The Explanation Post – IOTW Report

The Explanation Post

Thursday, 19 May 2016, 22:36 BFH Uncategorized 34

Okay, I guess this is the post that needed to be posted earlier, but I was a afraid to write it because I haven’t slept in around two days. I’m hitting my second wind, so here goes.

I realize people do not like change, but the reality is people are changing. The viewing habits of people are continually trending towards viewing on mobile devices. The site needs to be both mobile friendly and desktop friendly to advance into the future and be relevant. There’s a balance that needs to be struck. I think we’ve accomplished that.

I know desktop viewers love giant posts in a stack, where you scroll down and get lots of the story without clicking into it.

Mobile users don’t like this format. They don’t want to scroll and scroll to get through 2 stories, and several large pictures. We need to engage a viewer on a mobile device much, much quicker, or else they will go elsewhere. In this format they can quickly see lots of headlines with post excerpts and decide on whether they want to read more or comment.

Regarding the plugins we had in the other format, our goal is to implement them a little at a time. Widgets and plugins can whack out a site in a heartbeat, so we’ll add them over time. We want the thumbs up, we want the post likes, we want a different comment system. We’ll get there and more.

Oh, and while I was writing this I saw an Uncle Al Bullpen post that could have saved me the time of writing this. My post has become redundant.

You can see it HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

34 Comments on The Explanation Post

  2. Not redundant. I hadn’t really considered the mobile platform implications you mentioned.

    I should have. I pretty much stopped looking at iOTW on my phone because of general suckiness. That’s not a big deal for me, as I rarely spend a lot of time browsing on my phone. But it clearly is a big deal for a lot of others.

    One thing I just noticed, though, is that the post rating widget is working on Bull Pen posts. Still not on main articles, and of course not on comments. But there is at least one place you can say Good! or You Suck!

  4. Sorry to hear about your non sleep. I get insomnia about twice a week so I feel your pain. Regarding the topic of the change: Of course I don’t like it! I’m still not over the name change of the web site! That being said, I still come to this site first. Before weasel zippers.us Heck, before drudge. (Psssst…drudge is last). Love ya, man. Great pics, posts, topics and people/commentors.

  5. Runs very fast on every platform I tested it on. Although I’m not a fan of double sidebars, this theme is wider and makes it work well. Lots of people don’t understand the work it takes to get a site like this up and running right. Changes will come and make it even better.

    Well Done Fur!

  7. I think the bloggers name block is way too big but If y’all are okay with it who am I to complain. I dont blog too much on here anyways and this will probably be my last one.

  8. I didn’t sleep for 3 days trying to get office work done. Then I woke up in the hospital 2 days later. The wife took me there cause I was acting like an asshole. Don’t remember
    anything.
    So make sure you sleep. It’s important.

  13. Dude. I am RELIEVED!

    I was viewing it in the original format, and then I hit page TWO and got the new look. I forgot to mention that I was doing some HTML and C++ work while perusing IOTW. I was afraid that I’d done this!!!

  14. Geez, yesterday I downloaded and installed OS X El Capitan. IOTWR was the first website I looked at after it installed. My initial thought was OS X El Capitan caused the new look.
    Until I looked at other websites I check daily, and realized the cause was BFH.

    Now my wireless router no longer recognizes my Macbook. And the software to reconfigure it also no longer works. So yeah, sometimes sw updates suck. However, the new look of IOTWR is cool, it will just take some time to adjust to the new look.

  15. I’m one of those guys with a bad attitude about something new. Usually takes me a while before I’m convinced that the new and improved version is actually new and improved. This looks better right away.

  17. Thanks BFH!

    I use firefox on a pc. Initially I was concerned by the small font, difficult to read. But when I hit control+ it zoomed, the font size increased, and the right column moved to the bottom of the page. I’m OK with that.

  20. Didn’t care for it at first, but got used to it fairly quickly. If I could pick, the old format would win but I understand the need to engage folks who live their lives with their noses buried in their f*cking phones.

  22. I buy clicks on google all over TX and yp here in Midland and nearby cities. Every month I get performance stats and consistently, 9 out of 10 clicks or views are on phones/tablets. Having a fast, grabbing site that’s mobile friendly is very important.

    Just remember those of us who were with you when you started-when you start getting 1,000s of comments for a post, it’s not quite the same kind of site.

  23. Since nearly all of your readers have jobs (just like me) and most likely access iOTWReport during lunch on their smartphone (again, just like me), this is a very good thing.

  24. Fur, I worry about you. You leave clues about the way you live on this website, and it’s very concerning. No sleep for two days. An all-M&M lunch. God knows what else you’re doing that you don’t mention.

    Take it from a person who is a few years older than you–once you hit middle age, the body deteriorates rapidly. Please see a doctor for a 100,000-mile tuneup. Get some structure into your life. And hire Bad Brad as your personal trainer.

  25. I have a tower desktop so I never thought about how the old site would look on a smart phone before. Must’ve been hard to navigate because people are too busy walking into fountains and oncoming traffic in order to navigate their hand-held new-reality box.

  27. I’ve still got a dial phone, so I can’t access iOTWREPORT on it.
    Tried looking between the finger-holes, but to no avail.
    The new format looks good on the desktop PC, but I’m still plagued with Windows 10 which is a huge suck. I’d rather have a … no … not really …

    izlamo delenda est …

  30. @Bad_Brad: Yea well, it’s not the format that makes some of us junkies, it’s the content. God Damn the pusher man. LOL.

    My thoughts exactly. 🙂 I need my IOTWr fix.

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