New website design

Just read your very considerate open & honest reply on the Photo Albums Ben.
I'm sure we're all with you on priceless Albums. We all agree how precious they are.
Please don't rush on my account.Sleigh's full with swellnet fillers...Thanks Santa!
PS: Being archives I guess how ever long it takes is the right time. I'm cool with that.

Ben, it’s very important for Gary that everybody knows that Gary’s font is bigger than everyone else’s.

Also, please apply subtle orange tints to Gary’s profile picture to increase hits.

Gary’s current favourite tint at the salon is ’Carribean Dreams’ if that helps choose the most flattering shade

Hi Ben,
Just got redirected to "dollarcreative.com/..." again, from this forum page, so it's not just indo. Browsing with firefox, if that's any help for troubleshooting.

This is very minor, but I can't see a direct link to https://www.swellnet.com/surfcams
I quite like that page as you can see an image from each cam and go straight to the ones which look good. Probably don't want it linked via the "Surfcams" menu item but perhaps add it as the first or last option in the sub-menu?

Sprout - we have been discussing this and a button is in the pipeline. In the meantime (on desktop) you can right-click on the surfcams menu item and open it in a new tab or window.

Pops, can you describe the way it happens? Are you just reading and scrolling on this forum thread, and then suddenly the browser redirects - without you clicking on anything - to a spam site?

Also, are you on mobile or desktop?

Gary, I can't help you with the tint, but have you tried using a magnifying glass? That can work wonders.

Ben, its happened exactly as you described - redirected without clicking a link, maybe a minute or so after visiting the page. I'm on my work pc (windows 7), browsing with the latest edition of firefox. Let me know if you need any more information.

Thanks Pops. And is it any page on Swellnet, or this forum thread in particular?

It's happened once on this thread (this morning), and once on another forum thread last week just after the new design went live - can't remember which page that was; I'd opened it in a new tab and it had redirected to a spam site by the time I flicked to that tab.
I tend to check the site a couple of times a work day, so it's not a regular occurance.

Wow...so it's not just me.

I did think it was weird how it was only doing it on this website and only porn I've been watching has been on long tested and spam free porn. (hey I'm only human)

It did happen again last night...happened to me also in this thread using Safari on MacBook Air....it also happened one time in one of the articles. (hasn't happened from surf report or on phone)

Didn't click or scroll and would have been under a minute being on the site all times.

I haven't been spending that much time on here, well as much as i sometimes do.

Yep, not just you indo.
Ben, dunno if this helps, but I've just had a look at this page with the firefox debugger, and in the "Sources" tab, right at the bottom there is a tree labelled "z.moatads.com", which contains a javascript file "moatad.js", which a quick google search tells me is adware - probably the cause of the redirects.
After quickly flicking through a few other websites I regularly visit, the only other one the "moatads" source appeared on was espncricinfo.com.
Not sure if it's a problem on my end or something injected into the site's code?

Thanks ID.

We're very confident it's not our website code (everything is clean), so could only be sourced through our ad server (which we don't control). I've contacted our agency to see if they can look into it a little deeper.

Thanks for the feedback.. we'll get to the bottom of this!

Pops - most websites use a bunch of ad tracking software like that to serve and track ads. They're usually harmless. 

Sure - just happened to be one that I hadn't seen before so I thought it'd be best to flag it.

And thanks for looking into it - I'm not too fussed by the occasional redirect, and know enough to not click on any links when it happens, but wouldn't want someone else to fall for it.

May I ask why for NSW the list in surf reports/forecasts runs south-north yet the cams run north-south?
QLD both lists run Sth-Nth and the Southern states seem a bit all over the place.

Good point. It's actually been on the to-do list for a while (NSW should run north-south). We'll get it fixed soon.

As for how geographical surf report lists are determined: this is a fascinating area of UX. There are three options: popularity, alphabetically, and geographically. All have their pros and cons.

From my end, I prefer geographically, as it makes the most sense to scan along the coast to find where your beach is positioned. And, it also would seem smart to show the most popular regions near the top (hence why Qld starts in the South) but this is difficult in NSW where the busiest locations are in the middle (Sydney/Hunter/Illawarra). 

Conversely, with Vic and WA, where the locations run more west-east than north-south, how should they be positioned? Especially with the busiest locations in the middle.

Another option (which we'll implement soon) will be a general search bar at the top, which is probably the best solution overall. But that requires more smarts in the backend, which we haven't finished yet.

Southern hemisphere natural order sees Sundials follow the Sun counter clockwise.
Australia defies the laws of nature by reading weather & running time clockwise.

One's world must never turn upside down but there you have it...("Downunder")

Now to explain to the kids that all their ipads are transcribed by ancient Joh-jibe.

Answer!
Only 18 shopping days to xmas I'd advise signposting the kid'z North Pole version.

The nature of the world can also be reflected into a rose or surf report charts.
In fact all are headed for the same holy grail.(progress is slow but noticeable)

This seems simple but isn't. Happy to share my observations with swellnet.
From top down experiencing the great outdoors live in it's natural order.
All interacting on a graph using their natural charm.(Don't fight it ! Go with the flow)

(Sun) UV/temps read ultra high skirting clouds dumping measured rain from sky.
(Moon) Sure as night follows day Moon pokes faces,drawing tides higher that way.
(Wind) Angrily spikes & flings needing arrows that swing + a water temp' thing.
(Tide) Endlessly flows in & out creating a lopping pattern throughout.
(Swell) Always builds then drops, a bit like a block grid or line graph with stops.
(Swell Direction 1 & 2)Comes off the back off wind as such your final outlined pin!

No! I never made it up! Just finally understood how it operates. Plain as Day!

The most bland. Flat. Unimaginative. Pasty white boy website I've seen for a long long internet time . Embarrassing. And it takes waaaaaaaaay too long to load. That spinning progress circle is juvenile. You guys cannot seriously believe this is improvement ? Pull yer heads in...

Peter - I’m curious on your take as to what constitutes a good website. Which surf forecasting websites do it well?

This is the most honest,generous & useful website I ever come across.
Frequently asked Questions that get answered within the hour by real humans!
I've been on the internet since last century & no sites offer such hands on quality.

swellnet run most reliable Surf comp webcasts & most Women's webcasts.
Biggest sites in town jilt customers who arrive praising Swellnet's reliable coverage.

Only this week we see a Swellnet event elevate to share global stage with WSL.

The design cleanly frames the best News/Photos/Comments/Reports.(Why not?)
Surfers like to bring the wild blue yonder with them...everywhere they go.
Less is more in our world. Very few see the need to crowd it in.
Sure surf product could fill the page but we highly value our open/honest website.
Should swellnet reintroduce some more ads the quality will still shine through!

Alongside Ben I'm also intrigued as to any better from any era. Please do share!

I can’t seem to “load more” when trying to look for older articles. Can’t go past the first 5 or 6. iPhone / safari

Yeah that's been flagged thanks Shorey.

BTW. Haven't had any issues with the site since i last mentioned it doing funny things.

Neither - looks like whatever the issue was, it's been fixed. Thanks Ben & team.

Interesting.. we haven’t found anything and thus haven’t made any changes. 

We’ll keep an eye on things though.

Hey crew, just a bit of UX feedback — navigating the forums is a bit painful... To see the latest post in a thread you have to manually scroll to the bottom of the page to click a numbered button to reach the end. Might be easier having these page number links at the top of the thread too.

And is there a search feature? On the forums and for the rest of the site?!?

GQ, we're aware of those issues and are tabling up an overhaul of the entire forum section - including a landing page (similar to other forum based sites) where you'll be able to much more easily search for things and see what's going on.

It's always been hard to focus attention on this part of the site as it records such a small percentage of our overall traffic, but now that the new design template is in place, we're in a better position to make long term changes.

Cool. Hey, maybe that update will boost forum users then!?

Maybe.

But even quadrupling the number of forum users would still result in very little traffic increase to the website (and ultimately very little, if no increase in revenue). 

Don't get me wrong, there's a million things I'd love to do on the site: comprehensive weather forecast tools, surfcam enhancements, and all kinds of content opportunities, plus a major overhaul of the Apps - but they all cost (excessively large amounts of) money to conceptualise, draft, design, code, test, upload and then launch - in the hope that users like 'em, and they're as successful as we'd hoped and imagined.

And sometimes, we go through that design/build/test process behind the scenes - at great expense - only to have things not work out for one reason or another. So, that's money down the drain and we're back to square one.

As such, we need to focus on those ideas and projects that make good economic sense for the business.

10 cents worth. Having used the new site for a few weeks now I think it's a very impressive upgrade. Clean, minimalist and well worth the benefits for the subscription. Looking ahead I can see, from Ben's comments, that further improvements will be coming. Congrats all round (in particular to the developer, Jono).

Go figure, that redirect to spam page thing has happened again last few days, only really does it once, seems harmless so not worried but just thought id give you guys a heads up.

Thanks ID. We haven’t made any changes so not sure what might be causing it.

Next time it happens, please let me know how it happened (what pages were were on before/after). Also please take a screenshot of what you see, and the full URL of the spam page it’s linking to (as it may offer some clues).

Just looked in my history ended on this one (fake page)https://mac-safety-check.com.flockrdi.p1mkxtvehy8sw8nhoix8tdmf7q.icu/o/e…

But also went to this one for a split second before redirecting
https://dollarcreative.com/click?node=11&time=1549143480&id=131&pid=45&…

(doesn't load now, but in my history)

Also one more was in the history from Friday, i just tried to click on it to cut and paste Address but then it didn't load and went to the two pages I've linked above now, its changed in my history from Friday to the dollar creative URL...im pretty sure the URL was www.addexchange(blah blah blah)....or something

As I've mentioned never any issues on any other websites.

Strangely it seems to happen in the mornings last three days first time i go to swellnet, then on return visits no issues.

BTW. No pattern on websites i was on before or after, on Friday it was just Facebook before then google maps after, Yesterday a news paper article before then a google search after.

Friday it was the first time i visited Swellnet, but Saturday, id already visited swellnet and forums earlier with no issues, today again had already visited swellnet earlier with no issue, i was on youtube before and then Facebook after....

Heres something i found might be relevant https://forum.postcrossing.com/viewthread.php?tid=121787

And bottom of thread on this page https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-ad-reporting-thread.60928/page-4

might give you guys some clues.

The one thing I would like to add here, every forum I visit sorts oldest to latest it is a pain in the arse. Latest to oldest makes far more sense, If a user wants the historical stuff then they click the numbered pages or go to the start. Easier and more efficient navigation and use.
Other than that I really like the new design and it works extremely well in both Firefox and Vivaldi browsers, the latter however does not do live streams well but that is the browser not the site.
Cheers!

The captcha issue is intermittent . Not as bad as it used to be.

Just happened again landed on this one https://xbkra.politictotal.pw/hyllkjit/c31eef5e/?n=1032733110

But also saw www.carbontraffic.com plus the usual dollar creative website and about three other sites URL's it went too for split second (but don't load)

What page were you on beforehand? A surf report/cam or article/forum page?

Also, what browser are you using?

I'm certainly happy to look into this in more detail, but I'm just worried that you're the only person reporting it - so we therefore can't rule out the possibility that it's a problem at your end (perhaps some malware or a browser extension).

Cheers Joe,..... Nice one!!