Posts Made By: Joseph Zeglinski

Holy Cr*p !!!
Entirely agree with Jerryo

  The NEW WEBSITE is entirely unusable. I will attribute the problems to "sudden" activation pains by the webmaster.

   Please bring back the previous CLASSIC webpage - it was just fine. This new one is an utter disaster. So, if it continues to be this bad, AND unusable, there will soon be no subscribers.

  Please fix it ASAP.
Mistakes do happen in life. This was a major faux pas.

Originally Posted by AstroMart

Set them the way you like em in

MY ACCOUNT

Herb

   Set them as we like them ... WHERE?

 Maybe they are in "Your Account" page, but doing as you suggested, I checked "MY Account" page, and there isn't anything new about changing back these "SETTINGS" as I would like to have them. Perhaps that is something still in the works for this new page design, and this was just a premature release, certainly not one ready for prime time, in its present form.

 Is there a Settings Preference link somewhere? Can I choose which columns I really need to "quickly and easily" view? The column borders are dead space - can't even adjust their width nor shrink their excessively huge size, total waste within the page.

   Once logged in, we seem to now have lost the old PRICE column, which was far more important than the NEW seller's  "RATINGS" column.
I only care about that info, if I have seen the asking price and am prepared to buy. Why would the designer have done that?

   The left & right sides have been increased by an enormous amount. Are you trying to please the corporate sponsors, or just looking after, respectfully,  the interests of the "severely vision impaired" members - whom the page script size won't help, if they can't see through a telescope very easily,  anyway.

   Besides, have pity on those who have small laptops,  never mind Smart Phones, trying to navigate these pages with far too much ad space, and little enough for the information in posts we subscribed for, in the first place. There is a tremendous amount of wasted column space, as well as the page bottom. The original was perfect, and the new version needs a serious design rethink.

   How many Beta Testers were there for this ... "web  design"? Next time get at least two.

  As a business case, we can all, I'm sure, appreciate the attempted,  well intentioned efforts at improvements, but with little if any competition to AstroMart, was the move from the CLASSIC page really well founded?

Hoping for major web page design repairs ...

Originally Posted by wjlee

Go to "My Account". Under the first section "General", select "Display settings". Under "Classifieds", you'll see "Display the following columns in the classified list:" with a bunch of check boxes, select "Price", and any other you'd like. Then, at the bottom of the page, click on "Save" to save your changes.

BTW, I'm not a big fan of the new format. I think it's because of the size of the font. It used to be smaller. Perhaps some control over that? Being a web developer for 25 years (yes, back when it was new! and improved! with more whitening power! ), I realize how much work goes into these things, so it's not a big deal for me.

Thanks WJLEE,

   That was indeed VERY helpful advice.  I haven't changed my settings in 11 years since joining - probabaly not even back then. The defaults were always "wisely" sufficient.

   However, TWO more bugs showed up, now.

(1) Hasn't been a problem for me, but the page now wants me, ... after more than a decade of it not being an issue ...  to use ONLY INTEGERS for my address's  ZIP code. Is this website ONLY for USA members?
I could request, but I'm sure the Canadian Parliament would decline my asking for a  change of my ZIP code to suite AstroMart's web design, demands for an INTEGER format.

(2) I changed the SETTINGS for Classified ad pages to show 40 listings. Yes, I know, that was greedy of me, but if you don't ask, you don't get. So, apparently, the web designer limits the list to just 15 ads - the rest is needed for totally blank space,... perhaps for "reflection" on the quality of the layout.

   Possibly,  a more efficient page layout would be to have a button to view the sponsors, leaving the rest of the "non-scroll-bar page left for the important stuff - like people's  ads.
Or, you could even have a (small) scrolling "corporate" sponsor list BOX. That would probabaly be more noticeable than the dead column at right, likely most of us appreciate, but ignore. How about, a "right side,  column  HIDE/CLOSE arrow - after we notice the overpowering list of sponsor names. Then the page wouldn't need a horizontal scroll bar, to waste our time.

   Sure am glad the new web page wasn't released on Easter Sunday - April 1st.

Bring back the CLASSIC A-M Page.

Dave,

   While you are correct, and the new page is really a horrid mess - you can get the prices into view, by "eliminating" some of the columns, in favour of the Price column.

   Unfortunately, unlike a typical Windows Folder, we can't "interchange column" (headings), to put the Price and Seller names closer to the item description.

   Do as I did - uncheck the Ratings column option in your choices, for one. Keep the seller's Name - most are long term members, and by now we know whom we can trust, by personality - based on previous web page ratings - which I believe we can still get by checking their account.
 So, that Ratings column is pretty much redundant.

   While this is a total snaffu, you can at least get the Price column into view,  until Herb resets to the CLASSIC page version.

   Of course, I am assuming you are using a "real PC" with a wide enough monitor, not a tiny screen on a  Mobile device (in which case subscribers are S.O.L. with the new page design, until major redesign is done.

Joe

Originally Posted by Dave McMullen

Thanks Joe.
I'm using a Surface Pro, so maybe too small a device...

And sorry to everyone for the use of all caps in my last post.  I was quite disappointed and I wanted to make sure to make it clear the web site was not working well at all at least for some.  I will be patient and hope it gets better now.

Dave

Dave,

   I just found the "secret" to making the new web page layout, actually work as well as the good old one. The problem (or bug) in the new page design is that the side panels DO NOT automatically "scale" themselves to the view screen width.

   Then I discovered, using my 24" monitor, that all is well if I switch to "FULL screen" view. As an after thought, I then tried using the smaller display width, but gradually shrinking the width until the display screws up everything, again. There is an optimal web page display width, or switching point,  where the side panels back-off, and let the center be used for the ads, fully displayed.

   So, choose just THREE (auxiliary) columns - e.g. Seller, Price, and Date - you don't really need the other column categories most of the time. Then gradually reduce the sides of your window until the HUGE right panel pops itself right into the middle of the screen, hiding the middle third, including your LOGIN. That's now too narrow.

   For some reason, the right panel expands itself from the ideal smaller size,  and then blocks our view. At this point stretch your window size  BACK a bit wider again, until you just see the slider bar at the bottom of the window. Now, the left and right panels shrink back to their old style "reasonable" sizes.

   That will be the "breakpoint" between, seeing all 3 extra columns (besides the photo and description). In fact, at this "optimal window width", the DATE splits itself quite nicely between two lines, making things look far better, wasting less of the valuable screen space AstroMart supporters are really interested in.

   Would have been nice to have "column dividers" in the header, (as in Windows),  so we could choose our own column width - especially for mobile devices. But, the above work around works well enough, once you get the hang of making this adjustment, just once. Of course, if you resize your browser window width to view a different website, you will have to re-adjust using the above kludge again.
It should NOT have been made this difficult to use ASTROMART.

   ... So, now I can finally live with the mess made in the new AstroMart web page design.
Works almost as well as the old one did - once you optimize window width.
Hope this works equally well, Dave,  with using your Surface Pro.

Joe

Herb,
    Another MINOR bug in your new web page.

The Main CLASSIFIEDS page that lists all the astro item categories - has a COUNT of the "Number of Items" offered there.

   Unfortunately, by oversight, you missed a problem - none of the ad counts in any of these, comes close what is actually being offered.

   For example - TELESCOPES - RICHEY CHRETIEN -  on the main Classifieds page says there are 20 items.
But, opening that page, there are actually only 6 items - using the display "ALL option". Maybe the COUNTER has never changed in months.

   I sampled a few other categories, and none of those have  even nearly the  correct count, either.

   It doesn't make a lot of difference, since most people pay scant attention to the "items count" shown in brackets. But, that is something you may want to correct, after fixing all the other problems th the transition to the new format.

   For example, we still can't zoom into an posted SALE ad without the darned  (Right side - funding members)  advertising  panel ... jumping right into the middle of the page, hiding most (1/3) of the posted item page, until we zoom back out.

   This must have been a huge rewrite, since there had been so many things gone wrong - which is understandable for the IP industry.

But - it is almost all fixed.

Joe

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

Hi Joseph

There is a default setting for the time period of the ads that are displayed when you click on a category (I believe there is an option in your account settings to set that default)......There is also an option at the top of the page as well when looking at a category that says "display ads from the last......" with options you may choose. Using your Richey Creighton category example when I view it there are 5 ads shown. If I choose "from the last.....year" there are many more than that shown. Bottom line is there likely isn't a bug as you are describing but rather its simply a matter of setting the parameters to display what you want.

Clear Skies!

Thanks Greg,
   I see your point - BUT, as I click on and go to the RICHEY CHRETIEN ads page, where there was supposed to be 20 ads, according to the main screen list of ALL categories, there is still an inaccurate count there.

   As I gradually stepped through the pull down list of 90, 120, 180, days, then  6 months the ads count was still less than the "suggested" 20 count in the main classifieds page. I even made sure there were no more linked pages I missed at the bottom.  
Only after choosing ALL ads for the PAST YEAR, does the ad count reach - and indeed exceed - the posted count .
The final list PERIOD for 12 months shows 24 ads - rather than just 20 !!!

   So, I don't see any PERIOD setting that jives with the number (20) count, the search stated out with. The math is still incorrect.

Not a big deal, but ... Still a bug.
Joe