[WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign

[Steven]

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

[phred]

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.

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. 

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. 

[phred]

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.


- 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.

[hiccup]

The fonts in the new forum are looking a bit ugly. (in FireFox)
is there something to be done about that?

[Skoop]

"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. 

[AvikB]

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.

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. :/

[AvikB]

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.

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.

- 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

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.

[AvikB]

The fonts in the new forum are looking a bit ugly. (in FireFox)
is there something to be done about that?

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?

[AvikB]

"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
in the new website it is till not up yet.

[hiccup]

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'?

[Skoop]

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?

[AvikB]

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.

[AvikB]

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)

[AvikB]

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)

[AvikB]

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