touch site gone in 3-6 months

Penny Tration

Since the DRP thread is becoming a thread about the touch site...

Will the beta be ready in 3-6 months? As it is now, I find it way too difficult to navigate and use, a pain in the hole to be blunt.

I assume it'll be worked on in the months before the removal of touch.boards.ie, but is it possible to sort it by then?

As others have mentioned, I'm in the "wouldn't use the beta" group. At the moment it's too difficult to use, whereas touch is nice and easy. As Dav mentioned too, a large amount of boards traffic is from mobile users (i use boards exclusively on mobile).

So are there plans to work on it, will they be sorted by the time touch is gone?

El Guapo!

I don't like complaining about the site as I know it takes a lot of hard work to keep running relatively smoothly, but I have to agree with the OP.
The beta site is pretty awful tbh. I know it's in the beta stage and it needs to be improved but I can't honestly see it being as good as the touch site.
I think a better approach would have just been to make some minor adjustments to the touch site and you'd have a perfectly good site.

Instead, there has been a, quite frankly, brutal attempt at a boards app and a beta site which leaves a LOT to be desired. The app seems like a half arsed attempt tbh. There was a forum set up for app feedback but even that seems to have been abandoned and there hasn't been an answer to posts in months.

warpdrive

They're removing the mobile site? Wtf! If they change it much from what the mobile site is now then they're idiots. As everyone says for stuff like this, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. This mobile forum is actually one of the best I've used online, the pages all load very fast and navigating it is easy. It's so good in fact that I even linked to it on another forum to show as an example of how a forums mobile site could be done well because the other one, the one I linked, is terrible.

Why would they want to change it? It's already basically perfect!

Penny Tration

As El Guapo said, I don't like to complain either. I used the mobile site and loved it, but got used to touch quickly and it's all good. but I don't see the beta being easy to use unless lots of work is done on it. I'm hoping it will be

Dav

95% of our tech team's time is being spent working on the feedback received on the beta test so far. But there are only 3 of them and they're not miracle workers.

I've tried explaining this before, but haven't done a good enough job obviously. So I'll do my best again to break down what's happening and why.

1) we need to be rid of VBulletin. It hasn't been fit for purpose for years. The Talk To forums and touch. no longer run on it thankfully. The rest of the site has to be moved away from it.

2) we have neither the time, money nor man-power to run 2 separate sites and dedicated apps. There are 3 developers and a sys admin in house to manage the technical needs of one of the biggest sites in this country.

3) responsive websites are the perfect solution to where the internet is right now - you have one site that figures out what kind of device you're using and serves you the appropriate layout. Mobile traffic is now more than half of Boards total - it was only about 30-35% this time last year.

4) not being tied to VBulletin means that changes take days instead of weeks to implement. Not having what currently amounts to 3 sites (plus apps) running in parallel means that the team's workload is DRASTICALLY reduced in terms of maintenance, changes and tweaks.

5) to the people who think we're just doing this for the craic - you are being big silly heads I really don't think I need to expand on this, do I?

The most difficult thing in the online world to do, it seems, is change a website. You get almost universal hatred and criticism from the existing community of members who never, ever want anything to change. You can't get accurate feedback from the people you're hoping to attract because they cannot figure out the current site as it is and don't know how to give feedback. I would like to think that Boards has always done its best to give people what they want - we've never shied away from criticism or feedback and when there's an overwhelming majority of people looking for something to be changed, we do it. Making this move means we're going to be able to do it a LOT sooner. To the multitudes saying "ain't broke - don't fix" have no idea what they're talking about I'm afraid. They have neither the statistics nor the thousands of emails a year nor the feedback from people we want to do business with about how difficult our site is to use. Like it or not, we want and need more members and making the site more friendly to new people is how we do that.

We've thankfully had a lot of useful and detailed over the last few months which is why things have gone quiet on the Responsive Site Testing forum, the stuff's been read, sorted and prioritised and is being worked on. When there's a major update pushed, there'll be news about it there and the change notes listed and the process will be repeated. It's an iterative process, it takes time and above all your help (which you all do, please don't think we don't appreciate that).

Penny Tration

Thanks for such a detailed reply, Dav.

As you mentioned, it's a small team working on the site. If it turns out that the beta isn't totally up and running correctly within the 3-6 month timeframe, will the closure of the touch site be postponed until it's totally ready to go?

kneemos

Don't think it's that bad as is in fairness . Wouldn't be greatly put out if I had to use it.

Dav

Penny Tration wrote: »

Thanks for such a detailed reply, Dav.

As you mentioned, it's a small team working on the site. If it turns out that the beta isn't totally up and running correctly within the 3-6 month timeframe, will the closure of the touch site be postponed until it's totally ready to go?

Of course! We won't be turning any of the existing stuff "off" until we're sure that the new stuff is complete and stable and all the rest.

WheatenBriar

The touch site is the dogs dangly bits and always had been
So easy to use and mostly flawless in my experience

Into The Blue

i've the touch site active across all my devices, including laptop.. makes for constant UI, also not having to load signatures is a bonus..

Could it not be used universally in lieu of vbulliten until the new site is ready?

Dav

You can turn sigs off any time...

But no, it's a horrible interface for a wide screen monitor.

El Weirdo

Dav wrote: »

You can turn sigs off any time...

But no, it's a horrible interface for a wide screen monitor.

It's way better than beta, imo.

Sorry.

gandalf

Hmmm I'm still using m.boards.ie on my mobile devices.

fred funk }{

gandalf wrote: »

Hmmm I'm still using m.boards.ie on my mobile devices.

It's brilliant and very easy to use. It'll be a shame to lose it.

Diamond Doll

gandalf wrote: »

Hmmm I'm still using m.boards.ie on my mobile devices.

Have you tried Touch though? M.boards is ok, certainly a LOT better than Beta, but Touch is much better!

P_1

One thing I'd emphatically agree on (and hopefully you have the clout to ensure) is that the new site is locked down and fully functional before the touch site is retired. Having had to go through the wailing and wondering what is broken/isn't on a site retirement I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

Hollister11

This site is nothing without the users, and if so many of us want the touch site to stay, then that should happen.

IMO the apps and the beta sites are ****e.

Penny Tration

Hollister11 wrote: »

This site is nothing without the users, and if so many of us want the touch site to stay, then that should happen.

IMO the apps and the beta sites are ****e.

Well they're not removing touch until the beta is running properly, Dav confirmed that here in the thread.

He also said touch and the main site are currently running separately. So I can understand removing one and consolidating the beta with the main site, because it can't be easy or cheap to essentially run two separate servers.

P_1

Hollister11 wrote: »

This site is nothing without the users, and if so many of us want the touch site to stay, then that should happen.

IMO the apps and the beta sites are ****e.

You see that's the Little Britain "I don't like it" mentality that achieves nothing. At the end of the day the old system is falling apart and needs fixing, no website would run two separate sites longterm so seeing as they are launching a new site it makes sense to have everything under the one system.

00sully

if touch is already separated from vbulletin you can use touch as the platform in transforming the main site. Mobile first is how to approach responsive design.

So what's stopping using touch as the basis? There is no need for beta to look as bad as it does currently given you have a great foundation in the existing touch site as the users here are attesting to.

IngazZagni

I appreciate all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.
I want to defend my beloved touch site. I use this 99% of the time now. It is so simple and very user friendly. I also like the low bandwidth it uses so it loads quite fast even in areas with very slow Internet. The same can't be said for other sites.
Basically the ease of use of the touch site is the reason I visit so often so hopefully a new version is as simple and user friendly as touch is now.

Overheal

Is there anything from boards users that the team needs to implement a better beta/boards 3.0 (or whatever the new iteration will technically be)? Any fundraising goals for instance?

dr.bollocko

I use the beta version of the iOS app.

And while it is FULL of little bugs, it's certainly going in the right direction in terms of usability. The basic framework is close to correct and the bugs will be fixed. I think it's a long overdue improvement for the mobile user.

I always found the touch site to be torture.

Into The Blue

dr.bollocko wrote: »

I always found the touch site to be torture.

in what way?

Saipanne

I HATE the bright white of the beta. It just hurts the eyes. It would make me stop using the site if it became standard.