TowersStreet Site Discussion & Feedback

[Mike]

Ok, I get it, you don't like IE, but unfortunately a hell of a lot of people do still use it. The forum was already bug ridden when viewing in IE, and as pretty as this latest facelift is it is now completely unreadable.

I now have to open up another browser just to view this one site. Regardless of your personal preferences surely this isn't a smart move? :/

What version of IE are you running? Seems to function fine in the latest version, so long as you turn compatibility mode or whatever they call it off

 

[BigDave]

Microsoft basically made up their own rules about how webpages should work. So its hard to get something to work well on IE and also work on other browsers as they no longer work in the same way. (Putting in the simplest terms)

A lot of sites actually choose to either make it work best on IE and not so much on other browsers or do the complete opposite. I think that this forum has done a good job getting it work as best as they can on both. Considering most people now use Chrome (51% of people apparently), I think its the right thing to do to put them first and then IE support afterwards.

 

[T]

I think if you're using IE you're asking for issues from the offset

Liking this new update! Implementing a bar that actually helps people find other areas of the site is a brilliant idea.

Well done!

 

[Joel]

Just a little something I've noticed. When I view my alerts it shows up like this:

I guess it's not meant to be like that? It wasn't before. Sorry if it's already been mentioned!

Can you let me know what browser, browser version and operating system so I can investigate? Thanks!

 

[Joel]

Ok, I get it, you don't like IE, but unfortunately a hell of a lot of people do still use it. The forum was already bug ridden when viewing in IE, and as pretty as this latest facelift is it is now completely unreadable.

Actually, statistically only 13.7% of all visits in the last 7 days used Internet Explorer, so it is in no way "used by a hell of a lot of people". Both Chrome and Firefox massively outstrip the users of IE here. Out of those visitors, only 0.7% of the visits use an incompatible version of Internet Explorer (7 and below). Internet Explorer versions 8, 9 and 10 can view the site fine (albeit with some small bugs that need fixing with wrapping text - unfortunately I don't have every copy of IE available to me right now, so I either rely on people telling me there is an issue, or using the build in compatibility tools in IE10 to view the site as IE8 and IE9).

Rather than attack me and my supposed IE hatred you have inflicted (which I have never demonstrated, however I do refuse to support any browser than represents 1% of a total user visits) you would perhaps be better to highlight the actual issue you are having to see if it is something I can fix.

I now have to open up another browser just to view this one site. Regardless of your personal preferences surely this isn't a smart move? :/

As a voluntary position that I spend doing in my spare time for no reward, might I inform you that my personal preferences are in the interest of the majority of the site however, so the 99.3% or even the 86.3% of users are the ones that I work to accommodate first, representing a 'smart move' as you term it, and not the minority.

That said I am sorry that you need to open another browser to view the site. Can I suggest you inform me of the details of the browser you are using and the issue you are having (a screenshot would be great) so I can actually see the issue and understand if I am able to fix it, or not.

 

[Rob]

Just a little something I've noticed. When I view my alerts it shows up like this:

I guess it's not meant to be like that? It wasn't before. Sorry if it's already been mentioned!

Can you let me know what browser, browser version and operating system so I can investigate? Thanks!

I'm using the latest version of Firefox (which I think it says is 20.0.1?), on Windows Vista.

 

[Novas]

Ok, I get it, you don't like IE, but unfortunately a hell of a lot of people do still use it. The forum was already bug ridden when viewing in IE, and as pretty as this latest facelift is it is now completely unreadable.

Actually, statistically only 13.7% of all visits in the last 7 days used Internet Explorer, so it is in no way "used by a hell of a lot of people". Both Chrome and Firefox massively outstrip the users of IE here. Out of those visitors, only 0.7% of the visits use an incompatible version of Internet Explorer (7 and below). Internet Explorer versions 8, 9 and 10 can view the site fine (albeit with some small bugs that need fixing with wrapping text - unfortunately I don't have every copy of IE available to me right now, so I either rely on people telling me there is an issue, or using the build in compatibility tools in IE10 to view the site as IE8 and IE9).

Rather than attack me and my supposed IE hatred you have inflicted (which I have never demonstrated, however I do refuse to support any browser than represents 1% of a total user visits) you would perhaps be better to highlight the actual issue you are having to see if it is something I can fix.

I now have to open up another browser just to view this one site. Regardless of your personal preferences surely this isn't a smart move? :/

As a voluntary position that I spend doing in my spare time for no reward, might I inform you that my personal preferences are in the interest of the majority of the site however, so the 99.3% or even the 86.3% of users are the ones that I work to accommodate first, representing a 'smart move' as you term it, and not the minority.

That said I am sorry that you need to open another browser to view the site. Can I suggest you inform me of the details of the browser you are using and the issue you are having (a screenshot would be great) so I can actually see the issue and understand if I am able to fix it, or not.

Whoa.

First off those stats genuinely took me back. Computers don't really interest me, I just like to turn them on and have them work, so in that respect I'm very aware that I'm a bit of a technological dinosaur, however I still assumed that IE's dominance was a given, clearly this isn't the case.

I admit I was in a rush this morning and my post was very short and sharp. Unfortunately i'm often quite blunt and offensive, it's just my way - It doesn't help that I often forget that I haven't been around here very long and therefore my posting style is much more likely to be taken the wrong way.

I assure you that my intention was not to offend or attack you in any way or to show any disrespect to the enormous amount of time / money / effort that you invest in this site. Clearly my comment was taken as such and I apologies.

To the initial problem, I'm on IE9 (I had to look that up,) and the lovely new menu bar appeared vertically down the middle of the page, making it impossible to click on anything without getting stuck in an additional drop down menu.

No screenshot as I'm 1%<, and if those figures are correct then quite rightly I don't expect to be catered for! I'll just have to use something new *grumbles*

 

[haydn!]

I like the new menu bar, though a few comments.

The gold looks more like dirty yellow, even on the logo so probably needs a little touch up.

On the menu drop-downs, I'm not sure black is the best colour choice on hover, maybe try the dirty yellow gold.

 

[Joel]

No screenshot as I'm 1%<, and if those figures are correct then quite rightly I don't expect to be catered for! I'll just have to use something new *grumbles*

Actually you're not the 1%, and the site will work fine in IE9 - however you probably need to adjust something in your browser to make it show right, and unfortunately Microsoft doesn't educate people very well in this matter

You need to turn off "Compatibility View" which is what is breaking the site for you. I suspect there might be some way to do it in code too on my end (that is to tell IE to absolutely not never ever show the site in this 'compatibility view'), so I'll have a look at that too to help others who don't understand IE's silly ways of working.

Anyway - you need to find a little icon that looks like a broken page rather aptly - it should be in the address bar like so:

Click it to turn it off - it shouldn't be a dark blue colour. The site should hopefully show much better for you.

As for the rest - there's no hard feelings, and unfortunately when barked at I usually bark back, so apologies for that also. I forget not everyone is tech savvy, but alas yes IE is quite unpopular these days, except for in the corporate world where it is often still forced (although that is often changing).

Hope that fixes the site for you nonetheless!

 

[Joel]

I'm using the latest version of Firefox (which I think it says is 20.0.1?), on Windows Vista.

Ta muchly! I'll look into this for you, probably something stupid I've done.

The gold looks more like dirty yellow, even on the logo so probably needs a little touch up.

On the menu drop-downs, I'm not sure black is the best colour choice on hover, maybe try the dirty yellow gold.

Yeah I'm definitely looking at tweaking some of the colours for the bar.

Unfortunately on both accounts I'm currently being held to ransom to complete Uni work, so I'll try and get these sorted sometime over the next week, sorry about that!

 

[MattyH]

I still have the alert problem (Latest version of firefox, Windows 7)

 

[Scott]

Use Chrome

Nah I'm kidding, Joel's said it's on his to-do list and I'm sure he will look when he can peek away from his Uni work sometime soon.

 

[MattyH]

Use Chrome

Tried that, it worked and then went all buggy for some reason and wouldn't let me on my emails, so got firefox instead, much better now.

 

[MattyH]

All better now

 

[CGM]

I really don't like the way the new navigation banner follows you down the page as you scroll. I find it quite distracting and it takes up screen space.

I spend 99% of my time on Towers Street reading the forums as I suspect most people here do. If I ever do need to get to other parts of the site, it has never been too much hassle to just scroll to the top. I don't really need the links there at all times.

It might just be me and I feel bad for bringing it up as I know how much work goes into this site but that's just my opinion of it.

 

[LiamC]

Does it follow everyone around? I've never had it follow me up and down the page :/

 

[Dave]

Depends on the device you use to view the site, mobile devices and some tablets it won't follow you.

 

[Andrew]

When the links are hovered over on the banner, they are highlighted white. Would this be better in a different colour (such as gold) so it doesn't look as out of place?

Also, if the text in the banner was central, it would would look much neater as it seems a little out of proportion right now.

Asides from that, good work again!

 

[BigDave]

I think they were just aiming with a colour reversal with the purple background becoming white and the white text becoming purple. As for center aligning of the text, yeah I agree it would probably look neater.

Also I know its probably TST's way, but could we have Capital letters at the beginning of each new button/menu?

 

[DiogoJ42]

capital letters are uncool. did no-one tell you? personally, i agree with you, but hey what do i know about cool? i'm an old fart.