It seems like lately, no one's been here. No one comments on videos/articles, no one responds to forum threads, no one does much of anything. Are people waiting for the site to be fixed? Were people really so bothered by the changes in content? I know Tested's community was never quite as active as say, Giantbomb, but it didn't used to be that every single person I saw posting was someone who's username I recognized immediately. Am I imagining things, or did the community sort of disappear?
I'm not gonna lie, the community has kind of disappeared a bit.
For me it's primarily the new site (which supposedly is getting a bunch of fixes next week. Hopefully this will help). It's not easy to navigate, and it's kind of a pain to read or post comments on videos (10 comments per page, etc.). I keep getting it so that when I post a comment it gives me some error then it ends up posting twice or not at all. Plus the shift away from tech has led me to reading Ars and Maximum PC much more often than I used to because the science stuff on here doesn't really interest me. I still read all of the tech stuff though.
The site switch over made everything far more challenging. From reading to posting to replying in the forums, every part of it became so much more hassle than it used to be. The lack of messages meant people don't know if they had been replied to in the forums so were less likely to return. On top of that people keep reporting that forum posts just error out a lot of the time when they hit the post button. There are only so many times someone is willing to waste 20 mins on a well thought out forum post that just disappears before moving on. This all lead to to a vicious cycle where people become less encouraged to post and reply and without these conversations people were just pushed away further.
This is also the only site in the world that I need to use a css editor for to make text black instead of the light grey that it defaults to so I can read the site for more than 30 secs without painful eye strain. It's like no one even bothered to think about usability. I don't mind the new direction in content it just feels odd that they needed to rush out a new awful design when this is the first week video content from Jamie and Adam has even appeared. Why not carry on as before then rebrand when Jamie and Adam have time to put work into the site.
I don't care if the site is running on new technology, if everything feels like a step back then it was wrong to move over so quickly!
On the new content front, please don't turn into just a site that posts cool stuff they find on reddit. There are thousands of sites in the world that do just that, tested used to be about awesome personalities giving us news, reviews and quick looks about something they seemed very passionate and knowledgable about.
EDIT: The lack of decent search and organisation make it very challenging to find anything on this site. I have often seen questions on the forums that could be answered by a tested article that I simple cannot find.
I whole-heartedly agree with ebritt. I was never an active person on the Tested forums but I always read them. After the change when I saw that the community had dropped off I jumped on in the hopes that there were others who like me didn't want the community to wither away but there's only so much you can take to be honest. It's just really disappointing and frustrating cause I will still support Tested but it doesn't feel like Tested is trying to support us.
It's all well and good to say that things are happening or going to happen but considering it's been over two months now I think people are just fed up. Two months in internet time is a very long time and there's so much content and so many sites out there for people to keep themselves interested and they're by no means obligated to keep to Tested. Actions speak louder than words and while Will and Norm are obviously trying hard considering all the content they're posting and the usual shenanigans during the podcast (despite needing to do it at Will's place), it doesn't make much of a difference if the community can't participate or contribute in some way, shape or form (posting comments/asking questions/discussing in forums). Will and Norm must be aware of this though, Will even put a call out on the podcast for more outros, I can only assume that the lack of people may be one of the reasons for this.
I personally am not all that interested in 70% of the new content they post, some of it intrigues me and will occasionally pull me in but there is a lot of (in my opinion) trash they post. Things like the "Einstein Explains E=MC²", "PBS Off Book Explores Lego Art World" or "Geckos don't stick to Teflon" would have been great as tweets (considering most of us follow Will and Norm on Twitter anyway) but posting it here just seems like cluttering up the site. I originally started coming to Tested for their coverage on consumer electronics and while yes there are hundreds of sites out there that do that kind of stuff, none of them have Will and Norm. Two of my favourite people talking about my favourite things, it was great.
I hope that things turn around and everyone comes back after the site is updated. The community was one of the best things about Tested. Whenever there was any sort of combined Whiskey Media coverage/live video content I would always log onto the Tested site to watch it because the community was always just so much more awesome and mature than the other sites.
I'll continue to keep posting on Tested but most of my posts will be aimed at the PC and Mac sub-forums because the majority of people posting there are actually in need of help so the more of us that are posting to help out the better. Either way I do hope things change, I do love Will and Norm but I'm really not loving the site at the moment.
EDIT: Glad I copied text in my post before hitting the post comment button... it disappeared.
I've definitely noticed myself not posting as much since the move but I can't say with any confidence what has changed for me. I still read, watch and listen to most of their original content. The lack of reply notifications has been disheartening especially in "help me" posts that I made a habit of at least commenting in if not offering advice for the poster. As was said above the reposts (or whatever you want to call it) hasn't been something I felt fit in Tested's usual more thought out(?) content stream. The site is still wonky at times though I haven't run into to many comment bugs yet (probably more due to my low post count the last couple weeks). Things don't overlay quite well; I'll see videos on top of text. Certain animations don't react to interaction as they should.
But none one of that feels like it should reduce my interest in posting but yet here we are.
I've been a bit less active here myself, especially on the forums. I think that the new Tested is fine and it's still a very good website, but I'm just not excited about it anymore. It doesn't have the Whiskey shenanigans, it doesn't have the consumer electronics discussion (for the most part), and I'm just not sure it has what made Tested great in the first place (also, the site is ugly and the forums are broken).
That said, the articles are interesting enough. I'll try not to overthink what the site is and isn't and just read the content.
Still watching and listening to all content and I read most articles that interest me. My favorite part is still the podcast because most of the tech related discussions which I love so much happens there. Science is cool and all but the tech talk brought me here and keeps me here.
Although I could listen to Will, Norm and Gary discuss basically anything, hearing their opinions on services and devices they've tested is my favorite bit.
The design is the main thing putting me off interacting with the community as much. I find myself consuming the site's content (which I continue to love) through an RSS reader or Instapaper, so it's unlikely I'll get involved in comments or forum threads unless I make a conscious effort to check them. It's a shame, but I just fundamentally don't find the site fun to use in its current state.
I think a lot of what's happened to the site lately has felt like a step back. Where as before, we would occasionally get very short articles with a video or so that was really just saying that someone else figured out something neat, it seems like almost every article is that. On top of that, actual product reviews/coverage has plummeted. App of the day seems almost dead (it's been nothing but camera apps for ages, and only comes occasionally). The majority of the stuff on the site feels more like the circle jerk reposting of certain other sites than actual meaningful content. For example, the articles that they put up about the guy who supposedly flew with human powered wings? Those were great because they had lots of real content from an original source, and weren't just summarizing what everyone could already see/other sources were already saying. They said the site wouldn't be losing the tech, just embracing the science, but it doesn't feel that way, and probably because this entire operation was so FUBAR from top to bottom. They still don't have a new office space, they put up a broke, shitty new site, they never (so far as I know) got new writers to focus on the science (THEY NEED THIS, both to get better articles/content about science, but to also let the others focus on tech like they used to), and they are hampered by a lot of these issues so they can't fix issues like the content. Who the fuck lets their engineers go do something else AS THEY LAUNCH A NEW SITE? I am not blaming WIll and Norm for this, because they probably didn't make 90% of the decisions that lead to these things happening, but it's certainly an issue. If everything was as awesome and involved as much original content as visiting the reactor, and if the Third Person Camera Rig stuff was way more in depth (how was there not a video of it being built, detailing the pieces, etc?), and if they were actually reviewing Tehcnology products, I'd be fine. But next to none of the content is that at all.
On top of that, the forums are nearly unusable, even more so than I thought. I never had issues posting (short of the whole character limit crap).
I hadn't thought of the messaging being broken for some reason. It was annoying but that totally makes sense for why threads are so barren: no one knows when there's a response to their posts, so never go back to threads they didn't start.
I really hope whoever is running the site and making these administrative decisions figures this shit out, because it's ridiculous how poorly this has been handled. I don't mean to be a jerk, but this really has been unacceptable, and it may very well be the end of the site as we know it.
I sure do like that a thread exactly like this crops up every couple of days. These really should be consolidated to one thread and just updated or these get locked on sight; they're getting really old.
@Helushune: Personally i am ok with this thread. Internet time works a bit oddly but i feel that it has been a while since the last thread about Tested's current state and that since then the feel of Tested quite changed, Plus this thread so far has had some very nicely developed points raised. I do see your point though but i'll leave it to the other mods.to make such a decision for this thread.
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On Tested starting to feel empty I have to agree. The core is still there, it is just that everyone has been frequenting the forums less often myself being no exception to this.
With tested losing it's clear focus it has become less likely for people to stumble upon something that they are interested in or would like to discuss.
I'm a bit of a odd duck here because i never was into the things that Tested was about but i do share the mentality i'd say of the people that it used to attract. There are actually more things that are closer to my interest with the new Tested but more often than not the things posted now are things I already know about from other sources that usually are more in depth.
The site itself as has been said before is a broken mess and that for an unacceptable amount of time. I know that Will and Norm are not to blame for this nor is the engineering team who i know are very capable but the Berman Braun management . It is both a shame and a good thing that there is no way for me to address them face to face. Their decision to leave the site completely broken as the engineering team was tasked to make them a new site (mom.me) lead to a lot of for a lack of a better word "suffering" in the community and in my opinion damaged it severely. I'd go as far as say that they way the Tested user base has been treated by Berman Braun is disrespectful.
Anyway back on Tested rapidly appearing to lose people (what the actual number of page hits is might be a different story). The way some things are structurally divided does not help. This has been the case before but now that the @reply system is not working it has become even more noticeable. The way the podcast is handled is a good example. First it is posted as an article, then as a podcast, and then there is the podcast sub-forum. This means that a single question can be asked in 3 different places and unless someone checks these 3 places there is no way to know if this question has been asked before. Another example are forum threads that end up being made into articles, 2 different places that are not linked but where people are discussing the same thing, well to what point discussions happen with this structure.
Then of course there are all the technical complications (better copy paste this post somewhere before hitting "post") and aesthetic problems mentions by the posts preceding mine.
@Rallier: I suppose but I don't really see any change in any of the opinions from people posting and I guess that's why these feel like they're beating the dead horse to me. The people who hate it still hate it, the people who love it still love it, the people who are on the fence are still on the fence. Got it, let's move on and make another thread about this exact same thing next week or when it falls off the the first page.
I hate seeing the same thing over and over again (see: every PC build thread) but, I'm being super cranky about something on the internet which is stupid of me in the first place.
I've been a bit less active here myself, especially on the forums. I think that the new Tested is fine and it's still a very good website, but I'm just not excited about it anymore. It doesn't have the Whiskey shenanigans, it doesn't have the consumer electronics discussion (for the most part), and I'm just not sure it has what made Tested great in the first place (also, the site is ugly and the forums are broken).
That said, the articles are interesting enough. I'll try not to overthink what the site is and isn't and just read the content.
I'm gonna have to agree, it is like tested used to be an orphan in an awesome orphan house but then got adopted by a rich family which from an "adult" point of view would be a better place to grow up in but also means more seriousness and a lot less free styling.
It's like they took a puppy away from its kin and while its still cute just way less than with all of them together.
I don't really have anything new to add, but as another regular I just wanted to chime in.
Like others have said, the lack of a notification system has crippled the ability to have a conversation in the forums. Literally the only time I've even looked at the comments for a podcast post-redesign was when I posted some WP7 app guides for a new Lumia 800 owner that sent in a question. Not like I could PM them to the user who sent the question in...
While I may sometimes post in articles, I almost never check up on them and never read them if I don't have much interest in the topic. Why? Because articles don't get posted to the forum, so I have no idea if there's a conversation going on in them. But I doubt it, since they're only on the front page for so long.
That being said, there were a shocking amount of people who viewed my laptop thread not too long ago. Even taking into consideration the lack of a notification system, so the two other active people in there would have to manually view it every time there's a new post, there were still somehow over 1000 views. Seriously, where the fuck did all those people come from?
@Helushune: I don't remember seeing a thread about the number of folks sticking around, but I could have missed it. Maybe. If it weren't for the fact that a thread can stay at the top of the list without getting any posts for 24 hours.
@Falcon said:
I don't really have anything new to add, but as another regular I just wanted to chime in.
Like others have said, the lack of a notification system has crippled the ability to have a conversation in the forums. Literally the only time I've even looked at the comments for a podcast post-redesign was when I posted some WP7 app guides for a new Lumia 800 owner that sent in a question. Not like I could PM them to the user who sent the question in...
While I may sometimes post in articles, I almost never check up on them and never read them if I don't have much interest in the topic. Why? Because articles don't get posted to the forum, so I have no idea if there's a conversation going on in them. But I doubt it, since they're only on the front page for so long.
That being said, there were a shocking amount of people who viewed my laptop thread not too long ago. Even taking into consideration the lack of a notification system, so the two other active people in there would have to manually view it every time there's a new post, there were still somehow over 1000 views. Seriously, where the fuck did all those people come from?
I had noticed that. Seems like views aren't exactly down, but actual interactions are down a huge amount.
@Rallier: I really love the spirit of the new content. I think science, particularly in the physics and automation fields, which are clearly focuses in the new Tested, are super fascinating. So I'd love to read unique, interesting articles on the subject. For example all of the reactor video stuff and hearing about it on the podcast? That stuff was great. I just want that kind of depth and originality and effort put inot the rest of the science stuff, and to see the old content focus come back up.
@MordeaniisChaos: Not your specific question, no, but it's pretty easy to assume that a thread like this is going to derail in to "I don't/do like this about the new site" pretty quickly and there's already a boatload of those threads (not that it would be your fault). Like I said, I'm just grumpy and tired of seeing all the people constantly complaining and not actually doing anything; although I guess you could say I'm part of that crowd now. Grumble grumble.
The sight redesign really made me want to leave, however the retro tested user scripts have made me rejoice! I can now go to tested without getting pissed off and killing my eye balls
@Helushune: Fair enough. That said, if we could do anything, we would. At the moment, we have nothing we can do but talk out against the crap that was done to tested. We can't stop paying, all we have is our voice so I think it's important that we keep up the pressure until the problems are solved. It's like Berman Braun has never run or started up a website before. I seriously can't believe how FUBAR this whole thing has been, and they haven't said anything to admit they fucked up so until they fix shit and or at least admit their fault in the matter, these thread will continue. Which I think is for the best.
@Helushune: I understand a thread like this could easily turn into another bitching fest so I tried to limit my post largely to problems that were limiting community interaction rather than an all out list of stuff I don't like. I think this keeps popping up because people are frustrated more than angry at the lack of progress being made and it makes people feel like no one in charge really cares about keeping this community alive. Tested has always been a relatively small community but a few months back it was still buzzing with activity and it's sad that no longer exists.
I feel like most points I would have said have been covered. It just seems like with the site being "broken" for so long and not back to a normal Tested site turns people away. But with this being almost 2 months now it does seem like way to long to get things working again. Missing the certain things from the site the way it was before doesn't make it fee like a home anymore. I know this is heading into a new direction in all and things will be worked out, but come on?
Hopefully things will get turned around soon enough and back in a rocking Tested direction. As always be Testing. Norm and Will rock!
It's not completely different on the GB forums. They've outright said they won't be adding anything new to the site there. The top men are all currently working on the new site BUT if there was anything broken in the current site and they are notified, they'd fixed it. Here... that's not the case.
@stenchlord: So there are people on GB bitching about having a completely functional site, and further complaining that their new site is going to be even better? Man, sucks to be them...
I noticed this too. Personally I don't post on the forums or comment section anymore because my eyes can't really handle the bright white background. The only reason I'm on the forums now is that my friend told me that someone made a temp roku app.
Yeah I have noticed this too and its quite sad considering Tested, in my opinion, is going full force at what they continue and we get more content because of the switch/expansion of topics covered. Recently Adam's talk videos have been great and him mentioning Tested several times in his Maker Faire speech keeps me hopeful that this site will and always will continue to do great things.
The site/forum design has made me stay away from the forums. As to what happened to everyone else? I have no idea.
Yeah, I usually hit the site maybe once/twice a day now, as it doesn't really work on my phone as well as the old mobile site. I used to use the mobile site a lot. I used to check in after each of my classes, but haven't in a while.
I kind of wish that the site design was white on black, this current design kind of burns my eyes at night, it's just so bright.
I still love the podcast, I could listen to those guys talk about damn near anything and still be interested. I watch a fair number of the videos, about the same as before.
It seems like lately, no one's been here. No one comments on videos/articles, no one responds to forum threads, no one does much of anything. Are people waiting for the site to be fixed? Were people really so bothered by the changes in content? I know Tested's community was never quite as active as say, Giantbomb, but it didn't used to be that every single person I saw posting was someone who's username I recognized immediately. Am I imagining things, or did the community sort of disappear?
I'm not gonna lie, the community has kind of disappeared a bit.
For me it's primarily the new site (which supposedly is getting a bunch of fixes next week. Hopefully this will help). It's not easy to navigate, and it's kind of a pain to read or post comments on videos (10 comments per page, etc.). I keep getting it so that when I post a comment it gives me some error then it ends up posting twice or not at all. Plus the shift away from tech has led me to reading Ars and Maximum PC much more often than I used to because the science stuff on here doesn't really interest me. I still read all of the tech stuff though.
The site/forum design has made me stay away from the forums. As to what happened to everyone else? I have no idea.
I tend not to have much to say when it comes to the forums/articles. That's nothing new as I did the same on the old site as well.
The site switch over made everything far more challenging. From reading to posting to replying in the forums, every part of it became so much more hassle than it used to be. The lack of messages meant people don't know if they had been replied to in the forums so were less likely to return. On top of that people keep reporting that forum posts just error out a lot of the time when they hit the post button. There are only so many times someone is willing to waste 20 mins on a well thought out forum post that just disappears before moving on. This all lead to to a vicious cycle where people become less encouraged to post and reply and without these conversations people were just pushed away further.
This is also the only site in the world that I need to use a css editor for to make text black instead of the light grey that it defaults to so I can read the site for more than 30 secs without painful eye strain. It's like no one even bothered to think about usability. I don't mind the new direction in content it just feels odd that they needed to rush out a new awful design when this is the first week video content from Jamie and Adam has even appeared. Why not carry on as before then rebrand when Jamie and Adam have time to put work into the site.
I don't care if the site is running on new technology, if everything feels like a step back then it was wrong to move over so quickly!
On the new content front, please don't turn into just a site that posts cool stuff they find on reddit. There are thousands of sites in the world that do just that, tested used to be about awesome personalities giving us news, reviews and quick looks about something they seemed very passionate and knowledgable about.
EDIT: The lack of decent search and organisation make it very challenging to find anything on this site. I have often seen questions on the forums that could be answered by a tested article that I simple cannot find.
I whole-heartedly agree with ebritt. I was never an active person on the Tested forums but I always read them. After the change when I saw that the community had dropped off I jumped on in the hopes that there were others who like me didn't want the community to wither away but there's only so much you can take to be honest. It's just really disappointing and frustrating cause I will still support Tested but it doesn't feel like Tested is trying to support us.
It's all well and good to say that things are happening or going to happen but considering it's been over two months now I think people are just fed up. Two months in internet time is a very long time and there's so much content and so many sites out there for people to keep themselves interested and they're by no means obligated to keep to Tested. Actions speak louder than words and while Will and Norm are obviously trying hard considering all the content they're posting and the usual shenanigans during the podcast (despite needing to do it at Will's place), it doesn't make much of a difference if the community can't participate or contribute in some way, shape or form (posting comments/asking questions/discussing in forums). Will and Norm must be aware of this though, Will even put a call out on the podcast for more outros, I can only assume that the lack of people may be one of the reasons for this.
I personally am not all that interested in 70% of the new content they post, some of it intrigues me and will occasionally pull me in but there is a lot of (in my opinion) trash they post. Things like the "Einstein Explains E=MC²", "PBS Off Book Explores Lego Art World" or "Geckos don't stick to Teflon" would have been great as tweets (considering most of us follow Will and Norm on Twitter anyway) but posting it here just seems like cluttering up the site. I originally started coming to Tested for their coverage on consumer electronics and while yes there are hundreds of sites out there that do that kind of stuff, none of them have Will and Norm. Two of my favourite people talking about my favourite things, it was great.
I hope that things turn around and everyone comes back after the site is updated. The community was one of the best things about Tested. Whenever there was any sort of combined Whiskey Media coverage/live video content I would always log onto the Tested site to watch it because the community was always just so much more awesome and mature than the other sites.
I'll continue to keep posting on Tested but most of my posts will be aimed at the PC and Mac sub-forums because the majority of people posting there are actually in need of help so the more of us that are posting to help out the better. Either way I do hope things change, I do love Will and Norm but I'm really not loving the site at the moment.
EDIT: Glad I copied text in my post before hitting the post comment button... it disappeared.
I've definitely noticed myself not posting as much since the move but I can't say with any confidence what has changed for me. I still read, watch and listen to most of their original content. The lack of reply notifications has been disheartening especially in "help me" posts that I made a habit of at least commenting in if not offering advice for the poster. As was said above the reposts (or whatever you want to call it) hasn't been something I felt fit in Tested's usual more thought out(?) content stream. The site is still wonky at times though I haven't run into to many comment bugs yet (probably more due to my low post count the last couple weeks). Things don't overlay quite well; I'll see videos on top of text. Certain animations don't react to interaction as they should.
But none one of that feels like it should reduce my interest in posting but yet here we are.
I've been a bit less active here myself, especially on the forums. I think that the new Tested is fine and it's still a very good website, but I'm just not excited about it anymore. It doesn't have the Whiskey shenanigans, it doesn't have the consumer electronics discussion (for the most part), and I'm just not sure it has what made Tested great in the first place (also, the site is ugly and the forums are broken).
That said, the articles are interesting enough. I'll try not to overthink what the site is and isn't and just read the content.
Still watching and listening to all content and I read most articles that interest me. My favorite part is still the podcast because most of the tech related discussions which I love so much happens there. Science is cool and all but the tech talk brought me here and keeps me here.
Although I could listen to Will, Norm and Gary discuss basically anything, hearing their opinions on services and devices they've tested is my favorite bit.
Agreed about the theme, it's so hard to read! :(
I think a lot of what's happened to the site lately has felt like a step back. Where as before, we would occasionally get very short articles with a video or so that was really just saying that someone else figured out something neat, it seems like almost every article is that. On top of that, actual product reviews/coverage has plummeted. App of the day seems almost dead (it's been nothing but camera apps for ages, and only comes occasionally). The majority of the stuff on the site feels more like the circle jerk reposting of certain other sites than actual meaningful content. For example, the articles that they put up about the guy who supposedly flew with human powered wings? Those were great because they had lots of real content from an original source, and weren't just summarizing what everyone could already see/other sources were already saying. They said the site wouldn't be losing the tech, just embracing the science, but it doesn't feel that way, and probably because this entire operation was so FUBAR from top to bottom. They still don't have a new office space, they put up a broke, shitty new site, they never (so far as I know) got new writers to focus on the science (THEY NEED THIS, both to get better articles/content about science, but to also let the others focus on tech like they used to), and they are hampered by a lot of these issues so they can't fix issues like the content. Who the fuck lets their engineers go do something else AS THEY LAUNCH A NEW SITE? I am not blaming WIll and Norm for this, because they probably didn't make 90% of the decisions that lead to these things happening, but it's certainly an issue. If everything was as awesome and involved as much original content as visiting the reactor, and if the Third Person Camera Rig stuff was way more in depth (how was there not a video of it being built, detailing the pieces, etc?), and if they were actually reviewing Tehcnology products, I'd be fine. But next to none of the content is that at all.
On top of that, the forums are nearly unusable, even more so than I thought. I never had issues posting (short of the whole character limit crap).
I hadn't thought of the messaging being broken for some reason. It was annoying but that totally makes sense for why threads are so barren: no one knows when there's a response to their posts, so never go back to threads they didn't start.
I really hope whoever is running the site and making these administrative decisions figures this shit out, because it's ridiculous how poorly this has been handled. I don't mean to be a jerk, but this really has been unacceptable, and it may very well be the end of the site as we know it.
I sure do like that a thread exactly like this crops up every couple of days. These really should be consolidated to one thread and just updated or these get locked on sight; they're getting really old.
@Helushune: Personally i am ok with this thread. Internet time works a bit oddly but i feel that it has been a while since the last thread about Tested's current state and that since then the feel of Tested quite changed, Plus this thread so far has had some very nicely developed points raised. I do see your point though but i'll leave it to the other mods.to make such a decision for this thread.
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On Tested starting to feel empty I have to agree. The core is still there, it is just that everyone has been frequenting the forums less often myself being no exception to this.
With tested losing it's clear focus it has become less likely for people to stumble upon something that they are interested in or would like to discuss.
I'm a bit of a odd duck here because i never was into the things that Tested was about but i do share the mentality i'd say of the people that it used to attract. There are actually more things that are closer to my interest with the new Tested but more often than not the things posted now are things I already know about from other sources that usually are more in depth.
The site itself as has been said before is a broken mess and that for an unacceptable amount of time. I know that Will and Norm are not to blame for this nor is the engineering team who i know are very capable but the Berman Braun management . It is both a shame and a good thing that there is no way for me to address them face to face. Their decision to leave the site completely broken as the engineering team was tasked to make them a new site (mom.me) lead to a lot of for a lack of a better word "suffering" in the community and in my opinion damaged it severely. I'd go as far as say that they way the Tested user base has been treated by Berman Braun is disrespectful.
Anyway back on Tested rapidly appearing to lose people (what the actual number of page hits is might be a different story). The way some things are structurally divided does not help. This has been the case before but now that the @reply system is not working it has become even more noticeable. The way the podcast is handled is a good example. First it is posted as an article, then as a podcast, and then there is the podcast sub-forum. This means that a single question can be asked in 3 different places and unless someone checks these 3 places there is no way to know if this question has been asked before. Another example are forum threads that end up being made into articles, 2 different places that are not linked but where people are discussing the same thing, well to what point discussions happen with this structure.
Then of course there are all the technical complications (better copy paste this post somewhere before hitting "post") and aesthetic problems mentions by the posts preceding mine.
@Rallier: I suppose but I don't really see any change in any of the opinions from people posting and I guess that's why these feel like they're beating the dead horse to me. The people who hate it still hate it, the people who love it still love it, the people who are on the fence are still on the fence. Got it, let's move on and make another thread about this exact same thing next week or when it falls off the the first page.
I hate seeing the same thing over and over again (see: every PC build thread) but, I'm being super cranky about something on the internet which is stupid of me in the first place.
@Fripplebubby said:
I'm gonna have to agree, it is like tested used to be an orphan in an awesome orphan house but then got adopted by a rich family which from an "adult" point of view would be a better place to grow up in but also means more seriousness and a lot less free styling.
It's like they took a puppy away from its kin and while its still cute just way less than with all of them together.
oh those good old times... happy hour
I don't really have anything new to add, but as another regular I just wanted to chime in.
Like others have said, the lack of a notification system has crippled the ability to have a conversation in the forums. Literally the only time I've even looked at the comments for a podcast post-redesign was when I posted some WP7 app guides for a new Lumia 800 owner that sent in a question. Not like I could PM them to the user who sent the question in...
While I may sometimes post in articles, I almost never check up on them and never read them if I don't have much interest in the topic. Why? Because articles don't get posted to the forum, so I have no idea if there's a conversation going on in them. But I doubt it, since they're only on the front page for so long.
That being said, there were a shocking amount of people who viewed my laptop thread not too long ago. Even taking into consideration the lack of a notification system, so the two other active people in there would have to manually view it every time there's a new post, there were still somehow over 1000 views. Seriously, where the fuck did all those people come from?
@Helushune: I don't remember seeing a thread about the number of folks sticking around, but I could have missed it. Maybe. If it weren't for the fact that a thread can stay at the top of the list without getting any posts for 24 hours.
@Falcon said:
I had noticed that. Seems like views aren't exactly down, but actual interactions are down a huge amount.
@Rallier: I really love the spirit of the new content. I think science, particularly in the physics and automation fields, which are clearly focuses in the new Tested, are super fascinating. So I'd love to read unique, interesting articles on the subject. For example all of the reactor video stuff and hearing about it on the podcast? That stuff was great. I just want that kind of depth and originality and effort put inot the rest of the science stuff, and to see the old content focus come back up.
@MordeaniisChaos: Not your specific question, no, but it's pretty easy to assume that a thread like this is going to derail in to "I don't/do like this about the new site" pretty quickly and there's already a boatload of those threads (not that it would be your fault). Like I said, I'm just grumpy and tired of seeing all the people constantly complaining and not actually doing anything; although I guess you could say I'm part of that crowd now. Grumble grumble.
The sight redesign really made me want to leave, however the retro tested user scripts have made me rejoice! I can now go to tested without getting pissed off and killing my eye balls
@Organicalistic_: What is this you speak of??
@Helushune: Fair enough. That said, if we could do anything, we would. At the moment, we have nothing we can do but talk out against the crap that was done to tested. We can't stop paying, all we have is our voice so I think it's important that we keep up the pressure until the problems are solved. It's like Berman Braun has never run or started up a website before. I seriously can't believe how FUBAR this whole thing has been, and they haven't said anything to admit they fucked up so until they fix shit and or at least admit their fault in the matter, these thread will continue. Which I think is for the best.
@Helushune: I understand a thread like this could easily turn into another bitching fest so I tried to limit my post largely to problems that were limiting community interaction rather than an all out list of stuff I don't like. I think this keeps popping up because people are frustrated more than angry at the lack of progress being made and it makes people feel like no one in charge really cares about keeping this community alive. Tested has always been a relatively small community but a few months back it was still buzzing with activity and it's sad that no longer exists.
I feel like most points I would have said have been covered. It just seems like with the site being "broken" for so long and not back to a normal Tested site turns people away. But with this being almost 2 months now it does seem like way to long to get things working again. Missing the certain things from the site the way it was before doesn't make it fee like a home anymore. I know this is heading into a new direction in all and things will be worked out, but come on?
Hopefully things will get turned around soon enough and back in a rocking Tested direction. As always be Testing. Norm and Will rock!
It's not completely different on the GB forums. They've outright said they won't be adding anything new to the site there. The top men are all currently working on the new site BUT if there was anything broken in the current site and they are notified, they'd fixed it. Here... that's not the case.
@stenchlord: So there are people on GB bitching about having a completely functional site, and further complaining that their new site is going to be even better? Man, sucks to be them...
I noticed this too. Personally I don't post on the forums or comment section anymore because my eyes can't really handle the bright white background. The only reason I'm on the forums now is that my friend told me that someone made a temp roku app.
@Falcon: Yeah tell me about it, wish we had similar circumstances lol.
@IrrelevantJohn: Yes, someone did. Excellent to see :D
Yeah I have noticed this too and its quite sad considering Tested, in my opinion, is going full force at what they continue and we get more content because of the switch/expansion of topics covered. Recently Adam's talk videos have been great and him mentioning Tested several times in his Maker Faire speech keeps me hopeful that this site will and always will continue to do great things.
@SpikeSpiegel said:
Yeah, I usually hit the site maybe once/twice a day now, as it doesn't really work on my phone as well as the old mobile site. I used to use the mobile site a lot. I used to check in after each of my classes, but haven't in a while.
I kind of wish that the site design was white on black, this current design kind of burns my eyes at night, it's just so bright.
I still love the podcast, I could listen to those guys talk about damn near anything and still be interested. I watch a fair number of the videos, about the same as before.
Tested has never had a very vibrant forum scene.