New site design

[titan_90]

In case people missed it I posted a way for other firefox users to get rid of spoilers from the homepage, here: http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=1394

I appreciate the time you took to create this
But, the editors are still ignoring their users

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Race Results

It is now a week with the new design. I still would not have a problem with it,
if the site would be complete. But it is not. I still hope it will change.

Here is the problem:
I can not see the results of races which are off the front page!
For example: No way i can see results of the "Tour of Malopolska". In the old times it was very simple: Go to UCI Calendar, click the race and boom i got all results.

Now there is NO MORE Calendar. That means for example: Once the Tour de France will be off the front page, it is gone forever! Meaning no more reading of TdF-2009-Results and Stories.

To the editor: That can not be your wish? Would you give us users back the calendar?

With best hopes, thanks upfront.

 

[laura.weislo]

It is now a week with the new design. I still would not have a problem with it,
if the site would be complete. But it is not. I still hope it will change.

Here is the problem:
I can not see the results of races which are off the front page!
For example: No way i can see results of the "Tour of Malopolska". In the old times it was very simple: Go to UCI Calendar, click the race and boom i got all results.

Now there is NO MORE Calendar. That means for example: Once the Tour de France will be off the front page, it is gone forever! Meaning no more reading of TdF-2009-Results and Stories.

To the editor: That can not be your wish? Would you give us users back the calendar?

With best hopes, thanks upfront.

Calendars are coming. Trust us we want you to be able to access the past race results but apparently that function isn't ready yet. Sorry - please be patient!

As for the Polish race - we hadn't actually produced those results yet. Stay tuned, we'll get them up for you.

Thanks
Laura

 

[Ninety5rpm]

Calendars are coming. Trust us we want you to be able to access the past race results but apparently that function isn't ready yet. Sorry - please be patient!

As for the Polish race - we hadn't actually produced those results yet. Stay tuned, we'll get them up for you.

Thanks
Laura

On the front page the little icon photos next to each race are useless and just make it look cluttered. I would experiment with getting rid of those, and making it so each race name is prominently displayed (that already is good - so just getting rid of the pics is probably all that is needed). Those images are of no help whatsoever. Think functional. Thanks.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Race results

Thanks Laura,

for the fast reply. I am looking forward with hope now.

Best wishes

 

[laura.weislo]

Thanks Laura,

for the fast reply. I am looking forward with hope now.

Best wishes

Results for Polish race are here:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-malopolska-2-2
Hopefully the names are spelled right... the Polish character set messes with a copy-paste from the PDFs for some reason...

As for calendars, you and I are both waiting with great anticipation! A temporary solution will be a long list of race results similar to this page: http://www.cyclingnews.com/live-reports which will come out in the next release.

 

[manolo]

Why on earth would you change a site that people loved...? Content is king, and you guys have just gone and buried him.

I miss the old site. A lot. It's just not the same. Hanging around the forums feels like hanging around a bar where you used to meet your girlfriend just to see if she'll come back. Please come back, Old CN homepage! We miss you! It should be an honor that so many people miss it! Bring it back! Please!

 

[manolo]

I always thought the previous design was what any sports website should aspire to be, a clear, open and easy to navigate site that was bursting with easily accessible information and features...

Well said! Exactly right!

... what happened with Facebook when they attempted to change their site, they forgot the main reason people came to the site was because they had got it right....

Please! We've been clear why we came here as opposed to other places! Please! Bring it Back!

Take a poll and i guarantee the negative responses will outweigh the positives.

By the way, how do you set up a poll in the Forums? And why wouldn't you take a poll on your homepage about the new site?

I'm off to the eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling page, velonews.com and to any other site i can get what i used to from this one page.

Sadly I've visited http://www.velonews.com, http://www.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling, http://www.cyclingfans.com, http://www.steephill.tv and now, more recently, http://tour.cyclingfever.com/ more than I have for the past three years, just because of this change in CN. I felt I had no choice.

 

[Kiwipost]

How absolutely awful. I can't agree more !!

Cyclingnews had a wonderful, quick convenient website. Now its it just another confusing and cumbersome piece of rubbish, trying to do too much and neglecting its basic mission. Where do the designers perceive that they added value to the users? I sure can't find value in the changes.

How absolutely awful. I can't believe that designers can take a perfectly good website and muck it up as much as they have. I immediately thought "If it ain't broke don't fix it" and then went to the forum and found that someone had got there before me.
On the old site there was daily news (fantastic) and up-to-date results as they came in. On the new site you have to click a few times before you get the results from any stage or race. Why???? There is no need to design like this.
News now comes in on a one-off basis? Why not daily news as before - it worked well and I could easily see what I missed?
What a shame that we do not have an alternative website to escape to. Cycling News did the job very well and now ..................

Well it always was the first thing on my computer but now its been destroyed I'll rethink.
So sorry editors and designers - this is a real case of form over content. It's utter cr?p!

 

[manolo]

I am nearly washed up with this and will soon stop posting... I know I gave it my best shot, and it was to save a friend of at least 10 years... I will find somewhere else... but I feel we have seen the last of simple websites that set out to help users... it was forced on me...and I do not like it.

Yeah, I feel like the posts are dwindling, too. I wonder if CN will publish numbers on how site readership is doing... I hate going somewhere else when this site had everything in one convenient place. And I miss seeing comments from the editors and writers. At least we knew they were reading.

My pet peeves (again):

1. Your news item pages seem crammed. It feels like all the text is scrunched up to left. Why don’t you put all the advertisement on the right hand side? You might be able to get a clean column on the right hand side for all the text. Otherwise the text looks irrelevant. I stop reading because it feels visually cluttered, when on the other site I’d read the whole thing. You need less stuff on these pages.

2. Get rid of a lot of the purple on the site. Change your bolded text on the homepage to blue – like you had on the previous site. It’s purple overkill. It’s unappealing. There’s too many boxes with purple or shades of purple. Yuck.

[By the way, I feel so strongly about this, I posted a poll on it:
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=1512]

3. Provide a spoiler-free page. Maybe a page where you can find the latest Stage Details, Live Coverage Feeds, and Results details like you used to have here:

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2009/jun09/dauphinelibere09/?id=stages

Thanks!

 

[manolo]

I like the tags that are listed at the bottom of this thread. "death of a legend, new site design, sucks balls, terrible"

Heh heh! Hadn't noticed!

 

[BigDog]

Heh Heh Heh...

.....I'm in the industry and was just saying the other day how well cn had done in becoming the reference site. And then, pow, they stuff it up, its almost like vandalism. Still I'm sure someone else will make a decent reference site to replace this one which is frankly funny now its so bad. Another of those examples of big companies messing up a product that was carefully developed by people who cared by being too greedy, too centralised, too stupid etc etc

 

[manolo]

The new forum is interesting, though, and currently is the only reason I am coming back to the site.

The forum has been fun.. But nothing compares to the old site!

 

[manolo]

I especially loved the maps of stages with the accompanying stage profiles but since the website format change I don't seem to be able to find the profiles. If anyone can help me I would sure appreciate it...

Sounds like a cool trip. Here's a page to help you out:

For those of you who miss the Stage Profile Pages at CN, these are really nice! Enjoy! http://tour.cyclingfever.com/

Click on each stage at the bottom of the third column!
You can also see start lists and a list of mountains!
I'm loving it!

Here is a good one: http://www.cyclingfever.com/
Their Tour Preview:http://tour.cyclingfever.com/

 

[manolo]

In case people missed it I posted a way for other firefox users to get rid of spoilers from the homepage, here: http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=1394

What could work for Windows XP?...

 

[manolo]

I understand everyone's pain with this transition - believe me, it's been hard on the Cyclingnews production editors, too.

You may not realize just how much we care about this job - for years we have engaged in a single-minded pursuit to post every UCI race result in the world plus all the big national events and (until recently) as many local results as we could find time to post.

We scoured the internet for every news story, traveled the world to cover races, exhausted our contacts to bring you exclusive stories, features and interviews and brought unique perspectives through diaries of riders - big and small...

(If you had a problem with the current staff, well, can't help you there!)

... the navigation is different... the old site had everything right up front... those of you who pointed out that it was rolled out prematurely are right - it really wasn't quite ready and we're still finding new bugs and issues.

Is it right for people on this forum to complain to the advertisers who help to pay our salaries just because you have issues with the new look? I remember once upon a time there was a rider for a team who made someone mad by acting like a jerk. Someone contacted the sponsor to complain and lo and behold, that team no longer exists.

... Just because we've been forced to modernize our clunky 1990's design to fit with today's internet isn't a reason to try to shut us down...

In my opinion, it's not even a reason to give up visiting the site...

Please try to have patience as we all tackle this transition... It might take some time to get to where we're all happy. Believe me, when Gerard Knapp redesigned the early 90s site to a late-90's site he got just as many complaints, but you all grew to love it...

In short, yes - we all miss the old site. It was familiar and comfortable...

Laura

Laura Weislo, Features & Production Editor, posted this [shortened by me to use less space here] on the Alternatives to Cyclingnews thread. I like her tone and her manner. I still want a less cluttered site, a no-spoiler alternative, the stage profiles back and less purple on the site, but I'm glad she took the time to write in such an emotionally honest way. Thanks!

 

[manolo]

The developers are here and are logging complaints. They are formulating a plan which may allow users to select a spoiler-free profile.

Yes, the developers weren't in tune with the readership when this design was hatched. They were relying on data from a survey that was done last year - they attempted to find out what the readers wanted, but their methods may have been flawed.

Let me assure you that they are making every attempt to rectify the situation and that your cries have been heard. It breaks my heart to read the complaints and hate that have been spewed forth on this forum because I, like the rest of the editors, really do want to please our readers.

I've made many recommendations to the dev team which I think will make the site flow better, but please be patient because it all will take time to be implemented.

Unlike the old days when we editors could muck about in any code on the site, we simply do not have the ability to change things like this anymore.

... I beg you to be patient and know that we really do have your interests at heart and want to keep our loyal readers with us.

Thanks!
Laura

Another quote from Laura's posts on the Alternatives to Cyclingnews thread. Thought it should be seen here, too! Again, Thanks, Laura!

 

[Anonymous]

well i havnt visited in a over a week.. it was too much a pile of hogwash to contemplate...

but ive just had what i intended to be a good old look....

first thing that caught my eye apart from that god awful flash box was the nevada city classic section..

so i clicked on the link.. it took me to a photo page with a picture on it rather than the expected nevada city classic page..

ho hum..

back to main menu.. click the "armstrong claims solo victory link" taking me finally to the report on the race (shame it took two attempts).. text all over the place, which i suppose was to be expected, started reading and noticed the pretty little picture bit to the right, thought oh, i will cycle through the pictures quickly before i read the rest of the article.. clicked on one to see the thumbnail..

me boggin report page has vanished and im into a damn photo album...

what i intended to be a longish visit has ended in 2 minutes...

1 link that took me to a photo page instead of the race page
1 badly laid out race page
and a photo box that instead of scrolling through the photos opens the ruddy gallery in a new page...

what a complete and utter comedy of errors.. i really dont expect it to be that complicated to read a ruddy race report.. could it have been done any worse.. really?

Nobody can say i didnt at least try.. :/

on a side note.. are we really getting that lazy that a top ten of the finishers would have been that much hard work..

 

[jmo001]

Missed some interviews...

Have just realised that I've missed some interviews because they are down in the "Features" section and didn't come up in the News Editions... What's the difference between a Feature and News?
Can we have all interviews and previews (ie Cadel Evans Interview, Chritian VdV interview, TdF ladder etc) included in the News Editions like they used to be? Now that I can't access CN on my mobile I can only check the site once a day and don't want to flick back and forward through endless links to find all the latest goings on. Not that I wanted to flick back and forward anyway... I want it all in one spot - the News Editions.

Laura... Please help...

 

[davidl64]

Can we have the old writers back, too?

This frustration goes back further than the new website, but when did you decide to settle for poor writing on cyclingnews.com? Aren't you based in the nation after which English is named? The writing used to be quite good. Now we have to endure errors like, "Kiwi ready for lead-out roll in fifth Tour." Is it difficult to find people who know the difference between "roll" and "role"? Or was this supposed to be a truly terrible pun? How about noticing that if the subject is plural, the verb should be "are" rather than "is"? These are just examples; I am distracted by such elementary errors multiple times per visit. Please clean it up!

 

[ScubaSteve]

Depressed................

I have come back to CN after a week hiatus. I had to have some type of closure. It is depressing having to look at this website in its new state. I have to face the fact that I have lost a dear old friend. I will not be returning to this site again. Thanks for the memories and best of luck! "Peace, I'm outta here!"

Scuba

 

[Ninety5rpm]

Have just realised that I've missed some interviews because they are down in the "Features" section and didn't come up in the News Editions... What's the difference between a Feature and News?
Can we have all interviews and previews (ie Cadel Evans Interview, Chritian VdV interview, TdF ladder etc) included in the News Editions like they used to be? Now that I can't access CN on my mobile I can only check the site once a day and don't want to flick back and forward through endless links to find all the latest goings on. Not that I wanted to flick back and forward anyway... I want it all in one spot - the News Editions.

Laura... Please help...

+1

I say get rid of the News section too. There should only be News Editions, with snippets of interview in the first edition that comes out after a new interview is posted, and links to the full interview. That worked so well.

The duplication between the ridiculous "today on cyclingnews.com" Flash box, the News section and the News Editions section should all be consolidated into one News section which contains News Editions and occasional "news flashes" (without using Flash!) when appropriate.

That was what was great about the old site - there was one key focal area, from which you could reliably branch out to everything else knowing you did not miss anything. Even if you were on vacation for a week you could come back and easily and efficiently catch up. That's what the new design is really missing.

All this seems so obvious to me, and, apparently, to so many others, it makes me wonder how much of the design team were regular users of CN.

 

[edmo18]

not happy jan

if something is not broken then dont fix it... this web site is difficult to navigate and hard old find old results. i have found http://www.roadcycling.co.nz is like the old cyclingnews and eaiser to read.. sorry

 

[sfgrandprix]

By the way, how do you set up a poll in the Forums?

Hopefully this will work:

1. Log in
2. Go to the forum heading you want, such as "About the Website"
3. Click the blue button "New Thread"
4. Enter a title and your initial message
5. Scroll down to the Additional Options part and click yes under Post a Poll
6. Enter the number of poll options you want people to vote on
7. Click the Submit New Thread button, then enter your poll options

 

[igamogam]

Please remove the Flash contents

Pleaaassseeeeee get rid of the flash.

When I look at cyclingnews.com (less and less) the top half of the page consists of empty Flash placeholders which are ugly, convey no information and are waste space.

Not everyone installs Flash and modern browsers upcoming HTML 5.0 & RIAs mean there is no reason for cyclingnews.com to force readers to use an outdated, resource-hogging plugin.

I probably sound like a luddite to you but frankly the new website seems to have alienated so many faithful readers I begin to wonder if your sites advertising catchment has actulally gone down. It would be interesting to see how the hit statistics.