Messages

16

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: May 30, 2022, 11:41:22 AM »

Hello ShipSpotters,

The "Full Screen" situation will be rectified in the coming weeks.

A few remarks about the photo's copyright footer:

• This was an executive decision to be applied to all new and existing photographs uploaded to ShipSpotting.com
• There is no opt out mechanism for this feature
• The footer is added to the original photo extending it's size and not cropping nor obscuring any part of the photo as a watermark would
• There is no additional compression applied to the photo, so the original compression level and quality is maintained
• User's Name is used for the copyright, if not available then the "username" is selected for the copyright
• The footer is not scaled to the size of the photo so it doesn't get out of phase with the main focus, which is the photo itself
• It is easily removable yes, because it is added to the photo and not burned into as other options such as watermark would be
• This is a deterrent measure for any infringement, not a full proof system, additional measures in this direction will be implemented such as:
  
  • making the Full Screen photo available only to registered users
  • disabling "download" features over the photo presented in the Photo page

On another subject, I have to say that sadly Emmanuel L. from Malta has retired from his ShipSpotting hobby due to heath issues, he sends his thanks and greetings to everyone.

Regards,
Hugo Vieira
The ShipsSpotting.com Development team

17

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: May 27, 2022, 03:33:00 PM »

Hello ShipSpotters,

Thank you all for your feedback, we went through all your suggestions and concerns so far, and readjusted the site's development roadmap accordingly.

As stated previously development on the site did not stop after the upgrade. We are actively developing the website and continuously integrating bug fixes, improvements, new features or even bringing back features from the old site.
Additionally we experiment with new ideas, which sometimes do not lead to good results. Hence your feedback is vital and much appreciated.

Regarding members experiencing issues when accessing the site and logging in, we took the liberty of directly contacting a couple mentioned on this topic and offered our assistance.
If any member have similar accessibility issues please use the contact form and let us know how can we best assist you.

Best wishes to all,
Hugo Vieira
The ShipsSpotting.com Development team

18

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: New Features

« on: March 29, 2022, 01:16:11 PM »

Dear Members,

A new feature on the Photo Upload form is now available:
- Multiple photo uploads, this allows you to upload up to 5 photos of the same boat at once.

Additionally, it is now possible to Log In using Google and Facebook from the Login page.

19

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: New Features

« on: March 22, 2022, 12:23:51 PM »

Dear Users,

We are please to announce a new feature in Login process:
Google One-Tap sign in/sign up is now available in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera browsers

This enables users to sign in using their Google accounts, provided your ShipSpotting.com email is a Google account.
Also new members can register directly with their Google account.

20

Site related news, functions and modules / New Features

« on: March 16, 2022, 12:51:44 PM »

Dear Users,

We are please to announce news features in the Upload Photo page:

• Photo Preview upon selection
• Form Auto Fill when searching by Ship Name

21

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: March 07, 2022, 04:56:48 PM »

Dear members,

Since the forum upgrade and the deployment of the new website, as I'm sure all of you have noticed, there have been multiple issues.

Regarding the upload of new photos, it was completely inoperable since March 1st trough March 4th. Unfortunately, almost all photos created during this period had to be removed as there was no way of recovering them. I ask you to re-upload them when you can, if you haven't yet done so.

We will continue to work out any outstanding issues, prioritizing erros, site access, performance and user experience.

We would like to tank you all for your feedback, support and understanding, in the sense that this is a phase of change for ShipSpotting.com and it will take some time until everything is stabilized.

22

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: NOW - New website design

« on: March 03, 2022, 11:14:29 AM »

There seems to be a problem with accessing the site properly - including logging-in, for at least some members using Firefox.
It defeated me all day, even when IT thought that there was no problem.  Then I found that access was possible using MS Edge (maybe Google Chrome is OK too - I refuse to have it)

There are many problems with the new design but, until it is clear that members can access it properly, I think that it is premature to focus on them.

Do note, that the long-overdue conversion to https has now been implemented, as promised by IT

I have noticed that, although some uploads were successful on 2 March, the images themselves are all currently missing from https://www.shipspotting.com/photos/3399780 onwards

Finally, I have asked IT to comment here on the accessibility question as soon as they able.

David, thank you for your notes.

There is in fact an issue with login on some browsers (Firefox, Safari) which we will be addressing today. In the meanwhile the login is confirmed to be functional with Chrome and MS Edge.
Also as many members have noted there is also an issue with uploading a new image on all browsers. We will also be addressing this issue today.

There will be a notice here when these issues are resolved.

Thank you all for your support and patience.

23

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Scheduled Maintenance Announcement

« on: February 28, 2022, 02:00:50 PM »

David, yes the usual maintenance page will be displayed while the server is unavailable

24

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: February 25, 2022, 03:15:33 PM »

Dear members of ShipSpotting.com,

We wish to clarify that deploying the new website is not a final point in the development efforts of ShipSpoting.com.

Continuous integration of improvements and new features is the way forward in supporting the site.
All your feedback, suggestions, issues and concerns will be taken under advisement, reviewed by our team and added to the development roadmap when appropriate.

New developments will be deployed in periodic instances and made available to the public.

We would like to tank your for all your support, patience and understanding in this endeavor.

25

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: February 25, 2022, 02:59:19 PM »

I tried to upload three photo's on the new website and I am not happy with the new upload screen.
It would be nice to make it more compact: now I have to scroll down to fill in the lower fields.
Resizing the screen itself is no solution: then the characters become to small and are difficult to read.
...

Pieter, thank you for bringing up your concern.
A redesign of this page has not been foresighted for the near future. However resulting from your feedback we've added to our roadmap the development of a new optional feature to present forms in compact view.
Now this doesn't mean the entire form will always fit your screen no matter it's size.
Depending on your screen size, device type, zoom-level and orientation some scrolling might still apply.

26

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: February 25, 2022, 02:46:12 PM »

...
And maybe because of the beta-version: indexing is not tuned yet; after upload all three photo's came back different. It were not my photo's but with my text /details, etc.

@Pieter I, did the same, no need to scroll down, 27 inch screen. The photo that came up was not the one I posted.

Pieters 
This issue has been fixed, now you should be able to see your uploaded photos

27

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: February 25, 2022, 02:44:07 PM »

May I remind the IT-group, admin-team and members to this topic:

http://forum.shipspotting.com/index.php/topic,16836.0.html
...

Pieter, thank you for reminding us of this. We will review it soon, and add any pertaining features/suggestions/bug fixes to the development roadmap.

28

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: February 25, 2022, 02:38:30 PM »

I would like to see the photo dimensions with each image.
I am only interested in high res photos so would not need to open to actual size only to find that it os quite small

Tony, thank you for you suggestion, we will add it to the development roadmap and take it into consideration how to best implement it.

29

Site related news, functions and modules / Scheduled Maintenance Announcement

« on: February 24, 2022, 10:53:50 PM »

UPDATE:
The scheduled maintenance will be postponed to Tuesday the 1st of March, starting from 9:00 UTC

---

Dear ShipSpotting members,

Informing you that next Monday the 28th of February, starting from 14:00 UTC, the site servers will undergo scheduled maintenance.

The site will be inaccessible during the entire operation, which will last for an indeterminate number of hours.

This maintenance will serve multiple purposes, mainly to upgrade our webserver and databases, additionally the forum will also be upgraded, and finally a new version of the website will be deployed.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely, ShipSpotting development team.

30

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: February 21, 2022, 03:23:44 PM »

Interesting re-design. Presumably new site will incorporate the long awaited "https" designation? 
The new design should lend to a better viewing experience for both, Members & Guests.
Looking forward to the final product.

Andrecas, yes upon deployment of the new site it will be https enabled.
Thank you for your feedback