Mark's Buddy Finder

http://www.ampersand.net.au/dev/buddyfinder/

It's a new web2.0/AJAX thing I've been working on. Just after some
critique of the general vibe, the idea, how it works, anything really.

Thanks!

On 2007-03-21, mgk1969 wrote:

http://www.ampersand.net.au/dev/buddyfinder/

It's a new web2.0/AJAX thing I've been working on. Just after some
critique of the general vibe, the idea, how it works, anything really.

This is how I see it: <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/testing/buddy.jpg>


--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
================================================== =================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

Wow, that's some might big fonts!

I guess when I put the content into DIVs I didn't consider someone
might have extra big fonts in there ... I guess I'll have a think
about that.

Thanks for the feedback.


On Mar 21, 12:23 pm, "Chris F.A. Johnson" <cfajohn... (AT) gmail (DOT) com>
wrote:

On 2007-03-21, mgk1969 wrote:
http://www.ampersand.net.au/dev/buddyfinder/

It's a new web2.0/AJAX thing I've been working on. Just after some
critique of the general vibe, the idea, how it works, anything really.

This is how I see it: <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/testing/buddy.jpg

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org
================================================== =================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

mgk1969 wrote:

http://www.ampersand.net.au/dev/buddyfinder/

It's a new web2.0/AJAX thing I've been working on. Just after some
critique of the general vibe, the idea, how it works, anything really.

Once I hit "next page" there is no way to go back to choose a different
address. I perhaps wanted to narrow my area from just "australia".

Oh, and on the register panel, just shout the error messages one at a time
at me, please? Clicked 'ok' to three messages and then forgot what the first
one was. If you do such validation at the client then simply, once, announce
an error and put a shiny red asterisk next to the invalid fields.

When I put invalid info into the register fields I get a 500 from your
server.

When I press the submit button (with invalid info) it presents me with an
error panel, *without* the fields I have just entered.

*Add* error messages to the panel, don't simply replace the panel, that
results in just another mouse click I have to expend to get back to the
input fields.

After this bit I pressed 'next pane' again. It kept insisting that my email
address and password were not entered, even though I repeatedly entered them
in that panel. Broken javascript? Ah, yes, the "next page" button on the
register panel is now verifying the details on the "log in" panel. Broken.

For this critique exercise it may have been an idea to publish some
credentials that allow me to "log in" to an anonomous "account". I am not
giving you an email address just to critique the rest of your site :-)

Hang on, I can't. Your register panel is broken (that 500).

Increase your font size. Admire how your layout falls apart. Especially the
google ads, I'll bet *they* wouldn't like that ;-)

Don't write XHTML, it's broken. Use HTML 4.01.

The rest of the code: Well, it must be a bitch to maintain :-) So
unnecessarily complex.

Cheers.

--
Richard.

OK. Well it is difficult to maintain and it isn't. The entire site is
in that one page, with AJAX calls to the database as required. It's
actually kind of nice to have everything in basically one place. I was
trying to experiment with a layout that was in panels, and put content
into those panels as required. It works OK but (as noted) doesn't like
excessively large fonts. I can live with that I guess. I could play
with the styles a little and see if I can get them to expand as
required.

I hadn't done a lot of work on the error checking of the various
fields but I will do that now. Obviously when I enter data I don't
usually make errors, and hadn't really expected so much focus on that
part of the site - which is stupid since it's what you guys will see
first!

I have created an account test (AT) test (DOT) com with login 'test' if you want
to log in with those details and see the rest of the site.

Thanks!


On Mar 21, 7:33 pm, "Richard Formby" <r... (AT) invalid (DOT) com> wrote:

mgk1969 wrote:
http://www.ampersand.net.au/dev/buddyfinder/

It's a new web2.0/AJAX thing I've been working on. Just after some
critique of the general vibe, the idea, how it works, anything really.

Once I hit "next page" there is no way to go back to choose a different
address. I perhaps wanted to narrow my area from just "australia".

Oh, and on the register panel, just shout the error messages one at a time
at me, please? Clicked 'ok' to three messages and then forgot what the first
one was. If you do such validation at the client then simply, once, announce
an error and put a shiny red asterisk next to the invalid fields.

When I put invalid info into the register fields I get a 500 from your
server.

When I press the submit button (with invalid info) it presents me with an
error panel, *without* the fields I have just entered.

*Add* error messages to the panel, don't simply replace the panel, that
results in just another mouse click I have to expend to get back to the
input fields.

After this bit I pressed 'next pane' again. It kept insisting that my email
address and password were not entered, even though I repeatedly entered them
in that panel. Broken javascript? Ah, yes, the "next page" button on the
register panel is now verifying the details on the "log in" panel. Broken.

For this critique exercise it may have been an idea to publish some
credentials that allow me to "log in" to an anonomous "account". I am not
giving you an email address just to critique the rest of your site :-)

Hang on, I can't. Your register panel is broken (that 500).

Increase your font size. Admire how your layout falls apart. Especially the
google ads, I'll bet *they* wouldn't like that ;-)

Don't write XHTML, it's broken. Use HTML 4.01.

The rest of the code: Well, it must be a bitch to maintain :-) So
unnecessarily complex.

Cheers.

--
Richard.

[top posting corrected]

mgk1969 wrote:

On Mar 21, 7:33 pm, "Richard Formby" <r... (AT) invalid (DOT) com> wrote:

For this critique exercise it may have been an idea to publish some
credentials that allow me to "log in" to an anonomous "account". I am not
giving you an email address just to critique the rest of your site :-)

I have created an account test (AT) test (DOT) com with login 'test' if you want
to log in with those details and see the rest of the site.

Yes, well, OK.

Choose a category: --> collecting...

I don't see "old snow skis" listed in there.

DIY "house painting". Nope.

Electronics (and here is the gotchya) "building computers", because that is
exactly what I mostly do.

Too restrictive. What about some free form? Let me type in what I like.

And, after all that, how do I exactly meet someone? I can't see where to go
from here. How do I find my buddies. You know, talk to them.

Hang on, just read the fineprint in the right hand panel.

You are aware, of course, that mailto does not work for a significant
proportion of your viewers.

Methinks I much prefer usenet :-)

--
Richard.

I have been considering how to allow people to add new categories. I
did think maybe people can submit their own, then you need a few votes
or something to make it live. I don't really want to go to the 'tag
cloud' kind of idea, although it does cover exactly what you are
describing. I see the problem being that some people might type
"building computers", others might type "making computers", someone
might make a typo and type "compuiter building".

I was going to make the 'email me' into a form anyway because other
feedback has been from someone who uses yahoo for their mail, and
basically mailto: links just open an empty application she doesn't
understand.

The biggest problem for me is the "tag cloud" thing. I guess I should
probably go that way from what you are saying. I am not 100% convinced
yet but I do see all the problems you describe.


On Mar 21, 11:05 pm, "Richard Formby" <r... (AT) invalid (DOT) com> wrote:

[top posting corrected]

mgk1969 wrote:
On Mar 21, 7:33 pm, "Richard Formby" <r... (AT) invalid (DOT) com> wrote:
For this critique exercise it may have been an idea to publish some
credentials that allow me to "log in" to an anonomous "account". I am not
giving you an email address just to critique the rest of your site :-)
I have created an account t... (AT) test (DOT) com with login 'test' if you want
to log in with those details and see the rest of the site.

Yes, well, OK.

Choose a category: --> collecting...

I don't see "old snow skis" listed in there.

DIY "house painting". Nope.

Electronics (and here is the gotchya) "building computers", because that is
exactly what I mostly do.

Too restrictive. What about some free form? Let me type in what I like.

And, after all that, how do I exactly meet someone? I can't see where to go
from here. How do I find my buddies. You know, talk to them.

Hang on, just read the fineprint in the right hand panel.

You are aware, of course, that mailto does not work for a significant
proportion of your viewers.

Methinks I much prefer usenet :-)

--
Richard.

I have converted it to a tag system if you are still interested in
checking it out.

I guess it is time to move on to making it a little sexier (although I
get the feeling I will probably add things in just to take them back
out later).

Thanks again for the feedback.

Mark

On Mar 22, 7:04 am, "mgk1969" <m... (AT) ampersand (DOT) net.au> wrote:

I have been considering how to allow people to add new categories. I
did think maybe people can submit their own, then you need a few votes
or something to make it live. I don't really want to go to the 'tag
cloud' kind of idea, although it does cover exactly what you are
describing. I see the problem being that some people might type
"building computers", others might type "making computers", someone
might make a typo and type "compuiter building".

I was going to make the 'email me' into a form anyway because other
feedback has been from someone who uses yahoo for their mail, and
basically mailto: links just open an empty application she doesn't
understand.

The biggest problem for me is the "tag cloud" thing. I guess I should
probably go that way from what you are saying. I am not 100% convinced
yet but I do see all the problems you describe.

On Mar 21, 11:05 pm, "Richard Formby" <r... (AT) invalid (DOT) com> wrote:

[top posting corrected]

mgk1969 wrote:
On Mar 21, 7:33 pm, "Richard Formby" <r... (AT) invalid (DOT) com> wrote:
For this critique exercise it may have been an idea to publish some
credentials that allow me to "log in" to an anonomous "account". I am not
giving you an email address just to critique the rest of your site :-)
I have created an account t... (AT) test (DOT) com with login 'test' if you want
to log in with those details and see the rest of the site.

Yes, well, OK.

Choose a category: --> collecting...

I don't see "old snow skis" listed in there.

DIY "house painting". Nope.

Electronics (and here is the gotchya) "building computers", because that is
exactly what I mostly do.

Too restrictive. What about some free form? Let me type in what I like.

And, after all that, how do I exactly meet someone? I can't see where to go
from here. How do I find my buddies. You know, talk to them.

Hang on, just read the fineprint in the right hand panel.

You are aware, of course, that mailto does not work for a significant
proportion of your viewers.

Methinks I much prefer usenet :-)

--
Richard.

"mgk1969" <mgk (AT) ampersand (DOT) net.au> wrote

http://www.ampersand.net.au/dev/buddyfinder/

It's a new web2.0/AJAX thing I've been working on. Just after some
critique of the general vibe, the idea, how it works, anything really.

Thanks!

step 1: england.
result: england not found, try adding the country!

--
Cheers

Paul watt
http://www.paulwattdesigns.com
http://www.amnesty.org

Paul Watt wrote:

step 1: england.
result: england not found, try adding the country!

Sorry, Paul, no buddies in England! Unfriendly lot...

:-)
--
John