Geoff Pain
Rural Member
Is it my computer or have Birdguides altered how they display the daily sightings? If they've altered the format I for one am not impressed.
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Birdguides (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Geoff Pain
- Start date
Stonefaction
Dundee Birding....(target 150 in 2024).
No, they have definitely changed the set-up. To see only sightings from Scotland I have to go into advanced search where the results are displayed in time order. I can't see any way to save my preferences either. I don't want to have to scroll through the entire UK list, nor do I want to only look at 1 county at a time. I have just renewed my subscription 2 days ago, and am less than impressed with this redesign.
Adey Baker
Member
The phrase 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' comes to mind! I suppose we ought to complain to Birdguides direct rather than here on BF, but I bet they'll have some excuse or other to justify the time and effort they've put in giving us the 'new improved' look.
dantheman
Bah humbug
Perhaps
There is an article on the changes on the Birdguides website itself, with comments below -
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=4192
Adey Baker
Member
Perhaps
There is an article on the changes on the Birdguides website itself, with comments below -
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=4192
Well, at least they've been made aware of some of the issues. Certainly, the eye-catching colour of the 'i' symbol and the (very) subtle colour difference of the WP records have been noted. Addressing these issues could make it a lot better, though there's still a lot of blank white space either side which is causing cramping of the info in the middle (long species names running into the 'county' space) - I'm not on IE, either.
Presumably, if we just select UK/Ireland then we don't still get the WP ad hoc stuff as well.
DaveD
Well-known member
Afternoon all - only just found this thread.
We don't change things on a whim, and we certainly didn't make these changes for the sake of it - the only practical way for me to add the new Western Palearctic functionality was to reorganise the way all the reports are rendered. I would usually agree with the policy "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but the old page really was "broke" - for a start, it used long HTML tables, which are deprecated these days, have their own layout problems and render slowly. Also the "cacheing" mechanism behind the scenes was years old and was significantly impacting on database performance. Anyway, I hope you'll get used to the new look; the pages are smaller to download, should render more quickly, and technically are a lot simpler behind the scenes and thus easier to maintain and develop.
As noted in the comments on our webzine article, there were a few early teething troubles with the page (all of which I've fixed) and we're still considering some of the cosmetic suggestions. Most of the reported layout problems have, on further investigation, turned out to be from people using older versions of Internet Explorer (older versions of IE have notoriously poor support for CSS - cascading stylesheets - which are the recommended tool for modern web layout). Incidentally, a "hard refresh" (Ctrl+F5) or changing "Compatibility Mode" settings fixes some of the problems, if you insist on using an out-of-date browser (or are forced to, as some people are at work).
Stonefaction: I think you may have encountered a bug (now fixed) whereby a user's "filter" settings weren't being remembered between visits to the page. You should find now that if you set up a filter and apply it (click "Apply filter" in the right-hand menu) that filter is applied by default thereafter.
Adey: regarding the white space either side, don't forget that websites are increasingly viewed on smartphones and tablets, where screen width is very limited, so the restricted width of the current BirdGuides page is a considered compromise between the needs of computer users vs mobiles; I take the point about longer species names disrupting the columns, but I tried lots of different layouts and this was the best compromise.
(And yes, if you've got a problem it's usually best to contact the people responsible rather than grumbling on a forum somewhere else )
All the best
Dave Dunford
(BirdGuides webmaster)
We don't change things on a whim, and we certainly didn't make these changes for the sake of it - the only practical way for me to add the new Western Palearctic functionality was to reorganise the way all the reports are rendered. I would usually agree with the policy "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but the old page really was "broke" - for a start, it used long HTML tables, which are deprecated these days, have their own layout problems and render slowly. Also the "cacheing" mechanism behind the scenes was years old and was significantly impacting on database performance. Anyway, I hope you'll get used to the new look; the pages are smaller to download, should render more quickly, and technically are a lot simpler behind the scenes and thus easier to maintain and develop.
As noted in the comments on our webzine article, there were a few early teething troubles with the page (all of which I've fixed) and we're still considering some of the cosmetic suggestions. Most of the reported layout problems have, on further investigation, turned out to be from people using older versions of Internet Explorer (older versions of IE have notoriously poor support for CSS - cascading stylesheets - which are the recommended tool for modern web layout). Incidentally, a "hard refresh" (Ctrl+F5) or changing "Compatibility Mode" settings fixes some of the problems, if you insist on using an out-of-date browser (or are forced to, as some people are at work).
Stonefaction: I think you may have encountered a bug (now fixed) whereby a user's "filter" settings weren't being remembered between visits to the page. You should find now that if you set up a filter and apply it (click "Apply filter" in the right-hand menu) that filter is applied by default thereafter.
Adey: regarding the white space either side, don't forget that websites are increasingly viewed on smartphones and tablets, where screen width is very limited, so the restricted width of the current BirdGuides page is a considered compromise between the needs of computer users vs mobiles; I take the point about longer species names disrupting the columns, but I tried lots of different layouts and this was the best compromise.
(And yes, if you've got a problem it's usually best to contact the people responsible rather than grumbling on a forum somewhere else
)All the best
Dave Dunford
(BirdGuides webmaster)
Last edited:
Stonefaction
Dundee Birding....(target 150 in 2024).
Thanks, Dave. Will have a look and hopefully set up filters again.
I only commented on here, because I was answering the original post. Up till then I hadn't been over for a look....when I did go I found myself in agreement with Geoff. I was still going to have to put up with it, to get the info, whether I liked the layout or not, having just paid for another year's subscription.
I only commented on here, because I was answering the original post. Up till then I hadn't been over for a look....when I did go I found myself in agreement with Geoff. I was still going to have to put up with it, to get the info, whether I liked the layout or not, having just paid for another year's subscription.
Adey Baker
Member
Dave, thanks for the full explanation - I'm sure we'll all soon get used to the new layout.
DaveD
Well-known member
Just FYI we've adopted some (but not all) of the suggestions made here and on our article. Go to www.birdguides.com/bne and hit Ctrl+F5.
Dave
Dave
Adey Baker
Member
:t:
