Yellow Bar beta test results/comments.

[okamotosan18]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/ ... tretch.jpg
I didn't want to post the screenie since it's pretty big, but it shows the lab gets stretched.
My in-page banner blocker works fine with the side button, but it leaves a black line on the top of the page, pretty ugly, haha.

[everconfused]

armi, try imageshack.us - I use that alot for short term uploads - free, no sign up or anything.

okamotosan, that is really bleh isn't it? I just looked at your ss of the lab! Does it do that on every page? Yikes!

meowth, I'd be interested in that. I don't have a vision problem - per se. But I do have something called meniere's disease which is an inner ear disorder. Get very dizzy, fall alot, have had many concussions, going deaf, etc. However, because it is vestibular it does also have a visual effect. Like, I can't play some of the games on the site (or anywhere) that move fast - thinking like the fairy races one? Can't watch certain things on tv as that will trigger a severe dizzy spell too. Now those things I can kind of control - by not playing whatever game or not watching whatever on tv. I can't control something large on the top of every page of a site I'm on -- except to not go there anymore. I know, for many people the whole topbar/ad thing is not a big deal and some of you really like it. But for many of us, this is just not a good thing at all.

Last edited by everconfused on Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

[xjox]

Ok let me just risk getting slapped with a tuna fish, by saying that I LOVE it! I dont find the top banner annoying......yet anyway! I have a slow, should be on the scrap heap, computer and my pages dont seem to be taking any longer to load. Sure there are a few teething problems, but hey isnt that what beta testing is for?!

However, like everyone else I would prefer to have my username and petsname etc closer to the top.
Could you stick create a pet in pet central, would be the obvious choice i think!
Get rid of world completely.
Would like to see a direct link to our items and guilds.
Also, as long as the top banner is there, couldnt you put a newsflash up whenever the news is released?
Last thing....(for now) as Everconfused has already stated some people may have a problem with the top banner so there should be a way that people can turn it off or maybe keep the old sidebar.

[Mokona]

I'm on dial-up, and it doesn't take any extra time to load, so maybe it's just your computer or something?

Nop, it's definetely taking a lot longer to load than the old one....Consider yourself lucky Now I get to play NQII with speed SLOWER than the slowiest slorg

[Armi]

Everconfused: Thanks. I'll use them to show the image. My avatar and sig can be dead for now.

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/667/brok.jpg

^ that's what the screen looks like to me on Mozilla.

EDIT: oppies...had IMG not URL XD

[jakecubee]

same thing for me. the side buttons arnt showing up till u scroll over them and the clock should keep moving with out u having to refresh also can u move the buttons on the side bar back to where they used to be i keep getting confused other than that i think it is really good

[SierraRaven]

I'm on dial-up, and it doesn't take any extra time to load, so maybe it's just your computer or something?

Once the banner ads are in your cache files, no it won't take longer to load. The problem, for me at least, is that I have to empty my cache every other day or so. Also dial-up connection rates are different according to your outside telephone lines. I know Sacramento has consistent 56k, or at least 48.8k, but here in the Sierra Foothills (Camptonville), the fastest connection speed possible is only 28.8k.

Another disability that could be triggered by multiple Flash ads going at the same time is any type of seizure disorder. Neither Netscape nor IE allow us to turn off Flash. Animated HTML files, on the other hand, can be specified to only loop once, or even not at all, within your user preferences.

[meowth1982]

meowth, I'd be interested in that. I don't have a vision problem - per se. But I do have something called meniere's disease which is an inner ear disorder. Get very dizzy, fall alot, have had many concussions, going deaf, etc. However, because it is vestibular it does also have a visual effect. Like, I can't play some of the games on the site (or anywhere) that move fast - thinking like the fairy races one? Can't watch certain things on tv as that will trigger a severe dizzy spell too. Now those things I can kind of control - by not playing whatever game or not watching whatever on tv. I can't control something large on the top of every page of a site I'm on -- except to not go there anymore. I know, for many people the whole topbar/ad thing is not a big deal and some of you really like it. But for many of us, this is just not a good thing at all.

http://www.jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~rkschmi/access02.htm

Completely understandable hon. My boyfriend actually lost a bit of his hearing not due to meniere's disease, but due to an ungodly amount of inner ear infections. Heck, I still have to help him walk around some times. Just because he gets so dizzy. :/ Those two websites should give some good information for you though.

[neopian_queen_liana]

I really enjoy the new sidebar. I love the Neopian time on the sidebar. The new icons are great too. I was also wondering if Create a Pet could be put into Pet Central. I think that makes a lot more sense.

Now onto the negative. I hate to say it, but the top part of the menu is awful. It's truly irritating and painful to the eyes. I suffer from migraine headaches, and that will definately trigger them if I play Neopets for any length of time now. Even without taking medical concerns into consideration, the banners, although really well done, are distracting and unnceccesary. Most players that have been on the site more than a week or two know about all these things without having flashing reminders. I also don't enjoy the fact that it makes me scroll even further to see the rest of the page. I switched to 1024x768 a long time ago because it makes it alot easier to avoid tendonitis/carpel tunnel from playing Neopets for too long. Seriously though, it's almost impossible to find a page you don't have to scroll down to see now.

I liked the idea of removing the top banner and either replacing them with the normal top banners that exist on the top of every page because they don't move or distract at all really. I also liked the suggestion of moving the user and Neopet name information above the search box, or possibly putting this at the top of the page instead of the banners. Just my two cents on the issue. I'm sure I'll have more comments when I see how events are handled now.

Edit: I just received a neomail to test the new event notification, and I really love this! The envelope appearing next to the normal banner instead of under the banner keeps html from being messed up on pet pages, user lookups, and guild homepages! This part was a great idea!

Last edited by neopian_queen_liana on Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Amneris]

Gosh, where can I get a banner blocker for macs? Im going to need one...X.X

Anyway, some screencaps for your viewing pleasure

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/c ... /shops.jpg

Shops without the new banner

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/c ... shops2.jpg

Shops with

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/c ... es/NQ1.jpg

Neoquest without

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/c ... es/NQ2.jpg

And with.

Shows you my buttons dont load until after I hover over them, and just how far I have to scroll down.

[okamotosan18]

okamotosan, that is really bleh isn't it? I just looked at your ss of the lab! Does it do that on every page? Yikes!

Well, it looks bad, but at least I cut down on all the loading time, I didn't even realize that the buttons would take so long for people to get them loaded.

[Mokona]

I'm on dial-up, and it doesn't take any extra time to load, so maybe it's just your computer or something?

Once the banner ads are in your cache files, no it won't take longer to load. The problem, for me at least, is that I have to empty my cache every other day or so. Also dial-up connection rates are different according to your outside telephone lines. I know Sacramento has consistent 56k, or at least 48.8k, but here in the Sierra Foothills (Camptonville), the fastest connection speed possible is only 28.8k.

Another disability that could be triggered by multiple Flash ads going at the same time is any type of seizure disorder. Neither Netscape nor IE allow us to turn off Flash. Animated HTML files, on the other hand, can be specified to only loop once, or even not at all, within your user preferences.

My normal connection speed is 48k and highest is 52 *cough* but I guess I shouldn't be complaining.....

[valerielundberg]

Well, I still prefer the old one. As I said before, with the exception of the clock and the event icons, I find the new bar to be a bit more than what's needed.

I would like to suggest placing the buttons on the new bar in the same order as the old one....meaning:

Old:

PET CENTRAL
CREATE-A-PET
NEOMAIL
WORLD
EXPLORE
BOARDS
GAMES
SHOPS
NEWS
HELP
LOGIN
LOGOUT


Some of us got used to that order from the old bar. It would make transition a lot easier for everyone to at least have the new buttons in the same order/placement.

also:

SOME OLD PAGES THAT WERE MESSED UP WITH THE NEW TOOLBAR...(not that many folks go there anymore, so I guess it doesn't matter much)

These have that crazy elongation in text error:

http://www.neopets.com/space/space_market.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/space/spacefaeriemiss.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/space/explode.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/space/spacetrailer.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/comps/jetsam.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/comps/tatsu.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/comps/gelert.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/comps/mynci.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/comps/halloween.phtml


Cosmetic corner errors:

http://www.neopets.com/badpets.phtml
http://www.neopets.com/battledome/battl ... =&subtype=
(so tiny you can barely notice it in the maraqua BD)
http://www.neopets.com/space/comic.phtml

Like I said, not that these pages matter too much, as barely anyone goes there anymore. Just making ya aware.

EDIT:

Snarkie has been posting and working on this today too? LOL!

I have to admit, you guys have been pulling your weight this afternoon. It's nice to see what you do behind the scenes. Seeing the two of you crack into fixing problems like this is amazing. It sure shatters my mental image of you and the rest of staff I had before...

...which was mostly all of you sitting around the office eating doughnuts, playing TCG, and making jokes about how you should be working on neoschools.

*gasp* You guys actually work! LOL.

Nice to see my mental images aren't true all the time.

Last edited by valerielundberg on Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:14 am, edited 2 times in total.

[neopian_queen_liana]

Guild messageboards also have the gap between the Neopets logo and the huge, distracting banner. (but I'm not biased or anything)

http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild_boa ... d=tinaphil

There are also problems with font sizes on the guild's menu. The council, admin powers, and "Leave Guild" are all in a larger font size now.

[amarise]

Okay, I have a complete collection of what I posted on the other board re-posted here, since I have the feeling it will be buried under all the "pick me!" boards.

Okay, this happened on the noticeboard. Same thing has also occured on quick ref, since I have four pets.



Plus, I've noticed that the size of the user/pet/np is quite small. It doesn't allow you to change it, either. It's a cosmetic issue, but it kind of bugs me, since I usually have my font about 2 sizes bigger.

Oh yes, and ditto on the shop banner issue. It would be better if the corners of the top banner were transparent, to prevent from throwing off the look of a shop.

*Edit* Yokies, another thing. It appears to have messed up my userlookup, with the background not loading. And is it normal to have the number of stamps show up at the bottom, rather than on the side?



I'd like the clock to be a slightly less intrusive yellow, if possible. I think the option for having different color sidebars would be cool, too.

At first, the top banner is distracting, but after a while you become used to it. In a way, it's kind of neat, because full banners can have a lot more detail than the small ones could.

*Edit again* Oh yeah, I LOVE the meepit juice break full banner. It's so cute!!

The top of the Terms and Conditions banner looks like it's cut off by a pixel line or two.

And this has nothing to do with the beta, but I happened to go to the list of smilies, and the *catfish* smiley isn't there. Is that purposeful, or did someone just happen to forget it?

Ahh. Just found a weird little glitch. Under contests, then past contests, there's a thing listed for the 'pick-a-tatsu'. The banner isn't showing up, and all the text and pictures are lined up right next to the toolbar. The entire page is stretched, but there's mostly white space.

*Edit* Same problem with pick-a-jetsam, pick-a-mynci, and pick-a-gelert.

Hey, me too! I joined PPT after the MI plot, because I wanted to be able to talk to everyone, instead of just reading!

I agree, the auction font needs to be a little bigger. I understand why it needed to be changed, but now it's really hard to read. Maybe you could eliminate owner or last bid on the main part where all the items are listed. Just something so you'd have a little wiggle room.

Oh, and Adam, just wondering-how many pages do you have to read through each time you come on here? It seems like this board adds a new page every 10 minutes or so......