Web designers wanted!
Moderator: Site Management Team
- FosseWay
- Assistant Site Manager
- Posts: 19705
- Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 22:26
- Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Web designers wanted!
SABRE wishes to appoint one or more web designers to help redesign the SABRE website.
Working with our developers team and the Committee, you will develop a new look and feel for the site which will be consistent across the whole site: the forum, the wiki and maps - Discuss, Digest and Discover.
Ideally you will have experience of dealing with designs for both phpbb3 and mediawiki, but the key requirements are enthusiasm and willingness to try.
Web designers will be appointed to the Committee for the duration of their work (or until the next AGM, whichever comes first) and must therefore be Voting Members of the Society. If you are interested but are not currently a Voting Member you will have to apply here.
If you are interested in this role, please PM me.
Thanks!
Alex
Working with our developers team and the Committee, you will develop a new look and feel for the site which will be consistent across the whole site: the forum, the wiki and maps - Discuss, Digest and Discover.
Ideally you will have experience of dealing with designs for both phpbb3 and mediawiki, but the key requirements are enthusiasm and willingness to try.
Web designers will be appointed to the Committee for the duration of their work (or until the next AGM, whichever comes first) and must therefore be Voting Members of the Society. If you are interested but are not currently a Voting Member you will have to apply here.
If you are interested in this role, please PM me.
Thanks!
Alex
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Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
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Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
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- ScottB5411
- Member
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- Location: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Re: Web designers wanted!
I wholly encourage anyone with an interest to apply for this role, if you can help, please do so!
How about some more beans Mr. Taggart?
Re: Web designers wanted!
Just a bump really to echo Scott's post - does anyone have design skills and a bit of time to spare? This is a project that we need to move ahead with to support new technologies and mobile devices (and to some extent existing ones that have crept up upon us).
There is support from the SMT and committee officers to assist in the role, and flexibility in timescales, so any applicant won't be on their own to do everything by yesterday!
There is support from the SMT and committee officers to assist in the role, and flexibility in timescales, so any applicant won't be on their own to do everything by yesterday!
Is there a road improvement project going on near you? Help us to document it on the SABRE Wiki - help is available in the Digest forum.
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
Re: Web designers wanted!
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I'm seeing new style websites all over the place and I absolutely hate them.
Take this as a massive thumbs down to extreme change.
Mike.
I'm seeing new style websites all over the place and I absolutely hate them.
Take this as a massive thumbs down to extreme change.
Mike.
Ticking of the box agreeing to the Ts & Cs was forced - done under duress - therefore I don't necessarily agree with them.
- Johnathan404
- Member
- Posts: 11478
- Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 16:54
Re: Web designers wanted!
Rest assured the issue has been raised because the website is very "broke".
We frequently have comments from members who didn't know half the features we have are there; increasingly fewer people are going to discover SABRE because we are being penalised for our desktop-optimised website and our efforts to promote the website are being hampered by old-fashioned code which social media cannot pick up on.
I have websites about: motorway services | Fareham
Re: Web designers wanted!
You have no idea what a redesigned SABRE website would look like. Nobody does because it hasn't been designed yet. How can you be sure you'd absolutely hate it? How do you know the change would be extreme?
As Johnathan says, it needs to be rebuilt for a whole host of very good reasons. I'm afraid one member declaring that they don't like new things will not change that!
(Your signature is also very odd. If you don't agree with the T&Cs then don't click the button to accept them. You were never under duress to accept them because you are free at any time to stop using SABRE.)
Chris
Roads.org.uk
Roads.org.uk
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- Elected Committee Member
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Re: Web designers wanted!
I’m leading on this in the background, and I don’t mind sharing my priorities.
1. Get more consistent look and feel across the site so that the Wiki, the Maps, the forums and the miscellaneous bits and pieces all run off more or less the same template and they do it well.
2. Build on the Digest-Discover-Discuss branding.
3. Deal with some of the anomalies in the background (I know about quite a few, and I’m quite sure that there are plenty more!)
4. (And possibly most importantly) make the place easier to use for all users.
In short, what is broken will be fixed. What could be better will hopefully be improved.
But I’ve no interest, and nor does anyone else in the SMT or the Committee at large, in making anything worse or more difficult.
1. Get more consistent look and feel across the site so that the Wiki, the Maps, the forums and the miscellaneous bits and pieces all run off more or less the same template and they do it well.
2. Build on the Digest-Discover-Discuss branding.
3. Deal with some of the anomalies in the background (I know about quite a few, and I’m quite sure that there are plenty more!)
4. (And possibly most importantly) make the place easier to use for all users.
In short, what is broken will be fixed. What could be better will hopefully be improved.
But I’ve no interest, and nor does anyone else in the SMT or the Committee at large, in making anything worse or more difficult.
Re: Web designers wanted!
Is there a real need to have everything samey ?
Who's having difficulty with it ?
You could take out nearly all the colour from text and background - preferably specifying none or both! That way people can view it in the colours they like as they're taken from system settings.
Who's having difficulty with it ?
You could take out nearly all the colour from text and background - preferably specifying none or both! That way people can view it in the colours they like as they're taken from system settings.
Ticking of the box agreeing to the Ts & Cs was forced - done under duress - therefore I don't necessarily agree with them.
Re: Web designers wanted!
I'm having difficulty with it. Moderation of the wiki is difficult on a mobile device for example.
Software also continually needs patching and upgrading for security and compatibility reasons. You cant Simply bury your head in the sand.
It is broken, read the posts above again. It does need fixing, even if just from a technical perspective and therefore that is what the smt and committee are committed to doing.
Software also continually needs patching and upgrading for security and compatibility reasons. You cant Simply bury your head in the sand.
It is broken, read the posts above again. It does need fixing, even if just from a technical perspective and therefore that is what the smt and committee are committed to doing.
Is there a road improvement project going on near you? Help us to document it on the SABRE Wiki - help is available in the Digest forum.
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
Re: Web designers wanted!
Here’s how the main website navigation appears on mobile. I’d say that’s pretty broken.
We’ve also reached a point where the SABRE Maps interface is stopping progress adding new map layers, because it was never designed to handle the number of layers we have now, and the maps experience on mobile is really not very good.
Not to mention that search engines will now demote sites like this in search results simply because it uses old technology and fails to support mobile devices properly.
We’ve also reached a point where the SABRE Maps interface is stopping progress adding new map layers, because it was never designed to handle the number of layers we have now, and the maps experience on mobile is really not very good.
Not to mention that search engines will now demote sites like this in search results simply because it uses old technology and fails to support mobile devices properly.
Chris
Roads.org.uk
Roads.org.uk
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- Member
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Re: Web designers wanted!
Having recently re-vamped the Association website for the old-boys (and now renamed old-students) association at my former school, one of the major Critical Success Factors was getting a clear idea of what was wanted, prioritising, piloting and testing.
There is a risk (which I why I am not going to volunteer for SABRE's revamp - sorry!) that a half-baked set of requirements would be subjected to some non-binary (I'll explain in a sec) criticisms:
eg "I don't like the number of colours" (OK how many do you want)
eg "it won't run on my browser" (we discovered, by accident, that using Google+ to authenticate onto WIX.com gets hung in Internet Explorer and EDGE, but works fine on Chrome - embarrassing when you want to log in quickly to update the "news" page! So much for f**gg*ng inter-operability between browsers!)
The first "whinge" is dealt with by adopting a policy of "benevolent dictatorship" - "this is how it will be"
The second is a minefield of future maintenance workload and needs to be carefully considered BEFORE starting the website re-development.
The non-binary aspect comes from those who, for the following year, will sit on the sidelines and ask "why didn't you try xxx, yyy, zzz?" without having participated in the review of needs and options when you will, painstakingly and accurately, have consulted on needs.
For me, this is an interesting website, which has triggered useful discussions (usually held in an amazingly polite atmosphere despite clearly-expressed and profoundly-opposite views).
However, I wouldn't want the "but *you* changed that" splatterback heading in my direction!
Good luck!
Mike
There is a risk (which I why I am not going to volunteer for SABRE's revamp - sorry!) that a half-baked set of requirements would be subjected to some non-binary (I'll explain in a sec) criticisms:
eg "I don't like the number of colours" (OK how many do you want)
eg "it won't run on my browser" (we discovered, by accident, that using Google+ to authenticate onto WIX.com gets hung in Internet Explorer and EDGE, but works fine on Chrome - embarrassing when you want to log in quickly to update the "news" page! So much for f**gg*ng inter-operability between browsers!)
The first "whinge" is dealt with by adopting a policy of "benevolent dictatorship" - "this is how it will be"
The second is a minefield of future maintenance workload and needs to be carefully considered BEFORE starting the website re-development.
The non-binary aspect comes from those who, for the following year, will sit on the sidelines and ask "why didn't you try xxx, yyy, zzz?" without having participated in the review of needs and options when you will, painstakingly and accurately, have consulted on needs.
For me, this is an interesting website, which has triggered useful discussions (usually held in an amazingly polite atmosphere despite clearly-expressed and profoundly-opposite views).
However, I wouldn't want the "but *you* changed that" splatterback heading in my direction!
Good luck!
Mike
Mike Hindson-Evans.
Never argue with a conspiracy theorist.
They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Never argue with a conspiracy theorist.
They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
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Re: Web designers wanted!
As I make this post, I see the most obviously broken part (to the normal user) of the site right in front of me.
The fact that every page on the forums part of the site has two SABRE logos.
We've tinkered at the edges, but for the time being we can't fix this without a full redesign.
The "samey" complaint I will answer with another word. "Professional."
The fact that every page on the forums part of the site has two SABRE logos.
We've tinkered at the edges, but for the time being we can't fix this without a full redesign.
The "samey" complaint I will answer with another word. "Professional."
Re: Web designers wanted!
Apologies if this has been discussed before, but are user sessions intended to time out incredibly soon after logging in? Sometimes this can happen within one minute of logging in and I have noticed this when writing posts or making edits the wiki. I'm not sure what others do, but as a precautionary measure I always highlight and copy the text within the box so that it can be pasted back just in case I have to revisit the login screen and end up losing the text - it did happen once while writing a lengthy post! This does seem to be more of a problem when I am using a tablet device rather than a desktop PC though. I say sometimes because the session expiry periods are often irregular - sometimes it is barely a few moments after logging in and other times you can last quite a while without having to log in again.
Is there an underlying fault that needs to be fixed or could it be a maximum site capacity preventing more than a fixed number of users from being logged in simultaneously?
Is there an underlying fault that needs to be fixed or could it be a maximum site capacity preventing more than a fixed number of users from being logged in simultaneously?
E-roads, M-roads, A-roads, N-roads, B-roads, R-roads, C-roads, L-roads, U-roads, footpaths
Re: Web designers wanted!
Occasionally I go through periods of getting it a lot, and then sometimes it doesn't happen for ages. It is really annoying. If you are getting it a lot on a particular day, try closing browser tabs, clearing the cookies for the site and then logging back in again.Euan wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 14:10 Apologies if this has been discussed before, but are user sessions intended to time out incredibly soon after logging in? Sometimes this can happen within one minute of logging in and I have noticed this when writing posts or making edits the wiki. I'm not sure what others do, but as a precautionary measure I always highlight and copy the text within the box so that it can be pasted back just in case I have to revisit the login screen and end up losing the text - it did happen once while writing a lengthy post! This does seem to be more of a problem when I am using a tablet device rather than a desktop PC though. I say sometimes because the session expiry periods are often irregular - sometimes it is barely a few moments after logging in and other times you can last quite a while without having to log in again.
Is there an underlying fault that needs to be fixed or could it be a maximum site capacity preventing more than a fixed number of users from being logged in simultaneously?
Is there a road improvement project going on near you? Help us to document it on the SABRE Wiki - help is available in the Digest forum.
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
- Ritchie333
- SABRE Developer
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Re: Web designers wanted!
Normally, I'd agree with you (which is why I still use bash and vi after 25 years of doing so), but with respect to being able to properly support mobiles and tablets, Google has been penalising us for not updating our user interface to be mobile friendly since about 2011. This is why search for the sites have dropped down its pagerank. I have got a solution for a mobile skin on the wiki, but it requires an appropriate integration plan. So yeah, it's broke alright.
No. It's because the phpBB and MediaWiki software cookies, designed to stop spamming and hijacking, really don't play well with each other. Most sites don't try and combine the authentication systems together, and hence don't have this problem.Euan wrote:Apologies if this has been discussed before, but are user sessions intended to time out incredibly soon after logging in?
--
SABRE Maps - all the best maps in one place....
SABRE Maps - all the best maps in one place....
Re: Web designers wanted!
Are the php and wiki cookies really that problematic towards each other? Before the wiki upgrade earlier this year there was never a problem with being logged out whenever visiting the wiki. Now it happens each and every time.
Believe you me, I would really like to help solve these problems but I have absolutely no programming experience so it's a case of can't rather than won't.
Believe you me, I would really like to help solve these problems but I have absolutely no programming experience so it's a case of can't rather than won't.
How would you like your grade separations, Sir?
Big and complex.
Big and complex.
- ForestChav
- SABRE Developer
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Re: Web designers wanted!
When we took the decision a while back to implement single sign on between phpBB and MediaWiki (at the time of putting the Wiki live) there was a MW plug in which handled authentication via phpBB's auth db, which worked well: I think at some point in an upgrade path (necessary for other reasons) it broke, and since it wasn't maintained couldn't be revived. Sadly this is how OSS often works.
C, E flat and G go into a bar. The barman says "sorry, we don't serve minors". So E flat walks off, leaving C and G to share an open fifth between them.
Never argue with an idiot. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Never argue with an idiot. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Re: Web designers wanted!
I seem to go through phases of being logged out all the time when switching betwene the two and then not being logged out for ages. this weekend has been particularly bad up to now, but now seems fine again!
Is there a road improvement project going on near you? Help us to document it on the SABRE Wiki - help is available in the Digest forum.
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
Re: Web designers wanted!
I tend to ignore the Wiki because of the log in issue but still go through occasional bouts of disconnection anyway.
Re: Web designers wanted!
Is there a road improvement project going on near you? Help us to document it on the SABRE Wiki - help is available in the Digest forum.
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Get involved! - see our guide to scanning and stitching maps