Airliners.net Site Upgrade Announcement & Discussion

alberchico · Mon Jul 11, 2016 3:17 pm

ssteve wrote:
JohnKrist wrote:
Black/gray on white has been the norm for 4.000 years and still is the norm all over the internet, change will come...

Like hell is light gray on white a norm anywhere.

The text should have been a lot darker from day one. That is the one legitimate gripe I have with this new layout. I am honestly surprised how the developers never picked up on that before this site went live.

BTW are they still going to use PhpBB or will they switch to something more user friendly like vBulletin ?

headlessmike · Mon Jul 11, 2016 3:34 pm

I am not able to log in to the new site from my iPad mini running iOS 9.3.2. For some reason it works fine every time from my larger iPad, even though they have the same resolution (1536x2048 in portrait, but as far as the website is concerned 768x1024). I suspect that the menu button in the top right corner is to small to tap on on the 7.9" display. I recall that I managed once a couple of weeks ago, but have note been able to since.

Mon Jul 11, 2016 3:54 pm

Did you try on airliners front page, the icon is not clickable on the forum pages, an issue that has been reported to the devs

SabreHog · Mon Jul 11, 2016 4:19 pm

I know this is one thing out of a lot, but I can't figure out what this:

is supposed to be? It doesn't look like anything representing an airplane I've ever seen.

Also, is there any plan to enable "go back to where you were" after login, because that's actually a useful feature, and I was pretty annoyed to have to find my way back here just to post this.

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 4:23 pm

SabreHog wrote:
I know this is one thing out of a lot, but I can't figure out what this is supposed to be? It doesn't look like anything representing an airplane I've ever seen.

Also, is there any plan to enable "go back to where you were" after login, because that's actually a useful feature, and I was pretty annoyed to have to find my way back here just to post this.

- It's a paper plane
- I hope this will be the case when the new forum gets here.

ssteve · Mon Jul 11, 2016 5:15 pm

alberchico wrote:
ssteve wrote:
JohnKrist wrote:
Black/gray on white has been the norm for 4.000 years and still is the norm all over the internet, change will come...

Like hell is light gray on white a norm anywhere.

The text should have been a lot darker from day one. That is the one legitimate gripe I have with this new layout. I am honestly surprised how the developers never picked up on that before this site went live.

BTW are they still going to use PhpBB or will they switch to something more user friendly like vBulletin ?

No kidding. Sure, huge discussion sites like StackOverflow.com use a gray-n-white pallete, but if they have grey text on white, it's not for primary material.

phpbb seems to be what this is and will be.

Mon Jul 11, 2016 5:54 pm

Fonts and colours will be changed when we roll out the new theme

Smoketrails · Mon Jul 11, 2016 7:31 pm

Sorry if I am repeating a question but I still get the impression that the photos since the upgrade still lack quality!? They seem slightly out of focus?

Cheers

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 7:45 pm

Smoketrails wrote:
Sorry if I am repeating a question but I still get the impression that the photos since the upgrade still lack quality!? They seem slightly out of focus?

On the public pages, all photos are the same quality as they were uploaded in. And that's how we see them during screening as well, in their full quality.
Only in the photo corner they will look off, that's because it still needs to be modeled after the public pages. For those pages it's purely a cosmetic error though.

kulverstukas · Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:23 pm

airkas1 wrote:
Smoketrails wrote:
Sorry if I am repeating a question but I still get the impression that the photos since the upgrade still lack quality!? They seem slightly out of focus?

On the public pages, all photos are the same quality as they were uploaded in. And that's how we see them during screening as well, in their full quality.

Any resized photo, including those in rotation at main page and "thumbnails" which now too big to have "nails" in the name looks awful.

airkas1 wrote:
Only in the photo corner they will look off, that's because it still needs to be modeled after the public pages. For those pages it's purely a cosmetic error though.

Cosmetic? Inability to photographer to check rejected photo because it looks like a mess is just cosmetic?

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:36 pm

kulverstukas wrote:
kulverstukas:Any resized photo, including those in rotation at main page and "thumbnails" which now too big to have "nails" in the name looks awful.

I don't get what you're trying to say.

kulverstukas wrote:
kulverstukas:Cosmetic? Inability to photographer to check rejected photo because it looks like a mess is just cosmetic?[/color]

What do you mean?

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:21 pm

Ok cool, so the blue is finally here. Need to figure out this layout, be back.

thomasphoto60 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:29 pm

airkas1 wrote:
Ok cool, so the blue is finally here. Need to figure out this layout, be back.

Definitely a step "back" in the right direction, just a few more tweaks...

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:42 pm

I noticed there also is a 'forum FAQ', which can be found here:https://www.airliners.net/forum/faq.php (or see the top left). Lots of possible questions are explained there.

DeltaRules · Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:47 pm

Hooboy, this is a nice hybrid of old-school A.net and the re-design. Now we're cooking with Jet-A!

Nice job, admins!

kulverstukas · Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:48 pm

airkas1 wrote:
kulverstukas wrote:
kulverstukas:Any resized photo, including those in rotation at main page and "thumbnails" which now too big to have "nails" in the name looks awful.

I don't get what you're trying to say.

kulverstukas wrote:
kulverstukas:Cosmetic? Inability to photographer to check rejected photo because it looks like a mess is just cosmetic?[/color]

What do you mean?

Nothing. I think it's now a time to pull my photo from this site if what we see is direction you think A.net must "develops and improve".

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:52 pm

kulverstukas wrote:
Nothing. I think it's now a time to pull my photo from this site if what we see is direction you think A.net must "develops and improve".

Sorry, but I don't understand why you want to pull your photos. We are improving the site and this new forum is a good step in the right direction in my opinion.
As for the photo quality of the photos in the photo corner, that will get fixed once that part is updated, just like we did with the public pages. Just like the cut-off thumbnails and weird looking portrait photos will get fixed.

nilsu · Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:53 pm

Colors and layout have much improved. Found many little things already that have changed for the better.
Thanks for that!

SpaceshipDC10 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:59 pm

I return and find the new version which I find way better than what was put online four weeks ago.

What I like:
- no more thread title displayed on each and every replies.
- of course the colors.
- the font size
- date members joined the forum displayed
- number of posts
- both the above can be clues as to how far the member has been involved in discussions and how much in the know he/she may be
- replies numbering

What I'm not sure about:
- the size of that member's square at left with its name, picture, number of posts and date he/she joined.

What I miss:
- replies numbers appearing when quoting, at least it seems so.

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:01 pm

@Kulverstukas, the forum colors were a big problem for the active forum users and it has now been addressed. Next up are photo-related issues. Everything will get sorted. However, you're entitled to your opinion.

@SpaceShipDC10, thanks for the suggestions, will pass them on.

Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:02 pm

kulverstukas wrote:
New" A.net problems are not in pantone color of forum background

So, please enlighten us of what you consider to be the main issues? Issues that has not been stated that we will fix? A lot of things got fixed with this update, and more is coming. One step att the time...

Tugger · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:03 pm

Nice change! Thank you!

I see the other little tweaks and changes (probably not little in the background work needed) too. Trying to reduce the square footage and tightening up the thread length, moving the avatars to the right, etc.

I am sure you will now get new grief for the new changes but it is definitely better.

Tugg

Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:06 pm

Tugger wrote:
I am sure you will now get new grief for the new changes but it is definitely better.

Likely yes, and I'll reply the stubborn way I always do...
Another thing fixed, the forum legend now has "Aviation Forums" so you can get to forum mainpage in a jiffy, I sorely missed that one.

mariner · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:08 pm

airkas1 wrote:
Ok cool, so the blue is finally here. Need to figure out this layout, be back.

For the "blue" crowd, perhaps, but already there are a few things from the recent "white" site that I miss - LOL - and I dunno why this reply is in light grey rather than the white.

mariner

Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:11 pm

mariner wrote:
For the "blue" crowd, perhaps, but already there are a few things from the recent "white" site that I miss - LOL - and I dunno why this reply is in light grey rather than the white.

mariner

mariner, phpbb allows for more than one theme and users can choose the theme they prefer, I hope that will be implemented in the future

mariner · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:15 pm

JohnKrist wrote:
mariner wrote:
For the "blue" crowd, perhaps, but already there are a few things from the recent "white" site that I miss - LOL - and I dunno why this reply is in light grey rather than the white.

mariner

mariner, phpbb allows for more than one theme and users can choose the theme they prefer, I hope that will be implemented in the future

I understand that, but I didn't choose anything different for the reply and it came up in the grey, with a bar to the left of it, as I were quoting both Airkas1 and myself. Huh?
I'll either figure it out or live with it, and we'll see what happens with this reply.
mariner

edit: which, happily, seems to have worked. :-)

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:17 pm

reply numbers not appearing when quoting

Developer reply: There's a WYSIWYG editor integrated with our theme update, but I'm going to go ahead and disable that for now as I think that may be the cause of any quoted text issues.

N1120A · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:17 pm

The colors are an improvement over the migraine-inducing disaster at the start, but there is still WAY too much wasted space and no post compression. Seriously - just go back to the previous design. Also, the front page is still the cheap looking mess it has been from the start.

...Oh, and I also am going to have to repeatedly hit "submit" until someone doesn't make an intervening post. This is an incredibly annoying feature and something you need to fix right away.

bombayduck · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:18 pm

Yes now we are talking, this is much easier on the old eye balls.

Tugger · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:20 pm

One thing, the "Airliners.net" (glad to have it back ;-)

) should be returned to the top center position and the new "Forums" drop down menu that was at the top is now missing from the header. I had come to quite like that small change, very quick and efficient way to move between forums.

Tugg

Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:20 pm

removed as info no longer is valid

kulverstukas · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:22 pm

JohnKrist wrote:
kulverstukas wrote:
New" A.net problems are not in pantone color of forum background

So, please enlighten us of what you consider to be the main issues? Issues that has not been stated that we will fix? A lot of things got fixed with this update, and more is coming. One step att the time...

I can't, my post suggested inappropriate by Kas and deleted.
PS: Quoting mechanism is broken in new skin, at least in IE11.

SpaceshipDC10 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:22 pm

Another plus that wasn't there before or I didn't notice until now, the access to "Private messages". Way better than it was on the old site, especially the archives accessible in just one click.

Quotes in replies could do with a different color me think. Another aspect that I miss is the "check for new replies" button.

All in all thank you guys, thanks for all the upgrades following our feed backs, complains and whining due to the shock after the "death" of the old A.net.

N1120A · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:24 pm

kulverstukas wrote:
JohnKrist wrote:
kulverstukas wrote:
New" A.net problems are not in pantone color of forum background

So, please enlighten us of what you consider to be the main issues? Issues that has not been stated that we will fix? A lot of things got fixed with this update, and more is coming. One step att the time...

I can't, my post suggested inappropriate by Kas and deleted.
PS: Quoting mechanism is broken in new skin, at least in IE11.

If you are going to engage in malicious censorship, it will be impossible for people to give unclouded views of this trainwreck you folks have created. Stop that.

airkas1 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:28 pm

kulverstukas wrote:
JohnKrist wrote:
kulverstukas wrote:
New" A.net problems are not in pantone color of forum background

So, please enlighten us of what you consider to be the main issues? Issues that has not been stated that we will fix? A lot of things got fixed with this update, and more is coming. One step att the time...

I can't, my post suggested inappropriate by Kas and deleted.

The only problem I had with your post was that you were summing up a lot of other aviation websites people could go to in stead of A.net. I found that in poor taste and apparently the moderator who deleted the post agreed with me. Feel free to post anything else.

Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:32 pm

airkas1 wrote:
kulverstukas wrote:
JohnKrist wrote:
So, please enlighten us of what you consider to be the main issues? Issues that has not been stated that we will fix? A lot of things got fixed with this update, and more is coming. One step att the time...

I can't, my post suggested inappropriate by Kas and deleted.

The only problem I had with your post was that you were summing up a lot of other aviation websites people could go to in stead of A.net. I found that in poor taste and apparently the moderator who deleted the post agreed with me. Feel free to post anything else.

Kas, kulverstukas post that we both quoted and referenced seems gone, which is the one he refers to in this case?

Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:59 pm

Tugger wrote:
One thing, the "Airliners.net" (glad to have it back ) should be returned to the top center position and the new "Forums" drop down menu that was at the top is now missing from the header. I had come to quite like that small change, very quick and efficient way to move between forums.

Tugg

In the top right of the forum there is small icon that contains the different sections, not as obvious as before. But with the new forum legend that contains a link to forum start page it's not as necessary as it was before. It looked good though

ZeeZoo · Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:00 pm

Nice, very nice on the forum colours. Instantly changes the mood. And well done on adding a silhouette of a human rather than skull as the default profile pic.

Again, I know there are more pressing matters, but please, please do bring back the flags once all the major issues have been ironed out. It added another element + colour to the forum.

ZeeZoo · Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:05 pm

Also, has the number of posts per page increased too? Looking back at the last page and there are 50 posts worth on one page. If it is a new change, that is very welcome too!

Well done so far, guys!

Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:06 pm

ZeeZoo, we have that on our wish list, and I agree it was a nice feature.

Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:08 pm

ZeeZoo wrote:
Also, has the number of posts per page increased too? Looking back at the last page and there are 50 posts worth on one page. If it is a new change, that is very welcome too!

Well done so far, guys!

It has been 50 per page since day two, one of the first things that were fixed after the roll out

mariner · Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:09 pm

mariner wrote:
For the "blue" crowd, perhaps, but already there are a few things from the recent "white" site that I miss - LOL - and I dunno why this reply is in light grey rather than the white.

mariner

A new icon has appeared which foxes me. To the left of each thread there is an icon that looks like the page of a book and tells me if there are unread posts - yay!

But sometimes it is a different icon, which I can only describe as an Irish harp. Why the difference?

mariner

jumbojim747 · Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:16 pm

We have blue .
Nice to see the blue back .
A bit easier on the eyes well done guys.
Keep the tweeks comming

Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:17 pm

mariner wrote:
mariner wrote:
For the "blue" crowd, perhaps, but already there are a few things from the recent "white" site that I miss - LOL - and I dunno why this reply is in light grey rather than the white.

mariner

A new icon has appeared which foxes me. To the left of each thread there is an icon that looks like the page of a book and tells me if there are unread posts - yay!

But sometimes it is a different icon, which I can only describe as an Irish harp. Why the difference?

mariner

That's the icon for Hot Topic, a topic that has received a lot of replies in a short time.

Also, easier to get to the first unread post, click the icon, pin, hot or book, no more asterisk

Tugger · Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:19 pm

JohnKrist wrote:
Tugger wrote:
One thing, the "Airliners.net" (glad to have it back ) should be returned to the top center position and the new "Forums" drop down menu that was at the top is now missing from the header. I had come to quite like that small change, very quick and efficient way to move between forums.

Tugg

In the top right of the forum there is small icon that contains the different sections, not as obvious as before. But with the new forum legend that contains a link to forum start page it's not as necessary as it was before. It looked good though

Hmmm... Well the main Airliners page still has it the way it was, just to the left of the "AIRLINERS" site title. But the forum pages are all the new way.

Tugg

Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:22 pm

Tugg, changes will be made to first page as well so that might change. But a direct selection of section is needed there as well so we'll see

ZeeZoo · Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:34 pm

JohnKrist wrote:
ZeeZoo wrote:
Also, has the number of posts per page increased too? Looking back at the last page and there are 50 posts worth on one page. If it is a new change, that is very welcome too!

Well done so far, guys!

It has been 50 per page since day two, one of the first things that were fixed after the roll out

Didn't notice, maybe was too busy with cackling at the dismay and way OTT reactions by some on here.

EDIT: To be honest, even I went OTT looking back at my post. But well done guys on rectifying your mistake. Surely you must have seen that the other theme was dire.

PITingres · Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:47 pm

Ok, the blue is definitely an improvement. Keep at it, though, because it's still wasting way too much vertical space. I'm here for content, not cutesy avatars or stylish design.

It's going in the right direction though, thanks. Don't stop now!

mariner · Tue Jul 12, 2016 12:17 am

JohnKrist wrote:
Also, easier to get to the first unread post, click the icon, pin, hot or book, no more asterisk

You say that like it's a good thing, but I had quickly learned to love the asterisk - LOL.

mariner

82029 · Tue Jul 12, 2016 12:30 am

Wow! The forums look so much nicer with the "classic" blue back! Thanks to all those who have helped to bring back some originality of the old site!

I have some suggestions though:

The actual post-background-color used in the old forums should be used instead of close matches which are currently being used. For example the dark blue color for each post is currently using color #1D364C and should be changed to #1B374C to be an exact match of the old forums. Also the old forums interchanged between two colors for posts: #1B374C and #1E3D54.

For example:
Post #1 -> background color = #1B374C
Post #2 -> background color = #1E3D54
Post #3 -> background color = #1B374C
Post #4 -> background color = #1E3D54

As for the interchanging colors I'm not sure if that's possible to implement but if it is then that would be awesome!

Font size should be slightly smaller. I tried playing around with Firefox's "Inspect Element" feature and when I adjusted the font size from "10" to "9" the font size looked just like on the old forums.

It's awesome that we have a "Quick Reply" at the bottom of threads now but if the box where we type in could have the blue color too! Currently it uses color #EFEFEF and should be changed to #1E3D54 to resemble the old forums. "Post a Reply" editor (the full editor) should also have a background color of #1E3D54 instead of #E7E7E7.

Is it possible to have the full editor below the posts in a thread rather than a "Quick Reply"?

In each post on the left where the avatar is located the box color could be #1E3D54 rather than #213E57. The main "blues" that A.net used to use were #1B374C and #1E3D54 so as #213E57 closely resembles #1E3D54, #1E3D54 should be used IMO.

"Last edited by" beneath posts displays in a yellow box which should be transparent and in a smaller font.

Spacing should be tightened up to keep things more compressed so that more can been seen. For example a users signature has a line many pixels above the signature which takes up a lot of space! Also beneath the time of each post is a lot of space before a line.

Signature color should be #A3ACB4 as it was on the old forums.

Time of post color should be #C4C8CC as it was on the old forums.

Bring back the old smilies? viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1336137 also https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... ilies-v3x/ has info on how phpbb can have custom smilies added.

Removal of the avatars? They look out of place as sometimes you'll see some non-aviation related things and it takes away from the experience IMO.

Like others have mentioned to have the flags back! This added a nice dimension to everything IMO.

These are basically just things to make the forums look as much as possible as the old A.net and most of these changes could easily be changed with an edit of a line of code so hopefully it can be done!

Thanks to all who are working to make A.net look like the old A.net!

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