Hi all,
As the person responsible for implementing Phil's vision for LJN 3.0, I thought I'd chime in with a reply to some of the comments on the new site, most of which seem to be positive, but some of which are negative.
Phil has already mentioned why the change was necessary in terms of the site host moving to a newly designed platform. There are some differences in how that new platform works, some of which are not as intuitive as before, but there are many new functions that are far more intuitive than before and some features which offer site owners like Phil far greater flexibility in how they deliver content to end users. And it's that point which we explored when working on the redesign.
LJN is first and foremost a member site. A community that provides invaluable information to a large number of people. The exchange of ideas, information, insight and help is what drives it, but there is a mix of user types that needs to be catered for: members who contribute, members who read and don't contribute, visitors who find LJN via searching for landscapers, contractors etc.
Finding a balance that catered for all was key.
The homepage is designed to showcase what's new in the community but also aimed to showcase the work of that community to the wider public. Phil now has greater control over content curation - the ability to put front and centre work from the community that the wider public will be inspired by - which, put simply, has to be to the benefit of everybody that visits the site. If, as businesses, LJN members get additional work because there is an awesome landscaping picture on the frontpage, then the feeling was that was a positive step.
The web, especially the way people digest it via mobile, has become a more visual place. Images and videos really do work on mobile. Given the sheer volume of users who post great photos of projects they work on, it seemed like an obvious choice to showcase that work, hence "Projects we love". These are as far removed from stock images as you could get. They are what you, LJN members, post every day. Similarly, Phil needed a space to broadcast industry news and site updates/news via the blog, which is what you see on the slider on the homepage. Again, LJN gets a lot of non-member traffic, so this is a section that these people will hopefully gravitate towards.
There will inevitably be some getting used to the new site but the beauty of the new platform is that it's extremely flexible. For example, if users don't like the three column homepage, we could offer an alternative version with one wide column containing only the forum, for you to bookmark. That would be an easy thing for Phil to do without the need for a developer like me, something not possible on the old platform.
In terms of what people are seeing on various devices/operating systems, please do file screenshots and as much detail as you can so we can debug. Ning 'out of the box' is designed to respond well on all screen sizes and platforms, but I know that there are some glitches in the underlying HTML architecture that means some elements don't always look as good as they can. I do my best to test all browsers, sizes and systems but the many variants make it virtually impossible. So, please do share glitches .... And the love, of course.
Thanks
Rich
Views: 258
Replies
Hi
I'm curious to know if you guys still believe the switch over to be a success, the forum seems to have lost its spice and at times it feels like the tumble weeds are blowing past.
I think this thread speaks volumes about the current position:
LJN : Open All Hours
Great spread of topics, posts and member input....
The Forum is what you make of it .
Remember the 90-9-1 rule :)
The biggest thing that is missing is the facility to go straight to the last reply (unless I'm missing a trick somewhere!)
For example when reading the thread on the pesticide workshop and someone has commented then I have to do lots of mouse clicks to read the comment when before it was just one click on the main forum page!
Also if someone replies to an individual part way through a thread it is not always obvious to who and requires a good scanning of all the comments just to see one reply.
This is not a reason for me not contributing, I have been busy of late, but the navigation of the site has in my opinion become in part more difficult with v3 compared to v2.
I agree that this is frustrating Nick. It's a feature that Ning removed, not something I've opted out of.
I was aware of that - do you think Ning are likely to bring it back?
I think I've read on Ning Creators that this feature will return.
I don't tend to visit the Ning forum too much as it's populated by lots of moaners and there's no room for anything constructive.
Would it be possible to highlight comments that are new since a user last entered the thread? such as a slightly different shade over the comment or some such? Would aleviate that problem.
I don't have that facility available Seth.
There are a number of ways of following new activity. Each thread has an opt in or opt out link on each post that enables you to get an email alert whenever there's a new reply.
Alternatively you can click through the days activity and click on the last reply link there.