New Site.

BobPatterson · Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:14 am

Searching for and browsing photographs will take a little getting used to in the new site formats, but there are obvious improvements in thumbnail sizes and that part of the website will no doubt be just fine. Thanks for the improvements.

I have yet to encounter a singing or yelling advertisement (new site), and I hope that I never do. Silence is golden. If silent ads represent a new normal, I applaud it.

I have been reading (and learning) a great deal in this forum. It will be impossible for me to continue doing so if the harsh white backbround and soft gray font color is retained. Please consider the eyesight of users/members. The previous white font on blue-gray background was not my favorite combination, but it was FAR superior to what we are now presented with. It should be possible to offer a palette of pastel background colors to suit individual choice, with dark black font color. Please do SOMEthing. ANYthing will bebetter than this.

Thank you.

B.P.

767333ER · Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:22 am

BobPatterson wrote:
I have yet to encounter a singing or yelling advertisement (new site), and I hope that I never do. Silence is golden. If silent ads represent a new normal, I applaud it.

I have been reading (and learning) a great deal in this forum. It will be impossible for me to continue doing so if the harsh white backbround and soft gray font color is retained. Please consider the eyesight of users/members. The previous white font on blue-gray background was not my favorite combination, but it was FAR superior to what we are now presented with. It should be possible to offer a palette of pastel background colors to suit individual choice, with dark black font color. Please do SOMEthing. ANYthing will bebetter than this.

Thank you.

B.P.

I hated those noisy ads. I guess I was fortunate in more recent times to only ever was get PT6, CFM LEAP, and JAL ads. I totally agree about how the color scheme is torture for the eyes especially at night.

Andy33 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:09 am

ua900 wrote:
Nice new site, works a lot better on mobile than the old site.

Pity that to gain this, it now works a lot worse on desktop than the old site. Why did there have to be a tradeoff?

Vos · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:14 am

I miss the fact that everything was 'compact' and clearly visible on the home page.
This new lay-out is standard, random, 'a dime a dozen'... even a little boring.

It's a shame everything these days has to be hip and mobile-phone friendly. The quality of the lay-out (and of Airliners.net) has gone down enormously..

alasizon · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:16 am

The entire new layout in my opinion is about as great as another Euro-White scheme. For me, while I appreciate the improvements that were made to cater to mobile devices, I found it harder to navigate on both my iPad and my LG G5 (Firefox or Chrome) than the old version of the site. I also, even with great eyesight and having worked in IT prior to this hate the theme and complete lack of contrast (this problem is not just with A.net, there are many sights that have ditched nice backgrounds of blue to go to a white/gray theme). The entire site feels very rushed and the desktop experience is very unfriendly in my opinion. The photo info boxes that existed before were great.

I know phpBB is a decent forum platform for those that need non-specialized forums but aviation is a specialized area.

Forum features I miss:
-Codes of airports and airlines showing a tooltip info
-Being able to see so many threads at once to find what I am interested in reading
-The ability to easily quote sections of a post, rather than the entire thing
-The easy way of seeing starred threads and quickly find them. Took me over 10 minutes to find a thread I've been active in because it looked no different than any other topic.

Website Features I miss:
-The far better homepage layout (I absolutely hate having the top 5 pictures be almost the entire size of my monitor)
-The dark background, I can't personally stand every website being a white/gray background
-The fact that in order to read everything properly, I have to zoom out to about 80% to fit enough on the screen to make it look better. 65% looks better but I can't read all of the light gray on white text at that point
-The old photo info boxes. Why does everything have to be listed out line by line. There are ways to make a responsive, mobile-friendly layout without making everything a thousand lines long.
-Most of all, the old iconic 747 header. I have no problem with having a header permanently docked to the top of my screen, but the loss of the 747 banner sucks in my opinion.

The biggest issue with the forums was the search capability and the mobile handling. There are complete solutions to fix these two issues without ever changing the software behind the scenes and without turning the site into what my first reaction appears to be a Progressive Insurance website. Had I known this disaster was coming, I personally would have taken the time to write the full-text indexing scripts just to avoid losing what was a truly wonderful layout. Does Google positioning really matter that much to the devs?

BoeingGuy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:18 am

I don't like it either. With the exception of being able to post better on my iPhone, this new site is typical of "upgraded" web sites. It's far less attractive and far more difficult to use.

Lonely Planet, Morning Sun train books, Arizona Hobbies, and many others have all rolled out new web site formats that were complete garbage compared to the old one. This is one of them.

neutrino · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:20 am

Oh, my eyes hurt so much by the glaring white background & low contrast text that I now just skim through and browse speedily instead of properly reading the threads as per the old.

alasizon · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:21 am

As a secondary comment, I realized in my UCP that the theme is just the Flatboots theme with minimal changes. At $17 on ThemeForest, you get what you pay for.

Braybuddy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:23 am

antoniemey wrote:
The important thing is, now that I've learned where the important functions are, it WORKS.

Nope! The "First unread post" function only works sometime.

Also, when I quote something from another post, the whole post is quoted.

This is like going out expecting to have your house redecorated, only to come home and find it completely demolished and rebuilt, and not in the nicest way either.

Still can't figure out why each post has the "Re:" line above it - this is clutter, which is a no-no in good design. Also, it's in an 18pt typeface, while the poster's name appears underneath in 14pt and is lost in the clutter.

d8s · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:27 am

The contrast is lousy and the ads are all over the place which are part of the whole distraction.

Deltran757 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:38 am

I do apologized if this question has been answered since I haven't had the time to read threw each post, but is there a turn off/turn on button from the classic layout to the new design website layout?

alasizon · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:39 am

Deltran757 wrote:
I do apologized if this question has been answered since I haven't had the time to read threw each post, but is there a turn off/turn on button from the classic layout to the new design website layout?

No, its a take it or leave it.

Deltran757 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:46 am

alasizon wrote:
Deltran757 wrote:
I do apologized if this question has been answered since I haven't had the time to read threw each post, but is there a turn off/turn on button from the classic layout to the new design website layout?

No, its a take it or leave it.

Thanks for the quick response. I guess I'll start the process of getting use to the new layout.

Vos · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:48 am

Never change a winning team.

Current Airliners.net: -1

KL577 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:57 am

The functionality of airport names popping up, when scrolling over the IATA codes, seems to have been lost? A real pity!

And ...... way tooooooooooooooo much intrusive adds. The site has becomes unreadable with all the distracting moving adds above and on the sides.

B8887 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:08 am

I suppose it's the end of an era. The new site just looks and feels just like thousands of other sites on the Internet ranging from cat care tips to pine tree appreciation.

At least PLEASE BRING BACK THE BLUE BACKGROUND, PLEASE.

Good picture quality though.

Regards.

B8887

LatAmFlyer · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:09 am

legacyins wrote:
The only negative is the colors. Not very nice on the eyes. Glad they got rid of the Flags/RR. Too many people thought they were special with the RR rating. I like the photo search engine.

Like everything new, just will take a little time.

Or not.

shankly · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:10 am

I've come back 12hrs later just to see if I get that re-bound effect, you know "actually, this is not to bad"

The first thing that has come into my mind is to think this site should be christened AIRLINERS.NOT

Guys, we are nerds and like a nerdy format....tons of clutter, a mass of information and the ability to delve deep and waste valuable time on the forum when we should probably be working/spending time with our friends and families

Dumping the 747 is like McDonalds dumping the M

AirPacific747 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:16 am

Please change it back guys or at least make it look a lot like the old website. This website looks even worse than pprune now.

Coal · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:22 am

KL577 wrote:
The functionality of airport names popping up, when scrolling over the IATA codes, seems to have been lost? A real pity!

And ...... way tooooooooooooooo much intrusive adds. The site has becomes unreadable with all the distracting moving adds above and on the sides.

I don't understand why people don't use adblockers. They're free and block all ads (well, all on Safari, most on Chrome).

I like the new site. It's much cleaner. I do miss being able to see more threads in one page but I guess people will just have to get used to going to page 2 and beyond.

I hope they can bring back the IATA codes for airlines and airports (and update them!). Otherwise, really like the site, and happy to see how well it looks on iPad.

Braybuddy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:26 am

Posts no longer show the number of times they've been read.

The old site had both flags and country identifier beside the username. The new one has neither . . .

8herveg · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:27 am

This is awful. I hate the white. And I hate that there are fewer topics per page. I preferred when you could see all of them.

Egerton · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:31 am

Count me out. Goodbye

flee · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:49 am

This new site gets a general thumbs down from me because:

1 It is slower to search and get what you want.
2 Photo viewing is not as easy nor as impressive as before due to the layout. The lack of contrast makes pages look very flat.
3 The Forum is the worst feature - many people have already made comments and I agree with most of their comments.
4 There are database errors, e.g. https://www.airliners.net/photo/Malindo- ... GP/2707333
5 Ads are becoming irritating.

I would like to thank and commend those who run this site for taking a huge risk in completely revamping the site. I know that you are only trying to improve the site for users. But for this user, the site seems to be a step backwards.

I hope that improvements and refinements can be made taking into account the comments possted here.

Thanks and regards,
flee

oldannyboy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:57 am

Hello guys.. First post here. Just decided to register after almost twenty years as an "external visitor", visiting the forums and photo pages multiple times every day. I LOVED the old site, and I miss it already. The new site just doesn't cut it for me , sorry. What a HUUUUGE disappointment. MASSIVE. You've taken a classic and destroyed it. I was hoping in an improvement, but I guess I was wrong.. kind of going from a classic timeless livery to some bland eurowhite with light grey accents ... So much wasted space guys. And where is the (some?) blue? The pages are massive. It's clearly impossible to see what's going on in the forum.... impossible to immediately take in at a glance the gist of the discussion, the size of it, see the posts compressed, the newer replies... no way of seeing what is active/what is closed... So SAAAAD to see the amazing old search functions gone from the main page. The new search functions are crap, sorry. It's impossible to retrieve the photos you are looking for... so many useless filters guys... Please fix it and go back to the old system!!!. This way i's like having an alladin's cave that's been suddenly made inaccessible.... :cry:

KL577 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:08 am

Coal wrote:
KL577 wrote:
The functionality of airport names popping up, when scrolling over the IATA codes, seems to have been lost? A real pity!

And ...... way tooooooooooooooo much intrusive adds. The site has becomes unreadable with all the distracting moving adds above and on the sides.

I don't understand why people don't use adblockers. They're free and block all ads (well, all on Safari, most on Chrome).

Well, there is not so much to understand. I simply had never heard about adblocks. But thanks for bringing it up.

fortytwoeyes · Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:08 am

Let's put it this way: I was a regular reader of the old site, but would NEVER have parted with my money for posting privileges on that broken mess of a forum software that did not even have a working search function. Now I would, but don't have to, which is a positive. The layout could do with some tweaks, but generally the move to a reliable standard forum software was long overdue.

Aeri28 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:17 am

i recognize the need for things to change and move forward. Incorporating new and modern elements is never a bad thing.

My only complaints, which may echo a few others, is that the old site was able to show 50 or more topics on one page, it was easy to scroll down and see something that interested you. This shows far less and would take a good 3 or more pages to view what used to be viewed on one page (depending on monitor of course). The fear is that topics that move to page 2 might not ever be seen. The average user tends to take a look at what is in front of them and not be bothered to scroll several pages. Airliners dot net is one of those rare message boards that constantly is moving. There is always something being posted 24 hours a day. I would welcome a great search engine to be sure.
simple bare bones site

Aeri28 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:21 am

continued because it appears one cannot "edit" the post to add or make changes, unless I am wrong..

Anyway, I think if this particular board were stylistically changed to reflect the older one only in terms of listing the topics and move the author and other info that creates a 2nd line. Squeeze the text so there is not as much white space.

but the smilies are much easier here than the other :geek:

sq452 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:25 am

Horrible site and interface; the old one wasn't "fancy" but it was functional and easy to navigate.

Please revert back to the old one!

hiflyer · Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:27 am

Basic colors are far too pale...from Fonts to graphics....waaay too much pale and light grey. Makes reading slower and harder. The whole board looks washed out....not good as I am not going to change my monitor setting for just one website...but I strongly suspect some of the designers did.

mariner · Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:53 am

RobK wrote:
mariner wrote:
Someone said there is still an "edit" (of posts) function in this new format, but I can't find it. Help?

Click on the cog on the top right corner of your post --- >

(on your post, not mine, obviously)

Got it, thank you, huge sigh of relief. :-)

DKramm · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:08 am

Very bad update. As the old site had a unique design it got more generic.
Pictures are also cut off at the edges.
As the users are now the screeners: Reject!

Braybuddy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:09 am

I'm scratching my head wondering why there are new features such as "Who is browsing this forum" (nice touch, but completely unnecessary) when useful features such as airport names being revealed when you place the cursor over the code (VERY useful for a site like this) have been abandoned.

Also, I don't see any spell-check function.

??????????????

SpaceshipDC10 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:14 am

Braybuddy wrote:
Posts no longer show the number of times they've been read.

The old site had both flags and country identifier beside the username. The new one has neither . . .

There is no number of view, as you rightly say, and no numbering of replies in each threads/topics. This is such a mess.

VapourTrails · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:18 am

Coal wrote:
KL577 wrote:
The functionality of airport names popping up, when scrolling over the IATA codes, seems to have been lost? A real pity!

And ...... way tooooooooooooooo much intrusive adds. The site has becomes unreadable with all the distracting moving adds above and on the sides.

I don't understand why people don't use adblockers. They're free and block all ads (well, all on Safari, most on Chrome).

Thanks. This post has got me moving to install an adblocker, and I am happy with it. Quick and easy to install and use.

TCALP · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:20 am

I don't like it either, not user friendly

KarelXWB · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:28 am

Braybuddy wrote:
Also, I don't see any spell-check function.

??????????????

Spellcheck functions are redundant as browsers like Chrome and Firefox have built-in spellcheckers that work much better, and are always automatically up-to-date.

CO767 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:31 am

This new site has compelled me to make my first posting in over 9 years, although I read A.net daily.

Reaction - almost as bad when CO announced the merger with UA :roll:

Braybuddy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:34 am

KarelXWB wrote:
Braybuddy wrote:
Also, I don't see any spell-check function.

??????????????

Spellcheck functions are redundant as browsers like Chrome and Firefox have built-in spellcheckers that work much better, and are always automatically up-to-date.

LOL! My spelling must be better than I'd thought . . .

Braybuddy · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:35 am

CO767 wrote:
This new site has compelled me to make my first posting in over 9 years, although I read A.net daily.

Reaction - almost as bad when CO announced the merger with UA

Or IAG taking over Aer Lingus . . .

dcheetah · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:37 am

The layout and the responsiveness is the way forward and it was a brave decision to move forward with this. Mobile first is the way of the future

But I have to say that the color palette is letting it all down quite severely at the moment. If it was me I would have designed a color palette that was in keeping with the old site's scheme. On the top 5 on the homepage right now for example the yellow clashes horribly with the eye and it takes the viewer's attention away from the photo currently highlighted. A darker color palette did something very important - it allowed the focus to be on the photo.

qm001 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:38 am

I am horrified! We went from such an easy to use, albeit a little dated site, with a poor search function, to something which looks modern but is utterly unusable. Even the pictures on the front page, which are now bigger, require a click to show "what and where". Additonally the forum, as has already been mentioned, is significantly shorter, does not show "read", "new", etc...

Its just a mess. Change is progress, this is not a case of getting used to, but I feel like I am in a horrible dream. Hopefully I will wake up soon

In case I was too subtle, I do not like the new site. :!:

Pihero · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:39 am

Very disappointing.
I miss the old A.nut and the old A.nutters.
So much that I have no desire to post on this Airliners.(WHAT ?)

It's just another site of forums, that is like a glass of water : cold, colourless, odorless and tasteless !

I'll come back after a while to see if it improves toward my old fav site. if not, I'm out.

You know, this all feels like someone is out to make a profit on ads, based on the number of members... on Johan's site, paying membership allowed us to somehow own the site.
NOw, I feel like we've been sold.

Sorry, just an older man's rant.

Ncfc99 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:41 am

Awful.

The contrast is horrible, I can't quote selected text only the whole post in the forums, too much wasted space. I think I need to look for another aviation site.

plexwriter · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:50 am

EC135C wrote:
Not for me. Far too busy and complicated than the previous site. In the previous site, everything was there - nice and compact. This is a step backwards concerning user interface. Gotta give a thumbs down.

I agree! Why to do more complicated than what's already existing.

solnabo · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:52 am

Feels a bit wierd but it´ll grow to a great A.net site :mrgreen:

Amiga500 · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:56 am

While I don't like criticising, as I'm sure much work has gone into this...

On a desktop, the new site is "new"... all bling little substance. The old site, while having quirks and issues, was much more substantial in nature. The focus used to be on the posts. Now its all white space and avatars.

1. Can the desktop version be compacted? Too much unused space.
2. Can we get back the more favourable colour contrasts?
3. Can we retain the starring of threads (of interest or ones we've posted in?)
4. Can we once more have the option of hide/open bulk replies through threads?
5. Can we get our limited quote reply option back?
6. Can we have the option of removing avatars etc from the threads? I don't need or want to see 10 identical pictures from one poster on one thread - their avatar!

I guess there are loads more things others think of too.

KarelXWB · Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:59 am

Amiga500 wrote:
While I don't like criticising, as I'm sure much work has gone into this...

3. Can we retain the starring of threads (of interest or ones we've posted in?)

You can now subscribe to a thread to follow updates.

na · Wed Jun 15, 2016 11:01 am

Reading the comments, the simple outcome is, the majority of the users think the re"design" is a disaster. I am with the majority.

Roughly 10:1 negative, wow.

Personally its the worst redesign ever of a site I use often.

If the site managers have a brain, they have to react.

First: bring back the distinctive blue background. It was MUCH better for the eyes. I can say already that I will spend less time on a.net because of this eyesore.
Second: make the site more compact again. The new generic "design" is much harder to browse, a single posts much to big, there is much to much waste of space.
Third: bring back the iconic 747 site top. I dont get why the new site header is so generic and without the slightest charm and character. You can exchange "Airliners" at the top with "Job-Center Berlin" and it would work as good or, better said, just as bad.

To soothe the pain of the (deservedly beaten) creators of the generic new site a bit, there are a few things that are better. But they are only in the technical details.

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