SUGGESTIONS ON HOW SITE COULD BE IMPROVED

[xkizarney]

There is a trend here now to add as much as can be added as fast as it can be added. I find most of what is here now difficult to find and uninteresting for the most. I feel that is because I, as most others here, are not computer geeks and tend to shy away from things online that are complicated. One example is that now anything politcal is only found by going into discussions, hitting the view all button, then going to the bottom of the page, hitting the 2nd page button, & scrolling down to where you finally reach where you want to go. Once you get there, you find there has been little activity where there was once lots. Now I know there is interest in that arena from the heated & lively debates that once occurred there, so can only assume the reason is that it takes too much effort now.

Another area I think is dangerous is the Carny Dating section. My reasoning is that it seems to open the members up to being taken advantage of by con artists or worse. I keep rememboring the stories about men & women losing savings because of people they met online who were not what they seemed. I also recall some stories of women being raped or worse yet killed by strangers met in online chat rooms. Don'y know about you Tom or Marcus, but I wouldn't want to be the ones responsible for any new horror stories.

I'm sure others here also have suggestions on how to improve the site. This discussion is for you to voice them for the powers that be to view.

[Thomas Hoey]

Alrighty, now.
I just spent about 3 hours redoing the network. Now all the jackpots, blogs, articles etc. are under the tab MAGAZINE. The forum has its own tab as do groups. Events are now listed under Biz Info. And I have reduced the number of listed articles to only the most current, so as to make it less confusing on the main page. I moved the rotating banner ad to the top and gave it more white space so it would not flicker or jump when changing. I deleted my adsense ads which will go back in with the video player. But the photo, video and music players are still all under the MEDIA tab. On my computer the page now loads in half the time.
So the question, is now...what do you think, now?

As to Carny Dating. it will have to stay for now as it has a lot of followers who would be ticked off, if I removed it.

The MAGAZINE tab, itself will lead to a page which will be a table of contents...later today, hopefully.

[Midge]

Freedom of speech I do not argue,respecting one another,is a different ball game. This is the argument. It's not because someone has a different opinion,than you do. I could care less,it's how you tend to treat someone who has that opinion. How you reply to a post shows what kind of a person you are,same goes with in chat. I noticed you have no bull anymore in chat,but I don't come on here like I use to,I have no idea what happens at night. I would have banned a few on here long ago. I hope you all get what I'm saying. Some probably won't..:(

[Midge]

I fixed the problem of the site being slow for me,I got a better computer,not new,but it's faster.ZOOM. I have a problem with my server at times,this has nothing to do with this site.
On most all sites,in order to join I understand becoming a member,to post,but inside the site in order to post,say,on my group you have to join the group,correct? This is hogwash..I feel,why should you have to keep on joining stuff in order to post? There are many reasons I might not want to join,but sometimes would like to say something.
The blogs and the forums seem to be the same,except for Connies writings,or am I not getting it..:) it's early ..maybe I'm not.

[xkizarney]

The only problem I see with the Carny Dating segment is the fact that there is the possibility of someone who is merely desperately looking for someone to share their life with being taken advantage of by someone looking to steal their money or worse yet, their life. Do not foo-foo this as it happens too often & is too widespread to ignore.
I have never went there myself. Love the woman I'm with with all her faults. Been with her for 33 years. This is simply an observation of what could happen. Do you really want to be responsible if it would? How about leaving the dating to the sites designed for it with built-in safeguards to insure it doesn't?

[Thomas Hoey]

Well. Of course, your reasoning is correct. But the dating site signup procedure is identical to the sign up procedure and tos on this and any other social network. The same reasoning could be applied to this network, facebook, myspace, fubar and the thousand other networks. Classified ads also do the same thing. Basically you have them sign the tos and get their email addy...what more can you do on the internet except get their credit card # which I would love to do but am not Citi Bank or Bank of America. What you cannot see, but I do.... is the hundreds of spam requests that, that site, gets everyday and are negated by me, as potential members. Either they check out, or they cannot post.

[petekoloz--]

When you do a story about anything,please try to always
answer these basic questions in regards to the subject :
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?

[Thomas Hoey]

Sometimes you can skip the "why".................

[Irene K]

I'm going to give my impression of this site as a new user ( who previously had an account on the old site ).
This is going to sound harsh but maybe someone should be saying it.

There is too much junk on the home page, ugly graphics, and repeat of information that wastes space, looks tacky, and forces people to scroll too much and close little dialogs that are annoying:
There the CARNYTOWN News & Business Network ( 925px × 74px ) [ Way to big in my opinion and gaudy ]

Then: JERSEY SHORE IMPORTS, LLC. banner ( 945px × 142px ) [ can't really complain about one banner! lol ] followed by:
-Main-Invite New Members-Profile-Member Groups-Events-Radio-Mobile Site-IPhone users
Then a HUGE java/flash thing that shows on line with monstrous sized avatars. [ TERRIBLE thing- unnecessarily large and very black- harsh looking ]
Then: Don't forget to sign in! [ WHY IS THIS THERE?! I AM SIGNED IN!!! ]
Then: CLICK HERE FOR CARNYTOWN HOMEPAGE ( 794px × 70px ) [ AGAIN- WHY?! ]
Then a set of 4 ugly buttons ( 310px × 135px (scaled to 195px × 85px) each )
Then TWO rows of more ugly buttons ( 107px × 55px each ) [ huge space wasters and ugly ]
Then a row: Popup Chat! 2363 Members 40 Groups 16 Events 642 Blog posts 7129 Photos 977 Music Tracks [ this is o.k.- we're big boys and girl and appreciate simple text links ]
Then a banner almost as tall as the java/flash thing: invite, customize, add content [ totally unnecessary since this could be added into the settings thing ]

Then a big block full of Members on the left ( mostly smily avatars who couldn't be bothered to make themselves look unique - including myself at this point ) taking up the space that should be going to the 'who'se online' people yet my own settings and such are squished into the far right instead of the left side of screen.
There's a 5 tabbed thing in the middle with a tiny font that appears to be actual content...yet there is loads of content for 4 or 5 more monitor lengths below.

oh...there's the chat thing on the way bottom...gee, I'm too tired to check this site out. :\

---

I hope someone can appreciate these comments- I'm a member of a few forums and this is by far the most complicated and messy looking place. I sure wouldn't be wasting my half hour break borrowing a laptop to cruise this site/page.
It really needs some...simplification and tightening up to clear out the unnecessary space waste and load up time.

[Thomas Hoey]

All good points. And I would like to take time to explain WHY the site is at is.

First before I get to your points I would like to remind you that this page is the opening page of the SOCIAL NETWORK. Our site, with over 25,000 pages includes static sites, forums, at least 55 other social networks and around 10 blogs by individual staff members.

Now please, see my answers to your points.

There the CARNYTOWN News & Business Network ( 925px × 74px ) [ Way to big in my opinion and gaudy ]

That logo, for us, is the most important part of the page. And it already has been reduced by 2/3rds. We use that logo on ALL our pages and all our correspondence. It must and will stay. The size is not determined by us. The size is what it is to be able to be used on all our pages, so that it can be resized from huge to tiny to medium and so on. On some pages this is embedded in an area provided by the software and on other pages in the posts. The pixel size does not matter. It is the kilobytes that matter and they are very small. Also it is not the first item that is called, so it does not slow down the opening of the page.

Then: JERSEY SHORE IMPORTS, LLC. banner ( 945px × 142px ) [ can't really complain about one banner! lol ]

We do not regret selling the banner ad, but regret doing it hastily and not getting more for it. Next year we may do something different. Not sure, yet.

followed by:
-Main-Invite New Members-Profile-Member Groups-Events-Radio-Mobile Site-IPhone users

The above are required tabs by the social networking software. We have no choice.

Then a HUGE java/flash thing that shows on line with monstrous sized avatars. [ TERRIBLE thing- unnecessarily large and very black- harsh looking ]

This is simply called from a link and is the most popular feature on the page. So it stays. It does look terrible. But there is no choice in design as it is called from a remote site. Besides my biz partner likes it. So it stays. Only members see it and they can turn it off, if they wish.

Then: Don't forget to sign in! [ WHY IS THIS THERE?! I AM SIGNED IN!!! ]

Good point. I will fix that, today.

Then: CLICK HERE FOR CARNYTOWN HOMEPAGE ( 794px × 70px ) [ AGAIN- WHY?! ]
Then a set of 4 ugly buttons ( 310px × 135px (scaled to 195px × 85px) each )
Then TWO rows of more ugly buttons ( 107px × 55px each ) [ huge space wasters and ugly ]

Oh, I get it. You are on your page. You are not on the main homepage. You are a member so it is opening to your profile page. The button is so prominent because we had hundreds of complaints that people could not find their way quickly to the homepage and other areas of the site. We just put the buttons up this week and voila. No more complaints AND traffic is going up on all the inside pages. It is working, so it will stay for awhile. So the homepage button is there to take you to the homepage of the social network. Again ignore the pixel sizes. They are all being called from a remote location and being supplied in tiny kilobytes. Here I should point out that the recommended minimums to utilize this social network are: Broadband, Cable or Fios or better. We are not optimized for dial up use. We recommend using our IPhone network at www.carnytown.com/m if you are on dialup, blackberry or IPhone. IE 7 or 8 or better, Firefox 3 or better, Chrome 2 beta, Opera 10 or better, Safari (newest build for macs)....Min Mem of 1 Gigabytes, Minimum of 1 GB temp storage on your computer, cookies enabled, flash enabled, xml on....anything less you will operate VERY slowly.

Then a row: Popup Chat! 2363 Members 40 Groups 16 Events 642 Blog posts 7129 Photos 977 Music Tracks [ this is o.k.- we're big boys and girl and appreciate simple text links ]
Then a banner almost as tall as the java/flash thing: invite, customize, add content [ totally unnecessary since this could be added into the settings thing ]

All part of the software available to us. But the good news. They are working on something different...of course, different does not necessarily mean better.

Then a big block full of Members on the left ( mostly smily avatars who couldn't be bothered to make themselves look unique - including myself at this point ) taking up the space that should be going to the 'who'se online' people yet my own settings and such are squished into the far right instead of the left side of screen.

Good observation. But more members like it than don't. By clicking on a pic you can be taken directly to a members profile, without having to search for them. It is the #1 most popular feature on the site...but sometimes it will show featured members and sometimes, newest and sometimes the most popular. It rotates.

There's a 5 tabbed thing in the middle with a tiny font that appears to be actual content...yet there is loads of content for 4 or 5 more monitor lengths below.

Thats the carnival news and views blog notification of new staff blogs. Click on the links to be taken to our wordpress blogs.

oh...there's the chat thing on the way bottom...gee, I'm too tired to check this site out. :\

Thats just dropped in there for a convenient way to get to our very popular audio/video and text chat room. Easier than clicking the button and going to the page. Every social network has some kind of chat.
---

I hope someone can appreciate these comments- I'm a member of a few forums and this is by far the most complicated and messy looking place. I sure wouldn't be wasting my half hour break borrowing a laptop to cruise this site/page.
It really needs some...simplification and tightening up to clear out the unnecessary space waste and load up time.

If you are finding load times are too long on your computer, these are the suggestions I can provide.
1) Set up a bookmark to take you to your favorite page.
2) If not on a fast broadband account, use our site at www.carnytown.com/m
Important note here. I load instantly using Verizon Fios and within 6 seconds on cable.
3) Make sure all your cookies and flash and xml are enabled on your computer. If not it will slow you down as the software make repeated tries to load.
4) Clean your cache, daily.

And here, I make another small note: starting sometime in Mid Sep, our social networking software is going open social. Applications will replace some functions on the main page and you will have choices to include things on your profile if you wish. So we will not be making making many big design changes until after that is done.

I understand that the slowness is frustrating but want to ask you to work with us as we make all these changes. The internet is in flux constantly but this is the year that social networks are coming into their own as a viable information providing entity. Please understand that it is not the things above that you mentioned that are slowing the page down. It is other graphics and the quantity of information that is doing that. But if we cut out the information...then you would not be here. The links on the front page lead you to over 25k pages of information. Maybe someday we will come up with a better way to do it...but the buttons and links on the main page were all suggested by multiple members as something they can live with.

[charli]

THIS SITE DOES NOT NEED MORE STUFF ADDED TO IT! IT TAKES TOO LONG TO LOAD