New Layout... SM caves to Smartphone and Social Media wanna-bees?

The reasons for the recent change seem pretty self explanatory by the layout itself.

Just wanted you guys to know... as a user who's been with SuperFord/SuperMotors for the last 10 yrs., as a Moderator/Admin of one of the largest Ford Bronco sites on the internet, who often pushes new users to take advantage of SuperMotors site for hosting vehicle images...

I'm not just disappointed, I'm disgusted.

Sorry guys/gals... not a fan of the trend to social media and tiny smart-phone site. Used to be a big fan of supermotors. If this is how you folks plan to leave the site (regular PC/Laptop user, unfriendly) you can also plan to see a lot of your old users looking for a new hosting source.


Everything changes over time, not all changes should be so lame.
It was fun while I lasted I guess. Thanks for the good times. Hope kissing these kids butts pays off for you, because you're going to loose those of us who helped make you what you all are today.

Sincerely,
4xPepe` / BikerPepe`/ IronDragon
FullSizeBronco.com Administrator

I would welcome input from everyone, this is our site I want to make it better not upset anyone. I did have a group do beta testing for me but I guess I did not extend the reach far enough. Please give me feedback on how we can improve on this new site, with specifics such as the URL where an issue can be seen and how it should be improved.

By the way the main purpose of the new site was not visual in nature it was to get the site on a new platform, the old one was written 10 years ago and nearly impossible to maintain long term. This one is written on a framework so it is much more modular.

Thanks,

Dana

I agree with Pepe (as I tpye this on my phone which works fine with this as well as the old layout). I did notice that I can't see all of my albums any more. It shows listings 1-10 of 16, and when I hit pg 2 it gives me a 404 error. I assume all is not lost, just frustrating. I guess we need to get with the time eh Pepe?

Page 2 of the album is fixed now, and the formatting in the photo caption as well.

Thanks, Dana

New layout sucks, bring back the old one.

OK Dana...
1. I don't like that a REPLY window in the Forum area has to open a pop-up window, rather than just the same window I was using.

2. I also can't help but notice I have all the options available on everyone else posts here, as if I created them myself or as if I was a MOD or ADMIN here...: Reply | Quote | Edit Post | Delete Post

However... I didn't come here to complain about your Forum. We have one of our own and I have enough fun keeping up with that.


1. The introductory page layout is horrible. I don't post here on SuperMotors to be social. My personal information is displayed up front and foremost on the profile entry page. It takes up the vast majority of the first page (with very little info displayed anyway), leaving only one tiny picture of 1 of my many vehicles.
The focus here has always been the vehicles... nobody cares about my SEX, when I LAST UPDATED, how many PROFILE HITS I've had or most any of that other personal info.
My understand has always been that this site is focused on the rigs, NOT the people. This is primarily why I complain that you guys appear to be trying to mimic social media sites.

2. Almost 1/2 the page layout is wasted, empty space on the sides. On my laptop display, I have my browser (FireFox 29.0.1) window open about 13.5" of my total 15" screen. Of that space, only 7.25" is profile display, 1.5" AD (booo!) and the rest is about 2" on either side of RED/WHITE/BLUE fade color. I'm generally as patriotic as any other guy, but seriously? If I expand the browser window... the only thing that gets wider is my window and the "patriotic" background.

3. I show 4 vehicles displayed ONLY. When I click to see more... I'm taken from my profile completely and sent off the a search for the general site. When I click "back" on my browser window... now I'm left looking at an almost empty page with only a "Status Update" box. You really don't want to know my "status" at this point. I click on my name to hopefully view my profile page again... nope. All I get now is my "Status Update".

OK... figuring this out somewhat. Finally found my "Registry" page. I'm hoping at least, this is what everyone else see's if they click on my profile name. REGISTRY, should be the first thing shown here... as it used to be.

I would suggest the following layout and priority order... "Registry | Clubs | Public Overview | Dashboard"

Just a suggestion. You do what you gotta do... but this layout is really lame. I get the need to update as the years roll by and the tech changes but you guys need to test this more with people who are involved and care before you loose the rest of us to those lame ass sites like PhotoBucket, etc. We've already got users migrating out of SuperMotors to other services. Please... fix it and remember your priorities. What made you great in the first place was focus on the rigs, easy access, batch uploads (I was singing your praises back then), simplicity and reliability.

PLEASE... put it back until you can take the time to work with the right users. Get the feedback and fix things before you throw changes out there. Don't act like Microsoft and just put something out there to "keep up" or "be cool". You guys had a winning formula going for you. Don't mess it all up.

I really don't want to have to migrate but don't kid yourself and think I (we) won't.

Im with Pepe in the regards of the social media crap. I don't care your race, gender or age and don't plan to share it either. As far as the rest goes it can grow on me but I preferred the older lay out of Supermotors.

This began as the message I have tried to submit repeatedly through your "Contact Us" system. Something appears to be wrong with the Security Image recognition.

What is the matter with you people? You have DISPLAYED MY FULL NAME PUBLICLY without my permission. I have the "Display user name only" option checked & you have shown my full name online. I don't ever do this. If any problems arise from this misuse of my name, I will hold you responsible. At this point I have changed the name to protect myself since you have chosen to not do so.

This new facebook or whateveritis styling is garbage. You have always been an automotive site & should look like one. It was better when the vehicles were displayed first. I haven\\\\'t taken the time to see if I can change the order in which the vehicles show, but your leading with the trash motorhome that I was trying to give away instead of the large pic I chose of something that I am proud of is disappointing.

I have recommended your site over & over for years, including stickies that point new users to this site, while others have recommended photobucket. It was a great site before any of this was done to it. I would like to continue to be a loyal user, but this is not what I signed up for.

I'm gonna try to approach this a little more generously than some previous replies... I think they have the just about covered for now.

I assume that most of these issues COULD be from a failure to convey the important & popular features of the site to the developer who's actually laying it out. Like some others, I get the impression that he THINKS this site works like a photo blog, and that visitors come here to look at the pretty cars.

I suggest having him spend some time looking at the registries, albums, & media with the most hits (and no, I don't mean JUST mine) and then trying to understand WHY those are popular. That should lead him to the proper layout without too much more .

I think it's absolutely critical to get things WORKING the way they did before, and LOOKING at least similar; particularly thumbnail organization (rows are not working right now), 1-page albums (not multipage), and the popular album views (#4 thumbs w/captions, #2 large images & forum links). The current layout with NOTHING but thumbs just doesn't cut it. And the failure to process outdated URLs is ridiculous. It seems that no thought whatsoever was given to the fact that SMN has been providing forum links for years, and those old links are still being clicked.

Although I don't look forward to it, I'm not against change in general. But this is NOT a change for the better so far. I'm on-board with a previous suggestion to revert the site until these MAJOR FLAWS (not "bugs") get worked out. This is something else that I really don't look forward to, but if the majority of these problems isn't resolved soon, I'll be removing my registries & migrating to a host that offers something similar to the old SMN.

I have cooled down somewhat. Still not a fan of the new layout. Still unhappy about the handling of my personal information.

I normally view "Large Images with Captions", but this option appears to be gone. Any of the "how to" pics that are laid out with captions to provide instructions in order are very difficult to use. Steve83's tailgate tech is an example of a commonly used resource: http://supermotors.net/registry/2742/12689[url] Going through all of that one pic at a time to find the necessary info would be very difficult. Scrolling down a single page with all the info together was much simpler.

Not a big thing, but quotation marks or apostrophes seem to bring a series of \\\\\\\\\\\\ here in the forum. And they multiply if you edit a post without removing them. I typed in 3 \\\\\\\\\\\\ here & before, & cleared out any beside the earlier quotation marks.

Your site has been a great help to us over the years. It is sad & frustrating to think that this might be lost. I hope this is only a temporary issue.