New BETA version of BikeRadar

gozzy

Yeah, amateurish is the word. The drop down menus are awful.

MattC59

Was the new version designed as part of a primary school project ? It's awful. You need to sack your web designers and start again.

Long_Time_Lurker

Accidentally clicked on the Try Beta version button - now I'm stuck on it. And the 'take me back to the old version' link doesn't work.
It looks like the changes seem to have been made to make the site more attractive at first glance - appealing to new users. But it comes at the expense of usability.
Massive images and loads of whte space, looks like it has been designed for use on mobile devices at the expense of laptops and desktops. Massive images of bikes it harder to use at work too :x
The previous layout grouped everything in sections so that you could see what you wanted at a glance. Now you have to scroll and hope that you spot something.

Coach H

Who came up with this unworkable mess?

Beta sites are supposed to be close to functioning not 1st stage development. My 8 year old daughter has just done a better site at school in her first attempt.

I have blurred images and no way to get to forums other than through a Google search.
Used to have a main page that showed lots of content to then navigate to. Beta version means LOTS of scrolling for no purpose.

I hope you are not paying for this :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

izthewiz

Didn't even know there was a 'take me back to the old version button' until I read some of these posts. In fact I didn't know for sure that there were ANY buttons, as there are precisely none on my screen view....

Jeff Jones

izthewiz wrote:

Didn't even know there was a 'take me back to the old version button' until I read some of these posts. In fact I didn't know for sure that there were ANY buttons, as there are precisely none on my screen view....

There is no old version any more

Could you upload a screen shot and give us your browser / device /OS ?

Pavery1

What happened to my favourite site, it used to be all there on the first page, now it's all over the show. Looks naff and has gone backwards in my opinion. Boo that!

me-109

Pictures need max sizing and scaling sorting out. With the window maximised they are far too grainy and stay that way until the window is shrunk significantly. If the pictures were shrunk (or limited to stay sharp and focused) then the user would be presented with more information on screen, not just one (or part of one) picture and a whole load of scrolling to see anything much.

izthewiz

Could you upload a screen shot and give us your browser / device /OS ?

I would if Forum Help was available. Never had much success posting pics....

izthewiz

Ok, here we go (hopefully):

Fingers crossed, as the preview doesn't show it...

izthewiz

That's a No then...

Help?

Jeff Jones

Me-109 wrote:

Pictures need max sizing and scaling sorting out. With the window maximised they are far too grainy and stay that way until the window is shrunk significantly. If the pictures were shrunk (or limited to stay sharp and focused) then the user would be presented with more information on screen, not just one (or part of one) picture and a whole load of scrolling to see anything much.

That's definitely on the high priority list

izthewiz

Apparently, it's 458x366. is that too big?
Here it is reduced by 50%:
IMG]http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b599/izthewiz/BikeradarBetafeedback_zps0d8290f4.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

or maybe it's here: (should show https://tinyurl.com/pdxwra7)

or not...

Such a flickwit.... (try it in CAPS)

TheJimty

Much preferred the old version - this Beta version isn't user friendly at all.

Jeff Jones

izthewiz wrote:

Apparently, it's 458x366. is that too big?
Here it is reduced by 50%:


or maybe it's here: (should show https://tinyurl.com/pdxwra7)

or not...

Such a flickwit.... (try it in CAPS)

Got it - thank you. That shouldn't be how it looks at all! We'll sort it.

(you needed another [ before the img tag for the photo bucket pic)

Jeff Jones

izthewiz wrote:

Apparently, it's 458x366. is that too big?
Here it is reduced by 50%:
IMG]http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b599/izthewiz/BikeradarBetafeedback_zps0d8290f4.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

or maybe it's here: (should show https://tinyurl.com/pdxwra7)

or not...

Such a flickwit.... (try it in CAPS)

Are you on Internet Explorer 7 or earlier? If so we don't support it and would suggest upgrading to the latest version (IE 11). http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/inte ... -languages

slowbike

Jeff Jones wrote:

izthewiz wrote:

Apparently, it's 458x366. is that too big?
Here it is reduced by 50%:
IMG]http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b599/izthewiz/BikeradarBetafeedback_zps0d8290f4.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

or maybe it's here: (should show https://tinyurl.com/pdxwra7)

or not...

Such a flickwit.... (try it in CAPS)

Are you on Internet Explorer 7 or earlier? If so we don't support it and would suggest replacing it with a decent browser that isn't written by Microshaft

FTFY ...

mambo1

Sorry,

I hate the beta version. Much prefer the previous one

izthewiz

I'm on IE8

Jeff Jones

izthewiz wrote:

I'm on IE8

We'll fix that as quite a lot of people still use it. Not many use IE7

alanp23

I've been struggling to login to the forums today. I have tried IE9 and Chrome and the login/join buttons havent been working. Only managed it through clicking reply in the forums which brought the login box up.

IhateDNS

^ same clicking on rider icon I do get dropdown after filling in details click login then nothing.
Took number times to login on different computers.

Linux Mint \ Chrome
Win7 \ FF

Edit: Thanks

Jeff Jones

IhateDNS wrote:

^ same clicking on rider icon I do get dropdown after filling in details click login then nothing.
Took number times to login on different computers.

Linux Mint \ Chrome
Win7 \ FF

Yep, that's been breaking a lot. A developer is working on it right now.

Angus Young

I must be in the minority, but I like the new look. Much of the negativity towards the new layout will be the usual fear of change. Many will claim not, but it's human nature to resist change. And, as it's in BETA, people should expect wrinkles.

Having said that, the directory of gear tests is certainly not as useful in the new format. There's something a little less user friendly about it.

Ham-planet

Ads in the image slideshows are infuriating, especially given that you can't scroll away from them using the directional buttons (glad of that long overdue addition). Esc key or clicking outside of the slideshow should close slideshows too.

Mike Healey

i have absolutely no idea how to navigate this version of the site and there are no real clues about this. The original version needed no headscratching and was completely intuitive whereas this one is abysmal.

rolf_f

I can't even log in at work anymore - I just get stuck with the 'Welcome to New BR' page appearing by default with the image oversized and blurry (complete with cheap and tiresome Apple product placement) and the text saying how enriched my viewing experience is...........

I wanted to post this on the above page but it didn't seem to let me do it without forcing me to let BR spy on a social networking page which I won't do on principle. Why can't I post comments using my BR login?

I thought Beta meant that it had been extensively tested by the developers and finally released with an aim to solve the final niggles. Not that the developments had been created in about 10 minutes whilst the developer was in the bath. It's a bit crap.

PS presumably the thing that looks like an acorn is meant to be a cycle helmet and glasses. It's not very good......

mambo1

I hate, hate , hate this new version. It is an absolute pain to navigate around. I have found myself giving up the last few days and made no forum posts, especially as it was so difficult to log in. The previous version allowed me to look in a single glance at a huge amount of info, this one doesn't. I had trouble locating the Friday five-aside and it took ages to load!

It is also pretty ugly in comparison to the previous one. Whoever came up with this hasn't got a clue.

Is there any way to go back to the original. This beta version sucks.

mark_foden

Rubbish

skylark

mambo1 wrote:

.
.
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It is also pretty ugly in comparison to the previous one. Whoever came up with this hasn't got a clue.

Is there any way to go back to the original. This beta version sucks.

Many of these forums that you see online are free and Open Source forum software packages. phpBB is a major provider of this software. phpBB produce and maintain all the significant and substantial underlying codebase of this software. And then the "adopters" of this software come in (at a much later stage) and tailor any customisations of the software to their requirements. The Bikeradar forum is an adopter of the phpBB software and adapt it to the ethos of their online magazine.

phpBB recently introduced version 3.1.0 of their forum software, which is still in Beta testing. Bikeradar are now attempting to adopt this Beta software and so you see hick-ups arising. Because it is still a work in progress and all the flaws haven't been completely ironed out yet. Unless you're a software tester and are wary of glitches or basically know what you're doing only then you should switch to the Beta forum. There is little, if any need to, otherwise.

To revert back to "old forum" delete all web-browser cookies set by bikeradar.com and re-log back in.

If things go wrong, don't expect the Bikeradar team to come to your rescue. This also happens to be true of the most mundane of matters, technical matters aside.