salttee wrote:

Please fix the time stamps for posts: "moments ago" doesn't get it even if it was actually "moments ago.".

Many web sites include a link back to the post being quoted when quoting from another post, which makes it easy to get the context behind a quote; that would be a nice feature here.

Post time is not a bug, it's a time format mismatch between the forum settings and your computer. Please see the below thread, particulary post 14
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1344559

As Johnny mentioned, the list is still active and I presume already in the hands of the new team. If not, we will make sure it will be. Everything that has been mentioned in this thread so far is on that list and it is still being curated. I will continue to post the solved issues in the Issues FAQ thread.

Hi Jeff, would you please consider bringing back the respect rating system? Or perhaps some other ranking system (novice, expert etc.). It was very useful being able to differentiate between the longstanding members of the community who regularly contribute posts of high quality and the members that don't.

Also, I'm in the camp that would like membership fees brought back in. It's not out of annoyance that the old members paid and others now don't have to, it's that paid membership would improve the quality of posts on this forum.

And welcome to a.net!

Please do not fill the forums with ads and clickbait, at least not for members who have actually paid to be able to post and contribute.

Welcome Jeff and VerticalScope! Best wishes in your stewardship of the site. I am a longtime member and consider it my go-to discussion forum for airline and airport matters, and airliner-photo database. For instance, I check some new-issue 1:400 diecast airliner models against your photos for accuracy.

There are features from the "old" site that I would like to see returned.
--First, when one looks at a photo, it used to have an option to click on some code to have a thumbnail of the photo show up in a posting at another site. For instance, I discuss 1:400 airliner models at a couple of sites. I used to be able to post thumbnails of Airliners.net photos for reference in my postings, which was very helpful.

--Second, the search feature used to have an option to search by decade: 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, etc. It was helpful for my management of my 1:400 collection to be able to find out what an aircraft at a given carrier looked like in a given decade.

--Third, I second all those who ask that the 'hover-over' feature for airport codes and airline IATA codes be returned.

Fourth, count me among those who strongly believe that the old-style blue look, is far superior to the awful white look and weird formatting of the first version of the "new" site.

Sincerely,
Jim

moderators wrote:

I don't know much about Leaf but VerticalScope is the company I work for who aquired the sites. We have been adding new verticals to our mainly automotive focus. The great thing is that we are still original owner owned who has a passion for online communities.

Our History: http://www.verticalscope.com/about-us/our-history.html

Management Team: http://www.verticalscope.com/about-us/m ... -team.html

Jeff M

OK, thanks for the info!

airkas1 wrote:

As Johnny mentioned, the list is still active and I presume already in the hands of the new team. If not, we will make sure it will be. Everything that has been mentioned in this thread so far is on that list and it is still being curated. I will continue to post the solved issues in the Issues FAQ thread.

10-4, Thanks!

I will get you my email or you have it from the announcements.

Jeff M

Thanks again guys for the feedback. It's been helpful, and I assure you it will be passed along.

Welcome - Leaf were not really investing so hopefully a change for the better.

Agree with many of the comments re quoting etc. One thing I have noticed is a recent posting when viewed on the mobile site (iOS) using says an hour ago if if it is very recent.

Thanks, will add this to my punch list.
Jeff M

moderators wrote:

I don't know much about Leaf but VerticalScope is the company I work for who aquired the sites. We have been adding new verticals to our mainly automotive focus. The great thing is that we are still original owner owned who has a passion for online communities.

Our History: http://www.verticalscope.com/about-us/our-history.html

Management Team: http://www.verticalscope.com/about-us/m ... -team.html

Jeff M

Hi Jeff,

What automotive sites do you guys run?

Kiwirob wrote:

Hi Jeff,

What automotive sites do you guys run?

http://www.verticalscope.com/automotive/site-list.html

This is a list of many of them.

Jeff M.

Count me in as a fan of the blue background, database of airline/airport codes, user flags, and a simplified multiple-quote system for posting responses. I will continue to use the site no less frequently in the absence of those features (although I found the blue background much more readable than the white one), but they would all add positively to the a.net experience.

While the forums might be better today, the old format for viewing photos in the database, and cross references in that db, were superior for most users. Given the present format, I rarely view the pictures. I have not uploaded anything from my extensive collection in years out of frustration with the new format and some of the judgements of screeners. This site is a treasure trove for enthusiasts and historians but is a waste if it isn't usable
.

Congrats. Looking forward to the improvements. Two that are high on my list are:

1. Bring back the function that identified airports by hovering over the three-letter code.
2. As noted above, the time stamp of "moments ago" needs to be corrected.

Hopefully the new folks finally enable the feature to allow users to modify their username. It's only been asked for 15 years and told it isn't possible. Being on a PHPBB-based system now, most of us know it is relatively easy to implements.

A few other things I would throw out, that would bring me back more often, would be a better assortment of forums (and sub forums to keep things better organized) and multiple themes for people who want to see something more vibrant than this dull blue.

Everything is better apart from the ads and the loss of the airport identifier mouseover (e.g. I used to type EDI and it would tell me that this was Edinburgh when I hovered over it).

Please bring back premium (ad free) membership!

Sandyb123

Mobile friendly is horrible design for a website. Menus and collapsing tabs are way more efficient. But because everything has to be mobile friendly now, you SCROLL, SCROLL, SCROLL to get any information. If the goal is to provide the most information as quickly as possible, mobile friendly is not generally the way to do that.

Just visit the VW website and see how mobile friendly makes a website almost worthless.

anshabhi wrote:

yeah a.net UI needs a massive upgrade. It's actually old fashioned. There could be much better use of CSS3.. I would suggest a lighter theme based on White colour, that's the most widely used background, and black on white is the easiest to read.
Some other suggestions:
1. Better editing box. Specially for adding URLs.
2. Ability to delete own posts atleast until no one makes a new post.
3. Better quote box. The current simple grey box looks very outdated.

White background color? It is NOT the easiest to read. Black on white is based on analog technology from thousands of years ago. It is hard on the eyes and causes eyesight degradation. If you are younger, you might not know it or care, but it WILL damage your eyes sooner than you think, and everyone under 30 now is going to need glasses much sooner than their parents did.

Having bright white light shining in your eyes, and then trying to focus on dark text is even worse for you than just reading from white paper under reflected light. The early days of computers had amber or green text on black screens which were far better on the eyes, and many resisted WYSIWYG interfaces because of the eye strain, so much so that most legacy and technical software has an option to invert.

If people want a blinding option, I say give it as an option. But airliners.net is one of the few forums where things are easy to read. I just wish the text editing box had white on dark option, as it's the only area where things are hard to read...

11725Flyer wrote:

2. As noted above, the time stamp of "moments ago" needs to be corrected.

StTim wrote:

One thing I have noticed is a recent posting when viewed on the mobile site (iOS) using says an hour ago if if it is very recent.

See the top post on this page, mine shows moments ago when it actually was moments ago. Otherwise it shows 8 minutes ago, 46 minutes ago, 3 hours ago etc etc. That's both on IOS iphone 6S+ and iPad Pro, same with Win10 Chrome and IE.

I know for a fact this forum software can have multi-quote enabled

How much was the deal for at what multiples?

moderators wrote:

salttee wrote:

Please fix the time stamps for posts: "moments ago" doesn't get it even if it was actually "moments ago.".

Many web sites include a link back to the post being quoted when quoting from another post, which makes it easy to get the context behind a quote; that would be a nice feature here.

Noted and noticed that also.

Jeff M

Setting the correct time zone offset in my user profile has fixed this for me. However, if not signed in / viewing as a visitor, looks like the website defaults to GMT and then compares to local machine time for the time stamp comment. If local machine time is less than post time (as is the case in half of the world by several hours), it'll read moment ago until the offset time has passed. Should be a quick bug to fix, to compare local machine time to server time and apply correction variable to the timestamp object.

Ditto the request for a better quote tool and more unique identification of which topics have been recently read/view on the topics page. (by local machine and preferably also by user account across multiple machines, say mobile and desktop).

Perhaps I haven't figured it out but being able to upload / host a photo on a-net directly from a post reply would be very helpful. I read / respond 95% of my time to this website off an iPhone. Using another service to upload an image to, capture image URL, and paste using the img tags is a royal PITA. Therefore I do not do it. I recall the old website allowing direct upload/post of photos directly from the full-reply utility.

Finally, a preference option to skip to unread posts when clicking on the forum topic would be nice. Today, it loads the top of page 1 of a multiple page topic. The user then has to select the past page, wait for it to load, and then scroll to last read topic. Ideally, click the topic title should jump to the page with the last read topic automatically.

coolian2 wrote:

I know for a fact this forum software can have multi-quote enabled

As much as I would like to take you on your word. I would still prefer to add this to my to-do list along with everyone else's requests I will be looking into. The site is already highly customized. This means not everything can be installed in a turnkey fashion. Please bear with me while I collect all the requests and distil them into what can get done quickly and what will take a little more time.
Jeff M

Okcflyer wrote:

Finally, a preference option to skip to unread posts when clicking on the forum topic would be nice. Today, it loads the top of page 1 of a multiple page topic. The user then has to select the past page, wait for it to load, and then scroll to last read topic. Ideally, click the topic title should jump to the page with the last read topic automatically.

An "Always open first unread post" would be nice, but It's as easy as clicking the icon left of the topic, that will take you to the first unread, and clicking the time stamp under the username of the last poster will take you to the last post in that topic.

coolian2 wrote:

I know for a fact this forum software can have multi-quote enabled

You already can by opening the full editor and choose expand view, and click the quotation mark on each post you wish to quote. However, what we do miss is the old function where we could quote a selection within a post, and not have to delete irrelevant portions of the post, and that is a PITA on mobile devices

It might be fun and useful to date posts with GMT and day. We would all learn to mentally convert to our local time.

Thanks for acknowledging my post. I do appreciate it. Also some topics have ads that cover over posts. Oddly it seems to Oz Av thread and the Qantas profit thread mainly.

moderators wrote:

Thanks for the feedback and info guys. We can look into some additional skins or color combos once we get up to speed.

Jeff M

Perhaps you could also look into enabling pop-ups to unscramble airport/airline codes. Sure it takes some work, but then that's what made this such a stand-out website. Right now, not so much, at least for me.

Some of your other websites like lamborgini talk are much cleaner and load quicker (images are smaller file size and simpler code structure).

Could you try to simplify a.net like that so it loads faster and runs cleaner. The old website was like that.

One feature I liked in the old site that was taken away on this current version is that when you read posts in a topic, somehow the system kept track of the ones you read and when you would go back into that topic later on, the posts you had already read were "collapsed" so it was easy to see new posts in the topic as they were the ones not collapsed.

11725Flyer wrote:

As noted above, the time stamp of "moments ago" needs to be corrected.

Somebody mentioned it, but this results from a discrepancy between your computer's clock and the forum software. For example, when I lived in Australia and made a post, it would immediately give a date that was hours off from the actual time I posted it.

I can't say I share the affinity felt by many for the old site, but one thing I do miss (besides the airline and airport hover function) that hasn't been brought up is that on the old forum, when you were on a forum, you could hover over the "Forum" bar in the upper left and a drop down menu with all the sub-forums would appear so you could switch directly to a different sub-forum without having to go back to the main page. Not a huge thing, but something that saves some clicks, and since this site takes a long time to load, a few seconds here and there.

N62NA wrote:

One feature I liked in the old site that was taken away on this current version is that when you read posts in a topic, somehow the system kept track of the ones you read and when you would go back into that topic later on, the posts you had already read were "collapsed" so it was easy to see new posts in the topic as they were the ones not collapsed.

This!

And that would still be mobile friendly. As it is you have to scroll scroll scroll like on most mobile friendly sites.

I do think most of the new website works well enough. It's not the same as the old, but has enough going for it I don't mind. If some of the best missing old features were included, I think most would be happy.

Good luck pleasing everyone though. We are a demanding bunch!

Adipasquale wrote:

11725Flyer wrote:

As noted above, the time stamp of "moments ago" needs to be corrected.

Somebody mentioned it, but this results from a discrepancy between your computer's clock and the forum software. For example, when I lived in Australia and made a post, it would immediately give a date that was hours off from the actual time I posted it.

I can't say I share the affinity felt by many for the old site, but one thing I do miss (besides the airline and airport hover function) that hasn't been brought up is that on the old forum, when you were on a forum, you could hover over the "Forum" bar in the upper left and a drop down menu with all the sub-forums would appear so you could switch directly to a different sub-forum without having to go back to the main page. Not a huge thing, but something that saves some clicks, and since this site takes a long time to load, a few seconds here and there.

Sadly, hovering isn't mobile friendly. Mobile friendly sites lack a lot of useful functionality compared to desktop because there is no hover. It's a big step backward.

Adipasquale wrote:

11725Flyer wrote:

As noted above, the time stamp of "moments ago" needs to be corrected.

Somebody mentioned it, but this results from a discrepancy between your computer's clock and the forum software. For example, when I lived in Australia and made a post, it would immediately give a date that was hours off from the actual time I posted it.

There is something funny with time. I see post coming in "out-of-sequence". For example, you can look at a thread and see 20 posts. Then have a look at the same thread and there are 10 more posts, but some of them are mixed with the 20 post you have already read and others appear nicely in sequence. It is not something I see consistently, but I do see it at a regular basis.
I get the impression that the time of a post is based on the users computer and not on the time it is received by the server.

As a member of the site since 1999, I much prefer the blue background. Especially when in bed catching up with all that's going on - less glare from a white background. White is just too bland and heavy on the eyes in my opinion.

Considering the dogs dinner of last year (despite the hard work and good will), we've arrived at a site that I think is working, and is a good compromise for what we had and I know we have to move forward with technology from a back end perspective. I certainly visit multiple times daily whereas during the transition I totally switched off.

There are still niggles, such as airport codes and quoting text that is slightly old school and needs a rethink. I'm sure there are deeper technical ones too.

Any chance of an airliners.net like button for comments?

What about videos?

Will I be able to renew my first class membership?

Anyway, welcome to the site, please listen to users and it is they, with their intelligence and creativity over the past almost 20 years who have made it what it is today. A success and source for enthusiasts and media alike, created by enthusiasts and professionals. It has certainly taught me a great deal.

Written using the mobile site on my Mate 9.

Smiley face

PatrickZ80 wrote:

First of all I got to say welcome VerticalScope.

With an American owner, won't this site become too "americanized"? I mean, there are people on Airliners.net from all over the world and that's a lot bigger than America. I myself for example am from the Netherlands, that's in Europe. It doesn't bother me that there are Americans on this site, I think with an international site like Airliners.net that's only logical, as long as there's a place for other nationalities as well.

When I joined this site originally, it was on a server at the Lulea University of Technology. I notice now that the regular base of users seem a little more 'grown up' (less trolling; fewer flame-bait threads posted). There has always been a marked difference in posts from industry professionals and the frequent-flyers who post here. But I've never noticed a 'pro-American' stance or posture.

So let's just continue doing what we're doing.

coolian2 wrote:

Thanks for acknowledging my post. I do appreciate it. Also some topics have ads that cover over posts. Oddly it seems to Oz Av thread and the Qantas profit thread mainly.

That issue is to do with users having a long string of text in their signature without breaks, which causes the whole thread to push to the right, underneath adverts. See the following threads:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1349479
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1356601

N62NA wrote:

One feature I liked in the old site that was taken away on this current version is that when you read posts in a topic, somehow the system kept track of the ones you read and when you would go back into that topic later on, the posts you had already read were "collapsed" so it was easy to see new posts in the topic as they were the ones not collapsed.

The new software still keeps track of where you were at, just in a different way. In the forum index, if you click on the icon next to the thread title (either a white box with three lines in it, or a red flame symbol for threads greater than 100 posts), it will take you to the first unread post. If there are no new posts this won't work (and you'll notice the thread title will be in plain rather than bold text), but if you want to go straight to the last post, you can click on the time stamp. It's rather easy to use, but it would be good if it were pointed out since it isn't obvious.

V/F

Well, for a starter, when the new site meltdown happened, last summer, I believe we never "saw" Demand Media "live" in our comments. JohnKrist and Airkas were on the receiving end, or should I say edge? So, to have the new owner on line, taking comments, is already so much welcome!

Welcome! Looks like you guys are not too far from where I live, so my expectations are high. But seriously, I don't have any complaints about the current format since I am a very light user. Just one feedback is the photos are getting smaller and smaller. I understand larger photos use bandwidth, but maybe some colour compression may reduce the size. If not, small is fine too.

Thanks!

ikramerica wrote:

Sadly, hovering isn't mobile friendly. Mobile friendly sites lack a lot of useful functionality compared to desktop because there is no hover. It's a big step backward.

Fair enough, but I can think of many sites that have hover features for their desktop site, and are also mobile compatible. I know it takes more resources to develop, but it is possible. For example:
Mobile NHL site, which is very compatible with smartphones:

Desktop site with drop down menus when you hover over a title:

https://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/06/ ... w_NLdL5Bvu

Make sure you all change your A.net passwords regularly.

Welcome Jeff and team @VerticalScope.
Nice introduction, Jeff, and a good first impression with your responses.
Like many, I absolutely hated the changes to the 'upgraded' a.net, especially the white background.
I was sad to see the forums lose so much spark and depth of discussion as a.netters left in droves. However, I was glad that I stuck with a.net and feel that it has regained lost ground. I am happy to see some old 'friends' and sparring partners (such as RyanGuru in the Australian Aviation thread) return and look forward to seeing more in future.
Like others, I as happy to pay to be a first class member and receive the benefits. Please consider that possibility, how VerticalScope could offer a premium experience for those willing to pay.... And count me in! I'm happy to offer suggestions or be a sounding board if u like.
I love a.net. I lurked on forums for years before signing up and paying years ago. I log on usually twice a day and sometimes more.
I am happy that a.net has a future, and I trust that you and your team @ VerticalScope with be worthy guardians and developers of this small part of my daily life.
Cheers from Downunder,
Bunumuring

bunumuring wrote:

I am happy that a.net has a future, and I trust that you and your team @ VerticalScope with be worthy guardians and developers.

...because Leaf Group and those characters certainly were not.

Revelation wrote:

Re: National flags: My vote is to not restore them. It almost always prejudiced others (ahh, he thinks that way because he's from Country X, because everyone in Country X thinks the same way, yada yada).

Not that some of us haven't found alternatives to signaling nationality anyway But I agree that the flags were often unhelpful and stood in the way of productive conversation (e.g. "You're from the states. Of course you are a Boeing fanboy." or some version of that.)

Thanks again all for the feedback and ideas for functionality.

I will put together a punch list and start working on the action plan with the teams tomorrow. Some items may be quick fixes and some might take a little time to research and develop.

Seems like a pretty good group here, you guys have been very hospitable to this noob.

Jeff M

It is great to see the level of positive interaction here. One suggestion: rather than the generic moderators account, it would be great if you could create a user account specifically for yourself, with which to continue this positive interaction.

V/F

VirginFlyer wrote:

It is great to see the level of positive interaction here. One suggestion: rather than the generic moderators account, it would be great if you could create a user account specifically for yourself, with which to continue this positive interaction.

V/F

Great minds think alike,

Normally I do that and will once the new registration issue is sorted. I got an error when I tried to go through the process manually last night.

I wanted to do "VS Jeff" but Paul mentioned (VS) was an airline code. Any other suggestions?

Jeff M

DeltaRules wrote:

The new format of the site was fine once I got used to it, but the two-tone blue color scheme being brought back after the relaunch was a massive help. The white was awful not only aesthetically, but functionally.

Well said.