New BETA version of BikeRadar

mattv

It is terrible. Sends me in a loop from the mobile site, no option to revert to full desktop site (which is far better and more regularly updated) and no way to view the forum. If you add that to the atrociously designed floating adverts you've had lately I've not been able to access the parts of the site I frequent for around 2 weeks. It's a huge own goal.

gt5xcr

Good bye Jeff jones,best of luck in your new job.now ,give us back our bike radar or its bye bye from me.

Mike Deere

IhateDNS wrote:

Not very good. I found myself in a loop, from forums button on top does show all the time. Clicked forums button then forns index page loads I then click the old green login top right that bring me back to front page then nothing!

I still get this problem, reported over a month ago and still not fixed!

fukawitribe

Gozzy wrote:

That new front page has managed to turn a nice and compact, easy to navigate screen, to something awful. Who wants to scroll through a small selection of articles that previously could be all seen in a small easy to read space? Who wants to click to see more, after scrolling?
Not a step forward in my opinion.

Unfortunately I have to agree completely with this - the information is sparse compared with the old version and (IMO) although some of it looks less cluttered I find it much more difficult to navigate. Some or all of that can be considered personal preference, however the 'More ?' button is a complete no-no - breaks a number of UI guidelines, has been universally slated where-ever used IME and will reduce traffic to other articles - seriously.

garrynolan

Jeff Jones wrote:

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 ?

If there's no 'old version' anymore why is this still the Beta version? BTW - link to weekly Road Bargains not working. Especially annoying as it took me ages to find the link in the first place... So, overall - quite crap really.

warpcow

It looks a bit like a half-baked version of road.cc (and not just because you both have the new GT gravel bike at the top). Their site is nicer to use with the top 10-or so stories in a grid and then the rest in columns by type under that. Of course, that's similar to the old BR too. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but the one thing I really miss is being able to see forum posts from the frontpage.

No.1 problem for me just now is that when I click "More" the loading wheel just keeps spinning without result for the couple of minutes I've been writing this. No, wait, it's there! So, about 3mins to load 12 stories. They'd better be good.

Jeff Jones

izthewiz wrote:

I'm on IE8

It's been fixed now - the site should look fine on IE6, IE7 and IE8. If it doesn't, please clear your cookies/cache and hit refresh

Jeff Jones

garrynolan wrote:

Jeff Jones wrote:

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 ?

If there's no 'old version' anymore why is this still the Beta version? BTW - link to weekly Road Bargains not working. Especially annoying as it took me ages to find the link in the first place... So, overall - quite crap really.

We had to make a call to push the Beta site 100% live (no it's not all polished yet) so we could focus all of our development resource on one site, not two. That combined with the fact that everyone can see it means bugs get fixed far more quickly.

Deals of the week articles will return soon, but you can see all the latest deals on the right hand side of the home page under Shopping Partners: deals of the week.

It will take several weeks to nail everything but and we will certainly take on board feedback from this thread for further improvements.

IhateDNS

Login working for me

Jeff Jones

IhateDNS wrote:

Login working for me

Good :-) The login does work, it's just sometimes you need to logout then log back in again.

We're certainly going to improve it though.

andi1363

I cannot access the forums from my Blackberry. Its shows me as logged out but when I hit the log in button, I get the new front page. When I choose forums, it says I am logged in but when I go to the forums, it says I am not logged in.

Jeff Jones

andi1363 wrote:

I cannot access the forums from my Blackberry. Its shows me as logged out but when I hit the log in button, I get the new front page. When I choose forums, it says I am logged in but when I go to the forums, it says I am not logged in.

This isn't working well. When you're on the home page, try logging out then logging back in again, then clicking on the forum.

DM222

janwal wrote:

At last,after a frustrating week or so I can log on.Can look at classifieds but can't post a new topic as the button is missing!!Old version was 10 times better,why change something that wasn't broken, that everyone liked?

Me too!
How do you post in the classifieds section now?

Teddy Westside

Is it really the case that, even when logged in with a bikeradar account, you can only post a comment on the main website if you log in via a social media account? I dislike having to link accounts in that way.

Jeff Jones

Teddy Westside wrote:

Is it really the case that, even when logged in with a bikeradar account, you can only post a comment on the main website if you log in via a social media account? I dislike having to link accounts in that way.

Currently yes

In future, it will all be linked

Teddy Westside

Thank you.

apreading

Jeff Jones wrote:

Teddy Westside wrote:

Is it really the case that, even when logged in with a bikeradar account, you can only post a comment on the main website if you log in via a social media account? I dislike having to link accounts in that way.

Currently yes

In future, it will all be linked

Are you saying that we will lose our forum user accounts? And our wives will see our forums posts about all the kit we have just bought and our bosses will find out how much time we spend on the internet at work? Might make the forums a bit quieter.

Jeff Jones

apreading wrote:

Jeff Jones wrote:

Teddy Westside wrote:

Is it really the case that, even when logged in with a bikeradar account, you can only post a comment on the main website if you log in via a social media account? I dislike having to link accounts in that way.

Currently yes

In future, it will all be linked

Are you saying that we will lose our forum user accounts? And our wives will see our forums posts about all the kit we have just bought and our bosses will find out how much time we spend on the internet at work? Might make the forums a bit quieter.

That would not be good.

How it should work: if you log in to the forum or sign in via the home page or log in via the commenting bit at the bottom, you will be able to post/comment under your forum username or comment as your social media persona. It's possible only the latter will be allowed for commenting but we'll see if we can get around it.

There we go, just wrote the jira ticket for it :-)

Teddy Westside

I would simply stop contributing to any part of the site which forced social media sign-ins. Bikeradar would become read-only for me. I don't believe any website should require social media tie-ins. Not everyone wants all their web usage linked.

fukawitribe

Teddy Westside wrote:

I would simply stop contributing to any part of the site which forced social media sign-ins. Bikeradar would become read-only for me. I don't believe any website should require social media tie-ins. Not everyone wants all their web usage linked.

Err yes - completely agree. Jeff, are you actually being serious about only having social media login for comments ? Until you mentioned Jira (inflexible but pretty to look at) I thought I was just mis-understanding you.

mambo1

I don't use social media and even if I did I would refuse to use any site that forces me to link it. You say you will take comments on board but the vast majority have said that they don't like the new version, yet you plough on ahead regardless of the negative comments. This is beginning to sound like a 'like it or lump it' alternative to your users.

I will stop participating for now and stop completely if it doesn't improve.

Jeff Jones

No, I said "you will be able to post/comment under your forum username or comment as your social media persona. It's possible only the latter will be allowed for commenting but we'll see if we can get around it."

If we can't get around it easily (we don't know yet, it hasn't been investigated) then we will look at other ways of doing this. That will take longer.

fukawitribe

Jeff Jones wrote:

No, I said "you will be able to post/comment under your forum username or comment as your social media persona. It's possible only the latter will be allowed for commenting but we'll see if we can get around it."

If we can't get around it easily (we don't know yet, it hasn't been investigated) then we will look at other ways of doing this. That will take longer.

It was the "It's possible only the latter will be allowed for commenting" that was concerning me, especially as i'm rarely signed into any social media entity and even if I was, I certainly wouldn't want it linked to BR (or vice versa). I'm hazarding a guess I wouldn't be alone in that regard, even these days. Clearly if we're in an ignorable minority, this won't crawl up the Epic task list much, but thought i'd mention it anyway.

apreading

I think by 'comment', Jeff is referring to comments on news articles or reviews that appear under them. I know some other news sites that have this policy (whether for political or technical reasons I dont know for sure). One possible reason for this might be that it gets people to be more careful what they say and reduces or offsets risk of libel etc.

Forums are generally seen as informal chatter and there are disclaimers and obligations when you sign up and log in, so dont seem to enforce such policies and allow effective anonymity.

I think we could all live with comments at the bottom of news/reviews requiring social media linking, as long as the actual forum itself doesnt and allows us to continue as at present.

I *think* that this is what Jeff is saying, and I think would be OK for you mambo1, fukawitribe?

fukawitribe

apreading wrote:

I think we could all live with comments at the bottom of news/reviews requiring social media linking, as long as the actual forum itself doesnt and allows us to continue as at present.

I *think* that this is what Jeff is saying, and I think would be OK for you mambo1, fukawitribe?

I think you're right - and I also think it's not OK, for me at least. I'm all for moderation but I abhor using social media in general and certainly don't want to irritate my friends and family with every comment I might post on a BR article. If I thought it meant links to forums as well, i'd have been out of here for good. Each to their own mind, but this is not for me.

Jeff Jones

Yes that is what I was saying.

We'd never force people to use social media for forums.

Teddy Westside

I'm fine with the option to use social media as a log-in, it's just that it should never be compulsory. I'm glad the forums will stay 'open' and hope you manage to return that functionality to the comments too. It's not just about not wanting to bore your friends online, it's also relevant to security. The more sites linked to a single social media log-in, the easier it is for someone to steal your identity and /or property.

Hypothetical example: I say here that I have just bought a £10,000 bike (I wish!), mention on a road safety site that I live 20 metres from a particular accident black-spot, and say on twitter that I am going to the beach for the day in an hour's time. That could be all it takes for someone to watch me leave home and relieve me of my new purchase while I'm gone.

The less I am 'forced' to share online, the better.

DM222

Teddy Westside wrote:

I would simply stop contributing to any part of the site which forced social media sign-ins. Bikeradar would become read-only for me. I don't believe any website should require social media tie-ins. Not everyone wants all their web usage linked.

+1
I'd stop using BikeRadar - it should be our choice if we want to link to Facebook etc. maybe some people don't even have or use social media yet you're going to stop them commenting on the website?!
Seems a daft idea to me!

El Correcto

I'm still working with the new format and I think a little shake up is good now and then. But, while this new version looks nice, it's a lot less user-friendly and I'm guessing that's not the result BikeRadar is aiming for. It seems much more information was available in the old school set up. My two cents is try to merge the ready access to a lot of choices with the updated graphics. (I haven't read through the whole forum so forgive me if I just wrote what everyone else already did.)

Jeff Jones

El Correcto wrote:

I'm still working with the new format and I think a little shake up is good now and then. But, while this new version looks nice, it's a lot less user-friendly and I'm guessing that's not the result BikeRadar is aiming for. It seems much more information was available in the old school set up. My two cents is try to merge the ready access to a lot of choices with the updated graphics. (I haven't read through the whole forum so forgive me if I just wrote what everyone else already did.)

Thanks for your feedback (and everyone else's). Keep it coming please.

Regarding number of stories on the home page(s), I'd also like to increase this and I'm not the only one.