*** Your thoughts on the CowboysZone Upgrade so far? ***

[triplets_93]

I will look into it but the problem is the XF search system (at least in the old software) was horrible. When people would perform obscure searches it brought the site to a standstill for everyone despite running on enterprise level servers.

The main issue is that databases are traditionally bad with searching millions of records, so you need to use a search indexing system rather than a database search.

I plan to spend time testing the search system in the new software, but if has the same performance issues, I will consider writing my own search indexing system for CZ.

I understand that more now.... A simple search of "Jerry Jones" for example, would bring up to many hits and stress the database.

Perhaps the Search function could be defaulted to just search the last 3 months, for example.

If someone wanted to search a different timeframe, they would have to go to the trouble to enter a date range.

I usually end up wanting to use the search function in the Off Topic and the Music sub-threads anyway.

 

[JohnBoy]

For search with large results: force the criteria to page results (20 at a time?). That way, individual queries are not choking the DB, and the web bandwidth/browser not choking on 1000's of results. PM me if you need any technical help with this...

 

[The Fonz]

I missed the horizontal navigation menu.

 

[Reality]

For search with large results: force the criteria to page results (20 at a time?). That way, individual queries are not choking the DB, and the web bandwidth/browser not choking on 1000's of results. PM me if you need any technical help with this...

I am quite experienced with developing search engines, but I did not develop this software.

This software, like most, uses databases and databases were not designed for searching. They were designed for storing information.

The performance problem with searching databases comes from both the sorting required and the matching process. Sorting can be improved, but not solved, through indexes. That is why big data use separate clustered search indexing systems, not database searches.

The matching process though is highly dependent on how many records (after sorting) it has to read before it finds the number of matches. Even if you search for only one record it can take a long time to match if it has to search through all of the records to find that one match.

With the old site, one person searching for something obscure or even a typo brought the entire site to a standstill for all users until the search completed and with millions of records, that meant a long time. With the servers CZ runs on, that should not happen at all.

As I said earlier, I will take a look at the search system soon. If its search performance still impacts the site, then I will consider writing one myself. I assure you if I build it, it will be extremely fast.

 

[Reality]

I understand that more now.... A simple search of "Jerry Jones" for example, would bring up to many hits and stress the database.

Perhaps the Search function could be defaulted to just search the last 3 months, for example.

If someone wanted to search a different timeframe, they would have to go to the trouble to enter a date range.

I usually end up wanting to use the search function in the Off Topic and the Music sub-threads anyway.

You can read my other reply I just posted about the search engine.

As for the off-topic searches, I am planning to restructure the forums very soon (hopefully this week) which will hopefully help a little.

 

[Reality]

I can understand why an admin would delete something like this. As a software developer, there are few things more frustrating than "I hate it". It's not constructive, and doesn't provide any details on why you hate it.

Be specific, and be constructive: tell us why you don't like it, be polite about it, and then we can work together to make it better.

My $0.02

Exactly! I am perfectly fine with criticism, especially when major changes happen. I expect them and encourage them in fact by making sticky threads.

Just saying things like "hate it" or "it sucks" or "I don't like it" is not really helpful. I know some people will post those things just to troll, but I think some people assume that nothing will be changed. It may not be possible, but providing some information or context would at least give me a chance to look at it.

For example, one member earlier posted they liked the desktop layout but not the mobile layout. When I asked what they didn't like about mobile they pointed out the layout took up too much spacing on the sides. I looked at it and immediately realized I forgot to remove that spacing in the responsive design. A few seconds later and it was fixed.

Of course not all complaints can be fixed that fast or at all, but at least by telling me what you don't like I can at least see if I can improve it or maybe find an alternative solution.

 

[Reality]

I don't know if it has been mentioned but the 20 minute time limit to edit posts seems to have been cut to 10. Was that by design or is it a setting which can be adjusted. I mean either way is fine.. If it's 10 minutes it's 10 minutes.. but I sometimes post from work and get interrupted (pesky job) in mid post and hit send too quickly sometimes and then come back to realize I didn't finish a thought.

I am going to review all of the timers this week. There are different tiers of timers for different things so I will have to go through and check each of them.

 

[RoboQB]

If "like" is the only reaction, why call it "reacted" when it's just a "like".

 

[Reality]

If "like" is the only reaction, why call it "reacted" when it's just a "like".

I still have not had a chance to look at that area yet, but I will soon.

 

[Rayman70]

its challenging to copy and paste pictures.vids,gifs . That was a struggle. But I eventually figured it out.

 

[rags747]

It all looks relatively the same to me, but maybe I just forget how the old site looked. I do notice more Ads though, I imagine that was planned.

 

[Runwildboys]

Nice, @Risen Star can breathe a sigh of relief.


Most newer websites don't go over 80-100 characters in width. There's been UX studies on how going any wider hinders the user experience. Example, the second paragraph below is much more readable than the first.

---

Originally I was going to limit the width of the page, but some people like to use their montior width when reading so I made it full width like before. I can see about adding in some spacing for large width screens, but not sure it will be close to what you may be referring to.

Originally I was going to limit the width of the page, but some people like to use their montior width when reading so I made it full width like before. I can see
about adding in some spacing for large width screens, but not sure it will be close to what you may be referring to.

Both paragraphs look exactly alike to me.

Edit: when holding my phone vertically, exactly the same. When holding horizontally, slightly different.

 

[Reality]

It all looks relatively the same to me, but maybe I just forget how the old site looked. I do notice more Ads though, I imagine that was planned.

It's actually the same number of ads. I think they are appearing larger now than before due to the extra space.

 

[jwitten82]

I still want the option to knock someone's nose off through the screen, is that option coming in the future?

 

[Reality]

I still want the option to knock someone's nose off through the screen, is that option coming in the future?

I don't think that feature is on the schedule right now

 

[plymkr]

Now that the move to new software and new servers has been completed and I have designed the still-work-in-progress Light theme for the site, what are your thoughts on it so far?


Common Questions

*** NOTE: I will continue to add questions and answers here as they get asked multiple times.

Why did you upgrade now?
We were having issues with a couple of things and the older software and servers were limiting our ability to add new features that we have planned.

Are you done with the new site design?
No, not even close. I keep finding things that need to be updated or improved.

Will there be a dark theme?
Yes, once everything else gets settled, I will work on creating a dark theme for the site.

Will there be a chatroom like the old site had?
Yes, we will be adding a new chatroom system, but it will be a few days before we work on that.

Will member stats be added back below the avatar/username/title area of thread posts?
Yes, hopefully. It will have to be manually implemented so it will depend on what is available and possible.

I'm not a software guy so whatever you're doing looks good to me. I appreciate the site and all the work you do to make it go. During this transition time I haven't noticed anything that is a problem or anything. Thanks for everything you do. It's appreciated.

 

[rags747]

It's actually the same number of ads. I think they are appearing larger now than before due to the extra space.

The ads at the top are larger or more noticeable, but now there are ads in the middle of a thread if that makes sense. In other words you can read let’s say 6 posts in a thread and then there will be an ad and then you continue on to the 7th post. That’s how I see it…

 

[Fmart322]

I mostly use the sire on my Samsung note 9.
I've noticed recently that when making a post my screen drops down and I can't see what I'm typing. I always have to scroll up to find it.
Just wanted to fill you in.

 

[zrinkill]

It looks almost the same right now ....... I am excited about the new features that are coming.

 

[Kwyn]

What is the "Add Bookmark"?

Oh BTW, the site is coming along nicely!

Is there a search feature? It would certainly help cut down on reposts of common topics.