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Sneak Peek At The NEW AVSForum! - Page 3  

post #61 of 126
5/24/12 at 11:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Chemist View Post

Looking forward to the new site. Especially Tapatalk support!!!

Yes, we have a lot of Tapatalk fans here that were not happy AVS couldn't integrate properly with the app. Now you'll not only have Tapatalk, but very soon, a full HTML5 mobile version that will work on all devices.

While I hate to see the AVS branded logo on device screens go away, in the end this will make AVS much more available to everyone.

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post #62 of 126
5/24/12 at 12:23pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bott View Post

We're working on an entirely new HTML5 solution to go with the new site.

...

All in all, people fear change. They like what they have and are content. I get that. But what I also get is we are running on software that is years behind and we fight off hack attempts more that you would want to know. We are stuck with what we have and need to patch it to keep it running. Not a good place to be for a site of this size and reach.

We DID NOT make this move lightly. We looked at several platforms and talked with many. It took over a year to get this this point. But here we are as we not only look back at our journey, but look to the future of a more powerful AVS for both members and industry alike. We look to the members to help continue to drive the industry in the right direction. We look to the industry to hear our needs and help us see where the future of home entertainment is going. And we look to AVS as the place it all happens time and time again and now on a platform with a team looking to help all find what they may be looking for.

Thank you all for taking this large step with us. And thank for being members of AVSForum!


Some screen shots of some of the above referenced items...


For the most part, very impressive. Although I thought the text in the second screenshot looks a little bit gray and too close to the left side, but other then that, pretty nice. Just needs a bit more color and to be moved over a bit.

And word to the wise about HTML5, just be careful with that crap. You've all seen how it has destroyed popular sites like Google, YouTube, and GrooveShark. AVSForum has long been one of those "great sites to visit" among other reasons because it's just so fast and responsive and I'd hate to see it go the way of Google or GrooveShark. Please please please be careful .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stew4msu View Post

And I'll also echo bainwort in that having default avatars does not seem like the right step. It just clutters things up and gives a more "common" feel as opposed to a professional one.

Will the new site fix the problem where you couldn't install an avatar? This bug has been present on the current site for as long as I've been a member here (in fact I still can't get it to work).

Quote:
Originally Posted by zombie10k View Post

I'm disappointed to see the AVS mobile apps going away. I've contributed 100's of posts via the Android app to one of the biggest threads in the projector forums.

The Android app was a perfect match for checking PM's, new topics, updates, etc.

It was pretty handy. It was blocky, buggy, and didn't let you specify a post title, but it did work and was lighter than the full site for ultraslow connections (which I deal with regularly) or posts made while walking or running. I'm kinda afraid of this "TapToTalk" thing.

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bott View Post

Here is a THREAD VIEW in two screen grabs. Sorry, but could not figure out how to get it in one grab. (Sorry, it's 2:35AM here)

Really liking that thread layout, but what's that big white box in the second screenshot??

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Mickey View Post

Will the New AVS Forum destroy my privacy by linking me to others/social networks or otherwise publish my identity?

Same here. I hate how a lot of boards have little scripts and links to annoying places like Facebook.com or similar sites. That was another one of the other reasons that AVSForum is so slick, it has none of that nonsense. Will this feature be retained in the "move"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bott View Post

Hi...

I will try to get a shot of a thread view tomorrow. Right now the sandbox area is currently going though another update based on member feedback from those that had access to the test site.

As such, not access currently.

If you'd like, I've had a fair share of experience on forums over the years (while not much actually administrating one), and if you'd ever like some solid testing or feedback, I'd be glad to help the community out.





At risk to be overcritical of the changes, don't take this negatively; I know they worked hard on it, but I'm just trying to keep things in perspective. I'd also like to take this time to apologize for the long post and quotes, I kinda wish I would've seen this thread sooner.

- 2 Bunny
post #63 of 126
5/24/12 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bott View Post


But don't worry...we got you covered. You can turn off all Avatars if you so desire.


Can you add an option to not view the default avatars (which most members won't change) and only view the custom avatars? That's what bothers me most about other sites (and soon, this one): the same boring avatar over and over, post after post.
post #64 of 126
5/24/12 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Bunny View Post

Will the new site fix the problem where you couldn't install an avatar? This bug has been present on the current site for as long as I've been a member here (in fact I still can't get it to work).

On the current site, you need to be an AVS Club member to upload an avatar.
post #65 of 126
5/24/12 at 2:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bott View Post

By the numbers...# Members using what styles...

Default = 1m+ (Of course as most people do not change or are not aware they can. They just come to post.)
Black = 3433
Retro = 933 (Of which only 450 have been on the site in the last 30 days. Does not mean they posted.)

So really, if it was just a sole choice made on cost vs use and the maintenance that goes into keeping more than one...we would only have one. But we for sure needed to have a dark theme and thus at least made sure we had one.

(I tried my best to get the right data from the database as their is no direct report for this. I needed actually go into the database tables and I am far from an expert in that. But I can run a query and that is what I did based on the style ID's set in the user tables.)

Anyone with the retro them is supposed to be defaulted to the Dark theme upon import.

Doing what we can here. As mentioned, the site change will not suite all. I am fully aware of that and really have had the team put thought into it.

Thanks

Thanks David, this was the information I was looking for. I'm one of the oddball 933(actually 450) but I'm sure I'll get use to the new dark option
post #66 of 126
5/24/12 at 3:01pm
WOW.....it's amazing what you get use to. I have been using black for quite awhile now and really like it. I forgot how retro looked till I just tried it....holy cow I don't think I could deal with the colors again. Default is way to bright and would definately give me a headache. In the end I guess where all creatures of habit. I do look forward to the new changes.
post #67 of 126
5/24/12 at 3:05pm
I like the new look. I like change. Everything looks more streamlined and organized.

I'm curious is the new forum software similar to the one styleforum.net is using?

When will we see the complete transition happen? Any specific date?
post #68 of 126
5/24/12 at 3:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bill1908 View Post

WOW.....it's amazing what you get use to. I have been using black for quite awhile now and really like it. I forgot how retro looked till I just tried it....holy cow I don't think I could deal with the colors again. Default is way to bright and would definately give me a headache. In the end I guess where all creatures of habit. I do look forward to the new changes.

I would totally agree That said I just switched to BLACK and at first use the background seems a bit light(compared to RETRO) but black is WAY better than default and I'm sure within no time I'd wonder how I lived with RETRO and it's bright colors(I felt the same way when I discovered RETRO instead of default).
post #69 of 126
5/24/12 at 3:19pm
How will the old posts carryover to the new platform?
Will a mass migration happen or?

How about print entire thread option?
Further, if someone delete their post, can it be such that the contents are deleted, and the ability to edit that post are locked, but the post itself is not?
(ie, a blank post)
This way, for integrity, some members who post then delete can be called out.


will I be able to link/add pictures from mobile platform?
post #70 of 126
5/24/12 at 3:41pm
Will there be better poll options?
post #71 of 126
5/24/12 at 4:22pm
Bravo!! Nicely done, i'm sure you already know once a site changes its layout the complainers come out of the woodwork
post #72 of 126
5/24/12 at 5:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtbdudex View Post

How will the old posts carryover to the new platform?
Will a mass migration happen or?

How about print entire thread option?
Further, if someone delete their post, can it be such that the contents are deleted, and the ability to edit that post are locked, but the post itself is not?
(ie, a blank post)
This way, for integrity, some members who post then delete can be called out.


will I be able to link/add pictures from mobile platform?

Hi...All posts will of course be moved over in a "mass migration". The site will likely be down for about 24 hours during not only the conversion, but the move to new servers, DNSing, Email servers, etc.

I am sorry, no print thread option at this time.

Post deletion can only happen if it is the last post in a thread. Editing will be based on a timer then locked out. Yes, done to preserve a thread integrity.

Not sure on the mobile platform option for images as I have not personally used TapaTalk.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Bloggs View Post

Will there be better poll options?

Not sure on what you may be looking or in regards to "better". You will be able to post a pill with either one choice that can be selected or muti selections. Polls will not be able to be edited once made as any edit can change the poll results.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingcarcas View Post

Bravo!! Nicely done, i'm sure you already know once a site changes its layout the complainers come out of the woodwork

Yes, surely been down this road many time already with not just this site, but others. I just hope the members can see the time taken to be sure the spirit of the site and the main function of the site is still intact. This process has been almost a year in the making. (That was because we were kind of picky and the community is so large.)
post #73 of 126
5/24/12 at 5:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bott View Post

Not sure on what you may be looking or in regards to "better". You will be able to post a pill with either one choice that can be selected or muti selections.

Will there be more than 10 options allowed (there's only 10 allowed currently)- other sites can have many more (eg. up to 200). Also, couldn't there be multiple questions in each poll?
Quote:


Polls will not be able to be edited once made as any edit can change the poll results.

So if you make a mistake, including a speling mistake you can't fix it? I think some sites allow you to add options later too in case you forgot them but I suppose you could make sure you add them in the initial post.
post #74 of 126
5/24/12 at 5:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bott View Post

When we ran a report as to the number of people using it, well, it made no sense really to spend the time, money, and future money on one.

Leave it to me to use a theme that is not popular
post #75 of 126
5/24/12 at 6:02pm
A titanic shift in the web, search engines, and intelligent systems helping us to parse the sea of content, is the growth of the Semantic Web. As AVS is such an important site because of its content, I think this is important here.

HTML5 Semantic Tags
You've mentioned how you're excited about HTML5; part of that includes new semantically-meaningful tags such , , , , , etc. Also, the rich text editor should provide even rudimentary basic tags like heading levels, so that search engines can better parse the content. Presentation (font color, face, size, bold, etc.) should be separated from content (the words and the markup that provide meaning, like , ,

, etc.) This helps with search engines, web browsers, mobile browsers, thin devices like our televisions, and accessibility for the disabled.
Are you going to make use of these in the new site?

Semantic Web Parsing
Google, Yahoo, and Bing are all parsing semantic markup, which define a thing, person, product, image, review, etc. as a real object, with properties, such as "child of," "review of," "address," etc. When different systems agree upon a vocabulary, we can all agree that content is about this object and what those properties are. Thus, it enables searching for something with filtered properties, like a recipe that contains parsnips, or a house that is in this city, costing less than this amount. That is radically different from search engines guessing at what you want solely by keywords. You can Google for something like recipes and you can see it in action. You can filter by calories, or prep time. Why? Not because the author of the pages used those keywords, but rather because they marked up those properties explicitly.

Schema.org and Microdata
The biggest search engines settled on one method of markup: Microdata, and one vocabulary: schema.org.

Here's an example of a product and review:

Code:



Kenmore White 17" Microwave Kenmore 17" Microwave

Rated 3.5/5 based on 11 customer reviews

Product description: 0.7 cubic feet countertop microwave. Has six preset cooking categories and convenience features like Add-A-Minute and Child Lock. Customer reviews:

Not a happy camper - by Ellie, April 1, 2011

 1/ 5stars

The lamp burned out and now I have to replace it.




Maybe there's even a chance for our community to help write the vocabulary of our products that we care about, like a 





Code:


/Product/Electronics/Television



 and the properties such as diagonal size, display type, maximum contrast, etc. 

Lastly, most recently, Google announced the Knowledge Graph, which is more formal announcement of their making use of semantic markup to map the objects on the web and provide more meaningful results.

I know these updates are tough. But I hope that some of this is being incorporated into the new site or can be added over time. They help the content to be more accessible for people with disabilities, for anyone searching, and in general be more useful to the world.

It's not all altruism, happiness, and bunnies, either. When the reviews on our forums refer to defined products, with parseable review scores, and they link to the products and their offers on our classifieds, on advertisers, and on the AV Science store, that is only good for business.

					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #76 of 126
											

										

									5/24/12 at 6:37pm											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Quote:

Originally Posted by David Bott View Post


Post deletion can only happen if it is the last post in a thread. Editing will be based on a timer then locked out. Yes, done to preserve a thread integrity.





How will threads where the first post is constantly updated and maintained by the OP be handled?

I maintain such a thread(my signature link) and I frequent many other such threads, Wajo's thread on the Magnavox DVDRs is probably the best example I know of.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940657

I can kind of see not allowing post deletion in the middle of a thread, it makes comments on that post later seem rather odd but I've also seen forums that don't allow deletion but do allow editing, where people have blanked out all the words in their posts I would sure miss being able to update my signature thread
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #77 of 126
											

										

									5/24/12 at 6:40pm											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
That looks like quite the impressive update. Can't wait to get into it.
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #78 of 126
											

										

									5/24/12 at 6:52pm											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Quote:

Originally Posted by David Bott View Post


Post deletion can only happen if it is the last post in a thread. Editing will be based on a timer then locked out.





I don't like this at all  (and no longer go to another site that does that).

The author of content should be allowed to edit or delete the content they produce if they decide to, not just within a certain time limit.
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #79 of 126
											

										

									5/24/12 at 7:08pm											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Once a poll is created & posted, no edits of any kind can be made. It will be essentially locked as-is to preserve it's integrity.


Poll choices will be doubled to 20.


While old posts can't be deleted by members, they can still be reported to staff for removal when warranted.


The time limit for edits hasn't been announced as of yet.
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #80 of 126
											

										

									5/24/12 at 8:23pm											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Lang View Post


The time limit for edits hasn't been announced as of yet.





An editing time limit seriously concerns me. I maintain the first post in the Roanoke thread which I created oh so many years ago, so that people can go to that first thread and find instant information about the stations, subchannels, resolutions, etc., as well as contact information for the various stations. Having a timer will make that first post useless over time.


See here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=344797


- Trip
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #81 of 126
											

										

									5/24/12 at 11:56pm											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Sounds like posts of type Reference, or just the first post of a thread, are the ones people would like to edit to update ongoing info. I agree: I do that too.


Any way to achieve the intention of time-limited edits while allowing just this use case?
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #82 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 4:25am											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Lang View Post


On the current site, you need to be an AVS Club member to upload an avatar.





Oh. They should make it so that everyone can install one then. That and signature images. For comparison, I really love the new layout of XDA DEVELOPERS, and they even left the option to use the old layout that they had since the beginning. I think if I were planning a changeover like this, I'd defintetly take some inspiration from the XDA DEVELOPERS community. They're such a great neighborhood and the forums themselves are laid out very well and the site is overall quite responsive.


- 2 Bunny
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #83 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 5:06am											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Lang View Post


On the current site, you need to be an AVS Club member to upload an avatar.





Hi mike in the new site everyone can upload a personal avatar?
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #84 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 5:16am											

		
Thread Starter 
		


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Bloggs View Post


Will there be more than 10 options allowed (there's only 10 allowed currently)- other sites can have many more (eg. up to 200). Also, couldn't there be multiple questions in each poll?


So if you make a mistake, including a speling mistake you can't fix it?  I think some sites allow you to add options later too in case you forgot them but I suppose you could make sure you add them in the initial post.






Multi questions is a survey and not a simple poll...so not at this time.


20 Total poll responses. We hardly every need actually more than 5 that I have seen. So even 10 was a lot. 200....hummmmmm


We went this route with the edited based on past issues with people changing polls to fix their needs after the poll had started. One word added can change poll answer. So, sorry...at this time no editing once made. We may look into allowing mods to make chances per request. But at this time I do not think, I may be wrong however as this has been talked about, it is "on the books" for a change.
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #85 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 5:18am											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Quote:

Originally Posted by David Bott View Post


HOWEVER...We will support TapaTalk on the new platform





Glad to hear it. Finally I don't need a dedicated app for AVS (since it's the only forum I frequent that currently doesn't support Tapatalk).


I will ditto the comments about editing the first post in a thread, as well as being able to delete my comments as I see fit (not if it just happens to be the last post in the thread). Those seem to be very strange decisions and I don't understand the rationale.
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #86 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 5:46am											

		
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In Regards to POST DELETES and EDITS


First the issues we have run into over the years...


A person with a lot of posts in not just one thread but many gets upset and something and then chooses to "take his ball and go home". To do this he looks for every post he has made and mass deletes them thus disrupting every thread he removes posts from. Doing this not only has that result, but the result of search engines having content that is no longer found on our site.


Allowing to edit a post, the member can do the same thing. How many of us have seen a post where all it is is a "." in it? That is where someone could not delete the post, or missed he could, and just wiped the text with a "." Poof, same negative result.


I can remember one member that removed over 100 posts inside a thread before we got wind of what was happening and stopped it. Now that as disruption. Members were ticked!


I know some of you that have been here for some time have seen this more than a few times.


However, with that said, I have expressed a number of times to the team about the threads where the first post is used more or less as an updated index. These are VERY IMPORTANT and we are looking to see what we can do with special permissions to allow the post to be edited. However, you see, the concern is that member, in long time good standing, also get ticked off and POOF, it's gone with the "." in the post. (Now I know none of you get upset like that from time to time. )

So...Enter the New Feature: ARTICLES... Maybe this will help...and I hope it does. We now will have Articles, a Wiki if you will, that can not only be edited, but edited by many based on rules set into place (post count, time on site, granted access by the Article starter, etc). So the "special first post" in these special threads can be moved into a Article and thus you now have a reference point not only picked up by Google and the others indexes that now see it it is tagged as "special" item, but it also can be listed and categorized for the members within AVS. All the links you may have in the first post that links to other posts in thread, all can be their. Then we just update the first post in the thread to reference the new Article.


This is a totally new feature for us and I really hope it helps out with some of the long threads. Keys posts in the threads can actually be moved into the Article and maintained. (Aka...Wiki)


I hope that came out right and that maybe you can see we are truly looking to the future of the site and this was surly talked about and still is being talked about.


Thanks all.
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #87 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 6:36am											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Articles... this is fantastic. It gives us the distinction between types of content and allows for the protection of preventing revision of what amounted to conversations. Great job!
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #88 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 6:58am											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
You didn't mention anything about the site being down. Now I read "for 24 hours".

ARE YOU NUTS?????

What am I going to do?

Where will I get my fix?

This awful!!!!!

Can the above be addressed?
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #89 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 7:03am											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
Quote:

Originally Posted by David Bott View Post


Understood. But at least we do not allow for animated avatars (Oh gosh no!) and the ones we will be offering will even be based on the site itself. And a member could even choose to use a blank. I do not see us loosing our demographic based on the content here. It is content that drives the site and our members have been fantastic at making AVS what it is.





Oh, I'm not worried about people leaving because of this but rather that the new people who are drawn here and stay will be less mature. I know the lack of avatars drives some of them away as I've directed people here and it's a near universal complaint among those who don't end up joining the community.


From what I've seen as other sites have made this transition is that the new people eventually come to overwhelm and then drive away the older more mature crowd. Before the immature ones would come there for information and then leave because they didn't feel at home with out their pictures and signatures, then they got them and felt catered to, so they stayed. Then their text speak and "lulz" came to dominate the conversations and then I'd leave to somewhere else.


I guess I'm so sad as other then here, Arstechnica, and dpreview, I know of no further retreats.
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


		

				

							
									

													post #90 of 126
											

										

									5/25/12 at 7:22am											

				


				

			

				

			


	

		

		

		
	




					

						
I was looking to post in classifieds a few days ago and saw it was locked until the switch. Now I see new postings today and yesterday. Is it open for posting?
					

												
					

									

												
					
				

			

		

			


	







	
	






		
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