New Site is Live
Hi Everyone,
We released the new site this morning. In the new version you will find:
- A complete, unabridged dictionary with hundreds of thousands of new translations, examples, -and phrases.
- One super-powerful box to search the dictionaries and translate sentences.
- A streamlined design that is easier to use and easier on the eyes.
- A new Spanish Grammar section with over 100 clear, concise explanations of Spanish Grammar topics and interactive grammar quizzes with over 4,000 questions to help you master each skill.
There are a few more kinks that we have to work out now that it is the default site for everyone. Rest assured we are working through them -- your patience is appreciated. There is no option to switch to the old one, but we will be making improvements over time to the new version. We are aware of the bug with voting and working on that now. Please feel free to add more suggestions as answers below.
Thanks! Chris
40 Answers
Chris,
with all due respect, in my humble but, I should hope, qualified opinion as a long-time IT person and Information Architect, the production release of this new version was premature, and inadequately announced.
I am certain that your development team has been striving to do what you believe is a very good job, working on what you consider important.
However, when we look at the many, many comments that were posted in the "Beta testing" threads, and even in the this and other threads about the new release posted today, I can't help but feel that the development team has not paid close attention to what the users consider important and essential.
Yes, there are a number of technical features that doubtlessly have been improved, but in terms of usability and user interface, there is still a great deal to be done.
Additionally, even though the Beta was widely announced and discussed by a number of users, there was never a formal announcement made letting the users know when the planned release date was.
This means that a lot of the least experienced and technically inclined users were thrown in panic and utter confusion when suddenly confronted with a new user interface they did not expect. That is just not a very good development and implementation practice.
What you do about these comments is, of course, entirely up to you. But personally I believe that developers should listen closely to their users, and I have seen very few enthusiastic messages about the "New SD", here or in the Beta threads.
Regards,
Gekkosan
A streamlined design that is easier to use and easier on the eyes.
This is not true. VERY not true.
Chris! Please, nooooooo!
I don't care you are the creator of this website! I think you do deserve a negative vote for this!
This is very disappointing! I wish I could use smiles to show you my sad face :(
I may be the voice in the wilderness, but I appreciate the new site.
Yes, there are kinks, but your desire was to make it better. You have and you will.
Change is hard, but change is good.
What does it really cost us to be supportive of the folks that are making the changes,work with them and roll with the punches?
Just what this site costs us -- nothing.
From what I have been reading for the last week or two and have personally experienced I can see that there is strong feeling here that many people (ie existing members) are not at all happy about the new site and that, putting it as constructively as possible, a great deal of work still needs to be done making it more user friendly!.
I love the friendly atmosphere and community spirit that we already have here at the old SpanishDict with people working together to help each other. This is what makes it so special here. I would hate to see that broken up and destroyed for the sake of just creating a beta version...where some people are saying I will stay on the old site and others moving towards using the new one Families should not be split up.I certainly do not want to see anyone here leaving because they do not like the new site and feel pressured into accepting it and losing what they felt comfortable with.
Heidi and her team have work soooooooooo hard creating that atmosphere and we have all played a valuable part in helping to maintain it.
Please let us try to reach a sensible compromise: that we can and will continue using the old SpanishDict site until all the major objections have been satisfactorily addressed by Chris and his tech team so that the majority of active members (Perhaps circa 50?) who regularly use SpanishDict's facilities feel that their serious concerns have been more than adequately dealt with.
We must be realistic because we cannot expect perfection. I have recently read in a response from Heidi about the initial technical difficulties that the first members experienced in the early days of SpanishDict.
Update: Thank you all those of you who have left some comment below my post expressing your agreement with what I have said.
.I love learning Spanish and especially all my friends in what has become like another family for me here at Spanish Dict. For these reasons I have decided to continue learning Spanish on the new website. I just hope and pray that as many as possible will have the same attitude of mind as I do in making the best of a difficult situation.
I certainly hope that all of you who are native speakers, who are our highly valued and greatly appreciated friends, will continue to help us in spite of your feelings and reservations about the New Look SpanishDict; for without you here there can be no SpanishDict! (No pressure lol hahaha) Seriously, We need YOU and we hope that you need us!
I sense a lot of resistance to putting the emoticons back on the compose window toolbar. Yet, no mention has been made about what will happen. 
I've heard only appeals to restore this functionality, and silence in return. 
Will we get our emoticons back? I can remember a few codes to type to get some, but I can't remember all the ones I like to use occasionally.
: )
: - )
: - P
; - P
: - /
. > : - (
: cheese :
: bug :
: lol :
: red :
: mad :
Chris:
if only we could understand the reasons for all these changes, that would certainly help. You ask for us to be patient, but where are the benefits? Could you, or anyone, enlighten us about them?
At the moment, I cannot help being under the impression that the forum is a real chaos, and users are not precisely happy. Just an explanation, or a couple of kind words would be enough, but it's clear that the relation with your users is not your strongest point. All the changes, all this, looks like a looking forward to catching new users and losing the loyal old ones. In my humble opinion, this non-transparent attitude might severely damage this community. That's a pity.
The main Q&A topic listing at this moment shows a topic called
Ir *vs* Irse
When you hover the mouse over it, you get this:
â??Irâ?? (To Go) vs â??Irseâ?? (to Leave) .............(Think of them…
The text it's trying to display comes from the body text, which begins:
“Ir” (To Go) vs “Irse” (to Leave) .............(Think of them as different verbs.)................
I'm sure part of the reason is that we had that bug I reported several days ago about nested quote characters breaking the site. However, this fixed that problem and introduced the new one I'm showing here, above.
Yes, this stuff is tricky, and I'm impressed with Chris' efforts.
I'm not impressed with the project management that decided we're ready for a public, live site, with so many obvious bugs, and a great many quizzes with wrong answers because we didn't take the time to have a native Spanish speaker review them, etc, etc, etc.
I could go on. And I probably will...
I miss the smiles too! My main objection right now is not being able to see information about a user. Chris, I know you said that the information was there if you hovered over the avatar...but it doesn't work on a touchscreen. Before, it was as easy as shifting my eyes to the right!
Although not everything is perfect yet I do think there are useful features. I know a lot of people will disagree but I think we'll have to keep in mind that there are still people working for our benefit. To learn Spanish for free. When things change there will always be changes that someone doesn't like. In this case there are many people that communicate directly by using the forum, which is of course, a very useful way to spread your opinion. I have noticed that several users complain about the feedback. Although I understand the frustration of not getting any message back I think it's necessary for me to tell I do get a message back, briefly but enough to know it has been noticed. I also think it depends how we'll send feedback. There are forum rules but are there also feedback rules? If the feedback is really negative you probably get an electronic fight (keep telling them you don't agree is not enough) and they are not into that. How about giving feedback without total negativity and a possible solution how you would like to see it changed. It might help.
Apart from the bugs, which are really irritating, and a lay-out we aren't used to , there is something positive to be mentioned as well: the item Spanish grammar in the learning part, with plenty of exercises ( or quizzes if you prefer this word) to help you turn theory into practice. A very useful innovation. Thank you, SD.
OMG whenever l edit anything it goes right to the top in the ''A&Q'' page!!! and where are my beautiful graphics ??!
Chris -
There has been way too much emphasis on negatives.
Unfortunately, it's human nature. We speak up when we feel something is wrong, but there's never enough space to write all the unexpressed compliments.
As a web developer myself, I am one of many who appreciate all the effort that has gone into the new site. I've complained a lot about features that have changed for the worse, but on the whole, the ideas that motivated the redesign are really welcomed.
Aside from the many points of personal friction, I think the new site will be perfected in time.
I am concerned that the personal friction isn't being handled very well, though. Your team has solicited feedback consistently (that's good) and have acted to work out issues (that's good), but a seemingly large fraction of requests appear to have been ignored.
Only appeared to have been ignored, I hope. I'm sure you manage the requests by cost, impact, and priority, which is absolutely necessary. But because we can't see your issue list, we don't know that we've been listened to. I don't care that my issues aren't worked on right away - I can wait. But I do care if I can't tell that there are any plans to resolve my issues.
Is there some way you can publish your list of issues, priorities, status, etc? For example, if we requested changes and you've heard the requests, but no users know about that, the damaging perception of being ignored feeds resentment, friction in discussions, even abandonment.
I think it will quickly improve the patience of the forum members, to gain confidence about the direction things are moving. With increased confidence, we can stop doubting each others' motives, and restore the sense of teamwork that will lead to a successful website and community.
Of course I welcome any additional strategies your team can offer to improve the public relations with the many stressed-out forum members and especially the moderators.
Dear Christopher and the whole SD team:
Just want to give a big
There's so much focus on the negative aspects. So, I'd just like to say that I appreciate the fact that you are considering our input and working so hard. I'm pretty pleased with the new layout and I know that, in time, the majority of our problems will be solved. Thanks again!
Little Miss Goldie
Was the feedback thread not read? The colours are still wrong, if you read the forum for more than 5 minutes you start feeling dizzy.
This would take about 5 minutes work, wouldn't it?. You just need 000000 for the text colour instead of whatever number is there now.
