New website!!!!! :)

[muskokajoe]

First, it looks awesome. I can't comprehend the amount of work involved - thanks Greg!

Probably not unexpected, but there are some glitches, of which I fully expect at least half to be user errors.

First thing I had trouble with is that the home page tells me I have no games scheduled. Figured this one out - drop the menu from "TUC PLAYERS" and click on the "MY GAMES" link on the right side.

Posting this required failing the character recognition test twice (I thought I was already logged in?) and requesting a new password, but here I am!

A great adventure - best wishes!

cheers, and thanks again,

Doug.

ps - oh, and the clock is 4 hours fast wrt my cell phone.

[GregS]

First, it looks awesome. I can't comprehend the amount of work involved - thanks Greg!

Thanks, Doug; it's been a lot of work by a lot of people!

First thing I had trouble with is that the home page tells me I have no games scheduled.

This should be fixed now.

Posting this required failing the character recognition test twice (I thought I was already logged in?) and requesting a new password, but here I am!

It seems to be sometimes recognizing that you're logged in, but not always. I'm looking into this.

oh, and the clock is 4 hours fast wrt my cell phone.

This should be fixed now too. I hope...

[muskokajoe]

Thanks, Doug; it's been a lot of work by a lot of people!

Well, please extend the thanks.

First thing I had trouble with is that the home page tells me I have no games scheduled.

This should be fixed now.

It is. Yay! (I thought I got cut for minute there!)

Posting this required failing the character recognition test twice (I thought I was already logged in?) and requesting a new password, but here I am!

It seems to be sometimes recognizing that you're logged in, but not always. I'm looking into this.

Thanks.
I also got this error:

Notice: date_default_timezone_set(): Timezone ID '-18000' is invalid in drupal_session_initialize() (line 273 of /home/tuc/public_html/includes/session.inc).
Notice: date_default_timezone_set(): Timezone ID '-18000' is invalid in drupal_session_initialize() (line 273 of /home/tuc/public_html/includes/session.inc).
Exception: DateTimeZone::__construct(): Unknown or bad timezone (-18000) in DateTimeZone->__construct() (line 206 of /home/tuc/public_html/sites/all/modules/date/date_api/date_api.module).
The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.

Happy to help with the debugging. That's what users are for, right?

[GregS]

I also got this error

Yeah, turns out that my time zone fix earlier was more papering over a hole than actually fixing it. It should REALLY be fixed now. I believe that, because I got the same error and it wouldn't let me even log in until I had fixed it...

[DjDATZ]

Greg, just a heads up, the UCP on the BBS is looking a little weird.

Other than that, and some minor login hitches, the site looks awesome!! I'm glad we still have the Zuluru portion with all the information it holds! Thanks a ton for your, and everyone elses' work!

[lwswong]

can we change the BBS default back to "descending" order so that the newest posts are at the top?

annoying to scroll down large posts (eg. TPL).

[GregS]

Greg, just a heads up, the UCP on the BBS is looking a little weird.

Thanks, should be fixed now!

[Crunchy]

can we change the BBS default back to "descending" order so that the newest posts are at the top?

annoying to scroll down large posts (eg. TPL).

NO!! DON'T CHANGE IT! I've literally waited 6+ years for this! Finally things are normal!

And the fact that Lawrence doesn't like it is a sweet bonus.

[Crunchy]

Anyway we can have that widget on the front page with the top 5 most recent post to the BBS (regardless of which category it's in)?

[GregS]

can we change the BBS default back to "descending" order so that the newest posts are at the top?

annoying to scroll down large posts (eg. TPL).

Try clicking the little icon to the left of the topic title on the forum page. It will take you to your personal first unread message in the thread. No scrolling required!

Anyway we can have that widget on the front page with the top 5 most recent post to the BBS (regardless of which category it's in)?

The old home page was too busy and overwhelming; this was one of the biggest complaints from new users. It was a tough decision to remove the latest BBS posts from there, but the decision was that regular users know where to find the BBS, and can easily click the "unread posts" link to get the latest. If there's an overwhelming outcry, this may be revisited.

[lwswong]

If there's an overwhelming outcry, this may be revisited.

I think most people consider the sheer volume of Bill's crying to be overwhelming.

[mark_tran]

can we change the BBS default back to "descending" order so that the newest posts are at the top?

annoying to scroll down large posts (eg. TPL).

All you have to do is go to: User Control Panel -> Board Preferences -> Edit Display Options -> Then change Display post order direction from Ascending to Descending. Voila!

[Wartank]

i'll give this descending order of posts a try i guess... but thanks mark for providing an out!!

also in the interest of debugging, when i log into the BBS, it sends me back to the TUC homepage and makes me log into the TUC homepage again.

In the interest of feedback -- the header takes up an awful lot of room. I understand the splash on the homepage, but I find every time i'm hitting a link i'm having to scroll down so i can see content. Yes, the TPL makes this more of an issue Perhaps think about or solicit feedback on having an even smaller footprint header on content pages?

[GregS]

also in the interest of debugging, when i log into the BBS, it sends me back to the TUC homepage and makes me log into the TUC homepage again.

I'm working on this one. It's proving difficult to debug, because it's not reliably failing for me on the test server! You should never have to log in to the BBS directly. It seems to work best if you log out from the main site, then log in, then visit the BBS. I know this is a pain, and is only suggested as a temporary workaround.

In the interest of feedback -- the header takes up an awful lot of room. I understand the splash on the homepage, but I find every time i'm hitting a link i'm having to scroll down so i can see content. Yes, the TPL makes this more of an issue Perhaps think about or solicit feedback on having an even smaller footprint header on content pages?

You're not the first to mention this, and I've just "smallened" it a little bit. (A little bit more than it had already been smallened before even launching the site.) You will have to hit refresh once or twice to get the new version. Might yet go a little further, or adjust other spacing somewhat, but more pressing things (see above) to work on this evening.

[DjDATZ]

As a completely random aside...

How did the signatures get transferred over? I could swear that the signature being displayed for me now was not one I ever used on TUC, but I did have it previously on a phpBB board I was part of, but that one's been long gone (easily 5+ years).

[GregS]

The BBS software is just a newer version of what we had before, so I simply ran their built-in conversion process. Pretty sure that part of that is not going out and finding your signature from some discontinued site...

[GregS]

There were some issues with BBS logins, which I believe are now resolved. In particular, the main site might know you were logged in but it would show you as logged out when you went to the BBS (and it turns out there were two different bugs that could both cause this). Please contact webmaster@tuc.org if you still have issues in this area.

Note that if you click "post reply" when you are not logged in at all, it will take you through two login attempts and not return you to posting after that; this is yet another issue, and I'm looking into it, but with less urgency than the other issues, since it's just an inconvenience and you can still get in to post.

[DjDATZ]

It would also seem that the latest cookie that was saved whenever I was on here last on my work laptop (Friday methinks) is not expiring my login, and so I was logged in when I re-visited the site. Wheeee! *insert rolling around emoticon*

[Wartank]

Anyway we can have that widget on the front page with the top 5 most recent post to the BBS (regardless of which category it's in)?

If there's an overwhelming outcry, this may be revisited.

I think most people consider the sheer volume of Bill's crying to be overwhelming.

I second this (not the bill part, but the BBS preview widget) - I feel like this makes the BBS far less useful and participative. The preview was not only an easy way to access the BBS, it reduced clicks to get to content we might be interested in, and most importantly provided the ONLY way to scan new posts to see what might be interesting/relevant. The alternative is to drill into each of the forums' folders/threads and click into each one -- which is a bit daunting when there are so many and the topics/threads are often overlapping -- I'm guessing most people do not want to do that.

[GregS]

most importantly provided the ONLY way to scan new posts to see what might be interesting/relevant

The only way, apart from clicking "View unread posts" at the top of the main BBS page. Which gives a list of *all* new posts, as opposed to just the 5 most recent. One might even set a bookmark right to that page so that they could get there in a single click no matter where on the internet they might be, if clicks were of a concern.

[Wartank]

it'd be interesting to see how frequently the bbs is used going forward and if it truly does have an impact. Anyway, you said you might revisit the widget if there was feedback, so i was adding my voice/opinion to it.

[*JEANS*]

Greg knows I love him so this isnt a direct jab at him but if I understand the logic behind the revamp correctly it was to make the site "easier" or less confusing for people visiting the site to navigate around and find what they're looking for. yes? well, I can't understand how thats possible as I think everything was right there for you, but whatevs, and the new site seems worse than its ever been to find things. sh%t, I can't anything and seem to have to re-login all the time. Its fine to find my games but what about other leagues youre not apart of? What happened to clicking the night of the week, clicking the upcoming or currently running league and seeing what teams have registered thus far or have the ability to look at standings or schedules? where the standings and schedule link? and I know this certainly is not a vote but I'd have to agree with warren on the BBS issue. Since the launch of the new site I think I've checked the BBS twice and thats just to see if anyone else was having troubles with the site.

I'm super grateful we have a guy like you Greg to assist with all the stuff you do for tuc and its members but revamping the site.... I just don't get it. stylistically I don't think it flows and it seems to have lost a lot of functionality. sorry, thats just my shitty 2 cents.

[GregS]

Thanks for the comments, I know they're meant as constructive criticism.

Our main goals with the redesign were to 1) make it less overwhelming for new users, 2) make it easier to find information about upcoming offerings, 3) make it mobile-friendly, 4) improve page load times and 5) get a look that's not from the 90s. I think we've accomplished all of those things, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. But it's inevitable that with such a big change there will be some issues. We've already resolved a number of these, and are taking all comments into account to continue to tweak it so it works as well as it can for everyone.

I'm aware of the issue with it not remembering your login, and am working on it; of course, it doesn't happen to me, so it's hard to debug! We've discussed some options for getting the recent BBS posts back on the home page, and if we can find a way to do that without things getting too crowded, we'll do so. And the league information is all still available through My Games, though maybe there's an extra click in there now. Schedules and Standings was a direct link to the "Leagues" page; again, if we can find a place to put this without causing other problems, we'll do it!

[dentonmatthew]

Can I add to the outcry of people missing the "Last 5 BBS posts" section of the site?

You can watermark the TUC Logo over the photo of the volunteers, and put the Last 5 in the top left.

Sadly, few will comment on this as the BBS is very painful to find. BBS Participation is mostly a "see the headline, then decide to click, read, and react"
Certainly the TPL thread, one that would normally have hundreds of posts by now, has only just passed 100.

[GregS]

The TPL thread had 47 posts on it in the first 25 days, under the old design with the summary on the front page. That's about 2 posts per day. Since then, it has had another 57 posts in 38 days, 1.5 per day. Don't know that we would have gotten to "hundreds" by now. Could there be less posts because there's also now a TPL Twitter feed and Facebook group cannibalizing the traffic? I do remain a little skeptical that there are tons of people who are going to the home page right now, scrolling down, not seeing the "recent posts" widget and saying "meh". If the only reason they're there is for the BBS, they should be bookmarking the BBS instead of the home page; if the only reason they're scrolling down is to check the recent posts, they can easily click the BBS link instead; if they're not scrolling down at all, they never would have seen the list before so won't be missing it now; if they are missing the list of new posts, they should look for the "Unread posts" link right at the top of the BBS.

And there's no possible way I'm putting the most recent 5 posts in the top left corner of the page, where they are the first thing that a brand new user would look at! Decreasing confusion for new people was a key design criteria and that would be highly counter-productive.

That said, we are looking at shrinking the VoM section on the home page, which would make room for the recent posts block to go below it. But I'm swamped with other projects at the moment, things with deadlines that I'm getting paid for.

Apologies if this is less jovial than you're used to from me; it's been a stupid week with a million distractions and very little progress on the things that I urgently need to get done.

[GwaiLo]

1) Now that I've been using the site for a bit, I can say, GREAT work everybody that was involved.
2) Re-itterating login issues. Still happening (which I know you're looking into). Have even tried deleting cookies from home computer, to no avail.
3) Another vote to get the BBS "most recent" posts somewhere back on the main page (maybe even in the section where the tweets are?). Many days, I've completely forgotten about the BBS, and missed posts / threads (such as this one....which I only discovered today, despite the fact taht it was started almost 2 monhts ago). I would argue (in a non-confrontational way) that this impacts more than just the "harcore that would find the BBS anyway". 2 completely unrelated examples:
example A - "Subs" - Team is looking for subs. Said team posts on the BBS in an effort to find subs. The thread gets missed by most users (many of which might have seen it if it was on the main page). Nobody replies. Team defaults or plays short. Everybody is sad.
example B - "the pylons" - Team loses pylons. Posts on BBS. Pylons are found, and could be given back to owner, but The Pylons are never returned to rightful owner, as person that found them missed the thread in the lost and found. Everybody is sad.

[Edk001]

No idea if this has been raised previously (I'm not re-reading this entire thread), but under the old format, one could log in and see rosters of teams in other leagues, not just one's own games. For example, if you were on a league page and then logged in, you would stay on that page, and then be able to click on specific teams.

Now this ability is lost - one can only see one's own games when one logs in. Good luck trying to find the league page again, let alone try to see the rosters. There is a longwinded way to eventually find this, by going through the TUC players menu, then offerings by season, then the list of options, etc. But this is neither intuitive nor user friendly, which goes counter to the intention to make this site friendly for new users (let alone long time users).

Dunno if this is one more thing that will make Darren sad (per above post), but anyway, perhaps this could be fixed too.

[GregS]

No idea if this has been raised previously (I'm not re-reading this entire thread), but under the old format, one could log in and see rosters of teams in other leagues, not just one's own games. For example, if you were on a league page and then logged in, you would stay on that page, and then be able to click on specific teams.

Now this ability is lost - one can only see one's own games when one logs in. Good luck trying to find the league page again, let alone try to see the rosters. There is a longwinded way to eventually find this, by going through the TUC players menu, then offerings by season, then the list of options, etc. But this is neither intuitive nor user friendly, which goes counter to the intention to make this site friendly for new users (let alone long time users).

Dunno if this is one more thing that will make Darren sad (per above post), but anyway, perhaps this could be fixed too.

The less longwinded way to get there is to click My Games, then Leagues in the left menu. Will add a shortcut link to this page to the list of revisions to consider.

[GregS]

I've been super busy with another project (see post about youth sports) for the past several weeks, but that's pretty much wrapped up now, so I will finally be getting to these items. Apologies for the delays!

[Crunchy]

Is there an ETA for API support????????

[GregS]

Is there an ETA for API support????????

Alas, it's pretty far down on my todo list. Zuluru is open-source, though, so you could always just add API support yourself...