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I'm going to release a beta (very early) version of a new effort to keep the site going into the future.
I'll put a link here, probably by the weekend. I will appreciate people giving it a try and providing feedback.
Of particular concern is the support of mobile devices since about 30% of the traffic comes from this (and it's a miserable experience in my opinion).
Another goal is a "serverless" design, which means I will eventually not have to maintain a full OS on an "instance" to drive the site. I have also chosen a framework that is cloud-agnostic, so I could roll into any of the big providers very quickly.
Because I haven't completed the new authentication mechanisms, the beta will likely be read-only. I'm trying to be very mindful of readability and coherent navigation. This includes eliminating the multi-forum approach in principal in favor of using things like RWD and AWD as tags or categories.
I have am very grateful to those have been loyal to this site. It's really astounding that we have about 1.5 million posts. From a technical POV, this makes for very interesting challenges that have long helped me and continue to help me sharpen my technical skills.
Note that if you know of sites that you find especially pleasant to use, I'd be interested in seeing them. Please share on this thread. I consider Medium (medium.com) to be the best example of very thoughtful layout, font usage, etc., but would like others to compare.
-Jarrod
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*This includes eliminating the multi-forum approach in principal in favor of using things like RWD and AWD as tags or categories.*
That part concerns me. I really like separate forums. It might be good if it's easy to filter out AWD/FWD posts without having to do a search (maybe there are checkboxes?). What's the advantage to eliminating the siloed forums? It seems like it would make it harder to manage rather than easier.
I am glad to see you working on the site more. The missing Edit function has caused minor issues, but the "posted by a ghost in the year 0000" appearance of comments has been really awkward.
I will play around with it on my phone and desktop and give you feedback.
Edit: What missing edit function? I guess you fixed it recently! Thank you!
First impression - it seems way less usable to not have the structure of the original site. The font size is *huge* - like it makes me dizzy. Will there be a setting/option to make it smaller? I would rather read size 8 font than size 20. I feel like I need to zoom out on the page - but table view looks better.
Overall, I don't like the lack of structure around the posts. I'm the type of user who tries to avoid any kind of "mobile optimized" webpages and sets it to desktop mode because the "optimized" means Nerfed most of the time. If I'm using a site with a mobile device, I expect to be at a disadvantage over a desktop. Given how much this site is about typing messages, I will always prefer using an actual keyboard over a touchscreen.
If you really want to capture or accommodate mobile users more, what about an app? Even a semi-generic one that can interface with the board through an API? I probably have the terminology right, but I would be really turned off if the whole page became like this. I would rather see a mobile version than see the forum permanently made like that.
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It's really just symbolic and already just a "type" in the database. However, I get your point and really don't aim to irritate those who are used to the current approach.
In the spirit of that, I will try a tab system so it's all very familiar looking. But you have me thinking I should do a filter approach. Great idea. It's literally a filter in the framework, so I would make a "setting" that allows you to choose what to include and then pull the data with a filter.
As with the current sidebar, I want to add a sidebar for those on larger screens. This accomplishes what my main concern is: for people to understand that there's more options than they might otherwise think... more going on elsewhere on the site.
-Jarrod
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A lot of progress has been made.
Again, I encourage you to try this on a mobile device. I think that will help you to understand some of the decisions for formatting.
I have implemented a view that's very much like the current approach. The only difference is that you can't peek at the text. I could implement that, but I'm more focused on efficiently and pleasantly showing threads both in the context of the index and while viewing a post.
Efficiency is still a challenge and you'll likely bump into errors related to the backend, which I'm still trying to optimize. I have implemented client-side persistent storage which will make things very fast once everything is downloaded. Eventually, I could implement a *download all* option which would trickle in data and keep it in synch (subscribers only).
Note that what's out there right now isn't "lazy loading" so there's a wait when you first try it.
The reset button is a means to clear local data, which will not be necessary once I get some of the cache control stuff worked out.
The stuff at the top is still a mess that I'll sort out. Formatting that hasn't been my priority. A settings type drop-down will likely be where that goes. I'm also going to implement a "sidebar" like you see on index pages now that can be hidden (will default to hidden on small screens).
Once I get lazy loading back, I'm going to implement an *infinite scroll* option, starting with BrickPix but eventually being used on the forum index. In this mode, pagination navigation won't be necessary. The local storage had to precede this since I don't want people crashing their workstations or phones with too much data in memory, but I also don't want constant fetching of data that has already been fetched.
Once the basic interface stuff is done, I'll implement authentication and posting, including a reasonable way to attach images. Eventually, I could add other attachment types.
Once stable, I look forward to other, optional interfaces. A twitter-like or facebook-like interface for example. I know most of the site's audience won't like that, but I'm thinking about launching a separate forum to attract a different audience (likely highly private and invite-only due to... ah..., I'll talk about that on the new medium).
Finally, I think it would be relatively easy to implement an Alexa *skill* once I have authentication. Please let me know if you'd be interested in that. For example, you could say "Alexa/Computer, play the latest brickboard posts" or "play replies to my brickboard posts." I'm only interested because it's easy and I know already how to make a skill. I wouldn't encourage people to use these services due to privacy concerns, but for those who have it could be a great modality. (Note that I'm looking into a free alternative called Mycroft that could be implemented with privacy. However, as these things go, the devices aren't subsidized and cost a bit more or you can make them yourself... which is what I'll do as a hobby project."
Have a great holiday weekend. Don't be anyone's product. Don't despair. Don't buy into narratives that are built on hating others. Truth is eternal. God is good.
-Jarrod
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Looks good, will take some getting used to. It is easier to read and pictures are nice and big, I hope they are easier to post.
Thanks
Dan
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This needs much more attention to the layout. I can also make different views and I'm likely to make one much more familiar.
I like the table view because it handles large amounts of data and is easily configurable.
The BrickPix views are examples of stuff I'm doing more manually and I think they look great. Getting techy, they also "lazy load" so it should be a very snappy experience for users. I'm using this approach on the classifieds stuff as well since the content fits well on the "cards."
Indeed, the images will be easier. These frameworks make it easy. It will likely look a lot like what you see elsewhere since a lot of these sites use the same framework.
I need to introduce authentication before I enable the features that write data, so it will be a week or so before I tackle the picture uploads.
-Jarrod
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posted by
someone claiming to be C1800
on
Wed Nov 11 22:00 CST 2020 [ RELATED]
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I like the beta, but I can’t log in now.....
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I will appreciate people giving it a try and providing feedback.
So far I hate it. But it really is too early to say.
Certainly there will be a period of adjustment on the part of the user.
Will legacy posts be available? I'm talking about all submittals from the past. From all forums.
--
'79 242, '84 DL 2 door, '80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon, '15 XC70 T6 AWD
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What the heck, here's a
crude beta.
A lot of issues and really nothing like I want the post threads to look, but it might be fun for someone to pull it up in a mobile device in particular.
Read only, bad unicode handling, etc. From my perspective, maybe half of the hard stuff is done so now it's only tweaking UI/UX.
-Jarrod
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A lot of updates:
try it
It defaults to show all forums, handles users better, looks a lot nicer.
Still lots to do, but I'm happy with this work so far.
Try it out in a mobile device as well.
-Jarrod
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The navigation is totally f***ed.
You can not go to a specific year/month. All the posts are in one long string.
If I do manage to find a certain post from the past, when I back out of it I am taken back to the main page, not the previous page.
Other gripes.
Sorry, but I still don't like it.
--
'79 242, '84 DL 2 door, '80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon, '15 XC70 T6 AWD
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Looks good! Viewed on a desk top MAC, I can finally read it without glasses on!
--
Keeping it running is better than buying new
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Thanks for the review.
I was very mindful of readability so far.
-Jarrod
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I like the beta.
Thanks Jarrod.
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If there are tech nerds, like me, reading this. See:
https://udcpqqwkzl.execute-api.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/dev/posts
https://udcpqqwkzl.execute-api.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/dev/posts/1610175
https://udcpqqwkzl.execute-api.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/dev/posts/thread/1610175
That's the REST API in the dev stage. Note that at any time one of these could be broken due to rolling out something wrong. I'll stabilize things, but it will be attached to a version with /prod instead of /dev.
-Jarrod
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