New Spanishdict Site
You have all had a chance to run your fingers over the new site. I am just trying to get a little feedback from you. I know we still have some bugs to sort out which we hope to resolve sooner rather than later, but what are your initial reactions. Is the new layout an improvement? Are the facilities easy to find? Is the dictionary any better with its identification of conjugated verbs? How about the conjugation tool? Fire away.
17 Answers
I never had the chance to see the old website, however this one seems to run pretty smoothly. I like how everything works and how vocabulary is reinforced in different ways.
The smooth look is great! A few disappointments:
1) It's confusing that posts are not listed chronologically.
2) It was easier to read corrections when we could use bold, red text, cross outs, etc. (especially when Lazarus does the corrections!).
3) I feel like posts are getting lost because they don't bump up to the first page when someone makes a comment.
4). I STILL don't know how to quote someone when responding to a post.
Thanks for listening!
The one major issue I have is that you are not notified if one of your posts has been commented on. Yes, you get an e-mail if someone has posted a whole new answer to a thread you've subscribed to, but you get nothing if someone has commented. That can be really annoying, with one having to go back through his old threads just to find a comment. If the comment section is the "key to responding to others' posts" then you should definitely get notified when someone posts a comment.
I agree with Marianne:
1) People write posts in response to other people's posts, and then they all get reorganized, and in the end you don't know what's going on. I think I remember qfreed complaining about the same thing.
2) I miss my colours!
3) The newer quoting method is very weird and hard to use.
4) I supposed that this will be fixed, but I write different lines, and they all appear in one single paragraph. I have to leave an empty line, whether I like it or not, if I don't want different lines to end up together.
For those who would like a little tour, there is a video available to show you many of the new features and how they work.
There are quite a few subtle differences which I like. One of these is that on the old site when you double clicked a word it led you to the directory via a link. Now you stay where you are and a translation appears alongside. OK, this may not be 100% accurate due to the lack of context but it is quite useful most of the time.
The site looks nicer but I don´t like a couple of changes. 1. The forum was much easier to browse before the change and seems a bit ruined. 2. The dictionary and conjugations are as good as before. 3. The Vocabulary Flashcards really needs more improvement and options. I just made my first set of cards and the words that weren't translated have no audio and I don't see an option to fix that!
Dictionary and Conjugation It was a surprise to find the site changed this evening after not being on it for several days. I don't use the forum much anymore but I constantly use the dictionary and conjugation tool. Something that seems to have changed is that when you are using the dictionary and start typing a word to translate, it used to start filling in options -- a classically good idea, as sometimes you don't know how to spell the word you're looking up. I loved that. Same with the conjugation tool.
Tonight I was trying to find the translation for the English word "liar". It would only give the Spanish verb and meaning. I think the old version would have taken me to the right place, but that's just a guess.
Slow loading pages Another thing that may be being worked out, and it may be because of all the advertisements (and I'm glad to say that I'm starting to really tune out the fat belly pictures, they don't gross me out like they used to) is that the pages take a long time to load. The old version was much faster.
Forum I don't even know where to start with this. Way intimidating. And a year ago, it wasn't.
Sorry to be so negative, but I hope it helps somehow. I still appreciate the site in a big way, and recommend it to everyone I know who is trying to learn to speak Spanish.
Hi friends, I'm sure you want to hear constructive critics, what's wrong, don't you?
Well, here another bad feature of the new design:
When you click on someone's profile, what you expect to find is only the personal information, not the posts of that person. I mean, now you click on someone's profile and what you get is just noise: Latest Activity, badges, answers, etc. Sorry friends, I feel like this:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20021223_05_mistake.gif
(point 4 from this page http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html)
Consider this please:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605a.html
When I click on a profile, personal info is shown just in a narrow left side strip.
And in the main page, in the right side, I see a prominent ad, and a a frame of 'Latest activity' that I almost can't see because of the ad, and difficult to read because the size of texts is too small, you just see the top part.
I think also that the width of the 'answers box' is too wide. I'd rather the width of the "Answer this Question" box.
To tell the truth, since the first moment I saw the new site, I didn't like it the new web interface. And I'm taking time to answer because I think this site it's worthwhile. In fact, I got surprised when I run it across. Thank you.
Marianne said:
The smooth look is great! A few disappointments:
1) It's confusing that posts are not listed chronologically.
2) It was easier to read corrections when we could use bold, red text, cross outs, etc. (especially when Lazarus does the corrections!).
3) I feel like posts are getting lost because they don't bump up to the first page when someone makes a comment.
4). I STILL don't know how to quote someone when responding to a post.
I agree with these things. And yes, Marianne and Lazarus, the Quote feature is difficult to figure out, especially quotes within quotes (I am quoting Billy who quoted Susie ...).
The colors for corrections were a great feature and a big "hole" in the new format, especially for the "Proof Reading" category.
I think the biggest drawback (and I am told they are trying to figure out how best to improve this) is that there is no indication when a thread has new posts or comments. So you have to scroll through screens of threads and read every post in every thread to see if there are new comments or answers. And as Pablo said, the color/boldness of the threads I have already visited that have no new posts or comments is the same as all the rest. This, along with the fact that threads with new posts do not jump to the top of the list, is resulting in far fewer responses and views to some very good questions/threads.
When the threads with new posts would jump to the top of the list, the "best" questions stayed alive much longer and with many more members commenting. When the subject had been exhausted, it "died" (rode down the list as newer, livelier threads came to the top). I find this new setup very cumbersome and extremely time consuming.
Yes, the order of the posts is confusing at first, but remember, Marianne and Lazarus, that you can simply click "OLDEST" or "NEWEST" on top of the first answer, and it will organize the posts in chronological or reverse-chronological order, respectively.
The default to "Most Votes" requires one to use the Quote feature more and to reference his statements well, so that if his post is voted to the top, readers will understand what he is referring to. A little adjustment, but for the most part for the better (once they improve the quoting system/bring back the old one), especially having the three options of how you want to view the thread.
I suggest we close this thread, so as to not get it confused with the N E W New SD thread!
-- Delete --
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I said it a day or two after the site was up but I will say it again, I like the site. I can't wait to see how it evolves over the next few years. Thanks again to all who are working diligently on the site.
I am really enjoying the changes that have been made. I stumbled upon this site when I was trying to translate a word and I've been hooked ever since. I can not believe that the site is free. I have paid for membership to other Spanish learning sites that don't offer nearly as much as Spanishdict does. I see that others have a few complaints about some of the changes, but I for one, am a very, very satisfied member. Muchos Gracias!!
