Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. Please keep the feedback coming. Suggested changes will happen overtime, but I wanted to release something so I could get more feedback.
One of the things I had in mind going into this is that our community is relatively small, but it super super interesting. Pretty much everyone I've ever met is intrigued at least slightly by cubing. However, if you tell someone to go to speedsolving.com, they show up and are confused. The old homepage wasn't welcoming, nor exciting, and really provided little value when you think about it. The old homepage was out of date, and not scalable. While it did have the recent threads module, that was it, really. And that is simple to replace as there are already solutions for that.
While speedsolving is a community, there is so much more that can be done with the site than just a forum. Obviously you can use the forum as you did before and it will continually be improved, but I really think the community needs an outlet for news, stories, photos, videos, etc like most other communities have. The idea of this homepage isn't to make the forum go to dust, but actually grow it. Many people show up to the old homepage and say "what's this site about, I'm not sure". What is posted on the forum is only a fraction of the puzzle related stuff out there, and many people would prefer to look at something like the homepage rather than read a forum (hence why you see sports sites similar to this). As I said, the old homepage offered nothing really other than a recent threads module, which wasn’t welcoming, and wasn’t versatile at all which restricted future development. Additionally, vB (the software which runs the forum) has been going downhill for years, and the past homepage relied on it. Future plans would be to upgrade to a more modern software, but it has to be taken 1 step at a time.
In terms of content: right now it's just records/videos/interviews because that is all that was on the old homepage (which was horribly arranged and setup btw). The plan for the new piece of the site would be to provide more stories, articles, photos, etc. But it will take time and it will be a community project. It provides an outlet for cubing media, which really doesn't currently exist if you think about it, and I think it's one reason why cubing hasn't got more exposure. With an outlet done correctly, it could really change the community and lead to more competitors, more ideas, more sponsorship, etc. People wonder why cubing isn't getting as much sponsorship as other "sports", and I think part of it has to do with the lack of exposure to our community. At the end of the day the goal is to create a site where people can connect, learn, and share this hobby that we all enjoy.
As for change: you're not alone, it's human nature. Every time something big changes, people complain because they aren't used to it. Note that the goal with the new homepage is to better the community overall and for the future.
2. Same thing as above. Right now many people are probably seeing the Pochmann interview and therefore it is "popular", but that will change over time.
As mentioned in another comment above, hopefully over time more people will contribute content and it will be interesting to read for both new members, and current forum members. The older homepage really offered nothing for current forum members either.
Over the last few years, the forum hasn't grown much at all, and we can only speculate as to why. Part of this is due to the culture of the forum, or people changing hobbies, etc. But also part of this is due to the lack exposure that the site gives newcomers. Back in the day everyone was welcome. Today people are often afraid to post. It is something that needs to be worked on.
I would like to make a final note in that while I do think this will help serve the community better in the long run, if it doesn't work it can always be changed or undone. You often never know until you try.
Think of it as an addition to the site, not at all replacing the forum. The old homepage offered little in terms of welcoming people to the site, introducing people to what it's about, and provided little in terms of content for the forum. The recent threads module that everyone mentions only listed the last few threads (from select forums), so it was hardly a good way to see what's going on. What's New and Today's Posts are far better, and we encourage people to use those. If those aren't sufficient, I will create whatever is needed to be sufficient, just give me feedback on why those don't work.pjk: To be honest, I absolutely hate the new frontpage. Instead of feeling like a community, it feels like a (low-quality) journalistic outlet - the kind of place where paid writers produce clickbait articles, and other people click on them, read them, and discuss them in the comments. That is, the kind of place where the official content is far more valuable than users' contributions, and where articles' click counts literally pay the staff. I, and probably many others, am here for the forum - the place where regular users post information, videos, questions, etc. and then discuss it over the course of an entire topic. I'm not here for short blurbs about WRs, and I certainly never came here daily because of the interviews or podcasts. Perhaps you are planning to hire people to write articles about cubing, and make that the focus, but that would then be a very different site, and I don't really want to be part of the community on a site like that.
One of the things I had in mind going into this is that our community is relatively small, but it super super interesting. Pretty much everyone I've ever met is intrigued at least slightly by cubing. However, if you tell someone to go to speedsolving.com, they show up and are confused. The old homepage wasn't welcoming, nor exciting, and really provided little value when you think about it. The old homepage was out of date, and not scalable. While it did have the recent threads module, that was it, really. And that is simple to replace as there are already solutions for that.
While speedsolving is a community, there is so much more that can be done with the site than just a forum. Obviously you can use the forum as you did before and it will continually be improved, but I really think the community needs an outlet for news, stories, photos, videos, etc like most other communities have. The idea of this homepage isn't to make the forum go to dust, but actually grow it. Many people show up to the old homepage and say "what's this site about, I'm not sure". What is posted on the forum is only a fraction of the puzzle related stuff out there, and many people would prefer to look at something like the homepage rather than read a forum (hence why you see sports sites similar to this). As I said, the old homepage offered nothing really other than a recent threads module, which wasn’t welcoming, and wasn’t versatile at all which restricted future development. Additionally, vB (the software which runs the forum) has been going downhill for years, and the past homepage relied on it. Future plans would be to upgrade to a more modern software, but it has to be taken 1 step at a time.
In terms of content: right now it's just records/videos/interviews because that is all that was on the old homepage (which was horribly arranged and setup btw). The plan for the new piece of the site would be to provide more stories, articles, photos, etc. But it will take time and it will be a community project. It provides an outlet for cubing media, which really doesn't currently exist if you think about it, and I think it's one reason why cubing hasn't got more exposure. With an outlet done correctly, it could really change the community and lead to more competitors, more ideas, more sponsorship, etc. People wonder why cubing isn't getting as much sponsorship as other "sports", and I think part of it has to do with the lack of exposure to our community. At the end of the day the goal is to create a site where people can connect, learn, and share this hobby that we all enjoy.
Right now the current (new) homepage isn't super useful for active forum members, but that will hopefully change. I want to make it a community project where anyone can contribute content, and if it is worthwhile and good as decided by the moderators, it will get posted.I'm with qqwerf on this one. I'm here for the forums. One of my simple pleasures is how easy it was to type "www.speedsolving.com" and be greeted with all the latest random posts from people in the community. The front page is just highlights, and feels like a barrier I have to click through to get to the conversation I'm adore. Personally, I'll probably never look at the new homepage again, and https://www.speedsolving.com/old/index.php is not my default homepage for all my web browsers (work and home).
Full disclosure: I'm the type of person that hates change, in general. So hopefully someone with less anxiety about this sort of thing can weigh in.
As for change: you're not alone, it's human nature. Every time something big changes, people complain because they aren't used to it. Note that the goal with the new homepage is to better the community overall and for the future.
1. Yes, those will get fixed as time passes, people use the site, and more posts are added. Right now those 5 are showing since it hasn't been used much yet.Yeah, not liking the new style:
1. The same five threads seem to appear all over the place. This includes the Recent, Popular and Random thread containers on the page.
2. Some strange choices for Popular threads are appearing on the page. For example, I have Stefan Pochmann's interview from 2008 appearing in my Popular Posts.
Hopefully this will iron itself when the new layout has been going for a few weeks. The new front page is probably a bit more appealing to new visitors, but for current members it just adds an unnecessary step in order to get to the real forums and see what the latest news is.
2. Same thing as above. Right now many people are probably seeing the Pochmann interview and therefore it is "popular", but that will change over time.
As mentioned in another comment above, hopefully over time more people will contribute content and it will be interesting to read for both new members, and current forum members. The older homepage really offered nothing for current forum members either.
Better late than never, right? Technology changes, how we share changes, and it's important to adapt. Note that the wiki and forum will remain mostly the same. The new homepage simply allows for an outlet of media that is produced through cubing, and makes it exciting to new people. The purpose of a forum is to discuss things, the purpose of the new homepage is to share things. I think having both is important. For example, MacRumors has done very well with it.I feel like if something like this had been implemented at/near the begging, this would not be an issue. My issue is it feels like you're trying to change the scope of the website. It has become 90% forum, and 10% wiki. Updating the home page so dramatically just feels like you want it used differently. I love the way it looks, and provides functionality, I think it's to abrupt though.
Good tips and suggestions on the layout. Much appreciated. I can implement a recent threads piece on the homepage, but I'm unsure what the purpose of this is. It isn't useful for seeing all the latest posts, only the ones within the last hour (depending on the activity at the time). I want to encourage people to use better tools like the Todays Posts and the Whats New. They are made for that purpose.The main complaint seems to be that there is no quick access to newly updated threads, which is something I immediately missed as well. My solution, is to add a panel that holds links to all the newly update threads, similar to a mini old home page...[more]
If you click on the forums link, it already goes to the forum home. What do you mean exactly?The other thing I would do, which would be really, really quick, would be to point the Forums link in the header to the forum home page
For new users, if they browse the new homepage it will be clear there is a big community behind it. Time will tell I suppose.I like the old homepage to see what has most recently been posted in. I have used the What's New a bit. The homepage now shows no sign of it being a forum, if you ignore the navigation bar. The content on the new homepage favours the new features and co tent you've added. I'm sure you'll being making some small changes here and there. Also I never found the old homepage archaic. I've got so used to the old one, over the last five years.
You saw new posts, but only the latest 20, neglecting certain forums. It was not at all a good way to see the latest posts on the forum. Many people seem to have issues with this, but it seems that most of those people don't use Today's Post or What's New, which are far better solutions.Dont like it. It was much better when you saw new posts immediately when you entered the site.
Now I just see some news I already knew in weird box layout...
Simpler and cleaner layouts are often better, I agree. But sometimes they aren't. We should try both and see. I am a big fan of the PhysicsForums site, and their Insight page for articles. However, cubing is quite different than just informational discussion. People are now becoming more known, people inspire others, and it's more like a sport than anything. Look at how finals are organized at competitions. Something with more visuals I think is more exciting for cubing (hence the new homepage).I do think it's a bad thing, actually. I'm one of those people who think simpler and cleaner layouts are better. There is a lot of space wasted in white space, borders/margins/padding, unnecessary "0 Comments" links (remember, this is a forum, not a new media company ), big "Read More >>" buttons, and of course images. Even the menus contain large images, which makes them take up a solid third of the screen when deployed.
Points taken. Note that saying the goal is to maximize page views makes it sound like I'm trying to make money regardless of what the community thinks. That isn't at all the case, and in fact, the site has made little profit over the course of 10 years. The goal is to bring more exposure to the community and allow us to more easily share our community with the world, but it is not financially driven at all.Compare to http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/, where instead of having a semi-random 2D assortment of colorful blocks, they have their news posts in the middle and everything else in a fixed place. They have images when necessary, but don't force them in on every post, and since their reason for existing isn't to maximize their page views, they have put all of the text out in the open without a "Read More" button. Of course, since that's a site with its own game the updates (on tournaments, song releases, etc.) are a lot more meaningful, but I'm not suggesting we copy that any more than I'm suggesting we never change the old look of speedsolving.
As I quoted someone above, this is because it was just released. Long term is to have anyone in the community contribute articles, stories, ideas, thoughts for the community. The reason why right now you only see the above is because I can only do so much alone. Just like with the forum and the wiki, I've setup a platform which allows people to share.My other big issue with the layout is that the entire homepage seems to be about WRs, interviews, and media article links, repeated over and over (seriously, I see Feliks's 5x5x5 WR five times and that's without even going into the menus) in various different sorting styles and groupings. The discussion is what makes this site worth going to, and the fact that it is barely even ON the front page bothers me. Have a place for announcements and interviews, by all means, but the newly updated or popular forum topics is what I really want to see.
If the new homepage makes the forum shrink, I will change it. In fact, the end result of having an outlet for media would be to make the forum grow and bring more exposure to it. I'll do everything in my power and listen to everyone in the community to help the forum be what the community wants.It's still there now, if you know where to look. But it's, as you've said, "archaic". Will it still be there in a year, or a few? Or will the forum end up collecting dust in an obscure corner of the site, only used by the old farts who don't want to upgrade to the new way of doing things?
Over the last few years, the forum hasn't grown much at all, and we can only speculate as to why. Part of this is due to the culture of the forum, or people changing hobbies, etc. But also part of this is due to the lack exposure that the site gives newcomers. Back in the day everyone was welcome. Today people are often afraid to post. It is something that needs to be worked on.
That is a nice idea. If you're interested in creating something like this, please let me know and I'd be glad to work with you on it.Oh yeah, I guess I could pitch in a WIP mockup that I have yet to work on (overloaded with school and other coding stuff). It's super-makeshift, but it's what I sort of have in mind.
I would like to make a final note in that while I do think this will help serve the community better in the long run, if it doesn't work it can always be changed or undone. You often never know until you try.
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