THE FORUM UPGRADE

I'll try to remain positive, but that sounds an awful lot like what they did to the Lionel page.  Hopefully Hoopla does it better.

 

-Dave

Dave, all web sites are going to responsive design. As more and more people use tablets and smart phones for their internet browsing, this evolution gains more and more momentum.

 

I have seen what the new pages look like on a computer. They are not that much different than what we have now. The presentation is a little cleaner, that's all.

 

Here is a screen grab from the new layout as it will look on a typical computer monitor. Click on the image to see it full size.

 

I like the design. Makes everything look nice and shiny.

I'm excited about this. Hoopla's current mobile page for this forum is no good. I surf and post to this forum primarily from my smart phone.

Very cool.  Glad to see this improvement.

Excellent!

 

Peter

Times are changing for the better. Rick, great move. When I travel I no longer take a laptop, use a tablet (Apple iPad, Kindle Fire or a smartphone) in most cases the smartphone is a pain to use, requires you to use the full version and then hunt around on the screen.

 

Great Idea, Great move to keep pace with the technology.

 

K

Rich, this migration to Responsive (or Relative) Web Design is definitely good news - I look forward to experiencing it for the OGR Forum.  With more than half of all internet traffic now being conducted via some type of mobile phone or tablet device, it's time has come. Bring it on!

Always on the cutting edge.

Thank you Richard.
Will you be able to down load pictures.
With the app right now it is impossible to down load pictures.

Not sure on the pictures, but I'll check.

Rich,

 

Will the new design eliminate the two clicks required to open a thread with an iPad?

 

Earl

This is huge!

I travel often and a lot of time is spent reading the forum on my iPhone. Looking forward to the upgrade! Thanks.

I don't know. I have not tried the Version 2 beta on an iPad.

This new upgrade will be very interesting to try.  I'm open to seeing what it will be like -- primarily because we have no choice in the matter.  It will be what it will be.    Sigh...

 

But I'll admit I've noticed I haven't openly embraced the directions I see software development heading in recent years WRT display/layout design.  For example, when I look at the screen-shot that Rich provided, I "get" the increased white-space thing, but there's a tremendous amount of wasted space because of the fact that so much stuff is "duplicated" on each entry.

 

Years ago, the more "appropriate" design would be to have tables/rows/columns with appropriate headings.  Then beneath those headings we'd find the respective content information.  With the "new" approach , EACH ENTRY has what was formerly heading text... so all that stuff is repeated and makes for a very inefficient use of display space.  But I see this happening more frequently nowadays.  And of course, the look-and-feel to Facebook continues, which I don't blindly think is a good thing "just because" somebody thinks it's good to look like Facebook.  Quite the contrary, I'm more inclined to think the opposite.

 

Then of course, there's this whole movement to try and make stuff that looks fabulous on 27-inch and 30-inch desktop displays look/operate "equally good" on small iPhones (as smart as they are).  I just don't "get it".  If you have an iPhone 4 and prefer a larger display, just get a 6-plus.  Don't re-invent the app so iPhone 4 users think they're gonna get all the functionality that desktop user have.  Ain't gonna happen without some sacrifices along the way. 

 

Some things are meant to be done on desktops, and other things are meant to be done on smart-phones.  Truth be told, I've HATED "special apps" on smart-phones, and I've much preferred using the main browser-version to access content on those devices... then just enlarge the portion of the screen I need to read content accordingly.  All too often, these special apps don't allow the content to be re-sized.  So the text size "is what it is" for the device's display layout.  Perhaps it's just my eyes as Father Time ticks on by. 

 

A lotta of this stuff comes from the very nature that some folks feel the need to do EVERYTHING on every single device they can... i.e., desktop, iPad, mobile phone, etc...  OTOH, I'm more of the ilk that some things are better done on a desktop, while other things are best done on smaller mobile devices.  But I don't need to do everything on all devices.  My iPhone works great (usually) for a phone conversation, but I seldom use it to post entries on the OGR Forum. 

 

If I'm in the minority, that's fine.  I appreciate the fact that the world is changing all around us, and my preferences are fading into the dinosaur realm.  So be it.  I come from the professional IT days of years/decades gone by where things were done VERY differently.  For example, we'd NEVER perform an upgrade like this during  prime-time or peak consumer (end-user as it was once called) times.  That was unheard of for gosh sakes!  Application or system software upgrades of this type were done in the wee, early-morning hours of the day when most folks were sleeping.  9AM Eastern Time was never even an option for mission-critical apps.  These upgrades were often reserved for off-peak times of the year as well... for example between Christmas and New Year's when the rest of the world was "on vacation".     I remember those days fondly.  

 

Nowadays, a lot has changed.  Software developers think nothing of taking the system down during prime-time hours, and they think it's "OK" to do that just because they announce ahead of time that it's gonna happen... like "What's the problem?  We TOLD you the system would be unavailable for a few hours?" 

 

OK... off to watch a movie on DirecTV... but wait,  I just turned on the satellite tuner and it's telling me it's gonna do a firmware upgrade now (which will take several minutes)... just when I want to watch something. 

 

Ugghhh... maybe I'll just go to sleep instead. 

 

David

Rich,

Will it provide the "add attachment" utility for mobile users. It's annoying when they post interesting photos from a mobile device and one views it from a computer.

 

No finger zoom on a computer or click to enlarge is available.

Richard thank y for looking into the pictures down loading for me. Never had problems with text size could read all fine. Just could not post pictures from phone. Witch makes it hard to show what your doing. And describe in to detail what your doing. Pictures are a good part of a story and help to define what your doing.
Hopefully it will included this in an app.
Thank you!!!!!

What?  Nobody likes this anymore?

 

 

Nowadays, a lot has changed.  Software developers think nothing of taking the system down during prime-time hours, and they think it's "OK" to do that just because they announce ahead of time that it's gonna happen... like "What's the problem?  We TOLD you the system would be unavailable for a few hours?"  

 

David,

You are correct.  For the most part, years ago, a change like this would have been done on a weekend or off hours during the week or both - on a weekend and during off hours - off hours = God's time zone ET .  Today there really is no off hours because of the pervasiveness of the Internet and the devices that access it.  Impact could still be limited by doing it on a weekend but for a large change that would mean "all hands on deck", meaning developers, system admins, architects and database admins.  

 

Today hardware is a lot cheaper, especially if you move your application to the cloud, so having another instance is not that much more expensive or maybe equal to the older on premise model (in some cases cheaper).  You could even have more than one instance running on the same hardware utilizing virtualization and promote code without experiencing an outage.  This is a topic that could have multiple scenarios and permutations.   

 

All this said for us here on the forum an outage on a Wednesday late morning to early afternoon may be the best time to do something like this.  I would bet that is one of lowest traffic/visit times of the week - the weekend is probably the busiest.       

      

LOL!  

 

It's the Kobayashi Maru of Forum Management.

 

But Rich doesn't believe in the "No Win Scenario"

Oh no !!  Another change !!  Whatever. I only use my laptop sitting on my desk and a flip phone occasionally. If the "system" goes down I go run trains or grab a book to read. Haven't watched much TV at all for the last 8 years and don't really miss it. A lot of the electronic stuff is a huge waste of time. Lived for a long time without all this stuff and can do it again. So go at it and upgrade !!  Hope it works out. Now where did I put that transformer ??

Thanks, Rich.

My poor old eyes can use all the help I can get to simplify viewing things.

And even in my advanced age, I can learn new software.

 

Let the inevitable grumbling begin.

It wouldn't be a gathering of old fogies without it

The upgrade sounds awesome Rich. I will be able to use the site much more because I am using my ipad more then my desktop.

Thank you for the upgrade.

 

Bob

This is great news!  Thanks for upgrading the site to keep up with today's tech.

Aw geez, this dang place goes through as many changes as my local Kroger store. 

 

Is the desktop version actually going to have all of that wasted space on the sides showing some out of focus train layout?

Rich, that "typical" display looks to be on an odd aspect ratio monitor.  Most folks nowadays have wide screen monitors, any preview of how that will look?

 

Much like everything else, maybe we should see it before you all get wound up about it.

 

Kobayashi Maru all over again.

Folks,

Responsive design will also work on a desktop/laptop with any browser on any operating system.  So if you don't have your window maximized and grab it from the right or left and move it in you will see the responsive design in action.  I think the image Rich posted may have been "moved in" to show how the screen layout will change with less horizontal space.  Just a guess .....   

Are we really getting all "wound up" about it here?

 

John, that image is a composite of THREE images stacked vertically. That's why it has a "portrait" format as opposed to a "landscape" format. I took a screen shot, scrolled the page vertically, took another shot, etc. I did it that way so you could see more than just the header and the banner ads. I should have explained that in my post and on the page itself. I'm going to add that text to the web page.

 

The format of the forum will automatically adapt to whatever screen you are using to view it. If you are using a tablet, for example, turning it between portrait and landscape will automatically for mat the presentation to give you the best possible viewing experience. If you use a desktop or laptop computer, it will look very similar to the way it looks now, just a little cleaner.

Not tightly but yes...someone turned the key a couple of times.

Sounds good Rich, should be a nice improvement.

 

No it will not. That image is just the background image we use on our web pages.

 

The left and right edges of the white area shows where the actual edge of the forum page is.

As with most everything else I'm afraid. When a manufacture wants to push a marginal product they call it an upgrade. The best one yet is, new and improved. How about a wait and see before passing judgement.

Pappy, are you saying we are pushing a "marginal product"?  

Hi Rich,

 

This is great news, looking forward to it.

 

Thanks,

Alex

sounds like a good idea, great job Rich

 

Alan

Rich,

Great news and thanks for investing in this wonderful forum and keeping it going!

May I make one request please - I mainly view the forum from my iPhone, when the upgrade comes can I please be able to post pictures from iphone when I reply to a topic?

Currently I can only post pictures or attachments on iphone when I start a topic (which is still a great feature!) but it would be nice to be able to include photos on someone else's thread such as Weekend Photo Fun.

If it can't be done no big deal and thanks for hoopla's and OGR's hard work!

M.J. please understand that I have no DIRECT CONTROL over how this upgrade will work. The software development is being done by the good folks at Social Strata.

 

I will ask about posting photos from a smart phone. I don't know the answer to that question.