Site Update: Jan 15, 2015

Simon

Now there's no going back !

I've just finished cleaning up and decommissioning the old server so for better or worse, we're stuck with the new version now - I hope it's at least no worse the the old site and hopefully getting better as I fix issues and make improvements and people get used to the changes. Apart from RSS feeds I think all the features that the old site had are now available on the new one plus many extra ones.

The old server had faithfully served us for the last 3+ years and will now drift away, probably to be used by some other site. I feel there should be a moment where I get to fire a burning arrow to set a funeral boat alight a-la Game of Thrones but apparently, you're not allowed inside the datacenter at all, certainly not with weapons and they have no intention of flooding any part of it. Ah well ...

Anyway, to the latest changes ...

I've done some work to improve caching and to change how the paging works. There were some jobs running to build the new indexes required which would have slowed the posting down a little yesterday but things should have picked up now. Lower latencies aren't always apparent to every user with every request but the averages I see from the monitoring console definitely look better. Performance of viewing topics and paging through the main topic listing should be faster now and it opens up some new abilities for future improvements.

The observant will have noticed that paging through topic lists used to have a "cursor" parameter in the URL. This was a pointer to the place in the dataset where it could continue on the next page. Unfortunately it is 'opaque' which meant there was no way to arbitrarily jump to any particular spot in the data. The new version instead uses more human-readable parameters and I'll be able to add options to jump to specific places, e.g. if you want to see 2005 topics for whatever reason.

I've fixed a few issues that may have affected preferences from being recorded so if you set a page size it should do a better job of remembering it although it is still based on cookies so if you don't save them or clear them then things will reset.

Next things I intend to work on are:

Feedback for the like / dislike options (maybe something like: +5 / -2 next to the vote options?)
Ability to mark / watch / favourite a topic
Dashboards to show topics you've started, topics you've posted on, topics you are watching, recommended / highly rated topics ... all based on date last updated.

I'll continue to work on bog fixes too and improving cross-browser compatibility etc...

I should add too - I'm still experimenting with performance settings / configuration so don't be too concerned if the site speeds up or slows down at different times, it's most likely just me experimenting

EdenOne

Thank you for all your great work, Simon!

Eden

nicolaou

Simon, when I try to select 20 replies per topic I get;

BAD REQUEST

The browser (or proxy) sent a request that this server could not understand.

Also, the icons in my editor are blank. I think they still work but there's no way of knowing which button does what without a lot of fumbling around.

Lastly, do you dread feedback?

_Morpheus

I like the idea of +- next like/dislike. It would let you know it works and it would give the button a definable purpose. As it is, the buttons are there and my mind tells me they work but there is no visible feedback, no real definable purpose to bother clicking them.

stan livedeath

i much prefer this new site--and look forward to having a like / dislike facility.

thank you for all your hard work Simon.

Simon

Lastly, do you dread feedback?

Only after I've just changed something, LOL

I'll have a look at the logs for the other issues. It's always worth doing a hard-refresh in case it's a stale cache issue (which can also mean things appear to work for me but not for others).

And just to confirm - the buttons do work and the votes are captured, there just isn't any feedback (yet) but please use them.

EdenOne

The more I use the new site, the more intuitive and fluid it seems. Like most things, takes a bit getting used to a change, but this has gone fairly well.

Eden

cofty

Its a huge improvement Simon.

I have a request though. I used to like to link to a specific post so readers could see a partial quote was in context.

Is there any way to do that still?

EdenOne

Regarding feedback/votes on each comment, have a look at this example (Synthtopia.com):

Simon

The 20 replies bug should be fixed (I'll monitor the logs - there may be some cached pages where it still happens)

I used to like to link to a specific post so readers could see a partial quote was in context.

There is a way to redirect to a post in context of the topic but I need to add an option to generate the link to use to do it. I am intending to make the quoting more automatic so when you copy and paste from a post it will include the link to the original with the author etc...

e.g.

Simon said <--- link to post

"Something really profound and intelligent" (for once)

You get the idea ... the aim is for people not to have to know how the web works, just copy and paste and the software make it look good and link things together. I also have plans for twitter-like mentions and hashtags so you can see trends / topics and also places where you have been mentioned.

The more I use the new site, the more intuitive and fluid it seems. Like most things, takes a bit getting used to a change, but this has gone fairly well.

I know it was a big change but am glad you're getting used to it. I found while developing it that it was jarring going back to the old-style forums. It's change, but sometimes a little discomfort is worthwhile to make progress.

And yes, something like that for the like / dislike options to show the values and provide feedback.

Site Update: Jan 15, 2015

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