net/index/aircraft-types - aircraft types statistic shows numbr of 'Versions' (can't say what does it mean) instead of 'Photos'.

airkas1 · Tue Jun 28, 2016 10:59 am

ricox wrote:
When I scroll my Accepted photos in Photo corner, I notice that, for the photos accepted before the site "upgrade", is reported a strange Upload date ... in my case today these photos have an Upload Date "Date Uploaded: 2016-06-28 03:01 AM" but seems changing whit the time ....

I'm unable to reproduce this. For photos uploaded and accepted before the site migration, it just shows the date and time of acceptance for me.

FYODOR wrote:
https://www.airliners.net/index/aircraft-types - aircraft types statistic shows numbr of 'Versions' (can't say what does it mean) instead of 'Photos'.

Thanks Fyodor! Will put it on the list.

bombayduck · Tue Jun 28, 2016 11:49 am

I have the same issue as ricox has reported. Every time you go to Photo corner no matter what time or day, it always shows the date of the day you look at your photos as the uploaded day. But, if then you click on one of your pictures to view all the details, it gives the true uploaded date for that image. I still have images waiting to be screened so I can`t tell if this "problem" still there.

PeterB · Tue Jun 28, 2016 12:11 pm

airkas1 wrote:
ricox wrote:
When I scroll my Accepted photos in Photo corner, I notice that, for the photos accepted before the site "upgrade", is reported a strange Upload date ... in my case today these photos have an Upload Date "Date Uploaded: 2016-06-28 03:01 AM" but seems changing whit the time ....

I'm unable to reproduce this. For photos uploaded and accepted before the site migration, it just shows the date and time of acceptance for me.

I have the same issue.
Edit: I HAD the same issue. Must have been fixed the last days.

What is the current status of the upload queue? Which photo ID is on top at the moment? I really need the upload queue back!

airkas1 · Tue Jun 28, 2016 12:23 pm

PeterB wrote:
What is the current status of the upload queue? Which photo ID is on top at the moment? I really need the upload queue back!

10.607 photos waiting to be screened. We can screen to almost full capacity, but we are missing some manpower and the disabled upload limit makes our work much harder as well (new and unknowing people now upload clear rejections). ID #2848787 is the first in line at the moment of writing.

scbriml · Tue Jun 28, 2016 12:41 pm

airkas1 wrote:
10.607 photos waiting to be screened. We can screen to almost full capacity, but we are missing some manpower and the disabled upload limit makes our work much harder as well (new and unknowing people now upload clear rejections). ID #2848787 is the first in line at the moment of writing.

I hope you're aware that newly accepted images appear to be missing the copyright bar again?

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