Usability and Design advice

[Sirotnikov]

Nowhere near as slow for me today as it was yesterday. But this is something temporary anyway and something you have to live with. We have a bunch of stuff that has to be done that is resource-intensive, like processing the archives and attachments. Gramphos is trying to keep the load low, but it has to be notable. But this is going to get better.

You should remember non-staff don't know that it's temporary or for their own good. These sort of things must be announced more visibly to the user community.

Consider taking poly off for two days, and finish the job in a rush, if that's possible. Or calculate the load so the page won't take 20 seconds to load like yesterday.

What ever you do, you should be more transparent about how much longer it will take exactly, and you should push this information on every page.

Remember, your users are blind. They experience a slow site for days, and without any information as to how long it will last, when will the next disruption start, and how bad will it be. To be honest, I do not follow "forums upgrade" daily. Most visitors probably have never opened it.

Until you both told me that this is planned and controlled, I was suspecting you guys were simply not on top of things, and losing control of the new setup.

People appreciate security and awareness much more than you think, and lack of information makes them panic and leaves them angry. Put your planned disruption schedule in public, and advertise it. This will make it easier on most of us. Really.

[Solver]

Nowhere near as slow for me today as it was yesterday. But this is something temporary anyway and something you have to live with. We have a bunch of stuff that has to be done that is resource-intensive, like processing the archives and attachments. Gramphos is trying to keep the load low, but it has to be notable. But this is going to get better.

[Sirotnikov]

I myself is mainly working with technical issues currently, and leave configuration and template design to others, which is why I haven't responded to your comments other than by adding some links to the navigation menu.

i mind that much less.

the fact that poly is super-slow is killing me.

[Gramphos]

guys, i don't know whether the technical issues (load and stuff) have to do with the tweaks you made.

It is not. The load is related to the reintroduction of features, which requires processing to setup. Currently there are running queries which is processing ~9000 of the archive threads. The query insensitivity is adjusted to the server load, but the load will be high until they finish.

There is also some additional load caused by the transfer system which is still in place. None of us can work full time on the upgrade, which mean that it will take some time before everything is transferred off the proxied apache, and every proxy request result in some extra load on the server.

I myself is mainly working with technical issues currently, and leave configuration and template design to others, which is why I haven't responded to your comments other than by adding some links to the navigation menu.

[Sirotnikov]

guys, i don't know whether the technical issues (load and stuff) have to do with the tweaks you made.

i think that if it is related it might have been wiser to move to a blank VB 3, and later re-introduce key features. this would also have helped judging which ones are a must and which ones are not.

[TCO]

That was a good response, Dan. I still think it a travesty that we even ever had the puke green and want to know the guilty party...and then subject him to community hazing....but still good response.

[DanQ]

You do not have to keep track of every change. You can e.g. check the drop-down menu in the lower left-hand corner of forum pages to see what different styles are available, and check in on them e.g. every few days to see how they are continuing to evolve throough being accessible to the general public with feedback generated in turn.

These alternative styles are still being tweaked; there is one that is to become the new default style, but to minimize disruption while it is still being tinkered with, this change has not yet been applied. Our current aim is to have it in place on/by month's end. Parts of Siro's presentation are being taken into account, as are parts of others' suggestions across the board.

[TCO]

I have not kept track of every change. Regardless, the default style should be fixed as described in Siro's presentation.

[DanQ]

Why are Siro's criticisms not being acted on?

Have you not seen the various alternative forum styles that are currently available and still under revision?

[TCO]

Why are Siro's criticisms not being acted on?

[Sirotnikov]

Quick reply is now white. Siro had an effect.

not yet

[Sirotnikov]

[Nikolai]

That is one good change.

[DanQ]

Thanks, Dan.

Welcome.

I have also now disabled the "Latest Poll" from the right-hand column. This may yet come back, in some modified form or not, but for the moment anyway it's worth a try without.

[-Jrabbit]

Thanks, Dan.