If you have made it to this article you already know that the new Vanguard website is Live.Â
We have worked hard to make the site more readable and with faster response times.Â
However, no Information Technology project ever goes flawlessly, and that rule applies to the new Vanguard site. We have tried to anticipate/identify all the issues, but we know there are some we missed.
If you see something that isn’t working right, please reply in this thread letting us know what it is that isn’t working right or could make the value you get from the site better.
Said another way, the Peoples Vanguard of Davis needs input from the People.
Matt Williams has been a resident of Davis/El Macero since 1998. Matt is a past member of the City's Utilities Commission, as well as a former Chair of the Finance and Budget Commission (FBC), former member of the Downtown Plan Advisory Committee (DPAC), former member of the Broadband Advisory Task Force (BATF), as well as Treasurer of Davis Community Network (DCN). He is a past Treasurer of the Senior Citizens of Davis, and past member of the Finance Committee of the Davis Art Center, the Editorial Board of the Davis Vanguard, Yolo County's South Davis General Plan Citizens Advisory Committee, the Davis School District's 7-11 Committee for Nugget Fields, the Yolo County Health Council and the City of Davis Water Advisory Committee and Natural Resources Commission.
His undergraduate degree is from Cornell University and his MBA is from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He spent over 30 years planning, developing, delivering and leading bottom-line focused strategies in the management of healthcare practice, healthcare finance, and healthcare technology, as well municipal finance.
Nice new look.
Is the New Vanguard primer ( you know, The Vanguard for Dummies version of how to do everything you have always wanted to do ) up yet ? If so, where ?
Earlier today I could not post on this topic (no leave a repl box).
I see faceless avatars for Matt and Tia, but just a little x box next to Jim’s name.
I put a comment with just one link in another topic and it said I was in moderation (I have not noticed any spam on the Vanguard so I don’t see why we need to put every post with a link in to moderation).
It would be great to get the recent comments below the ads back
repl = reply in the last post (I expect a lot more typos until the font is fixed since in bright light it is almost imposable to see what you are typing. With that said I agree with Jim that an edit feature would be nice (and it looks like ALL my posts today are going in to moderation).
1) I can read the comments, since they appear in black; however, the text that I am typing right now is a very, very light gray color. Please ask the team to change it to black.
2) I miss being able to see the recent comments on the side bar. That is something we agreed to keep. Please have them change this.
3) The very important one to me….The ADA text enhancement / enlargement that I spoke with the designers about extensively. Thats all for now…..I’m sure there is more to come….
Thank you for your help Matt and for communicating to the Site Development Team 🙂
Much better! I like the higher contrast, and the brightness of the whole look. (Although the dim contrast of the message I am typing in this box needs to be improved.) No offense meant to the MRAP, but I never liked the drab military camo look of the past site.
Pardon, but everything I’ve written in the last few days, including what I spent the last hour working on, is gone, and every other refresh I get the new site, then the old one.
Alan, that is a local problem on your specific device, which has stored information from the old site in you device’s memory. To clear that site-specific cache, hold down the SHIFT key and then click on the refresh button when you have the Vanguard site loaded on your screen.
OK, thanks. Pardon the sharp words, I was pretty displeased with wasting that time. Does that SHIFT trick with every browser on every system. I have four browsers on a Mac.
I find the new site makes me seasick. I scroll to a point, it shifts the scroll point 1/3 – screen with the “bouncy” scroll style. The navigation is difficult when looking for an old page. I resorted to what I with the Enterprise, I google it. The old style with the pages of old articles was much easier.
I take it the option to see post chronologically is not an option yet, or ever. The thread style I dislike. I was hoping it would be gone, at least optionally, with this iteration.
I don’t like having to load more pages by clicking at the bottom of a page, time and again.
I liked the old format better. There’s nothing yet I like better about this site.
The links at the bottom of each page to load the next page of articles is an absolute necessity since this site has nearly 7000 articles dating back to 2006. Loading them all on a single page would result in massive load times in your browser which would be far more cumbersome and annoying to the end user than having to click the next page link on each subsequent page.
The comment text is too pale, as others have said. I really like the black text on white. It is easier to read. I use an ipad and the text hesitation seems normal now. It was awful on the old site, as was jerky delayed scrolling. I can no longer “embiggent” that is expand the text on the screen. I find the font size to be a bit small. Looks like an 6 point and a 10 would be better. That said the ability to expand text also works. I have heard lots of people say they’d like a like button. Me too. I’d even like an unlike button. When posters frame local issues with partisan political rhetoric, we might engage less and have less off topic arguing if we could use an unlike button. Or is it dislike?
It’s actually worse than just scrolling down after I pick a spot. Once I stop, it scrolls up, the down, then up, then down, on some pages. I’m not touching it. Hard to read when the page keeps shifting.
Matt, back to my comment about the comments disappearing. Your comment about the cache being the problem is wrong. Someone reloaded the page from two days ago for the “Why is Davis Studying Rail Relocation?” article. I commented yesterday on Darrelldd followed by Topcat and the comment was there for day and is now gone. In addition, Anon made more comments that I responded to, and my comments and his are gone. I know it refreshed, not a cached page, because my comment today about how much all the comments disappearing, SUCKS, is there.
I see no reason to comment when the refresh pages they are choosing to load are old ones. Stuff is disappearing.
Alan, you are conflating two separate issues. As I said in a prior response to you (and others) there are approximately 62 posts that the website development team’s file conversion team failed to bring over. We have alerted them to that problem and they are working on it. I am reasonably sure that the posts you describe above are in the 11:30 am to 3:30 pm window of those 62 posts.
That is one issue you raised, the second issue you raised was, “every other refresh I get the new site, then the old one” If you performed the SHIFT Refresh step as described, that second problem should have disappeared.
Alan, Uptown Studios has gotten back to me with the following answer to the missing 62 comments issue.
Due to the nature of how DNS propagates the Vanguard site was potentially active on two different web servers to different visitors. DNS propagation for this took about 18 hours for it to fully resolve to the OmSoft servers. During this time visitors to the site who were active and were seeing the old site were making comments to posts that were being written to the database connected to the old site. All of the data prior to the DNS switch had already been migrated to the new server and there is no way to sync up the two databases since they were on two entirely different web servers. So, unfortunately there is no way for me to retrieve the missing comments during the propagation time period. Those comments are simply lost in the netherworld between the two servers
Jim, Uptown Studios Technical Manager believes that OMSoft needs to add a component to the server that deals with images. He will talk to Rob at OMSoft tomorrow about that and one other similar issue.
I like that you can see comments more clearly but I miss the continuous pictures with the title of articles blinking at the top, and I did like the color scheme in the back ground better.
I just think the other one had more flavor…just my opinion…lol
First Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Second Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Third Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Fourth Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Fifth Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Sixth Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Seventh Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Jim, I added your text to each example to simulate more words.
Unreadable on iPhone after second or third level nested comment.
I have an iPhone and I get six levels when held vertically and all eight levels when turned horizontal. What IOS are you on?
Samsung Galaxy S2, Android 4.0.4, portrait orientation: third level is okay, fourth is a bit challenging, fifth is a stretch, sixth isn’t visible. Landscape orientation: add 2 levels to the above descriptions.
Thanks for the feedback Jim.
What are others seeing on their mobile devices … both vertical and horizontal?
Same as others. Font size and can’t enlarge. Am away on iPhone and especially noticeable! Thx for the new site!
If you see something that isn’t working right, please reply in this thread letting us know what it is that isn’t working right or could make the value you get from the site better.
The “Next Article” on every article appears to be a December 2013 article on parking: “A Decent Start to Solving City’s Downtown Parking”
Not sure why.
As noted elsewhere, the color of the text for leaving comments is VERY light. Can barely see it.
The comment text contrast problem has been reported to the site development team.
FYI, Chrome on Android doesn’t show the sidebar. And the comment text entry font color is very user-unfriendly.
The comment text contrast problem has been reported to the site development team.
The comment box text is significantly better contrast now.
Hi Matt
Nice new look.
Is the New Vanguard primer ( you know, The Vanguard for Dummies version of how to do everything you have always wanted to do ) up yet ? If so, where ?
Tia
The text for the Vanguard Primer needs to be written. So that one is a “Pardon Our Dust” notice for now.
“Don’t” = “font” (where’s that comment editing feature?)
I have it. Don’t you?
8>)
Earlier today I could not post on this topic (no leave a repl box).
I see faceless avatars for Matt and Tia, but just a little x box next to Jim’s name.
I put a comment with just one link in another topic and it said I was in moderation (I have not noticed any spam on the Vanguard so I don’t see why we need to put every post with a link in to moderation).
It would be great to get the recent comments below the ads back
We’re working on all those things SoD. Thanks for the input.
Usually the Spam filter works quietly in the background. It will do so again shortly.
repl = reply in the last post (I expect a lot more typos until the font is fixed since in bright light it is almost imposable to see what you are typing. With that said I agree with Jim that an edit feature would be nice (and it looks like ALL my posts today are going in to moderation).
The new site allows the VG to tag certain troublemakers so they always get stopped at the border for moderation. 😉
(Note, just testing the emoticons)
Matt,
1) I can read the comments, since they appear in black; however, the text that I am typing right now is a very, very light gray color. Please ask the team to change it to black.
2) I miss being able to see the recent comments on the side bar. That is something we agreed to keep. Please have them change this.
3) The very important one to me….The ADA text enhancement / enlargement that I spoke with the designers about extensively. Thats all for now…..I’m sure there is more to come….
Thank you for your help Matt and for communicating to the Site Development Team 🙂
Much better! I like the higher contrast, and the brightness of the whole look. (Although the dim contrast of the message I am typing in this box needs to be improved.) No offense meant to the MRAP, but I never liked the drab military camo look of the past site.
Sucks balls, I hope you find that helpful.
Pardon, but everything I’ve written in the last few days, including what I spent the last hour working on, is gone, and every other refresh I get the new site, then the old one.
Just shut it down until it works.
Alan, that is a local problem on your specific device, which has stored information from the old site in you device’s memory. To clear that site-specific cache, hold down the SHIFT key and then click on the refresh button when you have the Vanguard site loaded on your screen.
OK, thanks. Pardon the sharp words, I was pretty displeased with wasting that time. Does that SHIFT trick with every browser on every system. I have four browsers on a Mac.
I find the new site makes me seasick. I scroll to a point, it shifts the scroll point 1/3 – screen with the “bouncy” scroll style. The navigation is difficult when looking for an old page. I resorted to what I with the Enterprise, I google it. The old style with the pages of old articles was much easier.
I take it the option to see post chronologically is not an option yet, or ever. The thread style I dislike. I was hoping it would be gone, at least optionally, with this iteration.
I don’t like having to load more pages by clicking at the bottom of a page, time and again.
I liked the old format better. There’s nothing yet I like better about this site.
SHIFT Refresh works with Firefox Safari and Chrome I don’t know what your fourth browser is.
Seasickness has been reported by Cathy to us earlier today. That is on the “punch list” as well.
Chronological posting is available in the Recent Posts box on the HOME page, and that box should be restored on the individual article pages shortly.
The links at the bottom of each page to load the next page of articles is an absolute necessity since this site has nearly 7000 articles dating back to 2006. Loading them all on a single page would result in massive load times in your browser which would be far more cumbersome and annoying to the end user than having to click the next page link on each subsequent page.
The comment text is too pale, as others have said. I really like the black text on white. It is easier to read. I use an ipad and the text hesitation seems normal now. It was awful on the old site, as was jerky delayed scrolling. I can no longer “embiggent” that is expand the text on the screen. I find the font size to be a bit small. Looks like an 6 point and a 10 would be better. That said the ability to expand text also works. I have heard lots of people say they’d like a like button. Me too. I’d even like an unlike button. When posters frame local issues with partisan political rhetoric, we might engage less and have less off topic arguing if we could use an unlike button. Or is it dislike?
It’s actually worse than just scrolling down after I pick a spot. Once I stop, it scrolls up, the down, then up, then down, on some pages. I’m not touching it. Hard to read when the page keeps shifting.
I love how nice and bright the site is.
As others have said, I can’t read what I’m typing here.
Also, I would like to see the dates and times of comments, but they are barely visible.
The contrast issue (grey color on grey color) for the dates and times has been reported to the site development team.
Matt, back to my comment about the comments disappearing. Your comment about the cache being the problem is wrong. Someone reloaded the page from two days ago for the “Why is Davis Studying Rail Relocation?” article. I commented yesterday on Darrelldd followed by Topcat and the comment was there for day and is now gone. In addition, Anon made more comments that I responded to, and my comments and his are gone. I know it refreshed, not a cached page, because my comment today about how much all the comments disappearing, SUCKS, is there.
I see no reason to comment when the refresh pages they are choosing to load are old ones. Stuff is disappearing.
Alan, you are conflating two separate issues. As I said in a prior response to you (and others) there are approximately 62 posts that the website development team’s file conversion team failed to bring over. We have alerted them to that problem and they are working on it. I am reasonably sure that the posts you describe above are in the 11:30 am to 3:30 pm window of those 62 posts.
That is one issue you raised, the second issue you raised was, “every other refresh I get the new site, then the old one” If you performed the SHIFT Refresh step as described, that second problem should have disappeared.
Two issues, two different solutions.
Alan, Uptown Studios has gotten back to me with the following answer to the missing 62 comments issue.
Then the Vanguard should have been shut down for 18 hours. Period.
That’s like leaving a lane open on a freeway while there is a crew working on it.
If we were to do it over again, then we would probably do exactly that. Unfortunately we can not turn bac the hands of time.
I have tried to re-download my picture, but to no avail.
I just uploaded my profile photo. Let’s see if it comes through with this comment.
Jim, Uptown Studios Technical Manager believes that OMSoft needs to add a component to the server that deals with images. He will talk to Rob at OMSoft tomorrow about that and one other similar issue.
Matt, I just tried uploading a profile picture and it does not show up. Should I wait a couple days?
Yes Robert. Uptown and OMSoft will be getting their heads together on that issue tomorrow.
Avatars for Rifkin and Canning are showing up, but mine isn’t. Thoughts on that?
[I uploaded my photo again, and now it seems to have taken.]
Hmmm…nothing! I do note that the comment text box shows black text now, not the “disappearing ink” it had a few hours ago.
I like that you can see comments more clearly but I miss the continuous pictures with the title of articles blinking at the top, and I did like the color scheme in the back ground better.
I just think the other one had more flavor…just my opinion…lol
But if this is more efficient that works too…
I’m with you – I much preferred the color scheme of the old site better. This site looks very generic.
First Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Second Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Third Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Fourth Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Fifth Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Sixth Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Seventh Level Nested Comment — Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Let’s see how the nesting works with more than just a few words. That will be a more realistic test of the situation, since most of us here tend toward the verbose. It’s not that we’re incapable of efficient writing, it’s that we want our remarks to convey the subtlety and detail necessary to get our often-nuanced thoughts committed to text.
Jim, I added your text to each example to simulate more words.
Unreadable on iPhone after second or third level nested comment.
I have an iPhone and I get six levels when held vertically and all eight levels when turned horizontal. What IOS are you on?
Samsung Galaxy S2, Android 4.0.4, portrait orientation: third level is okay, fourth is a bit challenging, fifth is a stretch, sixth isn’t visible. Landscape orientation: add 2 levels to the above descriptions.
Thanks for the feedback Jim.
What are others seeing on their mobile devices … both vertical and horizontal?
Same as others. Font size and can’t enlarge. Am away on iPhone and especially noticeable! Thx for the new site!