[WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign

[AvikB]

okay forum registration should be working now.

[AvikB]

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.

[psychoadept]

I have kept the link to the patch up to date on the wiki. It changes rarely enough that it's not much work.

[AvikB]

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.

[Bee-liever]

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?

[Bee-liever]

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?

[AvikB]

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.

[AvikB]

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.

[Bee-liever]

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

[AvikB]

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?

[psychoadept]

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.

[phred]

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.

[AvikB]

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.

[AvikB]

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.

[hiccup]

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.

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.

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.

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.