New shipspotting.com site almost ready

[Andre Brandao]

We are happy to report that the development of the new site is almost finished.

All the members of the community can have a look at it on the link below:
http://beta.shipspotting.com

We have been working on it for the last 4 months. We would be happy to get your opinions/suggestions and add them to our to-do list.

We plan to totally migrate to the new site in 3 to 5 days. During the migration process and because of the required DNS redirection both the new and old site could be unavailable for 12 to 24 hours.

We would like to, one more time, express our gratitude to all the team that has helped us in this long and hard development period. The new home is arriving!

[Tony des Landes]

I think it looks pretty good - well done to the team.

One very minor suggestion is to show the pixel size against each image.
I prefer high resolution images and having that information would enable me to determine ones that I might want to download for my collection without having to open up each one first.

This also means that I am not hitting the server so hard.

Regards

Tony

[Kelvin Davies]

I just took a look and, to be frank, am not too impressed.
On the front page is a photo of MSC Togo and the details are hopeless.
Flag is shown as Netherlands. It may have been in 2006 but the last flag was Liberia
Description: Arriving for Liverpool's Seaforth dock - 7/07/08 30175gt/1980
Funny date that, it incorporates the DWT right in the middle of the date.
Weight? What is that? I know the figure given was the DWT but using a category named "Weight" seems less than professional.

Next is the forum; as presented it is not very useful. Where did the forum categories go?

And of course, the front page. 30% of the front page is an advertisement for ShipTrax.

If one clicks on "Full Size" for an image, this works well, with a new page opening with the photo shown at full size.
At the top of the page is a link "Return to photo page" which returns an additional copy of the original photo. It might be better to either leave this link out and let the user just close the full size photo page.

Kelvin

[Allan RO]

Hi Kelvin

Also, what does 'country' mean ?  Is it 'flag' or 'country of ownership'.   Could be totally different.

Weight is meaningless, it must be gross tonnage or deadweight, preferably both being given and clearly differentiated.

And of course all information given should refer to the ship as and when photographed.

otherwise looks OK - lets see what the 'search' function is like !

Allan

[Bob Scott]

I echo Allan's remarks about 'country' and 'weight': completely meaningless.

[Robert J Smith]

Yes, I also agree with the previous remarks regarding 'country' and 'weight':
I also think the details loaded with the photograph should be kept in line by line layout rather than one continuous line

Apart from that, not bad.

Bob

[Clyde Dickens]

I have uploaded a Draft FAQ to a subcategory I have created in the Consider for deletion category.  At version 15 it is still a work in progress.

Go to http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/viewcat.php?cid=247

It is intended for use by new to the site members, as a starting point for learning to use the site.

The FAQ index will not accept images, so I have converted my source file to the needed JPG images for uploading as I have done.

At the time of typing this the AIrNav site is having login problems, probably because of programmer activity

Here is the address copied from the first item in this thread.

http://beta.shipspotting.com

As the Draft FAQ states I welcome feed back to the email address shown

Clyde

[Guest]

ok me interested if they are to re-login to the new site or old password is valid Regards Josip

[polsteam]

Maybe the previous owners of the idea to establish shipspotting.com and owners of "hardware" (servers, fast Internet connection) could not afford NOT to sell shipspotting.com. Maybe it was necessity not will (commercially driven right from the very start). I do not know...
Whatever it was, regardless of what reasons were behind the sale of shipspotting.com - this has not done anything good for the long-term users/members and photo contributors...

The concept of the world's largest ship images database and the actual database itself is clearly in bad hands now, if the owners do not know by themselves "from the start" (during developing the new site) that putting "weight" in ship description and providing alternatively and carelessly "whatever goes" ("who cares?" - gross tonnage, deadweight, displacement, lightship weight...) as "weight" is ridiculous, totally unprofessional, ignorant, "naive" and "landlubber-ish"...

It's PROBABLY time to migrate with photos uploading to digital-seas, marine-traffic or elsewhere...  
It's a pity... It's a shame...  
I USED TO like shipspotting.com very much...  

[Mike]

Sorry but not very impressed, never has been the same since they changed the old forum.The 'new' forum is just as bad as the old one.Also at present I do not see the facility to upload a photo in the posts, many times people are looking for a ship or need to refer to something or want to show a ship etc, most modern shipping sites let you upload pictures in a post.

[Richard Paton]

Hmmmm....from having a roam around the "new" site i feel it's somewhat unnecessarily fussy, perhaps a touch cramped looking.  

I hope in time it will grow on me...  :-)

Richard

[Andre Brandao]

First of all thanks for all your feedback.

Our comments below:

>One very minor suggestion is to show the pixel size against each image.

Despite that we intend to release the site in a few days it doesn't mean development has finished.
We will be always looking to add new features and implement user's requests. This one will for sure be added (we can't guarantee now but it is a very important suggestion and will be added in the future).

We also intend to reduce the size of the ShipTrax advertisement on the frontpage leaving space for more ship spotting sections (any suggestions for what sections to add)?
Note that some of the ship details are "fake" as this is still a beta site. Once we release it correct information will be shown.

Weight changed to DWT: will be done.
Country changed to Flag.

Polsteam: be patient. The new site is much better, faster and easier to use. Please give us the time we need and we will implement all your requests.

[Joy Loughnan]

No complaints here!

Anything new takes a little time to get used to.

Joy

[Phil English]

This is a big step in the right direction. The current site is outdated in many ways and has more or less outgrown the software that supports it. A revamp is long overdue. Whilst the new beta site needs some fine tuning and has some silly mistakes, all credit to AirNav for listening to feedback from members. It's also good to hear that development will be ongoing. If anyone really can't live with the new site and new owners, no-one is forcing them to stay, but I think it's worth giving it a fair chance. :-)

Brgds
Phil

[Andrew McAlpine]

Having read all the posts and had a look at the beta site I have to agree with Derek & Ken, e.g. lets make constructive critisism and put forward ideas that will improve the new site for all users. Ok on the face of it the "weight" issue seems a big mistake but as Ken said the work has been done by a programmer and not a ship enthusiast.

The new look site is very different looking to the current one but like everything it will take time to get used to however if all members work together and point out thing that they dislike or even like the site will evolve into something we can all enjoy again.

Regards
Andrew
Containership Admin