getmusicbee.com

General => General Discussions => Topic started by: AvikB on November 21, 2015, 12:50:52 AM

Title: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 21, 2015, 12:50:52 AM
Website & Forum Design is complete for v1.
Finally, after couple of months in creating and testing the site and improving with the help of the community the website is finished and launched.

This is a complete rewrite and built from the ground up(except for the Forum) to meet the latest web standards. The site is designed with HTML5, SCSS, PHP, MYSQL, JS(+JQuery) and supports all the latest browsers including mobile devices.

Currently the website is now at version 1.x, and there won't be any completely new feature implementation at this point, only bug fixes and optimization.


So what now?
I still have few more features that i wanted to implement, all of those will be made available for the next major website release. Which should be couple months from now on (no promises though ;) ).



Github: https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/ (https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/)
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: Alumni on November 21, 2015, 02:47:35 AM
This demo looks rather nice, very simple but in a good way.
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: AvikB on November 21, 2015, 03:44:23 AM
Added Tagging Tool info on the page, also little bit polished now. should look good :)
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: AvikB on November 21, 2015, 03:46:51 AM
This demo looks rather nice, very simple but in a good way.

Thanks :)
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: boroda on November 21, 2015, 07:24:15 AM
looks cool!
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: Iasc on November 21, 2015, 08:28:00 AM
looks good.
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: AvikB on November 21, 2015, 10:29:10 AM
Thanks Guys. Any feedback would be welcome. :)
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: Steven on November 21, 2015, 02:02:17 PM
i like this a lot more than the current home page. It has the right balance of showing relevant information in a visually attractive way. It may not even need a features page.
I do have some concerns if it was to be taken further. The people who helped out with the current site design are no longer active on the forums and i dont have the time or skills to do any PHP scripting to integrate the forum into that look. So someone with those skills would need to help out.
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: AvikB on November 21, 2015, 02:12:15 PM
I can do HTML and CSS3 part, also i do have PHP knowledge, i don't think it will be THAT hard :S

I can help if you want. OFC, i have to look at some of the code on the home page.

As for feature page, i agree, but i can make a nice looking feature page if needed :)
Title: Re: MusicBee website design update
Post by: AvikB on November 22, 2015, 12:23:19 AM
i like this a lot more than the current home page. It has the right balance of showing relevant information in a visually attractive way. It may not even need a features page.
I do have some concerns if it was to be taken further. The people who helped out with the current site design are no longer active on the forums and i dont have the time or skills to do any PHP scripting to integrate the forum into that look. So someone with those skills would need to help out.

Well check the original, post i have updated with the new forum look! it is a THEME so no modification is required to any files of the forum.
also the theme is fully functional. i can send you the theme files if interested.
Title: Re: MusicBee website design and forum update Concept
Post by: Bee-liever on November 22, 2015, 12:37:13 AM
Very, very nice.
Title: Re: MusicBee website design and forum update Concept
Post by: Steven on November 22, 2015, 11:51:23 AM
well i think it all looks great.
I already have http://test.getmusicbee.com/ available as a testing site so i could grant ftp access to it for anyone willing to participate in creating a new website version.
However i still feel a bit nervous about the forum only because i know the current one had various bits of standard smf code modified. So having someone who knows what they are doing with the PHP code would be helpful.
Perhaps it will be possible to have a fully functioning forum that points to the current forum database with the new look?
Title: Re: MusicBee website design and forum update Concept
Post by: AvikB on November 22, 2015, 01:18:02 PM
well i think it all looks great.
I already have http://test.getmusicbee.com/ available as a testing site so i could grant ftp access to it for anyone willing to participate in creating a new website version.
However i still feel a bit nervous about the forum only because i know the current one had various bits of standard smf code modified. So having someone who knows what they are doing with the PHP code would be helpful.
Perhaps it will be possible to have a fully functioning forum that points to the current forum database with the new look?

Well i actually created a SMF theme, i rewrite the style stuff and some new theme file for most of the things, also modified PHP on a lots of the things. I would say, i have completed about 80% of the theme. i am testing it on a real Simple Mechine Forum (version 1.1.21) on my localhost, so far no problem found.

i highly doubt the previous dev had to modify any REAL FORUM FILE, unless ofc any mod is used (but so far, i don't think there is any extra mod is used on this forum :/)

can you PM me the ftp details?
also you might wanna create a sub directory in there like (http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum), and upload a SMF version 1.1.21, and a dummy database, i think when the test is complete we can safely just move the main page in the main domain and ONLY change the theme file of the current forum.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 22, 2015, 08:15:21 PM
I have uploaded the site to the test server, here is the link:


a new download page is added instead of the old one.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: Steven on November 22, 2015, 09:11:29 PM
my opinion is the fonts need to be a bit stronger or somehow more interesting - at least fior the Home/ Download/ ... links and the main MusicBee header. I cant see the forum mockup you did at the moment but i thought those fonts looked good.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 22, 2015, 09:53:56 PM
my opinion is the fonts need to be a bit stronger or somehow more interesting - at least fior the Home/ Download/ ... links and the main MusicBee header. I cant see the forum mockup you did at the moment but i thought those fonts looked good.


yeah i removed those earlier screenshots of the forum, here is the new forum screenshot.

http://i.imgur.com/c1Mo0Gh.png (http://i.imgur.com/c1Mo0Gh.png?1)
i stll haven't done much of the menubar, i am actually thinking about integrating the forum notifications(specially for messages and new replies) in the menu (only when user is logged in).

i will work on it when i am done with all of the pages first.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: Bee-liever on November 22, 2015, 09:57:23 PM
A few minor spelling and grammatical errors (with a few suggestions  :)  ):

Get MusicBee, It is free! checkout the features below or Download Now
Get MusicBee. It's free! Checkout the features below or Download Now

Play your music the way that you want. Turn your computer into a music jukebox Or, use auo tagging to cleanup your messy music library. Get the most out of your speakers with tools for those who sound quality matters
Play your music the way that you want. Turn your computer into a music jukebox or, use auto tagging to clean-up your messy music library. Get the most out of your speakers with tools for those whom sound quality matters.

MusicBee also support Groove Music(formerly XBOX Music), now you can explore your favourite artists and albums
MusicBee also supports Groove Music (formerly XBOX Music), now you can explore your favourite artists and albums.

Choose a skin for MusicBee and make it look the way you want. Check our WIKI or FORUM for more skin made by the community.
You can also make your own skin and share it with others.
Choose a skin for MusicBee and make it look the way you want. Check our WIKI or FORUM for more skins made by the community.
You can also make your own skin and share it with others.


Edit/View all tags with the extensive tag editor and the tag inspector. Manage duplicates, custom tags, Automatically organise library file names and structure, get song tags from online sources .... and a lot
Edit/View all tags with the extensive tag editor and the tag inspector. Manage duplicates, custom tags, Automatically organise library file names and structure, get song tags from online sources .... and a lot more.

And a whole lot more...
plus a whole lot more...

As XP is no longer an officially supported Microsoft platform, I would also suggest changing this one as well:
 latest release Here
for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
latest release Here
for Windows Vista/7/8/10
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 22, 2015, 10:24:56 PM
A few minor spelling and grammatical errors (with a few suggestions  :)  ):

Get MusicBee, It is free! checkout the features below or Download Now
Get MusicBee. It's free! Checkout the features below or Download Now

Play your music the way that you want. Turn your computer into a music jukebox Or, use auo tagging to cleanup your messy music library. Get the most out of your speakers with tools for those who sound quality matters
Play your music the way that you want. Turn your computer into a music jukebox or, use auto tagging to clean-up your messy music library. Get the most out of your speakers with tools for those whom sound quality matters.

MusicBee also support Groove Music(formerly XBOX Music), now you can explore your favourite artists and albums
MusicBee also supports Groove Music (formerly XBOX Music), now you can explore your favourite artists and albums.

Choose a skin for MusicBee and make it look the way you want. Check our WIKI or FORUM for more skin made by the community.
You can also make your own skin and share it with others.
Choose a skin for MusicBee and make it look the way you want. Check our WIKI or FORUM for more skins made by the community.
You can also make your own skin and share it with others.


Edit/View all tags with the extensive tag editor and the tag inspector. Manage duplicates, custom tags, Automatically organise library file names and structure, get song tags from online sources .... and a lot
Edit/View all tags with the extensive tag editor and the tag inspector. Manage duplicates, custom tags, Automatically organise library file names and structure, get song tags from online sources .... and a lot more.

And a whole lot more...
plus a whole lot more...

As XP is no longer an officially supported Microsoft platform, I would also suggest changing this one as well:
 latest release Here
for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
latest release Here
for Windows Vista/7/8/10


Thanks really appreciate :) my english is crappy :|

UPDATED: just updated with the suggested mistake correction
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: phred on November 22, 2015, 10:51:21 PM
"November" has a typo on the downloads page "Novmeber"

I think both versions should be closer together.  In your mockup I feel there's too much separation.  And the release notes are for -both- versions.  The way the mockup looks, it appears that the release notes are only for the portable version.

As XP is no longer an officially supported Microsoft platform, I would also suggest changing this one as well:
 latest release Here
for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
latest release Here
for Windows Vista/7/8/10

I disagree with this.  Yes, XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, but MB certainly works just fine with XP.  And potential users should be aware that it will indeed work with XP.

In the "Sync with Devices" blurb on the home page, I'm not so sure "iOS" should be mentioned.  I guess that should really be Steven's call.  But if I were looking for a new music manager/player and saw that sentence, I would expect it to work natively.  As it stands now, only old iPods work directly with MB and -some- of the newer ones -may- work with the iPod/iPhone driver plugin.  I think including iOS will open up a can of worms.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: Bee-liever on November 22, 2015, 10:52:56 PM
Oops. I missed a couple  :-[

Checkout the features below or Download Now >> Check out the features below or Download Now

WIKI or FORUM for more skin made >> WIKI or FORUM for more skins made

There are tons of feature in MusicBee, checkout  >> There are tons of features in MusicBee, check out
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 23, 2015, 12:49:23 AM
"November" has a typo on the downloads page "Novmeber"
Thanks, though i am actually working on a admin control center that will automate the process (no manual html editing! yay!).

I think both versions should be closer together.  In your mockup I feel there's too much separation.  And the release notes are for -both- versions.  The way the mockup looks, it appears that the release notes are only for the portable version.
ypu mean the blue background for the installer download and dark grey for the portable? yeah i noticed it too..... can't settle with the color :/
i actually wen't with grey because portable installer isn't widely use(not sure :/), so the top one would appeal more by creating a separation.

As XP is no longer an officially supported Microsoft platform, I would also suggest changing this one as well:
 latest release Here
for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
latest release Here
for Windows Vista/7/8/10

I disagree with this.  Yes, XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, but MB certainly works just fine with XP.  And potential users should be aware that it will indeed work with XP.
What happens when a XP related problem(maybe taskbar issue or icon displaying issue) is posted in the forum, does Steven work to fix them? If the dev actually support it i will put it back, even chrome has ended xp support.... can't be too sure...

In the "Sync with Devices" blurb on the home page, I'm not so sure "iOS" should be mentioned.  I guess that should really be Steven's call.  But if I were looking for a new music manager/player and saw that sentence, I would expect it to work natively.  As it stands now, only old iPods work directly with MB and -some- of the newer ones -may- work with the iPod/iPhone driver plugin.  I think including iOS will open up a can of worms.
Damn Apple, i thought it works with ios  ??? ,never tried it.
So Should i remove IOS or just mention the IOS version number that it work with.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: phred on November 23, 2015, 01:18:38 AM
I think both versions should be closer together.  In your mockup I feel there's too much separation.  And the release notes are for -both- versions.  The way the mockup looks, it appears that the release notes are only for the portable version.

ypu mean the blue background for the installer download and dark grey for the portable? yeah i noticed it too..... can't settle with the color :/
i actually wen't with grey because portable installer isn't widely use(not sure :/), so the top one would appeal more by creating a separation.
Yes, that's the section I'm referring to.  And II think a lot of folks uses the portable version, but I have no numbers to back that up.

As XP is no longer an officially supported Microsoft platform, I would also suggest changing this one as well:
 latest release Here
for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
latest release Here
for Windows Vista/7/8/10

I disagree with this.  Yes, XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, but MB certainly works just fine with XP.  And potential users should be aware that it will indeed work with XP.
What happens when a XP related problem(maybe taskbar issue or icon displaying issue) is posted in the forum, does Steven work to fix them? If the dev actually support it i will put it back, even chrome has ended xp support.... can't be too sure...
I think this is a decision for Steven.

In the "Sync with Devices" blurb on the home page, I'm not so sure "iOS" should be mentioned.  I guess that should really be Steven's call.  But if I were looking for a new music manager/player and saw that sentence, I would expect it to work natively.  As it stands now, only old iPods work directly with MB and -some- of the newer ones -may- work with the iPod/iPhone driver plugin.  I think including iOS will open up a can of worms.
Damn Apple, i thought it works with ios  ??? ,never tried it.
So Should i remove IOS or just mention the IOS version number that it work with.
Again, another one for Steven to decide.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 23, 2015, 02:21:17 AM
I think both versions should be closer together.  In your mockup I feel there's too much separation.  And the release notes are for -both- versions.  The way the mockup looks, it appears that the release notes are only for the portable version.

ypu mean the blue background for the installer download and dark grey for the portable? yeah i noticed it too..... can't settle with the color :/
i actually wen't with grey because portable installer isn't widely use(not sure :/), so the top one would appeal more by creating a separation.
Yes, that's the section I'm referring to.  And II think a lot of folks uses the portable version, but I have no numbers to back that up.

As XP is no longer an officially supported Microsoft platform, I would also suggest changing this one as well:
 latest release Here
for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
latest release Here
for Windows Vista/7/8/10

I disagree with this.  Yes, XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, but MB certainly works just fine with XP.  And potential users should be aware that it will indeed work with XP.
What happens when a XP related problem(maybe taskbar issue or icon displaying issue) is posted in the forum, does Steven work to fix them? If the dev actually support it i will put it back, even chrome has ended xp support.... can't be too sure...
I think this is a decision for Steven.

In the "Sync with Devices" blurb on the home page, I'm not so sure "iOS" should be mentioned.  I guess that should really be Steven's call.  But if I were looking for a new music manager/player and saw that sentence, I would expect it to work natively.  As it stands now, only old iPods work directly with MB and -some- of the newer ones -may- work with the iPod/iPhone driver plugin.  I think including iOS will open up a can of worms.
Damn Apple, i thought it works with ios  ??? ,never tried it.
So Should i remove IOS or just mention the IOS version number that it work with.
Again, another one for Steven to decide.

well Steven is busy right now :/

UPDATE: i have updated the download page color choices, it should look more consistent now.

ALSO THE BIGGEST CHANGE IS:
automated update info through a control panel, well control panel is not there yet only the blackened structure is there.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: Bee-liever on November 23, 2015, 03:08:15 AM
can you suggest me some good color?
Maybe you could rearrange it slightly?

with existing blue (#0076DB) background:
Download MusicBee

We hope you'll enjoy your music experience with MusicBee!  

Version: 2.5.5804                                                                                                   with the picture over here
Released on 22 November 2015
Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
View the release notes

with blue/grey (#2B6698) background:
MusicBee
Standard version for your desktop, laptop or tablet
 Start Download Mirror 1 Mirror 2

with existing grey (#565656) background:
Portable MusicBee
Put MusicBee on your flash drive and take your music collection wherever you go.
Get Portable version

EDIT:
or simply use the colours you changed it to while I was originally typing this  :)
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: phred on November 23, 2015, 03:40:00 AM
well Steven is busy right now :/
Yes, he certainly is.  But it's his product and while I feel fine -suggesting- changes, the final decision should be his.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 23, 2015, 03:43:33 AM
can you suggest me some good color?
Maybe you could rearrange it slightly?

with existing blue (#0076DB) background:
Download MusicBee

We hope you'll enjoy your music experience with MusicBee!  

Version: 2.5.5804                                                                                                   with the picture over here
Released on 22 November 2015
Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
View the release notes

with blue/grey (#2B6698) background:
MusicBee
Standard version for your desktop, laptop or tablet
 Start Download Mirror 1 Mirror 2

with existing grey (#565656) background:
Portable MusicBee
Put MusicBee on your flash drive and take your music collection wherever you go.
Get Portable version

EDIT:
or simply use the colours you changed it to while I was originally typing this  :)

Nice suggestion! i am gonna do something like that. :)
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: hiccup on November 23, 2015, 08:26:42 AM
Great work AvikB!

One of the things I like is the footer you designed.
Would it be an option to have that footer in view always? So it is not necessary to scroll all the way down to see it?

and,
I hate to bring in 'a negative', especially since I do like the look and feel of the image and the colors, but I have an allergy (with doctors prescription) for the 'hand heart'.
Are alternative images being considered?
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 23, 2015, 10:34:15 AM
Great work AvikB!

One of the things I like is the footer you designed.
Would it be an option to have that footer in view always? So it is not necessary to scroll all the way down to see it?
why do you wan't the footer in the view? any specific reason?
and no, i don't think it is possible for the footer to be always visible, not without compromising the look and feel. i don't see a reason of the footer being always visible.

and,
I hate to bring in 'a negative', especially since I do like the look and feel of the image and the colors, but I have an allergy (with doctors prescription) for the 'hand heart'.
Are alternative images being considered?
If BETTER alternatives are provided i will be happy to change them.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: hiccup on November 23, 2015, 11:29:32 AM
why do you wan't the footer in the view? any specific reason?
and no, i don't think it is possible for the footer to be always visible, not without compromising the look and feel. i don't see a reason of the footer being always visible.

The reason is that I feel that the main objective of a website should be to give relevant information as good and accessible as possible.
The information and the links that are in your footer are in my opinion quite essential for having this website in the first place, and I think it should not be 'hidden' somewhere at the bottom where you are forced to scroll down to find it.

Therefore in my opinion either the footer should be sticky, or the info in the footer should be more suited for a typical footer. Such as acknowledgements, legal info, contact info etc.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: Skoop on November 23, 2015, 03:30:26 PM
"Get Latest Patch" should point to an actual live link, instead of the Download forum which isn't maintained fully current.

I know that I can look for phred's sig to find it,  but others won't know that.  I've always been a little chagrined that it's not really apparent what is the current patched version.  Fixes on the fly should be captured somewhere and made obvious. A site redesign is a good opportunity to do that.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: phred on November 23, 2015, 04:01:39 PM
"Get Latest Patch" should point to an actual live link, instead of the Download forum which isn't maintained fully current.

I know that I can look for phred's sig to find it,  but others won't know that.  I've always been a little chagrined that it's not really apparent what is the current patched version.  Fixes on the fly should be captured somewhere and made obvious. A site redesign is a good opportunity to do that.
Good point.
Perhaps the 'latest patch' should be linked to this: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Latest_Update
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 23, 2015, 04:47:43 PM
Quote
Therefore in my opinion either the footer should be sticky, or the info in the footer should be more suited for a typical footer. Such as acknowledgements, legal info, contact info etc.
Quote
I also think that the footer should be always visible, the copyright part div to be exact (it would take too much space to include the upper part of the footer), but it's not a must. The header on the other hand should be always visible for a quick horizontal menu access.

Thanks for the input, i am actually thinking about creating the top menu like:
Home
Download
Customization
Forum
Help

the Customization will have drop-down menu on mouse hover like:
Customization
              Skins
              Plugins
              Visualizer
              Equalizer
              Theater Mode

this should be enough, the footer only contains this links which are useful, also musicbee info, which i don't think that much useful as the download page already have those. any idea?

I've always been a little chagrined that it's not really apparent what is the current patched version.  Fixes on the fly should be captured somewhere and made obvious. A site redesign is a good opportunity to do that.

Quote
Perhaps the 'latest patch' should be linked to this: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Latest_Update

Thanks for pointing it out. the MAIN problem with the current site(not the test one) is that it is TOO static. problems like updating existing info is painful and require HTML editing which is not convenient. BUT i am working on a better way to edit and modify things automatically whenever Steven upload a new patch or new version.
It is a json file that will contain all the musicbee version and download link related infos and will be modified using a NEW admin center [/b](separate one from the forum). the demo site footer and download page is already powered by these:
here is the json file link if anyone is interested, it is still a WIP
test.getmusicbee.com/musicbee_data/database.json (http://test.getmusicbee.com/musicbee_data/database.json)

still a bit more time required to finish it.

Quote
One thing I might suggest is the inclusion of the MusicBee logo in the first sub content div and in the header. I really like this overhaul.

yeah i also have the same plan..... now WILL SOMEONE MAKE A NICER LOGO?? (a modern version of the current musicbee?)

ALSO I ACTUALLY MADE SOME IMPROVEMENT IN THE FORUM(which is not live btw, Steven is busy so, will have to wait).
you guys will love it:

(http://i.imgur.com/6aIZvhZ.jpg)
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: psychoadept on November 23, 2015, 05:05:41 PM
I love this, too. There are a few good modernized icons available in the icon forum.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 23, 2015, 05:16:51 PM
I love this, too. There are a few good modernized icons available in the icon forum.
damn i forget about that :S
will check it out. i think the best way to get a icon is to choose the best icons(look similar to the current one with modern design), and then ask Steven to choose one he like the most. the problem is i am really busy with the site, so will take some time before any icon is decided.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: Bee-liever on November 23, 2015, 09:35:35 PM
Could you also maybe look at recycling the honeycomb background from the current forum and website into the new one's.
Maybe as the background for the footer?
I think it's a great analogy for MusicBee; all of us little cells - listening to our own types of music, but interconnected by our passion for music and our use of MusicBee.
Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2015, 12:34:24 AM
The update is not fully activated for the FORUM! i am waiting for steven's reply, the site is perfectly fine though.

THIS IS A BIG UPDATE, here is the list:
forum is now integrated with the site itself. Just sign in to the forum,( use a dummy account btw), and look at the top menubar and you will see NEW message count! and for admins they will see another link to admin center(not up yet).
here is how it look:

(http://i.imgur.com/hd6lbDC.jpg)

Backened is improved a LOT!

Download page is now improved.

Menubar has now ADD-ONS option.

(http://i.imgur.com/U4HtHhk.jpg)

Completely redesigned FORUM UI!

Title: Re: MusicBee Website Design UPDATE!
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2015, 12:35:46 AM
Could you also maybe look at recycling the honeycomb background from the current forum and website into the new one's.
Maybe as the background for the footer?
I think it's a great analogy for MusicBee; all of us little cells - listening to our own types of music, but interconnected by our passion for music and our use of MusicBee.

Nice suggestion. i will see what i can do.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE and FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on November 24, 2015, 01:13:30 AM
I like what you've done with the download section for the installer and portable versions. 

However, I think the top menu item for Add-Ons is misleading.  Those sub-items (I assume) will point to those sections of the forum.  Users might be confused thinking that they can get Skins, Plug-ins, etc from there.  And while technically they can, they'll have to search through the forum to find them.  Again, this drop-down is part of the forum and might better be placed under the Forum menu item.  Perhaps with all the other sub-forums.   Or just leave "forums" as is and eliminate the reference to Add-Ons. 

That's just my two cents. 
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE and FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2015, 01:27:34 AM
I like what you've done with the download section for the installer and portable versions. 

However, I think the top menu item for Add-Ons is misleading.  Those sub-items (I assume) will point to those sections of the forum.  Users might be confused thinking that they can get Skins, Plug-ins, etc from there.  And while technically they can, they'll have to search through the forum to find them.  Again, this drop-down is part of the forum and might better be placed under the Forum menu item.  Perhaps with all the other sub-forums.   Or just leave "forums" as is and eliminate the reference to Add-Ons. 

That's just my two cents. 

I thought that too, but don't worry! a custom CMS for managing plugin/skin is on the way! :)
or maybe links to wikia

Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE and FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on November 24, 2015, 01:33:32 AM
Those sub-items (I assume) will point to those sections of the forum.  Users might be confused thinking that they can get Skins, Plug-ins, etc from there.  And while technically they can, they'll have to search through the forum to find them.

I thought that too, but don't worry! a custom CMS for managing plugin/skin is on the way! :)
Admins would be able to add or remove plugins/skins also mention which MB version it supports and  possible bugs

Or maybe they could be linked to the appropriate sections of the wiki?
It's already set up for add-on authors to post and maintain their own work. Plus it has installation instructions.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE and FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 24, 2015, 11:24:46 AM
However, I think the top menu item for Add-Ons is misleading.  Those sub-items (I assume) will point to those sections of the forum.  Users might be confused thinking that they can get Skins, Plug-ins, etc from there.  And while technically they can, they'll have to search through the forum to find them.  Again, this drop-down is part of the forum and might better be placed under the Forum menu item.  Perhaps with all the other sub-forums.   Or just leave "forums" as is and eliminate the reference to Add-Ons. 

I agree with phred, this makes sense.
Fact is, it is probably confusing to some newbies that we have both a website, a forum, and a wiki.
To make that as clear as possible I feel also it would be best to have separate top menu's for forum and wikibee (yep, I am throwing in a new name suggestion for 'wikia' for free ;-)
Then both the 'forum', and the 'wikibee' menu could have their own applicable entries for skins, faq's, downloads, etc.
Of course that's not ideal either, it might confuse new users a bit where to go, but at least it would represent the factual situation as it is. After all the fact just is that we do have some overlaps between the website, forum and wiki.

Thinking this through, maybe it would be good to have an entry called something like: "where to go from here?", briefly explaining the differences between, and features of the website vs. the wiki, vs. the forum.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE and FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2015, 07:16:09 PM
SIGNUP/REGISTER page has been completely redesigned :)
looks much better now, update is not live yet, as the demo forum is not functional yet, steven got some problem and i have some issue in my end too (damn my crappy internet ;( ). but i will update much more, specially the login page.

here is a quick look at the register page:
btw, those key icons in the password box is from my KEEPASS password manager, and is not related to the site design :S

(http://i.imgur.com/s7N3Izu.jpg)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE and FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2015, 07:28:20 PM
However, I think the top menu item for Add-Ons is misleading.  Those sub-items (I assume) will point to those sections of the forum.  Users might be confused thinking that they can get Skins, Plug-ins, etc from there.  And while technically they can, they'll have to search through the forum to find them.  Again, this drop-down is part of the forum and might better be placed under the Forum menu item.  Perhaps with all the other sub-forums.   Or just leave "forums" as is and eliminate the reference to Add-Ons. 

I agree with phred, this makes sense.
Fact is, it is probably confusing to some newbies that we have both a website, a forum, and a wiki.
To make that as clear as possible I feel also it would be best to have separate top menu's for forum and wikibee (yep, I am throwing in a new name suggestion for 'wikia' for free ;-)
Then both the 'forum', and the 'wikibee' menu could have their own applicable entries for skins, faq's, downloads, etc.
Of course that's not ideal either, it might confuse new users a bit where to go, but at least it would represent the factual situation as it is. After all the fact just is that we do have some overlaps between the website, forum and wiki.

Thinking this through, maybe it would be good to have an entry called something like: "where to go from here?", briefly explaining the differences between, and features of the website vs. the wiki, vs. the forum.

the whole point of having both wikia and forum is confusing at best. and i DON'T LIKE WIKIA  >:(
the main reason wikia is used for having all the skin plugin info in one place, then they link to forum, also is confusing.
the user might (i did) wonder, where could they actually do the download? (or precisely, where is the BIG BUTTON SAY DOWNLOAD?)

wikia SHOULD NOT be using for download links, it should be mainly for FAQ, HOW TO DO's

i am actually thinking about, creating a CMS just for managing PLUGINS and SKINS and others. you won't need any extra account if you sign up with the forum account, you are good to go(only moderator and admin for now),
there would be a central page for getting all the addons, there will be a download button, description, which musicbee version it will work on, os requirement, known bugs, screenshot and a link to the support forum.

so do you guys like the idea?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE and FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 24, 2015, 09:25:59 PM
The MusicBee wikia was created practically single-handedly with amazing effort and perseverance by longtime member psychadept, since it was filling a need nor the website, nor the forum was (is) offering.

It would probably be a very good idea if you could get in contact with him to see if you could join forces, and with his help, input and experience could create something even better and a bit more more streamlined.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE and FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 06:26:50 AM
The MusicBee wikia was created practically single-handedly with amazing effort and perseverance by longtime member psychadept, since it was filling a need nor the website, nor the forum was (is) offering.

It would probably be a very good idea if you could get in contact with him to see if you could join forces, and with his help, input and experience could create something even better and a bit more more streamlined.

Thats a good idea, also the forum is now live, check it out.
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on November 27, 2015, 10:47:05 AM
Can I get some feedback on this:
At the moment plugins and skins are maintained on the forum and also in the wiki.
I think no matter what, the forum would need to be the place when a skin or plugin is first introduced and comments/ feedback and new iterations done.
I also like the idea that there is one page to get a final version of any skin, thats in an easy to read and you can quickly scroll down and see snapshots of a skin. The wiki serves this purpose for now.

However on the new web-site demo, there is an Add-Ons link.
I like this because it makes accessing them easily discovered. How do you feel about having the plugins and skins moved from the wiki to a content management style system where designated people could put the final version into a templated format that would then be accessible by the Add-Ons link.
For myself, i would like to see more of what AvikB is proposing how it would look, but I understand it will be quite a lot of effort so i think its best we get buy-in from the forum members (especially those who did the wiki) before going to far with it
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on November 27, 2015, 01:13:57 PM
Can I get some feedback on this:
At the moment plugins and skins are maintained on the forum and also in the wiki.
I think no matter what, the forum would need to be the place when a skin or plugin is first introduced and comments/ feedback and new iterations done.
Agreed.

Quote
I also like the idea that there is one page to get a final version of any skin, thats in an easy to read and you can quickly scroll down and see snapshots of a skin. The wiki serves this purpose for now.
I feel this is critical.  It's the only place where a user can easily compare skins, all in one simple to scroll, place.  If I had to reply on the forum to find a skin, I'd go crazy. 

Quote
However on the new web-site demo, there is an Add-Ons link.
I like this because it makes accessing them easily discovered. How do you feel about having the plugins and skins moved from the wiki to a content management style system where designated people could put the final version into a templated format that would then be accessible by the Add-Ons link.
In this method, would one be able to see skins side-by-side (or one under another) in a larger than thumbnail size?  If so, I'm all for it. 
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on November 27, 2015, 01:32:34 PM
The new forum is missing some things I (and I'm sure others) use frequently.

-Near the top of the forum home page, under the logo, is a section showing PMs, unread posts, and new replies to the user's posts.
That really needs to be incorporated into the new layout.
(http://i.imgur.com/KBP5Jqzl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/KBP5Jqz.jpg)

- On the registration page, "I agree with the terms and condition. Read below" The word CONDITION should be plural: conditions.
- When quoting and replying to an existing post, I don't see previous posts.  This prevents one from quoting from multiple posts.

In addition, I think you should remove from the subject of this thread that the "new forum is now live."  That implies we are to start using it for questions, posts, etc.  Perhaps changing it to "now ready for testing" or something like that would be better.  The last thing I want to do is to check two different forums to see what's going on.


Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 27, 2015, 01:36:15 PM
The fonts in the new forum are looking a bit ugly. (in FireFox)
is there something to be done about that?

(http://i.imgur.com/vbO3RD6l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/vbO3RD6.png)
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on November 27, 2015, 03:36:35 PM
"Get Latest Patch" should point to an actual live link, instead of the Download forum which isn't maintained fully current.

I know that I can look for phred's sig to find it,  but others won't know that.  I've always been a little chagrined that it's not really apparent what is the current patched version.  Fixes on the fly should be captured somewhere and made obvious. A site redesign is a good opportunity to do that.
Good point.
Perhaps the 'latest patch' should be linked to this: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Latest_Update

To add to this, I see in the new design that there's a corresponding link for "Release Notes".  I do hope that that gets support and is fleshed out even for those quick-fix updates that are done on an ad hoc basis, generally in response to a bug report post. 

I do want to know what's been changed when there's an update; it's not possible to read every thread to keep up with these fixes. 
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 03:41:30 PM
Quote
I also like the idea that there is one page to get a final version of any skin, thats in an easy to read and you can quickly scroll down and see snapshots of a skin. The wiki serves this purpose for now.
I feel this is critical.  It's the only place where a user can easily compare skins, all in one simple to scroll, place.  If I had to reply on the forum to find a skin, I'd go crazy. 
Yeah that is the plan, one centralized place for all add-ons.
Quote
Quote
However on the new web-site demo, there is an Add-Ons link.
I like this because it makes accessing them easily discovered. How do you feel about having the plugins and skins moved from the wiki to a content management style system where designated people could put the final version into a templated format that would then be accessible by the Add-Ons link.
In this method, would one be able to see skins side-by-side (or one under another) in a larger than thumbnail size?  If so, I'm all for it. 
what do you mean by side by side? the image of the skin will be uploaded either by mod/admin or the author itself, so different muiscbee setup will have different musicbee layout, and comparing them while skinned will be weird thing as some screenshot will look a lot more different than other. :/
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 03:48:59 PM
The new forum is missing some things I (and I'm sure others) use frequently.

-Near the top of the forum home page, under the logo, is a section showing PMs, unread posts, and new replies to the user's posts.
That really needs to be incorporated into the new layout.
(http://i.imgur.com/KBP5Jqzl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/KBP5Jqz.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/3LCDsjt.jpg)

the message will show any NEW message, hovering over will show new message and total message. this is site wide so it does not matter if you are not on the forum or using any other website page.

Quote
- On the registration page, "I agree with the terms and condition. Read below" The word CONDITION should be plural: conditions.
- When quoting and replying to an existing post, I don't see previous posts.  This prevents one from quoting from multiple posts.
Thanks. will be fixed in new update

Quote
In addition, I think you should remove from the subject of this thread that the "new forum is now live."  That implies we are to start using it for questions, posts, etc.  Perhaps changing it to "now ready for testing" or something like that would be better.  The last thing I want to do is to check two different forums to see what's going on.
ok, will change it.

Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 03:56:12 PM
The fonts in the new forum are looking a bit ugly. (in FireFox)
is there something to be done about that?

(http://i.imgur.com/vbO3RD6l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/vbO3RD6.png)
this is werid, it does not look bad on my end. i am using firefox version 42!  :/
which version of firefox are you using? os?
also can you try disabling plugins, refresh the page, clear caches?
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 04:00:59 PM
"Get Latest Patch" should point to an actual live link, instead of the Download forum which isn't maintained fully current.

I know that I can look for phred's sig to find it,  but others won't know that.  I've always been a little chagrined that it's not really apparent what is the current patched version.  Fixes on the fly should be captured somewhere and made obvious. A site redesign is a good opportunity to do that.
Good point.
Perhaps the 'latest patch' should be linked to this: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Latest_Update

To add to this, I see in the new design that there's a corresponding link for "Release Notes".  I do hope that that gets support and is fleshed out even for those quick-fix updates that are done on an ad hoc basis, generally in response to a bug report post. 

I do want to know what's been changed when there's an update; it's not possible to read every thread to keep up with these fixes. 
there is already a release note page http://getmusicbee.com/release_notes.html (http://getmusicbee.com/release_notes.html)
in the new website it is till not up yet.
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 27, 2015, 04:19:05 PM
this is werid, it does not look bad on my end.

Looking at your screenshot, you probably have 'cleartype' (smooth edges of screen fonts) enabled in Windows?
Like many others, I always disable that since it 'confuses/hurts' my eyes (or brain?)

Could you perhaps choose a font that would also look good without 'cleartype'?
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on November 27, 2015, 04:22:58 PM
Quote
there is already a release note page http://getmusicbee.com/release_notes.html

Oh, man, I totally have been overlooking that.  

However, now that you've pointed it out, where would I find the notes for

5759
5789
5794
5797

for example? 

That's what I'm getting at.  How can this be kept current?
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 04:29:30 PM
this is werid, it does not look bad on my end.

Looking at your screenshot, you probably have 'cleartype' (smooth edges of screen fonts) enabled in Windows?
Like many others, I always disable that since it 'confuses/hurts' my eyes (or brain?)

Could you perhaps choose a font that would also look good without 'cleartype'?
yeah it is enabled on my system. I am using roboto, let me see if i can do anything about it.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 04:33:17 PM
Quote
there is already a release note page http://getmusicbee.com/release_notes.html

Oh, man, I totally have been overlooking that.  

However, now that you've pointed it out, where would I find the notes for

5759
5789
5794
5797

for example? 

That's what I'm getting at.  How can this be kept current?

that would be a huge tasks to update the release notes for EVERY minor release. it is upto Steven, but i am afraid there is no change logs for every single update(as the minor release is a bit frequent)
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 04:34:41 PM
this is werid, it does not look bad on my end.

Looking at your screenshot, you probably have 'cleartype' (smooth edges of screen fonts) enabled in Windows?
Like many others, I always disable that since it 'confuses/hurts' my eyes (or brain?)

Could you perhaps choose a font that would also look good without 'cleartype'?

btw how is it looking in chrome with clear type disabled?(assuming you have chrome)
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 04:45:31 PM
this is werid, it does not look bad on my end.

Looking at your screenshot, you probably have 'cleartype' (smooth edges of screen fonts) enabled in Windows?
Like many others, I always disable that since it 'confuses/hurts' my eyes (or brain?)

Could you perhaps choose a font that would also look good without 'cleartype'?
also what firefox version are you using? somefirefox version has weird font rendering issue
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on November 27, 2015, 04:49:28 PM
what do you mean by side by side? the image of the skin will be uploaded either by mod/admin or the author itself, so different muiscbee setup will have different musicbee layout, and comparing them while skinned will be weird thing as some screenshot will look a lot more different than other. :/
My use of the words "side by side" was just an example of a possible layout for the skin screenshots.  My point is that I strongly feel there needs to be a place where they can all be seen in comparison with one another.

In the current implementation of the forum, it is impossible to compare skins.  For instance, I'm feeling blue and want a blue skin.  I would have to open every new thread on the skins sub-forum in order to see a screenshot.  On the Wiki, I can just go to "skins > all skins by author" and see them all in one place, one under the other, all the same size and look for something blue. 
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 05:01:31 PM
what do you mean by side by side? the image of the skin will be uploaded either by mod/admin or the author itself, so different muiscbee setup will have different musicbee layout, and comparing them while skinned will be weird thing as some screenshot will look a lot more different than other. :/
My use of the words "side by side" was just an example of a possible layout for the skin screenshots.  My point is that I strongly feel there needs to be a place where they can all be seen in comparison with one another.

In the current implementation of the forum, it is impossible to compare skins.  For instance, I'm feeling blue and want a blue skin.  I would have to open every new thread on the skins sub-forum in order to see a screenshot.  On the Wiki, I can just go to "skins > all skins by author" and see them all in one place, one under the other, all the same size and look for something blue. 

oh, don't worry the new site skin section will also have the ability to filter through a color: like blue or red or anything else
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on November 27, 2015, 05:02:01 PM
in regards to the release notes i am not planning to do more than what i currently do ie. just a sumary of the major points of the release. Anyone who really cares can check the latest release forum topic which lists in detail all changes made as they are done
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 27, 2015, 05:08:02 PM
also what firefox version are you using? somefirefox version has weird font rendering issue

The same as you, 42.0
It's probably not a specific Firefox issue. Roboto looks similarly ugly in Word on my system.
I don't have Chrome installed, so I can't tell you how that would look.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 27, 2015, 05:21:54 PM
Roboto is great for smartphone displays and tablets. I recommend PT Sans.

A few of the usual suspects,including PT Sans and Roboto:

(http://i.imgur.com/hI5ISQjs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/hI5ISQj.png)

I like Calibri and Verdana a lot. They look very clean and well readable, even at very small font sizes.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on November 27, 2015, 06:03:16 PM
Whatever the outcome on what the font winds up being, it should be a font that is available in all Windows editions.  For instance, Roboto is not installed on my Win7 machine.  Therefore Firefox will substitute something else where Roboto should be.  Remember, not everyone has access to all the same fonts unless they were installed with Windows.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 06:11:46 PM
Whatever the outcome on what the font winds up being, it should be a font that is available in all Windows editions.  For instance, Roboto is not installed on my Win7 machine.  Therefore Firefox will substitute something else where Roboto should be.  Remember, not everyone has access to all the same fonts unless they were installed with Windows.

NO, the fon't does not need to be installed!
the browser gets the font from fonts.googleapis.com
this is how i do it right now:
Code
@import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,100,300,700);

it has nothing to do with windows machine. ROBOTO is a widely used font for website development.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 06:13:55 PM
Roboto is great for smartphone displays and tablets. I recommend PT Sans.

A few of the usual suspects,including PT Sans and Roboto:

(http://i.imgur.com/hI5ISQjs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/hI5ISQj.png)

I like Calibri and Verdana a lot. They look very clean and well readable, even at very small font sizes.

damn all of those fonts look so edgy!! i will see what i can do
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on November 27, 2015, 06:30:18 PM
NO, the fon't does not need to be installed!
the browser gets the font from fonts.googleapis.com
this is how i do it right now:
Code
@import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,100,300,700);
it has nothing to do with windows machine. ROBOTO is a widely used font for website development.
I'm sorry.  If that's the case, then I stand corrected.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 07:28:11 PM
Roboto is great for smartphone displays and tablets. I recommend PT Sans.

A few of the usual suspects,including PT Sans and Roboto:

(http://i.imgur.com/hI5ISQjs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/hI5ISQj.png)

I like Calibri and Verdana a lot. They look very clean and well readable, even at very small font sizes.

The font issue is now fixed
i have pushed an update which should fix the font issue.

i didn't change font to Verdana or Calibri just to fix this issue. instead the site still use Roboto. BUT switch to Verdana and Arial when fon't smoothing is disabled.

Not only the forum but the whole site should fix these issue, can you confirm the fix?
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 27, 2015, 07:42:05 PM
Confirmed.

My eyes thank you!
Sharp as a razor again:

(http://i.imgur.com/4sr5rKZs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4sr5rKZ.png)

(funny to see, when opening the webpage or forum for a first time, you see the alternative font kicking in after around a second)
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on November 27, 2015, 07:55:32 PM
for me, most of the fonts look like Roboto, except all the text in the "General" section and in the "Support" section which looks like Times New Roman to me.
eg. the "General" and "Support" headers, along with all other text such as "Advanced search" look Roboto but "Latest Version" is Times New Roman
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 07:56:24 PM
Confirmed.

My eyes thank you!
Sharp as a razor again:

werid, i have no clue how you can stare at those razer sharp fonts :O my eye bleeds even staring at them.

(http://i.imgur.com/4sr5rKZs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4sr5rKZ.png)

(funny to see, when opening the webpage or forum for a first time, you see the alternative font kicking in after around a second)

yeah, thats mostly because there is TONS of CSS to load, before it reaches that style part :) and i already have mentioned default font style at the top(which is roboto), and then at line 530 these replacements are mentioned! i might move them to top for better loading.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 08:01:38 PM
for me, most of the fonts look like Roboto, except all the text in the "General" section and in the "Support" section which looks like Times New Roman to me.
eg. the "General" and "Support" headers, along with all other text such as "Advanced search" look Roboto but "Latest Version" is Times New Roman

I used mostly Arial and Verdana, dunno about Times New Roman! i might change "Latest Version" to Arial instead of Verdana... thats not the priority though, working on the addon center.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 27, 2015, 08:02:30 PM
weird, i have no clue how you can stare at those razer sharp fonts :O my eye bleeds even staring at them.

Different folks, different strokes ;-)
But I do have f.lux running to avoid 'looking into the sun'. Otherwise it would probably hurt my eyes too.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 08:09:10 PM
Different folks, different strokes ;-)
well thats true, let me know if you find any problem.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on November 27, 2015, 08:12:22 PM
I used mostly Arial and Verdana, dunno about Times New Roman! i might change "Latest Version" to Arial instead of Verdana... thats not the priority though, working on the addon center.
it looks fine as is now - just thought you were only using Roberto
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 27, 2015, 08:15:28 PM
I used mostly Arial and Verdana, dunno about Times New Roman! i might change "Latest Version" to Arial instead of Verdana... thats not the priority though, working on the addon center.
it looks fine as is now - just thought you were only using Roberto

Yes by default EVERYTHING use Roboto, but when clear-font is disabled the site use verdana and arial
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on November 27, 2015, 08:24:26 PM
clear type is not disabled on my machine
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on November 27, 2015, 08:27:13 PM
screenshot:
(http://getmusicbee.com/images/temp/newforum.jpg)
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 28, 2015, 02:13:44 AM
screenshot:
(http://getmusicbee.com/images/temp/newforum.jpg)

it should not look like that! it seems that page is not fully loaded. also what browser, what version and try to refresh if the issue persist, also maybe clear browser cache.

also check inspect element console to see if any error related to not able to load something
(http://i.imgur.com/oQEsBMV.png)
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on November 28, 2015, 03:03:52 AM
How do you feel about having the plugins and skins moved from the wiki to a content management style system where designated people could put the final version into a templated format that would then be accessible by the Add-Ons link.

To me it makes sense to have skins and plugins available on the main website rather than having to follow an off-site link.
For a good example of how this might be achieved, check out Kodi (formerly XBMC). http://addons.kodi.tv/
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: psychoadept on November 28, 2015, 03:23:32 AM
How do you feel about having the plugins and skins moved from the wiki to a content management style system where designated people could put the final version into a templated format that would then be accessible by the Add-Ons link.

To me it makes sense to have skins and plugins available on the main website rather than having to follow an off-site link.
For a good example of how this might be achieved, check out Kodi (formerly XBMC). http://addons.kodi.tv/

I'm all for this, as long as it doesn't create any obstacles to keeping the list up-to-date.
Title: Re: [NEW FORUM IS NOW LIVE!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 28, 2015, 05:20:29 AM
How do you feel about having the plugins and skins moved from the wiki to a content management style system where designated people could put the final version into a templated format that would then be accessible by the Add-Ons link.

To me it makes sense to have skins and plugins available on the main website rather than having to follow an off-site link.
For a good example of how this might be achieved, check out Kodi (formerly XBMC). http://addons.kodi.tv/

I'm all for this, as long as it doesn't create any obstacles to keeping the list up-to-date.

so far that is the plan. i am currently laying down structure for the cms.
HERE IS THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE ADDON CMS:

1. Only mod and admin will be able to add addons. Normal forum user can't do it by themselves. (we don't want user to add crap or spam)
2. A forum user need to submit their addon(skin,plugin etc.) to the forum first, where beta test will be done to see if the addon actually add any value to the collection.
3. If the addon is favored by users and mods or the addon is GOOD enough the author can ask a mod to add it to the main addon collection. Or, a mod can ask the author if it is okay to add the addon to the main site.
4. After a mod added the addon, he can also authorize the author to maintain(update/ modify) the addon page.
also an ADDON MUST HAVE SCREENSHOTS and detail description of what it does and some guidance.

Now for addon dashboard for authors there will be options for:
adding beta tags for the addon, directly upload screenshots to imgur(don't need to visit the imgur site to do it), adding download links, mirrors, mentioning the known bugs, installing guidance, link to the support forum, also what version of the musicbee the plugin works.

as for regular user, they can browse skins, and other addons, filter skin results by color or tags(if added by the skin author in the dashboard).
also if the user is logged in they will able to LIKE the addon(no commenting or dislike though), the more the rating the addon gets, the more it will be on the top. BUT new addon(randomly) will also be shown at the addon page, as we don't want ONLY THE POPULAR ADDON TO SHOW.

this is the basic things that is planned for now.  SO what do you guys think? any more suggestions?
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on November 28, 2015, 09:07:03 AM
it should not look like that! it seems that page is not fully loaded. also what browser, what version and try to refresh if the issue persist, also maybe clear browser cache.
it seems to have sorted itself out this morning and working as expected
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 28, 2015, 10:56:26 AM
it should not look like that! it seems that page is not fully loaded. also what browser, what version and try to refresh if the issue persist, also maybe clear browser cache.
it seems to have sorted itself out this morning and working as expected
well the problem was browser cache! glad it sorted out
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 28, 2015, 11:04:14 AM
The new add-ons page design is started
so far it looks good, i took the idea from the new Windows 10 store, with a bit improved UI,

the author can now choose a background image for the top(optional), also a theme color for the skin upload is necessary.
(http://i.imgur.com/x6GdLBD.jpg)

if no image is mentioned then it will use the default theme color chosen by author. also the author can mention any important note, like if any third party software is needed or not, or if something is broken(though it is not for showing common bugs).

(http://i.imgur.com/SJGBqU3.png)
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on November 28, 2015, 01:58:35 PM
When using the new Forum there are two "Home" buttons.  One takes the user to the home page for MB, the other takes the user to the top level of the forum.  I think the name of the latter should be changed to avoid confusion.  The current forum has "getmusicbee.com" but I think something more like "Forum Home" would be more descriptive.
(http://i.imgur.com/MfGyytUl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/MfGyytU.jpg)
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 28, 2015, 03:57:25 PM
When using the new Forum there are two "Home" buttons.  One takes the user to the home page for MB, the other takes the user to the top level of the forum.  I think the name of the latter should be changed to avoid confusion.  The current forum has "getmusicbee.com" but I think something more like "Forum Home" would be more descriptive.
(http://i.imgur.com/MfGyytUl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/MfGyytU.jpg)

actually the current forum also has two home
(http://i.imgur.com/seZbBMD.jpg)

i do like forum home better. i will change it.
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on November 28, 2015, 04:15:32 PM
I think it's time for me to trade in my eyes for a new pair.    :(

I hope this isn't related to me needing a new set of eyeballs, but I'm pretty sure these two boxes were lined up earlier today.  Definitely yesterday.
(http://i.imgur.com/KvuEh7al.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/KvuEh7a.jpg)
Title: Re: [NOW READY FOR TESTING!] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 28, 2015, 04:35:08 PM
I think it's time for me to trade in my eyes for a new pair.    :(

I hope this isn't related to me needing a new set of eyeballs, but I'm pretty sure these two boxes were lined up earlier today.  Definitely yesterday.
(http://i.imgur.com/KvuEh7al.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/KvuEh7a.jpg)

yes, i just pushed a new update as you were using the forum, and i messed up few styling :P
i pushed another update, it should be fixed.

also changed home to forum home, and some other major styling changes and few correction(thanks everyone for pointing out).
Title: Re: [ADDONS PAGE DEMO IS READY FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 29, 2015, 08:55:56 AM
NEW ADDON PAGE IS UP
this is what the user will if he clicks on a skin(the main lists pafe is still WIP).

link to the addon page http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php)

i just completed the MYSQL Schema for the database. The forum registration will be used, no need for another registration or account.

also the red background will be customizable by the skin author, also author can specify a background image too.

screenshot slider is available, also touch friendly!

Readme section uses markdown instead of html or bbcode. still more option like filtering by colors, author to come. but since the schema is complete it won't be THAT hard :P

here is how it looks:
(http://i.imgur.com/TSxCdqA.jpg)
Title: Re: [ADDONS PAGE DEMO IS READY FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on November 29, 2015, 09:24:43 AM
Wow, you are really doing amazing work!
Title: Re: [ADDONS PAGE DEMO IS READY FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Xenatier on November 29, 2015, 09:55:09 AM
Looking really good!
Title: Re: [ADDONS PAGE DEMO IS READY FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 29, 2015, 10:11:54 AM
Wow, you are really doing amazing work!
:) thanks, currently doing the addon dashboard, should be able to provide a demo soon.
Title: Re: [ADDONS PAGE DEMO IS READY FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 29, 2015, 10:13:55 AM
Looking really good!
thanks, also make sure to report ideas and bugs
Title: Re: [ADDONS PAGE DEMO IS READY FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Mephisto on November 29, 2015, 11:58:47 AM
I wonder if the dots for the different screenshots would not be better if the selected one was white and the others were grey.
(http://i.imgur.com/aAdUfMU.png)
Title: Re: [ADDONS PAGE DEMO IS READY FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on November 30, 2015, 02:15:13 PM
I wonder if the dots for the different screenshots would not be better if the selected one was white and the others were grey.
(http://i.imgur.com/aAdUfMU.png)


Thanks for the feedback, it definitely looks better with white being selected. I am actually quite busy with the addon center so don't expect any new update in few day or so :( , also report for any other suggestion, i will look into them.
Title: Re: [ADDONS PAGE DEMO IS READY FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 01, 2015, 11:57:09 AM
NEW FORUM UPDATE IS LIVE
Child boards is not done yet, so they don't look good

The forum is now almost complete, few icon changing and child board styling improvement should be the LAST job with the forum.

The topics page should look GOOD now, also the main page has a lots of improvement.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum

visit the forum and check it out yourself. As usual give feedback.

changelog:
1.there are some minor improvement to the download page, the beta section have a warning icon.
2.Addon page slider active dots are now white,
3.Biggest change is the forum, specially the topic page.
4.The secondery navigation bar is now sticky.
5.Web Admin Panel is now improved and fixed some bugs in the layout.
6.also non admin/mod user can now see a small yellow icon on the menubar, hovering over will show "ADDON DASHBOARD" menu, which is not available yet(WIP).
and a lot, mostly improving the styling, and addon dashboard.


Thanks for the feedback, it definitely looks better with white being selected. I am actually quite busy with the addon center so don't expect any new update in few day or so :( , also report for any other suggestion, i will look into them.

Forget what i said, a new update is now available ;) BUT the addon dashboard is still WIP, will available later this week or so.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 01, 2015, 12:19:32 PM
A few quickies:

1.
There is a links: Got an idea for a new feature? Make a feature wish in the forum"
Suggestion: have that link direct to the specific wishlist topic directly (instead of to general), but present an immediate page (or pop-up) with some 'read this first' text how to post. Such as 'have you done a forum search first?', 'are you using the most recent MB release?' etc.

A similar link and pop-up for 'reporting a bug' would be good too.

2.
In the bookmarks bar of FireFox, most bookmarks have a small icon representing the webpage. For your creation it is not there (yet?)

3.
It's very good that you have 'search' and 'advanced search' displaying next to each other.
For years I have silently cursed the primitive and lackluster search option in the current forum. Just now, thanks to your lay-out I discovered the current forum also has a more advanced search available when clicking the search button on the left. Grrr...
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 01, 2015, 12:39:51 PM
There is a links: Got an idea for a new feature? Make a feature wish in the forum"
Suggestion: have that link direct to the specific wishlist topic directly (instead of to general), but present an immediate page (or pop-up) with some 'read this first' text how to post. Such as 'have you done a forum search first?', 'are you using the most recent MB release?' etc.
Creating popup would be annoying, and most browser blocks them by deafult, a  immediate page would be nice. Planned for next(or maybe a later update, since i am doing the addon dashboard).

A similar link and pop-up for 'reporting a bug' would be good too.
It won't be a big deal to create a page for it, but i am have no idea what the content of the page would be? if anyone is willing to writing some pre-notice for reporting bug and feature would be nice as my english is pretty bad.

In the bookmarks bar of FireFox, most bookmarks have a small icon representing the webpage. For your creation it is not there (yet?)
Haven't decided the icon yet, it is upto Steven. and the site is not done yet, so i am not too much focusing on that.

It's very good that you have 'search' and 'advanced search' displaying next to each other.
For years I have silently cursed the primitive and lackluster search option in the current forum. Just now, thanks to your lay-out I discovered the current forum also has a more advanced search available when clicking the search button on the left. Grrr...
i never used advance search, but thought it might be a good idea to include it since a lots of member might wanna use it.

btw can you see this addon dashboard option? other options are only for admin right now :/

(http://i.imgur.com/l8INTFu.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 01, 2015, 12:49:47 PM
A similar link and pop-up for 'reporting a bug' would be good too.
It won't be a big deal to create a page for it, but i am have no idea what the content of the page would be? if anyone is willing to writing some pre-notice for reporting bug and feature would be nice as my english is pretty bad.

There already is something like that here: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=1912.0
With some slight changes and updates that could be used.

Quote
btw can you see this addon dashboard option? other options are only for admin right now :/
(http://i.imgur.com/l8INTFu.jpg)

Yes, I see it.

And a maybe dumb question, I don't see a login option on the webpage itself, only one when you go to the forum?
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 01, 2015, 12:52:31 PM
For the screenshots of the skins, would it be possible to click those so to see them enlarged to their actual image size?
In that way you can see the details of the skin that are now a bit obscure sometimes.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 01, 2015, 01:09:13 PM
A similar link and pop-up for 'reporting a bug' would be good too.
It won't be a big deal to create a page for it, but i am have no idea what the content of the page would be? if anyone is willing to writing some pre-notice for reporting bug and feature would be nice as my english is pretty bad.

There already is something like that here: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=1912.0
With some slight changes and updates that could be used.
Definitely look into those. with that available i can create a notice page for reporting bug and feature today and make a demo available.

And a maybe dumb question, I don't see a login option on the webpage itself, only one when you go to the forum?

Unfortunately there is none right now. I am thinking of listing login/register under the small yellow icon on the menu.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 01, 2015, 01:10:46 PM
For the screenshots of the skins, would it be possible to click those so to see them enlarged to their actual image size?
In that way you can see the details of the skin that are now a bit obscure sometimes.
Yes definitely.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 01, 2015, 01:12:05 PM
For the screenshots of the skins, would it be possible to click those so to see them enlarged to their actual image size?
In that way you can see the details of the skin that are now a bit obscure sometimes.
+1 +1 +1 +1
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 01, 2015, 01:16:46 PM
For the screenshots of the skins, would it be possible to click those so to see them enlarged to their actual image size?
In that way you can see the details of the skin that are now a bit obscure sometimes.
+1 +1 +1 +1
fullscreen image viewing support is comming soon. :)
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 01, 2015, 01:23:18 PM
For the screenshots of the skins, would it be possible to click those so to see them enlarged to their actual image size?
In that way you can see the details of the skin that are now a bit obscure sometimes.

For the screenshots of the skins, would it be possible to click those so to see them enlarged to their actual image size?
In that way you can see the details of the skin that are now a bit obscure sometimes.
+1 +1 +1 +1

BTW, what do you guys think would be the best option? if the user click image enlarge button,
1. should the image open in new tab? the plus point is it will use browsers default image viewer. and easy to zoom in and out.
2. or, a image preview dialogue opens in the same window(like facebook), BUT the image won't be full resolution! since the dialogue can't be bigger than the screen.

Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 01, 2015, 01:33:15 PM
I don't use facebook, so I can't give an opinion on that.

Simplicity would have my preference.
No need for extra pop-ups, tabs or zooming.
If possible, just 1 click to show the actual pixel size, click again to return to the previous view.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 01, 2015, 05:31:33 PM
I don't use facebook, so I can't give an opinion on that.

Simplicity would have my preference.
No need for extra pop-ups, tabs or zooming.
If possible, just 1 click to show the actual pixel size, click again to return to the previous view.
Yes, keep it simple.  One click is the way to go.

And I thought I was the only person left in the world who didn't use facebook.  It's kind of nice to have company.   :)
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 01, 2015, 06:02:50 PM
And I thought I was the only person left in the world who didn't use facebook.  It's kind of nice to have company.   :)

To be perfectly honest, I do have a facebook account. I created a login some 10 years ago. (and never opened it again after that ;-)

Back to business:

In the top menu there is an entry called 'add-ons', under which are entries such as plugins, visualiser, equalizer.

I have some suggestions on that.
The meaning of the term 'plugins' is practically identical to 'add-ons', so I think better to be avoided here.

Maybe under add-ons have something like:

- skins
- theater modes
- visualiser plugins
- audio plugins (or DSP plugins)
- functional extensions ( stuff like upnp addon, boroda74's tool, sync tools, etc.)

Also, same as you here, I also tend to use 'equalizer' (instead of equaliser), but equaliser (and visualiser) are proper British English, wich The Creator would probably prefer...
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 02, 2015, 07:05:37 AM
This is a minor update, but a lots of the things have been re-factored
The problem is now, how big the project has become. From a simple redesign to much more complex thing and cms. While there is nothing wrong with what has bee done so far, but the sheer amount of time and lines of code is written is huge. And with HUGE code comes the problem of loading and bandwidth of users, specially people with low speed.

Currently the stylesheet has over 1,710 lines of code in it, and loading it all in a page, that doesn't even needed half of the style that it offer is really not efficient. So i have divided the stylesheets into separate files, each for their own page, and ONE common stylesheet for common pages.

Also with this change some UI bug may appear, but none should be ground breaking. I have tested most of the site and found no bug, or fixed all them. BUT LET ME KNOW IF YOU FOUND ONE

I should have used SASS or LESS from the start to save me this headache ;( ,but............ oh well, will see..

This is mostly a update for stylesheets, BUT the addon page is now improved

I don't use facebook, so I can't give an opinion on that.
Simplicity would have my preference.
No need for extra pop-ups, tabs or zooming.
If possible, just 1 click to show the actual pixel size, click again to return to the previous view.

Yes, keep it simple.  One click is the way to go.

And I thought I was the only person left in the world who didn't use facebook.  It's kind of nice to have company.   :)

Thanks guys, I have updated the addon page with the following suggestions. Now one click on the image should show the image in higher res, also as a plus point, you can navigate around images(like a gallery).


In the top menu there is an entry called 'add-ons', under which are entries such as plugins, visualiser, equalizer.

I have some suggestions on that.
The meaning of the term 'plugins' is practically identical to 'add-ons', so I think better to be avoided here.

Maybe under add-ons have something like:

- skins
- theater modes
- visualiser plugins
- audio plugins (or DSP plugins)
- functional extensions ( stuff like upnp addon, boroda74's tool, sync tools, etc.)

Also, same as you here, I also tend to use 'equalizer' (instead of equaliser), but equaliser (and visualiser) are proper British English, wich The Creator would probably prefer...

I like most of these name BUT
- functional extensions 
, this is a really weird name. maybe something else! dunno.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 02, 2015, 07:31:35 AM

Maybe under add-ons have something like:

- skins
- theater modes
- visualiser plugins
- audio plugins (or DSP plugins)
- functional extensions ( stuff like upnp addon, boroda74's tool, sync tools, etc.)



I like most of these name BUT
- functional extensions 
, this is a really weird name. maybe something else! dunno.

You are calling me weird now?  ;-)
Well, maybe, yes. Also, I'm not a native English speaker, so of course any other suggestions are very welcome.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 02, 2015, 07:58:49 AM
I notice no slowness to speak of. (but I do have a quite fast and low-latency cable internet connection)
Only when I focus on this subject, since I am aware you are working on this, the 'font replacement' still takes a little while. But, I am sure this probably happens on some other websites too, and that never bothered me. Also, I believe that as soon as it is in my browser's cache the intended font loads immediately.

The screenshot zoom is working great. Thnx!
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 02, 2015, 08:07:59 AM
Ah, one more thing:

One thing that I like is how there is so much integration between the website and the forum in your design.
In a way, I also think it should be clear what is what, and where you are, but I like the integration very much.
What I am bringing up now could well be because I have to get adjusted to this new design and don't understand the working very well yet.

When you are logged in at the forum, then close your browser, and later on re-open the website page, you see the login icons (little guy, envelope) at the top.
So you know you are logged in.
But on that screen there is no logout button.

I am wondering: is logging in to the forum, the same thing as logging in to the website? Or are they synced or something like that?
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 02, 2015, 08:25:31 AM
You are calling me weird now?  ;-)
Well, maybe, yes. Also, I'm not a native English speaker, so of course any other suggestions are very welcome.
'hiccup' always reminds me of How to train your dragon's hiccup, no offense intended :)
but yeah "functional extension" sound like "hey these are the ONLY extension that functions well, others are maybe nonfunctional...." or something like that

Ah, one more thing:

One thing that I like is how there is so much integration between the website and the forum in your design.
In a way, I also think it should be clear what is what, and where you are, but I like the integration very much.
What I am bringing up now could well be because I have to get adjusted to this new design and don't understand the working very well yet.

When you are logged in at the forum, then close your browser, and later on re-open the website page, you see the login icons (little guy, envelope) at the top.
So you know you are logged in.
But on that screen there is no logout button.

I am wondering: is logging in to the forum, the same thing as logging in to the website? Or are they synced or something like that?

i haven't added login or logout button on any of the pages other than forum, this shouldn't take more than 2 minute to do, but i forgot :( , and now that you reminded me of that i will push another update in a hour or so.

and yes, the forum is now FULLY integrated with the site, also the addon dashboard for addon author also uses forum login, so if you are logged in in the forum you are good to go.

also another thing i might do is, when a user hovers over the message icon a dropdown box will open and SHOW latest messages.
Steven gave me the database access today, and i already tested it(just few minute ago), it is working, so integrating forum in deeper level won't take much time.
let me know if you are interested in this feature, i might also do the same for Show new replies to your posts., this will help most forum user.


oh and i forgot ;) .....
A CRITICAL UPDATE FOR ADMIN PANEL HAS BEEN PUSHED
it is a bug fix for a SQL query and some database access stuff, also made the code a bit more clean and manageable.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 02, 2015, 08:56:09 AM
'hiccup' always reminds me of How to train your dragon's hiccup, no offense intended :)
but yeah "functional extension" sound like "hey these are the ONLY extension that functions well, others are maybe nonfunctional...." or something like that

Ah, now I see your point, funny.  I think maybe you are right if the word used was 'functioning', but 'functional' might be good? Well, maybe even if that is so it might still be a little confusing. I don't know.
We'll need some input and suggestions from others members.

I will see that movie, and let you know if I am offended....
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 02, 2015, 08:57:51 AM
Steven gave me the database access today, and i already tested it(just few minute ago), it is working, so integrating forum in deeper level won't take much time.
let me know if you are interested in this feature, i might also do the same for Show new replies to your posts., this will help most forum user.

If I can't do too much damage, I am available for test-driving.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 02, 2015, 08:59:39 AM
I will see that movie, and let you know if I am offended....

it is a 3d animation movie btw, and one of my favorite one.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 02, 2015, 09:03:50 AM
Steven gave me the database access today, and i already tested it(just few minute ago), it is working, so integrating forum in deeper level won't take much time.
let me know if you are interested in this feature, i might also do the same for Show new replies to your posts., this will help most forum user.

If I can't do too much damage, I am available for test-driving.

you have to wait few days(1 or 2), the current one that i tasted have no gui, and have to edit the file manually then upload and THEN test.
will let you know when i have at least basic UI working.
Title: Re: [NEW DEMO FORUM UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 08, 2015, 06:31:17 AM
It's been nearly a week and no update!??
I was really busy with the markdown editor for MusicBee site. Also some major changes to the schema(database).

But most of all the new editor is the culprit, all i wanted is good simple and github flavored markdown editor. BUT, there are very few available. and most of them use Showdown for preview. I wanted to use markdown-it (since this is the only one i liked, and also is fast and extensible, while supporting github flavored markdown!),

For the editor i use WMD(the same one as the Stackoverflow), but THIS HASN'T BEEN UPDATE SINCE 2007!! and also it uses Showdown! so i have to heavily modified a lots of the major things, like using ``` for code, instead of four space, also changing the previewing to markdown-it, and then.... it does not work with ajax!! (well, after two days of debugging i finally solved the issue! YAY)

BTW, the new addon dashboard and admin panel heavily use ajax and dynamically load content(just like gmail).

The new update is not up yet. still gonna take some time. But it is still in work, and some major changes is coming.

well are the screenshots of the two new update.

This is addon dashboard. Still not live yet. But coming very soon.


(http://i.imgur.com/PNL0h5j.jpg)

and another major update to admin panel

(http://i.imgur.com/GdWFZEv.jpg)


When you are logged in at the forum, then close your browser, and later on re-open the website page, you see the login icons (little guy, envelope) at the top.
So you know you are logged in.
But on that screen there is no logout button.
also the new update has this improvement. now you can also logout from anywhere in the site.
(http://i.imgur.com/8TxagtA.jpg)
also if you are not logged in it will show login link.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 08, 2015, 08:04:03 AM
Impressive work, Avik. This looks like it'll streamline the whole process of publishing plugins, and also help new users to discover them.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 08, 2015, 08:35:44 AM
Impressive work, Avik. This looks like it'll streamline the whole process of publishing plugins, and also help new users to discover them.

I fully agree.
This might also be a very important boost finally getting more developers joining, and contributing with new add-ons.
This new beautiful 'stage' AvikB is building will be much more rewarding to have their work presented and getting a wider attention to it.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 08, 2015, 11:45:09 AM
This might be a good moment to have a look at the current forum structure, and see if some improvements could be made.

A few things that come to mind looking at the main forum boards on the start page:

"Latest Version"
It is a bit ambiguous. Is it a download link? Is it information on the most recent version only? Beta or Final?

"Customisations"
It currently envelopes both visual customisations, and functional (and functioning ;-) add-ons. It might be good to split those.

"General"
That's very general indeed, and it also resides under the identical named higher level "General"

"Rubbish bin"
That one doesn't really deserve a place on the main screen


Secondly we might need some new topic boards.

1.
I saw AvikB has created options for polls. That could be very interesting, and might be a useful and fun feature.
For developers to get input (votes) so to help on deciding on specific features or changes, and for mortal users for the sake of curiosity and maybe even add some fun.

2.
I have been noticing lately that there seems to be an increase in posts asking for help, which are difficult to understand because the poster seems to have some problems with the English language. Maybe even throwing their question from their native language though google translate...
For foreign languages users it might be very helpful to have the option to post in a support board for their own language.
For the sake of 'sharing knowledge' between all users it shouldn't be promoted, but it would probably be a blessing for some foreign language users, frustrated with explaining and understanding some more complicated issues.


Considering the above, I created a quick draft of what could be changed to provide for the above issues.

Currently we have:
GENERAL

Latest Version   -The latest version including fixes and new features
Customisations   -Child Boards: Icons, Localisation, Plugins, Skins, Screenshots, TheaterMode, Visualisers
General      -Got a question or comment?
MusicBee Wishlist   -What would you like to see in the next version?
Beyond MusicBee   -Talk about things not related to MusicBee

SUPPORT

Bug Reports      -To get bugs fixed, please report them here.   Child Boards: Portable Devices
Tips and Tricks   -Provide advice and tips to others - no questions please!
Developers      -Child Boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode

OTHER

Rubbish Bin


This is a proposed change in structure accommodating for the above observations:


GENERAL

Version Info         Child boards: Release version, Testing versions
Tips and Tricks
Customisations     Child boards: Icons, Localisation, Skins, TheaterMode, Visualisers
Plugins
MusicBee Wishlist
General Board      Child boards: General discussions, Beyond MusicBee, Screenshot gallery, Rubbish Bin
Polls                    Child boards: Developers polls, General polls

SUPPORT

Questions             Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Tips and Tricks
Developers            Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode
Bug Reports



The current descriptions for the specific boards will need some adjustments too. We can work that out later if these suggestions get some support, but some ideas:


Current:
- Latest Version   "The latest version including fixes and new features"

Proposal:
- Version info      "Information on MusicBee versions"
      Child boards:
      - release version         "notifications and announcements on the latest official release"
      - development versions    "notifications and announcements on alpha and beta releases"

Current:
- Customisations   this one currently has no description

Proposal:
- Customisations     "Customizing visuals and languages"
- Plugins                "Plugins for enhancing MusicBee's functionality"


Ideas?
(i am sure at least some wordings I suggest here could be improved on)

edit:
I changed some board descriptions, and corrected myself mixing the terminologies 'topic' and 'board' in this proposal.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Sofocl on December 08, 2015, 12:51:41 PM
For foreign languages users it might be very nice to have the option to post in a support topic for their own language.
+1
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 08, 2015, 01:11:26 PM
for the foreign language support, keep in mind the userbase of musicbee is quite small and i imagine it will be very unlikely there will be enough people who speak the language and able/ willing to help. At least with english only, its open to a wider audience of people who can help even if there is some misunderstandings.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 08, 2015, 01:20:11 PM
for the foreign language support, keep in mind the userbase of musicbee is quite small and i imagine it will be very unlikely there will be enough people who speak the language and able/ willing to help. At least with english only, its open to a wider audience of people who can help even if there is some misunderstandings.

I fully agree and believe that's very true.
Yet, there are MB users that can't express themselves in understandable English. Some of them have gone to the wikia to get some help.
Also, I would expect increasing popularity of MusicBee after the new website, forum, v3 etc., so probably an increase in non-English speakers too.

It should be very clear that posting in such a board has repercussions on chances to get good support and is not encouraged.
It also will have to be moderated, which is slightly more difficult.
But it will probably fill a need. Also I can imagine some current foreign-language members subscribing to such boards to help-out such fellow members. (I would)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 08, 2015, 01:37:03 PM
Some really nice suggestion.

"Latest Version"
It is a bit ambiguous. Is it a download link? Is it information on the most recent version only? Beta or Final?

"Customisations"
It currently envelopes both visual customisations, and functional (and functioning ;-) add-ons. It might be good to split those.

"General"
That's very general indeed, and it also resides under the identical named higher level "General"

"Rubbish bin"
That one doesn't really deserve a place on the main screen
I agree, the latest version sounds ambiguous. although i don't know if removing rubbish bin is really necessary or not.  :/


I have been noticing lately that there seems to be an increase in posts asking for help, which are difficult to understand because the poster seems to have some problems with the English language. Maybe even throwing their question from their native language though google translate...
For foreign languages users it might be very helpful to have the option to post in a support topic for their own language.
For the sake of 'sharing knowledge' between all users it shouldn't be promoted, but it would probably be a blessing for some foreign language users, frustrated with explaining and understanding some more complicated issues.
to be fair google translate is not THAT ACCURATE! and also it will be hassle for English speaking user to help. I am not against the idea though. but i highly doubt any english speaking user will be willing to help them using GOOGLE TRANSLATOR! maybe any user that speaks the op's language can help them.

But then again what language boards to include! Chinese! japanese? spanish? there are tons of user speaks different language. we could only allow handful of language boards.

we need more input if any non-english speaker is willing to actually help users.



This is a proposed change in structure accommodating for the above observations:

GENERAL

Version Info         Child boards: Release version, Testing versions
Tips and Tricks
Customisations     Child boards: Icons, Localisation, Skins, TheaterMode, Visualisers
Plugins
MusicBee Wishlist
General Board      Child boards: General discussions, Beyond MusicBee, Screenshot gallery, Rubbish Bin
Polls                    Child boards: Developers polls, General polls

SUPPORT

Questions             Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Tips and Tricks
Developers            Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode
Bug Reports

Few improvement suggestion:
i have divided up the boards much more, also reduced child boards


ANNOUNCEMENT

MusicBee Release
MusicBee Beta

GENERAL

General discussions
Polls                    Child boards: Developers polls, General polls
Tips and Tricks
MusicBee Wishlist
Beyond MusicBee                       Child boards: Screenshot gallery

MUSICBEE ADDONS  (or maybe extensions... :/)

Customisations  Child boards: Icons, Localisation, Skins, TheaterMode, Visualisers
Plugins

SUPPORT

Questions             Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Developers            Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode
Bug Reports
[/quote]

GRAVEYARD

Rubbish Bin


This is a rough sketch.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 08, 2015, 01:50:49 PM
Quick response to only 1 and 2:
Rubbish bin is not removed, just relocated under 'general'

I think you misread my intention about google translate.
I meant that google translate currently might be the cause of 'Lost in Translation' in some difficult to understand posts lately.
So having the opportunity to post in your own language, and be answered in that language too might help to avoid that.

We could start out with some language boards such as German, Russian, Japanese, Dutch, Australian, since I think we have some active members from those area's.
There could then maybe be the option to request for a new language to be added by new members, that then to be decided on by moderators?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 08, 2015, 02:28:13 PM
And commenting on your rough sketch suggestions:

Adding 'Announcement' is good. That will make it obvious those boards are there only for 'informing the people'.
Not to be contributed or discussed on.

- The childboard 'Screenshot gallery' should not be under 'Beyond MusicBee'. That board is for all stuff that is not directly related to MusicBee. (what headphones do you use, your favorite albums, etc.)

- 'Rubish Bin' gets even more attention when under something like 'Graveyard'. It also might attract vultures.
Lets' put it a level deeper underground ;-)

- To me 'Addons' (as your suggestion is) feels slightly better there than 'extensions', but hey, let's have a poll!
(Oh, wait, Catch22,  we'll have to wait for the new forum to be able to do that)

All these considerations aside, of course it is crucial that you and Steven decide on what is best and doable, also  considering that all links and references between the forum and the new website, and all the wordings and descriptions used should be as streamlined as possible.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 08, 2015, 02:41:44 PM
although i don't know if removing rubbish bin is really necessary or not.  :/

Giving the bin some more thought, I believe it was created by Steven for an I think very decent motive; namely that he didn't want to completely delete nonsense (rubbish) postings, but at least give them an (unworthy) second life in the bin.

In my opinion it would be legitimate to completely delete such postings from the forum, memory, and so perhaps also from search engines finding them.
In that case the bin could just be completely removed. But that of course must be Stevens call.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 08, 2015, 02:55:01 PM
I think you misread my intention about google translate.
I meant that google translate currently might be the cause of 'Lost in Translation' in some difficult to understand posts lately.
So having the opportunity to post in your own language, and be answered in that language too might help to avoid that.

We could start out with some language boards such as German, Russian, Japanese, Dutch, Australian, since I think we have some active members from those area's.
There could then maybe be the option to request for a new language to be added by new members, that then to be decided on by moderators?
:O, damn i misunderstood what you said. But yeah, if we have members to help out in language problem, then we can open some boards.

- The childboard 'Screenshot gallery' should not be under 'Beyond MusicBee'. That board is for all stuff that is not directly related to MusicBee. (what headphones do you use, your favorite albums, etc.)
Maybe we could put it under general discussion


- 'Rubish Bin' gets even more attention when under something like 'Graveyard'. It also might attract vultures.
Lets' put it a level deeper underground ;-)
that also works.

- To me 'Addons' (as your suggestion is) feels slightly better there than 'extensions', but hey, let's have a poll!
(Oh, wait, Catch22,  we'll have to wait for the new forum to be able to do that)

All these considerations aside, of course it is crucial that you and Steven decide on what is best and doable, also  considering that all links and references between the forum and the new website, and all the wordings and descriptions used should be as streamlined as possible.
well i am all for new board structure, i am sure steven won't have any problem with this.

there is some extra work will require for steven to do(i have a sollution.... ). for an example. new release announcement for both beta and stable. also updating beta release is a hassle since beta evolves really quickly and almost 1-2 patches everyday. and also the download page also offers beta version. so keeping track of that AND also a discussion thread about the beta....damn it will get hard.

THE SOLUTION! The new admin panel for the will have the ability to update and post in announcement thread and download page in a SINGLE button click! YAY!

thanks to simplemechineforum's extremely simple form database structure, this is possible.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 08, 2015, 03:03:41 PM
Also a BAD news. As the forum is upgrading from 1.1.21 to 2.0.11, i just tested it on my side, while the upgrades work, but the THEME i developed for the demo forum ISN'T COMPATIBLE :(
BUT i am glad that it is MUCH easier to theme the new forum. Only CSS tweaks and some minor and few major changes. I will provide a NEW demo for the new updated forum SOON!

on the other hand, the new forum does not break site integration :) YAY!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 08, 2015, 03:46:20 PM

there is some extra work will require for steven to do(i have a sollution.... ). for an example. new release announcement for both beta and stable. also updating beta release is a hassle since beta evolves really quickly and almost 1-2 patches everyday. and also the download page also offers beta version. so keeping track of that AND also a discussion thread about the beta....damn it will get hard.


In my opinion I don't think the beta version (or 'nightly' as I call it) needs an announcement/notification.
Only a small group of users will be involved in testing, and they will know to check for updates when Steven replies to a bug report.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 08, 2015, 04:16:35 PM
In my opinion I don't think the beta version (or 'nightly' as I call it) needs an announcement/notification.
Only a small group of users will be involved in testing, and they will know to check for updates when Steven replies to a bug report.

You are right that there will probably not be (m)any explanatory posts about these 'nightlies'. In that sense your point is a very good one.
Yet I think it would be good to have at least some landing page for these nightlies and beta's on the forum.
At least for the purpose on clarifying what is what, how and when to use what, and where to find it.
Even if only the most recent version identifier and it's date released would be updated and shown there, that would be very useful.

I believe that the way at this moment the different versions, updates, patches, etc. are explained, are still confusing quite some users.

If you agree on all this, would you have another forum board structure proposal for this?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 08, 2015, 04:28:07 PM
I believe that the way at this moment the different versions, updates, patches, etc. are explained, are still confusing quite some users.

Speaking of patches, I wonder if it would be possible to introduce a 'ticket' system to the website, to make bug reporting a bit more efficient. I don't know what would be required in terms of programming, but it's just an idea anyway.

Here's an example of what I mean: https://trac.mpc-hc.org/ticket/2747
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 08, 2015, 06:17:19 PM
i wont agree to a ticketing system as then it becomes a job and not a hobby project
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 08, 2015, 06:47:12 PM
Speaking of patches, I wonder if it would be possible to introduce a 'ticket' system to the website, to make bug reporting a bit more efficient. I don't know what would be required in terms of programming, but it's just an idea anyway.

Here's an example of what I mean: https://trac.mpc-hc.org/ticket/2747

well as steven said:
i wont agree to a ticketing system as then it becomes a job and not a hobby project

Despite that, i did look at trac, bugzilla, and some other bug tracking system. AND i don't like them. they are overly complicated, UGLY!, and i highly doubt most of them will play nice with SMF forum integration(either you need to create another account OR some code tweaking).

BUT i do like github issue tracking system. It is dead simple, beautiful and conversation is forum like structured. BUT it is not open sourced :(

As Steven pointed out managing ticket require some effort, and the current MusicBee site redesign is mainly to reduce effort for both Steven and Addon devs while also reducing effort of new users.

Here is what i think would work:
1. Dead Simple github style issue browsing
2. elegant and easy to use.
3. Forum login integration.
4. Support for issue status such as
                opened
                closed
                planned
                done
5. conversation between users and others.


The main problem is with each opened issue you have to close it(or done) when the issue is fixed. AND THAT IS ONE BIG PROBLEM! you have to keep track or browse through EVERY issue and mark it.


as now if user create a topic on the forum Steven replies to it and if the issue solved it is well else it either get planned for next release or planned for future or addon. BUT steven don't have to reply back WHEN that particular issue is fixed a week/month later. also you don't have to do CLOSE or PLANNED status.


               
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 08, 2015, 06:59:24 PM
One of the reasons MusicBee has became as good as it is, and why this forum functions as well is it does, is that one person (Steven) decides, and makes good judgements on what to address and implement.

What a I often impressed about, is how members seem to understand how this wishing, and bug reporting system works here.
There is a torrent of those, and realistically far too much for one person.

How it seems to work here, is that most of the users understand (and are used to ;-) that they can throw almost anything at Steven, but are wise enough to understand when and why it is not fulfilled, or they don't even get a response.

Introducing a ticket system, in any which form of shape would take away that system and understanding.
So -1 from me.

Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 08, 2015, 07:45:10 PM
One of the reasons MusicBee has became as good as it is, and why this forum functions as well is it does, is that one person (Steven) decides, and makes good judgements on what to address and implement.

Introducing a ticket system, in any which form of shape would take away that system and understanding.
So -1 from me.
I too am against a ticket system and it's mostly a selfish reason.  Steven doesn't want it because this will then feel like a job and not a hobby.  I really, really want Steven to feel good about the work he's doing with MusicBee.  He has stated in the past that once MB starts feeling like a job (or work) he'll likely stop development.  And I would not to see that happen.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 08, 2015, 09:30:45 PM
Here are some typos and my recommended changes based on the Addon Dashboard screenshot.

Addon Submission:
-If your rank is newbie ... to get people's attention

Step 1
-There are several types of Addons you can submit

Step 2
-Instead of "these are not optional" make it "All fields in this section are required" and drop the "you need to fill out everything"
-Short Description
   -Only text and numbers are allowed.
-Supported MB Version
   -Select the supported MusicBee version(s) for your ...
-Tags for your Addon
   -Try to use ONE word for each tag.  Each tag Must USE COMMA as a separator
   -Change You are only limited to use 10 tags maximum to You are limited to 10 tags.  No need to say anything else.

Step 3
-Instead of "these are not optional" make it "Required" and drop the "you need to fill out everything"
-Download link instructions are confusing.  Suggest it be changed to Direct uploads to this site are not supported.  Please use a third-party hosting site, such as MediaFire, ZippyShare, or Mega. Enter the URL here.   (I don't understand what you mean by "Also try to provide a direct download link"  If this refers to the link to the download from the third-party provider, then I don't think it's necessary to say that as this section is already asking for the link.)

The "learn more here" at the end of Step 3, and the "Click here to learn more" at the end of Step 4 should be worded the same.  Doesn't matter which one, but for consistency they should read the same.

There may be others, but that's what I noticed on my first two readings.

-
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 09, 2015, 05:53:34 AM
I too am against a ticket system and it's mostly a selfish reason.  Steven doesn't want it because this will then feel like a job and not a hobby.  I really, really want Steven to feel good about the work he's doing with MusicBee.  He has stated in the past that once MB starts feeling like a job (or work) he'll likely stop development.  And I would not to see that happen.

Fair enough. The casual atmosphere of MusicBee and its forum is the reason many of us are here, and that should continue.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bigmelwalter on December 09, 2015, 06:56:29 AM
It's a unanimous decision then!!!!!

No ticketing system is needed. I agree with Steven.

Just waiting for a new forum update, possibly with a chatbox or some extra visual features.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 07:47:16 AM
It's a unanimous decision then!!!!!

No ticketing system is needed. I agree with Steven.

Just waiting for a new forum update, possibly with a chatbox or some extra visual features.

sorry but no chatbox in the new forum :(
maybe we can open an IRC Chatroom for MusicBee!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 09:14:12 AM
The new Forum theme is almost ready! took me really short time.

i have added some box at the top, they will only show on the forum homepage. This will help forum members to get a glance of the latest musicbee version without going to download page or at the bottom of the page.

(http://i.imgur.com/fWpn4hr.png)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 09:46:56 AM
Great work again AvikB!

I hate to rain on this marvelous party, but I am realizing a very big drawback of this beautiful design concept.
With the current forum landing page, you have a clean overview of all the boards topics in one view. No need for scrolling to find out what other boards there are.besides the ones that are in view initially.

When I was checking out other fora to get some ideas for our new forum, that was also one of the things I felt many fora got wrong.
Many don't have a clean landing page with only, and all the main boards in view. Either there are to many which make it confusing, or as the current concept, you have to do scrolling up and down before you know wich one to choose.

I know the world, and especially tablet and smartphone users have become sort of addicted to scrolling and swiping. It's of course much more functional there, and the experience is kind of 'fun'.

But behind a desktop PC, I feel it should be avoided as much as possible.

Do you think you could do your magic with the great look and feel you are creating already, whilst keeping the practical and good overview the current forum has?

In my opinion the website can have lots of eye-candy (even though I personally would like the home page to be sort of 'spartan'), but the forum I surely would prefer to be as much as possible about the content, without too much visual and interface distractions.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 10:25:51 AM
Great work again AvikB!

I hate to rain on this marvelous party, but I am realizing a very big drawback of this beautiful design concept.
With the current forum landing page, you have a clean overview of all the boards topics in one view. No need for scrolling to find out what other boards there are.besides the ones that are in view initially.

When I was checking out other fora to get some ideas for our new forum, that was also one of the things I felt many fora got wrong.
Many don't have a clean landing page with only, and all the main boards in view. Either there are to many which make it confusing, or as the current concept, you have to do scrolling up and down before you know wich one to choose.

I know the world, and especially tablet and smartphone users have become sort of addicted to scrolling and swiping. It's of course much more functional there, and the experience is kind of 'fun'.

But behind a desktop PC, I feel it should be avoided as much as possible.

Do you think you could do your magic with the great look and feel you are creating already, whilst keeping the practical and good overview the current forum has?

In my opinion the website can have lots of eye-candy (even though I personally would like the home page to be sort of 'spartan'), but the forum I surely would prefer to be as much as possible about the content, without too much visual and interface distractions.

Thanks, it is also getting quite bit annoying for me to scroll the forum. :S
I am planning on moving those big boxes to the side (since MOST monitor has wider width then height).
also reducing the spacing a bit. the current one is spaced out too much
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on December 09, 2015, 10:33:17 AM
Glad that you recycled the honeycomb background.  I think it looks great  :)

I assume that clicking on the coloured squares will take you to the appropriate forum section, so a suggestion for a minor layout change.

(http://i.cubeupload.com/0KWZKI.png) (http://i.cubeupload.com/0KWZKI.png)

* Removed the number from 'Latest MusicBee' on blue panel as you have the version number on the there as well
* not sure you would need "Questions" board under Support as most questions get asked (currently) under "General" - unless, of course, you are trying to separate general comments from questions.

EDIT
I have no problem with scrolling with this layout as the most used forum areas are at the top
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 11:05:38 AM
Great work again AvikB!

I hate to rain on this marvelous party, but I am realizing a very big drawback of this beautiful design concept.
With the current forum landing page, you have a clean overview of all the boards topics in one view. No need for scrolling to find out what other boards there are.besides the ones that are in view initially.

When I was checking out other fora to get some ideas for our new forum, that was also one of the things I felt many fora got wrong.
Many don't have a clean landing page with only, and all the main boards in view. Either there are to many which make it confusing, or as the current concept, you have to do scrolling up and down before you know wich one to choose.

o you think you could do your magic with the great look and feel you are creating already, whilst keeping the practical and good overview the current forum has?

Ok, a new update. how about these:

i have reduced those monstrous spacing (reminds me on windows 8 apps :P), and there is a sidebar now. i can put a recent post list there. also some boards needs to get merged, cause even with reducing spacing, there are 4 categories and 12 boards. maybe reducing to 9-10 board should be enough.

(http://i.imgur.com/tmEllnY.png)


Glad that you recycled the honeycomb background.  I think it looks great  :)
Well yeah, thanks for the suggestion you gave me. :) i will also add this honey comb to some other area in future.

I assume that clicking on the coloured squares will take you to the appropriate forum section, so a suggestion for a minor layout change.
* Removed the number from 'Latest MusicBee' on blue panel as you have the version number on the there as well
fixed in the next update.

* not sure you would need "Questions" board under Support as most questions get asked (currently) under "General" - unless, of course, you are trying to separate general comments from questions.
Yes, question will have a separate section. as right now, almost EVERYTHING from site update announcement to discussion to asking question is done in ONE thread. and it is a mess. thats why a question board is needed. General area will be used for discussion and other stuff.

EDIT
I have no problem with scrolling with this layout as the most used forum areas are at the top
the problem would be for people with resolution like 1366x768 or lower. Higher resolution like 2k or 4k monitor and MAYBE FullHD monitor should be able to handle most of it
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on December 09, 2015, 11:19:56 AM
I prefer the other layout (or my rearrangement of it) with the coloured boxes across the top.
If clicking on those boxes does quickly scroll the page to right section of the forum, then the manual scrolling issue would be minimized.

EDIT
I have no problem with scrolling with this layout as the most used forum areas are at the top
the problem would be for people with resolution like 1366x768 or lower. Higher resolution like 2k or 4k monitor and MAYBE FullHD monitor should be able to handle most of it

I'm using only 1920 x 1080 and I use sizer so I've only got the page open to 80% of the screen, and still looks good to me.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 11:37:26 AM
I prefer the other layout (or my rearrangement of it) with the coloured boxes across the top.
If clicking on those boxes does quickly scroll the page to right section of the forum, then the manual scrolling issue would be minimized.

EDIT
I have no problem with scrolling with this layout as the most used forum areas are at the top
the problem would be for people with resolution like 1366x768 or lower. Higher resolution like 2k or 4k monitor and MAYBE FullHD monitor should be able to handle most of it

I'm using only 1920 x 1080 and I use sizer so I've only got the page open to 80% of the screen, and still looks good to me.
i do prefer the boxes on the top. But they don't scroll to the specific thread. they redirect to download page, addons page and support page.

But i am confused about the layout myself.  Should i use sidebar! or put them on top or provide a option to hide them!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 12:05:03 PM
ok so i decided to put those box at the top AGAIN! :S
but also removed the scrolling issue by making two board a child board.

here is how it looks in fullHD. the whole forum is visible. Now the developer board is a child of question board, since it is for developers to ask question. Also poll is a child of general discussion, since i highly doubt we need a separate board just for polling.

(http://i.imgur.com/hEuMbFO.jpg)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 01:24:44 PM
I am still trying to comprehend the tighter integration between forum and website. So it could well be I am making some wrong assumptions here,

When I look at this screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/qsLMo1Ql.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/qsLMo1Q.png)

Aren't the large buttons more suited for the website, and not for the forum?
If you opened the forum page, there are already boards called "latest version", "Questions" etc.
I am a bit confused what these large buttons would add to that specific forum page.

About the top-bar. Is it intended to be similar looking, whether you are on the website, or at the forum?
Not having a strong opinion on that, but if so, maybe it could be made slightly clearer where you are at that moment.
Either by having a slightly different color design, or maybe by having the tab 'FORUM' highlighted when you are on the forum.

And about the 'HOME' button at the top. When you are navigating the forum, is that supposed to take you to the main forum page, or to the main web page?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 02:05:24 PM
I am still trying to comprehend the tighter integration between forum and website. So it could well be I am making some wrong assumptions here,

When I look at this screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/qsLMo1Ql.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/qsLMo1Q.png)
Weird, will test it more, also i will update the demo forum so that we can get a better understanding.


Aren't the large buttons more suited for the website, and not for the forum?
If you opened the forum page, there are already boards called "latest version", "Questions" etc.
I am a bit confused what these large buttons would add to that specific forum page.
I am trying to not only integrate the function, but the look as well. Also yes, the latest version board is still there, but this should take the user directly to the download page, instead of opening the board then opening the latest topic THEN scroll to the bottom to see the latest update.

Providing the latest version info at the top means you can quickly check if your musicbee is updated or not, instead of either scroll to bottom or going to download page.

Also the second box is much more of a reminder to new user for addons, you can call it Promotion AD(:{)

the third box is something special which is COMING SOON! you guys(or maybe gals) will LOVE it :)

About the top-bar. Is it intended to be similar looking, whether you are on the website, or at the forum?
Not having a strong opinion on that, but if so, maybe it could be made slightly clearer where you are at that moment.
Either by having a slightly different color design, or maybe by having the tab 'FORUM' highlighted when you are on the forum.
I think it is pretty clear where you are, BUT menu highlighting is COMING(i have planned this already :) )

And about the 'HOME' button at the top. When you are navigating the forum, is that supposed to take you to the main forum page, or to the main web page?
YES, with smf version 2.0.11, they changed the forum navigation system! so i still haven't figure out a way to rename it to forum home, like i did with the previous one :S
i will look into it in FUTURE!


ALSO, as for the concern of that big boxes at the top, i will include a button to hide it :)
it will use cookies to store the preference and stay hidden when the next time you open the browser.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 09, 2015, 02:08:43 PM
i like the idea of having something like the boxes that highlight content, especially the "Get Latest Version" one because of the surprising number of times people seem to have difficulty finding it in the current forum layout
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 02:15:30 PM
i like the idea of having something like the boxes that highlight content, especially the "Get Latest Version" one because of the surprising number of times people seem to have difficulty finding it in the current forum layout

Also it is automated, so no HTML EDITING ;) all controlled through the admin panel.
BUT for those who don't wan't those boxes or prefer only forum layout, there will be a option to hide them, or show them when needed!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 02:29:10 PM
i like the idea of having something like the boxes that highlight content, especially the "Get Latest Version" one because of the surprising number of times people seem to have difficulty finding it in the current forum layout

That could certainly serve a good purpose. But than that box could be very specific (and a bit smaller) saying something like: "download the latest nightly build", with some brief explanatory text as what it is, and how to install it.
For the other two boxes I personally don't see added value (at that location)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 02:38:44 PM
That could certainly serve a good purpose. But than that box could be very specific (and a bit smaller) saying something like: "download the latest nightly build", with some brief explanatory text as what it is, and how to install it.
For the other two boxes I personally don't see added value (at that location)

The third one is link to faq and documentation, often new users may found that useful for finding answered question and HOW TOs and tips and tricks.

the second one is for new users that may or may not NOTICED that we have a addon section or EVEN anyone can submit them. It is mainly as a reminder and a useful notice to new user.

Also Don't worry, you will be able to hide them, if you prefer clean forum interface
it is mainly geared toward new users who PROBABLY didn't notice those things.

Also the latest box will take a user to the download page, there he can get EITHER STABLE or BETA.
i didn't put beta info there, because beta user MOST LIKELY to follow steven's discussion forum.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 02:55:03 PM
The third one is link to faq and documentation, often new users may found that useful for finding answered question and HOW TOs and tips and tricks.

You are right, that is useful.

Quote
The second one is for new users that may or may not NOTICED that we have a addon section or EVEN anyone can submit them. It is mainly as a reminder and a useful notice to new user.

You are right, that can be useful.
What confused me a little bit is that it combines 'get addons' and 'submit addons', and I was not sure where that would take you.
But I am confident you are a man with a plan on that.

Quote
Also Don't worry, you will be able to hide them, if you prefer clean forum interface[/size]
it is mainly geared toward new users who PROBABLY didn't notice those things.

Optionally hiding them is great. But the button to download the latest nightly version in my opinion would best be sticky and fixed, since it is probably useful for almost everybody.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 03:06:42 PM
You are right, that can be useful.
What confused me a little bit is that it combines 'get addons' and 'submit addons', and I was not sure where that would take you.
But I am confident you are a man with a plan on that.
Whenever you hover over that box, you will get two button saying Browser Addons and Submit Addons

Optionally hiding them is great. But the button to download the latest nightly version in my opinion would best be sticky and fixed, since it is probably useful for almost everybody.

Well i guess i don't need the hide option then. and thanks for the suggestion, i will show the beta version there too.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 03:10:34 PM
I digested all input and suggestions, reshuffled it, and present what I think is getting pretty close to a great forum structure.
Input please?  


ANNOUNCEMENT

MusicBee Release               information on the latest official release version
MusicBee Pre-Release         the latest 'nightly' and pre-release versions


GENERAL

Tips and Tricks
General Discussions            Child boards: Discussing MusicBee, Polls
MusicBee Wishlist


MUSICBEE ADDONS

Customisations                  Child boards: TheaterMode, Skins, Icons, Visualisers, Localisation, Showcase
Plugins


SUPPORT

Questions                         Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Bug Reports
Developers                       Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode


BEYOND MUSICBEE          Child boards:Related Interests, Rubbish Bin



Edit,
If there is not much enthusiasm about a foreign language board (it was only a suggestion from me I don't care about very strongly), support would just be be:

SUPPORT

Questions
Bug Reports
Developers                       Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 03:22:29 PM
I digested all input and suggestions, reshuffled it, and present what I think is getting pretty close to a great forum structure.
Input please? 


ANNOUNCEMENT

MusicBee Release               information on the latest official release version
MusicBee Pre-Release         the latest 'nightly' and pre-release versions


GENERAL

Tips and Tricks
General Discussions            Child boards: Discussing MusicBee, Polls
MusicBee Wishlist


MUSICBEE ADDONS

Customisations                  Child boards: TheaterMode, Skins, Icons, Visualisers, Localisation, Showcase
Plugins


SUPPORT

Questions                         Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Bug Reports
Developers                       Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode


BEYOND MUSICBEE          Child boards:Related Interests, Rubbish Bin

is BEYOND MUSICBEE  a category? )

while i like it, REMEMBER 5 Category and 10 board will not fit into the view and you have to scroll a bit.
try to use 4 category and
board number <= 10 (less than equal)

Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 09, 2015, 03:29:01 PM
@hiccup,
can you give some examples of what would go in General Discussions
and how do you see it differing from Beyond MusicBee and Support/ Questions ?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 09, 2015, 03:35:53 PM
You are right, that can be useful.
What confused me a little bit is that it combines 'get addons' and 'submit addons', and I was not sure where that would take you.
But I am confident you are a man with a plan on that.
Whenever you hover over that box, you will get two button saying Browser Addons and Submit Addons
By "Browser Addons" do you really mean "Browse Addons"?  As in giving the user the opportunity to look for addons?  Or are there going to be addons for a browser?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 03:39:01 PM
@hiccup,
can you give some examples of what would go in General Discussions
and how do you see it differing from Beyond MusicBee and Support/ Questions ?

Currently we have 'general', which says "Got a question or comment?"

I thought to split questions and comments up, so 'Questions' under 'Support' will obviously be for questions only, and stuff such as "Official MB appreciation thread", announcements from members such as psychoadept introducing the wikia, and the topic we are actually in right now would go to 'General discussions'.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 09, 2015, 03:45:07 PM
Currently we have 'general', which says "Got a question or comment?"

I thought to split questions and comments up, so 'Questions' under 'Support' will obviously be for questions only, and stuff such as "Official MB appreciation thread" and the topic we are actually in right now would go to 'General discussions'.

My two cents - I feel like General Discussion and Questions are too closely related to split off into separate boards.
The same goes for Developers and Questions in the support section. The fewer boards the forum has, the less confusion.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: psychoadept on December 09, 2015, 03:52:44 PM
Currently we have 'general', which says "Got a question or comment?"

I thought to split questions and comments up, so 'Questions' under 'Support' will obviously be for questions only, and stuff such as "Official MB appreciation thread" and the topic we are actually in right now would go to 'General discussions'.

My two cents - I feel like General Discussion and Questions are too closely related to split off into separate boards.
The same goes for Developers and Questions in the support section. The fewer boards the forum has, the less confusion.

I agree.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 09, 2015, 03:55:11 PM
Currently we have 'general', which says "Got a question or comment?"

I thought to split questions and comments up, so 'Questions' under 'Support' will obviously be for questions only, and stuff such as "Official MB appreciation thread" and the topic we are actually in right now would go to 'General discussions'.

My two cents - I feel like General Discussion and Questions are too closely related to split off into separate boards.
The same goes for Developers and Questions in the support section. The fewer boards the forum has, the less confusion.

I agree.
+1
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 09, 2015, 03:55:32 PM
I have some concerns about the use of the expression "nightly builds."  Firefox and others issue nightly builds.  MusicBee does not.  When Steven's on a roll we might get weekly builds.  I think something along the lines of "latest beta" or "latest patch" would be better.

I also think the content of the green box at top needs to be reworded.
The headline should just be "Addons"
The body should read "We have a nice collection of skins and plugins. You can also submit your own addon here."

Lastly, for the time being, you have a comment on the screenshot that "This is how it should look in full HD."  Not everyone has an HD monitor.  How will it look in non-HD? It should be programmed for the lowest common denominator.  It's one thing to create a site that has the latest and greatest coding tricks, but if it doesn't render properly for the average user, they're going to get frustrated.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 04:00:28 PM
My two cents - I feel like General Discussion and Questions are too closely related to split off into separate boards.
The same goes for Developers and Questions in the support section. The fewer boards the forum has, the less confusion.

Fair enough, but I disagree on both.

Discussing a new forum, the appreciation thread, psychoadept introducing MusicBee's wikia, are all not questions, and should not be located there. (I'm sure I could find many more examples if I made a little effort)

The developers board is (besides a place for questions indeed) also a gathering place for members working on plugins, skins, api's etc.
I believe it is perfectly legitimate to have a dedicated board for that, also separating 'Developers issues and questions' from 'Users issues and questions'.

Also, it is the current situation.
There have never been complaints about that, and it will also make transferring the old forum to the new one a bit easier.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 04:01:25 PM
Whenever you hover over that box, you will get two button saying Browser Addons and Submit Addons
By "Browser Addons" do you really mean "Browse Addons"?  As in giving the user the opportunity to look for addons?  Or are there going to be addons for a browser?
[/quote]

 ;D made a mistake  :P
user will be able to browse addons not browser addon  ::)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 04:11:16 PM
I have some concerns about the use of the expression "nightly builds."  Firefox and others issue nightly builds.  MusicBee does not.  When Steven's on a roll we might get weekly builds.  I think something along the lines of "latest beta" or "latest patch" would be better.
Don't worry it will be called MusicBee Beta, not nightly, and yes, i will look into that matter. I did consider the availability of beta releases, since steven won't deliver beta every week like now. I am planning to add some beta info into that Get MusicBee box.

I also think the content of the green box at top needs to be reworded.
The headline should just be "Addons"
The body should read "We have a nice collection of skins and plugins. You can also submit your own addon here."
I don't like the headline, it's too..... ... short! a bit long needed. I do like the body content, the change is planned for the body content :)

Lastly, for the time being, you have a comment on the screenshot that "This is how it should look in full HD."  Not everyone has an HD monitor.  How will it look in non-HD? It should be programmed for the lowest common denominator.  It's one thing to create a site that has the latest and greatest coding tricks, but if it doesn't render properly for the average user, they're going to get frustrated.

i test all my work in tablet resolution(1024x768 and lower) :)
except for the menu at the top, most of the pages should adopt nicely to mobile too.  I am not too concerned about the forum being on mobile devices. The current smf forum is not built for mobile in mind. Only the MAIN WEBSITE is going to support RESPONSIVE DESIGN.

Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 04:15:26 PM
I have some concerns about the use of the expression "nightly builds."  Firefox and others issue nightly builds.  MusicBee does not.  When Steven's on a roll we might get weekly builds.  I think something along the lines of "latest beta" or "latest patch" would be better.

I believe we are all mainly throwing ideas up here, and probably sometimes a bit in a mist in searching the right wordings and structures.
It certainly helps when Steven gives a thumbs up or a thumbs down on suggestions once in a while, so we know better how to proceed and optimize further contributions.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 04:25:26 PM
Currently we have 'general', which says "Got a question or comment?"

I thought to split questions and comments up, so 'Questions' under 'Support' will obviously be for questions only, and stuff such as "Official MB appreciation thread" and the topic we are actually in right now would go to 'General discussions'.

My two cents - I feel like General Discussion and Questions are too closely related to split off into separate boards.
The same goes for Developers and Questions in the support section. The fewer boards the forum has, the less confusion.

Not necessarily, I like the idea of splitting Questions and General.
General Should be USED ONLY for general DISCUSSION not question.

Here is my reasons.
Keeping the technical stuff or issues in question board will make the forum better organized. Currently DISCUSSION and TECHNICAL STUFF is in one place. it is hard to tell if someone is looking for help or proposing a discussion (maybe reading the title might make that clear, but...), while discussion tends to last long but question tends to be short.

Also maybe a discussion will get buried quickly if too many questions are being asked(since question will get solved quickly). And lately the number of questions and issues are rising so it is needed to organize.


Here is the proposal:
1. Use Question for ONLY SOLVING TECHNICAL ISSUE AND HELP.
2. General will be USED ONLY for general DISCUSSION not question, discussion like: MusicBee New Feature, New Changes, Future of MusicBee, Website Changes, Wiki ....
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 04:34:54 PM
is BEYOND MUSICBEE  a category? )
while i like it, REMEMBER 5 Category and 10 board will not fit into the view and you have to scroll a bit.
try to use 4 category and
board number <= 10 (less than equal)

In that case 'Beyond MusicBee' could the go under 'General'.
Would this work/fit?


ANNOUNCEMENT

MusicBee Release information on the latest official release version
MusicBee Pre-Release the latest 'nightly' and pre-release versions

GENERAL

Tips and Tricks
General Discussions      Child boards: Discussing MusicBee, Polls
MusicBee Wishlist
Beyond musicBee         Child boards: Related Interests, Rubbish Bin

MUSICBEE ADDONS
Customisations            Child boards: TheaterMode, Skins, Icons, Visualisers, Localisation, Showcase
Plugins

SUPPORT

Questions                   Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Bug Reports
Developers                 Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 04:41:13 PM
Or, locate your 'Announcement' suggestion under 'general'.


GENERAL

Announcements             Child boards: MusicBee Release, MusicBee Pre-Release
Tips and Tricks
General Discussions       Child boards: Discussing MusicBee, Polls
MusicBee Wishlist
Beyond musicBee           Child boards: Related Interests, Rubbish Bin

MUSICBEE ADDONS
Customisations              Child boards: TheaterMode, Skins, Icons, Visualisers, Localisation, Showcase
Plugins

SUPPORT

Questions                   Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Bug Reports
Developers                 Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode


edit
'Tips and Tricks' could also go under 'Support', I have no strong opinion on that.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 09, 2015, 04:49:38 PM
Or, locate your 'Announcement' suggestion under 'general'.


GENERAL

Announcements             Child boards: MusicBee Release, MusicBee Pre-Release
Tips and Tricks
General Discussions       Child boards: Discussing MusicBee, Polls
MusicBee Wishlist
Beyond musicBee           Child boards: Related Interests, Rubbish Bin

MUSICBEE ADDONS
Customisations              Child boards: TheaterMode, Skins, Icons, Visualisers, Localisation, Showcase
Plugins

SUPPORT

Questions                   Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Bug Reports
Developers                 Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode

That looks good to me.

Only thing I would change is to make 'Skins' its own board rather than a child, since it will probably get as much traffic as 'Plugins'.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 05:02:34 PM
That looks good to me.
Only thing I would change is to make 'Skins' its own board rather than a child, since it will probably get as much traffic as 'Plugins'.

That will probably make it impossible to fit everything on one page, but let's wait what AvikB comes up with.

But also, in my opinion it should not be too relevant what child boards are, or will perhaps be more popular than other child boards.
Most important is that the structure is as logical and simple as possible. Removing 'skins' from 'customization' would probably not be an improvement on that.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 05:17:56 PM
I have some concerns about the use of the expression "nightly builds."  Firefox and others issue nightly builds.  MusicBee does not.  When Steven's on a roll we might get weekly builds.  I think something along the lines of "latest beta" or "latest patch" would be better.

I believe we are all mainly throwing ideas up here, and probably sometimes a bit in a mist in searching the right wordings and structures.
It certainly helps when Steven gives a thumbs up or a thumbs down on suggestions once in a while, so we know better how to proceed and optimize further contributions.

Well i don't think we need to ask steven for this minor description changes since he already liked the boxes above. But yeah we are all throwing ideas to see what sticks! :P

Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 09, 2015, 05:38:13 PM
I have some concerns about the use of the expression "nightly builds."  Firefox and others issue nightly builds.  MusicBee does not.  When Steven's on a roll we might get weekly builds.  I think something along the lines of "latest beta" or "latest patch" would be better.
Don't worry it will be called MusicBee Beta, not nightly, and yes, i will look into that matter. I did consider the availability of beta releases, since steven won't deliver beta every week like now. I am planning to add some beta info into that Get MusicBee box.

I also think the content of the green box at top needs to be reworded.
The headline should just be "Addons"
The body should read "We have a nice collection of skins and plugins. You can also submit your own addon here."
I don't like the headline, it's too..... ... short! a bit long needed. I do like the body content, the change is planned for the body content :)
Short is good.  There's an expression that goes something like this:  Keep it simple.  Why use five words when one will do?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 05:55:56 PM
Don't worry it will be called MusicBee Beta, not nightly, and yes, i will look into that matter. I did consider the availability of beta releases, since steven won't deliver beta every week like now. I am planning to add some beta info into that Get MusicBee box.

I can't recall Steven often using specific terms as alpha, beta, nightly, pre-release etc.
That is completely his call of course, and he will surely have his reasons for that, but if we want to get this matter streamlined and organised, it would be very helpful to be able to decide on some consistent terminology here.

I wouldn't mind if alpha, nightly, latest release or pre-release would be the 'correct' wordings.
I would also be o.k. to call it something like 'BlackBee release', RedBee release', 'BabyBee' or whatever, but let's try to decide on something?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 05:56:43 PM
Or, locate your 'Announcement' suggestion under 'general'.


GENERAL

Announcements             Child boards: MusicBee Release, MusicBee Pre-Release
Tips and Tricks
General Discussions       Child boards: Discussing MusicBee, Polls
MusicBee Wishlist
Beyond musicBee           Child boards: Related Interests, Rubbish Bin

MUSICBEE ADDONS
Customisations              Child boards: TheaterMode, Skins, Icons, Visualisers, Localisation, Showcase
Plugins

SUPPORT

Questions                   Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Bug Reports
Developers                 Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode


edit
'Tips and Tricks' could also go under 'Support', I have no strong opinion on that.

I like this :)

also since child boards are quite easy to miss for new user here what i have done, also some popular boards or boards that user might like will show as suggestion at the top. it is more like a quick access. It will show throughout the forum btw.

(http://i.imgur.com/dNOKoz6.jpg)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 05:59:48 PM
Short is good.  There's an expression that goes something like this:  Keep it simple.  Why use five words when one will do?

There is already Addons on the menu, if user MISS THAT or probably never used it, thats why those colorful box and a nice heading to have their attention
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 06:04:19 PM
I can't recall Steven often using specific terms as alpha, beta, nightly, pre-release etc.
That is completely his call of course, and he will surely have his reasons for that, but if we want to get this matter streamlined and organised, it would be very helpful to be able to decide on some consistent terminology here.

I wouldn't mind if alpha, nightly, latest release or pre-release would be the 'correct' wordings.
I would also be o.k. to call it something like 'BlackBee release', RedBee release', 'BabyBee' or whatever, but let's try to decide on something?

Bbb...bbut if you call them anything else than beta then.... .. ...i used beta all over the place :O

(http://i.imgur.com/s5TDTTd.jpg)

Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 06:06:46 PM
Bbb...bbut if you call them anything else than beta then....

And.... we have one vote for:   BaByBee!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 06:09:58 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/s5TDTTd.jpg)

I recall Steven being sympathetic to a suggestion of having only one installer providing a choice to install 'full' or 'portable'.
If that is going to happen, you'll have to adjust accordingly.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 06:23:18 PM
I recall Steven being sympathetic to a suggestion of having only one installer providing a choice to install 'full' or 'portable'.
If that is going to happen, you'll have to adjust accordingly.

That would be really nice. Well i will ask him, if he will introduce a single installer or not. I have to remove or add few things in download page then.


also can you make something clear for me:
1. since patches are incremental ONLY, are those patches the same for the portable installer! Do i need to provide a download link for the patches in the download page?
2. Does steven offers full patched version(installer with all musicbee files, PATCHED)? or just incremental patched files?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 09, 2015, 06:28:28 PM
dont assume i will make a single installer - i probably will but it wouldnt be until some time early next year

for the releases
- there is a frequent patch zip file thats uploaded to the same location to fix bugs or sometimes introduce new features
- when the beta cycle starts, i create an installer for the incremental (changed) files only ie. it assumes you have the last stable version already installed
- at the end of the beta cycle, a release candidate installer is created that installs everything
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 06:32:33 PM
dont assume i will make a single installer - i probably will but it wouldnt be until some time early next year

for the releases
- there is a frequent patch zip file thats uploaded to the same location to fix bugs or sometimes introduce new features
- when the beta cycle starts, i create an installer for the incremental (changed) files only ie. it assumes you have the last stable version already installed
- at the end of the beta cycle, a release candidate installer is created that installs everything


Thanks for clearing that up. Can you suggest what download options should i include?
For the Beta i will change the download button name to reflect the "incremental change".
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 06:38:05 PM
Bbb...bbut if you call them anything else than beta then....

And.... we have one vote for:   BaByBee!
lol, i like it :)
also a good news for you.
With some latest modification the new site will load those EDGY fonts instantly.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 06:50:28 PM
With some latest modification the new site will load those EDGY fonts instantly.

Nice, thank you!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 07:03:48 PM
also since child boards are quite easy to miss for new user here what i have done, also some popular boards or boards that user might like will show as suggestion at the top. it is more like a quick access. It will show throughout the forum btw.

That's a good observation.
That has been in my subconscious too.
Looking at the current forum with my EDGY fonts, the italic child boards are not really jumping off the screen.
A different font or some highlighting color would probably already do some wonders there.

(http://i.imgur.com/4zq5Wx7l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4zq5Wx7.png)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 08:04:50 PM
for the releases:

Trying to categorize and explain these three to users, AvikB, and myself, would below suggestions work and be factual correct?
The question marks at the bottom yet need to be filled in.

Quote
- there is a frequent patch zip file thats uploaded to the same location to fix bugs or sometimes introduce new features

name:
nightly patch

why:
to patch recently found issues

how:
download, extract files, copy and overwrite existing files in the existing installation folder

effects on present configuration and settings:
none

requisite:
a stable version must be installed


Quote
- when the beta cycle starts, i create an installer for the incremental (changed) files only ie. it assumes you have the last stable version already installed
name:
beta installer

why:
to install a new beta version of MusicBee over an existing stable version

how:
download, extract, execute the installer

effects on present configuration and settings:
none (CONFIRM?)

requisite:
a stable version must be installed

Quote
- at the end of the beta cycle, a release candidate installer is created that installs everything

name:
release candidate

why:
to do a clean install of a MusicBee release candidate

how:
download, extract, execute the installer

effects on present configuration and settings:
?

requisites:
?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 09, 2015, 08:37:52 PM
for the releases:

Trying to categorize and explain these three to users, AvikB, and myself, would below suggestions work and be factual correct?
The question marks at the bottom yet need to be filled in.

Quote
- there is a frequent patch zip file thats uploaded to the same location to fix bugs or sometimes introduce new features

name:
nightly patch

why:
to patch recently found issues

how:
download, extract files, copy and overwrite existing files in the existing installation folder

effects on present configuration and settings:
none

requisite:
a stable version must be installed


Quote
- when the beta cycle starts, i create an installer for the incremental (changed) files only ie. it assumes you have the last stable version already installed
name:
beta installer

why:
to install a new beta version of MusicBee over an existing stable version

how:
download, extract, execute the installer

effects on present configuration and settings:
none (CONFIRM?)

requisite:
a stable version must be installed

Quote
- at the end of the beta cycle, a release candidate installer is created that installs everything

name:
release candidate

why:
to do a clean install of a MusicBee release candidate

how:
download, extract, execute the installer

effects on present configuration and settings:
?

requisites:
?

Nice! will read it tomorrow, getting really late for my sleep :)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 09, 2015, 08:55:15 PM
Nice! will read it tomorrow, getting really late for my sleep :)

Sleep well. Notice there are actually two 'nightly patches'.
A 'nightly patch for stable release' and a 'nightly patch for beta'. (or alpha, or demo)

Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bigmelwalter on December 09, 2015, 10:27:55 PM
Getting my hopes up!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 06:17:33 AM
That's a good observation.
That has been in my subconscious too.
Looking at the current forum with my EDGY fonts, the italic child boards are not really jumping off the screen.
A different font or some highlighting color would probably already do some wonders there.

(http://i.imgur.com/4zq5Wx7l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4zq5Wx7.png)

the new forum will ditch those italic styles as well as bold. instead it will be inside those rounded boxes, as shown in the screenshots.

for the releases:

Trying to categorize and explain these three to users, AvikB, and myself, would below suggestions work and be factual correct?
The question marks at the bottom yet need to be filled in.

Quote
- there is a frequent patch zip file thats uploaded to the same location to fix bugs or sometimes introduce new features

name:
nightly patch

why:
to patch recently found issues

how:
download, extract files, copy and overwrite existing files in the existing installation folder

effects on present configuration and settings:
none

requisite:
a stable version must be installed


Quote
- when the beta cycle starts, i create an installer for the incremental (changed) files only ie. it assumes you have the last stable version already installed
name:
beta installer

why:
to install a new beta version of MusicBee over an existing stable version

how:
download, extract, execute the installer

effects on present configuration and settings:
none (CONFIRM?)

requisite:
a stable version must be installed

Quote
- at the end of the beta cycle, a release candidate installer is created that installs everything

name:
release candidate

why:
to do a clean install of a MusicBee release candidate

how:
download, extract, execute the installer

effects on present configuration and settings:
?

requisites:
?

One thing that concern me is the nightly patch, is these patch safe for the user? or should they wait till Steven releases the patch including the full installer?

i am not to keen on adding a patch section. This will require Steven to update that whenever a new patch is released, which is quite often.

and when a some patches are tested and stable enough they released as MusicBee x Update 1.
So there really may not be much of a point of including a download patch button.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 06:22:25 AM
Getting my hopes up!

Keep your hopes UP! the best is yet to come :)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 08:08:10 AM
Trying to categorize and explain these three to users, AvikB, and myself, would below suggestions work and be factual correct?
The question marks at the bottom yet need to be filled in.

Quote
- there is a frequent patch zip file thats uploaded to the same location to fix bugs or sometimes introduce new features

name:
nightly patch

why:
to patch recently found issues

how:
download, extract files, copy and overwrite existing files in the existing installation folder

effects on present configuration and settings:
none

requisite:
a stable version must be installed

etc.etc.


One thing that concern me is the nightly patch, is these patch safe for the user? or should they wait till Steven releases the patch including the full installer?

i am not to keen on adding a patch section. This will require Steven to update that whenever a new patch is released, which is quite often.

and when a some patches are tested and stable enough they released as MusicBee x Update 1.
So there really may not be much of a point of including a download patch button.

This posting of mine was only intended to try and help to get some explanatory overview of the kinds of MusicBee downloads there are or will be.
And trying to decide on some uniform naming, and explanatory texts on them. Not suggesting (at this moment) where they are to be located on forum/website.

I am only throwing this up for those reasons.
It is up to Steven if he feels like working with such a proposal, and up to you and him where and how to use that. But I am sensing (but I could be wrong) that Steven is a little bit reluctant to be fit in such a kind of harness.
I will stay out of this subject until it seems new input or ideas are welcomed.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 10, 2015, 12:09:54 PM
i think the downloads page should only be linking to the stable release and the latest beta which will both have an installer.
for the very latest version thats updated almost daily, it will never have an installer and is only really needed by people who have reported bugs or who follow the forum and want to try out the very latest feature.
I guess there could be something on the forum page to get the daily one as that will be useful rather than having to provide instructions to new users every time, but the wording shouldnt make any promises about it being daily/ nightly and make the install instructions clear that there is no installer.

V3 has been done differently to the usual case because it was such a major rewrite and i cant imagine ever doing that again.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Ansem on December 10, 2015, 02:30:48 PM
This sites is really fantasic! I love it!
I found a little typo into download page: it say that the last versione is 2.5.5809, but even after that i download it, on musicbee it say that i have the 5804 version.
Also a question: what does it mean that is compatible with groove? O_o
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 02:58:41 PM
i think the downloads page should only be linking to the stable release and the latest beta which will both have an installer.
for the very latest version thats updated almost daily, it will never have an installer and is only really needed by people who have reported bugs or who follow the forum and want to try out the very latest feature.
I guess there could be something on the forum page to get the daily one as that will be useful rather than having to provide instructions to new users every time, but the wording shouldnt make any promises about it being daily/ nightly and make the install instructions clear that there is no installer.

V3 has been done differently to the usual case because it was such a major rewrite and i cant imagine ever doing that again.

I will add a new option for you to add/update beta forum link in the beta download section. Also you will be able to add and edit notes of being the need of full installer.

the only thing that is gonna be written there hard coded is a warning of BETA(as it is right now), you will be able to add extra notes. This will give you the flexibility of updating the warning note or maybe a short installation note, if in future something major changes.

Also DO YOU THINK the download page layout is pretty much final? Functionality may change but if the layout is final i will put it in Beta Phase and make final touches and Phred will be able to correct mistakes or change wording.

here is the latest download page screenshot:

(http://i.imgur.com/u0rhM3K.jpg)

I believe the page is fully done. Most functionality is in place, i will add the existing ones as i am updating how admin panel works. BUT THE LAYOUT IS PRETTY MUCH FINAL.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 03:04:48 PM
This sites is really fantasic! I love it!
I found a little typo into download page: it say that the last versione is 2.5.5809, but even after that i download it, on musicbee it say that i have the 5804 version.
Also a question: what does it mean that is compatible with groove? O_o

Thats not a typo, ;) i was just testing the new admin panel(mainly playing around) which can make those version and download link update dynamic, means steven would be able to do it without editing html file.

The site is not final so some information may look outdated, but they will get updated regularly once we release it.


The new MusicBee 3 support groove music market place. Go to Music Explorer and there you will be able to browser groove.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on December 10, 2015, 03:16:48 PM
I guess there could be something on the forum page to get the daily one as that will be useful rather than having to provide instructions to new users every time, but the wording shouldnt make any promises about it being daily/ nightly and make the install instructions clear that there is no installer.

Please do.  A brief description would be most welcome.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Ansem on December 10, 2015, 03:33:54 PM
This sites is really fantasic! I love it!
I found a little typo into download page: it say that the last versione is 2.5.5809, but even after that i download it, on musicbee it say that i have the 5804 version.
Also a question: what does it mean that is compatible with groove? O_o

Thats not a typo, ;) i was just testing the new admin panel(mainly playing around) which can make those version and download link update dynamic, means steven would be able to do it without editing html file.

The site is not final so some information may look outdated, but they will get updated regularly once we release it.


The new MusicBee 3 support groove music market place. Go to Music Explorer and there you will be able to browser groove.
thanks you! I'm not following that much about the new MB3, so I didn't knew about it!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 04:41:19 PM
The download page is looking better and better!

But please allow me to spread some rain again ;-)

Under 'Download MusicBee' it currently says
"We hope you'll enjoy your music experience with MusicBee!"

That sounds slightly weak, maybe better:
"Start enjoying your music experience with MusicBee!"


Under 'Installer Edition'
There is some explanation about possible traces of leftovers. I would not put that text there. That will be taken by many as an alarming thing and might make people uncertain and starting asking lots of questions: "if it's safe?"

Under 'Portable edition' it mentions USB drives, but not that you can also install it on your desktop, on another partition, etc.

I would suggest to keep these two short and simple:

Installer Edition
This version will install MusicBee on your Windows system drive

Portable Edition
This version can be installed on other locations, such as another partition, or a USB drive.

It might be good to add a link such as: "which version to choose", explaining the differences between installer en portable in more detail.
That will also help to prevent the often recurring question on the forum about that.


The MusicBee Beta bar at the bottom is very prominent, and has a different layout and structure than the Installer and Portable edition which most new users will want to download.
And there is a large exclamation mark. Which is good, but adding that on the primary download page might add to possible alarming feelings with new users coming there.

Wouldn't it be better for the Beta version to have a similar large button as the Installer and Portable editions, with the text 'MusicBee Beta', and instead of 'start download', only say "go to the Beta page".

In that way the main download page will look a lot cleaner, and on the dedicated Beta page there will be more opportunity to explain Beta better.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 05:31:40 PM
blablabla

And, if I understand correctly, there are not going to be items as alpha, nightly, pre-release, etc.

So we keep having the already familiar 'latest patch'.
Shouldn't that be on the download page too then?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 06:19:35 PM
Under 'Download MusicBee' it currently says
"We hope you'll enjoy your music experience with MusicBee!"

That sounds slightly weak, maybe better:
"Start enjoying your music experience with MusicBee!"


Under 'Installer Edition'
There is some explanation about possible traces of leftovers. I would not put that text there. That will be taken by many as an alarming thing and might make people uncertain and starting asking lots of questions: "if it's safe?"

Under 'Portable edition' it mentions USB drives, but not that you can also install it on your desktop, on another partition, etc.

I would suggest to keep these two short and simple:

Installer Edition
This version will install MusicBee on your Windows system drive

Portable Edition
This version can be installed on other locations, such as another partition, or a USB drive.

It might be good to add a link such as: "which version to choose", explaining the differences between installer en portable in more detail.
That will also help to prevent the often recurring question on the forum about that.
Yes to all of the above!! Especially the "might be some leftovers..."  That line should go.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 10, 2015, 06:32:16 PM
So we keep having the already familiar 'latest patch'.
Shouldn't that be on the download page too then?
i would rather not have it on the downloads page because (a) there is no installer; (b) its really only intended to address specific bugs or introduce a new feature to people who follow the forum and might be interested and willing to report issues
However somewhere on the forum page will be helpful to save providing instructions every time

Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 07:04:32 PM
Under 'Download MusicBee' it currently says
"We hope you'll enjoy your music experience with MusicBee!"

That sounds slightly weak, maybe better:
"Start enjoying your music experience with MusicBee!"


Under 'Installer Edition'
There is some explanation about possible traces of leftovers. I would not put that text there. That will be taken by many as an alarming thing and might make people uncertain and starting asking lots of questions: "if it's safe?"

Under 'Portable edition' it mentions USB drives, but not that you can also install it on your desktop, on another partition, etc.

I would suggest to keep these two short and simple:

Installer Edition
This version will install MusicBee on your Windows system drive

Portable Edition
This version can be installed on other locations, such as another partition, or a USB drive.

Thanks. i will update that.

It might be good to add a link such as: "which version to choose", explaining the differences between installer en portable in more detail.
That will also help to prevent the often recurring question on the forum about that.

Good, idea. But instead of link, i will add a popup which will open on mouse hover. Here is what i did:
(http://i.imgur.com/jm26NI3.jpg)

The MusicBee Beta bar at the bottom is very prominent, and has a different layout and structure than the Installer and Portable edition which most new users will want to download.
And there is a large exclamation mark. Which is good, but adding that on the primary download page might add to possible alarming feelings with new users coming there.
Well yes that section has different layout and color, but it matches the layout perfectly. As for new user there is one BIG warning sign and a text in BOLD warning users, even after that if they download it, well nothing can stop them :/


Wouldn't it be better for the Beta version to have a similar large button as the Installer and Portable editions, with the text 'MusicBee Beta', and instead of 'start download', only say "go to the Beta page".

In that way the main download page will look a lot cleaner, and on the dedicated Beta page there will be more opportunity to explain Beta better.
I am not keen on creating a page for beta, maintaining two page is a hassle. as for cleaner, the current download page looks already clean. also i am trying to keep both beta and stable in single page, so user don't have to guess or fiddling around to get both version.

As for explaining i HIGHLY doubt steven would wan't that for beta releases. that yellow box on the beta section can show message from Steven(controlled from the new admin panel), also steven will include forum link there. And the forum will contain explanation much more in depth.


at this point the download page is pretty much final, there won't be any major layout change. I also did change the headline and others you mentioned.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 07:07:45 PM
And, if I understand correctly, there are not going to be items as alpha, nightly, pre-release, etc.

So we keep having the already familiar 'latest patch'.
Shouldn't that be on the download page too then?

As patch updates are way too frequent, also at the end of those patches there are Musicbee x Update x, which generally contain all of those fixes. So no point.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 07:10:47 PM
It might be good to add a link such as: "which version to choose", explaining the differences between installer en portable in more detail.
That will also help to prevent the often recurring question on the forum about that.

Good, idea. But instead of link, i will add a popup which will open on mouse hover. Here is what i did:
(http://i.imgur.com/jm26NI3.jpg)

also can you guys provide some description to put in that popup. I am clearly out of idea of what to include there??
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 07:17:00 PM
also can you guys provide some description to put in that popup. I am clearly out of idea of what to include there??

I will make a draft for that. How much text will fit there?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 07:21:35 PM
also can you guys provide some description to put in that popup. I am clearly out of idea of what to include there??

I will make a draft for that. How much text will fit there?

Make it short and brief, MAYBE under 30 words or less. less is always better as i highly doubt user will read LONG descriptions!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 07:33:22 PM
Well yes that section has different layout and color, but it matches the layout perfectly. As for new user there is one BIG warning sign and a text in BOLD warning users, even after that if they download it, well nothing can stop them :/

That's kind of why I was bringing this up. It is big and bold.
This Beta stuff is taking up a very big part of the whole page, while I feel the focus there should be on the stable versions.

Also, is it confirmed that there actually will be downloadable, installable Beta version that will require all this space?
(apologies if I haven't followed the comments about that too well)

Quote
As for explaining i HIGHLY doubt steven would wan't that for beta releases.

By explaining, I didn't mean the ins-and-outs and details of a current and specific beta release.
I meant only explaining that beta = pre-relase, unstable, own risk, blablabla

Quote
at this point the download page is pretty much final, there won't be any major layout change. I also did change the headline and others you mentioned.

Great, Ill shut up until the next round ;-)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 07:41:52 PM
I will make a draft for that. How much text will fit there?
Make it short and brief, MAYBE under 30 words or less. less is always better as i highly doubt user will read LONG descriptions!

installer edition:
This version will install MusicBee on the Windows system drive.

portable edition:
This version gives you the option to install MusicBee in a location or on a USB drive of your own choosing.


The only thing still missing then, which is being asked on the forum regularly, is if there are functional differences between these two.
Do you have a suggestion where that could be explained?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 08:04:40 PM
I will make a draft for that. How much text will fit there?
Make it short and brief, MAYBE under 30 words or less. less is always better as i highly doubt user will read LONG descriptions!

installer edition:
This version will install MusicBee on the Windows system drive.

portable edition:
This version gives you the option to install MusicBee in a location or on a USB drive of your own choosing.
Remove [installer edition:]
Replace with:
Installer Version:
This version will install MusicBee on the Windows system drive.
There is no functional difference between this and the portable version.

Remove [portable edition:]
Replace with:
Portable Version:
This version gives you the option to install MusicBee in the location of your choice or on a USB drive.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 08:07:44 PM
Well yes that section has different layout and color, but it matches the layout perfectly. As for new user there is one BIG warning sign and a text in BOLD warning users, even after that if they download it, well nothing can stop them :/

That's kind of why I was bringing this up. It is big and bold.
This Beta stuff is taking up a very big part of the whole page, while I feel the focus there should be on the stable versions.

Also, is it confirmed that there actually will be downloadable, installable Beta version that will require all this space?
(apologies if I haven't followed the comments about that too well)
I put the focus on both, People will download what they like. I am sure most people will stay away from the beta since the warning sign and the bold warning text are enough. I don't see any reason to split them up in different pages.

i don't get the "downloadable and installable" part. The beta will only contain incremental release and need previous stable release. OFC Steven will mention it in that yellow box, he can add any warning or info note he likes, i made it flexible ;)


Quote
As for explaining i HIGHLY doubt steven would wan't that for beta releases.

By explaining, I didn't mean the ins-and-outs and details of a current and specific beta release.
I meant only explaining that beta = pre-relase, unstable, own risk, blablabla
That yellow box in the beta section will have those warning. Steven will be able to update it as often as needed.

Quote
at this point the download page is pretty much final, there won't be any major layout change. I also did change the headline and others you mentioned.

Great, Ill shut up until the next round ;-)

The next round is coming SOON, so be prepared :)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 08:10:57 PM
I will make a draft for that. How much text will fit there?
Make it short and brief, MAYBE under 30 words or less. less is always better as i highly doubt user will read LONG descriptions!

installer edition:
This version will install MusicBee on the Windows system drive.

portable edition:
This version gives you the option to install MusicBee in a location or on a USB drive of your own choosing.
Remove [installer edition:]
Replace with:
Installer Version:
This version will install MusicBee on the Windows system drive.
There is no functional difference between this and the portable version.

Remove [portable edition:]
Replace with:
Portable Version:
This version gives you the option to install MusicBee in the location of your choice or on a USB drive.

Thanks hiccup and phred.
@hiccup, the installer description you provided is already under the installer edition header. so no point in repeating, i like the phred's suggestion.
and thanks for those correction and suggestions :)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 08:15:13 PM
Remove [portable edition:]
Replace with:
Portable Version:

The buttons that AvikB created are also called Installer Edition, and Portable Edition. That's why I thought to be consistent in that.

There are no functional differences, but there are reasons to choose one or the other. Those reasons could be explained to new users who are new to the phenomenon of 'portable installation'

Also, differences between installer and portable can be experienced in relation to:
Windows 'protecting' it's system drive, administrator rights (enabling MB in context menu's), virus scanners, etc.

It would be good to summarize that in an understandable manner somewhere.


Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 08:24:49 PM
@hiccup, the installer description you provided is already under the installer edition header. so no point in repeating, i like the phred's suggestion.

I think we are having some confusion, and talking about some different things here.

From your screenshot, the button had the description:
This is a EXE or MSI file that can be installed in your system and may leave behaind some traces of the program even when uninstalled.

My suggestion for the pop-up was:
This version will install MusicBee on the Windows system drive.

Never mind, you'll figure out what to do with that now.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 08:25:16 PM
Remove [portable edition:]
Replace with:
Portable Version:

The buttons that AvikB created are also called Installer Edition, and Portable Edition. That's why I thought to be consistent in that.

There are no functional differences, but there are reasons to choose one or the other. Those reasons could be explained to new users who are new to the phenomenon of 'portable installation'

Also, differences between installer and portable can be experienced in relation to:
Windows 'protecting' it's system drive, administrator rights (enabling MB in context menu's), virus scanners, etc.

It would be good to summarize that in an understandable manner somewhere.

i do agree, maybe we could fit all those summery in short for the installer version/or edition what ever you call it.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 08:28:14 PM
@hiccup, the installer description you provided is already under the installer edition header. so no point in repeating, i like the phred's suggestion.

I think we are having some confusion, and talking about some different things here.

From your screenshot, the button had the description:
This is a EXE or MSI file that can be installed in your system and may leave behaind some traces of the program even when uninstalled.

My suggestion for the pop-up was:
This version will install MusicBee on the Windows system drive.

Never mind, you'll figure out what to do with that now.

well here is the latest screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/PWBbCvl.jpg)

i did changed those under the headline according to your suggestion. i guess i should have been a bit clear :S
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 08:31:57 PM
well here is the latest screenshot:
i did changed those under the headline according to your suggestion. i guess i should have been a bit clear :S

That looks good, so now you also didn't need the extra hover-over pop-up.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 08:32:06 PM
Remove [portable edition:]
Replace with:
Portable Version:

The buttons that AvikB created are also called Installer Edition, and Portable Edition. That's why I thought to be consistent in that.
Understood.  It really makes no difference "edition" or "version." I saw "version in the text below it and, for consistency, made it version.  As long as they're all the same, either is fine.  Pick one and go with it.

Quote
There are no functional differences, but there are reasons to choose one or the other. Those reasons could be explained to new users who are new to the phenomenon of 'portable installation'

Also, differences between installer and portable can be experienced in relation to:
Windows 'protecting' it's system drive, administrator rights (enabling MB in context menu's), virus scanners, etc.

It would be good to summarize that in an understandable manner somewhere.
Yes, but we're trying to keep this description to under 30 words.
Maybe the words "differences between these versions (or editions)" and either hover for a pop-up or link to a simple chart.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 08:34:18 PM
PS, 'Which' and 'Choose' shouldn't be capitalized there.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 08:39:45 PM
There are no functional differences, but there are reasons to choose one or the other. Those reasons could be explained to new users who are new to the phenomenon of 'portable installation'
Also, differences between installer and portable can be experienced in relation to:
Windows 'protecting' it's system drive, administrator rights (enabling MB in context menu's), virus scanners, etc.
It would be good to summarize that in an understandable manner somewhere.
Yes, but we're trying to keep this description to under 30 words.
Maybe the words "differences between these versions (or editions)" and either hover for a pop-up or link to a simple chart.

I'm not sure I could explain the above in 30 words, or in a simple chart.
As a native English speaker, maybe you can give it a try?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 08:41:12 PM
well here is the latest screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/PWBbCvl.jpg)
a) I still think XP should be included in the list of operating systems.  MB -does- work under XP.
b) Under "Portable Version:
   This version can be installed in other locations, such as another partition or USB drive.  (Get rip of the second comma)
c) Under "Get Portable Version:"
   Change "Confused..." to Which version should I use?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 08:42:36 PM
okay i actually like the "Edition" better instead of "Version".

here is the summery i put in there

(http://i.imgur.com/b7w2yox.jpg)

as benefits already mentioned under the headlines, i decided to use some general info for user.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 08:44:45 PM
well here is the latest screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/PWBbCvl.jpg)
a) I still think XP should be included in the list of operating systems.  MB -does- work under XP.
b) Under "Portable Version:
   This version can be installed in other locations, such as another partition or USB drive.  (Get rip of the second comma)
c) Under "Get Portable Version:"
   Change "Confused..." to Which version should I use?

thanks updated :)
(http://i.imgur.com/Dsa0Qw8.jpg)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 08:53:32 PM
okay i actually like the "Edition" better instead of "Version".

here is the summery i put in there

(http://i.imgur.com/b7w2yox.jpg)

as benefits already mentioned under the headlines, i decided to use some general info for user.
There is no functional difference between the Installer and the Portable Editions.

The Installer Edition can not be moved to another location and you may need to Run as Administrator.  The Portable Edition is installed to the location of your choice - a different partition or even a USB drive.

Now that I'm looking at this again, is the popup even needed?  It's just restating what's already there under each version/edition.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 08:55:02 PM
Yes, but we're trying to keep this description to under 30 words.
Maybe the words "differences between these versions (or editions)" and either hover for a pop-up or link to a simple chart.
I'm not sure I could explain the above in 30 words, or in a simple chart.
As a native English speaker, maybe you can give it a try?

Ah well, let nobody call me lazy. here's a kick-off to work from:

Most users will want to install the Installer Edition.

Reasons to choose for the Portable Edition:
- When you have no user rights to install MusicBee on the Windows system drive
- When you don't want MusicBee writing any files or folders to your Windows system drive
- When you are using antivirus software that over-aggressively protects the Windows folders
- When you want to install a portable version of MusicBee besides the version already installed on your system drive. Be warned, only do this when you are fully aware of possible risks on the integrity of your MusicBee library.
- When you want to have MusicBee running from a USB drive, and so also being able to take it with you and use it on other Windows computers
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 09:01:37 PM
a) I still think XP should be included in the list of operating systems.  MB -does- work under XP.

I agree in principle, but you could argue against it that Microsoft themselves don't support XP anymore.
Should MusicBee then? In case of possible problems in the future?

Also (but this is where Steven will have to chip in), the working of MB depends on .NET
I am pretty sure XP won't have the correct version integrated out-of-the-box.

Maybe MusicBee v3 even has other requisites on .NET then v2.x?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 09:05:08 PM
Yes, but we're trying to keep this description to under 30 words.
Maybe the words "differences between these versions (or editions)" and either hover for a pop-up or link to a simple chart.
I'm not sure I could explain the above in 30 words, or in a simple chart.
As a native English speaker, maybe you can give it a try?

Ah well, let nobody call me lazy. here's a kick-off to work from:

Most users will want to install the Installer Edition.

Reasons to choose for the Portable Edition:
- When you have no user rights to install MusicBee on the Windows system drive
- When you don't want MusicBee writing any files or folders to your Windows system drive
- When you are using antivirus software that over-aggressively protects the Windows folders
- When you want to install a portable version of MusicBee besides the version already installed on your system drive. Be warned, only do this when you are fully aware of possible risks on the integrity of your MusicBee library.
- When you want to have MusicBee running from a USB drive, and so also being able to take it with you and use it on other Windows computers

i have made a simpler version of what you wrote, since all that is not possible in that small box.

(http://i.imgur.com/6bAL3pb.jpg)

i did removed two points, as it probably is not that important.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 09:06:04 PM
Yes, but we're trying to keep this description to under 30 words.
Maybe the words "differences between these versions (or editions)" and either hover for a pop-up or link to a simple chart.
I'm not sure I could explain the above in 30 words, or in a simple chart.
As a native English speaker, maybe you can give it a try?

Ah well, let nobody call me lazy. here's a kick-off to work from:

Most users will want to download and use the Installer Edition.

Reasons to choose for the Portable Edition:
- If you have no user rights to install MusicBee on the Windows system drivered.
- If you don't want MusicBee creating any files or folders to your Windows system drivered.
- If you are using antivirus software that over-aggressively protects the Windows foldersred.
- If you want to install a portable version of MusicBee besides the version already installed on your system drive. Be warned, only do this when you are fully aware of possible risks on the integrity of your MusicBee library.
- If you want to have MusicBee running from a USB drive and also be able to take it with you and use it on other Windows computers.
This is what happens when I'm working six to 10 hours behind you guys.   :)  I'm trying to catch up but it's a moving target!!!  See my changes in red in the above quote.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 09:08:13 PM
There is no functional difference between the Installer and the Portable Editions.

If 'editions' become plural, shouldn't it also become: 'there are no functional differences'?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 09:08:47 PM
i have made a simpler version of what you wrote, since all that is not possible in that small box.

(http://i.imgur.com/6bAL3pb.jpg)

i did removed two points, as it probably is not that important.
Excellent.  I suggest removing the blank line between "Reasons to choose..." and the first point.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 09:09:46 PM
a) I still think XP should be included in the list of operating systems.  MB -does- work under XP.

Okay i need to clear few things.

Steven will be able to change that. I made it possible to do so in the admin panel. The screenshot only reflects the test scenario.

here is the admin board:

(http://i.imgur.com/nuCrYnp.jpg)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 09:13:26 PM
There is no functional difference between the Installer and the Portable Editions.

If 'editions' become plural, shouldn't it also become: 'there are no functional differences'?

I'm not 100% certain on this one. I could ask my professional Copy Editor wife when she comes home but isn't this line moot at this point?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 10, 2015, 09:14:31 PM
i have made a simpler version of what you wrote, since all that is not possible in that small box.

(http://i.imgur.com/6bAL3pb.jpg)

i did removed two points, as it probably is not that important.
Excellent.  I suggest removing the blank line between "Reasons to choose..." and the first point.

done. also i am making this last change MOSTLY the final.

@phred, i will probably send you the download page files for a correction tomorrow.
also thanks for those great suggestion @hiccup :)

good night.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 09:17:38 PM
good night.
Nightynight guys, we've been productive...
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 10, 2015, 09:34:31 PM
HEY!!!  It's still early here!  I wanna play some more!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 10, 2015, 09:39:04 PM
HEY!!!  It's still early here!  I wanna play some more!

I believe Japan is starting to wake up now. Go make some friends there too ;-)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bigmelwalter on December 12, 2015, 10:59:11 PM
Is this updated site live? If so can we visit it?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 13, 2015, 12:57:16 AM
Is this updated site live? If so can we visit it?
It's not live.  It is only in test mode and probably won't be ready for a week or so.  There's a link to the test site in the first post of this thread.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 13, 2015, 03:51:11 AM
It's not live.  It is only in test mode and probably won't be ready for a week or so.  There's a link to the test site in the first post of this thread.

Is this updated site live? If so can we visit it?

it will take a few more days or week before the new site update is ready for testing.
I did had to redesign some core part of admin panel to utilize the ajax and also some new control for dashboard, so i had to put the dashboard work in halt. I will upload the new new site when the new dashboard and addon center is fully done :)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 14, 2015, 01:56:25 PM
There is no functional difference between the Installer and the Portable Editions.

If 'editions' become plural, shouldn't it also become: 'there are no functional differences'?

I'm not 100% certain on this one. I could ask my professional Copy Editor wife when she comes home but isn't this line moot at this point?
FWIW, I was correct.  The words "There is no..." is referring to the word "difference."  If you were to use "differences" then the beginning of the sentence should be "There are no..."
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bigmelwalter on December 14, 2015, 02:34:07 PM
It's not live.  It is only in test mode and probably won't be ready for a week or so.  There's a link to the test site in the first post of this thread.


Is this updated site live? If so can we visit it?

it will take a few more days or week before the new site update is ready for testing.
I did had to redesign some core part of admin panel to utilize the ajax and also some new control for dashboard, so i had to put the dashboard work in halt. I will upload the new new site when the new dashboard and addon center is fully done :)


Sounds like good news!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 15, 2015, 08:42:18 AM
I just pushed another big update for the demo site.
BUT unfortunately, if you visit the demo site now, you will get error! :( This is due to the php version, i assumed that the php upgrade is done, but it seems that is not case right now. I contacted Steven to get a clear picture of it. So you guys have to wait till this is solved.

Here are some screen-shots of what is new. First of all, this is not a HUGE update on the visual side, BUT more of a enhancement and some major improvement and a huge step towards future updates.
Some core features are re-written for ease of maintaining, specially the admin-panel, and dashboard, it is completely based on ajax(like gmail, no need to refresh or reload to submit or go to another page). The main site will still use normal non-ajax navigation.

Also the footer is improved, and thanks to some suggestion from bee-liver i put the beehive patter in the footer, and it looks good.

(http://i.imgur.com/1yST7m0.png)


Another big change for admin panel is the all MusicBee release section. With this steven can update release notes(which is based on markdown format), and allow addon devs to target Major MusicBee releases. This will help maintaining the dashboard more easier. Oh and Steven will be able to disable downloads for any release. I dunno much use for it, but for beta release it will be easier disable and enable beta when Steven feels like being on Fire and do some major upgrades to MusicBee(like now).

(http://i.imgur.com/ILRNVAD.png)

here is the editor popup

(http://i.imgur.com/mu1Qn2i.png)

and when you save or update something, or some problem got in the way a popup will appear at the bottom corner and notify you.

(http://i.imgur.com/CHphjAG.jpg)

Although the error popup is NOT SO HELPFUL :P

Although this is mainly for admin panel, and that ,means only Steven or any admin account can only access this. BUT this is the foundation or that the dashboard will use, and same design and ajax based navigation and popups.

I am still building the addon dashboard bit by bit. The UI is near complete, the core function is still cooking :), here is a sneak peak:

(http://i.imgur.com/zIo3P6P.png)

oh and the forum received theme update too. it is not done yet, but once i managed to get the demo site running i will update to the new theme.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 15, 2015, 11:13:51 AM
the PHP version and MySQL database upgrade is scheduled to happen 2am PST tomorrow
For the PHP version its not clear if the musicbee server will be upgraded to 5.5 or 5.6
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 15, 2015, 12:28:03 PM
the PHP version and MySQL database upgrade is scheduled to happen 2am PST tomorrow
For the PHP version its not clear if the musicbee server will be upgraded to 5.5 or 5.6

well i am using php 5.5 as my test server, as long as they upgrade to higher than 5.3 it will be okay :)
damn php 7 just released. They might do another upgrade in few years! that should be exciting.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 11:01:04 AM
THE NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING

the new server is now running php 5.5 and the demo site is working :)
Here is the list of changes beside the ones that i posted above:
   - the home page has now slight animation when scrolling down
   - Home page also now uses smooth scroll(firefox has this by default, so firefox user won't notice it, but chromium user will notice it)
   - The download page has new beehive pattern in the beta section. also Admin  will be able to Enable or Disable the downloads at their will(yay, more power)
   - The footer has received a new design.
   - THE NEW UPDATED FORUM IS NOW LIVE, The forum is not complete, i only modified few styles and templates, more update is coming soon.

also the addon page demo that i posted few weeks back has been taken down. I will upload the version when the dashboard is available, or i might post some other demo of the addon page for community feedback.

Another breaking change is the new Schema(database model).

Sorry for this late update, the main reason is the new server and forum upgrade, and as well as i had to check every aspect of the admin panel for security holes, as well as redesign few core aspects. with the admin panel, overall i am really happy of how it turned out, and dashboard will have the same core aspects and security.

Few things I MIGHT ADD in future is the site wide announcement system from admin panel, also updating some headline of the home page. BUT thats really not planned for now.

I will upload the new dashboard in two or three days(i hope so), since the admin panel is done it should not take much time.

http://test.getmusicbee.com (http://test.getmusicbee.com) Here is the demo site link.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 02:29:15 PM
Very nice AvikB, you've been spreading some more magic dust over the site.

The non-blurred fonts are loading quickly now, great.

- I noticed that when you open the homepage for a first time (clear cache), the MB screenshot does not display. It will as soon as you scroll down a little bit.
Wouldn't it be better to have that one displaying immediately? Now the homepage looks quite empty and a bit bland to start with, and it doesn't invite, or suggest you to scroll.

(http://i.imgur.com/rn9FFLZs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/rn9FFLZ.png)

- I do like the design (and the icons etc.) of what you created as a footer.
But, the "Add-ons for MusicBee" links there are a bit superfluous, since they are also at the top of the starting page, but in a different design.
That could be perceived a little bit confusing, 'is there a difference between header links and footer links'?
Maybe the menu on the top could get a little design magic dust too, a bit similar to the looks of the footer?

- I notice there is an 'Equalizer' category under Addons. Do 'equalizer' addons actually exist?

- there is a mention of your favourite artists and albums. (Nitpicking mode enabled), but I learned that preferred spelling was going to be US English, in which case it would be 'favorite'.

- There is this text:
"Edit/View all tags with the extensive tag editor and the tag inspector. Manage duplicates, custom tags, Automatically organise library file names and structure, get song tags from online sources .... and a lot more"
There are some small errors in it, and to me it doesn't read too fluent.
Maybe change it a bit to something like this: ?

Edit and view tags with the extensive tag editor and MusicBee's Tag Inspector.
Explore near-unlimited possibilities by using virtual tags.
Manage duplicates, and have your library and it's structure automatically organized.
Get song tags from online sources .... and a lot more!

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 16, 2015, 02:47:11 PM
- I noticed that when you open the homepage for a first time (clear cache), the MB screenshot does not display. It will as soon as you scroll down a little bit.
Wouldn't it be better to have that one displaying immediately? Now the homepage looks quite empty and a bit bland to start with, and it doesn't invite, or suggest you to scroll.
Yes.  I found this quite annoying.  The entire home page was like this.  Nothing showed until I scrolled down.  And then it faded it.  It should all be loaded when it first appears.  We don't need fade ins, we don't need blinking.  We don't need bells or whistles.  Just let it be.

Quote
- I do like the design (and the icons etc.) of what you created as a footer.
But, the "Add-ons for MusicBee" links there are a bit superfluous, since they are also at the top of the starting page, but in a different design.
That could be perceived a little bit confusing, 'is there a difference between header links and footer links'?
Maybe the menu on the top could get a little design magic dust too, a bit similar to the looks of the footer?
Again I agree with hiccup.

Quote
- there is a mention of your favourite artists and albums. (Nitpicking mode enabled), but I learned that preferred spelling was going to be US English, in which case it would be 'favorite'.
Correct.  But not an issue at this point.  I will take care of this when I get the files for proofreading. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 02:49:28 PM
Correct.  But not an issue at this point.  I will take care of this when I get the files for proofreading.

Ok, sorry, spoke too soon ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 16, 2015, 02:50:58 PM
Correct.  But not an issue at this point.  I will take care of this when I get the files for proofreading.

Ok, sorry, spoke too soon ;-)
No, not really.  I'm sure I'll miss one or two of these and it's always good to have another set of eyes.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 03:03:04 PM
Very nice AvikB, you've been spreading some more magic dust over the site.
The non-blurred fonts are loading quickly now, great.
:) Glad it worked out.

- I noticed that when you open the homepage for a first time (clear cache), the MB screenshot does not display. It will as soon as you scroll down a little bit.
Wouldn't it be better to have that one displaying immediately? Now the homepage looks quite empty and a bit bland to start with, and it doesn't invite, or suggest you to scroll.
(http://i.imgur.com/rn9FFLZs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/rn9FFLZ.png)
Seems like a bug. Will be fixed in the next update. Thanks for pointing it out.


- I do like the design (and the icons etc.) of what you created as a footer.
But, the "Add-ons for MusicBee" links there are a bit superfluous, since they are also at the top of the starting page, but in a different design.
That could be perceived a little bit confusing, 'is there a difference between header links and footer links'?
Maybe the menu on the top could get a little design magic dust too, a bit similar to the looks of the footer?
No, they are not different. I put them there for better SEO, and noticeable for users. The old one has a description and just a link to wiki, i though it might good idea to make it a bit more inline with the design. the different design is because that it is on the footer and not in the navigation bar. I might add those icons in the nav bar too, haven't decided it yet.

- I notice there is an 'Equalizer' category under Addons. Do 'equalizer' addons actually exist?
Well there is equalizer presets and DSP plugins, which is really nice. Since there are thousands of presets that can be achieved(i am sure you guys have some nifty custom one too), i though it might be a good idea to add it. It will save headache for new or even existing users to get the equalizer right.

As for DSP plugin, i have no idea if i should put it under plugins or not, BUT since Steven added it With Equalizer, i did the same just for the sake of similarity.

- there is a mention of your favourite artists and albums. (Nitpicking mode enabled), but I learned that preferred spelling was going to be US English, in which case it would be 'favorite'.
Phred is going to help me with the spelling correction thingy. I send him the download page today(since, it is final). The home page needs some few more element and then it will be final too. You might wanna check those spelling mistakes after Phred is done with it. :)

- There is this text:
"Edit/View all tags with the extensive tag editor and the tag inspector. Manage duplicates, custom tags, Automatically organise library file names and structure, get song tags from online sources .... and a lot more"
There are some small errors in it, and to me it doesn't read too fluent.
Maybe change it a bit to something like this: ?

Edit and view tags with the extensive tag editor and MusicBee's Tag Inspector.
Explore near-unlimited possibilities by using virtual tags.
Manage duplicates, and have your library and it's structure automatically organized.
Get song tags from online sources .... and a lot more!
Thanks, i just copy and pasted some wording from the current website feature page :P , i thought it sounds weird, i will make the correction, and then rest is upto Phred to correct.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 03:12:44 PM
Yes.  I found this quite annoying.  The entire home page was like this.  Nothing showed until I scrolled down.  And then it faded it.  It should all be loaded when it first appears.  We don't need fade ins, we don't need blinking.  We don't need bells or whistles.  Just let it be.
Well first Impression matters :P but anyway, this is mostly an experiment. even If the bug is fixed do you think i should remove it? i might need some input on these.

Again I agree with hiccup.
It seems adding those icons in the nav bar will be a good idea.

Quote
Correct.  But not an issue at this point.  I will take care of this when I get the files for proofreading.
already sent the download page, the home page will reach you tomorrow.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 03:39:05 PM
Well first Impression matters :P but anyway, this is mostly an experiment. even If the bug is fixed do you think i should remove it? i might need some input on these.

Personally, I don't care much for eye-candy which doesn't seem to serve a specific and useful purpose. (not saying yours doesn't!)
Like most 'ingredients', such as flavoring food, dsp effects on music recordings, and maybe also eye-candy on websites, it's often at it's very best when you are not consciously aware that, or where it has been added.

But a very important thing is, the same as we all here appreciate that MusicBee only exists, and continues to develop and improve by the grace of Steven having fun doing it, I have a similar feeling about everything you have been doing lately. So please keep listening to constructive comments, but also keep having fun doing all this and keep making your own decisions. (as long as supported by S. of course ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 16, 2015, 04:03:39 PM
already sent the download page, the home page will reach you tomorrow.
You posted this about an hour ago and I haven't received any email from you.  I'm heading out for a couple of hours and hopefully it will be here when I get back.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 04:21:15 PM
Personally, I don't care much for eye-candy which doesn't seem to serve a specific and useful purpose. (not saying yours doesn't!)
Like most 'ingredients', such as flavoring food, dsp effects on music recordings, and maybe also eye-candy on websites, it's often at it's very best when you are not consciously aware that, or where it has been added.
Well according to most research humans always tends to like shiny things :) ,i have fixed that image displaying issue. an update is pushed. Also addon drop menu now has icons.
As for those fancy animation, i did put some though into it, only the home page will have those animation, since the it is the MAIN LANDING PAGE for new visitors.

For regular users i HIGHLY doubt they even go to the main page. Most of you probably have bookmarks to the forum or the download page. So the home page eyecandy should not get annoying since you rarely visit it. But for new users it is a completely different story.

You can say that it is one page presentation of what MusicBee is capable of. A little bit of animation won't put new users away.


But a very important thing is, the same as we all here appreciate that MusicBee only exists, and continues to develop and improve by the grace of Steven having fun doing it, I have a similar feeling about everything you have been doing lately. So please keep listening to constructive comments, but also keep having fun doing all this and keep making your own decisions. (as long as supported by S. of course ;-)

To me MusicBee is a godgiven product i have longed(except for few annoying pesky bugs :P). I appreciate the work steven has done, and most importantly his daily role at the community. As for fun part, i do have a lots of fun while creating a new feature for the site...... BUT THEN COMES THE HORROR OF DEBUGGING :O and few hours of head smashing at the deck.

But to be fair i started this project as a simple site redesign(no complicated addon center and dashboard stuff)  and thanks to you guys helping shaping the site, i can keep going on with those awesome stuff :)

KEEP THOSE IDEAS COMING :)

another thing i confirmed with the steven is that there won't be any award section, as steven is not interested, so i decided to not include it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 04:25:12 PM
already sent the download page, the home page will reach you tomorrow.
You posted this about an hour ago and I haven't received any email from you.  I'm heading out for a couple of hours and hopefully it will be here when I get back.

Okay now this is embarrassing. :S
i mistakenly sent that email to myself(not much of a email user), i just sent you this time FOR SURE
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 04:29:09 PM
Please ignore this, if I am repeating myself, and a decision on this has already been made and explained.
(I don't remember all conversations)

On the forum main page, the large blue button says:
Get the latest MusicBee. Make sure you always have the latest version.

This is fine, and useful for the purpose of drawing attention to using at least the latest stable release.

But on the forum, users reporting bugs and looking for solutions to a problem are very frequently told to "install the latest patch, since that probably already solved your issue". Also, it is not always clear to everybody where to find these patches.

It would be very helpful to also have 'a big button' with a download link to the latest patch. No need for explanation such as version history, solved issues etc.
But at least a link to it, and a short explanation: "download, copy files over to existing files in your MB installation folder blabla." would be very helpful.

So: one button "Get the latest MusicBee (stable)", and another one: "download the latest patch"

?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 04:43:41 PM
another thing i confirmed with the steven is that there won't be any award section, as steven is not interested, so i decided to not include it.

I wasn't aware an 'award section' was brought up or discussed, but thinking about it:
Wouldn't a link on the MB homepage to the forum's 'official MusicBee's appreciation thread' be good to have?
It's filled with positive and enthusiastic testimonials from users, and it could help warming the cold feet of new potential users.
It's also much more personal and trustworthy than a reward or review from some website.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 04:56:24 PM
Please ignore this, if I am repeating myself, and a decision on this has already been made and explained.
(I don't remember all conversations)

On the forum main page, the large blue button says:
Get the latest MusicBee. Make sure you always have the latest version.

This is fine, and useful for the purpose of drawing attention to using at least the latest stable release.

But on the forum, users reporting bugs and looking for solutions to a problem are very frequently told to "install the latest patch, since that probably already solved your issue". Also, it is not always clear to everybody where to find these patches.

It would be very helpful to also have 'a big button' with a download link to the latest patch. No need for explanation such as version history, solved issues etc.
But at least a link to it, and a short explanation: "download, copy files over to existing files in your MB installation folder blabla." would be very helpful.

So: one button "Get the latest MusicBee (stable)", and another one: "download the latest patch"

?

That would've been a good idea. But there are few reasons i haven't done it.
If i link to get latest patch, then it has to be a download link rather than a forum link, as it will confuse user more. And with this there comes the responsibility to maintain for steven. And Steven is not willing to do that.
As for patches (since it is way too frequent) they are mostly beta/test patches(some fixes feature and some breaks), which then come out as MusicBee x Update X, so there is no need for another link to patch, as they are not stable.

It is Steven's decision and i think it is right since we don't want every user to get the beta patches(even if they have no issue with musicbee) and break something.
Latest patch is only for those who have some bugs not fixed in the stable.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 05:01:31 PM
I wasn't aware an 'award section' was brought up or discussed, but thinking about it:

The discussion was on the PM, since i wan't his input first in this particular matter, then involve the community.

Wouldn't a link on the MB homepage to the forum's 'official MusicBee's appreciation thread' be good to have?
It's filled with positive and enthusiastic testimonials from users, and it could help warming the cold feet of new potential users.
It's also much more personal and trustworthy than a reward or review from some website.

That sounds like a brilliant idea. I will add it on the homepage.

Also can you confirm that image not showing until scroll issue is gone on the home page?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 05:13:44 PM
Also can you confirm that image not showing until scroll issue is gone on the home page?

Confirmed, it now shows. (Firefox, cleared cache)

I notice that that screenshot is drawn from top to bottom.
That is what I would call 'functional eyecandy', since it kinda suggests there is more to be seen when scrolling down.
The only thing is that that drawing is not done very smooth (it's a little bit jerky) Is it a very large image file?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 05:19:39 PM
Also can you confirm that image not showing until scroll issue is gone on the home page?

Confirmed, it now shows. (Firefox, cleared cache)

I notice that that screenshot is drawn from top to bottom.
That is what I would call 'functional eyecandy', since it kinda suggests there is more to be seen when scrolling down.
The only thing is that that drawing is not done very smooth (it's a little bit jerky) Is it a very large image file?
Well that is a big relief as the bug fixed.
Yes the images are a bit large(around 500KB), i haven't done any optimization on those images, as they are from MusicBee 3(which is not finish), and also some skinning issue is visible in there, so those image will get a new update.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 16, 2015, 06:30:25 PM
i really like the way the images smoothly show on the main page when scrolling down. I guess that also improves the load time to get the initial page which is important as well.
For the download page i am not 100% happy with the beta wording.
This is how it is now:
MusicBee Beta
BEWARE THINGS MAY NOT WORK PROPERLY AND EXPECT BUGS!

This is mainly for testing purpose, do not use it as your daily driver.
Also check out the forums for bug fixes and latest update news.

----------------
just as a starting point for suggested wording (anyone feel free to improve it)
MusicBee Beta
The Beta version is under active development and not the final stable version. It is intended for anyone interested to try the latest features or bug fixes.
You should regularily check the forum for updates


-----------------
for the forum page, i think the boxes at the top could be reduced in height so more of the forum page is visible.
For the wording in the "Get the Latest MusicBee" i was wanting it (or somewhere on the forum page) to show the instructions to get the latest patched version
I guess thats going to be potentially confusing to some people so the wording would need careful consideration. I dont have the inspiration at the moment for that but perhaps others can chp in?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 16, 2015, 07:01:20 PM
Also can you confirm that image not showing until scroll issue is gone on the home page?

Confirmed, it now shows. (Firefox, cleared cache)

I notice that that screenshot is drawn from top to bottom.
That is what I would call 'functional eyecandy', since it kinda suggests there is more to be seen when scrolling down.
The only thing is that that drawing is not done very smooth (it's a little bit jerky) Is it a very large image file?
Using Firefox and IE - both installs have never looked at the test site before - whatever doesn't fit in the open window does not show until I scroll down.  And then the text and images slowly fade in to view.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 07:02:17 PM
for the forum page, i think the boxes at the top could be reduced in height so more of the forum page is visible.
For the wording in the "Get the Latest MusicBee" i was wanting it (or somewhere on the forum page) to show the instructions to get the latest patched version
I guess thats going to be potentially confusing to some people so the wording would need careful consideration. I dont have the inspiration at the moment for that but perhaps others can chp in?

To be sure we're all on the same page here; when you mention "Get the Latest MusicBee" here, do you want that to refer to the latest stable version, or to the latest patch? (download and overwrite existing files)
And you are strictly speaking about the forum page. Correct?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 16, 2015, 07:07:09 PM
http://test.getmusicbee.com/
just as a starting point for suggested wording (anyone feel free to improve it)
MusicBee Beta
The beta version is under active development and is not the current stable version. It is intended for anyone interested in trying the latest features or bug fixes.
You should regularly check the forum for updates.

Let me think about the wording of the rest of this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 16, 2015, 07:11:25 PM
To be sure we're all on the same page here; when you mention "Get the Latest MusicBee" here, do you want that to refer to the latest stable version, or to the latest patch? (download and overwrite existing files)
And you are strictly speaking about the forum page. Correct?
yes this is only the forum i am talking about and only the latest patched version (so there is no installer and is for bug fixes or the first introduction of new features)
thats why its potentially confusing.
I dont want the patched version on the downloads page for reasons i have stated previously
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 07:15:06 PM
Using Firefox and IE - both installs have never looked at the test site before - whatever doesn't fit in the open window does not show until I scroll down.  And then the text and images slowly fade in to view.

any screenshot or giffy might help me detect the problem.

Also what resolution are you using?

for the forum page, i think the boxes at the top could be reduced in height so more of the forum page is visible.
Fixed for the next update

For the wording in the "Get the Latest MusicBee" i was wanting it (or somewhere on the forum page) to show the instructions to get the latest patched version
I guess thats going to be potentially confusing to some people so the wording would need careful consideration. I dont have the inspiration at the moment for that but perhaps others can chp in?
If some one can choose the wording, i will update it. BUT the instruction needs to be really short, otherwise it won't fit in there.

for the forum page, i think the boxes at the top could be reduced in height so more of the forum page is visible.
For the wording in the "Get the Latest MusicBee" i was wanting it (or somewhere on the forum page) to show the instructions to get the latest patched version
I guess thats going to be potentially confusing to some people so the wording would need careful consideration. I dont have the inspiration at the moment for that but perhaps others can chp in?

To be sure we're all on the same page here; when you mention "Get the Latest MusicBee" here, do you want that to refer to the latest stable version, or to the latest patch? (download and overwrite existing files)
And you are strictly speaking about the forum page. Correct?

I have sent the download page files to @Phred. So hiccup, phred, steven you guys can decide the wording. and when done phred can modify and fix them and send me back the final one.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 07:16:28 PM
To be sure we're all on the same page here; when you mention "Get the Latest MusicBee" here, do you want that to refer to the latest stable version, or to the latest patch? (download and overwrite existing files)
And you are strictly speaking about the forum page. Correct?
yes this is only the forum i am talking about and only the latest patched version (so there is no installer and is for bug fixes or the first introduction of new features)
thats why its potentially confusing.
I dont want the patched version on the downloads page for reasons i have stated previously

Ok, I thought to ask, because the "Get the Latest MusicBee" button AvikB created on the forum page currently refers to the latest stable version. But if I read you well, you want that button to refer to the latest patch instead.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 07:33:56 PM
This might be a bit too long, but this is my suggestion for the "download latest patch" button:

Download the latest patch

Download and install this only if you have a specific issue that was discussed an addressed in the forum.
Instructions: extract the downloaded files and copy (overwrite) them to your MusicBee installation folder.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 16, 2015, 07:49:08 PM
This might be a bit too long, but this is my suggestion for the "download latest patch" button:

Download the latest patch

Download and install this only if you have a specific issue that was discussed an addressed in the forum.
Instructions: extract the downloaded files and copy (overwrite) them to your MusicBee installation folder.
Nothing personal, but I don't like the "only if" description.  Also, I think it's rather long.  What's wrong with what Steven wrote (and I slightly modified) -

The beta version is under active development and is not the current stable version. It is intended for anyone interested in trying the latest features or bug fixes.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 16, 2015, 07:54:46 PM
i think a few words could be chopped out
Download this version if you have a specific issue that has been addressed in the forum.
Instructions: extract the downloaded files and copy (overwrite) them to your MusicBee installation folder.

phred or anyone else - please dont feel constrained by what i suggest
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2015, 07:57:56 PM
This might be a bit too long, but this is my suggestion for the "download latest patch" button:

Download the latest patch

Download and install this only if you have a specific issue that was discussed an addressed in the forum.
Instructions: extract the downloaded files and copy (overwrite) them to your MusicBee installation folder.
Nothing personal, but I don't like the "only if" description.  Also, I think it's rather long.  What's wrong with what Steven wrote (and I slightly modified) -

The beta version is under active development and is not the current stable version. It is intended for anyone interested in trying the latest features or bug fixes.

Nothing personal too, but I am leaving this matter now.
There is too much confusion going on here about forum vs website, download latest version vs latest patch vs latest beta, etc.
Steven asked himself for suggestions on wordings for download latest patch. I contributed for that.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 16, 2015, 08:06:26 PM
@hiccup - thats right.
The current test forum (blue) box refers to the latest stable version. Thats not what i want for this.
Its the wording to provide instructions to get the latest patch version. It will only appear on the forum in that blue box

@phred - in my original post i was also commenting on the downloads page, and that wording i suggesred related to the downloads page.
In addition to that, i was also suggesting the blue information box on the forum page be updated. For that i didnt provide any suggested wording. So what hiccup has come up with is needed. I do think it could be edited down in length to fit better in the box and hence i have made some suggested tweaks to hiccups wording
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 08:06:58 PM
So if you guys came to any conclusion, let me know i will update it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 16, 2015, 08:30:02 PM
Nothing personal too, but I am leaving this matter now.
There is too much confusion going on here about forum vs website, download latest version vs latest patch vs latest beta, etc.
Steven asked himself for suggestions on wordings for download latest patch. I contributed for that.
I can see how I contributed to the confusion.  AvikB sent me the 'download page' to look at and work on.  And that's been clouding my brain regarding Steven's comments on the -forum- page.  Although, in the interest of consistency, they should both say the same thing when referring to the latest -stable- version (2.5.5804 - released Nov 22 2015) and to any subsequent patches.  And Steven has stated previously that 3.x is -not- a beta release yet.  So should v3 even be mentioned at this point?

As for the blue box at the top of the Forum page---
Get the latest patch.
Download this version if you have a specific issue that has been addressed in the forum.
Simply unzip into your MusicBee folder and overwrite existing files.

And a question for Steven:  Should the operating systems listed include XP or not?  The current download page includes it.  And it does indeed run on XP.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 16, 2015, 08:31:43 PM
for the operating systems, i havent actually tested it on XP. I might do so this weekend but i am ok for now to leave it out

also see my edit to my previous post
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on December 16, 2015, 08:44:54 PM
And a question for Steven:  Should the operating systems listed include XP or not?  The current download page includes it.  And it does indeed run on XP.

for the operating systems, i havent actually tested it on XP. I might do so this weekend but i am ok for now to leave it out

For inclusion on the download page, "Will debugging support continue for XP?" is the question that needs to be answered.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 16, 2015, 09:06:21 PM
For inclusion on the download page, "Will debugging support continue for XP?" is the question that needs to be answered.
you are right and the answer is no - so it shouldnt be included
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on December 16, 2015, 09:16:11 PM
A few suggestions:

Plus a whole lot more...
There are tons of features in MusicBee, check out MusicBee yourself. Also use the forum and don't forget to spread the word


Plus a whole lot more...
There are tons of features in MusicBee, use it yourself and see. Also check out the user forum and don't forget to spread the word!

I think this is good for the download page
MusicBee Beta
The beta version is under active development and is not the current stable version. It is intended for anyone interested in trying the latest features or bug fixes.
You should regularly check the forum for updates.

For the blue FORUM box

    Already using MusicBee Beta?

    Make sure you always have the latest patch!
    Last update on December 16, 2015
    download the latest patch (http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_5/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip)
    and un-zip to your existing beta install folder
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2015, 09:25:34 PM
For inclusion on the download page, "Will debugging support continue for XP?" is the question that needs to be answered.
you are right and the answer is no - so it shouldnt be included

You are able to mention any os related thing in the admin panel.

A few suggestions:

Plus a whole lot more...
There are tons of features in MusicBee, check out MusicBee yourself. Also use the forum and don't forget to spread the word


Plus a whole lot more...
There are tons of features in MusicBee, use it yourself and see. Also check out the user forum and don't forget to spread the word!

I think this is good for the download page
MusicBee Beta
The beta version is under active development and is not the current stable version. It is intended for anyone interested in trying the latest features or bug fixes.
You should regularly check the forum for updates.

For the blue FORUM box

    Already using MusicBee Beta?

    Make sure you always have the latest patch!
    Last update on December 16, 2015
    download the latest patch (http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_5/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip)
    and un-zip to your existing beta install folder


I will leave this to phred, steven and you guys :)


Also the current forum and also the new forum both uses light theme. I personally don't use light theme in the night. I made a dark theme for my usage for the current forum and the new forum.

here are some screenshots:
(http://i.imgur.com/DMfqfvO.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/2wpHixG.jpg)

I am thinking of providing a switch for the forum to switch between this themes, Currently i am using stylish to use them. SO if anyone is interested in a demo(this works with the current site too) i can provide the script. Otherwise you have to wait for the next major update.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 16, 2015, 11:04:57 PM
Plus a whole lot more...
There are tons of features in MusicBee. Use it yourself and see. Also check out the user forum and don't forget to spread the word!
I like this with the changes.

MusicBee Beta
The beta version is under active development and is not the current stable version. It is intended for anyone interested in trying the latest features or bug fixes.
You should regularly check the forum for updates.


For the blue FORUM box

    Already using MusicBee Beta?

    Make sure you always have the latest patch!
    Last update on December 16, 2015
    download the latest patch (http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_5/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip)
    and un-zip to your existing beta install folder
I think either of the above work well in the blue forum box.  Bee-liever's is the shortest and would fit well.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bigmelwalter on December 17, 2015, 01:14:49 AM
The "Have A Qustion? or Issue" section is mispelled and improper grammer, just so you know
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 17, 2015, 01:27:09 AM
The "Have A Qustion? or Issue" section is mispelled and improper grammer, just so you know
Thank you.  That screenshot is just a mockup of the test page.  It hasn't been proofread yet.  But please continue to point out things like that.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 17, 2015, 05:20:12 AM
the download page updated with the changes from phred. beta wordings have been improved.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 17, 2015, 08:32:27 AM
Also the current forum and also the new forum both uses light theme. I personally don't use light theme in the night. I made a dark theme for my usage for the current forum and the new forum.

I am thinking of providing a switch for the forum to switch between this themes, Currently i am using stylish to use them. SO if anyone is interested in a demo(this works with the current site too) i can provide the script. Otherwise you have to wait for the next major update.

Very nice, I will certainly use the dark theme when you have implemented that.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 17, 2015, 08:39:52 AM
About the menu bar at the top of the website: (well, and the forum, they seem identical at this moment)

Some entries are drop-down menu's (add-ons e.g.), but most are effectively buttons.
Wouldn't it be better to have some distinction between such an entry being either a button or a drop-down menu?
Now when hoovering over the 'buttons' I am awaiting and expecting a drop-down menu (which of course doesn't appear)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 17, 2015, 09:14:54 AM
About the menu bar at the top of the website: (well, and the forum, they seem identical at this moment)

Some entries are drop-down menu's (add-ons e.g.), but most are effectively buttons.
Wouldn't it be better to have some distinction between such an entry being either a button or a drop-down menu?
Now when hovering over the 'buttons' I am awaiting and expecting a drop-down menu (which of course doesn't appear)

The reason there is no dropdown icon is because, when you HOVER your mouse over them they drop. but dropdown icons are mostly used used for click-able dropdown(you have to click to dropdown the menu).

The addon button itself is a link, and the dropdown is the subcategories of that link. so clicking the addon will take you to addons.php and clicking on skins will take you to addons.php?skin which will only show you skins.

Now before you say anything about this WEIRD dropdown menu behavior, Coincidently the new forum also uses it(yes smf now use dropdown menu by default), without any dropdown icon. SO eventually you have to learn this weird menu behavior.

You will get used to it though.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 17, 2015, 09:32:15 AM
Now before you say anything about this WEIRD dropdown menu behavior, Coincidently the new forum also uses it(yes smf now use dropdown menu by default), without any dropdown icon. SO eventually you have to learn this weird menu behavior.
You will get used to it though.

Thnx for explaining the workings.
I (people) will surely get used to it, but there is still a little itch at the back of my head that says there could be a minor design improvement on this.
I'll test drive it some more, await the working of these menus in smf, and report back if I come up with an idea.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 17, 2015, 09:49:19 AM
About the "Boards you may like:" addition on the forum page. The idea behind it is creative.
But I think it has a slightly negative effect on the design of the whole page. Also, when the new structure of boards in it's place, navigation, available boards, and descriptions should be clear enough.

It could be handy on a forum with dozens of boards, but on the MB forum users should easily be able to decide and find what they want without steering them in a direction with 3 options.
Also some new users might get lazy, and just click on one of those before doing some minor checking for the board they really need to go to.

Similar buttons which could have a good purpose though, would perhaps be buttons like:

- Latest postings
- Todays postings (same as above, but limited to last 24 hours)
- This weeks most active board

Just throwing in a few ideas, I am sure we could come up with a few more if you like the general idea of this.


Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 12:49:00 AM
It could be handy on a forum with dozens of boards, but on the MB forum users should easily be able to decide and find what they want without steering them in a direction with 3 options.
Also some new users might get lazy, and just click on one of those before doing some minor checking for the board they really need to go to.
i am one of those lazy bumps ;)


Similar buttons which could have a good purpose though, would perhaps be buttons like:

- Latest postings
- Todays postings (same as above, but limited to last 24 hours)
- This weeks most active board

Just throwing in a few ideas, I am sure we could come up with a few more if you like the general idea of this.
After giving some thoughts into this matter, i think i like your idea.

I have pushed another update to forum containing these changes:
1. All new dark theme(you need to clear the cache or refresh atleast)
2. Useful links(recent posts, and others)
3. Few major restyled forum component.

(http://i.imgur.com/KZhJJLv.jpg)

and admin panel
1. The view page is re-factored and almost 2/3 of the code is reduced.
2. Better notification system, and also removed the separation between addon center and admin panel notification code(no more duplicated codes)
3. Better readability for forms. and also some major styling changes.
4. Whenever a task is performed an overlay will show.


There are also a lots of other changes. But this is it for now. more forum changes are coming soon.

OH and the forum has new emojis too.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 18, 2015, 02:25:06 AM
Similar buttons which could have a good purpose though, would perhaps be buttons like:

- Latest postings
- Todays postings (same as above, but limited to last 24 hours)
- This weeks most active board

Just throwing in a few ideas, I am sure we could come up with a few more if you like the general idea of this.
The soon-to-be former forum had "Show unread posts since last visit."  I haven't seen that in the new forum.  Perhaps that could be added to the new dropdown.  This is my starting point for every time I visit the forum.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 03:55:41 AM
Similar buttons which could have a good purpose though, would perhaps be buttons like:

- Latest postings
- Todays postings (same as above, but limited to last 24 hours)
- This weeks most active board

Just throwing in a few ideas, I am sure we could come up with a few more if you like the general idea of this.
The soon-to-be former forum had "Show unread posts since last visit."  I haven't seen that in the new forum.  Perhaps that could be added to the new dropdown.  This is my starting point for every time I visit the forum.

It is already there, just slightly renamed. Recent unread topic is the same as Show unread posts since last visit
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: psychoadept on December 18, 2015, 04:00:53 AM
Is there any possibility of putting All Unread Topics as a link on the main forum page?  That's the one I use the most.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 04:23:04 AM
Is there any possibility of putting All Unread Topics as a link on the main forum page?  That's the one I use the most.

if you mean this:
(http://i.imgur.com/6IppPOr.jpg)

it is already available.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 11:19:24 AM
Another medium sized update. This update is completely focused on the forum.

Here is what is NEW:
New editor for the forum. (YAY!), to be fair the current forum does not show any option and pretty bare-bone. And with SMF 2.0.11 the code has significantly changed and i have to rewrite the styling. AND with this upgrade they made it difficult to reorganize or make the editor the way you like(which was extremely easy in the previous version! bummer).

I decided to use SCEdit for the forum and here is how it looks:
(http://i.imgur.com/IcOyPhH.jpg)

Now by default the quick reply editor box SHOULD show at the bottom(can any one confirm? you will need to sign in before)

also the loading sign is less ugly now.
Some enhancement to the dark theme as well.

There are few weird bugs, well atleast for me. The editor on the test website works well, but not so well on my local test machine! :S
Be sure to check it out, also if let me know if you guys have any suggestion.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 18, 2015, 02:39:27 PM
Now by default the quick reply editor box SHOULD show at the bottom(can any one confirm? you will need to sign in before)

Yes, the quick reply editor shows.

Using the dark theme: when you click 'quote', the text in the editor window is almost as black as the background and therefor unreadable.
If you hover-over with the mouse, it gets light and you can read it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 18, 2015, 02:42:22 PM
There are currently two home buttons and two login buttons with no indication on the difference. (web vs forum).
I think it would be good to indicate that.

(http://i.imgur.com/tnNijNss.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/tnNijNs.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 18, 2015, 02:54:32 PM
Just my personal opinion:

I am not very enthusiastic about people using smiley icons, all kinds of colorful fonts, etc. in forum posts when they don't serve an additional and specific purpose.
Very incidentally there might be a good reason to add a smiley (for example to show a remark was meant humorous, which might otherwise be misunderstood.

I am very afraid that making it so easy to insert those smileys, font sizes, colors etc. by presenting them by default, will quickly lead to a forum that might better suit Walt Disney.
Personally I would hide it.
Deep.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 18, 2015, 03:10:02 PM
Will the new forum support avatars? Not that it's a big deal, but would be nice.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 03:13:10 PM
There are currently two home buttons and two login buttons with no indication on the difference. (web vs forum).
I think it would be good to indicate that.

(http://i.imgur.com/tnNijNss.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/tnNijNs.png)

well both do the same thing. the web and forum login is the same.

as for the home button, i am looking for a way to change them. Maybe in next update.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 03:16:21 PM
Will the new forum support avatars? Not that it's a big deal, but would be nice.
I hope so. As for testing it is now enabled. but the final decision will be Steven's.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 18, 2015, 03:23:13 PM
I am very afraid that making it so easy to insert those smileys, font sizes, colors etc. by presenting them by default, will quickly lead to a forum that might better suit Walt Disney.
Personally I would hide it.
Deep.
+10000000
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 03:29:19 PM
I am not very enthusiastic about people using smiley icons, all kinds of colorful fonts, etc. in forum posts when they don't serve an additional and specific purpose.
They do serve a purpose. Like the font size, you can use bold font and a slightly big font to mark important things. Also colors add the readability and please eyes(unless someone write the whole forum in red ofc)

I am very afraid that making it so easy to insert those smileys, font sizes, colors etc. by presenting them by default, will quickly lead to a forum that might better suit Walt Disney.
Smileys were always there by default, they don't pose any threat. as for font size and colors i am not too keen on hiding them.
If anyone abuse them anyway mods can warn them and on repetitive behavior ban them.

On the other hand i can reduce the number of colors showing as option in there, as well as fonts. But hiding them won't benefit anyone, specially if the user knows those bbcode they can use them.

Personally I would hide it.
Deep.
Options are always good. Specially announcement thread, readme thread, even bug report thread, addon submission thread really need these to make the content popup, while being distraction free.

Maybe we can create some community guideline(which i doubt ANY ONE READS).
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 03:37:18 PM
Now by default the quick reply editor box SHOULD show at the bottom(can any one confirm? you will need to sign in before)

Yes, the quick reply editor shows.

Using the dark theme: when you click 'quote', the text in the editor window is almost as black as the background and therefor unreadable.
If you hover-over with the mouse, it gets light and you can read it.

any screenshot?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 18, 2015, 03:48:30 PM
I am not very enthusiastic about people using smiley icons, all kinds of colorful fonts, etc. in forum posts when they don't serve an additional and specific purpose.

I am very afraid that making it so easy to insert those smileys, font sizes, colors etc. by presenting them by default, will quickly lead to a forum that might better suit Walt Disney.
They do serve a purpose. Like the font size, you can use bold font and a slightly big font to mark important things. Also colors add the readability and please eyes(unless someone write the whole forum in red ofc)
Smileys were always there by default, they don't pose any threat. as for font size and colors i am not too keen on hiding them.
If anyone abuse them anyway mods can warn them and on repetitive behavior ban them.

I read many many books and newspapers, all without different sized fonts, funny colors, smileys, giving me perfectly good information.
People should in basics just use plain and understandable language to communicate.

You find they serve a purpose for readability, to me they work the exact opposite, and makes it more difficult for me to quickly get the the gist of the question/message.
I am not saying this to put my foot down or anything, but honestly: the chances that I will answer questions from users that will add those 'funny stuff' to postings will be much, much slimmer than me answering a well written and explained question.

And as my role as moderator, the last thing I am waiting for to have to do is to reprimand users because needless use of smileys, colors, large fonts etc.
Thankfully until now it's not a kindergarten here, and I really hope it stays that way.

Please, of course no offense AvikB, but as you can see I feel quite strongly about this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on December 18, 2015, 04:11:30 PM
Will the new forum support avatars? Not that it's a big deal, but would be nice.
Lord, no. 

If you must, make sure that there is an option to hide them, and sigs, and any other personalization junk.  This isn't 4chan.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 04:12:27 PM
I read many many books and newspapers, all without different sized fonts, funny colors, smileys, giving me perfectly good information.
People should in basics just use plain and understandable language to communicate.

You find they serve a purpose for readability, to me they work the exact opposite, and makes it more difficult for me to quickly get the the gist of the question/message.
I am not saying this to put my foot down or anything, but honestly: the chances that I will answer questions from users that will add those 'funny stuff' to postings will be much, much slimmer than me answering a well written and explained question.

And as my role as moderator, the last thing I am waiting for to have to do is to reprimand users because needless use of smileys, colors, large fonts etc.
Thankfully until now it's not a kindergarten here, and I really hope it stays that way.

Please, of course no offense AvikB, but as you can see I feel quite strongly about this.

I do agree at some point. Lets get few fact straight:
Basic and necessary button that are required:
           Bold, Italic, Underline, Strike, image, link, code, quote(I REFUSE TO REMOVE CODE AND QUOTE!, specially typing the blockquote is really not intuitive and painful)

 Left align, center align(used by our addon devs, i don't use it much, but i don't think it will be that much of a nuisance for it to be removed completely)

And there is youtube video(which is new). Since giffy is allowed, i don't think a video will kill anyone. also helpful for tutorial, bug, and maybe some future unknown use.

As for color, i may remove it. since it may be abused. OR we can only show few color options(like red, blue, green, black, and magenta) this colors are used for different info, even on this thread we used them for forum structuring discussion and announcement.

as for font size how about we allow upto size 6 or 5 instead of 7. Removing this completely may not be necessary, but i might do so if really needed.

ofc if someone REALLY WANT TO ABUSE THEM THEY CAN USE THE CODE DIRECTLY!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 04:14:33 PM
Will the new forum support avatars? Not that it's a big deal, but would be nice.
Lord, no. 

If you must, make sure that there is an option to hide them, and sigs, and any other personalization junk.  This isn't 4chan.

you can already do this by going to your profile and disable avatars and sigs.

But avatar do have benefits, they can be used to identify the post author quickly instead of reading his names.
Ofc we have choices, you may enable or disable depend on your pref.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 18, 2015, 04:18:21 PM
Lord, no. 

If you must, make sure that there is an option to hide them, and sigs, and any other personalization junk.  This isn't 4chan.

That's a bit of an overreaction, most forums do have avatars, sigs, etc.
I'm sure the members of this forum are mature enough not to abuse it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 18, 2015, 04:25:27 PM
Using the dark theme: when you click 'quote', the text in the editor window is almost as black as the background and therefor unreadable.
If you hover-over with the mouse, it gets light and you can read it.

any screenshot?

(http://i.imgur.com/PlWpiC3s.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/PlWpiC3.png)

Also: I first couldn't find the 'quote' button just now, but I now see it is hidden by default, and becomes only visible when you hover-over the pane.
I think it would be better to have it sticky.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 18, 2015, 04:38:06 PM
I do agree at some point. Lets get few fact straight:
Basic and necessary button that are required:
           Bold, Italic, Underline, Strike, image, link, code, quote(I REFUSE TO REMOVE CODE AND QUOTE!, specially typing the blockquote is really not intuitive and painful)

The way it was available to be found (with some effort) on the current forum seemed to work very well in my personal opinion.
But what I do agree with you on, is that there have been two very often recurring 'problems' for posters:

1. Adding a screenshot.
I think I saw you have an entry for that now? (I'll have to check yet how that works)

2. Adding code.
Many users post code without this feature, what results in very large text and postings.
So it's a very good idea to have that one easily available. With some explanation!.

I could also agree on having 'bold' and 'underlined'.

For all the other options, in my personal opinion they can be hidden, only to be found when users take the small effort to go to help > forum > posting
(hmm, I see that's gone now in the current smf 2.0.11 forum?)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 18, 2015, 08:00:46 PM
The way it was available to be found (with some effort) on the current forum seemed to work very well in my personal opinion.
But what I do agree with you on, is that there have been two very often recurring 'problems' for posters:
The problem is not everyone is used to use bbcodes. Heck i even sometime confused them with HTML codes.
Also that EFFORT part really is not everyone's cup of tea. Most user will want to get their job done(which is posting for help or other task), not learning a bbforum software.

1. Adding a screenshot.
I think I saw you have an entry for that now? (I'll have to check yet how that works)

2. Adding code.
Many users post code without this feature, what results in very large text and postings.
So it's a very good idea to have that one easily available. With some explanation!.
Yep, they are easy to add and hardly require any explanation. Explanation(or docs) if required, will come in a later date. But markdown is WAY easier and better than this bbcode, maybe one day smf will move to markdown.

I could also agree on having 'bold' and 'underlined'.
For all the other options, in my personal opinion they can be hidden, only to be found when users take the small effort to go to help > forum > posting
(hmm, I see that's gone now in the current smf 2.0.11 forum?)
Oops, no more help is now included.(even smf stuff got tired of updating their document, i guess :P)
I will try to make some compromise, but i won't remove all of those option. Because some are very useful to others. The one thing that i will drastically reduce(hope no need to remove) is the color and size option. They are useful in certain area, but no one needed them for everyday task.

The new forum update may come tomorrow or the next day after that.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 18, 2015, 08:58:19 PM
Under the text entry box why does it say "Attachments and other options" when nothing there has to with attachments?
And in that same section there is an option to "Lock this topic."  I think only Steven and the moderators should have access to that.
[(http://i.imgur.com/wNt6E5Kl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/wNt6E5K.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 19, 2015, 10:33:39 AM
i disabled attachments (and dont plan to enable them in the live forum)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 19, 2015, 02:04:09 PM
i disabled attachments (and dont plan to enable them in the live forum)
So the word "attachments" is hardcoded into SMF and can't be removed, right?

What about the "Lock Topic" option?  Can that be set to be visible to moderators only?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 19, 2015, 03:01:30 PM
i disabled attachments (and dont plan to enable them in the live forum)
So the word "attachments" is hardcoded into SMF and can't be removed, right?

What about the "Lock Topic" option?  Can that be set to be visible to moderators only?

No, it can be changes via language file. I can send you the file if you want to change few of these terms.

as for lock topic, in the current forum it is available for users, i don't see any reason to disable it in future. :/
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on December 19, 2015, 03:29:48 PM
Quote
you can already do this by going to your profile and disable avatars and sigs.

I recognize that.  My post was a hope that such a setting exists in the new setup. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 19, 2015, 04:38:44 PM
i disabled attachments (and dont plan to enable them in the live forum)
So the word "attachments" is hardcoded into SMF and can't be removed, right?

What about the "Lock Topic" option?  Can that be set to be visible to moderators only?

No, it can be changes via language file. I can send you the file if you want to change few of these terms.
Yes, please email it to me and I'll take a look at it.

Quote
as for lock topic, in the current forum it is available for users, i don't see any reason to disable it in future. :/
Ahhh ... I didn't realize that was available to all on the original forum.  I thought I was seeing it because of my mod status.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 19, 2015, 04:46:27 PM
Quote
you can already do this by going to your profile and disable avatars and sigs.

I recognize that.  My post was a hope that such a setting exists in the new setup. 

I am not going to disable them since you have option to do so. Options are always good.
If you have a feature suggestion let me know.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 20, 2015, 05:24:10 AM
Another update. This time it is heavily focused on the home page.

Check out the home page, it is now overhauled and shows the feature in a more elegant way.

Groove section got removed. The reason behind removing it was because of MS's nature of changing thing.
As of today there are over 3 name changes(also api), from zune to now groove. And according to their track record they will do this in the future, so updating static thing is not really intuitive.
In Exchange there is a BETTER quality section.

Few effects are added and optimized, one new effect is the parallax and smooth jump. Also some bug fixes.

a download button and feature section button is added.

Forum got an update too.

Quote
Trying to add a sig in the new forum and I can't see what I'm typing.  The box is too small resulting in not being able to see what I'm typing.  Also the maximum number of character counter doesn't reflect the actual number of characters used.  Nor does it reset from 0 to 300 when the box is cleared.  Lastly, a limit of 300 would prevent my current sig from being used.
Thanks to Phred for reporting this bug. The editor should be big. For the remaining character i will see what i can do.

Also as Hiccup suggested, font colors are disabled, since it is not the most widely used bbcode.

Also i have updated the editor scripts to the latest version from SCEditor's official website. This includes a HANDFUL of bug fixes.
Dark theme is enhanced. Also a critical bug where enabling/disabling dark theme wont work due to cookie path issue.

Also those big colorful boxes are now on the side for less scrolling. In future you will be able to hide them.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on December 20, 2015, 05:39:42 AM
Also those big colorful boxes are now on the side for less scrolling. In future you will be able to hide them.

Strongly disagree with this change.

Regardless of whether the blue box points to the latest patch or version, I think it, and the red box that informs about having the latest version before posting a bug, should be "front and center" across the page.

It's also totally at odds to the website form of scrolling down the page for more info.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 20, 2015, 06:03:00 AM
Also those big colorful boxes are now on the side for less scrolling. In future you will be able to hide them.

Strongly disagree with this change.

Regardless of whether the blue box points to the latest patch or version, I think it, and the red box that informs about having the latest version before posting a bug, should be "front and center" across the page.
I have reverted back from the sidebar. But in future there will be a option to hide it. SO might not be a big deal for users who want their forum page to be clean.

It's also totally at odds to the website form of scrolling down the page for more info.
Is this about the home page where you have to scroll down to see more info?
If so, this is the modern design principle used by most(if not all) websites. Instead of throwing every single info at your face, scrolling for more if the user is really that interested while presenting them in a visually elegant way.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 20, 2015, 03:09:55 PM
i have to say the home page is really great how it looks, behaves and the general layout.
The only thing i am not completely comfortable with is the quality section. Maybe just the bit about "...making MusicBee a favourite among audiophiles."
and the quality guide section (but I guess it depends on what you had in mind for that).
Also for "The ULTIMATE...", i am not sure about that. To me that comes accross as overselling, but perhaps others might comment on that.
But other than that, the rest of it is jusr fantastic
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 20, 2015, 03:27:08 PM
i have to say the home page is really great how it looks, behaves and the general layout.
The only thing i am not completely comfortable with is the quality section. Maybe just the bit about "...making MusicBee a favourite among audiophiles."
and the quality guide section (but I guess it depends on what you had in mind for that).
I think this could lead Steven into a path of much more work coming from issues raised by audiophiles.  Not saying that there aren't already audiophiles using MB, but if MB is pushed as an audiophile tool, requests for fixes and enhancements may push Steven over the edge.

Quote
Also for "The ULTIMATE...", i am not sure about that. To me that comes accross as overselling, but perhaps others might comment on that.
But other than that, the rest of it is jusr fantastic
If "ULTIMATE" is going to be used, and I too am not sure it should, then it should be "unlimate" no caps.  Or perhaps only the first letter cap "Ultimate"
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 20, 2015, 03:32:57 PM
Quote
Trying to add a sig in the new forum and I can't see what I'm typing.  The box is too small resulting in not being able to see what I'm typing.  Also the maximum number of character counter doesn't reflect the actual number of characters used.  Nor does it reset from 0 to 300 when the box is cleared.  Lastly, a limit of 300 would prevent my current sig from being used.
Thanks to Phred for reporting this bug. The editor should be big. For the remaining character i will see what i can do.
I can confirm that the editor box is larger and works better now.  However, there's a small "block" bottom center of the box which turns my cursor to a "link" when hovering over it.  But it's not a link.
(http://i.imgur.com/ByjNhjvl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/ByjNhjv.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 20, 2015, 03:46:15 PM
The only thing i am not completely comfortable with is the quality section. Maybe just the bit about "...making MusicBee a favourite among audiophiles."
and the quality guide section (but I guess it depends on what you had in mind for that).
Also for "The ULTIMATE...", i am not sure about that. To me that comes accross as overselling, but perhaps others might comment on that.

'Ultimate' sounds very enthusiastic to my ears, but I think it is appropriate.
Just as ultimate holiday, ultimate atmosphere, ultimate experience, etc.
Saying something like 'the best' would be very self-boasting, but this says that if you need a player/organizer, this is the ultimate one to get.
If you really don't like it, maybe change it to 'essential' or something like that?

About the 'Quality Matters' section:
The part of making an assumption on audiophiles choices could be a little bit questionable.
Maybe change it something along these lines:

Sound quality matters
Wheter you play your music on an audiophile setup or on a laptop, MusicBee is designed with the features to fulfill all those needs.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 20, 2015, 03:50:08 PM
Sound quality matters
Wheter you play your music on an audiophile setup or on a laptop, MusicBee is designed with the features to fulfill all those needs.
yes i like that better
also i guess ULTIMATE should be ok, maybe without the ALL CAPS
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 20, 2015, 03:53:12 PM
Sound quality matters
Whether you play your music on an audiophile setup or on a laptop, MusicBee is designed with the features to fulfill all those needs.
yes i like that better

@Phred, proofreading please ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 20, 2015, 04:19:54 PM
Another Update just pushed for the forum.

Some big improvement is made. As hiccup suggested to remove unwanted buttons(colors, size...etc), since it can be misused.
Instead B33Liver suggested:

Quote from: B33liever date=1450482845
Have read the comments in the other forum about this. I like having the options for colours, font size, etc readily available. Maybe, as a compromise, the options to post using;
  • hyperlinks
  • video
  • font size
  • colour
could be turned of for newbie members

it is darn nice idea to hide extra options for Newbie users. So form now on the new forum editor will show a less featured(lite) version for newbie user

(http://i.imgur.com/cmXRNVw.jpg)


For anyone who is not newbie(admin, mod, glonal mod, hero member, sr. member and others.... even a newbie mod) member will be able to use full featured editor.

(http://i.imgur.com/BwDXFUb.jpg)

Font color is back. But has less options now.

This is a fine compromise.
Also fullscreen mode is now added for distraction free editing. and some dark theme enhancement. (sorry newbie user you wont get fullscreen mode :P )
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 20, 2015, 04:25:58 PM
i have to say the home page is really great how it looks, behaves and the general layout.
The only thing i am not completely comfortable with is the quality section. Maybe just the bit about "...making MusicBee a favourite among audiophiles."
and the quality guide section (but I guess it depends on what you had in mind for that).
Also for "The ULTIMATE...", i am not sure about that. To me that comes accross as overselling, but perhaps others might comment on that.
But other than that, the rest of it is jusr fantastic

Glad you like it :)
Those words are merely placeholder, Phred will fix them appropiately when i give him the file for proof reading.


I think this could lead Steven into a path of much more work coming from issues raised by audiophiles.  Not saying that there aren't already audiophiles using MB, but if MB is pushed as an audiophile tool, requests for fixes and enhancements may push Steven over the edge.
I directly copy and pasted it from the current website's feature page :P

Quote
If "ULTIMATE" is going to be used, and I too am not sure it should, then it should be "unlimate" no caps.  Or perhaps only the first letter cap "Ultimate"


'Ultimate' sounds very enthusiastic to my ears, but I think it is appropriate.
Just as ultimate holiday, ultimate atmosphere, ultimate experience, etc.
Saying something like 'the best' would be very self-boasting, but this says that if you need a player/organizer, this is the ultimate one to get.
If you really don't like it, maybe change it to 'essential' or something like that?

About the 'Quality Matters' section:
The part of making an assumption on audiophiles choices could be a little bit questionable.
Maybe change it something along these lines:

Sound quality matters
Wheter you play your music on an audiophile setup or on a laptop, MusicBee is designed with the features to fulfill all those needs.

I will leave this to you guys. Phred will do the final touch.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 20, 2015, 04:28:54 PM
That is a clever and nice compromise you have worked out.

I notice the screenshot icon was also removed for newbees. Is that intentional?
That would probably be a useful feature for them to have.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 20, 2015, 04:34:08 PM
@Phred, proofreading please ;-)

File is sent to Phred now. He should be able to make those edits.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on December 20, 2015, 04:46:11 PM
Wheter you play your music on an audiophile setup or on a laptop, MusicBee is designed with the features to fulfill all those needs.

Might be worth mentioning that MusicBee can support 'bit-perfect' playback modes (ASIO and WASAPI), which is important to audiophiles.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 20, 2015, 04:46:31 PM
That is a clever and nice compromise you have worked out.
Thanks to B33Liver for the idea.

I notice the screenshot icon was also removed for newbees. Is that intentional?
That would probably be a useful feature for them to have.
I guess.. I will probably add it back in the next update.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 20, 2015, 04:51:49 PM
I can confirm that the editor box is larger and works better now.  However, there's a small "block" bottom center of the box which turns my cursor to a "link" when hovering over it.  But it's not a link.

I guess i should have used a better cursor indication(fixed for next update).
Just click on it and drag to bottom and you will be able to resize the editor. The current forum has one too...... EXCEPT IT DOES NOT WORK!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 20, 2015, 05:18:21 PM
I notice the screenshot icon was also removed for newbees. Is that intentional?
That would probably be a useful feature for them to have.
I guess.. I will probably add it back in the next update.
Yes, please do.  It's probably one of the most often asked questions/comments.  "I tried to post a screenshot but couldn't figure out how."
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 20, 2015, 05:20:17 PM
Wheter you play your music on an audiophile setup or on a laptop, MusicBee is designed with the features to fulfill all those needs.

Might be worth mentioning that MusicBee can support 'bit-perfect' playback modes (ASIO and WASAPI), which is important to audiophiles.
That's in a box in the middle of the "quality matters" section.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: redwing on December 21, 2015, 12:39:40 PM
How can I delete all my posts in this forum by just one click?
If not possible currently, can you add such a feature?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 21, 2015, 01:53:34 PM
How can I delete all my posts in this forum by just one click?
If not possible currently, can you add such a feature?

Nope. You can't. It will require a mod or some sql query on the database. which will break the forum structure. Also you will NEVER be able to delete if someone quoted your text. just not possible.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: redwing on December 21, 2015, 02:31:11 PM
How can I delete all my posts in this forum by just one click?
If not possible currently, can you add such a feature?

Nope. You can't. It will require a mod or some sql query on the database. which will break the forum structure. Also you will NEVER be able to delete if someone quoted your text. just not possible.

Then what's this about?

http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Profile#Delete_This_Account

I thought only admins have the ability of removing all posts of a member, so asked to give the same ability to the user him/herself.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 21, 2015, 02:51:17 PM
How can I delete all my posts in this forum by just one click?
If not possible currently, can you add such a feature?

Nope. You can't. It will require a mod or some sql query on the database. which will break the forum structure. Also you will NEVER be able to delete if someone quoted your text. just not possible.

Then what's this about?

http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Profile#Delete_This_Account

I thought only admins have the ability of removing all posts of a member, so asked to give the same ability to the user him/herself.

Oops, missed that. But still you wont be able to delete everything, specially if someone quoted you.
As for making the delete available for user is not my decision.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 21, 2015, 02:57:17 PM
How can I delete all my posts in this forum by just one click?
If not possible currently, can you add such a feature?
Speaking strictly for myself, why would you (of all people) want to delete all your posts from the forum?  I can understand if you've moved on from MB.  Or if you just don't want to participate in the forum any longer.  But I have learned quite a lot from your posts.  These posts may help new users discover and find things that they didn't know about.  You've posted many great items in the Tips and Tricks section.  You've left quite bit of knowledge in your wake and I'd hate to see it disappear.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: redwing on December 21, 2015, 03:16:52 PM
@AvikB;

OK, I see. Thanks for your replies!

@phred;

Simply because V3 doesn't work for me. I won't support this project any more.

I will leave my posts and skins, etc. available until v2.5 is maintained. After that, I'll remove them not to mislead people with outdated info after my withdrawal from the forum.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 21, 2015, 03:44:25 PM
Simply because V3 doesn't work for me. I won't support this project any more.

I will leave my posts and skins, etc. available until v2.5 is maintained. After that, I'll remove them not to mislead people with outdated info after my withdrawal from the forum.
this is quite dissapointing to me personally. Is there anything more you are willing to describe in terms of "V3 doesnt work for me" eg. is it technical, or that simply that there are UI descisions you dont agree with?
one of purposes of the demo version which has been running for months now has been to draw out comments and concerns from people.

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 21, 2015, 03:58:26 PM
I will leave my posts and skins, etc. available until v2.5 is maintained. After that, I'll remove them not to mislead people with outdated info after my withdrawal from the forum.

With the new addon center(still wip), you will be able to add your addons there and select the appropriate musicbee version.
You also will be able to add any important note to user(such as that if it is not maintained any more).
For minor issues admin/mod will be able to maintain or update it(dead download links or mistakes).

Removing them completely might be a bit too much. Since if anyone in future still use version 2.5 they might be looking for your addons.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 21, 2015, 05:07:04 PM
There's something funky still going on with the notifications part of the recent forum update.  I am not getting email notifications, nor popup notifications when I have a new PM waiting.  And I am not getting email notifications when replies are posted to threads I'm watching.  This was working flawlessly with SMF 1.x.  It seemed to work briefly after the change to 2.x but now it's kind of sketchy.  The PM notifications seem to 100% never.  (Except for one PM I rec'd from Steven shortly after the upgrade.)  Subscribed thread notices seem somewhat willy-nilly.  Some I get, most I don't.  I'm looking for a common denominator here, but so far I haven't been able to pin it down.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 21, 2015, 08:53:25 PM
This is a big update. There is a completely new page for the release notes. It can edited using markup languages from the admin panel. go ahead and see for your self:
http://test.getmusicbee.com/release-note.php (http://test.getmusicbee.com/release-note.php)

Another big and final touch is done to the home page. A BIG thanks to Phred for helping me out with the corrections.

There is couple of bug fixes and enhancement is done for the home page.

For the forum there are tons of fixes. Also a new addition is code highlighting. The text editor should behave nicely while in wysiwyg mode and pasting codes. and other improvement is done to download page(mostly backend)

Now one of the HUGE improvement is the new site API. Earlier when admin add a new musicbee on the admin panel a new json file is generated, which was good and all, but it was error prone, also hard to maintain, and one BIG flaw is that you have to make that directory writable.

But as of now the api will be generated on the go, it will be much more rich and on a later date i will add addon center on the api too.

With this change some new possibilities opened like creating of badges(will do it later), or showing off your addons on your homepage(which will dynamically auto update)

I have seen members like phred, and few others like to put musicbee version on their sig. I might create musicbee version badge which will always show the latest musicbee version. so no more sig editing. :)

Hope you guys like this new update, good night.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 21, 2015, 09:08:13 PM
There's something funky still going on with the notifications part of the recent forum update.  I am not getting email notifications, nor popup notifications when I have a new PM waiting.  And I am not getting email notifications when replies are posted to threads I'm watching.  This was working flawlessly with SMF 1.x.  It seemed to work briefly after the change to 2.x but now it's kind of sketchy.  The PM notifications seem to 100% never.  (Except for one PM I rec'd from Steven shortly after the upgrade.)  Subscribed thread notices seem somewhat willy-nilly.  Some I get, most I don't.  I'm looking for a common denominator here, but so far I haven't been able to pin it down.

I will look knto it when the forum theaming is complete. Hopefully it can be fixed.
Is it same for the demo forum too?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 21, 2015, 09:10:51 PM
There's something funky still going on with the notifications part of the recent forum update.  I am not getting email notifications, nor popup notifications when I have a new PM waiting.  And I am not getting email notifications when replies are posted to threads I'm watching.  This was working flawlessly with SMF 1.x.  It seemed to work briefly after the change to 2.x but now it's kind of sketchy.  The PM notifications seem to 100% never.  (Except for one PM I rec'd from Steven shortly after the upgrade.)  Subscribed thread notices seem somewhat willy-nilly.  Some I get, most I don't.  I'm looking for a common denominator here, but so far I haven't been able to pin it down.

I will look knto it when the forum theaming is complete. Hopefully it can be fixed.
Is it same for the demo forum too?
see this topic. I think its probably the MusicBee hosting company at fault:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=17065.0
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 21, 2015, 09:30:11 PM
see this topic. I think its probably the MusicBee hosting company at fault:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=17065.0
Well i guess only your hosting company can solve this if the server is blacklisted.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 21, 2015, 09:31:48 PM
It's a little tough to tell if it's happening on the new forum as there's no real traffic there yet.  I do know of one other user who is not getting notifications from this (the current) forum, but we're both content to wait and see what happens when the switch is made. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 21, 2015, 09:46:44 PM
I have seen members like phred, and few others like to put musicbee version on their sig. I might create musicbee version badge which will always show the latest musicbee version. so no more sig editing. :)
Quite frankly, once I had the sig set, I never had to edit it as the link was static.  MB patches were also posted to the same link.  Personally, I'll hold any judgement about the badges until I see them. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 21, 2015, 09:53:57 PM
A few cosmetic observations on the dark theme for the forum:

1.
The drop down line appearing with suggested names for the recipient is very hard to read.
Also it extends very wide to the right beyond the border of the specific pane.

(http://i.imgur.com/HNxvs3ol.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/HNxvs3o.png)

2.
When the recipient has been selected, he disappears from the 'To' field, and is relocated somewhere below under BCC, which gives the impression that that member will be bcc'ed, instead of being the main recipient.

(http://i.imgur.com/n0H3Tv6l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/n0H3Tv6.png)


3.
Some coloring might be improved on.
1 and 2 are difficult to read.
3, the green and red buttons kind of stick out like a sore thumb on this dark theme.

(http://i.imgur.com/ECKNDQgl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/ECKNDQg.png)

4.
This one is not about cosmetics;
I would prefer having CC as a (primary) option, not BCC, since I believe the need for CC will be much higher than for BCC.
Also I feel BCC is a bit of a dishonest way of using mailing/posting which should be avoided as much as possible.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 05:37:54 AM
Quite frankly, once I had the sig set, I never had to edit it as the link was static.  MB patches were also posted to the same link.  Personally, I'll hold any judgement about the badges until I see them. 
huh, i never noticed that the url don't change :S , but still you need to update the info on the sig tho.
It is mostly a side project than the site. The API was simply built to make maintenance much more easier for me, but i will make some badges and referral (or support images) for musicbee.

It should be glorious when done. I will listen to the community for what to include or what to not :)


for those that are interested, the api request will return json format, i have no plan for xml format but if needed it can be extended.
here is one of the request for getting release info, it returns both stable and beta info, including download link and warning message and other:
http://test.getmusicbee.com/api.get.php?type=json&action=release-info (http://test.getmusicbee.com/api.get.php?type=json&action=release-info)


the type is json (needed) and the action parameter will request for certain task in future.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 05:45:20 AM
The drop down line appearing with suggested names for the recipient is very hard to read.
Also it extends very wide to the right beyond the border of the specific pane.


2.
When the recipient has been selected, he disappears from the 'To' field, and is relocated somewhere below under BCC, which gives the impression that that member will be bcc'ed, instead of being the main recipient.

3.
Some coloring might be improved on.
1 and 2 are difficult to read.
3, the green and red buttons kind of stick out like a sore thumb on this dark theme.

This one is not about cosmetics;
I would prefer having CC as a (primary) option, not BCC, since I believe the need for CC will be much higher than for BCC.
Also I feel BCC is a bit of a dishonest way of using mailing/posting which should be avoided as much as possible.

Thanks for reporting those issues, they are fixed for the next update
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE IS LIVE FOR TESTING] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 08:26:40 AM
A few cosmetic observations on the dark theme for the forum:
1.
The drop down line appearing with suggested names for the recipient is very hard to read.
Also it extends very wide to the right beyond the border of the specific pane.

2.
When the recipient has been selected, he disappears from the 'To' field, and is relocated somewhere below under BCC, which gives the impression that that member will be bcc'ed, instead of being the main recipient.

3.
Some coloring might be improved on.
1 and 2 are difficult to read.
3, the green and red buttons kind of stick out like a sore thumb on this dark theme.

4.
This one is not about cosmetics;
I would prefer having CC as a (primary) option, not BCC, since I believe the need for CC will be much higher than for BCC.
Also I feel BCC is a bit of a dishonest way of using mailing/posting which should be avoided as much as possible.

Another update pushed and those bugs are squashed without any mercy ;)
some additional fix and tweaks are also in this update.

Let me know if you find more bugs.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 09:23:03 AM
i have added some more musicbee version(which does not exists, just for demonstration purpose), and a release note is automatically generated.
One major bug fixed, where the major versions are not marked major and minor versions are showing as major.

if you don't mention any release note it will automatically show a black box with text mentioning the release is a minor one.
You will be able to jump to any specific version release note by selecting it from the dropdown.

http://test.getmusicbee.com/release-note.php (http://test.getmusicbee.com/release-note.php)
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 22, 2015, 10:12:11 AM
Thnx for getting the cosmetic bugs in line.
And a few new observations:

1.
When logged in on the forum, I see no 'messaging center'. I believe a number is shown with the little guy icon when you received a message, but otherwise I can find no direct link to go to your messages to e.g. create a new one.

2.
I notice it is still BCC. Do you intend to change to CC, or have you decided against that suggestion?

3.
When using the dark theme, I notice sometimes a child board button has a slightly lighter font color. That is probably meant to indicate something, but in the light theme I notice no such font color/brightness differences.

(http://i.imgur.com/qeAqj7Js.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/qeAqj7J.png)


4.
The 'remove' buttons here could probably be graphically improved a bit to be a little bit clearer.

(http://i.imgur.com/5B4UmNvs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/5B4UmNv.png)

5.
And some nutritious baby-bugs for you concerning some locations having those ugly-edgy fonts:

(http://i.imgur.com/gkhqMrus.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/gkhqMru.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/x8mI2Lms.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/x8mI2Lm.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/Vi79YuEs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/Vi79YuE.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/zKHwZHus.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/zKHwZHu.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/r2x70mds.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/r2x70md.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/2MjYIs3s.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/2MjYIs3.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/ftdYCD2s.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/ftdYCD2.png)
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 10:30:02 AM
When logged in on the forum, I see no 'messaging center'. I believe a number is shown with the little guy icon when you received a message, but otherwise I can find no direct link to go to your messages to e.g. create a new one.
Yes as of now it will show the numbers when you ONLY receive a new message. I have removed the 0 beside the bell since there is no point of showing it.

I notice it is still BCC. Do you intend to change to CC, or have you decided against that suggestion?
I haven't look into this. It should be fixed in the next update.


When using the dark theme, I notice sometimes a child board button has a slightly lighter font color. That is probably meant to indicate something, but in the light theme I notice no such font color/brightness differences.
If you visited the link one, it will have dim color(it is the only difference between the light and dark theme, i probably wont fix it, as it is not a bug nor intended), other than that when a new post is made to a child board, that child board will have a bolder font.


The 'remove' buttons here could probably be graphically improved a bit to be a little bit clearer.
It is the default one smf uses. But yeah i will change them in the next update.

And some nutritious baby-bugs for you concerning some locations having those ugly-edgy fonts:

i will fix them when the theme is complete.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 22, 2015, 10:35:04 AM
When logged in on the forum, I see no 'messaging center'. I believe a number is shown with the little guy icon when you received a message, but otherwise I can find no direct link to go to your messages to e.g. create a new one.
Yes as of now it will show the numbers when you ONLY receive a new message. I have removed the 0 beside the bell since there is no point of showing it.

Yes, but suppose:
You login to the forum, have no new messages, and want to create a PM.
How do you get to your 'message center' to do that?

edit:
Fuggedabout it. I now see a 'bell' icon at the top menu.
I would swear it wasn't there earlier, but it's probably me.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 10:47:07 AM
Yes, but suppose:
You login to the forum, have no new messages, and want to create a PM.
How do you get to your 'message center' to do that?

Here is the future plan for the notification:
when a user clicks on the notification icon at the top a drop down will show where you will be able to see a glance of old and new message without going to forum's message center. there will be option to create a message(which will redirect you to forum's message center).

More advance function such as reply from the dropdown or mark them read will come later. :)

AND
I just looked into the cc, bcc matter. Curently that field you are referring as bcc is actually cc, you have to click on the add bcc to add bcc.
After steven updated the current forum to 2.0.11, it should have also showed the same option, but didn't so i did some check and find out the current forum's message page has 2 errors about being failed to use some certain script that is responsible for using that cc/bcc function.

(http://i.imgur.com/QtdEHz1.jpg)
this is the error(and the script) that is responsible for the cc/bcc function as well as suggestion.
but it is broken in the current forum. :/
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 10:48:51 AM
Fuggedabout it. I now see a 'bell' icon at the top menu.
I would swear it wasn't there earlier, but it's probably me.

The only issue i can think is the cache. The icon is actually a font(not image), so the cache needs to rebuild.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 22, 2015, 11:02:06 AM
I just looked into the cc, bcc matter. Curently that field you are referring as bcc is actually cc, you have to click on the add bcc to add bcc.

Maybe I am a bit thick, but I don't see a field referencing anything concerning cc at all.
All you can do is add more recipients.

(http://i.imgur.com/sMNAoZVl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/sMNAoZV.png)
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 12:10:29 PM
I just looked into the cc, bcc matter. Curently that field you are referring as bcc is actually cc, you have to click on the add bcc to add bcc.

Maybe I am a bit thick, but I don't see a field referencing anything concerning cc at all.
All you can do is add more recipients.

(http://i.imgur.com/sMNAoZVl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/sMNAoZV.png)

Isn't To and CC are same ? Bcc only prevents you from sending other recipent's email to the sender.
I am not much into mailing stuff, so correct me if i am wrong.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 12:11:56 PM
Also does the current forum has any cc stuff? Cause i cant see it. It is the same as demo forum
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 12:19:36 PM
Here is an explanatio fro how to geek about cc and to

Quote
The To and CC fields work similarly. Whether you put four email addresses in the To field or put one email address in the To field and three in the CC field, the four people will all receive the same email. They’ll also be able to see every other recipients’ email address.
 
When it comes to email etiquette, the To field is generally used for the main recipients of your email. The CC field is used to send a copy to other interested parties for their information. This isn’t a concrete rule, and usage of To and CC can vary.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 22, 2015, 12:46:13 PM
There are a few important differences between To, Cc and Bcc

With Cc, you inform others besides the main recipient.
Then the main recipient knows that that message was copied to other persons too, and the other person(s) know that they were purily 'informed', and they are not specifically required to respond to that message.

So in our situation an example would be: I ask you a question, Cc it to another member of who I know is also concerned with that subject.
- You then know the other member is also informed. And you are able to Cc him too when answering so everybody is up to par about the subject.
- The person Cc'ed then is informed about the subject being under discussion, but he is not specifically required to respond.


With Bcc, it is about secrecy.
The recipient will never know the message was shared with somebody else.
I can only think of using that when 'warning' or 'reprimanding' a forum member in the capacity of moderator, and you want to inform other moderators about it.


This is common practice in e-mailing. With fora, I am not a big pm'er myself, so it could well be that this might work slightly different there.
But I would assume it should work the same.

ps
Also note the correct capitalization of Cc and Bcc I used in this posting  ;-)
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 22, 2015, 01:10:48 PM
Another request comes to mind.

As a moderator, once in a while you have to move a post from one thread to another because the poster choose the wrong thread/board to post it.
It would be decent to inform the OP by PM that that was done, so he might learn from it, and he can find his post in the new location.

With the current forum when moving such a post, you can only select to inform about moving the post in the thread itself, so leaving traces of that in the thread you were trying to keep clean in the first place.

I sometimes inform the OP by sending a PM when I relocated his post, but that is an effort I could do without.
Does the new forum engine allow to have a simple checkbox in the 'move post' pane called something like "inform OP about his post being moved"?
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 01:14:47 PM
Well,since the current forum have no Cc field, i cant add it. I think To and Cc should do the same job as it is available.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on December 22, 2015, 01:20:49 PM
Well,since the current forum have no Cc field, i cant add it. I think To and Cc should do the same job as it is available.

Ok, thnx for looking into this.
It seems SMF just has a crippled implementation of the To/Cc/Bcc concept.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 02:16:44 PM
Another request comes to mind.

As a moderator, once in a while you have to move a post from one thread to another because the poster choose the wrong thread/board to post it.
It would be decent to inform the OP by PM that that was done, so he might learn from it, and he can find his post in the new location.

With the current forum when moving such a post, you can only select to inform about moving the post in the thread itself, so leaving traces of that in the thread you were trying to keep clean in the first place.

I sometimes inform the OP by sending a PM when I relocated his post, but that is an effort I could do without.
Does the new forum engine allow to have a simple checkbox in the 'move post' pane called something like "inform OP about his post being moved"?

If it is a option available then it should be done, otherwise if smf removed it, well then it is not possible.

you might wanna try asking steven for this, he might know if it os available or not.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 22, 2015, 02:22:12 PM
Well,since the current forum have no Cc field, i cant add it. I think To and Cc should do the same job as it is available.

Ok, thnx for looking into this.
It seems SMF just has a crippled implementation of the To/Cc/Bcc concept.

I guess it confuses regular user too much, for the next smf version(2.1) they have revamped the messaging center a lot.
I will probably make another theme for it when released. and upgrade to that.
Title: Re: [BUG FIX UPDATE FOR FORUM AND RELEASE NOTE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 25, 2015, 08:43:34 AM
This is a big update! Addon dashboard demo is alive...sort of
The addon dashboard is in readonly mode for now, since i haven't implemented any security checks yet. It should be fully up in a week or so. This is more of a preview.

Addon dashboard have some exciting feature(most of them are disabled in the preview :P),
but things that work is the new ajaxified navigation, and musicbee version availability for dashboard, which can be controlled via admin panel by Steven (or any admin),
when steven uploads a new musicbee version he can choose to mark it as major(which will make it available for addon devs to target via dashboard).
also the new imgur upload from the addon center(it is awesome :) ), devs will be able to add maximum of 8 screenshots for preview(let me know if more needed).

(http://i.imgur.com/BxjKiLn.jpg)

The new markdown editor is here, it does not support imgur upload yet(will come later), try it. BTW the undo does not work, i haven't fixed it yet(will do when i finished the dashboard).
(http://i.imgur.com/ot4Bx8B.jpg)

Also the release note page received some minor bug fixes.

Another major change that NO ONE WILL NOTICE, is that the new site is moving toward multilingual pages. I have made a single language file for the site, later on if someone from the community is interested he will able to translate the site.

Some code refactoring for better maintainability.
Forum bug fixes.
Few things to note, once you go to:
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addon-dashboard.php (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addon-dashboard.php)
An addon account will be automatically created. It uses forum authentication, so a forum account is needed(you also have to login from the forum too),

There is a reported issue tab on the dashboard, which will be removed in later update as issue reporting will be done through forum.

DO NOT SUGGEST ANY SPELLING MISTAKE
but any suggestion to improve wording is welcome, later on phred will finalizing them.

and Merry Christmas everyone :)
Title: Re: [ADDON DASHBOARD DEMO IS ALIVE...sort of] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on December 26, 2015, 09:11:41 AM
@AvikB,
this is just to confirm i understand the process around addons and skins
- the same process applies to skins and to addons
- a developer creates a topic on the forum for their initial skin/ addon
- 1) the forum add-on version can go through a number of iterations on the forum
- when the developer feels the skin/ addon is ready, he can use this dashboard submit the skin/addon
- question: does an admin(/ moderator?) need to give that user any permissions beforehand or can anyone submit a skin/ addon?
- then an admin(/ moderator) accepts the submission so it now appears on the main web-site Skin/ Addons link
- if further changes are made, then the steps from 1) are repeated
- i noticed a "Reported Issues" link - how do you see that working? I would have thought that reporting issues on the forum topic would be best for that
- this is where i am quite hazy - you mentioned about linking the Addon(/ skins?) to a major musicbee version. Could you explain this some more
- as a FYI: i try to make sure all MB versions are backwards compatible with old plugins. For v3, there are a couple of my last.fm plugins that will break and need a new version. But thats the exception rather than the rule. For skins, although they wont break with v3,a number wont work very well. I'm not sure we need to tie skins to major MB versions
Title: Re: [ADDON DASHBOARD DEMO IS ALIVE...sort of] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 26, 2015, 10:09:56 AM
@AvikB,
this is just to confirm i understand the process around addons and skins
- the same process applies to skins and to addons
Yes, pretty much, when choosing skin few more fileds(like colors, theme... these optional fields) will show up(haven't implemented it yet, WIP), as for other kinds of addons, yes those will be the all of the process.

- a developer creates a topic on the forum for their initial skin/ addon
- 1) the forum add-on version can go through a number of iterations on the forum
- when the developer feels the skin/ addon is ready, he can use this dashboard submit the skin/addon
Yes, this is the process i am targetting

- question: does an admin(/ moderator?) need to give that user any permissions beforehand or can anyone submit a skin/ addon?
When you go to dashboard you can see your rank there, for now there are four ranks, Admin, Mod, Elite, Newbie.
For Newbie users, they can add/update addon BUT admin/mod have to review and allow it, admin/mod can allow it through dashboard(WIP).
For Elite User they can add or update any addon as they fit.

WHEN a newbie users has atleast of 5 addon(could be any category skin, visualizer, plugins, theater mode but Equalizer does not count) on their dashboard, they will be able to add/update addons easily.

For Elite rank, you need atleast 20 addon(equalizer does not count) to get that rank.

All these 5 addon, 20 addon requirement is a example, you can suggest me the amount that required. It is just an example of how the system works.

- then an admin(/ moderator) accepts the submission so it now appears on the main web-site Skin/ Addons link
- if further changes are made, then the steps from 1) are repeated
If the user updates the addon but does not have more that 5 addon, mods/admin will need to re-allow them.
Alternatively, if a member is trusted, but doesn't have 5 addons,  admin (only admin) will be able to remove this restriction from their profile.


- i noticed a "Reported Issues" link - how do you see that working? I would have thought that reporting issues on the forum topic would be best for that
Yes, it will get removed in next update, forum will be used as default issue reporting place.
Right now it serves me as a debug page :P

- this is where i am quite hazy - you mentioned about linking the Addon(/ skins?) to a major musicbee version. Could you explain this some more
- as a FYI: i try to make sure all MB versions are backwards compatible with old plugins. For v3, there are a couple of my last.fm plugins that will break and need a new version. But thats the exception rather than the rule. For skins, although they wont break with v3,a number wont work very well. I'm not sure we need to tie skins to major MB versions
Here is the idea behind the major version idea:
When most software gets major updates, things brake, skins will have rendering glitches, some plugin might not work/unstable, and those older skins/plugins won't support the latest api or changes for the musicbee.
And what happens when a addon uses the latest api, but the end user have a older musicbee version, things wont work properly.
And this creates quite a bit of problem for end user. When you add a major musicbee update to admin panel it will be automatically added on dashboard, devs can target those latest major changes(using the new api, or panels) and also let the user know what major version needed for it to work.

OFC, devs will be able to choose any amount of musicbee version, if their skin/addons works with all of them.

You can remove any MusicBee version from the dashboard by going to all musicbee release tab in the admin panel and edit them(unchecking the dashboard availability).

The main reason for this is to better maintainability for FUTURE. OFC devs can also add a important note in the dashboard of their addon, if any confusion appears.(which i forgot to add in the demo :P)
Title: Re: [ADDON DASHBOARD DEMO IS ALIVE...sort of] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 26, 2015, 01:24:12 PM
- question: does an admin(/ moderator?) need to give that user any permissions beforehand or can anyone submit a skin/ addon?
When you go to dashboard you can see your rank there, for now there are four ranks, Admin, Mod, Elite, Newbie.
For Newbie users, they can add/update addon BUT admin/mod have to review and allow it, admin/mod can allow it through dashboard(WIP).
For Elite User they can add or update any addon as they fit.

WHEN a newbie users has atleast of 5 addon(could be any category skin, visualizer, plugins, theater mode but Equalizer does not count) on their dashboard, they will be able to add/update addons easily.

For Elite rank, you need atleast 20 addon(equalizer does not count) to get that rank.

All these 5 addon, 20 addon requirement is a example, you can suggest me the amount that required. It is just an example of how the system works.
What is the purpose of this?  Why is this necessary?  What is the thinking behind it?
Title: Re: [ADDON DASHBOARD DEMO IS ALIVE...sort of] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 26, 2015, 04:15:09 PM
What is the purpose of this?  Why is this necessary?  What is the thinking behind it?

Spam prevention, flood gate control, only useful and complete addons are allowed, making sure addons are safe. No this wont prevent malicious addon but a reminder that in we will atleast check basic things like links and images(like no nude girl images).
Also keeping the addon center clean while the submitted data(which end user sees) is good enough, or if they are relevant.

Also if some one from the community is willing to check(like testing them in VM for viruses or if it work properly) the addons before submitting them it is a bonus, no way needed though.
It just like forum moderation only you don't have to through searching for posts for spams or malicious links in their sigs.
You can see all the pending addons (only mods/admin) that needs approval. Just one mouse click and done. or reject them. as simple as that.

Existing active addon devs will be granted elite status by their contribution value.

This feature is intended to keep the addon center in control.
Title: Re: [ADDON DASHBOARD DEMO IS ALIVE...sort of] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 26, 2015, 05:26:32 PM
Just my two cents here, but we've never had problems such as you describe before.  It seems to me we're putting more restrictions in the way of users who are trying to contribute to the MB community.  It's not my decision to implement this or not, but I feel that I have to say something.
Title: Re: [ADDON DASHBOARD DEMO IS ALIVE...sort of] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 26, 2015, 05:47:04 PM
Just my two cents here, but we've never had problems such as you describe before.  It seems to me we're putting more restrictions in the way of users who are trying to contribute to the MB community.  It's not my decision to implement this or not, but I feel that I have to say something.
The restrictions are only when the devs want it to available in the addon center. But they can use the forum for their base ground and only add when it gets popular or it is really good.
I do understand your point about putting user off, but it is darn simple actually no strict check or pay to submit stuff, they just submit, mod or admin checks if the info that is provided ok(and the link works) and allow. No more complicated stuff.

This means they will atleast have to provide some info for users(like description, images, maybe a readme), i don't want users to wonder of what this addon is about and what it looks like(something i wonder a lot) or if this requires anything additional. The mod check will make sure everything that serves to user is not incomplete(or mod/admin can even edit or modify them).

Just because spam is not much of threat now in the forum does not mean no extra check on the dashboard.

For new users i will also add another restriction, and that is they can only submit 20 addon a day and update them total 50times max a day, also direct image upload will support only 40 times a day(i will reduce it once it hits specific traffic).
This is maintain floodgate and database load, also the imgur upload api is limited(i can request a bigger capacity token, which is also free, but will do only when it reaches the cap),

I highly doubt anyone will use it to its full capacity, but this will prevent huge database load and keep the floodgate under control.
Title: Re: [ADDON DASHBOARD DEMO IS ALIVE...sort of] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on December 28, 2015, 02:57:55 AM
@Steven, AvikB
I just realized there's no MusicBee logo on the new website.  Nor on the new forum.  Is this intentional or an oversight?
Title: Re: [ADDON DASHBOARD DEMO IS ALIVE...sort of] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on December 28, 2015, 08:43:35 AM
@Steven, AvikB
I just realized there's no MusicBee logo on the new website.  Nor on the new forum.  Is this intentional or an oversight?
Haven't decided a new logo(modern version of the current one), will do it at the last stage.
Title: Re: [HUGE UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 05:31:11 AM
This is a huge update, the dashboard is now finally live, here is what is functional:
 -Addon submission is working properly
 -Dashboard security in place, i will go into detail a bit later
 -The popup image upload/edit duologue is improved and has better looks and styling, also is mobile friendly.
 -With Addon Submission working, the addon view page is also working.
 -A LOTS of bug fixes
-And a nice 404 error page! go to http://test.getmusicbee.com/help.php (http://test.getmusicbee.com/help.php) to check it out!

and there are lots of other changes, i can't remember. Also the dashboard is now optimized.

Few restriction that i decided to remove and put:
 -Every user will be able to add their own addon
 -Depends on their rank their submission will be auto accepted or needs mod approval.
 -For users that need mod approval, they can add 10 addon to approval queue at a time, when their addons approved they can add another 10 in the approval queue.
 
also for this demo purpose anyone can see the unapproved addon page, if the link is shared.
currently the explore page for addons is not done, so i haven't included it yet, after you submit an addon go to View all addons tab and click on the go to addon page to view the page. Also you CAN NOT update your addon info YET! it will come later.

here is a demo page that i created from the dashboard: http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php?id=1 (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php?id=1)


also i need few suggestion:
currently for adding an addon, you have to upload the addon to some external site then paste the link, i am thinking of adding something better. After reading through boroda74's addon plugin, he choose google drive for this, so i did some research in this matter, and it seems it is possible to add direct upload to google drive, like imgur. This is better as it means a central repo for all the addons, and in future the addon can be downloaded/browse from within the musicbee(with some addon) without the need to visit the site.

so what do you guys think? if it is allright for steven and other members i will add it. Also you don't need any google account for this.

As for addon dashboard, if you have new feature request, or some better suggestion let me know.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 02, 2016, 10:21:29 AM
i would like to spend time checking this out but right now i am quite swamped
i hope to check it out in the next few days
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 11:08:59 AM
i would like to spend time checking this out but right now i am quite swamped
i hope to check it out in the next few days
Take your time, i will do some tweaking and fixing bugs and adding few more features.

UPDATE: pushed a hotfix for some issues, fixed some styling, and whitelisted some user input and added html5 attribute support in htmlpurifier, support forum link url should be correct now.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on January 02, 2016, 11:25:05 AM
FYI, the hand gesture shown here:

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6397385/Save%20Pics/00%20MusicBee%20picture.jpg)

In some cultures, South Asian particularly, is considered patently offensive.  It refers to female genitalia in a derogatory way.  It is demeaning and hurtful to women there, who already face many obstacles to just getting along without harassment. 

As this site has an international audience, you might consider changing that pic. 
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 02, 2016, 01:05:56 PM
if this is true then a new picture would be needed which is a shame as it looks really good.
does anyone know a good source for free stock images?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 02, 2016, 02:51:48 PM
if this is true then a new picture would be needed which is a shame as it looks really good.
does anyone know a good source for free stock images?
While I don't know a good source for free stock images, I did confirm with a friend that the current image is close enough to be considered offensive by some.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 03:31:02 PM
if this is true then a new picture would be needed which is a shame as it looks really good.
does anyone know a good source for free stock images?
While I don't know a good source for free stock images, I did confirm with a friend that the current image is close enough to be considered offensive by some.

....culture sure makes thing difficult for a dev :P .....
but here is a good source, and the the ONLY BEST source for webdevs, also it has "do what you want" license and really high quality images:
http://unsplash.com/ (http://unsplash.com/)

suggest me any pics that you guys like.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 02, 2016, 03:47:45 PM
suggest me any pics that you guys like.

If you are looking for something similar, perhaps this:
http://www.goodwp.com/music/16590-light-hands-concert-scene.html
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 04:01:24 PM
suggest me any pics that you guys like.

If you are looking for something similar, perhaps this:
http://www.goodwp.com/music/16590-light-hands-concert-scene.html

What is the license of that wallpaper?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 02, 2016, 04:23:07 PM
What is the license of that wallpaper?

That's not very clear to me.
But at the bottom of that page it says:

"GoodWP.com - HD desktop wallpapers
Download wallpaper scene, light, hands, concert for free with resolution 1920x1080 pix"

And there is no mention anywhere about any possible legal restrictions.
But if that website as a whole is trustworthy, I don't know really.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 02, 2016, 04:53:38 PM
You can do a Google image search with a license filter (and size).

1. Search "concert crowd" and pick "images" on Google.

2. Once you're there, click on "search tools"

3. Pick a "Size" and filter by "Usage Rights"

Lots of interesting images labelled for reuse (CC license), like this one for example which is license as CC-SA:

(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8460/7968954274_cb3e6a21cf.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/d9bYtm)

the audience is shaking ( #CC ) (https://flic.kr/p/d9bYtm) by Martin Fisch (https://www.flickr.com/photos/marfis75/), on Flickr

Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 04:56:01 PM
That's not very clear to me.
But at the bottom of that page it says:

"GoodWP.com - HD desktop wallpapers
Download wallpaper scene, light, hands, concert for free with resolution 1920x1080 pix"

And there is no mention anywhere about any possible legal restrictions.
But if that website as a whole is trustworthy, I don't know really.

After looking through their site, i found that their wallpapers are user submitted and does not contain any licensing terms whatsoever, so it means any user can upload a stock photos, which i can not use as it may cause legal issue at later date.

Suggest me a good image from the link i have posted. their licensing is better.

EDIT:
You can do a Google image search with a license filter (and size).

1. Search "concert crowd" and pick "images" on Google.

2. Once you're there, click on "search tools"

3. Pick a "Size" and filter by "Usage Rights"

Lots of interesting images labelled for reuse (CC license), like this one for example which is license as CC-SA:

Thanks, i think the licensing is appropriate and if everyone agrees i will use this:
how it looks

(http://i.imgur.com/4BmlRJR.jpg)

Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 02, 2016, 05:13:09 PM
+1 from me
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 02, 2016, 06:16:02 PM
Wouldn't it make sense to use an image more related to home audio (like headphones or a photo of a nice high end audio setup)? I can see how the live crowd relays an idea of excitement and joy, but it's 1. not very related to MB 2. it looks rather bland.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 02, 2016, 06:37:06 PM
Wouldn't it make sense to use an image more related to home audio (like headphones or a photo of a nice high end audio setup)? I can see how the live crowd relays an idea of excitement and joy, but it's 1. not very related to MB 2. it looks rather bland.
I agree with vpsaxman.

And 3) the new image contains -almost- the same potentially offense hand gesture.
I'd also suggest, in the interest of being politically correct, deleting the initial image so no one gets offended.
(http://i.imgur.com/NzvCXFkl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/NzvCXFk.jpg)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 02, 2016, 07:00:46 PM
And in some countries music is forbidden.
Come on. We can't please 100% of the people.

I think this is already looking quite good, and bringing across enthusiasm and enjoying music very well.
Also AvikV has been quite clear he's open to any sort of pictures or images suggested by anyone.

Yet I do agree with the sentiment that the picture is showing a slightly narrow aspect, namely live pop music.
So if somebody could present a good photo/illustration representing some more diversity with pop/classical/electro/live/studio/concert/home etc. that might be even better.
But it would take some skills and talent to do that in one image without getting crowded and messy.
Or, use this picture as the main background picture, and try to insert and present a few others in a tasteful manner. (sliding? fading in/out?)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 02, 2016, 07:03:55 PM
How about something more like this (but with a better image):

(http://i.imgur.com/40XAtGw.png)

There is a ton of CC license photos on Flickr and they're easy to search and filter by license too.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 02, 2016, 07:10:21 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/Bn5EXcz.png)

Too bad it's a Mac in the background, which could be misleading.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 02, 2016, 07:10:44 PM
How about something more like this (but with a better image):

That's also beautiful. Maybe have that in some gradient overflow with the current candidate picture?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 10:49:00 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/Bn5EXcz.png)

Too bad it's a Mac in the background, which could be misleading.
ahh, i like this image, clean and elegant! how about this:
(http://i.imgur.com/aOzr7qm.jpg)

no more apple logo!
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 10:58:18 PM
That's also beautiful. Maybe have that in some gradient overflow with the current candidate picture?

what do you mean about having the grad overflow?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 11:09:18 PM
And in some countries music is forbidden.
Come on. We can't please 100% of the people.
wait there are countries with music ban? that is outrageous!
i agree we can't please 100%, but i think a compromise to not keep the offending image would be a good choice.

Yet I do agree with the sentiment that the picture is showing a slightly narrow aspect, namely live pop music.
So if somebody could present a good photo/illustration representing some more diversity with pop/classical/electro/live/studio/concert/home etc. that might be even better.
But it would take some skills and talent to do that in one image without getting crowded and messy.
Or, use this picture as the main background picture, and try to insert and present a few others in a tasteful manner. (sliding? fading in/out?)

i am afraid we are out of the image slider option at this point, i would love to add one, but i can't exceed the optimization lavel i am targeting, the current home page already has several images, and it takes a bit to load them on slow internet, and third world countries have slow connection(30kb/s), so adding more image is already out of the window.

currently the the musicbee screenshots(png files) are the worst optimized, each of them takes about 500kb, i will have some better screenshots in there(which will be optimized) when the site is atleast 98% complete.

Well to get best images you will need to hunt filckr or other sites that have suitable licensing, which i won't be doing now as i already am busy with dashboard. But you guys can suggest me one if you found one.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2016, 11:12:57 PM
Wouldn't it make sense to use an image more related to home audio (like headphones or a photo of a nice high end audio setup)? I can see how the live crowd relays an idea of excitement and joy, but it's 1. not very related to MB 2. it looks rather bland.
i do agree, i like the ones you suggested to me, i have also removed the apple logo. If that is suitable i would use it.

And 3) the new image contains -almost- the same potentially offense hand gesture.
I'd also suggest, in the interest of being politically correct, deleting the initial image so no one gets offended.
hmm..... i knew someone would point it :P
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 03, 2016, 12:21:07 AM
ahh, i like this image, clean and elegant! how about this:
(http://i.imgur.com/aOzr7qm.jpg)

no more apple logo!

Yeah I like this one as well. Like you said, minimal and straight to the point. This is the kind of setting I can picture most MB user using.

The license for that picture is CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) so we should be good with using it and modifying it.

The question now is, even with the apple gone, would it be misleading for someone who doesn't know MusicBee and is an Apple user? It seems to me the focus of the image is more on the speaker so it could be suitable.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2016, 12:26:35 AM
This is the kind of setting I can picture most MB user using.
It would be dream to have a setup like this(except for the mac part, i am windows only person) :)

The question now is, even with the apple gone, would it be misleading for someone who doesn't know MusicBee and is an Apple user? It seems to me the focus of the image is more on the speaker so it could be suitable.
I don't think that would be a problem, there is a giant download now button saying that it is for windows user.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 03, 2016, 12:28:46 AM


It would be dream to have a setup like this(except for the mac part, i am windows only person) :)
Wouldn't it be nice indeed? :)

I don't think that would be a problem, there is a giant download now button saying that it is for windows user.
Right. Well, I dig that picture but there are many more options if anyone can find a better one.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2016, 01:00:22 AM
I don't think that would be a problem, there is a giant download now button saying that it is for windows user.
Right. Well, I dig that picture but there are many more options if anyone can find a better one.
well it is upto you guys, if most people agree on this, i can make the change permanent.

UPDATE:
few things i forgot, that was included in the last update.
I am dropping support for browsers that has JAVASCRIPT DISABLED, while they can still browse few core pages of the site, like home page, forum, download page they will get an error at the top telling them that javascript is needed.

Few pages that can't be used is: admin panel, addon page, dashboard, release note page and most of the other page that will be introduced later.

I am also dropping support for most older IE browsers out there, only IE10 or above and any other modern browser is supported.

to check this simply disable javascript in your browser and visit the demo site, you should be able to see a warning. While i can add fallback for no javascript browsers, i won't do it. It is tremendous amount of work to rewrite few core structures. and i am not willing to do it.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2016, 07:53:22 AM
Another update, This update brings some breaking changes. Previously the site urls tends to look like this:
OLD URL STRUCTURE
        http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php?id=1
        http://test.getmusicbee.com/download.php
and so...

NEW URL STRUCTURE
       http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/win10-style/
       http://test.getmusicbee.com/download

the new structure looks more beautiful and catchy, it provides a lots of benefit(i am not going to go through them), BUT with this changes few things did broke, i fixed all of them so the site should work normally. also even with this BREAKING CHANGES, you can still visit by the old url, and everything should work properly, i made sure the backward compatibility is there.

another thing:
lets say we got this url:
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/win10-style/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/win10-style/)

and user may forgot what is the last text or made some typo
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/this-is-a-typo-blah-blah/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/this-is-a-typo-blah-blah/)
or
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1 (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1)
or
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php?id=1 (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php?id=1)

every one of this will point to the same page, not only that upon visiting any of these mistaken url, you will automatically redirect to the correct url(301 permanent redirect, better for search engine).


And the home page is updated with the non-offensive image.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2016, 09:07:42 AM
That's also beautiful. Maybe have that in some gradient overflow with the current candidate picture?
what do you mean about having the grad overflow?

I was thinking about using two or three different pictures, and blending them into one.
E.g. using such two pictures:

(http://i.imgur.com/UGvHM6hl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/UGvHM6h.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/rj3Z9EAl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/rj3Z9EA.png)

And combining them to such:

(http://i.imgur.com/qdUALCSl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/qdUALCS.jpg)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on January 03, 2016, 01:13:43 PM
^^^Put somebody in that chair wearing headphones and you'll have it.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2016, 01:23:53 PM
^^^Put somebody in that chair wearing headphones and you'll have it.

That was exactly what was in my mind too ;-)
But that is really way beyond my Photoshopping skills.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2016, 01:33:17 PM
^^^Put somebody in that chair wearing headphones and you'll have it.

That was exactly what was in my mind too ;-)
But that is really way beyond my Photoshopping skills.

;-)

(http://i.imgur.com/01Mkgtnl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/01Mkgtn.jpg)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2016, 04:38:10 PM
That was exactly what was in my mind too ;-)
But that is really way beyond my Photoshopping skills.

;-)
[/quote]

I am not really fond of that crowd blending with the wall, it just does not look right to me, i do like the man in the chair though :)
but clearly someone better at photoshop needs to do this work.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2016, 04:40:35 PM
That was exactly what was in my mind too ;-)
But that is really way beyond my Photoshopping skills.

;-)

I am not really fond of that crowd blending with the wall, it just does not look right to me, i do like the man in the chair though :)
but clearly someone better at photoshop needs to do this work.
[/quote]

Thnx for the compliment.
It was not worth putting any serious effort in the man in the chair, since it comes from a licensed commercial photograph.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2016, 05:47:24 PM
Thnx for the compliment.
It was not worth putting any serious effort in the man in the chair, since it comes from a licensed commercial photograph.

well then i will keep the current one, it is good enough and not offensive.

For the dashboard let me know if any additional feature is needed or any mistake/bug.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 03, 2016, 06:06:12 PM
i like the new picture except for one thing. That is the man with the big nose and backpack. In my view is diminishes the tone and effect of the picture.
If i am the only one who feels this way then i guess its ok but perhaps it could be blurred out or civered by moving the figure from the right?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 03, 2016, 09:21:01 PM
How about something like this?

image removed
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 03, 2016, 09:43:53 PM
I like this with one exception ---
Is there any way to blend the sharp edge from the concert hall image to the speaker image?  Similar to what's on the right side of that image.  The right side has a smooth transition while (I feel) the left side is rather abrupt.
(http://i.imgur.com/4r28hMWl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4r28hMW.jpg)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 03, 2016, 09:54:53 PM
When it was a picture from a concert, that said "fun and happy" which i thought was a nice message to associate with MusicBee
With the speaker on the desk (which i liked apart from the man with the backpack) the message to me was musicbee is for serious music listeners
But in my view blending the pictures just leads to a confused message.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 03, 2016, 10:01:44 PM
When it was a picture from a concert, that said "fun and happy" which i thought was a nice message to associate with MusicBee
With the speaker on the desk (which i liked apart from the man with the backpack) the message to me was musicbee is for serious music listeners
But in my view blending the pictures just leads to a confused message.
All good points.  I withdraw my request/comment.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2016, 10:02:21 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/cLPtGLC.png) (http://imgur.com/cLPtGLC)

Well, at least the guy with the headphones seems to have died a pleasant death.  ;-)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 03, 2016, 10:09:42 PM
Hey! I wasn't the one that suggested the blended images idea.
I only posted what might be done with it.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2016, 10:12:57 PM
You should know. A good deed never goes unpunished.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 04, 2016, 12:19:05 AM
and I thought the message from the blended image was quite clear:
speakers to headphones, classical or popular music - musicbee is the choice
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 02:09:26 AM
no more blended images please... also do we really need a man wearing headphones? this kind of pictures are really hard to find.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 02:19:06 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/ou5VYpw.jpg)
as some of you pointed in the past that it would be better to make it clear where the user is, so it is done and will ship into the next update.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on January 04, 2016, 02:19:50 AM
This is just an idea, but what about a photograph of MusicBee running on a PC?

Something like this;
http://static.slidetomac.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/itunes_12_imac_desktop_hero.jpg
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: BeeBeeKing on January 04, 2016, 09:59:57 AM
I like the monitor pic, makes more sense. I suggest a non branded monitor however.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: BeeBeeKing on January 04, 2016, 10:12:22 AM
Bee rather than iTunes though.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 10:32:58 AM
This is just an idea, but what about a photograph of MusicBee running on a PC?

Something like this;
http://static.slidetomac.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/itunes_12_imac_desktop_hero.jpg

while i like that idea, but it will require a photograph of someone's monitor running musicbee, which i am not sure where to get.
:(
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 10:38:36 AM
I like the monitor pic, makes more sense. I suggest a non branded monitor however.
well brands are not the issue, but yeah i will like to have a non branded monitor.

However i think a surface pro series running musicbee is the best screenshot than a non branded monitor, as their windows logo at the front is basically the paltform musicbee runs on. but clearly someone needs to provide an image.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 04, 2016, 11:02:17 AM
move the coffee cup to cover big-nose?
(http://i.imgur.com/Dh6ISQ0.jpg) (http://imgur.com/Dh6ISQ0)

otherwise I prefer this one

(http://i.imgur.com/40XAtGw.png)
 (http://imgur.com/40XAtGw)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: BeeBeeKing on January 04, 2016, 12:09:39 PM
Here's a screenshot if perhaps you can use it with another background http://www.bluesbeatradio.com/mbee/MBeescreenshot.jpg
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 01:57:34 PM
Here's a screenshot if perhaps you can use it with another background http://www.bluesbeatradio.com/mbee/MBeescreenshot.jpg

i am not sure where to put it! :/
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 01:59:43 PM
move the coffee cup to cover big-nose?

what big nose? :S
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 04, 2016, 02:16:32 PM
I think we can conclude that the democratic approach to this is not getting us very far.

Steven already said he liked the speaker/imac image, but not the nose.

I removed the nose and some other stuff from the original picture.
Not up to professional standards, but if AvikB puts the color gradient over it, I am sure it is more than good enough to use for the website.

(http://i.imgur.com/KTWDIUZl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/KTWDIUZ.jpg)

edit
Updated the picture, I also removed the sandwich from the computer, and some ugly photoshopping around the plant in the background from the original.

(http://i.imgur.com/Q89jfcsl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/Q89jfcs.png)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on January 04, 2016, 03:02:21 PM
At least for me, it's easy to tell the image was photoshopped, I suggest sticking with the original or picking something else.

Should the MusicBee logo/text on the home page be a little more eye catching? I came up with this, just playing around;

(http://i.imgur.com/PALG6MDl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/PALG6MD.jpg)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 04, 2016, 03:45:50 PM
This is just an idea, but what about a photograph of MusicBee running on a PC?

Something like this;
http://static.slidetomac.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/itunes_12_imac_desktop_hero.jpg

Something like this (but better ;))

(http://i.imgur.com/MBRnovH.png)

If you guys like the idea, I could try and take a better shot (like without the ugly cables), and we could agree on a layout for the MB window.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 04, 2016, 04:19:09 PM
At least for me, it's easy to tell the image was photoshopped
But would you have been able to tell with the overlay that will be used?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 05:09:52 PM
Something like this (but better ;))
If you guys like the idea, I could try and take a better shot (like without the ugly cables), and we could agree on a layout for the MB window.

thats look nice, we just need a better angle and a speaker at the side getting most of the focus(like that mac image)
:)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 04, 2016, 05:16:37 PM
Something like this (but better ;))
If you guys like the idea, I could try and take a better shot (like without the ugly cables), and we could agree on a layout for the MB window.

thats look nice, we just need a better angle and a speaker at the side getting most of the focus(like that mac image)
:)
Well, my speakers aren't exactly the high-end type which is why I tried to avoid focusing on them. ;)

A couple of pictures I found on reddit (we'd have to ask permission to use/modify them which I'd be happy to take care of if needed):

(http://i.imgur.com/wr7wQW9.jpg?1)

(http://i.imgur.com/tE5w33B.jpg?1)

Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 05:20:49 PM
Should the MusicBee logo/text on the home page be a little more eye catching? I came up with this, just playing around;

i am not keen on having something flashy logo, i want to maintain a much more subtle and elegant design.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 04, 2016, 05:37:44 PM
move the coffee cup to cover big-nose?
(http://i.imgur.com/Dh6ISQ0.jpg) (http://imgur.com/Dh6ISQ0)
That's an elegant solution to cover the big nosed figurine.


Should the MusicBee logo/text on the home page be a little more eye catching? I came up with this, just playing around;

i am not keen on having something flashy logo, i want to maintain a much more subtle and elegant design.

Maybe just use a larger font?

(http://i.imgur.com/Y5dMg83l.png)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 05:43:46 PM
Well, my speakers aren't exactly the high-end type which is why I tried to avoid focusing on them. ;)

A couple of pictures I found on reddit (we'd have to ask permission to use/modify them which I'd be happy to take care of if needed):

unfortunately these images does not have that right angle that makes a good cover image, what i need is a side angle, with a subtle focus on the speaker and monitor(while musicbee opened),
but i highly doubt we could get this by browsing and photoshopping, we need someone who has a good setup with good speaker.

your speakers are good enough(we don't need someone with thousand dollar speaker), but it would be a hassle for you to get a decent angle and reorganizing few things on your desk and get a decent shot.

Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 05:46:03 PM
move the coffee cup to cover big-nose?
That's an elegant solution to cover the big nosed figurine.


Should the MusicBee logo/text on the home page be a little more eye catching? I came up with this, just playing around;

i am not keen on having something flashy logo, i want to maintain a much more subtle and elegant design.

Maybe just use a larger font?

I guess that is a good solution. I will probably choose some decent typography and font for the text.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2016, 07:06:40 PM
a new update is live, bringing tons of bug fixes, and two new feature:

with this update navigation is much more refined, should please some user.
(http://i.imgur.com/m64zMC3.jpg)

another layout change is the footer, the new one is well organized, i got rid off those extra texts that makes it look too... congested.. and also we have a RSS FEED for the musicbee releases :)
in the past one thing i always struggle is to get notified for the new release(i didn't notice the notify button on the thread until yesterday :P), this will make things easier for most user.

(http://i.imgur.com/5uj0WSF.jpg)

a big thanks to phred for pointing out bugs, and some issues with the addon page, which is fixed. also some spelling mistake is fixed.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 07, 2016, 03:06:46 AM
Another update, this update includes a lots of bugfixes and some improvement suggested by phred and others. also the donation link is now more catching.

(http://i.imgur.com/BZ2Heoq.jpg)

bug fix in the RSS feed where it won't show new release updates.

and a BIG CHANGE IN THIS UPDATE is the imgur image upload, it is completely rewritten from the ground up. The previous one was written in javascript and didn't contain a better error management and also it has one BIG security flaw, it exposes my client-id for the imgur, anyone could easily use the client-id and overhead the upload limit.

The new upload is written in php and has better way to dealt with errors.
The change is on the backend so you guys won't notice a single change.

there also numerous changes, more are coming.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: BeeBeeKing on January 07, 2016, 12:15:21 PM
Just my opinion, but I think the color gradient makes the page look very bland. Look better with real photo of a person using MusicBee.
I also think the fonts are a bit plain.
What about a rotating slide screen (like on the current homepage) but embedded into a monitor in a real scene, at least that way it is quick and easy to see what MB looks like.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 07, 2016, 12:19:26 PM
Just my opinion, but I think the color gradient makes the page look very bland. Look better with real photo of a person using MusicBee.
I also think the fonts are a bit plain.
What about a rotating slide screen (like on the current homepage) but embedded into a monitor in a real scene, at least that way it is quick and easy to see what MB looks like.

i agree on having a image of person using MusicBee, but someone has to provide a image. I have no idea of how to do it.

as for slide screen i already said

more image = longer loading times

so no i have no plan for sliders.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Ansem on January 08, 2016, 05:43:29 AM
Hi!
I have a suggestion about the whishlist section:
Can you do something like I saw for microsoft? They did a list of the desired new features, and you can give them from 1 to 3 point, but you have only 10 points.
In this way, you can know which are the most desired feature and it's a lot more easy to read for the users too!
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 08, 2016, 06:14:04 AM
Hi!
I have a suggestion about the whishlist section:
Can you do something like I saw for microsoft? They did a list of the desired new features, and you can give them from 1 to 3 point, but you have only 10 points.
In this way, you can know which are the most desired feature and it's a lot more easy to read for the users too!
What you are asking for is uservoice, it is steven's decision if he wants use uservoice or not, i have no say on this unfortunately. 
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Sofocl on January 08, 2016, 06:33:56 AM
Hi!
I have a suggestion about the whishlist section:
Can you do something like I saw for microsoft? They did a list of the desired new features, and you can give them from 1 to 3 point, but you have only 10 points.
In this way, you can know which are the most desired feature and it's a lot more easy to read for the users too!
+1
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Ansem on January 09, 2016, 02:11:12 PM
Hi!
I have a suggestion about the whishlist section:
Can you do something like I saw for microsoft? They did a list of the desired new features, and you can give them from 1 to 3 point, but you have only 10 points.
In this way, you can know which are the most desired feature and it's a lot more easy to read for the users too!
What you are asking for is uservoice, it is steven's decision if he wants use uservoice or not, i have no say on this unfortunately.
of course he doesn't have to listed to the uservoice, but at least there won't be anymore 10 threads with the same request :)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 09, 2016, 03:21:51 PM
well uservoice is $499 pa, so that wont be happening.
In principal i dont want to add functions like this that just add too much complexity and where more things that can wrong/ more support etc
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 10, 2016, 07:41:16 PM
well uservoice is $499 pa, so that wont be happening.
In principal i dont want to add functions like this that just add too much complexity and where more things that can wrong/ more support etc

This is a free alternative to UserVoice: http://www.userreport.com/

But couldn't something similar be implemented directly on the website rather than use a 3rd party platform? Or am I underestimating how difficult it would be to implement?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 10, 2016, 10:33:39 PM
Could something like this work for the header background image or is it not high end enough? (this is my desktop)

I'm trying to figure out what size would be best for that header image in order to put interesting elements in the frame too.

(http://i.imgur.com/jPSR2t2.png)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 10, 2016, 10:51:35 PM
this looks great. The only suggestion i have is the MusicBee and sub-text may need to be a bit stronger to stand out from the words in the top right corner
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 10, 2016, 11:04:13 PM
+1 on the image!  Nice job.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 11, 2016, 01:18:59 AM
this looks great. The only suggestion i have is the MusicBee and sub-text may need to be a bit stronger to stand out from the words in the top right corner

You're right. Another option may be to blur out the image or increase the opacity of the overlay, but either way I agree that the text that's on top of the image should be bigger / use a stronger font anyways.

+1 on the image!  Nice job.

Glad you like it! The original can be found here: http://i.imgur.com/DFIKXwa.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/DFIKXwa.jpg).

The only thing I tweaked is that I resized it to 50% (it's still huge) and got rid of the DELL logo. If the image is not sharp enough, I could shoot it again with my DSLR instead of the phone I used here.

@AvikB I couldn't make sense of how to crop the image for the best results on the website. The way it looks in the screenshot I posted above focuses on the better areas of the photo IMO but as the image changes size as you resize your browser window, it got confusing real fast. What do you think?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 13, 2016, 02:47:14 PM
Could something like this work for the header background image or is it not high end enough? (this is my desktop)

I'm trying to figure out what size would be best for that header image in order to put interesting elements in the frame too.

👍 Nice image, the headphone in that image does not look right(can't quite catch what is wrong with it though) :S

this looks great. The only suggestion i have is the MusicBee and sub-text may need to be a bit stronger to stand out from the words in the top right corner
You're right. Another option may be to blur out the image or increase the opacity of the overlay, but either way I agree that the text that's on top of the image should be bigger / use a stronger font anyways.

yeah i agree, the font needs to be stronger. I might choose a different font. Blur is a great idea, specially to focus on a specific area.

The only thing I tweaked is that I resized it to 50% (it's still huge) and got rid of the DELL logo. If the image is not sharp enough, I could shoot it again with my DSLR instead of the phone I used here.
it would be a great if you could send an image from DSLR, the current image has too much noise. Also make sure the angle is a bit more high.

@AvikB I couldn't make sense of how to crop the image for the best results on the website. The way it looks in the screenshot I posted above focuses on the better areas of the photo IMO but as the image changes size as you resize your browser window, it got confusing real fast. What do you think?
That won't be a problem, i can make sure that even with resizing size the focus area will always get more visibility.


Sorry for this late reply, it was busy weekend for me :)
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 13, 2016, 05:11:10 PM
it would be a great if you could send an image from DSLR, the current image has too much noise. Also make sure the angle is a bit more high.
Yeah I thought that could be a problem, although,, with the overlay, noise isn't really a problem.

When you say a bit higher angle, how do you mean? Would you want me to be further away from the subject (include more in the shot?). The reason I picked this angle is because there's really nothing of interest around my desktop; quite the contrary actually. You really don't want to see what it looks like around it. ;) But I'll see what I can do.

the headphone in that image does not look right(can't quite catch what is wrong with it though) :S
Is it where they are in the picture or how they are laid down?
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 14, 2016, 01:21:46 AM
When you say a bit higher angle, how do you mean? Would you want me to be further away from the subject (include more in the shot?). The reason I picked this angle is because there's really nothing of interest around my desktop; quite the contrary actually. You really don't want to see what it looks like around it. ;) But I'll see what I can do.
here is how i think it might look better:

(http://i.imgur.com/o31RBgn.jpg)

the red line represent the current view, the blue is what i have in mind. I am trying to capture your desktop(monitor) more, rather than desk.

Is it where they are in the picture or how they are laid down?
yes the laid down position does not seem right.

Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 14, 2016, 02:57:08 AM
Well if I fill the shot with mostly the monitor, I can get rid of teh headphones. I'll see what i can do in the next few days!
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 14, 2016, 05:05:09 AM
This is a free alternative to UserVoice: http://www.userreport.com/
Looks really nice.

But couldn't something similar be implemented directly on the website rather than use a 3rd party platform? Or am I underestimating how difficult it would be to implement?
By implementing, if you mean a custom made for the msucbee, then yes it would be time consuming, not difficult. There might be other third party solution, but i haven't checked it yet. Userreport, that you suggested me, is a good solution, but i think it uses their own site, so you won't get 100% control or look.

Few issues:
It would require steven to check and mark those ideas/features(if planned or not).
require admin/mod monitoring for spams
Require additional account(it won't get integrated with current site's forum login).


If you want full integration with the site, then a custom made is a good solution, it won't be hard to get basic voting/commenting functionality(not as much as addon center for sure :| ), but since i am the only guy doing the coding part it will require some time.
And i already have have few things on my roadmap. specially the notification center and addon center/dashboard).

I may consider putting it on my roadmap, but it will require mod/admin/steven to monitor it.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 14, 2016, 05:45:13 AM
Well if I fill the shot with mostly the monitor, I can get rid of teh headphones. I'll see what i can do in the next few days!

or try hanging the headphones on the monitor corner
and maybe take the picture from slightly below so you are looking up at the monitor from a shallow angle
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 14, 2016, 06:59:25 AM

or try hanging the headphones on the monitor corner
and maybe take the picture from slightly below so you are looking up at the monitor from a shallow angle
Great ideas! I'll try a few things over the weekend.
Title: Re: [BIG UPDATE! DASHBOARD IS NOW FUNCTIONAL] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 14, 2016, 07:41:57 AM
NEW UPDATE
this update is mainly for addon center. mostly cosmetic changes and design tweaks.
Here is what is new:

A blurry colorful background will be generated from the thumbnail. It reminds me of osx blur effect, and look gorgeous.
The thumbnail must be uploaded to imgur or other image hosting that allows CORS, any private domain(personal site) won't allow it.
how it looks:
endeavour1314's skin:
(http://i.imgur.com/iwfshJF.jpg)

also bee-liever's Peeaches n'Cream skin(blur looks really creamy :) )
(http://i.imgur.com/UapIOLx.jpg)

phred's on the look out has icy blur effect.
All of these are generated on the go(client side), addon devs don't have to do a single thing.

here is the links to visit these addons:

http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/win10-style/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/win10-style/)
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/2/phred-phred-on-the-lookout/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/2/phred-phred-on-the-lookout/)
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/3/peaches-ncream/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/3/peaches-ncream/)


i will submit few more addon to test this feature out. Also there is a More from X section at the bottom, which should be working properly.

NOTE:
in the next update upload to mediafire will be allowed, this will allow a central repo, also direct upload will make things easier. I was planning to go with google drive, but decided to go with mediafire because of their easy to use api, storage, options and bandwidth.
I did planned to use onedrive, but their documentation awful, and i can't seem to find sitewide upload example.

let me know if you have any issue with mediafire in general.
You won't need any mediafire account, only logging in to dashboard is enough.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 15, 2016, 07:33:35 PM
How's this?

(http://i.imgur.com/BdQkcb3.jpg)

This would look like this unaltered on the page:

(http://i.imgur.com/deH7fgn.png?1)

Full size HERE (http://i.imgur.com/y44Z764.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 16, 2016, 08:53:02 AM
How's this?

Looks good. I have updated the demo site to reflect the changes. also i did tweak few things in photoshop.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 16, 2016, 09:41:26 AM
personally i still think the initial picture provided that i had a minor objection to (the figure with the big node/ backpack being at the centre of the picture) was the best. I was even happy with the photoshopping on it to remove that feature.
But if others done agree then i am OK with the current one
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 16, 2016, 10:00:05 AM
personally i still think the initial picture provided that i had a minor objection to (the figure with the big node/ backpack being at the centre of the picture) was the best. I was even happy with the photoshopping on it to remove that feature.

So far I would agree with Steven on this, preferring one of the shopped images that removed the figurines.

@ vpsaxman, maybe you could try re-creating a similar image with your set up?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 16, 2016, 11:06:15 AM
personally i still think the initial picture provided that i had a minor objection to (the figure with the big node/ backpack being at the centre of the picture) was the best. I was even happy with the photoshopping on it to remove that feature.

So far I would agree with Steven on this, preferring one of the shopped images that removed the figurines.

@ vpsaxman, maybe you could try re-creating a similar image with your set up? 
I'm afraid not. My space is just so different. But I would have no objection to photoshoping the shot with the big nose guy and using that instead.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on January 17, 2016, 11:32:14 AM
To be honest, with the color overlay and the text about MusicBee on top of that, the underlying image is obscured or unresolvable in large measure such that it just doesn't add much to the presentation at all.  I'd vote for just rethinking it. 

Someone new to the program isn't going to know what MB looks like, anyway.  So a blurry pic of a desktop doesn't bring much to the experience. 

As an alternative, you could have a link to user-posted pics of their own setups.  Or a thread in the forum for purposes of showing it off.

But the fuzzy color over a handful of grainy album covers...  Not working for me, if I try to imagine myself discovering the site for the first time. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: BeeBeeKing on January 17, 2016, 12:47:53 PM
I agree with Skoop.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 17, 2016, 05:59:07 PM
Another update with a new feature.
Now you can upload your addon directly to mediafire(or provide a mediafire or similar hosting site link).

(http://i.imgur.com/vGcdpjm.jpg)

one restriction is that you must use rar/7z/tgz/zip format.
Even though the size limit is 50MB(which i highly doubt 99.99% addon won't reach), i haven't tested it with anything larger than 50KB.

It would be really great if someone can test the upload with 2MB, 5MB, 10MB, 20MB, 30MB, 40MB, 50MB files and provide some result as a feedback.
While test upload it is recommend that you have developers tool enabled and go to console tab for errors.

by default there shouldn't be any red colored errors, but if found any please report back, also while upload a file if any error occurs that means the upload failed, and you either have to refresh the page(recommended) or close the upload box and reopen.

(http://i.imgur.com/yoX6WgN.jpg)


few major but not noticeable change is the main menu(top navigation bar). instead of hard coding it into html, i decided to create an array of menu items and then iterate through them, this reduces code duplication a lot.

a new addition is misc in the addon dropdown menu. Another addition is in the footer called press, This is intended for providing resources like logo, screenshots for bloggers/ reviewers.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 17, 2016, 06:17:52 PM
To be honest, with the color overlay and the text about MusicBee on top of that, the underlying image is obscured or unresolvable in large measure such that it just doesn't add much to the presentation at all.  I'd vote for just rethinking it. 

Someone new to the program isn't going to know what MB looks like, anyway.  So a blurry pic of a desktop doesn't bring much to the experience. 

But the fuzzy color over a handful of grainy album covers...  Not working for me, if I try to imagine myself discovering the site for the first time. 
I was thinking the same thing, and browsing for some inspiration, but really what ones expect from an audio player homepage? I checked some audio player home pages, Itunes, Winamp(it has a lama on the top :O), aimp, mediamonkey and groove. Most of them barely shows any audio player related images. I do like itune and groove home pages. Groove home page has the vibe that other musicplayer pages lack.

Now back to square one, the most first image with a concert and joyful people is the one i liked, but it has some offensive sign, BUT the bottom image on the home page also has the same vibe without the offensive hand mark(hopefully), i can use it at the top and choose something else at the bottom.

the second image with the mac was good but it has a long nose/ and a mac, other than that it has a clean, well balanced calm look.

the third image from vpsaxman shows a monitor with musicbee, as you said for a new comer it has hardly any meaning.

it is really hard to get any image that represents musicbee or something. While i can try different design, i highly doubt it will make any major difference. All we need is a good image that has that clean, cheerful music listener vibe, no need to be related to musicbee.
Now i have no clue where to find one. So anyone with better image or design can suggest it to me.


As an alternative, you could have a link to user-posted pics of their own setups.  Or a thread in the forum for purposes of showing it off.
Unfortunately i am not planning to do it. The home page has 2 screenshots showing the main interface, if anyone is not convinced by it i highly doubt they will bother checking an entire thread. Also Musicbee is really small in size, download and testing out yourself is the quickest way.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 17, 2016, 08:08:53 PM
Well, why not simply do something like this then?

(http://i.imgur.com/zbxZvvFl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/zbxZvvF.jpg)

Straight to the point and minimalist.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on January 18, 2016, 04:37:45 AM
Well, why not simply do something like this then?

Yeah, that works for me. A minimalist design does seem appropriate in this case.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 18, 2016, 12:45:12 PM
Well, why not simply do something like this then?

Straight to the point and minimalist.

we already have that screenshot on the home page. Just bringing it to top wn't make any huge difference. And beside the home screen is already minimalistic while having a colorful vibe.

i have rearranged few texts, and played with the gradient a bit, and changed the background to a smoky guy wearing headphones.
test.getmusicbee.com (http://test.getmusicbee.com)

now before someone complaining about smoking, you can suggest a better image from here, the licensing is perfect and they have some awesome images.
https://pixabay.com/ (https://pixabay.com/)

at this point i won't change the layout much, only align few things or change the gradient and image or remove few texts. but the look won't change.

@vpsaxman, while the suggestion you provided is minimal, but perhaps it is too minimal. the home page is separated in different section. and in-between there is a colorful with background with some minimal info. Since you removed the top one and made it colorless like the one after that section, while scroll it will look blunt. and inconsistent.
i am planning to sticking with the design i have so far. The color is what makes it beautiful, check out the update.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 18, 2016, 02:06:06 PM
now before someone complaining about smoking, you can suggest a better image from here, the licensing is perfect and they have some awesome images.
https://pixabay.com/ (https://pixabay.com/)
I seriously don't think that picture works.  Especially the cigarette.  How about this one from the same site:
https://pixabay.com/en/woman-girl-headphones-music-977020/
I do like the text pushed to the left.  And the image of the woman still allows that.
I really don't like the cigarette.  It's Steven's app but I don't think MB should be promoting smoking.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on January 18, 2016, 02:56:50 PM
I like this one.  Simple, not controversial, on topic, and plenty of space for you to insert text without blurring it or other fooling around. 

(https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2015/08/03/10/25/banner-873106_960_720.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on January 18, 2016, 03:08:13 PM
Here's another:

(https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2015/05/28/07/59/paper-787642__180.jpg)

Or this one:

(https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/08/03/09/31/music-408996__180.jpg)

Or:

(https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2013/04/15/07/14/music-104605__180.jpg)

Or:

(https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/10/20/21/17/cd-495732__180.jpg)


You get the idea.  Something pleasant but non-descript that you can write on.

Anything but the Marley-wannabe smoking.  Jeez.  What were you thinking?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 18, 2016, 03:34:09 PM
now before someone complaining about smoking, you can suggest a better image from here, the licensing is perfect and they have some awesome images.
https://pixabay.com/ (https://pixabay.com/)
I seriously don't think that picture works.  Especially the cigarette.  How about this one from the same site:
https://pixabay.com/en/woman-girl-headphones-music-977020/
I do like the text pushed to the left.  And the image of the woman still allows that.
I really don't like the cigarette.  It's Steven's app but I don't think MB should be promoting smoking.


nice find :) , just updated. Few photoshop color correction and healing.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 18, 2016, 03:41:36 PM
I like this one.  Simple, not controversial, on topic, and plenty of space for you to insert text without blurring it or other fooling around. 

unfortunately inserting texts in images is really bad design choices in 2016 modern web. while there are some exception but still.
I do like this image specially the color scheme blends well with the gradient.

I like the woman with headphone more. Mostly because having a picture of living thing always has a good psychological positive effect. But besure to suggest more, if it gets enough support from other user i will change it. :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 18, 2016, 03:44:48 PM
Here's another:

Or this one:

Or:

Or:

You get the idea.  Something pleasant but non-descript that you can write on.
All of these are bad, they looks amateurish and does not blend well. I like the first one you suggested.

Anything but the Marley-wannabe smoking.  Jeez.  What were you thinking?
just update it to the one phred suggested. jeez i knew people won't like smoking images :P
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 18, 2016, 03:47:23 PM
just update it to the one phred suggested. jeez i knew people won't like smoking images :P

That one was terrible indeed.
But there are exceptions:

(http://i.imgur.com/8A9unh8l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/8A9unh8.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on January 18, 2016, 04:04:04 PM
Quote
unfortunately inserting texts in images is really bad design choices in 2016 modern web. while there are some exception but still.

Well that's what you were doing on the previous pages with the blue-red gradient pics with the MusicBee advert overlaid. 

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on January 18, 2016, 04:13:39 PM
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6397385/Save%20Pics/00%20MB%20logo.jpg)


I'm not very skilled, but you get the idea.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 18, 2016, 04:37:46 PM
Quote
unfortunately inserting texts in images is really bad design choices in 2016 modern web. while there are some exception but still.

Well that's what you were doing on the previous pages with the blue-red gradient pics with the MusicBee advert overlaid. 
those texts were not meant to be descriptive or was expecting anyone to read them. They were part of monitor screenshot.
And by bad design choices i mean responsiveness. image gets smaller/cutoff when resize, and also not so seo friendly.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Skoop on January 18, 2016, 04:40:27 PM
Well, then, I'm completely lost as to what's going on here. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 18, 2016, 04:43:09 PM
I'm not very skilled, but you get the idea.


now imagine if we resize the browser and image gets smaller, how do you expect someone to read it? even if those are fonts over images, it will be real hassale to maintain the position of texts in perspective to the images.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 18, 2016, 06:06:17 PM
i like the smiling woman with headphones as the main image - it conveys the sort of message i like and its not cluttered
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 18, 2016, 07:37:28 PM
nice find :) , just updated. Few photoshop color correction and healing.
Is it possible to make the headphones stand out a little more?  They're almost lost in her hair.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 18, 2016, 07:44:26 PM
i like the smiling woman with headphones as the main image - it conveys the sort of message i like and its not cluttered
There you go!!  The Master has spoken.  :-)
Just fix the headphones and this is done.  IMO.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 18, 2016, 07:45:22 PM
just update it to the one phred suggested. jeez i knew people won't like smoking images :P

That one was terrible indeed.
But there are exceptions:
Yes, of course.  A pipe shows sophistication.
A cigarette is just damn nasty.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: hiccup on January 18, 2016, 07:52:06 PM
A cigarette is just damn nasty.

Well, not always...

(http://i.imgur.com/2yS4H1El.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/2yS4H1E.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 18, 2016, 08:21:32 PM
A cigarette is just damn nasty.

Well, not always...

(http://i.imgur.com/2yS4H1El.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/2yS4H1E.jpg)
With apologies to Duke Ellington, that's a sophisticated lady.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 18, 2016, 08:58:53 PM
I still prefer the original replacement one but with big nose guy removed
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 18, 2016, 10:24:37 PM
I still prefer the original replacement one but with big nose guy removed
+1. Not a fan of the girl and her empty eyes.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 19, 2016, 03:27:42 AM
Is it possible to make the headphones stand out a little more?  They're almost lost in her hair.
Fixed and updated.

Not a fan of the girl and her empty eyes.
Fixed. her eyes should be smaller and natural.

I still prefer the original replacement one but with big nose guy removed
I think the girl with headphone has the same clean vibe that the mac with big nose had. I will stick to it unless other suggestions gets more supporters.
Few reasons i didn't choose the mac with big nose is that it is mac, even with apple logo removed, their design stands on their own.

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 19, 2016, 04:38:24 AM
I think the girl with headphone has the same clean vibe that the mac with big nose had. I will stick to it unless other suggestions gets more supporters.
Few reasons i didn't choose the mac with big nose is that it is mac, even with apple logo removed, their design stands on their own.

I disagree about the vibe.  There is no life, no vibrancy. She has a nice smile, she has a nice face. Overall it's...    nice. She just doesn't look like she's enjoying what she's listening to.  Photoshop a headset instead of the headphones and I'd swear she's working in a call centre.

The original concert shot (which I know we can't use), the big nose one, vpsaxman's ones, even the plain shot of the monitor currently used on the website, have more life in them than that pic has.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 19, 2016, 05:09:10 AM
I disagree about the vibe.  There is no life, no vibrancy. She has a nice smile, she has a nice face. Overall it's...    nice. She just doesn't look like she's enjoying what she's listening to.  Photoshop a headset instead of the headphones and I'd swear she's working in a call centre.
In the full picture she is sitting on a sofa, and the environment does not look like a call center.

Quote
She just doesn't look like she's enjoying what she's listening to
To be fair i don't even smile or do anything while listening to music. But hey atleast she is smiling. Better than have a serious look. :P
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 19, 2016, 05:14:35 AM
It's just my opinion.
If everyone else likes it - that's what we go with.
I still won't like it, but I will have had my say on the matter :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 19, 2016, 06:57:07 PM
A few more "desktop" alternatives for everyone's consideration:

(http://i.imgur.com/L1st8tOl.png)


(http://i.imgur.com/xLXSll8l.png)


(http://i.imgur.com/TTVgDFol.png)

And of course the text may have to be moved depending on the background image.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 19, 2016, 07:07:50 PM
@AvikB, no matter what we end up going with for the main picture I just wanted to say I think its fantastic the way you have done the image handling when scrolling down and i am very happy with the middle and final pictures.

Out of all the pictures i am more happy with the touched up photo of the women with the headphones (I wont say i am 100% happy as i can see the points made against it but its good enough to go with in my view).
For the people who didnt like that picture, do you think the touched up one is better/ ok ?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 19, 2016, 07:28:09 PM
@AvikB, no matter what we end up going with for the main picture I just wanted to say I think its fantastic the way you have done the image handling when scrolling down and i am very happy with the middle and final pictures.
:) glad you liked it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 19, 2016, 07:31:31 PM
A few more "desktop" alternatives for everyone's consideration:


And of course the text may have to be moved depending on the background image.
Nice images, i like the first one. the second one for some reason looks really congested(maybe because of the rack at the side).
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 19, 2016, 07:37:35 PM
A few more "desktop" alternatives for everyone's consideration:


And of course the text may have to be moved depending on the background image.
Nice images, i like the first one. the second one for some reason looks really congested(maybe because of the rack at the side).

Agreed. I like that on the first one the speaker is yellow and black, like a bee. ;)

Edit: source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/taylor90/6787583453/
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Bee-liever on January 19, 2016, 08:20:16 PM
@AvikB, no matter what we end up going with for the main picture I just wanted to say I think its fantastic the way you have done the image handling when scrolling down and i am very happy with the middle and final pictures.
What he said.

@AvikB, please don't misinterpret my criticism of one pic as a criticism for all the rest of your work.
Far from it, I think the whole look of the new site is awesome and really appreciate the hard work you have put into it. :)

PS. I still don't like the woman with the headphones but I do like the black and yellow speaker :P
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 22, 2016, 08:10:41 PM
with this update addon browsing page is now near complete, addon page got a complete overhaul and lots of bug fixes and lots of structural changes.

visit the website and you can try the add-ons menu, it will show you all the addons, you can also view skins, plugins and others. The search isn't done yet.

visit here: test.getmusicbee.com/addons (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons)

the new addon page:

(http://i.imgur.com/Cydt79F.jpg)
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 23, 2016, 03:18:04 AM
I have updated the interface is very beautiful
:)
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: ihavnoclue on January 23, 2016, 08:38:43 AM
The new website design looks great! A central place to get the latest add-ons will be great!
The screenshot viewing is great too, very fast and smooth.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 26, 2016, 08:11:29 AM
The new website design looks great! A central place to get the latest add-ons will be great!
The screenshot viewing is great too, very fast and smooth.
thanks. :)
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: redwing on January 26, 2016, 01:29:26 PM
Thank AvikB and other contributors for this great work so far!

Just like to add my 2 cents regarding the main picture on the homepage.

Before scrolling down to MB image below, it almost feels like a website selling some kind of music service. Probably that's coming from the absence of MB at first glance and the prominent presence of a happy-looking person listening to music.

I did a mockup with some images from previous posts. The point would be (1) MB should be focused and immediately visible without scrolling and (2) there should be no distracting, misinforming elements.

(http://i.imgur.com/VEnBUxj.png)
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 26, 2016, 04:35:50 PM
Thank AvikB and other contributors for this great work so far!

Just like to add my 2 cents regarding the main picture on the homepage.

Before scrolling down to MB image below, it almost feels like a website selling some kind of music service. Probably that's coming from the absence of MB at first glance and the prominent presence of a happy-looking person listening to music.

I did a mockup with some images from previous posts. The point would be (1) MB should be focused and immediately visible without scrolling and (2) there should be no distracting, misinforming elements.

(http://i.imgur.com/VEnBUxj.png)
Looking good. I completely agree with #1 especially. It makes sense to put a screenshote of MB as the firs thing a new user can see when visiting the website.

And I'll add my appreciation for your incredible work on the website AvikB here. Keep up the good work! d(^o^)b
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 26, 2016, 05:23:06 PM
Thank AvikB and other contributors for this great work so far!

Just like to add my 2 cents regarding the main picture on the homepage.

Before scrolling down to MB image below, it almost feels like a website selling some kind of music service. Probably that's coming from the absence of MB at first glance and the prominent presence of a happy-looking person listening to music.

I did a mockup with some images from previous posts. The point would be (1) MB should be focused and immediately visible without scrolling and (2) there should be no distracting, misinforming elements.
Looking good. I completely agree with #1 especially. It makes sense to put a screenshote of MB as the firs thing a new user can see when visiting the website.

And I'll add my appreciation for your incredible work on the website AvikB here. Keep up the good work! d(^o^)b

Thanks guys, i appreciate the feedback, i am taking note of these suggestions, i will make some changes regarding these feedbacks and will try to compromise between it.

 :)
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: blidmink on January 26, 2016, 10:54:23 PM
Only just saw the new site concept and this is incredible, great work everyone! As a header device, I'd say that rather than a stock photo, even a screenshot overlaid on that lovely background gradient would work a treat. That said, there is already a pretty comprehensive assortment of screenshots.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 27, 2016, 09:45:39 AM
Only just saw the new site concept and this is incredible, great work everyone! As a header device, I'd say that rather than a stock photo, even a screenshot overlaid on that lovely background gradient would work a treat. That said, there is already a pretty comprehensive assortment of screenshots.

Thanks :),

i have updated the home page to reflect some of the feedback, this is not final btw, so give feedbacks. if it gets enough interest i will change from the woman with the headphone to this, otherwise woman with headphone will be used in the final version.

here is the home page to test. if you do not see any changes please refresh the page once more to clear the cache.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/)
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: RealPetChicken on January 27, 2016, 07:07:16 PM
Website & Forum Design update

Hey guys, i am actually on the process of updating this site design.

Thanks to Steven, a public demo is available, Check it out yourself, and give feedback so i can improve it. Have any suggestion or improvement, let me know.

here is the link : http://test.getmusicbee.com (http://test.getmusicbee.com)
update 29 NOV 2015

ADDONS page link: http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php)

There is little point of any scrrenshots, just visit the page above and test out yourself. remember to give feedback.

Now it is feedback time :)

I love it, great work.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: redwing on January 27, 2016, 07:22:42 PM
Just some thoughts:

- Though there's Windows logo at the bottom, presenting MB on a tablet as a main picture could give a wrong impression that MB can run as a mobile app.
- How about MB on a little lighter skin and show just a little more of the right side?

BTW the yellowish speaker cone really matches well like a honeycomb.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 27, 2016, 07:23:14 PM
i have updated the home page to reflect some of the feedback, this is not final btw, so give feedbacks. if it gets enough interest i will change from the woman with the headphone to this, otherwise woman with headphone will be used in the final version.

here is the home page to test. if you do not see any changes please refresh the page once more to clear the cache.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/)
the one i see now is the Radio with a screenshot of musicbee to the right. I definitely agree with the proposal to have a screenshot of musicbee in the first image. Did you consider (and possibly rejected?) to twist the musicbee screenshot as in redwings proposal?
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 27, 2016, 08:18:20 PM
the one i see now is the Radio with a screenshot of musicbee to the right.
umm... radio..!! :O thats a surface pro 3 screenshot btw.

I definitely agree with the proposal to have a screenshot of musicbee in the first image. Did you consider (and possibly rejected?) to twist the musicbee screenshot as in redwings proposal?
the updated design actually represents some of the idea from redwing's feedback. Ofc i removed that twisted musicbee window image since it does not look good, instead i decided to use a device to showcase musicbee. OFC more tweaks needed.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: phred on January 27, 2016, 09:29:11 PM
- Though there's Windows logo at the bottom, presenting MB on a tablet as a main picture could give a wrong impression that MB can run as a mobile app.
This. 

Please go back to an image of MB on a desktop computer like in this mock up from a previous post
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg102956#msg102956
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 28, 2016, 04:58:55 AM
i have updated the homepage after experimenting with various images.
let me know what you guys think.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 28, 2016, 05:41:00 PM
i have updated the homepage after experimenting with various images.
let me know what you guys think.
Did you change the spacing between text and screenshots since yesterday in the header? It looked better with more space between them IMO.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 28, 2016, 06:53:27 PM
i have updated the homepage after experimenting with various images.
let me know what you guys think.
Did you change the spacing between text and screenshots since yesterday in the header? It looked better with more space between them IMO.

i actually increased the spacing and reduced the image size a little bit.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: redwing on January 28, 2016, 08:25:34 PM
Some thoughts:

- If you want to add additional mode images, probably compact player mode has the most appealing look.
- Currently it feels like the two additional images are more of obstructing the view on the MB in main player mode. More dynamic or 3D style placement might work better and also imply that they are just different modes, not the multiple instances of MB.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: vpsaxman on January 28, 2016, 11:17:10 PM
i have updated the homepage after experimenting with various images.
let me know what you guys think.
Did you change the spacing between text and screenshots since yesterday in the header? It looked better with more space between them IMO.

i actually increased the spacing and reduced the image size a little bit.
You did? LOL!
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 29, 2016, 07:30:27 AM
- If you want to add additional mode images, probably compact player mode has the most appealing look.
There us already a compact player mode image is included(playlist-compact player).

- Currently it feels like the two additional images are more of obstructing the view on the MB in main player mode. More dynamic or 3D style placement might work better and also imply that they are just different modes, not the multiple instances of MB.
3d style?  are you speaking of rotating MB modes in a angle ? if so, i don't know if it is needed or not. I already added a bit of drop shadow to have better depth,
also my intention with those mode images were to represent the most wanted feature of a music player, i highly doubt anyone would bother considering the multiple instancing scenario. maybe advance user but for normal user instances won't matter.

also since most music player behaves the same way if the user has already used itunes, zune, aimp i don't think it would confuse them.

on the other hand new user probably won't even know if MusicBee has miniplayer, theater, compact player modes at all. (i am planning to add another section on the home page to show of these different modes).
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Steven on January 29, 2016, 07:33:16 PM
currently the first and second images have the same main player screenshot. Just as a minor suggestion, maybe make one of them using a different layout such as Album and Tracks
or even have one of them show the "Playing Tracks" panel
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 29, 2016, 07:44:40 PM
currently the first and second images have the same main player screenshot. Just as a minor suggestion, maybe make one of them using a different layout such as Album and Tracks
or even have one of them show the "Playing Tracks" panel
yeah i know, i was just being lazy :P , since musicbee3 UI might change till it hits beta(or most of the UI tweaks are done). i will take some better pictures and make them final.
the current image only provides the placement position and how it may look.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: Alumni on January 29, 2016, 08:15:24 PM
I like the image of MusicBee overlayed with the compact and mini player - great idea.
Is it just me or is that image loading much slower than the rest of the images?
I just tried it in another browser and it was the last thing to load.
Title: Re: [ANOTHER BIG UPDATE] MusicBee WEBSITE & FORUM Design!!
Post by: AvikB on January 29, 2016, 08:19:52 PM
Is it just me or is that image loading much slower than the rest of the images?
I just tried it in another browser and it was the last thing to load.
that image is about 405kb while other images are under 50kb, so it is taking a bit. also the optimization is not done yet as those images are yet to be final, since MB3 UI might change.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 06, 2016, 10:58:25 PM
another update with new feature. This update brings numerous changes to the dashboard, Now you can edit/update and delete a submitted addon. the edit/update feature is not fully implemented so you can only see the options but can not submit an update. Delete works flawlessly.
(http://i.imgur.com/oTj474x.jpg)

another option that is rewritten and is visible is the skin accent color. you can choose an accent color when submitting a skin. this will help user filter out the addon search result.
(http://i.imgur.com/0COAaVy.jpg)
i have included most common colors, let me know if any common color is needed.

there are also few rewrites for the error handling, it is now json based. the dashboard class got some refactoring and some backend changes.

the release note page got better colors.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on February 07, 2016, 02:08:46 AM
When viewing all add-ons from the dashboard, and then selecting Edit/Update, a new window opens but the 'close' button is nowhere near the new window.  It's in the upper right corner of the main window.  It should be within the window that needs to be closed.
(http://i.imgur.com/jBjfxBpl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/jBjfxBp.jpg)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 07, 2016, 03:58:22 AM
When viewing all add-ons from the dashboard, and then selecting Edit/Update, a new window opens but the 'close' button is nowhere near the new window.  It's in the upper right corner of the main window.  It should be within the window that needs to be closed.
fixed for the next update.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 07, 2016, 07:50:05 AM
Another update, with this update you can finally able to update existing submitted addon.
Few Bugs fixed with notification popups.

When viewing all add-ons from the dashboard, and then selecting Edit/Update, a new window opens but the 'close' button is nowhere near the new window.  It's in the upper right corner of the main window.  It should be within the window that needs to be closed.
i have tried this, and decided to stick with current implementation. The reason is the lack of noticeable visibility, and red close button does not look good on violet, green or other background. also there is some difficulty regarding implementing this due to how the popup dialogue is handled.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Paperbackstash on February 07, 2016, 07:50:38 AM
Looks great!
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 07, 2016, 07:58:00 AM
Looks great!
:) glad you liked it.


Another patch update pushed just now, due to a bug regarding imgur upload.
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on February 07, 2016, 08:54:27 AM
how does the love rating system work (or is it not implemented yet) ?
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 07, 2016, 09:00:04 AM
how does the love rating system work (or is it not implemented yet) ?
not fully implemented yet. the back-end is completed, only the front-end is WIP.

You will need a forum account to love an addon, there is no thumbs down.

i am thinking of only allow to thumbs up, or maybe star rating of 5. haven't decided yet :S
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 09, 2016, 01:53:11 AM
Update: this update brings number of style changes and fixes, thanks to phred. also the new addon like function is here!
whenever i download a skin from the current forum or plugin i rarely say thanks , it is just too much work or i am being lazy or even forget it. :S

With the rating system it is really easy to like an addon, you have to login with the forum. also likes are unique, one like per addon per user, one can't use bots or so.
(http://i.imgur.com/PxpDygl.jpg)
likes will also show on mouse over, when browsing for addons, it will help user decide what addons are most popular and loved.
(http://i.imgur.com/MLURgAZ.jpg)

you can also remove the like BUT can't unlike any addon. if you don't like an addon you don't use rate/use it.

you can test it if you have a account in the demo website forum.

http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/all/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/all/)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 10, 2016, 11:37:55 PM
new structural update. I haven't uploaded the new version YET, but it does bring a lots of under the hood changes and some refactoring, though nothing new on the surface.
I recently moved to git due to this project has become big, really BIG and it is hard to keep track on changes.

here is the site repo, yes i am making it open for everyone to review or fork or suggest changes.
https://github.com/Avik-B/mb_web/tree/Dev (https://github.com/Avik-B/mb_web/tree/Dev)

i am not much of a github user, and i only started using it recently :S , the code base is not complete yet, and i am making changes daily specially adding comments and moving things to oop. unfortunately there is no documentation(not planning to do yet) for contributors or even running it on your personal server.

There is a language file for those who wan't the site to be available on their native language. It is pretty messy at this point, and is going through a LOTS OF REFACTORING. but you guys can suggest any spelling mistakes or better wording.
https://github.com/Avik-B/mb_web/blob/Dev/includes/languages/en-us.php (https://github.com/Avik-B/mb_web/blob/Dev/includes/languages/en-us.php)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 25, 2016, 08:19:44 AM
http://test.getmusicbee.com (http://test.getmusicbee.com)

Another update, this update is quite a big one.
Specially the home page is now much better and clean without any clutter. new animations and also images. Most of them are in made in photoshop, the top wireframe icon background is just a placeholder, and the bottom 2 images are not done so not included.

The groove music section is back with new design and image. The image contains icons from RealPetChicken. One of our forum member.

There is a new section for review, it is not complete yet. but it will contain links for both other site reviews and our users reviews as well.

The top menu is now sticky for the home page(and other landing page that will be introduced in future... or not). also the alignment has changed.

The new design is cleaner and shows much more features of musicbee. Let me know of any needed change in wording or images.

The styling part is slowly moving to sass(scss) and grunt for automating most of the tasks, as this project has gotten quite big. Lots of refactoring in this update as well.

sorry for this slow update, i will try to complete this once my exam is complete in 2 more days. :)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on February 25, 2016, 08:54:43 AM
i will try to complete this once my exam is complete in 2 more days. :)

Looking good AvikB.
Good luck with your exams!
(although I think luck won't be a factor here ;-)
Title: Re: [UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Alumni on February 25, 2016, 12:12:14 PM
http://test.getmusicbee.com (http://test.getmusicbee.com)

Another update, this update is quite a big one.

Nice! Every time I check the test site it looks better and better. I especially like what you did with the topmost section and background.
A couple things I'm wondering; isn't the "MusicBee" logo/header missing? I feel like it should be above the text where it says "the ultimate music player...". I don't know how much the fade-in effect can be adjusted, but when scrolling down quickly it can be a tad slow to appear, however not a big deal. Also some of the images are broken, those near the bottom of the page.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on February 25, 2016, 01:17:26 PM
Nice! Every time I check the test site it looks better and better. I especially like what you did with the topmost section and background.
:) and.... it will only get better.

A couple things I'm wondering; isn't the "MusicBee" logo/header missing? I feel like it should be above the text where it says "the ultimate music player...".
I am still working on this part. Trying to keep the design minimal and clean. I have an idea of it's implementation.. probably in next 2 or 3 updates.

I don't know how much the fade-in effect can be adjusted, but when scrolling down quickly it can be a tad slow to appear, however not a big deal.
It is fully adjustable, :) i will try to reduce it a bit more. The effect will be only in the landing pages.... or better call it presentation pages.

Also some of the images are broken, those near the bottom of the page.
I haven't done yet with those images. I am not good with photoshop and graphic design and stuff..... so it is taking some time. Will update it once it is done.



Looking good AvikB.
Good luck with your exams!
(although I think luck won't be a factor here ;-)
Thanks :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 11, 2016, 09:03:41 PM
A new update! this is a major one. Mostly focused on Addons page.

Addons page is now 90% complete, search function is fully implemented. For searching it uses combination of tags, short description, readme(if any), title, types. It is a bit complex, but it should work flawless,

Sorting is also implemented. you can sort by category and addon ages(old, recent), i will add recently updated option as well in future updates.

lots of re factoring/re organizing code base for addon page. new url structure for searches.
Also Pagination is now implemented.

Most of the hard work is complete, there are some features i am planning to add like search by authors, different layout for exploring and switching styling to scss.

Few bug fixes regarding dashboard.

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 11, 2016, 09:05:09 PM
Any ETA on this?  I am updating the wiki, and don't want to spend a lot of time on things that are about to be duplicated on the new site.

Thanks for the awesome work!  I'm looking forward to the final result.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 11, 2016, 09:17:06 PM
Any ETA on this?  I am updating the wiki, and don't want to spend a lot of time on things that are about to be duplicated on the new site.

Thanks for the awesome work!  I'm looking forward to the final result.
It is really hard to give any ETA, but it should not take too long.

here is a list of what is complete and what needs to be done:
1. the home page is complete except for some images
2. the download page is complete, except for images
3. the forum is complete.
4. Release note page complete.
5. addons page is 90% complete
6. RSS feed is complete

things that need work
1. dashboard page
2. press and media page (mainly containing screenshots for reviewers/wikipedia and other site's to use)
3. api page, bug, new feature, help page are going to be redirected to either forum or wikia pages.

I highly doubt anything will be duplicated. since the help section will redirect to wikia. let me know if you have any specific concern regarding duplication.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 11, 2016, 09:28:28 PM
I highly doubt anything will be duplicated. since the help section will redirect to wikia. let me know if you have any specific concern regarding duplication.

With the new plugin and skin pages, I will retire those sections of the wiki and link back to the site if possible.  The skins page in particular will need to be updated for 3.0, but I will leave it to last.  It's unlikely I'll get to it before you finish your work on this site.

FYI, the skins page is the single most visited page of the wiki by a large margin.  So expect a LOT of visitors.  :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 11, 2016, 09:34:56 PM
I highly doubt anything will be duplicated. since the help section will redirect to wikia. let me know if you have any specific concern regarding duplication.

With the new plugin and skin pages, I will retire those sections of the wiki and link back to the site if possible.
Put that section on the wiki on a hold for now. the new site addon page is 90% complete, the dashboard is my next priority.
shouldn't take too long.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 11, 2016, 09:38:07 PM
Put that section on the wiki on a hold for now. the new site addon page is 90% complete, the dashboard is my next priority.
shouldn't take too long.

*thumbs up*
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 12, 2016, 09:57:13 PM
new update, a lots of fixes and new features:

you can view the commit here, a lots of new line of codes :) https://github.com/Avik-B/mb_web/commit/271c5d90cd0d9760719a36b385d098c1d0cd5e1c (https://github.com/Avik-B/mb_web/commit/271c5d90cd0d9760719a36b385d098c1d0cd5e1c)

Change Log:

1. with this update addon can be searched by author name. (author: whatever author name)
2. fix a bug while submitting addon link and image tags are getting
omitted in read me markdown.
3. added a way to provide custom callback function via json obj
4. fixed bugs in ajax navigation script while click event won't register
for ajax loaded buttons.
5. Better addon rating handling with new custom function callback.
6. addon lists, pagination are now wrapped around a function for easy
access.
7. Code optimization for generating addon lists and other.
8. minor and some major bug fixes which i can't remeber :P

with this update addon page is now 95% complete, there are some minor styling change will be done in future updates, as well as bug fixes and code optimization.

to test out the new search by author name feature, go to the addon page and in the searchbox type "author:avikb" the author: part is required.
one of the issue with this search is that you have to provide full username, you can't search by "author:avik" or "author:avikfwsfswf", although you can search by "author: a  vi  k b" and it will work. I will try to fix this issue in next update probably.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 12, 2016, 10:45:21 PM
Not to rain on your parade, but what's with the new background on the home page?  What does it have to do with music?  I really hate to start this discussion again, but I thought the background image had (finally) been decided.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 12, 2016, 11:03:11 PM
Not to rain on your parade, but what's with the new background on the home page?  What does it have to do with music?  I really hate to start this discussion again, but I thought the background image had (finally) been decided.
the top wireframe icon background is just a placeholder, and the bottom 2 images are not done so not included.

I have decided to get rid off the old image and moving to much cleaner wireframe design. ofc the current wireframe background is nothing but placeholder, i will update it to have more matching with music stuff.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 18, 2016, 12:44:26 AM
New update, and also this is the final update for addon page.
Here is the change Log:

* Cleaner Design for download page
* Download page, Index Page, and a lots of other section is now on sass
* Code Optimization
* Bug Fixes and lots of other tweaks as well
* New search box at the top corner for the addon page
* Moved release note, addon page to sass, and addon page improvement
* Fuzzy Search is now available. you can search by only first few words, though spelling mistakes are still a problem and WON'T BE FIXED! Creating a full fledged search engine with spelling check is huge tasks.
* Search by author name is also enhanced with fuzzy search
* Addons that are NOT APPROVED BY ADMINS/MODS won't appear on the addon page. BUT user can still visit/download unapproved addons through direct links but will be presented with a warning.


With this update Addons page is now 100% complete for the first release. Addon Dashboard is next.
Let me know if any specific feature is needed in addon page or not.

http://www.test.getmusicbee.com/addons (http://www.test.getmusicbee.com/addons)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 18, 2016, 03:02:34 AM
I'm really stoked about this!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: alec.tron on March 18, 2016, 04:44:40 AM
Nice work @
http://test.getmusicbee.com/

c.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 18, 2016, 03:19:42 PM
I'm really stoked about this!
Can't quite figure it out if you liked it or not :P

Nice work @
http://test.getmusicbee.com/

Thanks :)

There are few bug fixes for addon page i have published on github, but yet to upload on the test site.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 18, 2016, 03:39:25 PM
Just checked out the forum board and I think the background color (255,255,255) is too bright. How about making it a little darker like the current board (239,239,239)?
Also the height of each post and spacing between each post seems a bit large, which will require lots of scrolling to read a long thread. I'd prefer more condensed style.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 18, 2016, 04:05:44 PM
Just checked out the forum board and I think the background color (255,255,255) is too bright. How about making it a little darker like the current board (239,239,239)?
A much better solution is to use dark theme.
(http://i.imgur.com/ULS4Xao.jpg)

For the light theme i am using default white background. Dark theme was specially created for those who don't like to stare at white pages all day.

Also the height of each post and spacing between each post seems a bit large, which will require lots of scrolling to read a long thread. I'd prefer more condensed style.
The reason for this is because with this new forum avatar images will be allowed. and that is minimum height required for this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 18, 2016, 04:20:55 PM
So either that dark theme or all-bright theme?
Is it possible to turn off the avatar image as a view setting?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 18, 2016, 04:31:27 PM
So either that dark theme or all-bright theme?
Is it possible to turn off the avatar image as a view setting?
For now, yes.
I will introduce a much more compact theme.
For now you can turn off the avatar from your forum setting. But it won't reduce the post height. I will look into it, it seems like a bug.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 18, 2016, 04:35:21 PM
That'd be great. Hopefully the new theme will use more eye-friendly colors.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: rurutia10 on March 20, 2016, 11:48:28 AM
I think I prefer the current forum layout more. It's just so clean, nice, and comfy.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 12:11:53 PM
I think I prefer the current forum layout more. It's just so clean, nice, and comfy.

Such a comment could be useful if it would give some suggestions about what specifics you don't like about the new forum.
Specific things such as colours, fonts, icons, spacing, structure, etc.
That might be helpful, and even be implemented if considered sensible and agreed on.
Only saying you don't like it so much is not of much value in my opinion.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: rurutia10 on March 20, 2016, 01:54:19 PM
It's not as fast and smooth as the current layout. This is subjective, but I just think the current one looks cleaner and nicer, and feels faster. That layout also looks really generic, there are probably a ton of forums that look almost exactly the same.

The current one is simple, fast, looks great and unique. Why change? It's quite popular here too, why take risks? "If it's not broken don't fix it".
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 02:46:00 PM
It's not as fast and smooth as the current layout. This is subjective, but I just think the current one looks cleaner and nicer, and feels faster. That layout also looks really generic,
I don't get it, what makes you think the current layout is fast and smooth? I have done the tests on my end. the current forum layout uses old outdated images for buttons and such and is slow to load. While the new layout uses modern css3 standards and is faster and has css3 animations for smooth feel. I think you got it backward.

there are probably a ton of forums that look almost exactly the same.
It is a forum you can't expect it to look/work like reddit can you?

The current one is simple, fast, looks great and unique. Why change?
BTW, the new forum is just a skin and few mods, it is the same as the current one in terms of functionality. Both are same just with different colors and so. I can't see any uniqueness in any of them.

It's quite popular here too, why take risks? "If it's not broken don't fix it".
The funny thing is the current forum after the update is actually broken. for example the PM layout, and while in Posting a new thread textbox resizer is broken too, as well as bcc button too, also code selection and jump to navigation is broken too.

There are few new features in the new forum, and they are not just gimmicks either:
1. one click dark theme, it is a unique feature custom built by me, not a part of SMF.
2. WYSIWYG editor, this is a mod integration, much more easier to write.
3. Full screen editor, write distraction free, specially usefull for writing long posts(like this one)
4. Full site integration and notification counter.
5. Code highlight

Now plans for future, When SMF3 will be released, they are planning to release a mobile theme as well. the current forum won't support it since it is not very css3 friendly.

It would be helpful if you could point out the issues or bugs rather than saying you like the current outdated forum look. :(
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: rurutia10 on March 20, 2016, 03:25:13 PM
"Get the latest version of Musicbee" That button, and the buttons next to it, just look like bloat and takes up space tbh and should be removed. Put them all the way to the top next to the help button. More cleaner and minimalist, the better.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 03:54:19 PM
"Get the latest version of Musicbee" That button, and the buttons next to it, just look like bloat and takes up space tbh and should be removed. Put them all the way to the top next to the help button. More cleaner and minimalist, the better.

I do agree with you, i am thinking of providing a way for allowing users to collapse them.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 20, 2016, 03:59:40 PM
I do agree with you, i am thinking of providing a way for allowing users to collapse them.
if you are going to do that then why not just get rid of them?
The only reason i suggested them was to serve as a hint for new users who seem to continually struggle to find the topic with the latest updates but i only see that as mildly useful
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 04:08:08 PM
New update:
* Addon page is now fully responsive, and mobile friendly.
* Addon page, dashboard, admin panel or whatever pages used a secondary menu is now mobile friendly too.

(https://i.imgur.com/YLUBD0s.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/gAtpVEk.jpg)

It is not fully tested so expect bugs.

* bug fixes in addon pages
* MySQL database foreign key constraint improvement for addons, likes and members(it is not live yet).
* Code optimization, removed redundant codes.
* Improvement for dashboard.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 04:20:57 PM
if you are going to do that then why not just get rid of them?
The only reason i suggested them was to serve as a hint for new users who seem to continually struggle to find the topic with the latest updates but i only see that as mildly useful

+1

And just curious, is something like this still going to happen?
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg99771#msg99771
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 04:23:52 PM
if you are going to do that then why not just get rid of them?
The only reason i suggested them was to serve as a hint for new users who seem to continually struggle to find the topic with the latest updates but i only see that as mildly useful

Maybe, instead of having those big banner on the forum front page, we can show a little banner while posting.
something like this:

(http://i.imgur.com/yHKkWKZ.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 04:27:36 PM
And just curious, is something like this still going to happen?
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg99771#msg99771

yup, when the new forum will be available the structure will be more like that.
Someone just have to go to forum admin panel and add boards, but there is no point in adding them in the test forum though. :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 20, 2016, 04:31:53 PM
Maybe, instead of having those big banner on the forum front page, we can show a little banner while posting.
something like this:

The banner is a nice idea, but only if it can point to the REALLY latest version, the patches.  Otherwise it'll be just like now, the first thing we tell almost everyone is to get the patch.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 04:37:38 PM
The problem I see in the message presented here, is that it strongly suggests that for each and every question, and every situation, it is almost mandatory to have the latest version.
The message might say: "be sure to have the latest stable version", but if you look at the state with mb v3 we are currently in, the advice now is usually to update to the latest beta. But at another moment in time, the advice might better be indeed to use the stable version.

As an alternative it might be sensible to have a message in the lines of: "for technical questions or problems be sure to mention the MusicBee version you are using".
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 04:37:44 PM
Maybe, instead of having those big banner on the forum front page, we can show a little banner while posting.
something like this:

The banner is a nice idea, but only if it can point to the REALLY latest version, the patches.  Otherwise it'll be just like now, the first thing we tell almost everyone is to get the patch.

It can point to really latest version but steven have to add them through admin panel, otherwise it won't.
Admin panel now only supports beta(basically patch) and stable release(full release), there is no incremental patch download section for stable release. steven have to provide fully patched release for the stable(just like how it is done in release forum thread).
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 04:54:57 PM
The problem I see in the message presented here, is that it strongly suggests that for each and every question, and every situation, it is almost mandatory to have the latest version.
Well it says Before posting an issue or bugs, so i don't think it is applicable for every situation.

Quote
The message might say: "be sure to have the latest stable version", but if you look at the state with mb v3 we are currently in, the advice now is usually to update to the latest beta. But at another moment in time, the advice might better be indeed to use the stable version.
The main issue with Musicbee is how it handles update. MusicBee should keep it self always upadated, or atleast show update notification when a new release available.

Specially for beta release, a user have to check the forum everyday,and then there is the trouble of finding if an update really is posted or not. which is not convenient.

I think the update model of musicbee should follow how windows 10, steam does it:
There should be an separate update option in musicbee setting, where user can select to choose stable ring or beta ring. Also for both stable and beta there should be a check for update button, currently MusicBee 3 beta does not check for new beta releases.

ofc i understand the reason why it does not. since there is no way(no api) to do that.
I am thinking of providing api for steven to build an update system for musicbee, where user can check for updates for both beta and stable releases.

here is the json api for both stable and beta release, ofc steven have to add new releases through admin panel.

test.getmusicbee.com/api.get.php?type=json&action=release-info (http://test.getmusicbee.com/api.get.php?type=json&action=release-info)


As an alternative it might be sensible to have a message in the lines of: "for technical questions or problems be sure to mention the MusicBee version you are using".
Well that was just a mockup, i will add this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 04:57:05 PM
I might be mistaken, but if I recall correctly, Steven is not very enthousiastic about being pushed in some structured releases schedule or namings, with official and more traditional alpha's, beta's, patches, updates, etc.
If that is he case, it is not very useful to try and force such a structure in the forum also.

Then it might be good to keep it simple, and just use the here suggested structure:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg99771#msg99771

Users will be able to find the latest official release, and info about it under Announcement> MusicBee Release
and the latest patch/update or whatever you call it in Announcement> MusicBee Pre-Release

That should be easy to learn and understand, and easy to direct to.
And then Steven will always be able to choose to have a thread named "v3.1 development", or "v3.0 updates", or whatever.

One thing I do feel quite strongly about in that case, is that download links, wheter it is for patches, updates, stable releases, plugins, etc. should always be found in the start post, and not somewhere hidden in a long list of later postings.

edit,
I see you just also posted on the matter. I will read that now too ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 05:05:34 PM
Well it says Before posting an issue or bugs, so i don't think it is applicable for every situation.

Yes, but it says here the 'latest stable version' is always better. But currently we usually advice to use the latest v3 beta. (update? patch?)

Quote
The main issue with Musicbee is how it handles update. MusicBee should keep it self always updated, or at least show update notification when a new release available.
Specially for beta release, a user have to check the forum everyday,and then there is the trouble of finding if an update really is posted or not. which is not convenient.

That is all up to Steven.
As long as he is not making a move in this area (which is within his good right, and only his decision to make), I would not waste time in anticipating on how that might play out in the future.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 05:10:38 PM
Yes, but it says here the 'latest stable version' is always better. But currently we usually advice to use the latest v3 beta. (update? patch?)
Then i guess, i can add Checkout musicbee beta releases, current beta release is: 3.1.3423

Quote
That is all up to Steven.
As long as he is not making a move in this area (which is within his good right, and only his decision to make), I would not waste time in anticipating on how that might play out in the future.
I guess anyone from the community can make a plugin for this.
If steven won't do this then I am thinking of making one for my personal use :) it is fairly easy to do so.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 05:27:52 PM
Then i guess, i can add Checkout musicbee beta releases, current beta release is: 3.1.3423
Quote

We seem to differ in the basic principle on this.
You seem very eager and focused to get this specific matter completely structured and classified.
I believe it is not possible, considering there is no structured source for this alpha/beta/update matter.
I feel it is a bit of a waste of time and energy putting in so much thought and energy in implementing this in the way you are imagining it.

What I agree on what might be useful, is a for example a fixed location on the start page of the forum, mentioning the latest stable version number, and the latest patch/beta version number. (as some ticker tape, if you know what I mean)
That should be enough to draw attention, and make people aware about versions/updates.
Just trust the forum and human intelligence to do the rest.

Let's get this ball rolling.... ?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 05:45:16 PM
yup, when the new forum will be available the structure will be more like that.
Someone just have to go to forum admin panel and add boards, but there is no point in adding them in the test forum though. :)

What do you mean 'more like that'?
Still not decided on it?

It might be good to get a good impression on the final result.
Any member checking out the test forum will then quickly see the progress being made, and will be able to make comments on it while there is still time to make such changes. I for myself am rather curious how it will look after those changes, and I imagine it will be rather difficult (or at least undesirable) to make changes to the forum structure after it's gone live.

Is it something I might be able to help with?
(no programming skills though :-(
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 05:45:39 PM
We seem to differ in the basic principle on this.
You seem very eager and focused to get this specific matter completely structured and classified.
I believe it is not possible, considering there is no structured source for this alpha/beta/update matter.
Well currently for musicbee release as it is, there are two version, stable, beta/pre-release. It is a pretty simple structure.

Ofc, there won't be always a beta release, since it depends on steven's free time. thats why i included a disable beta. and release button. Steven can completely turn off beta whenever he wants. Structure is flexible this way.

I feel it is a bit of a waste of time and energy putting in so much thought and energy in implementing this in the way you are imagining it.
My imagination is not really far fetched. It is derived from the current forum/download structure. And it is already implemented and tasted. :)


What I agree on what might be useful, is a for example a fixed location on the start page of the forum, mentioning the latest stable version number, and the latest patch/beta version number. (as some ticker tape, if you know what I mean)
That should be enough to draw attention, and make people aware about versions/updates.
Thats okay for me, but it seems some people don't like that as it takes extra space. It is really hard to decide since different people have different issues and choices. :S


Just trust the forum and human intelligence to do the rest.
That would be the last thing one can trust. :P
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 05:53:35 PM
What do you mean 'more like that'?
Still not decided on it?
I am decided on that structure, the wording can be improved.

It might be good to get a good impression on the final result.
Any member checking out the test forum will then quickly see the progress being made, and will be able to make comments on it while there is still time to make such changes. I for myself am rather curious how it will look after those changes, and I imagine it will be rather difficult (or at least undesirable) to make changes to the forum structure after it's gone live.
I guess you are right. it is just matter of time to actually sit down and add boards, and i am feeling really lazy to do it. :P

Is it something I might be able to help with?
(no programming skills though :-(
Yes it is pretty simple, a bit time consuming though, since moving, renaming, adding description.
No programming is required. you will need admin rank to do so btw. Ask steven he should be able to make you admin in the test forum.

(http://i.imgur.com/6tsO1V9.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 05:56:21 PM
btw i have question for you since you are a mod in the current forum.

In the current forum you can see a user's ip address and ip-block him, which i removed in the new forum since ip-address blocking is not accurate and can cause issues for others.
Do you actually use it? if so i might add it otherwise i will leave it as it is.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 06:04:44 PM
Thats okay for me, but it seems some people don't like that as it takes extra space. It is really hard to decide since different people have different issues and choices. :S

Something like this won't take space at all:

(http://i.imgur.com/xdhkavsl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/xdhkavs.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 06:13:35 PM
btw i have question for you since you are a mod in the current forum.
In the current forum you can see a user's ip address and ip-block him, which i removed in the new forum since ip-address blocking is not accurate and can cause issues for others.
Do you actually use it? if so i might add it otherwise i will leave it as it is.

I myself don't. I am only killing spam postings when encountered with them. I only remove and ban them on user name and email address.
I am not looking at, or investigating domains, ip ranges etc.
Perhaps Steven does that once in a while (please filter and kill all postings containing "kitchens", "uk" etc. beforehand ;-) so you should ask him if he needs that.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 06:14:03 PM
Something like this won't take space at all:

it is not possible do it like this, first it will break the menu design. and using two lines while rest of the menu is using one line is not a good design.

I think i will stick to current design as it is. a little bit of space at the top won't hurt too much :| , i will make it a bit more compact.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 20, 2016, 06:17:21 PM
btw i have question for you since you are a mod in the current forum.

In the current forum you can see a user's ip address and ip-block him, which i removed in the new forum since ip-address blocking is not accurate and can cause issues for others.
Do you actually use it? if so i might add it otherwise i will leave it as it is.
Speaking for myself as a moderator, I typically don't block someone via the IP because as you say, it might cause issues for others.  But there have been a couple of times where I have blocked the user's IP.  But this is always done from the 'ban user' option and not from within an offending post.  As long as the IP logging remains somewhere, I don't think there's a need to have the option show in the post.  Hiccup and/or Steven may feel otherwise and I would defer to whatever Steven says.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 20, 2016, 06:17:43 PM
btw i have question for you since you are a mod in the current forum.

In the current forum you can see a user's ip address and ip-block him, which i removed in the new forum since ip-address blocking is not accurate and can cause issues for others.
Do you actually use it? if so i might add it otherwise i will leave it as it is.
i used to block by ip address but as you suggest it can cause issues because spammers use hijacked pc's these days. Saying that, i would still want the ability to do that if i needed to
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 06:18:57 PM
btw i have question for you since you are a mod in the current forum.

In the current forum you can see a user's ip address and ip-block him, which i removed in the new forum since ip-address blocking is not accurate and can cause issues for others.
Do you actually use it? if so i might add it otherwise i will leave it as it is.
i used to block by ip address but as you suggest it can cause issues because spammers use hijacked pc's these days. Saying that, i would still want the ability to do that if i needed to

Do you use it from the posts view or as phred says from mod panel?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 20, 2016, 06:20:57 PM
from the admin panel
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 06:22:49 PM
I am decided on that structure, the wording can be improved.

Can you say what wordings you are not sure about?

Quote
Yes it is pretty simple, a bit time consuming though, since moving, renaming, adding description.
No programming is required. you will need admin rank to do so btw. Ask steven he should be able to make you admin in the test forum.

I'm willing and able to do that. But I would like it if we are (for 99%) agreed on the structure and naming before I do that.
Also, I am curious about this:
Since there are some discrepancies in the structure and boards between the old and new forum, simply exporting all existing boards and topics will probably not be possible.
Should we design some simple diagram where we can see where old topics and boards should go in the new forum structure?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 06:23:05 PM
Speaking for myself as a moderator, I typically don't block someone via the IP because as you say, it might cause issues for others.  But there have been a couple of times where I have blocked the user's IP.  But this is always done from the 'ban user' option and not from within an offending post.  As long as the IP logging remains somewhere, I don't think there's a need to have the option show in the post.  Hiccup and/or Steven may feel otherwise and I would default to whatever Steven says.

I have only removed from posts view, it is still available in the forum moderator/admin panel.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 06:27:10 PM
from the admin panel
Ok, thats fine, i won't add back in post view then.
"report to moderator", "quick edit" is still available though.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 06:35:02 PM
To refresh our minds, this is where I believe we left off some three months ago:


ANNOUNCEMENT

MusicBee Release               information on the latest official release version
MusicBee Pre-Release         the latest 'nightly' and pre-release versions


GENERAL

Tips and Tricks
General Discussions            Child boards: Discussing MusicBee, Polls
MusicBee Wishlist


MUSICBEE ADDONS

Customisations                  Child boards: TheaterMode, Skins, Icons, Visualisers, Localisation, Showcase
Plugins


SUPPORT

Questions                         Child boards: Questions on MusicBee, Support in non-English languages only
Bug Reports
Developers                       Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode


BEYOND MUSICBEE          Child boards:Related Interests, Rubbish Bin



Edit,
If there is not much enthusiasm about a foreign language board (it was only a suggestion from me I don't care about very strongly), support would just be be:

SUPPORT

Questions
Bug Reports
Developers                       Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 06:35:25 PM
Can you say what wordings you are not sure about?
I am talking about board descriptions, since you haven't proposed any description for most boards here:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg99771#msg99771 (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg99771#msg99771)

we need to get descriptions for boards and then changing it by other member's feedback as needed.

I'm willing and able to do that. But I would like it if we are (for 99%) agreed on the structure and naming before I do that.
We seemed to resolve this a long time ago. The naming structure is fine :)

Also, I am curious about this:
Since there are some discrepancies in the structure and boards between the old and new forum, simply exporting all existing boards and topics will probably not be possible.
Should we design some simple diagram where we can see where old topics and boards should go in the new forum structure?
that would be a good idea.

The structure is not too different, the only problem would be question board, since currently all questions are in general we need to rename general into questions, and move the sticky thread to general. others should be easy, since they require just renaming and moving.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 07:37:39 PM
I am talking about board descriptions, since you haven't proposed any description for most boards here:

I wasn't aware I was holding things up ;-)
Ok, here are some further proposals:


ANNOUNCEMENT

MusicBee Release               information on the latest official release
MusicBee Pre-Release         information on the latest pre-releases


GENERAL

Tips and Tricks                  provide advice and tips to others - no questions please!
General Discussions           general MusicBee and forum discussions
      Child boards: Polls
MusicBee Wishlist              make a wish for what you like to see in the next version?


MUSICBEE ADDONS

Customisations                  discussing add-ons extending visuals and interface
      Child boards: TheaterMode, Skins, Icons, Visualisers, Localisation, Showcase
Plugins                              discussing add-ons extending functionality


SUPPORT

Questions                          need help?
      Child boards: Support in non-English languages only
Bug Reports                       report factual bugs and malfunctions
Developers                        developers discussion board
      Child boards: MusicBee API, Skins, TheaterMode


BEYOND MUSICBEE           talk about anything not related to MusicBee
      Child boards:Rubbish Bin
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 07:40:51 PM
do we need poll as a child board? we can post polls in general board.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 07:44:59 PM
do we need poll as a child board? we can post polls in general board.

haha, 'polls' was something you brought up. You seemed to have some serious plans with it, so I just thought to give it a special place ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 07:55:47 PM
haha, 'polls' was something you brought up. You seemed to have some serious plans with it, so I just thought to give it a special place ;-)
For serious plans i only intended it's use for voting any specific feature, or using it for getting feedback, a special section is too much i guess :P
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 08:02:46 PM
Looking at this part, I have doubts if it is an improvement to have the announcement board split in two between 'latest official' and 'latest pre-release'.
Especially since it is announcements only, and only Steven contributes to that, I think that works well and looks clean.

But perhaps for discussing releases that are under development, there could be a child board for that under 'General'?
Steven?


ANNOUNCEMENT

MusicBee Release               information on the latest official release
MusicBee Pre-Release         information on the latest pre-releases

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 20, 2016, 08:05:02 PM
For serious plans i only intended it's use for voting any specific feature, or using it for getting feedback, a special section is too much i guess :P
Make sure that if/when using a poll to gather votes for adding specific features that there's a disclaimer stating something like "just because a feature rates high in the voting, that's not a guarantee that it will be added."
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 08:20:36 PM
Are you working on something right now?
Some serious corruption here:

(http://i.imgur.com/tFre1R9l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/tFre1R9.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 08:35:32 PM
Are you working on something right now?
Some serious corruption here:

can't seem to reproduce it :S
you might wanna refresh the browser, since i have updated the forum styling a bit, ti might need to clear the cache
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 08:45:00 PM
can't seem to reproduce it :S
you might wanna refresh the browser, since i have updated the forum styling a bit, ti might need to clear the cache

Yep, that fixed it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 20, 2016, 09:20:12 PM
If you look at the stats for the top 10 boards
(http://i.cubeupload.com/2O4FKz.jpg)
I think it makes sense to have the big coloured buttons at the top of the forum to provide quick access to the popular areas.
General and Wishlist are too generic to warrant their own buttons, but Bug Reports (which I think the red button will eventually link to), Add-Ons (Plugins, Skins, TheaterMode - ie. the green button) and the Latest Version link.

I do think the blue button should point to the latest patch, as this is the forum and you would (probably) be looking for an update to fix a feature/bug.  The main site has the link to the latest released version.

The only other way I could think of would be to replace the red button with a 'Tips and Tricks' one, moving the Question/Issue text to a banner (in safety yellow/orange) at the top of the Bug Reports page
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 09:27:13 PM
I do think the blue button should point to the latest patch, as this is the forum and you would (probably) be looking for an update to fix a feature/bug.  The main site has the link to the latest released version.
The only other way I could think of would be to replace the red button with a 'Tips and Tricks' one, moving the Question/Issue text to a banner (in safety yellow/orange) at the top of the Bug Reports page

I think we were on the verge on agreeing that we could live without those big buttons very well.
Are you advocating that you bee-lieve they are so important and have such added value that they should have a prime location and take up as much space as they do?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 20, 2016, 09:41:25 PM
Are you advocating that you bee-lieve they are so important and have such added value that they should have a prime location and take up as much space as they do?
Yes :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 09:44:32 PM
take up as much space as they do?
they do take a lots of space but comparing to the current forum it actually takes less space :P
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 09:45:20 PM
This new forum stuff is starting to remind me of Groundhog Day more and more.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 09:51:51 PM
I do think the blue button should point to the latest patch, as this is the forum and you would (probably) be looking for an update to fix a feature/bug.  The main site has the link to the latest released version.
The main issue is that steven does not use any specific thread to post patches. so i don't think linking to announcement thread will work.

The only other way I could think of would be to replace the red button with a 'Tips and Tricks' one, moving the Question/Issue text to a banner (in safety yellow/orange) at the top of the Bug Reports page
unfortunately adding banner to any specific page is not possible without any dirty hack :S
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 09:53:14 PM
This new forum stuff is starting to remind me of Groundhog Day more and more.
What the heck is ground hog day?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 09:57:56 PM
This new forum stuff is starting to remind me of Groundhog Day more and more.
What the heck is ground hog day?

A movie that you will enjoy ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 20, 2016, 10:03:29 PM
This new forum stuff is starting to remind me of Groundhog Day more and more.
What the heck is ground hog day?
No wonder it all seems familiar!!!
It's deja-vu all over again.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 10:07:27 PM
A movie that you will enjoy ;-)

added on my watchlist :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 20, 2016, 10:15:48 PM
I do think the blue button should point to the latest patch, as this is the forum and you would (probably) be looking for an update to fix a feature/bug.  The main site has the link to the latest released version.
The main issue is that steven does not use any specific thread to post patches. so i don't think linking to announcement thread will work.

No, there is no landing page, but the download link is always the same.
It's the one phred uses in his signature.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 10:21:16 PM
No, there is no landing page, but the download link is always the same.
It's the one phred uses in his signature.
I don't think the link is consistent. It is for v2.5 what will happen when v3.0 releases? it will need manual editing, which is not an elegant solution.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 10:26:31 PM
added on my watchlist :)

It is really good. Both funny and philosophical.


But on a more serious note, allow me to be honest here:
I feel some parts in developping the new forum and website are dragging on a lot longer than they should.
Let's take the discussion on the picture on the front page. After lots of discussion, at a certain moment Steven indicated he would be happy with the picture with the speaker and the computer display.
Instead of settling it and using that, the discussion just went on and on. (and I believe it still is?)
Now the same is happening with the 'big buttons'. It has been discussed a lot before. Today Steven mentioned he would be fine with getting rid of them.
Instead of just following that suggestion and moving on, the discussion is immediatly brought to life again.

I think it would be good, and more productive, that if there has been a discussion on a matter that anybody was able to give his input on, and then at a certain moment Steven says 'this would be fine by me', just let's do that then.
These specific matters are also not show-stoppers, and can quite easily be changed/added/removed at a later moment.

I shiver at the thought in what state MusicBee would have been if it was developed in the same democratic way the new forum is being discussed.

Let's get this show on the road!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 20, 2016, 10:31:07 PM
What hiccup said.  :)  I understand the desire to have everything ironed out beforehand, but just like with MB, even after it's "released" it will need a few more adjustments, and that's fine.  Some people always hate change, some people will have good ideas that can be added, but let's roll with it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 10:42:10 PM
yeah i guess you guys are right. :)
i have pushed one final update for the forum  and removed those big boxes and as well as some bug fixes and improvement for the menu, it is now mobile friendly even though the forum is not :).

For any more requests toward forum, home page, download page, addon page, release-note page  will be added on my todo list for v2.0
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 10:44:18 PM
What hiccup said.  :)  I understand the desire to have everything ironed out beforehand, but just like with MB, even after it's "released" it will need a few more adjustments, and that's fine.  Some people always hate change, some people will have good ideas that can be added, but let's roll with it.
Yeah you are absolutely right, it is hard to make changes when different people have different suggestions :S

I did have few more features i wanted in the first release, but i guess i will add them in v2.0
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 10:48:24 PM
Great!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 20, 2016, 10:49:53 PM
No, there is no landing page, but the download link is always the same.
It's the one phred uses in his signature.
I don't think the link is consistent. It is for v2.5 what will happen when v3.0 releases? it will need manual editing, which is not an elegant solution.

No. The latest patch is always the same link.
It currently downloads MusicBee 3.0.5923.36565, being the version that Steven just recently uploaded.

I thought that having a link to the latest patch on the forum, was something that had already been discussed and deemed a great idea.
Rather than having to search for a post by phred and get the link from his signature, or search for recent posts by Steven and look through those for the last posted patch.

EDIT:
Actually, reading back through the thread, the large button removal was discussed before and was decided it wouldn't happen.  That it was a good and convenient solution.  It was then just brought back up and re-hashed again today!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 10:57:42 PM
Yes it is pretty simple, a bit time consuming though, since moving, renaming, adding description.
No programming is required. you will need admin rank to do so btw. Ask steven he should be able to make you admin in the test forum.

Ok, and just for my understanding, my username on the new forum (hiccup2) is different from my current one here (hiccup). I believe existing user names from the current forum are not allowed to register again at the new forum.
Should I ask for those extra permissions on the second and new username (hiccup2) there, or should I ask to have my current one copied to the new forum, including these extra permissions?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 11:02:46 PM
No. The latest patch is always the same link.
It currently downloads MusicBee 3.0.5923.36565, being the version that Steven just recently uploaded.

I thought that having a link to the latest patch on the forum, was something that had already been discussed and deemed a great idea.
Rather than having to search for a post by phred and get the link from his signature, or search for recent posts by Steven and look through those for the last posted patch.
That is weird, the link read like it is for v2.5

EDIT:
Actually, reading back through the thread, the large button removal was discussed before and was decided it wouldn't happen.  That it was a good and convenient solution.  It was only just brought back up re-hashed again today!
I know what you are saying, it just wasn't a great solution.  There were few uncertainty:
First i don't think the patch link is completely permanent.  It could change in future, and only way would be to edit the theme files.

Don't worry i have some plans for future releases, i will post those ideas when i am done with the initial release. :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 11:06:40 PM
Ok, and just for my understanding, my username on the new forum (hiccup2) is different from my current one here (hiccup). I believe existing user names from the current forum are not allowed to register again at the new forum.
Should I ask for those extra permissions on the second and new username (hiccup2) there, or should I ask to have my current one copied to the new forum, including these extra permissions?
I don't think there is any relation between the current and new forum. You should be able to choose "hiccup" in new forum as well.

as for permission, you can't copy it.
If you want the same global mod permission there thats fine, but i don't know if you can modify or edit boards with global mod permission.

Can you modify current forum boards with global mod? if not i think you will need admin permission.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 11:10:37 PM
Actually, reading back through the thread, the large button removal was discussed before and was decided it wouldn't happen.  That it was a good and convenient solution.  It was then just brought back up and re-hashed again today!

But I also remember AvikB succumbing to the suggestions that considering it's permanent presence and taking up so much space was an issue, so he would implement the option to hide them.

This is the last I will say about this matter (at least until the forum is live), but I still feel the buttons are much bigger than necessary, they take an unreasonable amount of space and focus at the cost of a lot of other important information on the rest of the main screen, and the assumption that the majority of forum visitors is kind of clueless, and visits the forum just because they have serious issues that in most cases will be solved by just pushing a big update button in my opinion is not a true representation of reality.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 11:13:50 PM
I don't think there is any relation between the current and new forum. You should be able to choose "hiccup" in new forum as well.

Are you sure about this?
It's been a while, but I am sure I chose hiccup2 because hiccup wasn't accepted. I believe also other forum members choose (slightly) different aliases because of that.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 11:18:21 PM
Are you sure about this?
It's been a while, but I am sure I chose hiccup2 because hiccup wasn't accepted. I believe also other forum members choose (slightly) different aliases because of that.
yeah 100% sure. create a new account with "hiccup" and let me know if it is working or not
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 20, 2016, 11:26:39 PM
I don't think there is any relation between the current and new forum. You should be able to choose "hiccup" in new forum as well.

Are you sure about this?
It's been a while, but I am sure I chose hiccup2 because hiccup wasn't accepted. I believe also other forum members choose (slightly) different aliases because of that.
I'm pretty sure hiccup is correct. 

I just tried to register as 'phred' and it wouldn't let me.  Actually, it said I didn't answer the verification question correctly.  I tried it 5 or 6 times with the same result.  I changed the username to something else and got the same denial. 

Also if you request that the verification image be changed, the letters in the text box remain the same even though the background graphics change.  This does not seem like a good verification scheme if it always requests the same letters.

I'd like to know if anyone can get a new registration processed successfully at this point.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 20, 2016, 11:29:06 PM
yeah 100% sure. create a new account with "hiccup" and let me know if it is working or not

I'm sorry, I must be getting tired, I tried 4 times, and they won't let me in...
I am calling it a day...

(http://i.imgur.com/VGVuzhbl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/VGVuzhb.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 11:33:07 PM
thats weird, there should be another verification box, which is not showing. I will try to figure out whats wrong. :S
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 20, 2016, 11:35:25 PM
I still feel the buttons are much bigger than necessary, they take an unreasonable amount of space and focus at the cost of a lot of other important information on the rest of the main screen
What other important information?
It's just the forum boards table of contents!!

and the assumption that the majority of forum visitors is kind of clueless, and visits the forum just because they have serious issues that in most cases will be solved by just pushing a big update button in my opinion is not a true representation of reality.

And I didn't say that, you made the assumption there.

What is known is that a permanent link to the latest patch has been mooted for a long time as having to find and re-post the link when providing that information to other posters was time consuming.
It was one of the main driving reasons for phred putting it in his signature.

@ AvikB
The main website looks great! Nice and colourful, eyecatching and functional.
Then the forum (the latest look without the big buttons)... bluntly - boring, uninspiring and generally not nice to look at.
Especially when compared to the great work on the main MusicBee page.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 11:40:52 PM
okay forum registration should be working now.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 11:46:17 PM
and the assumption that the majority of forum visitors is kind of clueless, and visits the forum just because they have serious issues that in most cases will be solved by just pushing a big update button in my opinion is not a true representation of reality.

And I didn't say that, you made the assumption there.

What is known is that a permanent link to the latest patch has been mooted for a long time as having to find and re-post the link when providing that information to other posters was time consuming.
It was one of the main driving reasons for phred putting it in his signature.

@ AvikB
The main website looks great! Nice and colourful, eyecatching and functional.
Then the forum (the latest look without the big buttons)... bluntly - boring, uninspiring and generally not nice to look at.
Especially when compared to the great work on the main MusicBee page.

Yes i do understand your point. But the current implementation is not good. I am talking about worst case scenario, since if the patch link changes it would be a huge pain to modify it.
Wait till version 2.0, i have some new plan for this. Much better way to update them if needed.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 20, 2016, 11:51:08 PM
I have kept the link to the patch up to date on the wiki. It changes rarely enough that it's not much work.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 20, 2016, 11:54:33 PM
I have kept the link to the patch up to date on the wiki. It changes rarely enough that it's not much work.
Well it is easy to edit in wiki if it EVER changes.
But for the site you have to hunt down files after files and change it and if anything accidentally gets deleted the whole forum will stop working.

I am just talking about worst case scenario. I have plans for this in v2.0.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 21, 2016, 12:13:09 AM
Just to clarify...
I'm not saying the buttons have to be exactly as they were before, but I can't see the logic in removing those quick links to the most active boards.
The Bug Reports is the third most active board. Surely it's sensible to have a obvious link to that board, especially for new users that have just registered on the board to report a bug/problem?

And AvikB, you've spent all this time and effort to unify the plugins, skins, etc, even creating a specialised uploading section, surely that board deserves a quick access button, especially as Plugins is the fourth most active board?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 21, 2016, 12:18:20 AM
But for the site you have to hunt down files after files and change it and if anything accidentally gets deleted the whole forum will stop working.

I am just talking about worst case scenario. I have plans for this in v2.0.

Didn't you make changes so that Steven could just go and change the links for the downloads (in the main site) when there was an update to MusicBee?
Wouldn't this be exactly the same?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 12:22:12 AM
But for the site you have to hunt down files after files and change it and if anything accidentally gets deleted the whole forum will stop working.

I am just talking about worst case scenario. I have plans for this in v2.0.

Didn't you make changes so that Steven could just go and change the links for the downloads (in the main site) when there was an update to MusicBee?
Wouldn't this be exactly the same?
Yes, but only for stable release(full), beta release(full or patch).
Nothing for patch release since patch updates get added in full stable releases.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 12:25:02 AM
Just to clarify...
I'm not saying the buttons have to be exactly as they were before, but I can't see the logic in removing those quick links to the most active boards.
The Bug Reports is the third most active board. Surely it's sensible to have a obvious link to that board, especially for new users that have just registered on the board to report a bug/problem?
I am not against the buttons, but as i mentioned patch links can not be updated, only by editing file. I will add the ability in v2.0

And AvikB, you've spent all this time and effort to unify the plugins, skins, etc, even creating a specialised uploading section, surely that board deserves a quick access button, especially as Plugins is the fourth most active board?
Until the new admin panel arrives a sticky thread in skin, plugin section should be enough.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 21, 2016, 12:45:05 AM
Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be a growing divide between what has been promised by all the site images and what is actually going to be delivered :(
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 12:47:55 AM
Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be a growing divide between what has been promised by all the site images and what is actually going to be delivered :(
What do you mean?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 21, 2016, 12:52:24 AM
I'm excited about the new forum, but I will say right as 3.0 is being officially released is probably not the best time for it.  Maybe we can set a theoretical date like "3 weeks after 3.0" or something, so that any big influx of bug reports, complaints, etc has time to die down.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 21, 2016, 12:54:06 AM
okay forum registration should be working now.
Ok.  I was able to register as 'phred' but had to provide a different email address than the one currently associated with phred_phred.  Which makes sense.

However - the verification text continues to be static when a new one is requested.  Again, the background changes but the text does not.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 12:59:13 AM
However - the verification text continues to be static when a new one is requested.  Again, the background changes but the text does not.
Unfortunately that is how SMF varification seems to work. :(
The new verification purpose is to give you a much less distorted image of the same text.
but i don't think it is much of an security issue. Since it will always show a new one if you force refresh the page.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 01:02:39 AM
I'm excited about the new forum, but I will say right as 3.0 is being officially released is probably not the best time for it.  Maybe we can set a theoretical date like "3 weeks after 3.0" or something, so that any big influx of bug reports, complaints, etc has time to die down.

I haven't decided when it will be ready, but it is gonna take few weeks before the new site is in beta. there are still much more optimization and work to do. And yes i am planning to release it once the v3.0 is at least in stable beta, or feature complete.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 09:51:32 AM
Quote from: Bee-liever
What other important information?
It's just the forum boards table of contents!!

Just the contents?
I would consider that the most essential and important information to be on the forums front page, and believe should be the most prominent, clean-structured, with as less distractions as possible.

Quote
And I didn't say that, you made the assumption there.

I'm sorry, perhaps my wordings were not subtle, that was not directed at a person, but at 'the idea' I believe is behind those extra links and/or buttons.

Quote
Then the forum (the latest look without the big buttons)... bluntly - boring, uninspiring and generally not nice to look at.
Especially when compared to the great work on the main MusicBee page.

I think there is nothing wrong with having a forum layout without much fun or eye candy. It should be all about content. That should be fun and not boring ;-)
I agree it wouldn't hurt it to be tasteful in layout, but the priority should be a clean layout without distractions and confusion, and, very importantly, a good speed of navigation.

Quote
I'm not saying the buttons have to be exactly as they were before, but I can't see the logic in removing those quick links to the most active boards.
The Bug Reports is the third most active board. Surely it's sensible to have a obvious link to that board, especially for new users that have just registered on the board to report a bug/problem?

Ok, eventhough I pledged to shutup about it, I have something to say about having extra links and attention to 'Report A Bug!' that I haven't said before.

I believe the logic behind this is flawed.
As you say, the Bug topic is already in the top 3 of most popular boards.
So it doesn't seem to be in any need of any extra attention at all. It would also be weird, having two different links to the same subject on the exact same page. That is confusing, and I think plain bad practise.
Also, I can not recall any complaint of any user ever having complained that he could not find where to post a bug.
So this would realy be a solution to a non-existing problem.

And what is much more important, I think it would result in the oppostite; it would create problems.
Already there is a regular amount of bug reports, that are not factual bugs.
This is of course undesirable, both for Steven, as for members and moderators trying to help.

With any extra invitation to report 'bugs', I am convinced that the amount of false bug reports will increase.

For that reason I also believe the 'report bugs' link on the front page of the website should be removed.

The MusicBee web page is likely to be the first page a newbee looking for support will land, before being aware there even is a forum.
Many of those that might have any issue with MusicBee, would probably be tempted to use that link, and go straight into the bugs topic.
Do we really want that?

I would suggest to have a single link called "need help or report issues?", which goes to the landing page of the forum.
The forum page will provide at least some filtering to prevent such unwanted bug reports.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 10:06:48 AM
okay forum registration should be working now.

Thnx, working now indeed.
I now could create a new account under 'hiccup'.
Contrary to what you believed, there seems to be a link between the old and the new forum, since (as phred also mentioned), you cannot use the same email address.

Two observations about registering to the forum:

1. after any error in trying to register (username already exists, wrong captcha etc.) the two password fields which you have carefully entered are cleaned again. So you have to enter it (twice) al over again. That's annoying (to me ;-)
Is that something you have control over?

2.
This captcha barrier with only 5 letters to me looks like a sitting duck for spambots.
Is there an option for a more advanced one? I believe the current forum works with photographs you have to match?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Skoop on March 21, 2016, 10:19:33 AM
Quote
you cannot use the same email address.

That will be a disincentive to ever sign up on the new one, for some of us.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 10:27:09 AM
okay time for a new update, dashboard is now being worked on. it is completely redesigned and have new features for admin/mod and also most downloaded(unique, based per IP), most liked(also uqnique, based per user) statistics is now working.

here is a peak. I haven't uploaded the update yet as few major database changes are needed, which i will update when the database schema is atleast a bit more solid.

(https://i.imgur.com/CHtPSb5.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 10:33:09 AM
okay time for a new update, dashboard is now being worked on. it is completely redesigned and have new features for admin/mod and also most downloaded(unique, based per IP), most liked(also uqnique, based per user) statistics is now working.

That looks very good and very professional.
I really hope there will be lots of contributions with good and interesting addons, which will justify all the work that you are putting into this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 10:33:32 AM
Thnx, working now indeed.
I now could create a new account under 'hiccup'.
Contrary to what you believed, there seems to be a link between the old and the new forum, since (as phred also mentioned), you cannot use the same email address.
No there is no connection between new and old forum. the only reason you won't be able to use email is because you already used it for previous registration.

Two observations about registering to the forum:

1. after any error in trying to register (username already exists, wrong captcha etc.) the two password fields which you have carefully entered are cleaned again. So you have to enter it (twice) al over again. That's annoying (to me ;-)
Is that something you have control over?
Nope, i have no control over registration behavior.

2.
This captcha barrier with only 5 letters to me looks like a sitting duck for spambots.
Is there an option for a more advanced one? I believe the current forum works with photographs you have to match?
Yes the current forum like photograph captchas were there, but it seems somehow it got broke. I will fix it in next update.
Don't worry the current captcha is not that weak. It is actually cleverly designed.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 10:39:10 AM
That looks very good and very professional.
Well everything is now getting finishing touch before it enters stable beta. :)

I really hope there will be lots of contributions with good and interesting addons, which will justify all the work that you are putting into this.
I am sure there will be. we have a lots of active skinners, plugin developers. :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 10:46:28 AM
the only reason you won't be able to use email is because you already used it for previous registration.

Ah, dumb of me, it was indeed the same one I already used for 'hiccup2'.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 21, 2016, 10:46:32 AM
@ hiccup
It looks like you and me will have to agree to disagree on what is and isn't important for average users on the forum.

And as I said before, all this was brought up before and discussed and it was decided that the shortcut buttons would stay.  So instead of sticking with that decision, it's been rehashed and now that's not going to happen.  I'm sure, that sometime in the future, it will be re-discussed and a different decision will be made.

One of the pitfalls of designing by committee to accommodate everyone's viewpoint.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 10:55:20 AM
@ hiccup
It looks like you and me will have to agree to disagree on what is and isn't important for average users on the forum.

And as I said before, all this was brought up before and discussed and it was decided that the shortcut buttons would stay.  So instead of sticking with that decision, it's been rehashed and now that's not going to happen.  I'm sure, that sometime in the future, it will be re-discussed and a different decision will be made.

One of the pitfalls of designing by committee to accommodate everyone's viewpoint.
The only reason i agreed to remove it because of the poor implementation. I will look into these in more depth for available solution for v2.0.
I personally don't think a user need to search for patches in forum or anywhere. MusicBee should have a check for update button which should be able to get the patch or notify the user automatically.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 11:01:28 AM
I'm sure, that sometime in the future, it will be re-discussed and a different decision will be made.

That would not be a problem for me at all.
Apart from my arguments (which of course I believe are very strong and irrefutable  ;-) , my main reason for arguing this matter is that all this deliberating on those big buttons is cumbersome and dragging on for too long.
Yesterday the most important person here (Steven) mentioned he would be fine getting rid of those big buttons.
So for now just let's do that and try to finally get the show on the road.

After the basic layout and structure is settled, and proved to work well, we can always see if there are improvements to be made.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 11:07:07 AM
The only reason i agreed to remove it because of the poor implementation. I will look into these in more depth for available solution for v2.0.
I personally don't think a user need to search for patches in forum or anywhere. MusicBee should have a check for update button which should be able to get the patch or notify the user automatically.

To be clear, I fully support the idea that finding updates/patches etc. can, should, must be improved.
The only part I don't support is bringing extra (duplicate) attention to posting 'bugs'.
Explanation on when or how to post them, yes, probably. Extra links/buttons etc. No.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on March 21, 2016, 11:53:07 AM
All this arguing is just going round in circles and is not moving this topic forward at all, and as I seem to be a lone voice, I'll refrain from any further input into this topic at all.

@ hiccup
Just in parting, I would remind you to remember what you have posted before.  Seems those links were not so useful after all (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg99769#msg99769 (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg99769#msg99769))

Yesterday the most important person here (Steven) mentioned he would be fine getting rid of those big buttons.
And please supply all the facts.  Steven was happy to get rid of the big buttons if AvikB was going to go to the trouble of hiding them.

I do agree with you, i am thinking of providing a way for allowing users to collapse them.
if you are going to do that then why not just get rid of them?
The only reason i suggested them was to serve as a hint for new users who seem to continually struggle to find the topic with the latest updates but i only see that as mildly useful

And please don't forget this re-hashing of the big buttons was down to one users post about not liking the new forum at all (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg107459#msg107459 (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg107459#msg107459)).
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 12:25:13 PM
If you imply that I am inconsistent in this matter, i don't believe I am.
(not that I would be ashamed to adjust any of my opinions over time at all)

Button 1; report bugs
- not useful, and even counter-productive in my opinion. I have given a few valid arguments for that, which you have not addressed at all.

Button 2: updates and patches
- would be useful, I never argued against that, but I have expressed doubts about the mechanics, concept and terminologies behind it. Avikb also explained more than once that he believes the mechanics behind it are not in place right now, so he would not be satisfied to implement it well at this moment.

Button 3: link to f.a.q's and howto's
- could be useful, I never said otherwise

So we can objectively establish that at this moment, two out of three of these buttons are still under discussion, c.q. not implementable at a satisfactory level.
Now, after more than three months, the only thing I am saying, is just forget about these buttons for now, let's do our best to get the new forum live, and when the time and circumstances are better, let's look at getting such buttons and/or shortcuts right.

Let's not get grumpy on this issue?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 21, 2016, 01:43:15 PM
Thnx, working now indeed.
I now could create a new account under 'hiccup'.
Contrary to what you believed, there seems to be a link between the old and the new forum, since (as phred also mentioned), you cannot use the same email address.
I might be wrong, but the initial email address I provided when trying to register 'phred' was the same one being used by 'phred_phred'. Registration was (probably) denied since the new forum wouldn't (and shouldn't) allow two accounts with the same email address.  Coincidentally, it's the same address I'm using on the -original- forum.  So I -think- a user would be able to use their current (original forum) on the new forum.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 01:59:48 PM
I might be wrong, but the initial email address I provided when trying to register 'phred' was the same one being used by 'phred_phred'. Registration was (probably) denied since the new forum wouldn't (and shouldn't) allow two accounts with the same email address.  Coincidentally, it's the same address I'm using on the -original- forum.  So I -think- a user would be able to use their current (original forum) on the new forum.
Unfortunately it is out of my hand, it is the foundation SMF is built in. you can use one email address only ONCE.
If you want to use the email address you used for the current forum, i suggest you delete your forum account in the new forum and create a new one there.

BTW, this registration for new account is only needed for test website. When the new forum will be ready all your current forum data, registration, post history will be there with the same username and email you are using on current forum.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 02:24:32 PM
Trying out how posting a screenshot in the new forum works, I found that when you press the 'insert image' button, you get presented with a rather spartan pop-up field:

(http://i.imgur.com/6qzCLLpl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/6qzCLLp.png)

I doubt if every user will be able to enter the needed url there.
Would it be possible to have a browse button, so a user can navigate to the location of the image he wants to upload?
Or perhaps even have drag&drop for that?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 02:32:14 PM
Trying out how posting a screenshot in the new forum works, I found that when you press the 'insert image' button, you get presented with a rather spartan pop-up field:

I doubt if every user will be able to enter the needed url there.
Would it be possible to have a browse button, so a user can navigate to the location of the image he wants to upload?
Or perhaps even have drag&drop for that?

Not possible since browser button, or drag & drop requires attachment to be enable. and it will upload them to the server, which steven didn't wanted because of huge bandwidth issue. as for now use thridparty image hosting to upload and then provide a link.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 21, 2016, 02:49:37 PM
Trying out how posting a screenshot in the new forum works, I found that when you press the 'insert image' button, you get presented with a rather spartan pop-up field:
Using the great Imgur Uploader to upload and create the URL still works.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php/topic,11.0.html
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 02:54:48 PM
Using the great Imgur Uploader to upload and create the URL still works.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php/topic,11.0.html

No it doesn't, hahaha
(I'm sorry)

(http://i.imgur.com/4QgwUVGs.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4QgwUVG.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 02:58:31 PM
Using the great Imgur Uploader to upload and create the URL still works.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php/topic,11.0.html
Using ShareX here.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php/topic,11.0.html
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 02:59:58 PM
No it doesn't, hahaha
(I'm sorry)
I have no idea how you got this error! :S seems like thread is deleted.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 21, 2016, 03:02:53 PM
Just offer more detailed instructions:

"Upload your picture to an image hosting site (e.g. http://imgur.com) and provide a link to the image"
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 03:53:22 PM
I made a start implementing the new structure on the new board.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/

Some remarks and observations on this:
1. I changed some English UK words to English US. Is believe that was the intention for the website, and I am assuming for the forum too?
Let me know if this is incorrect, then I will change it back.
2. @phred, could you please check for spelling errors, capitalizations, possible abuses of the English language, crooked wordings, etc.?
3. I have not (yet) created a new separate category called 'Announcement' as was suggested in the latest proposal. The reason is that that will cost some precious screen estate, which we will need later for some big buttons ;-)
For now I left it under 'General', with an added comment 'announcement only' (Steven will have to give himself exclusive rights to post there)
4. The dark 'Category' title bars are quite big (high), and take up a lot of vertical space. Could they be made thinner and more elegant?
5. Anybody with new insights and suggestions for improvements, please shoot!

edit:
6. I still have some doubts myself if the child board 'other languages' must be introduced.
Maybe some other forum members whose native tongue is not English can give some input on this?
7. Should we perhaps put 'Rubbish bin' as a child of 'Beyond MusicBee'? That will gain some screen territory too.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 04:36:56 PM
This is weird. When I visit the new forum without logging-in, I see all boards:

(http://i.imgur.com/IydZQRNl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/IydZQRN.png)

But when I am logged-in, the General Discussions board is gone:

(http://i.imgur.com/6naHpzUl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/6naHpzU.png)

Am I missing some obscure preferences setting here?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 21, 2016, 04:51:35 PM
1. I changed some English UK words to English US. Is believe that was the intention for the website, and I am assuming for the forum too?
Let me know if this is incorrect, then I will change it back.
Steven told me that for the website, I should use US English, but nothing was discussed regarding the forum.  Personally I think there should be consistency throughout, so I opt for US English.

Quote
2. @phred, could you please check for spelling errors, capitalizations, possible abuses of the English language, crooked wordings, etc.?
Will do, but I'd rather wait until all the text is finalized.  Otherwise I'm checking each rendition and wasting my time.  I'd rather do it a day or two before it goes live.

Quote
7. Should we perhaps put 'Rubbish bin' as a child of 'Beyond MusicBee'? That will gain some screen territory too.
For starters, I would change "this is where nonsense goes" to perhaps no description at all as is done currently.  I can't help but think users will post jokes, spam, and other "nonsense" there.  Taking it a step further, do we even need a rubbish bin?  I've never moved anything to it.  I simply delete any spam that I catch.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 05:05:42 PM
This is weird. When I visit the new forum without logging-in, I see all boards:

But when I am logged-in, the General Discussions board is gone:

Am I missing some obscure preferences setting here?
It seems you changed the board permission setting:

(https://i.imgur.com/l7oHoiI.jpg)

as you can see global moderators are disabled. so everyone can see it except global mods. Check the global moderator box and you should be able to see it too.
Don't change permission of any board. let it rest in default. which should be good. :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 05:17:05 PM
1. I changed some English UK words to English US. Is believe that was the intention for the website, and I am assuming for the forum too?
Let me know if this is incorrect, then I will change it back.
It is fine :)

3. I have not (yet) created a new separate category called 'Announcement' as was suggested in the latest proposal. The reason is that that will cost some precious screen estate, which we will need later for some big buttons ;-)
For now I left it under 'General', with an added comment 'announcement only' (Steven will have to give himself exclusive rights to post there)
I think Latest should be enough. Steven could mark posts stable release posts as [Release] Whatever release title
and for beta [Beta] Whatever Beta release

4. The dark 'Category' title bars are quite big (high), and take up a lot of vertical space. Could they be made thinner and more elegant?
What do you mean? can you post a screenshot?

5. Anybody with new insights and suggestions for improvements, please shoot!
Description for question board maybe too short! maybe a bit more longer!

edit:
6. I still have some doubts myself if the child board 'other languages' must be introduced.
Maybe some other forum members whose native tongue is not English can give some input on this?
Is there really a demand for this? maybe we can post an poll when the new forum releases and see the response. :)

7. Should we perhaps put 'Rubbish bin' as a child of 'Beyond MusicBee'? That will gain some screen territory too.
Well everything goes into rubbish is not really related to musicbee, so it can be moved to beyond musicbee, i think.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 05:22:09 PM
For starters, I would change "this is where nonsense goes" to perhaps no description at all as is done currently.  I can't help but think users will post jokes, spam, and other "nonsense" there.  Taking it a step further, do we even need a rubbish bin?  I've never moved anything to it.  I simply delete any spam that I catch.
Yup i was wondering the same thing. And if you look the current forum there is only 4 posts!!, it is really hard to justify the space it takes in the forum homepage just for 4 posts.

I say it is best if we remove it. or atleast move to a child board.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 05:35:17 PM
as you can see global moderators are disabled. so everyone can see it except global mods. Check the global moderator box and you should be able to see it too.
Don't change permission of any board. let it rest in default. which should be good. :)

Ah, thnx. I am very sure I never touched any of those settings, so I didn't look there.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 05:39:52 PM
Taking it a step further, do we even need a rubbish bin?  I've never moved anything to it.  I simply delete any spam that I catch.
Yup i was wondering the same thing. And if you look the current forum there is only 4 posts!!, it is really hard to justify the space it takes in the forum homepage just for 4 posts.
I say it is best if we remove it. or atleast move to a child board.

I'll move it to a child board for now.
I seem to recollect that Steven has created this rubbish bin in the past for a purpose, so let's just have him decide if he wants to delete it later.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 05:44:05 PM
Taking it a step further, do we even need a rubbish bin?  I've never moved anything to it.  I simply delete any spam that I catch.
Yup i was wondering the same thing. And if you look the current forum there is only 4 posts!!, it is really hard to justify the space it takes in the forum homepage just for 4 posts.
I say it is best if we remove it. or atleast move to a child board.

I'll move it to a child board for now.
I seem to recollect that Steven has created this rubbish bin in the past for a purpose, so let's just have him decide if he wants to delete it later.
fine with me.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: boroda on March 21, 2016, 05:47:30 PM
wow! russian is perfectly supported by new forum (current forum displays ? instead of Cyrillic letters)..

i think there is no need for 'other languages' board. everybody can just post a question in his language under regular boards.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 05:52:00 PM
1. I changed some English UK words to English US. Is believe that was the intention for the website, and I am assuming for the forum too?
Let me know if this is incorrect, then I will change it back.
It is fine :)

Ehh, so phred says UK, you say US?
@Steven?

Quote
4. The dark 'Category' title bars are quite big (high), and take up a lot of vertical space. Could they be made thinner and more elegant?
Quote
What do you mean? can you post a screenshot?

These:

(http://i.imgur.com/dzIClirl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/dzIClir.png)

They are quite high and massive. Also the darkness of them creates a high contrast with the rest of the page, which is not very pleasant on the eyes.
In fact, I feel the same about the black top bars. I wouldn't mind if they would get some friendlier color too.

Quote
6. I still have some doubts myself if the child board 'other languages' must be introduced.
Maybe some other forum members whose native tongue is not English can give some input on this?
Quote
Is there really a demand for this? maybe we can post an poll when the new forum releases and see the response. :)

That might be a good idea. I'll remove it for now, and at a later date when the forum is up and running, anybody caring about this can propose it and start a poll.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 05:55:45 PM
i think there is no need for 'other languages' board. everybody can just post a question in his language under regular boards.

Thanks. I believe you changed your mind a bit about this? (just like I did in fact)
I believe I can recall you were enthusiastic a while back when this was first brought up.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 06:00:54 PM
Will do, but I'd rather wait until all the text is finalized.  Otherwise I'm check each rendition and wasting my time.  I'd rather do it a day or two before it goes live.

Ok. But while that is of course your prerogative, I think that while that would be fine for small factual errors, I think if it concerns choice of wordings and explanatory sentences, it might be good to do that a bit earlier, so there is some time to discuss it before everything goes live.
Never mind, I am sure it will all fall into place just fine.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 21, 2016, 06:08:05 PM
1. I changed some English UK words to English US. Is believe that was the intention for the website, and I am assuming for the forum too?
Let me know if this is incorrect, then I will change it back.
It is fine :)
Ehh, so phred says UK, you say US?
@Steven?
I'm pretty sure I didn't say UK. 

Steven told me that for the website, I should use US English, but nothing was discussed regarding the forum.  Personally I think there should be consistency throughout, so I opt for US English.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 06:10:47 PM
For starters, I would change "this is where nonsense goes" to perhaps no description at all as is done currently.  I can't help but think users will post jokes, spam, and other "nonsense" there.  Taking it a step further, do we even need a rubbish bin?  I've never moved anything to it.  I simply delete any spam that I catch.
Yup i was wondering the same thing. And if you look the current forum there is only 4 posts!!, it is really hard to justify the space it takes in the forum homepage just for 4 posts.

Funny, only those 4 rubbish posts together collected 42601 views.
People just love garbage ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 06:20:36 PM
1. I changed some English UK words to English US. Is believe that was the intention for the website, and I am assuming for the forum too?
Let me know if this is incorrect, then I will change it back.
It is fine :)
Ehh, so phred says UK, you say US?
@Steven?
I'm pretty sure I didn't say UK. 

Steven told me that for the website, I should use US English, but nothing was discussed regarding the forum.  Personally I think there should be consistency throughout, so I opt for US English.

I get it. I got confused because I asked for English-UK vs. English-US.
Your response used the term 'US-English. My brain registered 'English' as the dominator there.
I'll leave it to American-English-US then.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 21, 2016, 06:27:36 PM
i created the Rubbish Bin in a moment of annoyance as some of the posts being made. I think it should be removed going forward
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 21, 2016, 06:43:38 PM
Should I convert the wiki back to US English for consistency? I changed it to match MusicBee defaults...
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 06:53:12 PM
Should I convert the wiki back to US English for consistency? I changed it to match MusicBee defaults...

Grrr, this is still a bugging issue in my mind too.
The wordings in MusicBee are by default in UK-English (unless a user manually sets MB's language to US of course)
So most users looking for support, will probably use UK English to look for terms as 'organising', visualiser' etc. etc.
To be honest, for that reason I would agree if Steven would decide to use UK-English web-forum-wiki wide.

edit;
Or perhaps a sensible compromise would be to have the website in US-English, since I am assuming that is more or less the norm for websites, and have both the forum and the wiki in UK-English, since that happens to be the norm for MusicBee and it's developer.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 21, 2016, 07:01:27 PM
its too annoying having people say there are spelling mistakes so i would rather just have the site as US english
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 07:06:02 PM
its too annoying having people say there are spelling mistakes so i would rather just have the site as US english

I just edited my last response a second ago. Would that proposal be agreeable?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 21, 2016, 07:19:56 PM
its too annoying having people say there are spelling mistakes so i would rather just have the site as US english
Just for the record, I am more than embarrassed by my fellow countrymen and women who just instantly assume the UK spelling is a typo.  While the Brits and the rest of the UK English speaking world almost never point out US English "misspellings." 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 07:57:02 PM
A new update based on hiccup's suggestion about color scheme of the forum.

Go to forum and REFRESH the browser to clear the cache. Light color scheme does not have weird dark contrast.

Another huge improvement would be mobile support for viewing thread. :), it is finally here. I haven't tasted it out yet so take it with a grain of salt.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 08:00:00 PM
Another thing in this update is that, member signature won't show unless mouse over that member's post.
it is not completely hidden but nor disturbing by default.

I will need more input on this, do you guys think this behavior is okay? or should i just show it by default?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 21, 2016, 08:07:17 PM
i really like the new structure and i think on balance its better without the big boxes
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 08:23:08 PM
Another thing in this update is that, member signature won't show unless mouse over that member's post.
it is not completely hidden but nor disturbing by default.
I will need more input on this, do you guys think this behavior is okay? or should i just show it by default?

I personally really don't care about signatures, and usually find them distracting and kind of senseless. (wisecracks, summing up their hardware, etc., even though this forum is a very positive exception in this respect)
Especially in the case of for example phred's and psychoadept's, they do serve a purpose that benefits other users.
So if you would ask me, have such useful signatures 'sticky', and others can be grey type on a grey background ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 08:24:46 PM
A new update based on hiccup's suggestion about color scheme of the forum.
Go to forum and REFRESH the browser to clear the cache. Light color scheme does not have weird dark contrast.

That is really looking very good!
And as mentioned before, the dark theme is also fantastic. Almost feels like working in Photoshop ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 08:25:47 PM
I personally really don't care about signatures, and usually find them distracting and kind of senseless. (wisecracks, summing up their hardware, etc., even though this forum is a very positive exception in this respect)
Especially in the case of for example phred's and psychoadept's, they do serve a purpose that benefits other users.
So if you would ask me, have such useful signatures 'sticky', and others can be grey type on a grey background ;-)

unfortunately it is not possible to have a sticky signature in smf.

but they are not completely hidden. you just have to mouse over their post
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 08:27:13 PM
That is really looking very good!
And as mentioned before, the dark theme is also fantastic. Almost feels like working in Photoshop ;-)
^^
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 21, 2016, 08:27:46 PM
I believe my sig (and psycho's) not only helps the user-base, but it saves an enormous number of keystrokes.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 08:30:21 PM
unfortunately it is not possible to have a sticky signature in smf.
but they are not completely hidden. you just have to mouse over their post

Maybe I am an actor in Groundhog Day now, but related to this, wasn't there a setting that you had to have a certain status as a forum member before you are allowed to create a signature?
That would be good to prevent new users misusing this feature.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 08:33:37 PM
Maybe I am an actor in Groundhog Day now, but related to this, wasn't there a setting that you had to have a certain status as a forum member before you are allowed to create a signature?
That would be good to prevent new users misusing this feature.

No there was never any feature like that. What you are talking is the new wysiwyg editor toolbar, where any member who have over 20-30 posts can see some extra toolbar buttons.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 21, 2016, 08:35:07 PM
I believe my sig (and psycho's) not only helps the user-base, but it saves an enormous number of keystrokes.
Ofc i understand that thats why i am asking for feedback on this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 21, 2016, 08:35:20 PM
FWIW, when I see a sig that is obviously spam, I sent a polite PM to the user asking them to remove it as it is considered spam.  I've had no complaints.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 09:03:41 PM
wasn't there a setting that you had to have a certain status as a forum member before you are allowed to create a signature?
No there was never any feature like that. What you are talking is the new wysiwyg editor toolbar, where any member who have over 20-30 posts can see some extra toolbar buttons.

Ah yes, that was it. So that same condition can not be set for being allowed to create a signature?
Well, not a real problem anyway. Same as phred until now I only once had one small issue with a users signature.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2016, 11:21:12 PM
Don't loose a second of sleep over this, but if I look with some detail at some icons and texts, some are not as smooth as others.
The edgy text is probably due to my own deliberate disabling of cleartype. You solved that already for all important locations, so don't bother too much about these minor locations.

Could the edgy icons also be a result of that? Are they in fact some true-type font or something?

4 times enlarged:
(http://i.imgur.com/P8SFDais.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/P8SFDai.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 12:38:24 AM
Don't loose a second of sleep over this, but if I look with some detail at some icons and texts, some are not as smooth as others.
The edgy text is probably due to my own deliberate disabling of cleartype. You solved that already for all important locations, so don't bother too much about these minor locations.

Could the edgy icons also be a result of that? Are they in fact some true-type font or something?

4 times enlarged:
the edgy text is broken in most of the sites, i haven't fixed them and it is broken in some places like the forum searchbox. I will fix them when the site is complete.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 04:30:07 AM
Okay another update this time. It is a big one. :)

The New Dashboard is now live. It is still WIP, although almost fully functional.
styling for "addon submit" or "update" is not done and "view all addon" is half way there. So do not report bugs. New feature requests are welcome though.

With this new dashboard design any moderator/global mod/admin can now approve addons. and it is super easy. just click approve on the overview panel. or reject it.
New statistics for your most liked or downloaded addons with counters.

Another new addition is that, when a user click on download button for addon, it will open another page stating the redirect. Also it allows database to get download statistics for dashboard.

If you are worried what data gets collected:
your IP(this way it is unique per ip and can not be easily misused),
if you are registered/logged in or not,
and the addon that you are trying to download.


Some huge backend improvement is done.

One nasty pagination bug fixed(which was my stupid mistake).

also @hiccup since you are a global mod, help me out on testing if the following work or not:
go to dashboard and see if you get this message:

(http://i.imgur.com/rGFPphm.jpg)

If you can see this try to approve it and tell me if it works properly for global mod too.

I have already approved the one that phred_phred submitted and it seem to work.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 04:34:18 AM
Ah yes, that was it. So that same condition can not be set for being allowed to create a signature?
Well, not a real problem anyway. Same as phred until now I only once had one small issue with a users signature.
Well i guess it is possible but not really feeling doing it since it would be a hack and will break whenever any SMF update is done.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 04:41:18 AM
Currently the new forum doesn't look properly in 1600x900 resolution. Is this a known issue?

(http://i.imgur.com/x8XKaUO.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 04:43:23 AM
Currently the new forum doesn't look properly in 1600x900 resolution. Is this a known issue?

No it is not an issue, just refresh the page and it should be okay.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 04:46:25 AM
Yeah, it works. Was it browser cache?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 04:51:45 AM
Yeah, it works. Was it browser cache?
yup. I updated the forum styling today so you need to clear the cache.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 04:57:40 AM
OK. Thanks!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 05:00:30 AM
OK. Thanks!
Btw, the issue that you pointed out with avatar disabled and posts needs smaller height is now mostly fixed.
if you have avatar disabled posts will use lesser height.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 05:05:46 AM
Two things about the forum structures:

- Questions under Support section is not necessary as quite often a question develops into discussion. Also people will keep posting questions on General Discussions board.
- Why is plugins alone not a child board? It just takes up vertical space.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 05:06:41 AM
Btw, the issue that you pointed out with avatar disabled and posts needs smaller height is now mostly fixed.
if you have avatar disabled posts will use lesser height.

Great. Thanks!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 05:16:33 AM
- Questions under Support section is not necessary as quite often a question develops into discussion. Also people will keep posting questions on General Discussions board.
Well general is for discussion if a question ever turns into discussion op will be asked to create a new thread in general for discussion purpose.

- Why is plugins alone not a child board? It just takes up vertical space.
Plugins are not same as customizations.  They intend to allow more functionality while custimization controls how musicbee looks. thats why it have separate board.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 05:41:55 AM
- Questions under Support section is not necessary as quite often a question develops into discussion. Also people will keep posting questions on General Discussions board.
Well general is for discussion if a question ever turns into discussion op will be asked to create a new thread in general for discussion purpose.

For a big forum with lots of mods and members, it might work. But not for this forum.

- Why is plugins alone not a child board? It just takes up vertical space.
Plugins are not same as customizations.  They intend to allow more functionality while custimization controls how musicbee looks. thats why it have separate board.

Then drop the word customizations. They are all add-ons and it looks strange all others are cramped under one board except plugins.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 22, 2016, 05:49:39 AM
I agree with redwing, there's no effective way to separate "questions" from "discussions".
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 05:52:38 AM
For a big forum with lots of mods and members, it might work. But not for this forum.
well it is not MANDATORY for user to create a new discussion thread in general. If they want they should be able to continue in on the question section. ofc it probably won't get as much response.
The general space is for discussion of all things. be it a question, ideas, polls.

Currently most general posts are short Q&A style. so it should not affect the majority.

Then drop the word customizations. They are all add-ons and it looks strange all others are cramped under one board except plugins.
They are divided by their functionality.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 06:07:44 AM
I agree with redwing, there's no effective way to separate "questions" from "discussions".

Lets look at some stat here:
the current general board have 95% Q&A, and gets less than 5 reply to solve their issues. It is not fit for general discussion but more of Q&A.

(http://i.imgur.com/Ae0lChDl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/Ae0lChD.jpg)

On the other hand it creates issues for discussion threads. If a discussion thread is not active for 3-4 day it gets buried under all these questions. And i highly doubt anyone even bother to find them by searching and reopen the discussion.

To overcome this issue general thread will not be used for short Q&A but rather polls, discussion, concepts, idea/suggestions, meta.
Questions will be used for short Q&A, medium sized Q&A for existing and beta musicbee only.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on March 22, 2016, 06:21:42 AM
I get the idea, I'm just saying with a few exceptions you can't necessarily predict which threads are going to generate the most discussion, and new member behavior is always hard to manage.  Look at how hard it is to get bugs in bugs, portable devices in portable devices, keep questions out of tips & tricks, and so on already.  It would create a lot more work for the mods trying to keep things in the right place.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 08:04:43 AM
Look at how hard it is to get bugs in bugs,
Bug report is one of the thing i don't get. For MusicBee 3 all bug reports are is discussion thread, so it is confusing if i should use bug thread to report or just post them in discussion?

Also sometime it gets more confusing if a certain MusicBee behavior is intended or not! and ends up being a bug :S
Maybe merge them with questions! Or a single sticky thread just like for MusicBee 3 to post bugs and get them fixed.

portable devices in portable devices, keep questions out of tips & tricks, and so on already.  It would create a lot more work for the mods trying to keep things in the right place.
I do get it. But Customization and Plugins (as of now) boards/topics are used by skinners/plugin developers, and they are not novice. I wouldn't worry about them.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 09:06:58 AM
- Questions under Support section is not necessary as quite often a question develops into discussion. Also people will keep posting questions on General Discussions board.
Well general is for discussion if a question ever turns into discussion op will be asked to create a new thread in general for discussion purpose.
For a big forum with lots of mods and members, it might work. But not for this forum.

Especially frorm the standpoint of new users (which many seem to care a lot about here), I feel it is very natural to have a separate 'Questions' board.
A newbee with questions will immediately understand where to go, and will feel welcome. Members with the initiative to help other users will also now exactly where to go.

And there are topics that deserve such a separate board such as 'General Discussion', and preferably shouldn't be mixed with 'Questions'.

To name a few examples:

- [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
- GUI changes for v3.0
- Official MB appreciation thread
- Wiki pages
- Any polls could go there
- other matters which are not a specific request for help or assistance.

When transitioning from the old to the new board, we can move all topics from the current 'General Discussions' board to the new 'Questions' board, except for the very few from the above example, which go the new 'general Discussion' board.
I thnk after that it will be very clear to everybody where to post and look.
The new 'General Discussion' board will probably get a lot less activity and new topics after that.
It will therefore be quite easy to maintain it in the rare case that some user asks a question, and oversees the big 'Question' board.


Summarizing, I think it is a logical improvement, and I don't see any problems we can't easily handle.
What I can see happening in the beginning, is that some more experienced members that are used to posting in 'General Discussion' might have some short learning curve to learn that also their questions belong in 'Questions', and that it is not some 'newbees corner'. But that would be easy to control and correct.

As a moderator I would probably hardly ever touch or move a post posted in 'Questions'.
And in the case that an initial, clear question turns into something that is not a question anymore, I myself would just leave it under 'Questions' and wouldn't bother on evaluating or deciding on if I perhaps should move it.
Anybody involved in that topic who feels that a matter that deserves a 'General Discussion' evolved from that question, is very welcome to create a topic for that in 'General Discussion' possibly with adding a simple link to the original question.

I would keep an eye on 'General Discussion' though, and would probably only have to move posts from there to 'Questions' that are clearly questions for help on a specific matter.

So, I am all for it.

Absolute worst case scenario: it doesn't work as well as I believe it will, and then we just merge those two boards again at a later moment. No harm done.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 09:22:02 AM
@Steven,

For the new forum structure, I oversaw that there currently is a child board 'portable devices' under 'Bugs'.
Do you want that to be the the same for the new board?
Perhaps other changes or additions to that?

I have no specific suggestion right now, but we might consider some mechanism that could perhaps decrease the amount of posted bugs that actually concern plug-ins and add-ons, and not MusicBee itself.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 09:24:57 AM
@hiccup can you check this out and let me know if it works for you or not?
@hiccup since you are a global mod, help me out on testing if the following work or not:
go to dashboard and see if you get this message:

(http://i.imgur.com/rGFPphm.jpg)

If you can see this try to approve it and tell me if it works properly for global mod too.

I have already approved the one that phred_phred submitted and it seem to work.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 09:34:13 AM
Works!

(http://i.imgur.com/CGhRkDdl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/CGhRkDd.png)

A few observations, I first couldn't find 'Dashboard'. I didn't expect to find it under the 'little man icon'. Wouldn't a fixed text button be better?
The above message appears at the right bottom of the screen. Perhaps better if that was more in the centre of the screen?
'Successfull' should be spelled 'Successful'
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 09:39:38 AM
Works!
Good to know :)

A few observations, I first couldn't find 'Dashboard'. I didn't expect to find it under the 'little man icon'. Wouldn't a fixed text button be better?
yeah i guess you are right. I will make some adjustment in this area.

The above message appears at the right bottom of the screen. Perhaps better if that was more in the centre of the screen?
at first it was at the top of the screen, then side and now bottom. is there any reason for it to be on the center? it is just a notification not a prompt.

'Successfull' should be spelled 'Successful'
Thanks fixed for the next update.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 09:42:48 AM
at first it was at the top of the screen, then side and now bottom. is there any reason for it to be on the center? it is just a notification not a prompt.

Well, my precious eyes wasted 1,119 seconds of their life searching for it ;-)
Wouldn't 'centre' be the most logical location for pop-up messages?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 09:45:00 AM
Well, my precious eyes wasted 1,119 seconds of their life searching for it ;-)
Wouldn't 'centre' be the most logical location for pop-up messages?
it is not a intrusive popup, much more like a subtle notification saying "hey the last action is successful! just so you know!"
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 09:46:22 AM
Just a fun observation, I noticed how the childboard buttons change color when you change between light and dark theme.
Very sophisticated. I just can't stop myself switching themes now ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 09:47:48 AM
Well, my precious eyes wasted 1,119 seconds of their life searching for it ;-)
Wouldn't 'centre' be the most logical location for pop-up messages?
it is not a intrusive popup, much more like a subtle notification saying "hey the last action is successful! just so you know!"

Ok, you are probably right.
I closed it with the 'X' button though. Does it fade away after a few seconds by itself?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 09:53:04 AM
When I collapse a board category, the whole panel jumps to the bottom of the screen, so you will have to scroll up again?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 09:53:17 AM
Just a fun observation, I noticed how the childboard buttons change color when you change between light and dark theme.
Very sophisticated. I just can't stop myself switching themes now ;-)
haha. it uses a transition based animation thats why a little bit delay between changing colors.

(http://img.memecdn.com/press-all-the-buttons_o_776230.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 09:54:17 AM
Ok, you are probably right.
I closed it with the 'X' button though. Does it fade away after a few seconds by itself?
nope. i haven't implemented that yet. maybe in future. not a priority now.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 09:55:50 AM
Ok, you are probably right.
I closed it with the 'X' button though. Does it fade away after a few seconds by itself?
nope. i haven't implemented that yet. maybe in future. not a priority now.

Ok, but in that case, if you do have to click it to go away, then 'centre' would be much preferred in my opinion.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 10:00:19 AM
Ok, but in that case, if you do have to click it to go away, then 'centre' would be much preferred in my opinion.

well i have plan to implement autohide in future. so it would be waste to put it in center and then put at the corner again when autohide is added!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 10:29:27 AM
Look at how hard it is to get bugs in bugs, portable devices in portable devices,

If you look at how that separation between 'normal bugs' and 'portable bugs' is currently displayed, even I myself would probably overlook it. Let alone a newbee:

(http://i.imgur.com/LH9YW63l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/LH9YW63.png)

On the new forum that is presented a lot better.
(actually I have to add this specific childboard yet, but just take a look at how childboards are presented in the new forum.)

And as a general remark, many here seem very worried, and have some assumptions on possible problematic 'users behavior' and their capabilities to understand what is what, and how to behave.

My experience is very positive in this respect.
This forum and it's community seems to work quite well together, and seems to be quite self-cleansing and self-maintaining.
Unless Steven has different experiences, and corrects/deletes/moves a lot behind the screens that I am not aware of, the maintenance pressure on moderation is quite low.

So let's not underestimate this self-filtering, self-maintaining, self-learning mechanism that seems to work quite well here.
And let's not underestimate the intelligence of newbees either.
They may be new to MB or this forum, but that doesn't say anything about their common sense, intelligence or experience with other fora and software.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 11:17:29 AM
Just a fun observation, I noticed how the childboard buttons change color when you change between light and dark theme.
Very sophisticated. I just can't stop myself switching themes now ;-)
haha. it uses a transition based animation thats why a little bit delay between changing colors.

This is unimportant, but I thought to mention it anyway. Light theme has a mouse over color for these chilboard buttons, dark theme hasn't.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 11:19:35 AM
Just curious, do you (and Steven) have some timeline set, as a goal when to activate the new forum?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 01:48:39 PM
And there are topics that deserve such a separate board such as 'General Discussion', and preferably shouldn't be mixed with 'Questions'.

To name a few examples:

- [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
- GUI changes for v3.0
- Official MB appreciation thread
- Wiki pages
- Any polls could go there
- other matters which are not a specific request for help or assistance.

That makes sense.
Then I'd suggest (1) move Questions board to General section (2) make the General Discussion board a child board under Questions board.
That way it would be much easier to maintain because mods can move only a few "real" discussion threads to the child board and it won't disrupt existing members' posting habit nor cause any confusions by separating boards. Also it won't suppress any spontaneous development of discussion out of a plain question, and there would be no need to create a new thread from ongoing discussion.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 02:04:43 PM
And there are topics that deserve such a separate board such as 'General Discussion', and preferably shouldn't be mixed with 'Questions'.
To name a few examples:
- [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
- GUI changes for v3.0
- Official MB appreciation thread
- Wiki pages
- Any polls could go there
- other matters which are not a specific request for help or assistance.

That makes sense.
Then I'd suggest (1) move Questions board to General section (2) make the General Discussion board a child board under Questions board.
That way it would be much easier to maintain because mods can move only a few "real" discussion threads to the child board and it won't disrupt existing members' posting habit nor cause any confusions by separating boards. Also it won't suppress any spontaneous development of discussion out of a plain question, and there would be no need to create a new thread from ongoing discussion.

I don't agree. Topics such as "Official MB appreciation threadOfficial MB appreciation thread", are not questions, and therefore shouldn't reside under 'Questions'.
Also 'General Discussions' would then fall under the category 'Support', where I don't think it belongs.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 02:09:58 PM
- Questions under Support section is not necessary as quite often a question develops into discussion. Also people will keep posting questions on General Discussions board.
Well general is for discussion if a question ever turns into discussion op will be asked to create a new thread in general for discussion purpose.
For a big forum with lots of mods and members, it might work. But not for this forum.
- Why is plugins alone not a child board? It just takes up vertical space.
Plugins are not same as customizations.  They intend to allow more functionality while custimization controls how musicbee looks. thats why it have separate board.
Then drop the word customizations. They are all add-ons and it looks strange all others are cramped under one board except plugins.

About the current structure for the new forum and it's terminology:

A main category you mentioned is 'MusicBee Add-ons'

That should make it clear that under that category you can find all sorts of 'extra's' that are developed for MusicBee, but not by default present in the installer.
That should be easy to understand, and seems logical.

Then, we indeed have two separated boards for:
'extra's' that have a mainly visual function (layout, skins, theatremode etc.), and we have a board for:
'extra's' that have more impact on the working and functionality of MusicBee. (such as Boroda74's tool, audio plugins, lyrics, social media, whatever)

To me that seems a very defendable separation.

I used the word 'extra's' here on purpose.
We can have discussions until hell freezes over if we should words such as extensions, customisations, add-ins, add-ons, plug-ins, or whatever, and for every argument given for one, I am very sure somebody will step in and just argue the contrary. (trust me, I even had these arguments in my own head too ;-)

The current wordings were thought over and discussed, and I believe are very defendable and understandable.
And if they are also used consistantly on the wiki, the forum, the website, by the creators, etc, they should stick very quickly.

I also see some suggestions and even arguments on the weight that the number of childboards should have, or the weight that traffic a certain board generates is so important. I don't support that line of thought much.
First of all the structure should just make sense and be as simple and logical as possible.
Some board may be very popular at a certain moment, others might get less traffic. So what, that doesn't change the concept of the structure.
Would anyone argue that every board should have the exact same number of childboards? (well, I wouldn't)
A house has one doorbell, a high-rise building may have 200, yet they can be located next to each other perfectly.

Also, we can later easily extend boards that have no, or few childboards.
If or when for example the plugins topic gets more popular, and more plugins are created, we can always add childboards to it. For for example 'audio', 'tagging', 'web' or whatever.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 02:12:03 PM
I don't agree. Topics such as "Official MB appreciation threadOfficial MB appreciation thread", are not questions, and therefore shouldn't reside under 'Questions'.
Also 'General Discussions' would then fall under the category 'Support', where I don't think it belongs.

I think both should be under General section, and Support section should be confined only to devs support like the current structure.
If people agree on that, we could think of better naming for the two boards.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 02:21:19 PM
About the current structure for the new forum and it's terminology:
...

You seem to be really fond of arguing.
All I'm saying is it looks strange to separate plugins alone from all other add-ons. What would the harm be if all belong to one board?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 02:30:13 PM
About the current structure for the new forum and it's terminology:
...

You seem to be really fond of arguing.
All I'm saying is it looks strange to separate plugins alone from all other add-ons. What would the harm be if all belong to one board?

No, that is not all you are saying.
You commented on the wording 'customisations' being wrong, you commented that you believe 'Questions' should not be under 'Support', you commented that 'General Discussions' should be moved under 'Questions'. (and maybe I missed something else)

------

I think you are mistaking arguing, for me making an effort trying to explain how this all came about, what the thought process was and is on creating this structure.
The current proposed structure is not my personal baby, it is a result from normal discussions, open on this forum that started quite a while ago.
At this moment also AvikB and Steven seem to be happy with the current proposal.

Now you come up saying that you disagree with some of it. That's fine. And I disagree with your new suggestions, and I am making an effort to explain to you why.
If you conceive that as arguing, it is probably better for me to let this just rest.

edit,
I added the first two sentences to my reply.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 02:41:32 PM
If you have nothing to add to the discussion other than you disagree, let's see what others think of those matters.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 02:52:17 PM
If you have nothing to add to the discussion other than you disagree, let's see what others think of those matters.

Distill from my detailed explanations what you want.
If the only thing you can register is: 'somebody disagrees with me', that's on you.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 02:54:27 PM
This is unimportant, but I thought to mention it anyway. Light theme has a mouse over color for these chilboard buttons, dark theme hasn't.
DAMN! i though no one would notice it and i could get away with it ;( now i have to fix it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 22, 2016, 02:57:12 PM
If you have nothing to add to the discussion other than you disagree, let's see what others think of those matters.

Distill from my detailed explanations what you want.
If the only thing you can register is: 'somebody disagrees with me', that's on you.

Stop being childish. Then answer to my questions.

I think both should be under General section, and Support section should be confined only to devs support like the current structure.
If people agree on that, we could think of better naming for the two boards.

What would the harm be if all belong to one board?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 02:57:25 PM
This is unimportant, but I thought to mention it anyway. Light theme has a mouse over color for these chilboard buttons, dark theme hasn't.
DAMN! i though no one would notice it and i could get away with it ;( now i have to fix it.

Haha,
Do you want me to shut-up about such details from now on, so you can focus on important stuff?
Don't answer, I will.  ;-)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 02:58:13 PM
Just curious, do you (and Steven) have some timeline set, as a goal when to activate the new forum?
I am holding back until the new dashboard is done. the forum is complete only few minor styling fixes.
There is no exact ETA. It will be done when i feel it is stable and done for v1.0
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 03:05:33 PM
Haha,
Do you want me to shut-up about such details from now on, so you can focus on important stuff?
Don't answer, I will.  ;-)

nah, it is fine. It actually pushes me to fix those issues rather than being lazy and skip them :P
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 03:11:57 PM
A new update for the dashboard and notification center.

After Hiccup mentioned the ability to autohide the small notifications i have made some adjustments and some styling improvement.

From now, notifications now use smooth animations and autohide after5seconds, you can also manually dismiss them.

one major bug fix that i just noticed today is the ability to press back button and go back to previous page. It fixed the issue with dashboard but completely broke admin panel navigation which i haven't fixed(will do after dashboard completes).
Also from this point 98% of previous style removed. you shouldn't see any difference though. But due to this few things are broken(functional but have weird looks):
admin panel and dashboard submission.

Also few new functionality added to dashboard.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 03:14:38 PM
nah, it is fine. It actually pushes me to fix those issues rather than being lazy and skip them :P

Ok.
I am probably also a bit lazy myself exploring new features and testing out stuff on the new forum by myself, so let me know whenever you need some specific features tested.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 03:21:24 PM
another plan for the future or more likely plans to remove another feature.

direct mediafire upload will be removed from dashboard submission in future. reasons:
only 4MB filesize.
has some security concerns as it uploads the file to musicbee server first.
also for the previous reason would create bandwidth issue
someone has to monitor mediafire account.
if not monitored anyone can upload illegal stuff and the account could be taken down. which creates the issue of losing all uploads. :(

due to these reasons it will be removed. IMGUR upload on the other hand will stay.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 03:21:28 PM
From now, notifications now use smooth animations and autohide after5seconds, you can also manually dismiss them.

Nice.

It could be my eyes, my monitor, of both, but I find this text slightly difficult to read.

(http://i.imgur.com/s7jj1CFl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/s7jj1CF.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 03:24:21 PM
Nice.
:) hope it works properly for everyone. I haven't tested much on firefox only opera and chrome.

It could be my eyes, my monitor, of both, but I find this text slightly difficult to read.
is it the colors? other than that they perfectly readable other than being edgy.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 03:31:19 PM
is it the colors? other than that they perfectly readable other than being edgy.

Edgy is fine here ;-)
No, it's just that the color seems to be a bit light.
But if it is a result of my strict no-cleartype policy and not too high-end display, please just leave it.
It is readable fine enough.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 03:35:37 PM
Edgy is fine here ;-)
No, it's just that the color seems to be a bit light.
But if it is a result of my strict no-cleartype policy and not too high-end display, please just leave it.
It is readable fine enough.
It looks fine while font smoothing turned on. I won't change it unless it is much demanded, since the whole site now uses that font color.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 03:40:31 PM
It looks fine while font smoothing turned on. I won't change it unless it is much demanded, since the whole site now uses that font color.

Fair enough, not a problem.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 05:15:07 PM
I wan't to shed some concerns and warnings for the uk/us/other language discussion. Instead of doing pm it is more likely a notice rather than a discussion.

THIS IS RELATED TO MUSICBEE WEBSITE LANGUAGE NOT FORUM.

DO NOT DISCUSS ANY FORUM RELATED LANGUAGE HERE.

The new site will support different languages, That means community can make UK translation of the whole site(except forum), or US translation, Russian, Chinese, Japanese,and others . The default will be en-us but User will be able to choose any of them they prefer via dropdown on the footer.

BUT you won't be able to change language for anything under add-on menu, once the site is live. they will ALWAYS be in english and maybe us/uk whatever we decide (only one time change, before goes live).
(https://i.imgur.com/IhXXbVV.jpg)

Different language support is something is already mostly done from the alpha stage. here is peak of the language file
https://github.com/Avik-B/mb_web/blob/Dev/includes/languages/en-us.php (https://github.com/Avik-B/mb_web/blob/Dev/includes/languages/en-us.php)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 22, 2016, 06:46:57 PM
the original reason i created a sub-topic for portable devices was because i (naively) thought that it would have the most bugs reported and need special treatment.
There isnt a good reason to have it split going forward
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 22, 2016, 06:50:41 PM
just regarding the new forum, i really like how its been done but i have one thing i dont really like and thats the orange bar in the left of each section header - I find the orange bars quite distracting and to me makes it feel messy.
If i'm the only one that feels that way then please leave it as-is

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 06:57:20 PM
the original reason i created a sub-topic for portable devices was because i (naively) thought that it would have the most bugs reported and need special treatment.
There isnt a good reason to have it split going forward

ok,

Just thinking, would it perhaps be an idea to create a childboard under bugs named something like "readme first"
We could have only 1 sticky topic in that board, explaining good practice in reporting bugs. Such as advising posters to mention what MB version they are using, if they are using specific plugins that might be related to their issue, what AV software they might be using, etc.?

(http://i.imgur.com/AQCOHDBl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/AQCOHDB.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 07:23:02 PM
just regarding the new forum, i really like how its been done but i have one thing i dont really like and thats the orange bar in the left of each section header - I find the orange bars quite distracting and to me makes it feel messy.
If i'm the only one that feels that way then please leave it as-is


the orange bars are there for a little bit variation. otherwise it looks way too blunt. orange bars will catch the eye easily and makes it easy to focus on those category.

ofc if other members think this is too distracting, then i will remove it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 07:26:48 PM
the orange bars are there for a little bit variation. otherwise it looks way too blunt. orange bars will catch the eye easily and makes it easy to focus on those category.

I think I like them.
It gives the page just a little bit extra personality, and I like the color setting.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 22, 2016, 07:29:35 PM
Just thinking, would it perhaps be an idea to create a childboard under bugs named something like "readme first"
We could have only 1 sticky topic in that board, explaining good practice in reporting bugs. Such as advising posters to mention what MB version they are using, if they are using specific plugins that might be related to their issue, what AV software they might be using, etc.?
Perhaps it's just the negative side of me bursting through, but people won't read it.

Doesn't the current Bug Reports sub-forum have a popup when a user creates a new topic?  If not, it used to.  I feel the same should apply here.  People will be -forced- to read it.  (Or just click right through it.)  But I think there's a better chance of them reading something that causes posting-interruptus than someone going to a readme first post.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 22, 2016, 07:31:32 PM
is it the colors? other than that they perfectly readable other than being edgy.

Edgy is fine here ;-)
No, it's just that the color seems to be a bit light.
But if it is a result of my strict no-cleartype policy and not too high-end display, please just leave it.
It is readable fine enough.
I'm basing this only on the screenshot as I haven't had time to look at the test site.  There's not enough contrast between the brownish text and the white background.  That's what makes it difficult to read.  I think the text should be darker.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 07:38:18 PM
Perhaps it's just the negative side of me bursting through, but people won't read it.
Doesn't the current Bug Reports sub-forum have a popup when a user creates a new topic?  If not, it used to.  I feel the same should apply here.  People will be -forced- to read it.  (Or just click right through it.)  But I think there's a better chance of them reading something that causes posting-interruptus than someone going to a readme first post.

Maybe you are right.
But I personally have some negative response when some pop-up shows up unwanted and forces me to do something.

Don't you think that cute little button looks very inviting to press?
I would imagine people will be curious what's behind it, and will then voluntarily take it's contents more seriously and with a little more respect then coming from a forced pop-up.
Also such a message in a post could be brought with some humor, to make it a bit more interesting to read.
A pop-up will probably have to be short and a bit demanding.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 07:40:24 PM
I'm basing this only on the screenshot as I haven't had time to look at the test site.  There's not enough contrast between the brownish text and the white background.  That's what makes it difficult to read.  I think the text should be darker.
the text is a bit darker if you have font-smoothing enabled.

(https://i.imgur.com/GpfZD5J.jpg)

As you can see clearly, the problem is with the people who don't use font smoothing. I won't fix this until the very end, it is not high priority right now.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 07:43:38 PM
Maybe you are right.
But I personally have some negative response when some pop-up shows up unwanted and forces me to do something.
Same here. i don't like intrusive popups either.

Don't you think that cute little button looks very inviting to press?
come on! we are not 12 year olds. :P the only button i might press is a button with a kitten face or saying something like "Read this or you are dead!"
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 07:49:01 PM
I'm basing this only on the screenshot as I haven't had time to look at the test site.  There's not enough contrast between the brownish text and the white background.  That's what makes it difficult to read.  I think the text should be darker.

You should indeed look at the site, and not take my screenshot as representative.
I am creating this issue a little bit for myself, since I always disable that horrific creation called cleartype (or font-smoothing).
Since many website builders blindly use cleartype, they have no idea how fonts turn out looking on systems without having cleartype enabled.

The situation is even so bad, that there are more and more fonts, designed to look extra good under cleartype, but as a result look extra-horrible without it.
AvikB has taken the trouble to implement a replacement font for all important parts of the site and forum, so a good font is used for systems with cleartype disabled.

Maybe I'll add a screenshot to this post later, to show you how bad some website fonts look on my system.

edit:
Even Intel has no clue about this. look at it:

(http://i.imgur.com/DdXBSgQl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/DdXBSgQ.png)

And even a respected IT site as Anandtech don't get it:

(http://i.imgur.com/BPzXHvDl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/BPzXHvD.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 07:50:17 PM
Maybe you are right.
But I personally have some negative response when some pop-up shows up unwanted and forces me to do something.
Same here. i don't like intrusive popups either.

Don't you think that cute little button looks very inviting to press?
come on! we are not 12 year olds. :P the only button i might press is a button with a kitten face or saying something like "Read this or you are dead!"

Yes! Add a funny fart sound when you press it too!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 08:00:24 PM
You should indeed look at the site, and not take my screenshot as representative.
I am creating this issue a little bit for myself, since I always disable that horrific creation called cleartype (or font-smoothing).
Since many websites blindly use cleartype, they have no idea how fonts turn out looking on systems without having cleartype enabled.

The situation is even so bad, that there are more and more fonts, designed to look extra good under cleartype, but as a result look extra-horrible without it.
The default fon't i used here is roboto. it is designed and maintained by google for it's android system. It looks gorgeous under clear type. But is horrible without it.
 I won't say they use it blindly. it is just something devs probably never faced. If you haven't notified me of the issue i would've never implemented the fallback feature.

Maybe it is time you switch back to ceartype. it is gorgeous! :)

AvikB has taken the trouble to implement a replacement font for all important parts of the site and forum, so a good font is used for systems with cleartype disabled.
since the site is under beta process, i am not implementing fallback feature now. and it should look horrible without clear type. But remind me of these issue(if i forgot) when we are in final stage. With the new styling system it should be way easier to do and maintain.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 08:03:26 PM
Even Intel has no clue about this. look at it:
Come on it is not that bad! give me 5 minute and i can decipher them.

And even a respected IT site as Anandtech don't get it:
Thats a really long captcha. :O
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 08:07:21 PM
Even Intel has no clue about this. look at it:
Come on it is not that bad! give me 5 minute and i can decipher them.

And even a respected IT site as Anandtech don't get it:
Thats a really long captcha. :O

Haha, right!

Now you understand why I am so grateful that you are addressing, and fixing this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 08:26:28 PM
Haha, right!

Now you understand why I am so grateful that you are addressing, and fixing this.

Btw, it seems you have created the read me first post in the new forum.
I have added some info there of what should be provided. :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 08:31:16 PM
Haha, right!

Now you understand why I am so grateful that you are addressing, and fixing this.

Btw, it seems you have created the read me first post in the new forum.
I have added some info there of what should be provided. :)

Ah, the honey is attracting bees already...
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 08:38:12 PM
Ah, the honey is attracting bees already...

:) was getting bored! so decided to post some ideas on that sub
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 08:42:43 PM
Ah, the honey is attracting bees already...

:) was getting bored! so decided to post some ideas on that sub

You are not allowed to be bored. You have so much on your plate with the site and the forum.


The 'read me first!' button is just a try-out to see how it would look if implemented.
Let's wait what other members and Steven think about it.
Either we then remove it again, or we indeed make it a good bug-posting tutorial.

b.t.w. if we are going to do this, I think we should replace wordings such as "you need to" etc. by "it would be very helpful if you" etc. etc.
A friendly tone there would probably give best results.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 08:49:53 PM
You are not allowed to be bored. You have so much on your plate with the site and the forum.
I know. i am doing that. just taking break from it to get fresh ideas of doing few things or how to fix certain bugs. :)

The 'read me first!' button is just a try-out to see how it would look if implemented.
Let's wait what other members and Steven think about it.
Either we then remove it again, or we indeed make it a good bug-posting tutorial.

b.t.w. if we are going to do this, I think we should replace wordings such as "you need to" etc. by "it would be very helpful if you" etc. etc.
A friendly tone there would probably give best results.
how about "Read this or die"
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2016, 08:52:11 PM
how about "Read this or die"

What, you will promise them everlasting life if they do read it?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 22, 2016, 09:28:31 PM
What, you will promise them everlasting life if they do read it?

yup.*

*terms and conditions apply
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 23, 2016, 04:46:29 AM
New update with some bug fixes for the forum.

WYSIWYG editor bug fixes where inserting image button won't work in wysiwyg view(but works in source view) and
Youtube, link button not working.

Some minor bug fixes.

Dashboard improvemnt.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 23, 2016, 05:19:48 AM
@Steven;

Let me know what you think of my suggestions regarding questions board and discussion board.

And there are topics that deserve such a separate board such as 'General Discussion', and preferably shouldn't be mixed with 'Questions'.

To name a few examples:

- [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
- GUI changes for v3.0
- Official MB appreciation thread
- Wiki pages
- Any polls could go there
- other matters which are not a specific request for help or assistance.

That makes sense.
Then I'd suggest (1) move Questions board to General section (2) make the General Discussion board a child board under Questions board.
That way it would be much easier to maintain because mods can move only a few "real" discussion threads to the child board and it won't disrupt existing members' posting habit nor cause any confusions by separating boards. Also it won't suppress any spontaneous development of discussion out of a plain question, and there would be no need to create a new thread from ongoing discussion.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 23, 2016, 09:53:56 AM
@redwing, i quite like how its been done now - especially having Questions under support. Of course some people will put stuff in places not intended no matter how clear things are made.
For now I not sure how well "General Discussions" as its own topic will work but i can see the need for it. This sort of thing is easily changed if it doesnt work out
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on March 23, 2016, 10:02:10 AM
@redwing, i quite like how its been done now - especially having Questions under support. Of course some people will put stuff in places not intended no matter how clear things are made.
For now I not sure how well "General Discussions" as its own topic will work but i can see the need for it. This sort of thing is easily changed if it doesnt work out

OK, then I won't raise this issue any more until the community starts re-discussing it when things don't go well as planned. Thanks for replying!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 23, 2016, 01:19:03 PM
just regarding the new forum, i really like how its been done but i have one thing i dont really like and thats the orange bar in the left of each section header - I find the orange bars quite distracting and to me makes it feel messy.
If i'm the only one that feels that way then please leave it as-is
You're not the only one who feels that way about the orange.  It's distracting and seems to interrupt an otherwise clean look.  Especially since the various groups are already nicely defined by the horizontal gray bar.  I think the orange vertical bars should disappear and extend the gray all the way across.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 23, 2016, 03:37:29 PM
New update.

With this update the new addon submit form has a much more cleaner look.
Language file is improved for dashboard.
Notification popup is now much more robust. and validates json object.
For worst case scenario, you will get notification popup with "copy error" button and instruction for posting on forum.
Mediafire upload is removed.
added security for preventing directory listing.

Removed orange bar from forum.

Some styling are still broken for dashboard. i am working on them. but overall it is nearly complete.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 23, 2016, 03:38:21 PM
just regarding the new forum, i really like how its been done but i have one thing i dont really like and thats the orange bar in the left of each section header - I find the orange bars quite distracting and to me makes it feel messy.
If i'm the only one that feels that way then please leave it as-is
You're not the only one who feels that way about the orange.  It's distracting and seems to interrupt an otherwise clean look.  Especially since the various groups are already nicely defined by the horizontal gray bar.  I think the orange vertical bars should disappear and extend the gray all the way across.

Orange bar Removed, you will need to refresh the page to clear the cache.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 23, 2016, 03:47:53 PM
Orange bar Removed, you will need to refresh the page to clear the cache.
Much better!!  Thanks.
I feel the top level categories (General, MusicBee Add-ons, Support, etc) are difficult to read when hovered over.  If the color is red (and I'm not sure what it is) perhaps changing it to the same orangey color as the sub-categories.
(http://i.imgur.com/Fi5XPySl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/Fi5XPyS.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 23, 2016, 04:00:19 PM
Much better!!  Thanks.
I feel the top level categories (General, MusicBee Add-ons, Support, etc) are difficult to read when hovered over.  If the color is red (and I'm not sure what it is) perhaps changing it to the same orangey color as the sub-categories.
Fixed.

This is unimportant, but I thought to mention it anyway. Light theme has a mouse over color for these chilboard buttons, dark theme hasn't.

fixed.

new updates are pushed. refresh the page to see the changes.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 23, 2016, 04:17:26 PM
I have some new observations.
(and perhaps one or two I mentioned before, so then forgive me please)

This could be a personal preference, but I would like it if it would be possible to have some more relevant information on the screen at the same time, without the need for much scrolling.
We can't expect the massive amount of context MusicBee itself is able to show on one screen at once, but we might try to go a little bit in that direction?

Some possible items that might help to accomplish that (if you agree with the basic idea of course)

From the first screenshot,
- perhaps 1, 2 and 3 could be made thinner?
- if icon 4 would be a little bit smaller, perhaps that could effect the hight too?

From the same screenshot,
- at 4 it now only shows post counts, on the current forum it also shows topic counts.
- 5, and a few others are misaligned, but that's probably because you were working on that and had some issues


From the second screenshot:
- 6 is very high and massive, could also have to do with the extremely large font for 11

Then about the order of the number items.
This will also be personal, but I would like the most interesting/most viewed items on top.
My preferred order here would then be:
8
9
6
10
7

(http://i.imgur.com/tUHcE2js.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/tUHcE2j.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/yJJrQs0s.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/yJJrQs0.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 23, 2016, 04:19:21 PM
This is unimportant, but I thought to mention it anyway. Light theme has a mouse over color for these chilboard buttons, dark theme hasn't.
fixed.

Very nice!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 23, 2016, 04:56:59 PM
We can't expect the massive amount of context MusicBee itself is able to show on one screen at once, but we might try to go a little bit in that direction?


Some possible items that might help to accomplish that (if you agree with the basic idea of course)

From the first screenshot,
- perhaps 1, 2 and 3 could be made thinner?
1 and 2 are thin enough already. I have no plans for making them thinner.

yes 3 could be a little bit thinner. maybe 4px less. it won't make any huge difference though.

- if icon 4 would be a little bit smaller, perhaps that could effect the hight too?
Yes it will effect the height. this was brought up long time ago, and i trimmed some height to make it more compact. Right now it is as good as it is.

From the same screenshot,
- at 4 it now only shows post counts, on the current forum it also shows topic counts.
Yes i removed them. is there any reasons to have them back? there is no point of having topic count?(even the post count does not makes any sense rather than showing popularity of boards)

- 5, and a few others are misaligned, but that's probably because you were working on that and had some issues
From the second screenshot:
It was fixed in the last update. refresh the page.

- 6 is very high and massive, could also have to do with the extremely large font for 11
Yes it is a general overview of the whole forum. thats why i made it larger. also it gives forum a nice look.

Then about the order of the number items.
This will also be personal, but I would like the most interesting/most viewed items on top.
My preferred order here would then be:
8
9
6
10
7
I think you missed few things.
first the black bar is the header. it can collapse everything beneath it.
(http://i.imgur.com/DjT6nVy.jpg)
so collapse it to save scrolling.
The order of 7,8,9,10 are the smf default one. no point of changing it.
i only added 6. But i have no plans to put it at the bottom.

The scrolling is probably because of the footer. but i can't do anything about it.
For a full HD display all the board should fit in display. the info on the other hand are not meant for front page presentation. Even with the current forum, with that much board you will have to scroll eventually. ;)
It is a fine compromise i am willing to make.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 23, 2016, 06:26:45 PM
From the same screenshot,
- at 4 it now only shows post counts, on the current forum it also shows topic counts.
Yes i removed them. is there any reasons to have them back? there is no point of having topic count?(even the post count does not makes any sense rather than showing popularity of boards)

I agree with that. I think post count could also go. It will give a lot cleaner look, and make navigation easier and less distractful.
For those interested, it can always be found in statistics, right?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 23, 2016, 07:15:25 PM
I agree with that. I think post count could also go. It will give a lot cleaner look, and make navigation easier and less distractful.
For those interested, it can always be found in statistics, right?

Giving it a bit more thought, what could be interesting to have there is 'post count today'.
That would give a quick indication 'where the action is'.
Another variation on that could be to have 'post count since your last visit', but only if it will give that count based on your last ip visit, not on your last log-in.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 23, 2016, 07:26:14 PM
Giving it a bit more thought, what could be interesting to have there is 'post count today'.
That would give a quick indication 'where the action is'.
Another variation on that could be to have 'post count since your last visit', but only if it will give that count based on your last ip visit, not on your last log-in.

SMF does not have those features built in. These will require me to create custom codes for the backend. Which is a NO. :(
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 23, 2016, 09:27:22 PM
Don't judge this by the exact design, but would it be an idea to have such shortcut buttons?
It is a meager implementation compared with AvikB's first proposals for such buttons, but for now it would perhaps be better than nothing?

(http://i.imgur.com/LpFR0kxl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/LpFR0kx.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 24, 2016, 12:48:31 AM
Don't judge this by the exact design, but would it be an idea to have such shortcut buttons?
It is a meager implementation compared with AvikB's first proposals for such buttons, but for now it would perhaps be better than nothing?


unfortunately that's not possible. SMF offers no way to do this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 24, 2016, 08:46:04 PM
New Update:

* Removed ability to choose skin accent color while submitting addon
* Enhanced tag input, shows warning on exceeding limits
* Undo, Redo Bug fixes for markdown editor
* added better multiple select for musicbee version from dropdown
* Improved styling select input
* added success message for addon submission which also notify user if he/she require approval or not
* Improved language file
* some styling fixes for forum
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 25, 2016, 05:56:28 AM
New Update:
after getting some feedback from hiccup about dashboard menu discovery. i made some changes and with this update user avatar will show in the menu.

(http://i.imgur.com/5AsTPkZ.jpg)

there are some major bug fixing for addons page, dashboard.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 25, 2016, 09:30:27 AM
About the top menu bar(s):
On the web page, they have a transparent background, which makes them blend perfectly with the rest of the page. But on the forum they currently are plain dark grey.
In my humble opinion the forum page might look even better if the color scheme of those would match a bit more with the whole page.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 25, 2016, 02:59:07 PM
About the top menu bar(s):
On the web page, they have a transparent background, which makes them blend perfectly with the rest of the page. But on the forum they currently are plain dark grey.
In my humble opinion the forum page might look even better if the color scheme of those would match a bit more with the whole page.
what do you mean? the whole site uses that color scheme for the menu. only the landing page has transparent background.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 25, 2016, 03:44:59 PM
About the top menu bar(s):
On the web page, they have a transparent background, which makes them blend perfectly with the rest of the page. But on the forum they currently are plain dark grey.
In my humble opinion the forum page might look even better if the color scheme of those would match a bit more with the whole page.
what do you mean? the whole site uses that color scheme for the menu. only the landing page has transparent background.

Well, that is what I compared it with.
On the website the menu's are nicely integrating in the whole page, but on the forum, they are in a rather high contrasting dark grey.
No problem at all, perhaps just a small matter of taste.
And, with the dark theme, it again blends beautiful.

(http://i.imgur.com/UobmVpJl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/UobmVpJ.jpg)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 25, 2016, 03:49:01 PM
Well, that is what I compared it with.
On the website the menu's are nicely integrating in the whole page, but on the forum, they are in a rather high contrasting dark grey.
No problem at all, perhaps just a small matter of taste.
And, with the dark theme, it again blends beautiful.
yeah i get it, but it is intended.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 25, 2016, 04:00:07 PM
Well, that is what I compared it with.
On the website the menu's are nicely integrating in the whole page, but on the forum, they are in a rather high contrasting dark grey.
No problem at all, perhaps just a small matter of taste.
And, with the dark theme, it again blends beautiful.
yeah i get it, but it is intended.

Ok, your decision of course.
But I do seem to recall you also contemplated a while back to perhaps using some hexagon background for that? Something similar with what is at the top of the current website, and on the bottom of the new forum?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 25, 2016, 06:04:27 PM

But I do seem to recall you also contemplated a while back to perhaps using some hexagon background for that? Something similar with what is at the top of the current website, and on the bottom of the new forum?
i decided to keep the menu clean, also adding background image to a menu has some unwanted side effects due to being responsive.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 25, 2016, 06:05:39 PM
Another update.

With this update addon can be marked as beta, and it will shoe beta sign in addon page as well.
Lots of bug fixes, one minor security fix.
Some code optimization.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 25, 2016, 11:29:16 PM
New Update. this update is mainly focused on major structural changes of how addon delete feature is handled.

a addon author can delete his/her addon by clicking on the "trash" icon in "all addons" tab. It won't get deleted instantly, but it will be added to delete queue, and will get automatically deleted when the server decides(timely based manner).
(http://i.imgur.com/Rrwfixu.jpg)

After it is added to delete queue it can't be modified or edited in any manner. Ofc, the action can be undone, but only by mods/admin.
it is the same way if a mod deletes an addon, other mods can undelete it. For security purpose the last mod's user id will be recorded.

A mod can not force permanent delete anyway. ONLY an admin can force delete it permanently.

When a addon is soft deleted NO ONE can view/edit/download it. and upon soft delete it won't show in addon pages either.
(http://i.imgur.com/3KPj0T4.jpg)

there are also some bug fixes as well.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 28, 2016, 01:15:45 AM
Finally i am done with the addon search. With this update a lots of... i mean a really HUGE improvement over the previous search and also unicode and utf-8 language support.

Search engine improvement:
* much cleaner code (the previous search engine had 4x lines of code while having 1/3 of the features)
* more complex (it is about 20x more complex than previous one and provide better result. One of the best feature is that it treats every word, even better every latter as a searchable query, instead of previous whole sentence query)
* mysql FULLTEXT and LIKE search feature
* no more ":author" needed, just type in author name and boom all of that member's addon will show up
* better results sorted by relevance
* modular query for easier maintenance, i will extend with more features in future if needed.
* supports search by term, sentence and also array (complexity at it's best)

right now it searches through, member name, title, tags, short description and then generate relevant result.
It took me full day to create this and 20minute to implement it throughout the site. Addon page, and dashboard is powered by it.

Another improvement is the ability to submit and view addons on utf-8 and unicode characters. search also fully supported.
I have tried with japanese. It works darn well. Can't say for other languages.

here is an example. http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/6/??????-?????-??????/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/6/??????-?????-??????/)
EDIT: it seems the current forum does not render unicode correctly :(, but the link should still work :)
btw, i have no clue what that japanese means in english. :P

OFC i don't wan't the addon section to be filled with russin, chenese, hebrew languages, that will be awful but is rather a nice feature for internationalization.

Also addon center now has ability to search for user's submitted addon and filter them by category. more filters will come soon.
here is an example of searching on addon center:

(http://i.imgur.com/fqnha8b.jpg)

i still have few things to do with dashboard. so report any issues you find.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 29, 2016, 08:38:12 PM
a small suggestion for the ADD-ONS page.
Coming in with a fresh pair of eyes, I found the Category selector box a little confusing. When i change it, the Search text changes but the results section doesnt react immediately.
I didnt notice the tabs you have right at the top for quite some time
My suggestion would be to remove the entire Search: section and just have the tabs at the top and the search box you already have on the right (which would filter for the tab you have selected) - I would have noticed the tabs if the results were immediately under them.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 29, 2016, 09:11:49 PM
New update:
* lots of code clean up, mostly getting things ready for future maintenance.
* Few bug fixes in addons page.
* Bug fixes for dashboard
* search engine improvement
* added used tags list at the bottom of the addon page. you can also click them and browse other addons with similar tags.
* forum is now named community, let me know if you guys agree with this one or not.

* after reading through hiccup's suggestion i put together an experimental feature for browsing category. this basically uses tags but works much more like sub category for addons.
(http://i.imgur.com/rXT7FkA.jpg)

let me know if it is sufficient or not.

This is mostly under the hood fixes and changes for cleaning up the code to be production ready. all the commits are available on github if needed.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 29, 2016, 09:17:00 PM
My suggestion would be to remove the entire Search: section and just have the tabs at the top and the search box you already have on the right (which would filter for the tab you have selected) - I would have noticed the tabs if the results were immediately under them.
instead of completely removing it i am thinking of expanding the big search box with category ONCE user select advance search.
i will provide a small button on the tab bar for advance search. by default big search box won't show but will expand on advance search is clicked.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 29, 2016, 09:32:21 PM
* forum is now named community, let me know if you guys agree with this one or not.

A strictly personal opinion on this:
In itself I can appreciate the intention of using 'community'.
Yet I think that the 'place' where you would meet with the community would be called 'the forum'.
'Community' to my ears also sounds a little bit fashionable.
In our case, if you would really like it to be very informal 'The Hive' could be an option, but if you want it to be formally better descriptive, I personally think I would prefer the old (Greek) fashioned and well-proved 'forum'.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 29, 2016, 09:38:04 PM
In itself I can appreciate the intention of using 'community'.
Yet I think that the 'place' where you would meet with the community would be called 'the forum'.
'Community' to my ears also sounds a little bit fashionable.
well i am trying to bring musicbee website to the new fashionable era after all :P, anyway i prefer both. i am just looking forward getting some feedback on this.

In our case, if you would really like it to be very informal 'The Hive' could be an option, but if you want it to be formally better descriptive, I personally think I would prefer the old (Greek) fashioned and well-proved 'forum'.
The hive is really a nice option. But i doubt most would be able to figure out what that means... specially new users.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on March 29, 2016, 09:47:23 PM
The hive is really a nice option. But i doubt most would be able to figure out what that means... specially new users.

While partly suggested jokingly, I honestly like it too. It's seems quite fitting on many levels.
But I believe I mentioned this term in the past somewhere before, but it then triggered no response whatsoever.
So it's probably too far away from safe and known terminology.
Sometimes you just might want to 'dare to be different' though.

Got questions? Need help?
Go to The Hive (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php)!

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: ankor on March 30, 2016, 12:31:52 AM
I haven't looked at this thread before today. I pointed the browser to http://test.getmusicbee.com and...

What are you waiting for??? Just kidding. But not really. If this is functional enough (not that I tried) to implement, go for it.

This looks AWESOME AWESOME!!  Great Great work!! v3 and a terrific website update. I hope the new website is what people will see when v3 is officially released!!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 30, 2016, 05:19:05 AM
I haven't looked at this thread before today. I pointed the browser to http://test.getmusicbee.com and...

What are you waiting for??? Just kidding. But not really. If this is functional enough (not that I tried) to implement, go for it.
It is functional, but i the code base is not production ready. The main reason i am hesitant because unlike software, website are not easy to update once it is live. Things may break. So wait a little longer i will publish it when i feel like it is ready :)

This looks AWESOME AWESOME!!  Great Great work!! v3 and a terrific website update. I hope the new website is what people will see when v3 is officially released!!
:)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 30, 2016, 05:21:44 AM
While partly suggested jokingly, I honestly like it too. It's seems quite fitting on many levels.
But I believe I mentioned this term in the past somewhere before, but it then triggered no response whatsoever.
So it's probably too far away from safe and known terminology.
Sometimes you just might want to 'dare to be different' though.

Got questions? Need help?
Go to The Hive (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php)!

haha, the menu items could be renamed(except addon menu) so maybe we could do a poll on this one when the new site & forum goes live. ^^
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 30, 2016, 04:29:17 PM
New update. Addon page is now overhauled. check it out and let me know.

http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/s/?q=&type=all&overview (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/s/?q=&type=all&overview)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 30, 2016, 06:02:56 PM
New update. Addon page is now overhauled. check it out and let me know.

http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/s/?q=&type=all&overview (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/s/?q=&type=all&overview)
that is much much better!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on March 30, 2016, 07:50:40 PM
New update. Addon page is now overhauled. check it out and let me know.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/s/?q=&type=all&overview (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/s/?q=&type=all&overview)
that is much much better!
+1
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 31, 2016, 06:47:50 PM
that is much much better!
+1

:) let me know if you guys have any specific feature in mind!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 31, 2016, 07:02:11 PM
A new update. I tweaked some styling for the addon page.

Also i removed the advance search completely. it is now implemented(mostly) in the small search box. I highly doubt you will need advance search. But let me know if any search specific feature might be useful.

also added better error handling for addons page.
secondary menu also got some styling change for mobile devices.

addons page is complete. dshboard for normal user/uploader is also complete and stable.

admin panel will be removed completely, and will be integrated into dashbaord(only for admins)
also a moderator page will be added for addon mods/admin.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 31, 2016, 07:18:20 PM
is the ADD-ONS page fully functional now?
- "Submit your Add-on" http://test.getmusicbee.com/kb/?code=102#dashboard_submit opens a blank page for me
- What did you have in mind for "Misc" (i know its for Miscellaneous but not sure what would go in there

- Also would anyone volunteer to create the text for "How to Install Add-Ons" ?

for the main home page, overall its great. The only thing I spotted was "Go to Quality Guide". I am happy if someone volunteers to write something generic for this section but its not really something i want to advertise for MusicBee ie. imply that it somehow produces better quality music. Saying that i am fine with the rest of the "Sound Quality Matters" section.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 31, 2016, 07:34:58 PM
is the ADD-ONS page fully functional now?
- "Submit your Add-on" http://test.getmusicbee.com/kb/?code=102#dashboard_submit opens a blank page for me
when ever the url is kb/?code=xxx means something is wrong. And in your case you are not logged in. I haven't build the error page yet. But when it is complete it should show you the error.

- What did you have in mind for "Misc" (i know its for Miscellaneous but not sure what would go in there
Anything that does not fit in other category. I am not add-on developer myself so i don't know what kind of add-on you can build. But it is good have a category that allow other things besides plugin, skin, theater mode, visualizer.

I do have few thing in mind. like maybe language files, equaliser, icons, DSP etc.

- Also would anyone volunteer to create the text for "How to Install Add-Ons" ?
I am planning to do the site specific wikia content. things like, dashboard options, how to upload/submit add-ons, installing things. etc.

for the main home page, overall its great. The only thing I spotted was "Go to Quality Guide". I am happy if someone volunteers to write something generic for this section but its not really something i want to advertise for MusicBee ie. imply that it somehow produces better quality music. Saying that i am fine with the rest of the "Sound Quality Matters" section.
well i will talk about this with psychoadept, and will come up with the content. so don't worry.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 31, 2016, 07:40:45 PM
filter for the tab you have selected  I would have noticed the tabs if the results were immediately under them.
I have added selected tab filtering. It should only show the result from the selected tab. Also to make things a bit more clear when a user now make searches a Search tab will be highlighted instead of category tabs, this will make things a bit more clear. Currently it also shows highlight search tab for tags, which will be fixed in future updates.

I will add additional control for searches if needed.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 31, 2016, 07:51:51 PM
a couple of bugs with the submit add-ons:
- it doesnt remember the version you enter
- entering this for a thumbnail
http://getmusicbee.com/images/skin_preview/albums_tracks/Beer%20Skin%20(Album%20and%20Track).jpg
results in
http://getmusicbee.com/images/skin_preview/albums_tracks/Beer%20Skin%20(Album%20

if the following is not ready for testing then let me know and i will stop:
also the website control center formatting is not working well - i can post a screenshot if needed
Add a new version! in the same panel returns an error code
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 31, 2016, 08:14:29 PM
a couple of bugs with the submit add-ons:
- it doesnt remember the version you enter
Ah it seems i messed the html little bit :P, it should be fixed now. update pushed.

- entering this for a thumbnail
http://getmusicbee.com/images/skin_preview/albums_tracks/Beer%20Skin%20(Album%20and%20Track).jpg
results in
http://getmusicbee.com/images/skin_preview/albums_tracks/Beer%20Skin%20(Album%20
i have made some changes to allow large urls for database. BUT it still won't show on addon page as the url contains brackets. I am looking into this issue.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 31, 2016, 08:16:05 PM
if the following is not ready for testing then let me know and i will stop:
also the website control center formatting is not working well - i can post a screenshot if needed
Add a new version! in the same panel returns an error code
yes as i mentioned above the control center will be removed and will be added to dashboard.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on March 31, 2016, 08:46:47 PM
- entering this for a thumbnail
http://getmusicbee.com/images/skin_preview/albums_tracks/Beer%20Skin%20(Album%20and%20Track).jpg
results in
http://getmusicbee.com/images/skin_preview/albums_tracks/Beer%20Skin%20(Album%20

Ok the bug is fully fixed, now brackets are supported in image url.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on March 31, 2016, 09:47:13 PM
i will try and give this a good testing on the weekend
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 01, 2016, 09:18:20 AM
This is a thought about the proposed system to approve Add-ons before they will be published.

A possible problem I see with that implementation is that it is not certain that every posted add-on can, and will be evaluated by a moderator. This could be because the mod(s) don't own a required hardware device, or might simply not be interested or motivated to install that particular plugin to test it.
But I support and understand the idea behind it, this trying to prevent malicious or nonsense postings of add-ons.

I suggest another approach for this.

Make it mandatory to post an introductory- and explanatory post, including the download link in the forum.
Implement a standard delay of e.g. 48 hours before an added plugin is visible for normal users.
That will give it a valid period for the plugin to be screened at least a little bit with the help and feedback from the community.

If after these 48 hours passed, the plugin has not been reported to be malicious or nonsense, nor by forum posts, nor by a report to the mods, it will become visible in the download area automatically.

The worst that might happen, is that a malicious/nonsense add-on is posted, that it is not responded to by anyone in these 48 hours, and gets published automatically.

I have another suggestion that might help to cover that (rather unlikely) possibility, namely by giving each and every published add-on a visual indicator (I can't find the right word, 'stamp?') naming it 'unverified', just explaining that it has not yet been tested for functionality or viruses.

The mods will be able to see a list of yet unverified add-ons, and can remove that 'unverified tag' either by own assessment, by responses from forum members, or after  personal note or request from the creator of that add-on. It would also allow for bypassing the 48hours waiting time.

I believe such a system would also be much easier for the mods to handle than trying out and test all add-ons by themselves.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 01, 2016, 09:46:54 AM
A possible problem I see with that implementation is that it is not certain that every posted add-on can, and will be evaluated by a moderator. This could be because the mod(s) don't own a required hardware device, or might simply not be interested or motivated to install that particular plugin to test it.
But I support and understand the idea behind it, this trying to prevent malicious or nonsense postings of add-ons.
The verification is to prevent spams, and also floodgate. i do trust the community for providing quality addons without malicious intent. But ofc, humans are complicated and it is not easy to trust them by nature.

I suggest another approach for this.

Make it mandatory to post an introductory- and explanatory post, including the download link in the forum.
Don't you think that is a bit of stretch! And besides it will require a human to verify the forum post. I have made support/discussion link mandatory for addons that are beta. but to make it fully mandatory might be too much. ofc if others agrees i will make the changes otherwise i would prefer not to.

Implement a standard delay of e.g. 48 hours before an added plugin is visible for normal users.
That will give it a valid period for the plugin to be screened at least a little bit with the help and feedback from the community.

If after these 48 hours passed, the plugin has not been reported to be malicious or nonsense, nor by forum posts, nor by a report to the mods, it will become visible in the download area automatically.

The worst that might happen, is that a malicious/nonsense add-on is posted, that it is not responded to by anyone in these 48 hours, and gets published automatically.

I have another suggestion that might help to cover that (rather unlikely) possibility, namely by giving each and every published add-on a visual indicator (I can't find the right word, 'stamp?') naming it 'unverified', just explaining that it has not yet been tested for functionality or viruses.
Currently unverified add-ons are completely invisible to users BUT they can still access them if they got direct link.

All non-verified addon will show warning. They are invisible but if someone visit them by direct links the addon page will show warning.
(http://i.imgur.com/C9OYDlK.jpg)

If an addon is rejected the download link won't show. only the warning message. Members can re-submit rejected add-ons for re-verification.
(http://i.imgur.com/ynoILZy.jpg)

and if an addon is soft deleted(mods can only soft delete, only admin can permanently delete them or they will be automatically deleted in a week/days by server) they will throws a red error. admin/mod will be able to undelete as well.
(http://i.imgur.com/3KPj0T4.jpg)

The mods will be able to see a list of yet unverified add-ons, and can remove that 'unverified tag' either by own assessment, by responses from forum members, or after  personal note or request from the creator of that add-on. It would also allow for bypassing the 48hours waiting time.

I believe such a system would also be much easier for the mods to handle than trying out and test all add-ons by themselves.
mods/admin can see non verified addons and approve them, soft delete, reject them.
(http://i.imgur.com/69u4b5a.jpg)

You can currently sort YOUR OWN SUBMITTED addons by status
(https://i.imgur.com/076M56u.jpg)

 I am also working on moderator and admin center now, it will bring some extra features for mods as well. Viewing all deleted, rejected, waiting for approval is also coming for mods as well.

I like the idea of involving community to vote for safe and unsafe addons. It sounds like steam greenlight. :)
But ofc it can also have some negative effect aswell, like users reporting an safe addon as virus just for fun or maybe their shitty antivirus said so. or maybe spam addons got accepted because mods were not online for 48hours or so.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 01, 2016, 09:51:52 AM
Also if needed i can implement disqus comment. ofc someone need to mod them as well. :S
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 01, 2016, 10:02:47 AM
Also if needed i can implement disqus comment. ofc someone need to mod them as well. :S

Then we would have three locations for discussions at the forum, at the wikia, and at your add-ons pages.
Probably not a good idea...
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 01, 2016, 10:12:42 AM
A possible problem I see with that implementation is that it is not certain that every posted add-on can, and will be evaluated by a moderator. This could be because the mod(s) don't own a required hardware device, or might simply not be interested or motivated to install that particular plugin to test it.
But I support and understand the idea behind it, this trying to prevent malicious or nonsense postings of add-ons.
The verification is to prevent spams, and also floodgate. i do trust the community for providing quality addons without malicious intent. But ofc, humans are complicated and it is not easy to trust them by nature.

I suggest another approach for this.

Make it mandatory to post an introductory- and explanatory post, including the download link in the forum.
Don't you think that is a bit of stretch! And besides it will require a human to verify the forum post. I have made support/discussion link mandatory for addons that are beta. but to make it fully mandatory might be too much. ofc if others agrees i will make the changes otherwise i would prefer not to.

Implement a standard delay of e.g. 48 hours before an added plugin is visible for normal users.
That will give it a valid period for the plugin to be screened at least a little bit with the help and feedback from the community.

If after these 48 hours passed, the plugin has not been reported to be malicious or nonsense, nor by forum posts, nor by a report to the mods, it will become visible in the download area automatically.

The worst that might happen, is that a malicious/nonsense add-on is posted, that it is not responded to by anyone in these 48 hours, and gets published automatically.

I have another suggestion that might help to cover that (rather unlikely) possibility, namely by giving each and every published add-on a visual indicator (I can't find the right word, 'stamp?') naming it 'unverified', just explaining that it has not yet been tested for functionality or viruses.
Currently unverified add-ons are completely invisible to users BUT they can still access them if they got direct link.

All non-verified addon will show warning. They are invisible but if someone visit them by direct links the addon page will show warning.

If an addon is rejected the download link won't show. only the warning message. Members can re-submit rejected add-ons for re-verification.

and if an addon is soft deleted(mods can only soft delete, only admin can permanently delete them or they will be automatically deleted in a week/days by server) they will throws a red error. admin/mod will be able to undelete as well.

The mods will be able to see a list of yet unverified add-ons, and can remove that 'unverified tag' either by own assessment, by responses from forum members, or after  personal note or request from the creator of that add-on. It would also allow for bypassing the 48hours waiting time.

I believe such a system would also be much easier for the mods to handle than trying out and test all add-ons by themselves.
mods/admin can see non verified addons and approve them, soft delete, reject them.

You can currently sort YOUR OWN SUBMITTED addons by status

 I am also working on moderator and admin center now, it will bring some extra features for mods as well. Viewing all deleted, rejected, waiting for approval is also coming for mods as well.

I like the idea of involving community to vote for safe and unsafe addons. It sounds like steam greenlight. :)
But ofc it can also have some negative effect aswell, like users reporting an safe addon as virus just for fun or maybe their shitty antivirus said so. or maybe spam addons got accepted because mods were not online for 48hours or so.

It is just a thought, coming up after the notion this 'approval' dashboard might be some overkill for MB, and be needing a bit too much mod-interaction.
But it seems you are thinking this over very seriously, so let's just wait and see how this plays out in the real world later.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: boroda on April 01, 2016, 10:14:17 AM
actually during several years there were no malicious addons published, so i wouldn't care too much about this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 01, 2016, 10:20:45 AM
actually during several years there were no malicious addons published, so i wouldn't care too much about this.

You are right, but I am a bit worried about spam-bots getting more and more advanced.
They already started to enter the gates of the new forum, and I was wondering if something similar might happen with posting files, instead of just texts.

Last year something like this actually happened with the fake (and malicious) MusicBee app on Microsofts' own Store website.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 01, 2016, 10:21:11 AM
It is just a thought, coming up after the notion this 'approval' dashboard might be some overkill for MB, and be needing a bit too much mod-interaction.
But it seems you are thinking this over very seriously, so let's just wait and see how this plays out in the real world later.
I don't think it is too much of overkill. It is pretty simple. Three actions, approve, delete and reject.
all of them are one click solution. No complicated checkboxes or so.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 01, 2016, 10:24:03 AM
You are right, but I am a bit worried about spam-bots getting more and more advanced.
They already started to enter the gates of the new forum, and I was wondering if something similar might happen with posting files, instead of just texts.
If you guys are worried about spam bots i can implement google's nocaptcha recaptcha for addon submission form, even when a user is logged in.

Last year something like this actually happened with the fake (and malicious) MusicBee app on Microsofts' own Store website.
Well windows store always has the knockoff crappy apps from the beginning.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 01, 2016, 10:27:31 AM
I don't think it is too much of overkill. It is pretty simple. Three actions, approve, delete and reject.
all of them are one click solution. No complicated checkboxes or so.

Is the word 'approved' going to show with the add-on to see for regular users?
I am guessing not, but in case you intend it to, I think it shouldn't.
It might give some false assurance that the plugin is guaranteed to work perfectly.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 01, 2016, 10:32:04 AM
Is the word 'approved' going to show with the add-on to see for regular users?
I am guessing not, but in case you intend it to, I think it shouldn't.
It might give some false assurance that the plugin is guaranteed to work perfectly.
Nope. only the approved addon can be seen and browse by regular users. The word itself won't show anywhere other than dashboard.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 01, 2016, 10:37:41 AM
If you guys are worried about spam bots i can implement google's nocaptcha recaptcha for addon submission form, even when a user is logged in.

Personally in principle I would like it to be as friendly and easy to contribute as possible.
We could just wait and see how it goes.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 01, 2016, 10:47:27 AM
Personally in principle I would like it to be as friendly and easy to contribute as possible.
We could just wait and see how it goes.
yeah i agree. we can include captchas if spamming gets out of hand.
Although i did have one built-in countermeasure. By default a non-elite/admin/mod user can add upto 10 unapproved addons, no more than that. they need to wait until those add-ons get approved.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 01, 2016, 11:53:05 AM
new update:
imgur upload is back.
bug fixes
styling improvement
browser go back will work for addon update
improvement for input verification.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 01, 2016, 01:13:03 PM
actually during several years there were no malicious addons published, so i wouldn't care too much about this.
I agree 100%.  Spam in general is currently under control by a) requiring user registration to use the forum, and b) by the moderators deleting the little bit that gets manually posted - kitchen cabinets, anyone?

Like boroda74 I've been on the forum for many years (since 2009) I have not see nor heard of one add-on that was malicious.  Some didn't work as expected, but that's not with malicious intent. 

Lastly, speaking strictly for myself as a moderator, I have no interest in testing every new add-on, plugin, or skin that gets published.

I truly believe there is no need for an approval system other than what's currently in place.  This is a free and open forum.  And in a nice departure from a lot of forums I've been a member of, the users all play nicely here.  Why put restrictions on what can be done?  Just because you -can- implement something like this doesn't mean you -have- to.  I propose launching the website/forum without the restriction and if there's a need down the road, add it.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: boroda on April 01, 2016, 02:27:28 PM
I propose launching the website/forum without the restriction and if there's a need down the road, add it.
this
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 01, 2016, 02:39:42 PM
 I notice the 'New Poll' button is present in every board.
You'll probably only want that button available in the 'General Discussions' board.

Or perhaps even better, keep the button available in all boards, but automatically have any new poll started, directed to and posted in the 'General Discussions' board.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 01, 2016, 02:47:52 PM
Personally in principle I would like it to be as friendly and easy to contribute as possible.
We could just wait and see how it goes.
Exactly.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 01, 2016, 06:35:23 PM
I notice the 'New Poll' button is present in every board.
You'll probably only want that button available in the 'General Discussions' board.
you should be able to change the board permission and not allow polls.
(https://i.imgur.com/roBJODQ.jpg)

Or perhaps even better, keep the button available in all boards, but automatically have any new poll started, directed to and posted in the 'General Discussions' board.
Is that even possible? i don't think SMF can do that.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 01, 2016, 07:01:50 PM
you should be able to change the board permission and not allow polls.

Yes, but I think it's probably not up to a mod to (be able to) change such things.

Quote
Is that even possible? i don't think SMF can do that.

I really have no idea.
And it's probably not that important. If not possible, disabling it for the other boards should be done though.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on April 09, 2016, 09:17:52 AM
I have been approached by a forum member who wants to create a german tutorial for MB3 and he requested a German forum be created as his blog is taking quite a few questions.
I have resisted creating language sub-forums in the past due to concerns that there are not that many active users on the MB forum so questions might be posted and not answered.
However I would like to create a german sub-forum and see how it goes. Are there any other languages where people feel there is sufficent demand?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: boroda on April 09, 2016, 06:26:17 PM
im ready to assist in russian subforum, but cannot guarantee that i'll be available 24/7
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: J24 on April 10, 2016, 02:07:09 AM
This looks really good, much more modern and slick! I love the dark theme in the Add-ons page! I wish the entire website had that same dark theme, it'd look even better in my opinion.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: J24 on April 10, 2016, 03:52:09 AM
It would be awesome if the forums had an option to select a forum theme such as dark theme or light theme
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 10, 2016, 07:59:21 AM
It would be awesome if the forums had an option to select a forum theme such as dark theme or light theme

That awesomeness is implemented, just click the 'contrast' icon left of the search bar.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Joolee on April 10, 2016, 08:04:41 AM
Just stumbled across this topic so these might have been mentioned before.

On the homepage of http://test.getmusicbee.com/
 - "MusicBee also supports podcasts and web radio stations and Soundcloud integration" should be "MusicBee also supports podcasts, web radio stations and Soundcloud integration"
 - Image is fubar: http://test.getmusicbee.com/img/mb_tag_feature.jpg

On the download page http://test.getmusicbee.com/download/
 - You pull a serif font out of nowhere (doesn't fit well with the rest)
 - Also, the awesome screen-filling goodness showcased on the homepage is nowhere to be seen. It feels a lot less polished.

Login page (http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/?action=login)
 - Uses a default icon. Doesn't fit in with the rest (http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/Themes/mb_modern/images/icons/login_sm.gif)
 - Login form can be wider. Would be more in line with the rest of the website. It feels a bit off, just like to download page
 - "Forgot your password" should have an orange hover effect
 - This page is 'part of' the forum, as indicated by the secondary menu bar and the breadcrumb navigation. That is not needed and counter-intuitive. You could redirect to the forum after login but as the login button is visible on the whole website and doesn't seem to be related to the forum, you should not suddenly get forum functionality just by clicking on it.

Forum home page
 - The breadcrumb navigation starts at the forum, not at the main website. That makes the forum more a separate thing than you seem to be intending. I would change it to "Musicbee > Forum (or community) > ...."
 - The Forum Stats section of the page looks messy and technical. Use spacing more freely, remove the brackets around the "more stats" link or just remove the whole thing or change it to a "latest posts" section because that's about the only thing in there. You could link to the "more stats" somewhere where you're actually showing stats, like a bit above, where you show general statistics like number of posts, topics and members.
 - Shouldn't those general stats like number of posts, topics and members be below the " MusicBee Test - Info Center " header?
 - The  "MusicBee Test - Info Center" header is invisible


Overall
 - I miss the logo. Is that intentional?
 - Try to question your users why they use MusicBee above other players and let those features show on the homepage. I for one use MusicBee because, it's easy to use out-of-the-box but if you want something more, it's usually possible and the option will be right there where you expect it to be.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Skoop on April 10, 2016, 03:40:15 PM
^^^What Joolee said.

Also, "I would change it to "Musicbee > Forum (or community) > ...."

Use "Forum".  "Community" is just too social in implication.  Looking at the first dozen or so pages of the General forum, most threads have single digit numbers of posts, most of them low single digits.  People come to ask a question for some help and it looks like they then leave once they get the player set up as the wish it, or get their issue addressed.  Some threads are arguments about form or function that may or may not be resolved. 

That's not so community in orientation and function, like a chat room or whatever.  Leave it as "Forum".  And turn avatars and sigs off by default. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 10, 2016, 03:48:36 PM
Leave it as "Forum".  And turn avatars and sigs off by default.

+1
+1
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: boroda on April 11, 2016, 03:53:15 PM
Leave it as "Forum".  And turn avatars and sigs off by default.

+1
+1

yes, +1
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 11, 2016, 05:04:00 PM
Leave it as "Forum".  And turn avatars and sigs off by default.
+1  +1
Agree with both.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 11, 2016, 05:07:33 PM
Leave it as "Forum".  And turn avatars and sigs off by default.
+1  +1
Agree with both.
You can turn both of them off from your profile setting.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 11, 2016, 05:08:46 PM
@joolee thanks for the feedback. I will look into those issues.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 11, 2016, 05:13:41 PM
Okay it seems i haven't post any updates in few weeks. Well i have a good news, the main site(except help page) is completely done. The dashboard is now complete. Moderation centre, admin centre and also website setting is complete.

I am experiencing some issue with my shitty internet here, i will provide the final stable update as soon as i can.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 11, 2016, 11:39:13 PM
You can turn both of them off from your profile setting.
Turning them off from one's profile setting is not the same as having them off by default.  That means they're -on- by default.   Which I would not like to see.  Users don't set their local time in their current profile, for example.  They're not going to turn off the avatar is it's on by default. 

Personally, I would rather see no option whatsoever for avatars.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Joolee on April 12, 2016, 08:00:52 AM
Just out of curiosity, what is your problem with avatars? I find them useful to keep people apart and find back my own posts. I don't usually notice screen names at all on fora.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 12, 2016, 09:29:00 AM
Just out of curiosity, what is your problem with avatars? I find them useful to keep people apart and find back my own posts. I don't usually notice screen names at all on fora.

My reason for not being very enthousiastic about avatars and signatures is that they tend to divert or distract the attention from the content of the post.
I like to try to value a posting on it's content, and I try not to be influenced too much by the persons status, avatar, signature, personal interests, track record, etc. etc.

I can understand the attractiveness of them, but I associate them with users trying to connect on a more personal level, presenting themselves in some more social and individual manner. That may be useful for more socially-oriented fora on topics such as dating, gaming, travelling, art, etc. where individual taste or preferences are more relevant and interesting.

But for MusicBee, the only forum board I can think of that might be suited for this would perhaps be 'Beyond MusicBee'.
For the others I wouldn't care for it.

And, apart from this personal opinion about them, from the viewpoint of functionality, I also don't see much added value in having them.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 12, 2016, 12:53:36 PM
Just out of curiosity, what is your problem with avatars? I find them useful to keep people apart and find back my own posts. I don't usually notice screen names at all on fora.
I too, find them distracting.  And don't get me started on the animated ones.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: boroda on April 12, 2016, 01:31:53 PM
the 1st thing i have done after registering on the forum was disabling signatures
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on April 12, 2016, 01:42:42 PM
Just out of curiosity, what is your problem with avatars? I find them useful to keep people apart and find back my own posts. I don't usually notice screen names at all on fora.

This can be an accessibility issue.  Okay, most of us don't have any use for them, but having options available that support different ways of perceiving and processing information is always a good thing. (This is the field I work in - a related question would be, is the forum/website screen-reader friendly?)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 12, 2016, 03:33:00 PM
New update is live. A lots of fixes, as well as new features, new admin panel, moderator panel, and website setting panel for changing things.
Another new feature is the language chooser at the bottom of the page. Thew new site is fully multi lingual. I have made a demo language file in Bengali(just for the sake of how it works). I only translated few things on the home page. You can choose between us english and other one.

Translation can be partial or full. Also you can change add-on menu items too. I have made some backend changes so that you guys can argue and change between us-uk languages.

All i need is some volunteer translators. We don't need whole site but maybe the home page, download page and maybe some other too.

There are few more things to do but most of them are backend. normal user won't see any differences.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Skoop on April 12, 2016, 03:35:23 PM
Quote
I find them useful to keep people apart and find back my own posts.

There simply aren't that many people posting at MusciBee.  The regulars are few in number compared to the new members who post to ask a question and then don't come back. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 12, 2016, 03:36:48 PM
Turning them off from one's profile setting is not the same as having them off by default.  That means they're -on- by default.   Which I would not like to see.  Users don't set their local time in their current profile, for example.  They're not going to turn off the avatar is it's on by default. 

Personally, I would rather see no option whatsoever for avatars.

I have no intention on disabling any of them by default. If any user wishes they can disable them. But truing them off by DEFAULT is not something i am willing to do.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Skoop on April 12, 2016, 04:30:04 PM
Why not?  Turning them off by default is not the same as disabling the function altogether.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 12, 2016, 05:35:36 PM
Why not?  Turning them off by default is not the same as disabling the function altogether.
Because there is no reason for them to be turned off by default.
Avatar image is useful when reading long threads. As for sig most of MusicBee forum member do not use them or any distracting way, so it poses no threat to readability or anything.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 12, 2016, 05:53:29 PM
Why not?  Turning them off by default is not the same as disabling the function altogether.
Because there is no reason for them to be turned off by default.
The same can be said for the opposite:  There is no reason for them to be turned on by default.

I'd like to hear what Steven has to say about  this.  After all, it's his website and forum. Despite volunteers working to redesign things ultimately the final decision should be his.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 12, 2016, 06:00:58 PM
Just stumbled across this topic so these might have been mentioned before.

On the homepage of http://test.getmusicbee.com/
 - "MusicBee also supports podcasts and web radio stations and Soundcloud integration" should be "MusicBee also supports podcasts, web radio stations and Soundcloud integration"
Should be fixed in next few updates.

- Image is fubar: http://test.getmusicbee.com/img/mb_tag_feature.jpg
I haven't completed them yet :( , i am not good with graphic design and stuff so they are the last thing on my todo list.


On the download page http://test.getmusicbee.com/download/
 - You pull a serif font out of nowhere (doesn't fit well with the rest)
 - Also, the awesome screen-filling goodness showcased on the homepage is nowhere to be seen. It feels a lot less polished.
I have no idea where did you saw serfi? all fonts are roboto if i didn't make any mistake :/, can you post a screenshot?

As for awesome screen filling goodness, what do you mean by nowhere to be seen?

Login page (http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/?action=login)
 - Uses a default icon. Doesn't fit in with the rest (http://test.getmusicbee.com/forum/Themes/mb_modern/images/icons/login_sm.gif)
 - Login form can be wider. Would be more in line with the rest of the website. It feels a bit off, just like to download page
 - "Forgot your password" should have an orange hover effect
 - This page is 'part of' the forum, as indicated by the secondary menu bar and the breadcrumb navigation. That is not needed and counter-intuitive. You could redirect to the forum after login but as the login button is visible on the whole website and doesn't seem to be related to the forum, you should not suddenly get forum functionality just by clicking on it.
icon will be changed in phases as the forum has a LOTS of them it is possible for me to update them at once.
i will fix the orange hover effect in next few updates.

The website uses forum login for EVERYTHING! it is the base authentication. i have no plans of changing it.

Forum home page
 - The breadcrumb navigation starts at the forum, not at the main website. That makes the forum more a separate thing than you seem to be intending. I would change it to "Musicbee > Forum (or community) > ...."
It is how SMF works. One can't change them without hacks or editing core files, which i am trying to avoid as much as possible. So don't expect this to happen.

- The Forum Stats section of the page looks messy and technical. Use spacing more freely, remove the brackets around the "more stats" link or just remove the whole thing or change it to a "latest posts" section because that's about the only thing in there. You could link to the "more stats" somewhere where you're actually showing stats, like a bit above, where you show general statistics like number of posts, topics and members.
Stats section is by default messy that's why i created a much more spaced out non technical stat above that. The messy stat can be collapsed if required.

- Shouldn't those general stats like number of posts, topics and members be below the " MusicBee Test - Info Center " header?
 - The  "MusicBee Test - Info Center" header is invisible
- not necessarily, those stats are just overview and after that much more technical stat is placed.

Overall
 - I miss the logo. Is that intentional?
 - Try to question your users why they use MusicBee above other players and let those features show on the homepage. I for one use MusicBee because, it's easy to use out-of-the-box but if you want something more, it's usually possible and the option will be right there where you expect it to be.
- I have plans to show the logo instead of text. But i haven't talked to steven about the logo. It is not priority right now, will change it once the core site is pretty stable.
- Why you ask? well different people have different answer. for me i like it because it has a nice UI(with skin ofc), supports milkdrop visualizer, consumes less RAM, has itune like expand album feature(which is a must for me), auto tag feature, auto organize and so on.
It is really hard to cover WHY? because WHY NOT?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on April 12, 2016, 06:16:51 PM
Although i personally dont like avatar images, i appreciate some people do and they should be allowed to upload one if they want. I draw the line at animated gifs though but AvikB has kindly put in a message for users around that.
So i am not really getting what the issue is here, other than some people disliking avatar images in general. I expect many people wont bother but if they want to they can - it still requires some action on their part and i dont see how a default comes into this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 12, 2016, 08:29:01 PM
Thanks for your input Steven. 
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Joolee on April 15, 2016, 10:14:14 PM
On the download page http://test.getmusicbee.com/download/
 - You pull a serif font out of nowhere (doesn't fit well with the rest)
 - Also, the awesome screen-filling goodness showcased on the homepage is nowhere to be seen. It feels a lot less polished.
I have no idea where did you saw serfi? all fonts are roboto if i didn't make any mistake :/, can you post a screenshot?
Roboto is a non-standard font and I don't see you loading it anywhere in your CSS as webfont. You probably have it installed on your computer so it renders fine for you. Most elements render in Sans-Serif or Verdana on my PC because you configured those as fallback in the body style but for some reason you specify custom font parameters for some elements (.show_info, input, .btn, H1, H3 and .mainmenu) where H3 doesn't have any fallback fonts configured.


As for awesome screen filling goodness, what do you mean by nowhere to be seen?
The homepage is formatted with a lot of free space and (background) images that stretch from left to right. I have configured your H3 tags to display Sans-Serif for me now so I can take a new look at the download page.
At my screen resolution (1080p with 125% DPI scale) the left side of the download screen looks a bit empty. It feels like the whole page is shifted to the right because the screenshot fills the right part of the screen but the left part is empty space. Also, on the homepage, you use generous spacing for everything, for example the feature boxes and hero-buttons. The boxes on the download page feel cramped with a lot less spacing and buttons that seem to big for the space they are allotted. Increase the paddings in the boxes, center the buttons and increase their margins and you'll go a long way to making those boxes feel less cramped. You can also make sure that the right side of the screen has roughly the same amount of empty space as the left side by making the screenshot smaller or just centering the whole page.

Now that I look at it again, it probably doesn't help that the screenshot is cut of at the right side of the page. >Screenshot< (http://joolee.nl/images/Musicbee-Downloadpage.png)


The website uses forum login for EVERYTHING! it is the base authentication. i have no plans of changing it.
Forum auth being the base auth for the website is not the problem. The login page being a visible part of the forum, without clicking on something forum related is confusing. Just getting rid of the secondery_nav and navigate_section on the login page would fix that. As you're understandably reluctant to change core files of the forum, this is probably something you can't change.


- The Forum Stats section of the page looks messy and technical. Use spacing more freely, remove the brackets around the "more stats" link or just remove the whole thing or change it to a "latest posts" section because that's about the only thing in there. You could link to the "more stats" somewhere where you're actually showing stats, like a bit above, where you show general statistics like number of posts, topics and members.
Stats section is by default messy that's why i created a much more spaced out non technical stat above that. The messy stat can be collapsed if required.
Is it an idea to collapse it by default or for all non-logged-in users to leave a solid first impression?


- Why you ask? well different people have different answer. for me i like it because it has a nice UI(with skin ofc), supports milkdrop visualizer, consumes less RAM, has itune like expand album feature(which is a must for me), auto tag feature, auto organize and so on.
It is really hard to cover WHY? because WHY NOT?
The different idea's might be the reason the ask the question. Let users braindump their reasons to pick MusicBee over other software, make a selection of 10-20 features that make MusicBee stand out and create a poll to pick the features that should be mentioned on the homepage.

Although I must admit that the features you currently list on the (test) homepage are unique to MusicBee. That is already way better than most websites can manage and probably good enough.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 05:47:35 AM
Roboto is a non-standard font and I don't see you loading it anywhere in your CSS as webfont. You probably have it installed on your computer so it renders fine for you. Most elements render in Sans-Serif or Verdana on my PC because you configured those as fallback in the body style but for some reason you specify custom font parameters for some elements (.show_info, input, .btn, H1, H3 and .mainmenu) where H3 doesn't have any fallback fonts configured.
Ah crap, i completely forgot to include roboto from googlefonts :P, it must've slipped my mind when i switched to scss. it should be fixed now.


At my screen resolution (1080p with 125% DPI scale) the left side of the download screen looks a bit empty. It feels like the whole page is shifted to the right because the screenshot fills the right part of the screen but the left part is empty space. Also, on the homepage, you use generous spacing for everything, for example the feature boxes and hero-buttons. The boxes on the download page feel cramped with a lot less spacing and buttons that seem to big for the space they are allotted. Increase the paddings in the boxes, center the buttons and increase their margins and you'll go a long way to making those boxes feel less cramped. You can also make sure that the right side of the screen has roughly the same amount of empty space as the left side by making the screenshot smaller or just centering the whole page.

Now that I look at it again, it probably doesn't help that the screenshot is cut of at the right side of the page. >Screenshot< (http://joolee.nl/images/Musicbee-Downloadpage.png)
The button text seems big because of the messed up font it should look good in Roboto.
The boxes are cramped because it does not have that much of context anyway, only few download links and few lines of text. making it bigger does not make any sense.
As for making the screenshot smaller, yes thats what i have in mind. To be fair since the new site is specifically shows MusicBee 3's feature, until MusicBee 3's UI is solid it is hard to get a screenshot for the website. Most of the current screenshots are placeholder. I will update them with new ones when MusicBee 3 UI is finalized.




Forum auth being the base auth for the website is not the problem. The login page being a visible part of the forum, without clicking on something forum related is confusing. Just getting rid of the secondery_nav and navigate_section on the login page would fix that. As you're understandably reluctant to change core files of the forum, this is probably something you can't change.
I am actually planning on making a separate login page for v2.0(the next big update), the forum will use it's own login page and the site will use it's own. But both of them will use same credential. OFC it is nothing more than plan at this point as i haven't looked in what kind of hash algorithm SMF uses.


Is it an idea to collapse it by default or for all non-logged-in users to leave a solid first impression?
I am planning to leave it as is for now. There will be another major forum theme+layout change when SMF 2.1 will be released.


The different idea's might be the reason the ask the question. Let users braindump their reasons to pick MusicBee over other software, make a selection of 10-20 features that make MusicBee stand out and create a poll to pick the features that should be mentioned on the homepage.

That could be a good idea. I have added to v2.0 roadmap.

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on April 16, 2016, 09:14:59 AM
@AvikB, the v3 UI is complete. Its already at the Release Candidate stage and should be going live at the end of this month so no more GUI changes will happen - just bug fixes.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 09:23:07 AM
@AvikB, the v3 UI is complete. Its already at the Release Candidate stage and should be going live at the end of this month so no more GUI changes will happen - just bug fixes.
thanks for the confirmation. I will update the images in the Next update which will be the first stable build.

I have also added(and tested) support for HTTPS(SSL) for the site.

Btw do you have any plan to move the site to ssl? letsencrypt.org (http://letsencrypt.org) give free ssl certificate, and backed up some major corporations(mozialla, facebook and others). i am sure this topic has been discussed previously and the cost is always the issue. But yesterday Lets Encrypt released their first stable release and it could be a great opportunity to make the site more secure and trusted.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 16, 2016, 09:43:52 AM
Hey AvikB,

Just in case you are curious what the forum looks like now on a system with a strict 'no fuzzy fonts here' policy ;-)
The previously serif fonts are now indeed sans-serif.
Not all the fonts look particularly nice on my setup (especially the small-type bold ones), but that's not a problem.
(and I am the only one bitching about it anyway ;-)

(http://i.imgur.com/LtSnXjMl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/LtSnXjM.png)


(http://i.imgur.com/WwvEK9Xl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/WwvEK9X.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 09:50:13 AM
Hey AvikB,

Just in case you are curious what the forum looks like now on a system with a strict 'no fuzzy fonts here' policy ;-)
The previously serif fonts are now indeed sans-serif.
Not all the fonts look particularly nice on my setup (especially the small-type bold ones), but that's not a problem.
(and I am the only one bitching about it anyway ;-)

Ah thanks for posting this issue, i will post an update in 1-2 day to resolve this issue.
I am thinking of completely switching to verdana if font-smoothing is disabled, what font do you think will suite for those edgy view?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 16, 2016, 09:58:17 AM
Ah thanks for posting this issue, i will post an update in 1-2 day to resolve this issue.
I am thinking of completely switching to verdana if font-smoothing is disabled, what font do you think will suite for those edgy view?

The font used in the current forum looks fine. is that verdana?

(http://i.imgur.com/YRphrwX.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 16, 2016, 10:00:57 AM
PS,
The screenshot from the other forum I pm'ed you last week also looked good. Not sure what font that was though.
But you said it was some SMF default theme?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 10:01:38 AM
The font used in the current forum looks fine. is that verdana?

it is Lao UI, i will probably stick to a system font like verdana, sans-serif, even segoe UI(since it is windows only, sans-serif will be backup).
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 10:03:52 AM
PS,
The screenshot from the other forum I pm'ed you last week also looked good. Not sure what font that was though.
But you said it was some SMF default theme?
that should be Verdana.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on April 16, 2016, 11:33:49 AM
I have also added(and tested) support for HTTPS(SSL) for the site.

Btw do you have any plan to move the site to ssl? letsencrypt.org (http://letsencrypt.org) give free ssl certificate, and backed up some major corporations(mozialla, facebook and others). i am sure this topic has been discussed previously and the cost is always the issue. But yesterday Lets Encrypt released their first stable release and it could be a great opportunity to make the site more secure and trusted.
i would need to purchase a dedicated IP address which i am fine with doing.
However for the certificate itself, i dont have access to any command line in order to generate the certificate. I will look into this though
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 16, 2016, 01:08:11 PM
I am actually planning on making a separate login page for v2.0(the next big update), the forum will use it's own login page and the site will use it's own. But both of them will use same credential. OFC it is nothing more than plan at this point as i haven't looked in what kind of hash algorithm SMF uses.
Does this mean you're planning to have a login for the website???  I can understand the need for authorization on the forum, but not for the website.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 02:34:00 PM
Does this mean you're planning to have a login for the website???  I can understand the need for authorization on the forum, but not for the website.

Don't worry there won't be any login for the website. i will use forum for authentication, only there will be a much more modern login page. OFC as i said it is only a idea now no promise.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 16, 2016, 03:00:44 PM
Does this mean you're planning to have a login for the website???  I can understand the need for authorization on the forum, but not for the website.

Don't worry there won't be any login for the website. i will use forum for authentication, only there will be a much more modern login page. OFC as i said it is only a idea now no promise.
I understand that this is only an idea at this point.
When you say you'll use the forum for authentication for the website, does that mean that visitors to the website would need to register on the forum?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 03:29:58 PM
I understand that this is only an idea at this point.
When you say you'll use the forum for authentication for the website, does that mean that visitors to the website would need to register on the forum?
The website can be fully accessed with or without any authentication. The only thing that require login/account is the addon like feature, addon submission and creating a new topic on forum ofc.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 03:33:42 PM
i would need to purchase a dedicated IP address which i am fine with doing.
i don't think that is needed. here is one of letsencrypt dev's response:
https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/shared-hosting/384/14 (https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/shared-hosting/384/14)

However for the certificate itself, i dont have access to any command line in order to generate the certificate. I will look into this though
There are few ways around that, you can also talk to your hosting provider.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 16, 2016, 05:52:53 PM
The website can be fully accessed with or without any authentication. The only thing that require login/account is the addon like feature, addon submission and creating a new topic on forum ofc.
Understood.  Thanks.
I do think that requiring a user to register solely to download skins or plugins is a mistake.  I agree it should be required for uploading.  But not for downloading.  Neither the current forum nor the Wiki require it now.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 06:08:41 PM
I do think that requiring a user to register solely to download skins or plugins is a mistake.  I agree it should be required for uploading.  But not for downloading.  Neither the current forum nor the Wiki require it now.
downloading won't require an account in anyway. i am not keen on forcing user with unnecessary restriction.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on April 16, 2016, 06:15:18 PM
I know phred is going to review the text on the website before it goes live, so perhaps I speak too soon, but I have some doubts about using the word 'simple' in the slogan "Simple, Powerful, and Fast"

MusicBee is a lot, but simple is not the first word that comes to my mind describing it...
(and in my language that word can also have some slightly negative connotation, as the opposite of advanced, smart, refined)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 16, 2016, 06:22:01 PM
MusicBee is a lot, but simple is not the first word that comes to my mind describing it...
(and in my language that word can also have some slightly negative connotation, as the opposite of advanced, smart, refined)

for me when describing MusicBee the first words that come to my mind is beutiful, powerful, snappy.
ofc different people will have different experience, but i care how software looks and works, and musicbee is a wonderful combination of both :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on April 16, 2016, 06:32:07 PM
I know phred is going to review the text on the website before it goes live, so perhaps I speak too soon, but I have some doubts about using the word 'simple' in the slogan "Simple, Powerful, and Fast"

MusicBee is a lot, but simple is not the first word that comes to my mind describing it...
(and in my language that word can also have some slightly negative connotation, as the opposite of advanced, smart, refined)
Thanks for pointing this out.
While I am going to review the text, I'll mostly be correcting spelling, grammar, and punctuation. And converting from UK English to US English. Of course I'll look over the context, but I'm not sure I would've caught "simple."  But you're correct.  I'll dig up another word or phrase when the time comes.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: ankor on April 17, 2016, 03:22:29 PM
the appeal for new users...setup is fast and easy

for all users...customization is off-the-charts......skins, layouts, 3 player modes, tag editing, plugins, CD ripping, artwork and that doesn't even scratch the surface
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on April 17, 2016, 04:34:37 PM
A new update. A lots of bug fixes and some styling improvement.

* If username is updated on the forum it will update for the main site(addon section) too.
* The same goes for user permission it will stay in sync with the forum.
* Whole site now supports HTTPS, the main site can switch between http and https without any configuration, the forum will need one setting change in forum admin center.
* Added a bit more color to the addon page, and some styling fix for mobile view.
* A lots of redundant code has been removed.
* New MusicBee screenshots for homepage and download page.
* Tweaked some styling for better accessibility.
* Fixed a bug for forum WYSIWYG editor.
* Added daily addon submission limit for a user, which can be changed from the website setting in dashboard. Default is 20, which should be fine for most submitter, i doubt any user will submit more than 20 addon per day.
OFC, you can update existing ones without any restriction.

In the next update i will provide a fix for the edgy fonts issue.
also the main menu will finally get mobile support.
And also a look at the new help page integrated with the WIKIA.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Joolee on April 17, 2016, 08:25:40 PM
for me when describing MusicBee the first words that come to my mind is beutiful, powerful, snappy.
ofc different people will have different experience, but i care how software looks and works, and musicbee is a wonderful combination of both :)
Intuitive, beautiful and complete
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: boroda on April 20, 2016, 10:32:40 AM
Intuitive, beautiful and complete
+1 :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: ankor on April 20, 2016, 08:32:18 PM
IMHO, alternate suggestions...at top of home page...say it's "FUN"

"MusicBee makes it easy and FUN to manage,....."

OR

"MusicBee is easy. It's FUN to manage, find and play your music on your computer."        (maybe remove "on your computer")

And...

"Also enjoy listening to podcasts, web radio stations and even Soundcloud with MusicBee."

And...

"Get MusicBee NOW - It's FREE!  You'll never go back."       ("NOW" calls for action; "you'll never go back" is great, very powerful)

Awesome job!!  Looks fantastic, very impressive.


"Beautiful Skins" section........

"Swap skins to customize MusicBee's appearance. Get more from our Add-ons section."
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on April 20, 2016, 08:57:28 PM
Speaking for myself, promotional words in ALL CAPS are a little off-putting. :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on April 20, 2016, 09:54:14 PM
i agree. The ALLCAPS makes it come across to me as though its trying too hard
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: jackuars on April 21, 2016, 06:11:52 AM
Is there any set-date as to when the new website/forum will come live?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: the_pragmatist on May 03, 2016, 05:04:56 PM
I don't know about you all but since my switch to MusicBee, I've used it on a number of machines, powerful & otherwise. Owing to this experience, and to the fact that whenever I described & successfully convinced my friends to switch to the 'Almighty' MusicBee I never missed out one particular word, I hoped (despite whichever combination will be approved & used),you'd include said word in the Slogan;

COMPACT

I think this word encompasses a great deal of MusicBee's description. Because as Powerful as it is, Jam-packed with great user-friendly features, it is unbelievably TINY. However, TINY doesn't really sound elegant, so.....COMPACT.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on May 11, 2016, 02:39:15 PM
Unfortunately this wont be ready for when version 3 is made available. I have tried contacting AvikB but not heard anything so I am not sure if or when he is able to resume this.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on May 19, 2016, 05:33:43 AM
Hi there, Sorry for this long delay. The website is complete (on my end). I will try to provide the new update with installation guides for steven to make the new site live soon.

I will try to provide the new update next week when I got a bit more time. Right now I am a bit busy with life. :P
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Alumni on May 25, 2016, 01:47:31 PM
@AvikB I am very much looking forward to seeing the finished site in action - I hope it isn't too far away.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: vpsaxman on May 26, 2016, 08:16:02 AM
@AvikB I am very much looking forward to seeing the finished site in action - I hope it isn't too far away.
+1
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on May 31, 2016, 05:37:47 PM
You guys have to wait a few more days, maybe 3-4 days until my new ISP will roll out my conection.
Now for new and final features that is ready for v1.0

As requested by some i have added support for patch release.
And also added support for editing FAQ, Press page, API page.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: ankor on June 02, 2016, 10:13:08 PM
@AvikB I am very much looking forward to seeing the finished site in action - I hope it isn't too far away.
+1
+2
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on June 08, 2016, 09:00:43 AM
the new update is alive. Sorry for the long delay.

the new addition along with the 2160 changes, is the new help, faq page.
new api page, ability to submit a new patch release.

also a new installation guide(only 2 step) for easily install the new site.

The backend is done 100% for the release.

all that remain is the proof reading and changing some images on the front page.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on June 08, 2016, 12:09:43 PM
Good to see the progress that you've made on the site.  I do wonder about the 'reviews' section near the bottom of the home page.  Are the white boxes on the right supposed to have live links?  If not, shouldn't there be some quotes from the named sources?  Boasting about good reviews and then not showing them, or not showing a link to them, makes one wonder if the reviews are real.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on June 08, 2016, 02:21:39 PM
Good to see the progress that you've made on the site.  I do wonder about the 'reviews' section near the bottom of the home page.  Are the white boxes on the right supposed to have live links?  If not, shouldn't there be some quotes from the named sources?  Boasting about good reviews and then not showing them, or not showing a link to them, makes one wonder if the reviews are real.
no they won't have links. yes there will be quotes from sources.
Quoted review will be there int he next update. I forget to put them :P

I wouldn't include any of the current sources in the reviews section. They're either biased and never really paid any attention (CHIP) or show outdated reviews (all of them).
I will probably exclude chip.de. Even if they are paid the user still trusts cnet, softpedia, techsupportalert, ghacks etc. they might be outdated by MB still got some nice review which should make the new user a little bit more confident.

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on June 08, 2016, 02:35:38 PM
I will probably exclude chip.de. Even if they are paid the user still trusts cnet, softpedia, techsupportalert, ghacks etc. they might be outdated by MB still got some nice review which should make the new user a little bit more confident.
+1
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: OldChicagoPete on June 08, 2016, 02:49:16 PM
Is the release date for the latest version and patch defaulting to today's date? I think I've been running 5995 since last weekend.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on June 08, 2016, 05:17:40 PM
this review from ghacks covers v3:
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/05/12/musicbee-3-0-released/
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on June 08, 2016, 06:24:26 PM
i really like the new website but I do have one suggestion - does anyone else feel another MB screenshot should be used for the main picture by "The Ultimate Music Manager and Player"? I just feel its too grey and repeating the same album cover. The Taylor Swift one down the bottom of the page for example is much more interesting
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on June 08, 2016, 07:22:26 PM
i really like the new website but I do have one suggestion - does anyone else feel another MB screenshot should be used for the main picture by "The Ultimate Music Manager and Player"? I just feel its too grey and repeating the same album cover. The Taylor Swift one down the bottom of the page for example is much more interesting
I feel they're both too gray. But I suppose that's the default skin which should be what's featured.  Maybe a simple exchange of location between the two would suffice.  Taylor Swift screenshot on top and move the current top one to where Swift was.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on June 08, 2016, 09:35:43 PM
Is the release date for the latest version and patch defaulting to today's date? I think I've been running 5995 since last weekend.
it is because i just did some major upgrading on the backend and the front end of the site. so just to be sure that they are working i published a stable version and a patch release.
unfortunately release dates CAN NOT setup manually. The server automatically sets the date when it is submitted.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on June 08, 2016, 09:38:45 PM
i really like the new website but I do have one suggestion - does anyone else feel another MB screenshot should be used for the main picture by "The Ultimate Music Manager and Player"? I just feel its too grey and repeating the same album cover. The Taylor Swift one down the bottom of the page for example is much more interesting
i will try to get the image with different album
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: davescp on June 12, 2016, 02:04:32 PM
Love the update. Had a question though. Is it possible to paste artwork into the "All Artists" entry of the thumbnail browser? Bit of an eyesore to see it stick out.

Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on June 12, 2016, 02:14:46 PM
Love the update. Had a question though. Is it possible to paste artwork into the "All Artists" entry of the thumbnail browser? Bit of an eyesore to see it stick out.

Thanks in advance.

this thread is about MusicBee website. not the software itself :S
i think you got confused
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on June 12, 2016, 03:41:34 PM
a new update with new graphics and images for the landing page. also reviews are added too.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on June 12, 2016, 06:42:27 PM
i am genuinely impressed and there has been a lot of thought put in to the design and useful linkages.

I will try and spend time testing this over the next few days, but some instant ones:
- on the http://test.getmusicbee.com/bug/ page, the Create a new Bug report and go to website discussion buttons dont work
- on the downloads page, for the patch version, because i update it most days i am not going to maintain the number or release date so i suggest those fields get removed from the page
- again on the downloads page, is it intentional the icons on the right are not clickable - at least the Wiki section and the Skins & Plugins section should be clickable
- should say "Release Notes" not "Release Note"
- on the Addons page: "Want to extend Musicbee's" should be "Want to extend MusicBee's"
- the PayPal link just takes you to the paypal home page. I can give you the full link used on the current site if needed
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on June 12, 2016, 08:05:30 PM
i am genuinely impressed and there has been a lot of thought put in to the design and useful linkages.

I will try and spend time testing this over the next few days, but some instant ones:
- on the http://test.getmusicbee.com/bug/ page, the Create a new Bug report and go to website discussion buttons dont work


Go to admin panel and set the links first.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/dashboard/#admin_setting/links (http://test.getmusicbee.com/dashboard/#admin_setting/links)

after you set the links it will work perfectly.


- on the downloads page, for the patch version, because i update it most days i am not going to maintain the number or release date so i suggest those fields get removed from the page

the release date is automatically assigned. The version number and the download link is the only field.
(http://i.imgur.com/QVSyssO.png)

I included the version field for user to easily understand if they already have the patch or not. or they are just downloading the same patch AGAIN. In future you can even build a clever update system for musicbee, like notifying the user a new patch is available or not.



- again on the downloads page, is it intentional the icons on the right are not clickable - at least the Wiki section and the Skins & Plugins section should be clickable
I will make them clickable in next update. :)


- should say "Release Notes" not "Release Note"
- on the Addons page: "Want to extend Musicbee's" should be "Want to extend MusicBee's"
fixed for the next update.


- the PayPal link just takes you to the paypal home page. I can give you the full link used on the current site if needed
as i said above you will need to change it from the admin setting page i linked above.
all the links are customizable so that you can change them in future, if needed.

Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on June 12, 2016, 08:34:23 PM
- on the http://test.getmusicbee.com/bug/ page, the Create a new Bug report and go to website discussion buttons dont work
Go to admin panel and set the links first.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/dashboard/#admin_setting/links (http://test.getmusicbee.com/dashboard/#admin_setting/links)

after you set the links it will work perfectly.
[/quote]
yes i confirm thats working fine
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 09, 2016, 02:11:56 PM
- again on the downloads page, is it intentional the icons on the right are not clickable - at least the Wiki section and the Skins & Plugins section should be clickable
updated with this change and some language fix Steven pointed out.

@Steven, the website is ready for release at this point. if it is okay with you we can publish the new website and replace the old one.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on July 09, 2016, 02:38:04 PM
Thats great news. I want to sync that with the next v3 update which I think that should be 2-3 weeks from now
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 09, 2016, 02:51:58 PM
Thats great news. I want to sync that with the next v3 update which I think that should be 2-3 weeks from now
Thats ok with me :)
looking forward the new musicbee release.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 17, 2016, 10:10:46 PM
Added Wikia support in the help page. Now Most popular, Most Viewed, New wikia Article list will be shown on the sidebar.
Also removed some unnecessary code.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on July 17, 2016, 10:13:48 PM
Added Wikia support in the help page. Now Most popular, Most Viewed, New wikia Article list will be shown on the sidebar.
Also removed some unnecessary code.

I like that idea, but where are you getting info on most viewed, etc?  Wikia is not always reliable on that stuff...
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 17, 2016, 10:31:21 PM
I like that idea, but where are you getting info on most viewed, etc?  Wikia is not always reliable on that stuff...
i am using Wikia API.

here is the API page (http://musicbee.wikia.com/api/v1/#!/Articles) if you are interested.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on July 18, 2016, 12:49:41 AM
Hmm.  Okay, let's see what it comes up with.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on July 23, 2016, 08:32:01 AM
@AvikB, i plan to do the next v3 update towards the end of next week and i will have some time off next week so i can look at testing/ preparing for the website update. Does that suit you?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 23, 2016, 02:07:28 PM
@AvikB, i plan to do the next v3 update towards the end of next week and i will have some time off next week so i can look at testing/ preparing for the website update. Does that suit you?

Yup fine with me. Few things to consider though.
The website update should be smooth(as i already tested on the test server and local server), the only thing that might cause some issue is the forum update.

The theme should work fine, but the since there are few mods(peoplesign, editor, and code highlighter) which needs to be installed on this old forum first, then apply the new forum theme,
also there are few SMF files(2 file actually, both of them are Editor mod and code highlight mod) that actually need to be replaced with the modified ones(original file has some bugs, which i fixed in the modified ones).
and even after applying new theme for SMF, it will still use some component from default theme(for some unknown reason..... possibly bugs), so you have to replace some scripts from the default theme as well(i know it sounds like a pain..... but SMF has some serious weirdness).
I will let you know the steps in detail, but i wan't you keep in mind that forum upgrade will require some digging(basically replacing few files).

The website have simple install script that will take care of the main site installation.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on July 25, 2016, 03:32:55 PM
my website administators have blocked access to test.getmusicbee.com due to a spam attack
I have contacted them to re-enable access
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 25, 2016, 09:43:30 PM
my website administators have blocked access to test.getmusicbee.com due to a spam attack
I have contacted them to re-enable access

that sucks. Hope they help you out quickly.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on July 25, 2016, 09:49:44 PM
if you are able to access the forum (overnight UK time), could you disable forum registration
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on July 26, 2016, 11:56:17 AM
i have access again and disabled the test site forum registration. Its quite shocking how many spam accounts and spam messages there were but i have deleted them all (apologies in advance to any real users who test accounts i deleted by mistake).
If anyone wants to create an account let me know and i will do it manually.
I should be able to do some testing tomorrow

@hiccup, if you are still following this topic, i deleted one of your proposed boards the last time there was a spam attack. Do you recall the forum structure you originally proposed and recognise what is missing?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on July 26, 2016, 01:40:28 PM
@hiccup, if you are still following this topic, i deleted one of your proposed boards the last time there was a spam attack. Do you recall the forum structure you originally proposed and recognise what is missing?

I believe that under 'General', the wishlist seems to have been removed. It was:
MusicBee Wishlist
description: Make a request for what you would like to see in the next version.

But I deleted all my pm's, including the final correspondence with Phred about the exact structure and their descriptions as we agreed upon at the end.
So perhaps Phred could take a look too so to make sure everything is as we had agreed on?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on July 26, 2016, 05:55:36 PM
I should have the PMs and will take a look in a couple of hours.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on July 26, 2016, 06:49:25 PM
I should have the PMs and will take a look in a couple of hours.
PM sent to Steven and hiccup
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on July 28, 2016, 09:27:55 AM
Anyone who develops skins, would you take a look at the new website and try the skin submission process?
I can create a user account for you if you havent already, or at least i will temporarily re-enable forum registration.

This is the new way skins will be available to the general public (you would still create a forum topic while the skin is in development)

http://test.getmusicbee.com/

edit:
i have re-enabled registration
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 28, 2016, 05:10:23 PM
Few minor bug fixes and changes according to the discussion with Steven.

Fixed the issue where no top member and top addons are shown.

Addon author can now target minimum musicbee release, instead of
selecting individual release separately.

Few issues that are still remaining:
-imgur upload problem.(will fix later today)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 29, 2016, 05:54:38 AM
imgur issue has been fixed.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on July 29, 2016, 05:49:36 PM
We will probably do the website/ forum upgrade tomorrow morning UK time pending resolution of one outstanding issue. I am not sure how long things will take (a couple of hours if all goes well i would think).

I am planning to apply the new forum structure proposed by hiccup and phred either sunday or next weekend (see test.getmusicbee.com/forum to get an idea what i mean)

We will need to load skins/ plugins into the new database so i would ask any active skin/ plugin developers to help out with loading your own skins.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 29, 2016, 05:51:50 PM
We will need to load skins/ plugins into the new database so i would ask any active skin/ plugin developers to help out with loading your own skins.
BTW, do not load them in the test site. Wait till the new site is uploaded and working.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 30, 2016, 03:08:49 AM
A new feature that won't be available from the day one. This is mainly for Admins/mods and in future could be expanded for addon devs as well.
Email Notification support, as suggested by Steven will come at a later date as a separate update for the site mostly v1.2 or so.

Here is how it will look:
in Gmail(looks the same in outlook.com):
(http://i.imgur.com/Oi99asA.png)

BUT thanks to Microsoft's Screwing up with the latest win10 outlook app and it's rendering engine, it will look like piece of crap. I am certain it won't be any different in the desktop Outlook app such as 2007,2010,2013 (dunno about 2016 though)
(http://i.imgur.com/a8jrICl.png)

i will probably fix the issue.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on July 30, 2016, 03:36:30 AM
Will those notifications also be sent as plain text? Call me old school, but I don't receive HTML email.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on July 30, 2016, 03:51:20 AM
Will those notifications also be sent as plain text? Call me old school, but I don't receive HTML email.
i will add plain text option as well. don't worry ;)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Electric on August 02, 2016, 06:51:52 AM
Very nice ! :)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Bee-liever on August 04, 2016, 09:21:13 AM
(very) minor typo at bottom of add-ons download page (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/skins/3/arsenic/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/skins/3/arsenic/))
Quote
Unless mentioned by the Author, all add-ons and screenshots are licensed undercc by-sa 3.0
should read
Quote
Unless mentioned by the Author, all add-ons and screenshots are licensed under cc by-sa 3.0
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: springfire on August 10, 2016, 09:00:39 AM
Just wow! The new design is rocking. I however request you to work on seo to help users easier to find this gold mine. MediaMonkey and Helium tops the google results even though they can't stand a chance with MusicBee.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 10, 2016, 02:24:50 PM
Very nice ! :)
Thanks.

(very) minor typo at bottom of add-ons download page (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/skins/3/arsenic/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/skins/3/arsenic/))
Quote
Unless mentioned by the Author, all add-ons and screenshots are licensed undercc by-sa 3.0
should read
Quote
Unless mentioned by the Author, all add-ons and screenshots are licensed under cc by-sa 3.0
Fixed, will post update soon.

Just wow! The new design is rocking. I however request you to work on seo to help users easier to find this gold mine. MediaMonkey and Helium tops the google results even though they can't stand a chance with MusicBee.
I am not a SEO master or anything :S, but i did almost everything regarding good SEO. All needed meta tags are in place.(you can view using "view page source"), also included open search on addon page, twitter card, facebook's open graph and other social integration.

There are two thing i didn't do but planning on do is google analytics and site map submission on different search engine.
They will be done once the site is live as i don't want the search engines to index the test website deeply.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on August 11, 2016, 07:29:42 PM
looks like we are good to go with this, so the forum/ website wont be available on Saturday morning UK time
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on August 11, 2016, 08:48:25 PM
Godspeed, Steven.  May the force be with you.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on August 11, 2016, 09:05:07 PM
Bon voyage!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 11:15:15 AM
Some test on the new site:
Font Color

Some Code:
Code
<?php 
$link = mysql_connect('hostname','dbuser','dbpassword');
if (!$link) {
die('Could not connect to MySQL: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connection OK'; mysql_close($link);
?>
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: psychoadept on August 13, 2016, 05:07:36 PM
Woo, this is definitely more mobile-friendly!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: theta_wave on August 13, 2016, 05:12:41 PM
Liking the new look, but the amount of space to write posts is pretty small. (Typing area highlighted in red)
See pic: (http://2.t.imgbox.com/NPITtBtJ.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/NPITtBtJ)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 05:19:32 PM
Liking the new look, but the amount of space to write posts is pretty small. See pic: (http://2.t.imgbox.com/NPITtBtJ.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/NPITtBtJ)

I know. It is a bug, it will be fixed soon.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: phred on August 13, 2016, 05:21:44 PM
I agree. There should not only be a box around the area, or some other way of defining the area, but it should be larger. The typographic options take up more space than the text editing area. And you can only see one line at a time while typing. Instead of all the typographic options being spelled out in words, why not have icons representing the various options, along with hover popups.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 05:22:19 PM
Woo, this is definitely more mobile-friendly!
:) The website is 100% mobile friendly, the forum is 85% or so mobile friendly.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 05:23:50 PM
I agree. There should not only be a box around the area, or some other way of defining the area, but it should be larger. The typographic options take up more space than the text editing area. And you can only see one line at a time while typing. Instead of all the typographic options being spelled out in words, why not have icons representing the various options, along with hover popups.
It is a bug. This is due to some issue with forum skin directory. It will be fixed.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on August 13, 2016, 06:19:23 PM
The forum structure and the descriptions are very different from the proposal which I believed was agreed on.
Is that intentional?

(left is the proposal, right is current)

(edit: the entry for Wishlist is missing from this proposal screenshot since it had accidentally been removed)


(http://i.imgur.com/RJNTOGk.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: Steven on August 13, 2016, 06:24:54 PM
yes as mentioned previously i will look at that as a separate step after we are sure everything else is ok
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on August 13, 2016, 07:19:10 PM
yes as mentioned previously i will look at that as a separate step after we are sure everything else is ok

Ok. I had missed that.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 07:22:27 PM
@hiccup how is everything looking with edgy fonts?
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on August 13, 2016, 07:29:30 PM
@hiccup how is everything looking with edgy fonts?

This is very eerie AvikB!
You can mind-read from a very long distance....

Just as you posted this, I was creating a post with a screenshot on this matter.
Here are a few area's that seem not to have the replacement font yet:

(http://i.imgur.com/IxQiF2Nl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/IxQiF2N.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/IAslpJsl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/IAslpJs.png)


But first, congrats, and thanks a lot for all your work and effort getting this new forum live!!!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 07:33:49 PM

@hiccup how is everything looking with edgy fonts?
This is very eerie AvikB! You can mind-read from a very long distance.... Just as you posted this, I was creating a post with a screenshot on this matter. Here are a few area's that seem not to have the replacement font yet:
 (http://i.imgur.com/IxQiF2Nl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/IxQiF2N.png) (http://i.imgur.com/IAslpJsl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/IAslpJs.png)
But first, congrats, and thanks a lot for all your work and effort getting this new forum live!!!
;) ok thanks, i will include a fix for this issue in the upcoming patch update. It is already night here, so i am planning to fix it by tomorrow morning.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on August 13, 2016, 07:36:25 PM
This area might also be in need for some refinement.
Both in font replacement, alignment, and possibly placement/integration of the 'new' buttons.

(http://i.imgur.com/qsDnxfDl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/qsDnxfD.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 07:37:20 PM
This area might also be in need for some refinement. Both in font replacement, alignment, and possibly placement/integration of the 'new' buttons. (http://i.imgur.com/qsDnxfDl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/qsDnxfD.png)
yeah i already discussed that with Steven, will be fixed in the upcoming patch.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on August 13, 2016, 07:43:02 PM
And another thing, the coloring of these sticky posts could perhaps be a bit more sophisticated and subtle?
It's quite a big pink/orange block now. The two different shades of pink are also not very 'easy on the eyes'.


(http://i.imgur.com/P4rEzUSl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/P4rEzUS.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 07:44:40 PM
And another thing, the coloring of these sticky posts could perhaps be a bit more sophisticated and subtle? It's quite a big pink/orange block now. The two different shades of pink are also not very 'easy on the eyes'. (http://i.imgur.com/P4rEzUSl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/P4rEzUS.png)

This is how it is going to look in the patch update:

(http://i.imgur.com/5GsZbqX.png)
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: hiccup on August 13, 2016, 07:49:02 PM
That's much better indeed!
(is the different alignment of Replies/Views between sticky and not sticky intentional?)


if you are going to use the same 'new' buttons, for the dark theme you might want to look at the (border) transparency of the 'new' button:
(http://i.imgur.com/YIVBCdwl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/YIVBCdw.png)

have a good night!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 13, 2016, 07:52:51 PM
That's much better indeed! (is the different alignment of Replies/Views between sticky and not sticky intentional?) if you are going to use the same 'new' buttons, for the dark theme you might want to look at the (border) transparency of the 'new' button: (http://i.imgur.com/YIVBCdwl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/YIVBCdw.png) have a good night!
those icons are SMF default and lacks transparency. New icon will take some time.

And thanks for spotting the alignment bug in replies. It is not intentional. Will be fixed.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: HaSte on August 14, 2016, 04:32:54 AM
The new forum style is gorgeous!
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 05:32:55 AM
The new forum style is gorgeous!

:)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 08:04:03 AM
In the past I sometimes missed a post because a new one was posted while I was reading one from another page.
Let me explain:

Suppose you are reading the posts on page 2 like this:

(http://i.imgur.com/X7JrWZUl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/X7JrWZU.png)

When a new post is created by somebody while you have page 2 open, and then you go to page 1, the post (post #10) that was on the bottom of page 1 before the new message was posted, is moved to the top of page 2 when you switch to page 1 (and it becomes post #11).

So in that case you will never see that specific post.
On the former forum I learned to keep an eye on the total amount of posts (that I believe was somewhere in view on the top), so when that number increased when switching to another page, I knew I had to go back to the former page to check for a post that I might miss otherwise.

For this reason, could we have the 'total post' count somewhere in sight at the top of the page?
(as I created in the mock-up)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 10:07:01 AM
In the dashboard these entries have small asterixes behind them.
Should they refer to some more explanation on those items?


(http://i.imgur.com/8HCECL2l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/8HCECL2.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: WimYogya on August 14, 2016, 10:10:09 AM
Not sure if this is the proper place to give feedback on the new forum redesign.
Still have to get used to it, but one thing is immediately unpleasant: in the FORM the interlace between lines is too small. Makes reading difficult. In the published post it is different and normal.
Hope you can adjust.
Thanks,
Wim
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 10:16:30 AM
In the past I sometimes missed a post because a new one was posted while I was reading one from another page. Let me explain: Suppose you are reading the posts on page 2 like this:  When a new post is created by somebody while you have page 2 open, and then you go to page 1, the post (post #10) that was on the bottom of page 1 before the new message was posted, is moved to the top of page 2 when you switch to page 1 (and it becomes post #11). So in that case you will never see that specific post. On the former forum I learned to keep an eye on the total amount of posts (that I believe was somewhere in view on the top), so when that number increased when switching to another page, I knew I had to go back to the former page to check for a post that I might miss otherwise. For this reason, could we have the 'total post' count somewhere in sight at the top of the page? (as I created in the mock-up)

it is done for the next patch release, here is how it will look:
(http://i.imgur.com/0PKHn9g.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 10:18:06 AM
In the dashboard these entries have small asterixes behind them. Should they refer to some more explanation on those items?
Yes Asterix means those are mandatory and must be filled.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 10:20:21 AM
Not sure if this is the proper place to give feedback on the new forum redesign.
Still have to get used to it, but one thing is immediately unpleasant: in the FORM the interlace between lines is too small. Makes reading difficult. In the published post it is different and normal.
Hope you can adjust.
Thanks,
Wim
Can you post an screenshot showing the issue? it will help me better understand the problem.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 10:21:35 AM
Yes Asterix means those are mandatory and must be filled.

I see. Perhaps that should be explained somewhere?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 10:29:46 AM

Yes Asterix means those are mandatory and must be filled.
I see. Perhaps that should be explained somewhere?
yeah i suppose you are right.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 10:31:34 AM
@hiccup, btw how is the edgy fonts? I fixed the ones i found, there might be others i missed. Let me know if you found any.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 10:32:46 AM
In dark theme the post # is very difficult to distinguish.
Also, the font size for that number is very large. Considering it's rather low relevance, I feel it could be a lot smaller not to draw this much attention.

(http://i.imgur.com/H4mWOgwl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/H4mWOgw.png)


And, when previewing a post before posing, the preview text is black on dark-grey:

(http://i.imgur.com/c5nbND6l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/c5nbND6.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 10:37:32 AM
@hiccup, btw how is the edgy fonts? I fixed the ones i found, there might be others i missed. Let me know if you found any.

It is becoming great!
I am really glad you are still open to make adjustments for this, the forum is becoming more and more pleasurable on the eyes.

B.t.w. the topmost caption bar sliding & hiding when you scroll down the page is also very nice and sophisticated!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 10:46:46 AM
@hiccup, btw how is the edgy fonts? I fixed the ones i found, there might be others i missed. Let me know if you found any.

(http://i.imgur.com/Tjd5wrql.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/Tjd5wrq.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 10:49:53 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/NPfSu82l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/NPfSu82.png)


edit:
another one:

(http://i.imgur.com/mXXQxgXl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/mXXQxgX.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Alumni on August 14, 2016, 10:53:08 AM
Such a refreshing change to see the new forum and website, great job AvikB and everyone else involved!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 11:02:38 AM
These icons have different colors.
Do they serve a purpose, or is it just for alternating sake?
(if the latter, I would prefer the same icon color for all)

(http://i.imgur.com/4b94WRal.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4b94WRa.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 11:20:28 AM
In light theme, this icon is almost indistinguishable:

(http://i.imgur.com/BWsxBh5l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/BWsxBh5.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 11:28:15 AM
Difficult to read in dark theme:

Child Boards:
(http://i.imgur.com/f5qc6ehl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/f5qc6eh.png)

username (blue on black)
(http://i.imgur.com/ZPL43kXl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/ZPL43kX.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 12:15:54 PM
edgy all-caps fonts ;-)

(http://i.imgur.com/zWAvisDl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/zWAvisD.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: WimYogya on August 14, 2016, 12:18:37 PM
I made the requested screenshot (a snipping pic in fact) but do not know how to attach it. I can only find an option to add the URL of an image...
Please assist...
Wim
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 03:48:59 PM
In dark theme the post # is very difficult to distinguish. Also, the font size for that number is very large. Considering it's rather low relevance, I feel it could be a lot smaller not to draw this much attention. (http://i.imgur.com/H4mWOgwl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/H4mWOgw.png)
And, when previewing a post before posing, the preview text is black on dark-grey:
 (http://i.imgur.com/c5nbND6l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/c5nbND6.png)
Fixed for the next update


@hiccup, btw how is the edgy fonts? I fixed the ones i found, there might be others i missed. Let me know if you found any.
It is becoming great! I am really glad you are still open to make adjustments for this, the forum is becoming more and more pleasurable on the eyes. B.t.w. the topmost caption bar sliding & hiding when you scroll down the page is also very nice and sophisticated!
:)


@hiccup, btw how is the edgy fonts? I fixed the ones i found, there might be others i missed. Let me know if you found any.
(http://i.imgur.com/Tjd5wrql.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/Tjd5wrq.png) 

(http://i.imgur.com/NPfSu82l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/NPfSu82.png) edit: another one: (http://i.imgur.com/mXXQxgXl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/mXXQxgX.png)

are those bad? they look fine.... edgy to me.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 03:50:13 PM
Such a refreshing change to see the new forum and website, great job AvikB and everyone else involved!
Thanks. :)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 03:56:49 PM
These icons have different colors. Do they serve a purpose, or is it just for alternating sake? (if the latter, I would prefer the same icon color for all)
(http://i.imgur.com/4b94WRal.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4b94WRa.png)
Grey icon means no new post.
yellow icon means new post.

In light theme, this icon is almost indistinguishable:
 (http://i.imgur.com/BWsxBh5l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/BWsxBh5.png)
.... probably will be fixed.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 03:58:45 PM
Difficult to read in dark theme: Child Boards:
(http://i.imgur.com/f5qc6ehl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/f5qc6eh.png)
username (blue on black)
 (http://i.imgur.com/ZPL43kXl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/ZPL43kX.png)
Will look into this.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 04:00:27 PM
I made the requested screenshot (a snipping pic in fact) but do not know how to attach it. I can only find an option to add the URL of an image... Please assist... Wim

Click on the image icon and insert an image.
(http://i.imgur.com/qQoOobc.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 04:02:04 PM
edgy all-caps fonts ;-)
 (http://i.imgur.com/zWAvisDl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/zWAvisD.png)
Are those an issue? looks fine to me.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: WimYogya on August 14, 2016, 04:16:46 PM
@AvikB:
Seems you do not understand my problem. I have a PICTURE ON MY PC that 'serves' as a screenshot. How can I browse to attach it? I have NO URL linked to any image I want to attach...
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 04:21:37 PM

are those bad? they look fine.... edgy to me.

Oh my dear AvikB, Microsoft has ruined your eyes with their devilish cleartype ;-)

Look:
The top image is how it is now (ugly), the bottom image is how it looks when I type the same text in a new message (correct):
(just compare the colons and you'll see what I mean)

(http://i.imgur.com/rtPY7ill.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/rtPY7il.png)


About the all-caps:
It is not as ugly, since the font size is larger, but when you look at the letters M, A, D, P you can see some ugliness.
But don't bother too much if it is any trouble, it's not a big issue at these locations.

(http://i.imgur.com/mzJATxPl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/mzJATxP.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 04:31:23 PM
@AvikB: Seems you do not understand my problem. I have a PICTURE ON MY PC that 'serves' as a screenshot. How can I browse to attach it? I have NO URL linked to any image I want to attach...
we don't support image attachments. Try uploading that image to imgur and then link here.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 04:33:50 PM

are those bad? they look fine.... edgy to me.
Oh my dear AvikB, Microsoft has ruined your eyes with their devilish cleartype ;-) Look: The top image is how it is now (ugly), the bottom image is how it looks when I type the same text in a new message (correct): (just compare the colons and you'll see what I mean)
Oh, i see. It seems two of them uses different fonts. I will adjust them.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 04:35:08 PM
I found I selected the wrong post to quote or reply to a few times now.

What probably caused this, is that when you are navigating the specific board, the quote/reply/modify bar is at the top of the message, but when you are navigating by 'recent posts', that bar is located at the bottom of the message.
That's a bit confusing, I think it should always be at the top.


(http://i.imgur.com/qas9MIdl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/qas9MId.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 04:41:26 PM
Grey icon means no new post.
yellow icon means new post.

Ah, ok.
It was funny because they were exactly alternating over the whole page top to bottom, and I believed I was up-to-date with the postings.
I now pressed 'mark all messages as read' and it's fine now.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 04:44:16 PM
@AvikB: Seems you do not understand my problem. I have a PICTURE ON MY PC that 'serves' as a screenshot. How can I browse to attach it? I have NO URL linked to any image I want to attach...
we don't support image attachments. Try uploading that image to imgur and then link here.

And there is more than enough info on posting screenshots on the forum (tips and tricks) and on the wiki to be found.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: WimYogya on August 14, 2016, 05:03:31 PM
Possible, but I never came across it, don't know what Imgur is and have no time to find it out at the moment.
Thought I could simply give some feedback about the new layout, but it seems to require a new learning curve.
I can live with the layout issue, maybe others have more time to explain/show.
Thanks.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 05:06:15 PM
All edgy:

(http://i.imgur.com/caU0myil.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/caU0myi.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: theta_wave on August 14, 2016, 06:29:06 PM
Looking really good AvikB with the latest updates.  Thanks for your hard work :)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on August 14, 2016, 07:06:16 PM
When typing a reply, the line positioning is not adjusted correctly for a new line beyond the bottom of the text box.  The new line gets half cut off:

(http://i.imgur.com/vZ3Smcu.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 07:18:32 PM
When you list 'recent posts', right under the topic name it states 'Last post by...."

I might very well be mistaken, but I believe that in the old forum, before the name of the last poster, it also mentioned the name of the topic starter.
If possible I think that would be good to have.

(http://i.imgur.com/UnI1Wyal.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/UnI1Wya.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: theta_wave on August 14, 2016, 08:35:42 PM
All edgy:

(http://i.imgur.com/caU0myil.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/caU0myi.png)
Unless Avikb already fixed it, it looks like this for me:

(http://7.t.imgbox.com/umNu3noe.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/umNu3noe)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Sidar on August 14, 2016, 08:49:25 PM
Is it possible for the forum to remember that I prefer the dark theme ?
Every time I leave and come back to the forum it reverts to light theme.

Also the font color in the dark theme post preview seems off:

(http://i.imgur.com/GWAr7og.jpg)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 14, 2016, 09:39:33 PM
@hiccup and Sidar and psychoadept
Is it possible for the forum to remember that I prefer the dark theme ? Every time I leave and come back to the forum it reverts to light theme. Also the font color in the dark theme post preview seems off: (http://i.imgur.com/GWAr7og.jpg)

When typing a reply, the line positioning is not adjusted correctly for a new line beyond the bottom of the text box. The new line gets half cut off:
 (http://i.imgur.com/vZ3Smcu.png)

a new patch for the website has been sent to Steven regarding all the issues that are posted here. It should fix those issues.
Steven has posted the fix.

You need to clear your browser cache to see the changes.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2016, 10:20:58 PM
Great, again lots of small improvements.

One more comment for today:
I feel that there is a lot of focus and reserved estate for 'statistics' on the main page.

(http://i.imgur.com/oaMJvnwl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/oaMJvnw.png)

In my opinion the fonts for the numbers in these rectangles could be a lot smaller, and I might even argue that the total number of posts in the vertical rectangle is not useful or relevant to have there, and might as well be removed altogether.
Anybody interested in such statistics can look that up in the statistics page.

Less is more!

(I now seem to recall me suggesting something similar last year, that it might be more sensible to show the number of posts for the last 24 hours, or 7 days there, but I believe you then explained that that was not possible with SMF)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Coogan on August 15, 2016, 01:00:59 AM
Wow!  The new website looks great.
Love the dark theme.  Really nice work.

Coogan
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Alumni on August 15, 2016, 04:38:16 AM
What happened to the report to moderator button? Some spam popped up today and I couldn't do anything about it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 15, 2016, 04:39:04 AM
Great, again lots of small improvements. One more comment for today: I feel that there is a lot of focus and reserved estate for 'statistics' on the main page. (http://i.imgur.com/oaMJvnwl.jpg)
 (http://i.imgur.com/oaMJvnw.png) In my opinion the fonts for the numbers in these rectangles could be a lot smaller, and I might even argue that the total number of posts in the vertical rectangle is not useful or relevant to have there, and might as well be removed altogether. Anybody interested in such statistics can look that up in the statistics page. Less is more! (I now seem to recall me suggesting something similar last year, that it might be more sensible to show the number of posts for the last 24 hours, or 7 days there, but I believe you then explained that that was not possible with SMF)
I suppose you are right. Those number really does not contribute anything. I am still deciding if i should remove them or just make them smaller.

Wow! The new website looks great. Love the dark theme. Really nice work. Coogan
Thanks.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 15, 2016, 04:40:40 AM
What happened to the report to moderator button? Some spam popped up today and I couldn't do anything about it.
(http://i.imgur.com/vsUQufH.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: theta_wave on August 15, 2016, 05:33:12 AM
What happened to the report to moderator button? Some spam popped up today and I couldn't do anything about it.


Just a note, the "report to the moderator flag" hides if the mouse cursor is not within the message body of the post.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 15, 2016, 09:36:47 AM
I suppose you are right. Those number really does not contribute anything. I am still deciding if i should remove them or just make them smaller.

If you would choose to remove them there, you could do something like this, which seems a lot nicer to me:

(http://i.imgur.com/reMErtal.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/reMErta.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Alumni on August 15, 2016, 09:54:22 AM
Just a note, the "report to the moderator flag" hides if the mouse cursor is not within the message body of the post.

Oh there we go, that's why I couldn't find it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 15, 2016, 10:05:46 AM
The title of the post here is cut-off, and it doesn't say the name of the poster.
There doesn't seem to be a space issue here, so it could be good to change that.

(http://i.imgur.com/2gC3agPl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/2gC3agP.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 15, 2016, 10:21:00 AM
The title of the post here is cut-off, and it doesn't say the name of the poster. There doesn't seem to be a space issue here, so it could be good to change that. (http://i.imgur.com/2gC3agPl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/2gC3agP.png)
I am afraid it is not possible. SMF handles it internally.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: rudolph on August 15, 2016, 12:58:04 PM
Forum takes too much space ?(width and height of every post), on my 1366x768 monitor it looks weird, on 1920x1080 it looks OK...
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 15, 2016, 12:59:41 PM
Forum takes too much space ?(width and height of every post), on my 1366x768 monitor it looks weird, on 1920x1080 it looks OK...

looks fine on 1366x768. I tested it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Xenatier on August 15, 2016, 01:17:40 PM
Looks really good :) Love the dark theme.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 16, 2016, 04:37:34 AM
Looks really good :) Love the dark theme.
:)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 16, 2016, 01:34:07 PM
Is uploading a thumbnail, in addition to screenshots, really necessary when submitting a skin?
If you look at skins already submitted, all are using one of the screenshots as a thumbnail.
If it's really needed for some reason, why not just use the first screenshot (in a lower resolution or whatever)?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 16, 2016, 01:56:29 PM
Is uploading a thumbnail, in addition to screenshots, really necessary when submitting a skin? If you look at skins already submitted, all are using one of the screenshots as a thumbnail. If it's really needed for some reason, why not just use the first screenshot (in a lower resolution or whatever)?
It is necessary. I can't use the first screenshot, because screenshots are large in size and takes time to load. Thumbnails are smaller and is used for recognize add-ons in a glance. And since images are not hosted in the server, it is not possible to resize them.

Ofcourse if someone uses the imgur submission provided by default, we get a smaller resized image back, so no problem. The only problem is if someone use dropbox or other third party providers, they don't provide smaller thubmnail size images.

If you look at skins already submitted, all are using one of the screenshots as a thumbnail.
That is true. a screenshot can be used as thumbnail but a thumbnail can't be used as screenshots, due to their size. I have no problem with someone using a Imgur screenshot as thumbnail, but it is not ok to have a dropbox hosted screenshot as a thumbnail. As i said earlier imgur images can be resized automatically, unlike other hosting services, that's why i want people to use imgur for uploading screenshots or anything.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: BeeBeeKing on August 16, 2016, 02:02:26 PM
Forum takes too much space ?(width and height of every post), on my 1366x768 monitor it looks weird, on 1920x1080 it looks OK...
Agreed, too much wasted white space, I am finding it much harder to read than the old forum.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 16, 2016, 02:47:05 PM
Is uploading a thumbnail, in addition to screenshots, really necessary when submitting a skin? If you look at skins already submitted, all are using one of the screenshots as a thumbnail. If it's really needed for some reason, why not just use the first screenshot (in a lower resolution or whatever)?
It is necessary. I can't use the first screenshot, because screenshots are large in size and takes time to load. Thumbnails are smaller and is used for recognize add-ons in a glance. And since images are not hosted in the server, it is not possible to resize them.

Ofcourse if someone uses the imgur submission provided by default, we get a smaller resized image back, so no problem. The only problem is if someone use dropbox or other third party providers, they don't provide smaller thubmnail size images.

If you look at skins already submitted, all are using one of the screenshots as a thumbnail.
That is true. a screenshot can be used as thumbnail but a thumbnail can't be used as screenshots, due to their size. I have no problem with someone using a Imgur screenshot as thumbnail, but it is not ok to have a dropbox hosted screenshot as a thumbnail. As i said earlier imgur images can be resized automatically, unlike other hosting services, that's why i want people to use imgur for uploading screenshots or anything.

OK. Thanks for replying.
Other skinners might be wondering the same thing. I'd suggest you add this post to the submission guide thread or clarify the point on the guide as the thread is locked.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: jackuars on August 16, 2016, 02:50:52 PM
Hi avik, great job! Also am interested in website development. Can you recommend some good online tutorials including videos? And what languages/scripting should be studied?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 16, 2016, 03:01:07 PM
Forum takes too much space ?(width and height of every post), on my 1366x768 monitor it looks weird, on 1920x1080 it looks OK...
Agreed, too much wasted white space, I am finding it much harder to read than the old forum.
We had a test site running over 3-4 month and i went over ALL the feedback over the forum, but everyone was ok with the layout. So i am not going to change it unless a lots of people demand it.

OK. Thanks for replying.
Other skinners might be wondering the same thing. I'd suggest you add this post to the submission guide thread or clarify the point on the guide as the thread is locked.

Yeah i locked the thread to prevent any discussion or so.i will update it.

Hi avik, great job! Also am interested in website development. Can you recommend some good online tutorials including videos? And what languages/scripting should be studied?
Just follow along the video and choose a language you like:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBzRwzY7G-k
You should definitely start with HTML5, CSS 3 (choose SCSS as precompiler), Javascript(Jquery for making life easy) and for backend or server side you can try Node.JS, PHP(i used PHP to make this site).
To be fair it will take years to master all these. So good luck.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 16, 2016, 03:20:30 PM
Among the three menus below each add-on, "Download", "Support Forum" and "Like", "Support Forum" is not clear. I'd suggest "Go to Forum Thread" instead.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 16, 2016, 03:41:29 PM

Forum takes too much space ?(width and height of every post), on my 1366x768 monitor it looks weird, on 1920x1080 it looks OK...
Agreed, too much wasted white space, I am finding it much harder to read than the old forum.
We had a test site running over 3-4 month and i went over ALL the feedback over the forum, but everyone was ok with the layout. So i am not going to change it unless a lots of people demand it.

Of course you are absolutely right AvikB.

But let's not forget that the test site had a very limited number of users, and very little daily activity.
Now that the forum is live, and there is a lot of activity, I myself also find that I am still adapting to some changes, and finding reading it slightly more difficult at the moment. This was not that obvious to me when using the test forum, where we of course were focusing on other things too.

I wish I had a screenshot of the old forum (anybody?) to compare, so I might see if it is mostly imaginary, or that I could put the finger on what specifically might possibly be improved, without the need for you to make too rigorous changes.

One thing coming to mind that I think I need to adapt to is the much more graphic and colored (green) displays of 'Quotes'. Graphically it's very nice, but it's drawing a lot of attention and taking up quite some screen space.
Also the headers of the posts are partly in bold type. Might be o.k., but together with the large quote fields, it makes the actual text of the postings themselves almost getting the least attention compared to the quotes and the header.

Indeed there also is more 'white' in the postings. But that might be due to the request of many to have avatars, which might also need some reserved vertical space, even when not present?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 16, 2016, 03:56:59 PM
We had a test site running over 3-4 month and i went over ALL the feedback over the forum, but everyone was ok with the layout.

Please don't shoot me ;-) but I am sure in that period I have mentioned once or twice that I would prefer some thinner bars and fields at some locations.

For now, I noticed that the alignment for the sticky posts is not yet adjusted to be similar to the other posts.

Is it intentional that the area in the green rectangular is white instead of having the same color as the rest of the bars?

Also here I find that the vertical space for each topic could be decreased a little bit.
And I notice that some are even higher than others, while they hardly have content that justifies that.

(http://i.imgur.com/KhLPvAdl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/KhLPvAd.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 16, 2016, 04:13:57 PM
Of course you are absolutely right AvikB. But let's not forget that the test site had a very limited number of users, and very little daily activity. Now that the forum is live, and there is a lot of activity, I myself also find that I am still adapting to some changes, and finding reading it slightly more difficult at the moment. This was not that obvious to me when using the test forum, where we of course were focusing on other things too. I wish I had a screenshot of the old forum (anybody?) to compare, so I might see if it is mostly imaginary, or that I could put the finger on what specifically might possibly be improved, without the need for you to make too rigorous changes. One thing coming to mind that I think I need to adapt to is the much more graphic and colored (green) displays of 'Quotes'. Graphically it's very nice, but it's drawing a lot of attention and taking up quite some screen space. Also the headers of the posts are partly in bold type. Might be o.k., but together with the large quote fields, it makes the actual text of the postings themselves almost getting the least attention compared to the quotes and the header. Indeed there also is more 'white' in the postings. But that might be due to the request of many to have avatars, which might also need some reserved vertical space, even when not present?

I am still reluctant to change the layout of the forum. As i said no more major changes, only bug fix. Changing layout at this point will only include more bug.

Please don't shoot me ;-) but I am sure in that period I have mentioned once or twice that I would prefer some thinner bars and fields at some locations.

For now, I noticed that the alignment for the sticky posts is not yet adjusted to be similar to the other posts.

yeah i forgot  :-X , i will fix it..... i promise.


Is it intentional that the area in the green rectangular is white instead of having the same color as the rest of the bars?
It is intentional. Does it look bad?



Also here I find that the vertical space for each topic could be decreased a little bit.
And I notice that some are even higher than others, while they hardly have content that justifies that.
Unfortunately i will leave it as it is since it is minor. The forum uses html table which is not good for styling and causes issues(like this). Fixing it would be a huge risk as it will always break something else. sorry about that. :(
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 16, 2016, 04:20:43 PM
Unfortunately i will leave it as it is since it is minor. The forum uses html table which is not good for styling and causes issues(like this). Fixing it would be a huge risk as it will always break something else. sorry about that. :(

Ok, no problem. That's all clear and appreciated.

Yeah, the white area to my eyes is a bit ugly. Could well just be a matter of taste though.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 16, 2016, 05:07:01 PM
I don't understand why every add-on I submit has to get approved by admin/mod. I'm waiting hours for a TM I submitted. Also I made a slight edit for a skin, and it's on the waiting list again. I'd suggest only first add-on requires approval and once a user gets approved with the first add-on, then all restrictions should be removed for the user from that moment. We had no issues at all on the previous website without any approval involved.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 16, 2016, 05:13:42 PM
I don't understand why every add-on I submit has to get approved by admin/mod. I'm waiting hours for a TM I submitted. Also I made a slight edit for a skin, and it's on the waiting list again. I'd suggest only first add-on requires approval and once a user gets approved with the first add-on, then all restrictions should be removed for the user from that moment. We had no issues at all on the previous website without any approval involved.
By default a user need atleast 3 approved add-on to submit add-on without approval. But yeah i think only approving first add-on is a good idea. Fortunately it can be changed by Steven(admin). I will ask him to reduce the limitation.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 16, 2016, 05:27:24 PM
That'd be great!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 16, 2016, 05:42:51 PM
I don't understand why every add-on I submit has to get approved by admin/mod. I'm waiting hours for a TM I submitted. Also I made a slight edit for a skin, and it's on the waiting list again. I'd suggest only first add-on requires approval and once a user gets approved with the first add-on, then all restrictions should be removed for the user from that moment. We had no issues at all on the previous website without any approval involved.
I agree with this 100%. I'm sure I said something when it was first discussed during the early days of the redesign. I probably said something like "just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done."

That being said, changing the process so that only the first submission per user needs approval is a good solution. In addition, I'm pretty sure Steven said he and the mods should receive an email when a submission that needs approval is made. But to date, I haven't received a single notice that there's something pending.

Lastly, not counting Steven, there seem to be only two active mods (hiccup and myself.) I can't speak for Steven or hiccup, but I'm not sitting at my computer all day waiting to see if something needs approval. So it's entirely possible approvals could take a day or two.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 16, 2016, 05:53:05 PM
I don't understand why every add-on I submit has to get approved by admin/mod. I'm waiting hours for a TM I submitted. Also I made a slight edit for a skin, and it's on the waiting list again. I'd suggest only first add-on requires approval and once a user gets approved with the first add-on, then all restrictions should be removed for the user from that moment. We had no issues at all on the previous website without any approval involved.
By default a user need atleast 3 approved add-on to submit add-on without approval. But yeah i think only approving first add-on is a good idea. Fortunately it can be changed by Steven(admin). I will ask him to reduce the limitation.
i have set the value to 1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 16, 2016, 07:43:24 PM
i have set the value to 1

Thanks!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 16, 2016, 07:50:34 PM
Navigating through pages on each board (e.g. General, Skins) is not easy. Looks like the only way to go to the previous/next page is clicking on a page number on the top of the page. I'd suggest put another page number buttons on the bottom as well. Also add Back(<), Next(>), 10 page back (<<), 10 page after (>>) buttons on both top and bottom of each page. If we can type a "go to page number" as well, that'd be great.

Edit: Just noticed clicking on page numbers expands the list. With the longest General board, to fully expand the page number list requires 6 clicks - not that bad. But still want to see all the usual buttons except typing page number request.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Sofocl on August 16, 2016, 08:14:09 PM
Agreed, too much wasted white space, I am finding it much harder to read than the old forum.
+1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 16, 2016, 08:19:29 PM
for the people who are saying there is too much wasted white space, can you post a screenshot as i am certainly not seeing it
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Sofocl on August 16, 2016, 11:06:06 PM
for the people who are saying there is too much wasted white space, can you post a screenshot as i am certainly not seeing it
New
(https://s4.postimg.io/bti1bi471/New.jpg)
Old
(https://s3.postimg.io/5p5i3gotf/Old.jpg)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 17, 2016, 01:47:54 AM
for the people who are saying there is too much wasted white space, can you post a screenshot as i am certainly not seeing it

(http://i.imgur.com/V1IWRucl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/V1IWRuc.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 17, 2016, 02:30:16 AM
And to possibly prevent some confusion when discussing this, there is a difference between looking at a post by choosing 'recent topics', or from within it's own thread.

In the first case there is not so much 'white' but the attention is first and mainly drawn to:
- the very large and bold post #
- the bold header
- the buttons at the top right

And finally to the message itself (which should be the most prominent in my opinion)


In the second case, the main attention goes to the message itself (black), and secondly to the header (grey).
I like that a whole lot better.
But that one has quite a lot of 'white' surrounding the text.

(http://i.imgur.com/OT7ySfCl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/OT7ySfC.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 17, 2016, 03:17:52 AM
Lastly, not counting Steven, there seem to be only two active mods (hiccup and myself.) I can't speak for Steven or hiccup, but I'm not sitting at my computer all day waiting to see if something needs approval. So it's entirely possible approvals could take a day or two.

For skins, I don't see a purpose in having an approval system in place at all.

For plug-ins which might present a possible risk due to their interaction with MusicBee on a programming level I can see that might serve a purpose, but for skins I don't see the value of an approval system, neither the risk when not having it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on August 17, 2016, 04:45:15 AM
Lastly, not counting Steven, there seem to be only two active mods (hiccup and myself.) I can't speak for Steven or hiccup, but I'm not sitting at my computer all day waiting to see if something needs approval. So it's entirely possible approvals could take a day or two.

There are only two other moderators left from the original six set up by Steven.
Looking at the top ten posters from the stats page, maybe redwing and psychoadept might be interested in becoming moderators, to bring the moderator numbers back up to the original level.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 17, 2016, 05:44:49 AM
Sorry, but please count me out.
Title: Re: [NEW UPDATE] MusicBee website and forum redesign!!
Post by: redwing on August 17, 2016, 05:51:53 AM
So either that dark theme or all-bright theme?
Is it possible to turn off the avatar image as a view setting?
For now, yes.
I will introduce a much more compact theme.
For now you can turn off the avatar from your forum setting. But it won't reduce the post height. I will look into it, it seems like a bug.

Turning off the avatar still has no effect on the post height. I think it might be a good idea to introduce a (separate) compact theme as you said before.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 17, 2016, 10:49:59 AM
And a replacement font for the header here please:

(http://i.imgur.com/sid963al.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/sid963a.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 17, 2016, 10:54:23 AM
The text "Site build with ..." is very dark unless you hover over.
I am guessing that is not intentional there?

(http://i.imgur.com/34elIuFl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/34elIuF.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: BeeBeeKing on August 17, 2016, 12:39:49 PM
for the people who are saying there is too much wasted white space, can you post a screenshot as i am certainly not seeing it
http://www.bluesbeatradio.com/mbee/beeforum.jpg
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on August 17, 2016, 03:01:49 PM
There are only two other moderators left from the original six set up by Steven.
Looking at the top ten posters from the stats page, maybe redwing and psychoadept might be interested in becoming moderators, to bring the moderator numbers back up to the original level.

I'm willing
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 17, 2016, 05:16:57 PM
I feel that there is a lot of focus and reserved estate for 'statistics' on the main page.

(http://i.imgur.com/oaMJvnwl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/oaMJvnw.png)

Anybody interested in such statistics can look that up in the statistics page.

Less is more!
After using the new forum layout for a few days, and even posting that the topic/post count on the main page should remain but made smaller, I have reconsidered. I now feel that not only do those stats waste space, but they detract from the overall look.

@AvikB - if you're going to do one final tweak/update, please consider the removal of the stats. As hiccup stated, anyone who wants them can find them on the stats link near the bottom of the main page.

Thanks for considering.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 17, 2016, 05:35:22 PM
I'm not sure how it works but does this site check the version of each add-on and places the ones with the most recent version change at the front of "Recently Updated" add-on list? Currently it seems add-ons with whatever kind of updates just get listed regardless of version change (but I'm not sure as I didn't test version change).

I'd say that's an important feature that could allow people to keep their add-ons up to date without having to check each add-on board regularly. Also, consider adding the "Recently Updated" list under every category as currently it's only under "all" category.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 17, 2016, 05:54:49 PM
This has been discussed a lot in the past, and I am not sure what the last consensus on this was, so I'm just gonna phrase this as if this hasn't been discussed before at all.

At the bottom on the main forum page, under 'Get the latest MusicBee', the related button directs to a download page that only contains the installer versions.
Shouldn't there also be a permanent link to the latest patch?
Especially since in the forum the advice often given is: 'download and install the latest patch'.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 17, 2016, 06:09:09 PM
There are only two other moderators left from the original six set up by Steven.
Looking at the top ten posters from the stats page, maybe redwing and psychoadept might be interested in becoming moderators, to bring the moderator numbers back up to the original level.

I'm willing
Thanks. I haved added you
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 17, 2016, 09:14:01 PM
@AvikB,

I think I know the answer, but you never know...

When I disable having avatars displayed, that will work fine as long as I am logged in.
But as soon as I log out, those avatars show up again.

Would it be possible to have avatars not showing (by means of browser cache or something) when browsing the forum, even when not logged-in?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 17, 2016, 09:47:25 PM
After using the new forum layout for a few days, and even posting that the topic/post count on the main page should remain but made smaller, I have reconsidered. I now feel that not only do those stats waste space, but they detract from the overall look.

@AvikB - if you're going to do one final tweak/update, please consider the removal of the stats. As hiccup stated, anyone who wants them can find them on the stats link near the bottom of the main page.

Thanks for considering.
I would like to at least have the stats on the bottom line not removed from the main page (total posts, total members, newest member etc) as thats useful to me
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 17, 2016, 10:02:24 PM
I would like to at least have the stats on the bottom line not removed from the main page (total posts, total members, newest member etc) as thats useful to me

Such was in my proposal too, but got Lost in Quotation:

"In my opinion the fonts for the numbers in these rectangles could be a lot smaller, and I might even argue that the total number of posts in the vertical rectangle is not useful or relevant to have there, and might as well be removed altogether.
Anybody interested in such statistics can look that up in the statistics page."
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: BeeBeeKing on August 19, 2016, 12:50:21 PM
I'm getting used to the new forum.....however one thing that puzzles me a bit:
The topics that have "new" on them seem to behave differently from the old forum. In the old forum new topics seemed to be new since my last visit.
In the new forum, new topics seem to stay new unless read or marked as read, is this correct?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on August 20, 2016, 08:42:44 AM
i was out of home during several weeks and now looking at new site. first impression is very good, but i think new design is very... hmm, not compact. cant phrase this correctly and in details.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 20, 2016, 08:54:32 AM
i was out of home during several weeks and now looking at new site. first impression is very good, but i think new design is very... hmm, not compact. cant phrase this correctly and in details.
Some people feel there is too much whitespace. i think it depends on the the width of your screen - on a wide screen it looks proportionate to me
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on August 20, 2016, 10:32:50 AM
Some people feel there is too much whitespace. i think it depends on the the width of your screen - on a wide screen it looks proportionate to me
yes, very much whitespace, especially vertically. of course i mean only forum, not the whole website. i have fullhd monitor now, so thats hardly the problem.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: BeeBeeKing on August 21, 2016, 03:40:27 AM
If i can make a suggestion: On the Forum Home page could those topics that have posts for the current day show "Today" in a different color eg "Today" That way it is immediately obvious which forums have a new post.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Gendji on August 21, 2016, 07:03:39 AM
Hot damn, the new website and forum are looking great.

Tested them on several normal and mobile screen resolutions and it all looks very good.

Congrats on a job very well done!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 21, 2016, 10:46:03 AM
When adding a skin, you can (and must) only select 'MusicBee 3' under 'Minimum Supported MusicBee Version'.
No option to leave it open, or select v2.x.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 21, 2016, 11:52:52 AM
This is very minor, but not small enough not for me to nag about it ;-)

When you want to enter the subject for a PM and click that field to do so, the text "(No subject)" stays in place, so you will have to remove it manually.
It would be nice if that field was cleared as soon as you click it.

(http://i.imgur.com/GkZ9uqnl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/GkZ9uqn.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 21, 2016, 12:46:46 PM
The 'page selector' is located both at the top and the bottom of the page when you are navigating in a thread with many posts. (which is good)

But when you are on the topics page, it is only located at the top.
Could we also have it at the bottom there?

(http://i.imgur.com/FjYXqSel.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/FjYXqSe.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 21, 2016, 12:51:17 PM
When adding a skin, you can (and must) only select 'MusicBee 3' under 'Minimum Supported MusicBee Version'.
No option to leave it open, or select v2.x.
+1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 21, 2016, 12:52:34 PM
When you want to enter the subject for a PM and click that field to do so, the text "(No subject)" stays in place, so you will have to remove it manually.
It would be nice if that field was cleared as soon as you click it.
+1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 21, 2016, 01:00:41 PM
The 'page selector' is located both at the top and the bottom of the page when you are navigating in a thread with many posts. (which is good)

But when you are on the topics page, it is only located at the top.
Could we also have it at the bottom there?
Or at least an 'up arrow' button that would take the user to the top of the page.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on August 23, 2016, 07:39:10 AM
Just a suggestion for the add-ons section:
Might it not be better for skins, plugins, etc to be sorted alphabetically by name as the default, rather than by posting date?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 23, 2016, 11:53:35 AM
Can you make the magnifying glass icon in the search box clickable to execute the search? Currently it seems only pressing enter key works.
Also if you type a long string in the box, it overlaps with the glass icon.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Skoop on August 23, 2016, 01:34:06 PM
Sorry if this is a duplicate comment, but...

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6397385/Save%20Pics/00%20MB%20Colors.jpg)


that brown highlight is butt ugly.  

The icons indicate sticky or locked.  Do you really need the color overlay?  It's most unsightly. 
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Sofocl on August 23, 2016, 02:07:29 PM
Sorry if this is a duplicate comment, but...

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6397385/Save%20Pics/00%20MB%20Colors.jpg)


that brown highlight is butt ugly.  

The icons indicate sticky or locked.  Do you really need the color overlay?  It's most unsightly.
+1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 23, 2016, 02:26:58 PM
Something slightly similar has been suggested before.
A different color background could work, perhaps something more like this:
(and I added some slightly more visible horizontal divider lines)

(http://i.imgur.com/oMgO4yhl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/oMgO4yh.png)


edit:

and similar for the light version:

(http://i.imgur.com/nlxyObel.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/nlxyObe.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Skoop on August 23, 2016, 02:49:34 PM
I wish that the dark theme was entirely dark like that, instead of the washed out, faded, not-so-black like it is now.  I reiterate that I see little visual benefit from making the locked/pinned threads a different color. 

I'd really like a white-on-black theme period.  The stickied threads don't need help. 
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 23, 2016, 03:00:58 PM
I wish that the dark theme was entirely dark like that, instead of the washed out, faded, not-so-black like it is now.
I'd really like a white-on-black theme period.

That's a matter of taste of course. Personally I love the dark grey tones and it's subtlety.

Also to me the different background color for sticky posts certainly does serve a purpose.
Your eyes will be able to quickly focus on the topmost 'newest' posts, and learn to 'ignore' the sticky posts. (which might not be that interesting to 'frequent flyers')
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Skoop on August 23, 2016, 03:09:40 PM
So subtle that it mushes the white text making it less readable.

But that's just my taste.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on August 23, 2016, 03:46:27 PM
Sorry if this is a duplicate comment, but...


that brown highlight is butt ugly.  

The icons indicate sticky or locked.  Do you really need the color overlay?  It's most unsightly.
+1

Me three.  I like hiccup's mockup, or maybe those colors could be reversed, more like Skoop's suggestion.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 24, 2016, 10:33:55 AM
It used to be possible to right-click this message header, and copy a link to it that you could use in another post.
That's doesn't seem to be possible anymore?

(http://i.imgur.com/4wyN1eTl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4wyN1eT.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 25, 2016, 01:57:54 PM
Why no responses from the OP? At least you can tell us when you will be available.
If you can't find time at all, then say so. We can look for a volunteer to fix this site.


Regarding home menu,

(http://i.imgur.com/opMpXxW.png)

1. "Register" menu would better be located just next to "Login". It's not easy to find when you look for it.

2. Instead of Register, having "Wiki" & "Latest Patch" (that will jump to the Steven's first forum topic) menu in there would be more useful.

3. There's no current time being displayed. Like the previous site, consider displaying current time somewhere on homepage.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 25, 2016, 02:22:50 PM
Why no responses from the OP? At least you can tell us when you will be available.
If you can't find time at all, then say so. We can look for a volunteer to fix this site.

I find this quite a rude posting, and a very unfriendly choice of words towards AvikB.

AvikB has been doing an incredible amount of work on both the website and the forum for more then a year now.
Both the new website and the new forum are almost single-handedly his creation and his 'baby', so I also don't agree with the 'We' you are referring to.
Suggesting to replace him, because perhaps he is on a well deserved holiday or something?

Also I am not aware of urgent malfunctions that need to be 'fixed' quickly, so I don't see any urgency here.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on August 25, 2016, 02:33:36 PM
I agree with hiccup.  Poor form, redwing.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 25, 2016, 03:40:53 PM
One more thing about homepage:

What's the intended meaning of the man sitting on the rocks? I don't know about others, but I don't really get the meaning of it.

What happened to the yellow speakers image before? Did Steven dislike it?

Personally I'd prefer it to the current one, and I think the image on the homepage should be something related to music.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 25, 2016, 04:35:28 PM
@redwing-

I have to agree with both hiccup and psychoadept. We -have- a volunteer to work on the redesign and it is AvikB. He did state (perhaps it was in the original redesign thread) that he would let things sit for a while and then make a final update. But that's mostly for visibility issues here in the forums. I think the website itself is complete and not going to change.

The redesign had been a topic of discussion for quite a long time. IIRC, the image on the home page changed many, many times, and everyone had someone negative to say about each one proposed. So it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Steven picked something and AvikB went with it.

Also, why does there have to be an "intended meaning" for the image? It's a nice image, and up until now, it was non-confrontational. FWIW, I look at it and see a person listening to music.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on August 26, 2016, 12:10:56 AM
What's the intended meaning of the man sitting on the rocks? I don't know about others, but I don't really get the meaning of it.

On this, I do agree with redwing.
A person sitting on the rocks in the wilderness would probably be good if your site was about camping goods, but it certainly doesn't even whisper music to me.

edit:
I just used google to search "music" images, filtered by "reuse with modification", and the very first image is a great his-res B&W image of some headphones. https://static.pexels.com/photos/30222/pexels-photo-30222.jpg (https://static.pexels.com/photos/30222/pexels-photo-30222.jpg)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Havokdan on August 26, 2016, 12:38:25 AM
Someone answer me, I know how to send private messages on this layout, but so far I haven't found the Inbox of these messages, does anyone know where it is?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 26, 2016, 12:42:43 AM
What's the intended meaning of the man sitting on the rocks? I don't know about others, but I don't really get the meaning of it.

On this, I do agree with redwing.
A person sitting on the rocks in the wilderness would probably be good if your site was about camping goods, but it certainly doesn't even whisper music to me.

edit:
I just used google to search "music" images, filtered by "reuse with modification", and the very first image is a great his-res B&W image of some headphones. https://static.pexels.com/photos/30222/pexels-photo-30222.jpg (https://static.pexels.com/photos/30222/pexels-photo-30222.jpg)
We've been through this a ga-zillion times during the original discussion of what picture to use on the home page. Go back and read through the 75 pages and see how every suggestion for an image was met with a number of rejections for that image. (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.)

This was (is) a project that attempted to be designed by consensus. Which never happened. I dropped out of that discussion because it was becoming circular. As were various discussions of the "correct" word to us. At some point, which no consensus taking hold, someone had to pull the trigger and make the decision.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 26, 2016, 12:44:07 AM
Someone answer me, I know how to send private messages on this layout, but so far I haven't found the Inbox of these messages, does anyone know where it is?
The 'bell' icon to the right of the person icon (or avatar) at the top of the page
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on August 26, 2016, 02:09:43 AM
We've been through this a ga-zillion times during the original discussion of what picture to use on the home page. Go back and read through the 75 pages and see how every suggestion for an image was met with a number of rejections for that image. (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.)

This was (is) a project that attempted to be designed by consensus. Which never happened. I dropped out of that discussion because it was becoming circular. As were various discussions of the "correct" word to us. At some point, which no consensus taking hold, someone had to pull the trigger and make the decision.

I don't need to go back and re-read those 75 pages, I remember quite clearly pulling out of the discussion (see http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.0# (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.0#) reply #673) because it was all just going around in circles.

I was not suggesting that the image was the "one" to replace the current pic, merely pointing out that the very first image you get with a 'music' search is headphones.  In fact, scrolling through those Google images I didn't see any with wilderness or rocks.

And as AvikB had removed the image in the test site, and replaced it with a place-holder (effectively silencing any debate on the issue until the site went live), now would be the time to discuss this again.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 26, 2016, 10:02:21 AM
We've been through this a ga-zillion times during the original discussion of what picture to use on the home page. Go back and read through the 75 pages and see how every suggestion for an image was met with a number of rejections for that image. (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.)

No, that's not what actually happened. Most debate was about the woman with headphone image. After that, we did have a consensus with yellow speakers image, but the OP dropped it later for some reason.

This is your own words:

Not to rain on your parade, but what's with the new background on the home page?  What does it have to do with music?  I really hate to start this discussion again, but I thought the background image had (finally) been decided.

And his response:

I have decided to get rid off the old image and moving to much cleaner wireframe design. ofc the current wireframe background is nothing but placeholder, i will update it to have more matching with music stuff.

Later he dropped the wireframe too without any images, and all of sudden we now have a man sitting on the rocks.

If Steven likes the image, then I'm fine as this is his website. But just for the record I think the image is completely off and misleading.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Havokdan on August 26, 2016, 10:07:01 AM
Someone answer me, I know how to send private messages on this layout, but so far I haven't found the Inbox of these messages, does anyone know where it is?
The 'bell' icon to the right of the person icon (or avatar) at the top of the page

Thanks. I thought that this icon was to alert when my name was mentioned in some topic, wrong assumption.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 26, 2016, 01:05:32 PM
Someone answer me, I know how to send private messages on this layout, but so far I haven't found the Inbox of these messages, does anyone know where it is?
The 'bell' icon to the right of the person icon (or avatar) at the top of the page
Thanks. I thought that this icon was to alert when my name was mentioned in some topic, wrong assumption.

@AvikB,

I do like the 'bell' icon, but it seems it isn't obvious for all users that it is to get to their messages.
Perhaps change it to the more traditional envelope, or text-balloon icon?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 26, 2016, 07:05:31 PM
I dont disagree with some of the points made around the home page image. My view is it works well for most people (colours, mood, not being obtrusive and focusing on the player image) - but if you are critically focussing on it then yes it can be improved. What i suggest is when AvikB is engaged to look at further enhancements, people have ready any images that might be good replacements. It might be a good idea to set up a separate topic if you have a good candidate image and want to reach a consensus.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 26, 2016, 08:55:46 PM
What i suggest is when AvikB is engaged to look at further enhancements, people have ready any images that might be good replacements. It might be a good idea to set up a separate topic if you have a good candidate image and want to reach a consensus.

Actually we already went through the process. I agree some people might have better ideas now, but it would be no point if AvikB is gonna dismiss it again for whatever reasons.

As I said people liked the yellow speakers image vpsaxman suggested and no one complained about it before AvikB dropped it:

(http://i.imgur.com/L1st8tOl.png)


And this was a mockup I made with the image:

(http://i.imgur.com/VEnBUxj.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: TeutonJon78 on August 26, 2016, 09:57:13 PM
I looked wonderful.

One bug/feature missing I noticed -- on the forums' topic lists, there isn't no page jump navigation widget at the bottom on the page. There is one at the bottom of the comments inside a topic though.

It makes it a lot more work to scroll back to the top to go to the next page each time.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 26, 2016, 11:31:51 PM
One bug/feature missing I noticed -- on the forums' topic lists, there isn't no page jump navigation widget at the bottom on the page. There is one at the bottom of the comments inside a topic though.

It makes it a lot more work to scroll back to the top to go to the next page each time.
That's already been reported in the 'new website & forum bugs" topic: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19360.0
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 26, 2016, 11:43:46 PM
One bug/feature missing I noticed -- on the forums' topic lists, there isn't no page jump navigation widget at the bottom on the page. There is one at the bottom of the comments inside a topic though.

It makes it a lot more work to scroll back to the top to go to the next page each time.
That's already been reported in the 'new website & forum bugs" topic: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19360.0

No, actually on this topic:

Navigating through pages on each board (e.g. General, Skins) is not easy. Looks like the only way to go to the previous/next page is clicking on a page number on the top of the page. I'd suggest put another page number buttons on the bottom as well. Also add Back(<), Next(>), 10 page back (<<), 10 page after (>>) buttons on both top and bottom of each page. If we can type a "go to page number" as well, that'd be great.

Edit: Just noticed clicking on page numbers expands the list. With the longest General board, to fully expand the page number list requires 6 clicks - not that bad. But still want to see all the usual buttons except typing page number request.

And probably a few more same requests were posted later.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 03:58:49 PM
Sorry guys for no reply in almost two week. My internet adapter got burned(fixed today). I am back, it will take me some time to read all these while i was away.
i will try to reply and fix the complains if possible.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 29, 2016, 04:11:00 PM
When trying to sign out, get this error sometimes.


(http://i.imgur.com/9GnMiqK.png)


Looks like it happens when you have multiple tabs of the forum open and trying to sign out from the tab that you did not use when signing in.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 29, 2016, 04:14:29 PM
Dashboard shows the download count of add-ons only for top ten.
Would be great if "View all add-ons" shows download count for all add-ons.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:20:19 PM
Navigating through pages on each board (e.g. General, Skins) is not easy. Looks like the only way to go to the previous/next page is clicking on a page number on the top of the page. I'd suggest put another page number buttons on the bottom as well.
Ok, i will add it. To be honest i actually removed it since i thought one at the top would be enough.

Also add Back(<), Next(>), 10 page back (<<), 10 page after (>>) buttons on both top and bottom of each page. If we can type a "go to page number" as well, that'd be great. Edit: Just noticed clicking on page numbers expands the list. With the longest General board, to fully expand the page number list requires 6 clicks - not that bad. But still want to see all the usual buttons except typing page number request.
This is not possible with just theming. It will require a mod or editing more of the SMF's core files. which is not really a focus.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:25:14 PM
And to possibly prevent some confusion when discussing this, there is a difference between looking at a post by choosing 'recent topics', or from within it's own thread. In the first case there is not so much 'white' but the attention is first and mainly drawn to: - the very large and bold post # - the bold header - the buttons at the top right And finally to the message itself (which should be the most prominent in my opinion) In the second case, the main attention goes to the message itself (black), and secondly to the header (grey). I like that a whole lot better. But that one has quite a lot of 'white' surrounding the text. (http://i.imgur.com/OT7ySfCl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/OT7ySfC.png)

Not gonna fix it because can't say what i am looking to fix here :P,  If you have any suggestion i am all ear.
Just use the dark theme and be happy. (i never use the white theme)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:28:43 PM
Dashboard shows the download count of add-ons only for top ten. Would be great if "View all add-ons" shows download count for all add-ons.
Is it absolutely required? The top ten add-ons are not generated by ONLY the download count but likes count as well. also downloads are count per IP per account(which are then recorded).
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 29, 2016, 04:36:42 PM
I meant "view all add-ons" section in the user's dashboard. If you have uploaded more than ten add-ons, no way to know download count of the others except top ten.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:40:46 PM

Lastly, not counting Steven, there seem to be only two active mods (hiccup and myself.) I can't speak for Steven or hiccup, but I'm not sitting at my computer all day waiting to see if something needs approval. So it's entirely possible approvals could take a day or two.
There are only two other moderators left from the original six set up by Steven. Looking at the top ten posters from the stats page, maybe redwing and psychoadept might be interested in becoming moderators, to bring the moderator numbers back up to the original level.
right now only one add-on is required to get approved before you can submit freely. I highly doubt we need another mod.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 29, 2016, 04:41:02 PM
Also add Back(<), Next(>), 10 page back (<<), 10 page after (>>) buttons on both top and bottom of each page. If we can type a "go to page number" as well, that'd be great. Edit: Just noticed clicking on page numbers expands the list. With the longest General board, to fully expand the page number list requires 6 clicks - not that bad. But still want to see all the usual buttons except typing page number request.
This is not possible with just theming. It will require a mod or editing more of the SMF's core files. which is not really a focus.
I want to back that up - anything that requires modding SMF core files is a risk for things to go wrong when they do security patches or when the time comes to upgrade the SMF version
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 29, 2016, 04:42:57 PM
Navigating through pages on each board (e.g. General, Skins) is not easy. Looks like the only way to go to the previous/next page is clicking on a page number on the top of the page. I'd suggest put another page number buttons on the bottom as well.
Ok, i will add it. To be honest i actually removed it since i thought one at the top would be enough.
please do as thats the one thing that is annoying when browsing through posts.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:43:20 PM
I meant "view all add-ons" section in the user's dashboard. If you have uploaded more than ten add-ons, no way to know download count of the others except top ten.
That was the idea. I didn't thought it would interest anyone. Specially i don't want anyone to get depressed by their download count. For example some add-on gets higher download count and some don't which might cause negative effect(i am not sure anyway, just my guess) :S
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 29, 2016, 04:47:36 PM
Can't speak for others, but to me it's very useful info for thinking about how to improve it, etc. If no technical issues here, I'd like to see all counts.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:48:17 PM


So either that dark theme or all-bright theme? Is it possible to turn off the avatar image as a view setting?
For now, yes. I will introduce a much more compact theme. For now you can turn off the avatar from your forum setting. But it won't reduce the post height. I will look into it, it seems like a bug.
Turning off the avatar still has no effect on the post height. I think it might be a good idea to introduce a (separate) compact theme as you said before.

yeah it seems so. a lots of people don't like spaced out things(i get it). I will add support for compact theme. There will be two catch(for now on atleast)
- it won't be default, you will have to set it like the dark theme.
- NO DARK THEME FOR THE COMPACT VERSION. (i will revamped the theming procedure to sass, until then no dark theme).
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:51:03 PM
Can't speak for others, but to me it's very useful info for thinking about how to improve it, etc. If no technical issues here, I would see all counts.
ok, this will be introduced in couple of updates later(will make sure everything works fine).
Maybe i could do something like graphs and charts(no promises). :)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:52:40 PM
And a replacement font for the header here please: (http://i.imgur.com/sid963al.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/sid963a.png)
I guess i will switch those to verdana in edgy mode. ;) will be fixed in next update.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 04:53:35 PM
The text "Site build with ..." is very dark unless you hover over. I am guessing that is not intentional there? (http://i.imgur.com/34elIuFl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/34elIuF.png)

it seems the forum style is overwriting the color. should be fixed in next update or so.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:01:48 PM

I'm not sure how it works but does this site check the version of each add-on and places the ones with the most recent version change at the front of "Recently Updated" add-on list? Currently it seems add-ons with whatever kind of updates just get listed regardless of version change (but I'm not sure as I didn't test version change).
I'd say that's an important feature that could allow people to keep their add-ons up to date without having to check each add-on board regularly.
 
You are right. The recently updates add-on list will contain any add-on that got a any minor update, no version change is checked.
i didn't enforced the version check or even assigning a version on the first place because i HIGHLY doubt most people even knows much about versioning their software, that is why it is left as is. It is mostly for users and addon submitters to know what version is submitted.


Also, consider adding the "Recently Updated" list under every category as currently it's only under "all" category.
That is planned for v2.0. I am still deciding on how the layout should look.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:12:07 PM
This has been discussed a lot in the past, and I am not sure what the last consensus on this was, so I'm just gonna phrase this as if this hasn't been discussed before at all. At the bottom on the main forum page, under 'Get the latest MusicBee', the related button directs to a download page that only contains the installer versions. Shouldn't there also be a permanent link to the latest patch? Especially since in the forum the advice often given is: 'download and install the latest patch'.

Well this can be done. But the patch release is also in the download page too. so there is no need for any separate patch button. Right now no patch is not showing in the download page but it is there, it will show up once steven submits a new patch in the dashboard.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:17:06 PM
@AvikB, I think I know the answer, but you never know... When I disable having avatars displayed, that will work fine as long as I am logged in. But as soon as I log out, those avatars show up again. Would it be possible to have avatars not showing (by means of browser cache or something) when browsing the forum, even when not logged-in?

isn't that defeats the purpose of login. Logged in user gets more feature to customize. It is how forums work in general.
I think it is possible in theory to remember the choice using cookies but why not just stay logged in?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 29, 2016, 05:19:12 PM
Not gonna fix it because can't say what i am looking to fix here :P,  If you have any suggestion i am all ear.
Just use the dark theme and be happy. (i never use the white theme)

The only thing I could come up here, is that the same color scheme for the fonts used when browsing inside a topic could be used when browsing by most recent posts. (and decrease the impact of that elephant message# font a bit)
That would make it look something like this.

(http://i.imgur.com/NssMm5Fl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/NssMm5F.png)

instead of this:

(http://i.imgur.com/fENdqS9l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/fENdqS9.png)

Yes, it's rather futile, but just a little bit more pleasant on the eyes and gives slightly more focus on the message itself.
And indeed I predominantly use the fantastic dark theme, but sometimes when the sun shines bright I turn to the light theme...
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:22:58 PM
If i can make a suggestion: On the Forum Home page could those topics that have posts for the current day show "Today" in a different color eg "Today" That way it is immediately obvious which forums have a new post.
you mean on this page? http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php
because right now unread post is colorful like this:
(http://i.imgur.com/jUcrVLG.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 29, 2016, 05:24:13 PM
isn't that defeats the purpose of login. Logged in user gets more feature to customize. It is how forums work in general.
I think it is possible in theory to remember the choice using cookies but why not just stay logged in?

I understand, no problem.
It feels odd to stay logged in at sites when I am not doing any activity there.
Also I see nobody else staying logged in permanently, so I'm not alone in that.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:25:45 PM

Not gonna fix it because can't say what i am looking to fix here :P, If you have any suggestion i am all ear. Just use the dark theme and be happy. (i never use the white theme)
The only thing I could come up here, is that the same color scheme for the fonts used when browsing inside a topic could be used when browsing by most recent posts. (and decrease the impact of that elephant message # font a bit) Yes, it's rather futile, but just a little bit more pleasant on the eyes and gives slightly more focus on the message itself. And indeed I predominantly use the fantastic dark theme, but sometimes when the sun shines bright I turn to the light theme...
I will make some changes to reduce the # color and font but won't change the header color to the light ones. It looked too washed away.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:29:17 PM
I understand, no problem. It feels odd to stay logged in at sites when I am not doing any activity there. Also I see nobody else staying logged in permanently, so I'm not alone in that.
If you checked "Stay Logged in" when signing in it does not mean that it will show you always online but rather it stores some data on your pc(mostly cookies) to identify you when you open the website again and log in you automatically. there is no harm, no one can see you online and no reason to do it.

I stayed logged in permanently on every site. unless of course i am using a public computer rather than my own pc(in which case don't stay logged in permanently)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 29, 2016, 05:30:19 PM
Well this can be done. But the patch release is also in the download page too. so there is no need for any separate patch button. Right now no patch is not showing in the download page but it is there, it will show up once steven submits a new patch in the dashboard.

Are we talking about the same download page?
We now have 3.0.6086, and the download page still shows 3.0.6067 under 'Get the latest MusicBee'.

(http://i.imgur.com/4WlQArjl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/4WlQArj.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 29, 2016, 05:31:45 PM
If you checked "Stay Logged in" when signing in it does not mean that it will show you always online but rather it stores some data on your pc(mostly cookies) to identify you when you open the website again and log in you automatically. there is no harm, no one can see you online and no reason to do it.

I never knew that!
Thnx, gonna try it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:32:44 PM
Hot damn, the new website and forum are looking great. Tested them on several normal and mobile screen resolutions and it all looks very good. Congrats on a job very well done!
ah, thanks for confirming about it working on different resolutions.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:34:47 PM

Well this can be done. But the patch release is also in the download page too. so there is no need for any separate patch button. Right now no patch is not showing in the download page but it is there, it will show up once steven submits a new patch in the dashboard.
Are we talking about the same download page? We now have 3.0.6086, and the download page still shows 3.0.6067 under 'Get the latest MusicBee'.
it seems Steven might forget to submit the patch :S,
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:41:23 PM
When adding a skin, you can (and must) only select 'MusicBee 3' under 'Minimum Supported MusicBee Version'. No option to leave it open, or select v2.x.
Unfortunately there are no v2.x support. Sorry for no backward comparability.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 29, 2016, 05:42:47 PM
At the risk of revealing that I am not a smart as I don't think I am not:

I struggled a few times finding how to adjust my forum preferences. I just found out why that is...

When hoovering over the round 'little guy' icon, immediately the dropdown menu opens.
I am expecting to be able to click the 'Hey, username' entry there to enter the settings page.
But that does nothing.

I just now found out that you need to click the icon itself, and not the menu that opens.
Feels a bit odd. Would it be possible to make the username clickable for this purpose?

(http://i.imgur.com/dB9Ptjdl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/dB9Ptjd.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:44:09 PM

When you want to enter the subject for a PM and click that field to do so, the text "(No subject)" stays in place, so you will have to remove it manually. It would be nice if that field was cleared as soon as you click it.
+1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1
Might get fixed in next update.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 29, 2016, 05:45:16 PM
Unfortunately there are no v2.x support. Sorry for no backward comparability.

That's a bit strange then. There are skins that have been, and will be uploaded that will function fine under 2.0. (some even on purpose)
It will now give the wrong impression that they are only suited for v3.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:45:55 PM
At the risk of revealing that I am not a smart as I don't think I am not: I struggled a few times finding how to adjust my forum preferences. I just found out why that is... When hoovering over the round 'little guy' icon, immediately the dropdown menu opens. I am expecting to be able to click the 'Hey, username' entry there to enter the settings page. But that does nothing. I just now found out that you need to click the icon itself, and not the menu that opens. Feels a bit odd. Would it be possible to make the username clickable for this purpose?  (http://i.imgur.com/dB9Ptjd.png)
It was my fault for that bad design choice :P, i actually intended to make that "Hey, username" clickable but i forgot  ::)  will be fixed in next update.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 05:49:23 PM

Unfortunately there are no v2.x support. Sorry for no backward comparability.
That's a bit strange then. There are skins that have been, and will be uploaded that will function fine under 2.0. (some even on purpose) It will now give the wrong impression that they are only suited for v3.
I think it is time for them to upgrade to new version.
there is one way to add v2.x in the dashboard, but Steven would have to do a bit more extra work which i don't think is even needed. From v3.x dashboard will maintain full backword compatibility. Unfortunately no backward support v2.x. unless ofc Steven would like to add it. in that case i can send him the instructions.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 29, 2016, 05:50:38 PM

Right now no patch is not showing in the download page but it is there, it will show up once steven submits a new patch in the dashboard.
Are we talking about the same download page? We now have 3.0.6086, and the download page still shows 3.0.6067 under 'Get the latest MusicBee'.
it seems Steven might forget to submit the patch :S,
[/quote]

I think the wording on that button is wrong then, and also what it does.
It just says 'Get MusicBee 3', and then refreshes the same download page and brings you to the top.
Shouldn't it say something like 'download the latest patch'?
And preferably explain about extracting, copying over existing files etc.
That seems to be one of the biggest issues for many users trying to stay current with updates and 'installing' them.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 29, 2016, 06:22:41 PM

 I think the wording on that button is wrong then, and also what it does. It just says 'Get MusicBee 3', and then refreshes the same download page and brings you to the top. Shouldn't it say something like 'download the latest patch'? And preferably explain about extracting, copying over existing files etc. That seems to be one of the biggest issues for many users trying to stay current with updates and 'installing' them.

Here is how it looks when a patch is submitted.
http://test.getmusicbee.com/download/

Yeah i think it would be better to explain these. But i think even better solution would be for MusicBee to download and apply patch automatically without even visiting the site.
I have some API available for steven, ofc it is his call to implement it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on August 29, 2016, 07:09:26 PM

Unfortunately there are no v2.x support. Sorry for no backward comparability.
That's a bit strange then. There are skins that have been, and will be uploaded that will function fine under 2.0. (some even on purpose) It will now give the wrong impression that they are only suited for v3.
I think it is time for them to upgrade to new version.
there is one way to add v2.x in the dashboard, but Steven would have to do a bit more extra work which i don't think is even needed. From v3.x dashboard will maintain full backword compatibility. Unfortunately no backward support v2.x. unless ofc Steven would like to add it. in that case i can send him the instructions.
i dont want to do anything around this due to risks of messing things up and users can still visit the forum to get skins
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on August 29, 2016, 08:18:29 PM
If you checked "Stay Logged in" when signing in it does not mean that it will show you always online but rather it stores some data on your pc(mostly cookies) to identify you when you open the website again and log in you automatically. there is no harm, no one can see you online and no reason to do it.

I never knew that!
Thnx, gonna try it.
FWIW, I never log off from the MB forum. After 15 minutes(?) of inactivity my name drops off the 'users online' list at the bottom of the main forum page, but I'm still logged in. As long as you're on your own computer, there really doesn't seem to be any reason to log off. This is the only site where I do that.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on August 29, 2016, 08:39:28 PM
i dont want to do anything around this due to risks of messing things up and users can still visit the forum to get skins

I need to update the skins page on the wiki to point people to the new add-ons page, anyway.  I guess i can leave up the older skins, if they're still available, and call it the 2.x repository.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 30, 2016, 07:58:37 AM
And to possibly prevent some confusion when discussing this, there is a  ...but the attention is first and mainly drawn to: - the very large and bold post # - the bold header - the buttons at the top right And finally to the message itself (which should be the most prominent in my opinion)...

Just use the dark theme and be happy. (i never use the white theme)

b.t.w. the same goes for the dark theme. The message itself gets the least attention.
I would suggest:

(http://i.imgur.com/csg42JJ.png)

instead of:

(http://i.imgur.com/6O5pldj.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 30, 2016, 04:44:00 PM
When hoovering over a skin thumbnail on the 'skins' page, the thumbnail darkens, and a heart and a number (likes) for that skin shows.
Personally I am not interested in likes there very much.
I would find it much more useful if at hoover-over you would see an enlarged and more detailed view of that skin.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 30, 2016, 04:55:03 PM
When hoovering over a skin thumbnail on the 'skins' page, the thumbnail darkens, and a heart and a number (likes) for that skin shows. Personally I am not interested in likes there very much. I would find it much more useful if at hoover-over you would see an enlarged and more detailed view of that skin.
detailed screenshot on mouse hover always represents the issue of bandwidth. For people with low bandwidth will suffer. Even now loading a screenshot by clicking on them takes some time on 60KB/s.
The rating system is there for people to express their thanks(instead of go to forum and say thanks which is really not efficient) quickly. Also it helps people choose popular and most loved add-ons.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 30, 2016, 05:19:22 PM
When hoovering over a skin thumbnail on the 'skins' page, the thumbnail darkens, and a heart and a number (likes) for that skin shows. Personally I am not interested in likes there very much. I would find it much more useful if at hoover-over you would see an enlarged and more detailed view of that skin.
detailed screenshot on mouse hover always represents the issue of bandwidth. For people with low bandwidth will suffer. Even now loading a screenshot by clicking on them takes some time on 60KB/s.
The rating system is there for people to express their thanks(instead of go to forum and say thanks which is really not efficient) quickly. Also it helps people choose popular and most loved add-ons.

That's good to consider, but when you look at the current situation realistically, almost anybody landing there will want to see better detailed images of the skins they consider to download.
For that, currently you will have to first click the thumbnail, which opens another webpage, and then click the thumbnail again to get a detailed view. I am guessing that will take at least as much bandwidth, and is certainly more cumbersome.
(and as a side-note on this, could you make the thumbnail on the right side of that page also clickable to get an enlarged image?)

Would it perhaps be an option to make it so that when you click on the thumbnail, you get an actual size screenshot, and when you click on the name of the skin and/or creator, that gets you to it's homepage?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 30, 2016, 05:26:31 PM
That's good to consider, but when you look at the current situation realistically, almost anybody landing there will want to see better detailed images of the skins they consider to download. For that, currently you will have to first click the thumbnail, which opens another webpage, and then click the thumbnail again to get a detailed view. I am guessing that will take at least as much bandwidth, and is certainly more cumbersome. (and as a side-note on this, could you make the thumbnail on the right side of that page also clickable to get an enlarged image?) Would it perhaps be an option to make it so that when you click on the thumbnail, you get an actual size screenshot, and when you click on the name of the skin and/or creator, that gets you to it's homepage?
i guess you have a point. I am putting this on my todo list. But since this will be a semi major change on the layout it will arrive with the next major update. Don't expect too soon.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 06:52:03 AM
an update is sent to Steven[update is live]. most of the issues are fixed. ofc if i missed some feature let me know.

As for the home page image a lots of debate has been going for quite some time. The only reason i went with the current image is because it blends well with the color scheme. The previous ones had lot more contrast or the image quality was not very good or a lots of dark spot.
I think we might do a poll to choose a new image for the home page, that way every one gets to vote for their favorite ones and can not complain later.

- Also regarding the compact theme, i have made the forum a little bit more compact.
- the stat count is removed(not the bottom one) as hiccup and others requested.
- another pagination bar is added when browsing posts
- Fixed the styling scheme for sticky post as per hiccup's mockup.
- edgy fonts are fixed.
- When sending an PM "(No Subject)" shouldn't show anymore.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 07:13:42 AM

for the people who are saying there is too much wasted white space, can you post a screenshot as i am certainly not seeing it
New
It should be more compact with the update i just pushed, but i am never going to make the forum THAT compact, it feels too congested.


And a replacement font for the header here please:

(http://i.imgur.com/sid963al.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/sid963a.png)
Fixed.

for the people who are saying there is too much wasted white space, can you post a screenshot as i am certainly not seeing it
http://www.bluesbeatradio.com/mbee/beeforum.jpg

A lots of people seems to complain about white space. Right now the threaded posts look like this:
(http://i.imgur.com/fhyu2ZM.png)

But there are no WASTED space in there, everything is calculated. For example there seems to have a little bit of space at the bottom, right?
NO. If you hover over mouse on the posts important things like Flags, quickedit and last modified date appears. They might be hidden but they do take those spaces to hide.

Also even if a post is one liner, that does not mean the post will have smaller heights. The post height depends on two thing, the post itself and the amount of info about poster showing in the side. 

With this post i hope i made myself clear about the whitespace issue.
With the latest update i actually removed some unnecessary padding which should satisfy most people.

As for creating a separate compact theme, i have decided not to. The main reason is maintainability. Also with the latest update is not needed anymore. Give it a try and let me know if it suits you or not.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 07:16:13 AM
At the risk of revealing that I am not a smart as I don't think I am not: I struggled a few times finding how to adjust my forum preferences. I just found out why that is... When hoovering over the round 'little guy' icon, immediately the dropdown menu opens. I am expecting to be able to click the 'Hey, username' entry there to enter the settings page. But that does nothing. I just now found out that you need to click the icon itself, and not the menu that opens. Feels a bit odd. Would it be possible to make the username clickable for this purpose?
 (http://i.imgur.com/dB9Ptjdl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/dB9Ptjd.png)
Fixed.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 07:20:39 AM
Why no responses from the OP? At least you can tell us when you will be available. If you can't find time at all, then say so. We can look for a volunteer to fix this site. Regarding home menu, (http://i.imgur.com/opMpXxW.png)
1. "Register" menu would better be located just next to "Login". It's not easy to find when you look for it. 2. Instead of Register, having "Wiki" & "Latest Patch" (that will jump to the Steven's first forum topic) menu in there would be more useful. 3. There's no current time being displayed. Like the previous site, consider displaying current time somewhere on homepage.
Register button in the navbar Will be implemented in next update.
Current time? why do you/anyone even need that? your pc shows it in the taskbar.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2016, 07:53:48 AM
an update is sent to Steven[update is live]. most of the issues are fixed. ofc if i missed some feature let me know.

Great, great, great.

I was only wondering about the cut-off topic descriptions here.
Perhaps the now gained space allows to show a bit more of those titles?

(http://i.imgur.com/bXVckei.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 31, 2016, 08:07:01 AM
Current time? why do you/anyone even need that? your pc shows it in the taskbar.

Why would I ask you to display my local time? Don't you get what I meant was current forum time?
Why? To make sense of the forum time instantly without having to check world time.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:10:40 AM

Current time? why do you/anyone even need that? your pc shows it in the taskbar.
Why would I ask you to display my local time? Don't you get what I meant was current forum time? Why? To make sense of the forum time instantly without having to check world time.
But you can set time offset in your profile setting, which will convert the forum's time in relative to your local time. That way you won't have to look for world time.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:13:51 AM

an update is sent to Steven[update is live]. most of the issues are fixed. ofc if i missed some feature let me know.
Great, great, great. I was only wondering about the cut-off topic descriptions here. Perhaps the now gained space allows to show a bit more of those titles?
 (http://i.imgur.com/bXVckei.png)

those are hardcoded into SMF core. I will see what i can do without making any huge modification.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 31, 2016, 08:19:57 AM
As for the home page image a lots of debate has been going for quite some time. The only reason i went with the current image is because it blends well with the color scheme. The previous ones had lot more contrast or the image quality was not very good or a lots of dark spot.
I think we might do a poll to choose a new image for the home page, that way every one gets to vote for their favorite ones and can not complain later.

Good idea. How do we go about this? Will you set up a separate topic for that?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:24:00 AM
Good idea. How do we go about this? Will you set up a separate topic for that?

yeah i suppose. I am going to find the list of the images proposed here to create a poll.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 31, 2016, 08:29:20 AM
This bug still persists:

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19360.msg115999#msg115999
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:31:18 AM
This bug still persists: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19360.msg115999#msg115999
Can't reproduce it. maybe i am looking in the wrong place.
Can you give me the url of the page where this is happening? also what browser? are you logged in the forum at that moment?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 31, 2016, 08:34:27 AM
Good idea. How do we go about this? Will you set up a separate topic for that?

yeah i suppose. I am going to find the list of the images proposed here to create a poll.

There might be some people who want to submit new images. Please ask people to post it in your new topic.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 31, 2016, 08:35:41 AM
This bug still persists: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19360.msg115999#msg115999
Can't reproduce it. maybe i am looking in the wrong place.
Can you give me the url of the page where this is happening? also what browser? are you logged in the forum at that moment?

Yes, from inside any topic like:

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.0
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:38:10 AM
This bug still persists: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19360.msg115999#msg115999
Can't reproduce it. maybe i am looking in the wrong place. Can you give me the url of the page where this is happening? also what browser? are you logged in the forum at that moment?
Yes, from inside any topic like: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.0
it seems the issue appears ONLY if the user is not logged in. will post a patch tonight to fix it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 31, 2016, 08:39:16 AM
No, I'm logged in now. It happens regardless.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:40:58 AM
No, I'm logged in now. It happens regardless.
By any chance do you have quick reply disabled? it is placed at the bottom of the page, like this:

(http://i.imgur.com/tBXuUop.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on August 31, 2016, 08:41:42 AM
While you're updating things AvikB, please consider this:
Just a suggestion for the add-ons section:
Might it not be better for skins, plugins, etc to be sorted alphabetically by name as the default, rather than by posting date?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 31, 2016, 08:42:48 AM
By any chance do you have quick reply disabled? it is placed at the bottom of the page, like this:

Disabled.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:43:45 AM

By any chance do you have quick reply disabled? it is placed at the bottom of the page, like this:
Disabled.
Ah, i see. I will post a fix soon.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:46:33 AM
While you're updating things AvikB, please consider this:
Just a suggestion for the add-ons section: Might it not be better for skins, plugins, etc to be sorted alphabetically by name as the default, rather than by posting date?
I will add some sorting option in the next major update such as sort by(A-Z), date modified, likes, downloads etc. But by default it will use the posting date for sorting.
This way the skin page will look fresh rather than having the same item showing on the first page every time.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on August 31, 2016, 08:46:53 AM
This bug still persists: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19360.msg115999#msg115999
Can't reproduce it. maybe i am looking in the wrong place.
Can you give me the url of the page where this is happening? also what browser? are you logged in the forum at that moment?

Yes, from inside any topic like:

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.0

It also occurs with the help menu
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on August 31, 2016, 08:49:20 AM

By any chance do you have quick reply disabled? it is placed at the bottom of the page, like this:
Disabled.
Ah, i see. I will post a fix soon.

You're right. With quick reply on, it's working properly.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:49:35 AM



This bug still persists: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19360.msg115999#msg115999
Can't reproduce it. maybe i am looking in the wrong place. Can you give me the url of the page where this is happening? also what browser? are you logged in the forum at that moment?
Yes, from inside any topic like: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.0
It also occurs with the help menu

This is basically a javascript error(causing by the new editor mod), which stops the height, position calculation of the submenus.
Will be fixed soon.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on August 31, 2016, 08:50:16 AM
But by default it will use the posting date for sorting.
This way the skin page will look fresh rather than having the same item showing on the first page every time.
OK. Sort of like a 'What's New' feature  8)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 08:52:48 AM
But by default it will use the posting date for sorting. This way the skin page will look fresh rather than having the same item showing on the first page every time.
OK. Sort of like a 'What's New' feature 8)
yup. I was planning to introduce it in the initial version, but was delayed.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2016, 09:11:39 AM
In my opinion posts with quotes are a bit difficult to quickly take-in.

That might perhaps be improved with some change in coloring.
Currently it's this:

(http://i.imgur.com/H2urKQM.png)

Removing the 'green' from older quotes, and making the text message of the last quote brighter would make that a bit easier and less 'busy':

(http://i.imgur.com/8qFfuxb.png)

(I'm pretty sure this is impossible to do, but I couldn't help myself bringing it up anyway ;-)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 11:11:30 AM
In my opinion posts with quotes are a bit difficult to quickly take-in. That might perhaps be improved with some change in coloring. Currently it's this: Removing the 'green' from older quotes, and making the text message of the last quote brighter would make that a bit easier and less 'busy': (I'm pretty sure this is impossible to do, but I couldn't help myself bringing it up anyway ;-)
Did you mean, like the second image you shown? if so it is possible.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2016, 11:27:41 AM
In my opinion posts with quotes are a bit difficult to quickly take-in. That might perhaps be improved with some change in coloring. Currently it's this: Removing the 'green' from older quotes, and making the text message of the last quote brighter would make that a bit easier and less 'busy': (I'm pretty sure this is impossible to do, but I couldn't help myself bringing it up anyway ;-)
Did you mean, like the second image you shown? if so it is possible.

Yes, the second image is my mock-up.
But of course only put time and effort in it if you agree it would be an improvement, and there won't be a risk in 'breaking' anything.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 01:54:33 PM


In my opinion posts with quotes are a bit difficult to quickly take-in. That might perhaps be improved with some change in coloring. Currently it's this: Removing the 'green' from older quotes, and making the text message of the last quote brighter would make that a bit easier and less 'busy': (I'm pretty sure this is impossible to do, but I couldn't help myself bringing it up anyway ;-)
Did you mean, like the second image you shown? if so it is possible.
Yes, the second image is my mock-up. But of course only put time and effort in it if you agree it would be an improvement, and there won't be a risk in 'breaking' anything.
nah it is really easy to do.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2016, 02:26:07 PM
FWIW, I never log off from the MB forum. After 15 minutes(?) of inactivity my name drops off the 'users online' list at the bottom of the main forum page, but I'm still logged in. As long as you're on your own computer, there really doesn't seem to be any reason to log off. This is the only site where I do that.

@AvikB,

Out of curiosity, what does this 15 minute timer consider as being active?
Is it an 'active' action such as posting, or doing moderation etc., or is just having the forum open, refreshing a page or browsing it already considered as 'active'?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2016, 02:31:03 PM

FWIW, I never log off from the MB forum. After 15 minutes(?) of inactivity my name drops off the 'users online' list at the bottom of the main forum page, but I'm still logged in. As long as you're on your own computer, there really doesn't seem to be any reason to log off. This is the only site where I do that.
@AvikB, Out of curiosity, what does this 15 minute timer consider as being active? Is it an 'active' action such as posting, or doing moderation etc., or is just having the forum open, refreshing a page or browsing it already considered as 'active'?
active means you have the browser page to getmusicbee.com/forum opened.
When you have musicbee forum opened your browser actually send some data to musicbee server to let the server know that you are online(or active). nothing else. If you close the musicbee forum website in your browser the server doesn't get the data and register you as offline(inactive).
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2016, 02:34:49 PM
active means you have the browser page to getmusicbee.com/forum opened.
When you have musicbee forum opened your browser actually send some data to musicbee server to let the server know that you are online(or active). nothing else. If you close the musicbee forum website in your browser the server doesn't get the data and register you as offline(inactive).

Ok, thnx!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 01, 2016, 05:09:30 PM
@AvikB, is there any technical reason someone needs to be logged in to like an ADD-ON?

Personally i would prefer anyone could do a like without needing to set up an account. Do any of the skin developers have any comment on that?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 02, 2016, 05:06:05 PM
@AvikB, is there any technical reason someone needs to be logged in to like an ADD-ON? Personally i would prefer anyone could do a like without needing to set up an account. Do any of the skin developers have any comment on that?

The login simply works like a verification. Right now one user can like an add-on only one time, the data is stored by their user id, that way they can unlike it. If no vrification is placed and anyone can like it, one can simply create a script to do it automatically. And the only way to verify would be storing IP, which is the least accurate info as it can be changed easily.

Allowing anonymous like would be bad. There would be no way to verify is the person is even real or just a bot. Also one could like add-on multiple times, there won't be anything to verify it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 03, 2016, 12:33:58 PM
The login simply works like a verification. Right now one user can like an add-on only one time, the data is stored by their user id, that way they can unlike it. If no vrification is placed and anyone can like it, one can simply create a script to do it automatically. And the only way to verify would be storing IP, which is the least accurate info as it can be changed easily.
what about storing like/unlike data in browser cache? yes, its not ideal/very reliable solution, but i think if somebody very wants to falsificate add-on rating, it will  be possible anyway.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 03, 2016, 01:48:45 PM
what about storing like/unlike data in browser cache? yes, its not ideal/very reliable solution,
if we store the like data in their browser cache only he will be able to see it. no one else.


but i think if somebody very wants to falsificate add-on rating, it will be possible anyway.
It is not possible without creating a new forum account. Which is way harder.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 03, 2016, 01:50:50 PM
By any chance do you have quick reply disabled? it is placed at the bottom of the page, like this:
Disabled.
Ah, i see. I will post a fix soon.
You're right. With quick reply on, it's working properly.
I just pushed an update, it should be fixed.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 03, 2016, 02:34:56 PM
what about storing like/unlike data in browser cache? yes, its not ideal/very reliable solution,
if we store the like data in their browser cache only he will be able to see it. no one else.

sorry, i meant not "browser cache", but of course "browser cookie".
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 03, 2016, 02:38:33 PM
if we store the like data in their browser cache only he will be able to see it. no one else.
sorry, i meant not "browser cache", but of course "browser cookie". [/quote]
One can like an add-on, then clear browser cookie and bam can like again. ofc i can use their IP to make sure same IP user won't be able to like more than one time. But IP can be changed rather easily.
The only safer solution is to have some sort of authentication. Specially verify the user by their email address.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 03, 2016, 02:42:16 PM
One can like an add-on, then clear browser cookie and bam can like again. ofc i can use their IP to make sure same IP user won't be able to like more than one time. But IP can be changed rather easily.
The only safer solution is to have some sort of authentication. Specially verify the user by their email address.

yes, i understand this, but i guess that we should protect us from fools, not from evil.

never mind. it was just idea.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on September 03, 2016, 03:57:17 PM



By any chance do you have quick reply disabled? it is placed at the bottom of the page, like this:
Disabled.
Ah, i see. I will post a fix soon.
You're right. With quick reply on, it's working properly.
I just pushed an update, it should be fixed.

That's fixed. Thanks!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 03, 2016, 04:27:44 PM
AvikB, i have a problem. for tag tools plugin (and only for it) the limit of 5000 chars for readme is insufficient. considering possible plugin evolution in future i would want at least 15000 limit (or no limit at all). is this possible?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 03, 2016, 04:49:06 PM
AvikB, i have a problem. for tag tools plugin (and only for it) the limit of 5000 chars for readme is insufficient. considering possible plugin evolution in future i would want at least 15000 limit (or no limit at all). is this possible?
yeah it is possible. I will probably provide a patch for this in the next major update. Until then you can create a wiki post containing the extra info.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 03, 2016, 05:00:30 PM
ok. thanks.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 03, 2016, 07:54:18 PM
@AvikB, see this topic re: add-on pages
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19558.0
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 03, 2016, 08:06:26 PM
Perhaps I am speaking to soon and there is work in progress right now, but:

In the 'General' category there now resides a board also called 'General'.
That's slightly confusing, and the proposal therefor had 'General Discussions' for the latter.

The 'Questions' board is now almost empty, and what should be there is currently placed in the 'General' board.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 03, 2016, 08:14:35 PM
Perhaps I am speaking to soon and there is work in progress right now, but:

In the 'General' category there now resides a board also called 'General'.
That's slightly confusing, and the proposal therefor had 'General Discussions' for the latter.

The 'Questions' board is now almost empty, and what should be there is currently placed in the 'General' board.
i've updated the header.
I dont get your second point. There are 307 pages in the current General Discussions and no one is going to go through and split out all the topics. In any case i am not yet fully convinced having the "Questions" board is going to work well so i wouldnt want anyone to make any effort moving topics around
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 03, 2016, 08:25:24 PM
I dont get your second point. There are 307 pages in the current General Discussions and no one is going to go through and split out all the topics. In any case i am not yet fully convinced having the "Questions" board is going to work well so i wouldnt want anyone to make any effort moving topics around

That's surprising to me.
The majority of postings on this forum are questions, so to me it seems very logical to have a board called 'Questions'.

My suggestion would be to move all topics currently present in 'General Discussions' to 'Questions'.
Probably less than 5% of those belong in 'General Discussions', and they could be moved there by mods without much effort.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 04, 2016, 05:26:32 AM
@AvikB, see this topic re: add-on pages http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19558.0
So basically you guys need a way to transfer ownership of add-ons that is submitted via dashboard? right?
If so, i checked my database plan and it is possible. I will add an option in the dashboard, I will allow mods and admins to transfer the ownership of any addon page to someone else.
Anyone who want to transfer ownership can contact mods and they will do that for them, or should i just give normal user the ability to transfer the ownership between them?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 04, 2016, 07:16:10 AM
@AvikB, see this topic re: add-on pages http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=19558.0
So basically you guys need a way to transfer ownership of add-ons that is submitted via dashboard? right?
yes thats right. Its probably best to restrict that functionality to mods
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 04, 2016, 02:56:02 PM
The new forum setup looks great.  Questions seems to be a hit!

It seems like it might be with worth making a questions subforum for portable devices, to go along with the bugs subforum. (Or break portable devices apart completely, including the bug reports, but I think either way some folks will post in the wrong place and it will be up to mods to correct.)  The benefit would be that the portable device threads don't get swept away by other questions, so others can find them more easily.  Especially since the answers to portable device questions tend to be very repetitive, this should reduce the overall number of questions, too.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on September 04, 2016, 03:48:27 PM
Seems like a practical solution.
+1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 04, 2016, 04:14:34 PM
The new forum setup looks great.
Hiccup and Phred deserve the thanks for that (apologies if anyone else was involved that I didnt know about).
And i have to say i am really pleased with everything AvikB has done for the forum and the website. The Add-Ons page is a great addition
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 04, 2016, 06:04:26 PM
AvikB, i want to localize this site to russian. is this:

https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/blob/Dev/includes/languages/en-us.php

php file still up to date?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 04, 2016, 06:21:57 PM
AvikB, i want to localize this site to russian. is this: https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/blob/Dev/includes/languages/en-us.php php file still up to date?
Yes it is fully up-to date.
You might want to skip dashboard admin panel(line 350-490), since it is used by only steven. it won't be required.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 04, 2016, 07:00:49 PM
if the site is localised, is it possible to provide users with a link such that the site is localised eg. http://getmusicbee.com/ru
or is the only way for the user need to land on the english version and then change the language in the button on the bottom right of the web site?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 04, 2016, 07:06:05 PM
if the site is localised, is it possible to provide users with a link such that the site is localised eg. http://getmusicbee.com/ru or is the only way for the user need to land on the english version and then change the language in the button on the bottom right of the web site?
yes the only way is to change it from the bottom. But alternatively you can change the language by go to the following url:
Code
http://getmusicbee.com/?lang=en-us
The drop down at the bottom of the page does the similar, it simply redirects user to a similar url.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 05, 2016, 02:25:42 AM
Seems like a practical solution.
+1

Thanks.  On further thought, I think just breaking out portable devices into its own forum would be the best approach.  That way mods (and visitors) don't have to think very hard about where portable device threads go, and a lot of the bugs reported aren't really MusicBee bugs anyway.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on September 05, 2016, 11:38:29 AM
When trying to sign out, get this error sometimes.


(http://i.imgur.com/9GnMiqK.png)


Looks like it happens when you have multiple tabs of the forum open and trying to sign out from the tab that you did not use when signing in.

This still occurs even when a single tab is open. Clicking on "sign out" menu again is required to sign out.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 05, 2016, 11:49:08 AM

 This still occurs even when a single tab is open. Clicking on "sign out" menu again is required to sign out.
will be fixed (probably) in next update.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 05, 2016, 04:39:54 PM
AvikB, what does mean string "home_30" ("Submit")? i need to see context of this string to correctly translate it and can't find this text on home page.

also i've found a typo in string "home_32": change "Xbox Music.)" to "Xbox Music)."
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 05, 2016, 04:51:49 PM
AvikB, what does mean string "home_30" ("Submit")? i need to see context of this string to correctly translate it and can't find this text on home page.
 
You are right it is not in the home page. It seems i mistakenly put it there :S , It was supposed to be the submit button for the dashboard. here is the button used:
(http://i.imgur.com/4LsEihw.png)

I will update it on the next major release. You don't need to worry about it breaking the translation. Just put the Russian word of submit in home_30, i will fix it later.


also i've found a typo in string "home_32": change "Xbox Music.)" to "Xbox Music)."
Ah thanks. it is fixed. will push the update later with other minor updates.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 05, 2016, 06:47:25 PM
thanks!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2016, 09:15:30 AM

Thanks.  On further thought, I think just breaking out portable devices into its own forum would be the best approach.  That way mods (and visitors) don't have to think very hard about where portable device threads go, and a lot of the bugs reported aren't really MusicBee bugs anyway.

I see an additional board for portable devices was added.
In my opinion it would be more logical and consistent to have child boards for that under 'Questions' and 'Bug Reports'.
It would also help to keep the main page more (vertically) compact and as less cluttered as possible.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 06, 2016, 06:45:17 PM

Thanks.  On further thought, I think just breaking out portable devices into its own forum would be the best approach.  That way mods (and visitors) don't have to think very hard about where portable device threads go, and a lot of the bugs reported aren't really MusicBee bugs anyway.

I see an additional board for portable devices was added.
In my opinion it would be more logical and consistent to have child boards for that under 'Questions' and 'Bug Reports'.
It would also help to keep the main page more (vertically) compact and as less cluttered as possible.

Having two boards means people looking for a section about portable devices are as likely to choose one as the other, and when moving threads we have to figure out which one they go in.  I really think it's easier to just have one.  It would probably be fine to have it as a sub forum of general discussion or questions.  Bug reports is a little too specific.  Like I said, the bugs reported are often not really musicbee bugs anyway. (Added: although given that it's almost at the bottom of the list, I don't think it's getting in the way of anything.)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 06, 2016, 08:13:12 PM
AvikB, what does mean string "addon_15" ("by", line 500)? "by" can be translated in several ways, i need to know the context.

the same for string "search" ("Search ", line 531).
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2016, 08:29:04 PM
AvikB, what does mean string "addon_15" ("by", line 500)? "by" can be translated in several ways, i need to know the context.

I'm no AvikB, but I am sure it is in the context of "plugin 'Fantastic' by Boroda".
Similar to "Pictures at an Exhibition' by Modest Mussorgsky".
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 06, 2016, 08:34:38 PM
does anyone know a way to hint to the google search engine that there are localised versions for a page and what the supported localisation languages are ie. so when people google from a particular country, the localised version is shown in the search results

edit:
found this:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en

@AvikB, when you have time i suggest you have a look as it does provide some recommendations
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2016, 08:59:19 PM
@AvikB,

This might have nothing to do with the forum itself, but perhaps is just some local issue on my pc.
(but, I did present this to another forum member, and he did have a similar experience)

When I compose a message and make a spelling mistake, that word gets underlined.
When I then use the context key of my keyboard (located somewhere right of the space bar) on that word to try and see the proposed words, I used to get the context menu with suggestions for that word.
But lately that will sometimes work, but often it won't, and it will then give the standard context menu of 'Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, etc.', and not the applicable spelling suggestion menu.
Using the right-click button on the mouse will always work though.

Is this something you might have some control over?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2016, 09:17:58 PM

Thanks.  On further thought, I think just breaking out portable devices into its own forum would be the best approach.  That way mods (and visitors) don't have to think very hard about where portable device threads go, and a lot of the bugs reported aren't really MusicBee bugs anyway.

I see an additional board for portable devices was added.
In my opinion it would be more logical and consistent to have child boards for that under 'Questions' and 'Bug Reports'.
It would also help to keep the main page more (vertically) compact and as less cluttered as possible.

Having two boards means people looking for a section about portable devices are as likely to choose one as the other, and when moving threads we have to figure out which one they go in.  I really think it's easier to just have one.  It would probably be fine to have it as a sub forum of general discussion or questions.  Bug reports is a little too specific.  Like I said, the bugs reported are often not really musicbee bugs anyway. (Added: although given that it's almost at the bottom of the list, I don't think it's getting in the way of anything.)

There is something to be said for both.
Yet I have some unsubstantiated gut feeling that this was mostly done out of some irritation about many iPod/iPhone users asking questions and having issues.
I don't think the answer to that is to 'break' the clean and good structure that was in place, now resulting in having more than one place for 'Bugs', 'Questions' 'Tips and Tricks'.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 06, 2016, 10:38:52 PM
Having two boards means people looking for a section about portable devices are as likely to choose one as the other, and when moving threads we have to figure out which one they go in.  I really think it's easier to just have one.  It would probably be fine to have it as a sub forum of general discussion or questions.  Bug reports is a little too specific.  Like I said, the bugs reported are often not really musicbee bugs anyway. (Added: although given that it's almost at the bottom of the list, I don't think it's getting in the way of anything.)

There is something to be said for both.
Yet I have some unsubstantiated gut feeling that this was mostly done out of some irritation about many iPod/iPhone users asking questions and having issues.
I don't think the answer to that is to 'break' the clean and good structure that was in place, now resulting in having more than one place for 'Bugs', 'Questions' 'Tips and Tricks'.

It's not out of irritation, but out of the fact that portable device questions and issues are very specific and distinct from other things that come up, and usually run along the same lines.  They are pretty much limited to how to get musicbee to talk to a particular device, how to transfer specific amounts of data, file formats and conversion (including playlists), two-way syncing, and errors which might or might not be MusicBee's fault.  Giving them their own section means that they will not get lost among other questions and reports, which is better for people seeking help with them as well as easier for us to maintain.

I didn't find the existing structure for them clean or sufficient, because there was the bug reports subforum which was clearly labeled for portable devices but clearly not meant for general questions and help, and many uncategorized threads in the general or questions forum.  Someone looking for an answer to a question similar to theirs would have to rely on the very limited forum search engine or maybe Google.

Anyway, if that doesn't persuade you I doubt I will be able to.  :)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2016, 11:13:03 PM
It's not out of irritation, but out of the fact that portable device questions and issues are very specific and distinct from other things that come up, and usually run along the same lines.  They are pretty much limited to how to get musicbee to talk to a particular device, how to transfer specific amounts of data, file formats and conversion (including playlists), two-way syncing, and errors which might or might not be MusicBee's fault.  Giving them their own section means that they will not get lost among other questions and reports, which is better for people seeking help with them as well as easier for us to maintain.

I didn't find the existing structure for them clean or sufficient, because there was the bug reports subforum which was clearly labeled for portable devices but clearly not meant for general questions and help, and many uncategorized threads in the general or questions forum.  Someone looking for an answer to a question similar to theirs would have to rely on the very limited forum search engine or maybe Google.

Anyway, if that doesn't persuade you I doubt I will be able to.  :)

It's just that I feel structure and hierarchy is the basis of logical navigation and making it possible to find stuff as easlily as possible.

I am not arguing the need for, and advantages of having portable devices issues and questions seperated and assembled in dedicated areas.
But if that results in breaking some logics in structure and hierarchy (as it is done now), that's not ideal.

With the latest change, now if somebody has a question about syncing a portable device, with the latest forum boards change, he/she should not post that under 'Questions' anymore?
That's not logical in my opinion. It is a question after all.

If somebody experiences an actual and verifiable bug in reference to an external device, with the latest forum boards change, he/she should not post that under 'Bugs' anymore?
That's not logical in my opinion. It is a bug after all.

Repeat for 'tips& tricks'.

The only sensible and correct solution in my opinion would be to have childboards for 'Portable Devices' under 'Questions', 'Bugs' and 'Tips & Tricks'.

And as a sidenote and follow-up on this line of thought, it would be very useful if a member with experience with iPods etc. could create a 'sticky topic' under Tips&Tricks> Portable Devices called something like "syncing with Apple devices".
A shortcut to that topic would probably be a hit, and save a lot of typing in answering questions on this matter. ;-)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on September 06, 2016, 11:42:11 PM
And as a sidenote and follow-up on this line of thought, it would be very useful if a member with experience with iPods etc. could create a 'sticky topic' under Tips&Tricks> Portable Devices called something like "syncing with Apple devices".
A shortcut to that topic would probably be a hit, and save a lot of typing in answering questions on this matter. ;-)
There are two threads (that I'm familiar with and there may be others) about syncing to iDevices. One by me and one by redwing. "How to sync with iTunes" and "How to sync without iTunes." I could make both of those sticky if you think it will help.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2016, 11:57:26 PM
There are two threads (that I'm familiar with and there may be others) about syncing to iDevices. One by me and one by redwing. "How to sync with iTunes" and "How to sync without iTunes." I could make both of those sticky if you think it will help.

I am no expert on this (and have little personal interest on the matter either t.b.h.), but I know Phred and Boroda also have given lots of very good and useful info/explanations/answers on Apple issues.
Wouldn't it be great if you and them would join all that knowledge in just one nuclear sticky post in 'Questions> Syncing Apple devices?


edit,
I wrongly assumed I was responding to a Psycho post, but I now see it was from mr. Phred himself.
So my reply probably looks a bit confusing, but I do support the gist of it ;-)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on September 07, 2016, 12:51:59 AM
I have made sticky the two threads referenced above.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 07, 2016, 08:06:28 AM
pred, phsychoadtept and hiccup, looking at your discussion about devices and remembering Steven's words that he assumes that devices child board under "bug reports" board may be excessive, i'm going to believe that any separate devices board/child boards would be either not logical or too sophisticated, maybe actually it would be better to combine all devices board(s) with 'generic' boards?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 07, 2016, 10:43:16 AM
AvikB, what does mean string "addon_15" ("by", line 500)? "by" can be translated in several ways, i need to know the context.

I'm no AvikB, but I am sure it is in the context of "plugin 'Fantastic' by Boroda".
Similar to "Pictures at an Exhibition' by Modest Mussorgsky".

yes, i supposed the same, but the problem is that "by" usually shouldn't be translated to russian at all, couple of other words in a sentence should be changed, but "by" just skipped. sometimes its not acceptable (if sentence is not static). in this case i use russian "from author" or "from developer", etc, but i must use some exact word after "from".
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 07, 2016, 11:05:31 AM
yes, i supposed the same, but the problem is that "by" usually shouldn't be translated to russian at all, couple of other words in a sentence should be changed, but "by" just skipped. sometimes its not acceptable (if sentence is not static). in this case i use russian "from author" or "from developer", etc, but i must use some exact word after "from".

I'm pretty sure I don't exactly understand this, but would it perhaps be an option to not translate 'by' at all, and just have a space or a dash there?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 07, 2016, 01:53:30 PM
AvikB, i think you've forgotten to mention VB .NET in string "api_desc" (line 680).
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 02:33:27 PM
AvikB, what does mean string "addon_15" ("by", line 500)? "by" can be translated in several ways, i need to know the context.

the same for string "search" ("Search ", line 531).
"addon_15" is used here for add-ons author.
(http://i.imgur.com/uhS3Um9.png)

Search is used on the add-on page on the searchbox placeholder.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 02:39:52 PM

yes, i supposed the same, but the problem is that "by" usually shouldn't be translated to russian at all, couple of other words in a sentence should be changed, but "by" just skipped. sometimes its not acceptable (if sentence is not static). in this case i use russian "from author" or "from developer", etc, but i must use some exact word after "from".
I'm pretty sure I don't exactly understand this, but would it perhaps be an option to not translate 'by' at all, and just have a space or a dash there?
yes you can leave any word untranslated. Just make sure you remove that line all together. Eg:

Say you are translating the following:
Code
$lang['addon_9'] = 'Author';
$lang['addon_10'] = 'Name';
$lang['addon_11'] = 'Category';
$lang['addon_15'] = 'by';
$lang['addon_16'] = 'Updated on';
$lang['addon_17'] = 'Published on';
$lang['addon_36'] = 'Supports Minimum';

and you wan't to leave the following as it is. Just remove that line.
Code
$lang['addon_15'] = 'by';

The final product should look like:

Code
$lang['addon_9'] = 'Author';
$lang['addon_10'] = 'Name';
$lang['addon_11'] = 'Category';
/** $lang['addon_15'] was not translated so removed **/
$lang['addon_16'] = 'Updated on';
$lang['addon_17'] = 'Published on';
$lang['addon_36'] = 'Supports Minimum';

Of-course the comment was not a requirement, it is just there for this example. Remove any comment or leave them, it is upto you.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 02:45:07 PM
AvikB, i think you've forgotten to mention VB .NET in string "api_desc" (line 680).
thanks. will be updated in the next minor release.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 02:51:03 PM
does anyone know a way to hint to the google search engine that there are localised versions for a page and what the supported localisation languages are ie. so when people google from a particular country, the localised version is shown in the search results edit: found this: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en @AvikB, when you have time i suggest you have a look as it does provide some recommendations
thanks Steven. I think in the next major release i will provide a url structure like:
Code
http://www.getmusicbee.com/rus/

Edit:

Ok, after reviewing some possibilities, and some code reviewing. the only page that are possible to fully localize is the home page and the download page and also the dashboard which is excluded for reasons.
Any other page can be partially localized since they have user generated content and to fully localize them the user need to provide translation of their content which is completely out of topic.

The dashboard is out of topic as it can not be indexed by google because it is login protected.
the help page, release note page, api page are also user generated thus can not be localized.

So the only page that will get this kind of pretty url is the home page and download page.

Code
http://www.getmusicbee.com/rus/
http://www.getmusicbee.com/rus/downloads

other page will follow the normal url structure, like:

http://www.getmusicbee.com/addons/
http://www.getmusicbee.com/forum/

and so on


ofc when the user visits the url http://www.getmusicbee.com/rus/ they will get the whole site partially or fully localized in russian.
that means when a user visits http://www.getmusicbee.com/rus/ and after that he decides to visit http://www.getmusicbee.com/addons/
he will get a russian version of that page. of course he can also switch to english version from the bottom of the page.


It is a bit more complicated than this simplified version, but rest assure.
I have also found a way (thanks to the article Steven provided) for google to index the multilanguage website.
a simple html tag is sufficient.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 07, 2016, 04:32:24 PM
AvikB, i'm not sure if its a bug or not, but test version of new forum was supporting cyrillics fine. but this forum just converts all cyrillic letters to question marks on saving post like previous version of the forum. though preview shows cyrillic letters. if i click "modify" button, then in post editor i see '?' instead of russian letters.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 07, 2016, 04:42:30 PM
its definitely not sufficient. first of all i anyway need to know which sentence uses this "by" to change this "couple of words" in it. on the second there may be some sophisticated cases for dynamic sentences (if some part of sentence is generated by soft, even if this part is only some date or number).

If I understand it a little bit better now, a solution could perhaps be that AvikB creates several entries for 'author' to be used at different positions?
For example one 'author' that is only used in a situation to indicate the name of the author without usage in a sentence, and another 'author' that is used in the sentence 'plugin by author...'

Just suppose these two would be named 'author-name' and 'author-created', then for English (and Dutch ;-) they would be identical, but for Russian you would be able to differentiate them?
And perhaps you even need more than two different 'authors' for other uses?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 04:43:26 PM
AvikB, i'm not sure if its a bug or not, but test version of new forum was supporting cyrillics fine. but this forum just converts all cyrillic letters to question marks on saving post like previous version of the forum. though preview shows cyrillic letters. if i click "modify" button, then in post editor i see '?' instead of russian letters.
I think this is because when this forum was installed(a long time ago before i begin this project) utf-8 was not enabled by default. I am looking into this.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 04:44:50 PM
its definitely not sufficient. first of all i anyway need to know which sentence uses this "by" to change this "couple of words" in it. on the second there may be some sophisticated cases for dynamic sentences (if some part of sentence is generated by soft, even if this part is only some date or number).
If I understand it a little bit better now, a solution could perhaps be that AvikB creates several entries for 'author' to be used at different positions? For example one 'author' that is only used in a situation to indicate the name of the author without usage in a sentence, and another 'author' that is used in the sentence 'plugin by author...' Just suppose these two would be named 'author-name' and 'author-created', then for English (and Dutch ;-) they would be identical, but for Russian you would be able to differentiate them? And perhaps you even need more than two different 'authors' for other uses?
Yeah i am thinking of same. Creating separate entries for different situation might make it more easy to translate.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 07, 2016, 05:03:50 PM
AvikB, i'm not sure if its a bug or not, but test version of new forum was supporting cyrillics fine. but this forum just converts all cyrillic letters to question marks on saving post like previous version of the forum. though preview shows cyrillic letters. if i click "modify" button, then in post editor i see '?' instead of russian letters.
I think this is because when this forum was installed(a long time ago before i begin this project) utf-8 was not enabled by default. I am looking into this.
i noticed when doing the website upgrade that the SMF tables have "latin1_swedish_ci" encoding. I honestly have no idea how that happened. There is a way to change the encoding to UTF8 using SQL but i was reluctant to do that in case something got messed up
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 05:07:05 PM


AvikB, i'm not sure if its a bug or not, but test version of new forum was supporting cyrillics fine. but this forum just converts all cyrillic letters to question marks on saving post like previous version of the forum. though preview shows cyrillic letters. if i click "modify" button, then in post editor i see '?' instead of russian letters.
I think this is because when this forum was installed(a long time ago before i begin this project) utf-8 was not enabled by default. I am looking into this.
i noticed when going the website uograde that the SMF tables have "latin1_swedish_ci" encoding. I honestly have no idea how that happened. There is a way to change the encoding to UTF8 using SQL but i was reluctant to do that in case something got messed up
Do we have any thread that uses any other language than english? if no then it should be ok to convert the database to UTF-8.
Here is a link to SMF wiki:
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/UTF-8_Readme#How_to_convert_to_UTF-8
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 07, 2016, 06:24:35 PM
unfortunately "Forum Maintenance > Convert the database and data to UTF-8" in step 3 isnt available - not sure why.
The default forum language in step 2 is already en_US.utf8
do you see any issues with running this SQL?
Code
ALTER TABLE smf_admin_info_files CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_approval_queue CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_attachments CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_ban_groups CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_ban_items CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_boards CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_board_permissions CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_calendar CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_calendar_holidays CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_categories CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_collapsed_categories CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_custom_fields CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_custom_fields CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_group_moderators CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_actions CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_activity CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_banned CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_boards CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_comments CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_digest CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_errors CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_floodcontrol CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_group_requests CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_karma CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_mark_read CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_member_notices CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_notify CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_online CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_packages CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_polls CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_reported CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_reported_comments CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_scheduled_tasks CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_search_messages CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_search_results CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_search_subjects CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_search_topics CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_spider_hits CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_spider_stats CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_subscribed CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_log_topics CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_mail_queue CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_membergroups CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_members CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_messages CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_message_icons CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_moderators CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_openid_assoc CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_package_servers CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_permissions CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_permission_profiles CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_personal_messages CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_pm_recipients CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_pm_rules CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_polls CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_poll_choices CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_prefix CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_scheduled_tasks CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_sessions CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_settings CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_smileys CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_spiders CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_subscriptions CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_themes CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
ALTER TABLE smf_topics CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 07:17:17 PM
hopefully these 2 strings i mentioned are complete sentences without any parts of sentences dynamically generated by soft, so no problem to translate them at all.
I will make the translation procedure better is v2.0, sorry for this inconvenience.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 07:22:23 PM
unfortunately "Forum Maintenance > Convert the database and data to UTF-8" in step 3 isnt available - not sure why. The default forum language in step 2 is already en_US.utf8 do you see any issues with running this SQL?
I tested this on my local machine, and it seems "smf_prefix"(at line 57) does not exist. if you remove that line it should run fine.
ofc create a backup before that.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 07, 2016, 07:28:54 PM
unfortunately "Forum Maintenance > Convert the database and data to UTF-8" in step 3 isnt available - not sure why. The default forum language in step 2 is already en_US.utf8 do you see any issues with running this SQL?
I tested this on my local machine, and it seems "smf_prefix"(at line 57) does not exist. if you remove that line it should run fine.
ofc create a backup before that.
that doesnt make sense to me. Firstly which file are you referring to, and secondly have you made a typo? how can i remove a line that does not exist
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 07:33:23 PM


unfortunately "Forum Maintenance > Convert the database and data to UTF-8" in step 3 isnt available - not sure why. The default forum language in step 2 is already en_US.utf8 do you see any issues with running this SQL?
I tested this on my local machine, and it seems "smf_prefix"(at line 57) does not exist. if you remove that line it should run fine. ofc create a backup before that.
that doesnt make sense to me. Firstly which file are you referring to, and secondly have you made a typo? how can i remove a line that does not exist
There is the following line i am talking about:
Code
ALTER TABLE smf_prefix CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

my local test machine forum does not have that table so it threw an error for me. be sure to check it.
I am talking about backing up your database. Not any file.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 07, 2016, 08:09:02 PM
i have changed the character set on the sql tables.
просто тест
no idea what that means!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 07, 2016, 08:10:44 PM
@AvikB, i had to use COLLATE utf8_bin instead of COLLATE utf8_general_ci because of duplicate entries.
Do you see any issue with that?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 07, 2016, 08:28:14 PM
i have changed the character set on the sql tables.
просто тест
no idea what that means!
it means "its just a test" :)

------

AvikB, is it possible to enable support for tag [off] (offtopic)? or SMF 2 doesn't support this tag at all?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 07, 2016, 10:38:41 PM
AvikB, here is russian localization of mb site:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/cvsqcoqmmbq7bhk/ru-ru.php

i've rechecked my translation twice, but anyway it could be that some strings are too long for site design, so its still possible that further corrections should be made. first i need to look at live russian site.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 10:43:08 PM
AvikB, here is russian localization of mb site: http://www.mediafire.com/download/cvsqcoqmmbq7bhk/ru-ru.php i've rechecked my translation twice, but anyway it could be that some strings are too long for site design, so its still possible that further corrections should be made. first i need to look at live russian site.
thanks. i will upload it tomorrow on the test site first and once you are sure everything is on the place ,we can upload it on the live site.
Btw, in future you might wanna use github to pull a request, that way it would be easier on me to view and accept changes.
Title: Re: Report Website related bugs/issues here
Post by: phred on September 07, 2016, 11:12:26 PM
@Steven & AvikB - I've been thinking about this since the site went live and I think  it's time to call it to your attention.
At the bottom left of the forum and website pages is the static "Get the Latest MusicBee" with the version number, release date, and link. But that's not really the -latest- version because there are patches.

A solution might be to get rid of the words "the latest" and just have "Get MusicBee" which links to the download page. And add information on the download page with a link to the latest patch and how to install it.

I note that the download page doesn't say "latest version" so I feel the static link at the bottom of the forum and website pages should also not say "the latest." Because it usually isn't.

Comments welcome.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 11:16:55 PM
AvikB, here is russian localization of mb site: http://www.mediafire.com/download/cvsqcoqmmbq7bhk/ru-ru.php i've rechecked my translation twice, but anyway it could be that some strings are too long for site design, so its still possible that further corrections should be made. first i need to look at live russian site.

It is now live on the test site. There are some really long string which you might want to shorten down.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 07, 2016, 11:38:12 PM
AvikB, here is russian localization of mb site: http://www.mediafire.com/download/cvsqcoqmmbq7bhk/ru-ru.php i've rechecked my translation twice, but anyway it could be that some strings are too long for site design, so its still possible that further corrections should be made. first i need to look at live russian site.
thanks. i will upload it tomorrow on the test site first and once you are sure everything is on the place ,we can upload it on the live site.
Btw, in future you might wanna use github to pull a request, that way it would be easier on me to view and accept changes.
thanks a lot for all your efforts. could you remind me url of test site?

i've found a typo again (similar to previous one): string "no_js" (don't remember line number, but its at the end of file). replace "(or it is disabled.)" by "(or it is disabled)."
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 07, 2016, 11:45:34 PM
thanks a lot for all your efforts. could you remind me url of test site? i've found a typo again (similar to previous one): string "no_js" (don't remember line number, but its at the end of file). replace "(or it is disabled.)" by "(or it is disabled)."
http://www.test.getmusicbee.com
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 08, 2016, 03:20:37 PM
@Steven & AvikB - I've been thinking about this since the site went live and I think  it's time to call it to your attention.
At the bottom left of the forum and website pages is the static "Get the Latest MusicBee" with the version number, release date, and link. But that's not really the -latest- version because there are patches.

A solution might be to get rid of the words "the latest" and just have "Get MusicBee" which links to the download page. And add information on the download page with a link to the latest patch and how to install it.

I note that the download page doesn't say "latest version" so I feel the static link at the bottom of the forum and website pages should also not say "the latest." Because it usually isn't.

Comments welcome.

+1:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg116016#msg116016
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 08, 2016, 03:23:25 PM
@Steven & AvikB - I've been thinking about this since the site went live and I think it's time to call it to your attention. At the bottom left of the forum and website pages is the static "Get the Latest MusicBee" with the version number, release date, and link. But that's not really the -latest- version because there are patches. A solution might be to get rid of the words "the latest" and just have "Get MusicBee" which links to the download page. And add information on the download page with a link to the latest patch and how to install it. I note that the download page doesn't say "latest version" so I feel the static link at the bottom of the forum and website pages should also not say "the latest." Because it usually isn't. Comments welcome.
+1: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg116016#msg116016
seems a valid argument, fixed for next update.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 09, 2016, 01:31:21 PM
AvikB, i have a problem. for tag tools plugin (and only for it) the limit of 5000 chars for readme is insufficient. considering possible plugin evolution in future i would want at least 15000 limit (or no limit at all). is this possible?
i am currently working on reducing the limit, and thought i might get a clear picture.
I am now allowing 15000 characters, BUT it also counts spaces. Is that ok?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on September 09, 2016, 08:37:46 PM
Any way to make this sticky? Every time I exit the forum (even without logging out) this reverts back to 'Everyone.'
(http://i.imgur.com/kAhGFLY.jpg)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 09, 2016, 09:00:40 PM
Any way to make this sticky? Every time I exit the forum (even without logging out) this reverts back to 'Everyone.' (http://i.imgur.com/kAhGFLY.jpg)
is ABSOLUTELY required since it is not possible without hacks? i am a bit busy right now with the new v2.0 website(working on ownership transfer feature).
If required i can see what i can do. but hold on till v2.0 is released. :)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on September 09, 2016, 09:43:42 PM
is ABSOLUTELY required since it is not possible without hacks? i am a bit busy right now with the new v2.0 website(working on ownership transfer feature).
If required i can see what i can do. but hold on till v2.0 is released. :)
Of course it's not required. Absolutely or not. It just seems like it -should- remember the selection. You can put this on your v2+ to-do list.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 10, 2016, 12:18:27 AM
a new feature is added for v2.0 here is a working wip screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/yaRxJ3X.png)
yup, search autocomplete for addons is coming. Ofc i didn't had this in mind for v2.0 but i had to develop it just for add-on authorship transfer system.
And though it could be easily applied to the whole site for better user experience.

Another feature coming for admin/mod is the mail notification feature.

here is full list of what i have in mind:
+Mail notification for mod/admin also the addon author will get notified when their addon is approved.
+Improved home page.
+Reducing add-on submission readme character limit
+Improved add-on category browse page with recently updated add-ons, and top most add-ons showing
+New Russian language support thanks to boroda74
+some improvement in download page

some backend stuff that i already started working on:
+Improved codebase
+Reducing code duplication (there are VERY FEW code duplication)
+and some other technical improvement.

these are pretty much what i have in mind. ofc i might have forgotten few things, you guys are feel free to remind me.
Also let me know if any feature(that makes sense) is needed(except for forum) on the site.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 10, 2016, 12:21:47 AM


@Steven & AvikB - I've been thinking about this since the site went live and I think it's time to call it to your attention. At the bottom left of the forum and website pages is the static "Get the Latest MusicBee" with the version number, release date, and link. But that's not really the -latest- version because there are patches. A solution might be to get rid of the words "the latest" and just have "Get MusicBee" which links to the download page. And add information on the download page with a link to the latest patch and how to install it. I note that the download page doesn't say "latest version" so I feel the static link at the bottom of the forum and website pages should also not say "the latest." Because it usually isn't. Comments welcome.
+1: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg116016#msg116016
seems a valid argument, fixed for next update.
This is already done for v2.0
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on September 10, 2016, 04:34:43 PM


@Steven & AvikB - I've been thinking about this since the site went live and I think it's time to call it to your attention. At the bottom left of the forum and website pages is the static "Get the Latest MusicBee" with the version number, release date, and link. But that's not really the -latest- version because there are patches. A solution might be to get rid of the words "the latest" and just have "Get MusicBee" which links to the download page. And add information on the download page with a link to the latest patch and how to install it. I note that the download page doesn't say "latest version" so I feel the static link at the bottom of the forum and website pages should also not say "the latest." Because it usually isn't. Comments welcome.
+1: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg116016#msg116016
seems a valid argument, fixed for next update.
This is already done for v2.0
Should the test site be reflecting this change now? I see that you added that the Patch download is now available on the downloads page, but it points to an old link.  It should point to http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_0/MusicBee3_Patched.zip
In addition, instructions for applying the patch should be added. Something similar to the second sentence in my sig.
Also, the static 'get the latest MB' at the bottom of all windows, still says "latest." I feel it should simple say "Get MusicBee"
Lastly, the download page shows the availability of a 'beta version' and points to a very old version. I think the beta section should be removed completely since Steven really doesn't issue betas.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 10, 2016, 04:40:39 PM
Should the test site be reflecting this change now? I see that you added that the Patch download is now available on the downloads page, but it points to an old link. It should point to http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_0/MusicBee3_Patched.zip In addition, instructions for applying the patch should be added. Something similar to the second sentence in my sig. Also, the static 'get the latest MB' at the bottom of all windows, still says "latest." I feel it should simple say "Get MusicBee" Lastly, the download page shows the availability of a 'beta version' and points to a very old version. 
It is not live YET!, i will update the test site soon, maybe later this week.

I think the beta section should be removed completely since Steven really doesn't issue betas.
The beta section is there in the test website so that boroda74 can see the translations and fix them. Also it is only in the test site. not hurting anyone.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 11, 2016, 07:36:28 AM
When using the dark theme, when members use colored text in their posts, some become almost invisible or very hard to read.
For example dark-blue, and of course grey and black.
(logged-in mods under 'users online are also almost unreadable)

Would it be possible to have some replacement color for those when switched to the dark theme?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 11, 2016, 07:53:00 AM
When using the dark theme, when members use colored text in their posts, some become almost invisible or very hard to read. For example dark-blue, and of course grey and black. (logged-in mods under 'users online are also almost unreadable) Would it be possible to have some replacement color for those when switched to the dark theme?

yeah i noticed it too. I can not change individual color but i can make every font white. For example blue, black, and other color will turn to white when dark theme is activated.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 11, 2016, 08:01:12 AM
yeah i noticed it too. I can not change individual color but i can make every font white. For example blue, black, and other color will turn to white when dark theme is activated.

That would probably work, or perhaps a nice color that fits well within the the theme, so it's still clear somebody tried to emphasize something?
Some other (lighter) blues seem to work well, perhaps orange. I'm sure you'll figure out something nice.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 11, 2016, 02:27:55 PM

yeah i noticed it too. I can not change individual color but i can make every font white. For example blue, black, and other color will turn to white when dark theme is activated.
That would probably work, or perhaps a nice color that fits well within the the theme, so it's still clear somebody tried to emphasize something? Some other (lighter) blues seem to work well, perhaps orange. I'm sure you'll figure out something nice.
I was thinking of providing a lighter color for darker theme, but seems it is not possible due to colors being hard-coded directly :S
i will see what i can do?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 11, 2016, 02:29:14 PM
not a big deal but for the two last add-ons, i noticed they are not showing in the "Newly added Add-ons" section on the ADD-ONS page
"BallBee App Icon" and "Milkdrop Visualiser".
Are the Visualiser and Misc ADD-ONS not included?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 11, 2016, 02:40:58 PM
not a big deal but for the two last add-ons, i noticed they are not showing in the "Newly added Add-ons" section on the ADD-ONS page "BallBee App Icon" and "Milkdrop Visualiser". Are the Visualiser and Misc ADD-ONS not included?
i am investigating this issue.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 11, 2016, 03:46:01 PM
I was thinking of providing a lighter color for darker theme, but seems it is not possible due to colors being hard-coded directly :S
i will see what i can do?

Perhaps a solution could be to limit the available colors for messages to only colors that are readable in both light and dark theme?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 12, 2016, 10:49:05 AM
AvikB, here is corrected site localization:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/m4yiopoln2xo2a4/ru-ru.php

------

not a big deal, but dates are not localized anywhere, for example:

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/1c20/1jtyl5xqouddr7w4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/1jtyl5xqouddr7w/temp.png)

maybe it would be better just to always use localized dates (for russian its preferable to use dates in dynamically generated text only with numbers, without any words), independently of chosen site localization?

-------

also some text are not localized at all (i don't mean forum and help):

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/c501/w11ax9p4w373n9v4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/w11ax9p4w373n9v/temp2.png)

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3eb5/buznl2d8l7vwrzc4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/buznl2d8l7vwrzc/temp3.png)

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/fa22/167vx86f3wisq9v4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/167vx86f3wisq9v/temp4.png)

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/accc/5q34wg8h55wgx8w4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/5q34wg8h55wgx8w/temp5.png)

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/812b/82hdm2funtnz8984g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/82hdm2funtnz898/temp6.png)

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/98d3/xsj462d2a36ls864g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/xsj462d2a36ls86/temp7.png)

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/8b33/aa33x3th2kzuh374g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/aa33x3th2kzuh37/temp8.png)

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/7325/c0cm1jgrpy5bs014g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/c0cm1jgrpy5bs01/temp9.png)

the 'you are not logged in' page had appeared when i was NOT using forum, i just tried to submit add-on, so i think it should be localized also.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 12, 2016, 11:09:34 AM
also i assume that 'faq and help' page could be mostly localized. i understand that not everything can be localized on this page.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 12, 2016, 02:38:39 PM
Actually, that reminds me: AvikB, is the faq dynamically updated from the wiki?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2016, 02:41:41 PM
Actually, that reminds me: AvikB, is the faq dynamically updated from the wiki?
Only the sidebar for  "popular, most viewed, new wiki article" gets updated automatically.
The FAQ can be edited by Admin from the dashboard. It is not updated automatically.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2016, 03:19:32 PM
Here is the new link for v2.0 language file. It has few more things(which you might want to hold on till i give a green signal)
https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/blob/release/v2.0/includes/languages/en-us.php

Also i have updated your russian language file with few minor changes, you might wanna download it and merge conflict with your local copy.
https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/blob/release/v2.0/includes/languages/ru-ru.php

not a big deal, but dates are not localized anywhere, for example:
maybe it would be better just to always use localized dates (for russian its preferable to use dates in dynamically generated text only with numbers, without any words), independently of chosen site localization?

Yes date localization is not added. i will do some testing on this.
I guess providing dates without words might work, but i am thinking of providing only numbers when switched to other languages, but will display words when using english language.


also some text are not localized at all (i don't mean forum and help):
for download page buttons, they are localized. follow the link:
https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/blob/release/v2.0/includes/languages/en-us.php#L140

as for the addon page where buttons such as "services, devices etc" no they can not be localized. They acts like tags. and used for filtering.

the 'you are not logged in' page had appeared when i was NOT using forum, i just tried to submit add-on, so i think it should be localized also.
For the Knowledge Based error page, i have already made some changes to make it localized. i will provide an update for this tomorrow or maybe tonight.

as for rest of the dashboard input placeholder related issue, i will address them tonight or tomorrow.





also i assume that 'faq and help' page could be mostly localized. i understand that not everything can be localized on this page.
FAQ is user generated. Only admin can edit this. So it is not localized.
Another reason for not making it localized is that FAQ and other section can get updates in future, and if any localized version is provided, someone needs to re-translate it again, which would be a pain for everyone.

Let me know, if you think providing a localized version of FAQ can be helpful. I am looking into possibilities.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2016, 03:27:36 PM
Btw do you guys think forum font is small? i just noticed it is 13px, normal is 13px-15px, i like 14px which is a bit more large.
i will need some input on this.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 12, 2016, 04:03:16 PM
Actually, that reminds me: AvikB, is the faq dynamically updated from the wiki?
Only the sidebar for  "popular, most viewed, new wiki article" gets updated automatically.
The FAQ can be edited by Admin from the dashboard. It is not updated automatically.

Is it possible to change that?  It doesn't get updated super often, but that means that the website, where people are more likely to look first, will be lagging behind.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2016, 04:16:38 PM
Is it possible to change that? It doesn't get updated super often, but that means that the website, where people are more likely to look first, will be lagging behind.
Okay it is possible to get the content from wiki via their api. Whenever you need to update the FAQ, All you need to do is to edit the faq on the WIKIA and the website faq will auto update itself. It is fully automatic.
Steven won't have to manage the faq section at all. Does this sound good?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2016, 04:34:38 PM
Is it possible to change that? It doesn't get updated super often, but that means that the website, where people are more likely to look first, will be lagging behind.
BTW, is it possible to get the FAQ page ID, can't seem to find it:
http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 12, 2016, 06:10:00 PM

Another reason for not making it localized is that FAQ and other section can get updates in future, and if any localized version is provided, someone needs to re-translate it again, which would be a pain for everyone.

Let me know, if you think providing a localized version of FAQ can be helpful. I am looking into possibilities.
i agree with you that retranslation may be a pain. but i consider localized faq to be very important. maybe just make it localizable with bold big 'last updated date' and with link to latest english faq (for people who speak english)?

and thanks for all.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on September 12, 2016, 06:17:51 PM
Btw do you guys think forum font is small? i just noticed it is 13px, normal is 13px-15px, i like 14px which is a bit more large.
i will need some input on this.
i did think that initially but i am used to it now. Is it easy to change on the test website so we can make an assessment?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 12, 2016, 06:27:39 PM
Is it possible to change that? It doesn't get updated super often, but that means that the website, where people are more likely to look first, will be lagging behind.
Okay it is possible to get the content from wiki via their api. Whenever you need to update the FAQ, All you need to do is to edit the faq on the WIKIA and the website faq will auto update itself. It is fully automatic.
Steven won't have to manage the faq section at all. Does this sound good?

Awesome!

I'll have to ask somebody about page IDs, that's new to me.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2016, 06:29:55 PM
i agree with you that retranslation may be a pain. but i consider localized faq to be very important. maybe just make it localizable with bold big 'last updated date' and with link to latest english faq (for people who speak english)? and thanks for all.
I will make some test to see if this is possible without breaking anything.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2016, 06:31:00 PM
Awesome! I'll have to ask somebody about page IDs, that's new to me.
It is ok. Page id won't be needed.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on September 12, 2016, 07:06:13 PM
Btw do you guys think forum font is small? i just noticed it is 13px, normal is 13px-15px, i like 14px which is a bit more large.
i will need some input on this.

I would prefer the current size, not larger.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 12, 2016, 10:03:51 PM
I would prefer the current size, not larger.
AvikB, maybe its possible to have some settings in user profile or somewhere else? personally for me its not the problem at all, i'm using firefox extension, which allows me to adjust site colors/text sizes, but some people may need these settings.

----------------------------

here is your latest russian php file, but with all these 3 buttons "get msusicbee..." translated:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/6rsjnra9mjdmzpn/ru-ru.php
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Sofocl on September 12, 2016, 11:36:58 PM
I would prefer the current size, not larger.
AvikB, maybe its possible to have some settings in user profile or somewhere else? personally for me its not the problem at all, i'm using firefox extension, which allows me to adjust site colors/text sizes, but some people may need these settings.
+1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2016, 02:03:36 AM

I would prefer the current size, not larger.
 here is your latest russian php file, but with all these 3 buttons "get msusicbee..." translated: http://www.mediafire.com/download/6rsjnra9mjdmzpn/ru-ru.php
Thanks. I have added few more things for the dashboard and also the knowledgebase error page is now available for translation.

Download the russian language file from below(i have updated it with new changes),
https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/blob/release/v2.0/includes/languages/ru-ru.php

All the new things you can translate is shown in this link, anything that is highlighted green is now available for translation:
https://github.com/Avik-B/musicbee-website/commit/b04fb4d662cc8fa4fcf843a357285dba2f60addf#diff-0c96b2fe1d35a3e61b5304c4b15a0925L222
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2016, 02:06:15 AM


I would prefer the current size, not larger.
AvikB, maybe its possible to have some settings in user profile or somewhere else? personally for me its not the problem at all, i'm using firefox extension, which allows me to adjust site colors/text sizes, but some people may need these settings.
+1
Okay i will leave it as it is. Until other people starts complaining about it, i am not going to provide these option.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2016, 02:22:01 AM

Another reason for not making it localized is that FAQ and other section can get updates in future, and if any localized version is provided, someone needs to re-translate it again, which would be a pain for everyone. Let me know, if you think providing a localized version of FAQ can be helpful. I am looking into possibilities.
i agree with you that retranslation may be a pain. but i consider localized faq to be very important. maybe just make it localizable with bold big 'last updated date' and with link to latest english faq (for people who speak english)? and thanks for all.
Unfortunately, it is not possible anymore. the FAQ page will use wikia FAQ, which is in english. If anyone is interested in creating different language muiscbee FAQ they will need to create a seperate wikia, and then link between them to let the user know what other language is available.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 13, 2016, 04:19:15 AM
If you create the localized faq on the wiki, I can put a link to it at the top of the FAQ page.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2016, 04:20:36 AM
If you create the localized faq on the wiki, I can put a link to it at the top of the FAQ page.
yeah, that is the only solution.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 13, 2016, 08:35:36 AM
If you create the localized faq on the wiki, I can put a link to it at the top of the FAQ page.
yes, its good solution. only please localized link. ofc i'll provide it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 13, 2016, 10:14:42 AM
latest russian php file (includes last commit):

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ibidl9zq1fmq19b/ru-ru.php
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2016, 03:11:50 PM
latest russian php file (includes last commit): http://www.mediafire.com/download/ibidl9zq1fmq19b/ru-ru.php
Thanks.

Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2016, 03:24:42 PM
wikia FAQ is now integrated into the FAQ page of the site. One thing to keep in mind is that whenever WIKIA is down the FAQ will be down too. Not a big deal, since most downtimes are temporary.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 13, 2016, 04:51:56 PM
wikia FAQ is now integrated into the FAQ page of the site. One thing to keep in mind is that whenever WIKIA is down the FAQ will be down too. Not a big deal, since most downtimes are temporary.

Of all the criticisms I could make of Wikia, stability is not one of them.

good solution. only please localized link. ofc i'll provide it.

Sounds good!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2016, 04:54:43 PM

wikia FAQ is now integrated into the FAQ page of the site. One thing to keep in mind is that whenever WIKIA is down the FAQ will be down too. Not a big deal, since most downtimes are temporary.
Of all the criticisms I could make of Wikia, stability is not one of them.
well, i am not a wikia user, but just letting you guys know. :)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Chartal on September 13, 2016, 06:08:14 PM

wikia FAQ is now integrated into the FAQ page of the site. One thing to keep in mind is that whenever WIKIA is down the FAQ will be down too. Not a big deal, since most downtimes are temporary.
Of all the criticisms I could make of Wikia, stability is not one of them.
well, i am not a wikia user, but just letting you guys know. :)

Hi, little question.
Why you don't used MediaWiki here on the MusicBee site?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2016, 06:13:17 PM
Hi, little question. Why you don't used MediaWiki here on the MusicBee site?
Too much work, specially integrating the site, creating custom theme, and then managing it. Upgrading/updating it, and lot. Also some one will have to port the current wiki and fix any issue with it.

Maybe in far future, who knows.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 14, 2016, 12:49:33 AM
A new update for the add-on right transfer feature. It is now fully functional. Here is the steps to transfer add-on rights. Only mods/admin will be use this feature.

first search for an add-on that you want the rights to transfer. a dropdown will show, select by clicking the select button.
(http://i.imgur.com/FnlEnx0.png)
and then enter the user id:
(http://i.imgur.com/LlenAwI.png)
user ID can be obtained by visiting a user's profile or simply hovering over their username:
(http://i.imgur.com/heTVhDa.png)
and then press submit. This is pretty straight forward. Also when the new mailing system is done it will send two email one for the original author and another one to the new author.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 14, 2016, 01:04:56 AM
psychoadept, look at my post on your message wall on the wiki.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 14, 2016, 01:09:17 AM
AvikB, let me know when new 'change ownership' command is available on main site. i want to copy all plugin pages from the wiki to this site, but wont do this until its possible to change ownership.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 14, 2016, 01:17:24 AM
AvikB, let me know when new 'change ownership' command is available on main site. i want to copy all plugin pages from the wiki to this site, but wont do this until its possible to change ownership.
this feature will come with the next major release(v2.0), it is already implemented and ready.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on September 22, 2016, 10:50:40 PM
just a question about the dashboard.
when you update an add-on to a new version number, will the downloads counter be reset to zero?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on September 23, 2016, 12:36:01 PM
when you update an add-on to a new version number, will the downloads counter be reset to zero?

I don't think it detects version change at all.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on September 23, 2016, 12:54:18 PM
when you update an add-on to a new version number, will the downloads counter be reset to zero?

I don't think it detects version change at all.
That appears to be what I've observed as well.  Just hoping it wasn't the case  :-\
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on September 23, 2016, 10:58:55 PM
At least two people now have asked about the skin shown at the top of the main page. (It's Monaural by Alumni, right?) Could we put a note or even a link to the Add-ons page for it, maybe over the image or right under it?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on September 24, 2016, 03:35:31 AM
At least two people now have asked about the skin shown at the top of the main page. (It's Monaural by Alumni, right?) Could we put a note or even a link to the Add-ons page for it, maybe over the image or right under it?
Or maybe change that image to one with MB's default skin. Folks are looking at the current image and expecting MB to open to that as the default. This results in "My newly downloaded MB doesn't look anything like the picture on the home page."
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 24, 2016, 10:46:52 AM
just a question about the dashboard. when you update an add-on to a new version number, will the downloads counter be reset to zero?
no. The version number is independent from download count or likes count.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 24, 2016, 10:48:34 AM

At least two people now have asked about the skin shown at the top of the main page. (It's Monaural by Alumni, right?) Could we put a note or even a link to the Add-ons page for it, maybe over the image or right under it?
Or maybe change that image to one with MB's default skin. Folks are looking at the current image and expecting MB to open to that as the default. This results in "My newly downloaded MB doesn't look anything like the picture on the home page."
yeah i guess showing default skin would be nice.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on September 26, 2016, 11:28:41 AM
just a question about the dashboard. when you update an add-on to a new version number, will the downloads counter be reset to zero?
no. The version number is independent from download count or likes count.
Shouldn't the downloads reset when the version changes?
Wouldn't users re-downloading an updated add-on only be artificially inflating the stats otherwise?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on September 26, 2016, 01:01:27 PM
I don't think re-downloads from the same IP/account getting counted.

downloads are count per IP per account(which are then recorded).

Only few people keep their add-ons up to date. Resetting the count per version doesn't sound a good idea. Most add-ons would end up having a very small count.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 26, 2016, 08:33:13 PM
Shouldn't the downloads reset when the version changes? Wouldn't users re-downloading an updated add-on only be artificially inflating the stats otherwise?
Redownloading add-on won't increase the stat count. It is measured by IP(if not logged in) or userid(if logged in). Versions does not matter in this case.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on September 29, 2016, 09:42:35 AM
I don't think re-downloads from the same IP/account getting counted.
Redownloading add-on won't increase the stat count. It is measured by IP(if not logged in) or userid(if logged in). Versions does not matter in this case.
Thank you very much redwing + AvikB for setting my mind at ease with this info.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Alumni on September 29, 2016, 10:02:10 AM
Would it be possible to give add-ons a subscription feature similar to forum topics, as in registered users receiving a notification when an add-on they've downloaded is updated?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on September 30, 2016, 09:09:15 AM
AvikB, if its not too difficult, maybe its possible to add support for 2 versions of add-ons (mostly just for plugins): stable version and current beta?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on September 30, 2016, 12:23:22 PM
Would it be possible to give add-ons a subscription feature similar to forum topics, as in registered users receiving a notification when an add-on they've downloaded is updated?
yeah, that would be a good thing. I will look into it.

AvikB, if its not too difficult, maybe its possible to add support for 2 versions of add-ons (mostly just for plugins): stable version and current beta?
While this sounds a good idea, it might confuse a lots of new addon submitter. I will suggest you to submit it seperately using the "beta" set to yes and rename the addon to something like: Awesome Add-on [BETA]
and for the stable just name it simply: Awesome add-on, without any beta mark.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on October 01, 2016, 10:07:33 AM
While this sounds a good idea, it might confuse a lots of new addon submitter. I will suggest you to submit it seperately using the "beta" set to yes and rename the addon to something like: Awesome Add-on [BETA]
and for the stable just name it simply: Awesome add-on, without any beta mark.
yes, its acceptable solution.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Jfair on October 01, 2016, 10:18:59 AM
WELL DONE!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on October 01, 2016, 10:59:43 AM
WELL DONE!
;D
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on October 01, 2016, 11:26:09 AM
AvikB, not a big deal, but is it possible to represent topic pages as "1 2 3 4 .. page_before_last_page last_page" instead of current " 1 2 3 4 ... last_page" on board topic list? in general i want to see first the page that is 'before last page' to check that there are no latest comments.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on October 02, 2016, 02:48:42 AM
could .gif extension uploads be allowed for avatars?

and

the light/dark theme preference be permanently applied in profile settings?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on October 02, 2016, 03:32:23 AM
could .gif extension uploads be allowed for avatars?
Gif can be uploaded, but steven and other forum members stated previously that GIF avatar is not something they like.

and the light/dark theme preference be permanently applied in profile settings?
Not possible.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on October 02, 2016, 03:33:31 AM
AvikB, not a big deal, but is it possible to represent topic pages as "1 2 3 4 .. page_before_last_page last_page" instead of current " 1 2 3 4 ... last_page" on board topic list? in general i want to see first the page that is 'before last page' to check that there are no latest comments.
I think it is hardcoded into smf core, and can not be changed easily.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 10, 2016, 01:00:13 PM
Search function of SMF forums looks pretty limited. For one thing, can't do case insensitive search.

@Steven:

Can you turn on "Enable simple search" option under Search(Admin)> Search Settings to see if that enables case insensitive search?

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=537400.0
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on October 10, 2016, 05:57:47 PM
Can you turn on "Enable simple search" option under Search(Admin)> Search Settings to see if that enables case insensitive search?

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=537400.0
i have enabled that option
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 10, 2016, 06:19:08 PM
i have enabled that option

No differences. Can't do case insensitive search.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on October 13, 2016, 07:18:18 PM
New update, for v2.0
This update brings some requested features and improvements overall.
   - Help page will now get the FAQ content directly from WIKIA, which means whenever WIKIA FAQ page gets any update it will reflect that automatically on the main website FAQ page.
   - Addon ownership transfer. which is located under Dashboard > Moderate > Actions >Transfer add-on ownership. Search for the addon by name and put the userid for the new owner and submit. This feature is only reserved for Moderator and Admins.
  - Also Download count will now show in Dashboard > View all add-ons. 


There are other behind the scene changes and optimization.


I am working on revamping some of the aspect on the home page as well.

Test website link: http://test.getmusicbee.com/ (http://test.getmusicbee.com/)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on October 13, 2016, 07:28:19 PM
Can't speak for others, but to me it's very useful info for thinking about how to improve it, etc. If no technical issues here, I'd like to see all counts.
This is implemented on the Beta for v2.0, let me know if any feature you think would be useful or needed.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on October 13, 2016, 08:09:55 PM
  - Addon ownership transfer. which is located under Dashboard > Moderate > Actions >Transfer add-on ownership. Search for the addon by name and put the userid for the new owner and submit. This feature is only reserved for Moderator and Admins.
Step 1 worked fine but for "Step 2: Find the User to Transfer the rights to"
it doesnt accept any user id's i enter (tried hiccup and myself) and the search button doesnt appear to do anything either
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 14, 2016, 07:47:40 AM
Can't speak for others, but to me it's very useful info for thinking about how to improve it, etc. If no technical issues here, I'd like to see all counts.
This is implemented on the Beta for v2.0, let me know if any feature you think would be useful or needed.

Thanks!

1. Can you implement case-insensitive search? If not, adding google custom search box to somewhere (additionally) might be useful. Try "SSD" and "ssd" with the current search box, and "ssd site:getmusicbee.com" with google and you will get what I mean.

2. How about checking each add-on version and sort recently updated add-ons by version change? Then people could see which add-ons have been updated since they had downloaded.

3. Hope you will change the homepage picture to a more music-related one.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on October 16, 2016, 06:32:45 AM
Thanks! 1. Can you implement case-insensitive search? If not, adding google custom search box to somewhere (additionally) might be useful. Try "SSD" and "ssd" with the current search box, and "ssd site:getmusicbee.com" with google and you will get what I mean.
 
If you are talking about forum search, then i am afraid it is not possible without any mods or so.

2. How about checking each add-on version and sort recently updated add-ons by version change? Then people could see which add-ons have been updated since they had downloaded.
There is a recently added and updated addon coming for other add-on pages.

3. Hope you will change the homepage picture to a more music-related one.
I do have some plan for the home page.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 16, 2016, 07:19:09 AM

Regarding home menu, (http://i.imgur.com/opMpXxW.png)
1. "Register" menu would better be located just next to "Login". It's not easy to find when you look for it.
Register button in the navbar Will be implemented in next update.

Not implemented yet.


 2. Instead of Register, having "Wiki" & "Latest Patch" (that will jump to the Steven's first forum topic) menu in there would be more useful.

Bump this too. Many users don't seem to know the existence of wiki and the latest patch thread.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 16, 2016, 07:26:51 AM
2. How about checking each add-on version and sort recently updated add-ons by version change? Then people could see which add-ons have been updated since they had downloaded.
There is a recently added and updated addon coming for other add-on pages.

That'd be great!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on October 16, 2016, 07:43:03 AM
Register button in the navbar Will be implemented in next update.
Not implemented yet.
Added on my local server. will be available on the next update.

2. Instead of Register, having "Wiki" & "Latest Patch" (that will jump to the Steven's first forum topic) menu in there would be more useful.
Bump this too. Many users don't seem to know the existence of wiki and the latest patch thread.
I already added links to wiki on the download page. I highly doubt adding it as a link on the forum menu will do have any impact. Also it is available under the help menu.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 16, 2016, 07:49:24 AM
Then what about latest patch?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 16, 2016, 07:59:52 AM
I already added links to wiki on the download page. I highly doubt adding it as a link on the forum menu will do have any impact. Also it is available under the help menu.

Still I think having a wiki link on the forum menu would be useful. It's like having a permanent bookmark to the wiki. Then while asking and discussing MB's features in the forum people could easily consult the wiki. It's not the same as the links available under other menus.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on October 16, 2016, 08:33:25 AM
Then what about latest patch?
if you are refering to a link on the downloads page to the latest patch, then the functionality is already available for me to configure but i havent enabled it due to concerns about users not understanding its a patch version and not an installer (how many times has it been reported as a bug on the forum even though instructions are provided).
However I might create an installer for the latest patch version once every week or two and if i do that then i could link to that.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 16, 2016, 09:51:48 AM
if you are refering to a link on the downloads page to the latest patch

No, I'm just suggesting adding a link on forum menu to the latest patch thread (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=18462.0) because many users don't seem to know about it. Then it would look like this:

(http://i.imgur.com/lDPgEU4.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on October 16, 2016, 12:17:01 PM

if you are refering to a link on the downloads page to the latest patch
No, I'm just suggesting adding a link on forum menu to the latest patch thread (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=18462.0) because many users don't seem to know about it. Then it would look like this
I can provide a link to the download page. Something like:
(http://i.imgur.com/un1v1rn.png)
I am not sure about latest patch. Steven is right about the patch concept, it is confusing serving a installer and both patch.

The main issue with most of the people are that their MusicBee installation is outdated and their issue is fixed in newer version. 
I still have my doubt that providing a link for latest download will solve anything at all.
The best way to handle patch related issues or simply to keep musicbee upto date would be to provide a notification on user's desktop. Maybe it could even auto download patch and apply it :S, but for me the update NEVER worked. I don't know how musicbee's update system work but improving this would be a major step. Maybe something to consider for MusicBee v3.1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: redwing on October 16, 2016, 12:53:09 PM
If that's linked to the download page, it won't be needed at all, with DOWNLOAD menu just above it.
I'll leave this to Steven.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on November 08, 2016, 07:01:47 AM
@ AvikB
I'm sure that polls where available in the test site.  Did they get turned off for the live site?
I thought they would have been a great way to track threads in the wishlist.

An automated response poll with 4 options:

And voting could only run for a maximum of 3 months
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on November 08, 2016, 07:03:48 AM
@ AvikB I'm sure that polls where available in the test site. Did they get turned off for the live site? I thought they would have been a great way to track threads in the wishlist. An automated response poll with 4 options:
  • Yes - I would use this option
  • Undecided - I may/may not use this option
  • No - I would not use this option
  • Not Applicable - This doesn't effect the way I use MusicBee
And voting could only run for a maximum of 3 months
i think Steven forget to turned it on. Ask him, he should be able to activate polls from forum admin center.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on November 08, 2016, 07:08:43 AM
i think Steven forget to turned it on. Ask him, he should be able to activate polls from forum admin center.
thanks  :)  will ask Steven as suggested
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on November 08, 2016, 08:06:43 AM
polls are enabled now
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on November 08, 2016, 08:33:38 AM
Thank you, Steven.
I didn't even have to send a PM or anything  ;D
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on November 10, 2016, 01:08:37 PM
AvikB, when new version will be online?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on November 10, 2016, 01:13:24 PM
AvikB, when new version will be online?
I don't have any ETA. It is mostly done(function wise), but there are still few things i need to do before it is ready for a proper release. Maybe end of this year.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on December 01, 2016, 02:00:20 AM
@Steven & AvikB...

At the risk of opening up a can of worms, please take a look at this thread: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=20350.0

This is not the first time a new user has complained about the initial install of MB not looking anything like what's featured on the website home page. This particular users points out that upon installation, both the default skin and the default layout are not what was expected based on the home page image.

I think either the default skin and layout should be used on the home page or a disclaimer should appear directly underneath the image. Something like "Image above uses a custom skin (skin name) and a user-customized layout."
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: boroda on December 01, 2016, 04:39:00 PM
or a disclaimer should appear directly underneath the image.
i think its better solution.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on December 01, 2016, 06:22:05 PM
i certainly wouldnt want to constrain the skin or musicbee layout used in the website. In any case i think it already shows a variety of skins used so i am guessing the real issue is the user didnt know how to configure MusicBee to show the artwork layout.
Personally i am happy to NOT have any disclaimer, after all there are presumably thousands of people who see the page and dont have any issues.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on December 01, 2016, 07:38:40 PM
Personally i am happy to NOT have any disclaimer, after all there are presumably thousands of people who see the page and dont have any issues.
Yes, I think that's probably a very valid statement. I withdraw my concern.  :-)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 13, 2016, 08:11:17 PM
Could there perhaps be some technical issue with the forum?

With cleartype disabled on my system, the fonts suddenly are very ugly again.
It looks like something might be broken in presenting the replacement fonts in case of 'cleartype=disabled'.

Perhaps somebody could confirm this?
(There also have been some updates from both Windows 10 and Firefox today, so I am not sure what might cause this)

To give an impression how it looks with cleartype off (2x enlarged):

(http://i.imgur.com/9loSyQW.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on December 13, 2016, 09:08:48 PM
I agree that with ClearType off the fonts are pretty ragged. But I always have it enabled, so I don't know what the forum looked like a month ago.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 13, 2016, 09:18:54 PM
I know not everybody likes the 'sharpness' of cleartype off.
But do you see the exact same deformations as from my screenshot, or does it look just a bit edgier than with cleartype on?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 13, 2016, 09:43:55 PM
Could there perhaps be some technical issue with the forum? With cleartype disabled on my system, the fonts suddenly are very ugly again. It looks like something might be broken in presenting the replacement fonts in case of 'cleartype=disabled'. Perhaps somebody could confirm this? (There also have been some updates from both Windows 10 and Firefox today, so I am not sure what might cause this) To give an impression how it looks with cleartype off (2x enlarged): 
i will look into this.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on December 13, 2016, 09:55:17 PM
I know not everybody likes the 'sharpness' of cleartype off.
But do you see the exact same deformations as from my screenshot, or does it look just a bit edgier than with cleartype on?
I can't say what I saw was -exactly- like yours, but when I looked at the same thing you took the screenshot from, it was definitely not smooth edged.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 13, 2016, 09:59:47 PM
i will look into this.

Hey, thanks old friend ;-)

But I had a bright moment, and checked another pc, gave it the same W10 and Firefox updates, and that one behaves as it should with cleartype off.
So it seems to be a very specific issue with the installation of these updates on my main pc only.
So, please don't waste time on this on my behalf.
I'll see if I can revert some stuff and find out what happened exactly.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 13, 2016, 10:04:26 PM
Hey, thanks old friend ;-) But I had a bright moment, and checked another pc, gave it the same W10 and Firefox updates, and that one behaves as it should with cleartype off. So it seems to be a very specific issue with the installation of these updates on my main pc only. So, please don't waste time on this on my behalf. I'll see if I can revert some stuff and find out what happened exactly.
Clear the cache that might fix it.
btw i am pretty young :P
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 13, 2016, 10:16:54 PM
Clear the cache that might fix it.
btw i am pretty young :P

I learned and remembered that trick from a young friend ;-)  but that doesn't fix it for this system.
It really feels like something went wrong when updating. I remember the whole system behaving a bit strange, before I understood some updates probably were going on in the background already.
I'll restore an image from a week ago and see what happens exactly.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 13, 2016, 10:21:15 PM

Clear the cache that might fix it. btw i am pretty young :P
I learned and remembered that trick from a young friend ;-) but that doesn't fix it for this system. It really feels like something went wrong when updating. I remember the whole system behaving a bit strange, before I understood some updates probably were going on in the background already. I'll restore an image from a week ago and see what happens exactly.
are you on insider build?
also reset firefox preference, that might fix it. otherwise you might need to restore to a previous point. good luck.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 13, 2016, 10:22:34 PM
No, I am running the LTSB version.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 14, 2016, 12:56:10 PM
also reset firefox preference, that might fix it. otherwise you might need to restore to a previous point. good luck.

Thnx, I found the culprit.
A bit strange and unexpected, but it was the Firefox add-on Privacy Badger.
The new version (2.0) seems to break the replacement font feature. (Even when I disabled PB for the MusicBee forum pages.)
I just went back to an older version of Privacy Badger, and it's o.k. again.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 14, 2016, 01:00:10 PM
Thnx, I found the culprit. A bit strange and unexpected, but it was the Firefox add-on Privacy Badger. The new version (2.0) seems to break the replacement font feature. (Even when I disabled PB for the MusicBee forum pages.) I just went back to an older version of Privacy Badger, and it's o.k. again.
Glad to hear you sorted it.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 14, 2016, 08:19:55 PM
I noticed that a download link for a skin on the add-ons page is not working correctly.
When I click on the blue download button for 'The Blue Bee and the Sea' skin (http://getmusicbee.com/addons/skins/5/the-blue-bee-and-the-sea/) , it redirects to a dead link.
But the download link as setup is correct, and also works fine when used from the forum topic.

I'm not sure if this might have anything to do with it, but I notice a difference in use of capitals.
The original download link contains capitals: ( http://bit.ly/The_Blue_Bee_and_the_Sea ), but when I look at the url where you get stranded I notice lower case only. (the_blue_bee_and_the_sea)
Could that be why it doesn't work?

(I just checked, and this is seems the case for all of my skins on the add-ons page)


Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 15, 2016, 02:38:38 AM
I noticed that a download link for a skin on the add-ons page is not working correctly. When I click on the blue download button for 'The Blue Bee and the Sea' skin (http://getmusicbee.com/addons/skins/5/the-blue-bee-and-the-sea/) , it redirects to a dead link. But the download link as setup is correct, and also works fine when used from the forum topic. I'm not sure if this might have anything to do with it, but I notice a difference in use of capitals. The original download link contains capitals: ( http://bit.ly/The_Blue_Bee_and_the_Sea ), but when I look at the url where you get stranded I notice lower case only. (the_blue_bee_and_the_sea) Could that be why it doesn't work? (I just checked, and this is seems the case for all of my skins on the add-ons page)
yes the issue was causing because the url was converted in lowercase, i have posted an update to Steven, it should be fixed with this minor update. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 15, 2016, 04:09:17 PM
yes the issue was causing because the url was converted in lowercase, i have posted an update to Steven, it should be fixed with this minor update. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Thanks for your quick response. It only goes to show how popular my skins are. Haha
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 15, 2016, 04:14:11 PM
Thanks for your quick response. It only goes to show how popular my skins are. Haha
;)
the update isn't live yet. hope steven update it soon.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 15, 2016, 04:26:12 PM
No hurries, I am the first and only one to 'complain' about this. (in a years time now?)
Just curious, do you have a sense of how successful or popular the new add-ons pages are?
Are people finding them, and using/browsing it a lot?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 15, 2016, 05:15:59 PM
Just curious, do you have a sense of how successful or popular the new add-ons pages are?
I have implemented statistics for total downloads of all add-ons and likes, it can be viewed by admins and mods.
I haven't implemented any feature to count visitor though. or weekly visit or anything like that. That seemed a bit overkill to me.

In the version 2 update i have added download count in the dashbaord for individual add-ons for every user.

Quote
Are people finding them, and using/browsing it a lot?
Don't know for sure :S , Lets just imagine they do. ;)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Steven on December 16, 2016, 06:19:51 PM
Thanks for your quick response. It only goes to show how popular my skins are. Haha
;)
the update isn't live yet. hope steven update it soon.
i have applied the patch now
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2016, 07:05:53 PM
Thanks for your quick response. It only goes to show how popular my skins are. Haha
;)
the update isn't live yet. hope steven update it soon.
i have applied the patch now

Confirming, it's fixed now. Thnx.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2016, 07:16:17 PM
I am certain this was brought up before, but I can't remember if it was classified 'unresolvable' or just not addressed yet.
Some text colors in the forum are extremely difficult to read when the dark theme is active.

E.g. the dark blue names of moderators currently present are unreadable (on my display that is), and I noticed that once in a while a moderator will edit the post of a member that deliberately chose a very dark font color for his/her message, because else his/her post would be unreadable for users using the dark theme.

Hopefully some solution is possible?
Maybe reduce the available font colors? Maybe redefining the available colors to come up with a few that work better in both light and dark theme? Perhaps an auto-replacement color feature which detects if the reader is using dark or light theme?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2016, 08:49:47 PM
I am certain this was brought up before, but I can't remember if it was classified 'unresolvable' or just not addressed yet. Some text colors in the forum are extremely difficult to read when the dark theme is active. E.g. the dark blue names of moderators currently present are unreadable (on my display that is), and I noticed that once in a while a moderator will edit the post of a member that deliberately chose a very dark font color for his/her message, because else his/her post would be unreadable for users using the dark theme. Hopefully some solution is possible?
Yes it was brought up before. But i have decided not to fix it.
When a user use a font color, the forum uses inline styling which can not be changed using CSS. A fix can't be done without using hacks or sort of.

Quote
Maybe reduce the available font colors? Maybe redefining the available colors to come up with a few that work better in both light and dark theme? Perhaps an auto-replacement color feature which detects if the reader is using dark or light theme?
there are already 11 color, which is not a huge amount. Maybe a different set of color that works with both light and dark theme would be more suitable.
I am already thinking of removing the black one. Any suggestion would be welcome.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 16, 2016, 09:11:30 PM
there are already 11 color, which is not a huge amount. Maybe a different set of color that works with both light and dark theme would be more suitable.
I am already thinking of removing the black one. Any suggestion would be welcome.

Do you have a personal preference for having a choice of 11 colors? Would less be an option in your opinion?
I'll see if I can come up with some suggestions for colors that will work o.k. in both themes.
To find eleven that work in both might be a challenge, would you be open to (less is more) maybe 6 or something like that?

Anybody else interested in this, please jump in with suggestions...
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 16, 2016, 09:18:22 PM
Do you have a personal preference for having a choice of 11 colors? Would less be an option in your opinion? I'll see if I can come up with some suggestions for colors that will work o.k. in both themes. To find eleven that work in both might be a challenge, would you be open to (less is more) maybe 6 or something like that? Anybody else interested in this, please jump in with suggestions...
well i don't use all of those color myself, so i have no problem removing most of them, i included them as option. I think i just copied them from Microsoft's windows 10 color Platte or something. I am fully open to suggestion. I won't mind replacing them with 6 color if they are enough.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: CritterMan on December 17, 2016, 01:53:51 AM
I think a test post containing all of the colors tested with both themes would result in a list of colors to remove, and that posting those colors here for feedback would move things along.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 17, 2016, 09:56:14 AM
well i don't use all of those color myself, so i have no problem removing most of them, i included them as option. I think i just copied them from Microsoft's windows 10 color Platte or something. I am fully open to suggestion. I won't mind replacing them with 6 color if they are enough.


Here is a proposal.
Trying it out, in my opinion 6 colors would indeed be enough, but if people would like a few more, I could try and make a palette for 9 colors.

(http://i.imgur.com/e2C2V8Ml.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/e2C2V8M.png)


In case the image gets degraded to jpg, for the exact colours you can download the png here:
https://1drv.ms/i/s!AkA0tSv_UzTAgmob7JxtidU_gpXA

(the rgb values I used are: red 252,0,3   orange 238,130,0   grey 156,156,156   blue 0,147,248   green 0,163,0   pink 205,120,214)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 17, 2016, 12:38:46 PM
While at it, this is an option that might work having a palette of 9 colours.

(http://i.imgur.com/2VrAakb.png)

Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 17, 2016, 03:04:53 PM

well i don't use all of those color myself, so i have no problem removing most of them, i included them as option. I think i just copied them from Microsoft's windows 10 color Platte or something. I am fully open to suggestion. I won't mind replacing them with 6 color if they are enough.
Here is a proposal. Trying it out, in my opinion 6 colors would indeed be enough, but if people would like a few more, I could try and make a palette for 9 colors. In case the image gets degraded to jpg, for the exact colours you can download the png here: https://1drv.ms/i/s!AkA0tSv_UzTAgmob7JxtidU_gpXA (the rgb values I used are: red 252,0,3 orange 238,130,0 grey 156,156,156 blue 0,147,248 green 0,163,0 pink 205,120,214)
Thanks, that looks great. I will update the forum with these changes later.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 18, 2016, 02:44:16 PM
Thanks, that looks great. I will update the forum with these changes later.

Great.
In case you opt for the 9 colour version, I edited my former post with that one with a few improvements.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 24, 2016, 08:00:57 AM
I am not sure if this has been in the original proposals for the new forum, but I think it would be a good idea to have 'Polls' as a childboard under 'General Discussions'.
It's a rather specific beast, and would be good to give it's own playground.

Currently a way to separate them from other 'General' topics would be making them sticky, but that's not the most appropriate use, and you would also have to remember to un-sticky them if an end-date for the poll was set.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 24, 2016, 09:37:05 AM
I am not sure if this has been in the original proposals for the new forum, but I think it would be a good idea to have 'Polls' as a childboard under 'General Discussions'. It's a rather specific beast, and would be good to give it's own playground. Currently a way to separate them from other 'General' topics would be making them sticky, but that's not the most appropriate use, and you would also have to remember to un-sticky them if an end-date for the poll was set.
i guess that would be a good idea. You should ask steven to add it to child board. But there will be no update until january 5th, since new year is upon us and it is vacation time.

Also Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance since i won't be online during that time. :)
Happy Holidays, cheers.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 24, 2016, 09:48:36 AM
Thnx, and enjoy your holidays too!
See you next year...
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on December 24, 2016, 02:26:53 PM
I am not sure if this has been in the original proposals for the new forum, but I think it would be a good idea to have 'Polls' as a childboard under 'General Discussions'.
It's a rather specific beast, and would be good to give it's own playground.
Yes, a great idea!
+1
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on December 27, 2016, 09:22:28 PM
I believe this has been mentioned before, but I'd like to keep it on your radar for the next update...

A clearer, more obvious icon for going to one's private messages. Yes, the 'bell' changes to a circle(?) when a new PM has been received, but if one has no new PMs and wants to look at old ones (sent or received) the 'bell' doesn't really ring any bells (sorry, I couldn't resist) that that is the place to look. Something more appropriate/obvious would be an envelope.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on December 27, 2016, 09:39:02 PM
Yup, I believe I raised this in the past too.
In the beginning it slightly confused me also. A bell is more related to 'alert'.
If you google-image on 'message icon', you'll predominantly find envelopes and text balloons.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on December 31, 2016, 10:04:39 AM
Added on my todo list. Will be available on the next update.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on December 31, 2016, 01:47:03 PM
Added on my todo list. Will be available on the next update.
Thanks
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on January 01, 2017, 11:26:11 PM
With the dashboard section, the overview only shows download stats for your 10 most popular add-ons.
Would it be possible to add a downloads column to the "View all add-ons" page please?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2017, 02:53:50 AM
With the dashboard section, the overview only shows download stats for your 10 most popular add-ons. Would it be possible to add a downloads column to the "View all add-ons" page please?
This is already implemented in v2.0 update. The demo is available in test.getmusicbee.com (http://test.getmusicbee.com)

here is how it looks:
(http://i.imgur.com/v2CxJlR.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on January 02, 2017, 06:14:19 AM
The demo is available in test.getmusicbee.com (http://test.getmusicbee.com)
I didn't realise the test site was on-going!
I thought it was just the same as the final V1.2 design  :-[

I'll keep an eye on what's happening there before I make any other already implemented suggestions  :-X  :)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2017, 07:25:17 AM

The demo is available in test.getmusicbee.com (http://test.getmusicbee.com)
I didn't realise the test site was on-going! I thought it was just the same as the final V1.2 design :-[ I'll keep an eye on what's happening there before I make any other already implemented suggestions :-X :)
well most of the changes are under the hood. No major cosmetic changes are planned for v2.0
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2017, 07:47:22 PM
Could somebody please confirm that clicking on the search icon here has no effect?
(You can only press [Enter] to perform the search)

(http://i.imgur.com/NtQJcbP.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on January 03, 2017, 07:49:19 PM
Could somebody please confirm that clicking on the search icon here has no effect?
(You can only press [Enter] to perform the search)
Confirmed. And I'm pretty sure it's been asked/reported before.
It'd be really nice to have the icon actually do something.  :-)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2017, 07:51:20 PM
Ah, o.k.
AvikB's response in 10, 9, 8, 7,...

(just kidding, he's fast, but not that fast ;-)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2017, 07:52:37 PM
Could somebody please confirm that clicking on the search icon here has no effect? (You can only press [Enter] to perform the search)
(http://i.imgur.com/NtQJcbP.png)
yes you are right, right now it does not do anything. i added it as a visual indicator for search. I will make it clickable in next update.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2017, 07:52:58 PM
Ah, o.k. AvikB's response in 10, 9, 8, 7,... (just kidding, he's fast, but not that fast ;-)
8)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2017, 07:53:38 PM
Ah, o.k. AvikB's response in 10, 9, 8, 7,... (just kidding, he's fast, but not that fast ;-)
8)

Damn!
He is that quick!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2017, 07:54:38 PM

8)
Damn! He is that quick!
i have email notification turned on for this thread, and i mostly stay active on my pc during this time ;)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 03, 2017, 07:56:24 PM
Aha, now I also know who the hidden user is ;-)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 03, 2017, 07:58:56 PM
Aha, now I also know who the hidden user is ;-)
haha. I turned off my status yesterday during some tests on the forum profile. But i mostly get email notification on my email client and then visit this thread, not always active on the site.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on January 03, 2017, 08:31:57 PM
yes you are right, right now it does not do anything. i added it as a visual indicator for search. I will make it clickable in next update.
Great! Thanks.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 04, 2017, 07:11:45 AM
Very minor issue, the text in this bar (This section allows you to view...) is a bit hard to read in Dark theme.

(http://i.imgur.com/ivhAlvc.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 04, 2017, 07:19:06 AM
Also minor:
Sometimes a scroll bar will appear, while there is no text below the pane to actually scroll through.
Also, it doesn't have Dark theme coloring.

(http://i.imgur.com/3SkNKZgl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/3SkNKZg.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2017, 08:42:03 AM
Very minor issue, the text in this bar (This section allows you to view...) is a bit hard to read in Dark theme.
 (http://i.imgur.com/ivhAlvc.png)
Fixed for next update.

Also minor: Sometimes a scroll bar will appear, while there is no text below the pane to actually scroll through. Also, it doesn't have Dark theme coloring. (http://i.imgur.com/3SkNKZgl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/3SkNKZg.png)
That is controlled by the system and the browser itself. I will not change it, in the past i have used custom scrollbar and they don't behave nicely with different browser. Some browser even don't allow you to change it without any sort of javascript hack(firefox for example).
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 04, 2017, 08:54:34 AM
Thnx, I'll try to remember it's a system/browser issue and not bring it up again...

It was just weird to see it often seems to appear with short postings, while you would expect them with longer postings.
I thought some forum code might be responsible for triggering it.

(http://i.imgur.com/LFoTaNIl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/LFoTaNI.png)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 04, 2017, 08:58:00 AM
Thnx, I'll try to remember it's a system/browser issue and not bring it up again... It was just weird to see it often seems to appear with short postings, while you would expect them with longer postings. I thought some forum code might be responsible for triggering it.
 (http://i.imgur.com/LFoTaNIl.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/LFoTaNI.png)
You are right. There is a small glitch there. It is a easy fix, somehow missed it. :S will be fixed.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 04, 2017, 09:00:48 AM
Great.
Less computing stress for the brain ;-)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on January 05, 2017, 03:21:13 AM
@AvikB - I want to update the readme on one of my skins, but I don't see any way to edit an existing submission.
If it already exists, please point me to it.
If it doesn't, I think a vehicle for editing/updating all all-ons is needed.

Thanks.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: Bee-liever on January 05, 2017, 03:52:01 AM
@AvikB - I want to update the readme on one of my skins, but I don't see any way to edit an existing submission.
If it already exists, please point me to it.
If it doesn't, I think a vehicle for editing/updating all all-ons is needed.

Thanks.
@ phred
Open Dashboard ==> view all add-ons
in the "Your published add-ons" panel there is a little pencil symbol on a blue tile
you can edit the original post there
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 05, 2017, 06:56:05 AM
New message icon for the next update:
(http://i.imgur.com/cCuMbO9.png)
and new message:
(http://i.imgur.com/vwTAE6H.png)

This should make it much more clear than before. Hope this will clear any confusion we had regarding bell icon.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: CritterMan on January 05, 2017, 08:05:05 AM
Looks nice!
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 05, 2017, 08:41:25 AM
Looks nice!
Thanks. ;)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on January 05, 2017, 12:52:37 PM
@ phred
Open Dashboard ==> view all add-ons
in the "Your published add-ons" panel there is a little pencil symbol on a blue tile
you can edit the original post there
Got it! I was ignoring the 'view all add-ons' tab because the way I read it, it would show me -all- add-ons when I only wanted to see mine.
So perhaps changing that to read 'view all your add-ons' would prevent that from happening to others.

Thanks.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 05, 2017, 02:31:11 PM
So perhaps changing that to read 'view all your add-ons' would prevent that from happening to others. Thanks.
Will keep it in mind for the next update.

@hiccup, do you have any edgy font issue? let me know if some fonts does not look good. i am almost done with the next update.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 05, 2017, 02:55:03 PM
Thnx, nothing comes to mind, all's looking good here.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on January 05, 2017, 07:55:35 PM
New message icon for the next update:
[mage deleted]
and new message:
[mage deleted]
This should make it much more clear than before. Hope this will clear any confusion we had regarding bell icon.
That's great!! Thank you.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 05, 2017, 11:43:15 PM
Checking the test forum, I noticed that under "Users active in past 15 minutes:" the mods user names still have the old, very dark blue colors, not the proposed lighter color, and when creating a PM, there is no color palette for the text available at all.
I don't know if the current test forum exactly represents the forum update you are intending to launch, but I thought to mention this.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 06, 2017, 09:32:15 AM
Checking the test forum, I noticed that under "Users active in past 15 minutes:" the mods user names still have the old, very dark blue colors, not the proposed lighter color,
It can be changed from admin panel as shown below, i haven't done it since it can be customized anytime, will do it when everything is in place. :)
(http://i.imgur.com/jXSk3dS.png)

and when creating a PM, there is no color palette for the text available at all. I don't know if the current test forum exactly represents the forum update you are intending to launch, but I thought to mention this.
Yes the test forum does not fully represent the current forum. But i have changed it now, you should see it. also the color Platte is available when posting new posts too.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 06, 2017, 10:59:14 AM
Great. I just posted a test message there for the new text colors, and I think they work very well for both themes?
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 06, 2017, 11:07:25 AM
Great. I just posted a test message there for the new text colors, and I think they work very well for both themes?
Yes, that looks nice ;)
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 06, 2017, 11:10:45 AM
And will make psycho happy.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 15, 2017, 11:32:33 PM
This was proposed before, and I remember phred and AvikB agreeing on it, but I can't find it back so I'll just refresh it here:

It would be good to have 'Polls' as a child board under 'General Discussions'.
It's kind of a different beast that would be good to split and give it's dedicated space so the polls do not snow under between all the 'more normal' topics.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: psychoadept on January 16, 2017, 01:03:24 AM
It would be good to have 'Polls' as a child board under 'General Discussions'.
It's kind of a different beast that would be good to split and give it's dedicated space so the polls do not snow under between all the 'more normal' topics.

Makes sense to me.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: phred on January 16, 2017, 03:36:36 AM
This was proposed before, and I remember phred and AvikB agreeing on it, but I can't find it back so I'll just refresh it here:

It would be good to have 'Polls' as a child board under 'General Discussions'.
It's kind of a different beast that would be good to split and give it's dedicated space so the polls do not snow under between all the 'more normal' topics.
I was sure this discussion was a PM, but I can't find it in my inbox. But yes, 'Polls' as a child board would be a great help. Especially if they have no end date. I've made mine sticky, but hiccup didn't do that so his are slowly moving down the pile. They won't get buried if they're in their own child board.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 16, 2017, 05:25:45 PM
yes i think this would be a good idea to make it a separate child board. I don't know if steven is back from holiday or not, but you guys should pm him about this. He will be able to do it from forum admin panel.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 16, 2017, 05:38:14 PM
done that
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 16, 2017, 06:09:16 PM
Ok i thought i should share this with you guys.
I am delaying the V2.0 update,...... for good reasons ofc.

I am planning on doing some major changes for modernization the development process.
There is nothing wrong with how the site is being developed right now, the code written for the site is simple, but it was never meant for huge projects.

At first MusicBee website project was started as simple makeover of the old site(i mentioned this quite a long time ago), but then it started to grow rapidly.
There are two custom built CMS(admin panel, dashboard panel) and a lots of other things that made it possible. I was already making changes in preparation for this huge change.
Current code base is now big and adding features sometime breaks other features(ofc you guys hardly see that since i always test the whole site after any changes), this is getting tedious.

What i am trying to do with this modernization is to introduce much more better and modern workflow/tools which will hugely benefit me(not so much for you guys though :P).
This will allow me to automate testing, introducing new features easily.

Now as i said i was preparing for this already after v1.0 release. And i was actually planning to silently make this changes under the hood for v2.5 or so.
But since v2.0 is nearly complete and instead of releasing it now and do another huge change after few months i am going to make ONE SINGLE huge update.
The decision was made to reduce any bugs and also fixing them while preparing for the next release.

sorry for this delay. It should take approximately a month or two before it is final.

This update will have a revamped home page layout(current one is ok, but it needs some improvement),
and other features or bug fixes that is already done.


This update is only for the main site not the forum. Forum update should be in 1 week after i implement some features hiccup asked for and tested them.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 17, 2017, 09:07:50 AM
Just an idea,

It might be handy to have the feature for the forum to select 'display unanswered questions for the last month'.
You can accomplish something like that by going to 'Questions', and then sorting on 'replies'.

But it could be helpful to be able to have only these specific filtered posts showing at one click of a button accessed from the main board, since such feature might promote, and make it easier for more members to help in answering open, unanswered questions.
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 17, 2017, 10:01:14 AM
Just an idea, It might be handy to have the feature for the forum to select 'display unanswered questions for the last month'. You can accomplish something like that by going to 'Questions', and then sorting on 'replies'. But it could be helpful to be able to have only these specific filtered posts showing at one click of a button accessed from the main board, since such feature might promote, and make it easier for more members to help in answering open, unanswered questions.
I don't think that is possible.

SMF's sorting does not support multiple criteria which is needed for this kind of sort.
You will need to sort by replies and also dates. otherwise older forum posts will show at the top. also i don't think SMF has any ranged sorting. You can't just filter only the last month. :S
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: hiccup on January 17, 2017, 10:17:01 AM
I don't think that is possible.
SMF's sorting does not support multiple criteria which is needed for this kind of sort.
You will need to sort by replies and also dates. otherwise older forum posts will show at the top. also i don't think SMF has any ranged sorting. You can't just filter only the last month. :S

Ok, that's a pity.

I just found this, but it might well be covering something completely different:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3818
Title: Re: [SITE REDESIGN v1.2] MusicBee website and forum redesign finished & released.
Post by: AvikB on January 17, 2017, 10:31:59 AM

I don't think that is possible. SMF's sorting does not support multiple criteria which is needed for this kind of sort. You will need to sort by replies and also dates. otherwise older forum posts will show at the top. also i don't think SMF has any ranged sorting. You can't just filter only the last month. :S
Ok, that's a pity. I just found this, but it might well be covering something completely different: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3818
That seem to have that functionality and A BUNCH MORE! it seems like a overkill to me. Implementing this would make the search more complex than it already is.
I am not planning on integrating that mod. :(
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on January 17, 2017, 10:41:35 AM
Fair enough.

I'm just a dumb end-user thinking like:

Hey Cortana, create a small button on the main page displaying all posts from the 'Questions' board from last month that have no replies.

I'm probably just ahead of my times. Haha

 
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 17, 2017, 10:46:15 AM
Hey Cortana, create a small button on the main page displaying all posts from the 'Questions' board from last month that have no replies. 
Cortana: Sorry, useful tasks like that is not possible for me. I can tell you jokes though!

 I'm probably just ahead of my times. Haha
well in future AI will do most of the tasks including this too. ;)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on January 17, 2017, 10:52:22 AM
Cortana: Sorry, useful tasks like that is not possible for me. I can tell you jokes though!

Haha, yes, and she can sing too!
(Hey Cortana, sing me a song)
Soon she will be an artist with her own playlist in MusicBee!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 17, 2017, 10:54:11 AM

Cortana: Sorry, useful tasks like that is not possible for me. I can tell you jokes though!
Haha, yes, and she can sing too! (Hey Cortana, sing me a song) Soon she will be an artist with her own playlist in MusicBee!
lol! google AI can already make songs. so it is only a matter of time.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 21, 2017, 04:47:29 PM
A little bit of structural change that has been asked before. The new url format:
Code
http://www.getmusicbee.com/en_us/
http://www.getmusicbee.com/ru_ru/

This will provide better localized search. This will not break any current url. It will redirect those old url to the new one.
The new site will use better localization, this will help any future translation.

let me know if any feature request or any concerns.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on January 21, 2017, 10:19:59 PM
@AvikB,
You missed a spot for dark theme here:

(http://i.imgur.com/1K3R93u.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 21, 2017, 10:22:04 PM
@AvikB, You missed a spot for dark theme here: (http://i.imgur.com/1K3R93u.png)
it is already fixed. you can check it on the test forum.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on January 21, 2017, 10:25:09 PM
Haha, you scare me with these fast replies.
Cheers!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 21, 2017, 10:26:19 PM
Haha, you scare me with these fast replies. Cheers!
haha.  8)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Iasc on February 12, 2017, 03:01:06 AM
In the dashboard section could you change it so Your most downloaded add ons section shows all add ons instead of just the top 10?


Thanks
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on February 12, 2017, 04:27:44 AM
In the dashboard section could you change it so Your most downloaded add ons section shows all add ons instead of just the top 10? Thanks
No, this is not possible. But in future you will be able to see download count for all of your add-ons.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Iasc on February 12, 2017, 04:40:19 AM
No, this is not possible. But in future you will be able to see download count for all of your add-ons.

Ok. Thanks
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on March 01, 2017, 05:19:07 AM
AvikB, i cant understand how to delete a topic if i'm an OP in new forum design/engine. i even cant understand now how to delete any my post, i just don't see 'delete' button, only 'quote' and 'modify'.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on March 01, 2017, 06:59:35 AM
@boroda74, i temporarily disabled it - its enabled again
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on March 01, 2017, 03:02:22 PM
thanks for reenabling. i've recalled that i'd been able to delete my posts, and was really surprised that i can't do this any more :)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 05, 2017, 03:47:44 PM
hey AvikB!

Any news on the forum update progress?
My eyes are beginning to hurt:

(http://i.imgur.com/Zvy611b.png)
hahaha
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on March 12, 2017, 09:20:33 AM
hey AvikB! Any news on the forum update progress? My eyes are beginning to hurt:
 (http://i.imgur.com/Zvy611b.png)
 hahaha
Contact steven, he should be able to update those colors from admin panel.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on March 12, 2017, 09:22:55 AM
also it seems the email notification is not working  :(
didn't get the mail notification.


@hiccup sorry for this late reply.  :'(
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 12, 2017, 09:28:11 AM
No problem, I noticed mail notifications being very buggy lately too.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on March 12, 2017, 09:30:30 AM
No problem, I noticed mail notifications being very buggy lately too.
hopefully it gets resolved soon. Checking post for reply is a pain   :-X
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on March 12, 2017, 10:23:32 AM
hey AvikB! Any news on the forum update progress? My eyes are beginning to hurt:
 (http://i.imgur.com/Zvy611b.png)
 hahaha
Contact steven, he should be able to update those colors from admin panel.
where? i cant see any setting for that
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on March 12, 2017, 02:34:49 PM
where? i cant see any setting for that
go to admin panel > Members > Membergroups > Edit Member Groups
(https://i.imgur.com/vI7zJ3l.png)
and select modify. There is a field called "Color in online list:" which takes a hex color value. Replace that with hiccup's color proposition(which is tested for both light and dark theme).
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 12, 2017, 03:56:03 PM
To spare the trouble of having to search for it:

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg121568#msg121568

And on the test forum AvikB chose to use the 9 colour option:

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16894.msg121578#msg121578
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on March 12, 2017, 06:19:43 PM
i changed it to: #9E6F00#
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: klint on March 13, 2017, 11:45:38 AM
Hello
If not already the case, could the new website include any Google Analytics-like tool, that for instance could show how many MB downloads occur per country?
As a translator for French locale, I was just curious about how many users could be using MB in this locale, very roughly :)
Thanks

Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on March 13, 2017, 02:08:25 PM
+1 for klint's idea
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on March 13, 2017, 06:00:06 PM
Hello If not already the case, could the new website include any Google Analytics-like tool, that for instance could show how many MB downloads occur per country? As a translator for French locale, I was just curious about how many users could be using MB in this locale, very roughly :) Thanks
There was google analytics on the previous website, i decided not to include it on the new site.
I will probably add it back in the next major update(currently working on it). Keep in mind it will take some time after analytics is implemented for it to accurately show any download data.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: klint on March 14, 2017, 04:54:24 PM
Yes, sure! Thanks for bringing it back... We'll see, on time :)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: theG on March 14, 2017, 09:22:38 PM
Small request for the forums: "Insert image" to support webm format
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on March 15, 2017, 01:47:57 AM
Small request for the forums: "Insert image" to support webm format
i think you mean webp format., which is developed by google.

here is a webp image:
(http://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/1.webp)

it is already supported.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: theG on March 15, 2017, 06:13:39 AM
i think you mean webp format., which is developed by google.

No. I really meant webm. See: http://files.web-anonymous.com/me32el60onigabsd9k8m1f0562u9wi3t/MusicBee-ClearButton.webm

And, your image doesn't work with Firefox..

(http://i.imgur.com/VwdEF0C.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on March 15, 2017, 06:23:34 AM
And, your image doesn't work with Firefox.
Firefox does not support webm, since it is not widely used. I can't do anything about it :( Maybe one day firefox will add webp support.

As for webm, it is not a image since you mentioned "Insert image" i thought you mistaken it for webp. and yes you are right webm is not supported.
Don't know if it will be supported in future or not, can't say anything about it at this point. SMF by default does not support webm(i think).
I will look into it, no promises though.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: theG on March 15, 2017, 04:25:14 PM
As for webm, it is not a image since you mentioned "Insert image" i thought you mistaken it for webp. and yes you are right webm is not supported.
Don't know if it will be supported in future or not, can't say anything about it at this point. SMF by default does not support webm(i think).
I will look into it, no promises though.

Alright, thanks. I said "insert image" since webm might be THE animated gif replacement in the long run. Using "insert image" for webm would make sense imo. Or "insert video" ;)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on April 23, 2017, 10:57:28 AM
AvikB, is it possible to make page 'Please wait! You will be redirected...' (when you click 'download' button on add-on page) localizable?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on April 23, 2017, 11:07:56 AM
AvikB, is it possible to make page 'Please wait! You will be redirected...' (when you click 'download' button on add-on page) localizable?
It is possible. You should wait until 2.0. Sorry for the delay got busy with exam and life :(
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on April 23, 2017, 12:41:55 PM
have forgotten that i probably already have translated it  ;)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: dixita on April 27, 2017, 08:18:24 AM
Beautiful and cool looks.. congrats for your efforts.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on April 27, 2017, 06:44:03 PM
8) thanks.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on July 04, 2017, 06:27:38 PM
@AvikB

Hope you're well?

On my system, when somebody posts code, the [select] function doesn't do anything.
Is this a known issue, or perhaps something that's possibly caused by my system because of using some blockers on my FireFox?

Maybe some feedback from other members if they are experiencing this too?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on July 04, 2017, 06:46:38 PM
@hiccup, yes it seems to be broken. I don't know what is causing the issue. I have to do some test.

Quote
Hope you're well?
Yeah kind of. I am just busy with study. It is pretty tiresome. :(
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on July 04, 2017, 06:49:24 PM
@hiccup, yes it seems to be broken. I don't know what is causing the issue. I have to do some test.

Quote
Hope you're well?
Yeah kind of. I am just busy with study. It is pretty tiresome. :(

Well, at least your responsiveness hasn't suffered ;-)
No hurries, just jot it down somewhere in your to-do list...

Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on July 04, 2017, 06:50:43 PM
Well, at least your responsiveness hasn't suffered ;-) No hurries, just jot it down somewhere in your to-do list...
haha. don't worry i have email notification enabled. Unless my internet is down i will try to reply quickly  ;)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: tpkyteroo on July 08, 2017, 08:22:04 PM
No need to reply, I just wanted to thank you for using SMF forum software. They are my favourite platform because its easier to read the forum, and find what you want. The "modern" forum with everyone on one page, causing the user to scroll for seemingly an eternity I won't use. I looked at those "modern" forums and just left. rofl
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 09, 2017, 06:56:12 PM
I have posted a new update for the website. It is live now. if any bugs appear please post it here. Most of the requested feature is added. as well as russian translation. you can switch it from the bottom of the page.

As for forum bugs. The code selection bug will soon be fixed.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 10, 2017, 11:40:13 AM
I still don't see the new colour palette for choosing font colours.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 10, 2017, 01:56:24 PM
I still don't see the new colour palette for choosing font colours.
Yeah it is coming this week. :) I mainly pushed out the website update.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Sofocl on September 11, 2017, 07:14:37 AM
When you switch the Forum on the Russian language file is missing;
getmusicbee.com/forum/Themes/mb_modern/images/russian-utf8/new.gif
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 11, 2017, 04:04:19 PM
When you switch the Forum on the Russian language file is missing; getmusicbee.com/forum/Themes/mb_modern/images/russian-utf8/new.gif
Forum is not available in russian.  The translation is only for the website.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on September 11, 2017, 05:51:45 PM
I just noticed the new mail icon.  Looks great!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Sofocl on September 11, 2017, 06:51:20 PM
Forum is not available in russian.  The translation is only for the website.
Will there be full support for Russian language in the forum?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 11, 2017, 08:43:19 PM

Forum is not available in russian. The translation is only for the website.
Will there be full support for Russian language in the forum?
SMF handles translation differently than the website. I have looked into it but couldn't find anyway to change it directly. For now i am leaving it as it is. Maybe in future i will give it another look when new SMF comes out.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Sofocl on September 12, 2017, 06:04:09 AM
SMF handles translation differently than the website. I have looked into it but couldn't find anyway to change it directly.
Language Package for 'Russian' SMF 2.0.14.
"Just extract them into the same directory as the installation of SMF."
https://download.simplemachines.org/?smflanguages;lang=russian
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2017, 02:18:19 PM

SMF handles translation differently than the website. I have looked into it but couldn't find anyway to change it directly.
Language Package for 'Russian' SMF 2.0.14. "Just extract them into the same directory as the installation of SMF." https://download.simplemachines.org/?smflanguages;lang=russian
yes i know that. it is handled separately than website. i can't switch forum translation when i switch website translation. that is why i leave it as it is.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Sofocl on September 12, 2017, 04:37:32 PM
i can't switch forum translation when i switch website translation. that is why i leave it as it is.
You mean the simultaneous switching of the language on the site and on the forum?

Can you just update the localization forum, because it already works, just outdated \ incomplete version?
(https://i.imgur.com/g90oIgX.jpg)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2017, 06:58:45 PM

i can't switch forum translation when i switch website translation. that is why i leave it as it is.
You mean the simultaneous switching of the language on the site and on the forum? Can you just update the localization forum, because it already works, just outdated \ incomplete version?
Yeah i meant the simultaneous switching. I couldn't find any way to do it.
As for updating the translation i will talk to Steven about this. He should be able to do that. Though i am not quite sure how complete the current version is.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on September 12, 2017, 07:32:40 PM
Personally i dont think its a good idea to make the forum localised as that signals to people that help is available without any effort to ask questions in english - I just think there simply are not enough active forum members for more than that.
Having the web-site itself localised is great though and i really appreciate that boroda74 did that translations.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 12, 2017, 07:55:34 PM
Personally i dont think its a good idea to make the forum localised as that signals to people that help is available without any effort to ask questions in english
+1
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 12, 2017, 09:25:07 PM
I still don't see the new colour palette for choosing font colours.
It is done now. Also with some other requested changes.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 12, 2017, 09:43:01 PM
Thanks for implementing hitting 'enter' in the forum search bar instead of having to click the icon.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Sofocl on September 13, 2017, 12:21:07 PM
Steven, AvikB if possible please still update the localization forum, without automatic change the language on the website\forum (only manual change of profile as it is now).
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Josh K. on October 29, 2017, 04:06:51 PM
Hello. It sems like logging out a user after 60 minutes is a default forum behavior (at least it was a couple weeks ago). Well, when a forum user is writing a post for more than 60 minutes and then clicks "Submit", they are immediately logged out, and everyting that was written is gone. If it wasn't for my habit to Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C everything before submitting, I would definitely throw the laptop against the wall and never ever visit the forum again. Going through registration hell just to submit a bug report is already a PITA, please don't make the experience even worse.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on October 29, 2017, 05:14:54 PM
a) You can always login with the 'always stay logged in' option enabled. Or change the number of minutes to stay logged in.
b) Personally I wouldn't want to read a post that took 60 minutes to create. A clear and concise bug report (or any other post) should take no more than ten minutes to create.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 08:20:55 PM
It sems like logging out a user after 60 minutes is a default forum behavior (at least it was a couple weeks ago). Well, when a forum user is writing a post for more than 60 minutes and then clicks "Submit", they are immediately logged out, and everyting that was written is gone.

I've seen this kind of complaints several times. I agree 60 mins won't be enough if they are writing a detailed bug report while testing, and yet users won't pay much attention to that setting when they were logging in. How about increasing the default value to 300 minutes?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on October 29, 2017, 10:58:09 PM
hmm sorry for the late reply. it seems the email notifications are not working properly again  :-\

as for the 60 minute login time. it is SMF default. I have no intention of changing it. It is a security measurement against user who are not very tech savvy and logs in from public pc.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 11:02:54 PM
as for the 60 minute login time. it is SMF default. I have no intention of changing it. It is a security measurement against user who are not very tech savvy and logs in from public pc.

OK. Then can it alert them before logging them out to make a copy of what they have typed?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on October 29, 2017, 11:04:19 PM
I don't think that is possible. unless i misunderstood your request. :/
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 11:07:24 PM
Then how can they not lose what they typed?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on October 29, 2017, 11:08:45 PM
Then how can they not lose what they typed?
How are they even loosing it in the first place? You mean a way to save the typed text when they close the window?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 11:10:48 PM
I'm not sure, but it sounds like when they click on save after more than 60 mins, they get logged out, losing all that have been typed.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on October 29, 2017, 11:13:06 PM
well obviously this is a security feature placed by SMF. I am afraid it is not possible without modifying core SMF files. 
Also it is a security risk to have the user input stored in the browser.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 11:15:03 PM
Can it show something like a popup warning dialog when only 5 mins is left?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on October 29, 2017, 11:17:11 PM
Can it show something like a popup warning dialog when only 5 mins is left?
hmmm not sure. Frankly i don't think this will help any. If the user has switched tabs they will never notice the popup anyway.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 11:20:38 PM
Then can you add remaining log in time only for editor window? It won't matter when they are simply browsing.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on October 29, 2017, 11:23:32 PM
Then can you add remaining log in time only for editor window? It won't matter when they are simply browsing.
i highly doubt it is possible. I don't think it can be done without modifying the core SMF files.
afaik smf does not store remaining time by default.  :-\
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 11:26:28 PM
What happens if you click on go back button of the browser after you get logged out? Can it be recovered?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 11:36:44 PM
Looks like it gets lost. I am getting to the editor page with an empty window.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on October 29, 2017, 11:38:25 PM
Well, then some warning message for this kind of scenario can be put to the forum.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on October 30, 2017, 02:49:28 PM
Quote
What happens if you click on go back button of the browser after you get logged out? Can it be recovered?
no it will disappear. It is by design. It is built into SMF. Sorry nothing i can do.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: springteufel on November 03, 2017, 12:55:22 PM
You Guys do a wonderful Job on this beautiful Player.
Right now it´s my favorite Player.

Greetz from Hamburg, Germany
Sven
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 03, 2017, 12:58:41 PM
You Guys do a wonderful Job on this beautiful Player. Right now it´s my favorite Player. Greetz from Hamburg, Germany Sven
ummm.... this is not the right thread to show your appreciation. We do have a dedicated thread just for that.
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=4506.msg135513#new
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 12, 2017, 11:45:51 AM
AvikB, could 2 too wide strings be warped on russian home page of site?

also could you send me latest php file for site?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on December 12, 2017, 12:24:14 PM
AvikB, could 2 too wide strings be warped on russian home page of site? also could you send me latest php file for site?
check your in PM.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 14, 2017, 03:36:43 PM
AvikB, please upload this file to test site:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/16v4sl9z1c1dncb/ru-ru.php
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on December 15, 2017, 08:33:30 AM
Done  8)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 15, 2017, 10:52:50 AM
AvikB, all looks fine on test site. could you upload latest ru-ru.php to main site?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on December 17, 2017, 12:14:47 PM
i have sent the file to steven. It should be done in a day or two.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on December 17, 2017, 01:59:55 PM
Update is live.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 18, 2017, 03:57:58 AM
thank you, all is ok
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 19, 2017, 01:36:23 PM
@Steven, i've copied all missing on main site plugins from the wiki to main site. maybe we should delete 'plugins' section from the wiki now?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on December 19, 2017, 05:52:33 PM
@Steven, i've copied all missing on main site plugins from the wiki to main site. maybe we should delete 'plugins' section from the wiki now?
OK with me as i think new plugins are only being added directly to the add-ons page for a while. But I would like psychoadept to say OK as well
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on December 20, 2017, 04:46:30 AM
Yeah, if everything's been ported over it's probably better to delete the wiki pages.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 21, 2017, 06:51:14 PM
done
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 29, 2017, 11:54:20 AM
AvikB, could you make the corners of 'new' icon (for new posts on the forum) transparent rather than white? now they look not very good for dark theme.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 02, 2018, 08:55:15 AM
AvikB, could you make the corners of 'new' icon (for new posts on the forum) transparent rather than white? now they look not very good for dark theme.
yeah icons were always an issue. Right now the forum uses the default icon set.
I will probably change it to more appropriate icon set in future, i am a bit busy with study and stuff  :-\ . But if anyone is interested in revamping the icons, they are more than welcome.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on February 07, 2018, 07:48:18 AM
AvikB, one typo correction for russian site localization:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/16v4sl9z1c1dncb/ru-ru.php
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on February 09, 2018, 11:39:23 AM
AvikB, one typo correction for russian site localization: http://www.mediafire.com/file/16v4sl9z1c1dncb/ru-ru.php
Thanks. I will send it to Steven this week.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: redwing on February 10, 2018, 07:39:14 PM
How about supporting List View for add-ons page?
With tiny or no thumbnail, the list would be sortable by add-on name/author name/popularity/added date/update date.
That would help browsing entire add-ons and locate a specific add-on more quickly when you don't know its exact name.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on February 10, 2018, 08:20:03 PM
How about supporting List View for add-ons page? With tiny or no thumbnail, the list would be sortable by add-on name/author name/popularity/added date/update date. That would help browsing entire add-ons and locate a specific add-on more quickly when you don't know its exact name.
Yes i am planning to add this feature in the next major update. Although i highly doubt you are going to browse in the list mode. Since it is much better to browse in thumbnail mode for stuff like skins. you can get a peak on how it looks. But sorting feature is definitely coming.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on February 18, 2018, 10:03:43 AM
AvikB, could you extend the character limit for add-on description from 15000 to 30000? suspect that i'm very close to current limit for tag tools plugin.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on February 18, 2018, 06:39:35 PM
AvikB, could you extend the character limit for add-on description from 15000 to 30000? suspect that i'm very close to current limit for tag tools plugin.
ehhh..... 0_0 are you writing an wiki? maybe you can write in the existing wikia and link it there!!
The readme section was never intended to have such long wall of text.

Even now, you have to scroll quite a bit to read all that stuff. adding 2x that is not going to help.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on February 18, 2018, 08:11:51 PM
ok, i'll move additional text to mb wiki.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 14, 2019, 02:51:38 PM
Steven, very very minor visual issue for me :)

could you change forum board name from 'The latest releases including fixes and new features. (Announcements only)' to 'The latest releases including fixes and new features (announcements only).'?

---------------------------------------------

I was missing on the forum for ~half year and see that site version is still 1.x. does this mean that AvikB has abandoned development of site or he is just temporary busy with something personal?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 14, 2019, 02:59:55 PM
Steven, very very minor visual issue for me :) could you change forum board name from 'The latest releases including fixes and new features. (Announcements only)' to 'The latest releases including fixes and new features (announcements only).'? --------------------------------------------- I was missing on the forum for ~half year and see that site version is still 1.x. does this mean that AvikB has abandoned development of site or he is just temporary busy with something personal?
There were some backend update and some minor fixes but nothing major.
There are still few things that i would've love to do but at this point i am a bit busy with life(also learning game development). I will try my best to fix any critical or site breaking issues if that ever arises.
I do still lurk around from time to time  8) , keeping an eye on new musicbee releases.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 14, 2019, 03:06:14 PM
Oh and one of the main reason I decided that pause development of website version 2.0 because I decided to use a template engine for the website. It would've made life a lot more easier specially with Translations and handling frontend and backend separately. Unfortunately I am afraid the server won't be able to handle it. Even with caching it would be quite demanding.
Anyway most of the features are already in the current website. Maybe some requested features like sorting for the addons page would've been nice.
I can't really promise anything at the moment but hopefully I might do another overhaul someday  ;D
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 14, 2019, 03:22:54 PM
thanks for the answer. another question (offtopic, but I cant find this thread): what's happened with your addon update notification plugin? is it finished/working/available?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 14, 2019, 10:21:15 PM
thanks for the answer. another question (offtopic, but I cant find this thread): what's happened with your addon update notification plugin? is it finished/working/available?
I am not sure if it will work reliably when the server is not very stable. Also it creates some load for the server which i don't think it will be able to handle.

specially even if a fraction of all musicbee users were to use that it would crash the server.  :(
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 19, 2019, 10:09:24 AM
AvikB, could you make these 3 strings of dashboard  localizable?

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/c3c4/xmgcv2ee8bd5eg86g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?xmgcv2ee8bd5eg8)

not very important, but these 3 strings are the only strings on dashboard, which are not localized yet (except for several external links).

--------------------------------------------------

also could you change 'new icon on the forum posts to 1 of these 2 icons?

- original .gif format without transparency because gif support for transparency is very limited (squared corners):

http://www.mediafire.com/file/292iyg8gf6wqi7r/new.gif/file

- .png format with transparency (original rounded corners):

http://www.mediafire.com/file/5o3x76sf84iatxx/new.png/file
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 19, 2019, 10:49:17 AM
@boroda well you can translate this to russian, in the ru-ru.php file.
(https://i.imgur.com/QXUnmXQ.png)

you can send me the updated translation file, i will send both the icons and the translation file to Steven.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 19, 2019, 10:52:19 AM
thanks!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 19, 2019, 11:17:59 AM
https://www.mediafire.com/file/his2bz1csfqst1y/ru-ru.php/file
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 20, 2019, 03:48:37 AM
https://www.mediafire.com/file/his2bz1csfqst1y/ru-ru.php/file
the link does not work.
(https://i.imgur.com/JgExe1C.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 20, 2019, 03:56:29 AM
try this:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/16v4sl9z1c1dncb/ru-ru.php/file

Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 20, 2019, 04:56:47 AM
try this: http://www.mediafire.com/file/16v4sl9z1c1dncb/ru-ru.php/file
I have sent the new updates for the language and the icon to Steven. It should be updated in a day or so.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 20, 2019, 09:22:53 AM
AvikB, thanks.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 21, 2019, 09:14:13 AM
AvikB, I think you didn't understand what 2 new "new" forum images were intended for. they are 2 possible replacements of this current "new" forum image:

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/e320/ke2oxd7r2anpi7m4g.jpg)

option #1: new .gif image without transparency, but it can just replace current image without any modification of site source code, because full image filename (including extension) is the same as current one:

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/bd3b/292iyg8gf6wqi7r4g.jpg)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/292iyg8gf6wqi7r/new.gif/file

option #2: new .png image with transparency, but it requires some modification of site source code, because full image filename (including extension) is different than current one:

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6524/5o3x76sf84iatxx4g.jpg)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/5o3x76sf84iatxx/new.png/file

just switch forum theme to dark one to see the difference between current image and new images.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 21, 2019, 11:06:41 AM
ok my mistake. I did send the images to steven. But the directory to place the image is slightly different.
I will ask him to update that.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 21, 2019, 11:11:25 AM
thank you.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 28, 2019, 06:40:35 AM
Ok I took some screenshots but i can't figure out how to attach them to this post.  The image button wants a url and won't let me upload my screenshots.

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=3998.0

thanks.   I guess I have to do it the long way around then.   Most forums takes photos directly.   

AvikB, this has been requested many times and I want to bump it: maybe its not too difficult to make auto-uploading of images to imgur (or another image hosting site) like its already done for add-on submission?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 28, 2019, 07:03:05 AM

 AvikB, this has been requested many times and I want to bump it: maybe its not too difficult to make auto-uploading of images to imgur (or another image hosting site) like its already done for add-on submission?

The WYSIWYG editor on the forum is a plugin. and it is a buggy one. I had to modify somethings to atleast get it working. It has not been updated for years. I tried adding imgur support(with youtube video embed) but i couldn't figure it out. I have no experience with modifying or creating plugins unfortunately.

Also since the next major forum version SMF 3.0 already has a WIP editor i didn't bother.(it is been in development for 7 YEARS!!!)

For addon submission, it is a bit different. The markdown editor i used in there, i already have experience working on it. also it is much more stable. The imgur upload system is a custom php backend system that i made for that purpose.
porting that over to SMF would require some modification to this already buggy editor.... which i don't want to.

Maybe if SMF had native support for markdown instead of the BBCODE i could just use the markdown editor that i have for addon submission.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on January 28, 2019, 07:24:44 AM
ok, got it.
Title: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: zkhcohen on May 21, 2019, 07:21:11 AM
Hi,

When I try to submit a plugin to the website through my Dashboard, it only works if I select "This plugin is in beta."

If I don't select that option, when I post it the red error message appears.

When I try to copy the error text, nothing ends up in my clipboard.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 24, 2019, 10:31:31 AM
Over the years, inserting a screenshot to a post is a recurring challenge for many forum members.

I stumbled upon an addon for SMF that adds an 'add image to post' button to the posting interface.

It's this:

https://postimages.org/plugins
https://postimages.org/smf

I have no knowledge or experience with this postimages organisation, so I can't vouch for it's workings, but it might be worth a shot?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 24, 2019, 12:06:57 PM
I have no knowledge or experience with this postimages organisation, so I can't vouch for it's workings, but it might be worth a shot?

I just tried out the upload image feature using the 'Upload' button on their main website to give it a testdrive.

Bad news:
While the options look very nice, it created forum image links that had advertisement links added to them.

So this PostImages organisation seems to be a dishonest bunch and would be a bad choice for our forum.

So, fuggetaboutit.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on August 24, 2019, 12:13:20 PM

I have no knowledge or experience with this postimages organisation, so I can't vouch for it's workings, but it might be worth a shot?
I just tried out the upload image feature using the 'Upload' button on their main website to give it a testdrive. Bad news: While the options look very nice, it created forum image links that had advertisement links added to them. So this PostImages organisation seems to be a dishonest bunch and would be a bad choice for our forum. So, fuggetaboutit.

I don't understand how hard it is for user to simply upload the image on imgur and then paste tge link here:

(https://i.imgur.com/DfozdmE.png)

 :-\
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 24, 2019, 12:19:00 PM
I don't understand how hard it is for user to simply upload the image on imgur and then paste tge link here:

Me neither.
Still, it seems to be very hard for some.

At least as difficult as finding and reading tips&tricks on the matter. ;-)

A thought:
In the 'Start new topic' panel, perhaps a link called something like 'How to add a screenshot to your post' with a link to tips&tricks could be added?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on August 24, 2019, 12:22:34 PM
yeah it is possible, although not sure if anyone would even bother clicking it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 24, 2019, 12:31:18 PM
It seems the most obvious location for such a link to me.
And it would be very hard to miss by somebody creating a post.

As a follow-up thought:

There are now three sticky howto's on posting a screenshot by three different forum members.
If this idea gets support, it would probably be good if a moderator would create one single post, assembling the different options explained in these separate posts together.

And then, as time and technology progresses, that tutorial would need to be kept updated when there are new developments.

So a mod would need to support this idea too before implementing it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on August 24, 2019, 12:36:15 PM
It seems the most obvious location for such a link to me. And it would be very hard to miss by somebody creating a post. As a follow-up thought: There are now three sticky howto's on posting a screenshot by three different forum members. If this idea gets support, it would probably be good if a moderator would create one single post, assembling the different options explained in these separate posts together. And then, as time and technology progresses, that tutorial would need to be kept updated when there are new developments. So a mod would need to support this idea too before implementing it.
Well if everyone agrees to this, i will implement this. 

This won't be much of an hassle.  8)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 24, 2019, 12:42:46 PM
It seems the most obvious location for such a link to me. And it would be very hard to miss by somebody creating a post. As a follow-up thought: There are now three sticky howto's on posting a screenshot by three different forum members. If this idea gets support, it would probably be good if a moderator would create one single post, assembling the different options explained in these separate posts together. And then, as time and technology progresses, that tutorial would need to be kept updated when there are new developments. So a mod would need to support this idea too before implementing it.
Well if everyone agrees to this, i will implement this.

This won't be much of an hassle.  8)

Great, let's await that.

And... thanks for your fast and alert response, as ever.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on August 24, 2019, 06:57:11 PM
If this idea gets support, it would probably be good if a moderator would create one single post, assembling the different options explained in these separate posts together.

It's a simple matter to merge posts, and weed out unneeded replies.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 24, 2019, 07:28:44 PM
Or, considering it may be a sensitive matter to merge or weed-out existing threads from different members, create a spanking new one, and populate it by copying the most relevant and still actual tutorials on how to post a screenshot from existing posts.

And then ask AvikB to create a link to that new post in the 'Start new topic' panel.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on August 24, 2019, 09:22:54 PM
Or, considering it may be a sensitive matter to merge or weed-out existing threads from different members, create a spanking new one, and populate it by copying the most relevant and still actual tutorials on how to post a screenshot from existing posts. And then ask AvikB to create a link to that new post in the 'Start new topic' panel.
I will leave this to you guys. Send me a pm when it is done. I will push an quick update regarding this.  8)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 25, 2019, 03:25:58 PM
I will leave this to you guys. Send me a pm when it is done. I will push an quick update regarding this.  8)

It will be up to Steven and psychoadept if they want to proceed with this.
Thank you for considering and your willingness to implement it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 25, 2019, 08:28:07 PM
nice

Either you are the most harmless spambot I ever encountered, or you chose to express your appreciation at an odd location and with as least typing effort as possible. Either way, you seem to be...

nice

Ah, I was too mellow and not very sharp when I wrote that.
It's a spammer, the alias itself is the spam.
Feel free to delete/block etc., including my responses to this sapbot.


edit:
it now seems it wasn't a spampost
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on August 25, 2019, 10:24:27 PM
Nice catch hiccup. I have deleted the offending post and the first of your two posts.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2019, 11:24:24 AM
ok, i have added this on my test system, although i am not sure about the wording of this.



(https://i.imgur.com/JZ9S7dS.png)


I am sure there are better way of wording this to grab new user attention
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2019, 12:50:35 PM
That's looking good already.

Some alternative and additional suggestion:

If you need help on how to add images to your post, read this: [LINK]
Always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on August 31, 2019, 01:32:45 PM
I don't know how much room there is, but how about something like:

A screenshot is worth a thousand words. Help us see what you're seeing by posting a screenshot.
Here's how: [LINK]
And please PREVIEW the result before posting.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2019, 04:40:40 PM
here is how it will look:

(https://i.imgur.com/Ayn9Hu5.png)

Let me know how does look?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2019, 05:11:49 PM
I don't know how much room there is, but how about something like:

A screenshot is worth a thousand words. Help us see what you're seeing by posting a screenshot.
Here's how: [LINK]
And please PREVIEW the result before posting.

I'm not sure about this one.
While it might make sense in some cases to motivate a user to add a screenshot to a post, for most boards and new posts it isn't relevant or appropriate.
It might trigger many new posts needlessly dressed-up with images that don't really add any value.

Or worse, quite a few (new) members already seem to believe it's not necessary to write coherent sentences or explanations, thinking we are all mind readers here.
If they are stimulated to post screenshots, there is a good chance they won't bother to even explain what we should look for at all.

So I stick to my original suggestion.
Make it clear that IF a member wants to add a screenshot and doesn't know how to, point him to the tutorials.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on August 31, 2019, 05:53:50 PM
I don't know how much room there is, but how about something like:

A screenshot is worth a thousand words. Help us see what you're seeing by posting a screenshot.
Here's how: [LINK]
And please PREVIEW the result before posting.

In a similar fashion, but also in an attempt to cut down on too many similar post from new users, how about displaying a clear and concise, step by step installation guide with pictures? (or via a link).
With so many options MB can appear a bit of a minefield when initially installed.
Frèddy
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on August 31, 2019, 05:57:36 PM
In a similar fashion, but also in an attempt to cut down on too many similar post from new users, how about displaying a clear and concise, step by step guide with pictures? (or via a link).
@Freddy - take a look at the screenshot(s) AvikB has posted. This is going to be a brief statement that points the user to a newly-merged forum topic on how to post screenshots. This would not be the place for a clear and concise step-by-step. That's that the link is for.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on August 31, 2019, 05:58:03 PM
I can't say I disagree with hiccup's statements. The last thing we need is screenshots that aren't relevant to the issue being posted.

I'd like to hear Steven's take on the verbiage.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on August 31, 2019, 06:26:37 PM
I would prefer to encourage people to post screenshots without having to be asked as I often spend a lot of time trying to figure out what someone means or might have left out.
So why dont we go with phred's suggestion for now and if it doesnt work out we can revert to hiccup's wording
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2019, 06:37:46 PM
hiccup's proposal v.0.95 beta:


If you are posting a question or a bug report, please consider adding a explanatory screenshot to your post.
It could be very helpful in solving your issue or answering your question.

If you need help on how to add images to your post, read this: [LINK]

Always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on August 31, 2019, 06:38:46 PM
In a similar fashion, but also in an attempt to cut down on too many similar post from new users, how about displaying a clear and concise, step by step guide with pictures? (or via a link).
@Freddy - take a look at the screenshot(s) AvikB has posted. This is going to be a brief statement that points the user to a newly-merged forum topic on how to post screenshots. This would not be the place for a clear and concise step-by-step. That's that the link is for.

@phred
Yes I saw the screenshot which prompted me to comment. A great idea for new posts, whereas the installation instructions I suggested would be better placed on the Download MusicBee page on the website, as installation would have already been in place before posting in forums for help!
Something needs to be done for new users though!
Freddy
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on August 31, 2019, 06:40:59 PM
hiccup's proposal v.0.95 beta:


If you are posting a question or a bug report, please consider adding a explanatory screenshot to your post.
It could be very helpful in solving your issue or answering your question.

If you need help on how to add images to your post, read this: [LINK]

Always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.

Splendid idea and nicely articulated in simple terms!
+1

Maybe include "Please" always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.

Freddy
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2019, 06:51:18 PM
Splendid idea and nicely articulated in simple terms!
+1

Maybe include "Please" always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.

Freddy

Thanks Freddy

Please no 'please' added there please.
Some authoritative tone is suited there.
DO preview your post before you bother anyone with it! ;-)

@AvikB, if (part of) my suggestion is to be used, there is a minor spelling error in 0.95 beta
'adding a explanatory screenshot' should read 'adding an explanatory screenshot'
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on August 31, 2019, 06:57:17 PM
Strange coming from wordy old me, but less is more. If it's a paragraph, people are just going to ignore it.

Something like:
NOTE: If your question is about something best explained visually, post a screenshot. Here's how: [LINK]
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 31, 2019, 07:06:12 PM
Strange coming from wordy old me, but less is more. If it's a paragraph, people are just going to ignore it.

Something like:
NOTE: If your question is about something best explained visually, post a screenshot. Here's how: [LINK]

I fully sympathize with the general idea. Less is more.

Yet, that brief wording might (it surely will by some) be read as "hey, that's great, now I won't need to use any words at all".

Secondly, my urging to use the 'Preview' button comes from seeing quite a few posts with 'broken image' icons, or screenshots at an enormous scale.

Using 'Preview' then will confront a poster that he should make some improvements before sharing his composed message to the world.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on August 31, 2019, 08:01:13 PM
Splendid idea and nicely articulated in simple terms!
+1
Maybe include "Please" always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.
Freddy

Please no 'please' added there please.
Some authoritative tone is suited there.
DO preview your post before you bother anyone with it! ;-)

Please DO or  don't expect any help - haha!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on August 31, 2019, 09:49:05 PM
hiccup's proposal v.0.95 beta: If you are posting a question or a bug report, please consider adding a explanatory screenshot to your post. It could be very helpful in solving your issue or answering your question. If you need help on how to add images to your post, read this: [LINK] Always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.


That's way too long don't you think? It would eat up a lot of space.

Maybe one liner or at best 2 liner would be nice.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on August 31, 2019, 10:18:20 PM
hiccup's proposal v.0.95 beta: If you are posting a question or a bug report, please consider adding a explanatory screenshot to your post. It could be very helpful in solving your issue or answering your question. If you need help on how to add images to your post, read this: [LINK] Always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.


That's way too long don't you think? It would eat up a lot of space.

Maybe one liner or at best 2 liner would be nice.
Strange coming from wordy old me, but less is more. If it's a paragraph, people are just going to ignore it.

Something like:
NOTE: If your question is about something best explained visually, post a screenshot. Here's how: [LINK]

I fully sympathize with the general idea. Less is more.

Yet, that brief wording might (it surely will by some) be read as "hey, that's great, now I won't need to use any words at all".

Secondly, my urging to use the 'Preview' button comes from seeing quite a few posts with 'broken image' icons, or screenshots at an enormous scale.

Using 'Preview' then will confront a poster that he should make some improvements before sharing his composed message to the world.

Easily solved with few words:
NOTE: If your post is about something best explained visually, add a screenshot to your description and hit PREVIEW to make sure it worked. Here's how: [LINK]
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on August 31, 2019, 11:31:12 PM
Easily solved with few words:
NOTE: If your post is about something best explained visually, add a screenshot to your description and hit PREVIEW to make sure it worked. Here's how: [LINK]

+1
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 01, 2019, 02:42:53 AM
NOTE: If your post is about something best explained visually, add a screenshot to your description and hit PREVIEW to make sure it worked. Here's how: [LINK]
Yes, this.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 03, 2019, 06:02:59 PM


hiccup's proposal v.0.95 beta: If you are posting a question or a bug report, please consider adding a explanatory screenshot to your post. It could be very helpful in solving your issue or answering your question. If you need help on how to add images to your post, read this: [LINK] Always use the Preview button to check the result before posting.
That's way too long don't you think? It would eat up a lot of space. Maybe one liner or at best 2 liner would be nice.


Strange coming from wordy old me, but less is more. If it's a paragraph, people are just going to ignore it. Something like: NOTE: If your question is about something best explained visually, post a screenshot. Here's how: [LINK]
I fully sympathize with the general idea. Less is more. Yet, that brief wording might (it surely will by some) be read as "hey, that's great, now I won't need to use any words at all". Secondly, my urging to use the 'Preview' button comes from seeing quite a few posts with 'broken image' icons, or screenshots at an enormous scale. Using 'Preview' then will confront a poster that he should make some improvements before sharing his composed message to the world.
Easily solved with few words: NOTE: If your post is about something best explained visually, add a screenshot to your description and hit PREVIEW to make sure it worked. Here's how: [LINK]
ok since everyone liked this, here is how it looks:

(https://i.imgur.com/EhKoLEj.png)


If you guys like it, i will finalize it. 👌
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on September 03, 2019, 06:12:39 PM
If you guys like it, i will finalize it. 👌

Lovely job +1
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 03, 2019, 07:18:29 PM
I feel it should be up to Steven to approve or not.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on September 03, 2019, 08:18:16 PM
approved!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2019, 05:20:59 PM
subject: forum members deleting posts


Today this happened again.
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=29420.msg163937#msg163937

A new forum member asked a question, I gave an answer.
Then the member logged-in, and decided to just delete his post, taking my answer with it.

I find this very annoying, and disrespectful to other members who may have read the original question, gave it thought, or even responded with an answer that might also be helpful to other members running into similar issues later on.

Would it be possible to prevent such members from just deleting their posts without any restrictions at all?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on September 06, 2019, 05:45:21 PM
Agreed.  Removing solutions that others may benefit from defeats the purpose of the forum.  Thread removal should be a decision made by Moderators only.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on September 06, 2019, 05:58:20 PM
I'm on board with this.  Seems reasonable that OP can delete the OP up until someone replies but not after. 
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on September 06, 2019, 06:10:22 PM
there is a SMF setting that enables members to delete their own topic, which i have just unticked
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2019, 06:18:25 PM
I'm on board with this.  Seems reasonable that OP can delete the OP up until someone replies but not after.

Just before posting this, I saw that Steven disabled deletion.
Still, here's what I had already composed as a reply and my opinion:


Ideally, I think there should be a grace period of say some 15 minutes where anybody can decide to remove his post completely.
It's quite human to write and post something in the spur of the moment, and then regret it shortly after(*).

But after that, and especially when another member answered, it should be in the hands of a moderator.

But, SMF is probably very restricted in what can be set in this repect.
Let's await what AvikB can tell us about this.


(*)
This isn't the case for the new member's post and deletion today.
After some unpleaseant PM's he has the doubtful honour to be the first and only forum member in my eight years presence on this forum that I had to block from receiving any more PM's.
So, since education and good manners seem to have failed for some, perhaps technology can help us out a bit here ;-)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on September 06, 2019, 06:59:51 PM
If someone posts something that they change their mind about, they can always contact a moderator to remove it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 06, 2019, 07:07:54 PM
If someone posts something that they change their mind about, they can always contact a moderator to remove it.

That's true.

But perhaps I am a bit more sympathetic to human error (sometimes ;-)
I believe you and I share some thoughts about another MB forum that takes 'patronizing' to a higher level?

I think I would prefer some middle-ground, where some human failure is allowed and doesn't need scrutiny from mommy and daddy.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 07, 2019, 03:04:57 AM
A new forum member asked a question, I gave an answer.
Then the member logged-in, and decided to just delete his post, taking my answer with it.
Yeah, that's really poor forum etiquette. It would be nice if something could be done to prevent that.

EDIT: And it now seems that Steven found a way to disable that.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 10, 2019, 03:37:34 PM
approved!

I have sent you an mail with the update.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on September 10, 2019, 04:34:51 PM
I have sent you an mail with the update.

How about adding some sort of polite and not in anyway condescending message to this web page ?
https://getmusicbee.com/downloads/
with something on the lines of..

STOP - Before you download and install MusicBee, please read.....
[add whatever new users need to be aware of here in simple steps with pics]

Freddy
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 10, 2019, 04:38:53 PM

I have sent you an mail with the update.
How about adding some sort of polite and not in anyway condescending message to this web page ? https://getmusicbee.com/downloads/ with something on the lines of.. STOP - Before you download and install MusicBee, please read..... [add whatever new users need to be aware of here in simple steps with pics] Freddy

I am not sure what new users need to be aware of.  :-\ Setting up Musicbee is pretty painless.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on September 10, 2019, 04:56:25 PM
I am not sure what new users need to be aware of.  :-\ Setting up Musicbee is pretty painless.

Yeah you're right, and I agree, but still many newbies ask pretty basic stuff. MB can look a little scary when first installed for some as so many great options and functions.... :o
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on September 10, 2019, 06:02:35 PM
I have sent you an mail with the update.
Done. I have added a couple of <BR> tags so there is an extra line between the NOTE: line and the input box so it stands out a bit more
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 10, 2019, 06:07:28 PM

I have sent you an mail with the update.
Done. I have added a couple of
 tags so there is an extra line between the NOTE: line and the input box so it stands out a bit more
It seems you haven't applied the .css file.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on September 10, 2019, 06:12:02 PM
yes i believe so - its 36K in size compared to 31K for the old file

edit:
actually I needed to press Ctrl-F5 to force a refresh on my browser for the highlight bar to show
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on September 10, 2019, 09:49:57 PM
It shows up for me now
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 10, 2019, 11:36:57 PM
I have sent you an mail with the update.
Funny, I see that part of my suggestion ended up a bit to literal in the end result. ;-)

Where I wrote [Link], I intended it to be replaced with a relevant and descriptive name/link in case my suggestion was implemented.
Now that it is, maybe replace [Link] with something like: How To Post A Screenshot ?

Since the text that is used right now is rather long already, this might result in too much text for one line.

If so, maybe better make it two lines?:

line 1: NOTE: If your post is about something best explained visually, please consider adding a screenshot to your post.
line 2: Use the 'Insert Image' icon for that. If you need help, click on: How To Post A Screenshot. (And, always use 'Preview' before posting)

(This also reads a bit better than the current one-liner in my opinion)

Note that clicking on 'How To Post A Screenshot' in line 2 should link to: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=29488.0
(and note the bold and italic font suggestions)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on September 11, 2019, 12:14:28 AM
I have sent you an mail with the update.
Funny, I see that part of my suggestion ended up a bit to literal in the end result. ;-)

Where I wrote [Link], I intended it to be replaced with a relevant and descriptive name/link in case my suggestion was implemented.
Now that it is, maybe replace [Link] with something like: How To Post A Screenshot ?

Since the text that is used right now is rather long already, this might result in too much text for one line.

If so, maybe better make it two lines?:

line 1: NOTE: If your post is about something best explained visually, please consider adding a screenshot to your post.
line 2: Use the 'Insert Image' icon for that. If you need help, click on: How To Post A Screenshot. (And, always use 'Preview' before posting)

(This also reads a bit better than the current one-liner in my opinion)

Note that clicking on 'How To Post A Screenshot' in line 2 should link to: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=29488.0
(and note the bold and italic font suggestions)

It's already 2 lines on my tablet as it is.
On my phone it's 4.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 11, 2019, 04:02:33 AM
It's already 2 lines on my tablet as it is.
Only my phone it's 4.
Screen width will determine how many lines are being used. I think a line break can be inserted to force two lines, but it would still depend on the user's screen width.

As for hiccup's suggestion, I agree. I don't thing the word [LINK] should be used either. It's not what I expected to see as the end result while we were discussing this. Perhaps make the words "Here's how" contain the link and be clickable.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 11, 2019, 05:03:54 PM
Ok how about this?

(https://i.imgur.com/xk5wK7Y.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on September 11, 2019, 06:54:05 PM
No need to send an updated file. I have made that change
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 11, 2019, 08:30:25 PM
No need to send an updated file. I have made that change
Ok nice :)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 11, 2019, 08:50:31 PM
Looks good. Now we just hope folks read it and follow the instructions.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 13, 2019, 01:13:44 PM
Well, I guess thinking people were going to read it was me just being overly optimistic.

How about if the entire box was filled with a red background and white or yellow type?

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=29583.0
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on September 13, 2019, 01:24:37 PM
Well, I guess thinking people were going to read it was me just being overly optimistic. How about if the entire box was filled with a red background and white or yellow type? https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=29583.0

Nah, that won't help. It is hard to educate people. But honestly we all knew putting small line there won't do shit.  :-\
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 13, 2019, 03:26:19 PM
Nah, that won't help. It is hard to educate people. But honestly we all knew putting small line there won't do shit.  :-\
You're probably right. It's really too bad, because those of us who supported the idea, and you and Steven who implemented it, really had the best intentions. Thanks for trying.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on September 13, 2019, 04:49:54 PM
Nah, that won't help. It is hard to educate people. But honestly we all knew putting small line there won't do shit.  :-\
You're probably right. It's really too bad, because those of us who supported the idea, and you and Steven who implemented it, really had the best intentions. Thanks for trying.
At least now we can berate them more effectively.  :D
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 14, 2019, 03:38:28 AM
I -still- think the box should stand out more than it does. Red background/white or yellow text. People are simply skipping over it. If the box were red, or some other color it would stand out more and people might actually look at it. Whether or not they read it is another story. But I strongly feel we need to call attention to it. If someone has a better suggestion, let's hear it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on September 14, 2019, 09:35:34 AM
I've made a small change that might help
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on September 14, 2019, 10:14:26 AM
I -still- think the box should stand out more than it does. Red background/white or yellow text. People are simply skipping over it. If the box were red, or some other color it would stand out more and people might actually look at it. Whether or not they read it is another story. But I strongly feel we need to call attention to it. If someone has a better suggestion, let's hear it.

Was pretty easy to miss the warning, at least when using a tablet, not tried on PC yet ???
A red background would defo help!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 14, 2019, 12:17:47 PM
I've made a small change that might help
"Might" being the operative word. I do see the change, but I'm still not convinced. We can only wait and see what happens.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 24, 2019, 05:55:52 PM
It may be due to the limited number of moderators and/or due to the lenient and friendly basic attitude of the current ones, but there seems to be some increase of posts from spambots.
Especially spambots copying and pasting posts from other fora are slightly difficult to immediately recognize as such.

Plainly deleting and banning these at first sight is a bit tricky, since misjudgements may occur.

Is there perhaps some forum mechanism available/implementable so that a mod that spots such a suspect post (or is alerted to one) can hide that post from the forum—so that valid forum members don't get lured, and waste their time in having a discussion with a bot—and have some standardized PM sent to the new member/bot, saying something like:
"We are very sorry, but since this is your very first post on the forum, please reply to this PM so that your posting will be visible to other members".

And when there is no response within seven days, auto-delete?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 24, 2019, 06:40:01 PM
Is there perhaps some forum mechanism available/implementable so that a mod that spots such a suspect post (or is alerted to one) can hide that post from the forum—so that valid forum members don't get lured, and waste their time in having a discussion with a bot—and have some standardized PM sent to the new member/bot, saying something like:
"We are very sorry, but since this is your very first post on the forum, please reply to this PM so that your posting will be visible to other members".

And when there is no response within seven days, auto-delete?
Yes, that would be a good way to handle some of these tricky first posts. I would be very much in favor of something like this.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on September 24, 2019, 07:21:35 PM
+1
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on September 25, 2019, 05:13:58 AM
+1    I got "tagged" by a spambot just recently in Beyond MusicBee.  Maybe it would be a good idea to extend hiccup's standardized first-post reply to ALL new registrant's first post, as it can be very hard to spot these after the fact.  Serious contributors shouldn't have a problem with the request.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 25, 2019, 08:27:30 PM
Also, especially a member's signature seems to be a desired location to populate with commercial or malicious weblinks.

It would probably be a good idea to only show signatures from members after a certain amount of posts?


My strictly personal opinion:
I hardly ever see signatures from forum members (I am not specifically talking about MusicBee here) that I find interesting or useful.
Most are plain annoying, and I wouldn't oppose to having the option removed completely.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 25, 2019, 08:39:26 PM
I hardly ever see signatures from forum members (I am not specifically talking about MusicBee here) that I find interesting or useful.
Most are plain annoying, and I wouldn't oppose to having the option removed completely.
But there are some that serve a good purpose. And help cut down on needless questions.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 25, 2019, 08:49:14 PM
But there are some that serve a good purpose. And help cut down on needless questions.

You are probably talking about yours and psychoadepts?

But the ones that normal users use are in 99% of the cases an attempt to be witty or funny, a line that my grandmother has on a tile above the fireplace, or some 'bragging list' about stuff they own.
Or they mention software versions they are using, but forget to update their sig when they update the software.
Am I forgetting some other common examples of wasting that space?

Again, I am not targeting the MusicBee forum here.
It's a general observation on signatures and their—usually lack of—practical benefit.

And since spambots seem to have more fun with them than humans, it seems defensible to reconsider their use and availability for new members at least.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 25, 2019, 10:50:56 PM
You are probably talking about yours and psychoadepts?
Do you know anyone else with a sig that's helpful and kind? :-)


Quote
But the ones that normal users use are in 99% of the cases an attempt to be witty or funny, a line that my grandmother has on a tile above the fireplace, or some 'bragging list' about stuff they own.
Or they mention software versions they are using, but forget to update their sig when they update the software.
Am I forgetting some other common examples of wasting that space?
Not at all. Your last example is the one the irks me the most. If you're going to provide your version, keep it current.

Quote
Again, I am not targeting the MusicBee forum here.
It's a general observation on signatures and their—usually lack of—practical benefit.
I see them just about everywhere I go. And I feel the same way about them as you do.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on September 25, 2019, 11:06:45 PM
Same. I'd be ok with disabling them, even if we do have to copy and paste a little more.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on September 27, 2019, 01:56:42 PM
I've observed that this rash of copy-spam seems to often use the screaming caps in the subject line. Not sure why, but it's helpful as a "fingerprint". I deleted and banned two this morning, which oddly were both using names based on The Blacklist.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 26, 2019, 02:15:25 PM
I believe MusicBee's community is already quite formidable in respect to answering questions from users posted on the forum.
But it occurs to me that for whatever reason, answers are usually coming from a quite select group of 'usual suspects' forum members.

I have a suggestion that may perhaps improve on this a bit.
As other contributing members probably also do, once in a while I check the 'Questions' board to see if there are questions with zero replies that I may perhaps have something to contribute to.

Perhaps adding a button to the 'Questions' board on the forum front page would trigger more users to take a look and contribute with their knowledge and answers?

(https://i.imgur.com/IwCeqdJ.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 26, 2019, 02:20:14 PM
I believe MusicBee's community is already quite formidable in respect to answering questions from users posted on the forum. But it occurs to me that for whatever reason, answers are usually coming from a quite select group of 'usual suspects' forum members. I have a suggestion that may perhaps improve on this a bit. As other contributing members probably also do, once in a while I check the 'Questions' board to see if there are questions with zero replies that I may perhaps have something to contribute to. Perhaps adding a button to the 'Questions' board on the forum front page would trigger more users to take a look and contribute with their knowledge and answers? (https://i.imgur.com/IwCeqdJ.png)

I am not sure how that would work, just because a question has more than 1 reply does not mean it has been answered. Infact people who will use this link, will miss any questions or discussions that has more than 1 reply.

SMF forum does not have an official way of adding a "accept as solution" button.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 26, 2019, 02:26:46 PM
I was afraid of that.
My first idea was to throw the basic idea in the open to see if it would get any support.

If so, indeed a second phase would to see if there could be not only a mechanism to display questions with zero replies, but also allow to flag 'solved' questions.

Thanks for your crazy fast response and explanation, and thanks for nipping it in the bud ;-)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 26, 2019, 05:23:47 PM
I was afraid of that. My first idea was to throw the basic idea in the open to see if it would get any support. If so, indeed a second phase would to see if there could be not only a mechanism to display questions with zero replies, but also allow to flag 'solved' questions. Thanks for your crazy fast response and explanation, and thanks for nipping it in the bud ;-)

No problem.  8)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on January 14, 2020, 08:23:09 PM
Just a thought: when viewing and sorting the forum on recent posts, obviously the posts gets sorted on date of creation.
Would it be possible (a good idea?) if they would get sorted on latest edit date? (if edits to the post where made o.c.)

Currently it's easy to miss it when somebody made an edit to an existing post, and this could make that a little easier.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 14, 2020, 08:59:08 PM
Just a thought: when viewing and sorting the forum on recent posts, obviously the posts gets sorted on date of creation. Would it be possible (a good idea?) if they would get sorted on latest edit date? (if edits to the post where made o.c.) Currently it's easy to miss it when somebody made an edit to an existing post, and this could make that a little easier.
Not aware of such inbuilt functions, but i might be wrong, it's been some time since i worked with smf.
But i couldn't find much info on this.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on January 15, 2020, 09:00:53 AM
Thanks for the fast reply and looking into it AvikB.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on January 15, 2020, 12:24:26 PM
Thanks for the fast reply and looking into it AvikB.
✌️🙂
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on February 19, 2020, 02:45:29 PM
@AvikB, is it possible to move site language chooser from the bottom of the site to the top? i think that for now most users just won't scroll page (especially home page, because it's *very* toll) to the bottom and won't notice language chooser.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 04, 2020, 12:01:48 PM
Calling AvikB, calling AvikB ....

I am trying to create a forum post that in the plain text contains the string: 'open square bracket'sub'close square bracket'
So not as a formatting command for the message, but just as plain text.

So something like this:

Code
[sub]

But if you do that, the forum will (obviously) see it as a formatting command, and will change/add/remove stuff.
(even this post doesn't make it unaltered)

Are you aware of a way to escape this, so I can have: 'open square bracket'sub'close square bracket' as plain text in the post?
Or another trick I can't think of myself?

edit:
hm, maybe write [ sub ], and explain that the spaces should be removed when using it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 04, 2020, 01:48:22 PM
I have tried some more things, but I keep running into serious issues regarding this, and expecting there might be an actual bug causing this.

I can't correctly present the examples on this forum, so I've send you a PM containing all the details.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on March 04, 2020, 03:42:41 PM
Yeah i did some testing, it is an bug.
However i am not sure if i can fix this. This seems to be tightly integrated into SMF. i will need to dive really deep into SMF code. Which i am not really interested in doing as it can probably make things even worse by breaking stuff or adding more complexity, also honestly SMF code base is huge it is not possible for me with the little time i have currently.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 04, 2020, 03:59:14 PM
Yeah i did some testing, it is an bug.

Thanks for looking into this so quickly.

Please don't waste any further time on this on my account. I'll see how I can adjust the concerning post and it's formulas so it will display o.k. and people will be able to use the formulas anyway.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Chartal on March 04, 2020, 06:11:42 PM
You want something like this: [sub]

Code
[nobbc][[/nobbc]sub]
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 04, 2020, 06:18:20 PM
You want something like this: [sub]

Code
[nobbc][[/nobbc]sub]

Thanks Chartal!

My eyes are square and watery after what I have put them through today ;-) , but I will certainly try this out soon, and see if I can use it to restore the concerning post to how I originally intended it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 04, 2020, 06:25:26 PM
edit,
Giving that just a little more thought: it probably won't help with the issue at hand, since the forum bug seems to be that it will not always ignore [ sub ] formatting code when it happens to be present in a formula, even when that formula as a whole is surrounded by [ code ] and [ /code ].

And in my particular case it is not only about having [ sub ] as plain text in a post, but that it also occurs in a formula within code.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on July 06, 2020, 05:21:38 PM
I just realized that the front page still says Groove Music Support. Not that anybody seems to be getting their hopes up about it, but maybe that should be updated?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on July 08, 2020, 12:58:44 AM
I just realized that the front page still says Groove Music Support. Not that anybody seems to be getting their hopes up about it, but maybe that should be updated?

I completely forgot about that.  :-X


Will be removing it this week.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on July 11, 2020, 04:26:57 PM
Oi AvikB,

Once in a while the question pops up on the forum: 'what skins are those shown on the main page?'
Perhaps a small liner note naming the skin used beneath those screenshots could be helpful?


edit:
Hm, it's over 10 minutes now and still no reply. I hope you are well? ;-)


edit2:
30 minutes and I am getting worried.
Could somebody call someone?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on July 11, 2020, 05:44:43 PM
Oi AvikB, Once in a while the question pops up on the forum: 'what skins are those shown on the main page?' Perhaps a small liner note naming the skin used beneath those screenshots could be helpful? edit: Hm, it's over 10 minutes now and still no reply. I hope you are well? ;-) edit2: 30 minutes and I am getting worried. Could somebody call someone?

I am fine  8)
was just busy with stuff.

hmm thats a good idea, i will add an caption.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on July 11, 2020, 05:49:00 PM
Oi AvikB, Once in a while the question pops up on the forum: 'what skins are those shown on the main page?' Perhaps a small liner note naming the skin used beneath those screenshots could be helpful? edit: Hm, it's over 10 minutes now and still no reply. I hope you are well? ;-) edit2: 30 minutes and I am getting worried. Could somebody call someone?

I am fine  8)
was just busy with stuff.

hmm thats a good idea, i will add an caption.

Insert sigh of relief here ;–)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on July 21, 2020, 11:38:51 AM
This is not directly related to the website design, but more of a forum issue.

Of late (perhaps the past couple of weeks) notifications of new posts are reaching me about a day late. I used to receive email notifications within a few hours of the related post being ... errr ... posted.

I've been thinking it's only me and my ISP, but a) no other emails are arriving late, and b) I noticed today a user made reference to not having received a notification yet (to a post I noticed yesterday.)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Bee-liever on July 30, 2020, 01:17:33 AM
This is not directly related to the website design, but more of a forum issue.

Of late (perhaps the past couple of weeks) notifications of new posts are reaching me about a day late. I used to receive email notifications within a few hours of the related post being ... errr ... posted.

I've been thinking it's only me and my ISP, but a) no other emails are arriving late, and b) I noticed today a user made reference to not having received a notification yet (to a post I noticed yesterday.)

It's not just you phred, and the notification lag seems to be getting worse.
Steven posted a reply on the forum at 28/07/2020, 3:22 pm (local time), the notification finally arrived in my inbox 30/07/2020 8:36 am.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: stevie02222 on July 30, 2020, 12:00:28 PM
This is not directly related to the website design, but more of a forum issue.

Of late (perhaps the past couple of weeks) notifications of new posts are reaching me about a day late. I used to receive email notifications within a few hours of the related post being ... errr ... posted.

I've been thinking it's only me and my ISP, but a) no other emails are arriving late, and b) I noticed today a user made reference to not having received a notification yet (to a post I noticed yesterday.)

It's not just you phred, and the notification lag seems to be getting worse.
Steven posted a reply on the forum at 28/07/2020, 3:22 pm (local time), the notification finally arrived in my inbox 30/07/2020 8:36 am.

I notice this too.

If it's any help identifying the problem, this only seems to have happened since the recent update/move to a new server.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Bee-liever on July 30, 2020, 12:21:42 PM
Maybe we're all spending to much time on the internet these days, and it's causing a backlog in the servers  ::)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on July 30, 2020, 12:37:12 PM
i can report it to the web hosting company but based on past experience, i wouldnt count on any proper investigation and solution
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on August 01, 2020, 02:48:53 AM
I know this has been brought up before but don't know if anything was decided:  is the OP able to delete an entire thread, even if it has replies?  Just noticed this happened today in Questions where somebody asked about album name metadata in streams, Steven responded asking for a URL of a stream sending this data, and I posted a couple of examples of them.  About 30 minutes later the whole thread disappeared.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on August 01, 2020, 02:59:03 AM
I know this has been brought up before but don't know if anything was decided:  is the OP able to delete an entire thread, even if it has replies?  Just noticed this happened today in Questions where somebody asked about album name metadata in streams, Steven responded asking for a URL of a stream sending this data, and I posted a couple of examples of them.  About 30 minutes later the whole thread disappeared.
Yeah that annoyed me as well. Its very inconsiderate of OP to do that. It is possible to disable users from deleting posts which I recall I did enable for a while but people complained

edit:
i see there is a separate permission for removing a topic as opposed to deleting your own post, so i have disabled removing topics
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on August 01, 2020, 03:22:52 AM
edit:
i see there is a separate permission for removing a topic as opposed to deleting your own post, so i have disabled removing topics

I completely agree, great move
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on August 08, 2020, 07:47:37 AM
Of late (perhaps the past couple of weeks) notifications of new posts are reaching me about a day late. I used to receive email notifications within a few hours of the related post being ... errr ... posted.
hopefully its resolved now
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on August 08, 2020, 01:03:50 PM
hopefully its resolved now
Thanks.

I received a 'notification' email regarding your test last night (about 21:45 local) so at least it's not taking 24 hours any more. But I don't know what time the test was generated. I'll keep watching it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 13, 2020, 09:02:08 AM
Hey AvikB,

This is something that might have been asked and answered before, and/or perhaps it just isn't worth the effort, but it itched my OCD again a bit this week:

The font for <code> is very large, and very bold.
Personally I don't see much purpose in that.
Perhaps make it a bit smaller so that it matches readability with the rest of the forum page a bit better, and so that a larger part of the code is visible in the code panel?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 13, 2020, 09:05:21 AM
Hey AvikB, This is something that might have been asked and answered before, and/or perhaps it just isn't worth the effort, but it itched my OCD again a bit this week: The font for
Code
 is very large, and very bold.
Personally I don't see much purpose in that.
Perhaps make it a bit smaller so that it matches readability with the rest of the forum page a bit better, and so that a larger part of the code is visible in the code panel?

Which font do you mean ? The code headline or the code itself
(https://i.imgur.com/iVeyrI0.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 13, 2020, 09:07:13 AM
arrrggh, the quote button seems to mess up if i have a code tag in there, really wish we could've switched from bbcode to markdown
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 13, 2020, 09:11:34 AM
The actual code in the panel.

(although the title bar could perhaps also be a little bit less loud)

And this is for you:

(https://i.imgur.com/4mI84gM.jpeg)

(Have it stitched on your jacked, or tattooed on your arm?)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 13, 2020, 09:13:47 AM
The actual code in the panel. (although the title bar could perhaps also be a little bit less loud) And this is for you: (https://i.imgur.com/4mI84gM.jpeg) (Have it stitched on your jacked, or tattooed on your arm?)

  :P  ;D  i will take it  8)

yeah the code font could be a little smaller i suppose. I will do something about it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 13, 2020, 09:16:11 AM
yeah the code font could be a little smaller i suppose. I will do something about it.

Great!
But perhaps wait a couple of days to see if maybe other members disagree?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 13, 2020, 09:18:19 AM
yeah the code font could be a little smaller i suppose. I will do something about it.
Great! But perhaps wait a couple of days to see if maybe other members disagree?
It should be fine since i will match the font size of the code to the forum's default text size. Also remove the nasty white border that is bugging me for 4 year.  :-X
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 13, 2020, 09:25:34 AM
Also remove the nasty white border that is bugging me for 4 year.  :-X

The white border around the code panel when using the dark theme?
Yes, it is a bit bright, but having a border there is useful I think?
Are you thinking of making it grey? Or perhaps the same colour as the code title bar?
Could be nice.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 13, 2020, 09:27:00 AM
Also remove the nasty white border that is bugging me for 4 year. :-X
The white border around the code panel when using the dark theme? Yes, it is a bit bright, but having a border there is useful I think? Are you thinking of making it grey? Or perhaps the same colour as the code title bar? Could be nice.

It will be grey, distinguishable but not too distracting and feel like a white glowing stick burning my eyes
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on November 13, 2020, 12:23:21 PM
Thanks for bringing this up, hiccup. I think it will be more visually appealing.

And thanks and congratulations to AvikB for being on the Quick Response Team.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 13, 2020, 12:46:16 PM
Thanks for bringing this up, hiccup. I think it will be more visually appealing.

Yes, and it is functional, since you will see much more of the code since much less (or nothing) will get broken up.


@The Minister of Quick Response:

Another thought popped up in my head:

Is it doable to get the code panel in a post to be dragable to a larger size?

(https://i.imgur.com/LBIR7zT.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 13, 2020, 03:15:45 PM
Thanks for bringing this up, hiccup. I think it will be more visually appealing.

Yes, and it is functional, since you will see much more of the code since much less (or nothing) will get broken up.


@The Minister of Quick Response:

Another thought popped up in my head:

Is it doable to get the code panel in a post to be dragable to a larger size?

(https://i.imgur.com/LBIR7zT.png)

you mean like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/ThQ9QYV.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 13, 2020, 03:16:50 PM
you mean like this:
...

Yep.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 13, 2020, 03:18:58 PM
you mean like this: ...
Yep.

ok, i will sent this update to steven. Cheers.  8)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 13, 2020, 03:19:59 PM
ok, i will sent this update to steven. Cheers.  8)

Great!
Cheers2u2!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 14, 2020, 06:51:46 AM
ok, i will sent this update to steven. Cheers.  8)

Ah! What an improvement!
Thanks again.


But now isn't that white copy icon burning holes in your eyeballs? ;-)
When it's burned into your retina, you will see a 'copy to clipboard' icon on every dark surface you look at.
(hm, maybe a useful function when we turn into cyborgs, I am going to patent it right now)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on November 14, 2020, 01:48:05 PM
Ah! What an improvement!
Thanks AvikB. Looks nice.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 15, 2020, 08:51:37 AM
But now isn't that white copy icon burning holes in your eyeballs? ;-)
When it's burned into your retina, you will see a 'copy to clipboard' icon on every dark surface you look at.
(hm, maybe a useful function when we turn into cyborgs, I am going to patent it right now)

I noticed that the light theme still has the larger font?
(not important to me, I never use light, but I thought to mention it)


P.S.
I could try and supply a new copy-to-clipboard icon if you would be interested:

(https://i.imgur.com/R4hiyCW.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 16, 2020, 11:01:32 AM
But now isn't that white copy icon burning holes in your eyeballs? ;-) When it's burned into your retina, you will see a 'copy to clipboard' icon on every dark surface you look at. (hm, maybe a useful function when we turn into cyborgs, I am going to patent it right now)
I noticed that the light theme still has the larger font? (not important to me, I never use light, but I thought to mention it) P.S. I could try and supply a new copy-to-clipboard icon if you would be interested: (https://i.imgur.com/R4hiyCW.png)

oops, i will fix the light theme issue. as for copy icon i like the white icon to make it more contrast-y. But if more user request non white-ish icon then i will do something about it.  ;)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 16, 2020, 03:10:12 PM
as for copy icon i like the white icon to make it more contrast-y. But if more user request non white-ish icon then i will do something about it.  ;)

I mainly mentioned the icon because you expressed some serious dislike for bright white in the dark theme.
(and because I think the current icon is slightly ugly)

But there are certainly more sensible things to spend time on...
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 23, 2020, 04:07:09 PM
as for copy icon i like the white icon to make it more contrast-y. But if more user request non white-ish icon then i will do something about it. ;)
I mainly mentioned the icon because you expressed some serious dislike for bright white in the dark theme. (and because I think the current icon is slightly ugly) But there are certainly more sensible things to spend time on...

I have sent another update to Steven, not live yet, but this will fix the large font issue in the code tag, also made the header smaller.

Also fixed an bug where the pre tag is rendered with white bg and text, somehow it got unreported.  ::)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 24, 2020, 07:50:33 AM
Great.
The slimmer code header is nicer indeed.
And I see you did also nocturne the copy paste icon ;-)

Quote
Also fixed an bug where the pre tag is rendered with white bg and text, somehow it got unreported.  ::)

Just curious, what is this? What is a pre tag?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2020, 07:55:22 AM
Quote
Also fixed an bug where the pre tag is rendered with white bg and text, somehow it got unreported.  ::)

Just curious, what is this? What is a pre tag?


 This is a pre tag 

(https://i.imgur.com/6JREaKl.png)

it is basically a code syntax without the header.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 24, 2020, 08:58:04 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/2NvyjaN.png)

That looks pretty unreadable to me...
Makes me wonder how it looked before you fixed it ;-)

A colour formatting more similar to {code} would look a lot better I think?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2020, 12:06:08 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/2NvyjaN.png) That looks pretty unreadable to me... Makes me wonder how it looked before you fixed it ;-) A colour formatting more similar to {code} would look a lot better I think?

actually that is how it looked before fix, it seems your browser is caching. clear the cache.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 24, 2020, 12:27:00 PM
actually that is how it looked before fix, it seems your browser is caching. clear the cache.

I cleared the cache, site preferences, offline data, restarted, etc.
It stays light grey text on white.
(Firefox 83.0)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2020, 03:07:06 PM
actually that is how it looked before fix, it seems your browser is caching. clear the cache.
I cleared the cache, site preferences, offline data, restarted, etc. It stays light grey text on white. (Firefox 83.0)

PRESS Ctrl + F5 and see if that works, it looks fine here
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on November 24, 2020, 03:14:22 PM
I can verify that it looks correct here, the background is dark and the text is readable
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 24, 2020, 03:38:24 PM
PRESS Ctrl + F5 and see if that works, it looks fine here

Nope, that doesn't make a difference either.
And it would have surprised me if it had, since I already tried clearing everything using this panel:

(https://i.imgur.com/B6iIkmh.png)

Never mind, I wasn't even aware of this pre function before you mentioned it.
(and I am not going to test further, it's quite annoying loosing preferences for other websites and having to confirm all sorts of preferences again)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 24, 2020, 04:59:10 PM
PRESS Ctrl + F5 and see if that works, it looks fine here
Nope, that doesn't make a difference either. And it would have surprised me if it had, since I already tried clearing everything using this panel:  Never mind, I wasn't even aware of this pre function before you mentioned it. (and I am not going to test further, it's quite annoying loosing preferences for other websites and having to confirm all sorts of preferences again)

if you are using chromium based browser, in my case i am using MS Edge, you can do this, or ctrl+F5, i haven't used firefox in quite some time.

(https://i.imgur.com/4V0sokc.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on November 24, 2020, 06:08:45 PM
(and I am not going to test further, it's quite annoying loosing preferences for other websites and having to confirm all sorts of preferences again)

Private or incognito windows are great for this. Or use a new/guest profile.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 24, 2020, 06:11:06 PM
Private or incognito windows are great for this. Or use a new/guest profile.
Are you using Firefox also?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on November 24, 2020, 06:14:19 PM
No, I'm using Vivaldi
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 24, 2020, 06:22:44 PM
No, I'm using Vivaldi

Maybe somebody actually using Firefox could try and confirm.

But as I said, I have pretty much lost interest in this since it is very rare that members use this <pre> tagging in forum posts.
It's no coincidence that this never was reported.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: psychoadept on November 24, 2020, 07:54:58 PM
I can confirm it looks right in Firefox.

Although the comment you responded to had nothing to do with this issue. Just offering alternatives to resetting your whole profile when you want to test something.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 03, 2020, 03:13:43 PM
Trying to imagine how the structure for the upcoming new board category would work best, I took a fresh look at the current implementation of child boards.
I think there are currently two problems with them.
(the second one has always been slumbering obscurely in the back of my head, but I can now describe it specifically)

1.
If the new 'f.a.q.' board topic expands and contains a lot of child boards, the front page can become very busy with all these child board shortcut labels.

(https://i.imgur.com/TkG4DSk.png)

2.
If you currently open a board category that happens to contain a child board, the focus of the user will immediately be drawn to the list of posts.
There is a good chance he will not even notice the child boards that are available from there.

(how many of you never noticed the child board here for example?)
(https://i.imgur.com/gT4vk0Tm.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/gT4vk0T.png)

- - -

My proposal is:

A.
Remove the child board shortcut labels from the main board completely.
It only takes a single click on a main category to open it and immediately see the child boards that it contains.
And they are presented in a better way there, having their descriptions included.

B.
As soon as a main board topic gets a child board: Add another one, and move all current posts to it.
So when you open a board category that contains child boards, you will be presented with these child boards only,  and open the one that interests you.
So there would never be a confusing mixture of topics and child boards displayed on the same page.

Looks clean doesn't it?:

(https://i.imgur.com/galcCz9.png)

The same should apply to subsequent child boards.
In this way the navigational structure will remain clean and consistent, and also problem nr. 2 that I mentioned will not occur.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Freddy Barker on December 03, 2020, 03:44:08 PM
Indeed looks clean and simple to my OCD head...
But how about if the SEARCH option was greatly improved?
Drilling down through forum-boards, sub-boards and child-boards, the newbie OP needs to know terminology and buzzwords to get to the appropriate help section...
Freddy
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 03, 2020, 03:53:35 PM
Indeed looks clean and simple to my OCD head...
But how about if the SEARCH option was greatly improved?
I don't think that is a realistic option at the moment.
The forum 'engine' (SMF) is not the most modern or sophisticated, and it is already a marvel how well it works thanks to AvikB's work and talent.

I believe a rather big SMF update is planned for sometime next year. Perhaps that update will bring some desired improvements on things like 'search', adding a screenshot to a post, etc. Who knows...

Quote
Drilling down through forum-boards, sub-boards and child-boards, the newbie OP needs to know terminology and buzzwords to get to the appropriate help section...

I strongly believe that a good structure using child boards is much more preferable compared to having one enormous stewing pot containing dozens and dozens of mixed topics, but having a good search machine available to find something.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on December 03, 2020, 04:06:50 PM
Indeed looks clean and simple to my OCD head... But how about if the SEARCH option was greatly improved? Drilling down through forum-boards, sub-boards and child-boards, the newbie OP needs to know terminology and buzzwords to get to the appropriate help section... Freddy

Indeed looks clean and simple to my OCD head...
But how about if the SEARCH option was greatly improved?
I don't think that is a realistic option at the moment.
The forum 'engine' (SMF) is not the most modern or sophisticated, and it is already a marvel how well it works thanks to AvikB's work and talent.

I believe a rather big SMF update is planned for sometime next year. Perhaps that update will bring some desired improvements on things like 'search', adding a screenshot to a post, etc. Who knows...

Quote
Drilling down through forum-boards, sub-boards and child-boards, the newbie OP needs to know terminology and buzzwords to get to the appropriate help section...

I strongly believe that a good structure using child boards is much more preferable compared to having one enormous stewing pot containing dozens and dozens of mixed topics, but having a good search machine available to find something.

Making a custom search engine is really hard, i would rather change the forum system to something with better search already implemented rather than making my own.

As for changing forum board structure, it should be doable in the forum admin board, but you need to speak with other moderators and steven.

Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 03, 2020, 04:11:06 PM
As for changing forum board structure, it should be doable in the forum admin board, but you need to speak with other moderators and steven.

I am pretty sure they will be reading this and will voice it if they have different opinions or alternative suggestions  ;-)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on December 03, 2020, 04:22:49 PM
I am pretty sure they will be reading this and will voice it if they have different opinions or alternative suggestions  ;-)
I am and I will.

I'm all in favor of seeing all the child boards move up to the root level.

A new search engine would be wonderful and if it can't be accomplished if/when SMF has it's next upgrade, perhaps it's time to move to a different, yet free, forum application.

I also think that for the MegaFAQ, none of the 'topics' should be the same as the 'regular' forum topics. We'll get all sorts of double-posing and/or "I didn't know where to put this so I put it here."

Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 06, 2020, 12:11:24 PM
Hey AvikB

This is about the formatting of a forum post.
We have some shortcut buttons available to apply stuff like bold, text colours, code, etc.:

(https://i.imgur.com/4soVj6B.png)

But I think it is a limited selection of what SMF makes available to implement?

For the sake of creating articles for the new FAQ board, it would be nice if some additional formatting features, such as bullet points could be added.
Also the use of [Tab] seems a bit problematic, or maybe just unsupported?

Do you think some of this could be improved on?
Do you happen to know of a link or document that shows what is available for this?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 06, 2020, 12:43:57 PM
Another request/observation.
When creating a weblink, I noticed that trying to colour format it to make it stick out a bit better didn't work.

But then I saw that when I switch to light theme, the link will be blue (as people are probably used to)
So the dark theme seems to have that missing at the moment?

(in case you have to decide on a colour manually, something like #31B1F9 looks nice on my screen)
A testing post (temporarily) to give an impression on what I am talking about: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=33740.0
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on December 06, 2020, 06:09:05 PM
Another request/observation. When creating a weblink, I noticed that trying to colour format it to make it stick out a bit better didn't work. But then I saw that when I switch to light theme, the link will be blue (as people are probably used to) So the dark theme seems to have that missing at the moment? (in case you have to decide on a colour manually, something like #31B1F9 looks nice on my screen) A testing post (temporarily) to give an impression on what I am talking about: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=33740.0

I can make some changes to the link colors.

Ok, nevermind the ul tag is blacklisted. I have to see how to allow it.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 06, 2020, 06:17:44 PM
Ok, nevermind the ul tag is blacklisted. I have to see how to allow it.
(I read what you wrote before the edit too):
To be clear, I am not asking this for myself alone.
While it might be interesting and useful for me to know of some less obvious way to achieve this, for this I think it is good if formatting options such as the ones I described would be easier available for more forum members.
Am I on a wrong track thinking that SMF allows for it but it just hasn't been enabled?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on December 06, 2020, 06:20:05 PM
Ok, nevermind the ul tag is blacklisted. I have to see how to allow it.
(I read what you wrote before the edit too): To be clear, I am not asking this for myself alone. While it might be interesting and useful for me to know of some less obvious way to achieve this, for this I think it is good if formatting options such as the ones I described would be easier available for more forum members. Am I on a wrong track thinking that SMF allows for it but it just hasn't been enabled?

Yes SMF does support it. It is disabled, but i am not sure if it is in the admin panel or the editor mod panel. I have to check it and let you know.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 06, 2020, 06:23:47 PM
Yes SMF does support it. It is disabled, but i am not sure if it is in the admin panel or the editor mod panel. I have to check it and let you know.
Great, no hurries at all.
It is for the new FAQ board, but I am guessing it is going to take at least a week before editors of that board might feel a need to have such options available.
(and I can wait)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on December 06, 2020, 06:26:16 PM
👌👍
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: The Incredible Boom Boom on February 20, 2021, 01:35:25 PM
Could an emphasized blurb that there is no virus or trojan in the executable and @Steven's explanation for why anti-virus software false flags MB be added to the Downloads page, in hopes of mitigating the once-a-week posts from people who don't bother to thoroughly search the forum for the answer to this issue?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: darkred on February 21, 2021, 11:41:36 AM
I've noticed the following:

if I open:  Personal Messages | Change Settings ,
and change the "Display personal messages" setting to "As a conversation" (default value: "All at once")
then if I try to go to Personal Messages | Sent Items ,
I get "DATABASE ERROR. Please try again. If you come back to this error screen, report the error to an administrator":
(https://i.imgur.com/wWtp4A5.jpg)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on February 21, 2021, 01:57:41 PM
I can confirm this behavior
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on February 21, 2021, 08:30:13 PM
does it work ok without display as a conversation? that is working fine for me
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: darkred on February 21, 2021, 09:03:31 PM
Yes, it works ok without display as a conversation, i.e. as 'All at once' (default setting) or 'One at a time.'

Could the 'As a conversation' mode be enabled? I believe it would be very convenient the replies to pms to be grouped as conversation.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on February 21, 2021, 09:23:10 PM
Could the 'As a conversation' mode be enabled? I believe it would be very convenient the replies to pms to be grouped as conversation.
if its not working i wont be able to help
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: darkred on February 21, 2021, 09:28:23 PM
Ok, thank you for replying.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 02, 2021, 05:53:05 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/k1VfdOh.jpg)

I got curious about something that I just noticed: what do the blue and yellow blocks, and their count mean?
Most importantly, why do I only have 1 block? It makes me feel a bit disrespected ;-)

(https://i.imgur.com/lytiy1R.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on April 02, 2021, 06:03:26 PM
Most importantly, why do I only have 1 block? It makes me feel a bit disrespected ;-)

You asked what I've thought but didn't want to be misinterpreted as being "arrogant"  :-[  .  Thanks!  Now that the cat's out of the bag, it WOULD be nice if the Editor block showed up in a different color than yellow to separate it from either a "newbie" indicator or a Global Moderator--green, violet, etc.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 02, 2021, 06:07:54 PM
You asked what I've thought but didn't want to be misinterpreted as being "arrogant"  :-[  .  Thanks!  Now that the cat's out of the bag, it WOULD be nice if the Editor block showed up in a different color than yellow to separate it from either a "newbie" indicator or a Global Moderator--red, green, etc.

Haha

About 'Editor'. Shouldn't that be considered a failed experiment by now?
Or does it grant any useful privileges that I am not aware of?

Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on April 02, 2021, 06:18:08 PM
Blue is a Global Monitor.
Red is Administrator (Steven.)
Yellow is the rest of you peons.  :-)

I thought the number of blocks were relative to the number of posts. But that doesn't appear to be the case. So I'll answer that with an I don't know.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 02, 2021, 06:23:25 PM
I thought the number of blocks were relative to the number of posts. But that doesn't appear to be the case. So I'll answer that with an I don't know.
Maybe the block count is as in the military?

Then I am a one-star general!
The Incredible Boom Boom is just a foot soldier.
And you are an apprentice moderator.

Hm, that makes great sense. Balance in the universe was restored.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on April 02, 2021, 06:27:03 PM
About 'Editor'. Shouldn't that be considered a failed experiment by now?

It sort of is, actually..  But our intentions were pure (!).
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 02, 2021, 06:34:33 PM
It sort of is, actually..  But our intentions were pure (!).
Sure, but a wider support/understanding was lacking.
No harm done, but it may be good to revert changes made to the forum and to the new 'Editor' status.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on April 02, 2021, 06:47:09 PM
Hm, that makes great sense. Balance in the universe was restored.
Happy to be of service.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on April 02, 2021, 06:50:04 PM
No harm done, but it may be good to revert changes made to the forum and to the new 'Editor' status.
I'd leave it as is since someone(s) may get ambitious and pick this up.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 03, 2021, 12:38:36 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/JUgQY7r.png)

I think I figured it out.
The boxes are probably placeholders for indicators that show links the user has made available for e.g. communication:

(https://i.imgur.com/LY557aD.png)

These icons are probably just not activated or available on our forum for some reason.
 
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on April 03, 2021, 01:47:17 PM
I think I figured it out.
The boxes are probably placeholders for indicators that show links the user has made available for e.g. communication:
These icons are probably just not activated or available on our forum for some reason.
Hmmm ... I'm not so sure I buy that. Why would there be a different number of boxes? If the "feature" is disabled, and the boxes are placeholders, then the number of boxes for each user would (should) be the same.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 03, 2021, 02:03:14 PM
I'm not so sure I buy that. Why would there be a different number of boxes? If the "feature" is disabled, and the boxes are placeholders, then the number of boxes for each user would (should) be the same.
(https://i.imgur.com/F9vGdfa.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on April 03, 2021, 02:44:18 PM
I don't think that's it.  I typed 123456 into the ICQ box in my profile and I still have one box and now and ICQ icon.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on April 03, 2021, 02:51:34 PM
Years of membership?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on April 03, 2021, 05:25:02 PM
Maybe I'm being too simplistic here, but if we're talking about why certain number of boxes appear, my understanding has always been that they change to a fixed amount when a user's membership category changes, which happens when they have made a certain amount of posts.  For example "Newbie" gets and stays at one box until their post quantity increases to the next category ("Jr. Member"?) at which time they get 2 boxes, then 3 at the Senior level, etc.  I don't think there's any more to it than that, just a visual representation of forum activity level.  Moderators and Steven get unique colors and maxed boxes due to their role here and to quickly identify their posts in a thread.  If it wasn't past April 1st I'd think we were just joshin'.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on April 03, 2021, 05:50:14 PM
Maybe I'm being too simplistic here, but if we're talking about why certain number of boxes appear, my understanding has always been that they change to a fixed amount when a user's membership category changes, which happens when they have made a certain amount of posts.
I think that's why the question came up, because apparently not:
hiccup's image from the original inquiry:
(https://i.imgur.com/lytiy1R.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 03, 2021, 06:06:07 PM
I think that's why the question came up, because apparently not…
You also only have one star.

It can't be related to post count:

(https://i.imgur.com/icXt1jM.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 03, 2021, 06:10:16 PM
Ah, and I now see the icq icon too.
It's at a different location than the mystery squares, so they are not some indicator of available options to communicate withe the user either.

(https://i.imgur.com/SCY5Pqb.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on April 03, 2021, 06:16:50 PM
I know the three Editors ended up with one box when the "Editor" status got added--my take on that is that no real "posting category" exists at this point for that status so we all got knocked down to a default.  My own prefs are that we get all our boxes back, haha..
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 03, 2021, 06:22:40 PM
I know the three Editors ended up with one box when the "Editor" status got added--my take on that is that no real "posting category" exists at this point for that status so we all got knocked down to a default.  My own prefs are that we get all our boxes back, haha..
You didn't seem to 'know that' when you posted less then an hour ago ;-)
Also, all three editors have made a substantial amount of posts since then.

And, then how do you explain my screenshot two posts back?
44 posts get 2 stars, 29 posts get 5 stars.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on April 03, 2021, 06:38:53 PM
Maybe it starts at 5 and when you get to 0 you're banned for life?  :D
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 03, 2021, 06:44:04 PM
Maybe it starts at 5 and when you get to 0 you're banned for life?  :D
Or perhaps some evil mod is taking away stars (blocks) when he doesn't like somebody.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on April 03, 2021, 06:45:51 PM
I'd be at negative by now for sure
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on April 03, 2021, 10:14:27 PM
And, then how do you explain my screenshot two posts back?
44 posts get 2 stars, 29 posts get 5 stars.

Something is indeed knackered there.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on April 03, 2021, 10:38:14 PM
Anyone assigned to "Editor" just has one star (dont ask me why - no idea! - edit: actually its configurable - you are now 5 stars)
Normal users get stars automatically based on posts.
I will likely get rid of the Editor and FAQ topic unless anyone thinks its worth continuing with it
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on April 03, 2021, 11:43:15 PM
I will likely get rid of the Editor and FAQ topic unless anyone thinks its worth continuing with it
I'd find it hard to disagree with you on this. It was a noble attempt, but I think we couldn't reach a consensus on the best way to populate it.
Make it disappear.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on April 09, 2021, 08:44:03 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/k1VfdOh.jpg) I got curious about something that I just noticed: what do the blue and yellow blocks, and their count mean? Most importantly, why do I only have 1 block? It makes me feel a bit disrespected ;-) (https://i.imgur.com/lytiy1R.png)

😶 didn't recieve any notifications for this. 😑
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 10, 2021, 06:30:22 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/BDLGRV8.png)
😶 didn't recieve any notifications for this. 😑
Look out the window more often?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on April 11, 2021, 09:44:39 AM

(https://i.imgur.com/BDLGRV8.png) 😶 didn't recieve any notifications for this. 😑
Look out the window more often?
🤣
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on July 18, 2021, 11:48:55 AM
There seems to be an increase in spam posts recently. (hopefully temporarily)
An idea came up that might help and improve on fighting and removing them:

I am sure there are quite a few regular forum members who would be willing to help removing those, but don't desire to be an official moderator.

What could perhaps be done:
Create a new user that has privileges to remove spam posts.
Share the login password of that account with the forum members that volunteer for this task.

Then when any of these forum members spot a spampost, they can login using that specific user account and remove the spam.
Also the fact that more of such users will cover more timezones will probably help in removing these spamposts quicker.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on July 20, 2021, 10:23:20 PM
I'm wondering why recently spam posts are being dealt with by leaving them in the threads for a while empty labeled "spam post/user banned" or similar, instead of just deleting the post altogether after they are reported?  A bit "untidy" looking. They seem to vanish eventually though.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on July 20, 2021, 10:44:13 PM
I'm wondering why recently spam posts are being dealt with by leaving them in the threads for a while empty labeled "spam post/user banned" or similar, instead of just deleting the post altogether after they are reported?  A bit "untidy" looking. They seem to vanish eventually though.
This is being done because someone who shall remain nameless deleted an entire thread instead of just the spam post within the thread. This happened twice recently. If it's a new thread with only one post in it, then the thread can't be deleted. If it's a 'reply' post to an existing thread, the offending spam can be removed.

What Steven has done was to disable the removal of the entire thread, thereby preventing 'accidents.' The moderators can now delete the text of the spam post along with modifying the spammer's profile (removing spam links in the sig, Yahoo Messenger links, ICQ, etc) but not the username.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on July 21, 2021, 12:08:35 AM
OK phred thanks for the info!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on July 21, 2021, 03:20:13 AM
OK phred thanks for the info!

This is being done because someone who shall remain nameless deleted an entire thread instead of just the spam post within the thread. This happened twice recently.

In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, I am the guilty party.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on July 21, 2021, 11:07:07 PM
This is being done because someone who shall remain nameless deleted an entire thread instead of just the spam post within the thread.
To me it seems the core issue is not that an admin accidentally deleted more than he intended (who hasn't done that, ever?), but that MusicBee's forum engine doesn't have something in place to undo and restore such a perfectly understandable human error.

Windows has had a recycle bin since 1894. (or maybe a little bit later, I'm not completely sure)
Doesn't SMF have some recycle bin feature for deleted posts/threads?
If the experts say 'no', so be it. But a quick and lazy google search led me to this:
https://www.smfsupport.com/support/guides-and-tutorials/accidentally-deleted-member%27s-post-is-there-someplacesomehow-to-recover-it/
Perhaps it contains some useful information that could prevent issues like these and make it less of a walking on thin ice exercise to manage and delete spam posts.

edit:
Oops, forgot this:
(https://i.imgur.com/ZoZfNRX.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on August 01, 2021, 04:00:18 AM

This is being done because someone who shall remain nameless deleted an entire thread instead of just the spam post within the thread.
To me it seems the core issue is not that an admin accidentally deleted more than he intended (who hasn't done that, ever?), but that MusicBee's forum engine doesn't have something in place to undo and restore such a perfectly understandable human error. Windows has had a recycle bin since 1894. (or maybe a little bit later, I'm not completely sure) Doesn't SMF have some recycle bin feature for deleted posts/threads? If the experts say 'no', so be it. But a quick and lazy google search led me to this: https://www.smfsupport.com/support/guides-and-tutorials/accidentally-deleted-member%27s-post-is-there-someplacesomehow-to-recover-it/ Perhaps it contains some useful information that could prevent issues like these and make it less of a walking on thin ice exercise to manage and delete spam posts. edit: Oops, forgot this: (https://i.imgur.com/ZoZfNRX.png)

A bit late reply. But i don't have any clue about the restoring of deleted post. I did check the link you posted and i think it is something Steven can enable in the forum admin panel.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 20, 2021, 08:10:09 PM
Addressed to 'you know who':

(https://i.imgur.com/hRXBKi0.png)

Not important, not a big issue, but it did surprise me, and it prohibited me to respond to a certain pm.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 20, 2021, 08:12:01 PM
Addressed to 'you know who': (https://i.imgur.com/hRXBKi0.png) Not important, not a big issue, but it did surprise me, and it prohibited me to respond to a certain pm.
oh no 😐😐. It seems like this limit is set via the admin panel 😅
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 20, 2021, 08:13:04 PM
Addressed to 'you know who': (https://i.imgur.com/hRXBKi0.png) Not important, not a big issue, but it did surprise me, and it prohibited me to respond to a certain pm.
'you know who' will be waiting for a day for your response 😎😉😆
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 20, 2021, 08:16:22 PM
That restriction is probably wise.
It could prevent subversive deliberations from reactionaries that plot together to bring the forum down.
(I know nothing)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 20, 2021, 08:19:43 PM
(https://media.tenor.com/images/5d7a360ed960c77a41c77cc93864387d/tenor.gif)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on November 20, 2021, 08:21:24 PM
That restriction is probably wise.
It could prevent subversive deliberations from reactionaries that plot together to bring the forum down.
(I know nothing)
Are you planning an insurrection?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 20, 2021, 08:22:55 PM
(https://media.tenor.com/images/5d7a360ed960c77a41c77cc93864387d/tenor.gif)
Ah, thanks.
That assures me and I will now go to sleep and have sweet dreams.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on November 20, 2021, 08:23:52 PM

That restriction is probably wise. It could prevent subversive deliberations from reactionaries that plot together to bring the forum down. (I know nothing)
Are you planning an insurrection?
😂 One day maybe 😎 it's getting late here, going to get done sleep.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 20, 2021, 08:25:33 PM
Are you planning an insurrection?
I'll answer that by means of a PM.
Oh, what a pity, computer says no.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on November 20, 2021, 09:58:02 PM
i cant find any setting for the PM limit but if anyone does know i can adjust it
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on February 10, 2022, 12:21:55 PM
SMF 2.1 was released:
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?P=7820044le1a2gbvukk6v51ev1k;topic=580585.msg4110098#msg4110098

There seem to be a lot of useful improvements and additions.
One of those could be 'drag & drop attachments'.
If that means a user can drag a screenshot to a post it would make life easier for a lot of users.
(perhaps too easy? ;-)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on February 10, 2022, 01:44:42 PM
SMF 2.1 was released: https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?P=7820044le1a2gbvukk6v51ev1k;topic=580585.msg4110098#msg4110098 There seem to be a lot of useful improvements and additions. One of those could be 'drag & drop attachments'. If that means a user can drag a screenshot to a post it would make life easier for a lot of users. (perhaps too easy? ;-)
this will break everything.  :'(  Need to redo the whole forum theme. I am also busy with my game dev stuff, need lots of free time to rewrite the theme.
Honestly as much as i would like the new features, for the time being we should wait for the next few bug release atleast.
(https://i.imgur.com/aJk6K89.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on February 10, 2022, 01:47:11 PM
also for drag and drop attachments, it will use the server disk space instead of third party hosting like imgur.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on February 10, 2022, 01:53:24 PM
Need to redo the whole forum theme.
That's bad.

Quote
also for drag and drop attachments, it will use the server disk space instead of third party hosting like imgur.
Ah yes, that's also bad.

Thanks for the fast response and the quick risk assessment ;-)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 11, 2022, 06:18:29 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/ZoZfNRX.png)

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=36530.0
 
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: AvikB on May 11, 2022, 06:46:31 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/ZoZfNRX.png) https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=36530.0
🙌
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on June 15, 2022, 03:18:06 PM
@AvikB, could you make mb version list on add-on submitting page customizable by Steven. at the moment, there is only mb version "3" available. it's completely insufficient info for users. there must be at least minor mb versions: 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, etc. new mb versions will be available later, that's why the list of mb versions must be customizable by admin.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on June 25, 2022, 11:56:12 AM
@AvikB, could you make mb version list on add-on submitting page customizable by Steven. at the moment, there is only mb version "3" available. it's completely insufficient info for users. there must be at least minor mb versions: 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, etc. new mb versions will be available later, that's why the list of mb versions must be customizable by admin.
You forgot the AvikBeeSign:

(https://i.imgur.com/YHCRI3y.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on June 25, 2022, 03:08:04 PM
You forgot the AvikBeeSign:
Hmm, that didn't work either.
So AvikB is probably in jail then.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on June 27, 2022, 06:35:56 PM
I couldn't send a PM because computer said no and told me: "You have exceeded the limit of 5 personal messages per hour."
Is this something new?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on June 28, 2022, 07:51:05 AM
I couldn't send a PM because computer said no and told me: "You have exceeded the limit of 5 personal messages per hour."
Is this something new?
yes - its to make it harder for spammers who post messages to users. If its a problem i can increase it
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on June 28, 2022, 05:16:13 PM
I couldn't send a PM because computer said no and told me: "You have exceeded the limit of 5 personal messages per hour."
Is this something new?
yes - its to make it harder for spammers who post messages to users. If its a problem i can increase it
I wasn't aware that was a thing. I have never received a spam message.

Most of the time that limit won't be a problem, but it can be when you are e.g. conversing with two or more users.
Then the limit of five PMs is very restricting, and also the waiting time of an hour is very long.

Perhaps change it to something like 8 posts in 30 minutes?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on June 29, 2022, 07:28:21 PM
While I've never received spam as a PM, I can see the point of increasing the number of PMs and reducing the time frame. It would be useful when one is in a back and forth with another user/users.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on June 29, 2022, 10:29:20 PM
i bumped it to 10 an hour
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 21, 2022, 09:46:52 AM
I am trying to update my "functions for virtual tags cheatsheet" post here:

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=35868.msg196257#msg196257

But by adding some new functions and explanations, I am surpassing the maximum allowed character count for a post.
(the limit is 20.000, and I am heading towards 23.000)

Could this limit be increased to e.g. 25.000 characters?

edit
Never mind, I see I also have post#2
I will split #1 up and use #2 for the rest.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on August 21, 2022, 09:55:24 AM
i set the limit to 25000 in case you need to use that
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 21, 2022, 09:59:36 AM
Much appreciated, but in this case it looks like it might actually be an improvement splitting it up in two…
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 27, 2022, 02:55:58 PM
is anybody else viewing text "New" instead of new-icon (it's happening for me since yesterday)?

(https://i.imgur.com/3R5y3Zq.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on December 27, 2022, 05:26:07 PM
is anybody else viewing text "New" instead of new-icon (it's happening for me since yesterday)?
Confirmed. I'm thinking SMF ran an update. I'm sure no one from MB (Steven, AvikB) made the change.

In the meantime I'm trying to recover from a major spam attack that jammed 500+ posts into the General Discussion section. I've alerted Steven as I don't have a way to remove them. The user has been banned while it was still online and posting another message.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 27, 2022, 08:32:24 PM
is anybody else viewing text "New" instead of new-icon (it's happening for me since yesterday)?
Confirmed. I'm thinking SMF ran an update. I'm sure no one from MB (Steven, AvikB) made the change.
ok, good to know that i'm not alone. it's happened for me, when had changed my forum profile settings. I was guessing if this was the cause.

In the meantime I'm trying to recover from a major spam attack that jammed 500+ posts into the General Discussion section. I've alerted Steven as I don't have a way to remove them. The user has been banned while it was still online and posting another message.
yeah, i was very impressed. never have seen so massive spam attack.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on December 27, 2022, 08:50:54 PM
yeah, i was very impressed. never have seen so massive spam attack.
They're all gone now. Steven to the rescue.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 27, 2022, 09:11:14 PM
They're all gone now.
Not even one left?
What fantastic offer are we missing out on? It must have been a very important one?
Did you keep it for yourself?

While I love the fact that MusicBee's forum is treating new members as adults (contrary to most other fora that I know), it's surprising that a new member is allowed to create 500+ posts in it's first day on the job.
Ah well, let's hope this digital b'tard is not ruining it for us humans.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on December 27, 2022, 10:41:33 PM
Not even one left?
What fantastic offer are we missing out on? It must have been a very important one?
Did you keep it for yourself?
Not a one is left anywhere. I didn't think to save or screenshot one. Each one (of the few that I looked at) was slightly different and more in code (or a language not detectable by me.) The only thing I recognized were multiple links to Google.

Quote
While I love the fact that MusicBee's forum is treating new members as adults (contrary to most other fora that I know), it's surprising that a new member is allowed to create 500+ posts in it's first day on the job.
Steven thought there was a limit of x number of posts per hour, but if there is, this bot got around it somehow.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on December 27, 2022, 11:07:09 PM
Steven thought there was a limit of x number of posts per hour, but if there is, this bot got around it somehow.
There is a restriction on the amount of PMs a member is allowed to send to another member within a certain timespan.
I am not aware of a limitation on the amount of forum post for anyone.

But I am certainly not advocating there should be one.
(except maybe for a new member creating 500+ posts in a couple of hours ;-)
Our forum engine (SMF 2.0) might just not have such a refined feature though.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 27, 2022, 11:35:30 PM
They're all gone now.
Not even one left?
What fantastic offer are we missing out on? It must have been a very important one?
Did you keep it for yourself?
i kept it accidentally (in imtranslator), was curious what may be so important to duplicate message every couple of seconds 500 times, this is an example:

(https://getmusicbee.com/images/forum/spam.jpg)

these messages were in korean, some ads of gambling.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on December 27, 2022, 11:46:42 PM
is anybody else viewing text "New" instead of new-icon (it's happening for me since yesterday)?

(https://i.imgur.com/3R5y3Zq.png)

Confirmed. I'm thinking SMF ran an update. I'm sure no one from MB (Steven, AvikB) made the change.

inspecting forum pages in vivaldi dev tools, i see that most forum icons like this:

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/Themes/mb_modern/images/topic/my_normal_post.gif

can be loaded, but icon "new.gif" can't:

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/Themes/mb_modern/images/russian-utf8/new.gif

notice that the path to this icon is different to paths of other icons. also, it's strange that word "russian" is mentioned in path because i'm using english mb site ui.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on December 28, 2022, 03:22:38 AM
There is a restriction on the amount of PMs a member is allowed to send to another member within a certain timespan.
I am not aware of a limitation on the amount of forum post for anyone.
Yes, the discussion of the number of PMs allowable is in this thread on the previous page (reply #1801).
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on December 28, 2022, 03:26:11 AM
these messages were in korean, some ads of gambling.
Hmmm ... that's not what I saw, unless this is your translated version. What I saw was mostly ASCII characters.

Nice to know what it was for, however. Thanks.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on January 14, 2023, 01:53:18 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/YHCRI3y.png)

A thought came up:

It's a well-known fact that searching the forum using the "Search something…" field at the top of the page is not the greatest way to find relevant posts on this forum.
Using Google will give much better results.

Would it be possible to add a Google search button (pre-populated with site:getmusicbee.com/forum/  next to the "Search something…" field?

Also… I hope all's well?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on January 14, 2023, 02:50:28 PM
Would it be possible to add a Google search button (pre-populated with site:getmusicbee.com/forum/  next to the "Search something…" field?
+1000
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 21, 2023, 07:12:08 PM
I have always used the dark forum theme, so I never noticed this before, but I think it is a design mistake?:

When previewing a new post using the light theme, the preview renders the text in a very light grey, making it difficult to read.
And since the actual post will have the text in black, it's probably a mistake/oversight?

And I now also suddenly understand why sometimes a poster will manually set the text of his post to black (rendering it unreadable for users of the dark theme).
In hindsight I now forgive those that I may have cursed for doing that ;-)

Or is it perhaps something off with my system? It seems weird that nobody ever noticed or reported this?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: karbock on March 22, 2023, 08:28:08 PM
Or is it perhaps something off with my system? It seems weird that nobody ever noticed or reported this?
I can reassure you: the fault is not on your system's side. The light grey is indeed rather hard to read with the light theme, but I've never bothered to add the topic to the wishlist.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 22, 2023, 10:29:28 PM
Thanks for confirming.
It's not a real issue to me, but at least I now understand why sometimes forum members choose to change the font colour to black, making it unreadable for forum members using the dark forum theme.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 02, 2023, 05:51:47 PM
test, please ignore (for now)

0011 23456 
KIwiWiki
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on April 02, 2023, 08:19:50 PM
Two observations on odd/incorrect forum behaviour I thought to mention:

1.
When logged-out, the first reply to a post gets labelled as 'reply #1'.Which is correct.
But when logged-out, the same reply gets labelled as 'reply #2', and the strart post gets labelled as 'reply #1', which is obviously incorrect, and could lead to misunderstandings when somebody refers to a post using the reply number.

2.
When a post contains BBcode
[pre]...[/pre]
 (preformatted text), that part will show up almost unreadable when looking at it using 'most recent posts':

(https://i.imgur.com/8YqWmQU.png)

When looking at it from the relevant thread itself it renders o.k.:

(https://i.imgur.com/nIieOCw.png)

Neither are big issues, but I thought them interesting enough to at least have them assessed and mentioned.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: karbock on April 12, 2023, 12:53:33 PM
When a post contains BBcode
[pre]...[/pre]
 (preformatted text), that part will show up almost unreadable when looking at it using 'most recent posts':

[pre]...[/pre]
 is also interpreted differently inside or outside a table.
Outside a table, it comes in two flavours according to the forum theme set (light/dark), both easily readable.
But inside a table, the text is almost unreadable in the dark mode.

Just switch forums themes with the example below to observe it:
pre.../pre outside a table:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

pre.../pre inside a table:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 16, 2023, 09:06:53 PM
It seems that the limitation on sending PM's is not based on counting posts per hour, but on recipients per hour?
(I can't send a PM at this moment, and it looks like it is because there have been a couple more members cc'ed in my last (I think only two or three) PM's in the last hour)

Not a biggie, just thought to mention it.


Steven thought there was a limit of x number of posts per hour, but if there is, this bot got around it somehow.

There is a restriction on the amount of PMs a member is allowed to send to another member within a certain timespan.
I am not aware of a limitation on the amount of forum post for anyone.

But I am certainly not advocating there should be one.
(except maybe for a new member creating 500+ posts in a couple of hours ;-)
Our forum engine (SMF 2.0) might just not have such a refined feature though.

Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 27, 2023, 08:38:43 PM
Wow, what's going on? :

(https://i.imgur.com/RNYkCPg.png)

Was there some positive article on MusicBee published somewhere today?

edit
Ahum, me pretending I am a youngster still:
Was there some very funny TikTok about MusicBee today?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 31, 2023, 05:34:28 PM
Just a thought on 'forum searches', a topic that keeps coming up and seems to keep presenting challenges for (mainly new) users.

A while back I found that it is possible to create a so-called 'programmable search engine' link.
Not having any coder or web talents, I still gave it a shot. This is the URL it resulted in:
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=426af386625354430#gsc.tab=0

I had completely forgotten about it, but I just ran into the link I created back then, and it still seems to work.
So maybe it wouldn't be difficult to add something like this to the forum pages?
It might be some sort of improvement?

(https://i.imgur.com/uWFuM4I.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on May 31, 2023, 08:11:16 PM
So maybe it wouldn't be difficult to add something like this to the forum pages?
It might be some sort of improvement?
This would be a great alternative to SMF's built-in forum search.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 31, 2023, 08:18:28 PM
This would be a great alternative to SMF's built-in forum search.
For the mean time, feel free to add something like this to your sig:
Google search MusicBee forum (https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=426af386625354430#gsc.tab=0)

Code
[url=https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=426af386625354430#gsc.tab=0]Google search MusicBee forum[/url]
I'll only have 10¢ per click please?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on May 31, 2023, 08:24:53 PM
Code
[url=https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=426af386625354430#gsc.tab=0]Google search MusicBee forum[/url]
I'll only have 10¢ per click please?
Great idea. I'll have to see how much room I have left in the signature.

I have forwarded your payment request to Jeff Bezos to handle personally. You should be hearing from him directly.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 31, 2023, 08:29:08 PM
I have forwarded your payment request to Jeff Bezos to handle personally. You should be hearing from him directly.
Please don't take me for a fool.
Jeff is at my dinner table right now, and he says you should contact Sundar.
I won't be cheated out of this one!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on May 31, 2023, 08:32:30 PM
Jeff is at my dinner table right now, and he says you should contact Sundar.
I won't be cheated out of this one!
I hope Jeff is picking up your dinner tab.
Sundar says I should forward the payment request to Elon. You'll need to be a verified user in order to see his reply.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 31, 2023, 08:36:46 PM
Sundar says I should forward the payment request to Elon. You'll need to be a verified user in order to see his reply.
O.k. As it happens I am having a chessboxing match with Elon coming Sunday, so I trust everything will get settled then.
Thanks for lobbying!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on May 31, 2023, 08:55:39 PM
Thanks for lobbying!
Elon asked me to tell you that it's been a business doing pleasure with you.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 31, 2023, 08:58:10 PM
Elon asked me to tell you that it's been a business doing pleasure with you.
I'm glad to hear he was impressed.
(that doesn't happen often)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on May 31, 2023, 09:23:00 PM
Great idea. I'll have to see how much room I have left in the signature.
Nice.

(https://i.imgur.com/Ko2ZDib.png)
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on May 31, 2023, 11:13:05 PM
Code
[url=https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=426af386625354430#gsc.tab=0]Google search MusicBee forum[/url]
I'll only have 10¢ per click please?
Great idea. I'll have to see how much room I have left in the signature.

I have forwarded your payment request to Jeff Bezos to handle personally. You should be hearing from him directly.

phred, is it possible to stick "forum google search" topic at the top of every forum board?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on June 01, 2023, 01:13:27 AM
phred, is it possible to stick "forum google search" topic at the top of every forum board?
Good idea, boroda, but I think Avikb or Steven would have the ability to do that. -If- it can be done at all.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on June 01, 2023, 05:53:24 PM
Yes, but AvikB is absent on the forum for a long time, nd Steven (i'm afraid) can't modify SMF to place google search in the forum header (instead of sticking "google search" topic).
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on June 01, 2023, 06:56:59 PM
Yes, but AvikB is absent on the forum for a long time, nd Steven (i'm afraid) can't modify SMF to place google search in the forum header (instead of sticking "google search" topic).
AvikB was last on the forum in early March. But you're right, he's not here often enough to see website requests on a timely basis. And to at least offer his opinion on whether or not something could be done.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: frankz on June 11, 2023, 01:46:30 PM
Does the forum package have the capability of tagging threads with topics?

It could be useful to have a few trusted users be able to tag resolved posts with broad topics like "Artwork" or "Playback" or "Import" and things like that and then link people to a specific topic (like getmusicbee.com/forum/tags/artwork) when they ask questions that are repeated often.

It'll help with google searches too.


Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on June 11, 2023, 03:15:35 PM
Does the forum package have the capability of tagging threads with topics?
I would guess that it can't based on a quick look at the Simple Machines website (https://www.simplemachines.org/). It's not the easiest website to navigate, but feel free to take a look. The MB forum is running on v1.9.5 and the current is v2.1.4. If you can find a change log, or even a current features list, you've put more time into it than I have.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: boroda on June 29, 2023, 06:49:45 PM
i've tired of the ugly "New" text label on the forum instead of the old icon, so i've created css style for the "Stylus" browser extension (available for all modern browsers). this css style replaces the missing "New" site icon by the icon directly embedded to the style.

this is how the forum is now looking for me:

(https://i.imgur.com/kePsdc2.png)

the extension link to google chrome store:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylus/clngdbkpkpeebahjckkjfobafhncgmne

css code:
Code
/* ==UserStyle==
@name           getmusicbee.com - 29.06.2023, 20:38:40
@namespace      github.com/openstyles/stylus
@version        1.0.0
@description    A new userstyle
@author         Me
==/UserStyle== */

@-moz-document url-prefix("https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php") {
    img[src="https://getmusicbee.com/forum/Themes/mb_modern/images/russian-utf8/new.gif"]
    {
        content: url("data:image/png;base64,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");
    }
}
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 13, 2023, 12:16:51 PM
i set the limit to 25000 in case you need to use that
I hate to ask again, but…

Even the limit of 25.000 can be a problem when posting formatted BBcode tables such as this one (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=39759.msg214938#msg214938) and this one (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=39759.msg214908#msg214908).

A solution can be to split up such a post in two posts.
But here is a situation where that doesn't work well:
- you have created such a post, and after that there have been several replies to it
- then you want to add another (related) BB-code table

You can not add it to the existing post, since that one already contains e.g. some 20.000 characters.
You can create a new post for it, but that one will end up at the end of the thread, breaking continuity.

So, if it is possible (and doesn't create possible issues), I would request the limit to be raised to 50.000 characters.


edit:
To give some idea, this table is using up 1096 BBcode characters:

123
abc
abc
abc
abc

@karbock:
Do you share this observation, and if so, do you agree that 50.000 would be good?
 
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: karbock on August 14, 2023, 07:41:56 AM
@karbock:
Do you share this observation, and if so, do you agree that 50.000 would be good?

I share your opinion, since I've already had the same problem with large tables; the options were to split the post and/or to prune some formatting codes.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on August 14, 2023, 12:08:40 PM
i have changed it to 50,000 chars
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: karbock on August 14, 2023, 04:55:08 PM
i have changed it to 50,000 chars
Thanks, Steven!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on August 14, 2023, 10:06:12 PM
i have changed it to 50,000 chars
Great, thank you for the very fast action.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 12:37:35 AM
Something that has been bothering me for a long time but I've not expressed before.
A forum member with only a few posts is labeled a newbie, and one with far too many posts to suggest he also has a real life is called a hero.
(just kidding of course, hero's are also great at multitasking)
I'm not sure about all the categories that exist between newbie and hero, but it might be good to think of something else, and at least get rid of 'hero'?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 02, 2023, 01:24:03 AM
I'm not sure about all the categories that exist between newbie and hero, but it might be good to think of something else, and at least get rid of 'hero'?
I'm pretty sure neither Steven nor AvikB have any say/control over this. I think the thresholds for the various levels are built in by SMF.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 01:33:42 AM
I'm not sure about all the categories that exist between newbie and hero, but it might be good to think of something else, and at least get rid of 'hero'?
I'm pretty sure neither Steven nor AvikB have any say/control over this. I think the thresholds for the various levels are built in by SMF.
https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/SMF2.0:Membergroups
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 02, 2023, 02:51:59 AM
https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/SMF2.0:Membergroups
Nice find.
+1 to at least changing "hero member" to something else. Perhaps "prolific member"?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: Steven on September 02, 2023, 04:54:31 AM
now if you make 100,000 posts you can become a Hero!
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 08:17:44 AM
now if you make 100,000 posts you can become a Hero!
Let's
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 08:18:35 AM
see
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 08:19:10 AM
if
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 08:19:41 AM
we
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 08:20:12 AM
can
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 08:20:41 AM
get
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 02, 2023, 08:21:16 AM
there.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: phred on September 02, 2023, 01:00:03 PM
now if you make 100,000 posts you can become a Hero!
Thanks Steven. Now you only have 66,000 to go.

So it would seem you changed the category threshold rather than the category name.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on September 05, 2023, 03:16:12 PM
+1 to at least changing "hero member" to something else. Perhaps "prolific member"?
I came across 'veteran' on another forum.
Somewhat in hindsight now, but perhaps that would have been a better option?
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 11, 2023, 03:38:25 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/iJ5Rtzy.png)


(https://i.imgur.com/MV2eR66.png)
 
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: sveakul on November 11, 2023, 07:28:06 PM
I came across 'veteran' on another forum.
Somewhat in hindsight now, but perhaps that would have been a better option?
+1
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on November 11, 2023, 08:16:50 PM
I came across 'veteran' on another forum.
Somewhat in hindsight now, but perhaps that would have been a better option?
+1
In supporting my own suggestion...
(I'm not above any human flaw ;-)

To me 'senior' only implies someone being of a certain 'old age'.

'veteran' implies that someone has been active and participating for a longer time and has seen and learned things.
(e.g. has watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate)

Until somebody thinks of more appropriate qualifications, 'veteran' would have my preference.
Title: Re: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign
Post by: hiccup on March 16, 2024, 03:33:11 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/WTRl0vu.png)

An upward trend in MusicBee users?
Some tik-tok MB video that was posted somewhere recently?
Spambots banging on the door trying to get in?