Airliners.net

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.

I think ppl are less interested in color combos than they are in functionality, like the airport and airline codes, etc. For now, forget the colors ...do that later.

moderators wrote:

Your vote of confidence in us is appreciated. We are pretty deep in repairs today, please do keep the requests and bug reports coming. We are indeed listening.
Jeff M

So, any thoughts or plans of moving on to something more advanced than phpBB? It seems the old owners chose phpBB because it was stable and it was free, not because it really added much value to the user experience (and in fact it took away a lot of things from the user experience relative to classic a.net). What tech bases does the rest of the VerticalScope portfolio run on?

I frequent another site that uses the newest vbulletin, and it is so much better. You can like/dislike/agree/disagree with a post in one click so you get a good feel for what the reader's consensus is. It makes it easy to embed tweets and videos whereas phpbb is seemingly stuck in the pre-Twitter era. It's just a far more engaging experience, IMHO. I'd love to see a.net migrate to that kind of tech.

Revelation wrote:

moderators wrote:

Your vote of confidence in us is appreciated. We are pretty deep in repairs today, please do keep the requests and bug reports coming. We are indeed listening.
Jeff M

So, any thoughts or plans of moving on to something more advanced than phpBB? It seems the old owners chose phpBB because it was stable and it was free, not because it really added much value to the user experience (and in fact it took away a lot of things from the user experience relative to classic a.net). What tech bases does the rest of the VerticalScope portfolio run on?

I frequent another site that uses the newest vbulletin, and it is so much better. You can like/dislike/agree/disagree with a post in one click so you get a good feel for what the reader's consensus is. It makes it easy to embed tweets and videos whereas phpbb is seemingly stuck in the pre-Twitter era. It's just a far more engaging experience, IMHO. I'd love to see a.net migrate to that kind of tech.

We normally run a very customized version of VB software on all out sites, but no talks of updating at this time. Maybe long term it could be on the radar. I am getting used to this site as I normally don;t work with phpBB. If we have security issues or can not add some features it might help us make that decision.

Here are a few example sites:
http://www.polarisatvforums.com/
http://www.mvagusta.net/
http://www.suzukiatvforums.com/


Thanks,
Jeff M

VetteDude wrote:

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.

Website looked a lot better when the new version first rolled out, but people who hate any kind of change complained so they made it look more like the old site (including the horrid blue).

I fully agree with the need for mobile compatibility.,etc., but lets not condemn something just because it was old.....the old site was genuinely much better in terms of ease of use, etc....I now find myself spending much less time on a.net because its just so painful to navigate.......I think what most of us are looking for is bringing back the convenient features and functionalities of the old site, not just bringing back the entire old site as it was......

Heya all,

FYI - Setup this account for my personal Admin account and will get its user group and permission updated.

Jeff M

PITingres wrote:

As I recall, the hover popped up a small box with the full name. I don't recall that it did anything in a text entry box, just when viewing, but I could be wrong.

While we're asking for things, how about getting rid of the weird shift / shading that appears for a moment when bringing up a new page? A dark blue band, maybe an inch, appears for a moment at the top of the window and then vanishes, shifting the rest of the page, which is super annoying when it's the topic list. The timing is very erratic and it usually appears, or vanishes, right as I am about to click on a topic, causing the click to go to the wrong topic. I've no idea what it's doing and I wish it would stop. (Safari on OS X.)

(edited to indicate that it happens on all pages, not just the topic index.)

Are you running Adblock? I have the same issue and realized that it has to do with the adblocking. It is trying to load the ad and gets blocked or something of that nature. Turning of ABP gets rid of the issue, but of course all the insanely invasive ads come back. I don't mind banner ads to the side or at the top of a page, but the current crop of ads on a.net are completely crazy and invasive. ABP is the only way to make the site usable.

I agree with the Gr8Circle post above. I spend far less time on a.net since the new format debuted--it's just not as enjoyable to me. And I don't mean to nitpick, but the two spelling mistakes in the thread title don't leave a very good impression about the proficiency of the new acquirers. Note: It is announcement, not annoucement. And it is acquired, not aquired.

slcpdxatl wrote:

I agree with the Gr8Circle post above. I spend far less time on a.net since the new format debuted--it's just not as enjoyable to me. And I don't mean to nitpick, but the two spelling mistakes in the thread title don't leave a very good impression about the proficiency of the new acquirers. Note: It is announcement, not annoucement. And it is acquired, not aquired.

Sorry edited that, I posted this up very early before my first cup of coffee after working all night on prep.

Care to expand on what you don't like or what changes you would like to see?

Jeff M

Welcome, VerticalScope & Jeff. I was already a member of two of your automotive forums, and didn't even realize it! (And although I hate TTAC, it has nothing to do with the technical acumen or backend of the site itself.)

I agree with all of the suggested features on your list, but I would also add that the best feature of all is that the site is largely running reliably. I think you guys came in at the right time, because the previous team (and forum members!) had to go through a lot to get to this point. If you can keep the lights on, then that is half the battle.

I look forward to the new stewardship, and I hope the relationship between owner/managers and members will be positive.

akiss20 wrote:

PITingres wrote:

While we're asking for things, how about getting rid of the weird shift / shading that appears for a moment when bringing up a new page? A dark blue band, maybe an inch, appears for a moment at the top of the window and then vanishes, shifting the rest of the page, which is super annoying when it's the topic list. The timing is very erratic and it usually appears, or vanishes, right as I am about to click on a topic, causing the click to go to the wrong topic. I've no idea what it's doing and I wish it would stop. (Safari on OS X.)

(edited to indicate that it happens on all pages, not just the topic index.)

Are you running Adblock? I have the same issue and realized that it has to do with the adblocking. It is trying to load the ad and gets blocked or something of that nature.

Disabling ad blocking doesn't stop it, but I think you've given a hint as to what might be happening. The drop-down seems to be tied into scrolling (maybe that's why the timing seemed so erratic). I suspect that if you scroll shortly after landing on the page, some sort of back-drop is put up so that the window-top ad gets displayed for a brief time, rather than getting scrolled away. With ad blocking on, all you get is the background shading that the ad would go on. If that is what's happening, please make it go away; it's an outstandingly stupid idea. (adblock or no adblock).

PITingres wrote:

The drop-down seems to be tied into scrolling (maybe that's why the timing seemed so erratic). I suspect that if you scroll shortly after landing on the page, some sort of back-drop is put up so that the window-top ad gets displayed for a brief time, rather than getting scrolled away. With ad blocking on, all you get is the background shading that the ad would go on. If that is what's happening, please make it go away; it's an outstandingly stupid idea. (adblock or no adblock).

I have the same problem, I've just assumed that the programmers put up a splash screen and then they transmit the real HTML enabled screen.
The splash screen isn't helpful IMO.

LAXPAX wrote:

Welcome, VerticalScope & Jeff. I was already a member of two of your automotive forums, and didn't even realize it! (And although I hate TTAC, it has nothing to do with the technical acumen or backend of the site itself.)

I agree with all of the suggested features on your list, but I would also add that the best feature of all is that the site is largely running reliably. I think you guys came in at the right time, because the previous team (and forum members!) had to go through a lot to get to this point. If you can keep the lights on, then that is half the battle.

I look forward to the new stewardship, and I hope the relationship between owner/managers and members will be positive.

Sweet,

Which site are you on, I have been on the team upgrading to the new look for the past three years.

Thanks for the kind words, great group here from what I see.

Yea! I made the "Crew" class.

Jeff M

Welcome to the new management.

For me, the most pertinent questions for new management involve privacy and security. Does VerticalScope have a written policy for whether/how they will share information about us? As for security - the policy on new members will help avoid some malicious activity (spammers posting virus-laden links), but is VerticalScope on the ball regarding other forms of hacking?

Beyond that, I agree with others on the need for hover-over for airport codes, and better tools for quoting.

Even though it was several years behind and needed updating, I totally enjoyed the aircraft data and specifications area. It was a great reference and adjunct to airliners.net

tharanga wrote:

Welcome to the new management.

For me, the most pertinent questions for new management involve privacy and security. Does VerticalScope have a written policy for whether/how they will share information about us? As for security - the policy on new members will help avoid some malicious activity (spammers posting virus-laden links), but is VerticalScope on the ball regarding other forms of hacking?

Beyond that, I agree with others on the need for hover-over for airport codes, and better tools for quoting.

Thanks Tharanga,

Yup they are listed here on our website and we having are doing security updates across the network as needed.

We will be reviewing this site's security settings and then will make updates if needed.

http://www.verticalscope.com/privacy-statement.html

Jeff M

lat41 wrote:

Even though it was several years behind and needed updating, I totally enjoyed the aircraft data and specifications area. It was a great reference and adjunct to airliners.net

What that something that was lost in the upgrade and any more info?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff M

VertScopeJeff wrote:

lat41 wrote:

Even though it was several years behind and needed updating, I totally enjoyed the aircraft data and specifications area. It was a great reference and adjunct to airliners.net

What that something that was lost in the upgrade and any more info?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff M

Hi Lat41 is this the aircraft data section you are referring to? https://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data if so it can be found bottom of the homepage.

Regards

Paul

Welcome to the world of Anet new mods.

Grab some popcorn, sit back and watch it all go nuts.

To the new developers. Keep the site running, and fix the quote selection.

Maybe now that there is fresh management, it will be an organization that can re-make airliners.net into a photographer-friendly place...and by that I mean easing up on the crazy photo screening standards (like where they nitpick on two bad pixels out of 3 million) that are sending otherwise great photos to other sites? I know for a fact that dozens if not more photographers have removed excellent photos from here and taken them elsewhere. That's not helping to drive traffic here. I've been uploading photos here since the very earliest days and have seen the decline firsthand.

Please, please, please get rid of the white background box that appears every time a new post quotes an old post. Against the blue background it's like staring at a bare lightbulb in a dark room. And I do a fair amount of reading at night so I love the blue, just the quotes box coming in white is just awful, make it dark, please, please.

I miss the old spellcheck button..... please come back!

SAS A340 wrote:

I miss the old spellcheck button..... please come back!

Hi that is on the list of things to do just no time frame as more pressing issues to resolve.

Regards

Paul

timpdx wrote:

Please, please, please get rid of the white background box that appears every time a new post quotes an old post. Against the blue background it's like staring at a bare lightbulb in a dark room. And I do a fair amount of reading at night so I love the blue, just the quotes box coming in white is just awful, make it dark, please, please.

Thanks for the feedback, we will work on some different skin and color combo options down the line.

Jeff M

Yep. There's no reason for the white quote box. An even darker blue would be fine. Or the blue that's used behind our names and avatar.

PanAm_DC10 wrote:

VertScopeJeff wrote:

lat41 wrote:

Even though it was several years behind and needed updating, I totally enjoyed the aircraft data and specifications area. It was a great reference and adjunct to airliners.net

What that something that was lost in the upgrade and any more info?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff M

Hi Lat41 is this the aircraft data section you are referring to? https://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data if so it can be found bottom of the homepage.

Regards

Paul

Many thanks! I thought the data section was lost or wiped out with the A.Net changeover. Now all it needs is freshening up with the latest aircraft developments from most recent years.

Welcome to a.net.

Look forward to seeing your new ideas! Here's some best wishes for the future of our community

One thing which has just come up again is having a reintroduction of the hover function over city airport codes.

This was common in the previous version of a.net before the last owners revamped the site. Bringing it back would be so helpful to everyone!

Cheers!

Thanks
TheLion

TheLion wrote:

Welcome to a.net.

Look forward to seeing your new ideas! Here's some best wishes for the future of our community

One thing which has just come up again is having a reintroduction of the hover function over city airport codes.

This was common in the previous version of a.net before the last owners revamped the site. Bringing it back would be so helpful to everyone!

Cheers!

Thanks
TheLion

Thanks Lion

I hope to post the punch list and have the crew/moderators review it next week. We got backlogged this week doing some mission critical stuff on the back end.

Looking forward to it and already have the airport codes pop up on the list.

Jeff M

The old version has a super function that I would like to see return.
hovering over the three letter city/airport codes would tell you which airport/city being discussed. Would be great if you could return that funcionality

Bruce wrote:

Maybe now that there is fresh management, it will be an organization that can re-make airliners.net into a photographer-friendly place...and by that I mean easing up on the crazy photo screening standards (like where they nitpick on two bad pixels out of 3 million) that are sending otherwise great photos to other sites? I know for a fact that dozens if not more photographers have removed excellent photos from here and taken them elsewhere. That's not helping to drive traffic here. I've been uploading photos here since the very earliest days and have seen the decline firsthand.

Gotta agree with that.

Theseus wrote:

VetteDude wrote:

Actually, the old one was much, much worse. Very early-2000s, and awful on mobile. That is bad because (1) mobile is the only area where growth is, and (2) Google now penalizes sites that aren't mobile optimized. Additionally, switching from a custom, ancient, slow code to a widely-used 3rd party forum software is much better from a long-term management standpoint. The new forum doesn't clog up when there are over 100 responses to a tread, so no need for the stupid "Part 36" nonsense (although some mods still seem to be stuck in the old habit). Can't believe people actually miss the terrible old A.net.

It is probably a matter of taste really, but I think many people still miss the old A.net.
Actually, I find the new one very painful to read on all kinds of screens and especially on my iPad (never tried on my phone though), as it makes very poor use of space. Where the old site could let me glance at a page and know much of what was happening or what I would like to read at a glance, the new one requires me to scroll, scroll and scroll again. Painful, especially on touch screens.
That being said, I do not think anybody claims the old site was not buggy. But it is not like anybody was convinced that fixing those bugs required making browsing and reading a chore.

My plea to the new owners--please either change it back to the way it was, or don't do anything. But whatever you do, please don't try to switch to that blinding white background again! And could you please bring back the ability to move your cursor beneath airport and airline abbreviations and have the actual name appear?

readytotaxi wrote:

Bruce wrote:

Maybe now that there is fresh management, it will be an organization that can re-make airliners.net into a photographer-friendly place...and by that I mean easing up on the crazy photo screening standards (like where they nitpick on two bad pixels out of 3 million) that are sending otherwise great photos to other sites? I know for a fact that dozens if not more photographers have removed excellent photos from here and taken them elsewhere. That's not helping to drive traffic here. I've been uploading photos here since the very earliest days and have seen the decline firsthand.

Gotta agree with that.

Couldn't agree more.Because what's the point of having such strict standards of quality when we frequently see the same picture two times in a row either by the same photographer or by his fellow spotter,a dull livery, dull angle, dull plane, dull landscape simply because they are ultra-crisp? Just bring back the flags,and I will ignore it.

Can I request a mobile reading mode (word wrap please!) that works on iPad mini or even a 6" phone?

Again, just the simple fact of having the head guy posting among everyone… That may be the best news since Johan sold the whole thing years ago.

Thanks all,

I have some calls and tickets open for various other back-end stuff, however, we are still listening to the additional feedback from you all and noting it.

Once I hear back on some larger issues I can move forward with prioritization.

Jeff M

A few points that could be improved from my point of view, not sure if they've already been discussed:

The default way of showing photos when conducting a search makes them look lost amongst all the other information. The thumbnails have plenty of space to be enlarged considerably. I much prefer viewing the photos in the grid format available but then any remarks are lost unless you click to view the photo.

I remember "back in the day" when I would Google an aircraft registration and the very first result would be a link to airliners.net. Now nothing comes up in any of the first 5 pages, if at all. I wonder how many views overall have been lost because other rival sites get there first.

There seems to be a couple of different versions of user profiles. Sometimes I get a profile with almost no information, sometimes I get a profile with a large cover photo and other information about the user. I have no idea which one is visible, when, or why.

One last mention, I don't think the Top 5 of the last 24 hours has ever looked right. Surely someone can come up with a better example than that.

As for the forums, I'm personally happy with the redesign, slightly less of a fan of long threads being split into pages but I'm sure that's already been discussed to death.

Hi Jeff, sorry not to reply earlier with the username suggestion - good to see you've come up with one which clearly identifies you! I want to echo this thought:

Aircellist wrote:

Again, just the simple fact of having the head guy posting among everyone… That may be the best news since Johan sold the whole thing years ago.

Having been a member since 2000, and served as a forum moderator from 2004 to 2006, I remember Johan's interactions well, even when he was faced with demands that he couldn't keep up with. That spirit seemed to fade during the Demand Media days (though I was a lot less active then so maybe I just didn't see it). In any case, it is great to see where things are at now.

I have another suggestion: when you post a link to another thread, It truncated the URL which is displayed in the post, to be like this:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=344317#p4067637

In the past, the forum software designed by Johan would take a link to a thread, and automatically insert the thread title, author, date, and forum. If you click on the above link you will see an example of this (in reply #46, in case it doesn't come straight to it).

This was very user friendly, and meant you could see a link to another thread and know whether it was one you were familiar with or not, whereas now it is a case of clicking though and often going "oh wait I've already read this!" It would be fantastic if this feature could be included again.

Speaking of suggestions, I have a suggestion about suggestions. I think it would be good to have a stand-alone suggestion thread (which this is sort of becoming by default) where users can offer and discuss suggestions to advance the website. As part of that it would be useful for you, or a member of your team, to regularly post a list of suggestions that have been received, broken down to a few categories, perhaps along the lines of: received and waiting to be decided on, received and being implemented in the near term, received and agreed to be implemented when time allows, received but decided not to be implemented. In that way the thread wouldn't become inundated with repeated requests for the same feature so much; I note in this thread there have been dozens of posts asking about the airport codes hover-over function, including many made after you said you'd consider it, and some even after you said it was being implemented.

I have a number of further suggestions, but I'll hold off for now until you put up a suggestions thread so it doesn't get lost all over the place. Also happy to email them if that preferred, though I think it's better to do it in a forum like this so that it can be seen whether the suggestion is agreed with or disagreed with you other users.

V/F

VirginFlyer wrote:

I think it would be good to have a stand-alone suggestion thread (which this is sort of becoming by default) where users can offer and discuss suggestions to advance the website. As part of that it would be useful for you, or a member of your team, to regularly post a list of suggestions that have been received, broken down to a few categories, perhaps along the lines of: received and waiting to be decided on, received and being implemented in the near term, received and agreed to be implemented when time allows, received but decided not to be implemented.

Seconded!

Would love to see an option for a "classic" forum view:)

Please allow the ability to delete a post. There have been several instances where I would post a news item or link.....only to find that someone else posted the same item before you did. Having to edit it out, and put "dupe post" on it, looks really silly.

Freshside3 wrote:

Please allow the ability to delete a post. There have been several instances where I would post a news item or link.....only to find that someone else posted the same item before you did. Having to edit it out, and put "dupe post" on it, looks really silly.

You can delete your own post for a limited time (I think it might be 30 minutes). If you notice too late, then you should request deletion of the post using the usual method. I'm struggling to see a big issue here.

global2 wrote:

My plea to the new owners--please either change it back to the way it was, or don't do anything. But whatever you do, please don't try to switch to that blinding white background again! And could you please bring back the ability to move your cursor beneath airport and airline abbreviations and have the actual name appear?

I hated that white! Such eyestrain! I love that we're back to blue!

One more item. Sorry if it's been mentioned, but I don't have time to scroll through four pages of posts.

BRING. BACK. MYAVIATION!!!!

This site used to have a great photo-sharing section called MyAviation.net. It was a way for those of us without $5000 of camera equipment, to share our photos, and help get some medium-size and smaller-size airports better represented. No review, just anyone could share. I had many photos posted there, again, many of smaller and medium-size airports that don't always get the attention the big airports get from the big photo shooters.

Letting MyAviation lapse was a really crappy thing that previous owners did. Please restore it!!

Jim

DCA-ROCguy wrote:

One more item. Sorry if it's been mentioned, but I don't have time to scroll through four pages of posts.

BRING. BACK. MYAVIATION!!!!

This site used to have a great photo-sharing section called MyAviation.net. It was a way for those of us without $5000 of camera equipment, to share our photos, and help get some medium-size and smaller-size airports better represented. No review, just anyone could share. I had many photos posted there, again, many of smaller and medium-size airports that don't always get the attention the big airports get from the big photo shooters.

Letting MyAviation lapse was a really crappy thing that previous owners did. Please restore it!!

Jim

I will brush up on this and chat with the team and see what we can do. Yeah I am an iPhone bandit also, used ot shoot with a Nikon D80 and got to play with a D2X back in the day.

Jeff M

I actually feel bad for Jeff. Some of the replies in this thread are along the lines of: It would be great if you could arrange the site as how it was back in 1998! Why not just ask him to tone down the graphics so he can make the site more accessible for those who use use dial-up service as well?

Many forum regulars on here hate any type of change. I suggest VerticalScope people should take some of their comments with a grain of salt. This site needed updating when the mobile revolution happened and that change has been too slow.

That being said I'm looking forward to what your folks can bring here! Good luck!

izbtmnhd wrote:

I actually feel bad for Jeff. Some of the replies in this thread are along the lines of: It would be great if you could arrange the site as how it was back in 1998! Why not just ask him to tone down the graphics so he can make the site more accessible for those who use use dial-up service as well?

Many forum regulars on here hate any type of change. I suggest VerticalScope people should take some of their comments with a grain of salt. This site needed updating when the mobile revolution happened and that change has been too slow.

That being said I'm looking forward to what your folks can bring here! Good luck!

Thanks, this site is great!

I have seen some battlefield pirate talk over the years, lol.

Yeah, not all requests will make it to the final but we will listen to all feedback and discuss with the crew and original staff.

Jeff M

MyAviation was dropped and as far as I know there is no way of reinstating it as the data is gone. And even if it was a place to upload images that didn't fit the anet filter, it also meant that the views were few. Far too few to run a business on, and the maintenance cost was terrible timewise.

The ignore function is great, however it is a bit of a shame when a user you've ignored is quoted, it still shows up in the quote. Some forums I use block any content an ignored user posts, including when they get quoted. If it's possible, could this be investigated at being implemented?

Any way to increase the text size for the posts on mobile (specifically iPhone)? Like much of the internet these days, those under 35 are the priority and those over 35 are left in the dust. The problem being that since the whole world is "turning off" the old ways, it's kind of discriminatory since there's nowhere else to go for us older farts...

Anyway, I'm just looking for a toggle for larger text size like many reader and other sites have. Sometimes a small, medium, and large letter A.

ikramerica wrote:

Any way to increase the text size for the posts on mobile (specifically iPhone)? Like much of the internet these days, those under 35 are the priority and those over 35 are left in the dust. The problem being that since the whole world is "turning off" the old ways, it's kind of discriminatory since there's nowhere else to go for us older farts...

Anyway, I'm just looking for a toggle for larger text size like many reader and other sites have. Sometimes a small, medium, and large letter A.

Hitting Ctrl + in your browser will make the page bigger

Adipasquale wrote:

ikramerica wrote:

Any way to increase the text size for the posts on mobile (specifically iPhone)? Like much of the internet these days, those under 35 are the priority and those over 35 are left in the dust. The problem being that since the whole world is "turning off" the old ways, it's kind of discriminatory since there's nowhere else to go for us older farts...

Anyway, I'm just looking for a toggle for larger text size like many reader and other sites have. Sometimes a small, medium, and large letter A.

Hitting Ctrl + in your browser will make the page bigger

Thanks beat me to it.

Jeff M