New SOTT FrontPage Design

[Scottie]

I noticed that there is an new "related articles" Box below the main article, but I think is not working quite right yet! I've check many articles and the "articles related" are not so related, some of them doesn't have anything to do with the info of the main article, are these algorithms you are using for this task getting better alone with time? just curious.

It's working as designed. There were several problems with a Related Articles feature, so I solved them all by basically re-using existing Latest News articles (articles in the same Category as the current one).

So, it's like a Latest News at the bottom of each article - only it has 20 articles to choose from instead of only 7 like in the Latest News Box.

Thus, an article about a flood might have 3 related articles about an earthquake, a tornado, and a sinkhole.

A Puppet Masters article will have links to 3 other recent Puppet Masters articles.

So, an article about Putin will not have 3 other articles about Putin. When you think about it, we're always trying to connect the dots between different events, so they ARE related articles.

 

[flashgordonv]

Guys
what a sensational look to the SOTT site. it looks fresh, modern and up to date. it is easy to navigate. Congratulations on a job well done.

 

[rs]

Hmm... All phones and tablets should be detected, but maybe they aren't.

Is there a way to determine what my iPad is detected as? A web site that tells you "you are on a <blah>"?

Go here:

http://detectmobilebrowsers.com/

And see what it reports at the top.

No mobile browser detected.
Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 8_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0 Mobile/12D508 Safari/600.1.4

 

[davey72]

new format for SOTT page?

I was thinking that maybe it was my phone at first but it is the same with any browser i use. The page format seems to have changed. Is this indeed the case? I have been waiting and watching for some mention of this.
For the record , if it is a new format i really dont like it much.

 

[pete02]

Re: new format for SOTT page?

Yep, its' a new look for SOTT. I'm pretty sure it's being discussed in this thread for the past couple of weeks now.

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,36148.30.html

 

[irjO]

Oh I see! thanks for clarify! :)

 

[davey72]

Its not so bad on the computer. It is the same as it has been since the last change i think around a month ago but on my phone it is awful.

 

[pete02]

What kind of phone/OS and browser do you use davey72? I'm currently using Chrome on an android with the latest OS but it looks fine on my phone. Is there something in particular that looks off?

 

[Learner]

Just wanted to chime in to say thanks too At first I was skeptical about the new outlook on SOTT. But now I got used to it and even like it. The articles are easier to read than before, due to the site now filling up the whole screen on my HD laptop.

 

[ROEL]

By nature I resist change. So the first couple of days I yearned for the "old" look, but now I'm comfortable with the redesign.

 

[Thaigrr]

By nature I resist change. So the first couple of days I yearned for the "old" look, but now I'm comfortable with the redesign.

Methinks with all of our collective comfort zones probably going to be tested in the not too distant future, maybe relatively small ones such as this is good

practice?! :)

 

[davey72]

What kind of phone/OS and browser do you use davey72? I'm currently using Chrome on an android with the latest OS but it looks fine on my phone. Is there something in particular that looks off?

I use the generic browser on my android phone and chrome most often. Not sure how it looks to everyone else but the old page with all the sections in a list is gone and replaced by only being able to see one section at a time. It is as if the front page is gone.

 

[eric2k]

Very nice update Scott. Been awhile since I've posted but I figured I should thank you and everyone here at sott. net :).

 

[Scottie]

I figured I should mention here that we recently made some further changes to the mobile page, mostly due to Google's insistence on doing things a certain way so that SOTT is seen as a "mobile-friendly site". The way they chose to enforce this is debatable, but whatever...

So, for a day or two, some of you will have noticed a "very very small font size" on iPads and other devices with high-res screens (actually, the view was zoomed out too far). That seems to be fixed again.

Also, I can now say with a much higher degree of certainty that:

1. iPads get the desktop view

BUT, the width of the iPad is 920px (dips, actually, but whatever). Which means the sidebar is hidden, just like it would be when viewed on a desktop computer when the browser window was narrowed.

2. iPhone + all other mobile phones + all other tablets get the Full Mobile view

This is the single column, larger font, greatly simplified menu bar version, with the sidebar at the very bottom of the page.

I'll probably change the desktop/iPad view at some point soon so that the sidebar has 3 modes:

1. On the right as a sidebar
2. On the bottom in 2 columns (desktop/iPad mode)
3. On the bottom in 1 column (full mobile)

I also increased the size of the menu bar buttons in mobiley modes for easier tapping - and to make Google happy. Also, some form inputs and that kind of thing are more touch-friendly. The Contact Us form still needs some work on mobiley devices...

In short, more has changed, and more things will change. I'm just kind of feeling my way along because I want to make all the views "happy" - but without the standard, ongoing, ridiculous amount of work normally required.

As for this forum and mobiliness, I'm afraid we're kinda screwed... At least until the new version of SMF comes out, which will be fully mobile-friendly. SMF released an add-on for this version that is supposed to be a temporary fix, but it's really quite... um, underwhelming. Still, it was nice of them to even care, so I can't complain.

 

[anka]

If I remember correctly, there used to be a "Broadcasting now!" icon on the main page which does not show there any more (or do I just not see it?) and I think it was a good one to have - especially for recently new readers for whom it takes time before they realize that there are any radio shows produced by SOTT.