Fannish Fifty Challenge: Post # 29: DW beta testing

[ride_4ever]

I haven't tested the newest in-beta version of DW yet, so I can't fairly say anything about it (other than "ugh, I just don't like tech changes to things that have been working fine for me for years and to which I'm accustomed").

Click here for the link to the beta test info posted by denise in dw news.

I would like to see comments here from fen who have tested this beta version! What do you think? What did you like? What did you not like?

Comments

[torino10154]

If I come to any conclusions, I will let you know!

[ride_4ever]

TYK!

[james]

I don't like that the font on the inbox page is bigger than it used to be. I feel like I have to make my browser window bigger just to see all the stuff I'm used to be able to see and I don't like that. If I could make the font a point or two smaller, I think I would be happy with it.

As for the beta post/create entry page, I don't like that the dialog box takes up so much room. Again, I am only seeing part of the page! I have to scroll way down to get to everything. In this case, I will forget the stuff not showing on the page even exists until after I make my entry. Why can't it all be smaller, to fit in a smaller space.

Neither of these are bugs, exactly, so I don't plan on making a bug report. But I will whine about it. ;-)

[muccamukk]

Butting in on Ride's comments, but I do think usability issues are a bug, and I do think people should comment on the appropriate beta features feedback page. If you're having the issue, a lot of other people are too.

They seem to be pretty open to feedback, at least from my experience with the early days of the beta inbox.

(Just whining about it also valid)

[ride_4ever]

Thank you kindly for the encouragement that I should test the changes and give feedback on the beta features feedback page.

[james]

I feel like this is the sort of thing where just as many don't want the font to be smaller, though, so it's just what's popular versus what's actually not working. If the display were borked somehow, I'd report it, but just 'can the font be smaller' is right up there with folks who need black text on white versus white text on black.

[ride_4ever]

Yeah, this sounds like something I'm not going to like either.

[ilyena_sylph]

Hi, smol support volunteer here.

The font size has not been changed, it is the same as it ever was. It looks different because of the different padding/rendering, but the size of the text hasn't changed.

Everything on the beta create entry page (except that the text entry box is locked to the top-ish left) is customizable through the Settings cog. Though the text entry box itself is resizable with the little markings across the bottom right corner at any time, rather or not you are in Settings.

[ride_4ever]

Ugh...I hate point-size issues and magnification issues. *whines along with you*

[sovay]

I would like to see comments here from fen who have tested this beta version! What do you think? What did you like? What did you not like?

The changes render the site almost unusable for me on a visual-neurological level; I understand my eccentricities cannot be accommodated by the urgency of the old disintegrating code; DW is damn near my sole internet platform and certainly the primary medium of my social and professional interactions full stop; I am despairing.

[ride_4ever]

I have the awful sense that my experience with this change will be much like yours (and I too have a particular visual and neurological situation and I too have almost no other presence in any social media platform besides DW).

[ilyena_sylph]

Hey, sovay. I am incredibly sorry you are so upset. I am a very smol support volunteer, but I promise I care very much.

Do you have any interest in what small bits of advice I can offer to hopefully possibly make it a little better?

[ratcreature]

I've actually had turned on the post entry beta for so long that I don't remember what it looked like previously...

[ride_4ever]

Ah, and it sounds like at this point you don't have current negative things to say about it.

[juniperberry]

I was not thrilled with the inital post new entry page--but it's customizable! You can shrink the size of the entry box and drag & drop the different display boxes, and you can choose which ones get displayed--I almost never use the "Currents" box (mood, location, music) so I just unclicked it and it's not cluttering my page, and I was able to move the icon box to a better-for-me location.

I was very gripey about it at first glance, but playing around with the settings has put a lot of that to rest.

[ride_4ever]

I know I should be looking at the beta testing, but I am so stressed out by the negative comments with which I agree even before looking that I need more time to toughen my mind up to face it. I don't want to have to go through all that customizing when the way it has been was working fine for me. *whimpers*

[ilyena_sylph]

I have totally lived with the new features turned on for so long that I have forgotten what the old ones look like, I love them, they make everything better for me.

[clarasteam]

Thank you for alerting me to the changes - I’m testing things out and will report back!

[ride_4ever]

I know I should be looking at the beta testing, but I am still feeling like I need more time to toughen my mind up to face it. Do report back when you've tried it out and feel like commenting on it.

[corvidology]

It annoyed me when I first looked at it yesterday but then I clicked the big red cog marked 'settings' and started deleting things I didn't care about and dragging other things into the position I wanted them to be on the page and it was fine.

As someone who does almost all of their DW-ing on my computer I don't really see much difference all told. I've been told it has made DW more usable to people who mainly use their mobiles.

[ride_4ever]

Thank you kindly for encouraging me by your sounding mostly positive about the changes.

[verushka70]

Well, I just turned on all the beta test features except Two-Factor Authentication and Site-Wide Canary (which they say is recommended only if you're on the dev team, anyway). So I'll let you know.

[ride_4ever]

I know I should be looking at the beta testing, but I am so stressed out by the negative comments with which I agree even before looking that I need more time to toughen my mind up to face it.

[scintilla10]

I've had the beta version of the "new post" page turned on for a while, and it works quite well for me!

What I like about it: I'm mostly on DW on desktop, so I like that everything fits on my desktop screen: my new entry box has the posting options in a column on the right side (icons, tags, etc.) On the older version, I had to scroll up and down. I also like that I can hide features that I don't use, like cross-posting. Also, in the new version, clicking on "browse" for icons is so much nicer for me! In the menu that pops up, the icons are bigger and the text is less cluttered, so it's a much cleaner icon-browsing experience.

I remember when I first looked at it, I felt a bit overwhelmed by how different the page seemed - all the posting options were in a different order than I was used to. It really helped to realize you could click on the "settings" cog and do some customizing of how it looks and functions, including hiding or drag-and-dropping modules to suit your preferences (though I don't think you can move things around to fully replicate what we had before). But once I set it up how I liked it, I got used to it pretty quickly!

Also, sympathies - tech changes always feel rocky, especially when it's a reliable internet home like DW.

[ride_4ever]

TYK for the sympathy, the encouragement, and the suggestions.