Announcement Slight Design Rejig on Desktop & Reduction of Ads

[TractorBoys]

Logging in this morning if you happen to be on a Desktop, you will have noticed a slight rejig with the sidebar (not present on mobiles) now displaying on the left hand side of the page. Furthermore, if you're not a site supporter but are kind enough to support the site by not running an Ad Blocker when you visit us, you have probably noticed a reduction in the number of ads we're serving you by way of thanks. These two changes are linked.

I happen to think the site looks much smarter when access on a desktop through this change. White space is significantly reduced, coupled with the slightly smaller logo, but I do appreciate as with anything, some of you will take a while to get to get used to the change. All I ask is that you do take the time to do exactly that, give it time; I've spent a considerable amount of it making these changes and the user experience in terms of less third party ads, not to mention page load terms, should benefit all who aren't blue.

If you happen to always access the website on mobile, like more than 50% of all our visitors now do, you'll probably be wondering what all the fuss is about. This is a constantly increasing trend and the reason behind this change; ultimately for mobile users, whom are now the majority, all that has changed is that you now have a forum experience with less advertisements.

The changes have resulted in me reworking a good proportion of the sites core code so there is a chance of some teething problems or issues I've missed, please point these out to me on this thread if you feel something isn't working quite right.

Cheers,
TB

 

[epic73]

This will take some getting used to.

 

[Stagat]

I got redirected to this earlier. Dunno if related. Not that arsed that it happened tbh but thought you'd wanna know.

 

[TractorBoys]

I got redirected to this earlier. Dunno if related. Not that arsed that it happened tbh but thought you'd wanna know.

View attachment 5590

Not related, but shouldn't be happening. Do you know approx. when?

 

[Stagat]

Not related, but shouldn't be happening. Do you know approx. when?

Around 1am your time.

 

[TractorBoys]

Cheers Stagat, will take a look and see if I can recreate. If anyone else can let me know if they get anything similar.

This will take some getting used to.

Also, epic73 has questioned & pointed out that the Well Known Members usergroup are getting a large vertical ad above the status & new threads section at the top of the left hand sidebar. This is correct for new members, but as an incentive to post this should be a much smaller ad for your usergroup, and of course completely hidden to site supporters. I've just tried to quickly fix this but the alignment is off so I'm going to handle this later today once I've slept, it's been noted.

 

[Bobbin']

TB, my man. Since yesterday afternoon the top of my page on mobile has been like this.

 

[PaulHaddock]

^

 

[Bobbin']

Frustrating, if for example I'm reading a thread in the league one forum, I can't click back on 'league one' to take me back to the main league one forum. Have to click 'Forums' to go back to the homepage and start again.

Edit: Seems to be back to normal now.

 

[El Guapo]

It has been like this for me since last night.

Seems to be just the home page of the Championship forum, when I open a thread it's working as normal.

 

[Craig]

It has been like this for me since last night.

Seems to be just the home page of the Championship forum, when I open a thread it's working as normal.

Clear cache, cookies and browsing data. Worked for me.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

I know you said it'll take time to get used to, but I think the sidebar looked much better on the right.

 

[Lamby]

It's shite

 

[MJA]

It's shite

Nothing like being constructive

 

[TractorBoys]

Thanks for the feedback, to pick up on the points raised so far;

Bobbin' - I'm getting the header issue intermittently on mobile too. code clearly isn't perfect, will rework it tonight.

El Guapo - That display relates to me testing SSL (https) encryption, as highlighted, if you clear your cache/cookies it will resolve. We'll be switching over to SSL for security (as demanded by Google) in the coming weeks

JaseTheVillain - Appreciate the feedback. After a few weeks, depending on feedback I may code an option for site supporters to toggle between the two depending on demand.

As expected, the thread is largely quiet because on mobile aside from the issues to iron out above the changes go largely unnoticed. I'll carry on tweaking today but further feedback is welcomed, cheers.

TB

 

[Luke Imp]

Not quite right for me:

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

Not especially enamoured with it but maybe I'll get used to it.

Can't believe those mobile numbers. Don't people have better things to do when they're out and about

 

[lordofthepies]

Not especially enamoured with it but maybe I'll get used to it.

Can't believe those mobile numbers. Don't people have better things to do when they're out and about

I'm surprised because trying to use the site on mobile is absolutely infuriating, in my experience. I usually give up trying after a couple of minutes.

 

[Meadow]

I s'pose I'll get used to it.

Not especially enamoured with it but maybe I'll get used to it.

Can't believe those mobile numbers. Don't people have better things to do when they're out and about

Not necessarily out and about. We have one working computer Chez Meadow, so if it's in use, I'm just as likely to dip in on my mobile.

I'm surprised because trying to use the site on mobile is absolutely infuriating, in my experience. I usually give up trying after a couple of minutes.

Really? I have no problem at all providing the forum's working properly.

 

[claret50]

The page looked much better when the side bar was on the right - that is all.

 

[Renegade]

Yeah, it was much better before when it was on the right. I naturally read things from left to right, so I could easily ignore the items on the sidebar (because frankly I don't care about them) before the changes, now I can't avoid them. Might be a personal experience, but I think most people read websites in a similar manner as they read a page in a book, from left to right.

All that said, I never use the mobile version of the site, so if it helps more people maybe it's worth keeping.

 

[Vanni]

Like others said. Sidebar on the right please.

Cheers.

 

[Bobbin']

Still having issues with the header on mobile.

Also, back at work today and have now seen the sidebar. Horrible. Would really appreciate the option to switch it back to the right hand side as you mentioned.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Yeah, it was much better before when it was on the right. I naturally read things from left to right, so I could easily ignore the items on the sidebar (because frankly I don't care about them) before the changes, now I can't avoid them. Might be a personal experience, but I think most people read websites in a similar manner as they read a page in a book, from left to right..

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[TractorBoys]

I naturally read things from left to right, so I could easily ignore the items on the sidebar (because frankly I don't care about them) before the changes, now I can't avoid them. Might be a personal experience, but I think most people read websites in a similar manner as they read a page in a book, from left to right.

All that said, I never use the mobile version of the site, so if it helps more people maybe it's worth keeping.

You've hit the nail on the head. These things (including the adverts) are now in more prominent positions for desktop users, so we can now show less of them across the site whilst still covering the site costs; and better still this doesn't impact layout to 55+ percent (and this number is ever increasing) because the sidebar doesn't feature on mobile. This is one of the biggest factors for why the change was made; less ads (on all devices) but in slightly more prominent areas = same earnings & better user experience. The mobile version of 1FF has long since been a mess and a swathe of non responsive ads and to ignore that we have been ignoring our largest traffic source.

Edit:- (It's actually 62% this month Mobile & Tablet, compared with 38% Desktop)


I do understand for site supporters who visit us via Desktop regularly that the sidebar does not feature adverts at all so the above reasoning loses its validity, for that reason I'm happy to go ahead and code an option for this usergroup to switch the sidebar to the right hand side. It will take me a little time, but I've put it on the agenda. This will serve as a nice gesture & additional feature to site supporters for them to have this option, too.

 

[TractorBoys]

P.S - I still need to fix the header code; and I still haven't finished the permissions for the adverts based on usergroup, I'm doing this on the night shift tonight. Cheers for the feedback.

 

[Vanni]

Fair enough TB. Whatever is best for this forum going forward.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

View attachment 5608

Think we need to buy some better strikers...

 

[Pagnell]

It looks fine on mine running Opera, but I preferred it on the right. No biggie though. An option to swap it back would be nice but don't go out your way.

 

[Bobbin']

Have you had a chance to look at the issue with the header?

I know you've probably had other things going on, like life. Just wondering as I'm still getting it intermittently.

Cheers.