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A few graphical/design changes around photo.net...


joshroot

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<h2>Bug/fix update thread now at:</h2>

<p>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/site-feedback-forum/00Q6mS">http://www.photo.net/site-feedback-forum/00Q6mS</a>

<p>

<h3>Some changes...</h3>

<p>

If you haven't noticed already, you will notice in the next few minutes that we've switched up the way a few of

the PN pages look. Some of the changes probably won't be noticed by most people, some will be seen every single

day. While there is something comforting about a site that looks the same as it did five years ago, the fact is

that ignoring design can hinder updating a site with features that are commonplace elsewhere. PN fell behind in

various ways as far as site design and features, we're working hard to fix that.

<p>

<ul><li>Individual forum pages redesigned.

<li>"Gallery" main page redesigned.

<li>Portfolio/Folder and Top Rated Photos pages redesigned.

<li>Individual photo pages slightly redesigned.

<li>New User Registration page.</ul>

<p>

<h3>Individual forum pages</h3>

<p>

This is the change that a majority of users are going to notice. The individual forum pages have been changed to

add a little more space between thread titles, use a slightly different and stronger font for the titles, add in

the number of replies for each thread, and add in a "most active threads" section at the top. Having the number

of replies listed for each thread is something that users have been asking about for a couple years now and it is

very overdue. The "active threads" list defaults at 4 threads but can be expanded to 8 and is based on the top 8

threads with most responses in the last 7 days, ordered by descending number of responses in last 7 days. Make

sense? Just think of it as the threads where you are most likely to find a heated discussion about Canon vs Nikon.

<p>

<b>Please Note:</b> The Unified Forum View currently has the old forum style. That is because of the unique customization that the Unified View offers users. We will be switching it to the new design in the near future, we just want to make sure nothing goes wonky when we do.

<p>

<h3>Gallery Main Page</h3>

<p>

The gallery main page (the one you got to when you clicked straight on the "gallery" tab) has always been pretty

useless. The most redeeming feature was that it showed the most recent photo submitted for critique. The new page

uses more thumbnails for the different links and gives viewers a lot more incentive to click through and look at

your images.

<p>

 

<h3>Portfolio/Folder and Top Rated Photos</h3>

<p>

The portfolio view has been changed to include a quick way to toggle the details off and on so viewers can see

ratings, number of comments and number of views for each image. The grey background has been made lighter to help

the images stand out more. And the hard-to-see button for viewing as a slideshow has been changed to be more

obvious. The Top Rated Photos view adds in a few of those same changes. But also removes the sidebar

advertisement and increases the number of images to 16 (4 across and 4 down).

<p>

<h3>Individual Photo Pages</h3>

<p>

The tabs at the bottom have been changed from tiny hard-to-read boxes into proper tabs. A "critique image" link has been more prominently placed. And the Digg/Reddit/Delicious link box has been moved away from the top of the image and down where it isn't so badly laid out.

<p>

<b>Please Note:</b> Yes, the "larger" link is gone. However, you just click on the image itself to see it in the "larger" version. Less clutter on the page, easier for users. However, I suspect that we will have to add in a "click to see a larger version" note until people get used to it.

<p>

<h3>New User Registration Page</h3>

<p>

To be honest, none of you who are reading this will probably deal with the new user page, but it has been

redesigned to be less confusing and to spell out the differences between what you get with a subscription and

without.

<p>

<h3>What to do if you are <i>angry beyond belief</i> that something has changed</h3>

<p>

Well first off, cut back on the coffee and calm down a little. These are graphic and feature additions that are

meant to increase participation on photo.net. That means more people answering your forum questions and more

people looking at your photos. Yes, it looks a little strange to me too, you really get used to a page looking

the way it did yesterday (and the day before, and the day before). But I've used this version of the site for a

week or so now and it has really grown on me. Particularly the new forum view. I can see which threads have a lot

of replies and which might need my <i>expert</i> advice. And after you get used to it, the new font and spacing

makes the thread titles a lot easier to scan.

<p>

But if you have questions or concerns, please drop me a line via the "contact photo.net" link at the bottom of

the page.

<p>

<b>EDIT:</b> Sorry, forgot the individual photo page section. trying to do too many things at once I guess.

<p>

<h1>** READ ME **</h1>

<p>

These are the current known issues/bugs:

<p>

<ul><li><s>Some users browsers not using most current javascript files.</s> Should be fixed as of 7/9 AM

<li>"details" tab not working for some people

<li><s>visited links are not changing color.</s> Fixed as of 7/9 AM.

<li><s>"Rate" tab appearing on images that has not been sent to critique forum.</s> Fixed as of 7/9 AM

<li>"Rate" tab is not working even for images that HAVE been submitted to critique forum.

<li><s>"ecard" tab appearing on images in folders that have ecards disabled.</s> Fixed as of 7/9 AM

<li><s>http://www.photo.net/community/ page is graphically messy.</s> Fixed. turns out that the most recent version

was not loaded at launch.

<li><s>The words "show details" missing from "+" on folder view pages.</s> Fixed.

<li><s>"show details" and "+" missing from folder view pages when owner is looking at their own folders.</s>

Fixed.</ul>

<p>

We're working on all of them. If you are coming to this thread to report one of these bugs, thank you, but there is not need. We are already aware of these. Please let us know if you are experiencing anything new.

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I like the new look , bolder, easier to read, more graphically contemporary or some such thing. Clicking on the photo is a much bigger target than that "larger" button was.

 

Maybe it's because I've stopped drinking coffee, but the new look has a calming effect on me. I can't come up with anything in the changes worth going off the rails about.

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Hmmm,

 

I've got to say, I test in Windows IE, Windows Firefox, Mac Firefox, and Mac Safari, but I don't test in Opera because it really is the lowest use current release browser.

 

I'll have someone look into it.

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I like the thread counts, etc., but two things I think are a step back:

 

- Forum post titles no longer change colour as 'visited links' when clicked (at least in Firefox), so it's very hard to keep track of the threads you've read in busy forums.

 

- The way Forum names & 'active threads' are interleaved on http://www.photo.net/community/ is deeply ugly and distracting. Move the active threads to a sidebar or something so it's less of a jumbled mess?

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Josh,

 

The standard font size in Safari 3.1.1 Preferences is set to Verdana 16. I also did a (Command + & -) to increase the font size

while the menu was pulled down and the lines of garbled/overlayed menu items began to separate to their own spaces but doing

so caused the rest of the fonts on the page to become huge.

 

Do I need to reduce the Standard Font Size in Safari's Preferences? If so, I'll give it a try to see if it fixes this.

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Tim,

 

Just take a look at it with font font set to "default". Meaning, let the website you are visiting decide what the font size should be and not your browser. That way we might figure out what the source of the problem is.

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The only way to get the menu items to be readable though with very little line spacing is to Command (-) all the way down to

max. Once I empty the Safari's cache, quit Safari and restart Safari it goes back to what it was. The page fonts are affected

separately using the command +/- at a threshold set by the font size selected in Preferences. I can keep Command (-) all the

way down and the page font won't get any smaller.

 

Only the line spacing for page fonts will be affected at a certain level before the font size increases when using Command (+).

It feels like there's some subgraphic grid structure Safari uses that's not standard to other browsers and is controlled by the

Standard Font size setting in Preferences.

 

I don't know where default font size is selected in Safari and where it says to let the. All I have is the Standard Font and Fixed

Width Font which is set to Monaco. Then Default Encoding is set to Western (ISO Latin 1). Universal Access is set to Never

Use Fonts Smaller Than 14 points.

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I do not like bold (or what looks like bold) fonts for *all* the threads titles. Kind of makes it harder to glance through I think. It would be nice to have the threads where *I* responded in bold (with the help of cookies), but not all of them.

 

Thanks.

 

- Sergey

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Josh I have the same problem as Tim. I have the option picked to allow sites to choose fonts but the only way the menu isn't mucked up is if I set the font size for 10 and that is waaaaaaaaaay to small for me to use. Can't read type that small on my screen.
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What about the e-cards option? I'd formerly had this feature disabled, but now it's enabled, and I didn't enable it. And when I click on the Photo Admin tab, the only option shown is "enable e-cards."

 

I don't want this "send e-card" feature enabled on my portfolio. How do I disable it? I'm using IE7, by the way.

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