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CB Home Page - Updated To Be Faster, Cleaner & Less Cluttered! |
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abelajohnb
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posted: 05/14/08 11:46am
CB Home Page - Updated To Be Faster, Cleaner & Less Cluttered!
For the better part of two years the ChristianBlog.Com has pretty much been the same, with a few new features added here-and-there as we add them to the website.
Over this time, however, the home page has gotten more and more "stuff" on it, causing it to take longer and longer to load - which makes it harder for visitors and members with slower internet connections.
We have also continued to encounter resistance by search engines like google.com, yahoo.com, live.com, and others, because of how much data there was on the home page to process. Most search engines do not like a single website page to be loaded down with a bunch of stuff, and thus websites that are loaded down with a bunch of stuff get a negative ranking, rather then a positive ranking. So part of the goal in our newest design is to see if we can begin to go from being in that "negative factor" into a more positive one... because the higher we can get in the search engines the better it is for us to to have a chance to grow more!
There are obviously a number of drastic changes that people are either going to really love, or really hate...
- Less Graphics. By removing all of the fancy "border graphics" we have been able to make the home page load 3x faster then with the graphics!
- Less clutter. By refining how and what is presented, we have made it a lot easier to find specific features of the website. Less stuff scattered all over the place makes it must faster to scan the website for new content!
- Preview-less Blog Text. By removing the first few sentences of blog entries we have been able to greatly reduce "scrolling" up-and-down the home page! As most people rarely view more then one or two screen-depths, this allows us to present more content within the prime real estate that displays in visitors browsers, without forcing them to scroll down so much. We realize this may not make a lot of people happy, and if we were to add anything to our new home page, it would probably be this. But for now, we'd like to see how it works without a preview of the blog text. Voice your opinions and let us know.
- Home-page redirects (for logged in members). One of the constant questions we receive is "how to do get to the page with all of the recent activity?" We have now solved that issue. Once you are logged into the website, and you click on the "home" link at the top (or the logo at the top) you will be taken to the "Activity since your last visit" page automatically. No more searching or hunting down where all that information is at!
- Live Tech Support. While this does not directly relate to the changed home-page, we figured we would release our new "live technical support" at the same time as our new home page! Throughout the website, and on our new home page, the login page, and elsewhere, you should now see a "Need help? Click here for live help" button! When it says "Chat online" that means somebody is available to help you... yes, a real life person! It will ask you for your name and a question about what you are having problems with. From there you will be able to "talk" (not voice, but text-chat) with one of our support team members! Very cool. Try it out if you'd like to see how it works!
I would welcome any feedback, thoughts, suggestions, and even criticism of any of the above issues about the changes to our home page!
For now, the "old version" has been relocated to: http://www.christianblog.com/index_full.php
Thanks,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com |
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abelajohnb
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Hey everybody,
I just finished cleaning up the new home page, optimizing it a bit, and such... and I've got some numbers for you math-people out there...
The new home page is: 224 KB (229,376 bytes)
The old home page is: 1.06 MB (1,114,112 bytes)
So, I don't know what the differences between that are, as I'm really no good at math (I did after all, fail pre-algebra 3 times in a row -shrugs), but to me.... that's a HUGE difference!
The difference in downloading 224 KB verses 1.06 Megs is freaking HUGE. I am truly amazed at this difference!
For those of you without DSL/Cable internet this should be a HUGE improvement for you!! Heck, even those of you with lower end DSL/Cable -- say, those with 1.5 meg connections or slower -- this should mean the website home page loads at least 5-times faster!! wow!
Anyway, just thought I'd share this.
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slooper
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I happen to be one of those people who prefer the homepage over the "new" page. So is there way to get to the home page without logging out? Perhaps I missed something, but if not, then this seems to have introduced an inconvenience as well as motivation *not* to log in. I doubt this was your intension. If the consensus is for the new page, I'd be happy with a link to the home page. |
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abelajohnb
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Hello,
It would be somewhat beneficial to us if you explained what you do not like about both the new home page, and the "aslv" page, rather then simply saying you don't like it.
We cannot really comment or respond on/to a simple "I don't like it" -- and more importantly -- it does not help us to provide a better service to our members, when we don't even know what you do or do not like.
Thank you,
John B. Abela |
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slooper
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Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like "I didn't like it." I just "prefer" the home page, especially with the changes you just applied. I think your blog title says it all; it is faster, cleaner and less cluttered. And items 1-3 all appeal to me. I really like the new look.  |
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greybear
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Hey John,
2 quick things.....how do you get to the home page once you are logged in??? Or is the "home page" going to only be for new folks or if you aren't logged in....the whole auto redirect on the "home" button has thrown me for a loop.
other item....how do I look backwards through the blogs? on the old homepage, there used to be the navigational tabs at the bottom of the page......
think'in out loud.... |
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throughfaith
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Maybe my computer is weird but my screen has always gone to the ASLV page when I logged in instead of the home page. I didn't even know there was a home page for over a month when I started playing with the links at the top of the page. I like it this way because I can see the most recent activity first and then I can go back to the home page if I want to see updated prayer requests or top commented blogs. |
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blessings2you
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I echo Greybear's sentiment about once being logged in and not able to get to home page.
I think the new home page is excellent for what it is there for, very sharp and professional and gives just enough to inspire someone to want to get more by probing deeper into the site. |
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abelajohnb
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Wow, I apologize guys... I guess I did a really BAD job of explaining things...
Let me try this again....
When you are NOT logged in: The "home page" is and will be (until you login) the "newly designed page".
When you ARE logged in, clicking on the "home page" will take you to the "ASLV page" ( that stands for "Activity Since Last Visit" ) and the ASLV page will show you everything the "old" home page had, plus the "blogs since you last visited".
When you ARE Logged in, there is NO way to access the "newly designed" home page that I just did today - because it has less information then the ASLV page, and people are going to want "more info" when they are logged in. (right?)
Ok, I am not even sure THAT makes sense... but if somebody out there does understand it and wants to take a shot at explaining it better, go for it... because I don't always speak the way everything else in this world does, and that often means nobody understands me... so yeah, if somebody does, take your own whack at explaining it for the masses.
Thanks.
@GreyBear, point #2 -- There is a link at the bottom of the ASLV page that says "To see all of the Blog Entries of ChristianBlog.Com please view our Recent Blogs page!". It is also on our Admin Page, but it's buried a bit right now... I didn't want to invest a bunch of time into hacking up the Admin ASLV page until I knew for sure everybody liked this new design. Also, if you log into one of your Non-Admin accounts, you'll see how it works for the general public.
@Sloop, thanks for the clarification. Reading your first comment would have had me thinking you 100% hated the new design. Which, would not have upset me... I figure at least 40-60% of our members are NOT going to like it.
@blessings2you, thanks. One of the things I'm kind of worried about is what I explained above in my first post... that the lack of "blog intro text" might put-off some of our existing members. It kind of takes away from the "hmm, this sounds like an interesting blog, I think I'll read it" factor. However, on the flip side, those people who come up with decent blog titles should get a larger number of "views" to their blogs, because people will be interested in reading what you have to say, but will not know anything other then the title of your blog. -- So, it's kind of a two-way "hmm, which is better??" situation.
@throughfaith, yeah, I'm still working on getting "all the stuff" on the ASLV page... like prayer requests, featured blogs, and such. Just going to take me time to copy all the code into the ASLV page that was on the "original" home page. Of course, this is now going to make the ASLV page freaking HUGE.... uggh!!
Please all, continue the feedback. I'm only going to know whether we should "keep it" or "ditch it" based on public feedback.
Thanks!
John |
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blessings2you
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Makes perfect sense to me now. I think many of us didn't know the work on the ASLV page was still in progress. I vote "two thumbs up" for what you are doing on both the home page and ASLV pages.
As far as intro text, personally I don't think there needs to be as much as there is even on the ASLV page. Some blogs are barely any longer than the intro text. If you are seeking to cut down on how huge the ASLV page is, I would suggest cutting the intro text down to perhaps two or three sentences. That woudl put a premium on blogger writing something to grab attention in the first sentence or two which is good writing style (although I don't always do it myself). I totally agree on the home page the premium is now placed on developing a title that communicates and stimulates attention. |
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allforhim
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As a dial up user,( I don't know if DSL will ever make it to my house  !) I love the changes, but can I complain about one thing  ? On the ASLV page you have the Recent Blogs page below the ASLV and then you have a link, I think only the link is necessary, it makes it very cluttered and basically you are seeing the same blogs all over again. Just my 2 cents, other than that I love it!! Blessings! Andrea |
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kraftykatz
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It always take time getting use to new changes.
John just really likes making us think and strech our minds a bit, right John? (That's sopose to be a funny haha)
I like the new changes and the bit of a challenge finding what I know is here, somewhere.
KraftyKatz
 drinking tea |
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slooper
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Ok, so if I understand this correctly, the new ASLV page is a work-in-progress and will ultimately contain all the components of the old home page. But for right now, if I want to view the list of "categories," which I use frequently, it appears I have to remain logged off. Is that right? Or is there another place to find categories in the mean time?
Also, have you thought about making the ASLV page customizable, allowing users to show/hide particular features? It'd be nice to be able to hide things like "Gallery entries in last 24 hrs" and enable "preview-less blog text" to reduce the amount of scrolling one must do. You did a nice job on the new home page and enabling preferences would give us users the best of both worlds and perhaps appease the 40-60% you were worried about by making the changes. Just a thought.
Thanks, John. |
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kraftykatz
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Slooper,At the very bottom of the ASYLV page there is a link that says recent blogs. When you click on that link, it takes you to all blogs and in the lower right side of that page there will be a list of all the different catagory's. Hope this is helpful. As to the being able to arrange our own profile page, I think that was discussed before and the answer is no. KraftyKatz drinking tea |
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abelajohnb
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Hello all,
Ok, looks like I cleared things up... good to hear!
I have spent all morning getting the ASLV page setup.
Here is a diagram of how it *should* look for everybody. (click the image below to make it bigger)
@blessings2you, yes, you make a good case against removing the Blog Text Intro from the home page. I'm not sure about removing it from the ASLV page... but if a large majority of the community thinks we should, I will do what everybody wants.
@allforhim, hmm, you present an interesting idea. Let me ponder on that for awhile - and also see if anybody else likes the idea! (so if anybody out there agrees, post a say-so)
@slooper, sorry I didn't have the categories listed on the ASLV page last night. They are on there now. (along with a bunch of other stuff... ok, everything!
@slooper, idea 2, Yes, I have given that some thought in the past. Previously it become a management nightmare because we had the "home page" and the "ASLV page" which pretty much showed the same stuff. If this whole redesign goes over well, I will look into setting up a "show only what you want" feature, that will affect the ASLV page. I agree that seeing some things get old.
@krafykatz, thanks for clarifying the ability to get to the categories quickly. I had gone to bed just after I posted my above message and by the time I got backonline today, you had already answered it for me : )
Thanks All, and keep the comments/thoughts flowing!!
John |
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kiwibird
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The thing is John, I admit to being computorialy (?) illiterate! I understand letters and have been involved with a few myself. BUT I truly am confused now. I keep getting an error message trying to get to my profile. I know I still exist, I've just been getting lunch ready! Regards, Alison |
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abelajohnb
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That was completely unrelated to this Discussion. If you have problems with the website (ie: error messages) please use the Livehelp feature or our contact feature.
That said, the issue you had has been resolved.
John |
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