A navigation tweak is coming!

Hi!

I apologize for taking a bit of time to post an update. We’ve been meeting here at the office to come up with a solution... and it takes time to work through all the details. (-:

The change we made to the navigation box (moving it from right to left permanently for everyone on DG) took us a few months to develop and test. We see this change as a first step in making DG easier to navigate and browse.

Why are we doing this? Well, we receive a lot of feedback, from members old and new, on how “everything is so hard to find” on DG. And, we get it. There is a ton of information to see here and to put it bluntly, we (myself and our technicians) need to do a better job at organizing it. Our end goal, is to make it easier for all of us to find new or relevant information. Getting everyone on the same page template was the first step. What we didn’t want to do was change everything all at once. I like the approach of taking it one step at a time because it gives you, our members, the chance to give us feedback on the specific change and how we can improve it even further.

With that said, we’ve listened to your feedback on our recent change. Your technical feedback has been very valuable to us, and we wanted to thank you for taking the time to provide us with your experiences.

Here’s what we’re planning to do:
In the DG forums, currently for those of us with ads turned off, there is a blank column to the left, and some have mentioned that it makes it difficult to read. This was not our intention. To solve this issue, we’re going to be removing that column entirely in the forums. In this way, the forum thread will be flush on the left side, making it easy to read.

We’ll also be adding some breadcrumbs (no, not for the birds!) to our forum pages. Breadcrumbs are quick links that will go at the top of the forum, which will allow you to click back to the forum, or the main forum listing page easily.

I think that with any change we make, there will be some of us that love it, hate it, or don’t care either way – and there will be issues that come up that will propel us to take further action and make additional changes. In this case, the points some of you raised required us to address this in an immediate fashion.

We’re working on this change now, and we’re looking at launching it this Summer. It may take longer though if we run into unforeseen issues, and I’ll let you know if our timeline gets pushed back.

Some have brought up other sections of the website (journals, personal homepages), with regards to our navigation switch. Any changes to these areas requires a lot more planning on my part and will take significantly longer to address. Needless to say I’m working on it.

I’d also like to use this opportunity to thank Terry and Melody for providing excellent customer service on this issue. They’ve been your eyes and ears, and have communicated your concerns with us in a manner that is truly commendable and rare in this day and age.

If you have any additional technical issues related to this navigation switch, I encourage you to Dmail me with the following information so that I can look into it further:

1. What is the nature of the issue you are experiencing?
2. Please share a link to the page you are experiencing the issue.
3. What is your screen size (resolution)?

Thanks for your time, please let us know if you have any questions.

Best,
TaliaRose

The change to have threads flush to the left hand side of the page sounds great. That change will be much appreciated.

katie

TaliaRose. Thanks for the reply and changes. It is so important to have concerns and complaints responded to by DG admin. It is a mainstay for many of us. Thanks, Patti

I do think each of us might be using a different screen size than others and that might make a difference in how large each section is too. Hadn't thought of that.

However, I think if you take the navigation column off of there it would make a big difference. Add that space to the writing area and it would solve a lot of problems for everyone. Why not have a place to click on to go to the navigation site? I know, now we are getting too many of those. What's one more at the top of the page?

Oh, yes, I am on Firefox and do not see the ads.

Thank you!! That will be wonderful :)

Relief for my eyes is in sight.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you!

TaliaRose - thank you so much for your response and clear explanation of what is happening. Based on that I'll go ahead and renew my subscription.

True professionals you are! Thanks for all you do.

having it let flush is GREAT!!!!!!!!!

How long do you think it will be before this occurs?

Jan

thank you. On a couple of occasions when I really had to enlarge the print, some words were last on the right hand side. That has improved here, but I still find the white part distrating. I will be glad when it is changed back. Ads are turned off here,

thank you!!!

Thank you!!!!!!!!

So many PC types, so many browsers, so many OSes!
How can they all be tested?

Dijkstra (an academic software guru) said:

"... baroque, ill-defined and, therefore, unstable software systems. Instead of working with a formal tool, which their task requires, many programmers now live in a limbo of folklore, in a vague and slippery world, in which they are never quite sure what the system will do to their programs.

Under such regretful circumstances the whole notion of a correct program —let alone a program that has been proved correct— becomes void."

Edsger W. Dijkstra: A discipline of programming. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1976

I worked with a guy who had to answer the phone and calm people down who were dealing with software we had sold them. But he was a Bad Man. Sometimes, to get them off the phone, he would ask them what they doing right before the crash. No matter what they said, he would respond "Unnh-HUNNH! Don't do that."

Bad, bad man!

Corey

L O L Thanks for the laugh!

Thank you for the information TaliaRose!

What sounds good is, "A navigation tweak is coming....and went!"

LOOK!

A transient!!

Awww, it went away.

Corey

Thanks TaliaRose . . .for caring enough about all of our opinions to make a change . . . even though it wasn't in your original plan. It's extremely refreshing and one of the things that makes DG unique.

Thanks again Terry and melody for enduring two-and-a-half weeks of our constant complaints while remaining helpful & supportive the whole time.

We really do appreciate you guys even if we don't always sound like we do.

:-)

Amen to what nuts said.

katie

Thank you!

Thanks, TaliaRose. Thanks, Terry. Thanks, Melody. Thanks to all involved. Thanks, DG!

To paraphrase an oft miscopied add,

'Solving the problem, starting the posts flush left, and satisfying the customer - $1, 522, 000.00
Listening to us, and letting us have our say - Priceless!'


These truly are among the things which make DG the one of a kind website it is. Thank you for helping to keep it that way.

hip hip hurray for Terry and Melody, for having to hear all our complaints. U2Rthe BEST!

Jan

Boy...can't happen fast enough for me!! I can only stay on here a few minutes at a tim this way!!!! Thank You!

Where's Dave???????


Hap

Oh, he's gone? Doesn't seem like it.

He sold out years ago. Patti

Dave's on Cubits.

I was being facetious. I know he's gone. My point was that things still are being run the way some people feared they wouldn't be after he sold the company.

Me too, bivbiv!

:) I know.

facetious - love that word! one of only two in the English language that have all five vowels, in order no less!! A good one to stump folks with.... ;) (no, do not ask what the other one is, I have long forgotten)

Kooger - per Google you can add these to the list. Can't recall ever using any of them!

Aerious, Absteinous, Abstemious, Abstenious, Abstentious, Abstentiously, Aceriflorum, Aceriflorus, Acheilous, Acheirous, Acleistous, Adecticous, Adventious, Affectious, Aleikoum, Alpestrious, Anemious, Annelidous, Arsenious, Arteriosum, Arteriosus, Arterious, Avenious, Bacterious, Caesious, Camelious, Carnelious, Facetious, Fracedinous, Gareisoun, Gravedinous, Haeriously, Majestious, Materious, Parecious, Phragelliorynchus, Placentious, Tragedious

Could we be more off topic than this? LOL

I'm a language, grammar, and spelling nut; but I've only used two of those words. It's tragedious that young people's spelling is being adversely affected by texting. There! Now I've used three!

Perhaps texting is easier in their gravedinous state. Or does it contribute to it...?

Hi all, I am happy to report that we are testing our change to the forum section (to address the issue with the blank left column for those of us with ads off) now. Thanks for your patience while we conduct these tests (although your experience on DG should not at all be impacted!). (-:

Terry and Melody will let everyone know when it's completely live!

Talia,
It's working for me and I love, love it!

Thanks so much!

It started working here at 6:17 and I thought my cocktail had something to do with it.

Thank you, each and every person! This is grand.

Cheers!

I wondered if that was what was happening. What I've noticed is that it works more like other websites now - gives the path to the area you're in. It'll take some getting used to after all these years, but I think I'll like it.