i hate the new webpage

Every time someone quotes this sort of thing, it bothers me immensely, and my mind gets all defensive... not really sure why.

Anyhow, they ARE working on other things, at the same time they were/are working on the website. And they're also still working on support, and everything else they normally have going, because, you see, they have people that do specific jobs.

The people that fix bugs, add features, etc, do a different type of coding than web developers that create websites. They may not even know how to build a website, or vice versa, so it's not like their time is being wasted.

The website has been the same for at least 3 years, since I started in SL. In my opinion, for a business that is supposed to be more or less technologically up-to-date, that's a bad thing. Technology moves fast, and using the same worn-out website gets old, especially when it's not laid out in a way that's all that great for the large body of current users. It was good for new people to come and go 'Ohh that's cool!', and for spending large amounts of money (Land store, and Lindex), but beyond that, it wasn't particularly useful, I found.

Now, though, the Dashboard is extremely useful, for myself at least. I can see my friends online, my account balance, do some 'window shopping', find tutorials, and see events all in the same place, right off the bat, things I use frequently. On top of that, the Grid Status is right in your main page, as well as recent blog posts.

I find the new layout and navigation to be much more streamlined and useful than previously.. and I find that the visual style looks more modern, as well. It always seemed a little cartoonish to me, and now it seems more like they're aiming to get some serious people involved, and have it a bit more professional.


Of course, it's not perfect, and will probably still be tweaked, but they just rolled it out. I've heard nothing of it before that from other residents, so it doesn't seem like they had any sort of 'beta', so feedback is great... but not in the realm of 'I hate the new website' vague outbursts. Things like above, the events section being too small, the XStreet layout being too wide for some displays, etc... that's useful. Real input can help it get to something even better, but personally I find it's already greatly improved.

Anywho... back to the original point of this post, it's not like they're taking away developers from bugs and saying "Make the website pretty." They're just telling the web developers to do their job, while the client developers can do theirs, etc., etc. Bugs are still being fixed, features are still being added, and the updated website doesn't really impact that, unless LL is a hell of a lot worse at their job than I think they are.

ETA::
TL;DR
It's a sleeker, streamlined layout that's more user-friendly and useful. It's an improvement to the website, done by website makers, not client coders, so it doesn't take away from anything. I see nothing wrong with that.

They did have a beta, and it was announced before it began.

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/06/24/sl-website-dashboard-beta

I tried to get into it, but it was apparently invitation only. You can see references to the beta on the LL announcement in the blog.

I didn't read all the comments on the recent blog, but there was a complaint from someone who took part in the beta who felt that they didn't pay any attention to their feedback.

I hope you are right that this is just the first pass on the Dashboard, on XStreetSL, and on the Join page and that improvements are on the way. Unfortunately, it looks so much like the blog pages, that I think they've arrived where they meant to go.

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Thanks for the heads-up on beta-ness.. I honestly just don't read the blog, and had seen nothing on the forums about it. Either way, if something is obviously 'broken', such as the XStreetSL page, I feel they'll probably fix it at some point. Just give them feedback that might actually help, and they may listen. ^-^

/me is overly trusting of LL, probably, but oh well.

all Im saying is I love it.
my mac loves it
and my dog loves it

all Im saying is I love it,
my mac loves it
and my dog loves it

augh dog people

I sincerely hope they allow us to turn off all the features of we don't want to see...which is practically all of them, for me anyway.

The pages load slower, mainly because of this useless thing that wants to tell me my current L$ balance every time I load a page.

Posting events take twice as long now. The old web page had several places to link to posting an event, and pages had useful links to take one back to previous pages. Now there is only one (hard-to-find) link to posting an event; when I am finished, there is no link back to the Events page; and the default menu options on the event listings no longer match the day I chose on the calendar (giving me an extra opportunity to post the wrong date).

Many menus feature black backgrounds with white text, which are hard to read. Did the designers read any introductory books on web design? As if that weren't enough, the pages seem to love mixing fonts.

It really looks like an amateur designed the page: Unnecessarily busy on the graphics, useless gadgets (like showing me my L$ on every single page), little attention to functionality for someone who would actually use the web pages.

I never realized how amazingly easy the old web page was to navigate, until I had to deal with the new mess.

Woof Woof.

You can get something more like the old page if you use this link:

http://secondlife.com/my/account/friends.php

"Friends Online" is what I've mainly used that page for anyway, and this takes away all the stuff I don't want to see. (Which, as Brenda said, is pretty much everything.)

It's cleaner than the old version of the friends page, and less cluttered than the Dashboard. (A zilliion times less cluttered, to be exact.)

There are other similar links that produce pages with higher usability and better design in this way. (as compared to the dashboard, I mean) Like this for events:

http://secondlife.com/my/community/events/index.php

If I want to see grid status or the blog, I can just click on the SL logo, and I see the whole dashboard.

So that's what I'll be using, rather than the Dashboard.

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The main reason I use the webpage has always been either tor read the latest LL blog or to direct me to the forums. I have to say that I don't think the dashboard looks as good as the old homepage, although the colours are OK.

In a way, because the SL world is such a visually rich and immersive place, it's quite nice if the forums and website remain fairly plain, in a tranquil sort of way, as a contrast.

My blog profile says I have been a member since February of 2009.

I am not pleased. Who cares when the blog system started? I started SL on Dec. 22 2003 and I want credit for every day of gray textures I've been exposed to.

You can't delete a question from Second Life answers, so far as I can tell, and you can't edit your question, only any replies you make to your question. You can't answer your own question and mark the quest question as having been answered.

So you post a question, shortly thereafter discover the answer yourself, post the answer, since you can't just delete the question, and then, since you can't mark it as answered, someone repeats the answer you just provided in your reply, presumably in order to get points.

Grrr.

I don't really like having the secondlife.com url be a page customized to me. I like that url be a page about SL, and have the customized to me page be something like secondlife.com/me

I looked at it some more last night..I don't care for the Dasbored any more than before and that color scheme bites. About the only think I would use are the account settings and that is only rarely if I were to make a change. I don't use Xstreet, I buy Lindens inworld, I don't care what friends are online when I am not, and I have the forum page bookmarked and go directly there every. once this forum goes away, I won't have to even worry about that. I only read the blog when a post that interests me gets picked up on the SLU Blogbot, and am not going near that awful Answers monstrosity. When I think about it, I hardly use the old website, let alone have much use for the new one. So why the Hell am I complaining?

How do you do that? (Is there a black market? )

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On the Lindex, but I do it inworld.

Click the "Buy $L" button...

I never saw one inworld, but I'll look tonight and click it a few times.

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you get a slightly better rate if you go on the web site and enable advanced lindex options and then do a limit buy.

I just took a look - if I want to buy at the best rate, I look at the best open sell rate, right? Because I'm buying from someone who's selling?

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No. Look at the open buy offers. Offer to buy at the first or second rate, depending on how long you can afford to wait for your order to be filled.

You need US dollars in your account to do this though.

Thanks!

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