The search is awful, yes, I have a tough time finding articles myself. Part of the problem is that words like "link" are represented by placeholders so that the same knowledge base can be used for all the scripts, and are thus unsearchable.
I usually end up googling for the article I want -- try a google site search or just google "WSN link variables" (or whatever term) instead of the built-in search.
I do think that search is something that needs to be somehow improved over all the scripts though. Some sort of algo needs to be build in to bring the most relevant results to the top. For instance, if the word "hotel" was searched for, the link with the word "hotel" twice in the text should be presented before a link with the word hotel once. If the searched keyword is in the title, it should maybe come before a link where the keyword is in the description.
What do you think of displaying the search more prominently, in the wrapper? Like
Or maybe that bar should only show up below on clicking a "Search" nav item?
Also, due to repeated insults received about the look and feel lately, I'm trying some new things. Let me know if the changes to buttons and boxes you can see there, including bits I clumsily cut and pasted at the bottom, are improvements or just making things worse.
Alphas might be available within a month and 5.1 final can be expected in summer or fall.
I definitely agree with keeping some sort of search in the header of the wrapper because I almost always move it to that location after an installation. Currently, your template looks a wee bit cluttered, but I think really it's suffering only from too many addons turned on. What I mean by that is perhaps if everything is "on" and available for use, the template starts to feel a little cluttered.
I say phooey when people insult the template. What do they want, for you to design it for them too? They'll never be satisfied with the result because each client is different. My only suggestion is to streamline as much as possible and maybe incorporate something similar to http://highslide.com/ so that informational items pop up rather than clutter the screen.
Example.
I use highslide to create info boxes. If someone wants to know what a featured listing is, they click the little image I have linked to the pop up window. You do this in the admin section and it keeps the clutter down.
That's just a little brainstorming.
From my POV I will turn off quite a few unneeded switches when I install something. Your software has grown so powerful, maybe it's time to allow the user to turn on rather than turn off switches so that the template appears streamlined at first.
Most will still want to customize, but I'd like to be at a point where their instinctive reaction isn't a look of disgust followed by a request for "a modern look" or a comment "this template is not looking good." Like it or not, everybody judges a book by its cover and I suspect my cover is costing me sales. Ideally I'd just hire a real web designer (like you) to do a few different template sets, but I don't have the savings to take risks right now.
Speaking of templates, I don't think you're one of the web designers on the services page, are you? I'm not sure if any of the sites I'm listing have actually been willing to take on a project in the last 3 or 4 years... I hear from people sometimes that they were unable to get a response from them. So it'd be nice to have someone listed with a confirmed pulse.
Highslide's commercial license is beyond my budget... there's probably a similar jquery plugin somewhere I could use, but I'm not sure I see a good default use for it. I'll think it over.
sparkalina wrote: maybe it's time to allow the user to turn on rather than turn off switches so that the template appears streamlined at first.
There's the simple setup option, but I think there needs to be a middle ground between hardly anything and practically everything, so 5.1 has three setup types: simple (as in 5.0), recommended (a bit less than the 5.0 "full" -- nothing for non-links directories enabled in WSN Links, for example) and kitchen sink (just about everything that can logically go together).
Sure, Listing me would be great under designers. I'm so familiar with KB, LINKS, and CLASSIFIEDS, it's easy to accommodate people's needs. I'm sure the others would be pretty easy to pick up as well.
Also, I'd be happy to do some template work for you, we can barter because I still need some custom work on my site.
So get in contact with me and we can hammer something out.
We could create "similar" templates with different color schemes, or incorporate several GNU license (is that correct) templates.
Well, I can't add more than Sparkalina really. I too always have the search box prominent on my sites. I also prefer a less "cluttered" look and feel and agree that just the basics should be switched. on to begin with.
I offered to do some templates for you some time ago, but at that time you had found somebody to do it for you - what happened to them?
Could you add me to your services page too please? Barry of Zest Studios disappeared back in 2006. Looking at the others it seems none of them use wsn now.
I had zoiig.com theoretically partnering to take on template projects a few years back, but don't think he even completed one project before disappearing.
My partner and I have been discussing the possiblity of submitting a template to you for a while. Unfortunately, web design is not my full time job, so any available time gets dedicated to paying clients.
In any case I just got out of my busy season and have just completed a template for a specific niche, but I am hoping to make it into a more generic version to submit to you.
So, should I be designing based on having all my switches on? Or just the default ones?
Oh, and one question I have for you as well as the other designers. How do you handle viewing the site as admin, guest & member. Do you make a template change, logout, view site, login, tweak, and repeat? Or has anyone come up with a better idea?
Finally, do you have a generic database you use for testing? Something that has a little bit of everything? If not I'll make one up, but was curious if there already was one available.
So, should I be designing based on having all my switches on?
Ideally all of them on, and to look decent with all of them off too, since it's not realistic to tell people "use this template set if you use this combination of 40 switches, but not otherwise".
How do you handle viewing the site as admin, guest & member. Do you make a template change, logout, view site, login, tweak, and repeat?
I do my admin work in Firefox and view as a guest in Konqueror. If I want to check as a regular member too, I login as a regular member in Opera.
Finally, do you have a generic database you use for testing? Something that has a little bit of everything? If not I'll make one up, but was curious if there already was one available.
The database I use is just a bunch of DMOZ-imported categories. When I test something specific I submit a new link, since I'm much more often testing how the submission works than how the template looks anyway.
0/5
1
2
3
4
5
Sorry, you don't have permission to post posts. Log in, or register if you haven't yet.
Comments on Feedback needed
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7867
The search is awful, yes, I have a tough time finding articles myself. Part of the problem is that words like "link" are represented by placeholders so that the same knowledge base can be used for all the scripts, and are thus unsearchable.
I usually end up googling for the article I want -- try a google site search or just google "WSN link variables" (or whatever term) instead of the built-in search.
Forum Regular
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Nov 27, 2006
Total Topics: 187
Total Comments: 465
Paul, in that case, why dont you just build a google cistom search into the knowledge base. It is as simple as pasting a search form into your html.
People could search google from the knowledge base, and only pages from the knowledge base would come up.
http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
I do think that search is something that needs to be somehow improved over all the scripts though. Some sort of algo needs to be build in to bring the most relevant results to the top. For instance, if the word "hotel" was searched for, the link with the word "hotel" twice in the text should be presented before a link with the word hotel once. If the searched keyword is in the title, it should maybe come before a link where the keyword is in the description.
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7867
I can't get sitesearch to work, it always returns no results.
Managed to come up some relevance-testing to put title matches first for simple searches of links (not all).
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7867
What do you think of displaying the search more prominently, in the wrapper? Like
Or maybe that bar should only show up below on clicking a "Search" nav item?
Also, due to repeated insults received about the look and feel lately, I'm trying some new things. Let me know if the changes to buttons and boxes you can see there, including bits I clumsily cut and pasted at the bottom, are improvements or just making things worse.
Alphas might be available within a month and 5.1 final can be expected in summer or fall.
Attached Files:
Forum Regular
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Nov 26, 2003
Total Topics: 70
Total Comments: 211
I definitely agree with keeping some sort of search in the header of the wrapper because I almost always move it to that location after an installation. Currently, your template looks a wee bit cluttered, but I think really it's suffering only from too many addons turned on. What I mean by that is perhaps if everything is "on" and available for use, the template starts to feel a little cluttered.
I say phooey when people insult the template. What do they want, for you to design it for them too? They'll never be satisfied with the result because each client is different. My only suggestion is to streamline as much as possible and maybe incorporate something similar to http://highslide.com/ so that informational items pop up rather than clutter the screen.
Example.
I use highslide to create info boxes. If someone wants to know what a featured listing is, they click the little image I have linked to the pop up window. You do this in the admin section and it keeps the clutter down.
That's just a little brainstorming.
From my POV I will turn off quite a few unneeded switches when I install something. Your software has grown so powerful, maybe it's time to allow the user to turn on rather than turn off switches so that the template appears streamlined at first.
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7867
Most will still want to customize, but I'd like to be at a point where their instinctive reaction isn't a look of disgust followed by a request for "a modern look" or a comment "this template is not looking good." Like it or not, everybody judges a book by its cover and I suspect my cover is costing me sales. Ideally I'd just hire a real web designer (like you) to do a few different template sets, but I don't have the savings to take risks right now.
Speaking of templates, I don't think you're one of the web designers on the services page, are you? I'm not sure if any of the sites I'm listing have actually been willing to take on a project in the last 3 or 4 years... I hear from people sometimes that they were unable to get a response from them. So it'd be nice to have someone listed with a confirmed pulse.
Highslide's commercial license is beyond my budget... there's probably a similar jquery plugin somewhere I could use, but I'm not sure I see a good default use for it. I'll think it over.
maybe it's time to allow the user to turn on rather than turn off switches so that the template appears streamlined at first.
There's the simple setup option, but I think there needs to be a middle ground between hardly anything and practically everything, so 5.1 has three setup types: simple (as in 5.0), recommended (a bit less than the 5.0 "full" -- nothing for non-links directories enabled in WSN Links, for example) and kitchen sink (just about everything that can logically go together).
Forum Regular
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Nov 26, 2003
Total Topics: 70
Total Comments: 211
Sure, Listing me would be great under designers. I'm so familiar with KB, LINKS, and CLASSIFIEDS, it's easy to accommodate people's needs. I'm sure the others would be pretty easy to pick up as well.
Also, I'd be happy to do some template work for you, we can barter because I still need some custom work on my site.
So get in contact with me and we can hammer something out.
We could create "similar" templates with different color schemes, or incorporate several GNU license (is that correct) templates.
Or just offer one good clean one.
Expert
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Location: England
Total Topics: 391
Total Comments: 1303
Well, I can't add more than Sparkalina really. I too always have the search box prominent on my sites. I also prefer a less "cluttered" look and feel and agree that just the basics should be switched. on to begin with.
I offered to do some templates for you some time ago, but at that time you had found somebody to do it for you - what happened to them?
Could you add me to your services page too please? Barry of Zest Studios disappeared back in 2006. Looking at the others it seems none of them use wsn now.
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7867
I had zoiig.com theoretically partnering to take on template projects a few years back, but don't think he even completed one project before disappearing.
Send me your URL and I'll list it.
Forum Regular
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Apr 03, 2007
Location: NY & PA
Total Topics: 94
Total Comments: 339
Hey Paul,
My partner and I have been discussing the possiblity of submitting a template to you for a while. Unfortunately, web design is not my full time job, so any available time gets dedicated to paying clients.
In any case I just got out of my busy season and have just completed a template for a specific niche, but I am hoping to make it into a more generic version to submit to you.
So, should I be designing based on having all my switches on? Or just the default ones?
Oh, and one question I have for you as well as the other designers. How do you handle viewing the site as admin, guest & member. Do you make a template change, logout, view site, login, tweak, and repeat? Or has anyone come up with a better idea?
Finally, do you have a generic database you use for testing? Something that has a little bit of everything? If not I'll make one up, but was curious if there already was one available.
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7867
So, should I be designing based on having all my switches on?
Ideally all of them on, and to look decent with all of them off too, since it's not realistic to tell people "use this template set if you use this combination of 40 switches, but not otherwise".
How do you handle viewing the site as admin, guest & member. Do you make a template change, logout, view site, login, tweak, and repeat?
I do my admin work in Firefox and view as a guest in Konqueror. If I want to check as a regular member too, I login as a regular member in Opera.
Finally, do you have a generic database you use for testing? Something that has a little bit of everything? If not I'll make one up, but was curious if there already was one available.
The database I use is just a bunch of DMOZ-imported categories. When I test something specific I submit a new link, since I'm much more often testing how the submission works than how the template looks anyway.