Help Us Beta Test Audioholics 2.0

[gene]

I'm saddened by the very large increase in coverage for advertisments and immensely dislike having them on both sides, thereby 'boxing' in the site's own material which, at the end of the day, is what visitors are really here to see. Boxing in, in particular strikes a chord because the first thing readers' eyes will fall upon will be advertisements, given that the overwhelming majority will read from left to right.

In the near future, we will be offering Membership services that make many of those side banners dissapear (among other things) so you can get a LARGER view of the actual content. Stay tuned..

 

[Jack Hammer]

That search feature is great, I really like it.

glitch: the drop down menus disappear before I can scroll down with my cursor. I gotta be real fast to catch them.
I checked it out from the schools computer lab and speed was close but a little slower than the old site. Also, I checked it out from my friends Mac and it takes a really long time for anything to happen and it formats funny, sometimes too wide, sometimes too narrow for each page. The old site loads fast and correctly on the Mac.

I like the way the recommended systems are. I think It's a lot better.

Jack

 

[gene]

glitch: the drop down menus disappear before I can scroll down with my cursor. I gotta be real fast to catch them.

We noticed this issue on computers using Windows XP SP#1. We suggest updating your windows with the required security enhancements of SP#2 and let us know what happens. thanks.

 

[Sheep]

We noticed this issue on computers using Windows XP SP#1. We suggest updating your windows with the required security enhancements of SP#2 and let us know what happens. thanks.

Do you realize what your just said?!?!?! SP2 is like asking for migraines.

SheepStar

 

[Guiria]

The new site seems to load as fast as the current one. I like the nav menu across the top and the different organization of topics with pop up menus. The information links on the lower right side of the page are another welcome addition for easier navigation. My initial impression is a much easier to navigate site. However, reading through this thread I am skeptical on the whole membership thing...guess we'll wait and see what happens.

 

[HookedOnSound]

On the fence

I like it and I don't.

My biggest complaint would be the advertising, it's taking up too much space...

 

[gene]

I like it and I don't.

My biggest complaint would be the advertising, it's taking up too much space...

Read post #41. For a small annual fee this becomes a moot issue while you also receive other great benefits soon to be announced.

 

[goodman]

Too busy, and too many jarring colors in the advertising.

 

[MDS]

In general I don't like a lot of advertising but having the ads on the sides of the page doesn't bother me much. I do have to admit that I have occasionally clicked on them too but then this is audio stuff that I am interested in - if they were generic ad fluff I'd hate them no matter what.

 

[The Dukester]

Read post #41. For a small annual fee this becomes a moot issue while you also receive other great benefits soon to be announced.

Gene, can/will you tell us how much the fee is? Do we get a discount if we send you our new toys to evaluate (in light of the fact that many mfrs won't) Maybe they are like the folks Jack Nicholson spoke of: You want the truth? "You can't handle the truth!"

 

[Buckle-meister]

For a small annual fee...

Aaaargh! There it is! I knew it! Just sneaked that in there eh?

What of the forum layout? Is this also to change in appearance? Will the membership fee omit banners only from the home page or from the forum too? I ask because although I do read some of the articles on the home page, by far the majority of my time here is spent on the forum.

 

[davo]

In the near future, we will be offering Membership services that make many of those side banners dissapear (among other things) so you can get a LARGER view of the actual content. Stay tuned..

I was suspicious of this happening when I was reading the "History of A/H" article...

"On a functional note, our readers will soon have access to a host of new features and assets through a subscription model that will only enhance the website experience with entertaining training and educational videos and the ability to do more with our content."

and

"Membership will be added soon which will allow for, among other things, elimination of the side banner ads and printing of reviews and technical articles."

Personally I don't care about having to pay a fee to not see advertisments. As long as the content isn't restricted...

 

[davo]

(Quote : History of A/H)"Click on the Submit News link at the top of the page to send us news items and get credit if we post about what you sent"

Are we talking about scraping in a living by crawling the web for news and posting it back to you guy's? Sweet!!

 

[gene]

Are we talking about scraping in a living by crawling the web for news and posting it back to you guy's? Sweet!!

Yes kinda like Slashdot does.

Personally I don't care about having to pay a fee to not see advertisments. As long as the content isn't restricted...

Read my lips, we will NEVER charge to read editorial content!

What of the forum layout? Is this also to change in appearance? Will the membership fee omit banners only from the home page or from the forum too? I ask because although I do read some of the articles on the home page, by far the majority of my time here is spent on the forum.

The forums will remain largely unchanged. As for the side banners on the site, these are on every page NOT just the homepage. You will have a text zoom option which will eliminate them.

 

[yettitheman]

Trying not to restate what anyone else has stated, but I think the right side advertisements should be a little narrower than the left side ads. I'm running 1024x768 and I will say that if I were to cut out the ads and put them beside eachother and then put the article next to it, I think the ad's would be taking about 50% or so of space. (Although I realize you need ads and various funding to stay alive )
Edit: I see the smaller ads on the left side now as well. I think maybe swapping the right side ads in place of the left side ads would look nicer imho. But, if the frameset calls for both sides to use the wide ads, shorten the width of at least the right side.

My one little thing, also, is the live search. I've also experienced the tab that pokes your bar and says "I'm hiding your DWORDS".
Maybe if there was an option to turn live search on when you logged in, that may be nicer of both worlds as it would:
A: Make people that don't like the live search happier
B: Still make search engine operate even though real time is disabled (although I don't know how that particular system works)
C: People that don't use the live search, and since it would be off by default (whether a guest at the site, or a members preference to turn live search off), would save bandwith. Maybe not much at the moment, but like quarters, it all adds up.

However, I haven't had much time to play around with anything else. I clicked around here and there, and I will agree, that the flash media ads are the cause of LOTS of time delays of the page loading. It should be set up so the load script sets up the frame layout and allocation of the objects FIRST before loading the actual contents that aren't text or .jpeg. This way, the frames for the flash are all ready to go, the main articles (what people want to read) are loaded all ready, because the frames are ready, when readers are in the middle of a paragraph, it won't jump lines because the site suddenly told Joe Smith's computer to load another banner frame, and everyone wins!

Also, because of the added interactive live search, and the increased ad flash content, I predict this will slow down older systems considerably. The live search won't do it as much as the ads will, unless the live search is using Java and taking up some good chunk of the Internet Browsers process block.

 

[Dolby CP-200]

Oh very funny the page is not responding what is this April fools.

 

[evilkat]

Test system specs:

Resolution: 1600x1200
Internet Conn: 1.3Mb Comcast
Browser: FireFox 2.0.0.1
Average page load: 3.423s (as measured by Fasterfox page load timer)
Screen: LCD
OS: WinXP


Didn't read everything everyon has posted here, but a couple of things that strike me:

1. You don't need the topical links area. It seems to be made redundant by what I can find in the menu bar. Personally I feel that it's wasted PRIME screen real estate, since it's at the top of the page. You also repeat this same info at the bottom of the page, except its in a different format from the topical links OR the menu bar at top. It feels a bit confusing because of its inconsistant nature and makes a user think that there are really more subsections than there really is to the site. I would rather you go for a more consistent and simple approach. Plus you'll have to update all three sections if you ever change your subsection headings which could be a maintenance headache.

2. Loving the menu bar, fonts on the menu/links and a more prominent search box. Loving the cookie-crumb navigation as well.

3. Submit news is not nearly prominent enough. If u remove the Topical links you could move the submit news link to the yellow band, along with the login button. At the very least, the login link should be more prominent.

4. Go button next to 'choose a subsection' drop down menu is redundant.

5. I think the ads are fine as they are, so long as they're not too distracting (i.e flashing/changing). Right side is a tad big, but again, the key is to keep them static and not too distracting. Left side is smaller, so move the distracting stuff over there.

6. The fonts for the article descriptions need to change to something else. You should also change the color and move away from black IMHO.

7. The Featured Articles should have more white space separating the two or some kind of divider line (vertically) between the two. The Shopping links should also be aligned with perhaps a more prominent or better looking icon.


You guys are doing some great stuff with the layout though. Keep it up! Can't wait to see more!


<edit>

Some more thoughts:

1. Love the review layout of review articles but the intro page is missing a next page button at the bottom of the page.

2. Would be very cool to have a jump drop down menu at the top of review page above the specs.

3. BTW, love the color of the font u used for the specs....wish you had done that for the body of the article as well!

4. Hating the intelli-text that pops up randomly everytime my mouse rolls over one of those darned green links!!!

5. The digg icon should be made bigger and moved to some place more prominent. You should make it yellow as well in traditional Digg colors, because it would blend very nicely with yellow look you're going for in the site.

6. Go button next to page jump drop down menu is redundant.

More thoughts to follow as I explore beta 2.0 site!

 

[Jack Hammer]

This may have been mentioned before...

...The size of the articles are tiny in relation to the rest of the page. I'm not complaining about the ads, just that on my screen the article is taking up the middle quarter of the screen and the three quarters of the screen is articles, links and other stuff. It makes it difficult to read when you only get about 8 words per line.

Jack

 

[Audioholics]

It's pretty much optimized for at least 1024 x 768.

 

[stratman]

Hey BIG Guys,

If we dole out cash for membership what do we get? T-shirt? (I already thought about shaving Audioholics on my hairy man chest, wife won't go for it).

Stickers? Football tickets? (only if you live in S. FL.) Trip to Disney? Trip to Canada? (we can stay in Sheep's house)


Sincerely,

The resident caveman.