Help Us Beta Test Audioholics 2.0

[Audioholics]

We're wanting "a few good men" to help us test out the new Audioholics website.

So, if you're ready, head on over to audioholics.com and poke around. Then report back here.

We are PARTICULARLY concerned with the speed of the site and how long it takes to load various pages.

Let us know, REPORT back here, and ENJOY!

If you do go look at the new site, PLEASE come back here and post your experience - even if its just a brief one-liner - that will help us greatly.

THANKS!

 

[JackT]

I had a look around and everything seemed snappy enough. The site looks good, but the new layout will take getting used to! Looks good!

 

[surveyor]

The new site looks very good. It's must be pretty fast because I can navigate it. I'm still connecting via dial up at about 45 kbs..

 

[HiJon89]

It didn't seem any faster than the old site, if anything maybe a little slower.

 

[no. 5]

yeah, it did'nt seem any faster (but my internet connection has been a bit slow the last few days).
I like the look, I like the "You are here", and the layout; but I don't like that the larger pictures in the reviews are so small.
great new site, can't wait to use it.

 

[abboudc]

Not that i need to tell you, but Zope/Plone is a great, highly customizable backend that should let you spend less time fighting the site and more time posting reviews. The breadcrumbs are nice.

 

[Matt34]

Can't really comment on the speed cause my internet just plain sucks(10KB/S) but the new layout is nice and I'm really digging the updated "recommended systems".

So when can we sign up for the new membership feature?

 

[emorphien]

It didn't seem any faster than the old site, if anything maybe a little slower.

agreed, although it doesn't seem to crash firefox when i close pages anymore

 

[highfihoney]

Not trying to be mean spirited & im sure you'll not take it that way so here goes,i have never liked the AH home page,i dont care for the lay out at all,it seems outdated & makes it feel like work looking for where i want to go & quickly makes me anxious to find what im looking for & move on.

Being that i dont care for the current home page lay out & that i spend a lot of time on your site i loaded both the current home page & the new 2.0 version & switched back & forth to compare,i like the new version alot,i feel comfortable on that page & im not in a rush,the new lay out seems less in your face over the current version,i especially like that you moved the site links from the left side of the page,i also like the color scheme of the new page better,it makes it easier to read things & is not so much in your face which for me makes reading everything on the home page interesting & add's to the fun factor.

I like the new look much better & on my connection the pages do load faster.

 

[Nomo]

I like it!! I was a bit concerned upon hearing of the change, I'm old and set it my ways , but the new layout seems very nice.

No discernible difference in loading speed that I can tell.

 

[Tomorrow]

You have the old-man approval from me. Faster paging. Fresher, more 21st century look. Not so much flashing sales ads. (YEA! ) Even a review from my Review4U-Guru, Tom!

Neat.

 

[MDS]

The new site loads about as fast as the current site for me but I do have a pretty fast internet connection (averages 5 Mbps).

I like the menu bar at the top with drop down menus much better than having a bunch of links on the left side like the current site.

I'm not so sure its desirable or even necessary to have the boxes on the right side like 'AV Product Reviews', etc. You could get to them from the main menu bar and the last few current reviews or articles could be in the center of the page where you can see a short description. Right now the new review for the Axiom speakers and others is listed in both sections. I would reserve the center section for links to current articles and reviews, with recent but not current links listed below as just text as they are now. You could then use the entire right side for advertising just like the left side.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

I like the change. I can't say yet whether it's better but it's gonna do the readers a fine service. Let me explain...When I worked in retail we would rearange the store one or two times a year just so customers who came in to buy the same things repetedly would have to look around for it. While they were looking they would see all the other things we had available to them. So that being said, I'm sure I learn something new that was here the whole time!

The page loading speed seems the same to me...
SBF1

 

[stratman]

Nicer, easier on the eyes, (us older guys thank you) better organized,a snap to find articles and such, new visitors will like it much better. In my case its just as fast as the older version so no complaints (DSL), much needed improvement.

 

[The Dukester]

I like the look overall but don't particularly like ads that large on both sides of the page. It looks a little cramped to me. Page loads were about the same with my cable connection. Like anything new it will take some getting used to for us old folks. Well, OK, for this old folk, anyway. The current site is a little dated, though.
Thanks for trying to improve things for us all!

 

[Audioholics]

Check out the search function, everyone - it's by far the best feature. Real time searching.

 

[Sheep]

1-2 seconds for me.

Just as a note, I have a 2.2GHz processor and a gig of ram.

Check out the search function, everyone - it's by far the best feature. Real time searching.

That is the most ballin' **** ever!

SheepStar

 

[WorldLeader]

Report!!

System: OS 10.4.8 Tiger, iMac G5, 768-ish gigs RAM, 4 MB/s internet (Cox cable)

First Browser: Safari

The page loaded fairly fast with elements (mostly ads) appearing first. The Picture heavy ads seem to slow down load times the most. Fairly quick, 2-7 seconds. Average to fast for a media-rich page.

RSS: Very Fast
Normal Page: 6/10


Second Browser: Shiira


This is a modified version of Safari that is better at rendering objects and has more open-source style improvements. Blank page for 2-5 seconds then loading was quicker than Safari. Basically the same time to load.

RSS: Fast
Normal Page: 6/10


Third Browser: Firefox


FasterFox plugin. Quicker in displaying text, pictures took longer to load. Faster than Safari or Shiira, but took a while to load completely.

RSS: Doesn't work
Normal Page: 7.5/10


Fourth Browser: Camino


This is a Gecko-based rendering browser that is like Firefox for the Mac. Page loaded quickest yet, but then I realized that it was not displaying any ads. This was nice, but yet the speed wasn't that different without the ads. I think that the bandwidth footprint wasn't as big as I thought for the ads.


RSS: Doesn't work
Normal Page: 7.75/10


Fifth Browser: Shiira 2.0 (Beta)


This is a new, unfinished build of the next version of Shiira. The page absolutely flew with ads and everything. Very fast. 2 sec load average.

RSS: Small lag first time, very fast second time.
Normal Page: 9/10

 

[dave1490]

Not trying to be mean spirited & im sure you'll not take it that way so here goes,i have never liked the AH home page,i dont care for the lay out at all,it seems outdated & makes it feel like work looking for where i want to go & quickly makes me anxious to find what im looking for & move on.

Being that i dont care for the current home page lay out & that i spend a lot of time on your site i loaded both the current home page & the new 2.0 version & switched back & forth to compare,i like the new version alot,i feel comfortable on that page & im not in a rush,the new lay out seems less in your face over the current version,i especially like that you moved the site links from the left side of the page,i also like the color scheme of the new page better,it makes it easier to read things & is not so much in your face which for me makes reading everything on the home page interesting & add's to the fun factor.

I like the new look much better & on my connection the pages do load faster.

ya the home page is alittel work sometimes i have to click 3-4 times to get to were im going,and thats only if i know were it is.beside,s the pages got to cached to make an adaquite comparison to this sight.

 

[Seth=L]

It is slower than it is with the current version. It took at least 2-3 seconds to loud the HSU sub review. I am using Comcast High speed for reference.