ATS 2010 Updates Thread - #(UPDATE Nov. 10)#

reply to post by vimanarider


My ATS is the first item in the Member Tools dropdown box.

To undo the ( - ) action find a corresponding thread with a (+ ).

Do we really need the shading feature.

I find myself moving my cursor to the right so it wont cue the action.

reply to post by Jbird


Not seeing any threads with a (+)

Now that I look at it, I really don't like the new looking ATS. I think it looks like a desktop interface, rather than a conspiracy website. The logo looks all morphed, and like a cardboard cut out...

I was looking through old archived versions of ATS and, I really like this one: the old site

Something weird with the profile pages. The right margin is way too far to the right upon first loading but then when I mouse-over the buttonbar, it snaps back to normal width.

Using: IE8

Let's see how messy this gets.

O-K, pass.

I'm pretty much hating the entire re-design. It's clunky, it's hard to scroll through, it's difficult to find the current hot topics. Visually the design looks poor to me. The toolbar is too large and bubbly, the layout itself not structured enough.

Needs a major overhaul.

reply to post by WolfofWar


I hate the menu bar too, it looks like a bad replica of the one from the apple website.

Yeah, I hate the menu bar too... I thought I'd get used to it - but I still don't like it. I hate waiting that fraction of a second for it to scroll down... I can't imagine surfing via my Nokia - I'm not even going to try.

My personal biggest dislike: I still hate the home page. It seems so redundant. I'm guessing you guys are trying to change the way we use the site? Is that so that we have to view more adverts to find what we're looking for? Kind of like when supermarkets rearrange everything? I know the old site was a little old fashioned (but that kinda worked in a retro way) - and it was very useful at the home page. Was it really too utilitarian? Remember that The Matrix looked pretty cool, with only incomprehensible text on a green screen ;-)


The new backgrounds are cute - though superfluous - and a little less distracting than Obama and Conspiracy chick.

Most of the text is easy to read BUT IT STILL FEELS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING AT ME when you put text in that ultra BOLDer than bold style (and retina-burning-white), which makes that text hard to read. I was half expecting that to have changed, given the number of complaints I was reading about it.


I don't believe in democracy though ;-) So feel free to do whatever you like with my comments - they aren't votes.

im a designer..and i hate it...to many clicks needed to access the bits i want to see...and the links sometimes dont work at all...sometimes im taken directly to the forums i want..sometimes im given a list of top subjects within that forum..randomly...

its awful and REALLY spoiling my enjoyment of ATS...

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

Skipper,

Imagine working with an Internet connection that has a maximum speed of 20 Kilobit/sec.....

Imagine being addicted to this great site like an alcoholic is addicted to his alcohol. In my case, I'm an alcoholic that has to distill his own medicine, watching and waiting as each drop fills yet an other cup.

That is how I feel sometimes when a thread is loading that I really can't wait to read. With this new layout it appears that my distillery has been reduced in it's capacity to produce my medicine.........but the quality that is added definitely makes it worth the wait!!!

I love the new ATS and I would like to applaud the entire ATS crew for their hard work.

Peace

A few quirks that may have been mentioned (Or not, the threads moving rapidly).

The Live ATS headlines listed mid page will sometimes have the 3 action flash wheels spin and then result in nothing. same as I mentioned originally. I have to click on something else, and then go back to it, and it will result in the items...

And, from Topics_v_ I seem to get different options. One was the Live Headlines, but now it's just top members picks and popular topics.

I keep geting very lost.

I still dont know where the thing I used to rely on is, thought the headlines live was it, but Im now often presented with a single post that Im not so much discussing, but reading and I just miss the old style.

I cant find where it is. Seems a choice between Brand spanking new topics with 2 seconds life, or topics that are days old with no new changes, where I was used to new threads that were at least old enough to have content.

I dont feel as if Im contributing to new threads as much as either bypassing them or spamming them with "wow, nice find" stuff minus any discussion ( lets face it, most new posts do not offer an opinion, just a fact)_..

Overall, it's like you've done a vista on xp. or an xp on 98. or a 95 on dos.

We'll get used to it.. but I want my old control panel back

Okay , can't find the ATS issues thread ?

Also , can't post a copy and paste in the 9/11 threads ? Anyone ? Still going through transition , or what ?

reply to post by DISRAELI


I too, miss the color coding of the different forums and I think it was a mistake to change it. Without the color coding, it takes longer to locate and return to a thread that you have been participating in. It just really slows things down. I'm hoping I will get used to it with time but for now, I really dislike the "all white" thread titles.

Originally posted by latitude39
My personal biggest dislike: I still hate the home page. It seems so redundant. I'm guessing you guys are trying to change the way we use the site? Is that so that we have to view more adverts to find what we're looking for?

There is actually significantly FEWER ads on the site home page in the 2010 edition as compared to the previous site home. I'm not sure what you're seeing.

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
Imagine working with an Internet connection that has a maximum speed of 20 Kilobit/sec.....

Then once the full transition is complete, you should be even happier. For the most part, all pages are "lighter" from a file-size standpoint. The HTML of the new recent posts page is about 25% smaller in total file size than the previous version, and the HTML of the thread page will be about 30% smaller in file size.

Originally posted by Flatfish
it takes longer to locate and return to a thread that you have been participating in.

It would be much easier to use MyATS which displays all your subscribed threads (whenever you reply to a thread, you're auto-subscribed).

I like all the new features esp the new posting section. I never noticed if you could change the font before or color so I LOVE that feature now

I was never good at the code to do it myself.

I do want to know when you post a thread and it's in the middle of posting it says a few things in a row but its too fast to read it. What is it doing at this point? I never noticed this before.

One last thing. I liked the times being posted instead of seconds and mins. Will you ever go back to that? Why did you change that?

Over all I like the new features and layout.

Question.. Am I allowed to have all my posts be in one color?

Ok in preview it shows the right color and font?? What happened.






ok nm it works now

Originally posted by WolfofWar
I'm pretty much hating the entire re-design. It's clunky, it's hard to scroll through, it's difficult to find the current hot topics. Visually the design looks poor to me. The toolbar is too large and bubbly, the layout itself not structured enough.

Needs a major overhaul.

Really? At first it bothered me but I kind of like it. The one thing I miss are the color coded forum topics. I found it easier to scroll thru the recent posts with those.

Personally I like the toolbar, you can't miss it.

I'm still getting use to the hot topics section.

I know some members are disliking the new Recent Posts Page, and the rather significant change from small-font color-coded thread titles to large-font light-colored titles, but the early data from more than 48 hours of analytics is showing that it's working.

Our Google Analytics (which doesn't track IP's or members-v-guests) is showing an overall marked improvement on the performance of the page:

There's a significant increase in clicks on thread links (URLs with "/forum/thread..."), by 48.2% -- that's rather significant.

There's also a significant decrease in page abandonment (users who view the page, and click nothing). While the page was previously quite good (32% abandonment on average), the statistic is now 11% -- meaning that of all the people who see the page, 89% click on something as opposed to 68%.

The percentage of people who visit the page is also up slightly, possibly indicating the page is easier to find.
- clicks from the site home increased 9% when compared to the previous 30 days
- clicks from the board home increased 12% when compared to the previous 30 days
- clicks from thread pages increased 7% when compared to the previous 30 days

There is also a marked drop in clicks to forum topic list pages -- down by 34% -- which likely indicates the new page is less confusing to people, and many more are clicking on topics instead of forum names.

For certain, there might be some slight skew in the data because the page and menu is new, so we're constantly tracking the results on a daily basis.



Nothing in this redesign project was arbitrary or based on personal preferences, and a deep review of our site utilization was undertaken before any design decisions were made. Also, many of the design and structural decisions were based on research in human/computer interaction with an eye toward helping users notice content.

If the data was different and show decreased utilization and clicks, trust me, the old page would be back in a flash!