AutoSpies.com Gets a Refresh

I prefered the old interface, it was easier to access more articles on the home page...Poor job 004.

— MunichRob (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 1:32:43 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 16   

We all know the secret behind your act now. Nobody really cares if you or anyone else gets banned.

If you did get banned, you could just always register again, with an underscore in your original username or something... ;)

— Will_ (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 3:34:02 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

I have a better fix: When someone says something stupid and irrelevant to the Article (like most lexus fans do) simply do not reply to them and just deboost them to eliminate their comment.

— GTR35 (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 4:45:03 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

agreed.

— minimalist (View Profile)

Posted on 4/16/2007 5:05:24 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

I understand it might take some time to get use too, but why change an already good layout?

— MunichRob (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 5:28:18 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 10   

Munichrob,

Please, the old layout was basic and old-hat. A link to an article made up of merely the title?

This new layout at least gives information on the article before it is viewed, and we as readers can now determine weather or not the article is Autospies news or fanboy w*** material.

As a designer, I find this new layout more professional looking.

Now just remove the gallery links on the left of the page, and free up the site a little more. The news content is getting suffocated by the clutter on either side of the page.

— Matthew1 (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 6:07:25 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

And another thing...

I feel that an 'editing' function is unnecessary and could point Autospies in the wrong direction.

Remember, this ISN'T a forum, it is a (mostly) news site with the ability to comment!

....isn't a forum......

— Matthew1 (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 6:10:27 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Yes I have noticed the difference..... its now www.autospies.com/Lexus. lol. Every single thread turns into a flame war...... But I still love this site!

— M53R (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 10:07:30 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Fantastic site. One suggestion: please eliminate the boosting system.

— SixxFive (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 10:13:56 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

We should be able to edit our articles, we should be able to use metallic/bold/underline, we should be able to use real smilies, and NO MORE BOOSTING SYSTEM!!!

— S4cabriofoxone (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 10:36:48 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Nice site updates... maybe also work on the adding photos button. Everytime I try to submit more than one it tells me to select album then press browse button, only to never show me a browse button.

— atomicbri (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 12:29:58 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

For what it is worth, whilst I am not entirely accustomed to the new site, it isn’t exactly poorly put together.

I was one of the members, years ago, of the old Amazon.com forums. My username was Cray T1024 and I started posting there probably as a sophomore in high school. I even chose to continue with it when Amazon closed their in house forums and moved us to a private forum on Delphi forums. I must say that I met many interesting people there and the conversations were allowed to wander and be about anything you desired. We talked about everything from physics to politics. Having said that, I know that some of the suggestions expressed here carry their own set of problems.

The capacity to edit may cause problems as people go back and edit their posts to make themselves look better to perpetuity in instances where they have been called upon what may not be a perfectly rational assertion.

As far as the boosting/deboosting system: who really cares anymore? From my understanding of the situation, I would understand why they keep it simply because many who do not desire to post would like to voice their approval/disapproval of what has been said. I understand that many posters here would prefer that they write their comments for open discussion, and I admit that is the ideal system; however you cannot expect people to do that.

The underline/bold/smiles/HTML can be exceptionally problematic. HTML is a programming language. By letting anyone HTML rights you allow these people free reign to imbed even malicious material in their messages. I recall one time on the Delphi forums we were having some problems with a troll and some others who we felt were not being truly honest with us: “Us” being myself and some of the other better known members.

So, I started a thread pertaining to people’s localities and their lives. However, embedded within that first message, I put a device that monitored all of the IP addresses which had accessed the device. These are then traceable to specific locations. Comparing the lists provided with the lists given we, of course, found that we had been lied to. What I did is then begin to imbed these in multiple places and when certain people were trolling, I was able to access their latest IP addresses, and server ping flood their connection into oblivion. It actually worked: we tested it and all. That is a simple and rather benign method; there are far more horrible things you can do. I don’t think you want to open yourself up to that. Ask yourself how well you trust the other people on here.

— cdoke (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 12:56:19 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Hmm… I’ve been doing and directing UI for a few years, 004; and no, not freelance from my basement either, for a rather high-profile company. Here’s a couple things to consider:

What was better about the last interface was the amount of scrolling required to read everything. In the previous version, I could see nearly all of the stories and most active threads at a glance, all while keeping the navigation in view. On a 1280x1024 screen, I can only see the top two stories and I immediately loose everything when begin to scroll. Adding photos would only worsen the problem.

This could easily be remedied by wrapping the article teaser in a div, give it a consistent class, then you’d be to provide a “Show Article” button at top that would loop through the divs and show or hide. This would allow users who want to scan headlines to fit them in a much smaller space, and provide others with the article brief if they want it.

In my opinion, the articles didn’t really need a redesign, the side elements do. The main nav bar could use a texture and pixel separation to draw it out. Separating the nav bar, and highlighting your current section would encourage people to use it(That might sound strange, but it’s true). For instance, home page is “Top News” so when you arrived, the colors would be inverted for that button.

This is especially important with “Submit new content.” Article submission is really the edge you guys have over the competitors. It should be clear to every visitor that it’s an option as soon as they arrive. It’s big, but it needs more visual separation.

I understand the call for boosting to go, but I think it should stay. Even though it’s apparent that it’s most liberally used by the trollish badge whores. However, I think you should provide BOTH stats. The number of boosts and de-boosts. This would make the stat more interesting. Also, either don’t hide or give the option to show all de-boosted comments. It’s irritating when the lemmings get a hold of a thread and hide everything.

Last, moving “Logout” My alert and my agent page over to the “Registration” portion would consolidate this info and give you more space on the main nav, and room to add buttons when more features become available.

That’s it for now.

— webguy (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 8:51:01 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 6   

Get rid of that cheesy clock and those stupid "Ads by Google." I liked how the site used to be, with time i will get use to this. I like the boost system, it gives me an idea if anyone actually reads my comments.

— no1listensanyway (View Profile)

Posted on 4/15/2007 8:51:45 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

I like the refresh, but of course I like change.

— EL34 (View Profile)

Posted on 4/16/2007 12:02:31 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

Old interface is better. Bring it back please

— montyz81 (View Profile)

Posted on 4/16/2007 1:33:14 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

I like the new site and i like the ratings and being able to boost but there shouldnt be and hiding of unpopular opinions after a certain number of downgrades because sometimes people have a good point but it just so happens that the people logged in at that time happen to disagree

— Bighead255 (View Profile)

Posted on 4/16/2007 5:15:30 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

you now have simile capabilities? like :confused:?

— mstangpny07 (View Profile)

Posted on 4/16/2007 10:54:06 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Old layout was better.

— answer (View Profile)

Posted on 4/17/2007 1:07:51 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

New layout is nice. Larger text is nice too. I won't say it'll win design awards - but it's nice.

— Loki123 (View Profile)

Posted on 4/17/2007 1:34:51 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

it was easier to just click on the title and go to the other site to see everythign else rather than look for the Read Article text... that was one nice function of the old site

— omarrana (View Profile)

Posted on 4/18/2007 10:21:18 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

argh. the layout for this site has never been easy to navigate? i do enjoy this site for its galleries, but please consider making more simple to the reader. this isnt i-drive!

1st, ive never been to a site with a boost system. what is the purpose? 2d, there are no edit capabalities although some are concerned that people will decide to edit a statement, which is ridiculous. 3rd, there is no quoting system in addition to a proper reply option. ive attempted to reply several times to a post and it either places the reply at the postor's last comment or just ties it to a completely different post.

furthermore, in order to look for any interesting topics, i am required to go to a specific page and read about them post-topic. why is it so difficult to make the homepage similar? a few main topics above, with topic points following.

who the heck created this crap setup?

— minimalist (View Profile)

Posted on 4/18/2007 8:32:25 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

Why would anyone really want to edit a post? The only adequate reason is spelling or grammatical errors. Any other reason will cause more problems than it will fix. Even adding more to a post, will often yield people responding to the original as it is edited, and so there are communication problems with that.

If it is spelling: INTERNET EXPLORER 7 HAS A SPELLCHECKER BUILT INTO IT. It will spellcheck what you have written into the form. Granted, I am unaware if this works outside of Windows Vista, and that may be a barrier: I don't know.

— cdoke (View Profile)

Posted on 4/18/2007 9:08:02 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

what if someone had more or less to say even prior to receiving a reply? or were even concerned about grammar or the way something is spoken?

would it not be more efficient to just edit rather than have multiple posts following indicating the that the postor had desired to edit?

almost every forum or board ive been to has an edit option and i havent seen a problem yet. cause more problems? i doubt it.

— minimalist (View Profile)

Posted on 4/18/2007 9:23:58 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

here. ill boost u down like u did to my post just to show u how worthless the boosting system is.

now, i thought about this after i posted. would it have made it easier & efficient to simple edit or have a whole entire comment again following?

lol.

— minimalist (View Profile)

Posted on 4/18/2007 9:25:59 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Well, that and even adding cavets for clarification, that changes the original interpretation...

— cdoke (View Profile)

Posted on 4/18/2007 10:15:58 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1