Release #98

[markf]

Release #98 is now live.

New Features:

• The friends page has been redesigned as a system page for all users, and is now available for Beta testing. There will be a link at the top of your friends page allowing you to switch between the new and old versions allowing you to switch back and forth between both versions throughout the beta testing

Comments

[bandicoot]

I kept waiting for the "April Fool!" ;/

[slinkslowdown]

Halloween Hoax? :(

[bandicoot]

If only ...

[arethinn]

Can we get on to Bonfire Night then? *evil grin*

[malnpudl]

Who is making these decisions? What is wrong with them?

[tempertemper]

I decided a while ago there must be a bunch of people paid to come up with change for the sake of change. Only explanation for them constantly dicking around with stuff that works perfectly fine as it is and never listening to us when we complain that we don't like what they've done.

Not renewing my paid account next time. I've had it!

[scryren]

Or they have contests to see who can come up with a change that pisses off the most users :/

[twissie]

I know this is most likely because I'm still using Dystopia, but I still get a white background for the body of the page (where it's supposed to be a light grey, apparently - a screenshot of what the style is supposed to look like would be very helpful).

I want to reiterate my question about what screen resolution this scheme is originally designed for. The entry boxes are far too wide to be read comfortably, at least with this font combo. Please give us an option to adjust the width of the entries (being able to adjust font size/style would be absolutely A+ as well).

The new friendslist also doesn't seem to scale for size if I change the size of my browser window. Anything smaller than fullscreen, and I get a horizontal scrollbar. My screen resolution is 1280 x 800.

[burger]

For what it's worth I'm not using Dystopia and I still get a white background too. I still think this whole thing is an awful idea but a grey background would be marginally better to deal with. White is just grating.

[twissie]

Would you mind posting a screenshot of what the style looks like for you? You can blur out any text, I just want to compare against my experience.

[burger]

I was too lazy to blur so I just scrolled down to the second entry on my "feed", which is the releases post, but here's what it looks like for me. Not too easy on the eyes.

[ceilidh]

I really don't like the forced site scheme page. I customize my journal so that my friends page is readable to me. I guess I will stop reading on LJ and go to DW exclusively if you force this change on us... not that you care.

[mokie]

I customize my journal so that my friends page is readable to me.

Same here.

The new version also appears to get rid of filters, which are how I navigate my reading. Separate filters keep individual LJers from getting lost among heavy-posting communities.

This new version is worse than useless to me--it would force me to return to reading journals individually, and not using the flist at all.

[changeofthemoon]

The filters are showing up for me under some weird funnel button on the far right side of the screen. Still awful though.

[mokie]

Thanks! That had me seriously worried.

On the correction angle: so we can access the five filters at the top directly, but if we have more than that it drops us on the Filter Friends page. That's far less useful than a simple pull-down list.

I would think rather than infinite scrolling, in-line commenting would be a more sensible update, so users don't have to leave their friends-page to add comments. That should at least be a part of the infinite scrolling experience--the point of that is to keep all activity in one spot, but here I'm diverted to go to filters, I'm diverted to comment and read comments, etc.

All in all, it makes the infinite scrolling seem like less of a thoughtful design overhaul and more like a codemonkey pleasing himself in the back room and trying to mimic the appearance (but not functionality) of Facebook/Tumblr/Twitter.

In short: Bah.

[cloex_brosluvr]

No to the new friends page.

ETA: That endless scrolling SUCKS! If someone has a lot of friends and misses a few days, they're going to freeze their computer because of all the shit that's going on.. There was nothing, and I MEAN NOTHING wrong with the 'old way'. Keep the "previous" and "next" links.

[pne]

It's also kind of ironic that they added entry page comments pagination and comment collapsing, to reduce clutter or database load or something... and then make infinite friends pages.

Shouldn't they then also make infinite comment pages, with all comments all the time?

[schnee]

It wouldn't work so well for comment pages because comments are threaded, not flat. That said, the whole "expand" business that they've got going on these days is the same principle - load content dynamically, with one of the key differences being that it only happens upon user request.

[astronewt]

Just letting you know that I have filed a ticket requesting that infinite scroll be put under user control as an option (the user would be able to turn it on or off for their friends page). I of course have no ability to know whether that will be done, but it has been requested.