Site menu system

[Admin]

Recently I released the site menu system that I developed for here and many other owners of forum sites around the world have now adopted it and implemented it on their own sites. The general feedback from their users is that they love it and they find it extremely efficient and well coded.

 

So the time has come to revisit it and to see if you guys and gals find it good and ask if there are any improvements or suggestions you may have to make it better?

 

Please let me know as I value your input...thanks

 

 

[Admin]

Here is how one site in the UK has implemented our menu system and looks good:

 

 

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Ian my only comment now is that it easy to accidentally give an Optimistic when thumbing on a tablet. I have seen posters irate about this on several threads. Apart from that I think the layout and menus are brilliant, much better than several other forums that I use.

 

 

[Admin]

When you give a like you should be able to change it if you have accidentally given the wrong one.

 

I can't space them further apart as it would impact having them across a single line on mobile phones.

 

Thanks for the comment

 

 

[dsam]

Ian my only comment now is that it easy to accidentally give an Optimistic when thumbing on a tablet. I have seen posters irate about this on several threads. Apart from that I think the layout and menus are brilliant, much better than several other forums that I use.

pmccarthy, I agree with your observations. Well done Ian.

Ian, perhaps on tablet browsers, a "touch & hold" could be the default to generate a tag for "agree, like, optimistic", etc.? That way the brief touch of a scrolling gesture wouldn't create an inadvertent "tag". Not sure if that's possible to code for...

 

 

[Admin]

Tha would require a lot of coding and slow things down as it require a script to have to run every time someone taps a like even when a page is loaded on a PC or a script to run to determine if a mobile device is in use in the first place...sorry but good idea and thanks.

 

One thing I might do is make them more responsive that the list of likes spread across 100% of the page width however that may make a page look silly on a PC wide screen. Will put the thinking cap on

 

 

[dsam]

Ian, I'm not a person that codes, so forgive me if I am horribly mistaken.

 

Isn't it the case that the user's browser & platform is sensed at the server end? If the user is on a PC, the present default "likes" script could be loaded.

 

However, If the detected user is on a phone or tablet, the more appropriate default script loads only once at login?

 

 

[Admin]

Yes you are correct that is an option and tequires a lot of coding to change it but having said this I am thinking of different options that may help rather than go to that extreme

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Ian, another thought arising from just reading other threads. It must put overseas people off to see the RAA stuff, I saw your site statistics. Could you have the Organisaton forums hidden and not listed on New Posts unless someone opts in? There could be sections for RAA, CASA, FAA etc as now, and a lot more beside, but invisible unless someone goes there and opts in.

 

peter

 

 

[Admin]

Thanks Peter, great minds think alike...yesterday I started work on a few things and one of them is to bring Recreational Flying back home to Australia. I will be soon announcing that we are moving back to .com.au and be Australian focused. There will also be a UK and US focused sites that will share the aircraft etc forums but have their own general forums.

 

You can see the start with the airfields by going to www.recreationalflying.com/maps/uk/ and www.recreationalflying.com/maps/aus/ where I have already started to split the site up. This has all come about by those statistics I posted this morning.

 

Another idea I had but would require RAAus to assist would be the Governing Bodies forum will have a sub forum called RAAus and ONLY RAAus members would be able to access it. This would be done by the user entering their membership number into their settings which would need to be verified on a regular basis with RAAus...that's the part I need them to assist in. This way they themselves could use that forum as another means of communicating to members plus it will keep things above board whilst maintaining independence. This independence will be achieved as I and only I will know the members membership number and users can hide behind avatars and user names but RAAus can be assured that the posts are only coming from RAAus members. The problem will be getting RAAus to help even though it is a win for them as well.

 

 

[Admin]

If you had gone to the bottom of the forum list page you may have also noticed a new link forum at the bottom called Clear Prop...it has now been moved into the private forum category:

 

 

But there is also some development going on with that in moving the Classifieds into the Clear Prop stand alone site but will allow members here to be automatically logged in there but open to the whole aviation community. The link for that is:

 

http://www.recreationalflying.com/pages/widget/#!%2F

 

I am also thinking about removing the text "menu" at the top of the menu bar as I am sure everyone knows what the "Hamburger Icon" means on a web site. This will give some real estate under the Hamburger Icon to have little icons with RED unread flags for sections like Media, News, Aircraft etc.

 

Also in the thinking tray is the Aircraft section which I really have not done anything to. Having a dedicated Australian .com.au site this could be populated with the Australian available aircraft and their distributor information etc.

 

So many things and not enough time and in fact I keep changing my mind on a site direction which doesn't help

 

 

[bexrbetter]

I think it's great on my PC.

 

It works well on my Samsung Galaxy except for zooming in when it goes crazy, I will up some screen captures later.

 

 

[Admin]

I am looking at changing the menu system in that removing the Slide Out Menu, placing the main sections in the column, you then access the section sub menus by clicking/tapping the section where a fly out of the sub menu items appears like when you click your avatar plus moving the search to the right end of the breadcrumb bar. However, the mobile device menu will stay as it is now.

 

I have started moving the search to the breadcrumb bar but it is getting tricky so requires a bit of development as you can see:

 

 

 

 

[billwoodmason]

Ian, is there a menu or legend for the agree or like buttons etc. I know those two but the others I'm not sure about. Perhaps titles should be written above or below them. Only a very small point I know but it may help some users.

 

 

[Admin]

Thanks Bill, you have a point but available real estate makes it hard to do...I will play around with it and see what I can come up with...thanks