BonsaiNut 2.0

[Bonsai Nut]

BonsaiNut is now 9 years old, and beginning to show its age. Now that we have upgraded our servers, it is time to start working on the next generation of the site.

This community is only as good as its members. I really want the new site to not only resolve some nagging problems we have had with this site (ahem image loading), but also add a lot of new features to make this site an even greater resource for the NEXT 9 years. Member feedback will be critical in this process. I want to hear from people who not only like the current site - but people who have been frustrated by it.

If you have suggestions, or would be interested in beta-testing the new site, please respond to this thread. Brian Van Fleet has already been helping me to try to break the software backbone

 

[symbiotic1]

I'm willing to help test. I've got some knowledge of web and graphic design too if it's needed.

 

[dpowell]

Happy to help test.

 

[CamdenJim]

Happy to help

If you have suggestions, or would be interested in beta-testing the new site, please respond to this thread. Brian Van Fleet has already been helping me to try to break the software backbone

I'm happy to test and critique anything you do. I manage a couple of database-based web sites and have enough experience to respect everything you've done so far.

Jim in Birmingham

 

[Redwood Ryan]

I'll gladly help!

 

[milehigh_7]

Not sure what your time frame is but I will certainly help where I can. The next couple weeks will be rather insane but after that I will have more time I hope. Thank you again for the countless hours of education and entertainment this site has provided to me since I joined in 2008.

 

[edprocoat]

I can help as I am good at breaking things .

ed

 

[sorce]

The only thing that ever bugged me was not having a way to go back to HOME from the galleries.

I can't believe the best place can get better!

Thanks a ton BNUT!

Sorce

 

[Bonsai Nut]

The only thing that ever bugged me was not having a way to go back to HOME from the galleries.

Can you not use the "Home" tab in the menu bar at the top of the page?

 

[Si Nguyen]

Thanks for all the work you're doing BNut. 2.0 is really faster now. And the Search function is working really well too.
Some suggestions:
1. Change the background picture. The bridge and greenery picture is nice but you need a fresh picture to go with the new site.
2. Create an instruction thread on how to conduct polling. I can't figure out how to do that. Polling can be a lot of fun.

 

[jeanluc83]

My main gripe is that the site is not all that mobile friendly. The text comes up ok but he pictures do not.

Another thing that I would like to see is a static section in addition to the forum that has things like species guides, techniques, general information, etc. Something similar to what Vance has put together for mugo pines. This could be a great reference, especially for those starting out.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Thanks for all the work you're doing BNut. 2.0 is really faster now. And the Search function is working really well too.

This isn't BNut 2.0, yet. It is just a faster BNut 1.0 BNut 2.0 will be completely different software with a different look and feel. It will be built around a much more robust technical platform optimized for mobile use. It will even allow you to post images directly from your camera - i.e. if you are in your yard with your phone you can snap a pic directly into a thread.

I will keep all our BNut 1.0 history - all the threads and posts and photo galleries - but the structure will change entirely. Given the enormity of the move, however, I have to test everything first to make sure I can seamlessly import all the data, all the user names, passwords, etc. I've been testing with Android and Brian Van Fleet has been helping me test with iOS, and everything looks good so far, so this week I will start building the new site. It will take me a couple of weeks to build it (moving slowly and testing everything 10x) and then I will open to a closed beta test. Assuming nothing blows up I hope to have the new site up and running by late Spring, if not earlier.

First step, however, was to get us to a better, faster host. Had to pay to get a great host with a fast server with 100% SSD storage, but I can REALLY tell the difference. The site is hosted out of a data center in Chicago, which I chose as a nice central location because we have a lot of members on the East Coast.

 

[JudyB]

I wonder if it's possible to get rid of the 10 letter minimum for a post. Lots of times, I have to make up more to say than I need to.

 

[jk_lewis]

Dots (.....) and spaces count.

 

[Jock]

possible new functionality

An easy way to look back for new post over a specific number of days would be nice.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

An easy way to look back for new post over a specific number of days would be nice.

You can do this now in "advanced search". Just click the checkmark for "posts", and then set the time to "yesterday and newer" or whatever timeframe you wish. Leave all the other fields blank. Hit search, and voila!

 

[0soyoung]

Slideshows

It would be nice if slideshows were full screen (no browser frame) or done with an embedded app (e.g., AJAX, Flash, JQuery) that handles photo loading without an html page-load request.

Currently, slide shows in the member galleries seem to run by html reloads which leads to serious 'irritation'. Because of the BNut banner and ad bar, the image is partly below the screen. Scrolling down gets the whole image in the window, but the next image reloads the page and than the pic is again below the screen --> one cannot really see a slide show.

I would also like to have a slide show option with the post pic viewer, so that one can choose to view all the attached photos as a slide show in addition to manually clicking through them as we do now.


... which may just be my personal problem.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Thanks for all the work you're doing BNut. 2.0 is really faster now. And the Search function is working really well too.
Some suggestions:
1. Change the background picture. The bridge and greenery picture is nice but you need a fresh picture to go with the new site.

Because I love you like a brother, I have changed it so that there are four different backgrounds, and every time you come to the site it will randomly change

[EDIT] I lied. I made five different backgrounds [/EDIT]

 

[Si Nguyen]

Because I love you like a brother, I have changed it so that there are four different backgrounds, and every time you come to the site it will randomly change

[EDIT] I lied. I made five different backgrounds [/EDIT]

Hey Bro, I am still waiting for it to change

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Hey Bro, I am still waiting for it to change

They're over on the new site, not here. They look nice too, and are just one of many exciting new features.