It would be cool if clicking on “comments” took you to the beginning of the actual comments, rather than taking you to the top of (a more compact version of) the same article and making you scroll down to the comments. You could still leave the article at the top of the page, but maybe link to an anchor at the beginning of the actual comments?
Since new redesign I can not post comments. Somehow I can probably respond to others. When posting overlay of page appears, see pic, and it is not posted. Happens on Win 7/FF as well as on Catalina Safari.
any advice please?
It is question whether I will be able to post this tho
It's better without the weird scrolling, but there's still way too much wasted space. Just give us condensed summaries of articles in reverse chronological order. Simple and efficient.
It's better without the weird scrolling, but there's still way too much wasted space.
We did put in a patch to do a word count on articles and not include one of the topmost sidebar elements when it's below a certain threshold. Should help a lot when we have shorter articles.
Like some others, I’m finding the new design a bit disorienting. I mostly view the site on an iPad, and the second nav bar that “snaps” on to the top one is unpleasantly jarring when it shakes the whole page for its animated effect.
I’d rather have fewer links taking up space at the top. Ideally, there would be a fairly compact area at the top that would disappear when I scroll down, stories would be organized in chronological order so I would always see the most recent at the top, and individual headlines/teasers would take up less space on the home page so I could see more at once, rather than the three I can see now.
I also miss the stock ticker, even if it was broken much of the time.
I just came to the forums to point out exactly this jarring behavior. As soon as you reach the first article on the main section of the page, the toolbar jumps, and then the headline is cut off. Then we’re left with two toolbars which take up a decent chunk of useful screen space instead of getting out of the way and just letting us scroll down the page. How many hits do you actually get on those shortcut links? Fine to have them at the top of the page, but please don’t keep them around as we scroll down. Thanks!
A fair amount, actually. Moreover there are SEO implications to that bar. I'll look into making it a bit less snappy/jarring.
The stock ticker is missing on ipad because we just didn't have space for it and something had to give. It exists on mobile and desktop. I'm not sure how we can address that in the future. Tablets only make up like 5% of our reader base, so any tablet-specific fixes get lower priority = \
Only 5% accessing the site on an iPad or other tablet device? That is really surprising to me.
The snapping second toolbar and content jumping on the home page is still present. A lot of websites do this, but since you seem responsive to feedback, I'm hoping you will reconsider this. Here's a screen capture demonstrating the problem ... try to read the first headline in the Latest News section:
I know this isn't connected to the main site redesign, but is a forum problem. An inordinate number of replies get started in the quoted text they're replying to because the background color of the quoted text div is *really* hard to differentiate from the background color of the page. I would consider changing those border-left to something brighter or giving the background color a little more contrast.
The snapping second toolbar and content jumping on the home page is still present. A lot of websites do this, but since you seem responsive to feedback, I'm hoping you will reconsider this. Here's a screen capture demonstrating the problem ... try to read the first headline in the Latest News section:
The snapping second toolbar and content jumping on the home page is still present. A lot of websites do this, but since you seem responsive to feedback, I'm hoping you will reconsider this. Here's a screen capture demonstrating the problem ... try to read the first headline in the Latest News section:
Yes, we will fix this. I think it may have actually been fixed in an internal build that we haven't pushed up yet -- The fix is just caught up in a larger internal discussion about what we want to use that space for, and how we may have to change its behavior on different sections of the site. We do read this thread and are listening
The snapping second toolbar and content jumping on the home page is still present. A lot of websites do this, but since you seem responsive to feedback, I'm hoping you will reconsider this. Here's a screen capture demonstrating the problem ... try to read the first headline in the Latest News section:
The snapping second toolbar and content jumping on the home page is still present. A lot of websites do this, but since you seem responsive to feedback, I'm hoping you will reconsider this. Here's a screen capture demonstrating the problem ... try to read the first headline in the Latest News section:
I think it would be more convenient to have a "Read more in the forums..." link at the TOP of the comments instead of (or in addition to) the one at the bottom.
For those articles that have lots of comments already, in order to reply to a particular one, it requires going all the way to the bottom just to get to the normal forums to "like" a post, etc. Have the link at the TOP of the comments section, please.
Otherwise, still getting used to the look and feel of the new site.
I don't know that I'd encourage visitors to "Read more in the forums" until some of us clean up a bit. A whole lot of threads go way off the tracks and proceed down a cliff, not reflecting well on fans of Apple who are generally a knowledgable and friendly bunch. The forums serve a valuable function, but casual visitors may come away with an entirely wrong impression of AppleInsider.
If we're going to invite them to "Read more in the forums" several of us, and often the loudest voices, need to learn to be more tolerant as well as follow forum rules. Just me 2 cents.
You ever go hang out on MacRumors or similar? AI is a bastion of calm in comparison.
Indeed... I'm looking to give up on MR and have just signed up here instead, for that very reason. MR is an ever increasing nightmare. Half the articles are titled for clickbait, as well as all but inciting hate and negativity. So far my experience here has been much better. Hoping that continues and is typical not just a lucky start or something.
Thanks for removing the snap for that second nav bar—much appreciated. And bookmarking the .../archive page solves the other thing that was bothering me, so thanks for that smart tip.
Ok - when is AI finally going to get around to fixing all the issues with the new design? Having a video autoplay when you load a page is annoying as hell, the server routinely hiccups and double posts comments and you still can't make a comment from the main page. (at least in safari - I haven't tried any other browsers.)
I’ve been accessing the website via the Archive page, because I like the convenience of seeing the latest stories at the top of the page without having to skip past the “Top Stories,” but this breaks the Comments feature, at least when I try to leave comments with my iPad. I am logged in, of course, and using iPad OS 14.4.2 with a 10.5” iPad Pro. Can you fix this? Thanks.
Your review videos that are embedded in an unrelated article are super annoying when you scroll past it, and they then bounce down to the bottom of the screen. On a 11” iPad it ends up using up almost the bottom 3rd of my screen. With the Safari or Apple Insider tool bar taking up another significant chunk at the top, that doesn’t leave much for the article. I can’t make it go away by selecting the Close X using my Magic Keyboard trackpad cursor, but just learned I can if I touch the X with my finger instead.
I emailed appleinsider last week about those auto playing “Appleinsider TV” videos. I’m not a fan of websites presuming that I
a) want to watch the same video in every article that I read, b) am in a situation where unexpected noise and visuals is acceptable or c) want to use my available data/ bandwidth on such a thing.
As Apmiller, it was a usability nightmare on my 11” iPad. Sorry guys, but I also used 1Blocker to remove that element.
I emailed appleinsider last week about those auto playing “Appleinsider TV” videos. I’m not a fan of websites presuming that I
a) want to watch the same video in every article that I read, b) am in a situation where unexpected noise and visuals is acceptable or c) want to use my available data/ bandwidth on such a thing.
As Apmiller, it was a usability nightmare on my 11” iPad. Sorry guys, but I also used 1Blocker to remove that element.
I emailed appleinsider last week about those auto playing “Appleinsider TV” videos. I’m not a fan of websites presuming that I
a) want to watch the same video in every article that I read, b) am in a situation where unexpected noise and visuals is acceptable or c) want to use my available data/ bandwidth on such a thing.
As Apmiller, it was a usability nightmare on my 11” iPad. Sorry guys, but I also used 1Blocker to remove that element.
Yes, I second this also. It's obnoxious and rude to force this stuff on us. Most sites have an "auto play" toggle that we can turn on or off to our liking.
I understand this site is paid for by ads but there's a line. Feel free to place ads to your heart's content interspersed or whatever else. I get it. That's what funds the site. No problem. But have some respect.
Do NOT auto play videos and do not force them elsewhere on the screen once I've scrolled past it. If I've scrolled past it I'm not interested, and your persistence only makes me mad and then I'm going to do things like go out of my way to remove your affiliate code from the link if I do actually find one of your ads interesting. It's a trust and respect issue.
For example: I buy Apple stuff, at a premium compared to everyone else's products, and I go out of my way to buy directly from Apple whenever possible, even when the same Apple product is cheaper elsewhere. I do all this partly because I appreciate the support, respect, trust, returns policy (and often they've extended return windows and warranty periods for me) and everything else that Apple includes and inspires in their values and products that other companies don't have. Sure their products cost more, but when you buy Apple products you get a lot more than just the product.
Similarly, you guys show me the same respect and I'll go out of my way to be a "customer" of this site and help you make the most of your business model, through me (which in this case means things like buy stuff through your affiliate links even if I see it somewhere else, or whatever else I can do). And I'll do the reverse if you don't. Guys, consider your audience here (ie. people like me who appreciate the extras and are happy to pay for it).
On another note, there's another problem I often have with this site. When I hit a link in a comment, say, and that switches to that page, then I hit the back button to come back to where I was, 9 times out of 10 it takes me back to a completely different page (always further ahead I think) in the comments than the page I came from originally.
Here's a guess at what might be causing this: I suspect this site has a "take me to the first unread comment" feature. Maybe I'm experiencing this because at some point in the past I'd read further than what I'm looking at when I click on the link and so when I hit the back button it does take me back to where I came from first, but then decides to switch me to that other point I read to in the past.
If it's not that then who knows. Either way it's pretty annoying. If it's a bug, then it'd be great if that could be fixed, or if it's anything like what I've described above then perhaps you could provide that "take me to the first unread comment" as a preference not a requirement (I'd turn it off). Sometimes I like to re-read comments, so I really want the site to take me to wherever I've asked to go, not some place it "smart" thinks I want to go instead.
Comments
any advice please?
It is question whether I will be able to post this tho
https://youtu.be/Qy5XxMGJaNY
Not quite that simple, but yes the fix involves compensating for the loss of the height of that mid page nav inside the document flow when it snaps 👍
great job!
Enough to make me wants to avoid reading anything here.
1Blocker saved me - I had to mask the whole "Watch the Latest from AppleInsider TV" block though.
a) want to watch the same video in every article that I read,
b) am in a situation where unexpected noise and visuals is acceptable or
c) want to use my available data/ bandwidth on such a thing.
As Apmiller, it was a usability nightmare on my 11” iPad. Sorry guys, but I also used 1Blocker to remove that element.
I understand this site is paid for by ads but there's a line. Feel free to place ads to your heart's content interspersed or whatever else. I get it. That's what funds the site. No problem. But have some respect.
Do NOT auto play videos and do not force them elsewhere on the screen once I've scrolled past it. If I've scrolled past it I'm not interested, and your persistence only makes me mad and then I'm going to do things like go out of my way to remove your affiliate code from the link if I do actually find one of your ads interesting. It's a trust and respect issue.
For example: I buy Apple stuff, at a premium compared to everyone else's products, and I go out of my way to buy directly from Apple whenever possible, even when the same Apple product is cheaper elsewhere. I do all this partly because I appreciate the support, respect, trust, returns policy (and often they've extended return windows and warranty periods for me) and everything else that Apple includes and inspires in their values and products that other companies don't have. Sure their products cost more, but when you buy Apple products you get a lot more than just the product.
Similarly, you guys show me the same respect and I'll go out of my way to be a "customer" of this site and help you make the most of your business model, through me (which in this case means things like buy stuff through your affiliate links even if I see it somewhere else, or whatever else I can do). And I'll do the reverse if you don't. Guys, consider your audience here (ie. people like me who appreciate the extras and are happy to pay for it).
Just my 2c.
Here's a guess at what might be causing this: I suspect this site has a "take me to the first unread comment" feature. Maybe I'm experiencing this because at some point in the past I'd read further than what I'm looking at when I click on the link and so when I hit the back button it does take me back to where I came from first, but then decides to switch me to that other point I read to in the past.
If it's not that then who knows. Either way it's pretty annoying. If it's a bug, then it'd be great if that could be fixed, or if it's anything like what I've described above then perhaps you could provide that "take me to the first unread comment" as a preference not a requirement (I'd turn it off). Sometimes I like to re-read comments, so I really want the site to take me to wherever I've asked to go, not some place it "smart" thinks I want to go instead.