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A new look for the Green Home Huddle! (And lots more)

#1
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6/19/09 at 12:04pm
  • Joined: October 2007
  • Location: San Francisco Bay Area
  • Post Count: 1,129
Hi folks!  Well, as some of you might have noticed, we just made a BIG update to the community. 

A New Skin
First we've got a new skin.  Instead of the old green/black colors, we've gone with a lighter blue and green theme.

New:
New header for Green Home Huddle post-June 19 update

Old:
Former header section of the Green Home Huddle (prior to June 19 update)


A New Format
You'll also notice that if you open your browser window to full width, things on the site are a little wider.  Then when you shrink it down, the width of the forum text/wiki text, etc changes too! 

A New Home Page
Things on both the logged out and logged in home pages have changed a bit.  We'll be adding a few more exciting things in the coming weeks.  But for now, let us know what you think about the new layout. 

A New Reply Box
We have made the reply box no longer a popover.  It's not embedded at the bottom of the forum thread.  You still have the option to use the full-page editor to reply (just click the "Advanced Reply" button) but now you won't have the forum reply box moving around on you.

Signatures
On your profile page, you can now add your forum signature.  You can use bold, italics, and add links.  No images, but this is a start!  Please keep in mind that the Community Guidelines and Terms of Service still apply, even to signatures.  Let's keep everything PC and family friendly, okay?

In any case, that's the big stuff.  I'll get back to you in just a bit with some images and more details.

Let us know what you think!  And if you find any bugs, please please let us know.  All your help and participation is greatly appreciated.

Edited by stins - 6/19/2009 at 08:16 pm GMT
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#2
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6/19/09 at 12:28pm
  • Joined: March 2008
  • Location: West Sacramento, CA
  • Post Count: 1,766
Personally I preferred the old skin, but that's just me (I love green!).  One issue I've noticed is that pages seem to be loading significantly more slowly.

I like the embedded reply box though.
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#3
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6/19/09 at 12:47pm
  • Joined: October 2007
  • Location: Scotland or something
  • Post Count: 21

Quote:
Originally Posted by dana1981 View Post

One issue I've noticed is that pages seem to be loading significantly more slowly.

Are you still seeing this?  Are there any pages in particular that seem to be consistently slower?
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#4
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6/19/09 at 12:58pm
  • Joined: October 2008
  • Location: Little Rock, AR
  • Post Count: 182
So far I like it, I'm with Dana about the green though, can't use too much of it :)
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#5
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6/19/09 at 1:00pm
  • Joined: March 2008
  • Location: West Sacramento, CA
  • Post Count: 1,766

Quote:
Originally Posted by frank View Post



Are you still seeing this?  Are there any pages in particular that seem to be consistently slower?
 

Yeah, every one I've visited so far (including discussion forum, product pages, and wikis).
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#6
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6/19/09 at 1:00pm
  • Joined: March 2009
  • Location: Izmir, Turkey
  • Post Count: 588
Maybe Dana is accustomed to faster change rates (internet speeds) than I get here but seems pretty much the same to me.

Looks great - the reply is easier - just needs a little getting used to like I had trouble finding the all new posts button - then I found it in plain site! 

Good work!
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#7
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6/19/09 at 1:53pm
  • Joined: March 2008
  • Location: West Sacramento, CA
  • Post Count: 1,766
I just timed it - took 37 seconds to load this page.  Opening the global warming wiki page took 38 seconds.  Normally these pages would take maybe 5-10 seconds to load.
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#8
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6/19/09 at 1:59pm
  • Joined: October 2007
  • Location: Scotland or something
  • Post Count: 21

Quote:
Originally Posted by dana1981 View Post

I just timed it - took 37 seconds to load this page.  Opening the global warming wiki page took 38 seconds.  Normally these pages would take maybe 5-10 seconds to load.

You don't have firebug installed by any chance, do you?  It'd be nice to know which specific requests are moving so slow -- it could very well be ad related.

We're not seeing anything abnormal, server side.

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#9
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6/19/09 at 2:52pm
  • Joined: March 2008
  • Location: West Sacramento, CA
  • Post Count: 1,766
I couldn't tell ya - it's a work computer.  I'll let you know how it goes on my home computer later.
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#10
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6/19/09 at 3:44pm
  • Joined: October 2007
  • Location: SOMA - San Fran
  • Post Count: 73
I'm on a crappy public WiFi connection and it appears to be fine.  Definitely give us a heads up on how things are at home.
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#11
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6/19/09 at 5:29pm
  • Joined: March 2008
  • Location: West Sacramento, CA
  • Post Count: 1,766
Yeah it's normal at home, about 5-10 seconds to load.
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#12
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6/20/09 at 12:29pm
  • Joined: October 2007
  • Location: Dublin, CA
  • Post Count: 55
Jebus! this was a surprise when I visited this morning. Looks fantastic! Didn't know you were doing this, but very cool.

I concur with dana though... the site feels slower. Both Firefox & Safari. FF showed 15.5s to load this thread with nothing cached; 7s to load with the page cached. Neither of those are too bad, but I'm pretty sure it was faster before. Another aspect is that the browser seems to render the content last, which I don't think it did before. You get the blue header, then the title bar (showing where you are) and then related content, and lastly the actual page content. I haven't played around with it enough to know why that's happening, but it may contribute to the perception that the site is 'slower'

Overall though, GREAT work. Love the new variable width thing, and the inline reply box.
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#13
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6/20/09 at 12:43pm
  • Joined: March 2009
  • Location: Izmir, Turkey
  • Post Count: 588
I count 3 to 4 seconds from the time I click on the topic.

That is using Chrome which seems the fastest of what I have - that includes explorer, forefox, opera, safari and a couple of others I have played with over time. 
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#14
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6/20/09 at 2:33pm
  • Joined: March 2008
  • Location: Orange County, California, USA
  • Post Count: 170
I love it!  Pages seem to load OK for me... 

The part, Stins, where you mentioned:
A New Format
You'll also notice that if you open your browser window to full width, things on the site are a little wider.  Then when you shrink it down, the width of the forum text/wiki text, etc changes too! 

...I don't notice a difference either with the browser full screen, or as a smaller window - maybe I'm confused as to what you meant.
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#15
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6/22/09 at 7:44am
  • Joined: March 2008
  • Location: Glen Allen, Virginia
  • Post Count: 33
Hey SoCalSolar-
What browser are you using? The fancy new resizing should work on all modern browsers (it stays fixed with for Internet Explorer 6).

What she's referring to for example is the area of your post, it grows in width as you resize your browser window. If your screen resolution is set at 1280x1024 or 1280x768, you are already at the high end of the max width, but if you shrink your browser window, it should get narrower.

Thanks for the feeback.
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#16
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6/22/09 at 1:32pm
  • Joined: October 2007
  • Location: Scotland or something
  • Post Count: 21
Regarding the performance issues, Ted's determined it's on our advertising provider's end, and he's working with them to get things sorted out.
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