Airliners.net Site Upgrade Announcement & Discussion

goosebayguy · Tue Aug 23, 2016 9:09 pm

I'm visitng this site far less than I used to. Searching for photos is so much harder now. Loading pages takes an age even with a fibre optic cable. Will there be an upgrade to the upgrade?

airkas1 · Tue Aug 23, 2016 9:32 pm

There are constant upgrades. Last one was yesterday. And why do you find searching for photos much harder now? Have you tried the Advanced Search?

A340600 · Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:57 pm

I've been a member here for 13 years and these days pop in sporadically. I'm surprised that, in 2016, a website can show such a lack of thought. It lacks intuition, the ads are horrible and I find myself using the site less and less as it's just such a mess on the screen! I know it's being updated regularly and that's appreciated but basics such as having ads cut off the sides of forum posts are incredibly frustrating. It's quite something when a website was formerly light years ahead of its current self, back in 2003.

mariner · Wed Aug 24, 2016 6:24 am

A340600 wrote:
It lacks intuition, the ads are horrible and I find myself using the site less and less as it's just such a mess on the screen!

There are a couple of things I miss, other new things I like, but generally I find it quite intuitive. I find it much easier to add photos or images to posts these days, for example.

Once they finally fix the log-in issue, I doubt I'll have any complaints. Each to their own, of course, but I'm coming here as much as I ever did - perhaps even a little more.

mariner

ArmitageShanks · Wed Aug 24, 2016 1:58 pm

A340600 wrote:
I've been a member here for 13 years and these days pop in sporadically. I'm surprised that, in 2016, a website can show such a lack of thought. It lacks intuition, the ads are horrible and I find myself using the site less and less as it's just such a mess on the screen! I know it's being updated regularly and that's appreciated but basics such as having ads cut off the sides of forum posts are incredibly frustrating. It's quite something when a website was formerly light years ahead of its current self, back in 2003.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the new website brought to you by Demand Media. If you don't like it you should just leave.

dutchspotter1 · Wed Aug 24, 2016 3:39 pm

Hi,
Photo ID 2644839 is not working.

spompert · Wed Aug 24, 2016 4:12 pm

PanAm_DC10 wrote:
Hi All

We released an upgrade today and it appears that there is a display issue on the homepage especially for medium sized screens. The developers are aware of the issue and we hope to have it resolved shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience..

Paul

Any idea when this will be fixed? I can't use the website any more when I'm at home from my laptop.

goosebayguy · Wed Aug 24, 2016 6:55 pm

I tend to search based on registration and its throwing up all kinds of photos non related. It used to be a breeze to use but now it takes an age to load a page and its so clunky. Why oh why! If we go back to the original we can tweak that but this is a nightmare.

embeee · Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:52 pm

Will you bring back the ability to search by decade, i.e. 2010s, 2000s, 1990s etc?

MMCelik · Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:28 am

While we waits for improvement, again a complicated page layout... I don't understand. What are you looking for? You already have the answer you're looking for: The page layout of the old site => understandable, simple and plain. Do you have to fill out the screen? Believe me the new page layout is very complicated. Please try the old site's layout and then see everyone's reactions.

airkas1 · Thu Aug 25, 2016 2:35 pm

goosebayguy wrote:
I tend to search based on registration and its throwing up all kinds of photos non related.

Try this:
Photos -> Search -> Advanced Search -> Input registration in "Reg" field --> Press "show me the photos".

Mortyman · Thu Aug 25, 2016 4:47 pm

Please revert the layout of the homepage.

Tugger · Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:52 pm

Thank you for fixing the time stamp so it just shows the actual length of time a post has been up. No more "moments ago"!

Wait I stand corrected, the "moments ago" still shows, I guess it's how long it takes to change to the actual time that has been adjusted.

Second edit: Yup, it looks like less than a minute is "moments ago" after which it just shows the time since posting.

Tugg

ZeeZoo · Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:39 pm

Has this forum taken a beating? Activity seems far, far less.

Mods/Admins, do you have any stats on the post counts/site activity relative to about 6 months ago?

ZeeZoo · Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:40 pm

A340600 wrote:
I've been a member here for 13 years and these days pop in sporadically. I'm surprised that, in 2016, a website can show such a lack of thought. It lacks intuition, the ads are horrible and I find myself using the site less and less as it's just such a mess on the screen! I know it's being updated regularly and that's appreciated but basics such as having ads cut off the sides of forum posts are incredibly frustrating. It's quite something when a website was formerly light years ahead of its current self, back in 2003.

You need to install ad-block.

ZeeZoo · Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:41 pm

dutchspotter1 wrote:
LatAmFlyer wrote:
dutchspotter1 wrote:
Good morning,

The last few days I noticed some very annoying ads from Justpremium.

Download Adblocker and you'll never see those damn ads again forever.

https://adblockplus.org/

Not the solution I am looking for.
Any update from the A.net crew please? Thanks in advance.

What do you mean "not the solution I am looking for"? What sense does that make?

CplKlinger · Fri Aug 26, 2016 2:18 pm

Just how long are we going to have to wait on the layout fix? All we've seen so far is "soon", which could mean in 30 minutes or never, like Half-Life 3. If I wanted a mobile layout I'd use my iPhone.

ArmitageShanks · Fri Aug 26, 2016 3:17 pm

CplKlinger wrote:
Just how long are we going to have to wait on the layout fix? All we've seen so far is "soon", which could mean in 30 minutes or never, like Half-Life 3. If I wanted a mobile layout I'd use my iPhone.

According to AC320 they started development of the new website in 2007. Henrik and Monica, neither of who are still around, were very enthusiastic about it as well as Paulo, who has since passed away. With these setbacks over the last decade its been tough to get the change to happen. Give them time and it will be great.

I'll quote another official response by DM to the upset members about the lack of updates and information: "DM has people working all the time on this site now. Dedicated people to this one task. Now things are different and once DM gets into the full swing of things, communication with the users won't be an issue." That was an official statement by a crew member. In 2007.

Check out this thread, its a doozy. viewtopic.php?t=1330957

This is why so many users have zero confidence.

na · Fri Aug 26, 2016 3:31 pm

na wrote:
The "Remember me" button still doesnt work and I´m always relegated to the homepage rather than to the topic I wanted to post in.
Thats annoying, and almost two months after the massive website modification not acceptable anymore.

Another fault is that ads are overlying the upper part of the forum pages. I always have to make the browser window as small as possible to make them disappear.

Still the same situation. Any idea when these bugs are going to be fixed?

na · Fri Aug 26, 2016 3:37 pm

I have the feeling that the forums arent as busy as they were before the faulty redesign. Its not as interesting anymore as it once was to go through the threads. Lots of stuff like "Redneck Air opens Sleepytown to Deadhorse once a week" though;-)

ManchesterMAN · Fri Aug 26, 2016 7:19 pm

Please fix the home page. For around a week it looks like the version I am viewing has been optimised (badly) for a mobile device, yet it is like this on my desktop at home, my desktop at work and my laptop!

SabreHog · Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:25 pm

Back to an earlier remark, I seem to recall being told that "Generic Type" and "Basic Type" are identical, which they certainly appear to be. Which begs the question why the latter needed to be added in the first place?

megatop412 · Sat Aug 27, 2016 1:17 am

This site now looks like crap for me, and I'm on 2 different laptops and a desktop so I know it isn't my hardware.
What is with this need for everything to work great on a tablet? The folks who designed this really screwed the pooch on it.
The photos on the homepage are soft and out of focus and the layout is TERRIBLE.
Guys, how many people have to say the same thing about this??? BRING BACK THE OLD LAYOUT.
I'll check back in 2 weeks. If it still looks like this garbage I'm deleting my account. What a mess anet has become.

LatAmFlyer · Sat Aug 27, 2016 6:38 am

A340600 wrote:
I'm surprised that, in 2016, a website can show such a lack of thought. It lacks intuition. Website was formerly light years ahead of its current self, back in 2003.

I agree. I rarely come here anymore, where before I'd visit 2-3 times a day in my spare time. I have read a number of stories on a.net that others are doing the same thing. This is what advertisers want? To reach fewer people? How could they disagree that more site users would help them sell more crap to the public?? I mean, this is basic advertising economics. It's time to either revert to the old site design or embark on a completely new design while keeping the users in mind. This sucks.

Mortyman · Sat Aug 27, 2016 6:55 am

Add's on the sides of the forum page is now hovering over the forum post and blocking view. What is this !? Please fix this !

blrsea · Sat Aug 27, 2016 12:00 pm

On screens 14" and above, forum appears to works fine. For screens below that (my laptophas 13" screen), the ads overlap the forum messages and its difficult to read, making it unusable.

SamYeager2016 · Sat Aug 27, 2016 4:01 pm

On the home page, which at least honours the 'Keep me logged in' setting, if you hover over 'Forums' it promptly displays a list of all the forums which can then be selected. Easy peasy.

However once you're in a forum you have to click 'Aviation Forums', wait for a list of forums with descriptions to be displayed and then select a forum. As an enhancement request it would be nice if the system used on the home page was available at the top and bottom of forum pages.

ikolkyo · Sat Aug 27, 2016 9:02 pm

Any update on a fix for time stamps? Pretty frustrating issue.

Plainplane · Sat Aug 27, 2016 11:00 pm

I liked the revised homepage design with all of the photos side by side like in the pre-upgrade layout, this latest revision is still broken.

dutchspotter1 · Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:18 am

ZeeZoo wrote:
dutchspotter1 wrote:
LatAmFlyer wrote:

Download Adblocker and you'll never see those damn ads again forever.

https://adblockplus.org/

Not the solution I am looking for.
Any update from the A.net crew please? Thanks in advance.

What do you mean "not the solution I am looking for"? What sense does that make?

I prefer not to install some malafide plug-in which will slow down my browser. Hopefully the A.net crew can do something about this. It's getting more annoying each day. Thanks in advance.

XAM2175 · Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:28 am

I usually feel the same way about many things in computing (ie having to install third-party programs to make Windows 8 and 10 usable) but I assure you sir that an ad-blocking programme is an essential part of using the internet today, and that if you use a reputable one (my preference is Adblock from https://getadblock.com/) it will not slow your browser down at all.

Yes, it shouldn't be necessary at all, but that ship sailed a long time ago I'm afraid.

AlexC · Sun Aug 28, 2016 11:12 am

With this ever lengthening hiatus period, I would think that A.net must be truly hemorrhaging visitors. Have to say that I find myself in the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' faction. A few minor tweaks would have been useful no doubt, but IMHO this top down, complete and utter revision was not necessary or wanted by most users.

CplKlinger · Sun Aug 28, 2016 2:04 pm

We're now 5 days on since the site broke for some size screens, and it's still an issue. Any chance we can get a hard time line, other than "soon"? If this had been going on for this long where I worked, folks would be getting pink slips by now. It's ridiculous that we keep asking simple questions, looking for simple, straight answers, and when we get justifiably upset when we just get "soon" you see snide remarks from the crew.

/funny that it is "broken" on my 19" widescreen monitor, but on my 21" iMac, it works perfectly.

kulverstukas · Sun Aug 28, 2016 2:50 pm

CplKlinger wrote:
We're now 5 days on since the site broke for some size screens, and it's still an issue. Any chance we can get a hard time line, other than "soon"? If this had been going on for this long where I worked, folks would be getting pink slips by now. It's ridiculous that we keep asking simple questions, looking for simple, straight answers, and when we get justifiably upset when we just get "soon" you see snide remarks from the crew.

You must believe them, that large team of highly qualified developers working 24/7 to make this site up to it's claimed reputation #1 aviation site in the Universe. Do not mistake this bright new design with cheapish $17 template everyone can buy to use at phpBB forums. Take in account that old site was so broken and messy that no any single part of it including layout and design can't be reused.

canyonblue17 · Sun Aug 28, 2016 5:44 pm

Was told more than a week ago the photo editing que would be coming back within a few days. Either I'm missing it somewhere - or it has not yet returned?

airkas1 · Sun Aug 28, 2016 6:16 pm

canyonblue17 wrote:
Was told more than a week ago the photo editing que would be coming back within a few days. Either I'm missing it somewhere - or it has not yet returned?

Yeah, and it's been back since last Monday...
Photo corner --> 'Screening' tab --> 'Edit' button.

airkas1 · Sun Aug 28, 2016 6:48 pm

ZeeZoo wrote:
Mods/Admins, do you have any stats on the post counts/site activity relative to about 6 months ago?

I'm pretty sure DM have the stats, but the crew doesn't have that access.

embeee wrote:
Will you bring back the ability to search by decade, i.e. 2010s, 2000s, 1990s etc?

Added it to the list.

SabreHog wrote:
Back to an earlier remark, I seem to recall being told that "Generic Type" and "Basic Type" are identical, which they certainly appear to be. Which begs the question why the latter needed to be added in the first place?

No idea. That's why the Basic Type will be removed eventually IIRC. At the same time, the plan is to hide all the not-so-relevant info underneath the photos, so the whole page will be a bit more compact.

dutchspotter1 wrote:
Hopefully the A.net crew can do something about this. It's getting more annoying each day. Thanks in advance.

The crew can't, but I've asked DM. No guarantees though.

----------------
RE: timestamps - There hasn't been a fix for that yet. I understand it's an annoyance, but there are other higher priority items to iron out first.
RE: login remember-me - I've asked DM to look into this again with higher priority.
RE: screen size issue - DM is aware and will update us tomorrow. I'm scretly hoping it is also a quick fix, which means it could be solved by tomorrow.
RE: photos not showing up after acceptance - DM is aware and will update us tomorrow. I'm scretly hoping it is also a quick fix, which means it could be solved by tomorrow.

JBo · Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:02 pm

goosebayguy wrote:
I tend to search based on registration and its throwing up all kinds of photos non related. It used to be a breeze to use but now it takes an age to load a page and its so clunky. Why oh why! If we go back to the original we can tweak that but this is a nightmare.

If you use the advanced search option, you can put the registration number under 'REG' and it works just fine.

canyonblue17 · Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:13 pm

airkas1 wrote:
canyonblue17 wrote:
Was told more than a week ago the photo editing que would be coming back within a few days. Either I'm missing it somewhere - or it has not yet returned?

Yeah, and it's been back since last Monday...
Photo corner --> 'Screening' tab --> 'Edit' button.

Then clearly I am missing something (which is certainly possible) or we are talking about different things. When I click on my "photo corner" then click on the "screening" tab which takes me to my photos currently waiting to be reviewed - if I then hit the "edit" button for any of the photos - all I get is access to that photo's information to change. What I am asking about is the old que that showed how many photos had been uploaded for review each day and how many days there were until my photos would be reviewed. Are there more steps? Do I have to compare the upload number to the photos recently screened to have an idea how many are in front of mine - or is there something more to the process?

canyonblue17 · Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:19 pm

Also, there is a separate topic for this issue (Screening Que) in the Aviation Photography Forum, and I was hoping if there was a solution, it would have been posted there.

airkas1 · Mon Aug 29, 2016 5:25 am

canyonblue17 wrote:
What I am asking about is the old que that showed how many photos had been uploaded for review each day and how many days there were until my photos would be reviewed.

Ah.. When you said "photo editing queue", of course I thought of the edit button. But you mean the general overview of the queue. In that case, I don't have an ETA on that.

canyonblue17 wrote:
Do I have to compare the upload number to the photos recently screened to have an idea how many are in front of mine - or is there something more to the process?

You can do that yes. Details here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1337571

canyonblue17 wrote:
Was told more than a week ago the photo editing que would be coming back within a few days. Either I'm missing it somewhere - or it has not yet returned?

I was talking about the above mentioned edit button for the photos in queue.

canyonblue17 wrote:
Also, there is a separate topic for this issue (Screening Que) in the Aviation Photography Forum, and I was hoping if there was a solution, it would have been posted there.

It most likely will be.

Mortyman · Mon Aug 29, 2016 2:30 pm

Mortyman wrote:
Add's on the sides of the forum page is now hovering over the forum post and blocking view. What is this !? Please fix this !

What is being done with this ?

airkas1 · Mon Aug 29, 2016 2:59 pm

Mortyman wrote:
Mortyman wrote:
Add's on the sides of the forum page is now hovering over the forum post and blocking view. What is this !? Please fix this !

What is being done with this ?

Ah, there it is. I knew I read something about the side-ads, but couldn't find the post this morning. I've passed this on as well.

flymia · Mon Aug 29, 2016 5:38 pm

AlexC wrote:
With this ever lengthening hiatus period, I would think that A.net must be truly hemorrhaging visitors. Have to say that I find myself in the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' faction. A few minor tweaks would have been useful no doubt, but IMHO this top down, complete and utter revision was not necessary or wanted by most users.

They most certainly are, but I think the damage was already done when the first major change happened. Now, its just about the few that will stick around. Given the more issues they must be losing users every day. I used to be here 5-7 hours a week. I may have been on Anet 2-3 hours in the last 30 days. Its a sad end to the site. Topics are not as active, major events only have 30-40 post. Its a clear decline in the site, and it will be almost impossible to get back to where the site once was, or even close. Photo views are down big time.

ArmitageShanks · Mon Aug 29, 2016 11:02 pm

flymia wrote:
AlexC wrote:
With this ever lengthening hiatus period, I would think that A.net must be truly hemorrhaging visitors. Have to say that I find myself in the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' faction. A few minor tweaks would have been useful no doubt, but IMHO this top down, complete and utter revision was not necessary or wanted by most users.

They most certainly are, but I think the damage was already done when the first major change happened. Now, its just about the few that will stick around. Given the more issues they must be losing users every day. I used to be here 5-7 hours a week. I may have been on Anet 2-3 hours in the last 30 days. Its a sad end to the site. Topics are not as active, major events only have 30-40 post. Its a clear decline in the site, and it will be almost impossible to get back to where the site once was, or even close. Photo views are down big time.

The interest DM had with this site died with Paulo Emanuele. Everything stopped when he died and what we are seeing now is a half-measure attempt by people totally uninterested in the website or community to try and salvage something using their universally derided and, some would say, dubious business practices.

NIKV69 · Tue Aug 30, 2016 2:17 am

I was shocked at the total redesign of the site. Not surprised it seemed after Johan sold it this was inevitable. I don't post as I was banned but I uploaded my first pic since the change and it was a horrible process. Not to mention I think we can't see Queue stats anymore?

airkas1 · Tue Aug 30, 2016 3:20 am

NIKV69 wrote:
I uploaded my first pic since the change and it was a horrible process.

Why was it a horrible process?

NIKV69 wrote:
Not to mention I think we can't see Queue stats anymore?

Correct. Although this will return (but no ETA on that).

airkas1 · Tue Aug 30, 2016 4:40 am

Just a small update on some of the issues from this weekend/in this thread. The points that were identified were:

1. Photos not showing up after bring accepted (someone has been waiting for 6 days and their photo has yet to appear). A handful of people are complaining in the forum and over emails.
Email from a user: "I still have this problem, but I can narrow it down to those cases where the Image is in a certain category, e.g. airport overview. Then it only becomes visible 24 hours after acceptance, which is a shame as normally this Image category receives a lot of views, but now it completely drops out of the 24h rotation and afterwards goes almost unnoticed. I've had this happen 4 times until now. It would be great if this could be fixed - thanks!"
2.Screen size is an issue (Impact has been around for 6 days now). People are still reporting display issues on smaller devices and screens. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1341367
3. Look into the login remember me function issue? Also look into enabling the login redirects again (taking a user back to the page they were on when they logged in). See items 22 and 54 on the spreadsheet.
4. Some users report intrusive ads on the pages (see attached screenshot)
5. Ad's on the sides of the forum page is now hovering over the forum post and blocking view.

Below the update from the developers:

2 & 5 appear to be css/js issues. I've posted an update to force users the latest css/js. Hopefully that'll fix the display issues, cause we can't replicate the issue. I've tried Chrome/Firefox/IE11 on PC and Chrome/Firefox on Mac and they all appear OK.

4. is just our out of page ads. they don't occur that often and it's usually a video. We'll have to talk to the ads dept if it's too much for users.

looking into 1 & 3.

------
Interpreting the above, issues 2 should now be solved. I would appreciate confirmation on this from users who experienced these specific problems.

dutchspotter1 · Tue Aug 30, 2016 8:20 am

Good morning,

Regarding answer 4 from the post directly above: videos make it so much worse! Actually anything blocking website content is not done IMHO.

Besides, I have two issues with the new photo albums:
1. Yesterday when I was viewing (the individual) photos in a photo album, I was directed to an advertisement page unexpectedly. Also now my PC gives a security warning when viewing these (random) individual photos. This is at Windows 7 with Google Chrome btw.
2. Directly under each individual photo in the photo album there is a strip of 7 thumbnails (it's the same with other photos on the website). However those thumbnails are not related to the photo album, but rather to the photographer. Is it possible to have these 7 thumbnails relate to the photo album? Or in other words, to click through the photos in a photo album in large size, rather than having to return to the album overview each time?
Thanks in advance.

EL-AL · Tue Aug 30, 2016 1:24 pm

Sorry if that was discussed before, but where are the personal photo albums? I made nice album of all the planes I flew on and I can not find it. Thx!

Who is online

Popular Searches On Airliners.net