|
superbum
Nov 15, 2006, 3:36 AM
Post #1 of 28
(2522 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Sep 19, 2002
Posts: 822
|
Feel free to add on as you find things you like/don't like...
For starters, The first thing I noticed is how damn hard it was to record an ascent of a route! Personally my number one reason for using this site is to keep a ticklist. IF the route I just did is not in the database, I enter it. Then I "tick" it off, zap bang quick like.
Now it seems I must rate it in all sorts of ways and am even required to comment on it w/ words n such. I STRONGLY feel that this should be optional.
Imagine going to the sport crag and climbing 10 routes. You then head home and want to record your ascents. 30 minutes later you are finally done and have written the equivilant of an average forum post. Yuck.
Fast and easy w/ an option to embelish. That would be better imo.
|
|
|
|
|
curt
Nov 15, 2006, 3:45 AM
Post #2 of 28
(2512 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Aug 27, 2002
Posts: 18275
|
In reply to: Feel free to add on as you find things you like/don't like... ...Imagine going to the sport crag and climbing 10 routes...
There's your problem right there.
Curt
|
|
|
|
|
redlegrangerone
Nov 15, 2006, 4:16 AM
Post #3 of 28
(2501 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Dec 21, 2005
Posts: 851
|
It is not so bad once you get used to the site. Somethings are better and some worse.
It is much faster and much more reliable it seems.
It seems they are fixing the embedded photo gripe.
Now if they would fix the link of the database to threads. It is hard not knowing what area anyone is talking about.
|
|
|
|
|
clausti
Nov 15, 2006, 4:22 AM
Post #4 of 28
(2497 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Oct 5, 2004
Posts: 5690
|
it would be nice if, under the profile the search that (sort of) indicates what threads you posted in by searching for your username assorted by date. or was assortable by date. and time. it does not right now now appear to assort by anything.
it would be nicer if, instead of searching for the username, it simply brought up a log of the posts i'd made, as the old site did.
and nicer still if there was a place to go that didnt log individual posts and their timestamp, but threads that had been replied to assorted by most recently posted to, the "my topics" button, which i sorely miss.
although for now, assorted or assortable by date and timestamp in the other would be spiffy.
|
|
|
|
|
rockguide
Nov 15, 2006, 6:32 AM
Post #5 of 28
(2482 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 8, 2004
Posts: 1359
|
Things I like
Faster.
The emoticons are cheesy, yes, but different. Just keep changing them.
The avatars have potential to be fun.
The NSFW warning of nudity or adult content is a good idea - shame it came when their was no longer any posibility of nudity.
Popular tags idea is interesting - just it seemed like some of the tags were not popular - or used in more than one place. Kind of like how popular most people are in Junior High.
I like the "my stuff" tab. It works.
Free email? Thanks. Didn't need it, but it could be nice. How is the spam filter?
Things I don't like
No embedded pics. Has that come up yet?
You can't reply to a thread - only a post.
Names don't show up in quotes. Makes following complex discussions difficult. It will, however, make the Reno/BobD1953 bearable.
The soapbox - keep the politco religous thing in one place.
Very limited mark up in posts.
Loss of the "similar threads" list from the thread bottom.
Losing the person's location in their name/avatar area.
The avatar column (and the ad column) are too wide - cuts back on the post column. Ok -I need a bigger monitor.
Trophys and Poo? Highly rated posts? What up?
Past partner list and friend lists? where did they go?
Front page really buries the recent threads list - it is where I used to go to see where I could maybe help with a question or two (or at least suggest a site search).
front page seems like a skinny table and a bunch of blank space to the right.
The world won't be the same with J_ung and Mowz's sigs.
|
|
|
|
|
robbovius
Nov 15, 2006, 1:14 PM
Post #6 of 28
(2462 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 20, 2002
Posts: 8406
|
Return control of the RDB entries to the users, who will be the people putting up new routes and refining information about established areas/routes. Adding an extra layer of control in the form of an RDB editor adds to the hassle of usingn the RDB.
|
|
|
|
|
j_ung
Nov 15, 2006, 2:41 PM
Post #7 of 28
(2448 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 21, 2003
Posts: 18690
|
1. First off, just in case it hasn't been said enough, I'd love love love to have inline photos back. What a great feature. (Other than that, I'll try not to duplicate what's above me.)
2. I'm not too hip on the way my photos are organized in my profile. It's too difficult for me to find a specific photo; I have to click through several pages. If we had the exact same options as we do for top-rated photos, that would be perfect.
3. Ahem, top-rated photos is really nice.
4. Please incorporate a similar threads feature. VERY useful.
5. Please show previous posts in the thread as I'm replying to it.
6. Please feature an editorial gear review.
7. Please install a quote feature to PMs.
8. Please allow pics in sigs.
9. I love the new email. Far better and easier to get to than the old webmail.
10. Please install a photo delete option -- this is critical.
11. I like the RDB the way it is, even though some other folks do not. However, I could certainly live with the changes proposed above, e.g., make some of those new fields optional, instead of mandatory.
12. Make the FP featured photo bigger.
13. Make the FP RDB stuff smaller. It's a little too in your face, I think.
That's all for now. I know a lot of people disagree with me (I'm learning to accept it  ), but I'm proud of the job you've done and I look forward to seeing how RC.com develops both in the near and far future. My main reason for using RC.com, to communicate with other climbers, is intact and much more reliable than before. Thank you!
|
|
|
|
|
phlsphr
Nov 15, 2006, 2:42 PM
Post #8 of 28
(2446 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 10, 2003
Posts: 262
|
I don't like the layout of the new home page. Maybe I'm idiosyncratic, but the route db is NOT the reason I come here. I come here to be part of a community. I would much prefer seeing just three things when I first arrive at this site:
1. A big, kick-ass photo
2. Recent contributions to the forums
3. A navigation bar.
Hell, add in a modestly sized ad if you must (as long as it doesn't flash, etc.)
Everything else can be below the fold. It's not that I'm not interesteed in the other stuff, its just not what I'm interested in the most. The route db surely doesn't need to take up such a huge amount of homespace real estate. You could just put it back in the navigation bar. What gives with the fascination with the huge clickable map? You haven't made it easier to get to route info, its harder. You folks must have some sort of statistics re what kind of pages on your site get the most hits. Maybe I'm just wrong on this. Is the route db really where all the action is?
|
|
|
|
|
arrettinator
Nov 15, 2006, 8:42 PM
Post #9 of 28
(2426 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Oct 30, 2002
Posts: 8522
|
I like many of the features, but there are some things I wouldn't mind seeing changed.
Like: (*denotes an urgent change request)
*Allowing image tags in profiles and posts. I can understand not allowing in signatures, with the avatar (profile icon) available now.
*Allowing pictures for our profile icon, other than those submitted to the site. I have pics on my own server space I'd like to use that aren't related to climbing, nor do I wish to submit to the site.
*I also agree with j_ung that we should be allowed to delete our pictures from the site if we wish.
*Opening most hyperlinks in the current window, instead of opening a new one. It becomes burdensome having so many open windows if you're not paying attention. I can see links within a post opening into a new window, like it used to be.
Putting the age of a user into their profile, now that we can edit our birthdate in our profile.
Allowing the user to sort pictures a number of different ways. Also, make the default sort order the highest rated photos, instead of the latest submitted.
I like the way the route db is, but as Adam has stated in another thread, having one person (the state admin) having to make all the changes for their state seems overburdening.
I miss the dropdown menus. They made navigation easier, although I understand how certain code slows things down, if it even works.
Also, having the link available to the current page you are on was great before. It made it easier to refresh the page of the forum that the user is currently checking out.
The smilies are .... interesting.
*I found it easier to read threads when there was more contrast in the background color between every other post.
I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
|
|
|
|
|
roy_hinkley_jr
Nov 15, 2006, 8:53 PM
Post #10 of 28
(2423 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Sep 8, 2005
Posts: 652
|
In reply to: I don't like the layout of the new home page. Maybe I'm idiosyncratic, but the route db is NOT the reason I come here. I come here to be part of a community. I would much prefer seeing just three things when I first arrive at this site: 1. A big, kick-ass photo 2. Recent contributions to the forums 3. A navigation bar. Hell, add in a modestly sized ad if you must (as long as it doesn't flash, etc.) Everything else can be below the fold. It's not that I'm not interesteed in the other stuff, its just not what I'm interested in the most. The route db surely doesn't need to take up such a huge amount of homespace real estate.
Agreed, the route DB is ultralow priority -- never, ever use it.
Don't care about the photos, yawn.
The reviews aren't worth the cyberspace they're printed on so below the fold.
Main gripe: can't go directly to last post of a thread anymore.
|
|
|
|
|
kachoong
Nov 15, 2006, 9:33 PM
Post #11 of 28
(2407 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 23, 2004
Posts: 15304
|
A comment about rolling over photos to make the (larger) thumbnails pop-up. If you do it off to the side, close to an advertisment, it's hidden underneath. In other words, is it on purpose that advertisments take precedence over photos?
I see a similar problem with text boxes that pop-up to explain things when you roll the cursor over the little "i" symbol. The text you read is blocked out by other text boxes (I'm not sure what to call them, but I'm someone knows what I'm talking about)
|
|
|
|
|
melekzek
Nov 15, 2006, 10:55 PM
Post #12 of 28
(2389 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 16, 2002
Posts: 1456
|
- navigation is hard. I would never use e-mail notification-on-reply thingy, I have enough junk mail as it is thank you. I want to login, check the threads I replied recently. I want to see the highest rated photos of some user or some area. I want jump on the last post on some threads, and continue reading on some others, not a fixed global setting.
- photo thumbnails are generated by scaling and cropping. Do not crop! Is it a leg, an arm, or quickdraw? I want to see the whole thumbnail...
- editable quoting with the user name, for jt512 style posts
- front page is extremely bad organized. This site suppose to be a forum, but the latest posts are placed at the bottom as an afterthought.
- spellchecking does not recognize quickdraw, tricam, camalot, crashpad but canopy !
|
|
|
|
|
kachoong
Nov 16, 2006, 12:00 AM
Post #13 of 28
(2377 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 23, 2004
Posts: 15304
|
In reply to: A comment about rolling over photos to make the (larger) thumbnails pop-up. If you do it off to the side, close to an advertisment, it's hidden underneath. In other words, is it on purpose that advertisments take precedence over photos? I see a similar problem with text boxes that pop-up to explain things when you roll the cursor over the little "i" symbol. The text you read is blocked out by other text boxes (I'm not sure what to call them, but I'm someone knows what I'm talking about)
OK, so I have seen this layering problem happen elsewhere. If you go to your own list of photo comments and roll over the photos they pop-up but are beneath the text of the comments. Almost like a bring to front/send to back issue.
|
|
|
|
|
hangerlessbolt
Nov 16, 2006, 12:22 AM
Post #14 of 28
(2374 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Dec 2, 2001
Posts: 7255
|
The old site was the culmination of years' worth of tweaking and user requests.
The folks wanted what they’d created…they just wanted it to work correctly
If the longtime admin and moderators had anything to do with this…I'm disappointed. The new guys may not have known better...
There are a lot of lessons to be learned here and I'm sure a lot of work will be done. Hell, we're only a few days into this.
I wish you folks well on the restoration project.
Regards,
-RB
'01
|
|
|
|
|
philbox
Moderator
Nov 16, 2006, 1:26 AM
Post #15 of 28
(2361 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jun 27, 2002
Posts: 13105
|
You make a good point hangerless. I do however have to also make the point that despite the years of tweaks on the old site it simply could not be made to work. When it did work it was fantastic, when it didn't work well it was still fantastic but oh so frustrating. When it didn't work at all, I had to get on with my work, grrr.
This is the start of yet more years of tweaking and at least now we have scaleable architecture to do those tweaks on and wonder of wonders the site is fast, light years ahead of the old site.Sure there are a lot of features that are gone and a lot of features that have changed and some new bells and whistles to play with for us all to get used to. At least there are a lot of the old users to hang out with while we all learn together (cue Kombyar music, all sway together whilst holding hands).
|
|
|
|
|
hangerlessbolt
Nov 16, 2006, 2:50 AM
Post #16 of 28
(2314 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Dec 2, 2001
Posts: 7255
|
Understood to the extent of requiring a stable platform on which to build; however, I'm more than a wee bit suspicious as to the logic and reasoning behind some of the changes.
IMO, the "for sale" sign should never have been staked out in front of this house of ours, but that's for another time...or, rather...was for another time.
-RB
|
|
|
|
|
ddt
Nov 16, 2006, 6:28 AM
Post #17 of 28
(2292 views)
Shortcut
Registered: May 21, 2005
Posts: 2304
|
In reply to: A comment about rolling over photos to make the (larger) thumbnails pop-up. If you do it off to the side, close to an advertisment, it's hidden underneath. In other words, is it on purpose that advertisments take precedence over photos?
DDT
|
|
|
|
|
omegaprime
Nov 16, 2006, 9:40 AM
Post #18 of 28
(2276 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Aug 2, 2004
Posts: 308
|
What I don't like:- No more RSS feed on topics. I find it a lot easier to keep track of the latest topics using RSS.
|
|
|
|
|
euroford
Nov 16, 2006, 2:48 PM
Post #19 of 28
(2249 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Aug 26, 2002
Posts: 2913
|
that big redundant menu off to the left kicks everything to far over to the right.
why is this post box so dang small.
no more highly rated posts? i really liked that feature, not only so i could see the good stuff that i wrote, but the good stuff that other users wrote.
no more trip report forum? that SUCKS. this forum didn't get a ton of traffic, but what it got was high quality.
|
|
|
|
|
thedus
Nov 16, 2006, 3:33 PM
Post #20 of 28
(2241 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jun 10, 2004
Posts: 86
|
To add my voice to the fray, I definitely think that the method for submitting new routes and editing old ones needs some rethinking. In a small area with few routes, having one editor approve each submission may not be so bad, but in California, with 10000+ routes, it'll be impossible for the poor soul who has to manage the area to keep up. At the very least, provide the submitter some sort of feedback. Maybe, if new submissions must be approved, there should be more than one "approver" for large areas. It would be far better, though, to have the area manager just review submissions after they're made instead.
Also, I wholeheartedly agree that ascent recording has become too cumbersome. If I climb some generic sport climb for the fiftieth time, I don't want to have to write a thesis about it. I just want to note that I climbed it. If it's somehow memorable, then I'll write something, but that scenario is in the minority with me, and, I suspect, with most other climbers.
|
|
|
|
|
fenix83
Moderator
Nov 16, 2006, 3:45 PM
Post #21 of 28
(2231 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Feb 23, 2004
Posts: 2397
|
In reply to: why is this post box so dang small. no more trip report forum? that SUCKS. this forum didn't get a ton of traffic, but what it got was high quality.
These two, I actually have an answer for.
-You can change the size of your text box in your forum settings. To get to these click on "Settings" in the navigation sub-bar when you are in "Forum" on the main nav-bar.
-The TR have been moved to the article section, but they are still there.
-F
|
|
|
|
|
arrettinator
Nov 16, 2006, 4:24 PM
Post #22 of 28
(2221 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Oct 30, 2002
Posts: 8522
|
In reply to: In reply to: A comment about rolling over photos to make the (larger) thumbnails pop-up. If you do it off to the side, close to an advertisment, it's hidden underneath. In other words, is it on purpose that advertisments take precedence over photos? Nope. This is a bug. If I knew how to quickly fix it I would. DDT
(This post was edited by arrettinator on Nov 16, 2006, 4:25 PM)
|
|
|
|
|
robbovius
Nov 16, 2006, 6:14 PM
Post #23 of 28
(2200 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 20, 2002
Posts: 8406
|
In reply to: In reply to: no more trip report forum? that SUCKS. this forum didn't get a ton of traffic, but what it got was high quality. -The TR have been moved to the article section, but they are still there. -F
no they're not, no the majority of them. SOME TR's (a far smaller minority of all the TRs on rc.com V1) have been moved to the article forum, but the Trip Report forum, where most people loaded their picture-embeded TRs, is gone as a usable entity, and exists only in the archives forum waay down the bottom of the forum list.
I doubt that many people are interested in going thru the Article submission process ( I checked it out... kind of a pain, compared to the ease of entering a forum thread) for their trip reports, given that most - previously - used the TR forum for such.
having My druthers, I'd like it to come back, with full size embedded pics, of course. those features made the reports fun and easy to read. this having to click on a link, or even hover your cursor over a thumbnail isn't a particularly reader-friendly method.
(This post was edited by robbovius on Nov 16, 2006, 6:15 PM)
|
|
|
|
|
tisar
Nov 18, 2006, 12:10 PM
Post #24 of 28
(2145 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jul 1, 2004
Posts: 2577
|
Maybe I'm just blind. If so, teach me.
I really miss the climbing faq and the climbing dictionary, once both located behind the 'help' button. No more 'STFU and check the help'? That would be a loss...
Plus, there used to be more than one rating system in the rdb. For a Euro, who has evetually to deal with UIIA, French, Saxon, Yosemite and GB ratings, this was (though totally inaccurate) a nice feature. Or at least put some popup thing there with translations. Please!
- Daniel
|
|
|
|
|
ddt
Nov 18, 2006, 5:59 PM
Post #25 of 28
(2130 views)
Shortcut
Registered: May 21, 2005
Posts: 2304
|
In reply to: Maybe I'm just blind. If so, teach me. I really miss the climbing faq and the climbing dictionary, once both located behind the 'help' button. No more 'STFU and check the help'? That would be a loss... Plus, there used to be more than one rating system in the rdb. For a Euro, who has evetually to deal with UIIA, French, Saxon, Yosemite and GB ratings, this was (though totally inaccurate) a nice feature. Or at least put some popup thing there with translations. Please! - Daniel
Hey Daniel, check out the links from the "getting started" section in the left-hand panel of the front page. You'll see some quick links to a few introductory articles, as well as the dictionary and the grade conversion table. All these link to the Introduction to Climbing category in our Articles section. Any user can contribute articles or faq's to that section, which we would greatly welcome.
Finally, if you are in the routes section, click on settings in the local navigation bar at the top, and you will notice you can make a selection there of the difficulty grades you prefer for routes as well as boulders. YDS, French, German etc. All grades on the site will then be converted and displayed in the units you prefer, which is something that we did not have on the old site.
I hope this helps 
ddt
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
