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Author Topic: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape  (Read 18301 times)

bokehcambodia

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #80 on: February 20, 2015, 11:19:49 pm »

Yes, that's what i was thinking; worst case Kevin/Chris have to open the threads manually;

+1

Or should it be its own forum board with a topic created for each posting in that board regardless of if there is any comments? And limit topics in that board to just those with an attached/linked article?

That would of course not prevent people from starting threads in this or other boards about a topic but might provide an appropriate container aside from "About this Site".

bokehcambodia

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #81 on: February 20, 2015, 11:24:29 pm »

WordPress sites can get really slow when templates are overloaded, have too many features, etc.
Otherwise it's a great choice with a custom template like the LuLa now uses;
it's fast for me, looks neat and the editors can easily create new articles (publish them privately for review etc, then to the public), handy image gallery and management features;

A custom HTML 5 site would surely cost the LuLa WAY more, and might not serve their needs any more. Their web team did a great job IMHO.

I've enjoyed watching how this site has evolved and appreciate all the good information.  I'm not surprised to see that now the site is done with Wordpress.  I'm wondering if there is any purpose anymore for HTML editors such as Dreamweaver.  So now that your viewers are on all sorts of devises including high resolution monitors and tablets, are you tempted to export your images with higher resolution than say 800 pixels?  Again what really makes this site is the generosity of the experts outs there who regularly answer our questions on the forums.  The big negative of this site is that I always want a new lens or piece of software.  Keep up the good work.

Hugh

bokehcambodia

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #82 on: February 20, 2015, 11:26:21 pm »

+1
finicky to hit the right spot, make the font larger;

I agree too!  0,0,0 to 255,255,255 is too much in most modern monitors; its a recipe for a headache. (even the readability add-on does not use that extreme contrast)

One suggestion I have about the new site is to increase the font size of the sub-menu under "Articles" , which I think is too small (see attached screen capture)

Regards,

bokehcambodia

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #83 on: February 20, 2015, 11:32:05 pm »

The text overlay at the gallery slider is also not pretty for longer text...

CeeVee

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #84 on: February 21, 2015, 09:27:12 am »

Early in this discussion, on page 2 ?, I saw a comment about visiting Lula thru Tapatalk.

I use Tapatalk on an Android phone to visit a number of Forums. While Tapatalk is not better than the full browser access thru a PC it is handy.

Unfortunately I have never gotten Lula thru Tapatalk (I am typing this on a Laptop) and, I just checked, the situation has not improved.

Is there a problem with Tapatalk + Lula and will it be corrected?
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Christopher Sanderson

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #85 on: February 21, 2015, 09:44:01 am »

Yes, Tapatalk issue is amongst those things being worked on

brandtb

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #86 on: February 21, 2015, 09:47:31 am »

Frank Assessment From a Longtime Fan and User...

This is one of the most graphically incoherent homepages I've seen in a while - so sad that it's Luminous Landscape. It's what we call in the design world sometimes..."the jumble sale". Kevin I don't know why you were tasked with this - and why you chose "the Swellfire Team" but you have not pushed LL forward - only backward.

You cannot say that you are interested in functionality in your "desire for progress" soley - you must first and perhaps foremost consider the visual and graphic impact in the development of a new site. This is in one important sense...a visual medium. You did not apparently consider this well, and neither did the Swellfire guys (you only need take one look at their homepage - to realize they are the worst people for the job. I'm not sure if this page is Wordpress...looks like it. Wordpress is your enemy here - and you didn't even realize it.

LuLa has been for a long time one of the best sites of this type - and I really never had much of a complaint.  It was graphically cohesive, clear typography, color work, all the way around. Maybe the functionality of the article database...not alphabetized once you go into a subgroup...and some other aspects...but minor in the scheme of things. That said, like DP Review...it had a very clear graphic personality. Now this is gone and what your left with is like something generically  produced for a small Winnipeg copy-shop e.g. - just like every other bad Wordpress type ready-made.

We need less mediocrity in the world and LuLa has stood apart from that. What you have done Kevin however, is the difference between some amateur snapshot of a farmyard water trough and one of Michael Reichman's images of the Pelouse, you have made it more mediocre...visually. This is not the way forward.

(I would not normally put so fine a point on it...but it is so incredibly disappointing...I don't even look at the home page anymore)





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jjj

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #87 on: February 21, 2015, 10:10:51 am »

Frank Assessment From a Longtime Fan and User...

This is one of the most graphically incoherent homepages I've seen in a while - so sad that it's Luminous Landscape. It's what we call in the design world sometimes..."the jumble sale". Kevin I don't know why you were tasked with this - and why you chose "the Swellfire Team" but you have not pushed LL forward - only backward.

You cannot say that you are interested in functionality in your "desire for progress" soley - you must first and perhaps foremost consider the visual and graphic impact in the development of a new site. This is in one important sense...a visual medium. You did not apparently consider this well, and neither did the Swellfire guys (you only need take one look at their homepage - to realize they are the worst people for the job. I'm not sure if this page is Wordpress...looks like it. Wordpress is your enemy here - and you didn't even realize it.

LuLa has been for a long time one of the best sites of this type - and I really never had much of a complaint.  It was graphically cohesive, clear typography, color work, all the way around. Maybe the functionality of the article database...not alphabetized once you go into a subgroup...and some other aspects...but minor in the scheme of things. That said, like DP Review...it had a very clear graphic personality. Now this is gone and what your left with is like something generically  produced for a small Winnipeg copy-shop e.g. - just like every other bad Wordpress type ready-made.

We need less mediocrity in the world and LuLa has stood apart from that. What you have done Kevin however, is the difference between some amateur snapshot of a farmyard water trough and one of Michael Reichman's images of the Pelouse, you have made it more mediocre...visually. This is not the way forward.

(I would not normally put so fine a point on it...but it is so incredibly disappointing...I don't even look at the home page anymore)
The old LuLa was dreadful, hard on the eyes and difficult to read because of the poor design. So whilst the new version isn't exactly pushing any boundaries, it's a massive improvement in getting the usability basics right.
Reverse text and text that spans the entire width of monitor are two design no-nos as both make for difficulty in reading. This is not an opinion, it's how our eyes work.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #88 on: February 21, 2015, 10:45:24 am »

Betcha didn't know that you and Isaac were a "group."  ;D

My surprised reaction was not to that, but to BJL's claim that I have "adverse reaction" to the new LuLa design.

BJL, I would appreciate if you could point out where I had  such a reaction.

Kevin Raber

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #89 on: February 21, 2015, 11:09:14 am »

Frank Assessment From a Longtime Fan and User...

This is one of the most graphically incoherent homepages I've seen in a while - so sad that it's Luminous Landscape. It's what we call in the design world sometimes..."the jumble sale". Kevin I don't know why you were tasked with this - and why you chose "the Swellfire Team" but you have not pushed LL forward - only backward.

You cannot say that you are interested in functionality in your "desire for progress" soley - you must first and perhaps foremost consider the visual and graphic impact in the development of a new site. This is in one important sense...a visual medium. You did not apparently consider this well, and neither did the Swellfire guys (you only need take one look at their homepage - to realize they are the worst people for the job. I'm not sure if this page is Wordpress...looks like it. Wordpress is your enemy here - and you didn't even realize it.

LuLa has been for a long time one of the best sites of this type - and I really never had much of a complaint.  It was graphically cohesive, clear typography, color work, all the way around. Maybe the functionality of the article database...not alphabetized once you go into a subgroup...and some other aspects...but minor in the scheme of things. That said, like DP Review...it had a very clear graphic personality. Now this is gone and what your left with is like something generically  produced for a small Winnipeg copy-shop e.g. - just like every other bad Wordpress type ready-made.

We need less mediocrity in the world and LuLa has stood apart from that. What you have done Kevin however, is the difference between some amateur snapshot of a farmyard water trough and one of Michael Reichman's images of the Pelouse, you have made it more mediocre...visually. This is not the way forward.

(I would not normally put so fine a point on it...but it is so incredibly disappointing...I don't even look at the home page anymore)


Well what can I say.  It is my site and based on all the comments about the previous site this is a huge move in the right direction. We have had tons of positive remarks about the new site.  Only a few like yours that take issue.  The time is to move forward and that is what we are doing.  The Swellfire Team is a good team and took our ideas and executed them well.  The site is much easier to read.  For those that visit only once and while they now can see home page images they have missed.  Once the video portion is complete it will totally integrate our video content into the site.  The logic of the home page keeps the most recent articles at the top and the other articles move downward and all articles from today to day one are available on the article page.  There is a search function now that will find articles you may be looking for.  As stated in our intro article a very cool advanced search function coming.  We now have a new section called Rantatorials.  Related articles is a new feature that allows you to visit other related past articles.  If you don't call this moving forward than I am not sure what moving forward is.

I did consider typography, color, functionality, navigation and a ton of other things, all very carefully.  And, over the years we have had hundreds of emails asking us to get rid of white type on black.  Readers wanted larger images in the articles.  They wanted to see larger home page images.  All of this is now part of the NEW Luminous-Landscape.  Everything we did was a move forward.  It
s shame you can't see that.

This is the new site.  That is all there is to it.  It is now a platform to grow and offer more for our readers.  If you don't like it than so be it. Maybe you can find a site offering more content in a design you like. 

Mediocrity by the way was our old site. And, it does not enter into the vocabulary of Michael or myself.

Too bad you feel the way you do.

Kevin Raber
« Last Edit: February 21, 2015, 11:14:39 am by Kevin Raber »
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jjj

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #90 on: February 21, 2015, 11:35:22 am »

Favicons are now working again in Forum BTW.  :)
And I'm very grateful for the changes to the site.
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Kevin Raber

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #91 on: February 21, 2015, 11:50:36 am »

Favicons are now working again in Forum BTW.  :)
And I'm very grateful for the changes to the site.

Thanks JJJ.  So much more to come.  We are fixing things bit by bit.  The list is getting smaller.

Kevin
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jjj

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #92 on: February 21, 2015, 11:59:30 am »

Given the size of the task, you're moving pretty speedily I'd say.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #93 on: February 21, 2015, 12:23:40 pm »

I wonder how many millions of people avoid the bbc news website because of headaches :-)

BBC background is indeed 255, but the blacks are 51 text and 80 for headlines.

Had my monitor not been profiled for printing (i.e., lower luminosity than default), I would have serious issues with such a bright background.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2015, 12:37:56 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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jjj

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #94 on: February 21, 2015, 01:13:27 pm »

Isaac, just changing from screen width text/reverse text is without doubt an improvement in readability. Surely all your studies will back that up?
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jjj

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #95 on: February 21, 2015, 03:08:56 pm »

 
These days, we test.
To try and disprove what years of studies have already proven?  ::)
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Robert-Peter Westphal

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #96 on: February 21, 2015, 04:34:00 pm »

Hello,

two things I recognized when using old article.


These are only examples - all little problems occur in several different articles, if not in all ! The used browser is Firefox 35.01 running on Windows 8.1.

I want to make sure that I'm not complaining about anythng - this is just meant to be informal to help optimze the new site.

For m the new site is 100% improved to the old one, much cleaner and it is much easier to find the content needed.

Robert
« Last Edit: February 22, 2015, 11:37:36 am by Robert-Peter Westphal »
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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #97 on: February 22, 2015, 11:29:11 am »

Good idea, but the forum software is hard to interface into from the site.  Two different beasts.  We are looking at a few things and we'll see if we can eventually pull something off that will be cool.

Kevin Raber

Lots of Wordpress to SMF bridge options out there to check out, also it's not that difficult to directly interface with SMF via the database.

Overall pretty good stuff guys.  One thing to note, you might want to have the devs look at what used to be private articles as I think pretty much everything is now public and can be both navigated to directly and found via search.

Jim Kasson

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #98 on: February 22, 2015, 12:25:45 pm »

Tapatalk is still broken, at least for me.

BTW, is there a posted bug list we can check to see if a problem we see is a known one? It would be nice if it contained a list of recently fixed problems so we can check and see if the fix cured our instance of any given problem.

Thanks,

Jim

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Re: Welcome To The New Luminous-Landscape
« Reply #99 on: February 22, 2015, 05:09:00 pm »

When someone asks you if it's a nice day, Isaac, do you test first or just answer?

You can have an opinion without testing, and there is plenty of user feedback to support that particular opinion.

Undoubtedly, you were born to test :-)
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