| Author |
Topic |
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
 Posted - 2007-06-05 : 08:36:43
|
| I've been working on some updates to the site and I'd like to have a few people take a look around. You can view the updates at http://beta.sqlteam.com/* The database behind the site is a copy from a month ago. Please don't sign in and please don't post in that copy of the forums. * Please test links to articles, authors and tags. Those are the biggest changes in the site. There is no change in the forums except the header.* I know that the header on the forums doesn't quite line up with the headers on the main site. I also know the search box in the forums looks different.* The links to the weblogs go to the real weblogs and not a copy.* The newsletter registration link is real. The headers for the newsletter and job board have not been updated yet.* The advertisements are just place holders.* There are things from the current site that aren't included in my first release such as polls. I think I can live without a poll for a couple of weeks until I can add it back in.* The layout is purposely very basic. I wanted to stay as similar to the current site as possible. Once this rollout is complete it will be easier to make layout changes in the future.* Is the site usable? Do the new links work OK? Any other thoughts or comments?===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master
11752 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 08:51:06
|
| nice._______________________________________________Causing trouble since 1980blog: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp |
 |
|
|
spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master
11752 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 08:53:14
|
| a little bug:http://beta.sqlteam.com/author/mladen-prajdicsee how the top of the letters in the title (Mladen Prajdiæ)is covered in white?_______________________________________________Causing trouble since 1980blog: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp |
|
|
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 08:56:25
|
quote:
Originally posted by spirit1
a little bug:http://beta.sqlteam.com/author/mladen-prajdicsee how the top of the letters in the title (Mladen Prajdiæ)is covered in white?
Ah, yes. That only happens in IE. I'll see about getting it fixed tonight. I guess I'll also have to actually use IE a bit. Oh well.===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
|
spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master
11752 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 09:14:01
|
 yeah... us bastards with ie... well i use maxthon  _______________________________________________Causing trouble since 1980blog: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp |
|
|
|
Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 11:18:57
|
| I think "Recent Topics" is more intuitive than "Recent Tags"When I click on "Backup/Restore" (say) I would like to get the Beef straight away. The top of the page is taken up with Tags (which I don't want just yet) and I have to scroll down to get to the meat."All Topics" has moved from the top to now be at the bottom ("All Tags ..."). Not sure if that is a link that would be commonly used, or not.Headings clipped onhttp://beta.sqlteam.com/privacy.aspxhttp://beta.sqlteam.com/contactus.aspxthis is probably the same as Spirit1 was saying - re: IEhttp://beta.sqlteam.com/tag/app-designLinks are Bold, Visited links are Non-bold, this looks a little odd (although I like the fact that Visited is a different colour)Is the SQL Team logo intended to have a grey background on a white surround? It looks stuck-on ...Search has been removed from top-level-menu (there is a Search box right there instead, of course). However the old Search Page explained that a different search was needed for the forums.ABOUT US - much now-stale content removed. However, nothing about recent improvements / news added?. Perhaps it would be nice to have a History page where the stuff you have culled from live-site's About page could go? Other things that will be of interest to folk in the future looking backwards in time could be added over time?"The rest of the good parts of the site were based on SlashDot. Seven years ago ..."that may not stand the test of time & future maintenance!Link to FAQ removed - I imagine that's deliberate, just pointing it out in case it was not intended!Has link to "The SQL Search" gone?Has "Submit a link" gone?Why is the Beta Forum pushing me some sort of ActiveX? Old site used not to do that (except for some adverts - usually Flash I expect).http://beta.sqlteam.com/forums/ clicking on Logo takes me to Forums. Old site takes me to Home page (which I think is more intuitive)Old site has a Logout on the home page [probably all non-forum pages] (bottom of Left Pane), not found on the Beta site, except within the Forums itself.Do you have any tracking for links? We use a "LinkID" in our applications. We can attach an "&LID=1234" to any HREF and the App counts a "click". We use that to compare click-throughs from different places on the site. It might help in knowing whether people click from within the Article, the "Recent link", or elsewhere etc.Actually, not sure you actually need THE APP to process it ... Web Logs will store it ... and I expect Google Analytics et al. would happy provide Stats based on it ...Kristen |
|
|
|
jezemine
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2886 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 11:35:57
|
Kristen, are you sure you aren't in QA? 
elsasoft.org |
|
|
|
Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 11:36:50
|
| "TEST" you mean? !! |
|
|
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 11:44:00
|
| Thanks Kristen! That's exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. And if you have more I'm happy to get it! I'm at a client right now but I'll try to look into these over lunch or tonight.Thanks!===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
|
jhermiz
3564 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-05 : 12:01:30
|
It looks very appealing, very nice layout...very clean.one thing that struck me...you used the fader!!!!Still waiting on that amazon gift card  Programmers HowTo's -- [url]http://jhermiz.googlepages.com[/url] |
|
|
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-06 : 21:44:49
|
I made a few changes and rolled out an update. Please take another look and give me any feedback. More comments are below.Originally posted by Kristen
I think "Recent Topics" is more intuitive than "Recent Tags"Hmmm. I'll think about that one.When I click on "Backup/Restore" (say) I would like to get the Beef straight away. The top of the page is taken up with Tags (which I don't want just yet) and I have to scroll down to get to the meat.Done. I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with it yet but it seems to work much better."All Topics" has moved from the top to now be at the bottom ("All Tags ..."). Not sure if that is a link that would be commonly used, or not.Moved back to the top.Headings clipped onhttp://beta.sqlteam.com/privacy.aspxhttp://beta.sqlteam.com/contactus.aspxthis is probably the same as Spirit1 was saying - re: IEhttp://beta.sqlteam.com/tag/app-designFixed.Links are Bold, Visited links are Non-bold, this looks a little odd (although I like the fact that Visited is a different colour)Actually the number of items in each category determines the font size and/or boldness. I think I'm going to stick with that but we'll see. Visited links should be a different color. This seems to work in IE but not FireFox. I've got a little CSS work to do there.Is the SQL Team logo intended to have a grey background on a white surround? It looks stuck-on ...No. Can you please take a screen shot and email it to me? graz at the domain name.Search has been removed from top-level-menu (there is a Search box right there instead, of course). However the old Search Page explained that a different search was needed for the forums.Correct. I'm not sure the best way to do navigation right now. I think we'll try like this for a while and see how it goes. The forum search is there but the Google search seems to be pretty up to date.ABOUT US - much now-stale content removed. However, nothing about recent improvements / news added?. Perhaps it would be nice to have a History page where the stuff you have culled from live-site's About page could go? Other things that will be of interest to folk in the future looking backwards in time could be added over time?I'm not sure I want to make this a place for news. I expect I'll either post that in the Site News forum or directly on the site."The rest of the good parts of the site were based on SlashDot. Seven years ago ..."Fixed.that may not stand the test of time & future maintenance!Link to FAQ removed - I imagine that's deliberate, just pointing it out in case it was not intended!It is. I'm not sure what to do with a FAQ. With the quality of search these days I'm not sure one is needed. I may try to have a FAQ per topic area and maintain it like an article. Something to think about after the rollout.Has link to "The SQL Search" gone?Yes. It was more work to keep up and I'm not sure anyone really used it. Did you? It only gets about 50 searches a day.Has "Submit a link" gone?Yes! Woo hoo! No more spam! No more explaining to people that I won't post their links!Why is the Beta Forum pushing me some sort of ActiveX? Old site used not to do that (except for some adverts - usually Flash I expect).I have NO idea. Can you please send me a screen shot of exactly what it's asking you to install? That code is just a copy/paste from the existing site.http://beta.sqlteam.com/forums/ clicking on Logo takes me to Forums. Old site takes me to Home page (which I think is more intuitive)Fixed.Old site has a Logout on the home page [probably all non-forum pages] (bottom of Left Pane), not found on the Beta site, except within the Forums itself.There really isn't any need in the main pages to sign in or out. Thus no sign in or out. That is really only needed for the forums. I'm really surprised you noticed. :)Do you have any tracking for links? We use a "LinkID" in our applications. We can attach an "&LID=1234" to any HREF and the App counts a "click". We use that to compare click-throughs from different places on the site. It might help in knowing whether people click from within the Article, the "Recent link", or elsewhere etc.Actually, not sure you actually need THE APP to process it ... Web Logs will store it ... and I expect Google Analytics et al. would happy provide Stats based on it ...Right now I'm relying on Google Analytics for this.===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-06 : 21:46:35
|
| If anyone can take a run through the beta site with IE6 and let me know if there are any major problems I'd appreciate it. That's the only major browser I don't have installed.===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
|
Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-07 : 02:15:42
|
"I think "Recent Topics" is more intuitive than "Recent Tags"Hmmm. I'll think about that one."Just to clarify what I was trying to express. The "Tags" thingie is a newfangled invention. No doubt all the youngsters are familiar with it , and its clear when the normal style is used (i.e. Popularity adding to Weight of Font) - which is what appears on the linked-pages. Just not sure in the format that it appears in the left pane that it implies "Newfangled Tags Thingie", and thus I was not sure what I would get; so I thought "Topics" or "Article" or whatever might be more intuitive.Bloody search engine is probably going to Index that (and the Recent Forum and Glob subjects too), folk will follow the link, and then find nothing on this page  Incidentally no Meta tags for Spiders on http://beta.sqlteam.com/tag/app-design, nor Home page. Perhaps they should be NOINDEX,FOLLOW so only the articles get indexed, rather than the Directory Pages which will be different by the time the punter follows the search engine link?"Links are Bold, Visited links are Non-bold, this looks a little odd (although I like the fact that Visited is a different colour)Actually the number of items in each category determines the font size and/or boldness. I think I'm going to stick with that but we'll see. Visited links should be a different color. This seems to work in IE but not FireFox. I've got a little CSS work to do there"Crossed wires, different link ... I'll send you a screenshot. (BetaSQL001 & BetaSQL002.GIF)"Is the SQL Team logo intended to have a grey background on a white surround? It looks stuck-on ...No. Can you please take a screen shot and email it to me? graz at the domain name."See BetaSQL001.GIF"ABOUT US - much now-stale content removed. However, nothing about recent improvements / news added?. Perhaps it would be nice to have a History page where the stuff you have culled from live-site's About page could go? Other things that will be of interest to folk in the future looking backwards in time could be added over time?I'm not sure I want to make this a place for news. I expect I'll either post that in the Site News forum or directly on the site."I agree, its nothing to do with About. A "History" page would be nice. Don't hide the light of what you have achieved under a bushel ..."Link to FAQ removed - I imagine that's deliberate, just pointing it out in case it was not intended!It is. I'm not sure what to do with a FAQ. With the quality of search these days I'm not sure one is needed. I may try to have a FAQ per topic area and maintain it like an article. Something to think about after the rollout."Agreed."Why is the Beta Forum pushing me some sort of ActiveX? Old site used not to do that (except for some adverts - usually Flash I expect).I have NO idea. Can you please send me a screen shot of exactly what it's asking you to install? That code is just a copy/paste from the existing site."See BetaSQL003.GIFI don't know what it is either, the ViewSource looks pretty similar. You have both lots (COOP and Analytics) of Google JavScript in both site versions."Old site has a Logout on the home page [probably all non-forum pages] (bottom of Left Pane), not found on the Beta site, except within the Forums itself.There really isn't any need in the main pages to sign in or out. Thus no sign in or out. That is really only needed for the forums. I'm really surprised you noticed. :)"I was just doing a Regression Test and pointing out things that have changed that might not have been intended . Personally I can't imagine using logout EVER! let alone from the home page ...... talking of which: Newsletter seems have moved to the top of left pane now ... as an Act that seems "over billed" to me!"If anyone can take a run through the beta site with IE6"I use IE6 as my main browser.Kristen |
|
|
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-07 : 08:03:29
|
| I've been going back and forth on topics vs. tags. I just set it to topics to see what I think of that. Yes, no meta tags on the topics page. I'll consider that but I think I'd like to have those pages indexed.Yes, links do get skinny when you click on them. Try it now.I do want to promote newsletter subscriptions. We'll see how it goes being at the top for a while. I may move it around a bit. Just to keep people on their toes :)===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
|
spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master
11752 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-07 : 08:30:23
|
| well if you want to promote newsletter subscription them newsletters should be more frequent..._______________________________________________Causing trouble since 1980blog: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp |
|
|
|
Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-07 : 13:39:28
|
| "Yes, no meta tags on the topics page. I'll consider that but I think I'd like to have those pages indexed"Haven't re-read what I said, but what I think I meant was to have INDEX ME on the Article page itself, and NOT on the Article Index page 'coz it is volatile and likely to no longer have the spider-ed text that the punter was using the search engine to find! (Yeah, smart users can use Google's Cached Version, but naive users just think something is rubbish - presumably the site itself rather than their beloved Google!)And I suppose I kinda hate it when I follow a Google link to an "Index Page and the thing I want is no longer there ...Your call though, other than making the observation I ain't bothered as I won't be finding the site via that route!"Yes, links do get skinny when you click on them. Try it now."Hehehe ... I'm getting an Error on http://beta.sqlteam.com/ just now ... you are probably working on it."I do want to promote newsletter subscriptions"OK, cool"We'll see how it goes being at the top for a while. I may move it around a bit"Makes no odds to me, was just pointing it out as a Regression Test Difference!Kristen |
|
|
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-08 : 07:42:28
|
| Ok, the beta site is back up. I'm considering rolling this out this weekend if I can get a few final pieces in place.===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-08 : 08:20:45
|
| Kristen,I think I fixed the logo at the top of the page. Can you verify that?-Bill===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
|
Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
|
|
graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-08 : 14:46:55
|
| That's exactly what it is. A PNG with transparency. I guess we'll just have to wait until IE6 goes away before I start using those. I'll get the forums fixed tomorrow. And I'm glad to know what the ActiveX control is!===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
|
|
|
Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2007-06-09 : 04:37:16
|
| Gawd knows why IE6 farms that out to some COM object or whatever to render ... typical bolt-bits-together mentality ...PS. A GIF will give you transparency, presuming you've got less than 256 distinct colours. But I'm sure you know that ... |
|
|
|
Next Page
|
SQLTeam.com Beta
