Songcrafters 2.0 upgrade just in time for the 10th Anniversary

[64Guitars]

I've had a look at the code, Alfredo. The only time it should not list an online member is when they've unchecked the profile option "Show others my online status". But I had a look at your profile and you have that option checked, so that can't be the reason.

Just to clarify, "online" means logged in to Songcrafters. If you're not logged in, then you're considered a guest and your name won't be listed. But I'm sure you know that already.


Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

[Hook]

I'm afraid I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the new site. I feel like I've lost a friend. 64 you know how much I appreciate and respect you for all you do here but I've lost all my favorite aspects of the site. I loved being able to see all the members icons, the top posters, all the banners and the most recent comments. I found a comfort in the old home page and ease of use that this format doesn't give me. The new page doesn't emphasise our festivals or our community the way the old one did.
I hate complaining about  this knowing all the work you put into it and I'm sure I'll come around but that's just my take. Sorry for being a fuddy duddy.
Rock on!

[alfstone]

I've had a look at the code, Alfredo. The only time it should not list an online member is when they've unchecked the profile option "Show others my online status". But I had a look at your profile and you have that option checked, so that can't be the reason.

Just to clarify, "online" means logged in to Songcrafters. If you're not logged in, then you're considered a guest and your name won't be listed. But I'm sure you know that already.


Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

Funny...now I can see my name on the homepage too, so I don't know how (of course I didn't change anything in my profile), but it seems that the problem is solved...
Alfredo

[64Guitars]

I'm afraid I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the new site. I feel like I've lost a friend. 64 you know how much I appreciate and respect you for all you do here but I've lost all my favorite aspects of the site. I loved being able to see all the members icons, the top posters, all the banners and the most recent comments. I found a comfort in the old home page and ease of use that this format doesn't give me. The new page doesn't emphasise our festivals or our community the way the old one did.
I hate complaining about  this knowing all the work you put into it and I'm sure I'll come around but that's just my take. Sorry for being a fuddy duddy.
Rock on!

Sorry that you're having trouble, Hook. It's early days yet, so please allow some time to get used to things. Also, I'll be making many improvements in the coming weeks and months, so you might start to like the new format a lot more after new stuff is added.

I've tried to keep the SMF forum separate from things that I've written, like the jukeboxes, for example. It gives the site a cleaner look and it should make it easier to update the SMF forum software in the future. You can still access all of the custom Songcrafters stuff by clicking the hamburger menu at the top-right of each page. I know this takes a bit of getting used to. I'm still getting used to it myself. But, in time, I'm sure it will become second nature for most of us.

I've lost all my favorite aspects of the site. I loved being able to see all the members icons

Which member icons are you referring to and on which page?

, the top posters,

I assume you're referring to the portal page (https://songcrafters.org). On the old site, the portal page was created by an add-on called Simple Portal. I'm very much a DIY sort of programmer, so I decided to ditch Simple Portal and create my own portal page. There was nothing on the old Simple Portal page that I can't create myself on our new portal page. I just haven't made it my priority till now because it was more important to get the forum and jukeboxes working properly. But in the coming days, weeks and months, I'll be adding lots of goodies to the portal page, including many of the features that were on the old portal page, such as the Top Posters.

One thing I didn't like about Simple Portal is that it was tied into the forum. So its URL was http://songcrafters/community and clicking Home took you to the portal page. A portal is meant to be the entry point to a site, so the URL should be https://songcrafters.org as it is now and clicking Home in the forum should take you to the forum's home page as it does now, not the portal as it did in the old site. Having said that, I realise that the portal page is visited frequently, so I'm considering adding a Portal button or link at the top of the forum to make it easier and quicker to get back to the portal. Until then, just click the hamburger menu and select Portal which is the very first item in the menu.

, all the banners

I assume you mean the graphic buttons at the top of each page for festivals, METs, Latest Songs, On This Day, etc.  Again, I've tried to keep these things separate from the forum, so they're now accessed from the hamburger menu. Actually, I'm very pleased with the way this turned out. Instead of having to hunt through menus and sub-menus for the festival or jukebox you want, you just open the hamburger menu and select the type of jukebox from the five choices; Festivals, Jukeboxes (Latest Songs, On This Day, etc.), METs, mini-fests, and Beatles albums. After the selected jukebox loads, you can very easily switch between all of the other jukeboxes of the same type without having to go back to the hamburger menu. For example, the Festivals jukebox lists the years from 2009 till now along the left side. Click any year and you'll get a list of all the festivals for that year grouped by type (Originals or Covers). Click any of the buttons in that list to load the desired jukebox. I find this very convenient for browsing through all of the festivals. And the Jukeboxes, METs, mini-fests, and Beatles albums have similar navigation lists/buttons along the left side. Eventually, I hope to add a row of buttons for the five jukebox types right in the jukeboxes. Then I'll only need one button in the hamburger menu for "Jukeboxes" because, once the jukebox loads, you'll be able to easily navigate to any other festival, jukebox, MET, mini-fest, or Beatles album from right in the jukebox.

and the most recent comments.

I'm not sure where exactly you're referring to. I already have the recent posts on the portal page. In fact, I've improved it by putting the song posts into a separate list. The old portal page included song posts in the Recent Posts, of which there were 10 in total. Now we have the 10 most recent song posts as well as the 10 most recent non-song posts.

Also, you can select "Recent Posts" from the hamburger menu to easily browse through all of the most recent posts, sorted from newest to oldest. I prefer this to the lists on the portal page (new and old) because it shows the whole message, not just the subject, and it's not limited to 10 posts. It doesn't currently include the mp3 player (maybe in the future) but you can simply click on the message subject to go to the actual topic and play the song there.

I found a comfort in the old home page and ease of use that this format doesn't give me. The new page doesn't emphasise our festivals or our community the way the old one did.

The portal page has banners for the two current festivals, the same as the old portal did. In time, I'm sure I'll find ways to emphasise our festivals and community through the portal, the hamburger menu, and perhaps other new pages. But I'd rather not change the forum pages too much.


Hang in there Hook. In time, I'm sure you'll come to love the new site even more than the old one, and you'll become very comfortable with it. And I'm always willing to listen to any ideas that people have for improving the site and making it easier to navigate.

[Hook]

It's the old portal page that I'm missing and I now have found the new one. The icons were the ones on the old portal page. I liked seeing the icons of the top posters on the right and the admin on the left. I do like the way you separated the recent posts, very cool. I also do like the hamburger menus ease of use. I think I just don't handle change well. Im sure I'll get used to it soon. I plan on enjoying my coffee and some tunes in the morning. Thanks for all your hard work sir.
Rock on!

[Hook]

I also want Home to be the portal...I will get through this!

[64Guitars]

I also want Home to be the portal...I will get through this!

I had a better idea. I've made the big yellow "Songcrafters.org" at the top-left of the page into a link to, um, songcrafters.org (the portal). Kinda makes sense, doesn't it?

I've also improved the hamburger menu. Now you only have to move the mouse pointer over it to open it. When you move the mouse pointer out of the menu box, it closes. Not sure how these changes will affect users of mobile devices that don't have a mouse. Of course, if you click a button in the menu, you won't have to worry about closing the menu because it's going to load a new page anyway.

I've also added the hamburger menu and the forum menu to the portal page to provide better integration between the portal and the forum.

I hope this helps.

[T.C. Elliott]

Probably not helpful, but on the portal I see myself just fine.

[Groundy]

Cheers 64 looking good, I have not been on for 2 days as I kept getting site not available try later, as I was clicking on my fav button which must have been to the old site.
Thanks again..

Alex

[Jean Pierre]

Congratulation to administrators for the brand new verse of songcrafters

Just    a small objection the suppretion of the horizontal lines between the messages makes that it is less easily readable ...