One week in... thoughts and background on the change

i still think it's rubbish. The forum was much better for regular users, it's a proven concept that works, and is the best way to present the site to everyone.

Not quite as buggy though.

I believe it uses vB, just a totally customised version where all of the different views are coded from scratch to fit what it has to do.

Oops - thanks

It has improved since launch, but it still suffers from enough design problems to keep me working at developing a similar site (if for nothing more than a learning exercise). Most notably, the biggest problem is different sets of "tabs" which make no logical sense in location, colour or size, and a confused cluttered design and colour scheme in general. The top 3rd of each page, the bit your eye is drawn to, is taken away from the content by needless clutter and on the average page I see 10+ colours and several different text sizes.

I really have no idea why you've stuck with Vbulletin if, as you've already said, you're having problems with it. Lack of coding ability perhaps? A site such as HotUKDeals is hardly a difficult thing to develop from scratch, and not having to pay for Vbulletin updates or use PHP would be a big bonus over hacking an existing codebase to pieces to fit your needs, along with improving customisation options. The phrase "when all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail" comes to mind.

And that's the very simple PR disasters non withstanding. Meh..

Hi Halo,

Did you read the whole thing? We aren't using vbulletin except for handling the comments pages so that previous members would have the same functions there.

As you say it didn't make sense anymore to hack vbulletin for display and data manipulation so we built out own. Maybe eventually we will handle our own comments but in the meantime we are happy to keep vb especially as members are already used to it.

This was a PM I received from some one a few days after the new site was rolled out

Assuming this member was banned for mass PMing people with an invite to another 'rival' site, can you explain to me how that's unfair and they were just trying to keep the community going?

The only good thing to come out of this mess for me is less money being spent each month. I'll now just stick to using my Find-DVD, Find-Games and Gamestracker watchlists for bargains, plus a few forums like MSE, hdanddvdbargains, etc.

I honestly haven't been looking through the deals on here at all since the "upgrade". The white hurts my eyes and it's just too damn awkward with how the deals seem determined not to be in chronological order no matter what setting (new, discussed, hot, custom) I try. It's far easier and more enjoyable to use the other forums I have bookmarked these days.

I've posted deals on here for ages before on Tune Up, on my Aion account before it was banned, yet I still waited and came back with another account when the mods had stopped auto-banning every account I made. My thoughts for Admin and certain mods aside, I loved this site and refused to leave while I had the choice. However, this upgrade has killed the site for me, making it hard to use and painful for my fairly poor eyes. It's truly a shame the site has been near enough ruined needlessly.

Well I've been here a while now so first of all I would like to thank Paul for his hard work and time answering my questions.

When I first visited this site all though's months ago I used to visit every other day or so then every day. I could wake up flick open the laptop and see what was going on. Have a quick blast when waiting for the kettle to boil or when people went for a cig or drift off to sleep reading the posts of the new found friends on here.

Well to the new site, well at first I rushed round clicking on buttons getting stressed because it didn't work but every day it gets a little easier. I understand the new options now and find them useful.

Like most things that are new you will hate them at first then you accept them and if they are important enough you learn to love them. The old site was at the final stage and the new one after a week is into the second stage and maybe with time (and a COLOUR change) I will learn to love this site too.

I would like to say to everybody embrace change as that’s the only way forward.

I would like to wish Paul, the mods and all the members a happy xmas.

Please can you do something about the colour scheme, since the change I have been getting sore eyes when looking at the site now.

I know the site is never going to be the same but please help the pain in my eyes.

Paul,

Thanks for the lengthy heads up on the changes. I dont understand the technical but I am sure there are many who really do appreciate your candid acceptance about the roll out timing issues and member notification. Post Xmas/New Year would have been best in my opinion but it is here now so..end of.

I am not a computer whiz by any means and am still finding things frustrating, but there is no doubt that you have been tinkering with the layout/system etc and I am sure you will continue to improve the site (please think about the background colours!) I know there are help threads and I have asked for this myself (No i do not consider myself lazy or stupid!) I am sure this will get sorted. .

Frankly - like many, HUKD was my favourite site. I have lost count of the hours I have had on line and get 'withdrawal' when I cannot check the deals. I am not a heavy deal poster ,as franky I do not have time to constantly surf for deals and always seem to be last on the posting list/mailshots and others beat me to it. I enjoy the site far too much however to disappear.

I have however lost count of the recommendations i have made to people for this site and hopefully have added to the 'Community' that way. I can say I have had calls from people asking 'what has happened'? or to help them and I just have to point them to the help forums or custom boxes as I still struggle with it.

This site is all about deal sharing & discussion & I dont mind where I go to find them. I have however met some great people on this site. Some things have however been getting personal and I dislike that. A split in the community, particularly long standing members (i am not one as only been here a year!) is not good, although your lengthy comments will help I am sure.

I appreciate that you must have been putting in some serious hours to try to sort things and it will not be an overnight fix. If I can offer any comment I hope that you will continue to take the main issues (that arise in the numerous 'complaints' threads) and try to sort these.

Its hard to describe how much better the site is today compared to even a few days ago. I can now start to see what you have been trying to do. However, taking everything into account, i still found the old site better to use. But that's just a personal preference and I'm sure I'll soon forget there was even an old site after Christmas. The colours and style of the new site are just very, very bland and i'm not convinced about the integrated forum.

I have to say though that i think you have played down how badly the new site was implemented. I work in Software Development and we've made our fair share of mistakes and i know how easy it is to convince yourself that you've tested everything and that everything will work fine. However, it was as if nobody had even checked the site at all! Stuff was all over the place, the forum hardly worked and its page numbering was the most confusing thing i have ever seen. These problems were not due to load and lot of damage was done in the first few days. Next time you make changes like this, do yourself a massive favour and double/triple check that everything actually works.

Is it now time to move on?

Mistakes were made during the implementation of the new site. I think everybody accepts that. However I believe there is no point in going back over it, and I would guess that reverting back to the old site is no longer an option.

At this stage I think we need to learn from the mistakes, move forward and continue to evolve the site, so that hopefully over time the bits that annoy the majority, or that just don't work, can be gradually improved. We've had the revolution, now let's get on with the evolution.

So can we now just move forward, and focus on getting the best deals posted on an improving site?

Merry Christmas to one and all.

she's got a moustache, so she's half-way there

An improvement, yes, but the simplicity of the previous site was an attraction to many. Understanding the demographics/background/computer literacy level of the average user was almost wholly ignored.

Not to try and beat a dead horse, much loyalty has already been lost, but I want to see site succeed in its goals. It takes years to build a reputation, but just a matter of days to destroy it. I wish the site and its users well.

Nice post admin, very honest. I'm growing to like the new site and many of the changes are definately for the better.. Think the lesson to learn is to embrace and involve the community more in future changes - remember you've got an army of 60,000 members of whom many will be tech savvy and surprising keen to get involved in beta testing, feedback etc. If you tap into this resource in the future you'll probably find far less criticism and distrust in the change.