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What's new around the site

It is probably overdue to summarise some changes around DSLR so I'll get to it. In no particular order, we have the HTML5 speed test which you probably know about. It passed one million tests the other day. We'll be adding a widget option very shortly for ISPs to include anywhere, so stay tuned for that. (If you're an ISP and are interested in beta-testing this widget, get in touch).

There have been some gradual improvements in the display of forums, forum topics and other site pages when the site is displaying portrait style, on a narrow mobile phone. If you like reading stuff on your phone while on the loo, give it a go.

Around the site members can more easily add attachments to forum "quick" replies, or when sending IMs. Small improvements that have been overdue. The site search function was also re-done and now it is Elasticsearch driven. That means super fast response and accurate ranking of matches: no painful restrictions on search usage, or those long search forms plus a captcha, often found elsewhere.

We're building a framework for a crowd sourced hardware database of modems and routers at slash hardware. It a cross between a database and a wiki: collaboratively edited, like a wiki, but more highly structured. Search for your modem or router and "own it", it will be listed in your profile. The eventual aim is for the hardware page to be a one stop reference to manuals, firmware, reviews and so on, all by default tailored to the hardware you've previous indicated you own. We'll also be turning all that confusing feature terminology into small fast-fact pages as well.

We added another meta-site forum, the "Next" forum, for requests or ideas for DSLReports, where up and down voting on topics selects the ordering in the forum, from most important to least. The more regulars who use vote in this forum the more likely the top idea is going to get attention. For a while the top idea was the hardware database, this is now underway, so now it is adding ipv6 support.

For a while now front page news commentary has been improving in function. For example, after a number of comments are shown, the few highest rated comments are displayed but only those that are directly in reply to the news. Of course if you click the comments icon below a story, you can read the full discussion not just a few comments. Speaking of post voting, in the news and "next" forums, posts can be up OR down voted.

We've branded and fleshed out our Facebook, Google+, Linked-in and Twitter pages and an API auto-posts stories from the home page to our feeds so .... Like Us On Facebook ... please. If we get a good audience on social media, then we'll have an incentive to tweet or timeline other things beyond just home page news.

Oh and also, getting back to hardware, that site Hardware database will (soon) allow reviews to (finally) be accepted. Rather than a complicated review rating system, you'll be able to evaluate your device with a simple "Buy it", "Rent it" or "Chuck it".

It has been mentioned now and again that the site appeared less busy than before and some wondered aloud whether we're in some kind of wind-down mode. Although for a mysterious reason (since October last year) Google was being unkind to our page ranking, we're now back to healthy incoming organic traffic. There is no excuse now. I'm looking forward to the challenge of continuing the improvements, with the goal of turning more visitors into regulars.

-Justin

Most recommended from 30 comments



geek
Mad Scientist at Work
Premium Member
join:2002-01-07
Southbury, CT

22 recommendations

geek

Premium Member

Thank You!

Thanks justin See Profile for all your hard work.
Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT

15 recommendations

Rekrul

Member

One thing that's always bugged me...

There's one thing thing that's always bugged me about this site;

Why are older news articles so hard to find?

Unlike most every other news site on the net, there's no option at the bottom of the page to go to the next page of older stories. Even when there used to be such a link, it only went back a week or so.

If you click on the News link in the top strip, it gives five pages of articles which go back to July 29th. Beyond that the only way to find a story is by searching. If you use the "Search News" option on the News page, the results are all jumbled up rather than in chronological order. If you click the dedicated Search link and use that page, you can set it to sort according to date, but that searches everything, including the forums.

It really makes it hard to find an article that you know you read recently, but which you don't remember the specifics of.
DnEtDe6c
join:2007-02-02
Athens, GA

2 recommendations

DnEtDe6c

Member

Doubt you'll get many takers on the widget

ISPs would rather keep users in the dark about their actual speed. They would probably view a speed widget as more of a headache than a benefit.