New Startpage for bonsaiTALK

TreeBay

I have just completed a draft homepage for bonsaiTALK. _ This is an effort to consolidate some of the features and functions that have been in development for a few months now. _

I certainly expect the Forum to remain the heart & soul of bonsaiTALK, with the calendar, links, polls, FAQ, gallery, weather and the new [News and Articles] features rounding out the menu.

You can view a sample of the startpage here:

http://www.bonsaitalk.com

I am very interested in your feedback with respect to the following:

Page load times
Functionality
Comments & Critiques & Suggestions.

I have been working at getting this page to load reasonably quickly. _

If the page stalls or takes much more than a typical load time, I would appreciate knowing what browser and version you are using. _That info is usually under the HELP bar in the browser. _For example in Internet Explorer it is under HELP->About Internet Explorer. _I have reason to believe there may be an issue with earlier versions of Netscape.

__________________

Want to be a seller on bonsaiAUCTIONS? Get authorized today!

bonsaiTALK: Over 100,005.36 Megabytes Served this Month!

Advertisement

Jose_Alberto

GREAT!!!!!!!!!!! it is really nice, well, I'm using Explorer 6 and it loaded really fine, not slow at all... and I like the way it looks, keep up the good work

__________________
Jose Alberto Franco
Guatemala
Central America
http://www.doschivos.com

Carl_Bergstrom

Matt,

The page is techically very nice, and I realize a ton of work has gone into it, so I feel badly providing criticism. However, I've never let that stop me. So, a few comments.

1) Load times. Data transfer times are reasonable over my DSL connection. I don't know what they'd be like over a modem. Rendering times are not so reasonable. It takes maybe 30 seconds to actually render the right-most column when I use Galeon (the fast front-end for the Mozilla engine). It takes even longer to render ANYTHING at all using Netscape 4.77. Sometimes the rendering fails altogether in netscape, leaving the user with a blank screen; sometimes it comes through in the end. This is on a Pentium II-300; not the world's fastest machine, but not far below the median out there, I bet. Is the web page optimized for Explorer or something? Ironically, lynx - the text-only browser - has no problem with the page (though the multicolumn format is lost, of course).

I'm one of those people who feels quite strongly that the strength of the web lies in its simple, platform-independent protocol for providing text and images. All too many of the tricks used to create really fancy interactive websites cost more - in terms of giving up the core strength of the www - than they are worth for the benefits they provide.

I have a rather extensive professional website that I've coded myself in raw html, and I stick quite closely to this philosophy there. Basically for me, it comes down to the following: what does this website have to offer people? And when I think about that, I see right away that the answer is basically a set of texts and images. Not a user interface or a flashy experience.

Wow - quite a rant. Sorry about that. And to think that I tried to rein myself in!

2) Forums: I couldn't find a link to the forums at http://www.memobug.com/treebay/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi#general
Either I missed it, or it's just not there; such a link should be prominant, I would think. I could only get there indirectly by clicking on some of the current discussion topics.

3) Design issues: From a design standpoint, the page seems too busy. It don't even know where to start when I get there. Again it's a design philosophy thing, but I much prefer simpler start pages with fewer choices, which take you to subpages and so forth. Compare the start page for Yahoo to that for Google, for example. Google is brilliant that way. There are two things to balance here: functionality for the repeat user and initial impression for the first-time visitor. A first-time visitor might find the current page overwhelming, and moreover, never find the forums, the real core of the site. I'm not sure the gains in functionality for those who know their way around the site compensate for these costs to the first-time visitor.

---

Just the 2 cents of a cranky old crow.

__________________
In love with trees

erubeck

Nice work Matt!

It loaded just fine in AOL. I like the easy access to Links, articles and specific posts. How does one get from the new home page to a major topic? For example; how would I get into the Gallery and post a message with a picture? Also, would we still be sble to go right to the ten most recent posts or into the live chat area? Perhaps its right in front of my nose and I missed it. In general, though, I like the format and think it is a big improvement over the old (the old wasn't bad at all).

__________________
Regards,

Ed

Earl

It loaded just fine on my ol' slow 28k modem and telephone line. It was a bit confusing and I may just be slow but if the Forum is to remain the heart & soul I never even figured out how to get from the new start page to the forums. I probably didn't look long enough...but that's my point. The page certainly isn't intuitive...

I own a print/copy shop and dabble in graphic design. I don't pretend to be a designer but I do follow the philosophy of getting to a main point to grab peoples attention. Much like we are trying to do with our bonsai...and I don't see that here.

Just my ideas...

seeker

cranky should try to speak english, totally confused me!
the page loaded fine on my 13 month old computer which
is probably obsolete now.
page looks ok. did not find link to the forums, is it a game?
if so I lose!!

top marks for effort!

__________________
LOVE AND PEACE,RICK.

Rene_Voortwist

Hi Matt,

The page loaded fast enough. In any case not slower than the present board. I use a Pentium III 900 MHz 654 MB RAM Windows XP Professional IE6 and a Cable internet connection.
About the design : It's a bit to busy for my taste. I prefer a clear simple no-nonsense pagedesign, but that's personal. Secondly, I can't seem to find a link to the forums ? Maybe I wasn't looking good enough ?? What is the reason that you want to replace the current pagedesign ?? Can you adapt it for the new functions ? I kind of like it the way it is.

regards, René

TreeBay

Some updates on the bonsaiTALK start page project:
[*]Load speed should be much snappier now, and it should improve even more in the future. It's a server issue, mainly.
[*]there is improved navigation to the forum with two links to the forum startpage. [More] under the Discussion list and FORUMS in the title bar. Later, I will add a pulldown too that can reach the various boards directly.
[*]The ten most recent discussions are indexed at the upper right, with links, and if you hover, it will show you the first 100 characters of the latest messages.
[*]Chat status is available right beneath
[*]I've removed the polls temporarily. I'd be interested in knowing if that cures the issue with Old Mr. Crow's WWI browser.

I appreciate the feedback. I think many of the issues have and will be addressed.

Regards,

Matt

__________________

Want to be a seller on bonsaiAUCTIONS? Get authorized today!

bonsaiTALK: Over 100,005.36 Megabytes Served this Month!

Adam

Matt, I think its a wonderful idea. The page loaded perfect,even though I do have a dsl line. I had no problem finding the forum. The browser i'm using is Netscape 6.2.4. The page looks great. Can't wait to see it up and running.

Your Friend,
Adam

__________________

|Adam|
check out...
My Blog

the Golden Age is coming...
love,light and peace...